2nd November Trinity 2017, Stand in Awe

3rd Nov Trinity
Revelation 14,1-20   

And I looked, and there was the picture of the Lamb, standing atop Mt. Zion and with him one hundred forty-four thousand having his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
     
And I listened and heard a voice from the heavens, a voice like a mighty rush of waters, and like a mighty thunderclap—the voice I heard was like the voices of harpists playing on their harps.

And they all sing a new song, there in front of the throne and in front of the four creatures and the elders, and no one could learn the song but the one hundred forty-four thousand ransomed from the earth. These are the ones who did not defile themselves by the straying, through which the spiritual in man is betrayed; they have remained virginal [pure] in their inmost being and follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were ransomed as the seed of a new humanity which belongs to the Father God and to the Lamb. Deceit and lies are not found in their mouths; pure and unblemished are they in their innermost being.

And I looked and saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, bringing the good news which is good news forever to those live on earth—to every race and nation and every tongue and folk. And the angel cried out with a great voice, saying:

“Stand in awe of God and turn to honor him. For we have come to the hour of his divine decision. Raise yourself in prayer to him who in truth created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all the springs of water.”

And a second angel followed, who said, “Fallen, fallen is the great city of Babylon, who made all nations drink of the wine of her sacrilege, in order to draw the holy into misuse.”

And a third angel followed them, who cried out with a powerful voice: “Whoever adores the beast and its likeness and accepts its stamp on forehead or hand, he will drink of the wine of God’s anger, thick and strong and undiluted, from the cup of his wrath. And in the presence of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb shall anger be transformed into pain like the pain of fire and sulfur.

Their suffering rises and darkens the encircling air like smoke through the cycles of time. And day and night those who made the beast into their god, who honored its picture as the highest, who took its being into their innermost being, find no peace. In this place however there works the power of the steadfast endurance of those who have taken the healing power of the Spirit into themselves, who have fulfilled the goals of the Spirit, and who have worked trusting in Jesus’ healing deed.

And I heard a voice out of the worlds of

Spirit which said, “Write this down: People of heaven are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their efforts and labors, since their good deeds, the fruits of their lives, are not lost along their paths of soul, but have preceded them here.

And I looked, and suddenly I saw in the spirit a white cloud, and seated upon the cloud the figure of a son of humanity, with a golden crown upon his head and a sharpened sickle. And another angel stepped forth from the temple crying with a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud:

“Let your sickle go forth and harvest, for the hour of harvest has come; ripe and dry and firm are the crops of the earth.”

And the one seated on the cloud threw his sickle down upon the events on earth, and the earth’s crop was harvested.

And again another angel came out of the temple in the heavens, and he too held a sharpened sickle. And a further angel came out who tended the fire at the altar. He cried out with a mighty voice to him who held the sharpened sickle and said, “Let your sickle go forth and harvest the grapevines of the earth, for their grapes have reached their prime.”

So the angel threw his sickle down to the events on earth, and he harvested the earth’s vineyard and threw the grapes into the great winepress of God’s anger. And they took the winepress outside the city and trampled the grapes. Blood flowed from the winepress that reached to the muzzles of the horses for sixteen hundred miles around.

Nov 5, 2017
Revelation 14: 1-20
Revelations 14:7

“Stand in awe of God and honor him. For we have come to the hour of his divine decision. Raise yourself in prayer to him who in truth created the heavens and the earth….’ Revelations 14:7

This year’s leaves are falling from the trees. They have finished their work of drinking sunlight, and so the tree lets them go. But just where the old leaf attached to the branch, the tree has already formed the buds of next year’s leaves. The tree will remain standing bare, over-wintering, yet already equipped to be able to drink in the light of the future.

Our lives, too, have had their old leaves, long since left behind. Even our bodies have let go of old forms—infancy, childhood, youth, maturity—all give way. But the buds, the seed of the next phase are already laid down.

When the body itself falls away, we will find that we have already formed the buds for the next life. The reading hints at this: ‘Stand in awe of God and turn to honor him….Raise yourself in prayer….’ Rev. 14:7

Our prayers of praise and honor, our prayers of thanksgiving, form the buds for our future life after life. Praise and thanksgiving are the buds for a new humanity. Those who praise and give thanks in the purity of their inmost heart ‘…have been brought out of humankind to become the foundation of a new humanity, which belongs to God and to the Lamb. Rev. 14:4

And so we pray:

Master of beauty, craftsman of the snowflake,
inimitable contriver,
endower of Earth so gorgeous…
thank you for such as it is my gift.

I have made up a morning prayer to you
containing with precision everything that most matters.
'According to Thy will,' the thing begins….

I only as far as gratitude & awe
confidently & absolutely go.

