2nd Epiphany 2019, Good Fruit

2^nd Epiphany

Luke 2, 41-52 (adapted from Jon Madsen)

Pinturrichio

Every year his [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they took him with them. Now after they had gone there and fulfilled the custom during the days of the feast, they set off on their way home. But the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they thought he was among the company of the travelers. After a day’s journey, they missed him among their friends and relations. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And those who heard him were amazed at his mature understanding and his answers.

And when they saw him, they were taken aback, and his mother said to him, “My child, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”

And he said to them, “Why did you look

Tissot

for me? Did you not know that I must be and live in that which is my Father’s?”

But they did not understand the meaning of the words he spoke to them. And he went down with them again to Nazareth and followed them willingly in all things.

And his mother carefully kept all these things living in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom, in maturity and grace [favor] in the sight of God and man. 

2^nd Epiphany Sunday

January 13, 2019

Luke 2: 41 – 52

It is such an everyday occurrence that it fails perhaps to amaze: after sending out green leaf after green leaf, suddenly

something new appears—a complete change of form and color into blossom; and further on, a change into fruit. Nothing in the leaf predicts these changes.

Human lives too often undergo astounding transformations. The child who year after year just grows bigger suddenly transforms into a stranger. Or years of doing the same thing as an adult result in a change of career. Or a chance encounter turns the direction of a life.

This archetypal pattern was taken up by the young Jesus and guided into three channels.

As an infant, he had received from the three Magi three inner gifts: the radiant gold of wisdom; religious devotion in fragrant frankincense, and the healing capacity in self-sacrifice in bitter-sweet myrrh.

Through the youth’s own inner efforts, these gifts progress into the all-embracing world knowledge of his people. His reverence develops into devotion to both his Heavenly Father and his earthly parents. And despite the glorious revelation of his nature in the Temple, his capacity for mature and wise self-sacrifice returns him to his humble home in quiet beauty and grace.

He achieves wisdom, maturity, and grace through his active struggle to balance the inner demands of a changing soul with the requirements of earthly life. 

There are times in our lives when we humbly and patiently send out our green leaves, building a sustaining inner and outer structure. Then comes the moment of blossoming revelation, when our work shows its true purpose, embedded in a greater whole. We continue, then, to develop fruitfulness, not so much for ourselves, as for nourishing and sustaining others, for life itself.

Wisdom, maturity, and grace are the fruits of the soul’s work, the signs of an individual in alignment with both self and the world. One day this young man, by dint of his own work on himself to produce wisdom, maturity, and grace would be qualified to say, “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit… You shall recognize them by their fruits.” Matthew 7:18-20

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1st Epiphany 2019, The World's Ills

Egbert Codex

1^st Epiphany

Matthew 2: 1-12 (adapted from RSV)

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea—during the time of King Herod—behold: wise priest-kings from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,

           

“Where is the one born here King of the Jews? We have seen his star rise in the east and have come to worship him.”

           

When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. And he assembled all the high priests and scribes of the people and inquired of them in what place the Christ was to be born.

And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it was written by the prophet:

And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

Are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah;

For out of you shall come forth the ruler

Who will be shepherd over my people, the true Israel.”

Leyendecker

Then Herod, secretly calling the Magi together again, inquired from them the exact time when the star had appeared. He directed them to Bethlehem and said, “Go there and search carefully for the child, and when you find him, report to me, that I too may go and bow down before him.”

After they had heard the King, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen rising went before them, and led them in its course over the cities until it stood over the place where the child was.

Seeing the star, they were filled with [there awakened in them] an exceedingly great and holy joy.

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him their gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their country by another way.

Epiphany

January 6, 2019

Matthew 2:1-12

Cogniet, Slaughter of the Innocents

Evil seeks to destroy. Herod tries to destroy the Child and cuts a wide swath. Although the bodies of the innocent children had died, their souls and spirits form a living crown of supportive life. They form a living sacrificial crown around this one Child who will one day sacrifice himself in service.

Today Christ wants to be born and operate within every human being. He wants to be seen working in the world. And today, evil still seeks to destroy the innocent. Recent deaths of innocent people are a prompt to us. They prompt us to fulfill the conditions within ourselves that allow Christ’s work to be seen and experienced in the world.

Those innocent souls want to encourage our open reverence before the mysteries of the world.

They want to encourage our empathy and compassion for all who suffer,

Christ as Good Samaritan, Codex Rossanensis

including those caught up in evil through their own illness.

They want to stimulate our conscience, that is, our knowing and acting on our part to play in the remedying of the world’s ills, starting with ourselves.

The world cries out for redemption. It needs men and women of selfless selfhood, men and women of good will so that Christ can work His salvation through them. Only thus can His Being of Love operate on the earth.

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New Year's Day 2019, Unbearable Light

Holy Nights

John 1: 1-18 (after a translation by Craig Wiggins)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.

This was in the beginning with God.

Everything came into being through the Word, and without it was not anything made that was made.

In the Word was life, and the life was the light of humankind.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that through him all may find faith. He was not the light, but a witness to the light, for the true light that enlightens every human being was coming into the world. It was in the world, and the world came into being through it, but the world had not recognized it.

Into those who had recognized it the light had come, but those individuals did not take it in. But all who did take it in received authority to become children of God. Those who trusted in its name are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of the human beings, but are born of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among (in) us.

And we beheld its revelation, the revelation of the only begotten son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness to Him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘After me comes one who was before me, for he is the very first’.” For out of his fullness, we have received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth have come about through Jesus Christ.

Until now human senses never beheld God. The only begotten Son, who was within the Father, has become the guide to this beholding.

Holy Nights

January 1, 2012

John 1: 1-18

Words contain a great mystery. They are handed down to us by our parents. Words are a legacy. They are the memory of how the world is structured, structured with things, with beings, with actions, with qualities. Words are also the garments of thoughts. Thoughts not only reflect the past; they can also create the future.

This creating power of the Word manifested in the ancient past as the creation of the world. The Word’s first creation: Let there be light. And the Word became light.

The creative Word is still resounding as a sounding power, creating the future. Now it says: ‘Let there be love’. But unlike the first creation, this resounding of the Word requires our human cooperation. Human beings must hear it; human beings must take its creative power into themselves.

Roland Tiller

Christ Jesus is the prototype of the human being who takes into Himself the divine force of creating love and shines it forth as a revelation. Through Christ, through Christ living in us, working in us, God’s grace shines forth into the world. Through Christ living and working in us, the truth of human creation reveals itself, as it says in Psalm 82: ‘I have said you are ‘gods’. The poet David Whyte expresses it thus:

You were there in the beginning

you heard the story, you heard the merciless

and tender words telling you where you had to go.

….

you couldn't live

so close to the live flame of that compassion

you had to go out in the world and make it your own

so you could come back with

that flame in your voice, saying listen...

this warmth, this unbearable light, this fearful love...

It is all here, it is all here.**

---

*John 10:34-37 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’?  If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’?

Jesus’ reference is to Psalm 82: ‘God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”…. “I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’

 **David Whyte “In the Beginning” in Fire in the Earth