Lost In The Dark
“Lost in the Dark”
John 12:20-36
CCUM April 2, 2006
Rev Carolyn Waters
Sermon Notes
John 12:20-36
20Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Holy God, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 O God, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of All must be lifted up? Who is this Son of All?” 35Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.
Poem from “The Termacollective”……a group of people putting together a spiritual project called “The Box”
What in your life is calling you?
When all the noise of silence, the meetings adjourn, and the lists laid aside
And the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest.
What still pulls at your soul.
In the silence between your heartbeats hides a summons…..
Do you hear it?
Name it if you must
Or leave it forever nameless,
But why pretend it’s not there?
What pulls at your soul?
No one can give a definition of soul. But we know what it feels like…The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it---to remain children of the light.
Albert Schweitzer, Reverence for Life
In John Gospel Jesus is to have said: If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.
I venture to say that when we have lost touch with our soul…we walk in the darkness. When we have communion with our soul, we live in the light.
Story of 2 Year Academy for Spiritual Formation:
Covenant Group, Don Eddy, Petoskey MI
Suicide note Don left:
Never miss an opportunity to ask a friend or colleague “How is it with your soul.”
It’s a question John Wesley always ask of anyone in any group setting.
“How is it with your soul?”
Martin Buber & Aubrey Hodes
Martin Buber
No encounter with a being or a thing in the course of our life lacks a hidden significance … the highest culture of the soul remains basically arid and barren unless, day by day, waters of life pour forth into the soul from those little encounters to which we give their due.
The “little encounters” with one another. The “little encounters” with life.
The “little encounters” that make us flesh and bone.
RUMI Poet Persia
We began as a mineral,
We emerged into plant life
And then to the animal state,
And then into being human.
And always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring
When we feel the slight recall of being green again.
That’s how a young person turns toward a teacher,
That’s how a baby leans toward the breast without knowing the secret of its desire
Yet turning instinctively
Human kind is being led along an evolving course
Through this migration of intelligences
And though we seem to be sleeping
There is an inner wakefulness
That directs the dream.
And that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are.
And just what is the truth of who we are? How far do we have to wonder from our own truth before we suddenly realize the darkness that surrounds us is so dark we can never imagine seeing the light again? How much of “the truth of who we are” do we connect with the image of who God created us to be? How much of our “truth” is in the “light” of who God is.
The inner wakefulness that directs our dreams and startles us back to the truth of who we are is the indwelling presence of God. The spirit of life and light. The essence of our soul.
Mary E Carreiro
The Psychology of Spiritual Growth
The soul is the life force---the only “permanent” part of a person. Evolution is a process of being lifted, by the soul, out of human pain and suffering…Spiritual will means a person uses her energy on behalf of the soul rather than on behalf of the human personality.
So the significance of soul is in the connection with spirit, not self. Or self in relation to spirit not personality?
It can all become rather confusing. I just know the reality of joy and the reality of depression and real forces that make for life and death. Jesus is always on the side of life and the side of joy…………….living in the light.
Our own train wrecks, deep seeded pain, trama, abuse of all kinds……..can easily turn our paths toward total darkness. In those times and in that place of darkness life is hell.
We are invited to live in the light. But we do not simply live there by declaring ourselves followers, by declaring ourselves Christian, or by self determination.
We move from places of darkness to places of light by invitation. The invitation from others inquiring about the state of our souls, by the invitation of Christ in offering forgiveness, by the invitation of a good therapist in healing old wounds, by the invitation of God in opening arms of love. We move from places of darkness to places of light by being people of faith.
Rumi
No one knows what makes the soul wake up so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil from the face of God.
(Rumi)
The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe before it’s gone.
Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you’re perfectly free.
John 12:20-36
CCUM April 2, 2006
Rev Carolyn Waters
Sermon Notes
John 12:20-36
20Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Holy God, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 O God, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of All must be lifted up? Who is this Son of All?” 35Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.
Poem from “The Termacollective”……a group of people putting together a spiritual project called “The Box”
What in your life is calling you?
When all the noise of silence, the meetings adjourn, and the lists laid aside
And the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest.
What still pulls at your soul.
In the silence between your heartbeats hides a summons…..
Do you hear it?
Name it if you must
Or leave it forever nameless,
But why pretend it’s not there?
What pulls at your soul?
No one can give a definition of soul. But we know what it feels like…The soul is a burning desire to breathe in this world of light and never to lose it---to remain children of the light.
Albert Schweitzer, Reverence for Life
In John Gospel Jesus is to have said: If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.
I venture to say that when we have lost touch with our soul…we walk in the darkness. When we have communion with our soul, we live in the light.
Story of 2 Year Academy for Spiritual Formation:
Covenant Group, Don Eddy, Petoskey MI
Suicide note Don left:
Never miss an opportunity to ask a friend or colleague “How is it with your soul.”
It’s a question John Wesley always ask of anyone in any group setting.
“How is it with your soul?”
Martin Buber & Aubrey Hodes
Martin Buber
No encounter with a being or a thing in the course of our life lacks a hidden significance … the highest culture of the soul remains basically arid and barren unless, day by day, waters of life pour forth into the soul from those little encounters to which we give their due.
The “little encounters” with one another. The “little encounters” with life.
The “little encounters” that make us flesh and bone.
RUMI Poet Persia
We began as a mineral,
We emerged into plant life
And then to the animal state,
And then into being human.
And always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring
When we feel the slight recall of being green again.
That’s how a young person turns toward a teacher,
That’s how a baby leans toward the breast without knowing the secret of its desire
Yet turning instinctively
Human kind is being led along an evolving course
Through this migration of intelligences
And though we seem to be sleeping
There is an inner wakefulness
That directs the dream.
And that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are.
And just what is the truth of who we are? How far do we have to wonder from our own truth before we suddenly realize the darkness that surrounds us is so dark we can never imagine seeing the light again? How much of “the truth of who we are” do we connect with the image of who God created us to be? How much of our “truth” is in the “light” of who God is.
The inner wakefulness that directs our dreams and startles us back to the truth of who we are is the indwelling presence of God. The spirit of life and light. The essence of our soul.
Mary E Carreiro
The Psychology of Spiritual Growth
The soul is the life force---the only “permanent” part of a person. Evolution is a process of being lifted, by the soul, out of human pain and suffering…Spiritual will means a person uses her energy on behalf of the soul rather than on behalf of the human personality.
So the significance of soul is in the connection with spirit, not self. Or self in relation to spirit not personality?
It can all become rather confusing. I just know the reality of joy and the reality of depression and real forces that make for life and death. Jesus is always on the side of life and the side of joy…………….living in the light.
Our own train wrecks, deep seeded pain, trama, abuse of all kinds……..can easily turn our paths toward total darkness. In those times and in that place of darkness life is hell.
We are invited to live in the light. But we do not simply live there by declaring ourselves followers, by declaring ourselves Christian, or by self determination.
We move from places of darkness to places of light by invitation. The invitation from others inquiring about the state of our souls, by the invitation of Christ in offering forgiveness, by the invitation of a good therapist in healing old wounds, by the invitation of God in opening arms of love. We move from places of darkness to places of light by being people of faith.
Rumi
No one knows what makes the soul wake up so happy! Maybe a dawn breeze has blown the veil from the face of God.
(Rumi)
The morning wind spreads its fresh smell.
We must get up and take that in,
that wind that lets us live.
Breathe before it’s gone.
Dance, when you’re broken open.
Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you’re perfectly free.
posted by Rev Waters | 9:01 AM
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