Showing posts with label Luke 12: 35 - 48. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luke 12: 35 - 48. Show all posts

Sunday, February 24, 2019

4th February Trinity 2019, Inner Household

February Trinity
Luke 12: 35-48

Burnand
“Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning. Be like men who are expecting their master back from the marriage feast, so that they can open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are the servants whom the master finds awake when he comes! Yes, I tell you, he will put on an apron himself and show them to the table and serve them. And if he does not come until the second or third watch of the night, and yet finds them awake: Blessed are the servants! You know: If the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would not let his house be looted. So be ready: The Son of Man comes at an hour that you had not thought.”

Then Peter said, “Lord, are you telling us this parable, or is it for all human beings?”

And the Lord answered, “Imagine a faithful and competent steward whom his master appoints to be in charge of the whole staff, to give to each one what he is entitled to. Blessed is that servant if the master comes and finds him carrying out his duties.  I tell you, he will entrust him with all his goods. But if the servant says in his heart, ‘My master will not be coming all that soon,” and begins to mistreat the other servants and the maids, himself all the while eating and drinking and becoming intoxicated, then the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour that he does not know. The master will virtually tear him to pieces; he will treat him as those deserve who have not proved faithful.

A servant who knows his master’s will but does not act according to it and so does not carry out his will deserves the severest punishment. If he does not know the master’s will and then does something that deserves punishment, he will escape more lightly. From one who has many gifts, much will also be expected; and from one who has been entrusted with much, much more will also be demanded.

4th February Trinity
February 24, 2019
Luke 12: 36-48

The theme of this gospel reading is service. It is easy enough to apply this parable to our outer lives. For we all have interactions with people who serve us—waitpersons, public servants the grocery store clerk. Obviously, we are to treat them well. Likewise, many of us may serve and direct others in some capacity.

But the characters in the parable could also be seen as the various members of our own nature. We could think of our own “I” as the faithful and competent steward whom the Master has appointed to be in charge of the whole internal household of the soul. It is our duty to treat the various parts of ourselves firmly but well, to nourish them and coordinate their working, so that our inner house functions smoothly.

Our wills need directing; our feelings need to be wholesome; our thinking pure and engaged. Even our lowliest servant, the body, needs direction, nourishment, and care.

Juan de Juanes
Our own Self, our I, is itself the servant of the greater Master. To most of us, the Master seems to be away just now. But His arrival is imminent. “The Son of Man comes at an hour that you had not thought.” Lk 12:40

In the story, the Master may appear harsh to those who are not ready for him. But it is easy to overlook the fact that here, the Master himself acts as a servant. When He comes and finds that his servants are awake to open the door, he offers to nourish those who have served him, who have taken good care of the inner household for him. The reading says, “He will put on an apron and show them to the table and serve them.” Lk 12:37 For it is within us, in the house of our Selfhood, entered through the door of our wakeful heart, that Christ would dwell. And even today, we hear Him say: Take bread; take wine. Be nourished by Me, and I will give you my peace.”


Sunday, February 19, 2017

3rd February Trinity 2017, Be Ready

3rd February Trinity
Luke 12: 35-48

Waiting Servants, Eugene Burnand
“Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning. Be like men who are expecting their master back from the marriage feast, so that they can open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are the servants whom the master finds awake when he comes! Yes, I tell you, he will put on an apron himself and show them to the table and serve them. And if he does not come until the second or third watch of the night, and yet finds them awake: Blessed are the servants! You know: If the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would not let his house be looted. So be ready: the Son of Man comes at an hour that you had not thought.”

Then Peter said, “Lord, are you telling us this parable, or is it for all human beings?”

And the Lord answered, “Imagine a faithful and competent steward whom his
Jan Luyken
master appoints to be in charge of the whole staff, to give to each one what he is entitled to. Blessed is that servant if the master comes and finds him carrying out his duties.  I tell you, he will entrust him with all his goods. But if the servant says in his heart, ‘My master will not be coming all that soon,” and begins to mistreat the other servants and the maids, himself all the while eating and drinking and becoming intoxicated, then the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour that he does not know. The master will virtually tear him to pieces; he will treat him as those deserve who have not proved faithful.

A servant who knows his master’s will but does not act according to it and so does not carry out his will deserves the severest punishment. If he does not know the master’s will and then does something that deserves punishment, he will escape more lightly. From one who has many gifts, much will also be expected; and from one who has been entrusted with much, much more will also be demanded.



