10th August/September Trinity 2007,Bloom

10^th Trinity August September

Pierre Bouillon, wikicommons

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.

10th August September Trinity

September 23, 2007

Luke 7, 11-17

 In recent weeks we have experienced in the gospels how easy it is to become distracted by outer busy-ness and how necessary it is to create quiet moments with which to listen to the Lord. We have heard how subtle and ever-changing the kingdom of the heavens is, and how worry about the future impedes our inner progress.

This is our last week before our encounter with Michael, whose name means ‘Who is like God?’ We will be crossing one of the thresholds of the year to meet him. And today’s reading is about crossing thresholds. A young man in the bloom of youth, dies. Christ approaches in empathy and calls him to rise and live. This is a picture for all of us who approach any threshold, whether in life, in our spiritual work, or at the end of our earthly life. As we pass through the portal, Christ approaches in empathy and bids us rise to resume the dance of life.

Christ has promised us: I will not leave you orphaned…. When one of His disciples asks Him, ‘But why do you show yourself to us and not to the world?’ Christ answers, ‘Because a loveless world is a sightless world. If you love me and treasure my words….the Father and I will be with you.’[1]

When we approach any threshold, we can be sure that our love for Christ will draw Him magnetically to accompany us. And we may hear His voice in the words of the poet:

I know the voice of depression

Still calls you.

I know those habits that can ruin your life

Still send their invitations.

But you are with the Friend now

And look so much stronger.

You can stay that way

And even bloom.[2]

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[1]  John 14: 18-24, in The Message, The New Testament in Contemporary Language, by Eugene Peterson

[2] Hafiz, “Cast All Your Votes for Dancing” in I Heard God Laughing, Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky, p.15

10th August September Trinity 2008, Ripen Death

10^th Trinity August September

wikicommons

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.

10^th August Trinity

September 28, 2008

Luke 7: 11 -17

During the course of the year, some fruits drop early, while they are still green. Others go on to ripen and mature.

The only place in the universe where a living being can experience death is here on the earth. We carry this death inside us. As the poet Rilke says:

We are only the rind and the leaf.

The great death that each of us carries inside is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it.[1]

The angels in heaven cannot die. Christ had to come to earth as a human being in order to be the only heavenly being to go through death, to ripen it and harvest it. He went through death as a human so that humans could live through death and rise.

In today’s reading, Christ encounters a young man, a sort of green fruit, who had dropped early. This young man had died before really finishing his life’s task. Christ appeared at the crucial moment and infuses him with new life – “Young man, I say to you, arise!”  He helps him maintain and complete what he himself could not do out of his own forces. He helps him maintain and complete his life. The young man was given another opportunity to mature and ripen. The poet:

We stand in your garden year after year.

We are trees for yielding a sweet death.

But, fearful, we wither before the harvest.

Dying is strange and hard

If it is not our death, but a death

That takes us by storm, when we’ve ripened none within us.[2]

We all carry death within us— like a fruit waiting to ripen. Inside the fruit is the seed of ongoing life, eternal life. Eventually the old useless husk of our egotism cracks and must be cast off. We must die to our own selfishness. Paradoxical as it sounds, we are meant to ripen the fruit of dying, so that we can live. And so the poet says:

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[1] Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours, Love Poems to God, transl. by Barrows and Macy, p. 132.

[2] Ibid. pg. 133.

10th August/September Trinity 2009, Last Fruits

10^th Trinity August September

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.

10^th August-September Trinity

Sept. 27, 2009

Luke 7: 11-17

Fruits of the vine are ripe. They enclose the seeds for new life. In nature, the fruit falls and dies away, releasing the seeds to begin a new cycle of life. But they can also be tended and harvested to another purpose—to be made into wine.

Today we hear of the young man, the fruit of whose life had fallen green. Christ catches his soul; He finds the soul’s seed of the new, and plants it again on the earth. This is Christ as the great Gardener. He is tending a harvest for his Wine. But no matter whether the soul’s fruit falls early or late, He is concerned with ongoing life, with the seeds within; He preserves them, carrying them and planting them where they next need to go.

In one lifetime, we may ripen soul fruits of many kinds. When ripe, the fruits must separate from the vine on which they grew, for their current cycle is finished. Things end, sometimes painfully. But what is valuable in our soul, the ripened sweetness, we can offer for the wine harvest. Our soul’s purest thoughts, our most noble feelings, the dedication of our will, form the sweetness of the soul’s fruit. These we can offer for the wine. What is viable in our soul fruit, seeds for the future, are gathered up by our angel, under the direction of the Master Gardener. They will be preserved, to be planted, to grow and develop. It may be in another place and time. It may be for an entirely new and different purpose. But even in all of life’s apparent endings, the living seeds are not lost. Knowing this, we can keep trying, keep working to ripen our inner fruit, developing the sweetness, even late in whatever cycle we find ourselves.

