4th Sunday after Easter, Not to Falter

4th after 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 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

Stephen B. Whatley

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.”

Ascension, Sombart

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.”

Stephan B. Whatley

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.”

4^th Sunday after Easter

May 10, 2020

John 16:1-33

Stephen B. Whatley

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 them 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, his disciples would remember the pictures and would find comfort and trust in them.

These images have been repeated again in the gospel readings since Easter. And just as they were given to the disciples 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, that body would undergo yet another change of form. It would become another kind of body, expanding to become the true life, the living Vine of the whole world. And his disciples would 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. Our suffering can bear fruit.

As the poet Rilke compares us to trees in an orchard. He says

… 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.*

* Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Apple Orchard.”

www.thechristiancommunity.org

Onto a Vast Plain, Rilke

“Onto a Vast Plain”

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

You are not surprised at the force of the storm—

you have seen it growing.

The trees flee. Their flight

sets the boulevards streaming. And you know:

he whom they flee is the one

you move toward. All your senses

sing him, as you stand at the window.

.

The weeks stood still in summer.

The trees’ blood rose. Now you feel

it wants to sink back

into the source of everything. You thought

you could trust that power

when you plucked the fruit:

now it becomes a riddle again

and you again a stranger.

.

Summer was like your house: you know

where each thing stood.

Now you must go out into your heart

as onto a vast plain. Now

the immense loneliness begins.

.

The days go numb, the wind

sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.

It is what you have.

Be earth now, and evensong.

Be the ground lying under that sky.

Be modest now, like a thing

ripened until it is real,

so that he who began it all

can feel you when he reaches for you.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

3rd after Easter II, Liquid Ruby-Light

3^rd Sunday after Easter

John 15:1-27 (adapted from Madsen)

Icon, Vine and Branches

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 makes pure that it may bear more fruit. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit out by itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you unless you stay united with me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me and I in them, 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 much fruit and become ever more my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Live on in my love. If you take my aims into your will, then you will live on in my love, o 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.

No one can have greater love than this, than that they offer up their life for their friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for servants do not know what their 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 fruit 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.

Arthur Ernst Becher

If people hate you, remember that they hated me before you. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but because you do not belong to them since I chose you out of humankind, people hate you.

Remember the word that I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than their 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 hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, such as 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.

3^rd after Easter

May 8, 2020

John 15:1-27

The air is both inside us and outside us. It is like a great ocean of light and life, filling all spaces. We breathe it in and out in the rhythm of the waves. We breathe in the Father’s light, His life, His love. And the whole future existence of the earth depends on what we breathe out—darkness or light, death or life, hatred or love.

We breathe out light along with the quality of our awareness. Our awareness of the spirit, of the divine, builds the future. We breathe out life when what we create and upbuild toward the future outweighs those destructive forces that are necessary to maintain life itself now. We breathe out love when we connect ourselves to the universe and all its kingdoms in warmth, joy, and gratitude.

‘I am the vine’, Christ says. ‘You are my branches. Without me, you can bear no fruit’. Without Christ’s light and life, human life on earth will bear no fruit, and thus will have no future. Without the fruit of his love, which has become concentrated in the wine of his blood, our souls sicken. Without this connection, our souls would die. The poet Hafiz describes it this way:

True Vine, Sjodin

Why all this talk of the Beloved…

Liquid ruby-light we can lift in a cup?

Because it is low tide

A very low tide in this age

And around most hearts.

We are exquisite coral reefs,

Dying when exposed to strange

Elements.

God is the wine-ocean we crave—

We miss

Flowing in and out of our

Pores*

Christ is our connector, the divine/human channel to the greater ocean of the Father’s light, life, and love. He mediates the light-filled air of life within and without. His being is the essence of love—giving, circulating, connecting, maintaining. Connecting ourselves with Him, through and in the symbolic reality of the wine, we are connecting ourselves to the wine-red ocean of the Father’s life, to the Father’s loving awareness. Connecting ourselves with Him we are connecting with our future.

