2nd Trinity III 2022, Hard to Surrender

 2^nd Trinity III

Matthew 7:1-29 

"Do not judge your fellow human beings, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, you too will be measured. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother's eye but do not become aware of the beam in your own eye? And how can you say to your brother: "Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye" while there is a beam in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. 

"Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces. 

"Ask from the heart, and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for whoever asks in uprightness will receive; whoever earnestly seeks will find; whoever knocks, to them will be opened. Or are there among you those who when their son asks for bread would give him a stone, or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you who, despite wickedness, know how to give good things to your children, how much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly ask him for it. 

"All that you want that someone should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets. 

Narrow Gate, David Hayward

"Walk through the narrow gate, for the gate is
wide, and the path is easy that leads to ruin [the abyss], and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds it.  

"Be on your guard against false prophets of healing. They come to you in the garments of peaceful lambs but inwardly are rapacious wolves. You shall recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. Never will you harvest grapes from a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. Every noble tree brings forth good fruit, but a wild tree only forms unusable fruit. A noble tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a wild tree cannot form good fruit. A tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be cut down and put in the fire. Therefore, recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. 

"Not everyone who addresses me with 'Lord! Lord!' can be taken up into the kingdom; only whoever accomplishes the will of my Father in the heavens. In the future, when the light of God breaks over the earthly darkness, many will call to me. They will say, 'Lord! Lord! have we not worked in advance for your revelation? Have we not driven out spirits of destruction in honor of you? Have we not gathered multiple powers for your word?' 

"Then I will freely say to them, 'I do not know you. My paths are not your paths. Depart from me, for you serve the forces of chaos [the downfall of the world].'

"Everyone who hears such words from me and acts accordingly will be like someone who wisely built their house on bedrock. The clouds burst, the waves rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not totter, for it was founded upon the rock. 

"However, whoever hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like someone who foolishly builds their house upon sand. The rain comes down, the floods rise, the winds blow and beat upon the house, and it collapses with a great crash." 

When Jesus had finished saying this, the people were greatly moved, for he spoke to them out of spiritual authority, as if the powers of creation themselves spoke out of him, and not like their teachers of the law [or, canon-lawyers].  

2^nd August Trinity

July 31, 2022

Matthew 7:15–27 

In the spring half of its growth cycle, a fruit tree is all about manifesting. First its blossoms break forth, then its tender green leaves that broaden into summer’s crown. But the second half has to do with ripening something hidden: small living seeds, hidden in green fruit, hiding among the green leaves. They have to do with developing something that will survive autumn’s death: Seeds that will outlive the winter. 

What kind of trees are our souls? Are they cultivated, nourished, pruned, cared-for? Or like wild trees, left to fend for themselves, to eke out their existence in a hostile environment? For the important fact about our souls, and the lives they produce, is that we ourselves are both tree and gardener. We ourselves are called upon to recognize and work with our own nature. 

The fruits of noble souls are characterized by a fulsome beauty and regularity of form, by a robust generosity, flavored with a certain sweetness, nourishing others. Noble souls nourish the seeds of a life that will survive death. 

But like wild trees, untended souls create fruits that are dry and hard, measly and bitter, often corrupted from within. For such a wild tree, being turned into warming, useful firewood is an act of redemption. 

To do the will of the Father is to care for souls so that they become fruitful. So that they nourish others; so that they can offer themselves to nourish the Father’s purposes, to surrender to his greater life in the realm beyond the threshold of death. Eventually the tree will die. Its essence will be reduced to either seed or ash. 

For as Rilke says,* 

we are only the rind and the leaf.

The great death that each of us carries inside

is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it. 

For untended souls, he continues, it is 

 … hard to surrender what you never received.

Their exit has no grace or mystery

It’s a little death, hanging dry and measly

Like a fruit inside them that never ripened. 

God gives us each our own death

The dying that proceeds

from each of our lives

the way we loved

the meanings we made…. 

*Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, pages 130-132.

 

 

1st Trinity III, 2022, You Are The Christ

 

1st Trinity III

Mark 8:27 - Mark 9:1 

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there, he asked the disciples (and said to them), "Who do people say that I am?" 

They said to him, "Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say, Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets." 

Then he asked them, "And you, who do you say that I am?'

Then Peter answered, "You are the Christ." 

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 

And he began to teach them, "The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed, and after three days he will rise again." Freely and openly, he told them this.

Tissot, Get Thee Behind Me, Satan

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, "Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature." 

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples, and said to them, "Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of their own soul will lose it, but whoever gives their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, their soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that they damage their soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can they give as ransom for their soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels." 