So now, in all the layers of our autumns, we can say with Rilke:

Lord: it is time. The summer was great.

Lay your shadows onto the sundials….

Command the last fruits to be full,

give them yet two more southern days,

urge them to perfection, and chase

the last sweetness into the heavy wine.[1]

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[1] Rilke, “Autumn Day”, translated by J. Mullen

10th August/September Trinity 2011, Blaze and Deepen

10^th Trinity August September

Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.

10^th August Trinity

September 25, 2011

Luke 7:11-17

In autumn, nature presents to us two gestures. The first are its fruits and seeds, falling to earth as nature dies back. They are an offering of continuing life for the next season. The other gesture manifests as the leaves, transforming themselves, offering themselves up to the living atmosphere as a blaze of color, before they become the humus for next round.

Today’s reading presents us with two similar gestures. The young man’s body is about to be offered up to the earth, as a kind of seed for the earth’s future. At the same time, Christ says to him, ‘Arise’. And he rises, both within the realm of death, and also to life on earth. He returns in a blaze of life and speech. And this event spreads over the countryside like the flaming colors of autumn over the land. Death and life begin to interpenetrate one another in a process that will culminate in Christ Jesus’ own resurrection.

When the hours become dark, we can welcome them as a time of deepening and transformation, especially as we grow older. As Rilke says:

I love the dark hours of my being.

Smitty Caboose

My mind deepens into them.

There I can find, as in old letters,

the days of my life, already lived,

and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open

to another life that's wide and timeless.

So I am sometimes like a tree

rustling over a gravesite

and making real the dream

of the one its living roots

embrace:

a dream once lost

among sorrows and songs.[1]

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

10th August Trinity 2015, Death Makes Us Whole

10th Trinity August, September

Luke 7, 11-17

Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bible 

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her, the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.

10th Trinity August, September

September 27, 2015

Luke 7, 11-17

  

Death is a great mystery to us. It is also a great masquerade. The being of death is a pretender.

In today’s reading, a young man has died. One senses the communal loss and anguish. He is now ‘outside’, out beyond the city gates, beyond the crowd and his bereft and widowed mother. But he is not beyond Christ. Christ approaches him in death and bids him live, to rise above what would bind him and hold him down.

We too go through our dying times, even in life; times when we suffer the paralysis of grief; times when our former life dies away from us. And for us too, Christ approaches, especially just at such times. He bids us rise from our sleep, our grief, from our deaths.

For He is the master of the cycle of life, death and life again. Living things die; they fall, but like seeds. And from them a new life germinates. We die our smaller and greater deaths, but new life is already germinating within us, through Christ. For in our funeral service He says, I am the New Birth in Death. I am the Life in dying. As Novalis says,

What dropped us all into abyssmal woe,

Pulls us forward with sweet yearning now.

In everlasting life death found its goal,

For thou art Death who at last makes us whole.[1]

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[1] Novalis, in Hymns to the Night.

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4th Michaelmas 2015, Food for God

2^nd, 3rd or 4th Michaelmas Sunday

Revelation 19, 11-16

Artist unknown

And I saw the heavens opening up. And behold, a white horse! And the rider who sat upon it is called faithful and true, who judges justly and battles for justice. His eyes are like flames of fire, and his head wears many crowns, inscribed with a name which no one knows but he himself. The cloak  that covers him has been dipped in blood, and he is known by the name “Word of God”.

And the warriors of the sky ride behind him upon white steeds, clad in clean, white linen. And he has a sharp-edged sword coming out of his mouth with which to subdue the nations, and he will shepherd them with a staff of iron. He treads on the winepress holding the wine of the wrath of the will of God, the ruler of all.

And written on his cloak and on his thigh is the name: King of all kings, Lord of all lords.

4th Michaelmas

October 25, 2015

Revelation19: 11 – 16

In the picture language of Revelation we see a rider on a white horse. His name is ‘Word of God’. We are shown this word as a sharp double edged sword. This sharp sword subdues nations, that is, it blunts the fury of nationalism. And it protectively guides the nations of humanity in the direction they need to go, with the upright iron staff of spiritual strength.

The rider and his hosts precede the harvest the souls of nations. He treads the winepress, crushing their historical deeds and extracting the wine of their useful essence.  Such harvesting of souls may feel like wrath being visited upon us. But it is the necessary accompaniment to the activity of the Word of God, the Giver of Life, he who bears and creates order in the life of the world.

The father has created us for a purpose. From time to time the old, the useless, the deadwood must be removed, so that intended life can move forward. Life cannot just keep piling up; in order to make room for new life, the old forms must be broken.

