4th Epiphany 2010, In-Valid

4^th Epiphany

John 5: 1-18

Some time later, there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep’s Gate, a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which is surrounded by 5 covered porches. Here lay a great many invalids, the blind, the lame [crippled], the weak [withered], waiting for the water to begin moving. For from time to time a powerful angel of the Lord descended into the pool and stirred up the waters. The first one in the pool after such a disturbance would be cured of whatever ailment he had.

And there was a certain man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and became aware that he had been ill for so long, he asked him,

“Do you want [have the will] to become whole?”

The invalid answered him, “Lord [Sir], I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Rise up, take up your pallet, and walk.”  At once the man was healed and picked up his pallet and walked.

           

However it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jewish leaders said to the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your pallet.”

But he replied, “The man who healed me said to me, “take up you pallet and walk!”

And they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you ‘take it up and walk’?”

But the one who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, as there was a crowd in the place.

Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, “Take to heart what I say: Behold, you have become whole. Sin no more, lest your destiny bring you something worse.”

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. That is why they persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.

Then he himself countered them with the words, “Until now my Father has worked, and from now on I also work.”

Then they sought all the more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but also because he had called God his own Father and had set himself equal to God.

4^th Epiphany

January 31, 2010

John 5: 1 -18

Often things happen without our knowing how. The movement or change or transformation seems to happen behind a curtain. We only see the result.

The will is such a mystery. In the broadest sense, it is connected to movement. It is through our will that we stand up, walk, and work. But the workings of this mysterious power are mostly hidden from us.

Today’s reading involves an invalid. (Interesting word—in-valid.) His will, his ability to stand up, to walk, to work had been ‘invalidated’. Christ asks him, ‘Is it your will to become whole, healthy? This question suggests that the man needed to become more conscious of his will. What is it that he wants? How devoted is he to achieving his goal? His answer: I have no one to help me. I can’t do it alone. So Christ helps him. Christ infuses His own healing, integrative will into the man’s weakened will (his ill will?), giving it strength.

In the Act of Consecration of Man we express our awareness of our own weaknesses of will, our own need of healing. We come to the altar, which is both a feast table and a worktable. We bring our humble offerings, the selfless purity of our best and most hope-filled thoughts, our noblest feelings, along with whatever amount of motive force we can muster. And Christ adds His own healing will to them. This gives our offerings the upward thrust and levity that allows them to rise up to the Father. Together the Father and His Son transform our will offerings. They are returned to us as healing medicine for our invalid souls, healing energy for a failing world.

So in the words of John O’Donohue:

May you find the wisdom to listen to your illness:

Ask it why it came. Why it chose your friendship.

Where it wants to take you. What it wants you to know.

What quality of space it wants to create in you.

What you need to learn to become more fully yourself

That your presence may shine in the world.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] John O’Donohue, “A Blessing for a Friend on the Arrival of Illness", in To Bless the Space between Us, p. 60

4th Epiphany 2011, Grace Arrives

4^th Epiphany

Luke 13: 10-17

Once he was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit weakening her for eighteen years: she was bent over and could not stand upright [lift her head all the way up]. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, “Woman, you are released from your illness!”

He laid his hands upon her, and at once she was able to straighten up. And she praised the power of God. Then the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days for doing work; on those days you can come and let yourselves be healed—but not on the Sabbath.”

But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his ass from the manger on the Sabbath and lead it away to the water trough? But this daughter of Abraham, who was held bound by the dark might of Satan for eighteen years, wasn’t supposed to be released from her bondage on the day of the Sabbath?”

All his opponents were put to shame by these words, and the people rejoiced over all the signs of spiritual power that happened through him.

4^th Epiphany

January 30, 2011

Luke 13: 10-17

Plants unfold according to their own time. They bud, blossom, fruit when their time is ripe. In commercial settings, much is done to control that flowers bloom according to a market schedule. But commercially grown flowers often lack a certain thriving fullness, a radiance that naturally grown ones have.

