4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2021, He Suffers In Us

 4^th Passiontide (Palm Sunday)

Matthew 21:1-11

 And they approached Jerusalem and came to  Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, "Go to the village which you see before you and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away."

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

'Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and a foal of the beast of burden.'

Julia Stankova

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them and Jesus sat on them.

Many from the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest! [or, Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is he?" The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee."

4^th Passiontide, Palm Sunday

March 28, 2021

Matthew 21:1-11

We are entering Holy Week. The altar and vestments are black. Especially in this week, Christ battles the forces of duality. These are the false polarities of either/or, black or white, the yes or no of dead binary thinking. Good or bad; heaven or hell. By the end of the week, He will arrive at Golgatha, literally the Place of the Skull. At the place of the skull, He will die. And in a garden, He will rise again.

Christ exists in the living world of flow,

Julia Stankova

change, and metamorphosis. He operates in the changing subtleties of the grayscale, in the nuances of color in transforming one form to another. His opponents ask Him questions designed to entrap Him. He gives them answers from outside of their framework, answers from the flowing world of a greater reality.

Today we still battle with the deadness into which our brain-bound intellect so quickly falls. We still tend to use ill-making polarities in the way we think, thus closing ourselves off from more significant possibilities. Nevertheless, we strain to open our thoughts in reverence. We struggle to warm our hearts in empathy. We strive to act according to inspirations of our conscience, our higher self.

In those moments when we manage reverence of thought, when we burn with heart’s love, when we act out of inspirations of conscience, in such moments, Christ can operate in the world. In such moments Christ is in us.  It is He that thinks in us, suffers in us, dies, and rises in us. As Rilke says,

To work with Things in the indescribable

relationship is not too hard for us;

the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,

…

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions ... For the god

wants to know himself in you.*

 

---

* Rainer Maria Rilke, in Ahead of All Parting, ed. and translated by Steven Mitchell

 

For more inspiring resources, go to https://www.christiancommunityseminary.ca/podcast

 

3rd Epiphany 2021, I and Thou

 3^rd Epiphany

John 2:1-11
 
On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
 
When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."
 
And Jesus answered her, "What

Woloschina

shall be done by me and what by you, O Woman? [ or, "A power in common works between you and me, O Woman.] [or, "Something still weaves between you and me, O Woman."] The hour when I can work out of myself alone has not yet come."
 
Then his mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."
 
There were six stone jars set up there for the Jewish custom of ceremonial washing, each containing twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with fresh water."
 
And they filled them to the brim. And he said, "Now draw some out and take it to the Master of the feast. And they brought it to him.
 
Now when the Master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from—for only the servants who had drawn the water knew—he called the bridegroom aside and said to him, "Everyone serves the choice wine first, and when the guests have drunk, then the lesser; but you have saved the best until now."
 
This, the beginning of the signs of the spirit that Jesus performed among human beings, happened at Cana in Galilee and revealed the creating spiritual power that worked through Him. The disciples' hearts opened, the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.

3^rd Epiphany
John 2:1-11
January 24, 2021
 
“What shall be done by me and what by you, O Woman?…and the disciples’ hearts opened; the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.” John 2:4 and 2:11
 
This time of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, much is dormant. But when the sun’s rays shine again more strongly, they will stimulate something, and nature will respond with green and growth and blossom. Mother Nature, we call her, and she is the mother who, together with the power of the sun, creates new life.
 
But besides Mother Nature and our own birth mothers,

we are related to another mother, the mother within. She is our own soul. Sometimes she too lies asleep, dormant. But when we awaken her, and she is pure and open to the spiritual sun, she also can bear a Son of Promise, just as Mary did at Christmas. In time our own soul mother and our soul’s Spirit-Son mature, and a delicate interweaving begins, a conversation, a working together. The soul mother’s attention expands. She notices and expresses another’s emptiness, another’s need. And the soul’s Spirit-Son knows what to do: He begins to shine, to radiate, and to stimulate a kind of greening in the hearts of those around Him.
 
The weaving between soul-mother and Spirit-Son is the first step toward creating a new life for humanity. The power weaving between mother and Son ripples outward on waves of light and begins to stir in human hearts.
 
He who sat as in the sun
Would have thee know
See: I am what am beginning
But thou art the tree.*
 
 
Rilke, “Annunciation” in The Book of Pictures, transl. by M. D. Herder Norton, p. 91.

New Year's Day 2021, The Middle of the Beginning

New Year's Day

John 1:1-18
 
In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.
He was in the beginning with God.

