3rd Easter 2015, My Soul's a Shepherd

3rd Easter

John 10: 1-21

“Yes, the truth I say to you: Anyone who does not go into the sheep through the door, but breaks into the fold elsewhere, he is a thief or robber. Only he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep respond to his voice. He calls each one by name, according to its nature, and he leads them out into the open.

When he has brought them out, he walks before them, and the sheep follow after him, for they trust his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but rather flee, because they do not know the stranger’s voice.”

Thus did Jesus reveal himself to them in pictures, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Then Jesus went on. “Yes, the truth out of the spirit I say to you. I AM the door to the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them.

I AM THE DOOR. Anyone who enters through me will find healing and life. He learns to cross the threshold from here to beyond, and from there to here, and he will find nourishment for his soul. The thief comes only to steal, and kill and destroy. But I – I have come that they may have life, and overflowing abundance.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who works for wages, and who is no true shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, he sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep, and flees while the wolf snatches them and scatters them. For he is only a hireling and he cares nothing for the sheep.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. I know who belongs to me, and my own recognize me, just as my Father recognizes me in the depths, and I know the being of the Father; and I offer my life for the sheep.

Other sheep have been entrusted to me who are not of this fold; I must also lead them. They too will listen to my voice, and one day there will be one flock, one Shepherd.

That is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up anew. No one can take it from me.  But in full freedom I myself offer it up. I have the power to give it away and also the power to receive it anew. That is the task given to me by my Father.”

Then there again arose a division among the people because of these words. Many of them said, “He is possessed by a demon and is out of his mind. Why do you listen to him?” Yet others said, “These are not the words of one who is possessed. After all, can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

3rd Easter

April 19, 2015

John 10: 1-21

The shepherd is the image for a particular way of being. The shepherd cares for the animal life. He leads them out to pasture and nourishment during the day, and into the safety of the fold at night. Even though as the communal shepherd, the sheep do not belong to him, he recognizes the individual sheep and calls them by name. He is willing to risk his life to save them from destruction.

Christ is the Good Shepherd of souls. He knows each of us by name. We can listen to His voice as he walks before us, leading us to the nourishment and safety we need. He lays down his life for us, individually and collectively.

We too may be shepherds. We may be responsible for others in our outer life. We are certainly responsible for the various bleating voices of the collective that reside within our own souls. As the poet George Herbert says,

My soul's a shepherd too; a flock it feeds

Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.

But we can entrust our souls fully to the voice of Him who calls us by our true name, the name written in the stars, our name written in the book of life. For we say to Him:

The pasture is Thy words; the streams, Thy grace

Enriching all the place.

Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers

Out-sing the daylight hours.

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2nd Easter 2015, Open the Door

2nd Easter

Rembrandt, Wikicommons

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2^nd Easter

April 12, 2015

John 20: 19 – 29

A door presupposes a wall. The door frame, the threshold, is an opening in what is otherwise a barrier between one side and the other.  But the door itself can be opened or closed, even locked. It is a metaphor for choice: Open? Closed? When locked it becomes like the wall itself – a barrier.

The disciples had kept the doors lock for fear of the authorities. The locked doors were also metaphors for state of their hearts locked in fear. But Christ had said of Himself, “I AM  the Door.” He himself became the entrance to the locked room, to their closed hearts. He enters the room, enters them, bringing with him a deep atmosphere of peace. And the disciples recognize and receive His healing spirit.

Wm. Holman Hunt, wikicommons

Eight days later he will show to Thomas other more intimate doorways. He will show him His own wounds, the doorways through which He was assaulted. He accepted them, suffered them, so that in His descent into hell, they too could be transformed into doorways of light. Light, warmth and life now radiate from His wounds, light that can germinate trust within human hearts, light for our path forward. And so the poet advises us:

Open the door of your heartaches.

And step through the door of your betrayal.

Pass through the hole that is left in your heart

Pass through because it is a door.

… Open the door.

….

Anything that needs us, or calls us to God is a door.

…Open the door.

….

Same old story –all strong souls all first go to hell

Before they do the healing of the world they came here for.

Open the door.[1]

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[1] Clarissa Pinkola Estes, “Abre La Puerta, Open the Door”

Easter 2015, Harbingers of Light

Easter Sunday

Mark 16: 1-18

And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”

And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where they laid Him [his body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”

                And they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say anything to anyone about what they had experienced.

When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp it.

After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they were walking over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they could not open their hearts to their words either.

Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the Risen One.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the new message from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart with it [believes] and is immersed in me [baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it [believe] and will attend their path : Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing forces to them.

Easter Sunday

April 5, 2015

Mark 16: 1-18

In the week before His death, Christ said “unless a kernel of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

The Risen One, Gruenewald, Wikipedia

The living power of Christ’s blood entered the earth at His crucifixion. And His body was placed into a cave in the earth. He, the great Light-Seed, died into the earth. On Holy Saturday, he rooted himself firmly into the earth, descending to the dead. On Easter morning, the first new shoots of His new Life broke forth from underground. New Life, capable of reproducing itself infinitely, began to grow.

At Ascension. He will open himself wide to the cosmos, while still remaining connected to the earth. And so this new Life will blossom into the whole world. At Pentecost His manifold light-seeds will fall into the hearts of those who love him.

And now, today, we rejoice because new Life is flashing forth from death. It is emerging from its apparent demise; it flares up from the ground of our hearts. The Light-Seed is quickening in the earth, in us. For today, as the poet says,

Every man, plant and creature in Existence,

Every woman, child, vein and note

Is a servant of our Beloved -

A harbinger of joy,

The harbinger of

Light.[1]

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[1] Hafiz, ”Guardians of His Beauty”, in The Subject Tonight is Love -- versions by Daniel Ladinsky

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2015, Gentle He Is

4th Passiontide

Hipolyte Flandrin

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4th Passiontide

Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015

Matthew 21: 1-11

The images and pictures of Holy Week reveal a secret. In mythology, the donkey is a symbol for the physical body – Brother Ass, as St. Francis called it. Many of us may feel ourselves submerged within our bodies. Or perhaps the body feels like a runaway donkey dragging our spirits along. Or perhaps, especially as we get older, we may feel our body as a burden that we are coaxing along behind us like an unwilling and stubborn animal.

Monk with a Donkey, Buongiorno

Christ came to help human beings establish a new relationship to their physical nature. The image of Christ riding the donkey and its foal in majesty is a picture of our own future. We will one day lovingly and gently master our bodily nature and it will carry us where we want to go. The picture image of the new young foal even hints at the future development of a new kind of body.

Here at the beginning of Holy Week Christ directs His body toward Jerusalem and its Temple. After today He will enter and leave every day on foot, until late Thursday, when he will remain, entering into the body’s death process. And at the moment of death, the birthing of a new kind of body, the resurrection body, will begin.  Step by step we can accompany this process, for

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle He is,

 and he rides on a donkey

and on a foal of beast of burden. Matthew 21:5

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