Holy Nights, Jan 2, 2022, Being Recognized

Holy Nights

1 Corinthians 12:31- 13:13 

Strive to make the best out of the gifts of grace working together.

Yet, I will show the way that is higher than all others.

If I speak out of the Spirit with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, then my speaking remains as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. And if I had the gift of prophecy and could speak of all the mysteries and could impart all knowledge and, further, had the power of faith that removes mountains, yet am without love, then I am nothing. And if I were to give away everything that is mine, and lastly were to give away even my body for burning, yet am without love, then all is in vain.

        Love makes the soul great;

Love fills the soul with healing goodness;

Iris Sullivan

Love does not know envy;

It knows no boasting;

It does not allow falseness;

Love does not harm that which is decent.

It drives out self-seeking.

Love does not allow inner balance to be lost.

It does not bear a grudge.

It does not rejoice over injustice.

It rejoices only in the truth.

Love bears all things,

Is always prepared to have faithful trust.

It may hope for everything and is all-patient.

 

If love is truly present, it cannot be lost. The gift of prophecy will one day be extinguished, the wonder of languages cease, clairvoyant insight come to an end. Our insight is incomplete, incomplete is our prophecy.

But one day the perfect must come, the complete consecration – aim; then the time of the incomplete is over.

When I was still a child, I spoke as a child, and I felt and thought as a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Now we still see things in dark outlines, as in a mirror. Some day we will see everything face to face. Now my insight is incomplete, but then I shall stand in the stream of true insight, in which recognizing and being recognized are one.

We find permanence that bears all future within it in the exalted triad:

In faith

In hope,

And in love.

But the greatest of these is love.

Holy Nights

January 2, 2021

1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13 

Paul describes love as a soul’s way of being and acting. 

Jan de Kok

He speaks of the loving soul’s open spaciousness, a soul that is aligned with truth, balanced and patient. A loving soul foregoes meanness and selflessly supports decency. In other words, a soul is filled with love is full of goodwill. 

Love works as a healing force, both the love we receive, but more importantly, the love we generate and give. 

Love’s antitheses—spiteful envy, arrogance, and selfishness—bespeak a soul whose will is ill, a soul in need of healing. 

The mystery of the Act of Consecration of Man, the communion service, demonstrates the process of learning how to love. 

First, we receive God’s love by listening, receiving a portion of the life of Christ in the Gospel. Then we undertake to make a real inward offering. We gather our purest thoughts, our most Christ-ened feelings, and our most energetic will, and we pour them into the chalice along with wine and water, offering them all to the Father as a chalice of healing. 

Our modest, meager act of love toward Him is made strong and potent by Christ’s love joining ours. In Communion, the love we offered to the Father returns to us multiplied, as the gracious, peaceful love that Christ embodies in the bread and wine. It is His love that we take in, that enters us. We receive the healing medicine for our will’s illness. 

This is an enactment, a kind of foreshadowing of what will one day be fully realized. Right now, we can only enact love partially, in outline, as in a mirror. But one day, we too will, in goodwill, work face to face with the Master of Love, in Whom recognizing and being recognized are one.

 

Holy Nights 2020, Light Without Shadow

Christmas Season

1 John 1:1-7

 
What was from the beginning,

what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld, and touched with our hands: the Word of God which bears all Life within itself—that very Life revealed itself. We have seen it and so bear witness to it and proclaim it to you as the Life that is through all cycles of time. It was with the Father; now, it has revealed itself to us. We have seen it and heard it, and we proclaim to you so that you also can live in spiritual community with us; that is, our community with the Father and with Jesus Christ, his Son.
               
These things we are writing so that your joy may be full.
 
And this is the message we have received from Him and proclaim to you: that God is Light, and there is not any darkness in Him.
 
If we say that we have community with Him and yet conduct our lives in the darkness, what we say is a lie, and what we do is without reality.
 
