2nd Passiontide 2019, Bread of Life

2^nd Passiontide

John 6: 26 -35

Amedee Varint

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and

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

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"

Woloschina

Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, the truth I say to you: You are seeking me not because you saw signs of spiritual power, but because you ate of the bread and were satisfied.

Do not work for the food that spoils, but create for yourselves the nourishment that leads to imperishable life, which the Son of Man will give you because he is totally permeated by the being of the Father God [upon him the Father has set his seal].

Thereafter they said to him, “What must we do in order to learn to do deeds which endure [that our deeds may work with the working of God]?

Jesus answered, “The working of God is [already in] this: that in your whole being there begins to stir trust in him whom he has sent.”

And they asked further, “What sign of the spirit can you perform in order that we see and therefore come to trust in you? What effect do your deeds have in the present time? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it says in scripture: ‘Bread from the heavens he gave them to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “The truth I say to you, it was not Moses who gave to you bread from the heavens, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from the heavens. The bread from the world of the spirit is he who descends to you from the heavens; he gives himself as the true, unceasing life of the world.”

Then they said, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I AM the bread of life. He who finds the way to me will hunger no more, and he who comes to me in faith and trust will nevermore thirst.

2^nd Passiontide

March 31, 2019

John 6: 26 -35

Today’s gospel reading takes place right after the feeding of the five thousand. The disciples are in a boat, rowing hard in stormy darkness. Christ comes toward them, a shining beacon. “Have no fear,” he says. “I AM.” His earlier feeding of them has awakened in them a capacity to see and distinguish Him elsewhere when they are at sea in the darkest storm. When they take Him in, they are immediately where they need to be.

Arild Rosenkrantz

In our lives, there are of course also times of stormy darkness, where efforts are needed to keep our souls from capsizing. To us too, he says, Have no fear. He has nourished and fed us at the altar. We have taken him in. When we remember this with all the strength of our trust in Him, we take him into our soul-ship with us, and we are where we need to be.

Indeed, to the crowd the next day Christ points out that they have sought him because of spiritual nourishment because they had eaten of the spiritually strengthened bread and were satisfied. And He urges them, as He urges us, to search for such spiritual nourishment; to search for Christ Himself, who is the Bread that supports the eternal life of our souls. He urges us to recognize Him, He who approaches us always amid the storms of life. We can pray in the spirit of the Lord’s prayer:

Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.*

*Neil Douglas-Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus

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1st Passiontide 2019, Be the Sun

First Passiontide 

Luke 11: 14-35

Jesus was driving out a demon from a man who was mute. And it came to pass that as the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. However, some of them said, “He drives out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.” Others sought to test him by asking for a sign from heaven as proof of his spiritual power.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself will be desolated, and house will fall against house. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? And you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now if I were to drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers do it? Therefore, they shall be your judges.

           

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, it follows that the kingdom of God has already come to you.

           

When a strong man in full armor guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, the victor takes away the armor in which the man had trusted and divides it up as spoils.

He who does not unite with my being is against me, and he who does not gather in inner composure with me [work for inner composure with me] scatters.

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it wanders through waterless places seeking a place to rest; and if it cannot find it, it says, ‘I will return to the dwelling out of which I have come.” When it returns to this dwelling it finds it cleaned and adorned. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters and dwells in that man. And his final state is worse than the first.”

As he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you.”

But he said, “Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there.”

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 lampstand, 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

March 24, 2019

Luke 11: 14 – 35

In older cultures, each house had a small shrine. This was the place where the image of the god lived and was honored. It was the center of the home culture.

What was once done outwardly has now moved inward. We each have a center – the deep shrine of the heart. It is there that Christ dwells in us. But who else lives with us in the home of the body? Are our soul and body a noisy gathering place for other spirits? Do we remember to worship at the shrine of the heart?

The gospel reading tells of a person occupied by a spirit of deafness and muteness. Christ encourages us to listen at the shrine of the heart: ‘Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there.’ Luke 11:28

We, together with Christ in our deepest selves, can strengthen and expand our own sovereign occupation of our souls and bodies. Gathered in inner composure with Him who is Love, we can fully occupy our own body and soul. Thus we leave no room for spirits of division and darkness, for demons of hatred, doubt and fear. Composed with Him who stands at peace with the world, we can radiate Christ-light within, from the center, from our Christ-core in the shrine of the heart. For as the poet Thomas Centolella reminds us:

On a gray day, when the sun

has been abducted, and it’s chill

end-of-the-world weather,

I must be the sun.

I must be the one

to encourage ….

to remind [myself] …..

I must issue forth a warmth

without discrimination, [or]and any guarantee

it will come back to me.

On a dark day I must be willing

to keep my disposition light, ….

I have to be the sun,

I have to shine as if

sorry life itself depended on it.

I have to make all the difference.*

And we do this by finding and amplifying the Christ-Light in us.

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*Thomas Centolella, “Solar”, in Views from along the Middle Way.

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7th February Trinity 2019, Sun Within the Sun

February Trinity

(5^th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17: 1-13

Transfiguration, Fra Angelico, Wikimedia Commons

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John the brother of James and led them together up a high mountain apart from the others.

There his appearance was transformed before them. His face shone as bright as the sun, and his garments became white, shining bright as the light. And behold, there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, conversing in the spirit with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be in this place. If you wish, I will build here three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly they heard a voice from the cloud that said, “This is my son, whom I love. In him, I am revealed. Hear him.”

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces to the ground in awe and terror.

And Jesus approached them, and touching them said, “Rise, and do not fear.”

And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus.

Baptism, Verrochio, da Vinci

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them: “Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

And the disciples asked him, “What is meant when the scribes say, ‘First Elijah must come again’?” He answered, “Elijah comes indeed, and prepares everything [restores all things]. But I say to you, Elijah has already come, and the people did not recognize him but rather have done to him whatever they pleased. In the same way, the Son of Man will suffer much at their hands.”

Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

 7^th February Trinity

March 17, 2019

Matthew 17: 1-13

The rising and setting of the sun create our sense of time, our day and night, season after season. At its highest, the sun is too bright to look at. Only when it is near the horizon can our eyes bear to look at it directly.

Our lives too have their seasons, their rising and setting. In the midst of our lives, it is often not possible to see what shines within them. But near their setting, it is easier to view.

Jesus bore the Christ-Sun within him. In today’s reading, the sun of Christ’s earthly human life is approaching its setting.

The three disciples with Him are granted a glimpse into the Sun-brightness of

His being. He stands in conversation with Moses, the past giver of the Law, and Elijah, the prophet of the future. Christ stands in the middle between them as the ever-present Now, for he has gathered into himself all of time. His earthly life is setting; and yet the Christ Sun will rise again. He is both Alpha and Omega, beginning and goal.

Our lives in Christ, the Christ-Sun in us, is the eternally present Now. He allows us to see the meaning of our lives in clarity, especially in its setting. Christ in us allows us to hope for another rising when this life reaches its close.

For as Angelus Silesius said, we are to become radiant suns:

My spirit once in God will eternal bliss become

Just as the sun’s own ray is sun within the sun.*

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*Angelus Silesius, Cherubinic Wanderer

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