The ill woman in the gospel rises, unfolds, blossoms in the healing light of the Christ sun. It took eighteen years for the fullness of the moment to arrive.  The synagogue leader complains that this has not been properly scheduled. But grace, love that heals, arrives in its own time. The only appropriate response is gratitude. We may feel that we want grace to arrive on our own timetable. But the reading makes it clear that control is vastly inferior to the working of grace.

St John of the Cross asks a question of God; and God gives an expansive answer:

“What is grace” I asked God.

 And He said,

“All that happens.”

Then He added, when I looked perplexed,

“Could not lovers

say that every moment in their Beloved’s arms

was grace?

Existence is my arms,

though I well understand how one can turn

away from

me

until the heart has

wisdom.”[1]

Grace, love, existence itself—so much to be grateful for.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] St John of the Cross, “WHAT IS GRACE”, in Love Poems from God: by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 321

4th Epiphany 2012, Restoration

Kenneth Dowdy

4^th Epiphany

Luke 13: 10-17

Once he was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit weakening her for eighteen years: she was bent over and could not stand upright [lift her head all the way up]. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, “Woman, you are released from your illness!”

He laid his hands upon her, and at once she was able to straighten up. And she praised the power of God. Then the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days for doing work; on those days you can come and let yourselves be healed—but not on the Sabbath.”

But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his ass from the manger on the Sabbath and lead it away to the water trough? But this daughter of Abraham, who was held bound by the dark might of Satan for eighteen years, wasn’t supposed to be released from her bondage on the day of the Sabbath?”

All his opponents were put to shame by these words, and the people rejoiced over all the signs of spiritual power that happened through him.

4^th Epiphany

January 29, 2012

Luke 13:10-17

When a plant doesn’t get enough water, it wilts. Give it water and shortly it is upright again.

Sometimes we too are parched. We don’t have enough life force to counter the forces of droop. It may be that we are tired, or ill. But if enough life force is restored, we can upright ourselves again.

Some of the restoration we can do ourselves—through food and water, through sleep, through medicine. It is our responsibility to do what we can. But the true source of the Water of Life is Christ. Even today.

That is why we come to communion—to restore the level of life force in the world. We can do so not only for ourselves, but also for others. For it is possible to forward to others the strength and blessings of communion with Christ. It is possible to form the intention to send His healing and the peace of His touch into the world.

As Wendell Berry says:

As timely as a river

God's timeless life passes

Into this world. It passes

Through bodies, giving life,

….

The secret fish leaps up

Into the light and is

Again darkened. The sun

Comes from the dark, it lights

The always passing river,

Shines on the great-branched tree,

And goes. Longing and dark,

We are completely filled

With breath of love, in us

Forever incomplete.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Wendell Berry, poem III, in Given

4th Epiphany 2014, Lift and Loosen

4^th Epiphany

Luke 13: 10-17

Once he was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit weakening her for eighteen years: she was bent over and could not stand upright [lift her head all the way up]. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, “Woman, you are released from your illness!”

He laid his hands upon her, and at once she was able to straighten up. And she praised the power of God. Then the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days for doing work; on those days you can come and let yourselves be healed—but not on the Sabbath.”

But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Does not every one of you untie his ox or his ass from the manger on the Sabbath and lead it away to the water trough? But this daughter of Abraham, who was held bound by the dark might of Satan for eighteen years, wasn’t supposed to be released from her bondage on the day of the Sabbath?”

All his opponents were put to shame by these words, and the people rejoiced over all the signs of spiritual power that happened through him.

4^th Epiphany

Feb 2, 2014

Luke 13:10-17

Many of us have an appointment calendar, or at least a plan for the day. Sometime we are annoyed when something unexpected prevents us from carrying out our plans.

The woman who was ill has a direct encounter with the loving and healing being of Christ. She has waited 18 years for just this moment. It is her illness itself that brings her to him. The synagogue leader shows no compassion or joy. He can only criticize. He tries to control and limit, according to the schedule.

