3rd November Trinity 2013, Flowing Blood

3^rd Nov. Trinity

Revelation 14, 1-20       

And I looked, and there was the picture of the Lamb, standing atop Mt. Zion and with him one hundred forty four thousand having his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

Ghent Altarpiece

           

And I listened and heard a voice from the heavens, a voice like a mighty rush of waters, and like a mighty thunderclap—the voice I heard was like the voices of harpists playing on their harps.

And they all sing a new song, there in front of the throne and in front of the four creatures and the elders, and no one could learn the song but the one hundred forty-four thousand ransomed from the earth. These are the ones who did not defile themselves by the straying, through which the spiritual in man is betrayed; they have remained virginal [pure] in their inmost being and follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were ransomed as the seed of a new humanity which belongs to the Father God and to the Lamb. Deceit and lies are not found in their mouths; pure and unblemished are they in their innermost being.

And I looked and saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, bringing the good news which is good news forever to those live on earth—to every race and nation and every tongue and folk. And the angel cried out with a great voice, saying:

“Stand in awe of God and turn to honor him. For we have come to the hour of his divine decision. Raise yourself in prayer to him who in truth created the heavens and the earth and the sea and all the springs of water.”  

And a second angel followed, who said, “Fallen, fallen is the great city of Babylon, who made all nations drink of the wine of her sacrilege, in order to draw the holy into misuse.”

And a third angel followed them, who cried out with a powerful voice: “Whoever adores the beast and its likeness, and accepts its stamp on forehead or hand, he will drink of the wine of God’s anger, thick and strong and undiluted, from the cup of his wrath. And in the presence of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb shall anger be transformed into pain like the pain of fire and sulphur.

Their suffering rises and darkens the encirling air like smoke through the cycles of time. And day and night those who made the beast into their god, who honored its picture as the highest, who took its being into their innermost being, find no peace. In this place however there works the power of the steadfast endurance of those who have taken the healing power of the Spirit into themselves, who have fulfilled the goals of the Spirit, and who have worked trusting in Jesus’ healing deed.

Bamberg Apocalypse

And I heard a voice out of the worlds of Spirit which said, “Write this down: People of heaven are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the spirit, let them rest from their efforts and labours, since their good deeds, the fruits of their lives, are not lost along their paths of soul, but have preceeded them here.

And I looked, and suddenly I saw in the spirit a white cloud, and seated upon the cloud the figure of a son of humanity, with a golden crown upon his head and a sharpened sickle. And another angel stepped forth from the temple crying in a loud voice to the one seated on the cloud:

“Let your sickle go forth and harvest, for the hour of harvest has come; ripe and dry and firm are the crops of the earth.”

And the one seated on the cloud threw his sickle down upon the events on earth, and the earth’s crop was harvested.

And again another angel came out of the temple in the heavens; and he too held a sharpened sickle. And a further angel came out who tended the fire at the altar. He cried out with a mighty voice to him who held the sharpened sickle and said, “Let your sickle go forth and harvest the grapevines of the earth, for their grapes have reached their prime.”

So the angel threw his sickle down to the events on earth; and he harvested the earth’s vineyard, and threw the grapes into the great winepress of God’s anger. And they took the winepress outside the city and trampled the grapes. Blood flowed from the winepress that reached to the muzzles of the horses for sixteen hundred miles around.

3^rd November Trinity

Luther Bible, 16th Century

November 10, 2013

Revelation 14: 1-20

This is the time of harvesting. The grapes have been brought in. They are crushed and their juice is separated from skin and seed. The juice is collected to serve as wine for winter nourishment.

In today’s reading we are shown earth’s mid-time in mighty pictures. We have been planted on the earth. We are shown the spiritual harvesting of humanity, the fruits of our inner nature, our work and our striving. We have engendered both noble and ignoble thoughts, feelings, deeds. All these are harvested by Christ and his angels. Our funeral service reminds us that we are beholden to the spirit for everything we think and say and do. For what we bring forth, our inner and outer fruits will be the nourishment for divine beings, offered on the high altar.

Naturally not all of what we have produced is good. In the picture of the winepress, the pure juice of what flows in our blood is separated from skin and seed. What flows in the blood is the effect of our thoughts and feeling, the impulses behind our deeds. And what also flows in the blood is God’s faith in humanity. For Christ, God’s own Son, has poured out his own Blood into the earth. Taking up His Blood, drinking of His Wine, we can produce a good, rich and abundant harvest for the beings of the divine world. With His Blood in our blood, we can pray in the words of the poet:

Lord: it is time. …

Command the last fruits to be full,…

urge them to perfection, and chase

the last sweetness into the heavy wine.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Rilke, “Autumn Day”,  translated by J. Mullen

2nd November Trinity 2007 (2006), Bridge of Love

2^nd 3^rd or 4^th Michaelmas (normally)

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

Blake, Good and Evil Angels

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 November Trinity

November 5, 2006

Ephesians 6: 10-19

Mankind is at war. Paul makes it clear that this war originates in the spiritual world; adversarial spiritual beings are attacking the core of our humanity. Paul makes it clear that for us the battle is one of defense, of resistance, of holding our own ground against those powers who seek to attack and destroy our inner being. It is a battle ultimately for inner peace.

