Matthew
7, 1-29
2nd
August Trinity
“Do
not judge your fellow man, so that your judgment will not someday be visited
upon yourself. For with the judgment that you pronounce you also speak your own
judgment, and the measure by which you measure will be the measuring rod for
your own self. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do
not become aware of the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your
brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye”--but mark it well,
there is a log in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your
own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your
brother’s eye.
Do
not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will
tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces.
Ask
from the heart and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find;
knock and it will be opened to you; for he who asks in uprightness will
receive; he who earnestly seeks will find; he who knocks, to him will be
opened. Or are there among you those who when his son asks for bread would give
him a stone; or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you
who in spite of wickedness know how to give good things to your children, how
much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly
ask him for it.
All
that you want that men should do for you, do first for them. This is the true
content of the Law and the Prophets.
Walk
through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the path is easy which leads
to ruin [the abyss] and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and
difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds
it.
Be
on your guard against false prophets of healing. They come to you in the
garments of peaceful lambs, but inwardly are rapacious wolves. You shall
recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. Never will you harvest grapes from
a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. Every noble tree brings forth good fruit,
but a wild tree only forms unusable fruit. A noble tree cannot bear bad fruit,
and a wild tree cannot form good fruit. A tree that does not bring forth good
fruit will be cut down and put in the fire. Therefore, recognize them by the
fruits of their deeds.
Not
everyone who addresses me with “Lord! Lord! “ can be taken up into the kingdom;
only he who accomplishes the will of my Father in the heavens. In the future,
when the light of God breaks over the earthly darkness, many will call to me.
They will say, “Lord! Lord! have we not worked in advance for your revelation?
Have we not driven out spirits of destruction in honor of you? Have we not
gathered multiple powers for your word?”
Then
I will freely say to them, ‘I do not know you. My paths are not your paths.
Depart from me, for you serve the forces of chaos [the downfall of the world].’
Everyone
who hears such words from me and acts accordingly will be like a man who wisely
built his house on bedrock. The clouds burst, the waves rose, the winds blew
and beat against that house. But it did not totter, for it was founded upon the
rock.
He, however, who hears such words from me
and does not act accordingly is like a man who foolishly builds his house upon
sand. The rain comes down, the floods rise, the winds blow and beat upon the
house, and it collapses with a great crash.”
When Jesus had
completed saying this, the people were greatly moved, for he spoke to them out
of spiritual authority, as if the powers of creation themselves spoke out of
him, and not like their teachers of the law [canon-lawyers].
2nd August Trinity
August 1,
2010
Matthew 7: 1-14
The fiery summer sun is in the house of Leo the Lion. This
is the house in which hearts are forged. This is the house in which our
relationship with Christ, the Lion of Judah, is further developed.
Last week we heard how Peter’s heart opened to recognize the
Christ in Jesus. This heart recognition is the necessary first step on the path
of our developing relationship with our God.
The second step, is a further heart development, which we
find in today’s reading. Christ says to us to be careful about how we regard
others; critical, judging thoughts of them will boomerang. What lives in our
hearts will end up injuring our own hearts. At the same time, we are to guard
what is precious content in our own hearts and not expose it to others’
destructive cynicism.
To walk between the abyss of these two cynicisms, our own
and others’, is to walk a narrow path. Our task is to remain heart-centered,
heart-healthy, heart-balanced. To walk this middle path forges a heart vessel
in Leo’s fire, a vessel that is open to receive the gifts that the spiritual
world wants to pour into us. For ‘he who asks in uprightness will receive; he
who earnestly seeks will find; he who knocks, to him will be opened’. Matthew 7: 7
This earnest uprightness is the hallmark of the
lion-hearted. This is how we rightly enkindle the fire of the heart, the fire
of a love that is creative. This is the fire that is behind all existence. For
as the poet says:
Listen, I've light
in my eyes
and on my skin
the warmth of a star, ….
…
And
everything alive
…is turning
into something else
as at the heart
of some annihilating
or is it creating
fire
that's burning, unseeably, always
burning….
Franz Wright, “The Fire” in God's Silence
