1st Passiontide 2021, Bring Light

 

First Passiontide

Luke 11:14-36

Jesus was driving out a demon from a
man who was mute. And it came to pass that as the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. However, some of them said, "He drives out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons." Others sought to test him by asking for a sign from heaven as proof of his spiritual power.

 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself will be desolated, and house will fall against house. And you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now, if Satan divides [were to divide] his powers within himself, how will [would] his kingdom be able to stand? You have not considered this when you claim that I drive out demons with the power of Beelzebub. If I drive out demons with the power of Beelzebub, with what power do your sons do it? Your sons will be your judges. But since, in fact, I encounter the demons with the authority of God's hand, it follows from this that the Kingdom of God has already come to you. 

"When a strong man in full armor guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, the victor takes away the armor in which the man had trusted and divides it up as spoils.

"Whoever does not unite with my being is against me, and whoever does not gather in inner composure with me [or, work for inner composure with me] scatters.

"When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it wanders through waterless places seeking a place to rest; and if it cannot find it, it says, 'I will return to the dwelling out of which I have come.' When it returns to this dwelling, it finds it cleaned and adorned. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters and dwells in that person. And their final state is worse than the first."

As he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you."

But he said, "Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there."

And as the crowds increased, Jesus began

Queen of the South, Upper Rhenish

to speak. "This generation is a stranger to their true being. They look for signs and outer proofs of the Spirit, but none other will be given to them but the sign of Jonah; for just as once Jonah shared the experience of the Spirit with the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man share the experience of the Spirit with this present generation. The Queen of the South will rise in the time of great crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and judge them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But know this: here is more than Solomon.

"The inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up in the days of crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and will pronounce judgment over them, for they changed their ways after the proclamation of Jonah. But know this; here is more than Jonah.

"No one lights a lamp and then puts it in a hidden place or under a vessel, but rather sets it on a lampstand, so that all may see the light shining. The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye looks at the world clearly, then all your body is light. But when it is evil, your body is also dark. [or, But if, however, the eye's desire sees the world separated from the Spirit, darkness will pour itself into you.]

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it shall be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."

1^st Passiontide

March 7, 2021

Luke 11:14-35

As is well-known, every coin has two sides. And although it has a center, it is flat; there is very little depth. A sphere, however, has an infinity of sides and a maximum of depth.

Ahriman and Lucifer, Arild Rosenkrantz

One side of the coin of our human
nature longs for wild enthusiasm, yearns to escape ourselves in ecstasy. And another side sneers in critical derision, binding us in unbelief. These are two sides of the coin of our nature—polarities, but without depth.

Christ, however, encourages us to expand our depth, become spheres. He encourages us to develop more flexibility in our thinking, to grow beyond our natural default settings of either/or, black or white. Ideally, we could look at things from a multiplicity of points of view, without settling into one extreme or another.

In the Gospel reading, Christ uses ordinary logic and common sense to refute those who would put him on either side of the good/bad coin. He widens the scope of thinking.

And his parables of the strong man guarding

Ninetta Sombart

his palace and the one who removes evil spirits from his house are a warning to us. He encourages us to remain in our center, to be present in the ‘house’ of our own being, our own bodies. We are to use our capacity of thought neither to escape ourselves nor to be bound in hopelessness. We are to become like spheres, expanding our points of view, developing thoughtful depth. From this deep place in the center of our humanity, we can connect with Christ. He is the Light of the World in the depths. In uniting with Him, our whole being can ignite. We can illuminate and warm. We can become a globe of light in the worlds we occupy.

In the words of John O’Donohue:

 

May the light of your soul bless the work

You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May the sacredness of your work bring light and renewal

to those who work with you…*

---

*John O’Donohue, “For Work”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 146.

  

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4th Trinity I, 2021, A Brightness

 

February Trinity I

(5^th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17:1-9

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them together up a high mountain apart from the others.

There, his appearance was transformed before them.

Fra Angelico

His face shone as bright as the sun, and his garments became white, shining bright as the light. And behold, there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, conversing in the spirit with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be in this place. If you wish, I will build here three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly, they heard a voice from the cloud that said, "This is my son, whom I love. In him, I am revealed. Hear him."

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces to the ground in awe and terror. And Jesus approached them, and touching them, said, "Rise, and do not fear." And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."

 4^th Feb Trinity

February 28, 2021

Matthew 17:1-13

Looking across a large body of water on
a sunny day, we can see the sunlight reflected on the surface. Sometimes that reflected light is so intense that we may wonder how we are not blinded. It is almost like looking at the sun itself.

In last week's Gospel reading, we heard how Christ overcame the temptations that beset all of us living in human bodies. The working of the adversary through the body had darkened the human spirit's radiance. But Christ did not allow that darkness to reside in His body.

In today's reading, we hear the results. Having cleared away the adversary's influence, Christ begins to shine like the sun. His transfiguration is a reflection of this. He radiates warmth and light. He has cleansed Himself of any potential for egotism or personal gain and can work on a higher level for the good of all humankind. He could be seen conversing together with His people's great spiritual leaders, with Moses, the leader from the past, and Elijah, the prophet of the future, Likely they are discussing his next task: to bring His light into every moment, even into death.

The poet R. S. Thomas speaks of the importance of this moment:

 

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

 

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.*

 

---

* R. S. Thomas, “The Bright Field”, in Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds, ed. by Neil Astley and Pamela Robertson-Pearce

 

 

3rd February Trinity, 5th Sunday before Easter 2021, Steering Through Deaths

February Trinity I

6^th Sunday before Easter (Sunday after Ash Wednesday)

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.
 
After fasting forty days and nights,

Vasili Surikov

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."
 
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."
 
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.

3^rd February Trinity
February 21, 2021
Matthew 4:1-11
 
Storms can cause floods. Rivers jump their banks; trees and boulders are loosened. Sometimes the river's course is changed forever as a new channel is cut.

We are all on a course toward developing our own divine angelic nature. For long stretches, things flow along as usual. But sudden events and changes can divert our course, for good or for ill. Sometimes things open up, and we are propelled forward. Or sometimes we discover that we long ago strayed into some side-channel and are no longer on the main route.

Christ began His life on earth with

Dore

what is our goal: a fully developed divine nature. His path was to become fully human. And just after he arrived, after His Baptism, he experienced the flooding. The adversary tries to overwhelm Him with the world's novelty and power seen from inside a human body. The adversary intends to alter His course, to steer him into a backwater existence, or strand him onshore. Christ's temptations are the temptations that beset every human being.

Christ avoids these dangers by steering His course firmly by the star of his own divine origin and purpose. He remains living within God's creative power; He quietly but firmly refuses to follow a false path of worship or the seduction of arrogance. And all the while, He steers intently toward His own death. For He set as his task to cut a new channel forward for all of humanity, out of the backwater, the mire, into which humanity had strayed.

Christ has made himself into a vessel, a ship by which we can keep to our own course through the depths and shallows of life. He helps us steer through the floods, avoiding the sandbars and backwaters. He is our guide as we make our way toward our divine goal through all of our lives. He helps us steer with confidence into and through our deaths.


For more inspirational materials, go to https://www.thechristiancommunity.org/blog-posts/