And he said to them, "The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here, there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit." 

1st  Trinity III

July 24, 2022

Mark 8:27-9:1

Collot d'Herbois

When we receive a newborn infant, our healthy instinct is to protect them. We wrap them, cover them, hold them. We keep them away from noise and harsh light. For we sense that their tenderness, their very newness, would be violated by too much of the world.

Christ asks Peter: Who do you say that I am? And in that very instant, a recognition is born. Peter answers: You are the Christ!

Why would Jesus be so insistent that his disciples not tell anyone about him? Because something had been newborn into humanity. And it needed protection.

What was newborn was first of all Christ himself—so recently sent down by God, baptized. He needed protection from the destructive powers of the world. Not forever—for as he goes on to say, he will suffer and die at the hands of the people. But not yet.

The second and almost equally important newborn thing in humanity is the human recognition of him, here on earth, within another human being. Peter’s recognition, that Jesus is the Christ, the long-awaited Son of God become Son of Man, is another tender newborn, the faculty to recognize the divine. This, too, needs protection from the all too earthly adversarial forces. Such forces exist within Peter, within all of us, as thoughts about avoiding suffering. ‘Now the adversary is speaking through you. Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature,’ Christ says in response.

It is human nature to protect—newborns, friends, the newly discovered God within. But ultimately, the path of the divine is one of suffering and death, and then of resurrection into yet another newborn level of existence. The divine is to be nurtured and protected for a little while. Yet its ultimate aim is not self-protection, but self-offering, self-sacrifice. When time is ripe, the disciples will be told to go out and preach the good news everywhere. But to do so now would prematurely arouse the destructive forces against the newborn.

In the Act of Consecration, we have once again the possibility of an intimate encounter with Christ. We could hear him asking us, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Once again, we have the opportunity to recognize him. We will protect and nurture this recognition of the I AM within our hearts. And when time is ripe, we, too, will spread the good news.

 

4th Johnstide 2022, His Great Heart

Johnstide

Matthew 11:2-15 

Master of Astorga, John in Prison

When John heard in prison about the deeds of
Christ, he sent his disciples to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?" 

Jesus replied, "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are awakened, and those who have become poor receive the message of salvation. Blessed are those who are not offended by my Being." 

When they had gone, Jesus began to speak about John. "Why did you go out into the desert? Did you want to see a reed swaying in the wind? Or was it something else you wanted to see? Did you want to see a man in splendid garments? Those in splendid garments are in the palaces of kings. Did you go to see a man who is initiated into the mysteries of the Spirit, a prophet? Yes, I say to you—he is more than a prophet. He it is of whom it is written:               

Behold, I will send my angel before your face;

He shall prepare the way of your working in human hearts

So that your Being may be revealed.

 "The truth I say to you: among all who are born of women, not one has risen up who is greater than John the Baptist, and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist, and even more, now, the kingdom of heaven is advancing and will arise within human beings through the power of the will; those who exert themselves can freely grasp it. The deeds of the prophets and the content of the Law are words of the Spirit that were valid [worked into the future] until the time of John. And if you want to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." 

4^th Johnstide

June 17, 2022

Matthew 11: 2-15 

This gospel reading teaches us about remembering and forgetting. 

John the Baptist had seen the Spirit of Christ descend like a dove upon Jesus of Nazareth and remain there. He repeatedly witnessed and spoke of the importance of this new divine-human spiritual constellation in Jesus. Yet now in prison, John seems to have forgotten what he knew. Or perhaps it was a question of expectations. 

Marie Lavie, John the Baptist

"Are you the Messiah who is to come, or shall we expect someone else?" he asks.

Meanwhile, Christ has not forgotten who John is. He honors him, his forerunner, his baptizer, and his spiritual brother. Furthermore, he can speak of John's significance, the meaning of John's life and stature, seen both from earthly and heavenly perspectives. 

John, imprisoned both in an outer dungeon and in a failing bodily instrument, approaches his death, his sleep, and his forgetting. Christ embraces and holds John's being in his divine-human consciousness. Christ knows who John truly is, not only in this lifetime but in the previous—"He is Elijah who is to come"*. He knows who John will be in the future. And Christ holds in safekeeping John's true, eternal identity, the identity, which survives forgetting, and death, which moves from life to life. 

Christ is the keeper, the shepherd of our true selves. He carries them in his great heart, holding them in his great all-embracing consciousness. He holds them against the day when in beholding and recognizing him, in experiencing his great I AM, we will also recognize and remember ourselves. 

*Matthew 11:14

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