Friedrich Ogilvie, In the Beginning

All things came into being through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of human beings.
And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not [has not overcome it].
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
The same came for [or, as] a witness, to bear witness to the light, that through him all might believe.
He was not the light but a witness of the light; for the true light that enlightens everyone was to come into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, and the world knew him not.
He came to humans as individuals, but individuals received him not.        
But those who received him could reveal themselves as children of God.
Those who trusted in his name were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of human will, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory (as) of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bore witness of Him and proclaimed clearly: this was he of whom I said: He will come after me who was before me, for he was the first.
For out of his fullness have we all received grace upon grace.
For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
Hitherto no one has beheld God with their eyes. The only begotten Son (God) who was within the Father Ground of the World has become the leader of human beings into this seeing.
 
New Year's Day
January 1, 2021
Cynthia Hindes
 

An apple tree follows the seasons. It blossoms in spring, fruits in the fall, rests in the winter. But citrus trees are different. On citrus trees, you will find blossoms among the fruit hanging in winter. The tree starts anew before the old is finished. As if to ensure continuity, new fruit is set before the old falls away.
 
The world of the angels is similar. They bring their new impulses for the future before the old is finished. We find the beginnings of things not at the end when things are winding down, but already amid the greatest activity.
 
Today, New Years' Day, is the 8^th day in the cycle of the twelve days of Christmas. It is the middle, the time for new beginnings to blossom. It is time for new impulses to set fruit. It is time for new inspirations.
 
In the beginning, was the Word. He was in the middle of God. He issued forth as an impulse to live. His will is to shine, step forth into the darkness, enlighten, enkindle, and enliven the dark.
 
And he was seen, perceived, witnessed by a human being—John; two Johns in fact: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist. They were like a pair of eyes that beheld the light of the Son God's life, He who came to earth in the middle of time.
 
Coming to earth at the midpoint in time, the Son God brought a new beginning. He brought the possibility that God could be seen with human eyes. The light of the Son God opened our eyes so that we could see not only Him but also the Great Father of All out of which He—and we—have come. It was a new beginning for all of humanity.
 
During the Holy Nights, he has come again. The Word is speaking. We, and time, blossom again. We have become gravid with possibility. Now at this high hour, we can see and become aware, discern that:
 
The hour is striking so close above me,
So clear and sharp
That all my senses ring with it.
I feel it now: there's a power in me
To grasp and give shape to my world.
 
I know that nothing has ever been real
Without my beholding it.
All becoming has needed me.
My looking ripens things
And they come toward me to meet and be met.*
 
May we see and discern the beginning we are in the midst of. May we greet it in devotion, in faith, and love. May we bring it to birth and ripen it.
 
*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows, page 47
www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd Trinity III 2020, Projecting Dramas

2^nd Trinity

Matthew 7:1-29

 “Do not judge your fellow human beings, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, you too will be measured. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not become aware of the beam in your own eye? And how can you say to your brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye”  while there is a beam in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces.

Salvatore Rosa

Ask from the heart, and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for whoever asks in uprightness will receive; whoever earnestly seeks will find; whoever knocks, to them will be opened. Or are there among you those who when their son asks for bread would give him a stone, or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you who in spite of wickedness know how to give good things to your children, how much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly ask him for it.

All that you want that someone should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets.

Walk through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the path is easy that leads to ruin [the abyss], and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds it. 

Be on your guard against false prophets of healing. They come to you in the garments of peaceful lambs but inwardly are rapacious wolves. You shall recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. Never will you harvest grapes from a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. Every noble tree brings forth good fruit, but a wild tree only forms unusable fruit. A noble tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a wild tree cannot form good fruit. A tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be cut down and put in the fire. Therefore, recognize them by the fruits of their deeds.

Not everyone who addresses me with “Lord! Lord! can be taken up into the kingdom; only whoever accomplishes the will of my Father in the heavens. In the future, when the light of God breaks over the earthly darkness, many will call to me. They will say, “Lord! Lord! have we not worked in advance for your revelation? Have we not driven out spirits of destruction in honor of you? Have we not gathered multiple powers for your word?”

Then I will freely say to them, ‘I do not know you. My paths are not your paths. Depart from me, for you serve the forces of chaos [the downfall of the world].’

Everyone who hears such words from me and acts accordingly will be like

Burnand

someone who wisely built their house on bedrock. The clouds burst, the waves rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not totter, for it was founded upon the rock.

However, whoever hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like someone who foolishly builds their house upon sand. The rain comes down, the floods rise, the winds blow and beat upon the house, and it collapses with a great crash.”

