1st Michaelmas 2007, Crossing

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  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

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.”

Crossing, Sanz-Cardona

1^st Michaelmas

September 30, 2007

Matthew 22: 1-14

Sometimes there are doors we have to open. We may fear opening them and meeting what we think is on the other side. Especially if we imagine it is something awful.

Usually the reading for the Sunday before Michaelmas brings us right up to the threshold of death. The young man of Nain, who walked through the dreaded door, was wakened to life. We ourselves have now opened a door in a threshold of the year. We have passed through the equinox, and from now on, the outer darkness will increase. 

Yet today’s reading reveals a surprise. We are crossing, not into something fearsome; we are entering the banquet hall of a wedding. We have all been invited to a feast celebrating, not death and extinction, but rather celebrating our joining the Bridegroom of the Soul. We are crossing into a region that wants to celebrate new life, the life beyond the threshold of death.

True, some things in the soul we must destroy before we are fit for the wedding hall: things such as over-concern with earthly cares that prevent us from responding to the call from beyond. Or, like the man who refused to put on the wedding garment, we can simply be too satisfied with ourselves as we are, or too lazy to make the changes that will outfit us for the bridegroom.

But for those who respond to the invitation with courage and humility, who show up with some minimal preparation, clothed in grace, there is a feast among the angels. The King and His Son greet us joyfully. And we may hear:

Turn your back on those

Tintoretto, The Wedding Feast

Who would imprison your wondrous spirit

With deceit and lies.

Come, join the honest company

Of the King’s beggars –

Those gamblers, scoundrels, and divine clowns…

Who need Divine Love….

Come, join the courageous

Who have no choice

But to bet their entire world

That indeed

Indeed, God is Real.[1]

---

[1] Hafiz, “A Golden Compass”, in I Heard God Laughing, Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 45.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Michaelmas 2008, Marrying the Sun

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  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

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.”

Michaelmas

Sept 29, 2008

Matthew 22: 1-14

This is the time of harvest. Part of the harvest process is sorting. The really good fruit is sent on. The middling fruit serves a second tier purpose. And what fails to measure up is rejected and discarded.

Today’s gospel reading involves a kind of inner harvesting of human soul qualities. The King of human hearts is looking for those with fruits of soul expressed in particular soul qualities. He wants to invite them into an intimate event with Him. He first “picks” those whom he could expect to be near and dear, His Chosen Ones. But unfortunately over time these souls had become distracted with ownership and business. These souls had developed necessary qualities which serve well in the temporal realm. But they had forgotten their previous engagement. The servants’ reminder that they were meant to be elsewhere aroused at best, indifference, and at worse, destructiveness. They murder the messengers.

The King of human hearts then expands His search for those soul qualities in anyone at all who will fill His banquet hall. Ordinary definitions of good and bad don’t seem to count here. All that seems to be necessary is that one present oneself. In showing up, in being present, one will be gifted with what else is required. In the story one soul shows up and is given a festive garment with which to outfit himself properly for this very special event in the realm of the heart. But he refuses the gift. And he is rejected. The only soul quality that makes us unworthy is the refusal to clothe oneself differently. The only quality that send us into the outer darkness is the refusal to change.

All of these characters in the story are aspects and qualities of our own soul. Our indifference, or over-concern with the temporal, our outright refusal to clothe our souls with what is befitting in the Father’s realm of the heart, make us into measly fruit, fruit that fails to measure up, that fails to serve the banquet. That which we refuse to produce, to develop and grow in our souls is then thrown into the heap of destiny. Our failures produce the darkness, “where human beings wail and gnash their teeth. For the call goes out to many, but few make themselves bearers of the higher life.” Matthew 22:13,14. It is up to us to take up the invitation and to present ourselves as bearers of higher life.

We can train in ourselves the qualities of loving, of putting aside our self-centered egotism, our indifference, our murderous anger. We can do our best, and still need to acknowledge that we need the gift of the wedding garment, the gift of grace from above. Worthy or not, we can answer the King’s invitation to the wedding of His Son. For the wedding we show up for (or not) is our own. It is the soul’s own wedding to the Son who loves us.

