4th June Trinity 2018, Waters of Life

Additional June Trinity
John 7: 33-44

Jesus said, ‘Only a short time shall I still be with you; then I go to Him who sent me. You will seek and not find me. Where I am you cannot come.’
And the Jews said to one another, ‘Where could he go that we would not be able to find him? Perhaps he intends to go to the Jews in the Greek lands and teach the Greeks himself. What does he mean by those words: You will seek and not find me: where I am you cannot come?’
On the last, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood there and called out loudly: ‘Whoever thirsts, let him come to me and drink! Whoever fills himself with my power through faith, from his body shall flow streams of life-bearing water, as scripture says.’
He said this to indicate the spirit which those were to receive who unite with him in faith. But this Spirit was not yet working, for Jesus had not yet revealed his spirit-form.
Some of the people who heard these words said, “He is the Christ. Still others said, “How can the Christ come from Galilee?  Does not scripture say that Christ is to come from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the town of David?” And so there was a division about him among the crowd. Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

4^th June Trinity
June 17, 2018
John 7: 33-44

Human culture has created many ways to send water to where it is needed. Essentially they all involve some form of capture, in a vessel or a pipe or canal. And somewhere at the other end, there is a place of release for the water to flow out. For the whole point of capturing water is to let it go again so that it can support life.

In this reading, Christ likens Himself to a giver of water. He gathers the Father’s life-giving spirit waters. He makes Himself the conduit for these waters of the spirit. At the end, he will pour out the water of life. He pours His Life first into wine and bread at the Last Supper. In so doing he creates another extension of the channel, a conduit that reaches through time into the present day. Then he pours His blood and water from the cross, re-enlivening the dying earth. And finally, He ascends to the clouds, to inhabit the life sphere of the whole earth, to pour the waters of life, both spiritual and physical, onto the earth. This is what He means when He says: “Then I go to Him who sent me. You will look for me and not find me. Where I am going you cannot follow.” John 7:34  We cannot yet follow Him in all His ways, into the biosphere, for we have not yet ascended. So He pours out his life as He rains down on us from the clouds.

Yet this process involves not only Him; we are also included, for He says: “Whoever fills himself with my power through faith, from his body shall flow streams of life-bearing water.” John 7: 38 For Christ’s life-giving spiritual-physical power flows not only in rain, in the wine, in His blood; His waters of life flow now through the blood that flows through every human heart. The poet says:

There are different wells within your heart
Some fill with each good rain.
Others are too deep for that.
In one well
You have just a few precious cups of water.
That “love” is literally something of yourself.*

Christ’s waters of life now flow through the blood that flows through the heart of everyone who drinks from the well of His being. We become the conduits of His streaming life. From human hearts can flow the streams of His life-bearing waters. We receive His waters of life in order to let them go again, to pour out the water of life, of love, wherever it is needed.

* Hafiz, “Some Fill with Each Good Rain”, in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 76.

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Ascension 2016, Water of Life

Ascension by Wm. Blake

Ascension

John 16: 24-33

[Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name.] Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, 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. Thus, 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.”

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.”

Clouds, NASA

Ascension

May 5, 8, 2016

John 16: 24-33

Water has the wonderful capacity to change forms easily. As solid ice, it floats. As a liquid, it flows downward to the lowest point it can find. As water vapor, it is invisible, a small amount occupying a vast space. Under the right conditions, the invisible vapor condenses into visible clouds and returns to earth as liquid rain.

Christ is the Water of Life. He took on a solid body in Jesus. At his death, he descended into the earth. At the Resurrection, he gave birth to his life form, sometimes visible, mostly not. At Ascension he became like water vapor – he expanded his nature and being into the entire biosphere of the earth. Like water vapor, he is invisible. But he is the Life that surrounds and penetrates both the earth and us. We breathe him in with every breath we take. Under the right circumstances, he condenses and becomes visible again.

Last Supper, Rosenkranz

One of those times is during the Act of Consecration, the communion service. At his Last Supper, he chose bread and wine to be forever the visible forms of his life. He chose bread to be his body, the form in which he appears. He chose the juice of the vine to be visibly his rejuvenating life, his life blood. And he offers them to us in communion so that we have the opportunity to take in his formative forces, his Life, in a conscious way. In this way, he walks the earth, in us. We may hear him in the words of the poet:

In a mist of light

falling with the rain

I walk this ground

of which [dead] men

and women I have loved

are part, as they

are part of me.  In earth,

in blood, in mind,

the dead and living

into each other pass,

as the living pass

in and out of loves

as stepping to a song.

