6th August Trinity 2018, Be Opened

Mark 7, 31-37

6th Trinity August

As he was again leaving the region around Tyre, he went through the country around Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the region of the ten cities of the Decapolis. They brought to him one who was deaf and who spoke with difficulty and asked him to lay his hands on him. And he led him apart from the crowds by himself, laid his finger in his ears, and moistening his finger with saliva, touched his tongue, and looking up to the heavens, sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphata, be opened.” His hearing was opened and the impediment of his tongue was removed and he could speak properly. And he commanded them not to say anything to anyone. But the more he forbade it, the more they widely they proclaimed it. And the people were deeply moved by this event, and said, “He has changed all to the good: the deaf he makes to hear and the speechless to speak.

6^th August Trinity

August 26, 2018

Mark 7: 31-37

The inner ear is formed in a spiral like a seashell. Sounds whirl in ever tightening circles through the organ of hearing. This movement is an incarnational one; it generates words; it generates thought and meaning in the soul, which can then spiral outward again as creative speech.

The deaf-mute is someone who is hindered in this process. He can neither take in words and their meaning nor create them. Such a hindrance also cuts one off from one’s community. It tends to generate fears and suspicions in the soul. It hinders the exercising of our highest human function: objective thought, creative speech. Even without an organic problem, we human beings can be mind deaf, heartsick, soul mute.

Tissot

Christ’s healing consists of an intimate quality of touch. With His fiery words, ‘Be opened’, He opens the man’s ears, loosens his tongue, opens his soul. He restores to him his full human capacities—open senses, open heart and mind, open speech. The man goes from being imprisoned within himself to being able to spiral outward again. He is healed of his illness.

We too all suffer from “the sickness of sin”, the sickness of the human condition. But even this illness is there to create new capacities. In the words of John O’Donohue,

When the reverberations of shock subside in you,

May grace come to restore you to balance.

May it shape a new space in your heart

To embrace this illness as a teacher

Who has come to open your life to new worlds.

May you use this illness

As a lantern to illuminate

The new qualities that will emerge in you.*

*John O'Donohue, "A Blessing for a Friend on the Arrival of Illness", In To Bless the Space between Us, p. 60

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5th August Trinity 2018, See Clearly

5th Trinity August

Luke 18, 35-43

Brian Jekel

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

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

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

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

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

In 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 August Trinity

August 19, 2018

Luke 18: 35-43

If at night the lights suddenly go out, we stop. For we can no longer see our surroundings. We cannot even take in what light there is, for we are temporarily blind.

Josephine Wall

Once upon a time in Paradise, humankind could see the creative divinity, working in the flowing ether light that forms and shapes the world. But since Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge, humankind has inherited a kind of blindness. We no longer look up and see God; no longer see the angels; no longer see the Light behind our daylight. We are blind without even knowing it. The common light of day obscures our vision. But we can still hear.

Holman Hunt

The blind beggar hears that Jesus is passing by. He engages Him and asks to look up and see again—not just to see common objects; not even to see the faces of his loved ones. He wants to look up and see God, see the angels, see the Light behind the light. His firm knowledge that there is such a realm, and his trust that his eyes can be opened to it, opens his vision. And he sees before and above him—Christ—the Light of the world, the creator of Life, the very essence of Love.

We too will one day look up and see again. For we can hear the promise in Paul’s words as he says, ‘For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face.*

Or as a modern version puts it:

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!**

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*1 Corinthians 13:12, King James version

** 1 Corinthians 13:12, The Message (MSG) Bible, by Eugene Peterson

4th August Trinity 2018, Accept the Miracle

4th Trinity August

Luke 9: 1-17

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

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

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

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

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

  

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

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

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

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

4^th August Trinity

August 12, 2018

Luke 9:1-17

Here in the north, we are experiencing the long-lit days of summer.  Long daylight hours and our urban night-lit skies veil our experience of the stars. This is unfortunate, since there is nothing quite so majestic, more awe-inspiring, than the fullness of the night sky. The stars, with their calm radiance, send us the message that we are surrounded by hope. They are pouring their manifold influences into our lives.

