Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Whitsun III, Good Will

Pentecost, wiki commons
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.]

Pentecost 
John 14: 23-31
May 26, 2015

On the Christmas altar we read in golden letters: Peace on earth to all of good will. What does it mean to be of good will? Perhaps its opposite can point us toward an understanding. Ill will broods darkness. It sends negativity into the heart space between two people.  It either pushes hard on the other, or else it retreats. It poisons the heart space with its destructive criticism and contempt. It binds with chains of hatred.

Good will, on the other hand, holds the other in positive regard. Good will keeps the heart space in common clean and clear. It neither pushes nor withdraws. It regards the will of another as a Holy of Holies, into which one can enter only by invitation, and with respect and reverence before their mystery. This kind of will is good because, like a candle flame, it radiates light and warmth in just the right degree. Good will allows the other to be and develop as he or she sees fit, at their own pace.

Christ says: He who loves me reveals my spirit. Good will arises because we love and recognize Christ, wherever he appears. He sacrificed his will to the Father for the sake of World Karma. He offered up his Life forces, his powers of metamorphosis and change, for the sake of humanity’s progress. At the same time, He does not force himself on us, or overwhelm us. He respects our freedom of choice. His radiant will offers light in the darkness, love amidst hatred, life over death.


We who love Him connect with Him, take His radiant will into our will. Perhaps we can manage it only for moments (we hope the right moment!) But eventually we will transform ourselves into those who reveal to our fellow human beings His Spirit of Love and Peace, streaming forth from our own willing hearts.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Whitmonday, 2015, Give Thanks!

Whitsun II, Whitmonday
Woloschina
John 14: 15 -26

“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 II, Whitmonday
John 14: 15 -26
May 25, 2015

We human spirits are enclosed in earthly bodies, enclosed in our own skin. This is what gives us a sense of selfhood on earth – that we and no other can occupy the space we take up. It leads us to a sense of independence and gives us a taste of freedom. Yet that same sense of self is an illusion. For we are fully dependent upon the work of others for the maintenance of our earthly existence.  Their work feeds and clothes us. And we are dependent upon the Divine for every breath we take, for the very fact that we exist, alive, at all.
The commands of Christ are simple, yet infinitely difficult for us. Christ asks us to remember the Father of Life and to send him our gratitude. And Christ asks us to acknowledge with humble gratitude the importance of others in our lives. Our heartfelt thoughts of gratitude, our awareness that we are all woven together in a great tapestry of destiny, that the other is striving and evolving, just as we are, becomes in us the basis for an objective spiritual love. It creates the potential for a living circulation of mutual support between us and the beings of the spiritual world; support between us and all others; and between us and the beings of the natural world.

Out of this gratitude and support, which we strive to engender within ourselves, Christ can appear. Within our striving, the Father’s Healing Spirit works. He stands by us in every moment. Our gratitude creates a portal for the Spirit of higher Truth to enter our understanding.

Sunday, May 24, 2015

Pentecost (Whitsun) 2015, Healing Spirit


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 be on our way.



Pentecost
John 14: 23-31
May 24, 2015

In the event of the Pentecost festival that we celebrate today, the disciples are together in the upper room, praying together and waiting. The mighty wind of the spirit blows through and a spirit fire descends and tongues flame appear above the heads of each. Their understanding of the events of Jesus’ life and death lights up. Legend has it that at that moment, each disciple uttered one sentence of his understanding, which came together as a whole in the creed.
The gospel reading seems to veil this event. Yet its elements are there: Christ speaks of preserving each individual by preparing for each their own spiritual dwelling place. Their uniqueness will not be erased. And at the same time, Christ brings a harmonizing peace. His is not the peace of suppression, like the Romans, but rather the peace of freedom and understanding. The source of world strife, the narrow insistence on one’s own point of view as the only valid one, is fitted harmoniously into a greater whole. Instead of nullifying each other, each sentence contributes to a greater understanding of the whole. They do not invalidate each other.
This is the Spirit that Christ sends: a holistic spirit, the spirit of enlightenment. It is a spirit, creative of being, that enkindles a fire of love. It is a spirit that heals the rifts and tears in the body politic, in our interactions with one another. For together we are forming a higher body for Christ to live and work in. Christ sends his Spirit of love for the healing of the world. The original event is a model:

They all sat silent, watching, waiting, waiting….
Sudden the heavens broke upon them
And sevenfold lightning flashed
And whirlwind swept all darks asunder
And tongues of flame descended on them.

