Easter 2015, Harbingers of Light

Easter Sunday

Mark 16: 1-18

And when the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb just as the sun was rising. And they said to one another, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?”

And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back—and it was very large. And they went into the tomb. There they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clad in a white robe; and they were beside themselves with amazement. And he said to them, “Do not be startled; you seek Jesus of Nazareth the Crucified One. He is risen; He is not here; see, there is the place where they laid Him [his body]. But go, and say to his disciples and Peter “He will lead you to Galilee. There you will see Him as He promised you.”

                And they went out and fled from the tomb in great haste, for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and being awestruck, they were unable to say anything to anyone about what they had experienced.

When He had risen early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom He had driven out seven demons. And she went and told those who had walked with Him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, their hearts could not grasp it.

After this He appeared in another form to two of them on the way as they were walking over the fields. And they went back and told the rest, but they could not open their hearts to their words either.

Afterwards He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were celebrating the meal. He reproached them for their lack of openness and for their hardness of heart, because they had not wanted to believe those who had seen Him, the Risen One.

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the new message from the realm of the angels to the whole of creation. Whoever unites his heart with it [believes] and is immersed in me [baptized] will attain the salvation. But whoever closes himself against it does not let the power of selflessness into his heart [does not let the power of My Self into his heart] will meet his downfall. And spiritual powers [these signs] will stand by those who unite themselves with it [believe] and will attend their path : Through the power of my being [in my name] they will drive out demons; they will speak a new language; serpents they will make upright, and poisons they are given to drink will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and give healing forces to them.

Easter Sunday

April 5, 2015

Mark 16: 1-18

In the week before His death, Christ said “unless a kernel of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

The Risen One, Gruenewald, Wikipedia

The living power of Christ’s blood entered the earth at His crucifixion. And His body was placed into a cave in the earth. He, the great Light-Seed, died into the earth. On Holy Saturday, he rooted himself firmly into the earth, descending to the dead. On Easter morning, the first new shoots of His new Life broke forth from underground. New Life, capable of reproducing itself infinitely, began to grow.

At Ascension. He will open himself wide to the cosmos, while still remaining connected to the earth. And so this new Life will blossom into the whole world. At Pentecost His manifold light-seeds will fall into the hearts of those who love him.

And now, today, we rejoice because new Life is flashing forth from death. It is emerging from its apparent demise; it flares up from the ground of our hearts. The Light-Seed is quickening in the earth, in us. For today, as the poet says,

Every man, plant and creature in Existence,

Every woman, child, vein and note

Is a servant of our Beloved -

A harbinger of joy,

The harbinger of

Light.[1]

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[1] Hafiz, ”Guardians of His Beauty”, in The Subject Tonight is Love -- versions by Daniel Ladinsky

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2015, Gentle He Is

4th Passiontide

Hipolyte Flandrin

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.

           

Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!

Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4th Passiontide

Palm Sunday, March 29, 2015

Matthew 21: 1-11

The images and pictures of Holy Week reveal a secret. In mythology, the donkey is a symbol for the physical body – Brother Ass, as St. Francis called it. Many of us may feel ourselves submerged within our bodies. Or perhaps the body feels like a runaway donkey dragging our spirits along. Or perhaps, especially as we get older, we may feel our body as a burden that we are coaxing along behind us like an unwilling and stubborn animal.

Monk with a Donkey, Buongiorno

Christ came to help human beings establish a new relationship to their physical nature. The image of Christ riding the donkey and its foal in majesty is a picture of our own future. We will one day lovingly and gently master our bodily nature and it will carry us where we want to go. The picture image of the new young foal even hints at the future development of a new kind of body.

Here at the beginning of Holy Week Christ directs His body toward Jerusalem and its Temple. After today He will enter and leave every day on foot, until late Thursday, when he will remain, entering into the body’s death process. And at the moment of death, the birthing of a new kind of body, the resurrection body, will begin.  Step by step we can accompany this process, for

Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.

Gentle He is,

 and he rides on a donkey

and on a foal of beast of burden. Matthew 21:5

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3rd Passiontide 2015, Spread of a Sun

John 8: 12-20

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

Then the Pharisees said to him, “How can you be your own witness? Your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus answered them, “Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is valid, for I know from where I come and where I am going. You judge according to the physical aspect of Man, but I judge no one. Yet even if I did judge, my judgment would be valid; for I am not alone, but HE who sent me is with me. In your Law it says that the testimony of two persons is valid. I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me also testifies to me.”

Then they said, “Where is your Father?” And Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. I you knew me, you would know my Father also.” These words he said as he was teaching in the treasury of the Temple. And no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.

