Whitsun 2016, Eye of the Beholder

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 by the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

Pentecost (Whitsun)

May 15, 2016

John 14: 23-31

The manner and mood in which we look at the world determine to a great extent what we will see. And our attitude also influences how the world responds to us.

R. Acosta

Even our idioms reflect this. We speak of a bird’s eye view – seeing the panorama – or a worm’s eye view – the details at ground level. We speak of turning a blind eye, seeing with a jaundiced eye, of giving the stink eye or the evil eye.

We can also see with stars in our eyes. We remind ourselves that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

In today’s reading, Christ speaks of love as a kind of eye. To know Christ, to see him best, we must look for him with the eyes of love. And whoever loves Christ also looks at the world with such eyes. And furthermore, anyone beholding this love shining forth is seeing something of Christ’s spirit. “He who loves me reveals my spirit.

The Father gives the world its being and substance, its existence. God, the Son, brings everything alive, gives the world and  us the power of creative becoming, the power to change and evolve. Seeing with the eyes of Christ means being able to see beyond what is, to what is evolving, to what will be.

The Spirit of the Father and the Son is

the spirit of healing. What is broken can be mended; what is ill can become healthy. Those who love Christ reveal his health-bringing spirit because they gaze upon the world with love and understanding. They see clearly both from the worm’s eye and the eagle eye view. And they see with the starry eyes of one who knows where all comes from, and where all is intending. They see the beauty of what is evolving. And patiently they tend it. 

Ascension 2016, Water of Life

Ascension by Wm. Blake

Ascension

John 16: 24-33

[Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name.] Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, 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. Thus, 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.”

Clouds, NASA

Ascension

May 5, 8, 2016

John 16: 24-33

Water has the wonderful capacity to change forms easily. As solid ice, it floats. As a liquid, it flows downward to the lowest point it can find. As water vapor, it is invisible, a small amount occupying a vast space. Under the right conditions, the invisible vapor condenses into visible clouds and returns to earth as liquid rain.

Christ is the Water of Life. He took on a solid body in Jesus. At his death, he descended into the earth. At the Resurrection, he gave birth to his life form, sometimes visible, mostly not. At Ascension he became like water vapor – he expanded his nature and being into the entire biosphere of the earth. Like water vapor, he is invisible. But he is the Life that surrounds and penetrates both the earth and us. We breathe him in with every breath we take. Under the right circumstances, he condenses and becomes visible again.

Last Supper, Rosenkranz

One of those times is during the Act of Consecration, the communion service. At his Last Supper, he chose bread and wine to be forever the visible forms of his life. He chose bread to be his body, the form in which he appears. He chose the juice of the vine to be visibly his rejuvenating life, his life blood. And he offers them to us in communion so that we have the opportunity to take in his formative forces, his Life, in a conscious way. In this way, he walks the earth, in us. We may hear him in the words of the poet:

In a mist of light

falling with the rain

I walk this ground

of which [dead] men

and women I have loved

are part, as they

are part of me.  In earth,

in blood, in mind,

the dead and living

into each other pass,

as the living pass

in and out of loves

as stepping to a song.

The way I go is

marriage to this place,

grace beyond chance,

love's braided dance

covering the world.[1]

---

[1]  Wendell Berry in The Wheel

6th Easter 2016, The Greatest Achievement

6th Easter

John 14: 1-31  

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in the power that leads you to the Fatherly Ground of the World and to me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, how could I have said to you, ‘I go there to prepare a place for you’?  And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you up into the realm of my being and working, so that where I work, you also may work. And you know the way where I am going.”

Then Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”Jesus answered, “I myself am the Way—the Truth— and the Life. No one finds his way to the Father but through me. If you had really known my Being, you would have recognized my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen Him.”

Then Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that would satisfy our deepest yearning.”Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long and yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Does your heart’s voice not tell you that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. But the Father, who lives eternally in me, continues to do his works in them. Build your faith on the power of my Being that lets you know: I in the Father, the Father in me. Or at least learn to trust through looking at the works themselves that have arisen.

