Monday, June 21, 2021

Announcement

 Dear Email Subscribers,

Last chance. Blogger has announced that starting in July, email subscription services will no longer be supported for this blog. I will still continue to post, but you will no longer receive these blog posts by email. 

You can however still receive by email the same weekly gospel readings and homilies by subscribing through The Christian Community's website. Go to www.thechristiancommunity.orgAt the bottom left of the homepage, you can enter your email address and sign up to receive the weekly Homilies by email from there. Using that subscription service (through Mailchimp) also gives you the advantage of an audio version of the same materials as well. 

In addition, there are other resources you can sign up for there, including a newsletter (three times a year) announcements of regional events, and a weekly story for children and adults, in both text and audio formats. For the story, check the Invisible Kingdom box.

You can, of course, change your preferences and unsubscribe at any time.

Warmly,

Cindy Hindes

Sunday, June 13, 2021

3rd Trinity II 2021, Come and See

 

June Trinity II, additional

John 1:43-51

The next day Jesus wanted to set out for Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me!"

Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote. It is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth."

Then Nathanael said to him, "Can good come out of Nazareth?"

Philip said to him, "Come and see."

When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, "He has reached the stage of an Israelite in whom there is no untruth."

Then Nathanael said to him, "From where do you know me?"

And Jesus replied, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."

Then Nathanael said, "Master, you are the Son of God; you are the spiritual leader of Israel."

And Jesus answered, "Because I said to you I saw you under the fig tree, have you found confidence in me? You will experience greater things than this." And he said to him, "Yes, I say to you all: You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending above the Son of Man."

3rd Trinity II

June 13, 2021

John 1:43-51

Out of all the facts, all the things we have experienced, all the things we know, our souls construct a coherent story that makes sense to us. For Nathaniel, in this gospel reading, the One whom they were awaiting wasn't expected to come from Nazareth. It didn't fit with the narrative. Not until Nathaniel experienced Christ Jesus himself, not until Jesus supplied additional knowledge and facts, could Nathaniel expand and change the whole narrative. His encounter with Christ changed not only his view of the Messiah but also changed the subsequent storyline of his own life.

In our lives, too, we have built up stories, both individually and culturally. As new experiences arrive, the stories through which we make sense of the world need to be constantly revised and expanded. We need to be open to incorporating new events and facts, especially when they are life-changing.

At the center of this gospel reading is an invitation: Come and see. Come—approach the One you are hoping for. See for yourself. Perceive Him, listen to Him, converse with Him.

Today the invitation still goes out: come and see for yourself. Converse with Him—in your own personal encounters, in the gospels, in the narrative of the Act of Consecration. Perceive Him in the changing life and color of nature and the seasonal prayers. We can hear His invitation in the words of Hafiz: 

Tissot
…our Beloved,

… eternally says, 

"Yes, dear ones, come this way,

Come this way toward Me and Love!"*

 

* Hafiz, in I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky

 

 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

Sunday, June 6, 2021

2nd Trinity II 2021, Soul and Spirit

 

2nd June Trinity II

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. 

Tissot
Jesus answered her, "If you knew how the
divine world now draws near to human beings, 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 [or, 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 them, their thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them 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 [or, 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."

2nd June Trinity

June 6, 2021

John 4:1-26 

Sometimes a person is too ill to take anything by mouth, and it becomes necessary to give fluids directly into the bloodstream. As a result, the person feels no thirst, for thirst is quenched by another source. 

In this gospel reading, Christ meets a woman drawing water from an ancient well. It was a well established by Jacob the Patriarch and over the centuries had quenched many a thirst. But over those same centuries, humankind had become more and more ill. This illness produced a deep existential thirst that needed to be quenched in another way. 

Julia Stankova
The hope was that this thirst for meaning, a thirst for guidance and purpose, could be quenched by the five senses, represented by the woman’s five husbands. She is the Soul, looking everywhere for her missing half, for her completion by the Spirit. She looks for meaning through taste and touch, through sight and sound and scent. She looks to the past and the ancient ways; she looks for purpose in high worship on the mountain. But no longer does any of this suffice. This experience is captured by Rumi: 

I have a thirsty fish in me

that can never find enough

of what it’s thirsty for!

Show me the way to the ocean!* 

Humanity’s Soul is ill. She needs the World Physician who will quench our deep thirst another way. “Whoever drinks the water that I will give her, her thirst will be quenched for all time. Indeed, the water I will give her will become in her a spring of water welling up as true life for eternity.”  John 4:14 

Through our union with Christ, our deep existential thirst will be quenched, for we will be connected to the Source; we will find our way to the great ocean, drinking in, filling ourselves with His life-giving love. 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

*Rumi, “A Thirsty Fish”, in The Essential Rumi, by Coleman Barks, p, 19.


Sunday, May 30, 2021

1st June Trinity 2021, Waking Up

 

1st June Trinity II

John 3:1-17

There was a man in the circle of the

Tissot
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 humankind, 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 them in their 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 someone be born again when they are old? Can they return to their 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 they are 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 wills; 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."

Nicodemus replied and said to him, "How can one attain this?"

Tissot, Moses 
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 themselves with his power shall perish, for they will share in timeless, higher life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn it, but so that the world be saved [or, healed] through him and not fall prey to ruin."

