3rd Passiontide 2011, Secret Recesses

3^rd Passiontide

John 8: 1-12

Breughel

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

 3^rd Passiontide

April 10, 2011

John 8: 1-12

There are illnesses that show outwardly—the cough, the rash. And there are those that grow silently, malignantly within.

The Hebraic lawyers fixed their attention on other people’s outer behaviors. Extreme measures were taken to eliminate those who could not control themselves in accordance with the Law.

But Christ brings with Him another law. It is the law of a warm light, which shines not only on outer deeds, but also into the secret recesses of the human heart. He asks us all to shine His light of merciful discernment not only on others, but also within. For we all have two beings within our breast. One is critical and judgmental; it wants to dominate others. The other is soft and loving, but perhaps too weakly passive.

Christ’s loving heart gives us a third way. He gives us a healthy Self that condemns neither itself nor others. At the same time, this healthy Self has the strength to assert itself against the main causes that separate us from Him, namely fear and illusion. With the light of His love, we can find both strength and loving kindness.

For as the poet says:

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

….Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

….Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

….only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

it is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Naomi Shihab Nye, “Kindness,” in ten poems to open your heart, Roger Housden, p. 67. 

3rd Passiontide 2012, Strength for Deeds

3^rd Passiontide

Dore

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

3^rd Passiontide

March 25, 2012

John 8: 1-12

If we were to go to the beach, and write ‘I love you’ in the sand, the letters would be washed away. The words would disappear. But their meaning, the love itself, would still exist.

Our deeds are the letters we write into the earth. Whether public or secret, they may seem to disappear. But their meaning remains.

A modern poet writes:

…it's wrong to think people are a thing apart

from the whole, as if we'd sprung

from an idea out in space, rather than emerging

from the sequenced larval mess of creation

that binds us with the others,

all playing the endgame of a beautiful planet….[1]

Jesus bent down and started to write something in the earth. The story doesn’t say what he wrote. But it certainly had something to do with deeds and their meaning for the earth.

Christ’s whole life, His death and His resurrection have inscribed their meaning permanently into the earth. And their meaning still speaks: I love you, He says. I recognize your deeds. And I love you. Let my love for you shine before you. Let my love give you the strength for deeds of worth.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Alison Hawthorne Deming , “The Enigma We Answer by Living”  in Genius Loci

3rd Passiontide 2014, Drops of the Sun

Third Passiontide

John 8: 12-20

And Jesus began to speak to them again: “I am the light of the world; he who

Holman Hunt

follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light in which there is life.”

Then the Pharisees said to him, “How can you be your own witness? Your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered them, “Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is valid, for I know from where I come and where I am going. You judge according to the physical aspect of Man, but I judge no one. Yet even if I did judge, my judgment would be valid; for I am not alone, but HE who sent me is with me. In your Law it says that the testimony of two persons is valid. I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me also testifies to me.”

Then they said, “Where is your Father?” And Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. I you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he said as he was teaching in the treasury of the Temple. And no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.

3^rd Passiontide

April 6, 2014

John 8: 12-20

No matter whether we are North or South, day or night, the sun continuously rays forth its light. Behind the visible light, there also stream forth invisible forces of life. It is this combination of light and life that draws forth the plants up from the earth. Light and life bids the plants grow, blossom, set seed. Light and life bids them die away, letting their seed essence fall back to earth in order to make way for new life.

Maulsby Kimball

Christ says that He is the light of the world, the light that rays forth life. In Him the essence of the sun itself has descended to earth. The Son God has come to earth so that day or night, we can walk within His living light. In fact, we are able not only live within His light; we can also take the Christ light into ourselves, and ray it forth to others, to the world. That is the meaning of communion: to take the light-seed of Christ into ourselves, for the sake of the world.

What is the nature of the Christ light? It is a living light that is filled with love. Light, life and love express the essence of God. Christ dwells in and streams forth the light of our heavenly Father, who is life, who is love.

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever [knows and trusts in him] believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life’.[1]

We need not fear darkness, inner or outer; we need not fear our deaths; for the Christ in us is the light-seed of His essence. The Christ seed essence that we take in makes possible everlasting light, ongoing life, and the radiance of love, for the world, for us.

So as Hafiz says:

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun

From your prayers and work and music

….

