All posts by Jonah

Awakening the Inner Sun

Especially in this cold weather, its important to remember that the sun still nourishes all things, all beings. It constantly rays out its light and warmth to our world. When we feel the sun, we feel a being who is constantly giving.

Within each one of us there is also a sun, an inner sun. Like the outer sun, the sun in us is the one who is always ready to give, to ray out our gifts, however small, to human hearts, to the world. This inner sun comes alive in us when we feel true abundance- deep trust that there will always be enough. This inner sun comes alive in us when we love giving more than having.

And yet, even though every human spirit is born to become a sun, to become givers, so much within us would tempt us to withhold. We withhold because of the fear of not having enough; we withhold our gifts because of what we think others will think of us; we withhold because we fall to the temptation that we have nothing of value to offer.

In our gospel this week (Lk 18), the rich young ruler asks Christ how to enter the kingdom of God. Christ tells him that the awakening of this inner giving sun in us is the way. Give away all that you have to give – follow me.

For the kingdom of God is here within us, within this world but not of it. Entering it means awakening the giver in us, our inner sun. For Christ, who is the great spiritual sun is giving His being to us at every moment – to follow Him, to become in His image, means to learn to do the same.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by Luke 18.

The Seed of God in our Hearts

To be a good gardener, two things are important; effort and patience. Tremendous effort must be put into preparing the earth, weeding and watering; and the gardener must also know when to stop, allow for things to take their course and patiently let the suns power bring forth fruit.

Every human spirit is called to be a gardener- a spiritual gardener. For the deep secret that our gospel speaks of this week (Lk 8) is that every human heart has received a seed – the seed of Christ’s being in you. The soul is soil, dear friends, and our spirit’s task is to learn to tend the seed of God in our hearts. This calls for tremendous effort; giving it water and weeding the soil of our souls. We water the seed of god in us with our spiritual practice; communion at the altar, contemplative study, learning to pray. We water this seed through loving deeds towards one another and towards the earth.

And we must also learn to weed our souls. For it is vital that the seed of Christ in us not be choked by inner weeds of blame, envy, greed, deceit, anger and selfish desire. These weeds must be recognized in us and continually pulled, if the holy seed is to grow.

But above all, the inner gardener in us is called to learn to stop working, take a Sabbath day, surrendering to what is, for it is in ‘allowing’ that sun power of god can work. In an age so focused on production, efficiency and results; patient surrender is our task and our medicine. For at the end of the day it is grace that grows the seed for the gardener and we must learn to get out of the way.

Wise effort and patient surrender…this is the curriculum for the human spirit. May we let God do the rest.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by the parable of the sower, Luke 8.

Faith in the Night

Every day half the earth is covered with a blanket of darkness, half our planet wonders in the night. The destiny of the earth as we know it, is to be intimately related with the dark.

The destiny of every human heart, like the earth, is also to live intimately with the dark. It’s actually why we are here. For no other spiritual hierarchy knows what it is like to be separated from the light, alone and plunged into the night. Its our unique calling card as human beings. Even priests (Ha!)  sometimes feel uninspired, lying in bed sick with the flu on Saturday, having no idea what to say for Sundays sermon, looking up into the heavens for some light but finding only darkness.

And yet, when the darkness comes, when the loneliness wells up, our challenge is to not fall into despair, not to think that there is something wrong, our challenge is to befriend the dark and to learn to bend our knees, look up and TRUST. For the star of Grace is only seen at night.

Cultivating this trust in the night, this deep faith that there is light in the darkness is the task of the human being. For this trust is what ultimately heals us. This is why Christ tells the centurion in our gospel this week (Mt. 8), that it is faith that heals.

So, dear friends, this means that “when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. ” (Wendell Berry)

The Spiritual Sun of Grace

The Spiritual Sun of Grace

We all know that the sun makes things grow. Its gift of light and warmth are needed for the whole life of the plant. Because of what the sun gives, stalks rise up – leaves gather energy – the fruit ripens.

Within every human heart there is also fruit- inner fruit. This inner fruit is our higher self, our true humanity, and it is also ripening and growing. This ripening fruit of our higher self is our capacity to love God and all of creation in freedom. But unlike outer fruit, we don’t ripen through the gifts of the physical sun, we ripen through the light and warmth of the spiritual sun.

But even though this spiritual sun of grace is constantly gifting us, so much of the time we don’t feel gifted in anyway. So often, the spiritual sun seems to go behind the ‘clouds’ and we suffer under the illusion of feeling that we must do it all. If we are going to make it, we must figure it all out. If we are going to ripen and transform into our higher selves, it will be through our own efforts. So often we feel alone.

