1st February Trinity 2009,

Van Gogh

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

 1^st Feb Trinity

February 8, 2009

Matthew 20: 1 – 16

In last week’s reading, Christ infused the life-long paralytic with a jolt of His fiery will. We can think of paralysis as having been the state of mankind in general; and this week’s reading as the continuation of the story. In this reading, it is as though Christ is saying to mankind: now that your will has been fired up, let’s get working!

In the story, the master of the house, who is the kingdom of the heavens, checks on the work in progress every two hours. He engages more and more workers. At the end of the day comes the reckoning. Each receives the agreed-upon one denarius, enough for a day’s living, no matter whether he worked all day or only one hour.

On an external level this may seem unfair, until one realizes that this is a metaphor for life. The kingdom of the heavens sees to it that each of us, sent into the fields of earth, gets exactly what we need for each day, our daily bread. We are not rewarded more than others for doing a full day’s work. Our reward, our one denarius, is the ability, the gift really, of being able to live for one more day, to have one more chance to contribute to the work of the world. We are each given the one denarius of one more day to evolve, to suffer and to grow; one more day to be grateful for the privilege of life. 

Pulling in the harvest requires a team. Early or late, we are all necessary for the work of earth. Envy of someone else’s apparent good fortune, comparing it with our own, is deadly. For envy is an acid that eats away, both at its container, and at the social fabric into which we are all woven. To think that doing more, suffering more, bearing more should mean greater rewards is to indulge in a destructive sense of self-importance and entitlement that misses the point. For the rewards that the kingdom of the heavens, the kingdom of the human heart on earth, are simply: one more day; existence itself, which we owe, not to our own efforts, but to the generosity of the creator. We are working for Him. And at the end of the day, the only appropriate and healthy reaction is gratitude. Denise Levertov embodies this humble but open gesture of soul:

A certain day became a presence to me;

there it was, confronting me—a sky, air, light:

a being. And before it started to descend

from the height of noon, it leaned over

and struck my shoulder as if with

the flat of a sword, granting me

honor and a task. The day’s blow

rang out, metallic—or it was I , a bell awakened,

and what I heard was my whole self

saying and singing what it knew: I can.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Denise Levertov, “Variation on a Theme by Rilke”, in Dancing with Joy, ed. by Roger Housden, p. 107.

1st February Trinity 2010, Bread of Life

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

 1^st February Trinity

February 7, 2010

Matthew 20: 1 – 16

A kingdom is a realm or a sphere. It implies a boundary or border. In today’s reading Christ uses the term ‘the kingdom of the heavens’. The way that He uses it, we cannot think of this kingdom of the heavens as a place in the afterlife, a place we can only enter after death. His kingdom of the heavens is a place here on the earth. It is a sort of parallel universe that happens alongside or within our earthly lives. Its boundaries are drawn by our awareness of it, our attention. It exists wherever the spiritual and the earthly are united in the now of the human heart.

This earthly-heavenly kingdom is a place where we are called to work, to engage our wills, in community with others. God calls each of us, wants to ‘hire’ anyone who is willing to work ‘heartily’ now, in and for this heavenly-earthly realm. God’s kingdom is created by His wish, His desire, that the spiritual and the earthly intersect. His reward, the day’s wage, is the same for all—we receive what we need to sustain us for the day’s work.

In the middle of each Act of Consecration of Man we pray, along with Christ, the words He taught us. They are the keys to the doorway to the Kingdom: May what the Father wants for the earth happen through our deeds. We can trust that we will be given daily nourishment that will sustain us for His work. With Christ, we pray to the Father:

May your kingdom extend itself

in our deeds and moral conduct.

May we so perform your will

as you, Father, have laid it down

in our inmost being.

Spiritual nourishment,

the bread of life,

you give us superabundantly

in all the changing conditions

of our lives.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] From a contemplation of The Lord’s Prayer, by Rudolf Steiner, transl. by C. Hindes.

1st February Trinity 2011, Blossoming

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 your 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.

1^st February Trinity

February 6, 2011

John 5: 1-18

In the life of the plant, the blossom is both an end and a beginning. It is the culmination of a long process of leafing and transformation. At the same time, in order to serve Life, the blossom must be pollinated, fructified by bees or wind, and set fruit. For it is the fruit and its seeds that ensure that life will continue.

The man who was ill for thirty-eight years experiences a blossoming in the warm urging of the Christ Sun. He rises and walks. But this healing will not serve his ongoing life unless the man allows the grace and mercy shown to him to be fructified, to set fruit within his own soul. He cannot continue inwardly in the same old way, cut off from the society of his fellow human beings, cut off from the workings of the angels.

Unfortunately he seems to misunderstand what his re-entry into society means. He returns to the leadership and tells them who was the source of his healing. This sets into motion a long series of events in which Jesus is persecuted and eventually killed.

And yet—even this serves a greater pattern. For Christ’s death becomes the portal to higher Life for us all.

We all participate in the killing of the Christ impulse for love and healing. We stray from love; we deny love; we are too weak to accept and participate in love.

And yet we are here, at the service, in His presence. We take in His healing love in bread and wine. He supplies what we lack, because we have answered the question he poses to us all—Is it your will to become whole?

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st February Trinity 2012, Loving the World

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

 1^st February Trinity

Feb 5, 2012

Matthew 20:1-16

The story in today’s reading seems to be about fairness. Those who worked the entire day feel entitled to more than a day’s wage, because those who seemed to do less received the same day’s wage.

But on a social level, the story is actually about a generosity that is beyond fairness. The master, the great and generous heart of the world, would give daily bread, sustenance to all. Human dignity requires that all be sustained, regardless of circumstance. That is also our own human task—to work to feed others, not just ourselves.

