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….**

---

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

8th August/September Trinity 2014, Paint with Light

8th August/September Trinity

Luke 17:20 -27

Robby Donaghe

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.

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 spirit 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 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 that are gathering. [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 is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th August –September Trinity

September 14, 2014

Luke 17: 20 – 37

In cartoons, when the character gets an idea, the cartoonist draws a bright light bulb over his head. This icon resonates with us because we experience insight or ideas as a light phenomenon. They come to us as enlightening our awareness, as a flash, or a slower dawning. For increased awareness is indeed another form of light.

When the gospel reading speaks about the human kingdom of the spirit, it tries to make clear that this kingdom is not located outside of us. It arises in the human heart. For Christ, the light of the world, would now reside in human hearts. Like the outer sunlight, his light generates life, that ever progressing, forward-moving, unfolding of living forms that bud, open, and die away, scattering the seeds  of future forms. It is through Him that we experience our flashes of insight, the dawning of a new awareness, the creative solution, or the golden warm light of love

The kingdom of God in human hearts is radiant: radiant with grace, radiant with love, radiant with thanks. Christ dwells in the life of our bodies, where forms are constantly being built up and disintegrated in order to be regenerated again.. It is through Him that the revelation of new beginnings open up again and again. And these ever-changing forms are the vessels for the workings of our inner life, our life of soul and spirit, our life of thought and ideas, our enlightenment.

We need have no fear of the disintegration; for just there, Christ is working for the future. The old form must give way. But if we look, we can find the shining seeds of what will develop. And we can give thanks for the light of grace, the light of love that impels us forward. The poet muses:

Kate Mabee

…it seems to me

all you have to do

is conceive of the whole world

an art project of the god of light

the whole earth and all that's in it

to be painted with light

And the first thing you have to do

 . . .to paint yourself

in your true colors

(without whitewash)

Then paint your favorite people and animals

with your brush loaded with light

….And don't forget to paint

all those who lived their lives

as bearers of light

…Paint the light of their eyes

the light of sunlit laughter

And remember that the light is within

if it is anywhere

and you must paint from the inside….*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

* Lawrence Ferlinghetti,  “Instructions to Painters & Poets” in How to Paint Sunlight

8th September Trinity 2007, Impermanence

8th 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.

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 spirit 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 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 that are gathering. [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 is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th Summer Trinity

September 9, 2007

Luke 17:20-37

  

Here in Southern California’s late summer heat, wildfires often ignite. A lightning strike, a stray spark and fields and forests are altered. We who build our homes in the hills are invested in not letting this change happen. But it is the way of nature’s life in this part of the world.

In today’s gospel reading, Christ talks about the nature of the Kingdom of God. His contemporaries were of course expecting the Messiah to establish an earthly kingdom. But Christ makes it clear that His is a kingdom of another order. It is the kingdom of the spirit that arises in human hearts.

A surprising characteristic of this kingdom is its impermanence. He compares it to lightning flashes which suddenly illuminate everything. It comes to individuals, not to groups, and seems to be connected with suffering. He warns us against trying to keep things unchanged, especially in our interior landscape. For in the inner realm of life, as in the outer, there is always the ongoing decay of old forms and the rising of new ones. And in the soul there is always the ongoing interplay between suffering and joy, between descent and revelation.

It is just in this interior landscape within us, this borderland of changing forms and phases of life, and the ups and downs of the soul, that the Spirit of the World reveals Himself. He comes and establishes his kingdom in us as a flicker of inspiration, as a flash of understanding, as a flaring of love. For the Spirit is like the play of fire and light – sometimes a small spark, sometimes lightning; sometimes painful, sometimes bringing joy. But always changing. It is the creating fire of love, helping to nurture the good into an existence that endures. This is the nature of His kingdom within.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

8th September Trinity 2008, Growth and Shedding

8th 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.

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 spirit 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 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 that are gathering. [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 is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th August Trinity

September 14, 2008

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 when 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 have to 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,  when the inwardly unsuitable, the outgrown, the not-love, has to be destroyed and risen above.

Uncomfortably, this entails suffering. All the elements of our not-loving will eventually have to be ejected so that we can ascend to the next stage. 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

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….[1]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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

8th August Trinity 2009, Search for the Kingdom

8th 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.

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 spirit 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 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 that are gathering. [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 is descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.]

8^th August Trinity

Sept 13, 2009

Luke 17:20 -37

We are once again in a rapidly changing season. The days are shortening more quickly; times and outer conditions begin to disintegrate as the old forms crumble.

The gospel reading warns us not to become too dependent on the outer, for the kingdom of God arises within us, within human hearts. This inner kingdom is a large one of varying landscapes—lush beauty, areas of desert, dark and light, and in-betweens. During dark dry periods we may seek for the richness of connection, but He warns us that He is there instantly and wholly ‘like lightning that flashes in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament’. Luke 17:24 He is not confined to one place, one person, one guru ‘over there’. He is accessible through our own inner landscape. He appears when the time for us is ripe.

When the disciples ask, ‘Where shall we turn our gaze?’ He gives a mysterious, cryptic answer: ‘Become aware of your living body and you will see the eagles gathering.’ Luke 17:37 [1]

Birds have always been symbols of thought, symbols of spiritual activity. He points us inward to the capacity of our life forces to create thoughts, to create inner pictures and images, memory pictures. This creative forming force in the human being exists right next to the place where the breaking down of substance in the body occurs. [2] This creative forming force, working on the ash-heap, can begin to work in freedom, freed from the necessities of the body (what shall we eat? What shall we wear? Matthew 6:25). When this freedom of thought begins to happen, into that free space between body and eagle, there arises the capacity to perceive the revelation of God, the lightning flash of His being. Even from the place of earthly descent, here where change means disintegration, He can be perceived. And so in the words of the poet:

…when we come to search for God,

Let us first be robed in night, …

To feel the rush of light

Spread slowly inside

The color and stillness

Of a found word. [3]


www.thechristiancommunity.org

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[1] The usual translation is "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather." But the Greek uses the word ‘soma’, a word for a living body, not ‘sarx’, corpse. And ‘aetoi’ are eagles.

[2] So ‘corpse’ and ‘vulture’ are also not entirely inappropriate.

[3] John O'Donohue, “For Light”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, pg. 15