The Spirit of Truth

”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. »

John 14

We haven’t had much sunlight the past few weeks.  But we have not stopped believing in the sun.  We know it is shining even though our vision is clouded  by rain and storm clouds.  We keep on looking into the sky, delighted with even a small break in the relentless gray.  Happy with glorious cloud shapes gilded with the promise of sun.

When Jesus tells his disciples (you and I) that while he must go to another place, he will give us a new way to be in relationship, he is saying that even though you cannot see the Advocate, helper, you will receive the Holy Spirit.

We will know the Holy Spirit because we have known and do now know Christ.  Just as sunlight is not separate from sun, neither is Advocate separate from Christ. 

And the way in which our eyes will be trained and our hearts open to receive this power, will be in the lives we lead, keeping the commandments.  Jesus is not a thoughtless disciplinarian, wanting us to follow blindly to illustrate His power.  He knows that if we are not consistent in our lives, we will wander aimlessly looking for the Holy Spirit outside ourselves.  Jesus wants us to be confident in our value, and consistent in our practice.  This consistency of spiritual practice and observation of right living forms us into the people who can say with confidence, ‘the Advocate is here.’

We can look into the sky, however dark, and see that light is breaking forth.

And we can invite those around us to believe in that generosity of light and comfort God so desperately wants to give to all.

Even after all this time,

The sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look what happens with

A love like that.

It lights the whole sky.

- Hafiz of Persia

Living Stones

Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2

There are several ways in which the word for stone in Greek has been translated for us in English.  The word lithos, often translated as stone, actually connotes gemstone.  I like the idea of living stone as gemstone.

A gemstone is multi-faceted and able to reflect light as well as absorb it.   A stone which has been cut away to reveal its inner beauty is highly valued.  From it come depths of color and shimmer—a representative of the hidden core of heat within the earth.

But stones, in the Biblical tradition, have other meanings.  Stones were used as markers of events where God interacted with human beings.  A stoning of a sinner often created a pile of stones which later might become an altar.  Sacrifice and sanctity are not strangers in a stoney landscape.

When we are invited to become living stones, we are invited to both sacrifice and sanctity.  We are asked to share our deep beauty with one another even as we embrace the sacrifice required of the Christian spiritual life.

We become one in worship, even as we jostle against one another in the tumbler called the Church.

And our tumbling will polish us into brighter realities of the Living God-if we allow ourselves to be shaped by Divinity and community.

Come as living stones.

Come as precious gems of God.

Come and be formed.

Blessings,

Debra

Resurrection

"Every moment and every event of everyman's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men."

—   Thomas Merton

One of the elements of the Resurrection stories which gives me comfort is that Jesus comes to those seeking Him in the ordinary and familiar.  He says a name, walks a dusty path, invites fishermen to breakfast.  Our Lord is not elevated away from us.  Jesus elevates us toward Him through spending time with us right where we are.

And yet, spending time doesn’t really describe the incredible transforming power of His presence.  Like the winged seeds that Merton writes about, each of those humble moments is shot through with light and Resurrection.

It is the wind of the Spirit that carries the new seeds of our rebirth into Christ.  Like those seeds which fill the air at this time of year, we can be a fertile spot upon which they can land, or not.

In order to recognize Jesus in a quiet word, or a shared meal, we will need to know Him.  We will need to spend time with Him through scripture and worship and prayer.  We will need to listen to the special way that Christ comes to us so that we will answer, My Lord, My Teacher, My Love.  And this answer will well up in us from the heart of our desire.

We are surrounded at all times with moments of Resurrection.

Let us attend to these moments and share the good news.

Blessings,

Debra