2nd August Trinity 2016, Protect the Holy

Matthew 7, 1-29

2nd August Trinity

“Do not judge your fellow man, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For with the judgment that you pronounce you also speak your own judgment, and the measure by which you measure will be the measuring rod for your own self. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not become aware of the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye”. But mark it well, there is a log in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces.

Ask from the heart and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you; for he who asks in uprightness will receive; he who earnestly seeks will find; he who knocks, to him will be opened. Or are there among you those who when his son asks for bread would give him a stone; or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you who in spite of wickedness know how to give good things to your children, how much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly ask him for it.

All that you want that men should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets.

Walk through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the path is easy which leads to ruin [the abyss] and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds it.  

2nd August Trinity

August 31, 2017

Matthew 7, 1-29

Today’s gospel reading takes us on an inward spiral. This spiral clears a path for Christ to enter our hearts.

The first step inward is to notice our tendency to criticize and judge others. By focusing on others, we can fail to notice how such faults live within us. Critical judgment of others blinds us to what needs correcting within our own souls. It creates a closed door, a barrier to inwardness of heart. We need to pay attention to the direction in which we focus our attention.

The next step is to learn to protect the holy, to refrain from letting the profane overwhelm what is sacred. That which is holy is that within us that connects us to the divine. It must be protected from destruction. One way we profane inner holiness is by talking it to death. So this step suggests we enter an inner silence, and create a well-guarded inner treasure-chamber.

The third step is to bring our practice of prayer into the deepest part of our heart. We are not to treat the divine world as a kind of cosmic vending machine to satisfy our material wishes. Rather we are to offer our deepest needs, our deepest heart to the Father. We submit our hopes to his greater will and wisdom. He knows even better than we do what would truly benefit us.

And lastly we are to choose to treat others with respect and with wisdom.

A critical attitude of mind, a profaning of the sacred and a demanding heart; they operate within us as powers of diminishment and destruction. They eat away at our true, wise discernment, our inner relationship with God and with our fellow human beings.  John O’Donohue said,

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place

Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

Transforming our broken fragments

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presides

That is more gracious than the smallness

That fuels us with fear and force,

A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks

For being betrothed to the unknown

And for the secret work

Through which the mind of the day

And wisdom of the soul become one.

“The Inner History of a Day,” John O’Donohue, in To Bless the Space Between Us

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1st August Trinity 2016, Unimaginable

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1st August Trinity

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say, Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’ Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly he told them this.

Tissot, Get thee behind Me

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.”

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1st August Trinity

July 24, 2016

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

Tissot, The Blind Leading the Blind

Our hopes and expectations can blind us. We picture for ourselves how we hope things will be, how
we want them to be. But these imaginings can cast a veil over what actually is and what will be. They can blind us to what is real.

The people of Jesus’s time had built up images of how the Messiah would be. He would be a great political leader, a new King David to overthrow the Romans. He would be a prophet, the voice of God. He would be a priestly mediator of the divine.

Peter indeed recognizes in Jesus the Christ, the anointed and expected Messiah. Immediately Jesus tries to tell his disciples what his real mission, his real plans are. He tries to clear away the false hopes and expectations. He will not be a political leader. Although he is the voice of God, he will not be an old style prophet only of the folk. He will be a priest, but of a new order. He will be both priest and sacrifice.

C. D' Herbois

He tries to tell Peter that what will be most important is that he will suffer, die, and resurrect – live, die, and live again. He will mediate Life itself, so that we too can live again.

But Peter’s earthly hopes get in the way. His expectations become an adversarial force, an obstacle that Christ must reject. And it is Judas’s false expectation that hand Jesus over to the executioners. Christ’s task is so other, so radical, so unimaginable that even to this day hardly anyone fully understands it.

