1st August Trinity 2013, Peter's Confession

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1^st August Trinity

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’

Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

 

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly he told them this.

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.“

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1^st August Trinity

July 28, 2013

Mark 8:27 – Mark 9:1

Sometimes things wear masks. The ugly bug in the garden turns out to be a beneficial. The carpenter building your cabinets turns out to have a Master’s in literature. If you can see beyond the surface, the world is full of surprises.

Christ Jesus wore the mask of a poor, homeless itinerant preacher and healer. It took a flash of moral intuition for Simon Peter to catch a glimpse of what vastness lay behind the mask. He caught the flash of the Messiah, the Son of God.

The world itself wears a mask, much of it pasted on by our own way of perceiving it and thinking about it. And so Peter, although he caught the greatness of Christ, rejects Christ’s prediction of what he will do and suffer.  It is too radically different from Peter’s expectations.  And so he pastes a mask of human reasonableness onto the vastness of a truth he cannot comprehend.

Sometimes we too have a flash of insight. It can be fearsome. What seems to matter to Christ is that we not set ourselves in opposition to what must be; that we surrender ourselves to what He means to have happen in the world, no matter how frightening or repulsive or puzzling the mask may seem to us. We need to be able to say in the words of Adam Bittleston:

May the events that seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a quiet mind

Through the Father’s ground of peace

On which we walk.

May the people who seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With an understanding heart

Through the Christ’s stream of love

In which we live.

May the spirits who seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a clear soul

Through the healing Spirit’s light

By which we see.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Adam Bittleston, Meditative Prayers for Today. Click here to purchase

1st August Trinity 2007, Shining Revelation

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1^st August Trinity

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’

Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

 

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly he told them this.

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

 Luca Rossetti da Orta

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.“

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1^st August Trinity

July 22, 2007

Mark 8:27-9:1

  

Sometimes we hear a sound of something we can’t quite make out. Our mind tries to identify it based on things we have already heard. But if it is something we have never heard before, we may either give up trying to comprehend, or we may force the sound to fit into something we already know. A third option would be to expand a space inwardly to make room for something new.

Daniel Bonnell

In this gospel reading, Jesus is perceived as the Christ, the One Anointed for a special task. He tries to explain what being mankind’s highest leader will mean; it will mean suffering and death, but also resurrection. In order to journey with Him into the next phase of humanity’s evolution, His disciples will have to give up their hopes and expectations of His earthly kingship. They will need to free themselves from their preconceptions, for the old is at an end.

At the same time, they will need to bestir themselves, to pour their souls’ activity into following Him on this new path. They will need to change the way they think. They will need to re-tune the instrument of their feeling so that their actions fit this new path. For His path is one of selfless service, of selfless selfhood. It finds its power through hearing the good news from the realm of the angels. It is a path that heals and bridges the gulf between heaven and earth, between life and death, between the old and the new.

Today humanity is being called to perceive the new revelation of the Christ. We are being asked to free ourselves from preconceptions based on what we think we already know. We are being asked to hear His voice from the realm of the angels in inner silence. We are being invited to give up our self-preoccupation and to offer ourselves to His guidance. Walking with Christ, we walk through suffering and pain into the healing of our fellow human beings, into the healing of the earth.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th St. Johnstide 2007, Rest In Prayer

Sombart

St. Johnstide

John 3: 22-36

After this Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.

He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this: that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought, for God gives the spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but according to the creative power that he awakens in man.

Nicoletto Semitecolo

The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.

Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”

4^th St. Johnstide 

July 15, 2007

John 3: 22-36

To plant a seed is an exercise in trust – we trust that this tiny hard little thing we stick in the ground has the power to develop into something quite different. We trust that the seed will grow up out of the earth, into the light and air, and will undergo its enormous changes of form. These changes are generated by the life-giving power of the sun.