One of the essential pieces of armor in our defense is what Paul calls the helmet of salvation, which is our own inner certainty of Christ’s deed of healing. This certainty we can generate in our thinking.

For Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection have created an indestructible bridge of love between our world of earth and the world of heaven. In the battle, the adversaries cannot take this bridge. We can protect ourselves from thoughts of doom and continue to make a good defense by remembering, by thinking the thought of Christ’s healing deed. Paul so beautifully expresses this idea of the invincible bridge of love in another of his letters. He says:

In all these trials we are triumphant conquerors through him who offers us his love. I know from experience: neither the forces of death, nor the forces of life, neither angels nor Mights, neither things present nor things to come, not the World Powers themselves, neither heights nor depths nor any other thing or being in creation can separate us from the love of God which took on body in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39

We can always generate and hold fast to this thought of the bridge of love. May we constantly put on this helmet of thought, the protection of Jesus Christ’s ongoing healing deed of love.  For “In all these trials we are triumphant conquerors through him who offers us his love.”

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd November Trinity 2008, Angel Arrives

2^nd Trinity November

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis) or

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

Escorial Beatus

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis)

And to the angel who penetrates the congregation of Sardis write:

Thus speaks he who has power over the seven creating spirits of God and over the seven stars: I know the consequences of your deeds, for one says of you that you live, and yet are dead. Awaken, and strengthen what remains in you, that is otherwise about to die, for I have not found that your works possess reality before my God.

Remember how you were once receptive for all the workings of the spirit, and for all words which came from the spirit. Care for them in your soul in inner loyalty. Change your heart and mind.

If however you do not awaken, I will come over you suddenly like a thief, and you will not know at which hour I will come over you.

But you have some names in Sardis whose souls have not been darkened by illusion and addiction to the senses. They will walk with me in white garments, for they are worthy of them.

He who overcomes, he shall be clothed with white garments, and I will not wipe out his name from the Book of Life. I will speak out his name and acknowledge him before my Father and his Angels. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

 2^nd Nov Trinity

November 9, 2008

Revelation 3: 1-6

In the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, the twelve good fairies bestow their gifts on the child at her christening. Before the twelfth fairy can offer hers, a thirteenth, angry at not having been invited, storms in and predicts the child’s death at fifteen. The last twelfth fairy cannot undo the curse, but can soften it. She changes the death sentence into a sleep of a hundred years.

The writer of the Revelation also demonstrates this activity of past predictions reaching into future life. For the letters to the seven congregations are actually addressed to the seven ages of mankind’s development. The letters are an assessment of each age, its strengths and weaknesses. Today’s letter to Sardis, the fifth one , is aimed particularly to our present age. The warnings are a matter of life and death. “One says of you that you live, and yet you are dead.” Rev 3:1  For we human beings have indeed been asleep for a long time, unaware of those spiritual beings that constantly surround us as we sleepwalk through our lives. If we continue in what John calls our illusion and addiction to what the senses convey of the material world, then our own souls and spirits will indeed die.

Burne Jones

The cure for this sleep, this sickness unto death, is to wake up. For our souls and spirits live and are fed through wakeful consciousness; their very nature consists of conscious awareness.  In mankind’s childhood, we received the gifts and blessings of the divine world, because we were open and receptive. But then we fell into a long sleep, in which we no longer received the gifts, no longer even remembered the givers. The time of sleep and forgetfulness is over. Mankind needs to wake up.

In the fairytale, when the hundred years were over, the prince passed through the thorny hedge that protected the sleeping kingdom and awakened the princess with a kiss. In our time, the Prince of our soul is kneeling beside our sleeping spirits, waiting for us to wake up out of our own freedom and initiative. If we refuse, the awakening will come, but will appear as doom, fearful and frightening.

John’s letter to the fifth age is a clarion call. Wake up and live! Wake up and converse with your Prince! Live in loyalty to the Spirit who loves you.

This conversing with the spirit of love we call prayer. An early mystic wrote:

The Holy Spirit has compassion on our weaknesses,

and though we remain impure, He often comes to visit us.

When He finds our spirit praying to Him in love,

He immediately dispels the marauding horde of thoughts

that keep it hobbled. And then he bids it forward

to the delicious works of spiritual prayer.

