2nd June Trinity 2018, Waking Up

June Trinity

John 3: 1-17

There was a man in the circle of the 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 mankind, 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 him in his 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 a man be born again when he is old? Can he return to his 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 he is, 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 will; 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.

Moses Lifting Serpent, Tissot

Nicodemus replied and said to him, “How can one attain this?” 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 himself with his power shall perish, for he will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but in order that the world be saved [healed] through him, and not fall prey to ruin.”

2^nd June Trinity

June 3, 2018

John 3:1-17

We are approaching the longest day, the

pollen cloud

shortest night of the year. The plants have grown enthusiastically. Their flowering has released clouds of pollen. Carried up by the wind and thermals, it will be 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 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 the 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 consciously work 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 the evolution of humankind. 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.

As we approach the zenith of the year, 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. John 3:16

As poet said:

Beyond living and dreaming

there is something more important:

waking up.*

  

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

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1st June Trinity 2018, Burning Thirst

Egbert Codex

June Trinity

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.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew how the divine world now draws near to men, 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 [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 him, his thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him 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 [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.”

1^st June Trinity

Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

May 27, 2018

John 4:1-26

If someone were to ask us for a drink of water, most of us would do our best to accommodate them. We know how basic and burning a need thirst can be. We also know that human interdependence means that we often need others to provide what we need.

Christ requests of the Samaritan woman, of all of us, ‘Give me to drink.’ Astonishing to think that He who created water has to ask human beings for a drink. Yet this demonstrates the tremendous generosity and respect that the Divinity offers us—that it asks and waits for us to respond.

Christ has a burning thirst for what we can give Him. He needs our noblest thoughts, our hearts’ love, our devoted wills. Offering them to Him creates a fountainhead within our own being. He joins with us in creating a fountain of love for God; He joins us in a fountain of creative, peaceful love for fellow human beings: He joins us in a fountain of wonder and amazement for the way God works.  So in the words of Rilke:

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out

until they span the chasm between two

contradictions ... For the god

wants to know himself in you.*

* Rainer Maria Rilke, in Ahead of All Parting, ed. and translated by Steven Mitchell

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Whitsun (Pentecost) 2018, Vessel for Flame

Pentecost
John 14: 23-31

Jesus replied, “He who truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.

I have said this to you while I am still with you. But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all that I have said to you.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. [have no fear.]

You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I am.
I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me, he has no power.

But the world shall see in this how I love the Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be on our way.]

 “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

 “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

Whitsun I
May 20, 2018
John 14: 23-31

Continuously the sun streams its warmth and light onto the earth. It stimulates and supports the life of the plants. It warms and sustains both our bodies and our souls. For the warmth of the sunlight is the vehicle for the light of God’s life-giving love.

On the first Pentecost, or

St. Albans

Whitsun, the disciples are sitting together, mourning the loss of their Beloved at his Ascension ten days earlier. In his expansion into the earth and air, He was lost to their view. At Pentecost, at first, they experience a movement of air, the sound of a mighty wind. And then a fire, the warmth of the sun, descends and divides itself into single flames. A single flame comes to rest on each one of them. And they are filled with God’s Spirit of understanding and connecting love.

There are times in our lives, too, when we have our Whitsun moments. A flame of warmth descends; we sense it, we open to it—the fire of a creative love. We become vessels for God’s love, His light, His purpose for the earth. For a moment we become shining suns on earth.

There are words to a hymn that express this wish of ours, to be a vessel:

Come Down, O Love Divine
Seek thou this soul of mine
And visit it with thine own ardor glowing
O Comforter draw near
Within my heart appear
And kindle it, thy holy flame bestowing.

…For none can guess its grace
Till he becomes the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes his dwelling.*

* “Come Down, O Love Divine”, words by Bianco da Siena, translated by R. F. Littledale, set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

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Ascension 2018, Bee and Blossom

Ascension
John 16: 24-33

[Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name.] Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled.
All this I have given to your souls in

Mengs

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. Thus 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.”
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.”

Ascension
May 10, 2018
John 16: 24-33

The bees fly through light and air, collecting pollen grains to feed their young. For the blossoms, however, this visitation signals the beginning of their end. Once pollinated, the blossom dies away to make way for the fruit.
Christ ascends into the light and air. He is both bee and blossom, the fructifier and the fruit. His resurrection body changes. Yet He does not leave; He expands. He spreads Himself out both up into the heavens and down into the earth. He becomes the True Vine, the great fruit-bearing World Tree, rooted in the earth, reaching into the heavens. The poet describes this event:

Lightly in His upraised

Ascension, around 1030, Codex Aureus

hands
was Heaven, Wideness,
Space, oh space!
Oh, astonished He felt the lavishing
Of this great light. Yet by storm-broken tree
His disciples could not grasp it,
How their Master now in silence, radiant
Now in ever bluer terraces
Climbed this heaven
Exceeded Himself.
Yet already a glance gave Him goal and direction,
And they were amazed, how He found the steps
Until He, in ever deeper light
He himself the light, now disappeared from their view.*

He expands into the far reaches of both heaven and earth. For His disciples, however, this signals a kind of death—for He whom they love is lost to their sight. For ten days they will grieve the apparent loss. Like all who grieve, they will be absorbed in their memories of Him. But in ten days, at Pentecost, their pain will begin to bear fruit. What is germinating within them through His ever-presence will become in them soul fruits: the fruits of joyful understanding, fruits of tolerance, fruits of love for all fellow human beings.

