5th Easter 2007, Mothering His Birth

5^th Easter 
John 16, 1-33

“All these words I have spoken to you so that you will not be offended because you discover what destiny falls to you through being connected with me. For they will exclude you from their communities, and the hour will come when those who rob you of your earthly existence and kill you will think they are offering service to the progress of the world. They will do so because they cannot raise their knowing to knowledge of the Father, nor to knowledge of my being and working. All these words I have spoken to you so that when the time comes you will remember that I said them to you. I did not speak to you in this way in the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going away to him who sent me; yet, none of you has yet the strength and courage to ask me about the realm into which I now enter. Your hearts are full of grief and therefore closed to the things I have said to you.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation and healing that I go

away, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, who will stand by you in all trials, the Spirit upon whom you can call for assistance at any moment, would not come to you. But because I go, I will be able to send him to you. When he comes, he will bring to the world a consciousness of how the nature of the sickness of sin works, of how people can be reconnected with the divine world in which there is no sin, and of how the decision about human error can be brought about. Sin is human beings not really being able to trust in my being and in that which works out of my being within them. The balancing of sin holds sway in my going to the Father and in not remaining limited to appearing outwardly. Judgment works in the decision that has already been made about the prince of outer world.

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But only when the Spirit comes, through whom the Truth can reveal itself to the world, will he lead you to the Truth that Embraces All. For he will not speak only out of himself, but he will speak what he hears in the realm of the Spirit, as the speaking of the eternal reality, and he will tell you what is yet to come. Thus will he reveal me among men, for out of what he takes from my being he will proclaim to you. In the realm in which my Father works, there I also live. That is why I can say, ‘He will take from my being and proclaim to you’.

In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

Dvorak

Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more’, and then, ‘after a little while you will see me’, and ‘because I am going to the Father’? They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not understand what he is saying.”

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “You are wondering what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’  Amen, amen, the truth I say to you, you will weep and deeply mourn, and the world will rejoice in this. You will be filled with sorrow, but this your sorrow will be turned into unceasing joy. A woman giving birth must bear pain, for her difficult hour has come. But when the child is born, she no longer considers the anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

So it is with you. Now is your time of grief. But this your grief will become the power of Spirit-Birth, for I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day, you will be so deeply united with me that you will no longer need to ask me anything.

Amen, amen, I tell you the truth; from now on what you ask of the Father in my name, He will give to you. Until now, you have not been able to ask anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, and your joy will be complete.

Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures, but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. So will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day, you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me, and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming, and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”

5^th Easter 

May 6, 2007

John 16: 1-33

The fruit trees have cast off the glory of their blossoming. All that remains are scattered petals, and promise in the hard green fruit. How quickly things change! Only last week we heard the Gospel’s message of joy, its fullness and completion. And already we move into the next phase, with intimations of loss and suffering, and a future joy. It is a remembrance of His past, when Christ predicted His own suffering and resurrection to his disciples. But it is also a foreshadowing of all future difficulties and joys, both for Him and for us.

It should not really surprise us. It happens continuously and repeatedly in the natural world, this cycle of rising and falling; in our own souls, too – spring’s elevation, the deepening fall. It is our soul’s natural breathing. The soul breathes because it too is alive.

Christ predicts these ascendings and descendings because He would like to accompany us on our soul’s ways. The Confirmation Sacrament talks of His giving life’s joys; of His comfort in sorrow, His guidance. He walks with us through all levels of our existence, because He is a human God. He has walked the human path. He has been here, is here, and will always be here with us. And with Him, the Creator God, everything always begins anew.

In the words of the poet:

Expulsion,

            liberation,

                        last

self-enjoined task

of Incarnation.

He again

Fathering Himself

Seed-case

splitting.

He again

Mothering His birth:

torture and bliss.[1]

In Him we are born and die and rise to live again. In Him we live and move and have our being.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Denise Levertov, “St. Thomas Didymus”, in The Stream and the Sapphire, p. 86.

