3rd Passiontide 2021, Writing the Story

3^rd Passiontide

John 8:1-12

Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives,

Cranach the Elder

but as soon as day dawned, he was already in the Temple court, where the people flocked to him, and he sat down and began to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees led in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now, what do you say?" They said this only as a trap, in order finally to have a reason for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write something into the earth with his finger. When they kept on pressing him with questions, he stood up and said to them, "Whoever among you is without sin, let him cast the first stone at her." And again, he bent down and wrote into the earth.

When they heard this, their conscience began to stir within them, and they went out, one after the other, starting with the eldest. And only Jesus was left and the woman who stood in the middle. Jesus stood up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one passed judgment on you?"

"No one, sir," she said.

Then Jesus declared, "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin."

And Jesus began to speak to them again: "I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light in which there is life."

3^rd Passiontide

March 21, 2021

John 8:1-12

If one were to go to the shore and write 'I love you' in the sand, the waves would wash the letters away. The words would disappear. But their meaning, the love itself, would still exist.

Our deeds are the letters we write into the earth. Whether public or secret, they may seem to disappear. But their meaning remains.

A modern poet writes:

         …it's wrong to think people are a thing apart

from the whole, as if we'd sprung

from an idea out in space, rather than emerging

 

from the sequenced larval mess of creation

that binds us with the others,

all playing the endgame of a beautiful planet….*

Ninetta Sombart

Jesus bent down and started to write something
into the earth. The Gospel doesn't say what He wrote. But it certainly had something to do with deeds and their meaning for the earth.

Christ's whole life, His death, and His resurrection have inscribed their meaning permanently into the earth. And their sense still speaks: I love you, He says. I recognize your deeds. And I love you. Let my love for you shine before you. Let My love give you the strength for acts of integrity and worth, for we are writing the earth's story together.

 

---

* Alison Hawthorne Deming, “The Enigma We Answer by Living” in Genius Loci

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2nd Passiontide 2021, Eucharist of the Ordinary

2^nd Passiontide

John 6:1-15 

After this, Jesus crossed to the far

Margareta Woloschina

shore of the Sea of Galilee near Tiberius, and a great crowd of people followed him because they had seen the signs of the Spirit he had performed on those who were ill.

Then Jesus went up on the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near.

When Jesus raised his eyes to the world of the Spirit and beheld how crowds of people were coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, that all these people may eat?" He asked this to test his understanding and presence of mind, for he himself knew what he was going to do.

Philip answered him, "200 denarii [or, seven months wages] would not buy enough bread for them each to have only a little."

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, "A boy is here with five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are these among so many?"

Margareta Woloschina

Jesus said, "Let the
people sit down in groups." There was plenty of green grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave to those seated, likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.

Now when they were satisfied, he said to his disciples, "Gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost." So, they gathered them, and they filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, "Truly, this is the prophet who is to come into the world." When Jesus became aware that they intended to come and make him king by force, he withdrew again to the mountain alone by himself.

2^nd Passiontide

March 14, 2021

John 6:1-15

The Jewish Passover Feast celebrates the Hebrew peoples’ escape from the tenth plague—the death of their first-born. The blood of a lamb was smeared on the doorpost as a sign to the angel of death to pass over their house.  As a result of this plague, they and their children were released from bondage in Egypt.

Grunewald

In today’s gospel reading, the approaching

Passover feast of the year 33 will be different. The lamb will be Christ Himself, whose innocent selfless blood will be poured into the earth to keep her alive and free human beings from the death of matter. Meanwhile, Jesus raises His eyes in spirit vision and sees all of those human beings of future ages who will need strengthening nourishment to keep their souls alive.

In the reading, it is evening. One by one, the stars come out. The people sit near the Sea of Galilee, on the lush spring grass. Christ draws down the formative, healing, and revitalizing power that pours down from

Margareta Woloschina

His Father through the stars. These living forces Christ draw into bread and fish, into a form that can be taken in by human beings. The life in them is so potent that it takes very little to satisfy their hunger.

At His Last Supper, on Holy Thursday, He will pour that same power into Bread and Wine and make them bearers of the form of His body and the enlivening power of His blood. And along with them, He will pour His soul’s deep and selfless love.

Indeed, Christ is still drawing down living forces from the stars. He is still pouring His love into bread and wine. He wants to release us from the bondage of the mundane, of the ordinary. In the words of John O’Donohue:

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place

Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

Transforming our broken fragments

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.*

 

---

*John O’Donohue, “ The Inner History of a Day” in To Bless the Space Between Us

 

  

1st Passiontide 2021, Bring Light

 

First Passiontide

Luke 11:14-36

Jesus was driving out a demon from a
man who was mute. And it came to pass that as the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. However, some of them said, "He drives out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons." Others sought to test him by asking for a sign from heaven as proof of his spiritual power.

 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Any kingdom divided against itself will be desolated, and house will fall against house. And you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now, if Satan divides [were to divide] his powers within himself, how will [would] his kingdom be able to stand? You have not considered this when you claim that I drive out demons with the power of Beelzebub. If I drive out demons with the power of Beelzebub, with what power do your sons do it? Your sons will be your judges. But since, in fact, I encounter the demons with the authority of God's hand, it follows from this that the Kingdom of God has already come to you. 