Only when our Life is fully permeated by Light, as He Himself is in the Light, are we truly united in community, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us of all sin.

Holy Nights
December 27, 2020
Cynthia Hindes

The sun shining onto a lighted candle will naturally cast a shadow. The shadow of the solid candle. The shadow of the wick. But the light of the flame casts only the barest image of itself, outlined in white. We can see the heat shimmer and the faintest shadow of smoke. But the light itself casts no shadow.

We can liken ourselves to the candle. Our bodies are like the candle's solid wax. They cast shadows. But we can offer our inner substance to worlds, divine and earthly. The offering of self to God is reflected back from Him to generate in us a love that is creative. The warmth of our love and enthusiasm ignites an invisible flame. The purity of our living thinking generates a light that is clear and without shadow.

John announces to us that God is light; and that in Him, there is no darkness. What is it that casts shadows? Solid matter. But love and joining our lives with Christ generates light—Christ light in our daylight, the light of His life. In a poem by Nelly Sachs, we can hear of the light of the living Christ:

All the while like flames
It chases through our body
As if it were yet woven through with
The star's beginning
How slowly we light up in clarity –
O after how many light-years have
Our hands folded to ask,
Our knees sunk
And our soul opened itself
To thank?*

*(tr. by Ruth and Matthew Mead)
www.thechristiancommunity.org

Holy Nights 2018, Light of Life

Holy Nights

1 John 1: 1-10

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld, and touched with our hands: the Word of God which bears all Life within itself -  the very Life revealed itself, and we have seen it and so bear witness to it and proclaim it to you as the life which is through all cycles of time. It was with the Father; now it has revealed itself to us. We have seen it and heard it, and we proclaim to you so that you also can live in spiritual community with us; that is, our community with the Father and with Jesus Christ his Son.

           

These things we are writing so that your joy may be full.

And this is

the message we have received from Him and proclaim to you: that God is Light, and there is not any kind of darkness in Him.

If we say that we have community with Him and yet conduct our lives in the darkness, what we say is a lie and what we do is without reality.

Only when our life is fully permeated by light, as He Himself is in the light, are we truly united in community, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us of all sin.

If we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we are conscious of our sinfulness and confess to it, then He proves faithful and just; he takes the sin from us and cleanses us of all unrighteousness.

If we say that we have never fallen into sin, we make Him a liar, and the divine Word which goes forth from him is not in us. 

Holy Nights

December 30, 2018

1 John 1: 1 – 10

The sun shining onto a lighted candle will naturally cast a shadow. The shadow of the solid candle. The shadow of the wick. But the light of the flame casts only the barest image of itself, outlined in white. The heat shimmer, the faintest shadow of smoke we can see. But the light itself casts no shadow.

 We can liken ourselves to the candle. Our bodies are like the solid wax. They cast shadows. But we can offer our inner substance to worlds, divine and earthly. The offering of self to God reflects back from Him to generate in us a love that is creative. The warmth of our love and enthusiasm ignite an invisible flame. The purity of our living thinking generates a light that is clear and without shadow.

John announces to us that God is light; and that in Him there is no darkness. What is it that casts shadows? Solid matter. But love and joining our lives with Christ generates light – Christ light in our daylight. The light of His life. We can hear in the poem by Nelly Sachs of the light of the living Christ:

All the while like flames

It chases through our body

As if it were yet woven through with

The star’s beginning

How slowly we light up in clarity –

O after how many light-years have

Our hands folded to ask,

Our knees sunk

And our soul opened itself

To thank?

Whitsun (Pentecost) 2018, Vessel for Flame

Pentecost
John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who 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]. He who 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.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. [have no fear.]

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier 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 prince of this world is coming. Yet over me, he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

 “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Whitsun I
May 20, 2018
John 14: 23-31

Continuously the sun streams its warmth and light onto the earth. It stimulates and supports the life of the plants. It warms and sustains both our bodies and our souls. For the warmth of the sunlight is the vehicle for the light of God’s life-giving love.

