1st Johnstide 2022, Weight of Love

 1^st Johnstide

Mark 1:1-13

 

This 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." ["Today, I have conceived (begotten) you." Luke 3:22] 

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.

  1^st Johnstide                                      

June 26, 2022

Mark 1:1–11 

Memling

During Advent, we heard the angel say to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The Son of God will be born of you." In today's Gospel, God's Holy Spirit descends again in the form of a dove, this time upon Jesus of Nazareth. The Spirit of God, Christ, descends and remains on Him. 

Just as with Mary, we could imagine that Jesus' Baptism marks the beginning of a pregnancy. His Baptism is the conception of Christ's Resurrection Body. (Indeed, some versions of the Baptism story say, "You are my Beloved Son. Today, I have conceived (begotten) you."*) This new body is conceived in love by the inter-workings of the Trinity and the man Jesus. Jesus offered his body as the womb for this conception of humankind's Resurrection Body that would be birthed at Christ Jesus' death. 

Da Vinci

Such a momentous event had its preparation, of course. John the Baptist prepared this process. His ritual act of immersion and cleansing made a path for the Spirit's descent. John's baptism ritual helped make this conception of the Resurrection Body possible. 

God's Spirit of Healing looks for human souls who, like Jesus, have opened themselves to the heavens. It looks for souls who have immersed themselves in a ritual of cleansing and who are offering themselves. 

The Act of Consecration is our continuous Baptism. The whole of the offering is an act of cleansing. We start, like John, with the acknowledgment of our basic unworthiness. As we immerse ourselves, step-by-step in this ritual of offering, we open ourselves, along with bread and wine and water, to the heavens. We seek to be permeated by God's Healing Spirit. 

For us, the Healing Spirit can descend, though only for a few of us can the Spirit remain permanently. Most of us are not yet strong enough to bear the weight of the Love of the World. But we come faithfully, week by week, to receive the Spirit medicine. We come to strengthen the vessel until the time when the healing Spirit descends on us and remains. 

*Luke 3:22, from Codex D

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