These two, the woman and the leader, are two archetypes that dwell in every human soul. We all have a part of us that needs healing, a part that longs for a direct encounter with our Creator. And we all have a part of us that says, ‘not now’.

Yes, we need to create and protect our schedules. But the encounter with the Being of Love doesn’t happen by appointment. It happens when it happens; when the moment is ripe; when we are open.

So, as the poet suggests:

Whoever you are: step out of doors tonight,

Out of the room that lets you feel secure.

Infinity is open to your sight.

Whoever you are.

With eyes that have forgotten how to see

From viewing things already too well-known,

Lift up into the dark …

….

And when at last you comprehend its truth,

Then close your eyes and gently set it free.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Dana Gioia,  Entrance (After Rilke) in Interrogations at Noon

  

4th Epiphany 2013, Maintain Your Striving

4^th Epiphany

John 5: 1-18

Robert Bateman

Some time later, there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep’s Gate, a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which is surrounded by 5 covered porches. Here lay a great many invalids, the blind, the lame [crippled], the weak [withered], waiting for the water to begin moving. For from time to time a powerful angel of the Lord descended into the pool and stirred up the waters. The first one in the pool after such a disturbance would be cured of whatever ailment he had.

And there was a certain man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and became aware that he had been ill for so long, he asked him,

“Do you want [have the will] to become whole?”

The invalid answered him, “Lord [Sir], I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Rise up, take up your pallet, and walk.”  At once the man was healed and picked up his pallet and walked.

           

However it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jewish leaders said to the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your pallet.”

But he replied, “The man who healed me said to me, “take up you pallet and walk!”

And they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you ‘take it up and walk’?”

But the one who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, as there was a crowd in the place.

Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, “Take to heart what I say: Behold, you have become whole. Sin no more, lest your destiny bring you something worse.”

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. That is why they persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.

Then he himself countered them with the words, “Until now my Father has worked, and from now on I also work.”

Then they sought all the more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but also because he had called God his own Father and had set himself equal to God.

4^th Epiphany

January 27, 2013

John 5: 1-18

To get to a goal, we need to take actual steps. Wish and desire can get us started. But we need the strength of our will to carry us forward.

Last week we heard about two men who took the necessary steps, the leper and the centurion. This week’s reading focuses on the element of the will itself. For it is the paralytic’s will itself that is paralyzed and needs help. He has the wish, but his will does not have enough force even to get him to the natural place of healing. Christ must help him draw together sufficient will force to get him up off his bed.

‘Is it your will to become whole?’ He asks the man. The man admits that he has been unable to make it on his own for the last 38 years. So Jesus helps. He gives him a kind of injection of Christ-Will—the same Christ-Will that allows all of us as children to overcome gravity, to pull ourselves into the upright and to walk. It is as though the man is reborn—and he rises up and walks.

But there is a catch. There is a great risk of relapse, since the hopeless, passive despair that had weakened his soul and body over decades had become a habit of mind. ‘Sin no more’, Christ says; that is, do not let yourself fall back into your old ways. Maintain your striving uprightness of body and soul, lest destiny bring you something worse.’

Once one has stepped onto the path, one cannot go back without damage to self. And Christ will always help. In the words of Teresa of Avila

… God is always there, if you feel wounded.  He kneels

over this earth like

a divine medic,

and His love thaws

the holy in us.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] St. Teresa of Avila,  “When the Holy Thaws,” in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky

3rd Epiphany 2007, Strength and Joy

John 2, 1-11

3^rd Epiphany

On the third day a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

And Jesus answered her, “Something still weaves between me and you, o Woman. The hour when I can work out of myself alone has not yet come.”

Then his mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

There were six stone jars set up there for the Jewish custom of ceremonial washing, each containing twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with fresh water.”

And they filled them to the brim. And he said, “Now draw some out and take it to the Master of the feast. And they brought it to him.

