5th Easter 2015,

5th Easter, 

John 16, 1-33

Ascension, Kate Greenaway

“All these words I have spoken to you so that you will not be offended because you discover what destiny falls to you through being connected with me. For they will exclude you from their communities, and the hour will come when those who rob you of your earthly existence and kill you will think they are offering service to the progress of the world. They will do so because they cannot raise their knowing to knowledge of the Father, nor to knowledge of my being and working. All these words I have spoken to you so that when the time comes you will remember that I said them to you. I did not speak to you in this way in the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going away to him who sent me; yet, none of you has yet the strength and courage to ask me about the realm into which I now enter. Your hearts are full of grief and therefore closed to the things I have said to you.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation and healing that I go away, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, who will stand by you in all trials, the Spirit upon whom you can call for assistance at any moment, would not come to you. But because I go, I will be able to send him to you. When he comes, he will bring to the world a consciousness of how the nature of the sickness of sin works, of how people can be reconnected with the divine world in which there is no sin, and of how the decision about human error can be brought about. Sin is human beings not really being able to trust in my being and in that which works out of my being within them. The balancing of sin holds sway in my going to the Father and in not remaining limited to appearing outwardly. Judgment works in the decision that has already been made about the prince of outer world.

Holy Spirit Dove

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But only when the Spirit comes, through whom the Truth can reveal itself to the world, will he lead you to the Truth that Embraces All. For he will not speak only out of himself, but he will speak what he hears in the realm of the Spirit, as the speaking of the eternal reality, and he will tell you what is yet to come. Thus will he reveal me among men, for out of what he takes from my being he will proclaim to you. In the realm in which my Father works, there I also live. That is why I can say, ‘He will take from my being and proclaim to you’.

In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more’, and then, ‘after a little while you will see me’, and ‘because I am going to the Father’? They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not understand what he is saying.”

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “You are wondering what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’  Amen, amen, the truth I say to you, you will weep and deeply mourn, and the world will rejoice in this. You will be filled with sorrow, but this your sorrow will be turned into unceasing joy. A woman giving birth must bear pain, for her difficult hour has come. But when the child is born, she no longer considers the anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

So it is with you. Now is your time of grief. But this your grief will become the power of Spirit-Birth, for I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day, you will be so deeply united with me that you will no longer need to ask me anything.

Amen, amen, I tell you the truth; from now on what you ask of the Father in my name, He will give to you. Until now, you have not been able to ask anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, and your joy will be complete.

Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures, but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. So will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day, you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me, and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming, and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”

5^th Easter

May 3, 2015

John 16: 1 – 33

Christ the Vine, Wiki Commons

When we know that we will be separated from a loved one, we may give them a photo, to help them remember us. Before He died on the cross, Christ gave his disciples images of himself. He knew he was going away for a time, and so he gave word-pictures of himself: I am the Good Shepherd of Souls. I am the Doorway into the heavenly realms. I am the true Vine, connecting and holding you all. I am He who shows you the pathway to Truth in Life, the Way to real, true Life.

 He hoped that in their time of grief and sorrow after His death, they would remember the pictures and would find comfort and trust in them.

These images have been repeated again in the readings since Easter. And just as they were given beforehand, as a comfort for the impending events on Golgotha, so do they now precede yet another death, another loss. For on Ascension Thursday, Christ’s Resurrection Body, the body in which he appeared to his disciples for forty days after his death, this body will undergo yet another change of form. It will become another body, expanding to become the true life, the living Vine of the whole world. And they will lose sight of Him yet again.

We too do not always see Him. In fact, most moderns have not yet seen Him. This, as He says, is humanity’s  time of separation and grief, our time of laboring and pain. But He assures us that our labor is not in vain. We will bear fruit. As Rilke compares us to trees in an orchard,

… even though the burden

should at times seem almost past endurance.

Not to falter! Not to be found wanting!

Thus must it be, when willingly you strive

throughout a long and uncomplaining life,

committed to one goal: to give yourself!

And silently to grow and to bear fruit.[1]

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[1] Rainer Maria Rilke,  “The Apple Orchard.”

4th Easter 2015, Everything Depends

4th Easter

John 15: 1-27

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean, so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

Christ the True Vine, Wiki Commons

No man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them, because I have chosen you out of mankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master’. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both me and my Father.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

4th Easter

April 26, 2015

John 15: 1-27

The wild grape vine will spread its many branches far and wide, climbing over fences and up trees.  A cultivated vine is trained up on stakes and cross-wires. The vinedresser prunes it back to restrain much of the growth. Thus the vine sacrifices some of its wild abundance in order to produce better fruit.

