9th August/September Trinity 2019, Last Fruits

August/September Trinity 

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions

9^th (of 9) August Trinity

September 22, 2019

Luke 7: 11-17

Fruits of the vine have ripened. They enclose the seeds for a new life. In nature, the fruit falls and dies away, releasing the seeds to begin a new cycle of life. But fruits can also be tended and harvested to another purpose—to be made into wine.

Today we hear of the young man; his life’s fruit had fallen green. Christ catches his soul; He finds the soul’s seed of the new, and plants it again on the earth. This is Christ as the great Gardener. He is tending a harvest for his Wine. But no matter whether the soul’s fruit falls

Pierre Bouillon

early or late, Christ is concerned with ongoing life, with the seeds within; He preserves them, carrying them and planting them where they next need to go.

In one lifetime, we may ripen soul fruits of many kinds. When ripe, the fruits must separate from the vine on which they grew, for their current cycle is finished. Things end, sometimes painfully. But what is valuable in our soul, the ripened sweetness, we can offer for the wine harvest. Our soul’s purest thoughts, our most noble feelings, the dedication of our will, form the sweetness of the soul’s fruit. These we can offer for the wine.

What is viable in our soul fruit, seeds for the future, are gathered up by our angel, under the direction of the Master Gardener. They will be preserved, be planted, grow and develop. It may be in another place and time. It may be for an entirely new and different purpose. But even in all of life’s apparent endings, the living seeds are not lost. Knowing this, we can keep trying, keep working to ripen our inner fruit, developing the sweetness, however late, in whatever cycle we find ourselves.

So now, in all the layers of our autumns, we can say with Rilke:

Lord: it is time. The summer was great...

Command the last fruits to be full,

give them yet two more southern days,

urge them to perfection, and chase

the last sweetness into the heavy wine.*

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*Rilke, “Autumn Day”, translated by J. Mullen

9th August/September Trinity 2016, Vertiginous Clarity (Redux)

9th August Trinity

Matthew 6; 19-23

“Do not save up your treasures on the earth, where moths and rust eat away at them and thieves tunnel in and steal. Save up your treasures in heaven, where no moth and no rust consumes and thieves do not tunnel in and steal. Because where you have gathered a treasure, there your heart will bear you.

“The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is wholesome, your whole body is lighted; whereas if your eye is bad, your whole body is in darkness. So if the light inside you is dark…what great darkness!

9th August Trinity

Sept 18, 2016

Matthew 6; 19-23

We know, at least intellectually, that we cannot take our physical possessions with us across the threshold of death. We even make ironic jokes, like ‘he who dies with the most toys wins!’ But even if we could somehow bring them with us, they would eventually disintegrate because they belong to the world of the transitory.

We are encouraged to store up heart-treasures, treasures that we can take with us through death. One such heart treasure is reverence and wonder toward God, toward our fellow human beings and toward the living being of nature. The health and vitality of our soul, indeed of our whole organism, depends on the manner in which we look at the world. If we look at the world through eyes open in wonder, filled with awe, then seeing through such eyes generates light, both inwardly and outwardly. Through wonder and awe, we gain the light of knowledge and the light of wisdom. Our eyes will shine. Lacking reverence before God, man and nature, our souls begin to darken. Even our bodily organism becomes darker and harder, less translucent. Awe enlightens. 
The poet says:

Never between the branches has the sky

burned with such brilliance, as if

it were offering all of its light to me,

to say – what? what urgent mystery

strains at that transparent mouth?

….the air

suddenly arches itself like this into infinity,

and glitters.

This evening, far from here,

a friend is entering his death,

he knows it, he walks

under bare trees alone,

perhaps for the last time. So much love,

so much struggle, spent and worn thin.

But when he looks up, suddenly the sky

is arrayed in this same vertiginous clarity.*

For, as Christ says, ‘Where you have gathered a treasure, there your heart will bear you’.**

*Jean Joubert, “Brilliant Sky,” Trans. by Denise Levertov in The Gift of Tongues, ed. by Sam Hamill

** Matthew 6:21

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9th August/September Trinity 2014,

9th August/September Trinity

Matthew 6: 25-34

“No one can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the other, or he will  put up with one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and greed’s demon of riches [mammon].

“That is why I tell you, do not trouble your heart about what you will eat and drink or with what you will clothe your body. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky: they do not plant, do not harvest, and do not fill barns, and your heavenly Father still feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you, by being vastly concerned, add one moment to the span of your life?

And why do you worry about clothing? Study how the lilies of the field grow: they do not work, and they do not spin cloth. But I am telling you that not even Solomon in all his glory was ever arrayed as one of these. If that is how God clothes the wild grass of the field, here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not do much more for you, o small in faith?

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we drink? What will we wear?’ It is the nations who ask for all these things, and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Ask first for God’s kingdom and its harmonious order, and these other things will be delivered to you as well.

So do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow can worry about itself. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

9^th August/September Trinity

September 21, 2014

Matthew 6:25 – 34

Killing Frost

We have come to the equinox, the time of balance between the light and the darkness. From now on, here in the north, the balance will rapidly begin to shift. Temperatures cool; leaves fall; frost and winter kill set in. [In the southern hemisphere it is the opposite – the warmth, the budding life of spring.]

Today’s reading is a warning to us. At this time of the year we are not to follow nature’s course. We are not to become dark and cold. We are not to let the killing force in us, our critical side, gain the upper hand. Instead, we are to warm the analytical side of our soul with compassion and love.

We are not to let our fears of what is to come extend beyond today. The greatest fear of all is that there is nothing beyond us, that we are alone in the universe. Instead, we are warm our freezing anxieties and fears by concentrating on the wondrous harmony of the greater ecology of God’s creation, and our own place in it. For every night in sleep we visit God’s home. We receive the night’s measure, our gifts of strength and inspiration to cope with the coming day. To extend our fears anxiously into the future is to salt the fields of our own souls, to render them infertile. God’s generously pours out gifts for us, given to us day by day, night by night. As the poet says:

…An empty heart, a tormented mind,

Unkindness, jealousy and fear

Are always the testimony

You have been completely fooled!

….Come, join the honest company

Of the King's beggars -

….

Who need Divine Love every night.

Come, join the courageous

Who have no choice

But to bet their entire world

That indeed,

Indeed, God is Real.

…. Everything,

Everything in Existence

Does point to God.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] Hafiz, "A Golden Compass."