7th Trinity III 2020, Avoid and Focus

7^th August Trinity

Luke 10:1-20 

After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him, before his face, to every town and place where he himself was about to go. He told them, “An ample harvest, and few workers! Ask the harvest master, therefore, to send out workers to help with the harvesting. Go: I hereby send you out like lambs among wolves. Do not take a wallet or knapsack or sandals, and do not pause to greet anyone on the way.

 

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a person of peace is there, your peace will alight on them; if not, it will turn round and come back to you. Stay in that place, eating and drinking with them, because the worker is worth his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you, and heal the sick and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is close upon you.’ But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we are shaking off before your eyes. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is approaching. I am telling you, Sodom will be better off than that town on that day. 

“The worse for you, Chorazin! The worse for you, Bethsaida! Because if the deeds of the spirit that occurred in you had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, they would long since be sitting in sackcloth and ashes as a sign of their change of heart and mind. But Tyre and Sidon will be better off on the day of decision than you. And you, Capernaum, won’t you be exalted to the skies? You will go down to the depths. 

Dore

Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me, but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me." 

The seventy-two returned with joy and said: “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 

He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky. Here, I have now given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and all the power of the enemy, and none of it shall ever hurt you. But do not be glad that the spirits submit to you; be glad that your true being is taken up into the world of the heavens (that your names are recorded in the heavens).

7^th Trinity

September 6, 2020

Luke 10:1-20

In the reading, Christ sends out a multiplicity of people into the world. He tells them that their situation is like a lamb being sent out among wolves. He also tells them three things that will protect them from being ‘devoured.’

First, they are not to hoard (no wallet or knapsack). Then they are not to lose focus and get distracted by pausing to greet others on the way. And further, they are to develop a peaceful equanimity. They are to radiate peace. They are not to worry about results—if they are not welcomed, they should move on.

We all have our task in life, and our karmic appointments to keep. Nowadays, it is tempting to accumulate ‘stuff’ as a hedge against the wolf of anxiety.  And it goes without saying that we are inundated by sales calls, emails, media posts that may be distracting us from our true task.

At the same time, amazingly, we are to send out our peace, and if it is not accepted or absorbed by others, it is meant to return to us; that is, we absorb it back into ourselves. We are meant not to lose our inner balance if people reject us, or to be disappointed if things don’t turn out the way we had hoped.

If we can succeed in the difficult inner tasks of avoiding accumulating, of avoiding distractions, if we can focus in peace and inner balance, then indeed the wolfish demons of fear and false expectations must submit to us, to Christ working in us. For this is the way Christ now works on the earth—in us, and through us.

 

6th Trinity III 2020, No Non-Being

6th Trinity 

Mark 7:31-37

As he was again leaving the region around Tyre, he went through the country around Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the region of the ten cities of the Decapolis. They brought to him one who was deaf and who spoke with difficulty and asked him to lay his hands on him.

Julia Stankova

 

And he led him apart from the crowds by himself, laid his finger in his ears, and moistening his finger with saliva, touched his tongue, and looking up to the heavens, sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphata, be opened.” His hearing was opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he could speak properly. And he commanded them not to say anything to anyone. But the more he forbade it, the more they widely they proclaimed it. And the people were deeply moved by this event, and said, “He has changed all to the good: the deaf he makes to hear and the speechless to speak.

6^th Trinity

August 30, 2020

Mark 7:31–37

As we get older, our hearing often declines. It is as though our ears close a bit. We fail to accurately pick up what was spoken to us. And so we may get a false message. And to others, our response may seem inappropriate, even humorously. Yet even if our hearing is perfect, it can be that our hearts are closed, so we don’t pick up what is really being said.

In a sense, we are all deaf. Our hearts are sometimes closed, often in self-defense, against the overwhelming voices of pain and suffering around us. We rarely hear the inspirations our angels are whispering to us.

We speak with difficulty. Yet our words wield enormous creative power, for good or for ill. The poet Wislawa Szymborska makes us aware of their power; she says,

Tissot

When I pronounce the word Future,

the first syllable already belongs to the past.

 

When I pronounce the word Silence,

I destroy it.