"When a strong man in full armor guards his palace, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, the victor takes away the armor in which the man had trusted and divides it up as spoils.

"Whoever does not unite with my being is against me, and whoever does not gather in inner composure with me [or, work for inner composure with me] scatters.

"When an unclean spirit comes out of a person, it wanders through waterless places seeking a place to rest; and if it cannot find it, it says, 'I will return to the dwelling out of which I have come.' When it returns to this dwelling, it finds it cleaned and adorned. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself and enters and dwells in that person. And their final state is worse than the first."

As he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, "Blessed is the mother who bore you and nursed you."

But he said, "Truly blessed are those who hear the divine word in their hearts and tend it there."

And as the crowds increased, Jesus began

Queen of the South, Upper Rhenish

to speak. "This generation is a stranger to their true being. They look for signs and outer proofs of the Spirit, but none other will be given to them but the sign of Jonah; for just as once Jonah shared the experience of the Spirit with the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man share the experience of the Spirit with this present generation. The Queen of the South will rise in the time of great crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and judge them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But know this: here is more than Solomon.

"The inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up in the days of crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and will pronounce judgment over them, for they changed their ways after the proclamation of Jonah. But know this; here is more than Jonah.

"No one lights a lamp and then puts it in a hidden place or under a vessel, but rather sets it on a lampstand, so that all may see the light shining. The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye looks at the world clearly, then all your body is light. But when it is evil, your body is also dark. [or, But if, however, the eye's desire sees the world separated from the Spirit, darkness will pour itself into you.]

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it shall be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays."

1^st Passiontide

March 7, 2021

Luke 11:14-35

As is well-known, every coin has two sides. And although it has a center, it is flat; there is very little depth. A sphere, however, has an infinity of sides and a maximum of depth.

Ahriman and Lucifer, Arild Rosenkrantz

One side of the coin of our human
nature longs for wild enthusiasm, yearns to escape ourselves in ecstasy. And another side sneers in critical derision, binding us in unbelief. These are two sides of the coin of our nature—polarities, but without depth.

Christ, however, encourages us to expand our depth, become spheres. He encourages us to develop more flexibility in our thinking, to grow beyond our natural default settings of either/or, black or white. Ideally, we could look at things from a multiplicity of points of view, without settling into one extreme or another.

In the Gospel reading, Christ uses ordinary logic and common sense to refute those who would put him on either side of the good/bad coin. He widens the scope of thinking.

And his parables of the strong man guarding

Ninetta Sombart

his palace and the one who removes evil spirits from his house are a warning to us. He encourages us to remain in our center, to be present in the ‘house’ of our own being, our own bodies. We are to use our capacity of thought neither to escape ourselves nor to be bound in hopelessness. We are to become like spheres, expanding our points of view, developing thoughtful depth. From this deep place in the center of our humanity, we can connect with Christ. He is the Light of the World in the depths. In uniting with Him, our whole being can ignite. We can illuminate and warm. We can become a globe of light in the worlds we occupy.

In the words of John O’Donohue:

 

May the light of your soul bless the work

You do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May the sacredness of your work bring light and renewal

to those who work with you…*

---

*John O’Donohue, “For Work”, in To Bless the Space Between Us, p. 146.

  

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4th Trinity I, 2021, A Brightness

 

February Trinity I

(5^th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17:1-9

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them together up a high mountain apart from the others.

There, his appearance was transformed before them.

Fra Angelico

His face shone as bright as the sun, and his garments became white, shining bright as the light. And behold, there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, conversing in the spirit with Jesus.

And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be in this place. If you wish, I will build here three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly, they heard a voice from the cloud that said, "This is my son, whom I love. In him, I am revealed. Hear him."

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces to the ground in awe and terror. And Jesus approached them, and touching them, said, "Rise, and do not fear." And raising their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."

 4^th Feb Trinity

February 28, 2021

Matthew 17:1-13

Looking across a large body of water on
a sunny day, we can see the sunlight reflected on the surface. Sometimes that reflected light is so intense that we may wonder how we are not blinded. It is almost like looking at the sun itself.

In last week's Gospel reading, we heard how Christ overcame the temptations that beset all of us living in human bodies. The working of the adversary through the body had darkened the human spirit's radiance. But Christ did not allow that darkness to reside in His body.

In today's reading, we hear the results. Having cleared away the adversary's influence, Christ begins to shine like the sun. His transfiguration is a reflection of this. He radiates warmth and light. He has cleansed Himself of any potential for egotism or personal gain and can work on a higher level for the good of all humankind. He could be seen conversing together with His people's great spiritual leaders, with Moses, the leader from the past, and Elijah, the prophet of the future, Likely they are discussing his next task: to bring His light into every moment, even into death.

