Saturday, February 15, 2014

1st February 2007, God's Garden

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

1st February Trinity
Feb. 4, 2007
Matthew 20: 1-16


In a garden, some plants blossom for a year, vigorously all season long. Others come back every year; but they flower in their own particular time. Some bloom in early spring; some at midsummer; some even wait until fall. The wise gardener knows how to place each type according to its nature, how to place it in the garden so that something is in bloom through the whole season.

We are all like plants in God’s garden. Some of us can work vigorously doing what we do for Him all of the time, all of our lives. Others return and bloom early; some mid-season, some late. But we are all part of the larger community of His garden. He has chosen us for His work, and for His pleasure, according to His timing, because of our individual natures.

Patricia Brintle
The congregation is another of God’s gardens. Some of us appear all the time; others have their seasons. Together we make up a garden of blossoming, fruitful hearts. God and his angels walk among us, taking pleasure from the beauty and fragrance of our souls, taking nourishment from our hearts’ fruitfulness. In the Act of Consecration of Man we are practicing setting seeds for a new life. Offering ourselves up to Him is like a little death.

Over the course of the day, the Act of Consecration of Man blossoms successively across the face of the earth, beginning in the east and ending in the west. Whole congregations become areas in the garden of the earth. One after the other they give up the blossoms of their most selfless thoughts, the warm fragrance of their noblest feeling, offering the fruit of their devotion. We are offering God a concentration, the seeds of our life substance for his harvesting of life. With the poet we pray as He walks the garden of earth:

The great death that each of us carries inside
is the fruit.
Everything enfolds it.[1]

We stand in your garden, year after year
We are trees for yielding a sweet death.[2]




[1]  Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy. p. 132.
[2]  Ibid. p. 133.

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