 

When I pronounce the word Nothing,

I make something no nonbeing can hold.*

 

Christ came to open our hearing, to open our hearts so that our words have the power to create. ‘Be opened,’ he says.  ‘Hear my voice in your heart.’  When you break your silence with love, you create a future which no non-being can destroy.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

*Wislawa Szymborska, “Three Oddest Words”. 

5th Trinity III 2020, Found Word

5th Trinity 

Luke 18:35-43 

Julia Stankova

It happened as he approached Jericho: a certain blind man was sitting by the road begging. Hearing the crowd going by, he wanted to know what was happening, and they told him Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. He cried out in a loud voice: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

Those leading the way threatened him and wanted him to be quiet. But he cried all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 

Jesus stopped and had him led to him. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want that I should do for you?” 

He said to him, “Lord, that I may look up and see again.” 

And Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Through your faith and your trust, the power for healing has been awakened in you.” (your faith has healed you.) 

At that moment, his eyes were opened. He followed Him and thus revealed the working of the divine within the human being--and all who saw it praised God.

 5^th Trinity

August 23, 2020

Luke 18:35-43

Light itself is invisible. Light only reveals itself in its working with darkness. In permeating the darkness, light creates color. Color is a manifestation of the creative work, the deeds of light.

The blind man in today’s reading wants to look up and see again. He asks the one who calls himself the Light of the World to be merciful to him, to interact with his darkness, so that together they may create. We can imagine that already the man’s courage to ask, his refusal to be silenced, has an inner color we could picture as a strong red. He has the clear green hope of healing. Christ verifies that a deep level of trust lives in him, which we might see as a deep blue. Indeed, the Light of the World is already working in him. Christ’s proximity already works to create the inner colors that light up in the soul’s darkness.

Though we may be blind to him, Christ is always near. 

We hear his words whenever we hear the gospels, whenever we listen to the inspirations of conscience. The light of his presence works with us to create the inner colors of the soul – the blue of trust, the red of courage, the green of hope. For the light shines in the darkness, and although we may not grasp it, we can receive it, bear it, gestate it, so that the soul gives birth to the Light’s colors. We can invite God to enter us, to work in us.

In the words of John O’Donohue:

… when we come to search for God,

Let us first be robed in night,

Put on the mind of morning

To feel the rush of light

Spread slowly inside

The color and stillness

Of a found word.*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

*John O’Donohue, “For Light”, in To Bless the Space Between Us.

4th Trinity III 2020, Territories of the Spirit

4th Trinity III

Luke 9:1-17 

He called the twelve together and gave them potent authority and formative

Tissot, Christ Sending

power, so that they could work against all demonic mischief, and heal all sickness.  And he sent them out to heal and to proclaim the Kingdom of God, appearing now on earth, the kingdom of human beings filled with God’s spirit.

And he said to them, “Take nothing with you on the way: no staff for support, no bag for collecting, neither bread nor money, no change of clothes. If you enter a house, remain there until you go further. And where they do not accept you, leave their city and shake the dust from your feet as a sign that they have refused community with you.” 

They left and walked through the villages of the country, announcing the joyful message of the new working of the kingdom of the angels and healing everywhere. 

Meanwhile, Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was happening, and he was very perplexed, for some said, “John has risen from the dead,” and others said that Elijah had appeared, and yet others, “One of the Prophets of old has risen again.” And Herod said, “John, I have had beheaded; who now is this, about whom I hear all these things?” And he wished to see him himself. 

And the apostles returned and reported to Jesus everything that they had accomplished. So he gathered them to himself and retreated with them to a city called Bethsaida for special instruction. But the people became aware of it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them of the Kingdom of God of the future, of the human kingdom on earth filled with the divine spirit, and he healed all who needed it. 

Woloschina

But the day began to decline. The twelve came up to him and said, “Send the crowd away so that they can reach the villages and farms in the vicinity and find food and lodging, for here we are in a deserted place.” He, however, said to them, “From now on, it falls to you; you give them to eat.” 

They answered, “We have nothing but five loaves and two fish. Or shall we go and buy food for all of them?“ There were about five thousand people. 

Then he said to the disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of fifty.” And they did so, and all reclined. 

Then he took the five loaves and the two fish and, raising his soul to the spirit, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. And they ate, and all were satisfied. And they took up the pieces that remained: twelve baskets full.

