New Year's Day 2016, The First Step

New Year’s Day 2016

January 1, 2016

Luke 15:11-32

John Macallan Swan

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].’

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.’

New Year’s Day 2016

January 1, 2016

Luke 15:11-32

We have come to a nodal point in the flow of time; an end, and with it, an opportunity to begin again, to start afresh.

The lost son had sallied forth with a high heart, eager to taste life and experience the world. But eventually he come to the end of his own resources. And he comes to himself. He realizes that he has lost a right and proper relationship to his father, and he chooses to be willing to start over, rebuilding the relationship from a lower, more humble starting point. At the same time, with an overflowing compassion, his father welcomes him back with more than open arms.

Humanity too has largely lost the right relationship to our heavenly Father. We are often too busy enjoying life, immersed in rich experience, too proudly self-sufficient to notice that we are eating husks. But we can be graced with moments when we come to ourselves and recognize what we have lost. As Wendell Berry said,

"It may be when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work,

 and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey."

So in the words of another poet, David Whyte, *

…Start with

Prodigal Son Returns, Kathryn Donegan

the ground

you know,

the pale ground

beneath your feet,

your own

way of starting

the conversation.

Start right now

take a small step

you can call your own

don't follow

someone else's

heroics, be humble

and focused,…

Start close in,

don't take the second step

or the third,

start with the first

thing

close in,

the step you don't want to take.

For our heavenly Father, with love and compassion, always welcomes us back to our new beginnings.

* David Whyte, ” START CLOSE IN” in River Flow

Holy Nights, 2015 - 16, Appearance and Illusion

Holy Nights

December 27, 2015

Luke 4: 1 – 14

And Jesus left the Jordan valley, his soul filled with the Holy Spirit. And he followed the guidance of the Spirit into the loneliness of the desert. There he remained for forty days, during which he had to withstand the temptation by the Adversary.

Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Wikimedia

During this time he took no food at all, and when the days came to an end he felt hunger. Then the Adversary said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, speak to this stone so that it becomes bread.’  But Jesus answered him, ‘Scripture says: Man does not live by bread alone.’

And the Adversary led him up, showed him all the realms of the world in a single moment, and said to him, ‘I will give you power over everything that you see, the earthly and even the forces beyond the earthly. For the power belongs to me, and I can give it to whom I will. If you will kneel in worship of me, the whole world shall be yours.’ But Jesus replied, ‘Scripture says: Let all your worship be for the divine Lord, let your service be for Him alone.’

Then he removed him to Jerusalem and set him on the parapet of the Temple and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it says in the scriptures that HE has commanded his angels to protect you and bear you up on their hands, so that not even your foot shall strike against a stone.’ But Jesus answered him, 

‘Yet it also says: You shall not make your heavenly Lord become a servant of your arbitrary wishes.’

And when the Adversary had put him through all temptation, he departed from him to bide his time. And Jesus, empowered by the Spirit, returned to Galilee.*

Holy Nights

December 27, 2015

Luke 4: 1 – 18

This season of the year is filled with highs and lows. There is joy and excitement, and there is irritation and sadness. What was so promising can be followed by disappointment.

The Baptism, Ninetta Sombart

Before this incident in the reading, there is the spiritual high point of Jesus’

Baptism, when the heavens open and the Spirit of Love descends into him. Yet this is followed immediately by the approach of the Adversary. The main thrust of all the temptations is for the soul to give more weight and value to the earthly than to a proper relationship to the divine. This is a universal temptation, one that all human beings face. And all three temptations are based on an illusion, the illusion that the worldly adversarial forces can offer us more than can God. By maintaining the strength of his relationship to the Father, Christ could later incorporate this experience of human temptation in his universal prayer to the Father: Lead us not into temptation. One could expand this line of the prayer as follows:

The Temptation, William Blake

You do not allow the tempter to work in us beyond the capacity of our strength. For in your being, Father, no temptation can survive, since the tempter is but appearance and illusion….**

This is the key for us: to see through the illusory nature of whatever tempts us to put our faith and trust in worldly power and worldly goods. We are encouraged instead to direct our souls, our clear thinking, the warmth of our feeling, the devotion of our will toward the guidance of the Father of All and toward the angel he gave each of us to guard us.

---

*from The New Testatment, a rendering by Jon Madsen. To purchase, go to Steinerbooks.com or Amazon.com 

** from The Esoteric Lord’s Prayer, Rudolf Steiner.

Christmas Day 2015, Peace Be

Christmas III

John 21: 15-25

Now is proclaimed the end of the entire gospel according to John in the 21st chapter:

After they had had held their meal together, Jesus said to Simon Peter: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others here?

Peter answered, “Lord you know that I am your friend”. Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”

And he said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you.” Jesus said to him, “Shepherd my young sheep.”

He asked him a third time, “Simon, Son of John, Are you my friend?”

Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the third time, ‘Are you my friend’, and he answered, “Lord, you know all things; therefore you know that I am devoted to you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Amen the truth I say to you, when you were younger you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and Another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go.”

He told him this to indicate the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, “Follow me.”

But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the supper and had asked, “Lord, who is it who betrays you?”  When Peter now saw him, his asked, “Lord, what of this man, what is his task?”

Jesus said to him: If is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. Follow me…”

From this day the story spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path.”

This is the disciple who here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written.

Christmas III

John 21: 15-25

There is a story* about a hermit in the rugged mountains, who spent his life praying for his fellow human beings. Near his cave he had built a shrine to St. Nicholas, the protector of all travelers. He kept an oil lamp burning to show travelers the way. The track near his cave ran beside a deep chasm with strong violently gusting winds, which could sweep a traveler off his feet and into the ravine. It was said that it was an evil spirit who cast the people into the ravine. The hermit kept watch, and if he heard a cry, he would run with a rope to save lives.