*Hafiz, “Why All This Talk?”, in Tonight the Subject is Love, by Daniel Ladinsky, p.7

www.thechristiancommunity.org

3rd Sunday after Easter, May 3, 2020, No Body But Yours

3^rd Sunday after Easter
John 15:1-27

Christ the True Vine

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.

No one can have greater love than this, than that they offer up their life for their friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for servants do not know what their 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 humankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember

Christ in the Winepress

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 my Father and me.

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.

3^rd after Easter
May 3, 2020
John 15:1-27

 The wild grapevine will spread its many branches far and wide, climbing over fences and up trees.  A cultivated vine is trained on stakes and cross

grapevines

-wires. The vinedresser prunes it back to restrain much of the growth. Thus the vine sacrifices some of its wild leafy abundance in order to produce better fruit.
Once a mighty vine grew in the realm of the heavens. Its life was the life of the whole universe. Its roots were in the sun. Its branches were in the cosmos. Its fruits were the planets and the stars.

One of its planets, the earth, began to sicken and grow dark. And so the mighty vine concentrated its life into a single Seed, which dropped onto the earth. The seed died and was buried in the earth. There it germinated, grew toward the heavens, scattering seeds of its own into the heart of each human being on the planet.

Christ is that cosmic vine, who concentrated His life into the seed of a single life, which then germinated, grew and bore fruit on the earth.

Christ says, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” John 15:5. Christ is our lifeblood. Our lives are branches of His Life. The Father, who holds humankind’s destiny, is the vinedresser. The Father is looking for healthy growth, trimming away what does not serve, to increase what will promote the best fruits.

Christ tries to convey to us that 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.

In our western culture, we have grown much that was useless, excessive, even diseased. The healthy part of us accepts the necessity of a “correction”, a trimming. True, the process is painful; but it is only right and just. It is meant for our good, for our health. Time to trim back. Time to become truly fruitful. Time to seek the living source.

In today’s reading, we are receiving a vivid reminder that Christ is indeed what nourishes. We cluster in prayer like fruit on His vine. We receive His wine-sap, the living juice of His blood, whenever we pray,

Bernardino Luini, Christ Among the Doctors

So that we remain connected to His love;
So that we become and remain fruitful;
So that we, in turn, may channel His strengthening life and love to others.

As Teresa of Avila said,

Christ has no Body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
Compassion on this world
Yours are the feet with which He walks
To do good
Yours are the hands with which He blesses
All the world.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

World Healing, May 1, 2020

Prayer for One's Country (adapted)
Adam Bittleston
 
O Christ, Thou knowest

Fra Angelico

The souls and spirits
Whose deeds have woven
This land’s destiny.
 
May we who today
Are bearers of this destiny
Find the strength and the light
Of thy servant Michael.
 
And our hearts be warmed
By Thy blessing, O Christ,
That our deeds may serve
Thy work of world healing.


This appears as a "Prayer for Britain" in the 1966 edition of Meditative Prayers for Today by Adam Bittleston. It does not appear in the current edition, available at http://shop.steinerbooks.org/Title/9781782504672 . This much-loved collection can be used as a kind of breviary. From the description: 

Growing into the daily use of these meditative prayers makes us conscious of how we stand in great world rhythms. We learn to follow the alternation of waking and sleeping, the ordering of the seven days of the week, and the course of the seasons, as gifts of heavenly powers gradually become known to us. 

This is a small, elegant guide to aid meditation.

C O N T E N T S:

Introduction 

PRAYERS:
Evening and morning
The week
The year
Earth
Against fear
For one who has died
Intercessory prayers
For children
The guardian angel
Blessing on a house
For a journey
For the peoples of the world
Grace before meals
Thanksgiving 

A note about the Lord's Prayer

2nd after Easter II, April 29, 2020, Brilliant Angel Feathers

2^nd Sunday after Easter

John 10:1-16

“Yes, the truth I say to you: Anyone who does not go into the sheep through the door, but breaks into the fold elsewhere, 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.

