1st November Trinity, 2007, Soul's Sunlight

1^st November Trinity

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,

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 this 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.”

1^st Sunday November Trinity

October 28, 2007

Revelation 1:1-20

The sun shines like a great globe in the heavens. It illuminates the sky and the earth, giving objects clear outlines, delineating light and shadow, shining on everything in an equally objective way. It draws growth upward. Its light is so intense that we cannot gaze at it directly.

Today’s reading unveils the dead and risen Christ as a being like the sun:

Head and hair shining white…

Eyes like a flame of fire…

Feet glowing…

Breast encircled with gold…

Face shining like the sun in its full power.[1]

The intense light of His being reveals all, both light and shadow, in an entirely objective way. In His light we see ourselves as the creatures of light and shadow that we are. Yet his gaze also contains another element. It is the fire, the living force and power of love. He shines on us in love, coming to our aid, banishing fear, helping us to rise and stand. Bathed in his light, objective but not judging, we are helped and healed, encouraged to grow.

Thomas Aquinas says:

Nothing in existence is turned away.[2]

The delight a child can know,

My Lord confesses He experiences

Whenever He looks at you.

God sees nothing in us

That He has not given.[3]

He is our soul’s sunlight. In Him we rise and grow.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Rev. 1: 13-16

[2] Thomas  Aquinas, “The Mandate”, in Love Poems from God, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 127

[3] Thomas Aquinas, “ Whenever He Looks at You”, Ibid., p. 132. 

1st November Trinity 2008, Spiritualizing Matter

1^st November Trinity

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,

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 this 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.”

1^st November Trinity

Nov. 1, 2008

Rev. 1: 1-20

When God created us, he first created the human archetype. He said, “Let us make the human being in our image, after our likeness.” Genesis 1:26  We can barely begin to imagine the glory of that image of the human being in the heart of God.

On earth, when small children begin to draw people, they create stick figures. Only after many years of practice and development of talent could a person attempt to paint a depiction of the archetype of the human being in living color.

Today’s gospel paints a mighty rendering of the Divine Human Being. He is the archetype, the image of the Human Being spiritualized. This is why John struggles to describe him using so many similies – hair like snow, like wool, eyes like flames, feet like bronze glowing in a furnace. This spiritualized Divine Human Being calls himself the first and the last. He is the picture that harkens back to how God made us in the beginning. He is also the picture of what the human being will be at the end of time – light-filled, radiant like the sun.

We human beings are currently at the stick figure phase of our development. We are encased in matter, spiritually inept, childlike. But standing before us is the image of the goal of human evolution, the image of our spiritual maturity, the Son of Man. John calls him the archetype of trust and faith. He is the picture of God’s trust in humanity. Because of what Christ Jesus did, the divine world can have faith and trust in humanity. For God sent into human form Christ, who accomplished His mighty deed of death, resurrection and ascension. Christ fulfilled the great human archetype on earth. He achieved the spiritualization of the human form.

Because of Christ Jesus, humanity’s goal is again within reach for all of us. For whatever one human being achieves on earth becomes accessible to all of us. He embodies the promise that our work on our human development, our work in the spirit, our work of spiritualizing matter will one day bear fruit. This is the new belief, the new faith that the Divine world has in us. One day we too will join Christ in the Human Form Divine. One day we too will be light-filled, radiant like the sun.

 

St. Augustine pictured:

…an eternal day, consecrated by the radiating

resurrection of Christ, and prefiguring

…not of spirit only, but of the body, too.

There we shall rest and see, see and love,

love and praise. This is what shall be

in our exalted end without end.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] St. Augustine, “The Eighth Day”, in Love’s Immensity, Mystics on the Endless Life, by Scott Cairns, p. 48. 

1st November Trinity 2009, The Grace of Beginning

1^st November Trinity

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,

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 this 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.”

1^st November Trinity

November 1, 2009

Revelation 1: 1-20

Today is revealed an image of the being who stands behind all humanity, who is the meaning of all human life. He is an ever-living being, born out of the death of the old, glowing with the life-giving radiance of the sun, shimmering in radiant power purity. He is a being who lives through all deaths, who is the new beginning beyond and through all endings. He leads us through all our own endings, through all our own greater and smaller deaths, through all our transformations. He leads us by example, until we too will be able to say with Him: I am the living one; I was dead and look! I am living…

 

And so at this time of endings and beginnings, we can hear the poetic words:

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,

Where your thoughts never think to wander,

This beginning has been quietly forming,

Waiting until you were ready to emerge….

Though your destination is not yet clear

You can trust the promise of this opening;

Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning

That is at one with your life's desire….

Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,

For your soul senses the world that awaits you.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1]  John O'Donohue, “For a New Beginning”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, pl 14

  

1st Nov Trinity 2010, All Eyes Shall See Him

1^st November Trinity

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,

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 this 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.”

