5th August Trinity 2019, One Word

Mark 7, 31-37

6th Trinity August

As he was again leaving the region around Tyre, He went through the country around Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the region of the ten cities of the Decapolis. They brought to him one who was deaf and who spoke with difficulty and asked him to lay his hands on him. And He led him apart from the crowds by himself, laid his finger in his ears, and moistening his finger with saliva, touched his tongue, and looking up to the heavens, sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphata, be opened.” His hearing was opened and the impediment of his tongue was removed and he could speak properly. And He commanded them not to say anything to anyone. But the more He forbade it, the more they widely they proclaimed it. And the people were deeply moved by this event, and said, “He has changed all to the good: the deaf he makes to hear and the speechless to speak.

5^th August Trinity 

August 25, 2019

Mark 7:31-37

Deep inside the ear is a fluid-filled chamber. In it, little hairs stand up like reeds, swaying to the motion of the water as sound waves enter. This movement underwater is translated to us as sound.

Sea of Galilee

In today’s reading, water is the hidden background element in this healing— the paradisal Sea of Galilee, the sea where the healing takes place; the fluid-filled chambers of the deaf man’s ears, the moisture from Christ’s own mouth. The watery element in the man’s ears, in his soul, had grown stagnant, flat. Christ recharges it with the fiery sound of His word—Be opened! Christ’s fire-word brings the waters into movement, opens hearing, frees speech.

We too have become deaf, deaf to the speaking of the spirit. Everywhere, noise drowns out spirit-word. In defense, we close our ears.

In the Act of Consecration of Man, the communion service, we hear Christ ask that we take, along with the bread and watered wine, His body and His blood, His peace. Yet hidden in communion resounds His eternal healing, strengthening Word—Be opened!

For, in the words of David Whyte,

It is not enough to know.

Ottheinrich

It is not enough to follow

the inward road conversing in secret.

...You must go to the place

where everything waits;

there, when you finally rest,

even one word will do,

one word...

And now we are truly afraid

to find the great silence

asking so little.

One word, one word only.*

---

*"It is Not Enough" from Where Many Rivers Meet by David Whyte. 

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4th August Trinity 2019, Unthinkable Can Be Thought

August Trinity 

Luke 18, 35-43

It happened as he approached Jericho: a certain blind man was sitting by the road begging. Hearing the crowd going by, he wanted to know what was happening, and they told him Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He cried out in a loud voice: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?”

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.”

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” ( your faith has healed you)

In that moment his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God. 

4^th August Trinity 2019

Luke 18: 35 – 43

Imagine only being able to look downward, to see only the ground under your feet. Certainly, there are small miracles there—the beauty of sand grains or green grass. But looking up, elevating our gaze, opens up whole worlds. We can take in the majesty of mountains, the ever-transforming sky, the magnificence of the stars. We can perceive the wonders of all our fellow creatures.

Whole levels of meaning emerge.

Brian Jekel

The blind man asks Christ to help him look up and see again. He wants to elevate his gaze, to take in the expanse of the universe, to experience new levels of meaning. And Christ tells him that because he trusts that this is possible, the power to enlarge his vision is already operating in him, is already elevating his gaze. His openness allows him to receive his sight.

In a sense, we are all blind. Yet the ability to see is an indwelling capacity given to us by God, a capacity we can further cultivate. It is partly a matter of ignoring those inner and outer voices which would squelch our attempts to elevate our gaze. And it is a matter of trusting that it is possible, and listening for the Voice that says to trust the power to heal our inner blindness, to raise our gaze upward.

And ultimately, when our eyes open and our gaze rises, we encounter the One speaking to us, the One who helps us heal, the One who gave us our sight.

And in the words of the poet He tells us to look at the true yet commonplace miracles:

…a small and airy cloud
is able to upstage the massive moon.

...

 A miracle, just take a look around:
the inescapable earth.

 An extra miracle, extra and ordinary:
the unthinkable can be thought.*

* Wislawa Szymborska, "Miracle Fair"

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3rd August Trinity 2019, Enough for All

August Trinity 

Luke 9: 1-17

Duccio DiBuoninsegnaca

He called the twelve together and gave to them potent authority and formative power, so that they could work against all demonic mischief, and heal all sickness.  And he sent them out to heal and to proclaim the Kingdom of God, appearing now on earth, the kingdom of human beings filled with God’s spirit.

And He said to them, “Take nothing with you on the way: no staff for support, no bag for collecting, neither bread nor money, no change of clothes. If you enter a house, remain there until you go further. And where they do not accept you, leave their city and shake the dust from your feet as a sign that they have refused community with you.”

They left and walked through the villages of the country, announcing the joyful message of the new working of the kingdom of the angels and healing everywhere.

Meanwhile, Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was happening, and he was very perplexed, for some said, “John has risen from the dead,” and others said that Elijah had appeared, and yet others, “One of the Prophets of old has risen again.” And Herod said, “John, I have had beheaded; who now is this, about whom I hear all these things?” And he wished to see him himself.

And the apostles returned and reported to Jesus everything that they had accomplished. So he gathered them to himself and retreated with them to a city called Bethsaida [beth-say’uh-duh] for special instruction. But the people became aware of it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them of the Kingdom of God of the future, of the human kingdom on earth, filled with the divine spirit, and he healed all who had need of it.

Boy with Fish, Woloschina

But the day began to decline. The twelve came up to him and said, “Send the crowd away so that they can reach the villages and farms in the vicinity and find food and lodging, for here we are in a deserted place.” He, however, said to them, “From now on, it falls to you; you give them to eat.”

They answered, “We have nothing but five loaves and two fish. Or shall we go and buy food for all of them?“ There were about five thousand people.

Then he said to the disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of fifty.” And they did so, and all reclined.

Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and, raising his soul to the spirit, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. And they ate, and all were satisfied. And they took up the pieces that remained: twelve baskets full.

3^rd August Trinity

August 11, 2019

Luke 9: 1-17

Jan Luyken

Here in the gospel, the spirit, the life of God begins to live and breathe within the human community. First, an in-breath - “He called the twelve together and gave them potent authority and formative power.” He breathes into their community His powers of life, the power to order and to heal.

And then He breathes the twelve themselves out into the world, to bring his powers of life to others. He warns them first not to crowd out His spirit with satisfying a desire for stuff, for sticks, bags, bread, money. And so, free and unencumbered, they go forth, breathing out his healing and joyful spirit into the world.

Then they return for another round of inbreathing, of inspiration. And Christ gathers them together again, to deepen the working of his spirit into their community. Now they are not only able to order and to heal. Now they are to join themselves together with his power to nourish, to feed and sustain. “From now on,” He says, “it falls to you to give them to eat.”

For a moment, they are confused - food is surely something tangible, countable. And what they have isn’t enough.

But He shows them that true nourishment, true sustenance, comes from both a higher and yet a deeper level, from a level where living forces multiply themselves before they divide, from a place of love.

Woloschina

Christ demonstrates the laws of how this mysterious process works. He breathes out his own spirit up to the Father of all Life in a great outpouring of gratitude. In so doing, He makes his own spirit of love into the great Tree of Life itself. His gratitude ripens fruit on this tree, ever fruitful, ever-bearing. The community, united in thanks with Christ, is allowed to harvest and eat of the fruits of the Tree of Life itself.

The fruits of this tree nourish by bestowing living forces in abundance. Together the community gave thanks. And together they ate. Together they were satisfied. For with Christ, they had breathed themselves into the realm of multiplication. The realm where there is more than enough. Enough for all time, for everywhere.