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun

From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved.[2]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] John 3:16

Picture: Christ the Light of the World, Holman Hunt

[2] Hafiz, “ Cast All Your Votes For Dancing” in I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

3rd Passiontide 2013, Watered Down

3^rd Passiontide

Rembrandt

John 8: 1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives; but as soon as day dawned he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle, and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down, and started to write something in the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, “Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her.” And again, he bent down and wrote in the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, beginning with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up, and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I judge you,” Jesus declared. “Go now, and leave your life of sin.”

3^rd Passiontide

March 17, 2013

John 8: 1-12

If someone adds something to food or drink to thin it out, or to poison it, we say that it has been adulterated. It has been watered down, or made harmful.

Humanity’s soul has been adulterated. The adversary forces have added the thorn of evil, the sting into our hearts. Because of this wounding, we have become weak. We are both ‘watered down’, not fully potent, and at the same time capable of harm.

Christ came to the earth to experience what it is like being a human being in a body of flesh. He knows in depth the basic human condition of weakness. And in His empathy and compassion, he does not judge us. Rather He seeks to give us strength, to heal us, to raise us up. Eventually we will rise and expand. We may now feel shriveled, in grief. In the words of the poet, we may ask Him:

My heart is so small

it's almost invisible.

How can You place

such big sorrows in it?

Yet he answers:

"Look," …"your eyes are even smaller,

yet they behold the world."[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Rumi,  in Whispers of the Beloved  by Maryam & Azima Melita Kolin)

2nd Passiontide 2007, More Than Enough

2^nd Passiontide

Kenneth Dowdy

John 6: 1-15

After this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee near Tiberius and a great crowd of people followed him because they had seen the signs of the spirit, which he had performed on those who were ill.

Then Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.

When Jesus raised his eyes to the world of the spirit, and beheld how crowds of people were coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that all these people may eat?”

He asked this to test his understanding and presence of mind, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “200 denarii [seven months wages] would not buy enough bread for them each to have only a little.”

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up: “A boy is here with five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are these among so many?”

Jesus said, “Let the people sit down in groups.” There was plenty of green grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave to those who were seated, likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.

Now when they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” So, they gathered them, and they filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, “Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus became aware that they intended to come and make him king by force, he withdrew again to the mountain alone by himself.

2^nd Passiontide

March 18, 2007

John 6: 1-15

To maintain our earthly existence, we must eat. There are saints who have been able to exist by taking in no other bread but Communion. We ask ourselves how this is possible.

In the gospel reading, Christ’s question to Philip – where shall we buy bread – is in essence a question about whether nourishment can only be mediated by the earthly, by money. And Philip’s answer is accurate on the earthly level—seven months wages would not be enough to feed so many.

Woloschin

However, the answer to how to feed the people can also have another starting point: a young boy’s gift, five barley loaves, made from spring’s first harvest, two fish from the watery element. In paradisal Galilee, the people sit in an elevated place, on green grass, between heaven and earth, as the sun is going down. The first stars become visible. And to what seems to be very little bread in earthly terms, Christ, with gratitude, adds what truly feeds us—the Father’s light, His life, His love from the realm of the stars. Christ leads the peoples’ hearts into an awareness of the realm of pure Life itself. The life realm is where living things multiply, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold. It is a realm of more than enough. The material part of bread is a necessary carrier; but a bite, a crumb of living bread suffices; what nourishes, what satisfies our heart’s deepest need, is the thirty, sixty, hundredfold life in it.

It is also quite possible that in this realm of more than enough, the people too were able to offer what they had brought. They multiplied the gift. Filled with the Christ blessing, there was more than enough; there was enough left over to show them, and us, that our true nourishment is mediated, not only through the forces of the earth, but through the living forces of the Father’s circle of the stars. There is more than enough, in order to show that

‘…What in the bread doth feed,

Is God’s Eternal Word, His life, His light, His deed.[1]

In consecrating ourselves today, we offer and receive in gratitude. We partake in a process wherein Christ blesses and fills bread with his Life. One day, for us too, more than enough will be all that we need to live. 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] After Angelus Silesius

2nd Passiontide 2008, Bread from Heaven

2nd Passiontide

John 6: 26-35

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.’”

Egbert Codex

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.

