Thursday, December 25, 2014

Christmas I, Midnight, December 25, 2014, The Rescuer


Christmas I, Midnight

December 25, 2014
Matthew 1: 1 -25
[Now is proclaimed the beginning of the whole Gospel, according to Matthew in the first chapter.]

This is the book of the new creation, which has happened through Jesus Christ [or, the generation of Jesus Christ], a son of David, who is a son of Abraham.
….
From Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David to the deportation to Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the exile in Babylon to Christ are fourteen generations.

The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way: Mary, his mother, was betrothed to Joseph. But before they were aware of having come together, she conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph however, her husband, who was an upright man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, was considering whether he should quietly set her free [or, decided to consider all this a mystery.] As he was pondering this, behold the angel of the Lord appeared before him in a dream and said to him:

 “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because that which is to be born of her is conceived out of the power of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall give him the name Jesus, that is, the Bringer of Healing, for he it will be who will heal his own of their error and guilt. “

All this took place so that the word of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of the prophet, might be fulfilled:

“A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, that is, God in our midst.”
               
Now when Joseph rose from his sleep he did as the angel of the Lord directed him, and he took Mary to himself as his wife, and he knew her not until she bore her son, and he gave him the name Jesus. 




Christmas I, Midnight
Dec 25, 2014

Time is turning. Midnight is becoming the early morning of a new day. Its actual dawn is yet to come. But it is on the way.

This reading from the beginning of all the gospels is a kind of preamble. In the dream time, an angel announces to Joseph the striking of a new hour, a new day. The angel announces what will soon be the arrival of Jesus, whose name means help or rescuer. He will become the bearer of the Son of God. And he will rescue humankind from their error and guilt.

The greater new day is again approaching. The Light of the World is drawing near. We can sense His healing in our praying. The poet said:

Thou whose birth on earth
Wilfried Ogilvie, In the Beginning
Angels sang to men,
While thy stars made mirth,
Saviour, at thy birth,
This day born again;

As this night was bright
With thy cradle-ray,
Very light of light,
Turn the wild world's night
To thy perfect day.

Thou whose face gives grace
As the sun's doth heat,
Let thy sunbright face
Lighten time and space
Here beneath thy feet.
Bid our peace increase,
Thou that madest morn;
Bid oppressions cease;
Bid the night be peace;
Bid the day be born.[1]








[1] Christmas Antiphones by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Sunday, December 21, 2014

4th Advent 2014, Yes


1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

About time spans and right moments, dear brothers, I have no need to write to you. You know very well yourselves that the Breaking of the Day of Christ comes like a thief in the night. When people say, ‘Now peace reigns, and all stands secure, then suddenly catastrophe breaks upon them, like the birth pangs of a woman with child, and there will be no escape for them.

Christ the Divine Physician
You, however, dear brothers, are not to remain in darkness, so that the breaking of day will not surprise you like a thief. For you are sons of light and sons of the day. Our being is not filled with night and darkness. So let us not sleep like the others, but rather cultivate an alert and sober state of mind. 

Those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who are drunk are likewise of nightly nature. But since we belong to the brightness of day, let us be sober, clothed with the breastplate of faith and love, our head armed [protected] with the hope of healing….May God himself, however, the source of all Peace, hallow and heal your whole being. May your complete and undivided being, Spirit, Soul, and Body, remain pure and unclouded at the coming in the spirit of Jesus Christ, our Lord. You may trust in him who calls you. He it is who also lets you reach the goal.


4th Advent
December 21, 2014
1 Thessalonians, 5, 1-8, 23, 24

You may have had the experience window shopping: you see the reflection of others in the glass; and you may have a particular experience of someone; perhaps one arouses a bit critical. And suddenly you are shocked to realize that you are looking at yourself.

At this season of the year we may be inclined think that somehow our deepest desires will be fulfilled; that we will be surrounded by the warmth and love of family and friends; that we will be contented. And so we may be surprised or even shocked that we may at the same time feel ourselves to be intensely alone, isolated and unfulfilled. And one of the uncomfortable revelations comes from catching an objective glimpse of ourselves.

What comes to our aid is our own objectivity. We can be helped by shedding light on the untruthfulness of our own illusions and delusions, on our own deceptive egotism. And we can set our sights instead on the image of the Coming One. The One who was present at the creation of the human being, who walked the paradisal garden amid the freshness of creation, He who is our higher self and our true being, He is drawing near. He is willing to enter into our tarnished circumstances. He is willing to enter the fallen domain of the heart, just as He once was born into degraded surroundings on earth. For he came, he continues to come, to hallow and to heal. The poet says:

Let the stable still astonish.

