1st Michaelmas 2022, A Place for You

 

1^st Michaelmas

Matthew 22:1-14 

And Jesus continued to speak in parables to them: 

"The kingdom of the heavens [arising in human hearts]
is like a man, a king, who prepared a marriage feast for his son. And he sent out his servants to call the guests who had been invited to the marriage, but they would not come. 

"Then he again sent out other servants and said, 'Say to those who have been invited, 'Think, I have prepared my best for the banquet, the sacrificial oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered; everything is ready. Come quickly to the wedding.' 

"But they were not interested and went off, one going to his field to be his own master, another falling into the hectic pace of his own business. The rest, however, took hold of the servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

"Then the king grew angry; he sent out his army, brought the murderers to their destruction, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'Although the marriage feast is prepared, the invited guests have proved themselves unworthy. Go out, therefore, to the crossroads of destiny and invite to the wedding whoever you can find.' And the servants went into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. 

"Then the king came in to see the guests, and among them, he noticed a man who was not dressed in the wedding garment [that was offered to him]. And he said to him, 'My friend, you are sharing the meal; how did you enter here not having a wedding garment?' 

"But the man was speechless. 

"Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the darkness, where human beings wail and gnash their teeth. For the call goes out to many, yet only a few make themselves bearers of the higher life.' "

1^st Michaelmas

October 2, 2022

Matthew 22:1–14 

Burnand

We have probably at least once had a dream where
we showed up for an event and looked down at ourselves only to realize that we were not appropriately dressed. In the dream, we don’t know how we got that way. And we don’t know what to do — we are paralyzed. 

As human beings today, we find ourselves in a similar position. We find ourselves in horrifying situations and circumstances, not knowing how we got there or quite what to do about it. What we may not recognize is that, in fact, we are standing at the crossroads of destiny spoken of in the Gospel reading. We are all being called, invited to a wedding. Outer events have brought us to the place where the wedding is taking place. The Bridegroom is God’s Son. The Bride is the Soul of Humanity. 

Each of us is individually invited to be aware of the union of God and Humanity, to acknowledge and partake in the wedding. To begin with, we don’t have to “be good.” Whether we are good or bad seems to matter less than whether we are able at the right moment to hear the invitation, recognize its significance, and respond appropriately. We only have to respond by accepting the wedding garment offered to us and joining the process. 

One of the places, one of the portals to the wedding feast between the Divine and the Human is the Act of Consecration. An invitation goes out every time it is celebrated. To join in the celebration is to answer the invitation. And the appropriate dress, a wedding garment, is given to each of us at the beginning of the service. And what is the wedding garment? It is the reading of the Gospel. The Gospel reading itself is the festive garment in which to clothe our souls. 

The vestments the priest wears are an outer picture of what we all look like to the angels when we clothe our souls with the content of the Gospel, the good news from the realm of the angels. Each individual is asked to inwardly take it up, clothe themselves in it so that the wedding of God and Humanity can continue; so that the Son’s Father, the King, can come in and converse with us. Otherwise, we keep ourselves wailing and grinding our teeth in the outer darkness, when he would much rather nourish us with his comfort, strength, and purpose. For more than anything, he wants to call us friends, co-celebrants, as part of his kingdom. 

Having come, having clothed ourselves in the good news, having participated in the King’s service, we become the King’s people. We feel strengthened by our contact with Him and with his Son, by our conversation with them, by their words and deeds. And when it is time to leave the sacred hall when we have thanked them, we can say to them in the words of Rilke:* 

May both voices accompany me

when I am scattered again in city and fear.

They will serve me in the fury of our time

and help me to make a place for you

wherever you need to be.  

 

*Rilke’s Book of Hours—Love Poems to God, page 135.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

10th Trinity III, Reborn in Death

 10^th Trinity III

Luke 7:11-17 

Pierre Bouillon

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 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, 2022

Luke 7:11–17 

The Sunday Service for the Children speaks of Him who leads the living into the realm of death so that they may live anew. But it is not enough to simply come back to life again. It does not explain the real purpose behind the great cycling of life and death. That purpose is given in the next line of the children’s service: Christ leads what is dead into the realm of life so that it may behold, see, and grasp the Spirit of God itself. 

