Gospel Text for Sunday 31 May 2015

John 3:1-17        There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God." Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above." Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

"Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Reflection   “Are you a teacher, yet you do not understand these things?” Of course not. As a traditional teacher Nicodemus is listening to Jesus with the ears of his mind and is seeking a sensible, rational, fleshy explanation of Jesus’ words. That is why the story reports, Nicodemus “came to Jesus by night.” Nicodemus was in the dark. But Jesus is inviting Nicodemus  to open his ears to receive the words of the Spirit, the Vital Spark, the incomprehensible Essence of Life. Jesus is inviting Nicodemus into the light of consciousness expanded beyond the limits of physical life (being born of water) to experience consciousness of spiritual life (being born again of the Spirit). 

At this point in the Jesus narrative Nicodemus’ mind is occupied with the myriad things of the known world. He understands Jesus’ words literally rather than as fingers pointing beyond themselves to the unborn, undying, incomprehensible Unity of All that Is. 

And Jesus says, “Do not be astonished.” Can you almost hear Jesus elaborating? “You are so much more than what your senses perceive. Don’t you see, your good sense and sound judgment will not avail you of the Spirit of Truth? You will not recognize the Presence of God with you if you rely exclusively on your faculties of sense and reason. “You hear the sound of the wind, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” So it is with the Spirit, you experience its effects even though you cannot grasp it with your mind. ”

Jesus is pointing to the Mystery of Eternal life in which we all participate through the Spirit within. By opening our minds to the Mystery within we begin to experience the Mystery Beyond. This is the gateway of Eternal Life. This is being born again of the Spirit. This is participating in the mutual indwelling of the Holy Trinity. 

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Gospel text for the Feast of Pentecost 24 May 2015

                                                                                                                                Tempesta   Pietro

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15        Jesus said to his disciples, "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning.

"I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But, now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, `Where are you going?' But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Reflection        Jesus said to the disciples, “(The Holy Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Sixteen-hundred years later Ann Hutchison, the well-educated midwife and daughter of a dissenting Anglican priest apparently took Jesus’ words to heart. Hutchison claimed to have an “Immediate or unmediated experience of God’s Presence.”*  She was unswerving in declaring her religious experience gave her wisdom, discernment and certainty. No matter what other people said to or about her, Hutchison was steady as a rock in affirming her experience of the Spirit of Truth.

But it was the seventeenth century and women were understood to be the property of men. They were not to think for themselves nor speak their minds. So Hutchison and her family joined a Puritan community to journey to the New World. Immediately she began teaching that faith, rather than rigid adherence to Puritan rules, was the ticket to heaven and that individuals could and should read and interpret the Bible for themselves. Needless to say, the keepers of the status quo were outraged. 

Undaunted, Hutchison cleverly combined her midwifery services with her subversive, teachings, encouraging the people, who would gather when she arrived to assist at a birth, to “receive the Holy Spirit” the spirit of wisdom and truth for themselves. Clearly, Hutchison was challenging the authority of the Puritan Church by daring to believe what Jesus said, “The Holy Spirit will take what is mine and declare it to you.” Ultimately Hutchison was charged with heresy and she and her family were exiled from the Puritan community. 

What if we took seriously our claim to the Spirit of Truth with us? How could we be sure we were acting in accord with the Spirit of Truth rather than the impulse of our emotions? This is a question of discernment.

When we experience emotional impulse it is unsettling as storming ocean waves, volatile as a fire on a windy day. When we experience Spiritual Truth it is steady and unchanging as the mountains, calm as the surface of a pool of water on a windless day. Emotional impulse is accompanied by un-ease and disharmony. Spiritual Truth is accompanied by peace and harmony. The key to discerning emotional impulse from Spiritual Truth is peace, the peace that Jesus leaves with us, peace that is the steadfast companion of Spiritual Truth. 

*The Reader’s Companion to American History. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty, Editors. Houghton Mifflin Haracout Publishing Co., 1991.

