Monday, August 11, 2014

3rd August Trinity 2012, Impeded Stream

3^rd August Trinity

Luke 15:1-32

Now many customs officials, despised by the people, who called them sinners and expelled them from their community, sought to be close to Jesus. They wanted to listen to him. The Pharisees and teachers of the law however were upset by this and said, “This man accepts sinners and eats with them!”

So he told them this parable:

“What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open and go looking for the lost one until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost!’

I tell you, there will be more joy in the heavens over one human being, living in denial of the spirit, who changes his mind, than over the ninety-nine righteous who think they have no need of repentance.

Or which woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one, does not light a lamp, sweep the whole house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she has found it she calls together her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost!’

In the same way, I tell you, there will be joy among the angels in the world of spirit over one human being living in denial of the spirit who manages to change his heart and mind. “

And he said further: “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Give me the share of the estate which falls to me.’ And he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey to a far country and squandered his estate in the enjoyment of loose living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine came over the land, and he began to be in need. So he went and attached himself to a citizen of the country who sent him out into his fields and let him herd swine. And he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, but no one gave him anything.

Westly

Then he came to himself, and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here of hunger. I will rise up and go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against the higher world and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired men [workers].’

So he rose up and traveled along the road to his father. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him, felt his misery, ran toward him, embraced him and kissed him. And yet the son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against the higher world and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired men [workers].’

But the father called his servant to him. ‘Quickly! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet, and slaughter the fattened calf. Then we shall eat and be merry. For this my son was dead and is risen to life. He was lost and is found again.’ And they began to celebrate.

Meanwhile the older son was in the field. When he returned home and came near the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants to him and asked him what it meant. He gave him the news: ‘Your brother has come home again. So in joy your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back again safe and sound.’

The son grew dark with anger and didn’t want to go in. But his father came out and pleaded with him. He however reproached his father saying, ‘Look! For so many years I have been with you and have never neglected one of your commands. But you never gave me so much as a goat that I might be merry with my friends. And now comes this son of yours who has eaten up your wealth in scandal, and you offer him the fattened calf.’

The father however said to him ‘Child, you are always with me and all that I have belongs to you too. But now we should be glad and rejoice, for this your brother was dead and lives; he was lost and has been found again.’

3^rd August Trinity

August 5, 2012

Luke 15: 1-32

How worrisome it is to lose an object of value. How many anxious moments do we spend looking for our keys, or our glasses. For these things are extensions of ourselves. They allow us to work effectively in the world.

Each of us has both a masculine and a feminine side to our human nature. Our masculine side has an affinity toward the more static, mechanical material world. Our feminine side wants to nurture living, growing, changing beings.

Today’s reading of course has to do with finding lost things. Yet in this narrative, it is the man who is concerned with a lost living creature. Is this itself not a picture of the exercise his own feminine side? A turning of the masculine toward a more feminine, nurturing way?

Similarly the feminine side of our nature has a stronger relationship with the realm of living, changing beings. Yet in the story, it is a silver coin, the earthly metal abstract for the value of human work, that she is to seek. The coin represents a kind of objectivity, achieved through her own diligent work of lighting the surroundings and sweeping the floor. She becomes literally grounded in the earthly, developing of a more masculine, grounded way of being.

Taken together, these two stories show us a way to integrate the two sides of our nature. Our perhaps one-sided attention to the static and material needs to also turn toward nourishing and guiding the developing processes of living beings. And on the other hand our perhaps one-sided attention to emotional, artistic and spiritual events needs to be brought to completion by our work in and with the physical and the earthly. And losing things is perhaps a call to change. As Wendell Berry says,

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Wendell Berry, “The Real Work”, in Collected Poems

Sunday, August 10, 2014

3rd August Trinity 2013, Glad to Be Lost

3^rd August Trinity

Luke 15:1-32

So he told them this parable:

In the same way, I tell you, there will be joy among the angels in the world of spirit over one human being living in denial of the spirit who manages to change his heart and mind. “

3rd August Trinity

August 11, 2013

Luke 15: 1-32

In this series of stories, Christ frames the human condition. He is describing human souls as ‘lost’; as having fallen away like the coin, or as having wandered off, like the sheep. In these cases, the owner searches until ‘the lost’ is found.

And then, there is the lost son. A poem by William Stafford[1] describes this way of being lost:

Sometimes from sorrow, for no reason,

Rembrandt

…you accept

the way of being lost, cutting loose

from all else and electing a world

where you go where you want to.

Arbitrary, a sound comes, a reminder

that a steady center is holding

all else. If you listen, that sound

will tell you where it is and you

can slide your way past trouble.

Certain twisted monsters

always bar the path -- but that's when

you get going best, glad to be lost,

learning how real it is

here on earth, again and again.

Christ adds another element, another aspect to being lost. In the story of the lost son, He shows us that we need not passively wait to be found or rescued. We are not coins; we are not sheep. There is a third way; we ourselves can recognize ourselves as lost and hungry and far from home. And we can make our own, sometimes difficult, journey back.

