3rd Passiontide 2016, Light Seeds

3^rd Passiontide

Ninetta Sombart

March 13, 2016

John 8: 21-29

And he went on: “I go away now, and you will seek me, and in your sin you will be subject to death. Where I am going you cannot come.” Then the Jews said, “Will he perhaps kill himself, since he says: Where I am going you cannot come?” And he said to them, “You come from below. I AM from above. You belong to this world which perishes, but I do not come from this world. That is why I said to you: You will be subject to death in your sins. If you do not fill yourselves with the power of my being, you will be subject to death in your sins.”

Then they said to him, ‘Who are you?” And Jesus answered, “Why do I still talk to you at all? There are many things which I could say about you and many things to judge. But HE who sent me is Truth itself, and so I speak out into the world what I have heard from HIM.”

But they did not understand that he was speaking to them of the Father. And Jesus went on, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the I AM. I do nothing out of myself, but I proclaim what the Father teaches me. He who sent me works in my working. He does not leave me on my own; what I do is always in accord with HIM.”

3^rd Passiontide

March 13, 2016

John 8: 21-29

The seed, when planted, sends out two shoots. The first one dives down into the earth; the second rises into the light and air. Eventually it is this second shoot that will blossom. It will produce the seeds of new life.

We are the seeds God has planted on earth. We lead a kind of double life. We must indeed root and ground ourselves in the earthly. We also are to seek the light of the Christ-Sun; blossom in His warmth, produce spiritual fruits and seeds of a new life. But for us there is a paradox.

artist unknown

In this reading, Christ reminds the people that he has sown himself on earth in the body of Jesus, and that he is about to grow himself in reverse, into the realm of death, into the body of the earth. There He will bring the light and warmth of the Spirit-Sun into the cold darkness of the underworld. He will blossom there and produce seeds of life within the realm of death.

At first, no one will be able to accompany him there but the light, the love, the life of His Father. But He is doing this so that we, who are bound to the earth and are destined to die, will be able to find His light and warmth, his life, forever here on earth, and even when we die. For he is the light that descends into the darkness. We need not fear it. As Rilke says:

You are not dead yet, it’s not too late

To open your depths by plunging into them

And drink in the life

That reveals itself quietly there. *

*Rainer M Rilke, “You see, I want a lot”, in Rilke’s Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 61

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Easter 2015, Harbingers of Light

Easter Sunday

Mark 16: 1-18

And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”

And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where they laid Him [his body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”

                And they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say anything to anyone about what they had experienced.

When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp it.

After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they were walking over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they could not open their hearts to their words either.

Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the Risen One.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the new message from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart with it [believes] and is immersed in me [baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it [believe] and will attend their path : Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing forces to them.

Easter Sunday

April 5, 2015

Mark 16: 1-18

In the week before His death, Christ said “unless a kernel of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

The Risen One, Gruenewald, Wikipedia

The living power of Christ’s blood entered the earth at His crucifixion. And His body was placed into a cave in the earth. He, the great Light-Seed, died into the earth. On Holy Saturday, he rooted himself firmly into the earth, descending to the dead. On Easter morning, the first new shoots of His new Life broke forth from underground. New Life, capable of reproducing itself infinitely, began to grow.

At Ascension. He will open himself wide to the cosmos, while still remaining connected to the earth. And so this new Life will blossom into the whole world. At Pentecost His manifold light-seeds will fall into the hearts of those who love him.

And now, today, we rejoice because new Life is flashing forth from death. It is emerging from its apparent demise; it flares up from the ground of our hearts. The Light-Seed is quickening in the earth, in us. For today, as the poet says,

Every man, plant and creature in Existence,

Every woman, child, vein and note

Is a servant of our Beloved -

A harbinger of joy,

The harbinger of

Light.[1]

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[1] Hafiz, ”Guardians of His Beauty”, in The Subject Tonight is Love -- versions by Daniel Ladinsky

Holy Nights, December 28, 2014, Grow Me

Philippians 2: 5 – 16

December 28, 2014

Be imbued with the same state of mind that also filled Christ Jesus himself: For, although he was of divine nature and form, he chose not to lay claim for himself to be equal to God.  Rather, he emptied himself in offering and took on the form of a servant. In human form he took on body and he showed himself in the form of a man throughout his whole life. Humbly and selflessly he submitted to the laws of earth-existence, even to the experience of the death on the cross.

Therefore God has also exalted him to the highest heights and given him the name which is above every other name. 

In the name of Jesus the knees of all beings should bow, in the heavens, on the earth, and in the depths of existence. And so that the Father, the Ground of all existence shall be revealed, every tongue should acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord!

Therefore, my dear friends, just as you always did—listen to the voice of the spirit, not only when I am with you, but now all the more since I am far away from you. Work with anxious effort and trembling expectation, to the end that the realm of healing power may open to you. For it is God who awakens the will in you and who brings about the fulfillment, so that everything can become good.

Do not let yourselves be held back in that work by sluggishness of the will or by restless thoughts which make you indecisive. , Only so can you live, without blemish and falseness, as pure, “children of God in the midst of a dissipated and twisted humanity.” You are to shine among human beings like bright stars in the sky by keeping to the Word of Life.

Holy Nights

December 28, 2014

Philippians 2: 5 – 16

The sky can be filled with clouds. They can obscure the light of the sun. But above the clouds, the sun continues to shine forth its brightness, illuminating the clouds themselves.  Even when the sun sets, seeming to be swallowed up by darkness, it is nonetheless shining, continuing to illuminate the earth.

Christ, the Light of the World, the Sun-God, entered the form of the human being. Gradually his brightness was clouded over by the human constitution, until finally, like the sun at the end of the day, His light seemed to disappear into the darkness of death. Yet He continued to shine in the depths. He is the seed that will grow the earth into a new sun, a new star.

Since then, Christ has entered the form of all human beings. He dwells in us as a Light-Seed, as the potential for us to become shining miniature suns. He hopes we will hear his voice calling us, as the voice within that says: Become! Develop! Grow me within you!

He is waiting for us to cultivate Him in the depths of our souls, in the hearts of our communities, to grow His being in us.

“For [as Paul says] we are to shine…like bright stars in the sky by keeping to the Word of Life.”

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