Monday, October 26, 2015

10th August Trinity 2015, Death Makes Us Whole

10th Trinity August, September
Luke 7, 11-17

Schnorr von Carolsfeld Bible 
And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her, the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.


10th Trinity August, September
September 27, 2015

Luke 7, 11-17
  
Death is a great mystery to us. It is also a great masquerade. The being of death is a pretender.
In today’s reading, a young man has died. One senses the communal loss and anguish. He is now ‘outside’, out beyond the city gates, beyond the crowd and his bereft and widowed mother. But he is not beyond Christ. Christ approaches him in death and bids him live, to rise above what would bind him and hold him down.

We too go through our dying times, even in life; times when we suffer the paralysis of grief; times when our former life dies away from us. And for us too, Christ approaches, especially just at such times. He bids us rise from our sleep, our grief, from our deaths.

For He is the master of the cycle of life, death and life again. Living things die; they fall, but like seeds. And from them a new life germinates. We die our smaller and greater deaths, but new life is already germinating within us, through Christ. For in our funeral service He says, I am the New Birth in Death. I am the Life in dying. As Novalis says,

What dropped us all into abyssmal woe,
Pulls us forward with sweet yearning now.
In everlasting life death found its goal,
For thou art Death who at last makes us whole.[1]



[1] Novalis, in Hymns to the Night.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

4th Michaelmas 2015, Food for God

2nd, 3rd or 4th Michaelmas Sunday
Revelation 19, 11-16

Artist unknown
And I saw the heavens opening up. And behold, a white horse! And the rider who sat upon it is called faithful and true, who judges justly and battles for justice. His eyes are like flames of fire, and his head wears many crowns, inscribed with a name which no one knows but he himself. The cloak  that covers him has been dipped in blood, and he is known by the name “Word of God”.

And the warriors of the sky ride behind him upon white steeds, clad in clean, white linen. And he has a sharp-edged sword coming out of his mouth with which to subdue the nations, and he will shepherd them with a staff of iron. He treads on the winepress holding the wine of the wrath of the will of God, the ruler of all.

And written on his cloak and on his thigh is the name: King of all kings, Lord of all lords.

4th Michaelmas
October 25, 2015
Revelation19: 11 – 16

In the picture language of Revelation we see a rider on a white horse. His name is ‘Word of God’. We are shown this word as a sharp double edged sword. This sharp sword subdues nations, that is, it blunts the fury of nationalism. And it protectively guides the nations of humanity in the direction they need to go, with the upright iron staff of spiritual strength.

The rider and his hosts precede the harvest the souls of nations. He treads the winepress, crushing their historical deeds and extracting the wine of their useful essence.  Such harvesting of souls may feel like wrath being visited upon us. But it is the necessary accompaniment to the activity of the Word of God, the Giver of Life, he who bears and creates order in the life of the world.

The father has created us for a purpose. From time to time the old, the useless, the deadwood must be removed, so that intended life can move forward. Life cannot just keep piling up; in order to make room for new life, the old forms must be broken.

The fact is, we are food for God and the angels. They helped plant us on the earth; they have nourished and sustained us through all our growth and life changes. They have the hope, the expectation of a harvest from their unceasing work. A harvest of reverence, a harvest of love, a harvest of conscientious deeds. It is from the harvest of our deeds that they will give us new life in the future. So in the words of the poet:

Let us now form roots and stem,
Leaf upon leaf, a crown and blossoms  --

For does not wine bloom?
Wine, bees, and vintner, the ground too,
On which the wheat surges toward bread:
The Four Kingdoms of Earth
Prepare the Way-Bread for healing.
Let us now harvest and press,
Let us grind and bake
And consecrate everything that needs it.

Then Man the Consecrated approaches the Grave-Table,
And with him the folk and the circle
Experience creating the Open Secret
That He gives to them time upon time.[1]






[1] Sebastian Lorenz Menschen-Weihe Die Christengemeinschaft 10_06, pg 507

Sunday, October 18, 2015

3rd Michaelmas 2015, Michael Calls

2nd, 3rd or 4th Michaelmas
Revelation 12: 1-17

Ottheinrich Folio, wikimedia
And a momentous image was unveiled in the world of spirit: a woman, clothed with the radiant power of the sun, the moon under her feet, her head adorned with the crown of the twelve stars of heaven. And she is with child and cries out in the labor and pain of giving birth.