The poet said,

I want both of us

To start talking about this great love

As if you, I and the Sun were all married

And living in a tiny room.

Helping each other to cook,

Do the wash,

Weave and sew,

Care for our beautiful

Animals.

We all leave each morning

To labor on the earth’s field

No one does not lift a great pack.

I want both of us to start singing like two

Traveling minstrels

About this extraordinary existence

We share,

As if

You, I, and God were all married

And living in

A tiny

Room.[1]

---

[1] Hafiz, “I Want Both of Us”, in The Gift, Poems by Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, p. 180.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Michaelmas 2009, Called

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  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

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.”

Michaelmas

Sept 29, Oct 4, 2009

Called, Arild Rosenkrantz

Matthew 22: 1- 14

In today’s reading, Christ describes the human heart as a kingdom. The ruler of this kingdom of the heart is our Father. His sovereignty is expressed in the law of “what you sow, so shall you reap.” If we sow responsiveness, we will be welcomed; if we sow rejection, He has no choice but to send us away.

The heart’s king has a son, the heart’s Bridegroom. Together Father and Son invite us to the Great Wedding of the Divine Bridegroom and the Soul of Humanity. All are invited to this wedding. Disinterest, self-sufficiency and too-busy-ness are the only things that stand in our way. The only requirement is for us to show up in the proper soul attire. We are to be willing to clothe ourselves in the high festive garment of offering, and to humbly converse as honored guests with the heart’s King. Those who cannot do so go back to the darkness of the exterior world, bound hand and foot by the consequences of their deeds.

But even so there is hope. For the wedding feast is an ongoing one; the invitation is always going out. And even in the outer darkness we can grow to find the path to the wedding.  

When day withdraws to the ends of the earth

their fires shine on a dark expanse of sand.

….The heart flies from tree to bird,

from bird to distant star,

from star to love; and love grows

…, turning and working,

servant of thought, a lamp held in one hand.[1]

We are all on our way to the Wedding. Some have already been, and are finding their way back; but we all have an invitation, and all hold the soul’s lamplight, the light of love, to help us find the way.

---

[1] Philippe Jaccottet, “Distances”, in The Selected Poems of Philippe Jaccottet, translated by Derek Mahon

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Michaelmas 2010, Who Is Like God?

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  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

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 Sunday

October 3, 2010

Matthew 22: 1-14

It is the time when fruits of the field are gathered in. These fruits contain the seeds of next year’s life. They are the fruits of the collaboration between nature’s labor, nature’s life, and ours.

We are also laboring to create fruits in our own lives, to create the seeds of the next life. For there is indeed always a next life. The gospel reading hints at this seed-being in us: the whole story is in the context of a wedding. And a wedding stands at the beginning of a fruitful, generative relationship.

Yet the gospel also hints at several things that hinder us from generating new life: the first is not heeding the invitation. Opting for generative life is indeed a choice, a decision. Then there is being too caught up with the ordinary earthly, or even being actively destructive, like those who kill the messengers. What also hinders is a lack of inner follow-through, like the man who arrives, but does not go so far as to put on the wedding garment.

But for those who heed the invitation, who take the time out of their busy lives to show up, who put on the garment of pure love and joy, there is an opportunity. They can begin to converse as friends with the King and His Son. It is the beginning of generating a new kingdom on earth; a kingdom arising in human hearts, a kingdom of pure generative love.  This is what we pray for in the Act of Consecration of Man—that in offering ourselves, there be born in us the gentle warmth of creative love.

Michael the Archangel, whose feast we celebrate now, is often pictured in art as holding balance scales. He is a kind of gatekeeper. Michael, whose name means ‘Who is like God?’ weighs human hearts. He is looking for those souls whose hearts are feather-light with potential for the radiance of love. It is these souls he admits to the wedding; to them he gives the wedding garment and leads them into the hall that is beginnings of the kingdom.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Michaelmas 2011, Wedding the Heart of the World

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  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

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.”

