5th Trinity I, (6th Sunday Before Easter), Thaw The Holy

Trinity I

6^th Sunday before Easter (Sunday after Ash Wednesday)

Matthew 4:1-11 

Tissot

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the loneliness of the desert to experience
the tempting power of the adversary. 

After fasting forty days and nights, He felt for the first time hunger for earthly nourishment. Then the tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, let these stones become bread through the power of your word." 

Jesus answered, "It is written, 'The human being shall not live on bread alone; he lives by the creative power of every word that comes from the mouth of God." 

Tissot

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand
on the parapet of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' " 

Jesus answered him, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test." 

Tissot

Again a third time, the devil took him to a very elevated place and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give to you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me as your Lord." 

Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship
[pray to] God your Lord who guides you and serve him only.' " 

Then the adversary left him, and he beheld the angels again as they came to bring him nourishment.

5^th February Trinity

March 6, 2022

Matthew 4:1-11 

To inhabit a human body is to be subject to very basic needs: every infant first needs food, for to be in a body is to be hungry and to depend on others to supply nourishment.

Another need is for safety—the body reflexively protects itself against injury.

And a third need is for power, the ability to be effective. To fail to respond to a child’s cries is to sow seeds despair in its soul.

At his Baptism Christ entered into a human body for the first time. His spirit, like a child's, encounters the body’s basic needs, which in the hands of the Adversary become demands. But coming as He does from the heart of God, He counters the Adversary who plagues humankind from within. And because He did, we can. For Christ has become the medicine for the sickness of sin, our separation from God, that the adversary engenders in us. He makes us whole. He re-establishes for us our connection with God.

For it is God and his angels who satisfy our deepest hungers. It is God who protects us both from harm and from an inflated sense of self-importance. It is in aligning ourselves with God’s will, rather than merely our own self-will, that we achieve true power; for the power that lies in freedom from earthly compulsions creates true effectiveness. Christ gives us that power.

Tissot

As Teresa of Avila said,

…God is always there, if you feel wounded.  He kneels

over this earth like

a divine medic,

and His love thaws

the holy in us.*

 

---

*St. Teresa of Avila, “When the Holy Thaws”, in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West, versions by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 290.

 

  

2nd Trinity I, God's Leaves

  

2^nd February Trinity I

Luke 8:4-15 

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

Van Gogh

"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 [or, air] ate it up. Other seed fell upon the rocks, and as it sprouted, it [the sprouting green] withered because it had no moisture. Yet 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, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them 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; afterward, 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 seeds that 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."

2^nd February Trinity

February 13, 2022

Luke 8:14-18 

Where does the sky begin? 

When we look up on a clear night, the sky has infinite depth. During a clear day, again, the infinite blue. But when there are clouds, the sky comes lower. In fog, it lowers to nearly ground level. Therefore we might well say that the sky begins where the ground ends. Its lowest level is the air around us. And we are all of us sky-dwellers. 

In the parable, the sower scatters his Word-Seeds from the sky.
They shower down around us, into us. Whether and how long they grow depends on where they fall. 

Some of Christ’s words fall into the everydayness of life. They are crushed underfoot in our busyness. In our ordinary overcrowded earthly way of thinking, the sky-birds of the adversary make them disappear. 

Some of Christ’s words fall on the rocky soil of an open but shallow heart. They live for a while, but without depth, they cannot be maintained and soon die away. 

Some of His words fall into the thickets of our lives. They accompany us on our journey for a while, but life’s fullness chokes them out, and His words cannot gain a full and independent life in us. 

Yet some of Christ’s living Word-Seeds fall into open hearts, into souls that have been plowed and cultivated, deepened intentionally or perhaps by suffering. Into such a human earthly heart, Christ’s sky-words fall. And there, the soul and spirit tend and nourish them, and they grow and develop their potential to become immensely fruitful. 

And that is how we attain God’s eternal life—by receiving his Seed-Words and growing them skyward within us. For the sky begins at the ground level of the human heart. 

Teresa of Avila says:

 

Our bodies

are the leaves of God.

  

.... but our souls, dear, I will just say this forthright;

they are God

Himself,

 

we will never perish

unless [in us] He

does.* 

 

* “ I Will Just Say This,” by Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), in Love Poems From God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 271

www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

 

3rd June Trinity 2020, No Hands But Yours

June Trinity 

Luke 19:1-10 (Madsen)

And he came to Jericho and went through the town.

See, there was a man called Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and a rich man. He wanted to see Jesus, to know who he was, but because he was small of stature, he could not see him in the great crowd. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a mulberry-fig tree to see him, for he had to come past there.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up to him and said, ‘Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must be a guest in your house!’ And he came down hurriedly and made him welcome in his house with great joy. All who saw it became indignant and said, ‘He has gone in to be a guest in the house of a sinner.’

