4th November Trinity 2017, Wounded Divine Human

4th or 5th November Trinity

The end of Revelations 22: 12-21

“Watch, I am coming soon, and I will have my rewards with me so as to give to each person what his deeds amount to. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the goal.”

Blessed are those who cleanse their garments so that they will have power in the realm of the Tree of Life, which overcomes death, and may go through the gates into the Holy City. Outside shall remain those who are bound to low senses, those who serve evil powers, who walk impure paths of soul, who spread death around them, who give themselves up to demonic forces, and who, through their ways and deeds, falsify their true being.

“I, Jesus, sent my angel to report these things to your assembled communities. I AM the root and stock of David, the star who unfolds his brightness in the morning”.

And the Spirit and the Bride, the Holy City, say, “Come!

And may he who hears also say, “Come!” And may the thirsty come, and may everyone who wants it get to drink the Water of Life freely, as grace.

Everyone who hears can find his inmost being strengthened in the prophetic words of this book. Whoever does not yet sense its greatness and truth, God will lead him to full knowledge through the trials of destiny which are written in this book.

And whoever diminishes the words of this prophecy, God will remove from him his share in the Tree of Life that overcomes death, and his share in the Holy City written about in this book.

He who lends these words their power says:

“Yes, I am coming quickly!”

Yea, so be it. Amen:

Come, Jesus our Lord

The grace of the Lord Jesus, be with you all!

4th November Trinity

November 19, 2017

Rev. 22: 12 – 21

Life on earth unfolds itself in cyclic rhythms. In the fall, just where the leaf is attached to the branch, the new buds for next year’s growth are already formed. The new life pushes the old leaves off the branch. They fall to earth to help form the soil. The buds, still tightly closed, over-winter and unfold the following spring. This is a cycle of apparent destruction, but also the expression of an eternal hope. New life forms within the destruction of the old.

Today’s gospel reading from the end of the entire Apocalypse, stresses this same pattern in cosmic time: the destruction of what is no longer capable of life, in service of what is moving into the future.

The picture is given of a crowd of people in white. They are in a monumental realm in the world of spirit, a city, wherein stands a living tree that overcomes the death process. One can imagine this as the World Tree. Some myths picture it with leaves of sun-gold and moon silver, sparkling with star-diamond fruit. In the midst of this radiant tree, we may discern the human form of the wounded Sun-God, he who overcame death, arms outspread in a universal embrace of love.

The Selfless Self, the I AM, through His blood flowing from the tree of the cross,

rid human blood of the excess of selfish human egotism. He resurrected the diamond of Divine Self as pure sacrificial love for all. He invites us to join him in the creation of cosmic fruit.

Just as last year’s leaves fall away, so also must our leaves and layers of egotism be shed. They had their necessary time in human evolution, but now no longer serve. To join Him, we strip ourselves of the negative aspects of having an ego. We work to free ourselves from our enslavement to the lower senses. We struggle to rid ourselves of the desire to exercise power over others through self-assertion. We struggle to rid ourselves of the killing impulses contained in the aggression and hatred in our words and deeds. We turn to the world in interest and love.

This is the work of cleansing the garment of selfhood. This is the work that overcomes the cross of the death-force that we are all obliged to carry. It takes some effort to turn our interest and attention outward, away from ourselves. It takes creativity to put ourselves lovingly in service to others. This creativity around the good is what generates the budding new life for the next cycle. This creativity cleanses the garment of our egohood, and helps the wounded Divine Human create the diamond fruit of the future on the cosmic Tree of Life.

2nd St. Johnstide 2016, Family of Humanity

St. Johnstide

Visegrad Codex

Matthew 3:1-17

In those days John the Baptist came. He proclaimed his message in the isolation of the Judean desert. He said, “Change your hearts and minds. The realm of [the human being filled with] the heavens has come close.”

He it is of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks:

A voice is heard, calling in the loneliness [of the human soul]: ‘Prepare the way for the highest leader [within the soul], make his path straight and good [Order your feeling and thinking, so that within you a path arises for the inner Lord]!’

John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle around his waist. Hard fruits and wild honey were his food.

At that time people came out to him from Jerusalem and the whole of Judea and from the region around the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the flowing waters of the Jordan and confessed [admitted] their sins [failings, and the errors of their lives].

When he saw that many Pharisees and Sadducees also came for baptism, he said to them, ‘You sons of the serpent, who has told you how to escape from the coming World-Fire [Fury]? Now therefore strive after [to bring forth] the right fruits of the change of heart and mind. Do not think that you are safe by saying: We have Abraham as our father. I say to you: the heavenly Father is just as able to raise Abraham-sons from these dead stones. Already the ax is laid to the root of the trees [of bloodlines], and every tree that does not bear good fruit is felled and thrown into the fire [of testing]. I baptize you with water in order to lead you to a change of consciousness [heart]. He who comes after me is mightier than I; unworthy am I even to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will cleanse his grain of the chaff. He will gather the wheat into the barn [for the future], but the chaff his will burn in an unquenchable fire.”