Christ True Vine, wikicommons

Christ calls himself the True Vine. He is the Life the living entity of the earth and all on it. Our lives are branches off of His Life. And He tries to convey to us that both He and we are not to remain wild and uncultivated. Rather we are to contain ourselves on the cross-wires so that the Father, the vinedresser, can concentrate and strengthen our growth to produce excellent and abundant fruit.

The goal of our lives, the fruit we are trying to produce, is love. We are to produce the sweet and abundant fruit by remaining connected with the True Vine, the one whose very being is love. We are to remain connected with Him, living in His life, out of our own freedom of choice. To do otherwise is to risk bitter even diseased fruit.

To love means to offer our own life forces, our thoughts, our time, to others for the furtherance of the world. Offering ourselves is a habit into which we can train ourselves. We can prune away our more selfish and lazy habits, our soul’s deadwood. And this matters not only to us, but to the world. For as the poet says:

Vine and branch we’re connected in this world
of sound and echo, figure and shadow, the leaves
contingent, roots pushing against earth. [ A fruit} An apple
 
belongs to itself, to stem and tree, to air
that claims it, then ground. Connections
balance, each motion changes another. Precarious,
 
hanging together, we don’t know what our lives
support, and we touch in the least shift of breathing.
Each holy thing is borrowed.  Everything depends. [1]

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[1] Jeanne Lohmann,  “Shaking the Tree”

3rd Easter 2015, My Soul's a Shepherd

3rd Easter

John 10: 1-21

“Yes, the truth I say to you: Anyone who does not go into the sheep through the door, but breaks into the fold elsewhere, he is a thief or robber. Only he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep respond to his voice. He calls each one by name, according to its nature, and he leads them out into the open.

When he has brought them out, he walks before them, and the sheep follow after him, for they trust his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but rather flee, because they do not know the stranger’s voice.”

Thus did Jesus reveal himself to them in pictures, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Then Jesus went on. “Yes, the truth out of the spirit I say to you. I AM the door to the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them.

I AM THE DOOR. Anyone who enters through me will find healing and life. He learns to cross the threshold from here to beyond, and from there to here, and he will find nourishment for his soul. The thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy. But I – I have come that they may have life, and overflowing abundance.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who works for wages, and who is no true shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, he sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep, and flees while the wolf snatches them and scatters them. For he is only a hireling and he cares nothing for the sheep.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I know who belongs to me, and my own recognize me, just as my Father recognizes me in the depths, and I know the being of the Father; and I offer my life for the sheep.

Other sheep have been entrusted to me who are not of this fold; I must also lead them. They too will listen to my voice, and one day there will be one flock, one Shepherd.

That is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up anew. No one can take it from me.  But in full freedom I myself offer it up. I have the power to give it away and also the power to receive it anew. That is the task given to me by my Father.”

Then there again arose a division among the people because of these words. Many of them said, “He is possessed by a demon and is out of his mind. Why do you listen to him?” Yet others said, “These are not the words of one who is possessed. After all, can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

3rd Easter

April 19, 2015

John 10: 1-21

The shepherd is the image for a particular way of being. The shepherd cares for the animal life. He leads them out to pasture and nourishment during the day, and into the safety of the fold at night. Even though as the communal shepherd, the sheep do not belong to him, he recognizes the individual sheep and calls them by name. He is willing to risk his life to save them from destruction.

Christ is the Good Shepherd of souls. He knows each of us by name. We can listen to His voice as he walks before us, leading us to the nourishment and safety we need. He lays down his life for us, individually and collectively.

We too may be shepherds. We may be responsible for others in our outer life. We are certainly responsible for the various bleating voices of the collective that reside within our own souls. As the poet George Herbert says,

My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds

Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.

But we can entrust our souls fully to the voice of Him who calls us by our true name, the name written in the stars, our name written in the book of life. For we say to Him:

The pasture is Thy words; the streams, Thy grace

Enriching all the place.

Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers

Out-sing the daylight hours.

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2nd Easter 2015, Open the Door

2nd Easter

Rembrandt, Wikicommons

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2^nd Easter

April 12, 2015

John 20: 19 – 29

A door presupposes a wall. The door frame, the threshold, is an opening in what is otherwise a barrier between one side and the other.  But the door itself can be opened or closed, even locked. It is a metaphor for choice: Open? Closed? When locked it becomes like the wall itself – a barrier.

The disciples had kept the doors lock for fear of the authorities. The locked doors were also metaphors for state of their hearts locked in fear. But Christ had said of Himself, “I AM  the Door.” He himself became the entrance to the locked room, to their closed hearts. He enters the room, enters them, bringing with him a deep atmosphere of peace. And the disciples recognize and receive His healing spirit.

Wm. Holman Hunt, wikicommons

Eight days later he will show to Thomas other more intimate doorways. He will show him His own wounds, the doorways through which He was assaulted. He accepted them, suffered them, so that in His descent into hell, they too could be transformed into doorways of light. Light, warmth and life now radiate from His wounds, light that can germinate trust within human hearts, light for our path forward. And so the poet advises us:

Open the door of your heartaches.