3^rd Passiontide

March 22, 2015

John 8: 12 – 20

The sun generates a tremendous amount of energy, which it radiates forth into the universe. It pours out the substance of its being as light and warmth. In the beginning it called forth creation. The sun’s light and warmth continue to stimulate and support life. Without the sun, we and the planet would soon die.

Christ calls himself the light of the world. And this is no mere simile. For the being which once lived within the sun, together with his Father generating and radiating its warmth and light, that being came to live on earth in Christ Jesus. He is ever sacrificing the substance of his own being to bring us life-giving forces. His life stimulates our life; the life of our bodies, the life of our souls and spirits.

Our openness of soul and spirit, heart and mind, are what allows him to shine his warmth and light into us. He shines his invisible light on our path, illuminating the way. His invisible light allows us to see truth amid the darkness of lies, illusions, deceit. His warmth lets us experience his life-giving blessings. Had he not come to earth, the planet would long since have died.

He came to make the earth into a new radiant star, the star of love. He can only do so if we open ourselves to his light, his warmth, his love. Then will he not only be with us; he will be in us.

In the first morning of the world created,

on the skin of water reflected,

is the spread of a sun,

and the sun, like god, is a power

you cannot see.

Only what it lights on,

only what it touches with warmth…[1]

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[1] Linda Hogan, “Light”, in Rounding the Human Corners 

2nd Passiontide 2015, Bread and Insight

2^nd Passiontide

March 15, 2015

John 6: 26 -35

When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off over the sea for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "I AM, have no fear" Now when they wanted to take him into the boat, immediately the boat was at the land, at the place where they wanted to go.

The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"

Feeding Five Thousand, M. Woloschin

Jesus answered, “Amen, amen, the truth I say to you: You are seeking me not because you saw signs of spiritual power, but because you ate of the bread and were satisfied.

Do not work for the food that spoils, but create for yourselves the nourishment that leads to imperishable life, which the Son of Man will give you because he is totally permeated by the being of the Father God [upon him the Father has set his seal].

Thereafter they said to him, “What must we do in order to learn to do deeds which endure [that our deeds may work with the working of God]?

Jesus answered, “The working of God is [already in] this: that in your whole being there begins to stir trust in him whom he has sent.”

And they asked further, “What sign of the spirit can you perform in order that we see and therefore come to trust in you? What effect do your deeds have in the present time? Our fathers ate manna in the desert, as it says in scripture: ‘Bread from the heavens he gave them to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “The truth I say to you, it was not Moses who gave to you bread from the heavens, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from the heavens. The bread from the world of the spirit is he who descends to you from the heavens; he gives himself as the true, unceasing life of the world.”

Then they said, “Lord, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I AM the bread of life. He who finds the way to me will hunger no more, and he who comes to me in faith and trust will nevermore thirst.

2^nd Passiontide

Jesus Walks on the Sea, Ivan Aivazovsky

March 15, 2015

John 6: 26 -35

Today’s gospel reading takes place right after the feeding of the five thousand. The disciples are in a boat, rowing hard in stormy darkness. Christ comes toward them, a shining beacon. “Have no fear,” he says. “I AM.” His earlier feeding of them has awakened in them a capacity to see and distinguish Him elsewhere, when they are at sea in the darkest storm. When they take Him in, they are immediately where they need to be.

In our lives there are of course also times of stormy darkness, where efforts are needed to keep our souls from capsizing. To us too, he says, Have no fear. He has nourished and fed us at the altar. We have taken him in. When we remember this with all the strength of our trust in Him, we take him into our soul-ship with us, and we are where we need to be.

Indeed, to the crowd the next day Christ points out that they have sought him because of spiritual nourishment, because they had eaten of the spiritually strengthened bread and were satisfied. And He urges them, as He urges us, to search for such spiritual nourishment; to search for Christ Himself, who is the Bread that supports the eternal life of our souls. He urges us to recognize Him, He who approaches us always amid the storms of life. We can pray in the spirit of the Lord’s prayer:

Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.*

*Neil Douglas-Klotz, Prayers of the Cosmos: Meditations on the Aramaic Words of Jesus

1st Passiontide 2015, Toward the Light

Driving Out a Mute Demon, Wikimedia

1st Passiontide

Luke 11: 14-35

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. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? And you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub? Now if I were to drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers do it? Therefore, they shall be your judges.

But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, it follows 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.

He who does not unite with my being is against me; and he who does not gather in inner composure with me [work for inner composure with me] scatters.

When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, 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 man. And his 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.”

