2nd Johnstide 2021, Heart-Warm Thanks

Johnstide

John 3:22-33
 
After this, Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned.
 
Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
 
John answered, "No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, is filled with joy at the bridegroom's voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.
 
"He who descends from above, out of the

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spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound. He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the Spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.
 
"But whoever accepts his testimony sets his seal to this: that God is Truth [or, that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]."

2^nd Johnstide
July 4, 2021
John 3:22-33

John the Baptist came with a mission. He was to witness the incarnation of the Light of the World in Jesus at His baptism. He came to prepare souls to also be able to perceive Christ. He inaugurated a rite of purification, a ritual immersion, which allowed individuals to have their own unique spiritual experience. Some saw the quality of their own lives pass before them; others felt the glorious beings of the spiritual world.

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As we hear in the reading, those following Jesus were also undergoing baptisms. John’s reaction to the ‘threat of competition’ is noteworthy.

John’s very name means ‘God is gracious.’ God graced John with the opportunity to complete what he had come to do. He witnessed; indeed, he helped midwife the incarnation of God’s Light and Love. And John speaks out of the meaning of his own name when he says that spiritual power is given as grace. He recognizes that his own day is beginning to decline while Jesus’s sun is rising. And so John graciously lets go the baton as he passes it on.

God is gracious. He gives us our lives and sends us to fulfill our tasks. And when we have accomplished what we have come to do, when we have borne witness to our times and loved those whom we were sent to love, we send the Father our heart-warm thanks for the opportunity to be on the earth, doing what we do. And so as the poet says:

May the light of your soul bless your work
with love and warmth of heart.
….
May the sacredness of your work bring light and renewal
to those who work with you
….
May it release wellsprings of refreshment,
inspiration and excitement.
…..
May dawn find hope in your heart, ….
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.*

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*John O’Donohue, "For Work," in To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 146.

1st Johnstide 2021, Shine in Darkness

1^st Johnstide

Mark 1:1-13

This is the beginning of the new word from the realm of the angels, sounding forth through Jesus Christ. Fulfilled is the word of the prophet Isaiah:

Behold, I send my angel before your face.

He is to prepare your way.
Hear the voice of one calling in the loneliness of the human soul
Prepare the way for the Lord within the soul,
Make his paths straight so that he may find entrance into the innermost human being!
 
Thus did John the Baptist appear in the loneliness of the desert. He proclaimed baptism, the way of a change of heart and mind, for the acknowledgment of sin. And they went out to him from all of Judea and Jerusalem and received baptism from him in the river Jordan and recognized and confessed their failings.
 
John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. Fruits and wild honey were his food. And he proclaimed, "After me comes one who is mightier than I. I am not even worthy to bend down before Him and to undo the straps of His sandals. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy [or, healing] Spirit."
 

Julia Stankova

In those days, it happened: Jesus of Nazareth came to Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.
 
And at the same time, as he rose
 up again out of the water, he beheld how the spheres of the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove.
 
And a voice sounded from the world of the Spirit, "You are my son, the beloved—in you is my revelation."
  
And suddenly, he felt himself driven by the Spirit into the desert, and he remained in the loneliness of the desert for forty days, tempted by the Adversary. And he was among wild animals, and the angels served him.

Daniel Bonnell

1^st Johnstide
June 27, 2021
Mark 1:1-13
  
At Christmastime, we awakened into mid-winter darkness.
The starlit heavens opened up, and a choir of angels announced the approach of the great Sun-Spirit who was to be born in humankind. Through late winter and spring, we watched as Jesus of Nazareth grew, teaching and healing. He died and overcame death, appearing to his disciples as they learned to know him in a new way. He united heaven and earth in his Ascension. And at Pentecost, he sent his Spirit awareness to keep himself alive in human hearts.
 
Now we stand at another turning point of the year.  It is mid-day [midnight in the Southern Hemisphere] in the earth’s year. And oddly, the gospel readings seem to start over—Jesus is baptized.  It is as if the gospel readings would like us to take a closer look, to focus in on something.  We see the moment in which Jesus, the man, offers himself.  He steps into the streaming, living waters of the Jordan.  The heavens are torn open. The Father's voice resounds, affirming His Son. The Son-God himself, Christ, enters Jesus.  Jesus becomes the Christ-bearer. 
 

Anton Mengs

At this midday in the year, instead of a choir of angels, one lone human voice, John the Baptist, urges us to offer ourselves, as Jesus did, to the intimate working of Christ in us, through us.  Now it is we who are to become Christ-bearers.  Now it is we who are to become true sons and daughters of the Father. 
 
From now on, the outer sunlight will gradually lessen [grow] as the days grow shorter [longer].  But the Christ-Sun wants to rise within us.  He wants to irradiate our being as he once did the man Jesus.  He wants us to see and hear, to change.  Within us, he wants to become the light that always shines in the darkness. 

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4th June Trinity 2021, Healing to This House

 

June Trinity, additional
Luke 19:1-10
 

And he came to Jericho and went through the town. See, there was a man called Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector, and a rich man. He wanted to see Jesus to know who he was; but because he was small of stature, he could not see him in the great crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a mulberry-fig tree to see him, for he had to come past there. 