Yet even though we may not understand Him, Christ is still able to work on his mission, as long as we are open to him; as long as we don’t harbor false expectations of what he can do for us. He works in our hearts to heal; he works in our communities to unite; he works in the world to give peace.

www.thechristiancommunity.org 

4th St. Johnstide 2016, Garland of Beautiful Deeds

St. Johnstide

Matthew 11: 2-15

John in Prison, Cornelius de Galle the Younger

When John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are awakened, and those who have become poor receive the message of salvation. Blessed are those who are not offended by my Being.”

When they had gone, Jesus began to speak about John. “Why did you go out into the desert? Did you want to see a reed swaying in the wind? Or was it something else you wanted to see? Did you want to see a man in splendid garments? Those in splendid garments are in the palaces of kings. Did you go to see a man who is initiated into the mysteries of the spirit, a prophet? Yes, I say to you—he is more than a prophet. He it is of whom it is written:

           

          

John Baptist, Roumanian 10th century

  Behold it well: I will send my angel before your face;

            He shall prepare the way of your working in human hearts

            So that your being may be revealed.

The truth I say to you: among all who are born of women, not one has risen up who is greater than John the Baptist; and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist, and even more now, the kingdom of heaven will arise within human beings through the power of the will; those who exert themselves can freely grasp it. The deeds of the prophets and the content of the Law are words of the spirit that were valid [worked into the future] until the time of John. And if you want to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

4^th St. Johnstide

July 17, 2016

Matthew 11: 2-15

Sometimes one hears a parent telling a child not to do something which the parent him/herself is doing. It is a case of “Do what I say, not what I do.” This is not very effective because children imitate, and we have to set a good example. We need to model and be the change we wish to see.

In the reading today, Christ lays emphasis, not on talk, nor on affirmation, but on deeds.  John asks if Jesus is the Messiah, the expected new political leader, or great prophet. Christ Jesus does not say, ‘Sure, I am the Messiah’. He does not point to great teachings. He points to deeds accomplished on behalf of others. Through Him, human beings are cleansed, strengthen, and elevated.

Christ further emphasizes that it is our own activity of will that moves humanity forward. Through energetic inner activity, the kingdom of the heavens will arise within human hearts. It is through the kingdom within that we ourselves are healed, strengthened and elevated. It is through the kingdom within that we can strengthen and elevate others.

The Buddha said,

The perfume of sandalwood,

the scent of rosebay and jasmine,

travel only as far as the wind.

But the fragrance of goodness

travels with us

through all the worlds.

Like garlands woven from a heap of flowers,

fashion your life

as a garland of beautiful deeds.

3rd St. Johnstide 2016, Fire of Love

St. Johnstide

John 3: 22-36

After this Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there, and people came to him and were baptized. For John had not yet been imprisoned.

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”

John answered, “No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’

“He who has the bride, he is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, he is filled with joy at the bridegroom’s voice. This joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

He who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. Whoever is only of the earth, whose being arises from the earthly, his word is also earthbound.

He who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

But whoever accepts his testimony, sets his seal to this: that God is true [truth] [that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. Whoever God has sent, his words are filled with the power of divine thought, for God gives the Spirit to human beings not according to human rules, but according to the creative power that he awakens in man.

The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love, and has given everything into his hands. Whoever trusts in the power of the Son within himself, he grows out of the earthly into timeless life.

Whoever cannot trust in the power of the Son within will not behold the world of life; rather the working might of the spirit world must one day burn him like a fire that will consume him.”

3^rd St. Johnstide

July 10, 2016

John 3: 22-36

Cell mitosis (division)

After an egg is fertilized, there follows a rapid division, as 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 cells multiply. But the division and multiplication are directed by an over-arching wholeness. They are driven by the spirit of a living creature.

In today’s reading, the arrival of Christ Jesus in John the Baptizer’s sphere prompts a division among the people. But John understands that an over-arching spirit is driving this development. Christ has arrived as the bridegroom of humanity. And his union with us is creating a rapidly multiplying new people, a new and all-inclusive race of Christ-people. This new folk crosses and transcends the previous racial and tribal boundaries.

