3rd after Easter II, Liquid Ruby-Light

3^rd Sunday after Easter

John 15:1-27 (adapted from Madsen)

Icon, Vine and Branches

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit HE takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit HE makes pure that it may bear more fruit. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit out by itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you unless you stay united with me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me and I in them, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this, my Father is revealed, that you bear much fruit and become ever more my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. If you take my aims into your will, then you will live on in my love, o just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in HIS love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.

This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No one can have greater love than this, than that they offer up their life for their friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for servants do not know what their master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should live on after you so that what you ask the Father in my name HE should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

Arthur Ernst Becher

If people hate you, remember that they hated me before you. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but because you do not belong to them since I chose you out of humankind, people hate you.

Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than their master.’ If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you, they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know HIM who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, such as no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, HE will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

3^rd after Easter

May 8, 2020

John 15:1-27

The air is both inside us and outside us. It is like a great ocean of light and life, filling all spaces. We breathe it in and out in the rhythm of the waves. We breathe in the Father’s light, His life, His love. And the whole future existence of the earth depends on what we breathe out—darkness or light, death or life, hatred or love.

We breathe out light along with the quality of our awareness. Our awareness of the spirit, of the divine, builds the future. We breathe out life when what we create and upbuild toward the future outweighs those destructive forces that are necessary to maintain life itself now. We breathe out love when we connect ourselves to the universe and all its kingdoms in warmth, joy, and gratitude.

‘I am the vine’, Christ says. ‘You are my branches. Without me, you can bear no fruit’. Without Christ’s light and life, human life on earth will bear no fruit, and thus will have no future. Without the fruit of his love, which has become concentrated in the wine of his blood, our souls sicken. Without this connection, our souls would die. The poet Hafiz describes it this way:

True Vine, Sjodin

Why all this talk of the Beloved…

Liquid ruby-light we can lift in a cup?

Because it is low tide

A very low tide in this age

And around most hearts.

We are exquisite coral reefs,

Dying when exposed to strange

Elements.

God is the wine-ocean we crave—

We miss

Flowing in and out of our

Pores*

Christ is our connector, the divine/human channel to the greater ocean of the Father’s light, life, and love. He mediates the light-filled air of life within and without. His being is the essence of love—giving, circulating, connecting, maintaining. Connecting ourselves with Him, through and in the symbolic reality of the wine, we are connecting ourselves to the wine-red ocean of the Father’s life, to the Father’s loving awareness. Connecting ourselves with Him we are connecting with our future.

*Hafiz, “Why All This Talk?”, in Tonight the Subject is Love, by Daniel Ladinsky, p.7

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th Easter 2019, Earth, Beloved

4^th Easter

John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does

not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.4^th Easter

May 12, 2019

John 15:1-27

Grapevines can live hundreds of years. Those caring for the vines remove the rank leafy growth. This encourages the vine’s energy to be concentrated and multiplied in the fruit. The roots descend thousands of feet, drawing up water from deep in the earth. In the fruit, earth’s water is transformed into mineral-rich, sweet, nourishing juice through the power of the sun.

Our lives too are rooted in the earth. We draw life, strength, and nourishment from her. Our task too, is cultivation, cultivation of the earth, cultivation of our own souls. We ourselves, or the Father’s angels guiding our destiny, will remove what is useless. For we are meant to transform substance of earth into fruits of pure spirit-awareness, into loving devotion.

Christ called Himself the True Vine, the Living Being of whom we are all branches. He has rooted Himself deep in the earth. He transforms work of earth into work of spirit. We, as His branches, are to concentrate and multiply His life energy into the fruitfulness of our own lives, our own souls. We are to be the bearers of His work of transformation.

When Christ’s fruit, our fruit is ripe, the angels will gather the clusters from the earth’s vine. (Rev 14:18) What will they do with the earth’s harvest? They will press out juice to become the blood of a new kind of human being, the water of a new kind of earth.

For as Rilke says:

Earth, is it not this that you want: to rise

invisibly in us? – Is that not your dream,

to be invisible, one day? – Earth! Invisible!

What is your urgent command if not transformation?

Earth, beloved, I will.*

---

*Rilke, from 9th Duino Elegy

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4th Easter 2018, Ecology of Love

4^th Easter

John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Christ in the Winepress

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

4th Easter

April 22, 2018

John 15; 1-27

We have the tendency to see the world as a collection of separate things. The idea of ecology, that all creatures and their environments form a living entity, is relatively recent. Thinking ecologically, we human beings can learn to appreciate how life supports us in so many varied ways. It streams to us in the sunlight, in the watercourses, in the plant and animal life that nourish us. Life surrounds and supports us in the very air we breathe. And we too have our part in this great weaving of life.

