7th August Trinity
Luke 10: 1-20
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others
and sent them two by two ahead of him, before his face, to every town and place
where he himself was about to go. He told them, “An ample harvest, and few
workers! Ask the harvest master, therefore, to send out workers to help with
the harvesting. Go: I hereby send you out like lambs in the midst of wolves. Do
not take a wallet or knapsack or sandals; and do not pause to greet anyone on
the way.
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this
house.’ If a son of peace is there, your peace will alight on him; if not, it
will turn round and come back to you. Stay in that place, eating and drinking
with them, because the worker is worth his wages. Do not move around from house
to house.
“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set
before you, and heal the sick and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is close upon
you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and
say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we are shaking off (to
your face). Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is approaching ’ I am
telling you, Sodom will be better off than that town on that day.
“The worse for you, Chorazin ! The
worse for you Bethsaida ! Because if the deeds of the spirit
that occurred in you had had occurred in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long since be sitting in sackcloth and ashes as a sign of
their change of heart and mind. But Tyre and Sidon will be better off on the
day of decision than you. And you, Capernaum , won’t you
be exalted to the skies? You will go down to the depths.
He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects
you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me. “
The seventy-two returned with joy and said “Lord,
even the demons submit to us in your name.”
He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from
the sky. Here, I have now given you authority to trample on snakes and
scorpions and on all the power of the enemy and none of it shall ever hurt you.
But do not be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your true being
is taken up into the world of the heavens (that your names are recorded in the
heavens).
7th August/Sept Trinity
Luke 10: 1-20
Living things breathe. They open and expand, contract and
close, only to open again.
Our souls, too, have their times when they expand in joy,
contract in sorrow. Even in the tight circles of grief, we will experience that
one day, our grief will be turned to joy. John
16:20
Christ works closely with individual souls. Yet His working
wants to expand. He sends out seventy-two to prepare His working, to ‘harvest’
ready souls. They are to do so peacefully, respecting the right of refusal that
each of those other souls has. Their basic task is to spread the good news of
change, of transformation, of the renewal of human evolution. They are to help
remove the impediments to change.
After a period of expanding the work outward, the
seventy-two return. They report with joy that the Christ power working in them,
the power of love, overcame the destructive beings impeding others. Christ
affirms the positive in their report of changes made. But He also expands their
goals further.
The good news from the realm of the angels is that each soul
has a true being. This true being is what is good in us, which manifests in our
transformative deeds, founded in love. This true being has an abiding
existence, beyond the transitory changes of the mortal world. ‘Be glad that your true being, your names, have
been written into the world of the spirit.’ Luke
10:20 Our real existence, our real being, is anchored in another,
invisible world.
The words of the poet Jimenez illustrate the nature of our
true being:
 |
| My Soul and Me, Simeon Solomon |
I am not I.
I am this one walking beside me
whom I do not see,
Whom at times I manage to visit,
And whom at other times
I forget;
The one who remains silent when I talk
The one who forgives, sweet, when I hate,
The one who takes a walk where I am not.
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