Christian Community Homilies

Saturday, June 21, 2014

June Trinity 2007, Forever Give

White Rose, Dore

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

Father, I have revealed your name and your being to all human beings whom you have led through destiny to me. They were yours; they lived out of the powers that worked in folk and family, and now you have given them to me, and into my working that lives in the Self, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized how all the spiritual power that you have given me truly proceeds from you; for all the creative spiritual power that you have given me, I have brought to them.

They have taken it up into themselves and have recognized that in truth I come from you, and they have gained insight, and trust that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings; they who are to live out of the power of the self, as individuals, I pray to you for them; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings which you have given me. For they belong to you, just as everything which is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them [I am revealed in them]. I no longer live in the outer world, but they live in this world.

My whole being is devoted to you. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, you who give healing to the world, keep in your name and in your being all whom you have given to me, so that they may be one even as we also are one.

First Trinity Sunday

June 3, 2007

John 17: 6-11

Some types of roses grow in great clusters. Yet this form is created by the ordering of many smaller individual blossoms, each complete and unique in itself.

Mankind is a great cluster. Yet the Gospel reading emphasizes that Christ prays to His Father, not for the greater cluster, but for the single individuals who are close to Him. What is important to Him, that out of which He operates, is a relationship of love, active from both sides. He is a Divine Human Being, a Human Divine, who wants an intimately personal relationship with each of us.

In recent years there appeared a collection of modern Christ experiences.[1] One recurring theme in these accounts was each person’s experience of being seen, known by Christ, and at the same time being deeply loved, in spite of His full awareness of their weaknesses or failings. The overriding experience was of being intimately known, loved and supported. Out of this experience of being known and loved by Christ, we in turn can learn to love others in a similar way.

Before His total sacrifice of Himself out of His love, Christ prays to His Father: “Keep in your Name and in your Being all whom you gave given to me, so that they may be One, even as we are also One.” John 17:11

How can we be One? The poet suggests a way:

…narrow the gap

Between you and God.

I [we] have many younger brothers and sister

Scattered upon this earth

There are always friends of God in this world.

Find on and offer service

For their glance is generous and cannot help

But forever give. [2]

[1] C. Scott Sparrow, I Am With You Always: True Stories of Encounters with Jesus, Bantam Books, 1995.

[2] Hafiz, “Narrow the Difference,” in The Subject Tonight Is Love, collected by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 37.

June Trinity 2008, Guiding Spirit

Birds in Flight

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

First June Trinity

May 15, 2008

John 17: 6-11

Mother Nature provides us with examples of what a community looks like. One can watch the flights of flocks of birds – the orderly V-line of migrating geese accompanied by call and response; or the astonishing swoop and swing of a flock of pigeons. How is it that in their sudden turning and wheeling they don’t crash into one another? They act smoothly as an organic whole, tuned into the same guidance. Each bird senses its place in the form. Their working together in fluid movement is a thing of great beauty.

Through Christ and the Guiding Spirit He sends from His Father, human groups can begin to function with something of the beauty and grace we see in the flight of flocks. Attending the Act of Consecration of Man is like practicing migration. One calls; from the two immediately behind come the responses. The whole flock moves together toward a common goal, singing praises. We move as an organism toward the Father, Christ’s words resounding throughout.

The rest of community life can also embody the beauty and swing of a flock – each person contributing their share to the harmonious functioning of the whole, as it wheels and turns, wherein community life becomes a thing of beauty.

We were created to become creators, not only as individuals, but also in groups. Our guide is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of wholeness, whose form is the dove. This guiding Spirit helps us recognize when we are on a collision course with our neighbor. We each have particular gifts to offer to the whole; some offer leadership, some wisdom and insight; some the work of their hands. We are all called upon to be creators, creators together of the nest wherein the dove, the Father’s Spirit of peace, of harmony and of beauty, can find its dwelling. For as the poet says,

Now like a radiant sky creature

God keeps opening

Inside

of me.[1]

[ Inside of us.]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Hafiz, “What Do White Birds Say?” in The Gift, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 98.

June Trinity 2009, Raying Outward

June Trinity

The Ascension, Dali

John 17: 6-11

1^st June Trinity

June 7, 2009

John 17: 6 – 11

Some flowers form a single blossom, like the tea rose. Others bloom in clusters, like sunflowers. Although each blossom is beautiful by itself, the whole cluster forms a larger entity. Each blossom in the cluster contributes to a greater whole, a greater beauty, and a greater truth.