The journey back requires that we acknowledge that it is we ourselves who, through our own choices, have wandered off course. We need to be willing to apologize and to make amends. This means we are willing to take responsibility for developing an active, healing relationship with the divine world.

That is the good news. And the even better news is that God is willing to meet us more than halfway home. He is on the look-out for us. He will sense that we have come to ourselves and recognized our situation. And when we turn our face to Him, move toward Him, He will run to greet us with great joy and celebration.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] William Stafford, “Cutting Loose”, in Dancing With Joy, ed. By Roger Housden

Saturday, August 9, 2014

2nd August Trinity 2007, To the Humble

Matthew 7, 1-29

2^nd August Trinity

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 he who 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].’

He, however, who hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like a man who foolishly builds his 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 completed 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 [canon-lawyers].

2^nd Sunday Summer Trinity

July 29, 2007

Matthew 7:15-27

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear what is called a “hard saying”. It is evidently not enough to be able to call upon the Lord by name. And furthermore, the ability to prophesy, to exorcise demons, or to work wonders are also insufficient as entry cards into the kingdom of the heavens. And why is that? Are they not laudable activities?

It is because since Christ’s coming, and even more so now, the kingdom is granted to those poor in spirit, to the humble, to those who offer love. Christ, whose very being is love, is the pathway into the heavens. We create heaven on earth with Him when we abide in Him and in His love, when our wills produce works of healing and peace rather than spiritual fireworks. Walking in love is a narrow and difficult path. How quickly do our ‘hungry ghosts,’ our own inner rapaciousness, rise up to reveal our own prickliness. Instead of being able to nourish others, we wound them.

The bedrock upon which we build our house of the spirit is taking Christ’s abiding and unconditional love into our own selfhood. He, Love, is the foundation for all our inner progress, for our endurance despite life’s storms and the flooding of our emotions. Through human beings working with Him, earth becomes a new heaven.

For Heaven humbled itself, toward earth made its descent;

When will earth arise, and become heaven-bent?[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Angelus Silesius, “Heaven Becomes Earth” Nr. 32 in Book 3 of The Cherubinic Wanderer, p. 73

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

2nd August Trinity 2011, New Life Forming

Matthew 7, 1-29

2^nd August Trinity

“Do not judge your fellow man, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For with the judgment that you pronounce you also speak your own judgment, and the measure by which you measure will be the measuring rod for your own self. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not become aware of the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye”--but mark it well, there is a log 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 he who asks in uprightness will receive; he who earnestly seeks will find; he who knocks, to him will be opened. Or are there among you those who when his 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 in spite of 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 men should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets.

Walk through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the path is easy which 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.

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 a man who wisely built his 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.

He, however, who hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like a man who foolishly builds his 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 completed 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 [canon-lawyers].

2nd August Trinity 2011

Matthew 7, 1-29

At the center of the blossom, at its heart, is the seed case. The petals open, unfurl, and fall away. But the seeds go on quietly developing new life.

Our hearts are the center of our being. Christ encourages us to ask for our hearts deepest desire, for what we want in the deepest core of our being. What we feel, however intensely, comes and goes, like the petals. But at the center of our heart, new life is forming. This new life contains our capacity to grow, to withstand the rigors and trials and tests of life. At our core there lives our capacity to develop into what we are truly meant to be.

Just as our heavenly Father gives life to the seeds at the base of the blossom, so too, ever watchful, does He maintain the core of our being. He waits for us to awaken; He waits for us to align ourselves with His benevolent intentions for us; He waits for us to ask from the core of our being, earnestly, in uprightness. He promises that when we look deeply enough, seek earnestly, the gateway to new life will open to us.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

Monday, August 4, 2014

2nd August Trinity 2012, Regions of Kindness

Matthew 7, 1-29

2^nd August Trinity

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.

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

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.

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].’

When Jesus had completed 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 [canon-lawyers].

2^nd August/September Trinity

July 29, 2012

Matthew 7: 1-14

In ancient times, caves were often places used for certain kinds of initiations, through tests of courage. Even today, being in a cave, or any dark tight space, often brings one face to face with oneself. Often caves are places where the only light is the one you bring with you.

Our lives can also bring us to tight dark places, where the only light seems to be what we can bring to the situation ourselves. They often involve tests of our courage and our faith.

Today’s gospel reading is a kind of instruction on ‘soul-caving’. It encourages us to enter our perhaps dark and tight soul space. We are encouraged to notice the hindrances to seeing that exist within our own soul-eye; to turn our powers of discernment inward into ourselves, rather than on our fellows; to avoid the cynical, the broad and easy.

For what is to be learned is the courage to face one’s own inner darkness; to bring our inner light to bear upon ourselves. We generate light of trust toward the beneficence of our God. We generate the light of nourishing kindness toward our fellows. As Naomi Nye says:

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness....[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] ‘Kindness’, by Naomi Shihab Nye, in Words From Under the Words: Selected Poems

Sunday, August 3, 2014

2nd August Trinity 2013, Pearls

Matthew 7, 1-29

2^nd August Trinity

“Do not judge your fellow man, so that your judgment will not someday be

Giusto

visited upon yourself. For with the judgment that you pronounce you also speak your own judgment, and the measure by which you measure will be the measuring rod for your own self. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not become aware of the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye”--but mark it well, there is a log 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.