3rd February Trinity
February 19, 2017
Luke 12: 35-48

We all know what happens when something unexpected occurs – being surprised, we may fail to respond appropriately. Emergency crews prepare for events
 
with drills, over and over. They train their consciousness to remain awake and recognize what is happening. With exercises, they train their will until it responds appropriately, habitually, almost instinctively.

Christ asks us to become, not necessarily emergency workers, but at least people willing to serve Him, and ready to respond appropriately. First of all, this means we need to be awake and alert for His arrival. And the great secret is that He could arrive at any moment, in the guise of anyone. A Celtic rune of hospitality says;

I saw a stranger yesterday . . .
He blessed myself and my house . . .
And the lark said in her song
”Often, Often, Often,
Goes the Christ in the stranger’s guise.”

We are to open the door of the heart to the Christ in them.

Further, we are to protect His treasure in our own hearts, so that the adversaries do not break in and steal it. What is the master's treasure? It is our love – our love for Him, our love for each other, our love for the earth. As Christ points out, being full of ourselves, intoxicated with power, mistreating others, destroys our integrity of heart and its treasure of love and service. What we sow we will reap. If we serve, we will receive service; if we mistreat others, we are in effect tearing our own true being to pieces.

So, in the words of Christ: "Be ready; the Son of Man comes at an hour that you had not thought." Luke 12:40

Sunday, February 23, 2014

3rd February Trinity 2014, Obey Thy Heart

3rd February Trinity
Luke 12: 35-48

“Be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning. Be like men who are expecting their master back from the marriage feast, so that they can open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are the servants whom the master finds awake when he comes! Yes, I tell you, he will put on an apron himself and show them to the table and serve them. And if he does not come until the second or third watch of the night, and yet finds them awake: Blessed are the servants! You know: If the master of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would not let his house be looted. So be ready: the Son of Man comes at an hour that you had not thought.”

Then Peter said, “Lord, are you telling us this parable, or is it for all human beings?”

And the Lord answered, “Imagine a faithful and competent steward whom his master appoints to be in charge of the whole staff, to give to each one what he is entitled to. Blessed is that servant if the master comes and finds him carrying out his duties.  I tell you, he will entrust him with all his goods. But if the servant says in his heart, ‘My master will not be coming all that soon,” and begins to mistreat the other servants and the maids, himself all the while eating and drinking and becoming intoxicated, then the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, and at an hour that he does not know. The master will virtually tear him to pieces; he will treat him as those deserve who have not proved faithful.

A servant who knows his master’s will but does not act according to it and so does not carry out his will, deserves the severest punishment. If he does not know the master’s will and then does something that deserves punishment, he will escape more lightly. From one who has many gifts, much will also be expected; and from one who has been entrusted with much, much more will also be demanded.

3rd February Trinity
February 23, 2014
Luke 12: 35 – 48

The world of the angels is ordered in a hierarchy. Each order of angels serves the one above, and all ultimately serve God in love. Demonic beings were once angels who refused to serve.

Today’s reading is a story of good and poor servants. They can be seen parts of a single human being. There is a part of us which, like the angels, wants to serve the Master faithfully, even in his apparent absence. And there is another part of us that would like to devote itself to instinctual or even destructive behaviors. Christ makes it clear that succumbing to the latter will eventually destroy our integrity and tear us to pieces. Doing so consciously and willfully hastens the process.

Christ is the Master of the House. We are the stewards in charge of the house of the body. We are to become competent over our own impulses and behaviors. Part of that competence involves giving to our array of inner ‘staff’, as Christ says, ‘what each one is entitled to.’ (Luke 12:42) They too are servants. We are neither to beat them nor starve them. All of our inner parts need sufficient nourishment and just treatment in order to fulfill their tasks. The chief steward is not to become intoxicated with its own importance. The steward task is to maintain order in the house while watching for the Master of Love, the Master of the Heart, to return. Ralph Waldo Emerson says:

Give all to love;
Obey thy heart;
.…
’T is a brave master;
Let it have scope:
Follow it utterly,
Hope beyond hope:

It was never for the mean;
It requireth courage stout.
Souls above doubt,
Valor unbending,
It will reward,….[1]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Give All to Love”