4th Michaelmas 2020, Trials of Summer

 

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2^nd 3^rd or 4^th Michaelmas Sunday

Revelation 19:11-16

And I saw the heavens opening up.

G. Roland Smith

And behold, a white horse! And the rider who sat upon it is called faithful and true, who judges justly and battles for justice. His eyes are like flames of fire, and his head wears many crowns, inscribed with a name which no one knows but he himself. The cloak that covers him has been dipped in blood, and he is known by the name “Word of God”.

 And the warriors of the sky ride behind him upon white steeds, clad in clean, white linen. And he has a sharp-edged sword coming out of his mouth with which to subdue the nations, and he will shepherd them with a staff of iron. He treads on the winepress holding the wine of the wrath of the will of God, the ruler of all.

And written on his robe and on his thigh is the name: King of all kings, Lord of all lords.

4^th Michaelmas

October 25, 2020

Revelation 19:11-16

In a game like chess, there are rules. Certain moves are allowed, and others aren't. All the moves are sequential. And all the moves have their ultimate consequences.

God created the greater universe with a certain structural integrity. Things happen in a certain way in a particular order. There are consequences for everything that happens. Thank goodness!

The reading two weeks ago gave u

Albrecht Durer

s the image of the great feminine archetype, the soul of humanity. She is impregnated with the sun-radiant Son of God. She struggles to give birth to the Son of Man, the God of Love within and among us.

In today's reading, we hear how this Son of Man operates when he is fully grown. He battles to maintain the greater order, the order of justice, and just consequences. He, humanity's great I AM, the Creating Word of God subdues the nations.

God's love for us and ours for Him is not to be supplanted by a nationalistic and a warring love of country that destroys other nations. That time in the game has passed. That belonged to the age of Gabriel, the age of exploration and dominance. Gabriel's period ended over a century ago.

Arild Rosenkrantz

Now we are well into the age of Michael. His is the age of recognizing that all of humankind is one family. He hopes that we elevate all our human encounters. He invites us to work consciously with spiritual realities, with the angels, with those who have died.

God's long-term game plan for humanity is that we learn how to love, truly, and wisely. If humankind continues to ignore what is truly just and in line with God's greater plan, we will be defeated by our own maneuvers.

If humanity continues to behave unjustly based on greed or mere national interests, we will have to experience the other side of God's love. We will experience the 'wrath' which is simply the natural and objective consequence of our defying the greater order and purpose.

If we consistently fail to learn to love, if we set ourselves against the greater spiritual reality of God's hopes for us, we can only ultimately lose the game. And we are given the freedom to do that. Perhaps our personal endgame could be expressed in the words of the poet Stanley Kunitz:

In the haze of afternoon,

while the air flowed saffron,

I played my game for keeps—

for love, for poetry,

and for eternal life—

after the trials of summer.*

 

*Stanley Kunitz, "The Testing Tree," in The Testing Tree: Poems

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2nd February Trinity 2014, Layers

2^nd February Trinity

Luke 8:14-18

And as a great crowd had gathered, and ever more people streamed to him out of the cities, he spoke in a parable:

A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path. It was trodden upon, and the birds of the sky (air) ate it up. Other seed fell upon the rocks, and as it sprouted, it (the sprouting green) withered, because it had no moisture. Still other seed fell under the thorns; the thorns grew with it and choked what came up. And some fell upon good soil, grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he called out:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

His disciples asked him what this parable might mean. And he said:

To you it has been given the gift of being able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to the others it is given in pictures and parables, for they see and do not yet see, and hear, although they do not yet understand with their thinking. The meaning of the parable is this:

The seed is the Word of God. That which fell upon the path are those who hear it; afterwards the tempter comes and tears the Word out of their hearts, so that they cannot find healing through the trusting power of faith working in them.

Those on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, take it up with joy; but they remain without root. For a while the power of their faith works in them, but in times of trial they fall away.

What fell under the thorns are those who hear the Word from the spirit, and as they go on their way, the sorrows and the riches and the joys of life choke it, and they bring no fruit to maturity.

And the seed which fell in the good soil are those who hear the Word, and take it up into their hearts, feel its beauty, become noble and worthy and patiently keep it alive, tending it there until it brings forth fruit.

No one lights a light and hides it under a vessel or under a bench; instead he places it on a lamp stand so that all who come in see the light. For nothing is hidden which shall not be revealed, and nothing is secret which shall not be known and proclaimed.

So attend to how you listen. For he who has enlivened in himself the power to bear the spirit, to him more will be given. He however who does not have this power, from him will be taken that which he thinks he has.

2^nd February Trinity

February 16, 2014

Luke 8: 14-18

Today’s reading is a parable, a metaphorical description, that can be heard on several levels. There is always the literal meaning—a sower of seed scatters the grain and it falls in different places with differing results. But Christ makes clear to his closest disciples that there is also another parallel layer of meaning. The seed is not only grain, but also the Word of God, and how it falls into the human heart. It is no accident that Christ chooses an image from the plant world, the world of living beings. For the Word of God is connected to our capacity to grow, to blossom,  be fruitful.

The means by which the Word of God enters the heart is through our sense of hearing. And this sense, too, is multilayered. There is our literal hearing—the ability to hear sounds and distinguish words. And there are also additional layers of hearing, connected to the depth of our understanding. At this level of hearing, the more we understand, the broader and deeper our hearing becomes. And the more we understand, the deeper and more fertile the richness of our soul’s inner ground. With His Word, Christ Himself is entering into us.

‘So attend to how you listen,’ Christ says[1] ; for our focus and our level of hearing contributes to our heart’s fertility, our ability to nurture Christ in us. 

The poet Stanley Kunitz, who lived to be 100, wrote:

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.

….
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.[2]

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[1] Luke 8:18

[2] STANLEY KUNITZ, “The Layers”