3rd Trinity Sunday 2020, No Spirits Divided

Feb. Trinity

(7^th Sunday before Easter, Sunday before Ash Wednesday)

Luke 18: 18-34

One of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth, and you shall honor your father and your mother!"

He said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”

Hoffman

When Jesus heard this, he said, “One thing however you lack: Sell all of your possessions and give the money to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come and follow me!"

He was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God. Sooner would a camel walk through the eye of a needle than a rich man be able to find the entrance to the kingdom of God!”

Those who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”

He said, “For man alone, it is impossible. It will be possible, however, through the power of God working in man.”

Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up everything to follow you.”

He replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in earthly life, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Bernard Eyb, God the Father and Christ

Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge him and kill him, but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”

Yet his disciples understood nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.

3^rd February Trinity

February 23, 2020

Luke 18: 18-34

Collot d'Herbois

The rich young man had been pursuing a spiritual path. He wanted to develop the capacity to live beyond earthly, mortal existence into the eternal. Through strict adherence to the commandments, he had fashioned himself into a worthy vessel. And that vessel was full of the spiritual riches of his people and the hard-won treasures of the inner life. It had also won him the esteem of his people.

Christ now discerns that the young man had gone as far as it was possible to go along the old way. And now it is time for him to step onto a new path. But before he can do so, he must be willing to sacrifice all that he had hitherto achieved. 

It is a new path that Christ himself will build with him, a path of inner and outer sacrifice.  For this young man, the Christ-path starts as a path of renunciation, a path toward and into death. 'Sell all of your possessions; give the money to the poor, and then come and follow me.' The rich young man is to give up everything he had achieved and embark toward something totally new. He is to walk consciously, with Christ, toward death.

Blake

Naturally, it was a shock for him to realize this. It must have been something like receiving a terminal diagnosis. Naturally, he would be sad over the impending losses. And perhaps one of the greatest griefs would be the loss of his earthly identity. Yet walk he does, along with Christ, who is the Way itself. (John 14:6)

Although Luke's Gospel doesn't say anything further about the rich young man, Mark's gospel gives us a hint: 'Jesus, looking at him, loved him.' (Mark 10:21). And John's Gospel refers to Lazarus as one whom Jesus loved. So perhaps we may assume how the young man's further story actually unfolds: as Lazarus, he does indeed give up everything, even his life. (John 11). And he is called forth out of death by Christ. He receives a new name, a new identity – Lazarus John. Christ initiates him into the mysteries of death so that the young man can stand by and accompany Christ with true understanding when He Himself dies and comes forth from the dead. Further, the young man now shares with us his hard-won inner experiences as a treasure from the spiritual world, as the writer of John's Gospel. 

As William Penn said,

Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle . . . *

*William Penn, from More Fruits of Solitude

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd February Trinity 2020, Quiet Seeds

2^nd February Trinity

Luke 8:4-15

And as a great crowd had gathered, and ever more people streamed to him out of the cities, he spoke in a parable:

A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path. It was trodden upon, and the birds of the sky (air) ate it up. Other seed fell upon the rocks, and as it sprouted, it (the sprouting green) withered because it had no moisture. Yet other seed fell under the thorns; the thorns grew with it and choked what came up. And some fell upon good soil, grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he called out:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

His disciples asked him what this parable might mean. And he said:

“To you, it has been given the gift of being able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to the others, it is given in pictures and parables, for they see and do not yet see, and hear, although they do not yet understand with their thinking. The meaning of the parable is this:

The seed is the Word of God. That which fell upon the path are those who hear it; afterward, the tempter comes and tears the Word out of their hearts so that they cannot find healing through the trusting power of faith working in them.

Those on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, take it up with joy; but they remain without root. For a while, the power of their faith works in them, but in times of trial, they fall away.

What fell under the thorns are those who hear the Word from the spirit, and as they go on their way, the sorrows and the riches and the joys of life choke it, and they bring no fruit to maturity.

And the seeds that fell in the good soil are those who hear the Word, and take it up into their hearts, feel its beauty, become noble and worthy and patiently keep it alive, tending it there until it brings forth fruit.

2^nd February Trinity

February 16, 2020

Luke 8: 4-15

Charles Andrade

Imagine a potted plant you could only view from a distance. How could you tell if it were a living plant or an artificial one? You could observe it over time. Does it grow and blossom? Does it change?

The Gospel says that Jesus uses agricultural images especially for the souls who stream to him from the city. These plant images are the most accurate for describing how the living seed of the Word of God changes and grows over time. So He uses images from the realm of living processes to describe how the Word of God lives and grows in the soul.

The life realm of the plants is a quiet realm. We don’t hear flowers open to a fanfare of trumpets. We don’t perceive a great symphonic flourish when fruit ripens. The living Word of God is as quiet as a seed. The very loudness of

modern life with its sorrows and riches and joys may distract us to the point where our souls can no longer provide the depth and richness, the fertility for the germination and growth of His Word.