The poet R. S. Thomas speaks of the importance of this moment:

 

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

 

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.*

 

---

* R. S. Thomas, “The Bright Field”, in Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds, ed. by Neil Astley and Pamela Robertson-Pearce

 

 

3rd February Trinity, 5th Sunday before Easter 2021, Steering Through Deaths

February Trinity I

6^th Sunday before Easter (Sunday after Ash Wednesday)

Matthew 4:1-11
 
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the loneliness of the desert to experience the tempting power of the adversary.
 
After fasting forty days and nights,

Vasili Surikov

He felt for the first time hunger for earthly nourishment. Then the tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, let these stones become bread through the power of your word."
 
Jesus answered, "It is written, 'The human being shall not live on bread alone; he lives by the creative power of every word that comes from the mouth of God."
 
Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the parapet of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "
 
Jesus answered him, "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."
 
Again a third time, the devil took him to a very elevated place and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give to you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me as your Lord."
 
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship [pray to] God your Lord who guides you and serve him only.' "
 
Then the adversary left him, and he beheld the angels again as they came to bring him nourishment.

3^rd February Trinity
February 21, 2021
Matthew 4:1-11
 
Storms can cause floods. Rivers jump their banks; trees and boulders are loosened. Sometimes the river's course is changed forever as a new channel is cut.

We are all on a course toward developing our own divine angelic nature. For long stretches, things flow along as usual. But sudden events and changes can divert our course, for good or for ill. Sometimes things open up, and we are propelled forward. Or sometimes we discover that we long ago strayed into some side-channel and are no longer on the main route.

Christ began His life on earth with

Dore

what is our goal: a fully developed divine nature. His path was to become fully human. And just after he arrived, after His Baptism, he experienced the flooding. The adversary tries to overwhelm Him with the world's novelty and power seen from inside a human body. The adversary intends to alter His course, to steer him into a backwater existence, or strand him onshore. Christ's temptations are the temptations that beset every human being.

Christ avoids these dangers by steering His course firmly by the star of his own divine origin and purpose. He remains living within God's creative power; He quietly but firmly refuses to follow a false path of worship or the seduction of arrogance. And all the while, He steers intently toward His own death. For He set as his task to cut a new channel forward for all of humanity, out of the backwater, the mire, into which humanity had strayed.

Christ has made himself into a vessel, a ship by which we can keep to our own course through the depths and shallows of life. He helps us steer through the floods, avoiding the sandbars and backwaters. He is our guide as we make our way toward our divine goal through all of our lives. He helps us steer with confidence into and through our deaths.


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2nd Trinity I, 7th Sunday before Easter 2021

 

Feb. Trinity I

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

Luke 18:18-27, 31-34

 

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,

Hoffman

"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 humans alone, it is impossible. It will be possible, however, through the power of God working in them."

… 

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.

2^nd February Trinity

February 14, 2021

Luke 18:18-27, 31-34 

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are

looking forward to the richness of spring and summer's fullness; but below the equator, autumn and winter are approaching. This is a picture of a great truth on the soul level: Like the whole of the earth, over the whole of a lifetime, no matter what our riches, we must pass through loss and death to arrive at a new life. 

This is brought home to the rich young man in the gospel reading. He is rich, both inwardly and outwardly; he is in the summer of his development.  But Christ is asking him to take the next step—a step into an autumn shedding, the step into a winter sleep. He is to become a Lazarus, one who leaves behind a topside wealth for the good of others and lays down his life. 

At this moment in the gospel, the young man is very sadꟷhe already experiences the grief of loss. But in following Christ, he will be called forth to a whole new level of being. His loss and death will be real and complete. But so will be his completely new and unforeseen lifeꟷfor Christ will intimately and continuously accompany his further developmentꟷthrough loss and death, and into a further life. 

Mary Oliver says: 

Every year

everything

I have ever learned

 

in my lifetime

leads back to this: the fires

and the black river of loss

whose other side

 

is salvation

….

To live in this world

 

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it

 

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.*

 

*Mary Oliver, "In Blackwater Woods."

 

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1st Trinity I, Integrity

 

1^st Trinity I

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 nine o'clock, he went out

Burnand

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 three o'clock and did the same. At five 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.'

Burnand

"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.'

Burnand

"Those who had been hired at five o'clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those 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 one hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous?'

"Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last."

 

First Trinity I

February 7, 2021

Matthew 20:1-16

In the business world, what one is paid is often kept secret. This practice allows the owner to hire people as cheaply as possible, by the hour even.

The gospel presents an interesting work

Byzantine, Workers in the Vineyard

situation involving full disclosure. The master contracts openly with each worker for the standard day-laborer wage, for just enough to support their life for a day, no matter how long or short they had worked. Those working more hours did not earn more. Nor did those who worked fewer make less. Each simply received enough for the day’s need, for working together as long as they could. The day’s wages are given based on daily needs and human dignity, not on the number of hours worked.

Christ offers this story as a likeness of the

Codex aureus Epternacensis, 11th cent.

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

We have all agreed to work on fields of earth. Our work on earth gives us the opportunity to earn both the integrity of our selfhood (symbolized by our one denarius) and at the same time to build a healthy relationship to our fellow workers.

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

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