Truly, truly I say to you, whoever trusts in my Being will also do the works that I do --and greater deeds will he do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask for in unity with me, I will do it, so that the deeds of the Father may be revealed in the working of the Son. When you turn to me in prayer in the power of my name, I will be the Creating One in all your works. If you truly love me, you will share in my spiritual goals. And I will ask the Father and He will send to you another Counselor, who will stand by you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. The earthly world cannot receive this Counselor, for it cannot perceive his working and does not recognize him. But you know him, for he will live with you and will work in you.

I will not leave you desolate—I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. On that day, you will truly know what it means that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Whoever bears my spiritual goals within himself, and brings them to revelation in his working, is one who truly loves me. And whoever truly loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”

Then Judas, (not the Iscariot) said, “But Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the people who are in the world?

Jesus replied, “Whoever 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]. Whoever 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.

These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the health-bringing Spirit, the Counselor whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid.

You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater 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 ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me.

But I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me so that the world may know that I love the Father. Do the same. Arise, let us be on our way.

6^th Easter

Olive Ascher

May 1, 2016

John 14: 1-31  

The birth of a child is accompanied by suffering. The labor of bringing forth new life is painful. The transition itself is painful. Yet when the child is born, the pain recedes, even from memory, and is replaced by joy.

Our lives continue to be filled with moments or phases of transition. The new is brooded for a while, as an idea, a hope, an impulse. There is a laboring to achieve a new state, perhaps with the sadness of letting go of the old.

Christ himself underwent many transitions. Step by painful step he descended from divine levels of power to becoming a human being. In the beginning, He suffered the pangs of hunger and temptation in the desert.  He was subject to the enmity of the leadership and the lack of understanding of his friends. He

Grunewald

endured the lonely anguish of death, a transition which no god had ever undertaken before. He brought forth a new kind of body, a warm, light-filled harmonious resurrection body. This was the greatest achievement of a human being, achieved under unimaginable suffering. The Risen One became the meaning of the earth.

Christ is always with us in all our transitions, all of our greater and lesser deaths, all of our struggle to bring forth something new. For as he says in our funeral service: I am the new birth in death; I am the life in dying. For in dying we enter his light-filled realm of life. So let us arise and be on our way.

5th Easter 2016, Christ-Seed

5th Easter, 

John 16, 1-33

“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 a knowledge of the Father, nor to a 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 the outer world.

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

Oliver Ascher

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.

Nicolo Semitecolo

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.”

5th Easter, 

April 24, 2016  

John 16, 1-33

In the blossom, long before it opens, the seed bed is already formed. The blossom opens. The pollen rises and is fertilized. The seeds ripen.

Our lives too have seeds of our future embedded in them. Long before we blossomed into adulthood, the seeds of our future lives were embedded in us. Home and family, schooling and circumstances helped mature those seeds. Indeed, the seedbed was there from the very beginning of our lives, carried over from a previous existence. We ourselves placed them there, under the guidance of the angels.

The major potential that we are all gifted with is the Christ-Seed. Within each and every human being there is laid down the living possibility to blossom and bear fruit in freedom and in love. No matter what other seeds we may harbor, the Christ-Seed is primal. He wants to be the Creating One in everything we do. He invites us to freely decide to be working as individuals toward the development of the earth as the planet of love. 

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4th Easter 2016, Sun Seed

4th Easter

John 15: 1-27

16th-century icon, Athens

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.

Washing of the Feet, Woloschina

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 17, 2016

John 15: 1-27

Within a seed, there is the potential for all parts of a new plant – its roots and shoots, its blossoms and seeds. The potential is there because the seed is alive. And one way to tell whether a seed is alive is alive or not is to test whether it germinates. If not, it has lost its potential for further development. It is dead.