Then Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, ‘Lord, see, half of all that I have I give to the poor, and if I have taken too much from someone, I give it back to him fourfold.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘So today healing has come to this house. This man, too, is a true son of Abraham and the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.’

3^rd June Trinity

June 21, 2020

Luke 19: 1-10

One’s placement in life, one’s job, vocation, or upbringing, does not necessarily say anything about one’s moral stature. Being poor and lowly does not prevent one from being a moral giant. But neither does being rich or elevated. It all depends on the individual’s inner and outer response to their circumstances.

Zacchaeus was both Jewish and a publican, that is, a tax collector for the Romans occupiers. As a Jew, he was in an awkward position. Not only did Zaccheaus collect Roman taxes from his fellow Jews; he was also the ‘head of department’ near Jericho. Because of its locality along the major trade route, taxes were a rich source of income for the Romans. It was likely Zacchaeus’ position that led to his being wealthy. His position also meant that he was despised by his own people, not only because he was working for the oppressors, but for reasons of physical and ritual purity. (In other places in the gospels* the Jewish leadership criticize Jesus for ‘eating with sinners and tax-collectors.’) The gospel’s mention of his ‘small stature’ may also be a metaphorical reference his ‘standing’ in the Jewish community.

Yet Zacchaeus has the desire to know Jesus. His ‘running ahead and climbing the mulberry-fig tree’ may also be seen as a description of his inner state: He prepares himself ahead of time and elevates his spirit for the encounter. And then not only can he see Jesus, but he will be seen.

In any case, Jesus is aware of him and responds positively to him by entering into a close relationship with him, much to Zacchaeus’ joy.

And it is clear from what follows in the gospel that Zacchaeus has used his wealth and position in a moral way: of his own wealth, he gives half to the poor. And in his official position, he is conscientious in how much he charges and scrupulous in making fourfold restitution for any mistakes. He is a just man, using his position and personal wealth to benefit the whole community. Jesus calls him a true son of Abraham and connects with him. Zacchaeus is someone Jesus can work with.

Christ sees us all, elevated or lowly. He sees into our hearts and into our deeds. He brings His healing work of redemption to all, despite the public’s opinion about them or their status in the community. It is the state of our hearts that Christ is interested in. It is our love translated into deeds of justice and mercy that make us those He can work with. For especially now, Christ needs us in order to do his work of healing in the world. In the words of Theresa of Avila

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.

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.

Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

 

*See Mt 9:11, Mk 2:16, Lk 5:3

3rd Sunday after Easter, May 3, 2020, No Body But Yours

3^rd Sunday after Easter
John 15:1-27

Christ the True Vine

I AM the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he trims clean so that it will be even more fruitful. You have already been purified by the power of the word that I have spoken to you.

Abide in me and I in you.

Just as the branch cannot bear fruit out of itself unless it is given life by the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you stay united with me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever remains united with me so that I can work in him, bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not remain united with me withers like a branch that is cut off. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words live on in you, pray for that which you also will, and it shall come about for you. By this, my Father is revealed, that you bear rich spiritual fruit and become ever more truly my disciples.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Ground your being in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and live on in his love.

These words I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. This is the task I put before you: that you love one another as I have loved you.

No one can have greater love than this, than that they offer up their life for their friends. You are my friends if you follow the task I have given you. No longer can I call you servants, for servants do not know what their master is doing. But I call you my friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father.

You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruits should live on after you so that what you ask the Father in my name he should give it to you. I say to you out of the fullness of my power: Love one another.

If the world hates you with hatred, remember that they hated me first. If you belonged to people in general, they would love you as belonging to them; but you do not belong to them because I have chosen you out of humankind. That is why people hate you.

Remember

Christ in the Winepress

the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have held on to my word, they will hold on to yours also. Everything that they do to you they will do as though they did it to me, for they do not know Him who sent me.

If I had not come and had not spoken to them, they would be without sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who turns in hatred against me turns in hatred against my Father also. If I had not done deeds among them, deeds which no one else has ever done, they would be without guilt. But now they have seen me, and have still hated both my Father and me.

But it was to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without a cause.’

But when the Comforter comes, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bring knowledge of me and will be my witness. And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been united with me from the very beginning.