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. But John refused and said, “It is I who need to be baptized by you—and now you come to me?”

Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now. It is good thus, so that we fulfill properly all that destiny [divine righteousness] requires.”

Then he consented. When Jesus had received the baptism and, [seized by the Spirit] was already coming out of the water again, when behold, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending in the form of a dove and hovering over him. And a voice spoke out to the heavens:

               

“This is my Son whom I love. In him will I reveal myself.”

St. Johnstide

July 3, 2016

Matthew 3:1-17

At the end of the day’s work, or a big project, the environment may have become disordered.  Clean-up is called for. An after-school visitor to one of the original Waldorf curative schools was told that he could find the founder and teacher still in the classroom, cleaning up. As the visitor approached, he could hear a phrase repeated again and again: The Spirit creates order! The Spirit creates order!

Today’s gospel reading describes such a moment in human history. The old phase of the elite bloodlines is over; their work is done. “The ax has been laid to the roots of the tree of the bloodlines.” This is because their mission, that of creating a pure bodily form for the Messiah, is complete. After this there can only be decay; for the bloodlines are no longer capable of spirit awareness.

Yet a new order is arriving. The Spirit creates order! Jesus comes to the Jordan as the beginning of a new era for human beings. Christ, the divine Son and Brother, will enter humanity. Everything will be up-ended. Even John the Baptizer’s perception of his own unworthiness is no hindrance. Now a new order, a new Spirit consciousness, has arrived. Now the divine will inhabit the body. Now heaven can reveals itself on earth. For a new spirit consciousness of love for all human beings, beyond bloodline, tribe or nation, will slowly and gradually take over the earth.

It is true that elitism, tribalism, and nationalism will ever try to interfere with the new order. But they have no future. Only the Spirit creates order. Now is the time to recognize that all of humankind is one family, for we are all children of God. Here the 15th Psalm is a kind of prophecy:

Lord, who can be trusted with power,

and who may act in your place?

Those with a passion for justice,

who speak the truth from their hearts;

who have let go of selfish interests

and grown beyond their own lives;

who see the wretched as their family

and the poor as their flesh and blood.

They alone are impartial

and worthy of the people's trust.

Their compassion lights up the whole earth,

and their kindness endures forever.*

*Psalm 15, in The Psalms, translations by Stephen Mitchell.*

www.thechristancommunity.org

*Psalm 15, in The Psalms, translations by Stephen Mitchell

5th June Trinity 2016, Beautiful Fact

June Trinity

John 6: 53-69

Jesus answered, ‘Yes I tell you, if you do not eat the earthly body of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood has life beyond the cycles of time, and I give him the power of resurrection at the end of time. For my flesh is the true sustenance, and my blood is the true draught. Whoever truly eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. As the life-bearing Father sent me, and as I bear the life of the world by the will of the Father, so also he who makes me his sustenance will have life within him through me. This is the bread which descends from heaven. It will no longer be as it was with the fathers who ate of it and died. Whoever eats this bread will live through the whole cycle of time.’ He said this in his teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Many of his disciples who heard this said, ‘These are hard and difficult words; who can bear to hear them?’ Jesus was aware that his disciples could not come to terms with this and he said to them, ‘Do you take offense at this? What will you say when you see the Son of Man ascending again to where he was before? It is the Spirit that gives life; the physical by itself is of no avail. The words that I spoke to you are spirit and are life. But there are some among you who have no faith.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who would betray him. And he went on: ‘This is why I said to you: No one can find the way to me unless it is given him by the Father’.

5^th June Trinity

June 19, 2016

John 6: 53-69

Throughout the history of human thought, there has always been a battle of meanings: the literal vs the poetic; fact vs fiction; real vs imaginary. Especially today we tend to see these contrasts as mutually exclusive. Either something is real, or it isn’t.

The event we read about today comes after Christ’s feeding of the five thousand, when He imbued bread and fish with the life force from the stars. In today’s reading He insists that He will go further. He will offer his body and blood to be eaten. It must indeed have seemed a strangely dangerous saying to his listeners, and perhaps at first blush even to us. To literally eat someone’s body and blood is taboo, repulsive. Yet what Christ is saying at this moment is prophetic. Only after the Last Supper will they become literally and safely true. For then Christ infuses the forming power of his body into bread. He pours the living essence of his blood into wine. And thus ordinary literal food becomes his flesh and blood – not only poetically, but also factually. Opposites are reconciled. Spirit and matter are combined into communion, so that humankind can continue to exist and develop into the future. For whenever the Last Supper is re-enacted, He is present.

‘Whoever eats my body and drinks my blood has life beyond the cycles of time, and I give him the power of resurrection at the end of time,’ He says.* A beautiful fact, and a real promise.

*John 6: 54

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3rd Advent 2015, Laboring in Travail

3^rd Advent

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

About time spans and right moments, dear brothers, I have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now peace reigns, and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape for them.