On yet another level, this story is also about the wider reasons we labor on earth at all. Each day we come back from the fields of night, where we received our inspirations for the work of earth. We are all day laborers working on our own sense of self, our own integrity, our own great-heartedness. To be without outer work is to suffer loss of meaning, loss of relationships to others, loss of a sense of self and one’s place in the community.

For we have all come to labor on the fields of earth to build up our own inner strength, and to join with others in doing God’s work of earth. The poet Mary Oliver wrote:

My work is loving the world.

….Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

Which is mostly rejoicing….

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Mary Oliver, “Messenger”, in Thirst

1st February Trinity 2013, Expecting More

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

First February Trinity

February 3, 2013

Matthew 20: 1-16

In the economic sphere, modern thinking often applies a hierarchical standard based on production numbers. And what one is paid is often kept secret.

Amazing that the gospel presents a pay situation of full disclosure. The master contracts with each worker for just enough to support his life for a day. Those working more hours did not earn more. Nor did those who worked fewer earn less. Each simply received the day’s need, for doing as much as they could. The day’s wages are given on the basis of daily need and on human dignity, not on the number of hours worked.

Christ offers this story as a likeness of the kingdom of the heavens, which is a kingdom arising in human hearts. He shows us that expecting more than, more than what others get, more recognition, more praise, more pay than others, is not what we human beings on earth have actually contracted for. For the true being of the economic sphere flourishes in an atmosphere of brotherhood.

 

We have all agreed to work on fields of earth. Our work on earth gives us the opportunity to earn both the integrity of our selfhood, and a healthy relationship to our fellow workers.

In order to develop both, we must avoid comparisons. Some come early to the field, some late. Comparing ourselves with others, and expecting more for ourself is deadly here. It poisons our both integrity and our cooperation. For we have no way of knowing another human being’s true standing. And we have no right to denigrate their contribution to the work.

All we can be sure of is that the Master’s task is urgent—the harvest needs to be brought in. And we need all the workers we can get. It’s not about what is more advantageous to me or even about what appears to be fair. We are working for the Father. The Father will give us what we need for our daily bread. 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st February Trinity 2014, Generous Reward

1st February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

 

The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about 9 o’clock he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at 3 o’clock and did the same. At 5 o’clock he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at 5 o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each. They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

 

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last. “

1^st February Trinity

February 9, 2014

Matthew 20:1-16

This gospel reading about the workers in the vineyard has meaning on many levels. Commonly it is read as a lesson in social justice. This story is also a metaphor for our many lives on earth.

We are all wanting to work on the earth for the Kingdom of the Heavens. Some of us arrive early in the Earth-Day and have labored long. Some of us arrive later, and some barely in time. At the end of the aeon, the end of the Earth-Day, we all receive the same reward—the ‘one denarius’ of our completed selfhood. That is what we have agreed upon with the Master. We each receive the same unique one-ness. The mistake is in thinking that we deserve more than others.

We are all laboring together. Some must labor for selfhood long and hard, with suffering; others seem to acquire it with less effort; but they too have suffered; they have suffered the meaninglessness of not being engaged in the work.  But a selfhood that operates in love is the generous reward of the Master of the kingdom of the heavens; it is the reward for those who show up for the Great Work, no matter how early or late they come to it. The poet says:

A certain day became a presence to me;

there it was, confronting me -- a sky, air, light:

a being. And before it started to descend

from the height of noon, it leaned over

and struck my shoulder as if with

the flat of a sword, granting me

honor and a task. The day's blow

rang out, metallic -- or it was I, a bell awakened,

and what I heard was my whole self

saying and singing what it knew: I can.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Denise Levertov, “Variation On A Theme By Rilke (The Book of Hours, Book I, Poem 1, Stanza 1)” in Breathing the Water

4th Epiphany 2007, Failure to Thrive

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 28, 2007

John 5: 1-18

There are two kinds of extremes in the way our soul conducts itself. One extreme might be called “too tight a grip”. It is the temptation to plan and control everything and everyone, down to the last minute and penny. There is no room, no gap for the divine spark to ignite.

The other extreme might be called the soul’s “failure to thrive”. In this extreme, the soul is weak and lamed; it blames everyone and everything outside of itself for its own failures. “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred…someone always gets there ahead of me.” John 5:7

In the story Christ first raises the man’s awareness with His question: is it your will to become whole? The man’s answer is essentially a divided one: “Yes, but….” So Christ supplies the missing strength. Thirty-eight years of paralysis have built up some measure of resolve in the man; Christ adds what is lacking.

Yet the man’s soul weakness, which was at the basis of his bodily paralysis, continues to be evident. He is still not yet sovereign over what happens. When others tell him he shouldn’t be carrying his pallet, he tries to justify himself by shifting the blame for breaking the Sabbath onto Jesus. Excuses again.

So Jesus finds him in the Temple and offers follow-up therapy. “You have become whole; sin no more, lest your destiny bring you something worse.” John 5:14

The paralytic’s sin consists of not be able to act out of his own initiative, out of his own integrity. He has literally been raised to a new level. If he goes back to his old ways, his destiny will be forced to take more extreme measures in order to enforce his continuing evolution and growth. Once a higher level of functioning has been reached in the soul, there is no going back.

Here, in consecrating ourselves, we offer our integrity, or at least as much of the broken pieces of it we can gather up. The formative character of Christ’s body helps us consolidate our efforts, our soul’s gains. The fire of the wine mixed with water strengthens our will, dissolves our souls’ hardness, and helps us move forward. We cannot do it all by ourselves. Yet neither can Christ. Bit by bit a lifetime of weakness is given strength by what Christ adds to our own efforts at destiny. He gives us the strength of Himself, ‘the medicine that makes whole.’