*Gottfried Fischer-Gravelius

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6th Easter 2018, We the Possible

6th EasterJohn 14: 1-31

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in the power that leads you to the Fatherly Ground of the World and to me. In my Father’s house, there are many rooms. If it were not so, how could I have said to you, ‘I go there to prepare a place for you’? And when I have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you up into the realm of my being and working so that where I work, you also may work. And you know the way where I am going.”Then Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”Jesus answered, “I myself am the Way—the Truth— and the Life. No one finds his way to the Father but through me. If you had really known my Being, you would have recognized my Father as well. From now on you do know him and have seen Him.”Then Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father; that would satisfy our deepest yearning.”Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long and yet you do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Does your heart’s voice not tell you that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. But the Father, who lives eternally in me, continues to do his works in them. Build your faith on the power of my Being that lets you know: I in the Father, the Father in me. Or at least learn to trust through looking at the works themselves that have arisen.Truly, truly I say to you, whoever trusts in my Being will also do the works that I do --and greater deeds will he do because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask for in unity with me, I will do it, so that the deeds of the Father may be revealed in the working of the Son. When you turn to me in prayer in the power of my name, I will be the Creating One in all your works. If you truly love me, you will share in my spiritual goals. And I will ask the Father and He will send to you another Counselor, who will stand by you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. The earthly world cannot receive this Counselor, for it cannot perceive his working and does not recognize him. But you know him, for he will live with you and will work in you.I will not leave you desolate—I

will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. On that day, you will truly know what it means that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.Whoever bears my spiritual goals within himself, and brings them to revelation in his working, is one who truly loves me. And whoever truly loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal myself to him.”Then Judas, (not the Iscariot) said, “But Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the people who are in the world?Jesus replied, “Whoever truly loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. Whoever does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the health-bringing Spirit, the Counselor whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled nor let them be afraid.You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I am.I have told you now before it happens, so that when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for soon the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me.But I act in accordance with the Father’s purpose, as it was entrusted to me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Do the same. Arise, let us be on our way.

Raffael, Disputa, detail

6th EasterMay 6, 2018John 14: 1-31
Long ago the Father poured out His being in love. This outpouring of His being created the Living Universe. We could perhaps say that the earth is the Father’s body. As in all bodies, the old breaks down, so that the new can arise. On earth, however, the new is not merely a copy of the old. It is an ongoing creation of the truly new, the never-before. This evolving pathway of the earth, the Way, is maintained by the Son God, the Christ. Without His ongoing love and sacrifice, the earth and humankind would long ago have died out.There is a plan, unimaginably complex yet accessible, for the continuing of the creation of the new. There is a goal. This goal is harbored by the Spirit God, the Spirit of Truth. He counsels us secretly in the ways of the living future. He is our Light on the Way. He inspires us to develop ourselves and the earth into what we are meant to become. He helps us to manifest the goal, the goal of the Father’s life, the Son’s love, the Healing Spirit’s wisdom. For we are the point of departure for the new creation.


As Maya Angelou says:We, this people, on this small and drifting planetWhose hands can strike with such abandonThat in a twinkling, life is sapped from the livingYet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness


….When we come to itWe, this people, on this wayward, floating bodyCreated on this earth, of this earthHave the power to fashion for this earthA climate where every man and every womanCan live freely without sanctimonious pietyWithout crippling fear


When we come to itWe must confess that we are the possibleWe are the miraculous, the true wonder of this worldThat is when, and only whenWe come to it.*

*Maya Angelou, “A Brave and Startling Truth”

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5th Easter 2018, Transitions

5^th Easter

John 16, 1-33

“All these words I have spoken to you so that you will not go astray [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 kill you will think they are offering service to God. They will do all this because they have not known my Father or me. All these words I have spoken to you so that when the time comes you will remember that I

Tissot

told you about it. In the beginning, I did not need to say such things for I was with you. But now I am going away to him who sent me; yet, none of you asks me “Where are you going?”  Now that I have said these things to you, sorrow enters your heart.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation and healing that I leave you, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, the giver of spirit courage, [who will stand by you in all trials, the Spirit upon whom you can call for assistance at any moment,] would not come to you. When I now go away, I will send him to you. When he comes he will call mankind to account for the decline into sin, for the working of man’s higher being and for the great world separation; for the decline into sinfulness, because they did not fill themselves with my power; for the working of Man’s higher being, because I go to the Father and you see me no more; for the great world-separation, because the decision has already been made about the ruler of this world.

