Thursday, September 19, 2013

8th August Trinity 2009, Search for the Kingdom

8th September Trinity
Luke 17: 20-37

At that time the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”  And he answered, “The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say: Look, here it is, or there. Behold—the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts.

And he said to his disciples, “There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you: Look—there! or Look—here!  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spirit paths. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first he must suffer great  agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself: they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built, until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself.

When that time comes, let him who is on the roof of his house, having left his goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let him who is out in the open field not go back to what he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! For whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth awaken in himself a higher life. I tell you; then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty-handed. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty-handed.


And they said to him, “Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord? And he answered, “Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles that are gathering. [or, Where the formative forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals himself.] [or, Where there is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]


8th August Trinity

Sept 13, 2009
Luke 17:20 -37

We are once again in a rapidly changing season. The days are shortening more quickly; times and outer conditions begin to disintegrate as the old forms crumble.

The gospel reading warns us not to become too dependent on the outer, for the kingdom of God arises within us, within human hearts. This inner kingdom is a large one of varying landscapes—lush beauty, areas of desert, dark and light, and in-betweens. During dark dry periods we may seek for the richness of connection, but He warns us that He is there instantly and wholly ‘like lightning that flashes in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament’. Luke 17:24 He is not confined to one place, one person, one guru ‘over there’. He is accessible through our own inner landscape. He appears when the time for us is ripe.

When the disciples ask, ‘Where shall we turn our gaze?’ He gives a mysterious, cryptic answer: ‘Become aware of your living body and you will see the eagles gathering.’ Luke 17:37 [1]

Birds have always been symbols of thought, symbols of spiritual activity. He points us inward to the capacity of our life forces to create thoughts, to create inner pictures and images, memory pictures. This creative forming force in the human being exists right next to the place where the breaking down of substance in the body occurs. [2] This creative forming force, working on the ash-heap, can begin to work in freedom, freed from the necessities of the body (what shall we eat? What shall we wear? Matthew 6:25). When this freedom of thought begins to happen, into that free space between body and eagle, there arises the capacity to perceive the revelation of God, the lightning flash of His being. Even from the place of earthly descent, here where change means disintegration, He can be perceived. And so in the words of the poet:

…when we come to search for God,
Let us first be robed in night, …
To feel the rush of light
Spread slowly inside
The color and stillness





[1] The usual translation is "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather." But the Greek uses the word ‘soma’, a word for a living body, not ‘sarx’, corpse. And ‘aetoi’ are eagles.
[2] So ‘corpse’ and ‘vulture’ are also not entirely inappropriate.
[3] John O'Donohue, “For Light”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, pg. 15

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