Something similar takes place within us. Our lives, our souls, undergo tremendous changes and development. The powers that be have planted us here on earth. They have tremendous faith in our ability to develop. They have even given us all the potential. It all depends on our capacity to trust in the power of God’s Son within us.

“Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of earthly life into timeless life.” John 3:36

If the seed were too afraid to stretch into the light and air, it would remain in the earth and moulder away. If our souls and lives are ruled by fear and anxiety, we remain chained to the earthly.

“Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life. John 3:36 The Son God is the power behind our becoming. He is the power that gives us the courage to proceed through all our changes, to keep growing, ever higher, ever deeper. We don’t need to be so anxious, so full of our own efforts. We have help.

Catherine of Sienna wrote:

The sun hears the fields talking about effort

And the sun smiles

And whispers to me

“Why don’t the fields just rest, for

I am willing to do

Everything

To help them grow?”

Rest my dears, in

Prayer.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Catherine of Sienna, “Rest in Prayer,” in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky. P. 195.

1st August Trinity 2008, Hiding in Plain Sight

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1^st August Trinity

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’

Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

 

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly he told them this.

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.“

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1^st August Trinity

July 27, 2008

Mark 8: 27 – 9:1

We may have had the experience of being introduced to someone about whom we have already heard a lot. In the first few seconds they are just an ordinary blank stranger. But as it dawns on us who they really are, a whole inner story lights up around them.

Our relationship with Christ begins with a kind of introduction, followed by a first dawning recognition. The disciples had long before heard about a coming Messiah, a prophet and a priest-king. In today’s Gospel, Christ is in a circumspect way introducing Himself to them: “Who do people say that I am? What do you say?” No boasting here. He counts on them to recognize who He truly is. It is Peter who on whom it dawns that the Jesus they already know and love, is the Christ, the Messiah. But Christ Jesus is careful to warn them that there is a darker side to His story than the glories of priest, king and prophet: there will be suffering, rejection, and death; but also resurrection.

Christ in fact still walks the earth.  And today it is just as important to Him that we come to an inner recognition of His presence and being. He walks and operates among us.

How can we recognize Him? He “hides” in plain sight. His self-description in the gospel gives us a hint at where to look. Whenever we see suffering and death, He is there at work. Whenever we rise up again, from our griefs and blows, from our sick bed, even from a night’s sleep, there He is working. He lives every moment in every breath we take. We only have to open our eyes, and our souls. We can see Him everywhere, working in everyone, infusing the world with the strength of His life and His love.

The poet Hafiz writes:

When your eyes have found the strength

To constantly speak to the world

All that is most dear

To your own

Life,

When your hands, feet, and tongue

Can perform in that rare unison

That comforts this longing earth

With knowledge, your soul

Your soul has been groomed

In His city of love….[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Hafiz, “I Vote for You for God”, in The Gift, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 175. 

4th St. Johnstide 2008, Engage

St. Johnstide

John 3:22 - 36

After this Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon [ee’nuhn] near Salim [say’lim], because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

Balduino

John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.

He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this: that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought, for God gives the spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but according to the creative power that he awakens in man.

The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.

Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”

4^th St. Johnstide

July 20, 2008

John 3: 22 – 36

Power has a kind of radiance. It moves outward and creates effects. It can be positive or negative. It can overwhelm. Love from the spirit is a bit different. It too radiates – warmth and support. But the highest form of love does not overwhelm. It invites. And it waits for assent.

Today’s gospel reading is about the difference between power and love. Some of John the Baptist’s disciples come to him complaining that one of the people he had baptized, that Jesus fellow, is preaching a path of purification that is drawing greater crowds. John emphasizes that legitimate spiritual power is granted by the divine world. John reiterates that he himself is only a forerunner of One to come.

Christ as Bridegrooom

The One to come, however will move humanity a giant step forward, step beyond power. His “power” will be the power of purest, sweetest, most warmly supportive, patient  and empathetic love; the highest love imaginable. John describes Him as the bridegroom. His bride is the human soul spirit. Indeed He is the bridegroom of the collective soul of all humanity. He gazes in love at each and every human being. He does not overwhelm. He invites. He awaits the consent to union.

