4th February Trinity 2020, See with the Other Eye

February Trinity

6^th Sunday before Easter 

Matthew 4:1-11

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the loneliness of the desert to experience the tempting power of the adversary.

Tissot

After fasting forty days and nights, He felt for the first time hunger for earthly nourishment. Then the tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, let these stones become bread through the power of your word.”

Jesus answered, “It is written, ‘The human being shall not live on bread alone; he lives by the creative power of every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Tissot

Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the parapet of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

Tissot

Again a third time, the devil took him to a very elevated place and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give to you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me as your Lord. “

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship [pray to] God your Lord who guides you and serve him only.’”

Then the adversary left him, and he beheld the angels again as they came to bring him nourishment. 

4^th February Trinity

March 1, 2020

Matthew 4:1-11

When a first-time driver sits behind the wheel, they must first gain control over the power of the vehicle—how far to turn the wheel to end up where they want; how hard to press on the gas or the brake. The first lessons are usually out in an empty space.

Blake

This gospel reading takes place right after Jesus’ Baptism when Christ’s Spirit entered him. Christ had entered the strange territory of a human soul and body. He is in the desert. Imagine what a great coup it would have been for the devil to abort Christ’s mission at its very inception. So we can imagine the devil hauling out his greatest weapons.

The first of the devil’s weapons is the desperation of the body’s need. In suggesting that Christ turn stones into bread, the devil might also be whispering that, of course, it would be foolish for Christ to let Himself die of starvation here in the desert. Yet Christ resists the devil’s suggestion to literally take the matter into his own hands. Christ relies on the Father’s living presence to sustain Him—and indeed, angels come to nourish Him.

Blake

The second and the third of the devil’s temptations involve the soul’s pride in two extremes. First, the devil tries to draw Him into foolishly assuming God’s total protection of His body and soul, no matter how extreme the behavior, even if he were to jump off a high place. Failing that, the devil takes Him to the other extreme, encouraging Him to drop his allegiance to the Father altogether and to derive His power from the Prince of this World.

Blake

Yet new as He is to living in a human body, Christ is no fool. He sees through the errors and consequences in the Enemy’s propositions. He knows that His connection with His Father must remain both appropriate and unbroken for Him to do what he has come to earth to do.

Because Christ was able to overcome temptation from within the human body, He is able to give every human being the possibility to do likewise - to see through and resist the devil’s false suggestions, to do what we have come to earth to do. Each human being has the possibility of maintaining a connection to the world from which we all have come. We can become aware of our real connection with our Father in the heavens, whose kingdom comes when His will is done on earth. We can perhaps hear God speaking in the words of the poet:

Close both eyes and see with the other eye.

Open your hands if you want to be held….

Quit acting like a wolf and feel

the Shepherd’s love, filling you.*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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* Rumi, “A Communion of the Spirit” in The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, p. 3.

3rd Trinity Sunday 2020, No Spirits Divided

Feb. Trinity

(7^th Sunday before Easter, Sunday before Ash Wednesday)

Luke 18: 18-34

One of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth, and you shall honor your father and your mother!"

He said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”

Hoffman

When Jesus heard this, he said, “One thing however you lack: Sell all of your possessions and give the money to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come and follow me!"

He was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God. Sooner would a camel walk through the eye of a needle than a rich man be able to find the entrance to the kingdom of God!”

Those who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”

He said, “For man alone, it is impossible. It will be possible, however, through the power of God working in man.”

Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up everything to follow you.”

He replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in earthly life, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Bernard Eyb, God the Father and Christ

Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge him and kill him, but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”

Yet his disciples understood nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.

3^rd February Trinity

February 23, 2020

Luke 18: 18-34

Collot d'Herbois

The rich young man had been pursuing a spiritual path. He wanted to develop the capacity to live beyond earthly, mortal existence into the eternal. Through strict adherence to the commandments, he had fashioned himself into a worthy vessel. And that vessel was full of the spiritual riches of his people and the hard-won treasures of the inner life. It had also won him the esteem of his people.

Christ now discerns that the young man had gone as far as it was possible to go along the old way. And now it is time for him to step onto a new path. But before he can do so, he must be willing to sacrifice all that he had hitherto achieved. 

