10th August/September Trinity 2011, Blaze and Deepen

10^th Trinity August September

Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.

10^th August Trinity

September 25, 2011

Luke 7:11-17

In autumn, nature presents to us two gestures. The first are its fruits and seeds, falling to earth as nature dies back. They are an offering of continuing life for the next season. The other gesture manifests as the leaves, transforming themselves, offering themselves up to the living atmosphere as a blaze of color, before they become the humus for next round.

Today’s reading presents us with two similar gestures. The young man’s body is about to be offered up to the earth, as a kind of seed for the earth’s future. At the same time, Christ says to him, ‘Arise’. And he rises, both within the realm of death, and also to life on earth. He returns in a blaze of life and speech. And this event spreads over the countryside like the flaming colors of autumn over the land. Death and life begin to interpenetrate one another in a process that will culminate in Christ Jesus’ own resurrection.

When the hours become dark, we can welcome them as a time of deepening and transformation, especially as we grow older. As Rilke says:

I love the dark hours of my being.

Smitty Caboose

My mind deepens into them.

There I can find, as in old letters,

the days of my life, already lived,

and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open

to another life that's wide and timeless.

So I am sometimes like a tree

rustling over a gravesite

and making real the dream

of the one its living roots

embrace:

a dream once lost

among sorrows and songs.[1]

Visit our Website

---

[1]   Rainier Maria Rilke, in Rilke’s Book of Hours:Love Poems to God, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)