Baptized they were with Fire, with the Holy Spirit,
The Word of Christ was born in them.
And so they rose
                And went out to the multitude,
Disciples of Christ—His Life, His Death—
Bearers of the Word to all mankind.[1]




[1] Francis Edmunds, “Words for Whitsun”

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Ascension 2015, Given to Your Heart


Ascension
Garofalo, Wiki Commons
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 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 14, 17, 2015
John 16: 24-33

Michel de Broin, Superficial Mirror
In fairy tales, the hero sometimes wins a cloak of invisibility in order to do good. It is as though they enter another realm, just beyond ordinary sight, while still remaining in this one.  It is likewise with those who have died; they have entered another realm just beyond our capacity to see them with our ordinary eyes.

In this gospel reading for Ascension, the Ascension event itself is veiled. But there are hints of what is there. Christ says that he is leaving the sense world and entering the realm of the Father, “of which you say that it is the realm of death.” John 16:28 Yet with his Resurrection the realm of death was imbued with Life. The dead live, though invisibly, as does He. He indicates however that we will nevertheless be able to sense his presence through other means: we will sense him in praying, when our prayers arise from our hearts. For with his Ascension he expanded his being from that of Jesus to that of both heaven and earth. He has expanded Himself into the whole world. This enables him to be present within the life of every single human being.
We can sense him in the warmth of our blood, in the rhythm of our breathing. He is hidden in the light of our noblest thoughts, in the living changes and transformations of the music of our soul life. He is invisibly present in the very meaning of our lives. He appeared to ‘go away’. But his going away was in essence a drawing even nearer. He is hidden within us, in our heart of hearts. "Pray from the heart and it will be given to your heart:, he says. For I will give you myself, my very being – light, life, warmth and transformation.



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Sunday, May 10, 2015

6th Easter 2015, Trust in the Power


6th Easter
John 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.

6th Easter
John 14: 1-31  
May 10, 2015

Christ says: Trust in the power that leads you to the Father and to me.” What is this power that leads us to them? It is the power of trust itself. Trust means that our souls can place themselves confidently within a greater context than our own wishes and desires. With trust our souls can expand into the matrix of all that we know and have experienced, firsthand or otherwise. We can even trust and grow into what we do not yet know.
Red Thread of Destiny
If we look back on our lives, we can often see a red thread of guidance running through it, a through-line. This guidance has brought us to where we are today, to who and what we are. Things may not have turned out as we would have wished or expected. Nevertheless we have met people important to us. Our lives have taken meaningful, if sometimes painful, turns. There must have been a roadmap of intentions for us.
Christ has provided each of us with a personal guide who never sleeps, who never leaves us  -  our guardian angel. The whisperings of our angel inspire the turnings of our lives. We are free to hearken, or not.
In any case, Christ holds within his heart the red threads of the destinies of each and every human being. These red threads are leading us gradually to a greater and more conscious relationship with Him. They are leading us home, to Himself and to our Father’s house.

Sunday, May 3, 2015

5th Easter 2015,


5th Easter, 
John 16, 1-33
Ascension, Kate Greenaway

“All these words I have spoken to you so that you will not be offended 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 rob you of your earthly existence and kill you will think they are offering service to the progress of the world. They will do so because they cannot raise their knowing to knowledge of the Father, nor to knowledge of my being and working. All these words I have spoken to you so that when the time comes you will remember that I said them to you. I did not speak to you in this way in the beginning because I was with you. But now I am going away to him who sent me; yet, none of you has yet the strength and courage to ask me about the realm into which I now enter. Your hearts are full of grief and therefore closed to the things I have said to you.

Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation and healing that I go away, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, 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. But because I go, I will be able to send him to you. When he comes, he will bring to the world a consciousness of how the nature of the sickness of sin works, of how people can be reconnected with the divine world in which there is no sin, and of how the decision about human error can be brought about. Sin is human beings not really being able to trust in my being and in that which works out of my being within them. The balancing of sin holds sway in my going to the Father and in not remaining limited to appearing outwardly. Judgment works in the decision that has already been made about the prince of outer world.