The funeral service speaks of the realm of the boundless, timeless world. This realm is filled with the power of God’s forward-streaming will. When we die, this
power of God’s will weaves together with the willing of our human soul. This weaving, knitting together of Christ’s will and human will creates an eye, an ocular in the soul. In the realm of death, this eye opens to behold Him, shining powerfully in the light realm of the Spirit. 

The widow’s son had been someone whose will had striven mightily toward beholding God. In the man’s visit to the realm of death, Christ’s creating will opened the widow’s son’s soul eye. And what he saw when his eye was opened was an opening between the realm of earth and the realm of the Spirit. And across that opening was a bridge between the realm of the living and the realm of the so-called dead. That bridge is Christ himself. 

Through Christ, we enter the realm of death. Through his power in our thoughts and hearts, we pass through time into the unbounded realm of timelessness. Through Christ, we are reborn within the realm of death. Through him, our soul’s eye no longer weeps but sees.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

   

9th Trinity III 2022, Harmonious Order

 

9th Trinity III

Matthew 6:19-34 

Arya Sheffer

"Do not save up your treasures on the earth, where moths and rust destroy and thieves tunnel in and steal. Save up your treasures in heaven, where no moth nor rust destroys, and thieves do not tunnel in and steal. Because where you have gathered a treasure, there your heart will bear you. 

"The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is wholesome, your whole body is lighted, whereas if your eye is bad, your whole body is in darkness. So if the light inside you is dark, what great darkness! 

"No one can serve two masters: either they will hate one and love the other, or they will put up with one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and greed's demon of riches [Mammon - spirit of hindrances or avarice]. 

"Therefore I tell you, do not trouble your heart about what you will eat and drink or with what you will clothe your body. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky: they do not plant, do not harvest, and do not fill barns, and your heavenly Father still feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you, by being vastly concerned, add one moment to the span of your life? 

Jan de Kok

"And why do you worry about clothing? Study how the lilies of the field grow.
They do not work, and they do not spin cloth. But I am telling you that not even Solomon in all his glory was ever arrayed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the wild grass of the field, here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not do much more for you, O small in faith? 

"So do not worry, saying, 'What will we drink? What will we wear?' The nations ask for all these things, and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Ask first for God's kingdom and its harmonious order, and these other things will be delivered to you as well. 

"So do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow can worry about itself. Today's trouble is enough for today."

 9^th August/Sept Trinity

September 18, 2022

Matthew 6:19-24 

It seems that suddenly the days have been shortened. It gets dark so early. Everything begins to seem so pressured and insufficient. A half-conscious anxiety creeps over us—we worry whether we will get everything done today, this month, this lifetime. We sense that the light is declining. 

This gospel reading comes at a good time. It tells us to look closely at the worries and fears that darken our inner landscape. It tells us of the importance of maintaining the inner light in the face of growing outer darkness. It encourages a light generated by an undivided trust in and devotion to the divine, in whose hands we are held. 

Ultimately worries and anxieties can be traced to the greatest fear that our little ego has — the fear of annihilation. The poet Rilke* gives us an interesting view of this fear: 

I cannot believe [he says] that little death

Collot d'Herbois

whom we so busily ignore

should still trouble us so.

 

I cannot believe that he is that powerful.

I’m still alive, I have time to build.

My blood will outlast the rose. 

For, (as he points out):

My knowing is deeper than the teasing way

he [death] likes to toy with our fear.

I am the world

he stumbled out of. 

What a thought! We human beings were here first. The fact that we live comes first; death is a secondary aspect of our existence, an emanation out of us. “I AM, I grow, I know” is primary and far more powerful than death’s mocking threats of annihilation. 