Straw–dirt floor, dull eyes,
Dusty flanks of donkeys, oxen;
Crumbling, crooked walls;
No bed to carry that pain,
And then, the child,
Rag-wrapped, laid to cry
In a trough.
Who would have chosen this?

Who would have said: “Yes,
Let the God of all the heavens and earth
Be born here, in this place?
Who but the same God
Who stands in the darker, fouler rooms
Of our hearts
And says, “Yes,
Let the God of Heaven and Earth
Be born here –
In this place.[1]






[1] Leslie Leyland Fields, “Let the Stable Still Astonish”

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Two Marys, December 18, 2014


In the Gospels we have two descriptions of the Mother of God. The feeling-tone of each is different. The one is described in Luke; she is the one to whom the angelic messenger announces the coming of God’s son through the inseminating power of the Holy Spirit. She is humble and open, experiencing an other-worldly event.

The Mother in Matthew’s Gospel receives royal gifts. She must flee to Egypt to save her little Son from Herod’s persecution. In John’s Gospel she stands under the cross. Mother’s innocence has become bitter experience. But she also partakes in her Son’s subsequent rise from death.

Bernhard Eyb
At this time of the year we can picture the otherworldly Mother. If we could see her now, in winter, we would see the moon element spread out below the earth’s surface. From her human form, we see a heavenly Earth-Star, raying out into the cosmos from her head.  At her breast the sun’s rays, forming itself out of the clouds, condensing into the child, all in a rainbow-hued background. She is the woman formed out of the clouds, endowed with earthly forces under her feet, sun radiance in the middle, head crowned with stars—the woman of Rev. 12. She is arising out of the cosmos itself. In winter, when we ourselves are most strongly connected with the earth, we see the Mother arising in the cosmos, in the interplay between the earth and the stars.[1]
Summer Imagination, Margarete Woloschin

At the opposite time of the year (and in the opposite hemisphere now) another Mother can be seen. A sparkling silver blue rises from the depths of earth, bound up with human weakness and error. It gathers into the picture of Earth Mother in the depths. She is Mater, materie.  Above her is the flowing golden-red creative form of Uriel and the Spirit dove, the Spirit Father. Between them, between Spirit Father and Earth Mother, we behold the Son. In the summer we breathe ourselves out into the cosmos; but we strongly perceive the Father above and the Mother below. We are made aware of human error. [2]

As we move through the course of the year, we ourselves move between these two counter-poles—cosmic mother, earth mother. During the twelve days and holy nights of the Christmas season, from Christmas to Epiphany, we experience this polar movement in miniature, in the picture of the two Marys. The Christ, the Child reconciles these two poles. In Luke the Child is born in a cave in the earth, in midwinter (not in summer). Although he is in a cave in the earth, he and his mother are innocent and humble. We read his gospel story from the altar early Christmas morning.

On January 6, we read of the Matthew Mother in her regal queenly aspect. She receives royal gifts, moves forward through experience, grappling with Herod’s evil, fleeing to Egypt where the mysteries of death were understood.

Cordoba
In this movement between these two poles, the two mothers represent the overall movement of the human experience. It is a movement from humble innocence to earthly experience, being crowned with the earth-star and at the same time finding and maintaining (again) a connection to the starry cosmos. 

Mary represents the human soul, operating between the two poles and moving through them over and over again in the course of the years. 

She also represents a kind of aggregate of all human souls, a spiritual entity we could call the Soul of Man, as it evolves over time.  From humble innocence we are born out of the summer of stars, generated by the union of Sky Father and Earth Mother. Gradually the Soul of Man is evolving toward becoming a being radiant with experience, clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, crowned with the stars of earth winter.



[1] Image from Rudolf Steiner, “The Christmas Imagination”, in The Four Seasons and the Archangels.
[2] Image from Rudolf Steiner, “The St. John’s Imagination”, in The Four Seasons and the Archangels.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

3rd Advent 2014, Be Still

Simon Marmion
3rd Advent
1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18

We will not leave you in ignorance, dear brothers, about how it is with those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the others who have no hope.

As surely as our heart knows through faith that Jesus broke through death into resurrection, so sure may we also be that God will lead to the same goal those who have fallen asleep united with Christ.

This we announce to you as a word that comes from Christ: we who live, and are preserved as living till the time of the return of the Lord, will have no precedence over those who are asleep.

So will it once be: when the call resounds, the voice of the archangel thunders again, and the trumpets sound which are heard out of the world of the Spirit, then will Christ, our Lord, descend out of the spiritual heights. Then there will be awakened in the spirit first those who have died in Christ. And afterwards we who live and tread paths of earth will be taken up with them into the living world of the spirit, to an encounter with Christ in the realm of the soul. Then shall we be inseparably united with Him, the Risen One. With thoughts of this kind shall you mutually uphold, encourage and strengthen each other.  