3^rd after Easter
May 3, 2020
John 15:1-27

 The wild grapevine will spread its many branches far and wide, climbing over fences and up trees.  A cultivated vine is trained on stakes and cross

grapevines

-wires. The vinedresser prunes it back to restrain much of the growth. Thus the vine sacrifices some of its wild leafy abundance in order to produce better fruit.
Once a mighty vine grew in the realm of the heavens. Its life was the life of the whole universe. Its roots were in the sun. Its branches were in the cosmos. Its fruits were the planets and the stars.

One of its planets, the earth, began to sicken and grow dark. And so the mighty vine concentrated its life into a single Seed, which dropped onto the earth. The seed died and was buried in the earth. There it germinated, grew toward the heavens, scattering seeds of its own into the heart of each human being on the planet.

Christ is that cosmic vine, who concentrated His life into the seed of a single life, which then germinated, grew and bore fruit on the earth.

Christ says, “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” John 15:5. Christ is our lifeblood. Our lives are branches of His Life. The Father, who holds humankind’s destiny, is the vinedresser. The Father is looking for healthy growth, trimming away what does not serve, to increase what will promote the best fruits.

Christ tries to convey to us that we are not to remain wild and uncultivated. Rather we are to contain ourselves on the cross-wires so that the Father, the vinedresser, can concentrate and strengthen our growth to produce excellent and abundant fruit. The goal of our lives, the fruit we are trying to produce, is love.

In our western culture, we have grown much that was useless, excessive, even diseased. The healthy part of us accepts the necessity of a “correction”, a trimming. True, the process is painful; but it is only right and just. It is meant for our good, for our health. Time to trim back. Time to become truly fruitful. Time to seek the living source.

In today’s reading, we are receiving a vivid reminder that Christ is indeed what nourishes. We cluster in prayer like fruit on His vine. We receive His wine-sap, the living juice of His blood, whenever we pray,

Bernardino Luini, Christ Among the Doctors

So that we remain connected to His love;
So that we become and remain fruitful;
So that we, in turn, may channel His strengthening life and love to others.

As Teresa 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
Yours are the feet with which He walks
To do good
Yours are the hands with which He blesses
All the world.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st May/June Trinity 2016, No Hands

June Trinity

Arild Rosenkrantz

May 22, 2016

John 17: 6-11

I have made manifest your name to those human beings who have come out of the world to me through you. Yours they were, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word in their inmost being. Thus, they have recognized that everything which you have given me is from you; for all the power of the word which you have given me, I have brought to them. They have taken it into themselves and have recognized in deepest truth that I come from you, and they have come to believe that I have been sent by you. I pray to you for them as individual human beings, not for humanity in general. Only for the human beings which you have given me, because they belong to you. Everything that is mine is yours and what is yours is mine, and the light of my being can shine in them. [I am revealed in them.] I am now no longer in the world of the senses. And I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep, through the power of your being, those who came to me through you, so that they may become one, even as we also are one.

June Trinity

May 22, 2016

John 17: 6-11

We have come to a particular moment in the cycle of the liturgical year. This moment represents both an ending and a beginning. We have completed our walk through the mighty deeds Christ did on and for the earth. We have accompanied him from His birth through His death, His Ascension, and His sending of the Father’s Spirit at Pentecost. This gospel reading is taken from the evening before His death. He had nearly completed His time in a material physical body and was about to inhabit another kind of body, His resurrection body of light, and ultimately, at Ascension, to take on the whole earth as His

body.

At this moment in time, it is as though we remember and reflect back on certain highlights, certain key points about His time with us before we move on to the next phase of the year.

This gospel passage, called the High Priestly Prayer, is the one we also heard at Confirmation, that moment in a child’s life which signals the end of childhood and the beginning of another life phase, the phase of youth. And the priest also reads this passage at the Last Anointing, just before a person’s death. In this prayer, Christ assures us that he remains watching us prayerfully, intimately and individually. And he commends us in prayer to the Father’s care.

We could say that this moment signals the end of ‘Phase One’ and the beginning of ‘Phase Two,' both in Christ’s life and in our lives in the cycle of the year. And what is Phase Two? It is an opportunity that depends on upon our openness and loving response to everything He has gone through. Will we continue His work? Will we open ourselves anew in wonder and awe of all he has done? Will we take up His compassionate, healing spirit? Will we act out of the promptings of our good angels, the promptings of our higher selves? He hopes we will take up His work. For as Teresa 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.

Visit our website!

4th Epiphany 2016, Heal the Earth

4th Epiphany

John 5: 1-18

Christ Heals at the Pool of Bethesda

Some time later, there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep’s Gate, a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which is surrounded by 5 covered porches. Here lay a great many invalids, the blind, the lame [crippled], the weak [withered], waiting for the water to begin moving. For from time to time a powerful angel of the Lord descended into the pool and stirred up the waters. The first one in the pool after such a disturbance would be cured of whatever ailment he had.