And at the same time a second image was revealed in the heavens: a great fiery-red dragon with seven heads and ten horns. On its head it has seven crowns and its tail is sweeping a third of all the stars in heaven and dashing them onto the earth. And the dragon is standing before the woman about to give birth, so that when she bears the child he can devour it. And she bore a child, a son ”who would shepherd all nations with a rod of iron.” And the woman’s child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place that God keeps ready there, so that they can take care of her for days numbering one thousand two hundred sixty.

And a war flared up in the spirit world. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. And the dragon fought in the midst of his own angels, but he was not strong enough, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. Down came the dragon, the giant, the serpent, the evil one called both Satan and the devil, deceiver of all the world. Onto the earth he came hurtling down, and all his angels with him.

And I heard a great voice in heaven, saying:

Now can begin the working which proceeds from our God—
The power to heal the world,
The power to transform all being,
The power to draw everything into godly being.
Arisen is the spirit leadership of his Christ.
Overthrown is the accuser of our brothers,
He who accused them night and day before the countenance of God.
They have overcome him through the blood and the sacrificial power of the Lamb
And by the divine Word to which they bore witness.
They did not love their own lives too dearly, nor did they fear death.
Therefore, rejoice you heavens
And all who lodge therein!
But woe to the earth and the sea:
For the Adversary has come down to you,
And he seethes with measureless fury,
For he knows that his time is short.

And when the dragon recognized that he had been cast onto the earth, he began to persecute the woman who had borne the son. Then the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly into the desert to her appointed place, where she is to be nourished for a cycle of time, for cycles of time, and for half a cycle of time, far from the face of the serpent.

And the serpent opened his mouth and spewed out a river of water after the woman so she would be swept off her feet by the river. But then the earth came to the woman’s assistance; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon spewed from his mouth. And the dragon burned with fury against the woman. He stormed away to make war on the rest of the woman’s seed, people who keep to the divine world aims and who are united with the destiny and witnessing of Jesus. As I saw this I was standing on the sandy shore of the sea.

3rd Michaelmas
October 18, 2015
Revelation 12: 1-17

We have before the eye of the soul  two great images. They are the cosmic eternal feminine, the soul of humanity, laboring to give birth to the son who will shepherd nations. And we see the destructive, devouring red dragon, full of rage, who tries to prevent this.

And we are told that the hosts of the Archangel Michael have thrust this
Breugel the Elder, Fall of the Rebel Angels, wikimedia
destructive being and his minions onto the earth. Michael has done so in order to cleanse the heavenly realms, so that Christ’s healing and transforming power, his power to spiritualize, can work unhindered from the heavens.

But woe to us. The dragon has come down to us, seething in measureless fury. Recent events can prompt us to ask: why does God allow war and massacre; why does he allow such tragedies to happen to innocent people? But that is the wrong question. Given the fact that it was necessary for the dragon to be sent down to earth, the question now comes toward us, from Michael’s heavenly hosts: How is it that human beings allow such tragedies to happen?

The beings who oppose our human development are making war upon us. We have the armor of God, the armor of truth, trust and peaceful intentions to protect us. It is now the task of the human world to keep the dragon in check; to keep the dragon’s fury and destruction from infecting our souls and destroying the earth. Should we choose to accept the task, Michael, the strong leader of Christ’s heavenly forces on earth, will come to our aid.

Amid the storm of the world,
In which our souls share
We seek the leader of the Angel-host,
Michael, who casts down the Dragon.
Into our thoughts may come through him
The sense of gentle awe,
Of patient reverence for the hidden wisdom
That is in all things.
And in our acts his courage
Will overcome the cramping fear
Which makes a slave of man.
Michael calls, when autumn darkens earth;
He leads to Christ, and fights for Christ, for ever;
So may we follow him, and fight beside him
Against the Dragon with enduring fire.[1]







[1] Adam Bittleston, “Michael I”, in Meditative Prayers for Today, purchase here

Sunday, October 11, 2015

2nd Michaelmas,

2nd 3rd or 4th Michaelmas

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, 6:10-19

What it comes to in the end is this: grasp the power that streams to you in the experience of Christ in the soul and in the powerful regency of his pure spiritual strength.
Put on the power of God as one puts on full armor, so that you may stand against the well-aimed attacks of the adversary. For our struggle is not to fight against powers of flesh and blood, but against
Durer, The Knight, Death and the Devil (wiki)

spirit beings mighty in the stream of time,
against spirit beings powerful in the molding of earth substance,
against cosmic powers whose darkness rules the present time,
against spirits who carry evil into the realms of the spiritual world.