But we are not alone.

For even though we often suffer with the feeling that it is all up to us, nevertheless His rays of warm light are there. For His rays come to us in many forms:

  • Receiving a new insight that changes the way we have seen things.
  • Meeting a difficult situation that turns out to be just what we needed to grow.
  • or the special deed of another that came at just the right time, in just the right way.
  • Feeling the nourishing peace at communion touching our hearts

these are all gifts, rays of HIS sun that grow the inner fruit of our higher self. And when they find us, we know, because we feel carried, we feel strengthened by something greater than us.

For we are all called not to despair in our loneliness, but to discover more and more the grace of… “Christ in the lifting of our hands, Christ’s light in our daylight.”

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by John 2, the Wedding at Cana.

The Good Wine Last

At the wedding at Cana the master of the feast expresses his astonishment that – contrary to custom – the good wine has been served last. The good wine that was transformed from water through Christ’s help.

Just like the master of the feast we do not usually expect the best at the end. We live in the natural, material world and we are used to that things decline toward the end. Everything that is alive will face decline and death. We expect the good, the best, when the world around us is fresh and young. We expect the best for ourselves when we are young and in full possession of the powers of youth.

But we also know that there is another stream inside us that goes against the natural laws, against the powers of age and death. In us there is something that grows younger and better the longer we live.

Here we are part of a different world order than the one governing the natural world. It is a cosmic order that Christ brought to us in the mystery of Golgotha. His cosmic deed goes against the laws of nature as we know them: He is the life that grows out of death, he is that which rises out of destruction, he is the power of newness hidden in that which is old.

He is the best that comes at the end and at the same time the beginning of something entirely new.

What he touches and permeates with his love will not stay as it was – nothing he permeates with his life-giving power can get lost or ever be destroyed – including ourselves.

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras was inspired by John 2, the Wedding at Cana.

Anointed Brokenness

Not only do we celebrate the three kings today, but at Epiphany we also celebrate the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan. We celebrate Jesus, whom before he is ready to receive the Christ at the baptism, must feel the deep need of a humanity that has lost all connection to the Spirit. We celebrate Jesus, whom before he can be anointed with the Spirit, must feel the deep suffering of a humanity in need of healing. For Jesus to receive God, required him to first feel a deep need for God.

Within each one of us, within every human heart, there is also one in deep need. This is the one in us who knows it is broken, not yet whole. Perhaps surprisingly, this one in us that is in constant need of grace is our actual human self. And this self of ours must, if it is to receive the presence of God in our hearts, if it is to receive the bestowal of wholeness, our self must, like Jesus, first feel the need for healing, the need for the Spirit. And this need to become a receiver of grace that lives in every human spirit only comes alive when we feel humility; our need only comes alive when we are full of reverent longing for The Spirit.

And yet, so much of the time we would hinder HIS Spirit from anointing us; so much of the time we would deny our ‘Epiphany’. We hinder HIS Spirit from anointing us by hiding from the vulnerability of our deep need, afraid that to be in need is to be weak. We hinder HIS Spirit from anointing us by running from our desperate loneliness into sensory distractions and empty addictions. And perhaps the most difficult hindrance of all to opening to HIS spirit is the illusion that we are already whole, that we are already perfect and one with God, making the practice of communion with HIM superfluous.

These hindrances which we all face, block our way to the Jordan, block our way to knowing Christ. But the baptism of Jesus, Epiphany, will always show us the way of entering into true life, Epiphany will always show us the essence of our human mission; That no matter how many or how big the stones are in the stream of our lives, we are called to stand up in the rushing river, begging and in need, and allow our brokenness to be blessed.

May our steps to communion, be steps into the river Jordan.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans  was inspired by Epiphany and the baptism of Jesus.

Becoming a Giver

At this time of year, the life of the seed slumbers under the ground. The flowers, trees and plants have all blossomed and born fruit in the summer, only to give it away in the fall, giving the seed away into the dark winter earth so that new life can awaken. Thus we can see that the ultimate purpose of the seed is to become a giver.

Within every human heart there is also a giver- an inner seed that longs to culminate its life by giving of its fruit. For like nature, our mission on earth is also to grow, flower and bear fruit for world. And even though there is much of our being that must receive, take and consume in order to live, our true humanity is only fulfilled by what we are able to give.

And yet, so often, we are mostly concerned with having instead of giving. Having enough money for retirement, having security, having our health. These are all important realities, even vital realities, but as Christ followers we must always keep in mind, that becoming fulfilled, not merely surviving, but becoming a true human being is never reached through having, no matter how much we have. We are only truly fulfilled through what we offer- what we sacrifice for new life.

