3rd Epiphany 2015, Give Wine

3^rd Epiphany

Wedding at Cana, Giotto

January 25, 2015

John 2: 1 -11

On the third day a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

And Jesus answered her, “Something still weaves between me and you, o Woman. The hour when I can work out of myself alone has not yet come.”

Then his mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

There were six stone jars set up there for the Jewish custom of ceremonial washing, each containing twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with fresh water.”

And they filled them to the brim. And he said, “Now draw some out and take it to the Master of the feast. And they brought it to him.

Now when the Master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from—for only the servants who had drawn the water knew—he called the bridegroom aside and said to him, “Everyone serves the choice wine first, and when the guests have drunk, then the lesser; but you have saved the best until now.”

This, the beginning of the signs of the spirit which Jesus performed among men happened at Cana in Galilee and revealed the creating spiritual power that worked through Him. The disciples’ hearts opened, the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.

3^rd Epiphany

January 25, 2015

John 2: 1 -11

Wine of course comes from grapes.  The vine draws the earth’s water up and transforms it via sunlight into the strength of juice and the sweetness of sugars. Fermented, it becomes ‘spirits’. In large amounts these spirits can displace our own spirit, our selfhood. It diminishes our capacity to make decisions, to control our impulses, to be in charge of ourselves.

At the wedding, Christ became the vine. He had water drawn up from the earth. He transformed it into wine. But this wine was different. Those attending took in the good wine, the best. Instead of robbing them of their selfhood, His wine enhanced it.

Christ, the True Vine, gives life and strength to our spirits. He enhances our ability to experience and act out of our true selfhood. At the wedding, Christ says,’ fill the jars’, and then ‘draw some out.’ Fill and draw. The wedding at Cana is a signpost, pointing to a fulfillment at the Last Supper.  Then Christ will pour his blood’s vitality, its very life, into the wine. He will say of it, ‘This is my blood’, my vitality, my life offered to you.

In the Act of Consecration, the communion service, we fill the chalice with water and the (unfermented) juice of the vine. We offer them along with our feelings of love for Christ. They are transformed. And in communion we are filled with the strength of his vitality, his blood. We fill and we draw. Give and take; offer and receive. And one day we will recognize that what we have been given is our true self. As the poet says:

The time will come

when, with elation,

…You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you have ignored

for another, who knows you by heart…. [1]

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[1] Derek Walcott "Love After Love", in Collected Poems 1948-1984, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986.

2nd Epiphany 2015, Wise, Mature and Beautiful

2^nd Epiphany

Jesus with the Teachers, Durer

January 18, 2015

Luke 2: 41 – 52

Every year his [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they took him with them. Now after they had gone there and fulfilled the custom during the days of the feast, they set off on their way home. But the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they thought he was among the company of the travelers. 

After a day’s journey they missed him among their friends and relations. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And those who heard him were amazed at his mature understanding and his answers.

And when they saw him, they were taken aback, and his mother said to him, “My child, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”

And he said to them, “Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be and live in that which is my Father’s?”

But they did not understand the meaning of the words he spoke to them. And he went down with them again to Nazareth and followed them willingly in all things.

And his mother carefully kept all these things living in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom, in maturity and grace [favor] in the sight of God and man.

2^nd Epiphany

January 18, 2015

Luke 2: 41 – 52

Finding the Boy Jesus in the Temple, William, Holman Hunt

You are likely familiar with the fairy tale in which what appears to be a duckling turns out to be a swan. In today’s gospel reading, the boy Jesus undergoes the first of many transformations. He comes into his own 'swan-hood': wise, mature and beautiful. His parents don’t understand how their ‘duckling’ could turn out so differently than they had known him to be, so unexpectedly.

There is a part of all of our souls which is like the boy. Our parents, our family, our society has laid certain expectations on us. But our true identity is swan-like. The boy Jesus is the archetype for how we deal with the possible conflict between the imperatives of our higher, developing swan- nature and the demands of our family and surroundings.

