4th Holy Night 2008, Love Implanted

Holy Nights

1 John 4: 7-13

Dear brothers, let us bear love toward one another, for true love comes from God; everyone who is truly loving is born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not truly love has not known God, for God is love.

And this is what revealed God’s love among us, that God has sent into the world his only begotten Son in order that we might live through Him.

God’s love consists in this: not in the way that we have loved him, but that he has loved us, and has given his Son to save us from the banishment of sin.

My dearly beloved, if God has so loved us, so also should we bear love toward one another.

Until now no one has seen God with his eyes. When we bring love to one another, God dwells in us and his love is fulfilled in us.

By this we know that we dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Holy Nights

December 28, 2008

1 John 4:7-13

Shimmering in eternal realms is the great Tree of Life. In Egyptian myth this tree is pictured as the great world tree. Its branches support the star-studded sky, and it roots reach into the divine watery deep. Its trunk forms the axis around which the world revolves. In the myth, the god Osirus was encased in the trunk of this tree; he became the link between the earthly and the heavenly realms.

Christ Jesus carried this further: on the tree of the cross, the tree of death that became a tree of life, the divine creator’s arms are outstretched in an embrace of love that includes the whole world.

We are each a living replica of the tree of life. Founded at birth, we are rooted

in the divine depths. Our crown is in God’s starry heights. And at the very center of our being is the beauty of our heart, connected with the sun, shining with the creative power that unites all.  Our heart is the axis around which our whole world revolves.

This creative, sun-like center is the radiant beauty of love. It is supported on the one hand by mercy and on the other by justice. For the Christ-Sun on the cross was placed between the two thieves. To the one who was willing to assume responsibility for his own deeds, the Christ-Sun’s beauteous love showed mercy—“Today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:43 To the one who railed and egotistically cursed God, cutting himself off from divine love, there could remain only the severity of God’s justice.

A merciful and just love—this is the love that God enacted on the field of history. This is the love that He has implanted in each human heart, from there to be radiated forth as the life-giving Sun of Divine Human love. So, in the words of the poet:

Let us be like

…falling stars in the day sky.

Let no one know of our sublime beauty

As we hold hands with God

And burn

Into a sacred existence …

That surpasses

Every description of …love.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Hafiz, “The Day Sky”, in The Subject Tonight is Love, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 24.

3rd Holy Night 2009, Freedom and Submission

Holy Nights

John 21: 15-25

After they had had held their meal together, Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others here?

Peter answered, “Lord you know that I am your friend”.

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

And he said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said to him, “Shepherd my young sheep.”

He asked him a third time, “Simon, Son of John, Are you my friend?”

Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the third time, ‘Are you my friend’, and he answered, “Lord, you know all things; therefore you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Amen the truth I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and Another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

He told him this to indicate the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, “Follow me.”

But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the supper and had asked, “Lord, who is it who betrays you?”  When Peter now saw him, his asked, “Lord, what of this man, what is his task?”

Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. Follow me…”

From this day the story spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path.”

This is the disciple who here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that  Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written. 

Holy Nights

December 27, 2009

John 21:15-25

  

“When you were younger, you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go.” John 21:18

These words of Christ to Peter sum up an archetypal pattern in human lives:

Tree of Life

there are periods when we are called upon to exercise an active will; and there are other times when we are subject to greater forces of destiny, beyond our control. These two poles, active self will, and being subject to outside forces, are two strands that run through our entire lives. It is our human task to find a balance and meaning between these strands—to exercise our freedom to choose and to do where we can, and to accept the greater forces of destiny where we must.

Today’s reading is taken from an episode that occurs after Christ’s life, death and resurrection. His own life and death are an archetypal image of how we can work with the two strands. In the beginning and middle of His life, he worked tirelessly at His mission of teaching and healing. He worked and prayed to His Father, in order to manifest His Father’s light and love on the earth.  And when the time came for Him to be subject unto death, He again asks for His Father’s help. Christ, the Son of God, asks in humble surrender—not my will, but Thine be done. Matthew 26:42, Luke 22:42

His entire life, both in the outwardly active times, and in times of submission, was centered on bringing the divine, the Father’s will, into revelation on earth.

This is indeed the true purpose of our human lives—to bring the Glory of God, the Father’s radiant good will in the heights, down into revelation on the earth. We pray this in the lines that Christ taught us to pray—Your will be done on earth as it is in the heavens. Matthew 6:10 Our uniting with the will of the Father is what cleanses our own will of its potential egotism. Receiving our will from the divine realms ensures that it is good will, will devoted to the good of the earth and mankind. Uniting our will with the Christ’s will, devoted to supporting others, is what brings peace onto the earth.

2nd Holy Night 2010, Love Embodied

2^nd Holy Night Dec 26

John 1: 35-42

(John’s Disciples Follow Jesus)

The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What are you seeking?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where do you live?”

“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he lived, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon, the tenth hour.

Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.  The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah,” (that is, the Christ).  And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of Jonah. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter, the Rock).

Holy Nights

December 26, 2010

John 1: 35 -42

Lambs are born in the spring. In their innocence they are like joy itself. At the same time they have become in religious tradition the symbol of sacrifice. John the Baptist calls Jesus the Lamb of God. Jesus must have radiated a joy and innocence that would make the heart ache for a lost Paradise.

When the two disciples follow Him, they want to know where He lives. They consider Him a teacher through whom they can learn the secret of Paradise regained. One brings his brother Simon to Him, to whom Christ gives the name ‘Peter’, the Rock. It is Peter’s recognition that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, that is the foundation upon which Christ will build His circle.

The disciples will remain with Him for three years; they will see how the innocent lamb becomes the sacrifice for the good of all. He, sent from the Father without stain or sickness of sin, the embodiment of the Father’s love, lays Himself down, and raises Himself up, as the new bridge between heaven and earth. He restores the lost access to Paradise.

God’s love became visible in God’s Lamb. We rejoice in the Lamb. Our conscious recognition of Him is the rock, the foundation stone of humanity’s path upward in joyous striving.

As a mystic said:

The greatest honor we can give Almighty God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Dame Julian of Norwich

Christmas III, Day, December 25, 2013, Love that Nurtures

Christmas III

John 21: 15-25

Now is proclaimed the end of the entire gospel according to John in the 21^st chapter:

After they had had held their meal together, Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others here?

Peter answered, “Lord you know that I am your friend”.

Do You Love Me?

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

And he said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said to him, “Shepherd my young sheep.”

He asked him a third time, “Simon, Son of John, Are you my friend?”

Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the third time, ‘Are you my friend’, and he answered, “Lord, you know all things; therefore you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Amen the truth I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and Another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

He told him this to indicate the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, “Follow me.”

But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the supper and had asked, “Lord, who is it who betrays you?”  When Peter now saw him, his asked, “Lord, what of this man, what is his task?”

Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. Follow me…”

From this day the story spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path.”

This is the disciple who here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that  Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written.

Christmas III, Day

December 25, 2013

John 21: 15 – 26

On the day when we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, this reading may seem an odd choice. Yet hidden in this story from the end of all the gospels is the secret, the goal of humanity’s future.

It is after Christ’s resurrection. He has fed his disciples bread and fish, after they had fished all night. After feeding them, the Risen One asks Peter three times about his love. He indicates that Peter’s love for Christ is to develop into a love for others, a love that nurtures. He gives the image of feeding lambs, of shepherding young sheep, feeding the full-grown. It is a love with a maternal quality, at once tender and at the same time objective. This love that Christ asks us to develop could be summed up by saying: Give them what they need.

Odd perhaps too is the prediction of death that follows. Yet perhaps not so odd, since the only thing that survives death is an active, objective love. And this is the secret of humanity’s future: that we develop ourselves to become mothers, Virgin-Mothers, giving birth to the Christ within; feeding and guiding the Christ within others, giving them what they need.  Today our resolve along the long path of development toward this our goal on earth can be renewed in the words of the poet:

Carl Bloch

Now let the sky more brightly beam,

The earth take up the joyous theme:

The orb a broadening pathway gains

And with its erstwhile splendour reigns.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1]  Hymn XI From Cathemerinon ("The Hymns of Prudentius"), Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-405), Translated by R. Martin Pope. 

