4th Passiontide 2022, Build the Body

  

4^th Passiontide (Palm Sunday)

Matthew 21:1-11 

Hippolyte Flandrin

And they approached Jerusalem and
came to  Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, "Go to the village which you see before you and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away." 

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: 

'Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and a foal of the beast of burden.' 

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.        

Many from the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted: 

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosanna in the highest! [or, Sing to Him in the highest heights!] 

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is he?" The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee."

4^th Passiontide Sunday

Palm Sunday

April 10, 2020

Matthew 21:1-11  

This mysterious picture – Christ Jesus asks for a donkey and its foal to be brought to Him. Upon them, He will ride into Jerusalem, the city of peace. Why donkeys? Why two? 

Francis of Assisi famously called his body Brother Donkey. The donkeys of our bodies are the earthly means of conveyance for our souls and spirits. Our donkey is strong, stubborn, and willful. For most of us, if the body decides to go somewhere, say, into illness, it is about all we can do to hang on for the ride. 

Christ chooses donkeys as His means of conveyance as a living symbol of the final phase of His earthly life. He is choosing the human body as His final battleground. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem foretells the fully accomplished entry of His spirit into the body of Jesus. Today He rides the donkey of the physical nature, both the old body and the new immortal one he will inhabit at His resurrection. 

The people sense this, but their jubilation is premature. These two ‘donkeys’ are carrying Him where He wants to go – deeper into the body, into suffering, even into the death that the body offers. Rejoicing will be more appropriate days later when the body has been transformed at the Last Supper into the new form of bread and wine; when His suffering has borne fruit; when death has been overthrown because He has wrested the human spirit from the death of matter.

 At the Last Supper and its iterations, He wields the power to make bread and wine into His immortal body and blood so that He can feed us His own immortality. With His help, we, too, can make our sufferings fruitful. Through our connection with Him, we can, bit by bit, build the new body that is not subject to death, the Christ-body that comes to life in us, through us, in our offering. 

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2nd St. Johnstide 2008, Just and Moderate

St. Johnstide

Luke 3: 7-18

Tiepolo

John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You are sons of the serpent yet! Who led you to believe that you can avoid the decline of the old ways of the soul? Produce true fruits in keeping with a change of heart and mind. And do not begin excusing yourselves by saying, “We have Abraham as our father.” For I tell you that God can raise up sons for Abraham out of these stones. The ax is already poised at the root of the trees, so every tree that does not produce good fruit is felled and thrown into the fire.”

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

John answered, “Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

“Do not collect any more than you are authorized to do,” he told them.

           

Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Do not intimidate and do not accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ, the Messiah.

John answered them all, “I wash you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will wash you with the breath of the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, while he burns up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

And with many and various exhortations John preached the good news to the people. 

2^nd St. Johnstide

July 6, 2008

Luke 3: 7-18

There are certain parts of the soul that we share with the animal kingdom: the need for food, for reproduction, the need to exert power and defend our territory. If these animal parts of the soul rule us, they can become insatiable beasts who overtake our lives and enslave the self. Our truly human task is to tame the beasts; not to kill to them, but to become master over them.   

John the Baptist encourages us to put ourselves through a change of heart and mind, that is, to work at recalibrating the balance between the head, the lower nature and the heart.

The mind, the rational, clever intellect, is gifted in supporting our own interests. But it can become a servant of the beasts, a ravenous taker and collector, even a destroyer.

The heart’s great joy is in giving. The heart enjoys pouring itself out. In extremes, it can foolishly empty the giver.

In this reading, John suggests establishing a balance between giving and taking, between heart and head. He suggests that we set limits to our taking and collecting. Let the one who has more than they really need give to those who have none. The soldiers and the tax-collectors, who in those days were not regulated, were enjoined to take no more than was in truth their due.

To set self-limits in food and clothing, and in the exercise of power is to begin to tame the wild beasts of the soul’s desire. Increasing the capacity for self-control strengthens the sovereignty of the self over the greedy beasts of our lower nature. Paradoxically, it is this sovereignty of the self that strengthens the capacity to give of ourselves. For without self-possession, there can be no true giving, no balance between self and others, between head and heart. Without self-possession there can be no brotherhood or equality. For it is the sovereign, enlightened self which wisely chooses when to give and when to take.

This balanced, sovereign self can then come to recognize that other, greater Self, the I AM, He who was and is and is coming. He it is who, in the words of St. Francis, is

…Our true and living Master.

Love and lover manifest.

Wisdom and the wise.

The humble and the patient,

Beauty beckoning. Gentle shelter.

The peace and joy and hope of all.

Just and moderate, you are our

treasure, all sufficient. Protector

and the shield of our souls.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] St. Francis of Assisi, ( 1182 – 1226), “The Reach to Speak His Name.” in Love’s Immensity, Scott Cairns, p. 81.

New Year's Day 2009, Glowing Seeds

Holy Nights

John 1: 1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.

This was in the beginning with God.

Everything came into being through the Word, and without it was not anything made that was made.

In the Word was life, and the life was the light of humankind.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that through him all may find faith. He was not the light, but a witness to the light, for the true light that enlightens every human being was coming into the world. It was in the world, and the world came into being through it, but the world had not recognized it.

Into those who had recognized it the light had come, but those individuals did not take it in. But all who did take it in received authority to become children of God. Those who trusted in its name are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of the human beings, but are born of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among (in) us.

And we beheld its revelation, the revelation of the only begotten son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness to Him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘After me comes one who was before me, for he is the very first’.” For out of his fullness we have received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth have come about through Jesus Christ.

Until now human senses never beheld God. The only begotten Son, who was within the Father, has become the guide to this beholding.[1]

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[1] Translation inspired by Craig Wiggins

New Year’s Day

January 1, 2009

John 1: 1 – 18

It is cold midwinter. The end of last year’s growth, the seeds, lie in the dark earth. Yet, if we only had the proper eyes, we could begin to see tiny flames flickering in and around them. For although it will take some time to manifest, new life is already beginning to quicken in the womb of Mother Earth. The seeds that will become the flowers and the grain of our food are already beginning to shine.

The impulse for this change comes from the divine world, from the world of the great beings who form the archetypes of all that lives. They generate, grow and ripen in the heart and mind of God. Eventually these archetypes make their way earthward. And just in this midwinter season, now the living beings of the plants are sending their living forms all the way down into the mineral world, to awaken last year’s seeds into this years’ plants.

In human souls, too, the same process is taking place. During the Holy Nights, the soul, with all the seeds of its past and future, awaits its impregnation. Into human hearts, new forces and impulses for life are streaming downward, as Christ, the archetype of the Divine Human Being, once more enters the realm of earth. With Him He brings His father’s Light, His Father’s life, His Father’s love.

Through God’s grace during these Holy Days and Nights, we have the opportunity to begin life anew. The soul is encouraged to become a womb to receive the Father’s light. It is encouraged to generate the flames of the Father’s eternal life. It is encouraged to give birth to the Father’s love. Three flames—the flame of the light of truth in our thinking, the flame of life’s beauty in our feeling, the flame of love’s offering in our will, are beginning to shine forth in us. May they grow and mature. May they become the truth of spirit-sun, the beauty of spirit-flowers, the goodness of spirit-grain. May they pour forth from our hearts, out into all the world.

For, as St. Francis said,

There are beautiful wild forces within us.

Let them turn the mills inside,

and fill

sacks

that feed even

heaven.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] St. Francis of Assisi, “Wild Forces”, in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 47.