It is a new path that Christ himself will build with him, a path of inner and outer sacrifice.  For this young man, the Christ-path starts as a path of renunciation, a path toward and into death. 'Sell all of your possessions; give the money to the poor, and then come and follow me.' The rich young man is to give up everything he had achieved and embark toward something totally new. He is to walk consciously, with Christ, toward death.

Blake

Naturally, it was a shock for him to realize this. It must have been something like receiving a terminal diagnosis. Naturally, he would be sad over the impending losses. And perhaps one of the greatest griefs would be the loss of his earthly identity. Yet walk he does, along with Christ, who is the Way itself. (John 14:6)

Although Luke's Gospel doesn't say anything further about the rich young man, Mark's gospel gives us a hint: 'Jesus, looking at him, loved him.' (Mark 10:21). And John's Gospel refers to Lazarus as one whom Jesus loved. So perhaps we may assume how the young man's further story actually unfolds: as Lazarus, he does indeed give up everything, even his life. (John 11). And he is called forth out of death by Christ. He receives a new name, a new identity – Lazarus John. Christ initiates him into the mysteries of death so that the young man can stand by and accompany Christ with true understanding when He Himself dies and comes forth from the dead. Further, the young man now shares with us his hard-won inner experiences as a treasure from the spiritual world, as the writer of John's Gospel. 

As William Penn said,

Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle . . . *

*William Penn, from More Fruits of Solitude

www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd February Trinity 2020, Quiet Seeds

2^nd February Trinity

Luke 8:4-15

And as a great crowd had gathered, and ever more people streamed to him out of the cities, he spoke in a parable:

A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path. It was trodden upon, and the birds of the sky (air) ate it up. Other seed fell upon the rocks, and as it sprouted, it (the sprouting green) withered because it had no moisture. Yet other seed fell under the thorns; the thorns grew with it and choked what came up. And some fell upon good soil, grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he called out:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

His disciples asked him what this parable might mean. And he said:

“To you, it has been given the gift of being able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to the others, it is given in pictures and parables, for they see and do not yet see, and hear, although they do not yet understand with their thinking. The meaning of the parable is this:

The seed is the Word of God. That which fell upon the path are those who hear it; afterward, the tempter comes and tears the Word out of their hearts so that they cannot find healing through the trusting power of faith working in them.

Those on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, take it up with joy; but they remain without root. For a while, the power of their faith works in them, but in times of trial, they fall away.

What fell under the thorns are those who hear the Word from the spirit, and as they go on their way, the sorrows and the riches and the joys of life choke it, and they bring no fruit to maturity.

And the seeds that fell in the good soil are those who hear the Word, and take it up into their hearts, feel its beauty, become noble and worthy and patiently keep it alive, tending it there until it brings forth fruit.

2^nd February Trinity

February 16, 2020

Luke 8: 4-15

Charles Andrade

Imagine a potted plant you could only view from a distance. How could you tell if it were a living plant or an artificial one? You could observe it over time. Does it grow and blossom? Does it change?

The Gospel says that Jesus uses agricultural images especially for the souls who stream to him from the city. These plant images are the most accurate for describing how the living seed of the Word of God changes and grows over time. So He uses images from the realm of living processes to describe how the Word of God lives and grows in the soul.

The life realm of the plants is a quiet realm. We don’t hear flowers open to a fanfare of trumpets. We don’t perceive a great symphonic flourish when fruit ripens. The living Word of God is as quiet as a seed. The very loudness of

modern life with its sorrows and riches and joys may distract us to the point where our souls can no longer provide the depth and richness, the fertility for the germination and growth of His Word.

We need to tend the field of our own souls. We need to till the ground of the heart, perhaps through suffering, certainly through attention and selfless deeds. We need to water the ground of the heart with our tears, warm it with our prayers, let shine the clear sunlight of our spiritual learning and understanding. We need to take in the seed of God’s Word and treasure it in our hearts. We need to protect it and nourish it in the womb of the soul so that it grows and develops there.

We can grow God in our hearts. We do this so that His Word can mature and ripen into a fruitfulness that we can offer to the world of earth and the world of the angels. God’s Word - as it quietly speaks in the Gospels, as it is imaged in nature, as it speaks through human destinies – God’s word resounds and manifests in the world through us. We can grow and carry God wherever we go. We can be the place where His Word becomes manifest, grows and transforms.

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