First November Trinity

October 31, 2010

Revelation 1: 1-20

As we in the Northern Hemisphere enter the dying time of year, we are immersed in the ebbing of natural life. Meanwhile spring is growing in the other hemisphere. An image for this is the old-fashioned sand clock or hourglass. The more time passes, the less sand there is in the upper chamber. As light and warmth increases in the south, they wane in the north. In focusing on how little is left, however, we may fail to realize that the clock will soon be inverted. What we poured down below will be turned over and become the content of what is above.

Last week we saw the image of Christ in the warrior garb of Michael. His truth, His justice, His loyalty to humankind’s development was demonstrated in His strength in the battle for human evolution.

Once the battle has been fought, the chains fettering humans to the earthly are severed. The clock can be inverted. And we see a mighty image of grace and peace. We see Him shining in the light of lamps, of stars, of sun, in a fullness of radiant love. The One who sacrificed Himself, who died in battle, is birthed out of death. He is now master, not only of the heavens, but also of the underworld. He holds the key to the realm of the dead.

He stands now among the seven lamps that the communities light with their prayers. Those who have died join in the praying. And in His hand he holds the starry angels who guide those communities into the future. For there is always a future. It is the future that we are creating. And Christ stands at the doorway, is the doorway to that future. And so in the words of the poet, we ask:

door of being, dawn and wake me,
allow me to see the face of this day,
allow me to see the face of this night,
… take me to the other side of this night,
where I am you, we are us,
the kingdom where pronouns are intertwined,

…door of being, dawn and wake me,…[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1]  Octavio Paz, in Sunstone/Piedra de Sol, translated by Eliot Winberger)

1st November Trinity 2011, Be Still

1^st November Trinity

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,

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 this 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.”

1^st November Trinity

October 30, 2011

Revelation 1: 1-20

“Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming.” Rev. 1:4

Rain after a long drought, or the first snowfall, brings us delight. We experience it as a gift from above. Grace, too, is a gift from above, a gift of light, of warmth, of strength. To grace is to adorn, to elevate. Grace contains balance and beauty.

The gift of grace is given to us by Christ, He who is the model, the archetype of all the gifts of grace. Along with His grace, He is giving us the gift of Himself.

He is, as John says, the archetype of trust. Because of His trust in us, we can find faith in life, trust in others, and in ourselves as we take our rightful place in God’s universe.

He, the first-born from the realm of death, gives us the grace of being able to be reborn out of the realm of death. For us on earth, that can mean the grace to rise renewed from all our changes, all our woundings and losses, all our little deaths.

He gives us all the grace to be priests, that is, to be connected in service to God and His angels, to be connected in service to others and to our own higher Self. 

And with this inflow of His grace, we feel a calm and yet dynamic peace. For we know that we are exactly where we need to be, doing the Great Work He wants us to be doing, strengthened by Him who is the prototype, who was there, for us, first.

 

In the words of Wendell Berry:

See how without confusion it is  

all that it is, and how flawless  

its grace is. Running or walking, the way  

is the same. Be still. Be still.

“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] “Grace” by Wendell Berry, for Gurney Norman, quoting him.

Picture of the Son of Man, woodcut by Durer.

1st November Trinity 2012 (2011), the Way is Clear

1^st November Trinity

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,

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 this 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.”

1^st November Trinity

October 30, 2011

Revelation 1: 1-20

“Grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming.” Rev. 1:4

Rain after a long drought, or the first snowfall, brings us delight. We experience it as a gift from above. Grace, too, is a gift from above, a gift of light, of warmth, of strength. To grace is to adorn, to elevate. Grace contains balance and beauty.

The gift of grace is given to us by Christ, He who is the model, the archetype of all the gifts of grace. Along with His grace, He is giving us the gift of Himself.

He is, as John says, the archetype of trust. Because of His trust in us, we can find faith in life, trust in others, and in ourselves as we take our rightful place in God’s universe.

He, the first-born from the realm of death, gives us the grace of being able to be reborn out of the realm of death. For us on earth, that can mean the grace to rise renewed from all our changes, all our woundings and losses, all our little deaths.

He gives us all the grace to be priests, that is, to be connected in service to God and His angels, to be connected in service to others and to our own higher Self. 

And with this inflow of His grace, we feel a calm and yet dynamic peace. For we know that we are exactly where we need to be, doing the Great Work He wants us to be doing, strengthened by Him who is the prototype, who was there, for us, first.

In the words of Wendell Berry:

See how without confusion it is  

all that it is, and how flawless  

its grace is. Running or walking, the way  

is the same. Be still. Be still.

“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] “Grace” by Wendell Berry, for Gurney Norman, quoting him.

Picture of the Son of Man, woodcut by Durer.