First Passiontide
Luke 11:14-36
man who was mute. And it came to pass that as the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. However, some of them said, "He drives out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons." Others sought to test him by asking for a sign from heaven as proof of his spiritual power.
Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself will be desolated, and house will fall against house. And you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now, if Satan divides [were to divide] his powers within himself, how will [would] his kingdom be able to stand? You have not considered this when you claim that I drive out demons with the power of Beelzebub. If I drive out demons with the power of Beelzebub, with what power do your sons do it? Your sons will be your judges. But since, in fact, I encounter the demons with the authority of God's hand, it follows from this that the Kingdom of God has already come to you.
"When a strong man in full armor guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, the victor takes away the armor in which the man had trusted and divides it up as spoils.
"Whoever does not unite with my being is against me, and whoever does not gather in inner composure with me [or, work for inner composure with me] scatters.
"When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it wanders through waterless places seeking a place to rest; and if it cannot find it, it says, 'I will return to the dwelling out of which I have come.' When it returns to this dwelling, it finds it cleaned and adorned. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters and dwells in that person. And their final state is worse than the first."
As he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you."
But he said, "Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there."
And as the crowds increased,
Jesus began
to speak. "This generation is a stranger to their true being.
They look for signs and outer proofs of the Spirit, but none other will be
given to them but the sign of Jonah; for just as once Jonah shared the
experience of the Spirit with the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of
Man share the experience of the Spirit with this present generation. The Queen
of the South will rise in the time of great crisis and decision against the men
of this present generation and judge them, for she came from the ends of
the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But know this: here is more than
Solomon.
Queen of the South, Upper Rhenish
"The inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up in the days of crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and will pronounce judgment over them, for they changed their ways after the proclamation of Jonah. But know this; here is more than Jonah.
"No one lights a lamp and then puts it in a hidden place or under a vessel, but rather sets it on a lampstand, so that all may see the light shining. The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye looks at the world clearly, then all your body is light. But when it is evil, your body is also dark. [or, But if, however, the eye's desire sees the world separated from the Spirit, darkness will pour itself into you.]
See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it shall be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."
1st Passiontide
March 7, 2021
Luke 11:14-35
As is well-known, every coin has two sides. And although it has a center, it is flat; there is very little depth. A sphere, however, has an infinity of sides and a maximum of depth.
One side of the coin of our human 
Ahriman and Lucifer, Arild Rosenkrantz
nature longs for wild
enthusiasm, yearns to escape ourselves in ecstasy. And another side sneers in
critical derision, binding us in unbelief. These are two sides of the coin of
our nature—polarities, but without depth.
Christ, however, encourages us to expand our depth, become spheres. He encourages us to develop more flexibility in our thinking, to grow beyond our natural default settings of either/or, black or white. Ideally, we could look at things from a multiplicity of points of view, without settling into one extreme or another.
In the Gospel reading, Christ uses ordinary logic and common sense to refute those who would put him on either side of the good/bad coin. He widens the scope of thinking.
And his parables of the strong man guarding 
Ninetta Sombart
his palace and the
one who removes evil spirits from his house are a warning to us. He encourages
us to remain in our center, to be present in the ‘house’ of our own being, our
own bodies. We are to use our capacity of thought neither to escape ourselves
nor to be bound in hopelessness. We are to become like spheres, expanding our
points of view, developing thoughtful depth. From this deep place in the center
of our humanity, we can connect with Christ. He is the Light of the World in
the depths. In uniting with Him, our whole being can ignite. We can illuminate
and warm. We can become a globe of light in the worlds we occupy.
In the words of John O’Donohue:
May the light of your soul bless
the work
You do with the secret love and
warmth of your heart.
May the sacredness of your work
bring light and renewal
to those who work with you…*
*John O’Donohue, “For Work”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 146.
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