2nd June Trinity 2008, Different Wells

June Trinity
John 7: 33-40 
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.

2^nd June Trinity

May 25, 2008

John 7: 33-40

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.

Christ likens Himself in this reading 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.[1] 

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.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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

2nd June Trinity 2007, Dug Deep

June Trinity

John 4, 1-26

Woman at the Well, He Qi

At this time the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar,  near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour.

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” For his disciples had gone into town to buy bread.

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [the living water].

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw.”

He said to her, “Go call your husband and show him to me.”

Samaritan Woman, He Qi

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.”

Jesus answered, “Believe me, o woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the spirit and in awareness [knowledge] of the truth.”

Then the woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you.”

2^nd Trinity Sunday

June 10, 2007

John 4: 1-26

Times of day have their qualities – the joyful freshness of dawn, the quiet expansiveness of sunset. And in between, the starry midnight, and the compressed starkness of midday. When everything here stands in clear and objective relief. At noon everything earthly comes to the foreground.

            Christ’s conversation with the woman at the well begins with earthly facts: with His very presence, with thirst, with history. But the conversation quickly expands so that the earthly becomes an image of broader and higher spiritual facts. What He discussed with Nicodemus in the realm of night he speaks of here openly, in broad daylight with the Samaritan woman in day-waking consciousness. She herself, her own inner state, becomes the content of this spiritual conversation.

The five husbands of this woman of the day may well also refer to the leadership role that her five earthly senses have played in her life. They have been important in their own time and sphere. But Christ wants to indicate to her that she, along with all of mankind is at an important juncture; for now, spirit and truth, which exist also in a realm beyond the sensory, spirit and truth will now be leading human beings. The same kind of clarity that noontime brings to the earthly realm shall now shine forth into and from the realm of the spirit. Day waking consciousness shall extend into the realm of the spirit. There we will see the One who is to come, offering us the water of life.

            The well of the water of life is dug deep in the earth. And even at noon, the deep waters reflect, not the sun, but the world of the stars. To drink of the water of life, the living water, it to drink of the life of the stars, offered us by Christ. In us this living water becomes a wellspring within, a stream that overflows with true life, ever-flowing toward the stars.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

5th June Trinity 2008, Thirsty Fish

June Trinity

John 4, 1-26

  

At this time the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar [Si’-kahr], near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour.

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” For his disciples had gone into town to buy bread.

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [the living water].

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw.”

He said to her, “Go call your husband and show him to me.”

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.”

Jesus answered, “Believe me, o woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the spirit and in awareness [knowledge] of the truth.”

Then the woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you.”

5^th June Trinity

June 15, 2008

John 4: 1-26

Sometimes a person is too ill to take anything by mouth, and it becomes necessary to give fluids directly into the bloodstream. As a result the person feels no thirst, for thirst is quenched in another way.

In this gospel reading, Christ meets a woman drawing water from an ancient well. It was a well established by Jacob the Patriarch and over the centuries had quenched many a thirst. But over those same centuries, mankind had become more and more ill. This illness produced a deep existential thirst that needed to be quenched in another way.

Divine Physician

The hope was that this thirst for meaning, a thirst for guidance and purpose, could be quenched by the five senses, represented by the woman’s five husbands. She is the Soul, looking everywhere for her missing half, for her completion. She looks for meaning through taste and touch, through sight and sound and scent. She looks to the past and to the ancient ways; she looks for purpose in high worship on the mountain. But no longer does any of this suffice. This experience is captured by Rumi:

I have a thirsty fish in me

that can never find enough

of what it’s thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean![1]

Humanity’s soul is ill. She needs the World Physician who will quench our deep thirst another way. “Whoever drinks the water that I will give her, her thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I will give her will become in her a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”  John 4:14

Through our union with Christ, our deep existential thirst will be quenched, for we will be hooked up to the Source; we will find our way to the great Ocean, drinking in, filling ourselves with His life-giving love.

www.thechristiancommunity

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[1] Rumi, “A Thirsty Fish”, in The Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks, p, 19.

