1st August Trinity 2016, Unimaginable

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1st August Trinity

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say, Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’ Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly he told them this.

Tissot, Get thee behind Me

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.”

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1st August Trinity

July 24, 2016

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

Tissot, The Blind Leading the Blind

Our hopes and expectations can blind us. We picture for ourselves how we hope things will be, how
we want them to be. But these imaginings can cast a veil over what actually is and what will be. They can blind us to what is real.

The people of Jesus’s time had built up images of how the Messiah would be. He would be a great political leader, a new King David to overthrow the Romans. He would be a prophet, the voice of God. He would be a priestly mediator of the divine.

Peter indeed recognizes in Jesus the Christ, the anointed and expected Messiah. Immediately Jesus tries to tell his disciples what his real mission, his real plans are. He tries to clear away the false hopes and expectations. He will not be a political leader. Although he is the voice of God, he will not be an old style prophet only of the folk. He will be a priest, but of a new order. He will be both priest and sacrifice.

C. D' Herbois

He tries to tell Peter that what will be most important is that he will suffer, die, and resurrect – live, die, and live again. He will mediate Life itself, so that we too can live again.

But Peter’s earthly hopes get in the way. His expectations become an adversarial force, an obstacle that Christ must reject. And it is Judas’s false expectation that hand Jesus over to the executioners. Christ’s task is so other, so radical, so unimaginable that even to this day hardly anyone fully understands it.

Yet even though we may not understand Him, Christ is still able to work on his mission, as long as we are open to him; as long as we don’t harbor false expectations of what he can do for us. He works in our hearts to heal; he works in our communities to unite; he works in the world to give peace.

www.thechristiancommunity.org 

2nd November Trinity 2015, Peek-a-Boo

2^nd November Trinity

November 8, 2015

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

And to the leading angel of the community at Laodicea write: Thus speaks the Amen, he who strengthens all spiritual working with his own being, the witness trusted and true, the ground of all divine creation:

I see through your deeds. You are neither cold nor hot. You should be either cold, or hot. But since you are lukewarm, I am about to spew you out of my mouth.

You say: I am rich, I have my fortune, and I don’t need anything else. But you do not know that you are wretched and pitiable, a beggar blind and naked. I counsel you to acquire from me

gold that is purified in fire, that you may become truly rich;

and garments to clothe yourself, so that the shame which lies in your nakedness may not be revealed;

and a salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

Christ the Light of the World, Holman Hunt, wiki

I AM he who disciplines all whom he loves, calls them to account and refines them through trials of destiny, thus drawing them into the stream of cleansing.

Therefore generate warmth [be eager] [strengthen yourself] and change your heart and mind.

Behold, I stand before the door and knock. If someone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and share the meal with him, and he with me.

He who overcomes, to him I will give the power to sit with me on my throne, just as I have been raised to the throne of my Father through the victory of the spirit. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit would say to the churches.

 2^nd November Trinity

November 8, 2015

Rev. 3, 14-22 (Laodicea)

One of the illusions of our modern consciousness is that we stand alone. We may experience ourselves as enclosed and isolated within our own skin. And therefore we try to draw toward ourselves everything, money, possessions, that seem to reinforce our sense of self-sufficiency.

These letters to the congregations tell us otherwise. For truly we are embedded in a world of spiritual beings. “We walk through the spiritual worlds exactly as we walk through the physical air”.[1] And although we may be unaware of them, the consciousness of these beings extends beyond and into our own. Alone though we may feel ourselves to be, we are continuously being seen, watched over, cared for and cared about. It is because we are not aware of them that we can act as though they don’t exist. We are like small children playing peek-a-boo who ‘hide’ by covering their eyes and saying ‘you can’t see me!’ The human race has made itself blind.

One of the signs of spiritual adulthood is becoming aware of the other – of other people, of other beings. As we grow spiritually we can become aware that we are seen, that we cannot hide. We become aware, sometimes painfully, of our shortcomings and failings. This is a first step toward healing.

Ultimately we are accountable. As the funeral service of The Christian Community says: Know that you are beholden to the spiritual beings for everything that you do in thought, in speech, in action. Today’s reading urges us to change the way we frame our awareness, to enlarge it. The spiritual world, Christ and his angels, are knocking at the door of our awareness. We have the choice to open, or not. If we do, they will nourish and strengthen our own awareness, our souls and spirits.

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[1] Source: Rudolf Steiner – GA 194 – The Mysteries of Light, of Space, and of the Earth – Lecture III – Dornach, 14th December 1919