Now when the Master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from—for only the servants who had drawn the water knew—he called the bridegroom aside and said to him, “Everyone serves the choice wine first, and when the guests have drunk, then the lesser; but you have saved the best until now.”

This, the beginning of the signs of the spirit which Jesus performed among men happened at Cana in Galilee and revealed the creating spiritual power that worked through Him. The disciples’ hearts opened, the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.

3^rd Epiphany

January 21, 2007

John 2: 1-11

At the first tender beginnings of spring, new buds break out on old trees; new shoots spring from old bulbs; new plants break forth from old seeds. The new erupts on the basis of what went before.

The Gospel reading is full of signs of spring. A wedding’s promise of new life; fresh water drawn from Mother Earth; vital forces newly arising in Jesus from Christ’s indwelling. These new forces are yet tender – the time of His full flowering yet to come. And so to His power, the mother of his soul adds her support, her love, her concern and compassion. Their working together creates an effervescence which enlivens all who taste it.

In the Act of Consecration of Man we can experience at any time a new tender spring-like effervescence. Waters drawn up from deep in Mother Earth by the grapevine, ripened in the sun, create grape juice. Our souls help to mother a transformation by adding the offering of the best of ourselves into the water and juice. Christ’s offering of Himself, his forces, into our offering creates a new substance. It becomes Christ-wine. It is medicine for our blood, darkened by egotism; strength for our spirits in learning to love. The Christ-wine brightens our blood. It gives fresh vitality to our spirits. Strength and joy rise.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

3rd Epiphany 2008, Sweetness of Soul and Body

3^rd Epiphany

Matthew 8, 1-13

When he came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him. And behold, a man with leprosy approached him, and kneeling down before him said, “Lord, if you are willing, you are able to make me clean.”

Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

And immediately he was cleared of his leprosy. And Jesus said to him, “See that you tell no one. But go and show yourself to the priests and offer to them the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony of your cleansing.”

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a Roman captain, leader of a hundred soldiers, approached him, pleading with him and saying, “Lord, my boy lies at home, paralyzed, suffering great pain.”

Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

The centurion answered, saying, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof. Just say a word, and my boy will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. If I say one word to this one—‘Go, ’ he goes, and if I tell another ‘Come,’ he comes. If I tell my servant ‘Do this,’ he does it.

Hearing this, Jesus was amazed and said to those following him, “Amen, the truth I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great power of trust. And I tell you, that many will come from the east and from the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the darkness of [godforsaken] external existence, where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

And Jesus said to the centurion, “Go home.  Let it be done to you as you have believed.”

And the boy was healed in that hour.

3^rd Epiphany 

January 20, 2008

Matthew 8.1-13

At a certain point in the life cycle of a plant, the carefully protected seeds are ejected and separate from where they had been harbored. Without this separation, there is no possibility of new life.

Lepers were forced to the very edges of their community—despised and rejected. Yet this individual leper in the gospel reading bears the seed of a new life. He takes the initiative to find his way back into community again. He does so by approaching the source of healing itself—Christ, who in turn reaches out to touch him. Drawn by the World Physician the leper is integrated back into community again.

We are all outcasts in this life, feeling separated from all friends, relations and the divine beings who live in the spiritual world. That is why Christ came to us—because we could not enter the higher community. Now, because He has come, and is here, we can help form together and enter the higher community from here on earth. Christ heals the rift between soul and soul, spirit and spirit, within and among us.

St. Francis of Assisi speaks of his own healing:

This is how our Lord allowed me

to begin my healing: While I yet walked

in sin, the mere sight of lepers was as

a bitterness I could not bear. Therefore

the Lord Himself drew me to life

among them, and so doing gave me

to have mercy on them. By the time

I left them, the bitterness had turned

to a sweetness of soul and of body.[1]

Separation is a phase of life. But as St. Francis says, through Christ’s healing in one’s destiny, the bitterness becomes mercy and the sweetness of a new life for soul and body.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] “Mercy”, St. Francis of Assisi, in Love’s Immensity, Scott Cairns, p. 80.