4^th  Trinity III

August 16, 2020

Luke 9:1-17

Events on earth can be described with certain facts and a particular narrative. But behind what can be seen and heard there stand beings who give vitality and direction to these events. 

Today’s reading describes two events: sending the twelve disciples to work together in the world, proclaiming the good news and healing. They are acting as Christ’s messengers. The second event involves a mysterious feeding of a great number of people. 

But behind the earthly narrative stand

Sombart, Feeding 5,000

mighty beings working in concert. One is John the Baptist, Elijah, whose name is interposed between the two events like a rumor. The other is, of course, Christ, who backgrounds Himself so that the disciples can step forward and work as mediators of His spirit. John works like a guardian angel for the circle of the disciples, helping gather and direct the flow of the Christ-stream into their working. 

And so it is even today: John with his great prophetic spirit works in tandem with Christ, behind the scenes, supporting those who are students of Christ. They both work invisibly, like angels, behind the narrative of world events. They support those who work, like the disciples, to proclaim the ever-resounding good news, those who work to heal the world’s ills, those who seek to nourish bodies, souls, and spirits. To become aware of their working is to increase our collaboration with them. So in the words of John O’Donohue: 

A journey can become a sacred thing:

Make sure, before you go,

To take the time

To bless your going forth,

Iris Sullivan

To free your heart of ballast

So that the compass of your soul

Might direct you toward

The territories of spirit

Where you will discover

More of your hidden life,

And the urgencies

That deserve to claim you.

 

May you travel in an awakened way,

Gathered wisely into your inner ground;

That you may not waste the invitations

Which wait along the way to transform you.*

 

www.thechrisitancommunity.org

*John O’Donohue, “For the Traveler”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 53

3rd Trinity III 2020, Alone Together

3^rd Trinity

Luke 15:1-32

Now many customs officials, despised by the people, who called them sinners and expelled them from their community, sought to be close to Jesus. They wanted to listen to him. The Pharisees and teachers of the law, however, were upset by this and said, “This man accepts sinners and eats with them!”

So he told them this parable:

Julia Stankova

“Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open and go looking for the lost one until they find it? And when they have found it, they lay it on their shoulders rejoicing. And when they come home, they call together their friends and neighbors and say to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost!’

I tell you, there will be more joy in the heavens over one human being, living in denial of the spirit, who changes their mind, than over the ninety-nine righteous who think they have no need of repentance.

Or which woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one, does not light a lamp, sweep the whole house and carefully search until she finds it? And when she has found it she calls together her friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost!’

In the same way, I tell you, there will be joy among the angels in the world of spirit over one human being living in denial of the spirit who manages to change their heart and mind. “

And he said further: “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Give me the share of the estate which falls to me.’  And he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey to a far country and squandered his estate in the enjoyment of loose living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine came over the land, and he began to be in need. So he went and attached himself to a citizen of the country who sent him out into his fields and let him herd swine. And he longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, but no one gave him anything.

John Macallan

Then he came to himself and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here of hunger. I will rise up and go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against the higher world and against you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Make me one of your hired men [workers].’

So he rose up and traveled along the road to his father. When he was still a long way off, his father saw him, felt his misery, ran toward him, embraced him, and kissed him. And yet the son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against the higher world and against you. I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Make me one of your hired men [workers].’

But the father called his servant to him. ‘Quickly! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet and slaughter the fattened calf. Then we shall eat and be merry. For this, my son was dead and is risen to life. He was lost and is found again.’ And they began to celebrate.

Charalambos Epaminonda

Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he returned home and came near the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants to him and asked him what it meant. He gave him the news: ‘Your brother has come home again. So in joy, your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back again safe and sound.’

The son grew dark with anger and didn’t want to go in. But his father came out and pleaded with him. He, however, reproached his father saying, ‘Look! For so many years, I have been with you and have never neglected one of your commands. But you never gave me so much as a goat that I might be merry with my friends. And now comes this son of yours who has eaten up your wealth in scandal, and you offer him the fattened calf.’

The father, however, said to him ‘Child, you are always with me, and all that I have belongs to you too. But now we should be glad and rejoice; for this, your brother was dead and lives; he was lost and has been found again.’

