4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2019, Bright Wedge of Freedom

4^th Passiontide

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11 (adapted from Madsen)

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by

Hippolyte Flandrin

the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4^th Passiontide,

Palm Sunday

April 14, 2019

Matthew 21: 1-11

Vessels such as bowls are made, obviously, to carry content. The content is on the inside, and the vessel surrounds it. At the same time, there is a further aspect; the person carrying the bowl carries both the bowl and its

contents.

Christ Jesus enters Jerusalem carried by a beast of burden and its foal. This animal is a symbol of our physical body. The body bears the weight of our destiny and of our deeds. In the picture language of this reading, Jesus’ body is the vessel for Christ’s spirit of love. Christ is the content of the vessel of the body of Jesus. And at the same time, Christ is both inside and outside. Christ Jesus rides above the bodily beast of burden. And he guides it regally toward its own suffering and death, and toward its resurrection.

We too are spiritual beings carried within a bodily vessel. Our body as a beast of destiny’s burden carries us, too, ultimately toward the end of earthly life that we all must approach.

But our hearts can connect with Christ. He can be the content of our souls, the ‘small, bright wedge of freedom in your own heart’, as the poet* says. And at the same time, He can be both content and the One carrying the vessel. Our heart’s connection with Christ gives us One who rides with us, guides us. He is riding both the old beast of destiny’s burden and the young foal which will carry us into the future. He accompanies us on our journey with His strength and love and power of resurrection.

* David Whyte, “The Journey”.

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3rd Passiontide 2019, Soul Deaf

Giusto

3^rd Passiontide

John 8:46-59 (adapted from Madsen)

[Jesus said,] Who among you convicts me of error? Why do you not trust in me, since I am proclaiming the true existence to you? Whoever is of God receives the words of God. The reason why you do not receive them is that you are not of God.

 The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon?”  Jesus answered, “I have no demon within me. Nothing but reverence for the Father lives in me; but you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who wills it and he will be the judge.  Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever keeps my word in his heart is free of the sight of death through all earthly time.”  

The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you are possessed by a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, ‘If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death for all time.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets who also died? Who do you think you are?”  

Abraham's Vision, Tissot

Jesus answered, “If it were my own aim to reveal my being, such a revelation would be worthless. But it is my Father who reveals me, and although you call him ‘our God’, you do not know him.  But I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I would be deceived as you are; but I do know him, and I bear the power of his word within me.  Your father Abraham rejoiced that it was granted to him to see the coming down of my being; he saw it and was filled with joy.”  

The Jews then said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, from before the days Abraham was born, I existed as the I AM.”  So they took up stones to hurl at him; but Jesus was concealed from them and left the temple.

3^rd Passiontide

April 7, 2019

John 8: 46-59

As we get older, we may begin to lose our hearing. As the high tones disappear, we start to miss parts of words. If a key word fails, we may miss the meaning of the whole sentence. As the loss progresses, we may eventually become stone deaf, unaware that someone is speaking to us at all.

Our souls can go deaf too. At first, we miss little things. Indeed we are often unaware that we are missing anything at all, for the noise of living glosses it over. Gradually our souls and spirits become ‘hearing-impaired.’ We may only become aware of it when in inner crisis, our prayers and pleas fall into a great inner silence.

The Pharisee in all of us wants to insist that the truth be rational, literal and physical, and loud. Anything else is the senseless babbling of a madman, only worth throwing mental and verbal stones at.

It is part of Christ’s passion, his suffering, to go unheard, unrecognized and unacknowledged. Because of the inner deafness caused by hardening of our hearts, he is unable to do what he came to do—to open our soul’s ears to the words of the spirit.

“Why do you not trust in me, since I am proclaiming the true existence to you?” John 8:46

Tissot

Our true grounding is within the spirit. The solidity of the certainty of Christ’s existence is the truth upon which we can stand. The heart is the ear of the soul, a resonating chamber for the words he wants to speak to us. His word pours life into our hearts and spirits. His word strengthens and clarifies. His word enlivens, lives in our hearts as his eternal life.  Taken in, his word grants us existence in the realm of the spirit: For as He said, “Whoever keeps my word in his heart is free of the sight of death through all earthly time.” John 8: 51 

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2nd Passiontide 2019, Bread of Life

2^nd Passiontide

John 6: 26 -35

Amedee Varint

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and

set off over the sea for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "I AM, have no fear" Now when they wanted to take him into the boat, immediately the boat was at the land, at the place where they wanted to go.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"

Woloschina

Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, the truth I say to you: You are seeking me not because you saw signs of spiritual power, but because you ate of the bread and were satisfied.

Do not work for the food that spoils, but create for yourselves the nourishment that leads to imperishable life, which the Son of Man will give you because he is totally permeated by the being of the Father God [upon him the Father has set his seal].

Thereafter they said to him, “What must we do in order to learn to do deeds which endure [that our deeds may work with the working of God]?

Jesus answered, “The working of God is [already in] this: that in your whole being there begins to stir trust in him whom he has sent.”

And they asked further, “What sign of the spirit can you perform in order that we see and therefore come to trust in you? What effect do your deeds have in the present time? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it says in scripture: ‘Bread from the heavens he gave them to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “The truth I say to you, it was not Moses who gave to you bread from the heavens, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from the heavens. The bread from the world of the spirit is he who descends to you from the heavens; he gives himself as the true, unceasing life of the world.”

Then they said, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I AM the bread of life. He who finds the way to me will hunger no more, and he who comes to me in faith and trust will nevermore thirst.

2^nd Passiontide

March 31, 2019

John 6: 26 -35

Today’s gospel reading takes place right after the feeding of the five thousand. The disciples are in a boat, rowing hard in stormy darkness. Christ comes toward them, a shining beacon. “Have no fear,” he says. “I AM.” His earlier feeding of them has awakened in them a capacity to see and distinguish Him elsewhere when they are at sea in the darkest storm. When they take Him in, they are immediately where they need to be.

Arild Rosenkrantz

In our lives, there are of course also times of stormy darkness, where efforts are needed to keep our souls from capsizing. To us too, he says, Have no fear. He has nourished and fed us at the altar. We have taken him in. When we remember this with all the strength of our trust in Him, we take him into our soul-ship with us, and we are where we need to be.

Indeed, to the crowd the next day Christ points out that they have sought him because of spiritual nourishment because they had eaten of the spiritually strengthened bread and were satisfied. And He urges them, as He urges us, to search for such spiritual nourishment; to search for Christ Himself, who is the Bread that supports the eternal life of our souls. He urges us to recognize Him, He who approaches us always amid the storms of life. We can pray in the spirit of the Lord’s prayer:

Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.*

*Neil Douglas-Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus

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