Sunday, March 27, 2016

Easter 2016, Sunrise Within Sunset

Easter Sunday
Mark 16: 1-18

Mileseva Monastery


And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”

And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where they laid Him [his body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”

Rembrandt
And they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say anything to anyone about what they had experienced.

When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp it.

Daniel Bonnell
After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they were walking over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they could not open their hearts to their words either.

Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the Risen One.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and
He Qi
proclaim the new message from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart with it [believes] and is immersed in me [baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it and will attend their path [believe]: Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing forces to them.

Easter Sunday
Bartolomeo Schedoni
March 27, 2016
Mark 16: 1-18

On Good Friday, all of Christ Jesus’ friends experienced the ultimate sunset; the death of the Light of the World, the extinguishing of all their hopes. The world had been plunged into a silent darkness. And yet they had to go on.

The women go to the tomb to finish the task of honoring His body, which had been done in haste before sunset two days before. Immersed in their grief they approach the tomb. The first obstacle, the heavy stone covering the mouth of the cave, was strangely already rolled back. And in the predawn darkness, they see a shining man who tells them: Christ’s body is no longer in the grave; He, the Spirit-Sun in human form, has risen, shining into the realm of life. Tell everyone!

Collot d' Herbois
No one knows quite what to make of their unbelievable news; it flies in the face of everything they know. When his friends gradually finally experience Him themselves, there is shame over their unbelief.


Yet He makes the world even stranger by telling them, telling us, that through His power, there will arise new capacities. We will able to drive out demonic forces, speak a new kind of language, create a new kind of upright knowledge. We will be able to protect ourselves from harm and be able to heal others. This we will be able to do through the power of the One who shines within all worlds, both light and dark, He who continues to live in the realm of Death, enlivening it forevermore. 

Sunday, March 20, 2016

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2016, Sunset, Son-Rise

4th Passiontide
Palm Sunday
Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,
Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.
Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.
           
Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!
Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday
Entry into Jerusalem, Ninetta SombartPalm Sunday
March 20, 2016
Matthew 21: 1-11

Just before sunrise, one can sense nature’s mood of anticipation. Light grows to a chorus of birdsong. Color emerges from gray. And as the sun peaks over the horizon, joy floods the earth with the light.

In today’s reading the people greet Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem like a sunrise. But for Christ Jesus himself, it is a time of sunset. He knows he is entering his demise. He knows that his time is short. And he knows that his task is great. For he must keep the light and color of his being unextinguished even as he travels into the darkness of death, into the depths of the earth.

Sunrise and sunset, light and dark, life and death – the great polarities will be reunited, made One, in His being. The great separation that began with the Fall of the human being, which ushered in sickness and death, will be bridged in Him. But first, his encounter with the kingdom of darkness, his wrestling with death. His victory was at that point by no means assured. But because of it, we will be able to be healed and strengthened, so that we too can walk through darkness and death, without the fear of being extinguished.

As Tagore said: Death is not the extinguishing of the light, but the putting out of the lamp, because Dawn has come.*


*Rabindranath Tagore

Sunday, March 13, 2016

3rd Passiontide 2016, Light Seeds

3rd Passiontide
Ninetta Sombart
March 13, 2016
John 8: 21-29

And he went on: “I go away now, and you will seek me, and in your sin you will be subject to death. Where I am going you cannot come.” Then the Jews said, “Will he perhaps kill himself, since he says: Where I am going you cannot come?” And he said to them, “You come from below. I AM from above. You belong to this world which perishes, but I do not come from this world. That is why I said to you: You will be subject to death in your sins. If you do not fill yourselves with the power of my being, you will be subject to death in your sins.”
Then they said to him, ‘Who are you?” And Jesus answered, “Why do I still talk to you at all? There are many things which I could say about you and many things to judge. But HE who sent me is Truth itself, and so I speak out into the world what I have heard from HIM.”
But they did not understand that he was speaking to them of the Father. And Jesus went on, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the I AM. I do nothing out of myself, but I proclaim what the Father teaches me. He who sent me works in my working. He does not leave me on my own; what I do is always in accord with HIM.”


3rd Passiontide
March 13, 2016
John 8: 21-29

The seed, when planted, sends out two shoots. The first one dives down into the earth; the second rises into the light and air. Eventually it is this second shoot that will blossom. It will produce the seeds of new life.

We are the seeds God has planted on earth. We lead a kind of double life. We must indeed root and ground ourselves in the earthly. We also are to seek the light of the Christ-Sun; blossom in His warmth, produce spiritual fruits and seeds of a new life. But for us there is a paradox.

artist unknown
In this reading, Christ reminds the people that he has sown himself on earth in the body of Jesus, and that he is about to grow himself in reverse, into the realm of death, into the body of the earth. There He will bring the light and warmth of the Spirit-Sun into the cold darkness of the underworld. He will blossom there and produce seeds of life within the realm of death.

At first, no one will be able to accompany him there but the light, the love, the life of His Father. But He is doing this so that we, who are bound to the earth and are destined to die, will be able to find His light and warmth, his life, forever here on earth, and even when we die. For he is the light that descends into the darkness. We need not fear it. As Rilke says:

You are not dead yet, it’s not too late
To open your depths by plunging into them
And drink in the life
That reveals itself quietly there. *

*Rainer M Rilke, “You see, I want a lot”, in Rilke’s Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 61


Sunday, March 6, 2016

2nd Passiontide 2016, Dark Hours

2nd Passiontide
Ivan Aivasovsky, Wikicommons
John 6: 16 - 26

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off over the sea for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "I AM, have no fear" Now when they wanted to take him into the boat, immediately the boat was at the land, at the place where they wanted to go.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"

Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, the truth I say to you: You are seeking me not because you saw signs of spiritual power, but because you ate of the bread and were satisfied.

2nd Passiontide
March 6, 2016
John 6: 16 - 26

Ivan Aivasovsky, Wikicommons
This gospel reading has something of the quality of a dream. It is night; the disciples are in a boat, working hard to make headway in rough seas. Suddenly they see Christ. He appears as if walking, a shining form above the waters. They shrink with fear, but he calms them with the assurance of his very being – it is I. And when they take him in, they are suddenly at their destination.

Our lives too are sometimes beset with darkness and rough passages. It is just at those times when Christ can make his ever-presence known to us. He assures us that fear is to be dispelled, because he is the Guide on our journey. With his aid, we will reach our goal of firm grounding.


Not only is he our guide for the way; he is also our bread for the way. Just as after a night on the sea of dreams, we come to the daytime shore refreshed, so too does Christ nourish our spirits. He gives us life and strength. We come to him trusting that we will survive with him, even in the darkest hours. Perhaps, like Rilke, we can even learn to love them. He says,

I love the dark hours of my being.
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.*


*Ranier Maria Rilke in Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy