1st February Trinity 2017, I Have Received

1st February Trinity

11th Century Codex Aureus Epternacensis

Matthew 20: 1-16

[But many who are last will be first, and many who are first will be last.] 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.”

Rembrandt

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."

1st February Trinity

February 5, 2017

Matthew 20: 1-16

Rembrandt, Workers in the Vineyard, WikiCommons, Salomon Koninck

Some individuals seem to have all the luck – everything they do turns out well and is rewarded. Meanwhile, others sweat and toil under difficult circumstances and seem barely able to exist. Those for whom things go well may be guilty of pride – they may think that the others just aren't applying themselves enough, while the disadvantaged individual may likely suffer envy.

Without knowing about each other's past lives, it is impossible to determine the reason for the differences. On the great wheel of incarnations, we are sometimes up and sometimes down. The whole purpose of incarnating is to develop a strong and independent self. In the parable, this selfhood is the 'one denarius' that is the reward of a day's labor, the reward for our daily labors on the field of earth. This single selfhood can then open in gratitude and be offered as a container for a higher, truer Self.

Some seem to come to selfhood only after a tremendous amount of labor and suffering. Others may seem to achieve their 'one denarius' quickly, late and with little effort. What we do not know is how much this individual has suffered or labored in the past, either in this lifetime or another. The parable seems to be saying that grumbling and envy are in any case detrimental; they won't bring you greater rewards; in fact, they erode the self.

In addition, the parable assures us that, despite what the envious may think, the Master is generous. He always rewards our labors, no matter how it may appear to us. He gives us our daily bread, sufficient for the day's needs. In fact, we are all working together to achieve the harvest. Albert Einstein said, "Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received."

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4th Epiphany 2017, Small and Do-able

4th Epiphany

John 5: 1-18

Carl Heinrich Bloch, WikiCommons

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.”

Artus Wolffort, Wiki Commons

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.

4th Epiphany

January 29, 2017

John 5: 1-18

There is a part in all of us that is like the invalid at the pool. This part suffers from a sort of paralysis, the part that cannot rightly take up our destiny and move forward with it. Our inner stuckness comes from a certain basic problem. A hindrance arises from assuming that someone else will make our destiny happen. As the invalid says, "I have no one to help me." His not being helped is made worse by the fact that all the invalids are in competition against one another for a meager resource. The healing properties of the waters suffice only for one. And so all have become naturally selfish in their hope for a cure.

There is a problem in expecting one's own insufficiencies to be overcome by someone outside of oneself. For isn't is at least as comfortably familiar to lie down under our burdens and wait? A thirty-eight-year habit of waiting! 

The only Being who can supplement what we lack is Christ. And Christ asks our inner invalid, "Do you have the will to become healed and take up your pallet of destiny?"

That the invalid suffers from a kind of weakness of will is evident also from the warning Christ gives him later in the Temple. He tells him not to allow himself to relapse into his former state, or his destiny will become even worse.

We all set intentions and make resolutions and promises. What is spiritually important is not the resolution, but the follow-through. Every intention, every promise we make and then fail to follow through on, however small, has a negative consequence. Not only does it compromise our integrity, our inner wholeness; it also weakens our will. Best to build inner strength by keeping our intentions small and do-able.

The New Testament Greek word for sin is hamartia, missing the mark. So, in the words of Christ: "Take to heart what I say. You have become whole; sin [miss the mark] no more, lest your destiny bring you something worse. 

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3rd Epiphany 2017, Love Thaws

3rd 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.

3rd Epiphany

January 22, 2017

Matthew 8, 1-13

Today we hear of two different healings. The leper asks for his own healing. The centurion asks for the healing of another's suffering and paralysis. Furthermore, the centurion humbly asks for a healing at a distance. Christ responds, both with a healing and with warm praise for his trust.

We, too, like the centurion, are used to controlling certain things, making them happen. And at other times, especially when praying for another, we recognize that Christ can work at a distance.

In the Act of Consecration, we, like the centurion, are humbly aware of illness. It this case, it is the illness of our own soul and bodily constitution. Before communion, the priest acknowledges that Christ is entering a dwelling that is sick. And at the same time, there is humble trust in the power of Christ's Word of Healing.

Jane Delaford Taylor

Christ heals because He loves. He stands respectfully at a distance, waiting for us to approach. It is our trust in Him which allows Him to ease our suffering and paralysis of soul. 

