3rd November Trinity 2014, New Flowers

3^rd November Trinity

Throne of God

November 16, 2014

Revelations 7: 9-17

Next I looked and saw a great crowd beyond anyone’s power to count, from every nation and all races and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb draped in garments of white and with palm branches in their hands, and they shout with a great voice saying, “Healing and help [salvation] to our God who sits on the throne and through the Lamb.”

And all the angels were standing in a ring around the throne and the elders and the four living beings, and they fell down in front of the throne upon their faces and adored God saying,

Yea, so be it. Amen. [To our God be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength for an age of ages. Amen.”]

All the blessing power of the Word, that creating permeates the world, all the revealing might of the spirit, that enlightens the senses appearance, all the light of wisdom that leads us to true knowledge, the secret of transformation which gives worth to all being, that brings the world forward, and all the strength and power of the spirit –they belong to our God from aeon to aeon. Yea, so be it, Amen.

And one of the elders spoke up, asking me: “These people draped in garments of white, who are they and where did they come from?”

And I said to him, “Good sir, you yourself know.”

And he said to me:

These are the ones just come from the great Suffering. They washed their garments clean, and made them shining white in the blood of the Lamb.

That is why they can stand here before the throne of God

And serve him day and night in his temple.

The One who sits on the throne shall settle down upon them [dwell upon them].

They shall not hunger ever again, nor thirst again;

The sun shall not bear down too hard upon them, nor anything burn them,

Because the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, will be their shepherd

And guide them to the springs of the water of life,

And God will wipe away each teardrop from their eyes.

3^rd November Trinity

November 16, 2014

Revelations 7: 9-17

In life we experience the events and conditions of the world; we receive the actions, the words and thoughts of others. And we suffer because we are open to being acted upon.

One pre-Christian response to this fact of our existence was to remove oneself from suffering by cultivating non-attachment. This is perhaps not a bad start, for we frequently suffer because we are over-attached to outcomes; we may be egotistically trying to spare ourselves. Yet Christ, the God made human, taught us that suffering can have redemptive power, especially when undergone willingly and for the sake of others. Suffering can be a real eye-opener.

Hardship and adversity can have a purifying effect on our egotism. It can cleanse us of our prideful sense that we can control our own universe. Adversity endured can teach us that there are gracious gifts to be found in places we do not wish to go, gifts we didn’t know we wanted. It can teach us that suffering can lead to transformation.

Necessary suffering well encountered washes our soul garments clean. ‘Thy greater Will be done,’ can lead us to recognize that there is a greater purpose than our everyday minds can know. In suffering we can find the comfort and consolation of a God who intimately knows what we are going through. For He has been there Himself. Indeed, He continues to occupy the precincts of suffering so that He will be there for us when we find ourselves there.  He will help us to make something out of it. The poet describes this process:

…And if, in the changing phases of man's life

Snowdrops in Snow

I fall in sickness and in misery

my wrists seem broken and my heart seems dead

and strength is gone, and my life

is only the leavings of a life:

and still, among it all, snatches of lovely oblivion, and snatches

of renewal

odd, wintry flowers upon the withered stem, yet new, strange flowers

such as my life has not brought forth before, new blossoms of me

then I must know that still

I am in the hands of the unknown God,

he is breaking me down to his own oblivion

to send me forth on a new morning, a new man.[1]

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[1] D H Lawrence, “Shadows”

2nd November Trinity 2014, Sky Bridge

2nd Trinity November

Tiffany Stained Glass,
Angel of Sardis

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis)

And to the angel who penetrates the congregation of Sardis write:

Thus speaks he who has power over the seven creating spirits of God and over the seven stars: I know the consequences of your deeds, for one says of you that you live, and yet are dead. Awaken, and strengthen what remains in you, that is otherwise about to die, for I have not found that your works possess reality before my God.

Remember how you were once receptive for all the workings of the spirit, and for all words which came from the spirit. Care for them in your soul in inner loyalty. Change your heart and mind.

If however you do not awaken, I will come over you suddenly like a thief, and you will not know at which hour I will come over you.

But you have some names in Sardis whose souls have not been darkened by illusion and addiction to the senses. They will walk with me in white garments, for they are worthy of them.

He who overcomes, he shall be clothed with white garments, and I will not wipe out his name from the Book of Life. I will speak out his name and acknowledge him before my Father and his Angels. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

2^nd November Trinity

November 9, 2014

Revelations 3: 1 – 6

This letter is from the Son of Man. It is written to the angel of the community of Sardis. It can be heard as a letter to an entire community, ‘a community whose members feel the Christ within themselves’.