1st June Trinity

May 30, 2021

John 3:1-17

The plants have grown enthusiastically. Their flowering has released clouds of pollen. Carried up by the wind and thermals, the pollen is 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 our 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 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 work consciously 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 humankind's evolution. 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. 

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. 

As poet Antonio Machado said:

Beyond living and dreaming

there is something more important:

waking up.*

 

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

 



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

 


Sunday, May 23, 2021

Whitsun (Pentecost) 2021, Don' Mind the Fire

 

Pentecost

John 14:23-31 

Jesus replied, "Whoever truly loves me reveals

Mark Wiggin
my Spirit, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and prepare with them a dwelling in the everlasting [or, 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. 

"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. 

"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 according to the Father's purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise,  let us be on our way. 

Whitsunday

May 23, 2021

John 14:23-31

 

Fra Angelico
At the first Pentecost event, the disciples see a mighty fire that divides itself into separate flames. Each flame comes to rest over the head of each of them. 

In paintings by Fra Angelico, the flame also appears above the heads of angels. It is the symbol of an expanded awareness. The flames are the fire of love, a love which creates. These flames are an awareness that a river of love, the water of life, flows through all of creation, pervading the entire universe. 

A sudden awareness of the love that creates and bears the universe can at the same time make us aware of our own shortcomings in the realm of love. How loveless we can sometimes be! This painful self-awareness becomes the fire that burns, that burns away the dross of our selfish egotism. Once overcome, however, we can then proceed to generate the fire and warmth of a quiet but enthusiastic love for others, especially for those whose path is different from ours. We can generate an enthusiastic love for the truth. We can generate enthusiasm for deeds of service. 

The poet Rumi helps us become aware of our fear of this transformation of the lower self. He says: 

On the left is a blazing fire and

On my right a cool flowing stream

One group of people walk toward the fire, into the fire

And the other toward the cool flowing waters

No one knows which is blessed and which is not.

Robby Donahey
But just as someone enters the fire,

That head bobs up from the water

And just as a head enters the water

That face appears in the fire….

The voice of the fire says:

I am not fire, I am fountainhead

Come into me, and don’t mind the sparks. 

Our true self is a fire that burns; it burns away egotism; it burns unextinguished in the waters of life-giving love.

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

Friday, May 21, 2021

Announcement

 Dear Email Subscribers,

Blogger has announced that starting in July, email subscription services will no longer be supported for this blog. I will still continue to post, but you will no longer receive these blog posts by email. 

You can however still receive by email the same weekly gospel readings and homilies by subscribing through The Christian Community's website. Go to www.thechristiancommunity.org. At the bottom left of the homepage, you can enter your email address and sign up to receive the weekly Homilies by email from there. Using that subscription service (through Mailchimp) also gives you the advantage of an audio version of the same materials as well. 

In addition, there are other resources you can sign up for there, including a newsletter (three times a year) announcements of regional events, and a weekly story for children and adults, in both text and audio formats. For the story, check the Invisible Kingdom box.

You can, of course, change your preferences and unsubscribe at any time.

Warmly,

Cindy Hindes

Sunday, May 16, 2021

Ascension 2021, Pull You Out of the Sky

 

Ascension

John 16:22-33

 

"So you have to suffer pain now. But I will see you again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy, and no one can take that joy from you. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart that your joy may be fulfilled.

Stephen B. Whately

"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

Sunday, May 16, 2021

John 16:24-33

 

The petals of the blossoms begin to drop. The vision of loveliness falls away. Yet deep at the blossoms' base, fruit is forming, seeds of a new life. It will be a while before they are ripe. But they are there.

Stephen B. Whately

During the forty days of the time after His Resurrection, Christ continued to walk with His disciples. They could see Him in His otherwise transparent Resurrection body. Their deep love for Him, aided by their sorrow and suffering at His death, had opened their souls' eye. Through seeing Him after His death, they knew that the human spirit lives on after death.

But on the fortieth day, at His Ascension, He dies to them again. Their spirit sight cannot follow Him as He is elevated into yet another form, so their vision clouds over. They experience once again losing Him, this time in an indescribable depth of sorrow.

Sorrow and grief serve to deepen the soul. During the ten days after His Ascension, the disciples cocoon themselves together in the upper room. They remember that He said, "Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart (Jn. 16:24)."  So they pray. They go over all their memories of all they had experienced with Him. They remembered that He said, "The hour is coming when I will speak to you, openly and unveiled so that you can grasp it in full knowing consciousness (John 16:25)."

Although their soul's eye can no longer see Him, their prayers and sorrow, and memories are molding their souls. Their interior awareness is deepening. "Do you now feel my power in your heart?" He asks. "Take courage (Jn 16:31, 33)."

Rilke captures something of the mood of Ascension:

Laudario of Sant'Agnese
In deep nights I dig for you like treasure.

For all I have seen

that clutters the surface of my world

is poor and paltry substitute

for the beauty of you

that has not happened yet.

…Reaching, these hands would pull you out of the sky

as if you had shattered there,

…What is this I feel falling now,

falling on this parched earth,

softly,

like a spring rain?*

 

Christ's disciples are gestating. A new capacity is forming within them. It will be a little while until it makes itself known. But it is coming.

* Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 124.

 

 www.thechristiancommunity.org