The fact is, we are food for God and the angels. They helped plant us on the earth; they have nourished and sustained us through all our growth and life changes. They have the hope, the expectation of a harvest from their unceasing work. A harvest of reverence, a harvest of love, a harvest of conscientious deeds. It is from the harvest of our deeds that they will give us new life in the future. So in the words of the poet:

Let us now form roots and stem,

Leaf upon leaf, a crown and blossoms  --

For does not wine bloom?

Wine, bees, and vintner, the ground too,

On which the wheat surges toward bread:

The Four Kingdoms of Earth

Prepare the Way-Bread for healing.

Let us now harvest and press,

Let us grind and bake

And consecrate everything that needs it.

Then Man the Consecrated approaches the Grave-Table,

And with him the folk and the circle

Experience creating the Open Secret

That He gives to them time upon time.[1]

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[1] Sebastian Lorenz Menschen-Weihe Die Christengemeinschaft 10_06, pg 507

3rd Michaelmas 2015, Michael Calls

2^nd, 3rd or 4th Michaelmas

Revelation 12: 1-17

Ottheinrich Folio, wikimedia

And a momentous image was unveiled in the world of spirit: a woman, clothed with the radiant power of the sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve stars of heaven. And she is with child and cries out in the labor and pain of giving birth.

And at the same time a second image was revealed in the heavens: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its head it has seven crowns and its tail is sweeping a third of all the stars in heaven and dashing them onto the earth. And the dragon is standing before the woman about to give birth, so that when she bears the child he can devour it. And she bore a child, a son ”who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron.” And the woman’s child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place that God keeps ready there, so that they can take care of her for days numbering one thousand two hundred sixty.

And a war flared up in the spirit world. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in the midst of his own angels, but he was not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. Down came the dragon, the giant, the serpent, the evil one called both Satan and the devil, deceiver of all the world. Onto the earth he came hurtling down, and all his angels with him.

And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying:

Now can begin the working which proceeds from our God—

The power to heal the world,

The power to transform all being,

The power to draw everything into godly being.

Arisen is the spirit leadership of his Christ.

Overthrown is the accuser of our brothers,

He who accused them night and day before the countenance of God.

They have overcome him through the blood and the sacrificial power of the Lamb

And by the divine Word to which they bore witness.

They did not love their own lives too dearly, nor did they fear death.

Therefore, rejoice you heavens

And all who lodge therein!

But woe to the earth and the sea:

For the Adversary has come down to you,

And he seethes with measureless fury,

For he knows that his time is short.

And when the dragon recognized that he had been cast onto the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had borne the son. Then the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly into the desert to her appointed place, where she is to be nourished for a cycle of time, for cycles of time, and for half a cycle of time, far from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent opened his mouth and spewed out a river of water after the woman so she would be swept off her feet by the river. But then the earth came to the woman’s assistance; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from his mouth. And the dragon burned with fury against the woman. He stormed away to make war on the rest of the woman’s seed, people who keep to the divine world aims and who are united with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus. As I saw this I was standing on the sandy shore of the sea.

3^rd Michaelmas

October 18, 2015

Revelation 12: 1-17

We have before the eye of the soul  two great images. They are the cosmic eternal feminine, the soul of humanity, laboring to give birth to the son who will shepherd nations. And we see the destructive, devouring red dragon, full of rage, who tries to prevent this.

And we are told that the hosts of the Archangel Michael have thrust this

Breugel the Elder, Fall of the Rebel Angels, wikimedia

destructive being and his minions onto the earth. Michael has done so in order to cleanse the heavenly realms, so that Christ’s healing and transforming power, his power to spiritualize, can work unhindered from the heavens.

But woe to us. The dragon has come down to us, seething in measureless fury. Recent events can prompt us to ask: why does God allow war and massacre; why does he allow such tragedies to happen to innocent people? But that is the wrong question. Given the fact that it was necessary for the dragon to be sent down to earth, the question now comes toward us, from Michael’s heavenly hosts: How is it that human beings allow such tragedies to happen?

The beings who oppose our human development are making war upon us. We have the armor of God, the armor of truth, trust and peaceful intentions to protect us. It is now the task of the human world to keep the dragon in check; to keep the dragon’s fury and destruction from infecting our souls and destroying the earth. Should we choose to accept the task, Michael, the strong leader of Christ’s heavenly forces on earth, will come to our aid.

Amid the storm of the world,

In which our souls share

We seek the leader of the Angel-host,

Michael, who casts down the Dragon.

Into our thoughts may come through him
The sense of gentle awe,

Of patient reverence for the hidden wisdom

That is in all things.

And in our acts his courage

Will overcome the cramping fear

Which makes a slave of man.

Michael calls, when autumn darkens earth;

He leads to Christ, and fights for Christ, for ever;

So may we follow him, and fight beside him

Against the Dragon with enduring fire.[1]

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[1] Adam Bittleston, “Michael I”, in Meditative Prayers for Today, purchase here