Death and life are not polar opposites, like black and white. Just as the year does not end in total darkness, but gradually segues into another spring, so death is not the end of life. The moment of death, like the moment of birth,  is actually a kind of solstice, the transition to yet another phase of life. Life does not end with death, but life and death become resurrection, life in another form, on another level, another kind of life. 

To recognize this threefold aspect of our existence, to recognize the life/death/life cycle is to know and therefore experience the revelation of God, as demonstrated by his Son. Being born, growing, dying, rising, knowing — this is the pattern of all human existence, the pattern which Christ, the Human God, fleshed out for us. This pattern lives in the smaller events in our lives and in the overall pattern of life itself. 

“So be not anxious; seek first for God’s kingdom and its harmonious order.” To connect with Christ is to know the Truth and to connect with the Way, the path to another level of Life. 

*Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, page 72

 

 

8th Trinity III 2022, His Great Heart

8^th Trinity III

Luke 17:5-37 

Jesus said to his disciples, "It is not possible for all hindrances to inner growth to be avoided. But woe to them through whom they come. It would be better for them if a millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea than that they should be the cause of disruption in inner growth for even one single delicately burgeoning human self. 

"Take heed to yourselves! If your brother has done you an injustice, reproach him with it. And if he changes his heart and mind, forgive him. And even if he treats you unjustly seven times a day and turns to you seven times and says, 'I have changed my heart and mind,' you should forgive him." 

And the apostles said to the Lord, "Strengthen our faith!" 

And the Lord said, "If you had faith as full of life as a mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine [or, mulberry] tree: be uprooted and be planted in the sea!  And it would obey you. 

"Who among you who has a servant for plowing or for herding sheep, who would say to him when he comes home from the field, 'Come at once and sit down at table?' Instead, you would say, 'Put on your apron, prepare the meal for me, and wait on me until I eat and drink; afterward, you can eat and drink too.' Does the servant deserve special thanks for doing his duty? Think of yourselves like that; when you have done all that you have been told to do, then say, 'We are feeble servants; we have only done what we were obliged to do.' " 

And as he was on the way to Jerusalem, he passed through the middle of Samaria and Galilee. And as he was entering a certain village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance, and they raised their voices, saying, "Master, Jesus, have mercy on us!" 

And seeing them, he said, "Go, and show yourselves to the priests." And it came about that as they went on their way, they were cleansed.

Now one of them, when he saw that he had been healed, turned back, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at his feet and thanked himꟷand he was a Samaritan. 

James Christensen

And Jesus responded and said, "Were not all ten cleansed? And the nine—where are they? Was no one seen returning to praise the revelation of God's working in this event except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way. The power of your trust has healed you." 

At that time, the Pharisees asked him, "When will the Kingdom of God come?"  

And he answered, "The Kingdom of God [The human Kingdom of the Spirit, permeated by God], does not come in a form which is outwardly perceptible. Nor does it come in such a way that one can say, 'Look, here it is, or there.' Behold—the Kingdom of the Spirit will arise in your own hearts." 

And he said to his disciples, "There will come times when you will long to experience even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not experience it. Then they will say to you, 'Look—there!' or 'Look—here!'  Do not follow this call; do not go on their spiritual paths. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning that flashes up in one part of the sky and yet instantly pours out its bright light over the whole firmament. But first, he must suffer great agony and be rejected by this present earthly humanity. 

"As it was in the days of Noah, so will it again be in the day when the Son of Man will reveal himself—they ate and drank, they came together in marriage as man and wife, until the day when Noah entered the Ark, and the great flood destroyed everything. It was the same in the days of Lot—they ate and drank, bought, sold, planted, built until Lot left Sodom, and fire and sulfur rained from heaven, and everything perished. It will be like that, too, in the days when the Son of Man will reveal himself. 