…Whatever your end may be, accept my amazement.
May I stand until death forever at attention
for any your least instruction or enlightenment.
I even feel sure you will assist me again, Master of insight & beauty.*

*John Berryman, “Eleven Addresses to the Lord” in Collected Poems

3rd Michaelmas 2017, Dark Hours

2^nd 3^rd or 4^th Michaelmas
Revelation 12: 1-17

And a momentous image was unveiled in the world of spirit: a woman, clothed

Benjamin West 

with the radiant power of the sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve stars of heaven. And she is with child and cries out in the labor and pain of giving birth.

And at the same time. a second image was revealed in the heavens: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its head, it has seven crowns and its tail is sweeping a third of all the stars in heaven and dashing them onto the earth. And the dragon is standing before the woman about to give birth so that when she bears the child he can devour it. And she bore a child, a son ”who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron.” And the woman’s child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place that God keeps ready there so that they can take care of her for days numbering one thousand two hundred sixty.

And a war flared up in the spirit world. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in the midst of his own angels, but he was not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. Down came the dragon, the giant, the serpent, the evil one called both Satan and the devil, deceiver of all the world. Onto the earth, he came hurtling down, and all his angels with him.

And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying:

Now can begin the working which proceeds from our God—
The power to heal the world,
The power to transform all being,
The power to draw everything into godly being.
Arisen is the spirit leadership of his Christ.
Overthrown is the accuser of our brothers,
He who accused them night and day before the countenance of God.
They have overcome him through the blood and the sacrificial power of the Lamb

And by the divine Word to which they bore witness.
They did not love their own lives too dearly, nor did they fear death.
Therefore, rejoice you heavens
And all who lodge therein!
But woe to the earth and the sea:
For the Adversary has come down to you,
And he seethes with measureless fury,
For he knows that his time is short.

And when the dragon recognized that he had been cast onto the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had borne the son. Then the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly into the desert to her appointed place, where she is to be nourished for a cycle of time, for cycles of time, and for half a cycle of time, far from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent opened his mouth and spewed out a river of water after the woman so she would be swept off her feet by the river. But then the earth came to the woman’s assistance; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from his mouth. And the dragon burned with fury against the woman. He stormed away to make war on the rest of the woman’s seed, people who keep to the divine world aims and who are united with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus. As I saw this I was standing on the sandy shore of the sea.

3^rd Michaelmas Sunday
October 15, 2017
Revelation 12: 1-17

The Book of Revelation describes mighty events. These are letters from the spiritual world to us. They apply both to great spans of time, and also to our individual lives. The cast of characters consists of both great spiritual beings and at the same time parts of our own souls.

There is the soul-woman in all of us who is about to give birth to the spirit child. The very existence of this child is opposed by destructive beings who once lived in spiritual realms and now live with us on earth. For the time came when the heavens had to send the forces of destruction to the earth so that we human being would grow strong in dealing with them. Heaven was cleansed so that the heavens were free to offer us the power to heal, the power to transform, the power to spiritualize both the earth and ourselves.

Bernhard Eyb

The dragon persecutes us, breathing destruction. But we are given wings of thoughtful prayer with which to rise to a place of nourishment and strength. The dragon seeks to drown us. But the absorptive power within our souls’ own groundedness in the earth keep us from being swept away. The dragon breathes a burning fire, but our soul’s solidity finds the cooling waters with which to smother the flames.

The forces of the soul with which we defend ourselves from the dragon are the forces of the Archangel Michael and Christ, He who lives in the deepest part of our souls. He gives us the resurrection force with which to rise above the dragon. He gives us the absorptive power to accept that we must battle evil. He gives us the power with which to subdue the dragon force within.

All this takes place at a depth within which is mostly for us a darkness. But it is

  Jean Bourdichon 

the darkness of a womb, that one day will give birth to light. We shall not fear the darkness.

In the words of Rilke:

I love the dark hours of my being.
My mind deepens into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life, already lived,
and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open
to another life that’s wide and timeless.*


*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Love Poems to God, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, p. 51

4th November Trinity 2016, Openings into Peace

4th November Trinity

Revelation 21: 9 -27

And there came to me one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls filled with the last seven plagues of the world; and he spoke with me and said, “Come, I will show you the eternal Feminine, the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

And he carried me in spirit-form up to a great high mountain, and let me see how the Holy City, Jerusalem, the City of Peace, descended out of the spiritual worlds, coming forth from the being of God, wrapped in the most intimate splendor of the revelation of God.

Her shining [gleaming] is like that of a precious gemstone, like the stone jasper, clear as crystal.

Her walls are of mighty size and height; she has twelve gates and at the gates stand twelve angels. On the gates are written the names of the twelve sons of Israel; three gates from the East, three gates from the North, three gates from the South, and three gates from the West.

And the wall of the City rests on twelve sacred foundations, and the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb work in them.

