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 

2nd February Trinity 2015, Fear Not the Pain

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

Luke 18: 18-34

One of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master,

Heinrich Hoffman

what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth, and you shall honor your father and your mother!

He said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”

When Jesus heard this, he said, [Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said… Mk 10:21] “One thing however you lack: Sell all of your possessions, and give the money to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come and follow me!

He was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God. Sooner would a camel walk through the eye of a needle, than a rich man be able to find the entrance to the kingdom of God!”

Those who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”

He said, “For man alone it is impossible; it will be possible however through the power of God working in man.”

Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up everything to follow you.”

He replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife, or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in earthly life, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge him and kill him; but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”

Yet his disciples understood nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.

2^nd February Trinity

Luke 18: 18 – 34

February 15, 2015

In spring the trees display the beauty of blossoms. Then there comes a point: the petals fall; the beauty fades into a kind of death; and ordinary green emerges. Yet where the blossoms spent themselves, hidden beneath the leaves, there lie the fruits. At first they are small and hard. But eventually, in the fall, the season of death, they will ripen to provide the new life of the next season.

The rich young man was in full flower. He had fulfilled all the commandments; he had accumulated all the cultural and spiritual riches of his people. He was ready for the next step. But instead of giving him more riches, more glory, Christ sends him on a path of descent, a path of sacrifice. He is to shed the beauty of his ‘petals’ for the sake of others. Sadness follows. At first the fruits of this path are small and hard. At the same time, it is the path that Christ acknowledges that He himself is taking.

What took place outwardly for the rich young man takes place for us now inwardly. We are not literally required to sell all our possessions, though there may come a time when that is appropriate.  Rather we are to be willing to inwardly sacrifice, to let go of everything we have accomplished, all the knowledge we have acquired, in order to take the next step in becoming fruitful to others. Perhaps this means that we let children assume more responsibility for their lives, for their sakes. Or we may recognize that we need to hand over some leadership responsibilities to others for the sake of the group’s further development. Or that we let go of the old ways in order to develop new ones.  In other words, we are being reminded that there comes a point where we need to descend, to sacrifice, in order that new life can arise.  As Rilke says:

….

Thus must it be, when willingly you strive

throughout a long and uncomplaining life,

committed to one goal: to give yourself!

And silently to grow and to bear fruit.[1]

….enter the breathing

that is more than your own.

….

Fear not the pain.  Let its weight fall back

into the earth;

…

The trees you planted in childhood have grown

too heavy.  You cannot bring them along.

Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.[2]

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[1] Rainer Maria Rilke,  “The Apple Orchard”, in Rainer Maria Rilke: Selected Poems, trans. by Albert Ernest Flemming

[2]  Rainer Maria Rilke, “Sonnets to Orpheus, Part 1, 4”,  in In Praise of Mortality, translated and edited by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

1st February Trinity 2015, Ploughed by Pain

1^st or 2^nd February Trinity

Luke 8:14-18

And as a great crowd had gathered, and ever more people streamed to him out of the cities, he spoke in a parable:

A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some seed fell on the path. It was trodden upon, and the birds of the sky (air) ate it up. Other seed fell upon the rocks, and as it sprouted, it (the sprouting green) withered, because it had no moisture. Still other seed fell under the thorns; the thorns grew with it and choked what came up. And some fell upon good soil, grew, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. When he had said these things, he called out:

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

His disciples asked him what this parable might mean. And he said:

To you it has been given the gift of being able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God; but to the others it is given in pictures and parables, for they see and do not yet see, and hear, although they do not yet understand with their thinking. The meaning of the parable is this:

The seed is the Word of God. That which fell upon the path are those who hear it; afterwards the tempter comes and tears the Word out of their hearts, so that they cannot find healing through the trusting power of faith working in them.

Those on the rock are those who, when they hear the Word, take it up with joy; but they remain without root. For a while the power of their faith works in them, but in times of trial they fall away.

What fell under the thorns are those who hear the Word from the spirit, and as they go on their way, the sorrows and the riches and the joys of life choke it, and they bring no fruit to maturity.

And the seed which fell in the good soil are those who hear the Word, and take it up into their hearts, feel its beauty, become noble and worthy and patiently keep it alive, tending it there until it brings forth fruit.

No one lights a light and hides it under a vessel or under a bench; instead he places it on a lamp stand so that all who come in see the light. For nothing is hidden which shall not be revealed, and nothing is secret which shall not be known and proclaimed. So attend to how you listen. For he who has enlivened in himself the power to bear the spirit, to him more will be given. He however who does not have this power, from him will be taken that which he thinks he has.

1^st February Trinity

February 8, 2015

Luke 8: 14 – 18

Anyone who has tried planting a garden knows: the conditions must be right. The right season, the right temperature, neither too hot nor too cold. The right level of moisture, neither too hard and dry, nor too muddy. The right level of fertility.

Our hearts are also gardens waiting to be cultivated; cultivated through art, through truth, through spiritual and religious practice. Some of us may be just starting. Or maybe we tried before, but we lacked sufficient depth. Or maybe our hearts wandered off into the busyness of life. But there comes a moment.  The poet says:

My soul is a dark ploughed field

In the cold rain;

My soul is a broken field

Ploughed by pain.

Where windy grass and flowers

Were growing,

The field lies broken now

For another sowing.

Great Sower, when you tread

My field again,

Scatter the furrows there

With better grain.[1]

James Tissot 

Our hearts ploughed by life’s sorrows, broken open with gratitude, watered by tears. And the Word-Seed is sown. Recognizing our fertility, our heart’s potential, the Creator drops his Word – I AM – into our hearts.