In our Holy Nights gospel (John 21), Christ speaks to Peter of the ultimate purpose the human being. Christ tells Peter that if He loves him, if his soul is filled with love for god, then he will  feed His lambs and tend His sheep. Like the seed, Peter is called by Christ to become a giver – offering himself in love to the world.

So, if we find ourselves feeling unfulfilled even though we have so much, or find ourselves wondering what the purpose of all this living really is; Let us listen deep into our hearts, for He is speaking to each one of us, asking ever so gently; do you love me?

Because, you see, dear friends, the meaning of life is not a principle, or a spiritual law, it is a gentle question- a question that we are free to answer, a question that we must answer. For learning to love God in and through all of creation is the purpose of mankind.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by the end of the whole gospel, John 21.

The Word in Us

“In the beginning was the Word.”

As humans beings, words may well be our most important means. Ideas become words, words translate into deeds and our deeds form the world around us.

Once the words leave our mouths they take on a life of their own. Unseen and unnoticed by us they swirl around us and form the air. They impact the souls and hearts of the people they reach. It is of great importance how the words that come from our lips are spoken. Do we speak truth? Do we believe in what we say? Do we speak with affection and love?

Our words are merely human and not divine. If they were divine they would have an even greater power. The divine word creates. It assumes reality once it is spoke – it becomes flesh.

“In the beginning was the word […] and the word became flesh.”

Through the Christ-Child, born in the dark of the Christmas night the divine word speaks to us. It is a word of creation, a word of truth, a word of love and it sinks deep into our souls. In us it turns into light and through us it assumes form and changes the world around us.

This contemplation by Rev. Contreras is inspired by the John Chapter 1

The True Christmas Gift- The Birth of the Light in the Darkness.

Our modern culture mainly associates Christmas with giving and receiving gifts. Even if it does not look like it at first glance there is indeed a deep truth in this. We do receive an invaluable gift on this day – it is the birth of the light in the darkness.

During the second half of the year the days grow ever shorter. The darkness grows. Imagine a world where in the end there would be no light left, where the days would be spent in eternal darkness – a situation that is a reality north of the polar circle during some of the winter months.

Life, in the long run, cannot sustain itself in darkness. Eventually all growth and evolution will cease, destruction will set in. There will be an eternal stillness. We go through this time of growing darkness but we are allowed to call it ‘Advent’. Something will come. The darkness foretells it. A promise out of the spiritual worlds has been given to us. The light will return – and with it a new creation and the love of the Beings of Spirit that watch over us.

This is our Christmas present from the higher worlds – the birth of the light in the darkness. It speaks of the spiritual world’s commitment and love for us human beings on earth.

Who can match that love?

In the Gospel today (John 21), we hear how Simon Peter himself cannot match it. He speaks of how dear Jesus Christ is to him while Jesus speaks of love.

With the birth of the Christ-light in the darkness of the earth a flame of love is put into our hearts. It will grow and become our present for the worlds of spirit. One day it will transform our earth into the cosmos of love – into a shining star.

This contemplation is by Rev. Contreras given on Christmas day.

Awakening the Inner Shepherd

Into earth-night, Into sense-darkness…the Shepherds walked into the unknown. Each one was guided to the stable by his reverence for the message of the Lord’s Angel, each one was led to the holy child, not because of their special knowledge or brilliance; but the shepherds were led to the holy child because of humble devotion.

Within each one of us there is also a humble shepherd, wandering in the night, inwardly seeking the True Light of the world. And just like the shepherds that found the holy child in the stable, this inner shepherd in our hearts is that part of us that can feel deep reverence, the one in us who can fall to our knees in humble devotion, the one in us that longs to praise and worship God.

And yet, in our world and in our hearts, there is so much that would hinder humble devotion, hinder our inner shepherd from seeking the child. Cynicism suffocates devotion. The inability to feel something or someone greater than ourselves shuts out humility. Or perhaps the most difficult hindrance of all to awaking the inner shepherd is forgetting how to bend down and give praise, to inwardly kneel in the presence of what is holy.

For the shepherds familiar journey is much more than a childhood story; it reveals to us how the inner heart finds Christ. And it is always and forever will be reverent humility that opens the door to God.

Therefore, dear friends, at this midnight hour, let us all become simple shepherds. Let us inwardly fall on our knees, and give the gift of our hearts, in humble devotion to HIM.

 

This contemplation by Rev. Evans was inspired by Luke 2 and the Shepherds.