On the first Pentecost, or

St. Albans

Whitsun, the disciples are sitting together, mourning the loss of their Beloved at his Ascension ten days earlier. In his expansion into the earth and air, He was lost to their view. At Pentecost, at first, they experience a movement of air, the sound of a mighty wind. And then a fire, the warmth of the sun, descends and divides itself into single flames. A single flame comes to rest on each one of them. And they are filled with God’s Spirit of understanding and connecting love.

There are times in our lives, too, when we have our Whitsun moments. A flame of warmth descends; we sense it, we open to it—the fire of a creative love. We become vessels for God’s love, His light, His purpose for the earth. For a moment we become shining suns on earth.

There are words to a hymn that express this wish of ours, to be a vessel:

Come Down, O Love Divine
Seek thou this soul of mine
And visit it with thine own ardor glowing
O Comforter draw near
Within my heart appear
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

…For none can guess its grace
Till he becomes the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.*

* “Come Down, O Love Divine”, words by Bianco da Siena, translated by R. F. Littledale, set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

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10th August September Trinity 2016, Spirit Can Summon (Redux)

10th Trinity August- September

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.

10th Trinity August- September

September 25, 2016

Luke 7, 11-17

When someone close to us dies, we grieve. Part of the difficulty we have is that, for our perception, the loved one seems swallowed up by an abyss. A darkness engulfs us, separates us from them. They are lost to us, and we weep for what is now missing in our own lives – their words, their touch, their love.

Christ approaches the grieving widow, now a grieving mother. He speaks to her kindly, tenderly. Like an approaching dawn, he comforts her – weep no more.

And then, like the glory of the sun rising above the horizon, he says to the dead one, ‘Arise!’ The darkness of separation is flooded with light and with life. Loves are reunited.

In our own lives, we too grieve our losses, be they loved ones, lost possessions, or unfulfilled dreams. These are the moment when Christ approaches. He bids us weep no more. He shows us that no matter how great the loss, no matter how deep the hopelessness, there is always a future, a new day. It may take time for the sun to rise, but, in the words of John O’Donohue:

As twilight makes a rainbow robe

From the concealed colors of day

In order for time to stay alive

Within the dark weight of night,

May we lose no one we love

From the shelter of our hearts.

When we love another heart

…We journey deep below time

Into that eternal weave

Where nothing unravels.

May we have the grace to see

…That whoever we have loved,

Such love can never quench.

Though a door may have closed,

Closed between us,

May we be able to view

Our lost friends with eyes

Wise with calming grace;

….

Bring warmth again to

Where the heart has frozen

In order that beyond the walls

…We may be able to

Celebrate the gifts they brought,

Learn and grow from the pain,

…Where spirit can summon

Beauty from wounded space.*

*John O'Donohue , “For Lost Friends” in To Bless the Space Between Us

Whitsun (Pentecost) 2017,Effective on Earth

Pentecost

Wikimedia

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who 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]. He who 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.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier 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 prince of this world is coming. Yet over me, he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here [let us be on our way."]

Pentecost

June 4, 2017

John 14: 23-31

When we look out at the world with our ordinary eyes, we see shapes and colors, things, animals and people. We need other eyes to see what is really there. For behind what our earthly senses can perceive, the atmosphere of the world is filled with a flowing, life-giving love. Our heavenly Father has suffused the universe with His love, and with the highest possible sense of rightness for all.

He has sent us to fields of earth. At the core of each individual soul, He has placed a drop of his divine love. He hopes that we will learn to develop and grow that core of love within us; that we will teach ourselves to choose to love.

Operating out of this core of divine love brings peace into our souls. This love fuels our ability to feel our way into others, to accurately imagine in empathy their situation and inner state. This love allows us to recognize what we can do for them. This is the love that allows peace to spread into the world.