"When that time comes, let whoever is on the roof of the house, having left their goods in the house, not go down to fetch them. And let whoever is out in the open field not go back to what they have left behind. Remember Lot's wife! For whoever tries to preserve their soul unchanged will lose it, and whoever is prepared to give it, will in truth, awaken in themselves a higher life. I tell you, then there will be two sleeping at night in one bed; when the power of the spirit comes, one is gripped by it, the other is left empty. Two women will be grinding at one mill; one is deeply stirred, the other is left empty." 

And they said to him, "Where shall we turn our gaze, Lord?" 

And he answered, "Become aware of your life body, and you will see the eagles [of the Sun] that are gathering [within you]."* 

[or, Where there are descent and disintegration, there also is revelation.] 

[or, Where the formative life forces in the human being begin to work in freedom, there the Spirit of the World reveals itself.]

* The usual translation is "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather." But the Greek original uses the word 'soma', a word for a living body, not 'sarx', corpse. And 'aetoi' refers to eagles, not vultures. 

8^th August Trinity

September 11, 2022

Luke 17:20-37 

The human heart is complex. Not only does blood flow through it but also invisible components: Varied and intricate thoughts enter the heart and arise from it. Nuances and tides of feelings wash through it. Decisions and resolves of will form in it. 

Because of its nature, the human heart can become a place for Christ to visit,

Stephan B. Whatley

even to dwell. Our private individual religious practice, our daily prayers, and devotionals prepare and tune our hearts to receive the flow of Christ’s lifeblood through us. 

A congregation, too, has a heart. In the congregation, the invisible heart of each member becomes part of the larger heart of the community. Each contributes their thoughts, their feelings, and will. Each is indispensable. Whenever someone joins us, the communal heart swells and beats a little higher and stronger. 

The congregation’s religious practice is the sacraments, especially the Act of Consecration. In the Act of Consecration, when we join together our individual hearts to form the community’s heart, Christ’s life-giving blood flows further and even more strongly. 

Our collective heart is also joining invisibly with the collective hearts of other communities. On Sundays, all across the world, beginning in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and soon Korea, a great communal heartbeat sweeps sequentially through the time zones. As individual hearts join to form the communities’ hearts, congregations become vessels for the even greater heart of Christ. In Acts of Consecration, His powerful life pours in a mighty stream from east to west, gathering momentum and strength as each community celebrates His act of life. All through our night, in our sleep, we have been washed in the stream of the sequence of Acts of Consecration from east of us. The communities in Europe and Africa were strengthening us. And now, we communities on the east coast [of the US] join in pouring this creative and life-giving stream westward and into the future. We do this,

 so that the high and unifying thoughts of Christ’s great heart can enlighten humankind;

so that the life of His pure and ennobling feelings can warm and uplift our humanity;

so that His resolutions for our future, steeped in His love, can permeate the life of the world.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

7th Trinity 2022, Mantle of Peace

Burnand

 7^th Trinity III

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 happened 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. 

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

Tissot

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 [or, that your names are recorded in the heavens]."

 

7^th August Trinity

September 4, 2022

Luke 10:1-20 

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. Stay in that place….”

 These words of Christ give us insight into the true nature of peace.               

Equanimity

First of all, peace needs to be invoked. At the threshold of any new situation, we
need to stop for a moment and inwardly call up peace from within ourselves. We do so in finding the calm center of our being in which Christ can be found. Then we can send the peace we find there out before us into the situation. 

Then if that situation contains those who are also capable of calling up peace from within, if they too are sons and daughters of peace, our peace alights on them like a mantle that strengthens their peace. Peace multiplies, for they, in their turn, send peace back to the giver. 

If not, then the peace we send out will turn and come back to us. Peace sent out does not dissipate just because there is no one out there to receive it. In such a situation, there is always at least one person of peace – the one who sent it out. Such a precious commodity is never poured out in vain. If not received by another, it can always return to the giver as a strengthening of their own forces of peace. It only dissipates if not caught again. 

