2nd Trinity III 2022, Hard to Surrender

 2^nd Trinity III

Matthew 7:1-29 

"Do not judge your fellow human beings, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, you too will be measured. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother's eye but do not become aware of the beam in your own eye? And how can you say to your brother: "Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye" while there is a beam 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 whoever asks in uprightness will receive; whoever earnestly seeks will find; whoever knocks, to them will be opened. Or are there among you those who when their 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, despite 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 someone should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets. 

Narrow Gate, David Hayward

"Walk through the narrow gate, for the gate is
wide, and the path is easy that 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.  

"Be on your guard against false prophets of healing. They come to you in the garments of peaceful lambs but inwardly are rapacious wolves. You shall recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. Never will you harvest grapes from a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. Every noble tree brings forth good fruit, but a wild tree only forms unusable fruit. A noble tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a wild tree cannot form good fruit. A tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be cut down and put in the fire. Therefore, recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. 

"Not everyone who addresses me with 'Lord! Lord!' can be taken up into the kingdom; only whoever accomplishes the will of my Father in the heavens. In the future, when the light of God breaks over the earthly darkness, many will call to me. They will say, 'Lord! Lord! have we not worked in advance for your revelation? Have we not driven out spirits of destruction in honor of you? Have we not gathered multiple powers for your word?' 

"Then I will freely say to them, 'I do not know you. My paths are not your paths. Depart from me, for you serve the forces of chaos [the downfall of the world].'

"Everyone who hears such words from me and acts accordingly will be like someone who wisely built their house on bedrock. The clouds burst, the waves rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not totter, for it was founded upon the rock. 

"However, whoever hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like someone who foolishly builds their house upon sand. The rain comes down, the floods rise, the winds blow and beat upon the house, and it collapses with a great crash." 

When Jesus had finished saying this, the people were greatly moved, for he spoke to them out of spiritual authority, as if the powers of creation themselves spoke out of him, and not like their teachers of the law [or, canon-lawyers].  

2^nd August Trinity

July 31, 2022

Matthew 7:15–27 

In the spring half of its growth cycle, a fruit tree is all about manifesting. First its blossoms break forth, then its tender green leaves that broaden into summer’s crown. But the second half has to do with ripening something hidden: small living seeds, hidden in green fruit, hiding among the green leaves. They have to do with developing something that will survive autumn’s death: Seeds that will outlive the winter. 

What kind of trees are our souls? Are they cultivated, nourished, pruned, cared-for? Or like wild trees, left to fend for themselves, to eke out their existence in a hostile environment? For the important fact about our souls, and the lives they produce, is that we ourselves are both tree and gardener. We ourselves are called upon to recognize and work with our own nature. 

The fruits of noble souls are characterized by a fulsome beauty and regularity of form, by a robust generosity, flavored with a certain sweetness, nourishing others. Noble souls nourish the seeds of a life that will survive death. 

But like wild trees, untended souls create fruits that are dry and hard, measly and bitter, often corrupted from within. For such a wild tree, being turned into warming, useful firewood is an act of redemption. 

To do the will of the Father is to care for souls so that they become fruitful. So that they nourish others; so that they can offer themselves to nourish the Father’s purposes, to surrender to his greater life in the realm beyond the threshold of death. Eventually the tree will die. Its essence will be reduced to either seed or ash. 

For as Rilke says,* 

we are only the rind and the leaf.

The great death that each of us carries inside

is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it. 

For untended souls, he continues, it is 

 … hard to surrender what you never received.

Their exit has no grace or mystery

It’s a little death, hanging dry and measly

Like a fruit inside them that never ripened. 

God gives us each our own death

The dying that proceeds

from each of our lives

the way we loved

the meanings we made…. 

*Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, pages 130-132.