When the angel of the Lord arrives,

he scatters by his word alone

every force that acts against us,

and brings to our spirits that light

that shines without deception.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] [1] Evagrios of Pontos, “Effusions on Prayer”, in Love’s Immensity; Mystics on the Endless Life, Scott Cairns, p. 55.

2nd November Trinity 2009, Trials to Pearls

2^nd Trinity November

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis) or

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

And to the leading angel of the community at Laodicea write: Thus speaks the Amen, he who strengthens all spiritual working with his own being, the witness trusted and true, the ground of all divine creation:

I see through your deeds. You are neither cold nor hot. You should be either cold, or hot. But since you are lukewarm, I am about to spew you out of my mouth.

You say: I am rich, I have my fortune, and I don’t need anything else. But you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable, a beggar blind and naked. I counsel you to acquire from me

gold that is purified in fire, that you may become truly rich;

and garments to clothe yourself, so that the shame which lies in your nakedness may not be revealed;

and a salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

I AM he who disciplines all whom he loves, calls them to account and refines them through trials of destiny, thus drawing them into the stream of cleansing.

I stand at the door and knock. He Qi

Therefore generate warmth [be eager] [strengthen yourself] and change your heart and mind.

Behold, I stand before the door and knock. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and share the meal with him, and he with me.

He who overcomes, to him I will give the power to sit with me on my throne, just as I have been raised to the throne of my Father through the victory of the spirit. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit would say to the churches.

2^nd November Trinity

November 8, 2009

Revelation 3: 14-22

 When a grain of sand gets inside an oyster’s shell, it irritates. The oyster responds to the pain by surrounding the sand grain with layer after layer of the smooth, strong substance of its own shell. Through this, its pain becomes transformed into a round, luminous thing of great beauty and value.

The painful episodes in our destinies have at their core a positive intent. They

are God’s way of stimulating us to arouse our creative forces. God says, “I am he who disciplines all whom he loves, who calls them to account, and refines them through trials of destiny.”  Rev. 3:19

Our trials are the sand grains in our lives. At first they are irritating, painful. But gradually our souls go to work. Through reflective thought, through awareness of our own failures in loving, through our will and intention to do better, we surround our pain with soul substance. We create a substance of strength, luster and value—a pearl of the gods.

God gathers up the pearls of our pain. With them he creates a salve with which he anoints our eyes. He says, “I counsel you to acquire from me a salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.” Rev. 3: 18  For the purpose of pain is to create organs of perception, organs of enhanced awareness.

Our pearl-anointed eyes begin to look at the world with a heightened awareness, a broadened awareness. We begin to see—the world, others. The poet says:

        We tended toward the Place but no signs led there.
 

…May the gentle mountains and the bells of the flocks
Remind us of everything we have lost,
For we have seen on our way and fallen in love
With the world that will pass in a twinkling.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Czeslaw Milosz, “On Pilgrimage”  in New & Collected Poems, translations by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass)

2nd November Trinity 2010, Spiritual Sun Calls

2^nd Trinity November

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis) or

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis)

And to the angel who penetrates the congregation of Sardis write:

Thus speaks he who has power over the seven creating spirits of God and over the seven stars: I know the consequences of your deeds, for one says of you that you live, and yet are dead. Awaken, and strengthen what remains in you, that is otherwise about to die, for I have not found that your works possess reality before my God.

Remember how you were once receptive for all the workings of the spirit, and for all words which came from the spirit. Care for them in your soul in inner loyalty. Change your heart and mind.

If however you do not awaken, I will come over you suddenly like a thief, and you will not know at which hour I will come over you.

But you have some names in Sardis whose souls have not been darkened by illusion and addiction to the senses. They will walk with me in white garments, for they are worthy of them.

He who overcomes, he shall be clothed with white garments, and I will not wipe out his name from the Book of Life. I will speak out his name and acknowledge him before my Father and his Angels. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

2^nd November Trinity

November 7, 2010

Revelation 3: 1-6, to Sardis

Sunflowers are so called because they keep moving their faces toward the sun in its course across the sky. They know that their life and strength, their power to live, comes from the sun. Anchored on the earth, it is their ability to orient themselves toward the sun that helps keep them alive.

The creating words and the creative working of the spirit are what keep our spirits, our souls and our bodies alive. The Creating Word is our spiritual sun. Anchored here on the earth, the light of the Word of God keeps us alive.

The reading today reminds us to remember: ‘Remember how you were once receptive for all the workings of the spirit, and for all the words that came from the spirit. Care for them in your soul in inner loyalty. Change your heart and mind.’ Rev 3:3

Our spiritual Sun is calling to us. It is asking us to remember Him, to remember the Logos, the creating Word of God, who took on human form. He is asking us to remember the source from which our lives flow, our spirit-sun, and to turn our faces toward Him.