It is natural that a community tends to drift away from its original receptive gesture of soul. After all, things change. Habits form. And over time, a community’s relationship to the spirit may become dull. This letter stresses being open to the words and workings of the spirit. Christ encourages us to revive our original prayerful openness, in loyal dedication to Him.

Sky Walk, Grand Canyon

Such openness helps us to overcome illusion through the Truth of Christ’s Being. It helps us overcome our need to see, hear, touch a physical God. The poet Czeslaw Milosz was asked about praying to a God one could not perceive:

You ask me how to pray to someone who is not.

All I know is that prayer constructs a velvet bridge

And walking it we are aloft, as on a springboard,

Above landscapes the color of ripe gold

Transformed by a magic stopping of the sun.

That bridge leads to the shore of Reversal

Where everything is just the opposite and the word 'is'

Unveils a meaning we hardly envisioned.

Notice: I say we; there, every one, separately,

Feels compassion for others entangled in the flesh

And knows that if there is no other shore

We will walk that aerial bridge all the same.[1]

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[1]  Czeslaw Milosz, “On Prayer” in New and Collected Poems, 1931-2001, trans. Robert Hass

1st November Trinity 2014, Live In You

1^st November Trinity

Revelations 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 his 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 2, 2014

Revelations 1:1 – 20

Imagine being given two large seeds, a real one, and a cleverly made replica. Could we tell just by looking which one was real? Using all of our senses, could we distinguish between the living one and the merely material one? We could certainly test them by planting them and seeing which one sprouts.

Today there are many images and descriptions of people’s experiences of Christ Jesus. Perhaps not all of them correspond to the true, living, creating essence of His being. How can we tell the difference?

In His revelation to John, we have been given a true image of Christ. He bears a human form; yet one infused with fire. His head shines sun-white with the pure radiance of his thought. His breast is encircled with the gold of loving kindness. His eyes shine with the creative fire of love. His feet glow with the activity of purifying transformation. His hands hold the creative weaving of the seven-fold evolving nature of life. And his voice resounds with the life of living waters.

This is the true picture of Christ. And we can know that He is the true living one because he was planted in the earth and was born out of the realm of the dead. ‘I AM the Living One’, He says. ‘I AM the true seed. Plant me in your midst. Plant me in your hearts. Hear my life-giving voice in your congregations. Let me live in you.’

4th Michaelmas 2014, Lose the Game

4^th Michaelmas

October 26, 2014

Revelation 19: 11-16

Tolkovy Apocalypse

And I saw the heavens opening up. And behold, a white horse! And the rider who sat upon it is called faithful and true, who judges justly and battles for justice. His eyes are like flames of fire, and his head wears many crowns, inscribed with a name which no one knows but he himself. The cloak that covers him has been dipped in blood, and he is known by the name “Word of God”.

And the warriors of the sky ride behind him upon white steeds, clad in clean, white linen. And he has a sharp-edged sword coming out of his mouth with which to subdue the nations, and he will shepherd them with a staff of iron. He treads on the winepress holding the wine of the wrath of the will of God, the ruler of all.

And written on his cloak and on his thigh is the name: King of all kings, Lord of all lords.

4^th Michaelmas

October 26, 2014

Revelation 19: 11-16

In a game like chess, there are rules. Certain moves are allowed and others aren’t. All the moves are sequential. All the moves will ultimately have their consequences.

God created the greater universe with a certain structural integrity. Things happen in a certain way, in a certain order. There are consequences for everything that happens. Thank goodness!

Last week’s reading gave us the image of the great feminine archetype, the soul of humanity. She is impregnated with the sun-radiant Son of God. She struggles to give birth to the Son of Man, God within and among us. In today’s reading, we hear of how this Son of Man operates when he is fully grown. He battles to maintain the greater order, the order of justice and just consequences. He, humanity’s great I AM, the Creating Word of God, subdues the nations. God’s love for us and ours for Him is not to be supplanted by a nationalistic and warring love of nation that destroys other nations. That time in the game has passed. That belonged to the Gabrielic age, the age of exploration and dominance.

Now we are well into the age of Michael. It is the age of the family of humankind. If humanity continues to make unjust wars based on greed and national interests, we will have to experience the other side of God’s love: we will experience the wrath which is the natural consequence of our defying the greater order. If humanity continues to ignore what is truly just, truly in line with the greater game plan that God has put into place, we will be defeated by our own maneuvers. We will not be allowed to up-end the chess board. If we break the rules, set ourselves against the greater reality of the way things are, we can only ultimately lose the game.