3^rd Trinity

August 9, 2020

Luke 15:1-32

Our effectiveness, both in the earthly and in spiritual matters, often comes down to one point. That point arrives when we recognize our own responsibility for the results of our actions. That point arrives when we finally realize that the consequences of our actions will require us to make compensation; when, as in the story of the lost son, we come to ourselves.

The parable emphasizes the joy that the father feels upon his son’s return. He expresses it as his dead son coming back to life. Implied is a rebirth, a new beginning. In realistic fashion, the story also expresses the anger the father’s joy arouses in the older self-righteous son.

The story assures us that despite our errors and weaknesses, that despite our

Kathryn Doneghan

grand failures and horrific mistakes, the divine world rejoices when we come to ourselves and to our desire to take responsibility for making compensation. And although the story ends on this note of rejoicing, we might imagine how things developed after the celebration. For although it is implied that the lost son won’t have to resort to being a day-laboring servant, we cannot imagine him wasting his new beginning, that precious moment of self-recognition and the opportunity to make compensation. Likely he went on to work hard to rebuild his father’s diminished estate. Perhaps his experiences in the world gave him the ability to find creative new ways to manage the estate and repay what he had squandered. And we can hope that he will be able to repair his relationship with his brother. In any case, we can be sure that his father’s love supports him in his efforts to make good. The story encourages us to begin again. For as the poet says:

….Every beginning is a promise

born in light ….

Begin to the loneliness that cannot end

since it perhaps is what makes us begin,

begin to wonder at unknown faces

alone together while making good.

 

Though we live in a world that …

always seems about to give in

something that will not acknowledge conclusion

insists that we forever begin.*

 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

*Brendan Kennelly, “Begin”, in Do Not Go Gentle

2nd Trinity III 2020, Projecting Dramas

2^nd Trinity

Matthew 7:1-29

 “Do not judge your fellow human beings, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, you too will be measured. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not become aware of the beam in your own eye? And how can you say to your brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye”  while there is a beam in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces.

Salvatore Rosa

Ask from the heart, and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for whoever asks in uprightness will receive; whoever earnestly seeks will find; whoever knocks, to them will be opened. Or are there among you those who when their son asks for bread would give him a stone, or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you who in spite of wickedness know how to give good things to your children, how much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly ask him for it.

All that you want that someone should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets.

Walk through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the path is easy that leads to ruin [the abyss], and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds it. 

Be on your guard against false prophets of healing. They come to you in the garments of peaceful lambs but inwardly are rapacious wolves. You shall recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. Never will you harvest grapes from a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. Every noble tree brings forth good fruit, but a wild tree only forms unusable fruit. A noble tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a wild tree cannot form good fruit. A tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be cut down and put in the fire. Therefore, recognize them by the fruits of their deeds.

Not everyone who addresses me with “Lord! Lord! can be taken up into the kingdom; only whoever accomplishes the will of my Father in the heavens. In the future, when the light of God breaks over the earthly darkness, many will call to me. They will say, “Lord! Lord! have we not worked in advance for your revelation? Have we not driven out spirits of destruction in honor of you? Have we not gathered multiple powers for your word?”

Then I will freely say to them, ‘I do not know you. My paths are not your paths. Depart from me, for you serve the forces of chaos [the downfall of the world].’

Everyone who hears such words from me and acts accordingly will be like

Burnand

someone who wisely built their house on bedrock. The clouds burst, the waves rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not totter, for it was founded upon the rock.

However, whoever hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like someone who foolishly builds their house upon sand. The rain comes down, the floods rise, the winds blow and beat upon the house, and it collapses with a great crash.”

When Jesus had finished saying this, the people were greatly moved, for he spoke to them out of spiritual authority, as if the powers of creation themselves spoke out of him, and not like their teachers of the law [canon-lawyers].

 2^nd Trinity

August 2, 2020

Matthew 7:1-29

In the theater, a film projector throws its pictures onto the screen. The pictures themselves exist in two places - both on the film in the projector and out on the screen.

In our own lives, we often have a ‘film’ running inside our souls. It is a drama with our Self cast as the main character. The script was written by our self, earlier in our life, or lifetimes.