Our lives, too, are full of seed-potential. We have brought with us the possibility to become many things on many different levels. Perhaps the most important seed-potential in us is the Christ-Seed; for with His death, Resurrection, and Ascension, Christ has laid the Sun-Seed of his living being into each and every human being. This Sun-Seed is our capacity to grow and develop toward the heavenly realms, and at the same time to also more deeply and lovingly ground and root ourselves in the earth He created.  For at her core, the earth, like us, contains a potent Sun-Seed of Christ. For her, it is the living potential to gradually become in the future a new, radiant sun. Together with Christ, we are creating a new world.

Christ is the life of the seed, the true living, developing vining life in which we all live and move and have our being, as Paul says*. Christ keeps us alive so that we can germinate our potential and live into the future with him. Connected with his life, we blossom forth as spiritual beings. Connected with his life we are helping the earth to gradually become a radiant new star.

*Acts 17:28

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3rd Easter 2016, Thieves and Robbers

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 10, 2016

John 10: 1-21

Christian Science Monitor

We may get phone calls from people we don’t know. Aided by machines, armies of strangers try to enter our homes, intending to convince us, or sell us something, or even scam us. They are thieves who at the very least rob us of our precious time or money and the peace of our home sanctuary. Yet there is something we can do. We can use our own technology, our caller ID, to identify who is trying to enter and simply refuse to engage.

Our own souls have their inner thieves and robbers – thoughts that disturb or distress us, overwhelming emotions that compel is to do something, now! Yet some healthy corner of our souls knows that we ought not to listen to them. We can use our own inner process of naming, identifying the thoughts, emotions, and compulsions that would try to destroy our inner peace and health.

Christ the Good Shepherd helps us fight the intrusions of thieves and robbers. He is the giver of life and health to the soul, the giver of our joys, the comfort in our sorrows. He gives us our precious allotment of time, our peace and the creativity of love. He leads us to places of inner nourishment and freedom. Through him, we can take up our own lives and give them freely. 

2nd Easter 2017, Obey Thy Heart

2nd Easter

Artist unknown

Apr 3, 2016

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.”

Rembrandt, WikiCommons

2nd Easter

Apr 3, 2016

John 20: 19-29

In some cultures, it is customary that the birthday celebrant him or herself is the one to give out gifts to those celebrating with him. 

And so it is with The Risen One. After giving birth to his Resurrection Body on Easter, he proceeds to give his disciples a gift. He breathes the healing spirit of love into them. They are to work with this healing spiritual power in a way that strengthens others. 

To those who err, who fail, the disciples are to give strength, so that they can wrestle themselves out from under the burden of sin. They are to give them strength so that they can bear the consequences of their offenses. In Christ’s eyes sin is our failure to hit the target; it comes from our aiming too high, or falling short, or veering away from our true moral goals. And with the healing spirit, Christ came to help.

Thomas was not there the first Easter Sunday; the gospels do not say why. Was he perhaps afraid, and still in hiding? In any case, he apparently had the habit of fact-checking. Like many of us, he wanted to be sure, to have the evidence of his own senses rather than to believe the impossible on mere hearsay. And the Risen One gladly grants his request. It is as though He understands the value of a healthy skepticism. Reach out and see…

But at the same time, Christ warns against a heart that is rigid and untrusting; a heart that could say, despite evidence to the contrary, that it is still impossible. Such a heart cannot enter into relationship with Christ. In fact, for all his holding back, Thomas achieves a high degree of recognition and knowledge. Peter recognized the promised Messiah in Jesus; in the Risen One, Thomas recognizes Lord and God. As Emerson said,

Give all to love;

Obey thy heart;

…

’T is a brave master;

Let it have scope:

Follow it utterly,

Hope beyond hope:

…

Souls above doubt,

Valor unbending,

It will reward,—

They shall return

More than they were,

And ever ascending.*

*Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Give All to Love”

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