Therefore take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand your ground on the day when evil unfolds its greatest strength, and victoriously withstand it.

Stand firm, then, girded with the truth, like a warrior firmly girded. Connect yourself with all in the world as is justified in the spiritual world, and this connection with the spirit will protect you like a strong breastplate.
And may Peace stream through you, down to your feet, so that on your path you spread peace, as the message that comes from the realm of the angels.

In all your deeds have trust in God. This trust will be like a mighty shield; with it you can quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Take into your thinking the certainty of Christ’s healing deed. It will protect your head like a helmet.

And the spirit, which has become living in you, you shall grasp as one grasps a sharp sword. The sword of the spirit is the working of the Word of God.
May this armor clothe you in all your prayers and supplications, so that in the right moment you raise yourself in prayer to the spirit, and at the same time practice wakefulness in inner loyalty.

Feel yourself united in prayer with all other bearers of the spirit—also with me, Paul, so that the power of the word will be given to me when I am to courageously bring the knowledge of that holy mystery which lives in the message of the gospel.


2nd Michaelmas
October 11, 2015
Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, 6:10-19

When we ship out something precious, we know to pack it well . We give it layers of protection, so that it can withstand the shocks and drops and weight of the shipping process.

In this reading, called The Armor of God, it is clear that we are being sent out in the midst of a battle against spiritual adversaries. We are to receive and bear protective armor. We are to put on the protections of truth, of trust in God, and of the knowledge that Christ heals. The only weapon we hold is the sword of spiritual discernment, discernment according to Christ’s Word.  Yet we are not being called upon to attack the adversary, nor to destroy them. Our part in the battle is a defensive one. We are to endure their attacks, and remain standing.
Through the wearing of this armor we are called upon, not to thrash about and flail our weapons. We are called upon to become a protected vessel that contains and pours out peace, a peace that reaches down into the way we walk in the world, a peace that streams out from us so that we become messengers of the good news from the realm of the angels. As Adam Bittleston says:

We need in the strife of our day
St. Michael, Norton Simon Museum
The eternal Peace of the Word of God.
Seeking this Peace with our whole being
On the path which leads from the nightmare
Of endless chaos,
Into the order of heaven
And to the Father of all things—
We shall meet Michael
Who reveals how Christ
Awakens Man
That he may serve God.[1]



www.thechristiancommunity.org

[1] Adam Bittleston, Michaelmas II, in Meditative Prayers for Today, 

Sunday, October 4, 2015

1st Michaelmas 2015, 'Married to Amazement'

1st 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.”

The Great Banquet, artist unknown
But they were not interested and went off, one going to his field to be his own master, another falling into the hectic pace of his own business. The rest however took hold of the servants, mistreated them and killed them.
Then the king grew angry; he sent out his army, brought the murderers to their destruction and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, “Although the marriage feast is prepared, the invited guests have proved themselves unworthy. Go out therefore to the crossroads of destiny and invite to the wedding whoever you can find.”

And the servants went into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Then the king came in to see the guests, and among them he noticed a man who was not dressed in the wedding garment that was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how 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.”



1st Michaelmas
Sept 29, Oct 4, 2015
Matthew 22, 1-14

A wedding is an occasion for joy. The whole community rejoices when a couple finds their way to each other on earth. For indeed their union is a symbol for the work that each of us is meant to do inwardly.

Corina Ferraz, The Lord's Table of the Third Millenium
Like the partners in a couple, we each of us have two contrasting capacities. Individually we have a kind of willpower that is like an arrow – actively and unswervingly headed toward a goal. This kind of will has a masculine quality. We also have a will that is more like a vessel – open, able to receive, to bear and to let go. This kind of softer will has a more feminine quality.