2nd Easter 2007, Risen Sun

2^nd Easter

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2^nd Easter Sunday

April 15, 2007

John 20:19-29

A child of two or three is absorbed with learning about the sense world, exploring and naming things. But around four, there comes a moment when the child will close its eyes and say, ‘I can see pictures’. An inner eye opens, and the faculty of picture-making, of imagination, day-dreaming, and ultimately of memory is born. Some children can then also image real beings that cannot be seen with outer eyes.

The disciples of Christ spent three years with Him, getting to know him in the sense world. They learned to name Him. After the great panorama of His tragic death, He was lost to their ordinary sight. But their love for Him had readied them to see Him with the imaging faculty of their hearts. He comes to them, and they see Him with the eye of the heart.

In His coming, He gives them a task: He breathes into them holy, healing Spirit, in order that they may work in a strengthening, healing way in the destinies of those whom they meet. Their hearts are to be open, filled with trust in His power, so that they may also see Him at work in the lives of others. They begin to trust in His power working in their hearts, in others, as a new capacity of seeing.

Poet Denise Levertov describes this moment of awakening in her poem about St. Thomas, who says:

But when my hand

Led by His hand’s firm clasp

Entered the unhealed wound,

My fingers encountering

Rib-bone and pulsing heat,

What I felt was…

…light, light streaming

Into me, over me, filling the room…

I witnessed

all things quicken to color, to form,

My question

Not answered, but given

Its part

In a vast unfolding design lit

By a risen sun.[1]

The Act of Consecration of Man is also a picture of Christ’s working. Gathered in prayer, we receive Him in the inner room of our heart. We see Him offering thanks to His Father. We see Him uniting His soul with bread, with water and wine. We feel His touch. He breathes His peace into us so that we too can work in a healing way in the lives of others, ‘in a vast unfolding design, lit by a risen sun’

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Denise Levertov, “St. Thomas Didymus”, in The Stream and the Sapphire, p. 81

3rd Passiontide 2009, It is Still There

3^rd Passiontide

Rembrandt

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

3^rd Passiontide

March 29, 2009

John 8: 1 -12

In order to be healthy, water needs to flow. It can flow into a quiet lake. But if there is no outflow, it stagnates. Eventually it turns salty, like the Salton Sea or the Dead Sea.

Our very useful faculties of discernment and judgment are like water; to be healthy, they need to flow both in and out. The lawyers who caught the woman in adultery were quite correct in their discernment—the woman had indeed committed adultery. But until the lawyers were willing to let discernment flow into themselves, their relationship to the law and the social order was not healthy. Their judgment was instead literally death-dealing. Self-awareness, in-flowing self-discernment, allowed them to crack their stony hard-heartedness. They begin to flow away from the deadly place of judgment.

Christ discerns that the woman is indeed a sinner, as indeed we all are. He neither condemns, nor does He say that her sin doesn’t matter. Instead he shows the way forward and out, toward health and re-integration: “Go now and leave your life of sin.” Keep moving, keep flowing away from the place of your stagnation. John 8: 11

And then He says to all of us: “I am the shining river of the light of the world. Whoever flows with me will never be in darkness, but the Light of the direction of Life will shine for him.” John 8: 12

Leaving our stagnation, and joining with Him, we can once again take our place in the great flowing channel of being. We can become those through whom the water of life flows, rather than stops; those through whom love flows; those through whom flows the world’s evolving.

The poet says:

Don't say, don't say there is no water.

That fountain is there among its scalloped

green and gray stones,

it is still there and always there

with its quiet song and strange power

to spring in us,

up and out through the rock.[1]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Denise Levertov, “The Fountain, “

1st February Trinity 2009,

Van Gogh

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

 1^st Feb Trinity

February 8, 2009

Matthew 20: 1 – 16

In last week’s reading, Christ infused the life-long paralytic with a jolt of His fiery will. We can think of paralysis as having been the state of mankind in general; and this week’s reading as the continuation of the story. In this reading, it is as though Christ is saying to mankind: now that your will has been fired up, let’s get working!