Temple of Peace, Arild Rosenkrantz

Michaelmas

September 29, Oct 2, 2011

Matthew 22: 1-14

The kingdoms of nature have increasing degrees of inwardness. Minerals are all surface and solids. Plants have channels where the sap flows. Animals have a soul space in which their emotions play. But only the human being has the potential to create entire worlds within, or to enter other worlds from within.

Today’s reading asks us to enter a kingdom, an inner kingdom that one enters through the human heart. We come upon the narrative at a moment when an invitation to gather has gone out. It is an invitation to join with others in a kind of parallel inner realm. It features a wedding and a celebratory meal.

For every Act of Consecration of Man, an invitation goes out. We are all invited to come and enter this inner realm together, to put on the white garment of earnest intention. We are invited to share the meal that celebrates the marriage of the human heart with the Heart of the World. Among the guests are those who have arrived long before us,  those, living and dead, who serve the King. One entrance to this kingdom is the door of the chapel. But the real threshold to the wedding hall is in our hearts.

May we seek and find the way in; for we are all invited.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Michaelmas 2012, Everything Sacred

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  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

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

Parable of Wedding Feast

Sept 29 and 30, 2012

Matthew 22:1-14

Today’s reading describes the human heart as a kingdom. This kingdom in our heart is populated by a dynamic cast of characters.

There is the king, who oversees the whole kingdom and guides its events. One could say that the King is our destiny. There are the parts of us bringing us messages from the King; parts of us that are busy, distracted from our true destiny, even murderously destructive. And there are the parts of us that answer the call, even if they are not yet fully fit to participate, like the one who did not put on the wedding garment.

And finally there is the King’s Son who is to wed. Whom will the Son wed? He wants to wed our soul: our willing, our feeling, our thinking. For He deeply loves us. In the depths of our heart there dwells One ready and waiting to join His life to ours.

Our destiny tries to guide us to the wedding. We must, in freedom, ignore the busybodies in us, subdue the fear that would destroy our true destiny. Now is the time to answer the invitation. In the words of the poet:

          ….

Now is the time to understand

That all your ideas of right and wrong

Were just a child's training wheels

To be laid aside

When you finally live

With veracity

And love.

….

What is it in that sweet voice inside

That incites you to fear?

 ….

This is the time

For you to compute the impossibility

That there is anything

But Grace.

Now is the season to know

That everything you do

Is sacred.[1]

www.thechristiancommunity.org

---

[1] Hafiz, “Now is the Time” in The Gift - versions of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky

1st Michaelmas, Sept 29, 2013, Courageous Humility

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  which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

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

Collot d'Herbois

September 29, 2013

Matthew 22:1-14

After the heat and busyness of summer, we can feel ourselves coming to ourselves, reawakening within ourselves. We take heart in the face of the coming winter’s work (or, in the Southern Hemisphere, summer’s work).

Our hearts are the crossing point between the inner world and the outer. It is there that we enact the consecration of the human being. It is our heart that turns toward Christ. It is in our heart that the fire of creative live will be enkindled. Our heart will become aware of the light of the spirit.

This is the time of the year when the call goes out to the heart. We are invited to join in the wedding feast of humankind. The Soul of Humanity is wedding the King’s Son in the kingdom of the heart. We can ignore the call; we can rush in, unprepared. Or we can approach the inner hall with earnest intent, ready to encounter Michael the Archangel at the threshold. As the poem says:

With hearts aglow men mark the changing fresh world,

When from the stars Michael's spear is hurled.

Sleepers awake, hark to the word of the world

Breaking old summer's dull drowsy spell,

Show us the way,  go with thy spear before,

Forge us the future, thou Michaël.[1]

At the threshold Michael will give us our wedding garment: the garment of courageous humility.  In this garment we will be ready to greet the King and His Son.

---

[1]A. C. Harwood,  "St. Michael Poem"