Today’s reading reveals a great open secret: it is not merely mother nature who sustains us. It is Christ who carries the great all-pervasive life of the earth. As the True Vine, the sap of His life runs through the living earth and sustains all on it. And this sap of life has a cohesion, a kind of force of attraction to it. It draws all the parts together and fits them into an organic working whole. This force is the force of compassionate love. The world is held together, interwoven by a living love.

Compassionate love also radiates outward; it is a love that offers itself up to support, sustain and to strengthen. To connect with the essence of life that permeates the world is to connect oneself with the deep love and life that binds the world together. It is to connect with a love that offers itself to all, that all may exist. It is a love that supports all in deep compassion. What this deep compassion asks of us is to become likewise. 

In the words of Hafiz:

Arthur Ernst Becher

The Beloved has agreed to play a game

Called

Love.

Our sun sat in the sky

Way before this earth was born

Waiting to caress a billion faces.

The wise man learns what draws God

Near.

It is the beauty of compassion

In your heart.*

*Hafiz, “It is Unanimous”, in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 170

4th Easter 2017, Bear Fruit

4^th Easter

John 15: 1 – 27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

4^th Easter

May 7, 2017

John 15: 1 – 27

Once a mighty tree grew in the realm of the heavens. Its life was the life of the universe. Its roots were in the sun. Its branches were in the cosmos. Its fruits were the planets and the stars.

One of its planets, the earth, began to sicken and grow dark. And so the mighty tree concentrated its life into a single Sun-Seed, which dropped onto the earth. The seed died, was buried in the earth. There it germinated, grew toward the heavens, scattering seeds of its own into the heart of each human being on the planet.

The hope of the Sun-Tree is that humans will tend and grow their own heart's Sun-Seed. The hope is that they will eventually become Sun-Trees themselves, living together with the life of the whole universe, branching into the cosmos. Like the original Sun-Seed, they will ever and again die into the earth and grow into the cosmos. Through their love for all other humans, they will help planet earth become an Earth-Sun, radiating life and love back into the universe. As Rilke said,

Not to falter! Not to be found wanting!

Thus must it be, when willingly you strive

throughout a long and uncomplaining life,

committed to one goal: to give yourself!

And silently to grow and to bear fruit.*

  

* Rainer Maria Rilke, "The Apple Orchard," in (Rainer Maria Rilke: Selected Poems, trans. by Albert Ernest Flemming)

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4th Easter 2016, Sun Seed

4th Easter

John 15: 1-27

16th-century icon, Athens

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

Washing of the Feet, Woloschina

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

4th Easter

April 17, 2016

John 15: 1-27

Within a seed, there is the potential for all parts of a new plant – its roots and shoots, its blossoms and seeds. The potential is there because the seed is alive. And one way to tell whether a seed is alive is alive or not is to test whether it germinates. If not, it has lost its potential for further development. It is dead.

Our lives, too, are full of seed-potential. We have brought with us the possibility to become many things on many different levels. Perhaps the most important seed-potential in us is the Christ-Seed; for with His death, Resurrection, and Ascension, Christ has laid the Sun-Seed of his living being into each and every human being. This Sun-Seed is our capacity to grow and develop toward the heavenly realms, and at the same time to also more deeply and lovingly ground and root ourselves in the earth He created.  For at her core, the earth, like us, contains a potent Sun-Seed of Christ. For her, it is the living potential to gradually become in the future a new, radiant sun. Together with Christ, we are creating a new world.

Christ is the life of the seed, the true living, developing vining life in which we all live and move and have our being, as Paul says*. Christ keeps us alive so that we can germinate our potential and live into the future with him. Connected with his life, we blossom forth as spiritual beings. Connected with his life we are helping the earth to gradually become a radiant new star.

*Acts 17:28

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4th Easter 2015, Everything Depends

4th Easter

John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

Christ the True Vine, Wiki Commons

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

4th Easter

April 26, 2015

John 15: 1-27

The wild grape vine will spread its many branches far and wide, climbing over fences and up trees.  A cultivated vine is trained up on stakes and cross-wires. The vinedresser prunes it back to restrain much of the growth. Thus the vine sacrifices some of its wild abundance in order to produce better fruit.

Christ True Vine, wikicommons

Christ calls himself the True Vine. He is the Life the living entity of the earth and all on it. Our lives are branches off of His Life. And He tries to convey to us that both He and we are not to remain wild and uncultivated. Rather we are to contain ourselves on the cross-wires so that the Father, the vinedresser, can concentrate and strengthen our growth to produce excellent and abundant fruit.

The goal of our lives, the fruit we are trying to produce, is love. We are to produce the sweet and abundant fruit by remaining connected with the True Vine, the one whose very being is love. We are to remain connected with Him, living in His life, out of our own freedom of choice. To do otherwise is to risk bitter even diseased fruit.