And there was a certain man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and became aware that he had been ill for so long, he asked him,

“Do you want [have the will] to become whole?”

The invalid answered him, “Lord [Sir], I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Rise up, take up your pallet, and walk.”  At once the man was healed and picked up his pallet and walked.

               

However it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jewish leaders said to

Picking up the Pallet

the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your pallet.”

But he replied, “The man who healed me said to me, “take up your pallet and walk!”

And they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you ‘take it up and walk’?”

But the one who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, as there was a crowd in the place.

Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, “Take to heart what I say: Behold, you have become whole. Sin no more, lest your destiny bring you something worse.”

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. That is why they persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.

Then he himself countered them with the words, “Until now my Father has worked, and from now on I also work.”

Then they sought all the more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but also because he had called God his own Father and had set himself equal to God.

4th Epiphany

January 31, 2016

John 5: 1-18

Originally God’s creation was filled with an abundance of life, overflowing with healing, strengthening powers. Crowds could bathe in healing waters, for a thousand angels lived in them. But by the time Christ walked the earth, the healing forces of nature had worn down. The pool at Bethesda was only attended, intermittently, by one angel, enough healing force for one person at a time. And sadly, often without help, those most in need were unable to avail themselves. 

Christ came to initiate a new form of healing. He healed the man directly, lending him the creative power of His word. He healed from His I AM power, from Self to self.

Christ still walks the earth; we just don’t see Him. He can still heal, but it is now we human beings who are his instruments, His hands, his speaking. And now, 2,000 years later, what is called for is not only the healing of ourselves and of other human beings. What is becoming more and more necessary is that we find ways of healing the earth.

As St. Paul says, “…all around us creation waits with great longing that the sons and daughters of God shall begin to shine forth in humankind. Creation itself and therefore everything in it is full of longing for the future….”* It is now we who are to give life to the earth; we who are to heals its wounds; we who are to redeem the damage we have done to her.

How do we give life and healing? With God’s help, through our time and attention; through the power of the creative word our prayers, through our loving devotion to her well-being and our sacrifices on her behalf. Teresa of Avila** said, that even when we ourselves feel wounded, God helps.

…God is always there….  He kneels

over this earth like

a divine medic,

and His love thaws

the holy in us.

*Romans 8: 19 -21

** St. Teresa of Avila ~ When the Holy Thaws, in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West --versions by Daniel Ladinsky)

Visit our Website!

4th St. Johnstide 2009, No Body But Yours

St. Johnstide
Matthew 11: 2-15

When John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are awakened, and those who have become poor receive the message of salvation. Blessed are those who are not offended by my Being.”

When they had gone, Jesus began to speak about John. “Why did you go out into the desert? Did you want to see a reed swaying in the wind? Or was it something else you wanted to see? Did you want to see a man in splendid garments? Those in splendid garments are in the palaces of kings. Did you go to see a man who is initiated into he mysteries of the spirit, a prophet? Yes, I say to you—he is more than a prophet. He it is of whom it is written:

           

            Behold it well: I will send my angel before your face;

            He shall prepare the way of your working in the hearts of men

            So that your being may be revealed.

The truth I say to you: among all who are born of women, not one has risen up who is greater than John the Baptist; and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist, and even more now, the kingdom of heaven will arise within human beings through the power of the will; those who exert themselves can freely grasp it. The deeds of the prophets and the content of the Law are words of the spirit that were valid [worked into the future] until the time of John. And if you want to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

4^th St. Johnstide

July 19, 2009

Matthew 11: 2 – 15

In spring, fruit trees bloom in beauty. Through the kiss of sunlight, the wind, and the bees, they set fruit. Without the fruit, spring’s flowering beauty would be empty. It is the fruit that nurtures the sees of the next generation of life.

When John the Baptist asks Christ to confirm that He is the Messiah, Christ doesn’t say, ‘Yes, I am.’ He points to the fruits of His deeds: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are awakened, and the poor in spirit receive the message from the realm of the angels. (Matthew 11: 4 – 6) The beauty of Christ’s teachings and parables would be empty spring blossoms if they did not also develop into deeds. Christ teaches by example. He enacts what He says of every human being: by their fruits you shall know them (Matthew 7: 16 – 20); not what they say defines them, but what they do.