We firmly tread the path of our own higher development. And at the same time, we respect and honor those to whom we are responsible.

Soon enough the boy will leave home and embark on a world-shattering journey. But for now, despite a dawning self-awareness, he continues to develop quietly, inwardly. Perhaps he prays the words of Psalm 121:

I look deep into my heart,

to the core where wisdom arises.
Wisdom comes from the Unnamable
and unifies heaven and earth.
The Unnamable is always with [me] you,
shining from the depths of [my] your heart.
His peace will keep [me] you untroubled
even in the greatest pain.
When [I] you find him present within [me] you,
[I] you find truth at every moment.
He will guard [me] you from all wrongdoing;
he will guide [my] your feet on his path.
He will temper [my] your youth with patience;
he will crown [my] your old age with fulfillment.
And dying, [I] you will leave [my] your body
as effortlessly as a sigh.[1]

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[1] Psalm 121,  from A Book of Psalms, trans. and adapted by Stephen Mitchell)(further adapted also by CH.)

Epiphany, January 6 and 11, 2025, Uses of the Stars

1st Epiphany

Adoration of the Magi, Burne-Jones

Matthew 2: 1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea—during the time of King Herod—behold: wise priest-kings from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,

“Where is the one born here King of the Jews? We have seen his star rise in the east and have come to worship him.”

When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. And he assembled all the high priests and scribes of the people and inquired of them in what place the Christ was to be born.

And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it was written by the prophet:

And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

Are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah;

For out of you shall come forth the ruler

Who will be shepherd over my people, the true Israel.”

Then Herod, secretly calling the Magi together again, inquired from them the exact time when the star had appeared. He directed them to Bethlehem and said, “Go there and search carefully for the child, and when you find him, report to me, that I too may go and bow down before him.”

After they had heard the King, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen rising went before them, and led them in its course over the cities until it stood over the place where the child was.

Seeing the star, they were filled with [there awakened in them] an exceedingly great and holy joy.

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him their gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their country by another way.

1st Epiphany

January 6 and 11, 2015

Matthew 2: 1-12

“In the beginning… darkness was on the face of the deep…. And God said, ‘Let there be light’. Thus the very pattern of the world was stamped with primal pairings, pairings of light and dark – day and night, life and death.

These pairings live on in as the pattern of our souls, which swing between love and hate, hope and fear, good and evil. Herod represents that dark capacity in all of us which fears loss of position, which instigates our capacity for calculating secretiveness, for destructiveness. Yet we also have the three kings in us to balance out our inner darkness. They are the soul’s capacity to see the starlight of higher wisdom; to be devoted to God’s guidance; to willingly acknowledge the necessity of sacrifice.

It is the wise guidance of the star that leads them first to Herod, then to the Christ Child that prompts the gift of gold. It is their devotion to God’s guidance, sent to them also through the words of their dream of warning, that accompanies the gift of frankincense. It is their willingness to recognize the Child’s coming sacrifice that prompts the gift of myrrh.

The darkness of fear contends with God’s light in all of us. Darkness leads us to destruction. But God’s light leads to a great and holy joy. In the words of the poet we pray:

Lift up my eyes

Three Kings' Dream, David Newbatt

from the earth, and let me not

forget the uses of the stars.

….Let me not follow the clamor of

the world, but walk calmly

in my path.[1]

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[1] Max Ehrmann, “ A Prayer” in The Desiderata of Happiness

Holy Nights, January 4, 2015, Healing Goodness

Holy Nights

1 Corinthians 12:31- 13:13

Strive to make the best out of the gifts of grace working together. Yet I will show the way that is higher than all others.

If I speak out of the Spirit with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, then my speaking remains as sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. And if I had the gift of prophecy and could speak of all the mysteries and could impart all knowledge and, further, had the power of faith that removes mountains, yet am without love, then I am nothing. And if I were to give away everything that is mine, and lastly were to give away even my body for burning, yet am without love, then all is in vain.