In the story, the master of the house, who is the kingdom of the heavens, checks on the work in progress every two hours. He engages more and more workers. At the end of the day comes the reckoning. Each receives the agreed-upon one denarius, enough for a day’s living, no matter whether he worked all day or only one hour.

On an external level this may seem unfair, until one realizes that this is a metaphor for life. The kingdom of the heavens sees to it that each of us, sent into the fields of earth, gets exactly what we need for each day, our daily bread. We are not rewarded more than others for doing a full day’s work. Our reward, our one denarius, is the ability, the gift really, of being able to live for one more day, to have one more chance to contribute to the work of the world. We are each given the one denarius of one more day to evolve, to suffer and to grow; one more day to be grateful for the privilege of life. 

Pulling in the harvest requires a team. Early or late, we are all necessary for the work of earth. Envy of someone else’s apparent good fortune, comparing it with our own, is deadly. For envy is an acid that eats away, both at its container, and at the social fabric into which we are all woven. To think that doing more, suffering more, bearing more should mean greater rewards is to indulge in a destructive sense of self-importance and entitlement that misses the point. For the rewards that the kingdom of the heavens, the kingdom of the human heart on earth, are simply: one more day; existence itself, which we owe, not to our own efforts, but to the generosity of the creator. We are working for Him. And at the end of the day, the only appropriate and healthy reaction is gratitude. Denise Levertov embodies this humble but open gesture of soul:

A certain day became a presence to me;

there it was, confronting me—a sky, air, light:

a being. And before it started to descend

from the height of noon, it leaned over

and struck my shoulder as if with

the flat of a sword, granting me

honor and a task. The day’s blow

rang out, metallic—or it was I , a bell awakened,

and what I heard was my whole self

saying and singing what it knew: I can.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Denise Levertov, “Variation on a Theme by Rilke”, in Dancing with Joy, ed. by Roger Housden, p. 107.

1st February Trinity 2014, Generous Reward

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

 

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

 

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

1^st February Trinity

February 9, 2014

Matthew 20:1-16

This gospel reading about the workers in the vineyard has meaning on many levels. Commonly it is read as a lesson in social justice. This story is also a metaphor for our many lives on earth.

We are all wanting to work on the earth for the Kingdom of the Heavens. Some of us arrive early in the Earth-Day and have labored long. Some of us arrive later, and some barely in time. At the end of the aeon, the end of the Earth-Day, we all receive the same reward—the ‘one denarius’ of our completed selfhood. That is what we have agreed upon with the Master. We each receive the same unique one-ness. The mistake is in thinking that we deserve more than others.

We are all laboring together. Some must labor for selfhood long and hard, with suffering; others seem to acquire it with less effort; but they too have suffered; they have suffered the meaninglessness of not being engaged in the work.  But a selfhood that operates in love is the generous reward of the Master of the kingdom of the heavens; it is the reward for those who show up for the Great Work, no matter how early or late they come to it. The poet says:

A certain day became a presence to me;

there it was, confronting me -- a sky, air, light:

a being. And before it started to descend

from the height of noon, it leaned over

and struck my shoulder as if with

the flat of a sword, granting me

honor and a task. The day's blow

rang out, metallic -- or it was I, a bell awakened,

and what I heard was my whole self

saying and singing what it knew: I can.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Denise Levertov, “Variation On A Theme By Rilke (The Book of Hours, Book I, Poem 1, Stanza 1)” in Breathing the Water

4th Advent 2010, Free Courage

4th Advent

Luke 1: 26-38

He Qi

During the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a maiden engaged to a man named Joseph of the descendants of David, and the maiden’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said toward her, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was she was confused at those words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call him Jesus.

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the most High,

And the Lord your God will give him the Throne of David your father.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;

And his kingdom will have no end. “

And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have never known a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her,

 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;

And for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your kinswoman Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For no word is spoken in the worlds of the spirit that does not have the power to become reality on earth.”

