Christian Community Homilies

Sunday, June 15, 2014

June Trinity 2011, Waking Up

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.

van Dyck

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.”

1^st June Trinity

June 19, 2011

John 3:1-17

We are approaching the longest day, the shortest night of the year. The plants have grown enthusiastically. Their flowering has released clouds of pollen. Carried up by the wind and thermals, it will be kissed by the life-giving power of the sun. When it returns to the plants, it will bring them the potential to create the seeds of new life.

We too have our times when we expand out into the universe. Mostly we do so unconsciously, in sleep. When we return to our bodies in the morning, blessed and strengthened by an encounter with our angel, we are refreshed and ready for the new life in a new day.

Nicodemus comes to Christ in the realm of night. And Christ tries to make clear to him that it is now necessary to become aware, to consciously work with these spiritual forces of new birth from above with our day-waking consciousness. The spirit breath, the spirit wind carries with it words of creation, the potential for the next step in the evolution of humankind. The spirit gives us the impulses for the new—a new way, a new direction, a new paradigm. For the old is falling away. But the spirit needs our voluntary cooperation.

As we approach the zenith of the year, it is time to open ourselves. It is time to receive the blessing and strength from the spirit, for what is coming. We may not know where exactly which direction the impulse for the new is coming from; we may not know where it will lead us.

van der Weyden

It will most certainly at first lead us through the death of the old way, just as following Christ led Nicodemus through the events of Christ’s death and resurrection. For we hear of him helping to prepare Christ’s body for the tomb. John 19:39 Nevertheless, we can listen for the sound of the spirit wind, and rise to hear the words of becoming, sounding on the breath of the spirit. As we do so, we will begin to share in Christ’s timeless, higher life. John 3:16

As poet said:

Beyond living and dreaming

there is something more important:

waking up.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Antonio Machado, The Winged Energy of Delight, translations by Robert Bly

3rd June Trinity 2012, Practiced Powers

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.”3^rd June Trinity

June 17, 2012

John 4:1-26

If someone were to ask us for a drink of water, most of us would do our best to accommodate them. We know how basic and burning a need thirst can be. We also know that human interdependence means that we often need others to provide what we need.

Christ requests of the Samaritan woman, of all of us, ‘Give me to drink.’ Astonishing to think that He who created water has to ask human beings for a drink. Yet this demonstrates the tremendous generosity and respect that the Divinity offers us—that it asks, and waits for us to respond.

Christ has a burning thirst for what we can give Him. He needs our noblest thoughts, our hearts’ love, our

devoted wills. Offering them to Him creates a fountainhead within our own being. He joins with us in creating a fountain of love for God, a fountain of creative, peaceful love for fellow human beings, a fountain of wonder and amazement for the way God works. So in the words of Rilke:

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions ... For the god

wants to know himself in you.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Rainer Maria Rilke, in Ahead of All Parting, ed. and translated by Steven Mitchell

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Whitsun III 2007, Flames of the Heart

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Whittuesday

May 29, 2007

John 14: 23-31

The blossom opens itself to the cosmos. It streams forth fragrance and the life substance of its pollen. It receives new life from the realm of sun and air.

Our hearts are like blossoms. They open, streaming forth heart’s warmth, the fragrance of devotion, the light of our love. Through our hearts’ opening, the warmth and life of the healing spirit can descend to us.

The Act of Consecration is a mighty upward-streaming blaze – hearts burning together with zeal and enthusiasm in grateful offering. It is in this burning ardor of many souls that we rise together to the realm of the timeless, to the origin of health and our true being.

The flames of our hearts generate our existence in the realm beyond time. In this timeless realm we enter into communion with Christ, the World Physician. From Him we receive new life. From Him we receive comfort and understanding.

The truest wisdom, that to which we can aspire,

Is to be joined with God, to be with love on fire.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Angeles Silesius, “True Wisdom”, in Cherubinic Wanderer, p. 96

Whitsun II 2007, Vase of God

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

Whitmonday

May 28, 2007

John 14: 23-31

A plant whose roots are torn from the soil will wither and die. One grown where there is no light will be pale and weak.

The service speaks of sin as weakness and infirmity. Our common human sickness comes from not being rooted in the Father Ground of the World. It comes from living in the darkness, of not understanding our true task as human beings.

Our true task is to grow and become ever more truly ourselves: to become strong souls, whose thinking is clear and objective toward the spirit; whose feeling is freed of subjectivity in order to be an organ of perception for others; whose will is perceived as coming from others, affirmed as our own.

Our true task is to become well and whole.

Christ gathered around Him twelve such striving disciples to become members of a community. This community was to become His body, the place where His spirit would live and work on earth. We are gathered for this service in order to consecrate ourselves, so that we become His community, His body on earth.