When Jesus had finished saying this, the people were greatly moved, for he spoke to them out of spiritual authority, as if the powers of creation themselves spoke out of him, and not like their teachers of the law [canon-lawyers].

 2^nd Trinity

August 2, 2020

Matthew 7:1-29

In the theater, a film projector throws its pictures onto the screen. The pictures themselves exist in two places - both on the film in the projector and out on the screen.

In our own lives, we often have a ‘film’ running inside our souls. It is a drama with our Self cast as the main character. The script was written by our self, earlier in our life, or lifetimes.

 But sometimes we project our story, our film, onto others, making them a screen for the unfolding of our own narrative. We are unconsciously forcing them to play a role we have assigned to them, whether or not it fits, whether or not it is appropriate for their nature. This is actually a violation of their being. Our projecting onto them masks for us who they truly are.

In the Gospel reading, Christ encourages us to stop projecting our dramas onto others. He encourages us to stop seeing what is in need of correction ‘out there’, when in fact it is what lives in us that needs correcting.  But, as Rilke says:

We would like to heed his words,

but we only half hear them.

The big drama between us

makes too much noise

for us to understand each other.*

 

David Hayward

Christ is not asking us not to notice what is going on with others; rather we are first to discern between what is ours and what is truly theirs. And we are to take responsibility for our own stuff first.

This is not easy. It is the narrow gate, the gate of self-responsibility, through which few are willing to walk. But Christ, whose being is love, is both the Way and the Goal. He is the Way that leads to Life, the Living One. He helps us to see the Truth, the truth of who we are, the truth of others.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows.  

 

 

5th After Easter 2020, A Sweet Death

5^th Sunday after Easter

John 14:1-31  

Durer 

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in the power that leads you to the Fatherly Ground of the World and me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, how could I have said to you, ‘I go there to prepare a place for you?'  And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you up into the realm of my being and working, so that where I work, you also may work. And you know the way where I am going.”

Then Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I myself am the Way—the Truth— and the Life. No one finds his way to the Father but through me. If you had known my Being, you would have recognized my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen Him.”

Then Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that would satisfy our deepest yearning.”

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Does your heart’s voice not tell you that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. But the Father, who lives eternally in me, continues to do his works in them. Build your faith on the power of my Being that lets you know: I in the Father, the Father in me. Or at least learn to trust through looking at the works themselves that have arisen.

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever trusts in my Being will also do the works that I do --and greater deeds will he do because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask for in unity with me, I will do it, so that the deeds of the Father may be revealed in the working of the Son. When you turn to me in prayer in the power of my name, I will be the Creating One in all your works.

Jan von Kalkar

If you truly love me, you will share in my spiritual goals. And I will ask the Father, and He will send to you another Counselor, who will stand by you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. The earthly world cannot receive this Counselor, for it cannot perceive his working and does not recognize him. But you know him, for he will live with you and will work in you.

I will not leave you desolate—I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. On that day, you will truly know what it means that I am in the Father, and you in me and I in you.

Whoever bears my spiritual goals within himself, and brings them to revelation in his working, is one who truly loves me. And whoever truly loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

Then Judas (not the Iscariot) said, “But Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the people who are in the world?

Jesus replied, “Whoever truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. Whoever does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the health-bringing Spirit, the Counselor whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid.

You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I am.

I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens, you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon, the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me.

But I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me so that the world may know that I love the Father. Do the same. Arise, let us be on our way.

5th after Easter

May 17, 2020

John 14:1–35

Plant one seed, and in time it will produce hundreds of seeds, all replicas of itself. In this way, the living entity that produced the seed maintains itself through cycles of time.

Christ the Gardener Tapestry, Coxie or da Cremona

Out of the Father Ground of all Being, who is existence itself, there emerged the first seed. That seed was (and continues to be) the Logos-Word, the I AM. This Logos-Word spoke, and all of creation came into being. Into all creatures, especially into us, He placed a seed of Himself, an I AM. This seed germinates as we are born, blossoms when as a small child we begin to say “I”. This little but all-encompassing “I” continues to blossom and engender seeds throughout our life. The seeds of myself are my words and my actions. I am what I say. I am what I do.

In an ordinary plant, form and seeds are fixed by type. We human I-AM-beings, however, have the capacity to create various types of seeds. For we have choices in speaking, choices in doing. And these choices can create seeds of magnificence and nourishing beauty. Or they can create seeds of weeds and thorns.

