3rd St. Johnstide 2017, Loving Embrace

St. Johnstide

John 3: 22-36

John in Prison

After this, Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.

He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this: that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought, for God gives the spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but according to the creative power that he awakens in man.

The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.

Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”

3^rd St. Johnstide

July 9, 2017

John 3: 22-36

The plant grounds its roots in the earth; it rises and spreads its leaves into the air. And then it holds up the chalice of its blossom to the sun. It sends its fragrance and pollen heavenward, where they will be enriched (and inseminated) by the sun's life-giving rays. Into its chalice-blossom the plant receives new life, which will form in its seeds.

Without the sun, none of this would happen. The plant and its processes have their reality. But the underlying, pre-existing reality rests in the sun.

But the most real reality, the real antecedent truth behind the existence of everything, even of the sun, is God. God is the highest, the truest, the most real of all levels of reality. Far in the future, nature and all its forms will have disappeared. But God will still be, holding all in His loving embrace.

He gave us, gives us His Son, whose presence abides with us, in us, on earth. With His Son, God has given us the power to awaken His own creative potential, His divinity, within us.

As we raise the chalice of our heart, as we send the fragrance of our self-offering toward the Christ-Sun, He, humanity's bridegroom, in turn sends His life-giving grace to fill our hearts, to make fertile the seeds of divinity within us. He sends into us the highest reality of God, as seed of a new life.

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3rd St. Johnstide 2016, Fire of Love

St. Johnstide

John 3: 22-36

After this Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.

He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this: that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought, for God gives the Spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but according to the creative power that he awakens in man.

The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.

Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”

3^rd St. Johnstide

July 10, 2016

John 3: 22-36

Cell mitosis (division)

After an egg is fertilized, there follows a rapid division, as 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 cells multiply. But the division and multiplication are directed by an over-arching wholeness. They are driven by the spirit of a living creature.

In today’s reading, the arrival of Christ Jesus in John the Baptizer’s sphere prompts a division among the people. But John understands that an over-arching spirit is driving this development. Christ has arrived as the bridegroom of humanity. And his union with us is creating a rapidly multiplying new people, a new and all-inclusive race of Christ-people. This new folk crosses and transcends the previous racial and tribal boundaries.

The ideas and thoughts of the divine world are directing this new development in humankind. The growth of the Christ folk is surrounded, warmed and enlivened by the Father’s love. The Spirit fire of a love creative of being has been ignited in humankind. It unites us and burns away selfish egotism. Individuals can feel it, like the poet who says:

Listen, I've light

in my eyes

and on my skin

the warmth of a star,

….

  And

everything alive

(and everything's

alive) is turning

into something else

as at the heart

of some annihilating

or is it creating

fire

that's burning, unseeably, always

….*

*Franz Wright, “The Fire”, in God's Silence

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Michaelmas 2015, 'Married to Amazement'

1st Michaelmas

Matthew 22, 1-14

And Jesus continued to speak in parables to them:

The kingdom of the heavens arising in human hearts is like a man, a king, who prepared a marriage feast for his son. And he sent out his servants to call the guests who had been invited to the marriage, but they would not come.

Then he again sent out other servants, and said, “Say to those who have been invited, ‘Think, I have prepared my best for the banquet, the sacrificial oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered; everything is ready. Come quickly to the wedding.”

The Great Banquet, artist unknown

But they were not interested and went off, one going to his field to be his own master, another falling into the hectic pace of his own business. The rest however took hold of the servants, mistreated them and killed them.

Then the king grew angry; he sent out his army, brought the murderers to their destruction and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, “Although the marriage feast is prepared, the invited guests have proved themselves unworthy. Go out therefore to the crossroads of destiny and invite to the wedding whoever you can find.”

And the servants went into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Then the king came in to see the guests, and among them he noticed a man who was not dressed in the wedding garment that was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

But the man was speechless.

Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the darkness, where human beings wail and gnash their teeth. For the call goes out to many, yet only a few make themselves bearers of the higher life.”

1st Michaelmas

Sept 29, Oct 4, 2015

Matthew 22, 1-14

A wedding is an occasion for joy. The whole community rejoices when a couple finds their way to each other on earth. For indeed their union is a symbol for the work that each of us is meant to do inwardly.

Corina Ferraz, The Lord's Table of the Third Millenium

Like the partners in a couple, we each of us have two contrasting capacities. Individually we have a kind of willpower that is like an arrow – actively and unswervingly headed toward a goal. This kind of will has a masculine quality. We also have a will that is more like a vessel – open, able to receive, to bear and to let go. This kind of softer will has a more feminine quality.

It is our human task, both as a couple, and as an individual, to integrate and harmonize both of these types of will, in a way that is fruitful and productive. 

Today’s reading represents a third kind of wedding. It is the wedding of the will of God to the receptive human soul. The king’s son, Christ, has pledged himself to the soul of humanity on earth, and to the earth itself. He is Love Incarnate, the Being of Love itself. The Father has invited us all to this wedding and urges us to accept the invitation, so that humanity can progress.  Yet respecting our freedom, He allows us our choice. Immersion only in business, being only one’s own master, unwillingness to respond properly to what is being offered can lead us into destruction of soul. The arrow of self-will turns against us.

We are to cultivate openness and receptivity, so that we can heed the invitation and put on the garment of open prayer. We are to receive the Bridegroom in the joy and celebration that is offered to us. We will find him in our appreciation of the wonders of the created world, in the compassion of hearts, in deeds motivated by conscience. In the words of Mary Oliver:

When it's over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.[1]

---

[1] Mary Oliver, “When Death Comes” in New and Selected Poems, Volume I