Water Into Wine: a meditation from the reed bed
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.
Tsiyon צִיּוֹן (Zion),Holy Mountain of the Temple within, in silence I climb, led by the Spirit to…
ירושלם Yeru-Shalem, tribal federation in whom difference meets difference and finds herself to be One, dancing in creative tension of being, wild like the Spirit, gentle as the Dove, free like the dawn, burning with unfettered potential of a new day. Though I would stay here forever, I know I must descend the mountain and return to the valleys and the cities, to call your people home. I will teach them to pray and so to find you within them, and they will know salvation once more.
Oh Church of God…
… as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your builder marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.
Oh Church of God, you will be beautiful again.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12.4-6
Prophet, teacher, bringer of light, healer, carrier of relief, feeder of the hungry, provider, home maker, vagabond singer, poet priest, freer of captives, administrator, money expert, builder, mechanic, farmer, trader, leader, you have called us all, each to their own. Talents and gifts, to each something special but not to be squandered, flexed or hidden away.
Beauty cannot be faked; she walks where glamour seldom stoops to tread. “Look deep,” you say, “find the hu-man within. Follow your heart. You know the Way. Rebuild my church. Rebuild my church. Rebuild my Church.”
…standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out… John 2.6-8
In Living water, we are baptized, in the mikvah gathering waters, on the Yorden (Jordan) free-flow threshold of Promised Land, we go down once more into the dying of self, and we will rise in bridal gown to offer the wine of Eternal Life. Intoxicated with the nectar of the knowledge of who we really are, we will return to the Oneness of selfless Self, the Bride united at last with the Bridegroom in the Bridal Chamber of Love Unbound.
For Zion’s sake we will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake we will not rest…
For with you is the well of life and in your light shall we see light. With you, O God, is the well of life. Psalm 36.10
Tonnau Duw ('God's waves') Fr Tim Ardouin 