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Ladder of Divine Ascent - icon representing monks climbing toward and falling away from Jesus

John 17:6-19        Looking up to heaven, Jesus prayed, "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Reflection        We have listened to the Word, God, and allowed the Word, God, to inform and transform us into a community of people who believe, Christians. And so Jesus says to the disciples and us, “Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you…” 

But believing the Word, God, is not enough. Jesus continues his prayer, “… they have kept your word.” Which is to say, it is not enough to study, to believe and even to be changed by the Word, God. We must also keep the Word, we must claim the Word, God, as our own and grow into our full Christian stature as apostles, the ones who are sent into the world to embody the Word, God. 

in response to our knowledge of God we are meant to carry the Word, God, into the world and make a difference in peoples’ lives. This would be a daunting proposition except Jesus is with us all the way. He understands how difficult, how counter cultural it is to live the Word, God, in the world, and so he  prays asking God to protect the disciples and us, “I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they do not belong in the world.” Jesus is not asking for us to be taken out of the world, rather to be protected in the world because we are needed in the world to embody the Word, God, and make a difference in peoples’ lives. 

Jesus continues his prayer. “(Father) you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them (that would be us) into the world.” By the way we live and the choices we make, we are the light that exposes the world’s darkness. As keepers of the Word,  God, we bring life in abundance to all people.  As conduits of the Word, God, we dignify all people. We are meant to be the light and life and love of the Word, God, in the world. We are the apostles, the ones sent to continue and fulfill the revelation Jesus began.

We are the flesh and bones intended to animate the Word, God, throughout creation. Jesus revealed the way. Let us pray for the will to do likewise. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 10 May 2015

John 15:9-17        Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

Reflection        On this Mothers’ Day Jesus implores us to “Love one another as (he) has loved us,” a command to love as a mother loves. We need mothers, not only to give us birth but also to give us value, to show us by the way they interact with us that we are a gift, a treasure. How else will be experience ourselves as a precious gift of God? And, not all of us had mothers who were capable of doing that. 

Does that mean we are doomed to a life of self-loathing or endless psychotherapy? I do not think so because mothers are not the only people capable of mothering love.  Which is to say, the mother who gives us birth may or may not be the one who gives us value. And that is where all the rest of us come in. Every one of us is needed by someone to give them a sense of being a treasure, a gift from God.  Unless another human being treats us as a beloved treasure we will not experience the deepest truth of ourselves, that we are beloved. I believe this is why Jesus’ cardinal instruction to the disciples and us is, “Love as I have loved.” Everyone, without exception, needs to be unconditionally loved in order to know they truly are the beloved and every one of us needs to make the decision to love without expectation or motive.

A question before us today is not, “Who is my biological mother?” It is, “ Who is the person that showed me I am a treasure, a precious gift?” For me the answer is, Aunt Frances. My parents were of the belief, “Spare the rod, spoil the child” and that “Children should be seen and not heard.” By contrast, Aunt Frances was tender, kind, spent endless hours listening to me, telling me stories, taking me to special places and letting me know that I was a treasure, beloved. Of course this meant I grew up with competing voices in my head, voices that gave me migraine headaches until a wise psychologist suggested I choose whichever voice was more life giving and banish the other. 

Everyone needs an Aunt Frances; someone who loves them the way Jesus loves, without judgment or agendas, which is why it is essential that every one of us decides to be an Aunt Frances and love the people around us with a selfless mother love, to let the people in our families and neighborhoods know they are valuable treasures, precious gifts of God, beloved. 

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Epistle reading for Sunday 3 May 2015

I John 4.7-21        Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

Reflection        Last Thursday a group of folks gathered  at Barnes & Noble and engaged this text from John’s letter. One person wondered, “What if I made this my one and only spiritual practice, to let God’s love flow through me to all people?” After a few remarks like, “Let us know how that works out for you,” we were quiet then someone changed the subject. The question echoed in me all afternoon. “What if I loved the person who parked too close to my car in the Barnes & Noble parking lot  and blessed her with another dent? What if I loved the person I overheard speaking unkind words in the market? What if I loved the person who falsely accused me? or the one who repeatedly misunderstands me?  or tries to undermine me? As I progressed through the litany of “what ifs” suddenly the light bulb came on. What if it isn’t all about me?

What if I actually let God’s love flow through me without censoring it according to my needs, preferences or prerogatives? What if I lived as did Jesus responding to false accusations without defense? to trickery with calm and wisdom? to betrayal and cruelty with understanding and forgiveness? Because, if I loved these people I would not fear them. I would not be afraid of threats or false accusations. I would not be suspicious, anxious or apprehensive about being hurt or having something taken away from me because, “There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear.”