 But sometimes we project our story, our film, onto others, making them a screen for the unfolding of our own narrative. We are unconsciously forcing them to play a role we have assigned to them, whether or not it fits, whether or not it is appropriate for their nature. This is actually a violation of their being. Our projecting onto them masks for us who they truly are.

In the Gospel reading, Christ encourages us to stop projecting our dramas onto others. He encourages us to stop seeing what is in need of correction ‘out there’, when in fact it is what lives in us that needs correcting.  But, as Rilke says:

We would like to heed his words,

but we only half hear them.

The big drama between us

makes too much noise

for us to understand each other.*

 

David Hayward

Christ is not asking us not to notice what is going on with others; rather we are first to discern between what is ours and what is truly theirs. And we are to take responsibility for our own stuff first.

This is not easy. It is the narrow gate, the gate of self-responsibility, through which few are willing to walk. But Christ, whose being is love, is both the Way and the Goal. He is the Way that leads to Life, the Living One. He helps us to see the Truth, the truth of who we are, the truth of others.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows.  

 

 

1st Trinity III, 2020, Metaphorical Masks

1st Trinity

Mark 8:27 - Mark 9:1

And Jesus went on with his disciples into the region of Caesarea Philippi (in the north of the land at the source of the Jordan where the Roman Caesar was worshiped as a divine being). And on the way there, he asked the disciples (and said to them), “Who do people say that I am?”

They said to him, “Some say that you are John the Baptist; others say, Elijah, still others that you are one of the prophets.”

Then he asked them, “And you, who do you say that I am?’

Alexander-Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht

Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

And he began to teach them: “The Son of Man must suffer much and will be rejected by the leaders of the people, by the elders and the teachers of the law, and he will be killed, and after three days he will rise again.” Freely and openly, he told them this.

Then Peter took him aside and began to urge him not to let this happen. He, however, turned around, looked at his disciples, and reprimanded Peter, saying to him, “Withdraw from me; now the adversary is speaking through you! Your thinking is not divine but merely human in nature.”

And he called the crowd together, including his disciples and said to them, “Whoever would follow me must practice self-denial and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever is concerned about the salvation of their own soul will lose it, but whoever gives their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel, their soul will find power and healing. For what use is it to a human being to gain the whole world if through that they damage their soul, which falls victim to the power of an empty darkness? What then can they give as ransom for their soul? In this present humanity, which denies the spirit and lives in error, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the shining revelation of the Father among his holy angels.”

And he said to them, “The truth I say to you, among those who are standing here, there are some who will not taste death before they behold the kingdom of God arising in human beings, revealing itself in the power and magnificence of the spirit.”

1^st Trinity

July 26, 2020

Mark 8:27-Mark 9:1

Both people and things wear metaphorical masks. The ugly bug in the garden turns out to be a beneficial. The carpenter building your cabinets turns out to have a Master’s in literature. If you can see beyond the surface, the world is full of surprises.

Peter and Christ 

Christ Jesus wore the mask of a poor, homeless itinerant preacher and healer. It took a flash of moral intuition for Simon Peter to catch a glimpse of what vastness lay behind the mask. He caught the flash of the Messiah, the Son of God.

The world itself wears a mask, much of it pasted on by our own way of perceiving it and thinking about it. And so, although he caught the greatness of Christ, Peter rejects Christ’s prediction of what he will do and suffer. It is too radically different from Peter’s expectations. And so he pastes a mask of human reasonableness onto the vastness of a truth he cannot comprehend.

Sometimes we too have a flash of insight. It can be fearsome. What seems to matter to Christ is that we not set ourselves in opposition to what must be; that we surrender ourselves to what He means to have happen in the world, no matter how frightening or repulsive or puzzling the mask may seem to us. We need to be able to say in the words of Adam Bittleston:

 

May the events that seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a quiet mind

Through the Father’s ground of peace

On which we walk.

 

May the people who seek me

Stephen B. Whatley

            Come unto me;

May I receive them

With an understanding heart

Through the Christ’s stream of love

In which we live.

 

May the spirits who seek me

Come unto me;

May I receive them

With a clear soul

Through the healing Spirit’s light

By which we see.*

 

---

*Adam Bittleston, Meditative Prayers for Today.  Order here.