This truth is that as beautiful as each of our souls may be, we are come together in order to form a greater whole. And this greater whole is the place where Christ can work differently than He does in single individuals. Single hearts are to become a vessel, a grail chalice, into which is poured the wine of His love. The community is to become the greater vessel through which the wine of His love is poured out into the world. Together we can form a greater, more creative, more potent force in the world. For Christ said:

“…all the creative spirit power that you [Father] have given me, I have brought to them. They have taken it up into themselves…I pray to You for them….They live in the world. Holy Father, You who give healing to the world, keep in Your name and Your being all whom You have give to me, so that they may be one, even as we also are one.” John 17: 8-12

We come together in worship, dedicating our individual selves to receiving the Spirit of the Father and Son. We dedicate, consecrate ourselves as a whole to pouring out their Spirit into the world. The Spirit that they pour into our hearts is the creative spirit of love, of healing compassion, of service toward all on earth. The love we have received is the love we will pour out into the world. [1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] The illustration is the seed head of a sunflower. Note how the greater pattern, formed by the arrangement of individual seeds in the middle, rays outward.

3rd Trinity 2010, Asking for You

June Trinity

John 11: 17-44

Sombart

When Jesus got [to Bethany] there, he found that he [Lazarus] had already been in the tomb for four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles away. Many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary remained within. And Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha answered, “I know that he will rise again in the great resurrection at the end of time.”

Then Jesus said to her, “I AM the resurrection and the life. Whoever fills himself with my power through faith, he will live even when he dies; and whoever takes me into himself as his life, he is set free from the might of death in all earthly cycles of time. Do you feel the truth of these words?”

And she said, “Yes Lord. With my heart I have recognized that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

When she had said this she went and called her sister Mary and said to her privately, “The Master is here and is asking for you.” Jesus had not yet entered the town. He had stayed in the place where Martha had met him.

Rembrandt

When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her. They thought she was going to the tomb to weep there. But Mary came to the place where Jesus was, and when she saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been there, this brother of mine would not have died. “

When Jesus saw how she and the Jews coming with her were weeping, he aroused himself in spirit and, deeply moved within himself, he asked, “Where have you laid him?”

They answered, “Come, Lord, and see.”

Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him.” But some of them said, “Could not he who restored the sight of the blind man keep this man from dying?”

And again Jesus, deeply moved within himself went up to the tomb.

It was a cave, and a stone lay across it. And Jesus said, “Take away the stone!”

Then said Martha, the sister of him whose life had reached completion, “Lord, there will be an odor [he has already begun to decompose], for this is the fourth day.”

But Jesus said, “Did I not say to you that if you had faith, you would see the revelation of God?”

Then they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes to the spirit and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me; but because of the people standing here I say it, so that their hearts may know that you have sent me. Then he called with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out!”

And the dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with strips of linen, his face covered with a veil. And Jesus said, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

3rd June Trinity

June 13, 2010

John 11: 17-44

Sombart

When her brother dies, the ever-active Martha rushed out to meet Christ. She gently rebukes him for his absence at her brother’s death, while stating her faith that somehow He will fix things. To Martha Christ gives the answer: Whoever fills himself with my power through trust, he will live even when he dies. John 11:26 Christ reveals Himself as the resurrecting power of life that permeates all of creation. And He probes her heart for her sense of the truth of what He is saying.

It is then Martha who summons Mary. ‘The Master is here and is asking for you,’ John 11: 28 she says to her. To Mary’s same rebuke, that His absence has resulted in Lazarus’s death, Christ responds with tears of compassion for the grief of loss. He moves to the tomb and commands that the heavy stone be rolled away. And then, in concert with His Father, He calls—Lazarus, come forth! And then, ‘Unbind him’. John 11:43

Martha and Mary are two sides of the human soul. Our more active, Martha side arrives first, and responds in hope to conversation with Christ. She summons the other side, the more inward, contemplative Mary side, the side of deep feeling. Christ weeps with them both and then does battle with death. Lazarus, the representative of the eternal human spirit, rises from death to the call of Christ.