Our words and deeds are the seeds from our own Selves. God will reap what we have sown. And in the afterlife, the quality of the word- and deed-seeds we have produced will be what we bring to Him for the future.

The poet Rilke speaks to God and says:

We stand in your garden year after year

We are trees for yielding a sweet death.*

Christ the Gardener and Magdalene, Burne-Jones

Christ is the gardener who watches over our growth and progress. He is the Water of Life. He feeds here, prunes a bit there, trains toward the Light of Himself. He is the Way, and he hopes for a harvest of words and deeds done in His Spirit, done in love, in truth, and from goodwill. For He will plant the seeds we produce, the seeds of our Selves, and we will germinate again with Him in His garden, in another place, in another season. And so we may pray with Rilke:

God, give us each our own death,

The dying that proceeds

From each of our lives:

The way we loved,

The meanings we made,

Our need.**

*Rilke, The Book of Hours, translated by Macy and Barrows, pg. 133.

**Rilke, The Book of Hours, translated by Macy and Barrows, pg. 131.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th after Easter II, The Great Death

4^th Sunday after Easter

John 16:1-33 (adapted from Madsen)

“All these words I have spoken to you so that you will not go astray.  For they will exclude you from their society, and the hour will come when those who kill you will think they are doing God a service. They will do all this because they have recognized neither me nor my Father. I have said this to you so that when the time comes, you will remember that I told you about it. In the beginning, I did not need to say such things for I was with you. But now I go to him who sent me; and none of you asks me, “Where are you going?”  Now that I have said these things to you, sorrow enters your hearts.

Mary Reardon

But, I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation and healing that I leave you, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, the giver of spirit-courage, would not come to you. When I now go away, I will send him to you. When he comes he will call humankind to account for the decline into sinfulness, for the working of Man’s higher being and for the great world separation; for the decline into sinfulness, because they did not fill themselves with my power; for the working of Man’s higher being, because I go to the Father and you see me no more; for the great world-separation, because the decision has already been made about the ruler of this world.

I have yet much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now. But when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will be your guide on the way to the Truth that Embraces All. he will not speak out of himself, but what he hears he will speak, and he will proclaim to you what is to come. 

he will reveal me, for what he draws from my being, he will proclaim to you. Everything that the Father has is also mine. That is why I can say, ‘He will draw from my being and proclaim to you.’

Yet a short time, and you will see me no more, and again a short time, and you will see me.”

Way to Emmaus, Janet Brooks-Gerlof

Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean 'A short time and you will not see me, and again a short time and you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father?’ They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a short time’? We do not understand his words.”

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, and he said, “You are wondering that I said, ‘A short time and you will see me no more, and again a short time and you will see me.’  Yes, the truth I tell you, you will weep and lament while other people will be happy. You will be sorrowful, but your grief will be turned into joy. A woman giving birth must suffer pain; for her hour has come. But when she has born the child, she no longer considers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

So it is with you. You have to suffer pain now. But I will see you again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy, and no one can take that joy from you. On that day, you will have no need to ask me anything.

Yes, I say to you; from now on, what you ask from the Father, He will give you in my name. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy may be fulfilled.

I have said all this to you in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures. Then I will speak openly and plainly to you about the Father. On that day, you will pray in my name. I do not say that I will pray the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I come from the Father. I went forth from the Father and came into the earthly world. And now I leave the sense-world again and go to the Father.”

Then his disciples said, “See—now you are speaking plainly and openly and not in pictures. Now we recognize that all things are revealed to you. You do not even need anyone to question you. And so our hearts confess that you come from the Father.”

And Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your hearts? See—the hour is coming; it has already come, when all will be scattered, each one to his own loneliness. Then you will then also leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

I have said these words 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 13, 2020

John 16:1-33

When the wind blows, we feel it on our skin; we see its effects on the trees. But it may be astonishing to realize that we cannot see the wind. The wind itself is invisible.

There are many things we experience that are invisible. As with the wind, we perceive their effects, but not the entities themselves: love, goodness, beauty, truth are such things. We have felt the embracing warmth of love, the nobility of goodness, the radiance of beauty, the impartial strength of truth. But their real essence is invisible. Those of our loved ones who have died still exist, but like the wind, like love, their existence is invisible to us.

Our own souls are another of those invisible entities. In fact, there is more of our being that is invisible than not. Most of our true being resides in the realm across the threshold of visibility, in that realm where truth and goodness reside, in the realm of those who have already died, in the realm into which we will withdraw at our own death when what is visible of us falls away.

Christ is Someone whose being also resides in the invisible. But we can still perceive His presence—in the love that shines forth from others, in the strength of human dedication to the truth, in the noble promptings of conscience.