  
3rd Advent
December  14, 2014
1 Thessalonians 4, 13-18
Helen Chamberlain

 At every sunset, the light disappears; but though we may fear the dark, we trust that it is only temporary, for we know that the sun will rise again in the morning. Every year we sense the growing darkness as we approach the longest night. And yet in confidence we celebrate the slow return of the Christ-Sun from the greater darkness of the year.

Christ was born on earth a long time ago. He died. Today he is coming to us again. The archangel is announcing His arrival. He is drawing near, and the mighty gates of heaven will open and we will approach Him in spirit-awareness. The light of Christ will be born within us, illuminating us from within.

In the inner and outer darkness of our times, we may feel both besieged and forsaken. Yet we may also cultivate fortitude and bravery in facing our inner and outer demands. Our fortitude and courage in our trials allow us to develop our presence of mind. We stay present; we neither flee nor rage. Rather we hold ourselves still and awake, so that we can remain standing when true spiritual reality breaks in upon us.

In Psalm 46 the Creator says:  “Be still, and know that I am… I will be honored among the nations, I will be honored in the earth.” Christ is the true power within us. Our personality has limited power over outer circumstances; yet outer circumstances have limited power over us. For He, Christ, is the true power in us, because He is our true being on the earth. 

Sunday, December 7, 2014

2nd Advent 2014, Barren Souls Impregnated

2nd, 3rd or 4th Advent
Luke 1: 26-38

Fra Angelico
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 her, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But 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.


2nd Advent
December 7, 2014
The Awakening, Thomas Gotch
Luke 1: 26-38

Today we hear the story of the pure soul of humanity. The angel announces that she will be over-lighted by the power of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Love. This warm light, shining into her soul, will define what will be born of her. What issues forth from her will be the Son of God. This will come about because God’s Word, which is also God’s Son, has the power to create earthly realities.

The virginal soul has its legitimate earthly questions: how shall this come about? But the angel makes clear that there is a higher order and purpose at work in this event. Even barren souls can become fruitful. And so she submits herself to a higher ideal. And she humbly says yes to the working of the Word of God within her.

Once again, at this time of the year, the angel approaches our barren souls. For each of us has, deep in our hearts, a pure and innocent core. Once again the angel speaks to all of us God’s words of His approach, of His wish to enter us. Individually and collectively we are called upon to be impregnated by God’s Spirit of Love. In hope the angel awaits our response: May it be unto me according to Your Word.



Sunday, November 30, 2014

1st Advent 2014, Insistent Grace

1st Advent

Luke 21:25-36

And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth, the nations will be constricted with anxiety and doubt with the advent of these spiritual revelations, as before a roaring sea and waves. And men will lose their inner strength of soul out of fear and foreboding of what is coming over the living earth: for the dynamic powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, in the sphere of life, with dynamic power and great radiant glory.

And when these things begin to happen, stand upright and lift up [raise] your soul to the spirit, for your deliverance draws near.
And he gave them a comparison, saying, ‘Observe [behold] the fig tree and all the trees when they burst into leaf. Seeing this, you know yourselves that summer is near. So also when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Amen, the truth I say to you: this present age of Man’s being shall not pass away until all has happened.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Guard yourselves lest the perceptive power of your hearts be smothered by excess of food and drink and by over-concern with the cares and worries of life, and the light of these spirit events break upon you suddenly like a snare…for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. So be awake in the spirit at all times, praying, so that you may have the strength to live through all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.

1st Advent
Luke 21:25-36

When a seed is planted, the first thing to happen is a kind of cataclysm, a disintegration. It swells; the hull cracks; the seed itself splits apart as the sprouts break forth, one diving down to root itself in the earth, the other rising into the light.

This is what life does. Real life, real progress and evolution break us apart. They change us, sometimes fundamentally. Life pushes us out of our comfortable place of the merely potential into the uncomfortable stretching and growing toward fulfillment.

At this time of the year, humanity is God’s Bride. He has impregnated us with His hope for us; with His trust in us; with His love for us. We are to grow and carry His Spirit-Child within us, His Son who will be born into our hearts at Christmas. Like any other fruitfulness, this brings us both joy and discomfort. The poet describes how it is for us:

There is a grace approaching
Thomas Cooper Gotch
it is the completion of our birth.

It does not come in time,
but in timelessness
when the mind sinks into the heart
and we remember.

It is an insistent grace that draws us

to the edge and beckons us surrender
safe territory and enter our enormity.

We know we must pass
beyond knowing
and fear the shedding.

But we are pulled upward
none-the-less
through forgotten ghosts
and unexpected angels,
luminous.

And there is nothing left to say
but we are That.

And that is what we sing about.[1]



[1]  Stephen Levine , “Millennium blessing”  in Breaking the Drought