As Theresa of Avila says,

And 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.*

St. Teresa of Avila, "When the Holy Thaws," in Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West --versions by Daniel Ladinsky

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2nd Epiphany 2017, Wisdom, Maturity, Grace

2nd Epiphany

Luke 2, 41-52

Jesus found in the Temple, Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

Every year his [Jesus’] parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they took him with them. Now after they had gone there and fulfilled the custom during the days of the feast, they set off on their way home. But the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know this; they thought he was among the company of the travelers. After a day’s journey, they missed him among their friends and relations. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

After three days, they found him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And those who heard him were amazed at his mature understanding and his answers.

And when they saw him, they were taken aback, and his mother said to him, “My child, why have you done this to us? Behold, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.”

And he said to them, “Why did you look for me? Did you not know that I must be and live in that which is my Father’s?”

But they did not understand the meaning of the words he spoke to them. And he went down with them again to Nazareth and followed them willingly in all things.

And his mother carefully kept all these things living in her heart. And Jesus progressed in wisdom, in maturity and grace [favor] in the sight of God and man.

2nd Epiphany

January 15, 2017

Luke 2, 41-52

Most parents of an adolescent know the feeling: you wake up one day, and the sweet child you knew has suddenly become a stranger. He or she has a mind of their own, with their own agenda. Where does this all come from?

James B. Janknegt

We all carry a 'young son' within us. It is our destiny, our karma, which we brought with us – our mission, our calling, our intentions for our life. It rises up in youth, sometimes dramatically, sometimes more quietly. It is often not so clear for us as it was for the young Jesus.

These promptings of destiny can continue to arise throughout life. Some can be fulfilled and disappear, while others arise only later. There are surprises, sometimes dismaying, as we hear what our inner 'young son' has to say to us.

Much about our own destiny we may not understand. But we need to follow it willingly. And, like Jesus's mother, we need to keep all these things in our hearts, so that we, too, can progress, in wisdom, in maturity and in grace.

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1st Epiphany

Matthew 2: 1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea—during the time of King Herod—behold: wise priest-kings from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,

               

Albani Psalter

“Where is the one born here King of the Jews? We have seen his star rise in the east and have come to worship him.”

               

When King Herod heard this, he was deeply disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. And he assembled all the high priests and scribes of the people and inquired of them in what place the Christ was to be born.

And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it was written by the prophet:

And you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

Are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah;

For out of you shall come forth the ruler

Who will be shepherd over my people, the true Israel.”

Then Herod, secretly calling the Magi together again, inquired from them the

Herod consulting the Three Kings, Tissot

exact time when the star had appeared. He directed them to Bethlehem and said, “Go there and search carefully for the child, and when you find him, report to me, that I too may go and bow down before him.”

After they had heard the King, they went on their way, and behold, the star that they had seen rising went before them, and led them in its course over the cities until it stood over the place where the child was.

Evangeliar Altomünster

Seeing the star, they were filled with [there awakened in them] an exceedingly great and holy joy.

Entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; they fell down before him and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and offered him their gifts: gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their country by another way.

1st Epiphany

January 6, 8, 2017

Matthew 2: 1-12

The three priest kings are on the watch for the appearance of a new kingly

artist unknown

being. And this kingly being shows himself to them at a distance. He appears in the realm above the earthly in the form of a star, which guides them to himself. They are overjoyed when the star of the one they love and revere leads them to a house with a mother and child.

They offer him the durable and radiant gold of their wisdom, the sweet frankincense of their devotion, and the bitter myrrh of healing. The child absorbs these spiritual components, which he then in turn, later, offers to the salvation of humankind.

We each have a star of destiny guidance. It shines above our heads at birth. It dives down into us at maturity, working from within, as inklings and intimations, as dreams and conscience.

artist unknown

Can we develop an eye for the destiny guidance, the star that lives in another? Do we feel a reverent joy when we glimpse it? Are we willing to offer our wisdom, our reverence, our capacity for healing in support of their path?

A traditional prayer from another part of the world says:

Journeying god,

pitch your tent with mine

so that I may not become deterred

by hardship, strangeness, doubt.

Show me the movement I must make

toward a wealth not dependent on possessions,

toward a wisdom not based on books,

toward a strength not bolstered by might,

toward a god not confined to heaven.

Help me to find myself as I walk in other's shoes.*

*Prayer song from Ghana, traditional, translator unknown

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Holy Nights 2017, New Year, January 1, 2017

New Year's Day

January 1, 2017

The Gospel of John, 1:1-18

(translation by Adam Bittleston)

In the very beginning was the Word,

And the Word was with God,

And the Word was God.

He was with God in the very beginning.

All things came into being through Him,

And without Him came into being nothing

That has come into being.

In him was Life,

And the Life was the Light of mankind.

The Light shines in the Darkness,

And the Darkness did not grasp it.

