8th Trinity III 2021, Capable of Great Love

  

8th Trinity III

Luke 17:11-19

And as he was on the way to Jerusalem, he passed through the middle of Samaria and Galilee. And as he was entering a certain village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, and they raised their voices, saying, "Master, Jesus, have mercy on us!" 

And seeing them, he said, "Go, and show yourselves to the priests." And it came about that as they went on their way, they were cleansed. 

James Christensen

Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at his feet and thanked himꟷand he was a Samaritan. 

And Jesus responded and said, "Were not all ten cleansed? And the nine—where are they? Was no one seen returning to praise the revelation of God's working in this event except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way. The power of your trust has healed you."

8^th August Trinity

September 12, 2021

Luke 17:11-19 

We human beings can rise above the immediate moment. We can see the bigger picture, the great sweep of the seasons. From this elevated awareness, we have learned to foresee and plan, to plant and harvest. By rising somewhat above nature, we have also developed truly human attributes: for example, to feel and express gratitude. 

The leper who returned to Christ to offer his thanks was the only one in ten who returned to express his gratitude. The nine accepted what had happened to them as a joyous event of the moment. Most likely, they felt tremendous gratitude. But the tenth recognized that he also needed to give something back. Christ says to him that what lives in him as trust and gratitude makes him strong. In offering gratitude, the man's evolving humanity was strengthened. 

The important element here is not just feeling grateful, but giving—opening ourselves and pouring out the soul substance of gratitude in return for all we have been given. Being able to offer gratitude is a necessary precondition to being able to give love. And learning to love is our primary task. 

God gives through nature because He loves; our giving thanks is a step in learning to love. Developing great gratitude is a necessary step along the way toward developing our full humanity, and ultimately our divinity, the kingdom of God within. 

Oleg Shuplyak

In the Act of Consecration, we celebrate a Eucharist. The word in Greek means to give thanks. This giving of thanks is expressed in both words and actions. Christ takes the bread…the cup…and gives thanks to his Father. Christ offers thanks to his Father and offers all of Himself in love to the world. His great gratitude supports His great love. In the Eucharist, we are dedicating to God our full humanness by pouring out a deed of gratitude so that one day we too will be capable of great love.

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

7th Trinity III, 2021, Here is Everywhere

7^th Trinity III

Luke 10:25-37 

On one occasion, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"

He answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind;' and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself."

"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this, and you will live."

But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

 In reply, Jesus said, "A man was going

Van Gogh

down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.  A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.  So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 

"But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.  He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."

Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

7th August Trinity

September 5, 2021

Luke 10:25-37

Christ affirms that to love God with one's whole being and to love one's fellow human beings as well as oneself is the path to eternal life. Love directed outward, beyond oneself, overcomes the deadening effects of mere self-love. Yet there comes our somewhat defensive next question: which of my fellow human beings am I supposed to love? Christ's answer in story form is— Not just my family, not just my own tribe or those with whom I can identify. Any fellow human being whom I happen upon along the way can be the recipient of a love that expresses itself in concrete action. For it is our deeds, not our feelings, that live beyond the boundaries of this life.
The key here is to regard others with an attitude of mercy, of loving-kindness. And then we give and do what we can.

Corrine Vonaesch

It may be that in the story of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite felt that they could not touch the unclean man because they were on their way to do work that required their ritual cleanliness. The Samaritan, though despised by the Jews, was truly free to help (or not). He helps a stranger in both a personal, hands-on way and also by deputizing and paying the innkeeper to complete the work involved with the man's healing. He is thereby pulling in others to help. And he thus also maintains his own freedom to help the next victim he finds, to further practice his love for his fellow human beings.

Christ is saying that our neighbor is not necessarily one whom we know, the one who lives next door. It is also the stranger whom we meet along the way. It is we who are to act neighborly. The poet Wislawa Szymborska expresses the universality of this:

Some fishermen pulled a bottle from the deep. It held a piece of paper, with these words: "Somebody save me! I'm here. The ocean cast me on this desert island.

I am standing on the shore waiting for help. Hurry! I'm here!" 

"There's no date. I bet it's already too late anyway.

It could have been floating for years," the first fisherman said. 

"And he doesn't say where. It's not even clear which ocean," the second fisherman said. 

"It's not too late, or too far. The island Here is everywhere," the third fisherman said.*

 

* "Parable," in Poems New and Collected 1957-1997, trans. S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh

 

6th Trinity III 2021, Ears of My Ears Awake

6th Trinity III

Mark 7:31-37 

Julia Stankova

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 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 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."

6^th August Trinity

August 29, 2021

Mark 7:31–37

Gem hunters look for a certain kind of rock formation, for certain round ball-shaped stones. These spheres are called thunder eggs. Cracked open, they have colored layers inside and often a hollow space filled with beautiful crystals. 

In today's reading, a deaf man is brought to Christ by his friends. Being hard of hearing makes it difficult to both hear and to speak. One of the unfortunate results of being deaf is that one becomes closed off from interacting with others. Christ softens the rock-hardness of the man's hearing, his tongue, with His own life-giving moisture. And like a gem hunter opening the thunderegg, Christ's words strike emphatically – Ephphata! – Be opened!

Christ also speaks to us today—be opened! For we have become hard of hearing, hard of heart. Yet we can be opened; we can become actively receptive. We can receive and bear the One who is himself the Word of God, the Logos. And we can actively bring Him forth, sending Him from within us, out to others on the stream of our own words. In the words of e.e. cummings, we can jubilate:

i thank You God for most this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

 

….how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any-lifted from the no

of all nothing-human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

 

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)*

*e.e. cummings in Complete Poems 1904-1962