We need to tend the field of our own souls. We need to till the ground of the heart, perhaps through suffering, certainly through attention and selfless deeds. We need to water the ground of the heart with our tears, warm it with our prayers, let shine the clear sunlight of our spiritual learning and understanding. We need to take in the seed of God’s Word and treasure it in our hearts. We need to protect it and nourish it in the womb of the soul so that it grows and develops there.

We can grow God in our hearts. We do this so that His Word can mature and ripen into a fruitfulness that we can offer to the world of earth and the world of the angels. God’s Word - as it quietly speaks in the Gospels, as it is imaged in nature, as it speaks through human destinies – God’s word resounds and manifests in the world through us. We can grow and carry God wherever we go. We can be the place where His Word becomes manifest, grows and transforms.

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1st February Trinity, Gratitude

February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

[But many who are last will be first, and many who are first will be last.] 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 nine 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 three o’clock and did the same. At five 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 five 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.

Burnand

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."

1^st February Trinity

Feb 9, 2020

Matthew 20:1-16

The story in today’s reading seems to be about fairness. Those who worked the entire day feel entitled to more than a day’s wage, because those who seemed to do less received the same day’s wage.

van Gogh

But on a social level, the story is actually about a generosity that is beyond fairness. The master, the great and generous heart of the world, would give daily bread, sustenance to all. Human dignity requires that all be sustained, regardless of circumstance. That is also our own human task—to work to feed others, not just ourselves.

On yet another level, this story is also about the broader reasons we labor on earth at all. Each day we come back from the fields of night, where we received our inspirations for the work of earth. We are all day laborers working on our own sense of self, our own integrity, our own great-heartedness. To be without outer work is to suffer a loss of meaning, loss of relationships to others, loss of a sense of self, and one’s place in the community.

For we have all come to labor on the fields of earth to build up our own inner strength, and to join with others in doing God’s work of earth, even if we appear to have no outer job at all. The poet Mary Oliver wrote:

My work is loving the world.

….Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

Which is mostly rejoicing….

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.*

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*Mary Oliver, “Messenger,” in Thirst

4th Epiphany 2020, Restoring

4^th Epiphany

Luke 13: 10-17

Kenneth Dowdy

Once he was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit weakening her for eighteen years: she was bent over and could not stand upright [lift her head all the way up]. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, “Woman, you are released from your illness!”

He laid his hands upon her, and at once she was able to straighten up. And she praised the power of God. Then the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days for doing work; on those days you can come and let yourselves be healed—but not on the Sabbath.”

But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his ass from the manger on the Sabbath and lead it away to the water trough? But this daughter of Abraham, who was held bound by the dark might of Satan for eighteen years, wasn’t supposed to be released from her bondage on the day of the Sabbath?”

All his opponents were put to shame by these words, and the people rejoiced over all the signs of spiritual power that happened through him.

4^th Epiphany

February 2, 2020

Luke 13: 10-17

Tissot

The woman in the Gospel could not stand upright. She was subject to the hardening imprisonment of the adversary. The effect of such imprisonment was likely painful misery, a sense of being severely hampered, forced to face earthward like an animal, cut off.

Jesus is in the synagogue teaching. It is the Sabbath, the day of rest, the day for remembering back to the human being’s divine origins. It is the day for remembering how God created human beings in His own image and likeness: radiant with light, bursting with life, exuding love.

Christ, the Creator, calls the woman to him. And she responds to his call. The power of his divine, creating Word releases her soul and spirit from the adversary’s dark might. Then Christ places his hands on her and creates her anew. She rises upright. The image of the original human being is restored in her. Once more, she is the picture of humanity: head in the stars, feet firmly planted on the earth, heart free.

But there are others there whose souls continue to be bound by Satan’s dark power. They indignantly chastise Him and all the others for doing work on the Sabbath instead of resting and remembering. How ironic that for them, remembering how human beings once were, seems more important than re-creating, restoring the human being in front of them.

And Christ’s response once again overcomes the dark power that works, not only in human bodies but also in human souls. For love and goodwill, like water, like sunshine, will flow outward wherever needed. To stop Christ’s will is to darken the sun, to dam up the life-giving waters.

The results of Christ’s admonishment are shame and joy. Shame for what we recognize in ourselves. Joy in recognizing the healing warmth of the Christ-Sun. And hope—the hope of healing for all humankind

As Denise Levertov says:

It’s when we face for a moment

The worst our kind can do, and shudder to know

The taint in our own selves, that awe

Cracks the mind’s shell and enters the heart:

Not to a flower, not to a dolphin,

To no innocent form

But to this creature vainly sure

It and no other is god-like, God

(out of compassion for our ugly

failure to evolve) entrusts,

As guest, as brother,

The word.*

* “On the Mystery of the Incarnation”, in The Stream and the Sapphire, by Denise Levertov, p. 19

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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