And they asked further, “By what sign that you do shall we be able to see your essential nature and therefore come to trust in you? What is your working? 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 2, 2008

John 6: 26-35

When one has not eaten for a long time, one’s consciousness can become fuzzy and faint. We feel perhaps like we are beginning to float away. In such a case, food becomes the anchor that brings us back to earth again. Bread brings body and soul together again; we experience food as medicine.

Something similar can also occur from the opposite direction. The simplest, perhaps even the smallest amount of bread, can become richly nourishing, provided we bring our devoted attention to the act of eating. Candles, flowers, white table linens, a treasured company of guests help focus and enrich our attention. Nourishment comes from both the food itself, and from what we bring to its ensouling.

In the Act of Consecration of Man, these two elements come together with a remarkable result. We provide the ritual setting, the candles and flowers and linens, even the bread and wine. And to them we add the very best of our souls’ forces: our purest thoughts, the love of our hearts, a devoted will. Thus do bread and wine become ensouled by our speaking our energies into them. Then we offer these ensouled foods to the Guest and His Father on the other side of the table. And they in turn add their life, the very essence of their being into them. Bread of earth becomes bread of heaven, bread for the angels. And then it is given back to us as the consecrated living essence of God, the food that truly brings the body and soul of Man and God together, the food that is the true medicine.

The early mystic Ephraim of Syria said:

His holy body wholly mixed

with our bodies, and His pure

blood poured generously out

to fill our veins, His voice

now pulses in our ears,

and look! His lighted vision

pools within our eyes. All of Him

is mixed with all of us—

compassionate communion. And as

He loves His church His body

utterly, so He gives

it more than bread, more

even than bread from heaven,

but gives His own, His

living bread for her to eat.

….and we

rise strengthened, comforted, luminous.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Ephraim of Syria († 373), “The Living Bread”, in Love’s Immensity, Scott Cairns, p. 21.

2nd Passiontide 2009, Meadows of Heaven

2^nd Passiontide 

Speyerer

John 6: 1-25

After this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee near Tiberius and a great crowd of people followed him because they had seen the signs of the spirit, which he had performed on those who were ill.

Then Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.

When Jesus raised his eyes to the world of the spirit, and beheld how crowds of people were coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread, that all these people may eat?”

He asked this to test his understanding and presence of mind, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “200 denarii [seven months wages] would not buy enough bread for them each to have only a little.”

Kenneth Dowdy

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up: “A boy is here with five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are these among so many?”

Jesus said, “Let the people sit down in groups.” There was plenty of green grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave to those who were seated, likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.

Now when they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, “Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.” So, they gathered them, and they filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, “Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world.”

When Jesus became aware that they intended to come and make him king by force, he withdrew again to the mountain alone by himself.

Woloschina

2nd Passiontide

March 22, 2009

John 6: 1 – 15

These difficult economic times are creating an odd opportunity: instead of eating out, many are finding it necessary to cook at home. The opportunity in this is the possibility of infusing the food we create with the love that we feel for ourselves and our families. And it is this element of love that is the true nourishment for body and soul.

In today’s gospel reading Christ pointedly asks, ‘Where shall we buy bread that all these people may eat?’ And Philip answers that seven months’ wages would not be enough. I think Christ was trying to point to the inadequacy of trying to nourish human bodies and souls with money alone.

To thrive, we need so much more. We need the ordering element of sitting down in groups together. We desperately need the soul mood of gratitude for that which we do have, however little it may seem. And we need to contribute to the atmosphere of generosity, of magnanimous giving, as much as people want, as much as God wants.

In the Gospel, the people are seated on a grassy meadow. It is evening. The stars come out. Longfellow said,

Alex Ruiz

Silent, one by one,

in the infinite meadows of heavens,

blossomed the lovely stars,

the forget-me-nots of angels.[1]

And Emerson said: “If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.” [2]

Night sky as meadow and city. The twelve basketsful gathered in the gospel were the leftover abundance of the star bread from the city of the Father.

With gathering, with gratitude and with greatness of heart, we can access what truly nourishes us: the life-giving love from the stars. For God’s nature and the nature of His Son is overflowing abundance itself. But we must first take our place in the greater, healthy order of things. We must open our hearts in gratitude and generosity, toward God, toward our fellow human beings, and toward the kingdoms below us.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Longfellow: Evangeline

[2] Emerson, Nature, Chapter 1.