2nd February Trinity 2014, Layers

2^nd February Trinity

Luke 8:14-18

And as a great crowd had gathered, and ever more people streamed to him out of the cities, he spoke in a parable:

A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path. It was trodden upon, and the birds of the sky (air) ate it up. Other seed fell upon the rocks, and as it sprouted, it (the sprouting green) withered, because it had no moisture. Still other seed fell under the thorns; the thorns grew with it and choked what came up. And some fell upon good soil, grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he called out:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

His disciples asked him what this parable might mean. And he said:

To you it has been given the gift of being able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to the others it is given in pictures and parables, for they see and do not yet see, and hear, although they do not yet understand with their thinking. The meaning of the parable is this:

The seed is the Word of God. That which fell upon the path are those who hear it; afterwards the tempter comes and tears the Word out of their hearts, so that they cannot find healing through the trusting power of faith working in them.

Those on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, take it up with joy; but they remain without root. For a while the power of their faith works in them, but in times of trial they fall away.

What fell under the thorns are those who hear the Word from the spirit, and as they go on their way, the sorrows and the riches and the joys of life choke it, and they bring no fruit to maturity.

And the seed which fell in the good soil are those who hear the Word, and take it up into their hearts, feel its beauty, become noble and worthy and patiently keep it alive, tending it there until it brings forth fruit.

No one lights a light and hides it under a vessel or under a bench; instead he places it on a lamp stand so that all who come in see the light. For nothing is hidden which shall not be revealed, and nothing is secret which shall not be known and proclaimed.

So attend to how you listen. For he who has enlivened in himself the power to bear the spirit, to him more will be given. He however who does not have this power, from him will be taken that which he thinks he has.

2^nd February Trinity

February 16, 2014

Luke 8: 14-18

Today’s reading is a parable, a metaphorical description, that can be heard on several levels. There is always the literal meaning—a sower of seed scatters the grain and it falls in different places with differing results. But Christ makes clear to his closest disciples that there is also another parallel layer of meaning. The seed is not only grain, but also the Word of God, and how it falls into the human heart. It is no accident that Christ chooses an image from the plant world, the world of living beings. For the Word of God is connected to our capacity to grow, to blossom,  be fruitful.

The means by which the Word of God enters the heart is through our sense of hearing. And this sense, too, is multilayered. There is our literal hearing—the ability to hear sounds and distinguish words. And there are also additional layers of hearing, connected to the depth of our understanding. At this level of hearing, the more we understand, the broader and deeper our hearing becomes. And the more we understand, the deeper and more fertile the richness of our soul’s inner ground. With His Word, Christ Himself is entering into us.

‘So attend to how you listen,’ Christ says[1] ; for our focus and our level of hearing contributes to our heart’s fertility, our ability to nurture Christ in us. 

The poet Stanley Kunitz, who lived to be 100, wrote:

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.

….
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes.[2]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Luke 8:18

[2] STANLEY KUNITZ, “The Layers”

2nd February Trinity 2013, And Yet...

2^nd February Trinity

Luke 8:14-18

And as a great crowd had gathered, and ever more people streamed to him out of the cities, he spoke in a parable:

A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path. It was trodden upon, and the birds of the sky (air) ate it up. Other seed fell upon the rocks, and as it sprouted, it (the sprouting green) withered, because it had no moisture. Still other seed fell under the thorns; the thorns grew with it and choked what came up. And some fell upon good soil, grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he called out:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

His disciples asked him what this parable might mean. And he said:

To you it has been given the gift of being able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to the others it is given in pictures and parables, for they see and do not yet see, and hear, although they do not yet understand with their thinking. The meaning of the parable is this:

The seed is the Word of God. That which fell upon the path are those who hear it; afterwards the tempter comes and tears the Word out of their hearts, so that they cannot find healing through the trusting power of faith working in them.

Those on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, take it up with joy; but they remain without root. For a while the power of their faith works in them, but in times of trial they fall away.

What fell under the thorns are those who hear the Word from the spirit, and as they go on their way, the sorrows and the riches and the joys of life choke it, and they bring no fruit to maturity.

And the seed which fell in the good soil are those who hear the Word, and take it up into their hearts, feel its beauty, become noble and worthy and patiently keep it alive, tending it there until it brings forth fruit.

No one lights a light and hides it under a vessel or under a bench; instead he places it on a lamp stand so that all who come in see the light. For nothing is hidden which shall not be revealed, and nothing is secret which shall not be known and proclaimed.

So attend to how you listen. For he who has enlivened in himself the power to bear the spirit, to him more will be given. He however who does not have this power, from him will be taken that which he thinks he has.

2^nd February Trinity

Feb 10, 2013

Luke 18: 18-34

A seed seems stripped of everything in the plant that gave it meaning—no leaves, no roots. Buried in the earth it has no access even to light itself. And yet….

And yet deep in its core, the seed harbors the possibility of new life, of creating new leaves, new roots; of finding the light again.

Our lives also have their seed moments, moments, days, weeks when that which gives our life meaning may be taken away from us; when we may feel enveloped in darkness.