Brueghel, Bad Sheperd

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, 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; 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.

2^nd after Easter II

April 29,2020

John 10:1-16

In this parable of the Good Shepherd,

Tissot

we might not like seeing ourselves cast as sheep. We might prefer the parable of the single lost sheep,* the one who is so important to the shepherd that he leaves the rest of the flock to go searching for it. But in today’s picture, Christ is speaking about his relationship to those who find themselves in communities, those who are gathered together. And he is looking at the ways in which His flock, His community is either protected or threatened.

What is it that holds His community together, gives it cohesion? It is Christ himself who holds His community together. The will of the group is to follow in trust Christ’s will: his being, his love.

It is He who knows what we need—when it is time to go out and be fed and when it is time to stay safe in the fold. We, the flock, know that we can trust and follow His voice. He knows us, individually and collectively. He speaks to us in the sacraments, in prayer. He continues to offer His life for us, to us, in physical and spiritual communion. It is He who cares for, protects, and guides the life of His community.

Christ gathers us into a community to protect us from the wolves of solitude, illusion, and untruth. Those wolves divide and scatter, snatch and devour. Christ keeps us together, saying, in the words of the poet:

Someone

Fra Angelico, Sheep and Goats

Will steal you if you don’t stay near,

And sell you as a slave in the

Market.

I sing to the nightingales’ hearts,

Hoping they will learn

My verse.

So that no one will ever imprison

Your brilliant angel

Feathers.

Have I put enough spiced manna

On your plate?

…If not, please wait

For more light is now fermenting. . . **

*Luke 15:3

**Hafiz, “Spiced Manna”, in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 210

Visit our website: www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd Sunday after Easter 2020, Come Unto Me

2^nd Sunday after Easter

  John 10:1-16

“Yes, the truth I say to you: Anyone who does not go into the sheep through the door, but breaks into the fold elsewhere, 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

Yong Sun Kim

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, 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.

2^nd Sunday after Easter

April 26, 2020

John 10:1-21

Jorge Sanz-Cordona

A doorway is an opening that leads from one space to another. The door can either open or close off the access. In our everyday lives we encounter many doors; not only the physical ones in rooms and buildings, but also the portals between one state of soul and another.

One such doorway is waking and sleeping. At night we are meant to move calmly and easily through the doorway of sleep. The doorway to our earthly concerns closes behind us, and we move out into the starry pastures where our souls are nourished, and our bodies refreshed. And then, at the right time, we are called back to our earthly home.

But fear and worry, clinging to earthly concerns, can hold us back at the gateway to sleep, or bring us rushing back too soon.

At the beginning of our earthly lives, we stood before a similar portal. We were called into life, onto earthly fields. And at the end we will be called back again to our heavenly home.

Christ is the one who calls us to both our homes, the earthly one and the heavenly. For He Himself is at home both here on the earth and in the starry expanses. He is the one who leads us to the thresholds of sleep and of life. He is the one who opens the door. Day after day, night after night, life after life, we can follow His call. He walks in the spirit ahead of us. We can trust in the calling of His voice. For His is the voice that summons our deepest self. His is the voice of nurture, the voice of the purest, most accepting, all-forgiving love. 

So, as a ‘sleep aid’ we can say the following prayer:

May the events that seek me

Come unto me.

May I receive them

With a quiet mind

Through the Father’s ground of peace

Jorge Sanz-Cordona

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.*

And then we can awaken from the Good Shepherd’s nourishing fields of sleep, the kind of sleep that

I sleep where I will

wake with the

strength to

deeply

love….**

*Adam Bittleston, Against Fear, in Meditative Prayers for Today. Available at http://shop.steinerbooks.org/Title/9781782504672

**Theresa of Avila, (1515-1582), “Clarity is Freedom” in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 279