2nd June Trinity 2009, No Water

June Trinity

John 4, 1-26

  

At this time the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee.

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour.

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, “Give me to drink.” For his disciples had gone into town to buy bread.

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?” For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me to drink’, you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [the living water].

“Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw.”

He said to her, “Go call your husband and show him to me.”

“I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship.”

Jesus answered, “Believe me, o woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the spirit and in awareness [knowledge] of the truth.”

Then the woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things.”

Jesus said to her, “I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you.”

2^nd June Trinity

June 14, 2009

John 4: 1-26

We need water to live. In the ancient desert communities, even today, the source for water was a well. The water itself was deep underground, and one had to lower a vessel down to that source and draw the heavy water back up.

For the ancient peoples, their ‘water of life’, the source of spiritual meaning in their lives, their knowledge of eternal life, came through their ancestry. The gospel reading centers around the ancestral well of Jacob. Over time the connection to the sacred source had receded deeper and deeper. It became harder and harder to access.

Christ came to unlock a new source of the life-giving waters of God. This source is to be given to each individual human being, regardless of ancestry. He delivers this message to a Samaritan woman, whose bloodline had long ago diverged from His. He speaks to the woman of the gift of a spring, a gushing fountainhead, where the water of the meaning of life rises and overflows forever. This well spring, this source is to be found within the heart of each individual human being.

“Whoever drinks the water I will give him, his thirst [for the eternal spirit] will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.” John 4: 13     

Christ and the woman are watching us. The poet says:

Don't say, don't say there is no water

to solace the dryness at our hearts.

I have seen

the fountain springing out of the rock wall

…The woman of that place…. was waiting

to see we drank our fill and were

refreshed.

Don't say, don't say there is no water.

That fountain is there among its scalloped

green and gray stones,

it is still there and always there

with its quiet song and strange power

to spring in us,

up and out through the rock.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1]  Denise Levertov, “The Fountain”, http://www.poetrychaikhana.com/L/LevertovDeni/Fountain.htm

3rd June Trinity 2007, Birth Eternal Spirit

June Trinity

John 3: 1-17

Hendrickcz

There was a man in the circle of the Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, “Master, we know that you are a high teacher of mankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with him in his deeds.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he return to his mother’s womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, “the truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever remains as he is, and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the spirit [or, …and is not born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the spirit, is itself spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The spirit wind blows where it will; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the spirit.

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can one attain this?”

            Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and do not know? Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills himself with his power shall perish, for he will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world be saved [healed] through him, and not fall prey to ruin.”

3^rd Trinity Sunday

June 17, 2007

John 3: 1-17

Every night we fall asleep. What belongs to the earth – our body – remains lying in the bed. But our soul

soars aloft to breathe divine spirit-air. It rises to the place where our own true spirit, our higher self nourishes our earthly life. Sleep is there a natural form of prayer, one God-given way of connecting with eternal being.

            Christ has a conversation with Nicodemus in the realm of the night. He tries to tell Nicodemus that He, Christ, has come to earth to add something new to the natural order. He has come to help us find our way to our won eternal spirit without first having to fall asleep. He came so that we can begin to bring down, bring to birth our eternal spirit, our higher self, here on earth; so that we can breathe in the wind of the spirit also when we are awake during the day.

            This is what is meant that Christ descended out of the realm of the Father spirit to save the world: He came to bring the eternal realm of the stars down to the earthly world. He came to bring heaven to earth, so that we can raise the earthly into the heavenly.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

3rd June Trinity 2009, The Chorus

June Trinity

John 3: 1-17

There was a man in the circle of the Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, “Master, we know that you are a high teacher of mankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with him in his deeds.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he return to his mother’s womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, “the truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever remains as he is, and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the spirit [or, …and is not born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the spirit, is itself spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The spirit wind blows where it will; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the spirit.

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can one attain this?”

            Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and do not know? Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

           Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills himself with his power shall perish, for he will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world be saved [healed] through him, and not fall prey to ruin.”

