Hello friends.
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighborhood monk in dogs.
Welcome to this first session in a new series,
How Deep Is Your Love?
As we explore the theme of love in John's first letter.
Wherever you are today,
Just take a moment to become aware of your breathing.
There's nothing you need to achieve together as we share in this meditation.
Just allow yourself to fully arrive.
As you breathe in,
Just simply notice that you are breathing.
Yeah.
And as you breathe out,
Just allow your shoulders to soften.
Become aware of the presence of God and for the stillness inside your heart.
So today we're beginning this journey through the little letter of one John.
A letter that's shaped Christian spirituality for nearly 2,
000 years.
It's a short letter,
But it carries an immense vision.
At its heart is one of the most beautiful and deepest truths ever written,
That God is love.
But before John even writes those famous words,
He begins somewhere a little bit unexpected.
He begins with life.
So listen to these opening words from one John.
Chapter 1,
Verses 1 to 9.
To form.
We declare to you what was from the beginning.
What we have heard,
What we have seen with our eyes,
What we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life,
This life.
Was revealed and we have seen it and testified to it.
And declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.
We declare to you what we have seen and heard,
So that you also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son,
Jesus Christ.
We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Now it's a little bit of an unusual way to begin a letter.
John doesn't begin with instructions or doctrine or commandments,
But with experience.
I love these words he uses,
We've heard,
We've seen,
We've touched.
It's tangible.
John's speaking about something that's become very real to him.
Following Christ for John is never.
A collection of ideas to believe.
It's an encounter with life itself.
And notice how he uses that phrase,
The word of life.
We often hear word and immediately think of teaching or language,
But John's going much deeper than that.
The Word is God's self-expression,
The way God makes themselves known.
In Jesus,
The invisible life of God became visible to us.
Love took on a human face.
Literally,
John says,
We have seen.
.
.
Life.
And that's a remarkable thing to climb.
This is not just miracles they've seen,
Wonders from somebody who they were following along behind.
Or an extraordinary teacher who taught some pretty wild stuff in amazing ways.
What he's saying is that it's more than this,
The Jesus they encountered.
Was the person in whom they encountered life in its fullest sense,
The very life that's always existed with God.
A lot of us spend our lives searching for life.
We look forward to lots of different things,
Success,
Security,
Recognition,
Relationships.
And none of those are bad.
They can all be gifts,
But sooner or later.
We discover that none of them can bear the weight of being the source of life itself.
So John is gently pointing us elsewhere.
Life isn't something we have to drum up.
Life is something that we receive,
And more than that.
It's something that we awaken to.
The Christian mystics often spoke about this awakening.
They suggested that God wasn't absent from lives and waiting somewhere for us to find them.
But rather that God is the very ground of our being,
The one in whom we live and move and have our being.
We don't bring God into our lives,
But what we do is we gradually discover that our lives have always been held and surrounded by God.
Within and by God and that changes everything because now Love isn't something.
.
.
That God gives from time to time,
Love is the very atmosphere in which everything already exists.
A great illustration is a fish swimming through water.
The fish doesn't notice the water because it's never been anywhere else.
Or think about the air around us.
Every breath depends on it,
But.
.
.
I doubt whether you've ever probably stopped much to notice the atmosphere that's around you.
And so maybe love's a bit like that.
Maybe.
We've been searching for something that we've never actually been separated from.
And John's opening words here invite us to become aware.
Of what's always been true.
The life that was with God has been revealed.
And this isn't so that we can admire it from a distance,
It's so that we can literally participate.
Unit.
John uses another beautiful word here too,
He says fellowship sometimes.
We reduce fellowship to friendly conversation with people.
But the word that John uses carries a much deeper meaning.
It means sharing in a common life.
That's the invitation.
That John writes about here.
We can believe certain things about Jesus,
Sure.
We can imitate Jesus and what we see in Jesus.
Yeah,
Go for it.
But to share in the very life that animated Jesus themselves.
Wow.
That is where it's all at.
To live from the same source,
To drink from the same well,
To rest in the same love.
So as we move through this series,
You might notice something shift within you.
Perhaps you've spent years asking,
How can I love God more?
Or how can I be more loving?
And they're good questions to ask,
But John begins with an even deeper one.
He says,
Can you begin by noticing that love has already found?
You,
Before you sought God,
God was seeking you.
Before you loved,
You were already loved.
Before you understood anything about faith,
You were already being held within the life of God.
It doesn't mean we stop whatever spiritual practice we might hold to,
But it does transform its purpose.
So prayer isn't about trying to convince God to come near and do something for us.
It's an awakening to a God who's always been with us,
Has been working for us before we even ask.
When we meditate,
It's not just about escaping life,
It's about noticing the life that's around us.
Contemplation.
Becomes learning.
To be aware of the love.
That surrounds and sustains and fills every single moment.
And maybe this is why John writes,
We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Joy grows.
Wherever reality is recognized.
And the deepest reality,
John says,
Is life.
The deepest reality.
Is love.
Now just allow these ideas to become a prayer.
You don't have to think hard,
Just simply rest in what you've heard.
Notice your breathing.
And without effort,
Life is being lost.
Given.
Just notice your heartbeat.
Without even trying,
Life continues within you.
I just invite you as you sit and breathe to just repeat within yourself,
I rest in the life of God.
I rest in the life of God.
Imagine yourself.
No longer needing to try to reach God,
But becoming aware that every breath is already held within God's loving presence.
And all you have to do is simply receive.
Let's pry.
Loving God,
You are the life beneath all life and the love beneath all love.
Open our eyes to what's always been true.
Teach us to stop searching for you as though you were far away.
And instead,
Awaken us to your presence within and around us.
As we journey through this letter together.
Help us move.
Beyond just thinking about love and teach us to live within it.
May your life become our life.
May your love become the lens through which we see the world.
May our joy gradually become complete and may grace,
Peace and that love be with us and remain with us today and always.
Amen.
Until tomorrow,
My friend.
Peace.
Be with you.