And he who spoke with me carried a golden measuring rod, in order to measure the City and her gates and her walls.

And the City is spread out in a square; her length is the same as her width. And he measured the City with the measuring rod. It measured twelve thousand miles; the length and breadth and height were alike. And he measured her walls at one hundred forty-four cubits [ells], the measure of a man, which now the angel was using.

The covering of her walls was of jasper, and the City herself of purified gold, clear as glass. And the sacred foundation of the wall were adorned with every precious stone:

 

the first, a jasper,

the second, a sapphire,

the third, a chalcedony,

the fourth, emerald,

the fifth sardonyx,

the sixth, carnelian,

the seventh, chrysolite,

the eighth, beryl,

the ninth, topaz,

the tenth, chrysoprase

the eleventh, hyacinth,

the twelfth, an amethyst.

The twelve gates were twelve pearls, and each of the gates made of a single pearl. And the city was of purified gold, like a transparent crystal.

I did not see a temple in the City, for the Lord God, Ruler of All, is her sanctuary, and the Lamb.

And the City needs neither sun nor moon, for she shines from within; for the shining revelation of God is streaming brightness in her, and her light is the Lamb.

And all nations shall walk in her light, and the rulers of the earth will carry their spiritual treasures into her. And her gates will never be closed by day, for there, night will be no more.

And all the shining treasures of the revelations of the world, and all the spiritual worth of the nations and all achievements of the soul will be brought into her.

And nothing can enter which is not spiritualized [consecrated], nothing which perverts the image of Man, nothing which remains under the power of the Lie, but rather only those who are written into the Book of Life of the Lamb.

4th November Trinity

November 20, 2016

Revelation 21: 9 -27

This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year, and so it is fitting that we look toward our goal, toward what will definitely appear at the end of earth evolution. What John sees is a beautiful city. A city is constructed by human effort and creativity. The New Jerusalem, the City of Peace, is not a material city. It is a vast and ordered time/space, transparent and shining with life. It is created out of the spiritual values and shining revelations of all the nations of the world. 

The spiritual gemstones for the foundations of the city will  have been mined from the spiritual and moral work of hard-won virtue.

The gateways, the openings into this vast human/spiritual creation are made of pearl. When a grain of sand enters an oyster, it is not expelled. Rather, it is endured. The creature produces layer after layer of lustrous substance to transform this pain into a shining thing of beauty.

The portals into the beautiful spirit city, the gates of pearl, are always open. They are the achievement of human suffering rightly endured. We are reassured that all our pain, all of our losses and suffering are meant to become openings into a place of peace. They lead us to a place of light, a place of triumphant joy, where the bejeweled soul of humanity weds her Bridegroom. 

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4th St. Johnstide 2015, Daughters of the Lamb

St. Johnstide

Luke 3: 7-18

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You are sons of the serpent yet! Who led you to believe that you can avoid the decline of the old ways of the soul? Produce true fruits in keeping with a change of heart and mind. And do not begin excusing yourselves by saying, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I tell you that God can raise up sons for Abraham out of these stones. The ax is already poised at the root of the trees, so every tree that does not produce good fruit is felled and thrown into the fire.”

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

John answered, “Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

“Do not collect any more than you are authorized to do,” he told them.

               

Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

St. Martin 

He replied, “Do not intimidate and do not accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ, the Messiah.

John answered them all, “I wash you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will wash you with the breath of the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, while he burns up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

And with many and various exhortations John preached the good news to the people.

St. Johnstide

July 19, 2015

Luke 3: 7-18

A son or daughter derives much of their way of being from their parents. In many respects, (though not all), the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as the saying goes.

Beatus Escorial, wiki

John the Baptist tells the people coming to him to be baptized that they are yet ‘sons of the serpent’. That is to say that their life is organized around the uprighted serpent of their earthly senses, housed in the brain and spinal column. In a certain very real sense, our inherited physical constitution goes back to Adam and Eve, when this ‘serpent’ inserted itself into human evolution. We are all sons and daughters of the serpent, living by the senses.

But John has seen in Christ a new kind of human being. Seeing Christ gives him the image of a lamb, a young innocent who will nevertheless take on the burden of the world’s sin, which are the results of living only by the serpent.

We are called upon to become sons and daughters of the Lamb. We are to share the burdens of our fellow human beings; share our outer and inner wealth with them. We are not to unfairly heap more weight on them than they can carry. We are not to intimidate them or tarnish their reputation.

Becoming a son or daughter of the Lamb is no easy task. It includes undergoing a kind of purification by fire – a burning out of all the old serpentine ways of thinking and of acting solely for our own advantage.  What is of value in us will be winnowed out from what is useless in our nature. We prune and shape and cultivate our soul life, our very sense of self, so that it produces good spiritual fruits to offer to God and to our fellow brothers and sisters. 

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