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3rd Michaelmas 2014, She is Vulnerable

3^rd Michaelmas

October 19, 2014

Revelation 12: 1-17

And a momentous image was unveiled in the world of spirit: a woman, clothed with the radiant power of the sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve stars of heaven. And she is with child and cries out in the labor and pain of giving birth.

And at the same time a second image was revealed in the heavens: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its head it has seven crowns and its tail is sweeping a third of all the stars in heaven and dashing them onto the earth. And the dragon is standing before the woman about to give birth, so that when she bears the child he can devour it. And she bore a child, a son “who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron.” And the woman’s child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place that God keeps ready there, so that they can take care of her for days numbering one thousand two hundred sixty.

Michael, Durer

And a war flared up in the spirit world. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in the midst of his own angels, but he was not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. Down came the dragon, the giant, the serpent, the evil one called both Satan and the devil, deceiver of all the world. Onto the earth he came hurtling down, and all his angels with him.

And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying:

Now can begin the working which proceeds from our God—

The power to heal the world,

The power to transform all being,

The power to draw everything into godly being.

Arisen is the spirit leadership of his Christ.

Overthrown is the accuser of our brothers,

He who accused them night and day before the countenance of God.

They have overcome him through the blood and the sacrificial power of the Lamb

And by the divine Word to which they bore witness.

They did not love their own lives too dearly, nor did they fear death.

Therefore, rejoice you heavens

And all who lodge therein!

But woe to the earth and the sea:

For the Adversary has come down to you,

And he seethes with measureless fury,

For he knows that his time is short.

And when the dragon recognized that he had been cast onto the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had borne the son. Then the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly into the desert to her appointed place, where she is to be nourished for a cycle of time, for cycles of time, and for half a cycle of time, far from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent opened his mouth and spewed out a river of water after the woman so she would be swept off her feet by the river. But then the earth came to the woman’s assistance; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from his mouth. And the dragon burned with fury against the woman. He stormed away to make war on the rest of the woman’s seed, people who keep to the divine world aims and who are united with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus. As I saw this I was standing on the sandy shore of the sea.

3^rd Michaelmas

October 19, 2014

Revelation 12: 1-17

When we undertake to create something new, something that has never before existed, there is a period of laboring. And in this creative struggle, we are vulnerable. We can become anxious about whether we can achieve the new; we can be anxious about whether our inner and outer resources will suffice; we can experience inner and out opposition to what we are trying to achieve.

Humankind is struggling to give birth to a new way of being. The cosmic woman in the gospel reading is crowned with ideals from the realm of the stars. She is clothed with sun-radiant loving kindness; she stands upon earthly deeds done in justice, in accordance with reason and God’s higher purposes. She is the soul of humanity.

Glorification of the Virgin, St. Jans

She is vulnerable. She is being attacked by the universal many-headed dragon of fear and doubt, of hatred and greed. For the dragon and his minions have been cast down onto the earth by the progressive powers that serve the good. Michael and his angels have cleared the heavens of pollution, so that from there they can send us powers of healing, powers of transformation, powers of spiritualization. It is these powers for the good that humanity is trying to gestate.  These are the powers of Christ in us.

Yes, we are persecuted by powers of destruction. But at the same time, we are protected. We have been given the wings of prayer, the wings of meditation, the wings of the sacraments and community life. They bring us to the protected place, the place of divine nourishment. And we can know that the dragon’s persecution is ordained by God to last only for a short time. This is why the dragon ‘seethes in measureless fury.’ For his time is short. And his power to destroy everything is thwarted.

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2nd Michaelmas, Withstand

2^nd Michaelmas

October 12, 2014

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 6: 10 – 19

What it comes to in the end is this: grasp the power that streams to you in the experience of Christ in the soul and in the powerful regency of his pure spiritual strength.

Put on the power of God as one puts on full armor, so that you may stand against the well-aimed attacks of the adversary. For our struggle is not to fight against powers of flesh and blood, but against

spirit beings mighty in the stream of time,

against spirit beings powerful in the molding of earth substance,

against cosmic powers whose darkness rules the present time,

against spirits who carry evil into the realms of the spiritual world.

Therefore take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand your ground on the day when evil unfolds its greatest strength, and victoriously withstand it.

Stand firm, then, girded with the truth, like a warrior firmly girded. Connect yourself with all in the world as is justified in the spiritual world, and this connection with the spirit will protect you like a strong breastplate.

And may Peace stream through you, down to your feet, so that on your path you spread peace, as the message that comes from the realm of the angels.

