Dear Friends,
This week’s Gospel features Jesus inviting the disciples to “Come and dine” as he guides them to a huge catch of fish after a fruitless night fishing by themselves.
They bring the fish they caught to the fire Jesus has ready. This story is one of our favorites. The God we grew up with was often judgmental and stern. The God of this Gospel (and our Community) is a Loving God who abundantly blesses everyone. Inclusivity and abundance—everyone is included, love without limits that is what our God showers on you and me. Then we are called to pass it on to everyone we meet.
This reading: The Blossoming Face of God highlights Joyce Rupp’s and Macrina Wiederkehr’s reflections on this Gospel and was our second reading at Eucharist tonight.
The Blossoming Face of God by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr
This Sunday’s Gospel reminds me of another unfolding revelation that is taking place in our world today. All around us the glory of God is breaking through creation’s circle of life in the seasons of Earth each year. Yet, there are many for whom this Divine Face in creation remains a stranger.
Throughout the world prophets and lovers of creation are crying out like the beloved disciple, “It is the Holy One!” All this green! All this growing! All this light! It is the face of God blossoming through these branches. The Word of God is growing out of the land and shining from the skies, “Come and eat; feast at the table of Earth, “ these disciples keep inviting.
Through these new disciples, the Holy One keeps trying to tell us where to cast our nets. Unfortunately, there are still many seekers frantically searching for food to heal their weary spirits and wounded hearts who have not yet discovered this important medicine of the universe. At times they are even suspicious of these new disciples of the Word of God in creation. They gaze into this miraculous unfolding of life and do not see the face of God. The God of Creation remains as much a stranger to them as Jesus was to those apostles who were fishing at night.
The creative spirit of our Divine artist, however, does not grow weary. Continually the voice invites, “Come and dine: feast at Earth’s sacred table. Behold the Blossoming Face of God.”
One of the ways in which Jesus rises to new life in us is in our community. We give each other hope, when any one of us runs thin on hope. We lighten each other’s load, by walking together and helping in any way we can. We invite you to come and experience “the blossoming face of God” as we contemplate in prayer and move with justice at The Spirit of Life. Through our time of prayer and sharing together, we work together to grow in our self-understanding and in our relationships with God and with God’s people. We celebrate the gift of our faith and the responsibility that is ours as followers of Jesus Christ. It is our prayer that what we as a community experience in our praying together will overflow into the rest of our lives, making us more fully human and more ‘whole’….holy! We invite you to join us in this endeavor and journey with us as we seek to grow in our love of God and to grow in our capacity to be living expressions of God’s loving peace and justice in our world.
May you be blessed with a deepening awareness of Christ’s presence within you....in your life...and may you be strengthened to be that Presence in our world.
Ron & Jean