Stephen B. Whatley

Returned peace strengthens the giver so they can fulfill Christ’s next words – “Stay in that place….” We are not to run away, discouraged or dismayed by a lack of like-mindedness. We are to calmly remain for a while. A calm person of peace has the power to keep underfoot the snakes of deceit as a quiet champion of the truth. We have the power to neutralize the destructive power of the scorpion. With peace invoked from within our own hearts, Christ assures us that the destructive powers shall not hurt us. Our peace shines with His peace into the realms of the heavens. The names of those of peace, names that are both given and earned, shine in the heavens. 

For Christ says, “This peace with the world can envelop you and radiate from you because it is I, the Prince of Peace, who give it to you.”  His power of truth and self-disciplined love guide us toward humankind’s future. May we walk with him wrapped in the mantle of his ever-flowing peace. 

www.thechristiancommunity.org

https://cynthiahindes.blogspot.com

 

6th Trinity III, 2022, Be Opened

 6th Trinity III

Mark 7:31-37 

Julia Stankova

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 spoke with difficulty and asked him to lay his hands on him. 

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 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 August Trinity

August 28, 2022

Mark 7:31-37 

Before the sun rises, the world is hushed. It is as if creation awaits in silence the making of a new day. The one in the gospel who was deaf and mute was enclosed, enwrapped in silence. And silently, Christ worked to prepare him. 

First, he drew him aside, apart from the crowds. He helped him come to himself. Then silently, Christ touched those senses in need of healing — the closed ears, the fettered tongue. Christ’s silent gesture spoke volumes. ‘Here,’ he says, ‘through your closed ears, you are self-enclosed. You can only hear your own thoughts. And thus your speech is captive.’ 

Then he looked heavenward. The deaf one, too, perhaps, raises his eyes to the heavens, to the profoundly silent world of the Father. And like a breath of fire — Ephphata! — Be Opened! — sweeps through him. The Word blazes within him. The man opens, he hears; he begins to speak, clearly, joyously. And this word of flame ignites the crowd and begins to spread. A new life begins. 

Christ burns away our dross. It is he who removes our impediments and barriers. It is he who shows us the way into our future. 

Ephphata, artist unknown

In our own moments of self-created silence, we pray to him to release our future. In the words of Rilke: 

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken

I want to free what waits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear….

May what I do flow from me like a river

no forcing, and no holding back…

Then…I will sing you as no one ever has,….*

 

* Rilke’s Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows, page 58

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

5th Trinity III 2022, Divine Working Within

 5th Trinity III

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." [or, 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 III
August 21, 2022
Luke 18:35–43 
 
Christ is always willing to work with us. He moves along with us in our lives, always nearby. But a veil of opposition, all the attempts of the adversary to prevent a face-to-face encounter, blind us. Christ waits for us to call out to him. And with great respect, he asks us: “What do you want that I should do for you? (Luke 18:41).
 
What would each of us answer? What is our deepest wish?
 
The blind man asks for vision. His physical blindness is a metaphor for the blindness of all humanity. He is asking not only for the healing of his earthly sense of sight. He is also asking to be able to perceive the beings and workings of the upper worlds. He is asking for the healing of the old, deep wound; it was caused long ago by the Fall when we were catapulted out of conscious companionship with the angels. We are blind to their presence and working.
 

Julia Stankova

The blind man himself had taken the first few steps. He had overcome outer obstacles. He asks for a deeper level of healing, and because he is ripe for it, Christ can point out that the potential for healing is already within him. “Through your faith and trust,” he says, “the power for healing  [the old human wound] has been awakened within you” (Luke 18:42).
 
At that moment, his eyes are opened. And what
does he see? He sees the miraculous paradox. He sees standing before him the highest Son of God within the flesh of the noblest human being. God in the flesh.
 
In the Act of Consecration, we, too, have the opportunity to become seeing. We have overcome obstacles and resistances to arrive here. We ask that we, too, may look up and see. Our eyes open, and we perceive the miraculous paradox — the highest God in a body of bread and wine. And we begin to see on a higher and deeper level.
 
“Thus is revealed the working of the divine within the human being” (Luke 18:43).