The way I go is

marriage to this place,

grace beyond chance,

love's braided dance

covering the world.[1]

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[1]  Wendell Berry in The Wheel

St. Johnstide

Lamb of God

John 1: 19-34

This is the testimony of John, when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” Freely and openly he made confession. He confessed, “I am not the Christ [the Anointed].”

Then they asked him, “Who are you then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “No, I am not.”

“Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.”

Then they said, “Who are you? What answer are we to give to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

He said in the words of the prophet Isaiah, “I am the voice of one crying in the loneliness: Prepare the way for the Lord [so that the Lord may enter into the inmost soul [self].”

And those who had been sent by the Pharisees asked him, “Why do you baptize if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”

John answered them, “I baptize with water. But someone is standing in your midst whom you do not know, who comes after me although he was before me. I am not worthy even to untie the strap of his sandals.”

This took place in Bethany near the mouth of the Jordan where John was baptizing.

The next day he [John] sees Jesus coming to him, and says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the burden of the sin of the world. He it is of whom I said: ‘After me comes one who was before me, for he is greater than I  [for he is ahead of me].’ [After me comes one who was (generated) before me, for he is the prototype.] Even I did not know him; but for this I have come, and have baptized with water, so that human souls in Israel might become able to experience the revelation of his being.”

And John testified: “I saw how the Spirit descended upon him as a dove from the heavens and remained united with him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend, so that it remains united with him, he it is who baptizes with the [breath of the] Holy [Healing] Spirit [and with fire].’ And I saw this, and so I testify that this is God’s Son.”

John and the Lamb of God

St. Johnstide

July 5, 2015

John 1: 19-34

In the ancient world view, the four primal states of being were arranged in ascending order. First was the solid state, called earth. Then came the fluid state – water; then invisible ‘thin air’ and finally radiant warmth, called fire. Fire evaporates water; water quenches fire. Air mediates between them. The elements exist within us as the solidity of bone, the flow of blood, the breath of air and our constant warmth.

John baptized with water. It was a ritual of purification. By being immersed in water, people had a glimpse of the flow of their lives. They recognized their failings and errors. It stirred them to change their ways. John indicates that Christ will bring with Him another kind of baptism – an immersion in the airy breath of a healing spirit, and the warmth of a purifying fire.

Were the element of a water baptism to prevail in our lives, we would likely drown in the enormity of our sins. But Christ brings with Him the means to overcome. He will help us carry the burden. And He will bring us the breath of His healing, comforting spirit, which breathes peace into our souls. And with it He kindles in us the fire of enthusiasm, which ignites our will to bring about the good. John the Baptist announces this with his health-bearing, guilt conscious fiery words.

Thus will all our elements, all our states of being, be brought into harmony. We will water the solid body of earth with our tears of remorse; and we will breathe in Christ’s peace, kindling in our spirits the purifying fire of love, a creative fountain of being. As the poet Rumi says:

The voice of the fire says:

“I am not fire, I am fountainhead,

Come into me and don’t mind the sparks.”

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3rd Epiphany 2015, Give Wine

3^rd Epiphany

Wedding at Cana, Giotto

January 25, 2015

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, “Something still weaves between me and you, 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 which Jesus performed among men 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

January 25, 2015

John 2: 1 -11

Wine of course comes from grapes.  The vine draws the earth’s water up and transforms it via sunlight into the strength of juice and the sweetness of sugars. Fermented, it becomes ‘spirits’. In large amounts these spirits can displace our own spirit, our selfhood. It diminishes our capacity to make decisions, to control our impulses, to be in charge of ourselves.

At the wedding, Christ became the vine. He had water drawn up from the earth. He transformed it into wine. But this wine was different. Those attending took in the good wine, the best. Instead of robbing them of their selfhood, His wine enhanced it.

Christ, the True Vine, gives life and strength to our spirits. He enhances our ability to experience and act out of our true selfhood. At the wedding, Christ says,’ fill the jars’, and then ‘draw some out.’ Fill and draw. The wedding at Cana is a signpost, pointing to a fulfillment at the Last Supper.  Then Christ will pour his blood’s vitality, its very life, into the wine. He will say of it, ‘This is my blood’, my vitality, my life offered to you.

In the Act of Consecration, the communion service, we fill the chalice with water and the (unfermented) juice of the vine. We offer them along with our feelings of love for Christ. They are transformed. And in communion we are filled with the strength of his vitality, his blood. We fill and we draw. Give and take; offer and receive. And one day we will recognize that what we have been given is our true self. As the poet says:

The time will come

when, with elation,

…You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you have ignored

for another, who knows you by heart…. [1]

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[1] Derek Walcott "Love After Love", in Collected Poems 1948-1984, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986.