The ideas and thoughts of the divine world are directing this new development in humankind. The growth of the Christ folk is surrounded, warmed and enlivened by the Father’s love. The Spirit fire of a love creative of being has been ignited in humankind. It unites us and burns away selfish egotism. Individuals can feel it, like the poet who says:

Listen, I've light

in my eyes

and on my skin

the warmth of a star,

….

  And

everything alive

(and everything's

alive) is turning

into something else

as at the heart

of some annihilating

or is it creating

fire

that's burning, unseeably, always

….*

*Franz Wright, “The Fire”, in God's Silence

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd St. Johnstide 2016, Family of Humanity

St. Johnstide

Visegrad Codex

Matthew 3:1-17

In those days John the Baptist came. He proclaimed his message in the isolation of the Judean desert. He said, “Change your hearts and minds. The realm of [the human being filled with] the heavens has come close.”

He it is of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks:

A voice is heard, calling in the loneliness [of the human soul]: ‘Prepare the way for the highest leader [within the soul], make his path straight and good [Order your feeling and thinking, so that within you a path arises for the inner Lord]!’

John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle around his waist. Hard fruits and wild honey were his food.

At that time people came out to him from Jerusalem and the whole of Judea and from the region around the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the flowing waters of the Jordan and confessed [admitted] their sins [failings, and the errors of their lives].

When he saw that many Pharisees and Sadducees also came for baptism, he said to them, ‘You sons of the serpent, who has told you how to escape from the coming World-Fire [Fury]? Now therefore strive after [to bring forth] the right fruits of the change of heart and mind. Do not think that you are safe by saying: We have Abraham as our father. I say to you: the heavenly Father is just as able to raise Abraham-sons from these dead stones. Already the ax is laid to the root of the trees [of bloodlines], and every tree that does not bear good fruit is felled and thrown into the fire [of testing]. I baptize you with water in order to lead you to a change of consciousness [heart]. He who comes after me is mightier than I; unworthy am I even to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will cleanse his grain of the chaff. He will gather the wheat into the barn [for the future], but the chaff his will burn in an unquenchable fire.”

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. But John refused and said, “It is I who need to be baptized by you—and now you come to me?”

Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now. It is good thus, so that we fulfill properly all that destiny [divine righteousness] requires.”

Then he consented. When Jesus had received the baptism and, [seized by the Spirit] was already coming out of the water again, when behold, the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending in the form of a dove and hovering over him. And a voice spoke out to the heavens:

               

“This is my Son whom I love. In him will I reveal myself.”

St. Johnstide

July 3, 2016

Matthew 3:1-17

At the end of the day’s work, or a big project, the environment may have become disordered.  Clean-up is called for. An after-school visitor to one of the original Waldorf curative schools was told that he could find the founder and teacher still in the classroom, cleaning up. As the visitor approached, he could hear a phrase repeated again and again: The Spirit creates order! The Spirit creates order!

Today’s gospel reading describes such a moment in human history. The old phase of the elite bloodlines is over; their work is done. “The ax has been laid to the roots of the tree of the bloodlines.” This is because their mission, that of creating a pure bodily form for the Messiah, is complete. After this there can only be decay; for the bloodlines are no longer capable of spirit awareness.

Yet a new order is arriving. The Spirit creates order! Jesus comes to the Jordan as the beginning of a new era for human beings. Christ, the divine Son and Brother, will enter humanity. Everything will be up-ended. Even John the Baptizer’s perception of his own unworthiness is no hindrance. Now a new order, a new Spirit consciousness, has arrived. Now the divine will inhabit the body. Now heaven can reveals itself on earth. For a new spirit consciousness of love for all human beings, beyond bloodline, tribe or nation, will slowly and gradually take over the earth.

It is true that elitism, tribalism, and nationalism will ever try to interfere with the new order. But they have no future. Only the Spirit creates order. Now is the time to recognize that all of humankind is one family, for we are all children of God. Here the 15th Psalm is a kind of prophecy:

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.*

*Psalm 15, in The Psalms, translations by Stephen Mitchell.*

www.thechristancommunity.org

*Psalm 15, in The Psalms, translations by Stephen Mitchell