Christmas Day 2007, Find and Serve

Christmas III

John 21: 15-25

(The End of the Four Gospels)

After they had had held their meal together, Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others here?

Peter answered, “Lord you know that I am your friend”.

Govert Flinck

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

And he said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said to him, “Shepherd my young sheep.”

He asked him a third time, “Simon, Son of John, Are you my friend?”

Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the third time, ‘Are you my friend’, and he answered, “Lord, you know all things; therefore you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Amen the truth I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and Another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

He told him this to indicate the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, “Follow me.”

But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the supper and had asked, “Lord, who is it who betrays you?”  When Peter now saw him, his asked, “Lord, what of this man, what is his task?”

Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. Follow me…”

From this day the story spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path.”

This is the disciple who here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that  Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written. 

Christmas III, Day

December 25, 2007

John 21.15-25 [the end of all the Gospels]

Today the future of all mankind shines into the beginning of Christ’s Incarnation. The One whose coming was announced to Joseph in a midnight dream has already risen from the dead. The One whose arrival was announced by angels to the shepherds has Himself become the Good Shepherd. And He wants to pour His Good Shepherd qualities into human hearts.

In devotion to Christ, out of our love for Him, we are to feed His lambs, shepherd His young sheep, feed His sheep. There may be spiritual ‘thieves and robbers’ at loose in the world, who use deception and desire to lure the soul. Yet three times He asks, “Do you love Me?” and three times we awaken to an ever deeper love. Deeper and deeper does His love for us, and ours for Him, pour into our hearts. He pours Himself into us until our hearts are full and our seeing is clear. And we know:

No one anywhere can keep us

From carrying the Beloved wherever we go.

No one can rob His precious Name [the Good Shepherd]

From the rhythm of [our] my heart[s]—

Steps and breath.[1]

But any unkindness to [ourselves] yourself,

Any confusion about others,

Will keep [us] one

From accepting the grace, the love,

The sublime freedom

Divine knowledge always offers….[2]

There are always friends of God in this world.

Find one and offer service.

For their glance is generous and cannot help

But forever give.[3]

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Hafiz, “Carrying God”, in Tonight the Subject is Love, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 53.

[2] Ibid. “This is the Place Where You are Right Now”, p. 12.

[3] Ibid. “Narrow the Difference”, p. 37.

Christmas Day 2008, Not Yet

Christmas III

John 21: 15-25

(End of the Four Gospels) 

After they had had held their meal together, Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others here?

Grunewald

Peter answered, “Lord you know that I am your friend”.

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

And he said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said to him, “Shepherd my young sheep.”

He asked him a third time, “Simon, Son of John, Are you my friend?”

Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the third time, ‘Are you my friend’, and he answered, “Lord, you know all things; therefore you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Amen the truth I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and Another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

He told him this to indicate the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, “Follow me.”

But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the supper and had asked, “Lord, who is it who betrays you?”  When Peter now saw him, his asked, “Lord, what of this man, what is his task?”

Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. Follow me…”

From this day the story spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path.”

This is the disciple who here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that  Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written. 

Christmas III, Day

December 25, 2008

John 21: 15 -25

Mornings the sun rises and ascends ever higher. And as it ascends, it warms the earth. Life stirs, people wake up and move about their business.

This is the third Christmas Act of Consecration, the Service of Day. At midnight we celebrated the Light that overcomes darkness, bringing new life and hope. At dawn we celebrated the healing warmth of the Love that entered the earthly realm with the birth of the Christ Child.