Vincente Juan Masip

Christ calls us to enter the invisible world consciously while still on earth and to open here the eyes of our souls, to become aware of the Invisible Ones, face to face. Perhaps this is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20^th-century martyr, meant when he said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” To ‘die’ means to awaken in the invisible realm, the realm to which we will fully return at our own death.

On earth, Christ takes on a visible form to help remind us of the reality of His mostly invisible existence. He takes on the form of circles of bread to nourish our invisible souls, the juice of the vine to strengthen our invisible spirits. His real invisible essence keeps us alive in the realm of the Invisible.

For [as the poet Rilke says] we are only the rind and the leaf

The great death, that each carries inside,

Is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it.*

* Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 132

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th Sunday after Easter, Not to Falter

4th after 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

Stephen B. Whatley

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 the 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.”

Ascension, Sombart

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.”

Stephan B. Whatley

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.”

4^th Sunday after Easter

May 10, 2020

John 16:1-33

Stephen B. Whatley

When we know that we will be separated from a loved one, we may give them a photo, to help them remember us. Before He died on the cross, Christ gave his disciples images of himself. He knew he was going away for a time, and so he gave them word-pictures of himself: I am the Good Shepherd of Souls. I am the Doorway into the heavenly realms. I am the true Vine, connecting, and holding you all. I am He who shows you the pathway to Truth in Life, the Way to real, true Life.

 He hoped that in their time of grief and sorrow after His death, his disciples would remember the pictures and would find comfort and trust in them.

These images have been repeated again in the gospel readings since Easter. And just as they were given to the disciples beforehand, as a comfort for the impending events on Golgotha, so do they now precede yet another death, another loss. For on Ascension Thursday, Christ’s Resurrection Body, the body in which he appeared to his disciples for forty days after his death, that body would undergo yet another change of form. It would become another kind of body, expanding to become the true life, the living Vine of the whole world. And his disciples would lose sight of Him yet again.

We too do not always see Him. In fact, most moderns have not yet seen Him. This, as He says, is humanity’s time of separation and grief, our time of laboring and pain. But He assures us that our labor is not in vain. Our suffering can bear fruit.

As the poet Rilke compares us to trees in an orchard. He says

… even though the burden

should at times seem almost past endurance.

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.”

www.thechristiancommunity.org

Onto a Vast Plain, Rilke

“Onto a Vast Plain”

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

You are not surprised at the force of the storm—

you have seen it growing.

The trees flee. Their flight

sets the boulevards streaming. And you know:

he whom they flee is the one

you move toward. All your senses

sing him, as you stand at the window.

.

The weeks stood still in summer.

The trees’ blood rose. Now you feel

it wants to sink back

into the source of everything. You thought

you could trust that power

when you plucked the fruit:

now it becomes a riddle again

and you again a stranger.

.

Summer was like your house: you know

where each thing stood.

Now you must go out into your heart

as onto a vast plain. Now

the immense loneliness begins.

.

The days go numb, the wind

sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.

It is what you have.

Be earth now, and evensong.

Be the ground lying under that sky.

Be modest now, like a thing

ripened until it is real,

so that he who began it all

can feel you when he reaches for you.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd Passiontide II, 2020, Life That's Wide and Timeless

Amedee Varin

John 6:16–21
When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off over the sea for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "I AM, have no fear" Now when they wanted to take him into the boat, immediately the boat was at the land, at the place where they wanted to go.

2^nd Passiontide
March 18, 2020
John 6:16–21

This gospel reading has the quality of a dream. It starts as something of a nightmare. It is night; the disciples are in a boat, working hard to make headway in rough seas. Suddenly they see Christ. He appears as if walking, a shining form above the waters. At first, they shrink with fear, but he calms them with the assurance of his very being – it is I. And when they take him in, they are suddenly at their destination.

Our lives, too, are sometimes beset with darkness and rough passages. It is just at those times when Christ can make his ever-presence known to us. He assures us that fear can be dispelled because he is the helping Guide on our journey. With his aid, we will reach our goal of firm grounding.

Not only is he our guide for the way, but he is also our bread for the way. Just as after a night on the sea of dreams, we come to the daytime shore refreshed, so too does Christ nourish our spirits. He gives our spirits life and strength. He comes to us, we who trust that we will survive with him, even in the darkest hours. Perhaps, like Rilke, we can also learn to love them. He says,

I love the dark hours of my being.

Tissot

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.*


*Ranier Maria Rilke in Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

www.thechristiancommunity.org