Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 29, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Easter Sunday, seventy times seven
At Port Aransas last week I met a woman named Omega. She stayed with her husband in the flat above ours on the beach.
“Is your husband named Alpha?” She might have been asked that question a thousand times. “No, his name is Alex.” Not that far off!
But Jesus’ encompassed the Greek antipodes.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
When Jesus says this to John in his vision, what does John hear? What do I hear?
I have been with you since the beginning of your time as John. As David. As … fill in your name. He knows all of us.
I have been with everyone who has ever lived in just the same way.
I have been with all things that were made from the beginning.
I am everywhere, at all times, at the same time. I am with you always.
I am the root and offspring of David, the bright morning star.
Such poetry from the mouth of Jesus, from the hand of John, such quiet certain strength.
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” Let the hearer say, “Come.” Let the one who thirsts come forward, and receive the gift of living water.
In love, there are moments of merging with one another physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. In love, I lose myself in my lover, and she loses herself in me. These moments of joy and ecstasy might be rare, but they are real.
I pray for them and those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us.
It is not necessary for any of us to settle for a bland Sunday morning, as we struggle through our cereal and drive to church, unaware of the oneness Jesus has in mind for us. When we greet each other and smile, we can let Jesus smile through us. When we stand up and sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, we can let Jesus sing through us. We are becoming one, and we can call it that. The Orthodox word is “divinization.” Call it that too. Jesus promised us this, and our job is simply to say, “Yes, I love you too!”
I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me.
This is a tricky thing, just saying “YES.” God made us co-creators, and this means we are thinking all the time, and sometimes this means we are thinking too much at the wrong time. Like on Sunday morning at church, when our job is to know Jesus’ joy, and let him love us. That’s much harder if we think about it too much, trying to do it ourselves somehow. This “letting go and letting God” is not easy! Until we just accept the simple touch of Jesus, inside and out. Embrace tiger, return to mountain. Let It Be.
My Father, you have loved me before the foundation of the world. I made known to them your name, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.
(Acts 7, Psalm 97, Revelation 22, John 14, John 17)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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