The Father's healing Spirit of love is the measure by which we recognize whether we have lived up to our Father's will. For the Father's will to love is what reigns in the heavens. It is up to us to make it effective on the earth.

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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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1st November Trinity 2016, Fire of Creative Love

1st November Trinity

Bowyer Bible

Revelation 1, 1-20

This is the unveiling of the being of Jesus Christ, which proceeds out of the divine world for those who would serve him. To them shall be revealed what must of necessity happen in the future and which powerfully presses into world events. God formed this revelation in imagery and sent it through his angel to his servant John. And so John speaks as a witness to everything he saw, that is, to the Divine Word, and to the life of Jesus Christ, which serves as a testimony. Blessed is he who knows how to read the prophetic words, and blessed are those who know how to hear them, and all who take what is written in this book into their souls; for time presses.

John, to the seven congregations in Asia:

Grace and peace to you

From Him who is, and who was, and who is coming

And from the seven creating spirits before his throne

And from Jesus Christ.

By his witnessing, he is the archetype of trust.

He is the first born from the realm of death,

He is the leading spirit of the Kings on earth.

He has turned to us in love, and by the power of his blood

He has released us from the spell of sin which lay upon us.

He has established us as true kings and made us into priests

before the divine Ground of the World, his Father.

To him belongs all light of the spirit and all power of soul from aeon to aeon. Amen.

See: he comes in the realm of the clouds.

All eyes shall see him, also the eyes of those who pierced him.

And men down the ages will lament about him. Yes. Amen.

I am the Alpha and the Omega,

Thus speaks the Lord our God

who is, and who was, and who is coming

the divine ruler of the world.

I, John, your brother and your companion in all trials and also in the inner kingdom and in the power of endurance which we possess through our one-ness with Jesus: I was on the island of Patmos. There it was granted to me to receive a share of the divine Word and to bear witness to the sufferings of Jesus.

On the Lord’s Day, I was lifted up to the world of spirit, and I heard behind me a mighty voice like the sound of a trumpet. It said: write what you see in a book and send it to the seven congregations: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia and to Laodicia.

And I turned to see him whose voice was speaking to me. And as I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, a figure like that of the Son of Man:

clothed with a long billowing garment,

artist unknown

encircled round his breast with a golden band;

his head and his hair shining white like snow white wool,

his eyes like a flame of fire,

his feet like burnished bronze glowing in a furnace,

his voice like the rushing of many streams of water.

In his hand, he held seven stars;

from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword

and his face shone, as the sun shines in its full radiance.

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet and was as if dead. But he laid his right hand upon me and said:

“Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and look! I am living and I bear the life of the world through all aeons. Mine is the key to the realm of death and of the shades. Write down what you see: what is now, and what is to come.

The secret of the seven stars, which you see in my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the picture in the spirit for the angels of the seven congregations, and the seven lampstands are the seven congregations themselves.”

1st November Trinity

October 30, 2016

Revelation 1, 1-20

Grunewald

We move into the dark time, toward the company of those who have died. The border between their world and ours becomes thin. And so we can more easily sense their presence. For our deceased loved ones still love us, are still united with us. Especially when we remember them, when we think of them in gratitude, they can be with us. They can continue to enrich our lives and perhaps even gently guide us.

Chief among those who have died and yet still live is Christ, the first-born in the realm of the dead. He is our ever-beloved, still alive in death, ever with us. We think of his ever-living presence so that He can be with us, enriching our souls, gently guiding us.

He is the ever-born Life, radiant with the light of the sun, blazing with the fire of creative love. He is our leader in the realm across the threshold of death. He is our guide in our congress with those who have crossed that threshold before us. The world beyond is no longer dark, for He who is the Light of Worlds now lives and works there.

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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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1st Passiontide 2016,

1^st Passiontide

Luke 11: 29 - 35

And as the crowds increased, Jesus began to speak. “The men of this generation are strangers to their true being. They look for signs and outer proofs of the spirit, but none other will be given to them but the sign of Jonah. For just as once Jonah shared the experience of the spirit with the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man share the experience of the spirit with this present generation. The Queen of the South will rise in the time of great crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and judge them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But know this: here is more than Solomon.

The inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up in the days of crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and will pronounce judgment over them. For they changed their ways after the proclamation of Jonah. But know this; here is more than Jonah.

No one lights a light and then puts it in a hidden place or under a vessel, but rather sets it on a lamp stand, so that all may see the light shining.

The light of your body is your eye. When your eye looks at the world clearly and impartially, the processes of your whole body will be inwardly filled with light. If however the eye’s desire sees the world separated from the spirit, darkness will pour itself into you.

Protect yourself that the light does not become darkness in you.

If your body is now filled with light, so that it no longer takes part in darkness, everything will be completely illuminated, so that, with lightning brightness, the light irradiates you completely from within.

1^st Passiontide

February 28, 2016

Luke 11: 29 - 35

In last week’s Gospel reading, we beheld the light form of the transfigured Christ Jesus, shining on the mountain like the sun. The light that shines from him is the revelation of the Father’s love.  In today’s reading the life of the light continues its progress; for the light of the Father’s love wants to work from within each of us.

Christ chides the people of this generation for not actively seeking the light of wisdom; he chides us for not doing what John the Baptist had encouraged us to do: to change our way of thinking and perceiving.

The Father kindled the light of Christ in the man Jesus, so that all could see the light of love and take it into themselves. The Father would like the same thing to happen within us: that we would take in the light of Christ; that we would look out into the world with the eyes of a clear, impartial, but warm love. The Father would like us to take in with our eyes the being who is the Light of the World, so that our eyes can in turn radiate and shine the brightness of objective love back out into the world.  

As the poet Hafiz says:

God

pours light

into every cup,

quenching darkness.

….

God pours light

and the trees lift their limbs

without worry of redemption,

every blossom a chalice.

….as light

pours like rain

into every empty cup

set adrift on the Infinite Ocean.*

* Hafiz, Interpretive version of Ghazal 11 by Jose Orez

Pentecost (Whitsun) 2015, Healing Spirit

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who 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]. He who 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.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier 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 prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us be on our way.

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

May 24, 2015

In the event of the Pentecost festival that we celebrate today, the disciples are together in the upper room, praying together and waiting. The mighty wind of the spirit blows through and a spirit fire descends and tongues flame appear above the heads of each. Their understanding of the events of Jesus’ life and death lights up. Legend has it that at that moment, each disciple uttered one sentence of his understanding, which came together as a whole in the creed.

The gospel reading seems to veil this event. Yet its elements are there: Christ speaks of preserving each individual by preparing for each their own spiritual dwelling place. Their uniqueness will not be erased. And at the same time, Christ brings a harmonizing peace. His is not the peace of suppression, like the Romans, but rather the peace of freedom and understanding. The source of world strife, the narrow insistence on one’s own point of view as the only valid one, is fitted harmoniously into a greater whole. Instead of nullifying each other, each sentence contributes to a greater understanding of the whole. They do not invalidate each other.

This is the Spirit that Christ sends: a holistic spirit, the spirit of enlightenment. It is a spirit, creative of being, that enkindles a fire of love. It is a spirit that heals the rifts and tears in the body politic, in our interactions with one another. For together we are forming a higher body for Christ to live and work in. Christ sends his Spirit of love for the healing of the world. The original event is a model:

They all sat silent, watching, waiting, waiting….

Sudden the heavens broke upon them

And sevenfold lightning flashed

And whirlwind swept all darks asunder

And tongues of flame descended on them.

Baptized they were with Fire, with the Holy Spirit,

The Word of Christ was born in them.

And so they rose

                And went out to the multitude,

Disciples of Christ—His Life, His Death—

Bearers of the Word to all mankind.[1]

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[1] Francis Edmunds, “Words for Whitsun”