And step through the door of your betrayal.

Pass through the hole that is left in your heart

Pass through because it is a door.

… Open the door.

….

Anything that needs us, or calls us to God is a door.

…Open the door.

….

Same old story –all strong souls all first go to hell

Before they do the healing of the world they came here for.

Open the door.[1]

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[1] Clarissa Pinkola Estes, “Abre La Puerta, Open the Door”

Easter 2015, Harbingers of Light

Easter Sunday

Mark 16: 1-18

And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”

And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where they laid Him [his body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”

                And they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say anything to anyone about what they had experienced.

When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp it.

After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they were walking over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they could not open their hearts to their words either.

Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the Risen One.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the new message from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart with it [believes] and is immersed in me [baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it [believe] and will attend their path : Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing forces to them.

Easter Sunday

April 5, 2015

Mark 16: 1-18

In the week before His death, Christ said “unless a kernel of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

The Risen One, Gruenewald, Wikipedia

The living power of Christ’s blood entered the earth at His crucifixion. And His body was placed into a cave in the earth. He, the great Light-Seed, died into the earth. On Holy Saturday, he rooted himself firmly into the earth, descending to the dead. On Easter morning, the first new shoots of His new Life broke forth from underground. New Life, capable of reproducing itself infinitely, began to grow.

At Ascension. He will open himself wide to the cosmos, while still remaining connected to the earth. And so this new Life will blossom into the whole world. At Pentecost His manifold light-seeds will fall into the hearts of those who love him.

And now, today, we rejoice because new Life is flashing forth from death. It is emerging from its apparent demise; it flares up from the ground of our hearts. The Light-Seed is quickening in the earth, in us. For today, as the poet says,

Every man, plant and creature in Existence,

Every woman, child, vein and note

Is a servant of our Beloved -

A harbinger of joy,

The harbinger of

Light.[1]

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[1] Hafiz, ”Guardians of His Beauty”, in The Subject Tonight is Love -- versions by Daniel Ladinsky

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2015, Gentle He Is

4th Passiontide

Hipolyte Flandrin

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4th Passiontide

Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015

Matthew 21: 1-11

The images and pictures of Holy Week reveal a secret. In mythology, the donkey is a symbol for the physical body – Brother Ass, as St. Francis called it. Many of us may feel ourselves submerged within our bodies. Or perhaps the body feels like a runaway donkey dragging our spirits along. Or perhaps, especially as we get older, we may feel our body as a burden that we are coaxing along behind us like an unwilling and stubborn animal.

Monk with a Donkey, Buongiorno

Christ came to help human beings establish a new relationship to their physical nature. The image of Christ riding the donkey and its foal in majesty is a picture of our own future. We will one day lovingly and gently master our bodily nature and it will carry us where we want to go. The picture image of the new young foal even hints at the future development of a new kind of body.

Here at the beginning of Holy Week Christ directs His body toward Jerusalem and its Temple. After today He will enter and leave every day on foot, until late Thursday, when he will remain, entering into the body’s death process. And at the moment of death, the birthing of a new kind of body, the resurrection body, will begin.  Step by step we can accompany this process, for

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle He is,

 and he rides on a donkey

and on a foal of beast of burden. Matthew 21:5

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3rd Passiontide 2015, Spread of a Sun

John 8: 12-20

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

March 22, 2015

John 8: 12 – 20

The sun generates a tremendous amount of energy, which it radiates forth into the universe. It pours out the substance of its being as light and warmth. In the beginning it called forth creation. The sun’s light and warmth continue to stimulate and support life. Without the sun, we and the planet would soon die.

Christ calls himself the light of the world. And this is no mere simile. For the being which once lived within the sun, together with his Father generating and radiating its warmth and light, that being came to live on earth in Christ Jesus. He is ever sacrificing the substance of his own being to bring us life-giving forces. His life stimulates our life; the life of our bodies, the life of our souls and spirits.

Our openness of soul and spirit, heart and mind, are what allows him to shine his warmth and light into us. He shines his invisible light on our path, illuminating the way. His invisible light allows us to see truth amid the darkness of lies, illusions, deceit. His warmth lets us experience his life-giving blessings. Had he not come to earth, the planet would long since have died.

He came to make the earth into a new radiant star, the star of love. He can only do so if we open ourselves to his light, his warmth, his love. Then will he not only be with us; he will be in us.

In the first morning of the world created,

on the skin of water reflected,

is the spread of a sun,

and the sun, like god, is a power

you cannot see.

Only what it lights on,

only what it touches with warmth…[1]

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[1] Linda Hogan, “Light”, in Rounding the Human Corners