Fra Angelico, Descent into Hell

And yet, despite all this, deep in the core of our being there is the seed of new life. For Christ has planted Himself as the seed of Life in the depths of every human heart.

In this gospel reading, the rich young man is encouraged to voluntarily strip away everything that has given his life meaning, strip himself of his riches. He is to go into the depths. There he will find Christ’s love waiting for him, as the seed of a new kind of life.

Christ even reminds us that Himself descended into the deepest depths of human experience. He volunteered to be eternally present in the depths of every human situation. When we come to the end of our own resources, that is just where we will find Him. As Rilke said,

I love the dark hours of my being.

My mind deepens into them.

…..

Then the knowing comes: I can open

to another life that's wide and timeless.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Ranier Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Picture: Descent into Hell, Fra Angelico

1st February 2007, God's Garden

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. 4, 2007

Matthew 20: 1-16

In a garden, some plants blossom for a year, vigorously all season long. Others come back every year; but they flower in their own particular time. Some bloom in early spring; some at midsummer; some even wait until fall. The wise gardener knows how to place each type according to its nature, how to place it in the garden so that something is in bloom through the whole season.

We are all like plants in God’s garden. Some of us can work vigorously doing what we do for Him all of the time, all of our lives. Others return and bloom early; some mid-season, some late. But we are all part of the larger community of His garden. He has chosen us for His work, and for His pleasure, according to His timing, because of our individual natures.

Patricia Brintle

The congregation is another of God’s gardens. Some of us appear all the time; others have their seasons. Together we make up a garden of blossoming, fruitful hearts. God and his angels walk among us, taking pleasure from the beauty and fragrance of our souls, taking nourishment from our hearts’ fruitfulness. In the Act of Consecration of Man we are practicing setting seeds for a new life. Offering ourselves up to Him is like a little death.

Over the course of the day, the Act of Consecration of Man blossoms successively across the face of the earth, beginning in the east and ending in the west. Whole congregations become areas in the garden of the earth. One after the other they give up the blossoms of their most selfless thoughts, the warm fragrance of their noblest feeling, offering the fruit of their devotion. We are offering God a concentration, the seeds of our life substance for his harvesting of life. With the poet we pray as He walks the garden of earth:

The great death that each of us carries inside

is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it.[1]

We stand in your garden, year after year

We are trees for yielding a sweet death.[2]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1]  Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy. p. 132.

[2]  Ibid. p. 133.

1st February Trinity 2008, We the Millstone

(Sunday before Ash Wednesday, 7^th Sunday before Easter)

Luke 18: 18-34

One of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth, and you shall honor your father and your mother!

He said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”

When Jesus heard this, he said, [Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said… Mk 10:21] “One thing however you lack: Sell all of your possessions, and give the money to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come and follow me!

He was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God. Sooner would a camel walk through the eye of a needle, than a rich man be able to find the entrance to the kingdom of God!”

Those who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”

He said, “For man alone it is impossible; it will be possible however through the power of God working in man.”

Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up everything to follow you.”

He replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife, or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in earthly life, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Grunewald Isenheim Altar, detail

Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge him and kill him; but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”

Yet his disciples understood nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.

1^st February Trinity

February 3, 2008

Luke 18: 18-34

This is the time when beautiful spring bulb flowers begin to emerge—the daffodils, tulips, hyacinths. But further on in time, the blossoms and then the leaves will die back. The plant’s energy will go underground for a while before appearing again the next year.

Today’s gospel reading presents us with a great human archetype. The great wheel of a human life keeps turning. For a while we are in an ascending mode. We take on more and more inner and perhaps outer riches, until we peak at a certain level of completion. Then we need to take a next step. But the only direction left is the path of descent. All of one’s acquired richness has to be left behind, given away to others, so that one can start over. One begins again, unencumbered, in order to generate something new. And Christ accompanies us all the while.

The gospel story of this particular young man's quest seems to end before it

Collot d'Herbois

begins. The narrative closes with the man’s sadness over the required loss. The gospel does not tell us that this high spiritual leader of the people is Lazarus, who will in fact go on to offer up his riches and inner accomplishments to follow Christ into the depths. Lazarus will go through a death process, accompanied by Christ. He will  be raised by Him and given a new name—John. He will in turn follow and accompany Christ’s descent into death, standing with Him under the cross, and then finding the empty shroud on Easter morning. He will go on to write John’s gospel and letters, and the Book of Revelation. The riches of his previous inner tradition and heritage have to die, in order to be resurrected in and through Christ.

We naturally, like the young man in the gospel, hesitate in the face of loss. Fear of the unknown can hinder our further progress. If only we knew where we were heading! But Christ is with us. He is the master of this archetype. We can say to Him in the words of the poet:

You are the water. We are the millstone.

You are the wind. We are the dust blown up into shapes.

You are the spirit. We are the opening and closing

Of our hands. You are the clarity.

We are this language that tries to say it.[1]

---

[1] Rumi, “Put This Design in Your Carpet”, in The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, p. 128.

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