You, however, dear brothers, are not to remain in darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise you like a thief. For you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is not filled with night and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but rather cultivate an alert and sober state of mind. Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we belong to the brightness of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, our head armed [protected] with the hope of healing….May God himself, however, the source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May your complete and undivided being,

Spirit

Soul, and

Body

remain pure and unclouded at the coming in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust in him who calls you. He it is who also lets you reach the goal.

3^rd Advent

December 13, 2015

1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

In the last weeks of pregnancy, a woman often slows down. If her preparations are done, she is often peaceful, waiting. But as the date nears, she may get restless. And when labor begins, it brings turmoil and anxiety.

Catastrophic personal events, as well as world events, bring turmoil and anxiety. Many are those who suffer. Yet it may be that these events are in fact birth pangs. Humanity is laboring in travail to bring forth a new version of itself.

We are laboring to bring forth enough sons and daughters of light, who shine in the inner and outer darkness; sons and daughters who are calm and self-possessed, whose hearts overflow with trust and love. Such sons and daughters look forward in anticipation of the healing of humankind, because they know that Christ is near. He is seeking to be born again within human souls and hearts.

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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”

10 August/September Trinity 2014, Young One, Arise!

10^th 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

10^th August/September Trinity

Franz Dvorak

September 28, 2014

Luke 7: 11 – 17

Every night we go to sleep. We meet with our guardian angel, our higher self and guide. We are cleansed of our fatigue and together we and our angel look at the events of the previous day. We plan for the coming day, what we need to do, how we will need to act. The next day, we rise to our tasks and inspirations.

When we die, we meet with Christ. We are cleansed of our weariness and ills. With him we look at our previous lifetime. We plan for what we need to do and be, how we shall conduct our next life. After a rest, we will hear his voice, “Young one, I say to you, arise!” And we will be given to our mother.

Our fear of dying is sometimes a fear of not having lived the life that we intended before we were born. For we have all come with a unique mission. We would do well to pay attention to those glimmerings of inspiration, those subtle intentions, the angelic promptings that we bring back with us from sleep. For they are our day by day guide for living the life we truly intended. 

The poet’s words express the hopes of our angel:

May the beauty of your life become more visible to you, that you may glimpse your wild divinity.

…May the light of dawn anoint your eyes that you may behold what a miracle a day is.

May the liturgy of twilight shelter all your fears and darkness within the circle of ease.

 …May you find enough stillness and silence to savor the kiss of God on your soul and delight in the eternity that shaped you, that holds you and calls you.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] John O’Donohue, “A Blessing for Beauty”, from Beauty – The Invisible Embrace 

8th August/September Trinity 2014, Paint with Light

8th August/September Trinity

Luke 17:20 -27

Robby Donaghe

At that time the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”  And he answered, “The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say: Look, here it is, or there. Behold—the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts.

And he said to his disciples, “There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you: Look—there! or Look—here!  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spirit paths. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first he must suffer great  agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself: they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built, until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself.

When that time comes, let him who is on the roof of his house, having left his goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let him who is out in the open field not go back to what he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! For whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth awaken in himself a higher life. I tell you; then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty-handed. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty-handed.

And they said to him, “Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord? And he answered, “Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles that are gathering. [or, Where the formative forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals himself.] [or, Where there is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th August –September Trinity

September 14, 2014

Luke 17: 20 – 37

In cartoons, when the character gets an idea, the cartoonist draws a bright light bulb over his head. This icon resonates with us because we experience insight or ideas as a light phenomenon. They come to us as enlightening our awareness, as a flash, or a slower dawning. For increased awareness is indeed another form of light.

When the gospel reading speaks about the human kingdom of the spirit, it tries to make clear that this kingdom is not located outside of us. It arises in the human heart. For Christ, the light of the world, would now reside in human hearts. Like the outer sunlight, his light generates life, that ever progressing, forward-moving, unfolding of living forms that bud, open, and die away, scattering the seeds  of future forms. It is through Him that we experience our flashes of insight, the dawning of a new awareness, the creative solution, or the golden warm light of love

The kingdom of God in human hearts is radiant: radiant with grace, radiant with love, radiant with thanks. Christ dwells in the life of our bodies, where forms are constantly being built up and disintegrated in order to be regenerated again.. It is through Him that the revelation of new beginnings open up again and again. And these ever-changing forms are the vessels for the workings of our inner life, our life of soul and spirit, our life of thought and ideas, our enlightenment.

We need have no fear of the disintegration; for just there, Christ is working for the future. The old form must give way. But if we look, we can find the shining seeds of what will develop. And we can give thanks for the light of grace, the light of love that impels us forward. The poet muses:

Kate Mabee

…it seems to me

all you have to do

is conceive of the whole world

an art project of the god of light

the whole earth and all that's in it

to be painted with light

And the first thing you have to do

 . . .to paint yourself

in your true colors

(without whitewash)

Then paint your favorite people and animals

with your brush loaded with light

….And don't forget to paint

all those who lived their lives

as bearers of light

…Paint the light of their eyes

the light of sunlit laughter

And remember that the light is within

if it is anywhere

and you must paint from the inside….*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

* Lawrence Ferlinghetti,  “Instructions to Painters & Poets” in How to Paint Sunlight