Holy Spirit Dove
I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But only when the Spirit comes, through whom the Truth can reveal itself to the world, will he lead you to the Truth that Embraces All. For he will not speak only out of himself, but he will speak what he hears in the realm of the Spirit, as the speaking of the eternal reality, and he will tell you what is yet to come. Thus will he reveal me among men, for out of what he takes from my being he will proclaim to you. In the realm in which my Father works, there I also live. That is why I can say, ‘He will take from my being and proclaim to you’.

In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more’, and then, ‘after a little while you will see me’, and ‘because I am going to the Father’? They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We do not understand what he is saying.”

Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “You are wondering what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.’  Amen, amen, the truth I say to you, you will weep and deeply mourn, and the world will rejoice in this. You will be filled with sorrow, but this your sorrow will be turned into unceasing 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 child 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 will take your joy from you. On that day, you will be so deeply united with me that you will no longer need to ask me anything.

Amen, amen, I tell you the truth; 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 ask anything in my name. Ask and you shall receive, and your joy will be complete.

Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy may be fulfilled.

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 openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. So 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.”

5th Easter
May 3, 2015
John 16: 1 – 33

Christ the Vine, Wiki Commons
When we know that we will be separated from a loved one, we may give them a photo, to help them remember us. Before He died on the cross, Christ gave his disciples images of himself. He knew he was going away for a time, and so he gave word-pictures of himself: I am the Good Shepherd of Souls. I am the Doorway into the heavenly realms. I am the true Vine, connecting and holding you all. I am He who shows you the pathway to Truth in Life, the Way to real, true Life.

 He hoped that in their time of grief and sorrow after His death, they would remember the pictures and would find comfort and trust in them.

These images have been repeated again in the readings since Easter. And just as they were given beforehand, as a comfort for the impending events on Golgotha, so do they now precede yet another death, another loss. For on Ascension Thursday, Christ’s Resurrection Body, the body in which he appeared to his disciples for forty days after his death, this body will undergo yet another change of form. It will become another body, expanding to become the true life, the living Vine of the whole world. And they will lose sight of Him yet again.

We too do not always see Him. In fact, most moderns have not yet seen Him. This, as He says, is humanity’s  time of separation and grief, our time of laboring and pain. But He assures us that our labor is not in vain. We will bear fruit. As Rilke compares us to trees in an orchard,

… even though the burden
should at times seem almost past endurance.
Not to falter! Not to be found wanting!

Thus must it be, when willingly you strive
throughout a long and uncomplaining life,
committed to one goal: to give yourself!
And silently to grow and to bear fruit.[1]

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[1] Rainer Maria Rilke,  “The Apple Orchard.”

Sunday, April 26, 2015

4th Easter 2015, Everything Depends

4th 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.
Christ the True Vine, Wiki Commons
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.
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 26, 2015
John 15: 1-27

The wild grape vine will spread its many branches far and wide, climbing over fences and up trees.  A cultivated vine is trained up on stakes and cross-wires. The vinedresser prunes it back to restrain much of the growth. Thus the vine sacrifices some of its wild abundance in order to produce better fruit.

Christ True Vine, wikicommons
Christ calls himself the True Vine. He is the Life the living entity of the earth and all on it. Our lives are branches off of His Life. And He tries to convey to us that both He and we are not to remain wild and uncultivated. Rather we are to contain ourselves on the cross-wires so that the Father, the vinedresser, can concentrate and strengthen our growth to produce excellent and abundant fruit.

The goal of our lives, the fruit we are trying to produce, is love. We are to produce the sweet and abundant fruit by remaining connected with the True Vine, the one whose very being is love. We are to remain connected with Him, living in His life, out of our own freedom of choice. To do otherwise is to risk bitter even diseased fruit.

To love means to offer our own life forces, our thoughts, our time, to others for the furtherance of the world. Offering ourselves is a habit into which we can train ourselves. We can prune away our more selfish and lazy habits, our soul’s deadwood. And this matters not only to us, but to the world. For as the poet says:


Vine and branch we’re connected in this world
of sound and echo, figure and shadow, the leaves
contingent, roots pushing against earth. [ A fruit} An apple
 
belongs to itself, to stem and tree, to air
that claims it, then ground. Connections
balance, each motion changes another. Precarious,
 
hanging together, we don’t know what our lives
support, and we touch in the least shift of breathing.
Each holy thing is borrowed.  Everything depends. [1]



[1] Jeanne Lohmann,  “Shaking the Tree”