And the Word-Seed takes root. We recognize that it has the potential to grow into a thing of beauty in us. And so we straighten up and do our best to cultivate the garden of our heart. With patient effort we tend the Word-Seed. We keep our hearts moist and soft. We weed out our bad habits. With patient effort we tend the creating Word in our hearts until it grows and blossoms forth in beauty of soul. Until it matures into fruitful deeds of love.

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[1] Sara Teasdale, “The Broken Field"

4th Epiphany 2015, Not My Will

Bloch

4^th Epiphany
John 5: 1-18

Some time later, there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheep’s Gate, a pool, called Bethesda in Hebrew, which is surrounded by 5 covered porches. Here lay a great many invalids, the blind, the lame [crippled], the weak [withered], waiting for the water to begin moving. For from time to time a powerful angel of the Lord descended into the pool and stirred up the waters. The first one in the pool after such a disturbance would be cured of whatever ailment he had.

And there was a certain man there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and became aware that he had been ill for so long, he asked him,

“Do you want [have the will] to become whole?”

The invalid answered him, “Lord [Sir], I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Rise up, take up your pallet, and walk.”  At once the man was healed and picked up his pallet and walked.

               

However it was the Sabbath on that day. Therefore the Jewish leaders said to the man who was healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your pallet.”

But he replied, “The man who healed me said to me, “take up your pallet and walk!”

And they asked him, “Who is the man who said to you ‘take it up and walk’?”

But the one who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, as there was a crowd in the place.

Later, Jesus found him in the Temple and said to him, “Take to heart what I say: Behold, you have become whole. Sin no more, lest your destiny bring you something worse.”

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had healed him. That is why they persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him, because he did these things on the Sabbath.

Then he himself countered them with the words, “Until now my Father has worked, and from now on I also work.”

Then they sought all the more to kill him, because not only had he broken the Sabbath, but also because he had called God his own Father and had set himself equal to God.

4^th Epiphany

Feb 1, 2015

John 5: 1-18

The man at the pool in Bethesda wants to be healed. But in  this circumstance, only one person at a time can be healed. And so an atmosphere of competition pervades. With each stirring of the water, egotism arises; each person rushes to be the first to claim the limited resources, so there is nothing left for the others.

Christ first asks the man if he really wants to get well. And then He gives him a direct infusion of His own strength through the power of His creating Word. Rise, He says. Take up your pallet – your true destiny – and walk forward on your path.

Yet the story has a complicated ending. It was the Sabbath. Carrying a pallet was forbidden. And when the man told the leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him and told him to do so, it further aroused their enmity toward Christ. As Jesus knew it would. As we say, ‘no good deed goes unpunished’.

Christ is the true self of humankind. He is also the Lord of Karma. If it is time for healing, it doesn’t matter what the rules are – He works. Knowing that those ‘in charge’ will oppose Him. Knowing that speaking the truth of calling God his Father will in fact cause him to be executed.

He fears not, because He lives and acts according to the Father’s will. As He says in the prayer that He gave us, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in the heavens”. Mt 6:10  As he will say in the face of his own death,” not my will but thine be done”. Luke 22:42  As we can say at any time, “May we so perform your will as you, Father, have laid it down in our inmost being.” (Esoteric Lord’s Prayer, Rudolf Steiner)

3rd Epiphany 2015, Give Wine

3^rd Epiphany

Wedding at Cana, Giotto

January 25, 2015

John 2: 1 -11

On the third day a wedding took place in Cana in Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

When the wine ran out, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

And Jesus answered her, “Something still weaves between me and you, o Woman. The hour when I can work out of myself alone has not yet come.”

Then his mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

There were six stone jars set up there for the Jewish custom of ceremonial washing, each containing twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with fresh water.”

And they filled them to the brim. And he said, “Now draw some out and take it to the Master of the feast. And they brought it to him.

Now when the Master of the feast tasted the water that had become wine, not knowing where it came from—for only the servants who had drawn the water knew—he called the bridegroom aside and said to him, “Everyone serves the choice wine first, and when the guests have drunk, then the lesser; but you have saved the best until now.”

This, the beginning of the signs of the spirit which Jesus performed among men happened at Cana in Galilee and revealed the creating spiritual power that worked through Him. The disciples’ hearts opened, the power of faith began to stir in them, and they began to trust in him.

3^rd Epiphany

January 25, 2015

John 2: 1 -11

Wine of course comes from grapes.  The vine draws the earth’s water up and transforms it via sunlight into the strength of juice and the sweetness of sugars. Fermented, it becomes ‘spirits’. In large amounts these spirits can displace our own spirit, our selfhood. It diminishes our capacity to make decisions, to control our impulses, to be in charge of ourselves.

At the wedding, Christ became the vine. He had water drawn up from the earth. He transformed it into wine. But this wine was different. Those attending took in the good wine, the best. Instead of robbing them of their selfhood, His wine enhanced it.

Christ, the True Vine, gives life and strength to our spirits. He enhances our ability to experience and act out of our true selfhood. At the wedding, Christ says,’ fill the jars’, and then ‘draw some out.’ Fill and draw. The wedding at Cana is a signpost, pointing to a fulfillment at the Last Supper.  Then Christ will pour his blood’s vitality, its very life, into the wine. He will say of it, ‘This is my blood’, my vitality, my life offered to you.

In the Act of Consecration, the communion service, we fill the chalice with water and the (unfermented) juice of the vine. We offer them along with our feelings of love for Christ. They are transformed. And in communion we are filled with the strength of his vitality, his blood. We fill and we draw. Give and take; offer and receive. And one day we will recognize that what we have been given is our true self. As the poet says:

The time will come

when, with elation,

…You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you have ignored

for another, who knows you by heart…. [1]

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[1] Derek Walcott "Love After Love", in Collected Poems 1948-1984, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986.