It is our human task, both as a couple, and as an individual, to integrate and harmonize both of these types of will, in a way that is fruitful and productive. 
Today’s reading represents a third kind of wedding. It is the wedding of the will of God to the receptive human soul. The king’s son, Christ, has pledged himself to the soul of humanity on earth, and to the earth itself. He is Love Incarnate, the Being of Love itself. The Father has invited us all to this wedding and urges us to accept the invitation, so that humanity can progress.  Yet respecting our freedom, He allows us our choice. Immersion only in business, being only one’s own master, unwillingness to respond properly to what is being offered can lead us into destruction of soul. The arrow of self-will turns against us.

We are to cultivate openness and receptivity, so that we can heed the invitation and put on the garment of open prayer. We are to receive the Bridegroom in the joy and celebration that is offered to us. We will find him in our appreciation of the wonders of the created world, in the compassion of hearts, in deeds motivated by conscience. In the words of Mary Oliver:

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.[1]



[1] Mary Oliver, “When Death Comes” in New and Selected Poems, Volume I



Sunday, September 27, 2015

10th September Trinity 2015 Life, Death, Life

10th Trinity August, September
Luke 7: 11 - 17
Schnorr von Carolsfeld

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her, the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us, and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions.


10th Trinity August, September
September 27, 2015
Luke 7, 11-17
  
Death is a great mystery to us. It is also a great masquerade. The being of death is a pretender.
In today’s reading, a young man has died. One senses the communal loss and anguish. He is now ‘outside’, out beyond the city gates, beyond the crowd and his bereft and widowed mother. But he is not beyond Christ. Christ approaches him in death and bids him live, to rise above what would bind him and hold him down.
We too go through our dying times, even in life; times when we suffer the paralysis of grief; times when our former life dies away from us. And for us too, Christ approaches, especially just at such times. He bids us rise from our sleep, our grief, from our deaths.
Paper masks for Day of the Dead

For He is the master of the cycle of life, death and life again. 

Living things die; they fall, but like seeds. And from them a new life germinates. We die our smaller and greater deaths, but new life is already germinating within us, through Christ. For in our funeral service He says, I am the New Birth in Death. I am the Life in dying. As Novalis says,

What dropped us all into abyssmal woe,
Pulls us forward with sweet yearning now.
In everlasting life death found its goal,
For thou art Death who at last makes us whole.[1]




[1] Novalis, in Hymns to the Night.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

9th September Trinity 2015, Heart's Work

9th August Trinity
Matthew 6: 19-34

“Do not save up your treasures on the earth, where moths and rust eat away at them and thieves tunnel in and steal. Save up your treasures in heaven, where no moth and no rust consumes and thieves do not tunnel in and steal. Because where you have gathered a treasure, there  your heart will bear you.

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

 “No one can serve two masters: either he will hate one and love the other, or he will  put up with one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and greed’s demon of riches [mammon].

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

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

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

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



9th August Trinity
September 20, 2015
Matthew 6: 19-34

In the Northern Hemisphere this is the time of harvest and of ‘putting by’. Older generations may still have experienced how families canned and preserved what they grew. August and September were times of intense and hot, hard work, work for the future.

In our time such work is largely done on a mass scale for us by others. Although we work hard now in other ways, we have the opportunity to examine our attitudes toward things of earth. Christ gives us some advice about our relationship to earthly things. First He begins by directing our gaze toward the way we perceive, and toward what it is that we value. For what is primary is what lives in our hearts. If we perceive in a clear and accurate way, then our inner life is full of light, enlightened. We will be able to see clearly in two directions.

First we will be able to see that an over-eager and hot pursuit of personal gain come from a spirit of greed that is demonically driven. And secondly we will be able to see the glorious beauty of the created world, and the care that our heavenly Father gives to all creatures, including us. And therefore our hearts can be striving, but in peace, even when we are hard at work. A poet says:

….I think all the time about invisible work.
…. all the while,
as the Chippewa poem says, I am being carried
by great winds across the sky,
thought of the invisible work that stitches up the world day and night,
the slow, unglamorous work of healing,
the way worms in the garden
tunnel ceaselessly so the earth can breathe
and bees ransack this world into being,
….
I stopped and let myself lean
a moment, against the blue
shoulder of the air. The work
of my heart
is the work of the world's heart.[1]

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[1] Alison Luterman, “Invisible Work” in The Largest Possible Life