1st Johnstide
Mark 1:1-13This is the beginning of the new word from the realm of the angels, sounding forth through Jesus Christ. Fulfilled is the word of the prophet Isaiah:
Behold, I send my angel before your face.
He is to prepare your way.
Hear the voice of one calling in the loneliness of the human soul
Prepare the way for the Lord within the soul,
Make his paths straight so that he may find entrance into the innermost human being!
Thus did John the Baptist appear in the loneliness of the desert. He proclaimed baptism, the way of a change of heart and mind, for the acknowledgment of sin. And they went out to him from all of Judea and Jerusalem and received baptism from him in the river Jordan and recognized and confessed their failings.
John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. Fruits and wild honey were his food. And he proclaimed, "After me comes one who is mightier than I. I am not even worthy to bend down before Him and to undo the straps of His sandals. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy [or, healing] Spirit."
In those days, it happened: Jesus of Nazareth came to Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.
And at the same time, as he rose
up again out of the water, he beheld how the spheres of the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove.
And a voice sounded from the world of the Spirit, "You are my son, the beloved—in you is my revelation."
And suddenly, he felt himself driven by the Spirit into the desert, and he remained in the loneliness of the desert for forty days, tempted by the Adversary. And he was among wild animals, and the angels served him.
Hear the voice of one calling in the loneliness of the human soul
Prepare the way for the Lord within the soul,
Make his paths straight so that he may find entrance into the innermost human being!
Thus did John the Baptist appear in the loneliness of the desert. He proclaimed baptism, the way of a change of heart and mind, for the acknowledgment of sin. And they went out to him from all of Judea and Jerusalem and received baptism from him in the river Jordan and recognized and confessed their failings.
John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. Fruits and wild honey were his food. And he proclaimed, "After me comes one who is mightier than I. I am not even worthy to bend down before Him and to undo the straps of His sandals. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy [or, healing] Spirit."
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| Julia Stankova |
And at the same time, as he rose
up again out of the water, he beheld how the spheres of the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove.
And a voice sounded from the world of the Spirit, "You are my son, the beloved—in you is my revelation."
And suddenly, he felt himself driven by the Spirit into the desert, and he remained in the loneliness of the desert for forty days, tempted by the Adversary. And he was among wild animals, and the angels served him.
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| Daniel Bonnell |
June 27, 2021
Mark 1:1-13
At Christmastime, we awakened into mid-winter darkness.
The starlit heavens opened up, and a choir of angels announced the approach of the great Sun-Spirit who was to be born in humankind. Through late winter and spring, we watched as Jesus of Nazareth grew, teaching and healing. He died and overcame death, appearing to his disciples as they learned to know him in a new way. He united heaven and earth in his Ascension. And at Pentecost, he sent his Spirit awareness to keep himself alive in human hearts.
Now we stand at another turning point of the year. It is mid-day [midnight in the Southern Hemisphere] in the earth’s year. And oddly, the gospel readings seem to start over—Jesus is baptized. It is as if the gospel readings would like us to take a closer look, to focus in on something. We see the moment in which Jesus, the man, offers himself. He steps into the streaming, living waters of the Jordan. The heavens are torn open. The Father's voice resounds, affirming His Son. The Son-God himself, Christ, enters Jesus. Jesus becomes the Christ-bearer.
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| Anton Mengs |
At this midday in the year, instead of a choir of angels, one lone human voice, John the Baptist, urges us to offer ourselves, as Jesus did, to the intimate working of Christ in us, through us. Now it is we who are to become Christ-bearers. Now it is we who are to become true sons and daughters of the Father.
From now on, the outer sunlight will gradually lessen [grow] as the days grow shorter [longer]. But the Christ-Sun wants to rise within us. He wants to irradiate our being as he once did the man Jesus. He wants us to see and hear, to change. Within us, he wants to become the light that always shines in the darkness.