At Jesus’ birth the good news from the angels was that there will be peace on earth through those human beings in whom good will dwells. Christ came to strengthen, develop and consecrate human willing. Through His deeds in life, in death and in resurrection, He created a doorway in the human constitution so that He could enter into human willing. He lies as a seed in the innermost heart of every human being. Nurturing the Christ seed in our will life, we can become those in whom Christ’s good will dwells, those who spread healing and peace, those whose deeds reveal Christ fruit through the way we act and work in and for the world. For as someone said,

God has no body now on earth but yours

no hands but yours

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he pours out,

compassion for the world, compassion in the world.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Teresa of Avila

4th Epiphany 2013, Maintain Your Striving

4^th Epiphany

John 5: 1-18

Robert Bateman

Some time later, there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep’s Gate, a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which is surrounded by 5 covered porches. Here lay a great many invalids, the blind, the lame [crippled], the weak [withered], waiting for the water to begin moving. For from time to time a powerful angel of the Lord descended into the pool and stirred up the waters. The first one in the pool after such a disturbance would be cured of whatever ailment he had.

And there was a certain man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and became aware that he had been ill for so long, he asked him,

“Do you want [have the will] to become whole?”

The invalid answered him, “Lord [Sir], I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Rise up, take up your pallet, and walk.”  At once the man was healed and picked up his pallet and walked.

           

However it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jewish leaders said to the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your pallet.”

But he replied, “The man who healed me said to me, “take up you pallet and walk!”

And they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you ‘take it up and walk’?”

But the one who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, as there was a crowd in the place.

Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, “Take to heart what I say: Behold, you have become whole. Sin no more, lest your destiny bring you something worse.”

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. That is why they persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.

Then he himself countered them with the words, “Until now my Father has worked, and from now on I also work.”

Then they sought all the more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but also because he had called God his own Father and had set himself equal to God.

4^th Epiphany

January 27, 2013

John 5: 1-18

To get to a goal, we need to take actual steps. Wish and desire can get us started. But we need the strength of our will to carry us forward.

Last week we heard about two men who took the necessary steps, the leper and the centurion. This week’s reading focuses on the element of the will itself. For it is the paralytic’s will itself that is paralyzed and needs help. He has the wish, but his will does not have enough force even to get him to the natural place of healing. Christ must help him draw together sufficient will force to get him up off his bed.

‘Is it your will to become whole?’ He asks the man. The man admits that he has been unable to make it on his own for the last 38 years. So Jesus helps. He gives him a kind of injection of Christ-Will—the same Christ-Will that allows all of us as children to overcome gravity, to pull ourselves into the upright and to walk. It is as though the man is reborn—and he rises up and walks.

But there is a catch. There is a great risk of relapse, since the hopeless, passive despair that had weakened his soul and body over decades had become a habit of mind. ‘Sin no more’, Christ says; that is, do not let yourself fall back into your old ways. Maintain your striving uprightness of body and soul, lest destiny bring you something worse.’

Once one has stepped onto the path, one cannot go back without damage to self. And Christ will always help. In the words of Teresa of Avila

… God is always there, if you feel wounded.  He kneels

over this earth like

a divine medic,

and His love thaws

the holy in us.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] St. Teresa of Avila,  “When the Holy Thaws,” in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky

4th Advent 2009, No Hands but Yours

4th Advent

Luke 1: 26-38

Arild Rosenkrantz

During the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth to a maiden engaged to a man named Joseph of the descendants of David, and the maiden’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said toward her, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was she was confused at those words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call him Jesus.

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the most High,

And the Lord your God will give him the Throne of David your father.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever;

And his kingdom will have no end. “

And Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have never known a man?”

And the angel answered and said to her,

 “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;

And for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your kinswoman Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For no word is spoken in the worlds of the spirit that does not have the power to become reality on earth.”

 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the Lord’s handmaid; may it be to me according to your word. “

And the angel departed from her.

4^th Advent

Dec 20, 2009

Luke 1: 26 – 38

We hear the age-old story; at a particular place and time, a particular woman engaged to a particular man is visited by an angel. The angel   brings her a confusing and daunting message; a message that will change humankind forever.

Mary is a picture for the human soul. She mediates between the visitation of

angels, and earthly realities. Operating between heaven and earth, she must find an effective relationship to both realms.

She does so through humility and willing service. Through this attitude of soul, and despite tremendous earthly difficulties, she is ultimately able to mediate the birth of the divine into humanity. She gives Christ a body in which to live, hands and feet with which to work on the earth.

Mary is the archetype of the soul of humanity. For we too are to receive the Holy Spirit’s impregnation. Through the openness of wonder, through our empathy, through the positive inspirations of our conscience, we give Christ a body. Through us He has feet with which to walk the earth, hands with which feed, bless and strengthen. Someone has said:

God has no body now on earth but yours

no hands but yours

no feet but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he pours out,

compassion in the world, compassion in the world.[1]

---

[1] after Teresa of Avila