It is meaningful that today’s gospel reading begins with the twelve apostles and ends with the twelve full baskets. For Christ works with His Father’s light, His abundance of radiant life and love. They pour out of the heavens to us through the twelve doorways of the stars. During the day, Christ directs these powers into the apostles, as He sends them out with a message of joy. And at night, as the day declines, He pours them into the five loaves and two fish. He blesses them, strengthens them with words of gratitude and of love. The people receive His loving, healing strength. There is more than enough to go around. Their abundance fills twelve baskets full.

Mary Oliver comments on this passage.

Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and the felt ferocity of that love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into the many.
Imagine him, speaking,
and don't worry about what is reality,
or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
…. Eat, drink,….
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
spoken with love.*

*Mary Oliver, “Logos” in Why I Wake Early

3rd August Trinity 2018, Purchased Dearly

Luke 15:11-32

Durer

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

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

Kathryn Doneghan

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

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

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

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

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

3^rd August Trinity

August 5, 2018

Luke 15:1-32

God created the world with a certain economy in mind. There are two forces at work in us. One is the burgeoning force of life. It is that in us which is warm and, ever-changing, generating the new. The other force is a cooler preserving force. These two forces are meant to work together in balance. Too much new, too much life, overwhelms awareness. Too much preservation gradually destroys life. Working together in balance, they help us along our path.

John Macallan Swan

In today’s reading, when his younger son asks for his share of the estate, the father generously gives it to him, even though it means diminishing his own goods. Those goods the son seems to have squandered. But in fact they have bought something very precious—they have bought experience. They have purchased the indelible experience of the limits of “the good life.” They have shown that there can be value hidden in want and need. And they have made possible the highly prized moment of the experience of ‘coming to oneself’. They have purchased a keen self-awareness, combined with deep humility, and the desire for reconciliation, to work off indebtedness.

The elder brother, in his narrow, small-heartedness, worked to preserve and accumulate only outer wealth. He never even threw a small party for his friends. The prodigal son, through his dearly purchased experiences, is ready to become truly responsive and responsible to the father in an open-hearted way that the elder brother could never be.

One theme of the story is generosity. It demonstrates the evolution and the workings of great-heartedness. The prodigal son may have been wasteful, but he spent freely on others. The father is lavishly magnanimous with both his goods and his forgiveness.

This is the picture of the Father of us all. Our Father has sent us all out into the world, loaded with His riches. He recognizes that we are all purchasing our experiences, partially at the expense of our relationship with Him. He feels our misery. He hopes with all his heart that we will one day come to ourselves. He waits for the moment when we can pray this traditional prayer from Ghana:

Journeying God,

pitch your tent with mine

so that I may not become deterred

by hardship, strangeness, doubt.

Show me the movement I must make

toward a wealth not dependent on possessions,

toward a wisdom not based on books,

toward a strength not bolstered by might,

toward a God not confined to heaven.

Help me to find myself as I walk in other's shoes.*

* (Prayer song from Ghana, traditional, translator unknown)

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2nd August Trinity 2018,

Matthew 7, 1-29

2^nd August Trinity

“Do not judge your fellow man, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For with the judgment that you pronounce you also speak your own judgment, and the measure by which you measure will be the measuring rod for your own self. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not become aware of the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother: “Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye” - but mark it well, there is a log in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

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

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

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

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

2^nd August/September Trinity

July 29, 2018

Matthew 7: 1-14

In ancient times, caves were often places used for certain kinds of initiations, through tests of courage. Even today, being in a cave, or any dark tight space, often brings one face to face with oneself. Often caves are places where the only light is the one you bring with you.

Our lives can also bring us to tight dark places, where the only light seems to be what we can bring to the situation ourselves. They often involve tests of our courage and our faith.

Today’s gospel reading is a kind of instruction on ‘soul-caving’. It encourages us to enter our perhaps dark and tight soul space. We are encouraged to notice the hindrances to seeing that exist within our own soul-eye; to turn our powers of discernment inward into ourselves, rather than on our fellows; to avoid the cynical, the broad and easy.

For what is to be learned is the courage to face one’s own inner darkness; to bring our inner light to bear upon ourselves. We generate light of trust toward the beneficence of our God. We generate the light of nourishing kindness toward our fellows, and even ourselves. As Naomi Nye says:

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness....*

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*‘Kindness’, by Naomi Shihab Nye, in Words From Under the Words: Selected Poems

1st August Trinity 2018, Not the First

Mark 8, 27-Mark 9-1 (Peter’s Confession)

1^st August Trinity

Tissot

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

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

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

Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ.”

And Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

 

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

Tissot

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

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

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

1^st August/September Trinity

July 22, 2018

Mark 8:27 – Mark 9:1 

We have passed the half-way point in the year. Those of us in the Northern Hemisphere are beginning to descend from the sun's zenith. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the time of deepest darkness is past. Now begins their ascent into the light.

In today’s reading, Peter’s recognition of the Christ in Jesus is a kind of a high point. It allows Christ to further reveal even more of Himself—He says that the Son of Man must suffer much, be rejected, killed. But He will rise again. He speaks of a descent into the depths of human existence, into death, and beyond; for He will rise again.

This revelation seems to spur Peter’s thinking into a narrow abyss of fear—he urges Jesus to save His own skin; but thereby Peter’s practicality misses the bigger picture, and he inadvertently opposes Christ’s mission. For in conquering death, Christ will ultimately make the earth itself into His body.

In our lives too, there are moments when the working of the divine reveals itself, often in the midst of an ordeal. We may not recognize it until later. And we may also then see how we resisted it out of fear or pride.

Though it is certainly human enough that we resist suffering, we ultimately need not fear it. These are indeed just the places where Christ is most easily found. For He has placed Himself forever into the depths of human existence. Whether we are ascending into the light, or descending into darkness, He always there to help us begin anew. As Vaclav Havel said,

Tissot

It is I who must begin.

Once I begin, once I try --

here and now,

right where I am,

….-- as soon as I begin that,

I suddenly discover,

to my surprise, that

I am neither the only one,

nor the first,

nor the most important one

to have set out

upon that road.*

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* Vaclav Havel, “It Is I Who Must Begin’ in Teaching With Fire, ed. by S.M. Intrator and M. Scribner

4th St. Johnstide 2018, Drops of the Sun

Unknown Artist

St. Johnstide 

Matthew 11: 2-15

When John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are awakened, and those who have become poor receive the message of salvation. Blessed are those who are not offended by my Being.”

When they had gone, Jesus began to speak about John. “Why did you go out into the desert? Did you want to see a reed swaying in the wind? Or was it something else you wanted to see? Did you want to see a man in splendid garments? Those in splendid garments are in the palaces of kings. Did you go to see a man who is initiated into the mysteries of the spirit, a prophet? Yes, I say to you—he is more than a prophet. He it is of whom it is written:

           

Elijah

            Behold it well: I will send my angel before your face;

            He shall prepare the way of your working in human hearts

            So that your being may be revealed.

The truth I say to you: among all who are born of women, not one has risen up who is greater than John the Baptist; and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist, and even more now, the kingdom of heaven will arise within human beings through the power of the will; those who exert themselves can freely grasp it. The deeds of the prophets and the content of the Law are words of the spirit that were valid [worked into the future] until the time of John. And if you want to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

4th St. Johnstide

July 15, 2018

Matthew 11: 2-15

The sun can shine mightily. Yet the bird in the covered cage will not sing. The plant kept in the dark will not thrive. Uncover the cage, place the plant near the sunlight, and they respond to the light.

When John the Baptist asks from prison whether Jesus is the Messiah, the answer is not a simple yes or no. Rather Jesus points to the effects of his deeds. He has uncovered the soul-cages, brought human souls to the spirit light.

Rembrandt

Not only those physically blind, but also the soul-blind and the soul-deaf can see and hear. Deadened souls are awakened. Weak souls can rise and move forward. The outcasts, the beggars for the spirit receive heaven’s healing richness.

The point is that the working of Christ was and continues to show itself as effective within human beings. “Through Him can the healing spirit work.” And those who choose to follow the Christ path become those who, through Christ working in them, are also effective among their fellow human beings in a healing and uplifting way. 

We can hear in a poem by Hafiz how the Spirit-Sun speaks to our souls:

I know the voice of depression

Still calls to you.

I know those habits that can ruin your life

Still send their invitations.

But you are with the Friend now

And look so much stronger.

You can stay that way

And even bloom!

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun

From your prayers and work and music

And from your companions' beautiful laughter.

Keep squeezing drops of the Sun

From the sacred hands and glance of your Beloved…**

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* From the Creed of The Christian Community

** Hafiz, “Cast All Your Votes For Dancing”, in I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz, by Daniel Ladinsky