One spring evening, on Good Friday as the hermit entered his cave, he heard a voice who asked to speak with him. It was the spirit of the mountain, asking him why the hermit prevented him from casting people into the abyss. The hermit answered that he loved human beings, as God’s youngest creatures, despite their errors and weaknesses.  ‘All that I do is in God’s name, for His love is great.’ The spirit said he would leave the travelers in peace if the hermit could prove that God’s love was greater than any other power. He gave the hermit three chances.

First the hermit told the story of how a shepherd, searching for a lost sheep, had been blown off the path. His daughter had come to look for him and tried to save him, but in the hermit’s absence both had perished. This example of familial love did not impress the spirit.

The next day he told of two soldiers, one of whom carried his wounded and abandoned friend up to the cave. The spirit was likewise not impressed with the love between friends.

That evening a robber, convinced that the hermit had money, beat him and left. When the hermit heard the familiar roar of the wind, and heard the cry, he staggered out and with his last strength threw the rope down to the robber and tied the other end to a rock, allowing the robber to escape. His soul left his body and hovered over it.

The mountain spirit came and spoke: can you see me? The soul answered , Yes now I can see you as you really are. The spirit asked, “Why did you do that? He murdered you!”

‘Love your enemies, my God has taught me,’ answered the saint.

Silence fell.  Then the mountain spirit said: ‘This is greater love than anything that I have ever known.  I shall keep my promise.  Farewell.’

‘Peace be with you’, said the saint.

*"The Saint and the Mountain Spirit" by Maja Muntz-Koundoury can be found in: The Easter Story Book (Floris Books, Edinburgh 1991). To purchase, click here.

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Christmas Dawn 2015, Shepherd Didn't Go

Christmas II, Dawn

December 25, 2015

Luke 2: 1-20

Now is proclaimed the [middle of the Gospel[s], according to Luke in the second chapter.

Now it came to pass in those days that a proclamation went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone set out to be enrolled, each to the town of his ancestors.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and lineage of David. He went to be enrolled with Mary his betrothed. And Mary was with child. And it came to pass that while they were there, the time was fulfilled for her to be delivered. And she bore her son, her first-born. And she wrapped him in linen and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks in the night. And an angel of the Lord came upon them [appeared before them] and the light of the revelation of God shone about them. And great fear came upon them [they felt the fear of fears].

But the angel said to them,

“Do not be afraid; for I announce to you a great joy, which shall be for all men on earth: today is born unto you the Bringer of Healing, in the city of David, Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign for you: you will find a little child wrapped in linen, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly around the angel was the fullness of the heavenly angelic hosts: their song of praise sounded forth to the highest:

God’s Spirit reveals itself in the heights

And brings peace to men of earth

In whose hearts good will dwells!

And as the angels withdrew from them into the heavens, the shepherds said to one another:

“Let us go to Bethlehem to see the fulfillment of the Word that has happened here, which the Lord let be proclaimed.”

And they came hastening, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. And when they had seen, they made known the Word that was spoken to them concerning this child. [or, When they saw that, they understood what had been told them concerning this child.] And all who heard it were astonished about what the shepherds said.

But Mary treasured [preserved] all these words, pondering them [turning them over] in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God to everyone for everything they had heard and seen, which was just as it had been announced to them.

Christmas II, Dawn

December 25, 2015

Luke 2: 1-20

There is a story about the shepherd who didn’t go. When on that first Christmas night the shepherds heard the good news from the angels, one of them, a young boy named Dahvid, did not go with them. He wanted to, but he could not, because he had given his word to his master, mean strict Old Abraham, that come day, come night, come life, come death, he would not fail to keep the flocks. He wanted to go, and wept tears of disappointment when the others left, but he found a certain comfort in thinking of the helplessness of his flock.

After the others had gone, wolves indeed came and made off with one of the sheep. Dahvid followed them and found the two wolves fighting over the sheep at the bottom of ravine. One left, but the other attacked him, biting him on the leg and arm. Nevertheless he managed to kill it with a heavy blow from his staff. With great and slow effort he and the wounded sheep slowly climbed out of the ravine and made their way back to the flock, where the boy collapsed.

As dawn was brightening, Old Abraham came to check his flocks. He grew angry when he called and there was no answer. When he found Dahvid lying on the ground, he thought for a moment that the boy was asleep. But when he caught sight of the white face and bleeding arm, and the wounded sheep, a strange tenderness rose in him. He realized that the boy had not forgotten his promise. He bid his servants to take the boy to the inn for care.

Gerrit Honthorst

The unconscious boy was taken to the stable of the inn. Upon waking he heard the cry of the Child whom the other shepherds had gone to see. One of the shepherds brought the Child and laid Him in Dahvid's arms, the Child for whose coming the people had been longing for a thousand years.

The color at length came back to Dahvid's white cheeks, and strength and health to his limbs and he went back again to the plain. Old Abraham embraced him, "Forgive me, my son. I have been a hard master. Thou hast been very faithful, and for thy reward I make thee lord over all my flocks and half of them shall be thine own."

So Dahvid became a man of flocks, and all his days he was known among the other shepherds as the one who had held the Christ-child in his arms. And there was none among them who was thought so brave, and gentle, and wise as the Shepherd Who Didn't Go.*

Adapted from *The Shepherd Who Didn't Go", in The City that Never Was Reached, by Jay T. Stocking; published by the Pilgrim Press.

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