Moving forward into this second half of the year, our soul is being invited to become engaged to Christ. As we move through the summer we have the opportunity to gradually approach Him, to align ourselves with Him, to develop a trust in His will, His love, His healing. We are preparing our souls and spirits for the great wedding with the King’s Son in October, at Michaelmas. We are  looking forward to the birth of the eternal spirit Child at Christmas, that will arise out of this marriage.

But first we have to engage. First we develop an active relationship of trust in this powerfully loving Divine human being, this God-Man, who is the soul’s true intended. This engagement is a matter of the heart. We will decide to betroth our soul’s heart to Christ, not because He is powerful, but because He is our great teacher of love. This love from above, from the divine heights, is food and nourishment for the soul’s journey of life. It is the protector of the generative, creating capacity of the heart.

“Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within herself, she grows out of the earthly into timeless life.” John 3:36

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th St. Johnstide 2010, Bride Soul

 St. Johnstide

John 3: 22-36

After this Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

Gerhard Wagner

He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.

He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this: that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought, for God gives the spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but according to the creative power that he awakens in man.

The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.

Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”

4^th St. Johnstide

July 18, 2010

John 3: 22-36

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full.” John 3: 29

John refers to Christ as the Bridegroom, and himself as the bridegroom’s

Balduino

friend. If John is the bridegroom’s best man, who then is the bride?

The bride is the soul of humanity. She is that greater entity made up of all human souls; those now living on earth, those yet to be born, those who have died. The greater Soul of Humanity yearns for her Bridegroom, just as the individual soul yearns for union with its higher self.

Every married couple, rising to a new day, reaffirms their union once again. Day by day, this affirming, this saying yes to each other, this offering of self to the other, creates a stronger and stronger bond.

Every time we celebrate the Act of Consecration of Man, we are re-celebrating, reaffirming the union of the Soul of Humanity with her Bridegroom. The souls of all on earth, the souls of those not yet born, the souls of all who have died, are invited to join with us. And at this time of the year, we also acknowledge the presence at the altar of John, the friend of the Bridegroom, he who stands by and listens. For he is the witness of the affirming of our union. We ask him to look upon this deed, to witness and strengthen the union of mankind’s Soul with Christ, her Bridegroom.  

www.thechristiancommunity.org

4th St. Johnstide 2012, Good Fruits

St. Johnstide

John 3: 22-36

After this Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

Balduino

John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.

He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this: that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought, for God gives the spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but according to the creative power that he awakens in man.

The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.

Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”

4^th St. Johnstide

July 15, 2012

Luke 3: 7-18

Sometimes the sweetest fruit comes from an old tree; but usually it is a tree that has been long cared for with thoughtful pruning and generous stimulus to growth.

One of humanity’s old ‘cultural trees’ is Buddha’s eightfold path. The path is a call to be mindful of how a one thinks and acts. He encourages us to make rightful decisions based on appropriate strivings, and to accurately recollect and contemplate our past thoughts and actions.

The eightfold path is echoed in today’s reading. John the Baptist’s suggestions for preparing our hearts and minds for an encounter with Christ is especially relevant for today:

Share, don’t hoard. Speak truth. Don’t intimidate.

J.P. de Rothchild

These are the heart generosities and soul prunings that produce “good fruits in keeping with a change of heart and mind”. It doesn’t matter how young or how old the soul. Neither do genetics, social standing or cultural heritage matter. We all can practice cultivating our own hearts and minds. For every tree that does not produce good fruit is of no use to the world. No matter how insignificant our outer lives may otherwise seem, our hearts and minds can become like the tree described by Denise Levertov:

  
    …this tree, behold,
    glows from within;
    haloed in visible
    invisible gold.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Denise Levertov,  “Last Night's Dream”