1st November Trinity 2016, Fire of Creative Love

1st November Trinity

Bowyer Bible

Revelation 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,

artist unknown

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.”

1st November Trinity

October 30, 2016

Revelation 1, 1-20

Grunewald

We move into the dark time, toward the company of those who have died. The border between their world and ours becomes thin. And so we can more easily sense their presence. For our deceased loved ones still love us, are still united with us. Especially when we remember them, when we think of them in gratitude, they can be with us. They can continue to enrich our lives and perhaps even gently guide us.

Chief among those who have died and yet still live is Christ, the first-born in the realm of the dead. He is our ever-beloved, still alive in death, ever with us. We think of his ever-living presence so that He can be with us, enriching our souls, gently guiding us.

He is the ever-born Life, radiant with the light of the sun, blazing with the fire of creative love. He is our leader in the realm across the threshold of death. He is our guide in our congress with those who have crossed that threshold before us. The world beyond is no longer dark, for He who is the Light of Worlds now lives and works there.

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4th Michaelmas 2016, Loyal

2nd 3rd or 4th Michaelmas Sunday

Revelation 19, 11-16

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.

2nd 3rd or 4th Michaelmas Sunday

October 23, 2016

Revelation 19, 11-16

Here in the North, we are descending into the cold and dark time of the year. Yet as we cross the threshold into darkness, an image lights up. It is an image of light and fire, painted in colors of red, white and gold. The white horse, and white linens, the red of blood and wine, the gold of flame and crowns.

Like the woman clothed with the sun, this too is an image of humanity. It is the image of an ever enlarging humanity led by the rider in white, wearing the many crowns of nations and of lives.

He is a leader who reigns from within the body. He rides the white horse of a purified intelligence. He will cover us with the white linen of his truth and justice. His staff of iron will strengthen our blood and our inner resolves, pressing out all of our selfishness and greed.

He is faithful, loyal to his own mission of helping humanity. He leads us in our battle against the adversaries of our true human nature. The very colors express our true humanity: the white of clear pure thinking, the gold of a loving heart, the red of a will devoted to God and to humanity. He leads. He asks us to follow. 

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3rd Michaelmas 2016, Mature Enough

2nd 3rd or 4th Michaelmas

Revelation 12: 1-17

Edward Robert Hughes

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.

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.

Mengs

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.

Apocalyptic Seal

2nd 3rd or 4th Michaelmas

October 16, 2016

Revelation 12: 1-17

Today's reading is an image of the current state of the soul of humanity. Her true nature is to radiate loving-kindness, like the sun which bestows life on all. She is crowned with high starry ideals. And she stands firmly on the generative forces of the moon. Humanity's soul is laboring to give birth to its Son, the true I AM of humanity, the Christ in us.

Yet she is threatened by the dragon of fiery passions, a dragon of an overbearing and ultimately destructive intellectual capacity. Her child is protected by God. She herself, humanity's soul, has been given the elevating eagle wings of greater vision. She is helped by the absorbing capacity of the earth. Yet she must still suffer persecution and isolating loneliness.

Collot d'Herbois

This is a picture for our time. We sense that we need to love all; we are inspired by ideals and by the capacity to generate the new. Yet we are beset by evil beings intent upon destruction. We experience both increasing levels of awareness and increasing loneliness.

At the same time we have the assurance that though we suffer, our love for the divine, our awareness of the truth of our ideals, our love for the earth, and our insight will bring about the birth of Christ within humanity. For the divine, and its capacity to heal the world and its ills, its powers of transformation, are now also operating from a clear and strong space . The dragon has been cast out. He has been thrown down to us. This is because humanity is now strong enough, mature enough, protected enough to withstand him.

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2nd Michaelmas, Three Christ-Powers

Archangel Michael, Schongauer

2nd 3rd or 4th Michaelmas

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, 3rd or 4th Michaelmas

Memling

October 11, 2016

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, 6:10-19

"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."

What is the power that streams to us in the experience of Christ in the soul? His power is three-fold:

It is the power to think the truth; to think thoughts that are true, that are in consonance not only with earthly reality but also with higher spiritual realities. The power of Christ in the soul heals us from the cognitive distortions of unhealthy, untrue thoughts.

Christ's power in the soul is also the power to feel a connection not only with what is beautiful and noble, but also to make peace with earthly reality, with what is. We are to absorb Christ's attitude: I stand at peace with the world, he says. And he gives us this peace so that we can spread peace out into the world. His Peace is to invade our whole being, down to our feet, so that the way we walk in the world spreads peace on the path.

And Christ's third power allows us to act with uprightness and in right relationship to the earth and all its inhabitants. We can do so, not by putting our faith in a static, absolute good, but by trusting in the ultimate victory of an ever-evolving goodness.

A well-known verse by Rudolf Steiner shows us this power of Christ that we can actively take in hand:

To wonder at beauty,

Memling

Stand guard over truth,

Look up to the noble,

Resolve on the good.

This leadeth us truly

To purpose in living,

To right in our doing,

To peace in our feeling,

To light in our thinking.

And teaches us trust,

In the working of God,

In all that there is,

In the width of the world,

In the depth of the soul.*

*Rudolf Steiner, in Wahrspruchsworte, GA 40, page 324.

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2nd August Trinity 2016, Protect the Holy

Matthew 7, 1-29

2nd August Trinity

“Do not judge your fellow man, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For with the judgment that you pronounce you also speak your own judgment, and the measure by which you measure will be the measuring rod for your own self. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not become aware of the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye”. But mark it well, there is a log in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces.

Ask from the heart and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you; for he who asks in uprightness will receive; he who earnestly seeks will find; he who knocks, to him will be opened. Or are there among you those who when his son asks for bread would give him a stone; or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you who in spite of wickedness know how to give good things to your children, how much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly ask him for it.