And when Jesus came to the place he looked up to him and said, `Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must be a guest in your house!' 

And he came down hurriedly and made him welcome in his house with great joy. All who saw it became indignant and said, 'He has gone in to be a guest in the house of a sinner.' 

Then Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, 'Lord, see, half of all that I have I give to the poor, and if I have taken too much from someone, I give it back to him fourfold.' And Jesus said to him, 'So today healing has come to this house. This man, too, is a true son of Abraham, and the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.'

4^th Trinity II
June 20, 2021
Luke 19:1-10

This lovely episode in the Gospels is encouraging on so many levels: The 'little guy' gets noticed. His efforts at running ahead and raising himself are rewarded. Not only does Jesus notice him but says that He will visit his house and dine with him.


Meanwhile, Zacchaeus had also prepared himself inwardly for an encounter with Christ. Half his riches he shares with the poor—a sign of his awareness that he is embedded in a community from which his wealth is earned; and a community for which he is in turn responsible. He makes recompense for his wealth. He also acknowledges any mistakes or errors toward individuals and makes fourfold restitution.

Zacchaeus has schooled himself in creating right relationships to the divine and to his fellow humans. His open-hearted generosity and willingness to make restitution have brought healing. They are the openings through which Christ is able to commune intimately with him.

Openheartedness is the first step toward an encounter with Christ—Christ on the Way, Christ in us, Christ in others. He is always ready. He says: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me" (Rev 3:20).

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 Dear Email Subscribers,

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Cindy Hindes

3rd Trinity II 2021, Come and See

 

June Trinity II, additional

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me!"

Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote. It is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth."

Then Nathanael said to him, "Can good come out of Nazareth?"

Philip said to him, "Come and see."

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "He has reached the stage of an Israelite in whom there is no untruth."

Then Nathanael said to him, "From where do you know me?"

And Jesus replied, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Then Nathanael said, "Master, you are the Son of God; you are the spiritual leader of Israel."

And Jesus answered, "Because I said to you I saw you under the fig tree, have you found confidence in me? You will experience greater things than this." And he said to him, "Yes, I say to you all: You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending above the Son of Man."

3^rd Trinity II

June 13, 2021

John 1:43-51

Out of all the facts, all the things we have experienced, all the things we know, our souls construct a coherent story that makes sense to us. For Nathaniel, in this gospel reading, the One whom they were awaiting wasn't expected to come from Nazareth. It didn't fit with the narrative. Not until Nathaniel experienced Christ Jesus himself, not until Jesus supplied additional knowledge and facts, could Nathaniel expand and change the whole narrative. His encounter with Christ changed not only his view of the Messiah but also changed the subsequent storyline of his own life.

In our lives, too, we have built up stories, both individually and culturally. As new experiences arrive, the stories through which we make sense of the world need to be constantly revised and expanded. We need to be open to incorporating new events and facts, especially when they are life-changing.

At the center of this gospel reading is an invitation: Come and see. Come—approach the One you are hoping for. See for yourself. Perceive Him, listen to Him, converse with Him.

Today the invitation still goes out: come and see for yourself. Converse with Him—in your own personal encounters, in the gospels, in the narrative of the Act of Consecration. Perceive Him in the changing life and color of nature and the seasonal prayers. We can hear His invitation in the words of Hafiz: 

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…our Beloved,

… eternally says, 

"Yes, dear ones, come this way,

Come this way toward Me and Love!"*

 

* Hafiz, in I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky

 

 

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2nd Trinity II 2021, Soul and Spirit

 

2nd June Trinity II

John 4:1-26 

At this time, the Lord became aware that it was rumored among the Pharisees that Jesus was finding and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, though his disciples did.) Therefore he left Judea and went back again to Galilee. 

Now he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was also there. Jesus was weary with the journey, and he sat down by the well. It was about midday, the sixth hour. 

Then a Samaritan woman came to draw water. And Jesus said to her, "Give me to drink," for his disciples had gone into town to buy bread. 

Then the Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman?" For the Jews avoided all contact with the Samaritans. 

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Jesus answered her, "If you knew how the
divine world now draws near to human beings, and who it is who says to you, 'Give me to drink,' you would ask him, and he would give you the water of life [or, the living water]. 

"Sir," the woman said to him, "you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From where will you draw the living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his flocks and herds?" 

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water that I will give them, their thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity." 

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may never be thirsty again, and need never come here again to draw." 

He said to her, "Go call your husband and show him to me." 

"I have no husband," she replied. 

Jesus said to her, "You have well said that you have no husband. Five husbands you have had, and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly."

"Sir," the woman said, "I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews say that only in Jerusalem is the place where one should worship." 

Jesus answered, "Believe me, O woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship a being you do not know; we worship what we do know. That is why salvation had to be prepared for among the Jews. But the hour is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father with the power of the Spirit and in awareness [or, knowledge] of the truth." 

Then the woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming who is called Christ. When he comes, he will teach us all things." 