1^st Passiontide

Luke 11:14 – 28

March 8, 2015

This gospel reading is a wake-up call. Present day humanity is under a great deal of duress. It has become easy for us to wish for an all-powerful, magical ruler who will set everything to rights. But the problem, as Christ puts it, actually lies within us. As does the solution.

We are estranged from our own true being, deaf to higher inspirations. So rather than searching for salvation from without, we need to be willing, like Christ, to take the path of descent, to ride out the hard road of suffering. We need to be willing to change our own inner ways. We can develop the capacity to see and hear both ourselves, and the world, clearly and impartially, with inner equanimity.

In this way, the light of the Risen One, who shines in the depths of every human heart, can illuminate every circumstance in which we find ourselves. He will help us drive out our inner demons so that a clear light, awakened by His Word, shines out from the depths of our being. As David Whyte says:

…the lightest touch,

…

a whispered healing arrival,

a word in your ear,

…then, like a hand in the dark,

it arrests the whole body,

steeling you for revelation.

In the silence that follows

…you can feel Lazarus,

deep inside

even the laziest,

most deathly afraid

part of you,

lift up his hands

and walk toward the light.[1]

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[1] David Whyte, “The Lightest Touch”, in River Flow: New and Selected Poems

4th February Trinity 2015, Dawn Coming

4^th or 5^th February Trinity

Tissot, Brooklyn Museum

(5^th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17: 1-13

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. His face shone 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.”

And the disciples asked him, “What is meant when the scribes say, ‘First Elijah must come again’?” He answered, “Elijah comes indeed, and prepares everything [restores all things]. But I say to you, Elijah has already come, and the people did not recognize him, but rather have done to him whatever they pleased. In the same way the Son of Man will suffer much at their hands.”

Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.

4^th February Trinity

March 1, 2015

Matthew 17: 1-13

This gospel reading shows us the moment when the spirit of Christ, the glorious radiance of God’s love, fully penetrates the body and soul of Jesus. He shines like the sun. He has reached the stage of enlightenment.

Had he been a Buddha, this moment of fulfilled enlightenment would have meant that he no longer had any need to remain in the body. He could have ascended to heaven. Instead, he chooses the path of descent. He steps back onto the earth. He touches his disciples. He comes down from the mountain with them and consciously walks his way toward his coming torture, his sacrificial death, his descent into hell. He does so with confidence and trust. For the setting of his sun would be followed by another greater sunrise.

Christ Jesus is the archetype of our being fully human. We can pattern our responses after him. After every high point, we can consciously bring ourselves back to earth. We can accept our sufferings with willingness. We can face our own demise with confidence. For as the poet Tagore said, 

Death is not the extinguishing of the light, but the putting out of the lamp, because Dawn has come.

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3rd February Trinity 2015, The Quiet Mystery

Blake

3^rd, 4^th February Trinity

(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, 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."

Botticelli

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 again the angels as they came to bring him nourishment.

3^rd February Trinity

(Sunday after Ash Wednesday)

Matthew 4: 1-11

Monreale

We are spiritual beings living in earthly human bodies. Over the course of the ages, these bodies have become ‘infected. ’ To use a computer analogy, it is as though adversarial beings have inserted various viruses into our human constitution. They have so-to-speak’ corrupted our files’. They are attempting to commandeer them in order to make us do things not originally intended by the Maker. Jesus is our security adviser. He helps us figure out how to work around the problems.

First we are not to pay attention solely to the earthly side of things. We are to recognize that we are nourished not only by bread, but also by all that we take in of the earthly. But most importantly we are nourished and sustained by the intangible creative Power behind all that is, the very Source of our existence.

By contrast we are also not to rely solely or foolishly on the heavenly either. We are to use our earthly judgment and sense of responsibility, our capacity of clear thinking. If we keep visiting those internal sites of infection, if we listen to the illusions of pride, we will fall. We are not to put the heavenly world to the test.

And furthermore, we are to recognize and distinguish clearly between God and the adversary’s infections. We are guard against illusion and delusion. We are to serve and follow the Original Source.

The poet Denise Levertov describes our human condition, our position between heaven and earth:

Days pass when I forget the mystery.

Problems insoluble and problems offering

their own ignored solutions

jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber

along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing

their colored clothes; cap and bells.

And then

once more the quiet mystery

is present to me, the throng's clamor

recedes: the mystery

that there is anything, anything at all,

let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,

rather than void: and that, O Lord,

Creator, Hallowed One, You still,

hour by hour sustain it.[1]

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[1] Denise Levertov,  “Primary Wonder” in Selected Poems