All that you want that men should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets.

Walk through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the path is easy which leads to ruin [the abyss] and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds it.  

2nd August Trinity

August 31, 2017

Matthew 7, 1-29

Today’s gospel reading takes us on an inward spiral. This spiral clears a path for Christ to enter our hearts.

The first step inward is to notice our tendency to criticize and judge others. By focusing on others, we can fail to notice how such faults live within us. Critical judgment of others blinds us to what needs correcting within our own souls. It creates a closed door, a barrier to inwardness of heart. We need to pay attention to the direction in which we focus our attention.

The next step is to learn to protect the holy, to refrain from letting the profane overwhelm what is sacred. That which is holy is that within us that connects us to the divine. It must be protected from destruction. One way we profane inner holiness is by talking it to death. So this step suggests we enter an inner silence, and create a well-guarded inner treasure-chamber.

The third step is to bring our practice of prayer into the deepest part of our heart. We are not to treat the divine world as a kind of cosmic vending machine to satisfy our material wishes. Rather we are to offer our deepest needs, our deepest heart to the Father. We submit our hopes to his greater will and wisdom. He knows even better than we do what would truly benefit us.

And lastly we are to choose to treat others with respect and with wisdom.

A critical attitude of mind, a profaning of the sacred and a demanding heart; they operate within us as powers of diminishment and destruction. They eat away at our true, wise discernment, our inner relationship with God and with our fellow human beings.  John O’Donohue said,

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place

Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

Transforming our broken fragments

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presides

That is more gracious than the smallness

That fuels us with fear and force,

A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks

For being betrothed to the unknown

And for the secret work

Through which the mind of the day

And wisdom of the soul become one.

“The Inner History of a Day,” John O’Donohue, in To Bless the Space Between Us

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1st August Trinity 2016, Unimaginable

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

1st 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.

Tissot, Get thee behind Me

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.”

1st August Trinity

July 24, 2016

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

Tissot, The Blind Leading the Blind

Our hopes and expectations can blind us. We picture for ourselves how we hope things will be, how
we want them to be. But these imaginings can cast a veil over what actually is and what will be. They can blind us to what is real.

The people of Jesus’s time had built up images of how the Messiah would be. He would be a great political leader, a new King David to overthrow the Romans. He would be a prophet, the voice of God. He would be a priestly mediator of the divine.

Peter indeed recognizes in Jesus the Christ, the anointed and expected Messiah. Immediately Jesus tries to tell his disciples what his real mission, his real plans are. He tries to clear away the false hopes and expectations. He will not be a political leader. Although he is the voice of God, he will not be an old style prophet only of the folk. He will be a priest, but of a new order. He will be both priest and sacrifice.

C. D' Herbois

He tries to tell Peter that what will be most important is that he will suffer, die, and resurrect – live, die, and live again. He will mediate Life itself, so that we too can live again.

But Peter’s earthly hopes get in the way. His expectations become an adversarial force, an obstacle that Christ must reject. And it is Judas’s false expectation that hand Jesus over to the executioners. Christ’s task is so other, so radical, so unimaginable that even to this day hardly anyone fully understands it.

Yet even though we may not understand Him, Christ is still able to work on his mission, as long as we are open to him; as long as we don’t harbor false expectations of what he can do for us. He works in our hearts to heal; he works in our communities to unite; he works in the world to give peace.

www.thechristiancommunity.org 

4th St. Johnstide 2016, Garland of Beautiful Deeds

St. Johnstide

Matthew 11: 2-15

John in Prison, Cornelius de Galle the Younger

When John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are awakened, and those who have become poor receive the message of salvation. Blessed are those who are not offended by my Being.”

When they had gone, Jesus began to speak about John. “Why did you go out into the desert? Did you want to see a reed swaying in the wind? Or was it something else you wanted to see? Did you want to see a man in splendid garments? Those in splendid garments are in the palaces of kings. Did you go to see a man who is initiated into the mysteries of the spirit, a prophet? Yes, I say to you—he is more than a prophet. He it is of whom it is written:

           

          

John Baptist, Roumanian 10th century

  Behold it well: I will send my angel before your face;

            He shall prepare the way of your working in human hearts

            So that your being may be revealed.

The truth I say to you: among all who are born of women, not one has risen up who is greater than John the Baptist; and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist, and even more now, the kingdom of heaven will arise within human beings through the power of the will; those who exert themselves can freely grasp it. The deeds of the prophets and the content of the Law are words of the spirit that were valid [worked into the future] until the time of John. And if you want to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

4^th St. Johnstide

July 17, 2016

Matthew 11: 2-15

Sometimes one hears a parent telling a child not to do something which the parent him/herself is doing. It is a case of “Do what I say, not what I do.” This is not very effective because children imitate, and we have to set a good example. We need to model and be the change we wish to see.

In the reading today, Christ lays emphasis, not on talk, nor on affirmation, but on deeds.  John asks if Jesus is the Messiah, the expected new political leader, or great prophet. Christ Jesus does not say, ‘Sure, I am the Messiah’. He does not point to great teachings. He points to deeds accomplished on behalf of others. Through Him, human beings are cleansed, strengthen, and elevated.

Christ further emphasizes that it is our own activity of will that moves humanity forward. Through energetic inner activity, the kingdom of the heavens will arise within human hearts. It is through the kingdom within that we ourselves are healed, strengthened and elevated. It is through the kingdom within that we can strengthen and elevate others.

The Buddha said,

The perfume of sandalwood,

the scent of rosebay and jasmine,

travel only as far as the wind.

But the fragrance of goodness

travels with us

through all the worlds.

Like garlands woven from a heap of flowers,

fashion your life

as a garland of beautiful deeds.