Jesus said to her, "I AM he who stands before you and speaks to you."

2^nd June Trinity

June 6, 2021

John 4:1-26 

Sometimes a person is too ill to take anything by mouth, and it becomes necessary to give fluids directly into the bloodstream. As a result, the person feels no thirst, for thirst is quenched by another source. 

In this gospel reading, Christ meets a woman drawing water from an ancient well. It was a well established by Jacob the Patriarch and over the centuries had quenched many a thirst. But over those same centuries, humankind had become more and more ill. This illness produced a deep existential thirst that needed to be quenched in another way. 

Julia Stankova

The hope was that this thirst for meaning, a thirst for guidance and purpose, could be quenched by the five senses, represented by the woman’s five husbands. She is the Soul, looking everywhere for her missing half, for her completion by the Spirit. She looks for meaning through taste and touch, through sight and sound and scent. She looks to the past and the ancient ways; she looks for purpose in high worship on the mountain. But no longer does any of this suffice. This experience is captured by Rumi: 

I have a thirsty fish in me

that can never find enough

of what it’s thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean!* 

Humanity’s Soul is ill. She needs the World Physician who will quench our deep thirst another way. “Whoever drinks the water that I will give her, her thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I will give her will become in her a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”  John 4:14 

Through our union with Christ, our deep existential thirst will be quenched, for we will be connected to the Source; we will find our way to the great ocean, drinking in, filling ourselves with His life-giving love. 

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*Rumi, “A Thirsty Fish”, in The Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks, p, 19.

1st June Trinity 2021, Waking Up

 

1^st June Trinity II

John 3:1-17

There was a man in the circle of the

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Pharisees, whose name was Nicodemus; he held high rank among the Jews. He came to Jesus in the night and said, "Master, we know that you are a high teacher of humankind, come to us from God, for no one can do such signs of the Spirit as you do unless God himself is working together with them in their deeds."

Jesus answered and said to him, "The truth out of the spirit I say to you: whoever is not born anew from above cannot behold the kingdom of God."

Nicodemus said to him, "How can someone be born again when they are old? Can they return to their mother's womb to be born again a second time?

Jesus answered, "The truth out of the Spirit I say to you: whoever remains as they are and does not come to a new birth out of the formative power of the water and out of the breath of the Spirit [or, …and is not born anew out of the spiritual power of eternal becoming and out of being touched by the might of the Spirit world] cannot enter into the kingdom of God. What is born out of earthly elements is of earthly nature. But what is born out of the breath of the Spirit is itself Spirit. Do not wonder that I said to you that you must be born anew from above. The Spirit wind blows where it wills; you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born anew out of the breath of the Spirit."

Nicodemus replied and said to him, "How can one attain this?"

Tissot, Moses 

Jesus answered, "You are a teacher of Israel and do not know? Amen, the truth I say to you: we speak of what we know, and we bear witness to what we have seen in the Spirit, but none of you accepts our testimony. When I speak to you of earthly things, and you do not believe them, how shall you believe when I want to speak to you of heavenly things? No
one has ascended to the spiritual world who has not previously descended out of the spiritual world, that is, the Son of Man.

"Just as Moses once lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who finds his power in their hearts can win a share in the higher life beyond time. God has so loved the world that he has given his only begotten Son. From now on, no one who fills themselves with his power shall perish, for they will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but so that the world be saved [or, healed] through him and not fall prey to ruin."

1^st June Trinity

May 30, 2021

John 3:1-17

The plants have grown enthusiastically. Their flowering has released clouds of pollen. Carried up by the wind and thermals, the pollen is kissed by the life-giving power of the sun. When it returns to the plants, it will bring them the potential to create the seeds of new life.

We, too, have our times when we expand out into the universe. Mostly we do so unconsciously, in our sleep. When we return to our bodies in the morning, blessed and strengthened by an encounter with our angel, we are refreshed and ready for new life in a new day. 

Nicodemus comes to Christ in the realm of night. And Christ tries to make clear to him that it is now necessary to become aware, to work consciously with these spiritual forces of new birth from above with our day-waking consciousness. The Spirit-breath, the Spirit-wind, carries with it words of creation, the potential for the next step in humankind's evolution. The Spirit gives us the impulses for the new—a new way, a new direction, a new paradigm. For the old is falling away. But the Spirit needs our voluntary cooperation. 

It is time to open ourselves. It is time to receive the blessing and strength from the Spirit for what is coming. We may not know where exactly which direction the impulse for the new is coming from; we may not know where it will lead us. 

It will most certainly at first lead us through the death of the old way, just as following Christ led Nicodemus through the events of Christ's death and resurrection. For we hear of him helping to prepare Christ's body for the tomb (John 19:39). Nevertheless, we can listen for the sound of the Spirit-wind and rise to hear the words of becoming, sounding on the breath of the Spirit. As we do so, we will begin to share in Christ's timeless, higher life. 

As poet Antonio Machado said:

Beyond living and dreaming

there is something more important:

waking up.*

 

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*Antonio Machado, The Winged Energy of Delight, translations by Robert Bly