Love makes the soul great;

Love fills the soul with healing goodness;

Love does not know envy;

It knows no boasting;

It does not allow falseness;

Love does not harm that which is decent.

It drives out self-seeking.

Love does not allow inner balance to be lost.

It does not bear a grudge.

It does not rejoice over injustice.

It rejoices only in the truth.

Love bears all things,

Is always prepared to have faithful trust.

It may hope for everything and is all-patient.

If love is truly present, it cannot be lost. The gift of prophecy will one day be extinguished, the wonder of languages cease, clairvoyant insight come to an end. Our insight is incomplete, incomplete is our prophecy.

But one day the perfect must come, the complete consecration – aim; then the time of the incomplete is over.

When I was still a child, I spoke as a child, and I felt and thought as a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Now we still see things in dark outlines, as in a mirror. Some day we will see everything face to face. Now my insight is incomplete, but then I shall stand in the stream of true insight, in which recognizing and being recognized are one.

We find permanence that bears all future within it in the exalted triad:

In faith

In hope,

And in love.

But the greatest of these is love.

Holy Nights

January 4, 2015

1 Corinthians 12:31- 13:13

On the altar we still see the words: Peace on earth to all of good will. What is it that makes us into people of good will? That which turns our will toward goodness, that which makes our will beneficial, is Truth.

Lies create ill will; they literally create a will that becomes ill, sick and ailing. Truth creates wellness. Truth creates good will, healthy will. And a truthful good will creates love.

Love does not allow falseness

Love does not harm what is decent

It drives out self seeking….

Love does not rejoice in injustice, only in the truth.[1]

This is an old idea. Psalm 15 says:

Lord, who can be trusted with power,

and who may act in your place?

Those with a passion for justice,

who speak the truth from their hearts;

who have let go of selfish interests

and grown beyond their own lives;

who see the wretched as their family

and the poor as their flesh and blood.

They alone are impartial

and worthy of the people's trust.

Their compassion lights up the whole earth,

and their kindness endures forever.[2]

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[1] Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 13:5, 6

[2] (The Psalms, translations by Stephen Mitchell)

New Year's Day 2015, Choose to Evolve

January 1, 2015

1^st Colossians, 15 -20

Creation of Adam, Chartres

The Son is the visible image of the invisible God, the first-born over all created beings. For in him has come into existence everything that is in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible world, the Thrones and the World Guides, the Archai and the Creator Spirits. All things were created through him and for him. He was there before all else, and everything coheres in him. And he is the head of the body, and his body is the great community of congregations. He is also the very beginning,  and the firstborn among those who rise from the dead, so that he may be the One who goes before in all thing and everything. For in him all fullness of God was pleased to dwell, to transform and to reconcile everything to himself, laying the foundations of peace through the blood of his cross.  Through him all beings on the earth as well as in the heavenly spheres are to attain their goal.

  

January 1, 2015

1^st Colossians, 15 -20

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. Genesis 1

Thus begins creation; it is dark and empty. Yet God’s bright spirit moves over the waters, and there appears – a face. 

What did the spirit of God see as it hovered over the primal waters? Was it a reflection of His own face? The intimation of our own? Could it be that the plan from the beginning was that we human beings would one day wear the face of God? Is that what He saw in the beginning?

A face is both the beginning and a culmination of the process of creation, which so far has created the faces of both animal and human faces.

There is a story in which a man’s portrait, which is kept hidden in his attic, changes throughout his life to portray the real inner state of his soul, while his outer face remains handsome and youthful. Evolution, human development, continues. But now our evolution and change happens through our own choices.

Christ, who was there at the beginning of creation, is the God-Become-Human, the Human God. He came to help us evolve ourselves, so that one day we too will wear our true faces, the face of our true selves. One day, when God looks into our faces, he will see Himself reflected there. 

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