I have yet much more to say to you, but you cannot bear it now. But when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will be your guide on the way to the Truth that Embraces All. he will not speak out of himself, but what he hears he will speak, and he will proclaim to you what is to come.  he will reveal me, for what he draws out of my being he will proclaim to you. Everything that the Father has is also mine. That is why I can say, ‘He will draw upon my being and proclaim to you’.

Yet a short time you will see me no more, and again a short time and you will see me.”

Then some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying ‘Yet a short time you will see me no more, and again a short time and you will see me’, and ‘I am going to the Father’? They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a short time’? We do not understand his words.”

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him and he said, “You are wondering that I said, ‘A short time and you will see me no more, and again a short time and you will see me.’  Yes, the truth

Tissot

I tell you, you will weep and lament while other people will rejoice. You will be filled with sorrow, but this your grief will be turned into 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 human being 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 can take that joy from you. On that day, you will no longer need to ask me anything.

Yes, I say to you; 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 pray in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy may be full.

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 plainly about the Father, [so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness]. 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 loves 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 am leaving the [sense] world again and going to the Father, [of which you say that it is the world of death].”

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. By this, we 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. Yet 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.”

5^th Easter

April 29, 2018

John 16:1-33

Spring blossoms are often called

ephemerals. Their beauty appears for a short time, bringing joy. But they quickly disappear. They must make way for the nourishing fruits of a later season.

The Easter season is almost over. Christ gives us, his disciples, foreknowledge that the beauty of His resurrection body is about to disappear from view. In less than two weeks He will ascend to his Father. He will still be present on the earth, but in a hidden way. He promises, however, to send His Spirit, the healing Spirit of love and understanding, to reside in human souls. From there, God’s healing Spirit will germinate in souls, setting fruit. These fruits of the Spirit, fruits of love, comfort, and understanding, will over time mature and ripen. In time they will become fertile seeds we sow as words and deeds of love in the world.

But meanwhile we disciples must all endure times of uncertainty, of anxiety and grief. Christ assures us that this is a necessary transition, a phase, when the joy and beauty disappear, and the coming phase of joy is not yet. One gateway closes; the other has not yet opened, and we seem stranded in between.

While conditions ripen, our task is to endure; to bear the lonely pain with hope and expectation, until the door of fruitfulness opens.

The poet gives us something of this in-between mood:

…I am very worried and happy

…And there is nowhere I would rather be

alive or dead

than in this world,

….meanwhile

housing perpetual births and disappearances

and [I] am glad (the wind is blowing, it is written, adore

the wind)

and am speechlessly grateful and glad and afraid

I don't mind saying that I am scared

to death of God: I am

afraid and blind and ignorant and naked and

I'll take it!…..

I can't grasp it, but I am so very glad.*

---

  *Franz Wright, “A Word For Joy” in God's Silence

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4th Easter 2018, Ecology of Love

4^th Easter

John 15: 1-27

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 man can have greater love than this, than that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his 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 mankind. That is why people hate you.

Christ in the Winepress

Remember 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 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.

4th Easter

April 22, 2018

John 15; 1-27

We have the tendency to see the world as a collection of separate things. The idea of ecology, that all creatures and their environments form a living entity, is relatively recent. Thinking ecologically, we human beings can learn to appreciate how life supports us in so many varied ways. It streams to us in the sunlight, in the watercourses, in the plant and animal life that nourish us. Life surrounds and supports us in the very air we breathe. And we too have our part in this great weaving of life.

Today’s reading reveals a great open secret: it is not merely mother nature who sustains us. It is Christ who carries the great all-pervasive life of the earth. As the True Vine, the sap of His life runs through the living earth and sustains all on it. And this sap of life has a cohesion, a kind of force of attraction to it. It draws all the parts together and fits them into an organic working whole. This force is the force of compassionate love. The world is held together, interwoven by a living love.

Compassionate love also radiates outward; it is a love that offers itself up to support, sustain and to strengthen. To connect with the essence of life that permeates the world is to connect oneself with the deep love and life that binds the world together. It is to connect with a love that offers itself to all, that all may exist. It is a love that supports all in deep compassion. What this deep compassion asks of us is to become likewise. 

In the words of Hafiz:

Arthur Ernst Becher

The Beloved has agreed to play a game

Called

Love.

Our sun sat in the sky

Way before this earth was born

Waiting to caress a billion faces.

The wise man learns what draws God

Near.

It is the beauty of compassion

In your heart.*

*Hafiz, “It is Unanimous”, in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 170