In all your deeds have trust in God. This trust will be like a mighty shield; with it you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Take into your thinking the certainty of Christ’s healing deed. It will protect your head like a helmet.

And the spirit, which has become living in you, you shall grasp as one grasps a sharp sword. The sword of the spirit is the working of the Word of God.

May this armor clothe you in all your prayers and supplications, so that in the right moment you raise yourself in prayer to the spirit, and at the same time practice wakefulness in inner loyalty.

Feel yourself united in prayer with all other bearers of the spirit—also with me, Paul, so that the power of the word will be given to me when I am to courageously bring the knowledge of that holy mystery which lives in the message of the gospel.

2^nd Michaelmas

October 12, 2014

In this reading, we are presented with the image of a strong warrior. He stands upright, stands his ground, withstands. He spreads, not destruction, but Christ’s peace, which radiates from him down into the ground, guiding his path.

His power comes from Christ, who is truth itself, the real, true reality beyond illusion, beyond death.

The warrior shields himself with trust in God, his head and thoughts are helmeted with the certainty of Christ’s healing deed on Golgatha, so that we can be sure we survive beyond death.

artist unknown

He grasps and takes hold of the Word of God who is Christ the Creator Himself.

In this posture of defense the warrior protects himself from fear, from doubt, and from hatred. All of these are dark spirit beings of our time. Becoming spirit warriors, we put on the armor of God, the armor of peace, of truth. We clothe ourselves in the certainty of Christ, so that we may withstand the attacks of these beings, who are trying to conquer our souls. We may hear the voice of the spirit warrior in the prayer against fear by 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 which 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

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[1] Adam Bittleston Against Fear, in Meditative Prayers for Today. 
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Michaelmas, October 5, 2014, Preparation for Love

Michaelmas

Marriage of the Lamb

Oct 5, 2014

Matthew 22, 1-14

And Jesus continued to speak in parables to them:

The kingdom of the heavens arising in human hearts is like a man, a king, who prepared a marriage feast for his son. And he sent out his servants to call the guests who had been invited to the marriage, but they would not come.

Then he again sent out other servants, and said , “Say to those who have been invited, ‘Think, I have prepared my best for the banquet, the sacrificial oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered; everything is ready. Come quickly to the wedding.”

But they were not interested and went off, one going to his field to be his own master, another falling into the hectic pace of his own business. The rest however took hold of the servants, mistreated them and killed them.

Then the king grew angry; he sent out his army, brought the murderers to their destruction and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, “Although the marriage feast is prepared, the invited guests have proved themselves unworthy. Go out therefore to the crossroads of destiny and invite to the wedding whoever you can find.”

And the servants went into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Then the king came in to see the guests, and among them he noticed a man who was not dressed in the wedding garment  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

But the man was speechless.

Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the darkness, where human beings wail and gnash their teeth. For the call goes out to many, yet only a few make themselves bearers of the higher life.

Bride of Christ, Danny Hahlbohm

Michaelmas

Oct 5, 2014

Matthew 22: 1 – 14

A wedding is cause for great joy; for the couple have found each other on earth.  They are joining forces for a creative and fruitful union, for something that neither could do alone.

This gospel reading of the wedding of the king’s son is about the relationship between our souls, individually and collectively, and Christ. Christ is the Bridegroom. Our souls are meant to be the Bride. The divine Father invites us to wed Christ his Son.

This means that first of all we must show up. We need to extricate ourselves from the demands of ordinary everyday life and enter the hall of prayer, the hall of the celebration meal.  In order to do so worthily, we are to clothe ourselves in the appropriate soul attire. This attire we receive as grace from the King. We are to receive and clothe ourselves in three garments: We are to drape ourselves in an open reverence and grateful awe of thought. We are to wear an open empathy of heart for all the world. We are to attire ourselves in the promptings of the angels who inspire our thoughtful actions.

Thus clothed we are ready to celebrate the Great Wedding. We step into the hall of light, in the company of other such souls. There our souls are joined with Christ, the King’s Son. We have found Him on earth. We are joining forces with Him for a creative and fruitful union, for something that neither could do alone. St. Francis said in a poem called “A Wedding Gift” :

I hear you singing, dear, inviting me to your [arm] limb.

I am coming , for all that we do is a

preparation for love.

I hear you singing, my Lord, inviting me to your throne.

We are coming, dear, for all the toil you have

blessed us with is a preparation to know and hold the

sacred.

I hear you singing, my soul, but how can it be that

God’s voice has now become my own?

“That’s just a wedding gift for our

Divine Union,”

my Beloved

said. [1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] St Francis of Assisi “A Wedding Gift” , In Love Poems to God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 44