There came to be a man, sent from God,

His name Ioannes.

John Baptizes Jesus, Gerard David, Wiki Commons

He came for testimony,

That he should testify of the Light,

That all might have faith through him.

He was not the Light,

But came to testify of the Light.

For the Light that in truth endures,

That illumines every man,

Was coming into the World.

He was in the World,

And the World came into being through Him

Yet the World did not know Him.

He came to the separate,

Yet the separate men did not receive Him.

But those who received Him—

To them, He gave full power

To become children of God,

Those who have faith in His name.

They have their being

Not from the bloodsteams,

Not from the will of the flesh,

Not from the will of a man,

But from God.

And the Word became flesh,

And made his dwelling among us,

And we saw His glory,

Glory of one born from the Father alone,

With abundance of grace and truth.

Ioannes testified of Him, proclaiming,

That is He of whom I said:

He Who comes after me

Takes His place above me

Because He was before me.

From the abundance of His Being

We have all received

Grace upon grace.

The Law was given through Moses;

Grace and truth came into being

Through Jesus Christ.

God no-one has beheld ever;

The son Who is born of Him alone

And Who has His Being

At the Father’s breast,

Has come to lead our seeing.

New Year's Day

January 1, 2017

The Gospel of John, 1:1-18

We stand before a time of beginnings. Most notably, of course, this is the beginning of a New Year, which this year starts under the signature of the first day of the week, a Sunday, the day of the Resurrection. What will this new year bring?

Our own lives present us with possibilities to begin anew. Every new day, new month, new year are filled with possibilities, with choices. What will we choose?

Christ's coming sets in motion events that give all of humankind the possibility of creating something new. He is the ancestor of a new people, the Christ-folk. Those whom destiny or choice have led to Him can help create a new stream of humankind. Whoever receives Him are themselves born anew, out of grace and truth. They can choose to love out of the light of wisdom and freedom.

Christ says that He stands radiating peace in His relationship to the world. He can give us His peace. We are free, minute by minute, to choose the path of love, of wisdom and grace, with His peace. The possibility is there – what will we choose? In the words of Fra Giovanni Giocondo (1386-1456):

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find
rest in today. Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in

Salvatore Mundi, Andrea Previtale

this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it,
yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and
glory in the darkness could we but see - and to see
we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its
gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly,
or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you
will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of
love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that
brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a
sorrow, or a duty, believe me, that angel's hand
is there, the gift is there, and the wonder of an
overshadowing presence. …
Courage, then, to claim it …..

And so, I greet you… with the prayer that for you now and forever,
the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

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Christmas Day,

Christmas III

John 21: 15-25

Now is proclaimed the end of the entire gospel according to John in the 21st chapter:

After they had held their meal together, Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others here?

Peter answered, “Lord you know that I am your friend”.

Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

And he said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?

Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said to him, “Shepherd my young sheep.”

He asked him a third time, “Simon, Son of John, Are you my friend?”

Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the third time, ‘Are you my friend’, and he answered, “Lord, you know all things; therefore, you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Amen, the truth I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and

Another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

He told him this to indicate the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, “Follow me.”

But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the supper and had asked, “Lord, who is it who betrays you?”  When Peter now saw him, his asked, “Lord, what of this man, what is his task?”

Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. Follow me…”

From this day the story spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path.”

This is the disciple who here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written.

Christmas III

Dec 25, 2016

John 21: 15-25

David Newbatt

At midnight, we heard about the great tree of Jesus's ancestry, rooted forty-two generations in the past and Joseph's protecting of the flower of that life. And then earlier this morning we heard the story of His birth, surrounded by the radiance of the heavenly Father's angels, reflected in the joyous hearts of the shepherds. This story wants to be re-enacted today, in the present, in every human heart.

And so now we hear the story of Christ and Peter, from the very end of all the Gospels. It is a story that points the way from the past, into the future. 

At the first Christmas, the Father's Love and Creative Power began the process of becoming human. He chose the body in which he would dwell. In this last reading of the day, from the end of John's Gospel, we hear the Risen Christ's threefold question to Peter: 'Do you love me?' We hear the high hope that Christ has for humanity. His hope is that He, the Being of Love, will become active in each of us. This is a hope that is still ever-present and faithfully carried in Christ's heart. For He has chosen the earthly bodies in which he would abide. 

The choice to respond is ours. His work of healing is a long range one. It carries us into the future, drenched with hope and grace. Later, another St. John, St. John of the Cross, converses with Christ:

"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.”*

*St. John of the Cross, "WHAT IS GRACE," in Love Poems from God, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 321

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