We know this; it is natural to forget. But it is up to us to remember, to turn our will toward a conscious re-connecting. Only thus can we continue to truly live. Only thus can Christ community grow.

And so, in the words of the poet, we might also hear further words of the spirit-sun speaking to us:

May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work

you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

….May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those

who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] John O’Donohue, “May the light of your soul guide you.”

2nd November Trinity 2011, Be the Sun

2^nd Trinity November

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis) or

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis)

And to the angel who penetrates the congregation of Sardis write:

Thus speaks he who has power over the seven creating spirits of God and over the seven stars: I know the consequences of your deeds, for one says of you that you live, and yet are dead. Awaken, and strengthen what remains in you, that is otherwise about to die, for I have not found that your works possess reality before my God.

Escorial Beatus, Seven Churches

Remember how you were once receptive for all the workings of the spirit, and for all words which came from the spirit. Care for them in your soul in inner loyalty. Change your heart and mind.

If however you do not awaken, I will come over you suddenly like a thief, and you will not know at which hour I will come over you.

But you have some names in Sardis whose souls have not been darkened by illusion and addiction to the senses. They will walk with me in white garments, for they are worthy of them.

He who overcomes, he shall be clothed with white garments, and I will not wipe out his name from the Book of Life. I will speak out his name and acknowledge him before my Father and his Angels. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

2^nd November Trinity

November 6, 2011

Rev 3: 1-6

Blake, Angel with One Leg on Land and One on Sea

White is the color of purity, the color of the spirit. In today’s reading we hear that those in white are souls who stand clear shining in truth. And part of the greater truth in which the souls in white stand, is that there is a spiritual world, a spiritual world in which dwell spiritual beings, beings who are not perceived by the senses; beings who only leave their footprints, as it were, in the sensory world.

Those in white have overcome the addiction we human beings have, the craving for sensory proofs. Those in white, aligned with the spirit, have stopped cherishing comfortable untruths, the comfortable illusions, especially the illusion that the material world is all that there is.

Those in white are radiant, like the sun; they shine in a luminous world most of us don’t see. As Angelus Silesius said of that world:

My spirit once in God will eternal bliss become

Just as the sun’s own ray is sun within the sun.

Myself I must be sun, whose rays must paint the sea,

The vast and unhued ocean of all divinity.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Angelus Silesius, in Cherubinic Wanderer

Picture by William Blake, The angel with one foot on the sea and one on land.

2nd November Trinity 2012, No Body But Yours

2^nd Trinity November

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis) or

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

Rev. 3, 1-6, (Sardis)

And to the angel who penetrates the congregation of Sardis write:

Escorial Beatus

Thus speaks he who has power over the seven creating spirits of God and over the seven stars: I know the consequences of your deeds, for one says of you that you live, and yet are dead. Awaken, and strengthen what remains in you, that is otherwise about to die, for I have not found that your works possess reality before my God.

Remember how you were once receptive for all the workings of the spirit, and for all words which came from the spirit. Care for them in your soul in inner loyalty. Change your heart and mind.

If however you do not awaken, I will come over you suddenly like a thief, and you will not know at which hour I will come over you.

But you have some names in Sardis whose souls have not been darkened by illusion and addiction to the senses. They will walk with me in white garments, for they are worthy of them.

He who overcomes, he shall be clothed with white garments, and I will not wipe out his name from the Book of Life. I will speak out his name and acknowledge him before my Father and his Angels. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

2^nd November Trinity

Nov. 4, 2012

Rev 3; 1-6

Once a group of idealistic young people decided to start working on a small biodynamic farm. Their enthusiasm and desire to change the world led them into deep conversations long into the night. Naturally this led them to sleep in late. When a guest pointed out to them that the goats had long been crying out to be milked, they answered that their deeply spiritual conversations were more important.

Much too often, our thoughts and ideals fail to translate themselves into actual effective deeds and habits. We are perhaps under the illusion that thinking good thoughts is sufficient. Perhaps we lack the will to translate them into actions. We fail to bring our habits and actions into congruence with our ideals. And thus we fail to bring our ideals into the earthly.

In today’s letter to the community, the angel brings us the message from Christ: I have not found that your works possess reality…. Care for the workings of the Spirit…. Walk with Me…. Overcome your illusions.

As a community we may ask ourselves: what are the ideals of a Christ community? Do we only think we are such? What does a Christ community do? Perhaps these words from Theresa of Avila give us a hint of an answer:

Christ has no body now but yours

No hands, no feet on earth but yours

Yours are the eyes through which He pours out

compassion on this world

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Teresa of Avila