To love means to offer our own life forces, our thoughts, our time, to others for the furtherance of the world. Offering ourselves is a habit into which we can train ourselves. We can prune away our more selfish and lazy habits, our soul’s deadwood. And this matters not only to us, but to the world. For as the poet says:

Vine and branch we’re connected in this world
of sound and echo, figure and shadow, the leaves
contingent, roots pushing against earth. [ A fruit} An apple
 
belongs to itself, to stem and tree, to air
that claims it, then ground. Connections
balance, each motion changes another. Precarious,
 
hanging together, we don’t know what our lives
support, and we touch in the least shift of breathing.
Each holy thing is borrowed.  Everything depends. [1]

---

[1] Jeanne Lohmann,  “Shaking the Tree”

4th Easter 2007, Undercurrent of Joy

4^th Easter

John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning. 

4^th Sunday after Easter

April 29, 2007

John 15: 1-27

A grapevine has deep roots. They draw up water and minerals, life and strength, from deep in the earth. As a living being, the vine directs life and strength upward into the branches, the unfolding leaves, the developing fruit, so that each part can fulfill its task.

At Easter, Christ descended into the depths. He rooted Himself forever in the earth, becoming the Vine of Life through which all life now rises and flows. We are the branches of His life.

Poets sometimes sense this joyous undercurrent of life that streams through all things. Wordsworth says:

                        …And I have felt

A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns

And the round ocean and the living air

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man,

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of all thought

And roll through all things.[1]

While with an eye made quiet by the power

Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,

We see into the life of things.[2]

By sending His life into and through us, Christ makes possible for us a depth of joy. He gives us strength to fulfill our life’s tasks. He makes it possible for us to become fruitful in the ways of love.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] William Wordsworth, “Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey,” William Wordsworth: The Major Works, Oxford Classics, p. 134

[2] Ibid. p. 132 

4th Easter 2008, Wound Always Open

4^th Easter

John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning. 

4^th Easter Sunday

April 13, 2008

John 15: 1-27

In this time after Easter, the gospel readings lead us back to what he tried to describe to His disciples before He died: He tried to tell them that His life continues forever.

At His death the disciples hearts were broken – broken open. Their souls were grievously wounded by their loss, the loss of their deepest Friend, the loss of all their hopes and dreams of His glory. But at Easter, Christ began to pour the power of His resurrection into the open wound of their hearts. At first they could not recognize Him. At first, their pre-conceptions about the finality of death prevented them from perceiving Him as the Resurrection and the Life. But gradually they began to receive His life-giving power in their hearts. They began to affirm and to accept the great mystery of his resurrection. An enormous reverence began to grow in them. They began to assent to a new World Way. They began to realize that He, the being of Love, had survived death.

Today we hear the wonderful words: ‘I am the true living vine, you are the branches. My father is the vinedresser. Stay connected with me, so that your souls will become fruitful’. It is our task not just to keep our souls alive; it is our task to make our souls bear fruit for the Father.

What are the fruits of soul that the Father hopes to harvest from us? They are the same qualities of soul that the disciples wrested from death—the fragrance of reverence, the fruitfulness of a  mood of all-affirming acceptance, the ripening substance of a love for all of humanity. This is the Life that the Resurrected Christ, the True Vine, pours into all souls connected with Him. These are the fruits— reverence, open acceptance, love—that the Father would harvest. These are the fruits that nourish the evolution of the world.

Staying connected with Christ is our task. It is a challenge for the heart to remain open and receptive, within love, within Him. But love is a creative act. And to create is to labor, sometimes in pain and travail. As Novalis said, “To love is to hold the wound always open.”  We hold our wounded hearts open so that Christ can pour His reverence, His openness, His love into us. We hold our wounded hearts open so that we can become fruitful. We hold our hearts open so that we can nourish the world. 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th Easter 2009, Rivering Every Way

4^th Easter

John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning. 

4^th Easter

May 3, 2009

John 15:1-27

Such a beautiful image—Christ says, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” John 15:5. Christ is our lifeblood. He keeps us alive. The Father, who holds our destiny, is the vinedresser. He is looking for healthy growth, trimming away what does not serve, in order to increase what will.

In our western culture we have grown much that was useless, excessive, even diseased. The healthy part of us accepts the necessity of a “correction”. True, the process is painful; but it is only right and just. It is meant for our good, for our health. Time to trim back. Time to become truly fruitful. Time to seek the living source.

Here, in the Act of Consecration of Man we receive such a vivid reminder that Christ is indeed what nourishes. We cluster in prayer like fruit on His vine. We receive His wine-sap, the living juice of His blood.

So that we too remain connected to His love;

So that we, too, become and remain fruitful;

So that we in turn may channel His strengthening life and love to others.

As the poet says:

…. Now

it’s your limbs He comes to fill, as warm water

shatters at birth, rivering every way. [1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Mary Karr, “Descending Theology: The Resurrection”, in Poetry, 2006