And now it is Day. And in the full light of day-waking consciousness we hear, from the end of all the gospels, the Risen Christ’s own hope and warmth expressed for all of mankind. This hope, God’s hope, is framed in a question that rings out three times;

“Do you love Me?” John 21: 15 - 17

For He has been born; He lived, died and rose again – for our sake. He did so in order to implant divine love into human hearts. And now He peers into hearts and seeks for it there.  “Do you love Me? Did what I tried to implant in human hearts, a love-seed, take root?”

Arild Rosenkrantz

For, in the words of an early mystic:

In love did He bring the world

into being, and in love

does He guide its difficult

slow-seeming journey now

through the arc of time. In love will He

one day bring all the world to a wondrous,

transformed state, and utterly

in love will it be taken wholly up

into the great mystery of the One

who has performed these things—and all of this

so that in love absolutely will the course

and form and governance of all creation

at long last be comprised.[1]

There is a measure of birthing pain in today’s reading: the pain of the ‘not yet’. For we all, like Peter, deny the Christ in us. But just as Peter was given the opportunity to reaffirm and redirect his love, so too this year we are given a chance to start over; to say with our hearts and souls, as many times as He asks us: Yes, Lord, Your love is quickening in my heart. Yes, Lord, I am devoted to You. Yes, I will nourish and care for those, young and old, who are Your little ones.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] St. Isaac of Nineveh (†700) “Love’s Purpose”, in Love’s Immensity, Mystics on the Endless Life, by Scott Cairns, p. 74.

Christmas II, Dawn 2013, Cross the Divide

Christmas II

Luke 2: 1-20

The middle of the four Gospels, according to Luke in the second chapter.

On the Way to Bethlehem, David Newbatt

Now it came to pass in those days that a proclamation went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone set out to be enrolled, each to the town of his ancestors.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and lineage of David. He went to be enrolled with Mary his betrothed. And Mary was with child. And it came to pass that while they were there, the time was fulfilled for her to be delivered. And she bore her son, her first-born. And she wrapped him in linen and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks in the night. And an angel of the Lord came upon them [appeared before them] and the light of the revelation of God shone about them. And great fear came upon them [they felt the fear of fears].

But the angel said to them,

“Do not be afraid; for I announce to you a great joy, which shall be for all men on earth: today is born unto you the Bringer of Healing, in the city of David,

Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign for you: you will find a little child wrapped in linen, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly around the angel was the fullness of the heavenly angelic hosts: their song of praise sounded forth to the highest:

Thomas Buchanan Read

God’s Spirit reveals itself in the heights

And brings peace to men of earth

In whose hearts good will dwells!

And as the angels withdrew from them into the heavens, the shepherds said to one another:

“Let us go to Bethlehem to see the fulfillment of the Word that has happened here, which the Lord let be proclaimed.”

And they came hastening, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. And when they had seen, they made known the Word that was spoken to them concerning this child. [or, When they saw that, they understood what had been told them concerning this child.] And all who heard it were astonished about what the shepherds said.

But Mary treasured [preserved] all these words, pondering them [turning them over] in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God to everyone for everything they had heard and seen, which was just as it had been announced to them.

Christmas II, Dawn

December 25, 2013

Luke 2: 1-20

When we were born, we crossed the great divide between heaven and earth. We died out of the realm of the angels, and fell into the material world, the world of death. And the angels mourned their loss of us.

The Christ Child however draws heaven across the divide, onto the earth with him. The angels do not mourn because one of their own disappeared into the far country of death; rather they accompany him, proclaiming:

Virriot (?)

God’s Spirit reveals itself in the heights

And brings Peace to men of earth

In whose hearts good will dwells.

The light of heaven has descended into the earth night. The open souls of the shepherds, as do ours, receive the good news.

Why doth the sun re-orient take

A wider range, his limits break?

Lo! Christ is born, and o'er earth's night

Shineth from more to more the light!

….

This is the day of Thy dear birth,

The bridal of the heaven and earth,

When the Creator breathed on Thee

The breath of pure humanity.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Hymn XI From Cathemerinon ("The Hymns of Prudentius"), Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-405),

Translated by R. Martin Pope.