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

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].’

2^nd August Trinity

August 4, 2013

Matthew 7: 1 – 14

In last week’s reading, we saw how Peter caught the lightning flash of Christ behind the mask of Jesus, the humble itinerant teacher and healer. Such a lightning flash of insight sometimes happens to us. It can deepen our awareness and teach us to change our way of thinking and acting.

With insight we can come to see behind the mask that our fellow human beings seem to wear. We may come to realize that it is our own judgment of them that has placed a mask over them. And so we may learn to become more compassionately discerning.

With insight we may also come to see our own enthusiasm for sharing what we know and have discovered. At the same time, we may realize that we have been scattering spiritual treasures at the feet of those who are not yet ready to take them up. We may have caused them to reject and ridicule what we offer. And so we may need to learn to become more compassionately discerning.

In our own lives we may think we know what we need and want. Despite what we ask for, despite what we think we want, we may later realize that what actually happened, what we actually got, was something much deeper, much better. Insight may show us that we may have been asking for stones and the Father gave us bread. And so we have come to learn that the Father is compassionately discerning.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

Thursday, July 31, 2014

1st August Trinity 2009, Fields of Light

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1^st August Trinity

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi [ses’uh-ree’uh fi-lip’i] (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshipped 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.

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 his cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of his own soul will lose it; but whoever gives his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, his soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that he damages his soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can a man give as ransom for his soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him 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.”

1^st August Trinity

Mark 8: 27 – Mark 9:1

July 26, 2009

Sometimes an awareness dawns on us in a flash. We may have known someone a long time, when suddenly we realize something very basic, perhaps even sterling, about their character.

Peter has just such a flash about Jesus. He had known Him for a while; He even loved Him. But suddenly he realizes that this is not just a man, a great friend. Peter realizes that this is the Christ, the Son of God sent to redeem the people. He does not, however, for the moment, understand the how of Christ’s redeeming, for it would be so radical as to be unthinkable.

Today it is also possible for us to have a flash of awareness of Christ. In study we may come to realize the enormity of what Christ Jesus has done for the whole world. Or we may have a flash of the awareness of His presence, of being strengthened in an hour of need or despair. Or we may see the warm shining of His acceptance and love coming toward us through the eyes of another human being.

Such moments have a delicate tenderness that can soon be swamped, covered over in the everyday. We may forget them, or even explain them away. But when, after death, we look back on the inside of our lives, we will recognize these experiences as the defining ones. We will see them as the moments that influenced the course of our own destiny. So, in the words of the poet:

Awake awhile.

Rest all your elaborate plans and tactics

For Knowing Him,

For they are all just frozen spring buds

Far,

So far from Summer's Divine Gold.

Awake, my dear.

Be kind to your sleeping heart.

Take it out into the vast fields of Light

And let it breathe.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Hafiz, “Awake Awhile”, in I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 73.

1st August Trinity 2010, Give All to Love

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1^st August Trinity

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 worshipped 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.

Momsa

1^st August Trinity

July 25, 2010

Mark 8:27 – 9:1

The Sun in its course of the year has entered the constellation of Leo. It is the constellation of the heart, the house of the awakening of courage and love.

In today’s reading, Christ asks His disciples who they think He is. And Peter’s heart awakens: ‘You are the Christ!’ Then Christ proceeds to teach them about His coming suffering and death. He, the lion of Judah, is trying to show them that He is willing to undergo a human destiny. He, the lion, will become the lamb, sacrificed in love for the sake of humanity’s heart. He is trying to lay the groundwork for courage in the destiny that we will all share.

But Peter’s very natural reaction is to deny and reject the possibility that the Messiah will have to suffer and die. Christ is quick to point out that Peter’s fear-based thinking provides an opening for the adversary’s power. He says that through thoughts and actions based on fear, we will fail to measure up to our divine potential. We will fail to fully embrace our destiny.

Cranach the Elder

Through His own example, Christ encourages us to take up our own lives with courage, whatever life brings us. We are to stand firm and meet courageously life’s adversities. For suffering is a portal. Through His own suffering and death, Christ has opened this portal for us in the direction of the Father and His angels. He is, as He Himself says, the gateway. (John 10:9)

Fear keeps the gate locked, giving the adversary access to us. With Christ in our thoughts, with Christ in our hearts, we will find the courage to face our difficulties. With Christ in our hearts we may even find the courage to love our destiny. Through Christ we find the way back home to the Father.

In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Give all to love;

Obey thy heart;

’T is a brave master;

….Let it have scope:

Follow it utterly,

Hope beyond hope:

….But it is a god,

Knows its own path

And the outlets of the sky.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] “Give All to Love”, by Ralph Waldo Emerson