In the Act of Consecration of Man, the communion service, each side of our soul is activated. Our Martha side hurries us to the chapel to meet with Christ. She calls forth our more contemplative, Mary side to join in the deed of offering, so that our inner Lazarus, our eternal spirit, is called forth from the place of death. Every time the Act of Consecration of Man is celebrated, Martha’s words sound forth: The Master is here and is asking for you.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

Friday, June 20, 2014

4th June Trinity 2010, I Am Not I

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

I have made manifest your name to those human beings who have come out of the world to me through you. Yours they were, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus they have recognized that everything which you have given me is from you; for all the power of the word which you have given me I have brought to them. They have taken it into themselves and have recognized in deepest truth that I come from you, and they have come to believe that I have been sent by you . I pray to you for them as individual human beings, not for mankind in general. Only for the human beings which you have given me, because they belong to you. Everything that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them. I am now no longer in the world of the senses. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep, through the power of your being, those who came to me through you, so that they may become one, even as we also are one.

4^th June Trinity

June 20, 2010

John 17: 6 – 11

The child is cradled and guided by folk and family. They are the forces that guide the child’s life and form its

character. When the child becomes an adult, s(he) takes over the responsibility for shaping and forming his/her own life. In fact one could say that until one makes one’s own decisions and exercises one’s own strength of character, one remains a child, regardless of age.

In the history of humanity, and in our lives, guidance once came from outside; as adults it comes from deep within the core of our own individual being. It is not always easy to live out of the depths of the heart, particularly if folk and family try to dictate and pressure us otherwise.

In this Gospel reading, strangely Christ says to His Father: ‘I pray to you for them as individual human beings; not for mankind in general, but for the human beings that you have given to me.’ John 17: 9 Living out of one’s core self is often a lonely proposition. But Christ supports our attempts to strive for authenticity. For He carries the pattern of each individual’s true self. He is our silent partner along the path. In Him we live, even when we die. In the words of the poet:

Simeon Solomon

I am not I.

I am this one walking beside me whom I do not see,

Whom at times I manage to visit,

And whom at other times I forget;

The one who remains silent when I talk

The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,

The one who takes a walk where I am not.

The one who will remain standing when I die.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] “I Am Not I”, by Juan Ramón Jiménez, in Risking Everything, ed. By Roger Housden, p. 19

June Trinity 2012, Mighty Doorways

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

1^st June Trinity

June 3, 2012

John 17: 6-11

Wulfing

We each of us have a guardian angel. This angelic being has been with us from the very first chapter of the story of our lives. It never for a second leaves us. It knows how our chapters want to turn out. And with the tenderest love and encouragement, it stands by, hoping to be called upon to collaborate in the authorship of our lives. It waits to carry the offered substance of our prayers up to God.

God and His angels have also offered us one most precious gift. Out of their love, they give us the gift of our freedom. We can choose, or not, to ask for their guidance and help. The mystics say that one of the saddest sights in the spiritual world are the angels whose charges have left them unemployed.

Communities also have an angel. It watches over and guides the workings of the members of the group. The angels of the individuals collaborate with it, as it gathers the noble thoughts, the warmth of love, and the devoted wills of the individuals joined together in prayer. The prayers of the members form a fragrant bouquet. It is the fragrance itself, offered to God through the angels that nourishes and strengthens them in their work of love. Bread and wine, offered to be the body and blood of Christ, are food for our angels.

Perhaps before going to sleep at night, we might think to our angel:

Through my earth-days, watchful angel,

Thankfully I feel your presence

Knower of my destiny.

When I listen, you are helping.

When I move, your strength is with me:

Birth and death alike you show

Mighty doorways for my spirit—

Never lost, never forgotten

Held before your holy vision

Faithful, patient, hopeful angel.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Angel, by Adam Bittleston, in A Window into Worlds

June Trinity 2013, Unifying Love

Durer

June Trinity

John 17: 6-11

1^st June Trinity

May 26, 2013

John 17: 6 – 11

Every school child learns this: we can add single things together to make a greater sum. And we can take things away from the whole and thereby diminish it.

In today’s reading, Christ is conversing with His Father about how they have chosen out of the world a number of individuals, and added them to the sum of those connected with themselves. But in the realm of the Father there is a greater principle: The Father is One. And the number one is itself in fact the great all-inclusive unity containing all numbers. One, the whole, when divided, generates the rest of the numbers: two, three, four…. We are all part of the original One-ness of God.

And in the realm where the Father and the Son are joined, there is another great principle – the sum is greater than the parts. Those joined together with the Father and the Son are no longer merely isolated entities. They have rejoined the greater unifying One-ness from which we have all come.

We are held in the unifying love between the Father, who holds World Destiny in his hands, and His Son, who turns all things toward the good. The love between them and for the world is the Healing Spirit. When we recognize them, they live in us; we partake in their unifying, healing love. In fact, that is their wish – that we may be One, whole, a greater unity, just as they are One.

www.thechristiancommunity.org