There is a beautiful treatise titled, “On Loving God,” written in the early twelfth century by St. Bernard of Clairveaux. Bernard makes two relevant points. The reason for loving God is God’s own self and the measure of loving God is loving without measure. http://people.bu.edu/dklepper/RN413/bernard_loving.html) This is the entirety of our spiritual life; allowing the love of God to flow unhindered through us in response to God’s gratuitous love of us. Perhaps it is time for us  to add a couple of words to our old “No Fear” tee shirts and mugs….“No Fear in Love,” so that we can get on with the business of being love perfected in the world.

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Gospel text for Sunday 26 April 2015

John 10:11-18        Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away-- and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Reflection     “I am the good shepherd.” This is one of seven “I am” statements attributed to Jesus in John’s gospel. The other six are “I am the Bread of Life” (6:35), I am the Light of the world (8:12), I am the Gate (10:9), I am the Resurrection and Life (11:25), I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (14:6), and I am the True Vine (15:1).

Each one of Jesus’ ‘I am” statements affirms that the Spirit of Jesus, the Christ, is not only with us in our need but also provides for our need.  Jesus, being “the bread of life,” feeds our deepest , spiritual hunger. Jesus, being “the light of the world,” penetrates and transfigures the darkest moments of our lives. Being a “gate,” Jesus is an opening, a portal or a means of access to freedom from whatever restrains or weighs us down. Jesus “the resurrection and the life” replaces our discouragement, despair and doubt with hope in the promise that life does not end with death but is changed.  Jesus, “the way, the truth and the life,” exemplifies the way of being in intimate, loving, dependent relationship with God. Jesus, “the true vine,” reminds us that all of our productivity or fruitfulness arises from our relationship with God so there is no need for anxiety and striving for success. Jesus, the “good shepherd” acknowledges our vulnerability and stops at nothing to care for us. 

This begs the question, how are we to respond to such magnanimity? I believe one way is to live in imitation of Christ, to claim the “I am” statements for ourselves. What would it be like if each of us declared, “I am the bread of life” and then  lived our lives making sure no one around us was lacking?  How might the world be different if each of us proclaimed, “I am the light of the world,” then used our lives to shine hope and spiritual wisdom into the darkest corners of our world?  Can you imagine a world in which every one of us asserted, “I am the gate,” and then did everything we could to assure all people had access to food, shelter, education and healthcare? What if we announced, “I am the resurrection and the life,” and revealed the many deaths and humiliations  we’ve endured that led to new and transformed life for us? Might the world be different if we dared to say, “I am the way, the truth and the life,” then live our lives refusing gossip and destructive behavior in favor of loving and dignifying all people? What if we laid claim to being “the true vine,” intended to pass on all our God given gifts for the greater good? Would the world be different if we found our essence with Jesus, “the good shepherd” and assumed responsibility for the care and protection of widows and orphans, the disabled and disaffected, the hungry, the prisoner, the illegals, even at our own expense?

Do we dare to declare, I am?

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Luke 24:36b-48        Jesus himself stood among the disciples and their companions and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Reflection         There is a lot of confusion about Pre-Easter Jesus and Post-Easter Christ. Pre-Easter Jesus walked with the disciples and entered rooms through open doors. Post-Easter Christ appears among his disciples, even though the doors of the room are shut or locked. Pre-Easter Jesus is known by the physical senses and readily recognized. Post-Easter Christ is known by spiritual realization, the mysterious opening of our eyes and our minds to recognize Christ present in strangers and our selves.

In other words, Post-Easter Christ arises from within when the disciples are gathered, thinking about Pre-Easter Jesus, talking about him, remembering him. Post-Easter Christ emerges as peace, peace that arises from the depths of our being, peace that surpasses our understanding and supplants everything else. 

This is the peace Pre-Easter Jesus left for all of us when he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.”(John 14.27-28)

Although Pre-Easter Jesus must go away (after all he is mortal), he leaves his peace with us, the unspeakable peace which is the calling card of Post-Easter Christ. This is how Post-Easter Christ makes himself known to us, by the peace that arises within and among us when things are frightening, chaotic or as bad as they can be. 

Pre-Easter Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…”  Post-Easter Christ fulfills the blessing, being the peace that unseats all else. 

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