3^rd June Trinity

June 21, 2009

John 3: 1-17

Every night we surrender our bodies and enter the realm of God and his angels. There we are fed and repaired. In the morning we return to the house of the body; we awaken refreshed and, as it were, reborn.

Nicodemus meets with Christ in the realm which we enter at night. Christ tells him there of the necessity of being reborn on yet another level. Not physically, nor in the daily way of waking up, but on an even greater level.

For even when we are awake, we are all of us asleep, dreaming the dream of our ordinary lives. Yet behind this world is the real world, the mighty world from which originates all that is evolving. It is a place in which we are not ordinarily conscious. It is a place where we can hear the sound of God’s breath as He breathes the breath of new life into everything at every moment; where our life is His creating life. Christ urges Nicodemus, urges us all, to awaken into this realm, to be born into this higher life beyond time. It will take us a while; we ‘take our waking slow’. But we have all caught glimpses. The poet asks:

Your great mistake is to act the drama

as if you were alone.  ….Surely,

even you, at times, have felt the grand array;

the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding

out your solo voice. [1]

So may we, in this life 

trust

to those elements 

we have yet to see…[2]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] “Everything is Waiting for You”, David Whyte, in Everything is Waiting for You.

[2] David Whyte, “Working Together”, in House of Belonging. 

6th June Trinity 2008, I AM Alive

June Trinity

John 3: 1-17

There was a man in the circle of the Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, “Master, we know that you are a high teacher of mankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with him in his deeds.”

Jesus answered and said to him, “The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he return to his mother’s womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, “the truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever remains as he is, and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the spirit [or, …and is not born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the spirit, is itself spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The spirit wind blows where it will; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from, or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the spirit.

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can one attain this?”

            Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and do not know? Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills himself with his power shall perish, for he will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world be saved [healed] through him, and not fall prey to ruin.”

6^th June Trinity

June 22, 2008

John 3: 1-17

  

Rocks don’t grow. The only way they can change is to be destroyed, ground into dust. Water and wind, however, move and shape. Water forms rocks; moving water and wind wear them down.

The problem with Nicodemus in the beginning of this reading is that his thinking is like a rock. When Christ talks about being born again, Nicodemus’s pictures something literal and limited to the earthly. Christ, however, is talking about the primacy of the spirit. The living waters of the Spirit form and shape; spirit breath breathes soul into all that is formed. Each child’s body is shaped in the waters of the womb.

We have all descended from the spirit. Our task is to consciously ascend into the heavenly realms while we are still on earth. On earth we human spirits are to rebirth ourselves back into an awareness of the realm from which we have come, the realm that has shaped and formed us.

Blake

Christ uses a picture from the Old Testament to explain this to Nicodemus: near the end of their forty years wandering in the desert, the Israelites were complaining bitterly about the food and water, complaining about their fate. The Lord sent fiery serpents. Many people died, but in those who survived, the stinging of conscience awakened their awareness of the sinfulness of raging against God’s karmic plan for them. They asked Moses to intercede. The Lord instructed Moses to fashion a brass snake and fasten it to a standard; all who had been bitten by the poisonous attitude would gaze upon the shining, uprighted snake on a pole. This symbol is a caduceus, the symbol of healing. In this picture of the snake being uprighted, they would recognize the wisdom of accepting their destiny in inner uprightness, without complaint. (Numbers 21:8)

The spirit is primary. It is not our fate, our destiny that is decisive, but how our spirits meet it. When we meet the bite of our fate with courage and inner uprightness, we have the potential to be changed and re-formed, to be born again as new human beings out of the waters of life and wind of the spirit from which we come.

Christ is for us the archetype of this process. He, the great Spirit, descended to earth, took on a body, and suffered a terrible fate. We can gaze upon him, the Shining One, upright on the pole of a cross. He is the ever-living caduceus, the symbol of healing. He is wisdom uprighted, sacrificed to love. He is our human fate, carried in uprightness, into and through death.

“Do not be afraid, he says. I am the first, and the last and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death. I am the first born from the dead.” (Rev 1:5 -7).

Christ is the first in a new form of humanity. And we are to follow him into a new birth that even death cannot swallow.

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