7th September Trinity 2019, Eagles of the Sun

August/September Trinity

Luke 17: 20-37

At that time, the Pharisees asked him, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”  And he answered, “The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say: Look, here it is, or there. Behold - the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts.

Aaron Douglas

And he said to his disciples, “There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you: Look - there! or Look - here!  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spiritual paths. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning which flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first, he must suffer great agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself: they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark, and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot: they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven, and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself.

When that time comes, let him who is on the roof of his house, having left his goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let him who is out in the

Sherry Barnes

open field not go back to what he has left behind. Remember Lot’s wife! For whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth awaken in himself a higher life. I tell you: then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty-handed. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty-handed.

And they said to him, “Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord? And he answered, “Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles [of the Sun] that are gathering [within you]”.*

[or, Where the formative forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals himself.]

[or, Where there are descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

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* The usual translation is "Where there is a corpse, there the vultures will gather." But the Greek original uses the word ‘soma’, a word for a living body, not ‘sarx’, corpse. And ‘aetoi’ refers to eagles, not vultures.

7^th August Trinity

Sept 8, 2019

Luke 17:20-37

There are creatures which, when they reach a certain stage, have to shed their skins or shells, in order to grow further. This is one of the great themes of evolution. Again and again, there come nodal points in development where what is no longer suitable is expelled or left behind. Children regularly outgrow their clothes. We will all eventually shed the shell of our material body. In the future, in order to progress, mankind will shed materiality altogether.

Today’s reading touches on this theme of growth and shedding. Christ says that the future kingdom of God, when human beings will be filled with the spirit of Love, is an invisible kingdom, not a material one. It arises in human hearts. He uses examples from ancient times to illustrate that the evolution toward this invisible kingdom always involves moments like the Flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The inwardly unsuitable, the outgrown, the not-love, has to be destroyed and risen above. All the elements of our not-loving will eventually have to be ejected so that we can ascend to the next stage.

Uncomfortably, this entails suffering. For, as He says, “Whoever tries to preserve his soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it [that is, to offer up the soul to be purified of egotism and filled with love] will in truth awaken in himself a higher life.” Luke 17:33 He goes on to tell us not to worry or be too anxious about the falling away and disintegration of the old, the painful shedding of the shell. For where this happens, the progressive evolutionary forces within the human soul begin to work in freedom. There, in the cleansing, the Spirit of the World, who is Love, reveals Himself. He is working to create a new kind of body for humanity, His Body, a living, tender, invisible form in which we will dwell.  He couches this in the mysterious formulation, “Where the living body is, there the eagles will gather.” Luke 17: 37. Those souls who can rise above not-loving will gather within Him, in His name, in his power, in his radiance.

Perhaps the words of the poet can illuminate:

My heart sits on the arm of God

Advocacy Falcon Fern with Dianna, Brancott Estate

 

Like a feathered falcon….

My piercing eyes,

Which have searched every world

For Tenderness and Love,

Now lock on the Royal Target—

The Wild Holy One

Whose Beauty Illuminates Existence….

Quivering at the edge of my Self

And Eternal Freedom….**

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**Hafiz, “A Feathered Falcon”, in I Heard God Laughing, Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 97.

7th August Trinity 2018, No Hands But Yours

7^th August Trinity

Luke 10: 25 - 37

van Gogh

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply, Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

7th August Trinity

Sept 2, 2018

Luke 10:25-37

Corrine Vonaesch

One way into understanding the gospel parables is to consider each of the characters as parts of a single human being.  The man who was robbed and beaten represents that part of all of us traveling on life’s path - a part of our soul has been robbed of our spiritual wealth and beaten down until our souls are half-dead. 

There also lives in each of us a priest and temple servant who serve the first part of the commands of the law, the part about serving God with one’s whole heart, mind, and strength. It is a holy office, requiring that one show up at the appointed time, ritually clean, for a service performed on behalf of the whole people. 

And we all have an inner Samaritan, a foreign stranger traveling through life, who is under no tribal obligation to help a Hebrew from Jerusalem. And yet help he does, purely out of human compassion. He fulfills the second part of the commandment, the part about loving whoever one stands next to. He does so not only by personally ministering to the wounded but also by paying someone else to continue his efforts.

What Christ is saying is that our ritual observances toward God are only a part of what serving God means. We also need to fulfill the second part of the commandment, the commandment of love for our fellow human beings. We need to find within ourselves healing ways to serve the God within others. This does not necessarily have to be dramatic. But we need to be able to inwardly pause and help others we encounter along the way. We can comfort with a kind word or even a smile. We can offer something that helps soothe a wounded soul. We can help someone in whatever way we can toward their own healthier future. We can even, if necessary, make it possible for someone else to do it for us. And we can always pray for others.

Christ as Good Samaritan, Codex Rossanensis

We turn towards God with all the strength of all our soul’s capacities. And we turn toward our fellow human beings with the strength of our love. Love manifests not only in thoughts and feelings but most especially in deeds. For we are God’s hands on earth. As St. Theresa of Avila said, 

Christ has no body now but yours

No hands, no feet on earth but yours

Yours are the eyes through which He looks
compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

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7th August Trinity 2016, God's Hands (Redux)

7^th August Trinity

Luke 10:25-37

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when

Van Gogh

he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.  The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

7th August Trinity

Sept 4, 2016

Luke 10:25-37

Corinne Vonaesch

Love manifests not only in thoughts and feelings but most importantly in deeds.

The man who was robbed and beaten represents that part of all of us traveling on life’s path -  a part of our soul has been robbed of our spiritual wealth and beaten down until our souls are half-dead. There also lives in each of us a priest and temple servant who serve the first part of the commands of the law, the part about serving God with one’s whole heart, mind, and strength. It is a holy office, requiring that one show up at the appointed time, ritually clean, for a service performed on behalf of the whole people. And we all have an inner Samaritan, a foreign stranger traveling through life, who is under no tribal obligation to help a Hebrew from Jerusalem. And yet help he does, purely out of human compassion. He fulfills the second part of the commandment, the part about loving whoever one stands next to. He does so not only by  ministering personally to the wounded but also by paying someone else to continue his efforts.

Charalambos Epaminonda

What Christ is saying is that our ritual observances toward God are only a part of what serving God means. We also need to fulfill the second part of the commandment, the commandment of love for our fellow human beings. We need to find within ourselves healing ways to serve the God within others. This does not necessarily have to be dramatic. But we need to be able to inwardly pause and help others we encounter along the way. We can comfort with a kind word or even a smile. We can offer something that helps heal a wounded soul. We can help someone in whatever way we can toward their own healthier future. We can even make it possible for someone else to do it for us. And we can always pray for others.

We turn towards God with all the strength of all our soul’s capacities. And we turn toward our fellow human beings with the strength of our love. For we are God’s hands on earth.

Visit our website.