 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the Lord’s handmaid; may it be to me according to your word. “

And the angel departed from her.

4th Advent Sunday

December 19, 2010

Luke 1: 26 – 38

Today we hear the story of the angel’s announcement to Mary that she would bear the Christ Child. Here is a poem by Denise Levertov, which draws a parallel to our own lives:

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,

almost always a lectern, a book; always

the tall lily.

                   Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,

the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,

whom she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions

courage.

                  The engendering Spirit

did not enter her without consent.

Birth of the Light, Roland Tiller

                                            God waited.

She was free

to accept or to refuse, choice

integral to humanness.

         

Aren’t there annunciations

of one sort or another

in most lives?

                   Some unwillingly

undertake great destinies,

enact them in sullen pride,

uncomprehending.

             More often

those moments

     when roads …

     open …

are turned away from

in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair

and with relief.

Ordinary lives continue.

                                 God does not smite them.

But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.

        ….

Called to a destiny more momentous

than any in all of Time,

she did not quail,

                          only asked

a simple, 'How can this be?'

and gravely, courteously,

took to heart the angel’s reply,

perceiving instantly

the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear …

Infinite weight and lightness; to carry

in hidden, finite inwardness,

…Eternity; to contain

in slender vase of being,

the sum of power –

in narrow flesh,

the sum of light…. [i]

May we, too, be engendered by the Spirit, so that the Christ Child can be brought to birth within us.  May we too gravely, courteously, courageously accept the destiny invitations whispered to us by angels.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[i] Levertov, “Annunciation”, after ‘Hail, space for the uncontained God’, From the Agathistos Hymn, Greece, 6^th century.

  

1st Advent 2012, Tree of Life

1^st Advent

Luke 21:25-36

Roland Tiller

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth, the nations will be constricted with anxiety and doubt with the advent of these spiritual revelations, as before a roaring sea and waves. And men will lose their inner strength of soul out of fear and foreboding of what is coming over the living earth: for the dynamic powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, in the sphere of life, with dynamic power and great radiant glory.

And when these things begin to happen, stand upright and lift up [raise] your soul to the spirit, for your deliverance draws near.

And he gave them a comparison, saying, ‘Observe [behold] the fig tree and all the trees when they burst into leaf. Seeing this, you know yourselves that summer is near. So also when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Amen, the truth I say to you: this present age of Man’s being shall not pass away until all has happened.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Guard yourselves lest the perceptive power of your hearts be smothered by excess of food and drink and by over-concern with the cares and worries of life, and the light of these spirit events break upon you suddenly like a snare…for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. So be awake in the spirit at all times, praying, so that you may have the strength to live through all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

1^st Advent

December 2, 2012

Luke 21: 25-36

Yggdrasil, Tree of Life

Although we are approaching the depth of northern midwinter, Christ, oddly perhaps for us in the north, speaks of the coming spring, and the fig tree bursting into leaf. The fig tree in His time was the tree, like the bodhi tree, which represented a broader, enlightened awareness.

This reading images for us the content of a higher awareness: the living Son of Man, radiant and powerful, coming toward us in the realm of the clouds, the biosphere, the realm of life.

This year has been seen as a year in which a shift of awareness is anticipated. There are signs…signs that human beings are moving into an anxious awareness of the wholeness of the living earth, into an heart awareness that humankind is all one family; signs that the kingdom of God is arising in human hearts. The angels are watching closely.

Denise Levertov says

Sometimes the mountain

is hidden from me in veils

of cloud, sometimes

I am hidden from the mountain

in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,

when I forget or refuse to go

…to reconfirm

that witnessing presence.[1]

We are urged to pay attention, to stand, awake and at the ready. For He who is the living Spirit of the Earth is drawing near.

www.thechristiancommunity.org 

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[1] “Witness”, by Denise Levertov in Selected Poems