We are the vase of God, He fills us to the brim,

He is the ocean deep, contained are we in Him.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] After “God Within and Around Me” by Angelus Silesius, The Cherubinic Wanderer, p. 96

Whitsun 2007, Christ's Breath

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

Whitsunday

Sunday, May 27, 2007

John 14: 32-31

In the evening the sun descends in a blaze of color. If we let ourselves be carried by sunset’s mood, we may find ourselves becoming quieter, reflecting on the day’s events. And despite growing darkness, we have no fear: for we know that the sun will soon rise again to enlighten another day.

Pentecost is like a bright evening in the story of mankind. At Ascension, the Sun of Mankind disappeared from sight. And yet the light did not leave us, for at Whitsun the disciples began to remember everything Christ had told them. The light of understanding dawned within them. The flames of their love rose up, and the warm light healed their sore hearts. Praise for the incredible new day of humanity broke forth from them. They offered themselves into this new streaming of light.

The Act of Consecration is itself a Whitsun event. In the gospel reading we hear and remember what Christ spoke to humanity. The warmth of our love for Him rises like flames. Yet this is not a fire that consumes, it is a fire that creates, creates the light of understanding; creates warmth of heart and a fiery enthusiasm of will.

Through the fire of our love, we are elevated to a creative stream, a collective place where all creatures sing His praise. We become, in the words of the poet:

A hole in a flute

That Christ’s breath moves through –

…the concert

From the mouth of every

Creature

Singing with the myriad

Chords.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Hafiz, “A Hole in the Flute” in The Gift, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 203

Friday, June 13, 2014

Whitsun III 2008, Tongues of Flame

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

Whittuesday

May 13, 2008

He Qi

John 14: 23-31

Our tongue is a unique muscle. All our other muscles are attached to bones at each end. Therefore they can only move along one channel. But the tongue rises out of the floor of the mouth; its other end is free to move wherever it needs to, in order to form speech.

In the account of the Pentecost event, the word ‘tongues’ appears several times. First, from the great single fire of the Holy Spirit, there separate out tongues of flame that descend upon the heads of the apostles, filling them each with the healing spirit.[1]

The result is that they begin to speak ‘in other tongues’ out of the spirit.[2] They speak in a new way. They speak out of freedom. They do not use the old form of glossolalia, the babbling that was connected with the sibyls and oracles of nature. But rather they speak out of the fire of their hearts, out of the universally human core of their being. They speak out of minds awakened and inspired by the great synthesis, the universal spirit whose being is love. They speak from the heart about their own experiences with this being.

Because they speak from the heart, even those gathered in Jerusalem from other regional dialects can, to their amazement, understand them. “We hear them,” they say, “declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. What does this mean?”.[3]

What it means is that speech is becoming free and universal again. It means that the separation of men into different language groups is being lifted. In the story in Genesis, men built a tower to the heavens for their own self-aggrandizement. The Lord had said to the angels, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, nothing they plan will be impossible for them. Let us go down and confuse their language so that they will not understand each other.”[4] Differing languages limits our abilities, and teaches us humility. Thus was mankind as a whole prevented from planning their own destruction.

Now, at Pentecost, God’s Spirit descends again. He descends to lift the curse of languages that separate. Now the Spirit that unites can speak through us again. Now we can begin to work on building the great spiritual city of peace, the New Jerusalem.

This is how this universal, healing, freeing fire of the Spirit works in us:

· It enlightens the head’s understanding with truth’s overview.

· It warms the heart so that it connects with others in empathy for their point of view.

· It frees the speech, the tongue and the body’s will, to deeds inspired by the spirit of love.

Through the fire of the Spirit’s universal tongue, through unifying speech, we can work on becoming one humanity again.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Acts 2:3

[2] Acts 2:4

[3] Acts 2: 11,12

[4] Genesis 11:1-8

Whitsun II 2008, Light Up the World

Pentecost

John 14: 23-31

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid [have no fear].

I have told you now, before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.

Whitmonday

May 12, 2008

John 14: 23-31

We think of the sun as a shining orb that slowly travels across the sky. We see the light it sends down to earth, illuminating all things. We feel its warmth on our skin. So we could say that we are not separated from the sun. The sun is not only up in the sky, but also where it works and has its effects, here on the earth. We live in fact the midst of the sun.

The sun supports everything. Although its light may vary in quality from place to place, the sun’s living light is not attached to one particular place on earth. It shines for all of the earth, for all of humanity. It shines on good and bad alike. Nothing is hidden from the sun; eventually all comes to light. The sun is the great living symbol of universal tolerance.

Christ, after his sojourn as a human being on earth, returned to his home in the sun. But since the earth is not separated from the sun, He continues to be in our midst. He continues to shed His living light of love on all alike, both good and bad. He supports everyone. Nothing is hidden from Him. Although His light may be refracted into differing religious colors, His Spirit of Love is the one, unifying healing Spirit, whose living light surrounds the whole earth. He is the living quality of universal tolerance.

The Sufi poet Hafiz expresses something of Love’s universal acceptance. He writes:

Even

after

all this time

the sun never says to the earth

“You owe me.”

Look

what happens

with a love like that –

it lights up the whole

world. [1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Hafiz, “The Sun Never Says”, in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 170