2nd Passiontide II, 2020, Life That's Wide and Timeless

Amedee Varin

John 6:16–21
When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off over the sea for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed three or three and a half miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the sea; and they were terrified. But he said to them, "I AM, have no fear" Now when they wanted to take him into the boat, immediately the boat was at the land, at the place where they wanted to go.

2^nd Passiontide
March 18, 2020
John 6:16–21

This gospel reading has the quality of a dream. It starts as something of a nightmare. It is night; the disciples are in a boat, working hard to make headway in rough seas. Suddenly they see Christ. He appears as if walking, a shining form above the waters. At first, they shrink with fear, but he calms them with the assurance of his very being – it is I. And when they take him in, they are suddenly at their destination.

Our lives, too, are sometimes beset with darkness and rough passages. It is just at those times when Christ can make his ever-presence known to us. He assures us that fear can be dispelled because he is the helping Guide on our journey. With his aid, we will reach our goal of firm grounding.

Not only is he our guide for the way, but he is also our bread for the way. Just as after a night on the sea of dreams, we come to the daytime shore refreshed, so too does Christ nourish our spirits. He gives our spirits life and strength. He comes to us, we who trust that we will survive with him, even in the darkest hours. Perhaps, like Rilke, we can also learn to love them. He says,

I love the dark hours of my being.

Tissot

My mind deepens into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life, already lived,
and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open
to another life that's wide and timeless.*


*Ranier Maria Rilke in Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

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1st Passiontide 2020, Whispered Healing

1^st Passiontide

Luke 11:29-36

And as the crowds increased, Jesus began to speak. “This generation is a stranger to their true being. They look for signs and outer proofs of the spirit, but none other will be given to them but the sign of Jonah. For just as once Jonah shared the experience of the spirit with the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man share the experience of the spirit with this present generation. The Queen of the South will rise in the time of great crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and judge them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. But know this: here is more than Solomon.

The inhabitants of Nineveh will rise up in the days of crisis and decision against the men of this present generation and will pronounce judgment over them, for they changed their ways after the proclamation of Jonah. But know this; here is more than Jonah.

No one lights a lamp and then puts it in a hidden place or under a vessel, but rather sets it on a lampstand, so that all may see the light shining.

The lamp of your body is your eye. When your eye looks at the world clearly, then all your body is light.

But when it is evil, your body is also dark. [But if, however, the eye’s desire sees the world separated from the spirit, darkness will pour itself into you.]

See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, with no dark part in it, it shall be wholly illumined, as when the lamp illumines you with its rays.”

1^st Passiontide

March 15, 2020

Luke 11:29-36

  

This gospel reading is a wake-up call. Present-day humanity is under a great deal of duress. Under stress, it is 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.

Roland Tiller

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 the poet David Whyte says:

…the lightest touch,

…

Raising of  Lazarus

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.*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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

5th February Trinity 2020, Dawn Comes

February Trinity

(5^th Sunday before Easter)

Matthew 17: 1-9

Fra Angelico

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 as 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.”

5^th February Trinity

March 8, 2020

Matthew 17: 1-13

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

4th February Trinity 2020, See with the Other Eye

February Trinity

6^th Sunday before Easter 

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.

Tissot

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.’”

Tissot

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.”

Tissot

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. “

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 the angels again as they came to bring him nourishment. 

4^th February Trinity

March 1, 2020

Matthew 4:1-11

When a first-time driver sits behind the wheel, they must first gain control over the power of the vehicle—how far to turn the wheel to end up where they want; how hard to press on the gas or the brake. The first lessons are usually out in an empty space.

Blake

This gospel reading takes place right after Jesus’ Baptism when Christ’s Spirit entered him. Christ had entered the strange territory of a human soul and body. He is in the desert. Imagine what a great coup it would have been for the devil to abort Christ’s mission at its very inception. So we can imagine the devil hauling out his greatest weapons.

The first of the devil’s weapons is the desperation of the body’s need. In suggesting that Christ turn stones into bread, the devil might also be whispering that, of course, it would be foolish for Christ to let Himself die of starvation here in the desert. Yet Christ resists the devil’s suggestion to literally take the matter into his own hands. Christ relies on the Father’s living presence to sustain Him—and indeed, angels come to nourish Him.

Blake

The second and the third of the devil’s temptations involve the soul’s pride in two extremes. First, the devil tries to draw Him into foolishly assuming God’s total protection of His body and soul, no matter how extreme the behavior, even if he were to jump off a high place. Failing that, the devil takes Him to the other extreme, encouraging Him to drop his allegiance to the Father altogether and to derive His power from the Prince of this World.

Blake

Yet new as He is to living in a human body, Christ is no fool. He sees through the errors and consequences in the Enemy’s propositions. He knows that His connection with His Father must remain both appropriate and unbroken for Him to do what he has come to earth to do.

Because Christ was able to overcome temptation from within the human body, He is able to give every human being the possibility to do likewise - to see through and resist the devil’s false suggestions, to do what we have come to earth to do. Each human being has the possibility of maintaining a connection to the world from which we all have come. We can become aware of our real connection with our Father in the heavens, whose kingdom comes when His will is done on earth. We can perhaps hear God speaking in the words of the poet:

Close both eyes and see with the other eye.

Open your hands if you want to be held….

Quit acting like a wolf and feel

the Shepherd’s love, filling you.*

www.thechristiancommunity.org

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* Rumi, “A Communion of the Spirit” in The Essential Rumi, Coleman Barks, p. 3.

3rd Trinity Sunday 2020, No Spirits Divided

Feb. Trinity

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

Luke 18: 18-34

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

Hoffman

When Jesus heard this, he said, “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.”

Bernard Eyb, God the Father and Christ

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.

3^rd February Trinity

February 23, 2020

Luke 18: 18-34

Collot d'Herbois

The rich young man had been pursuing a spiritual path. He wanted to develop the capacity to live beyond earthly, mortal existence into the eternal. Through strict adherence to the commandments, he had fashioned himself into a worthy vessel. And that vessel was full of the spiritual riches of his people and the hard-won treasures of the inner life. It had also won him the esteem of his people.

Christ now discerns that the young man had gone as far as it was possible to go along the old way. And now it is time for him to step onto a new path. But before he can do so, he must be willing to sacrifice all that he had hitherto achieved. 

It is a new path that Christ himself will build with him, a path of inner and outer sacrifice.  For this young man, the Christ-path starts as a path of renunciation, a path toward and into death. 'Sell all of your possessions; give the money to the poor, and then come and follow me.' The rich young man is to give up everything he had achieved and embark toward something totally new. He is to walk consciously, with Christ, toward death.

Blake

Naturally, it was a shock for him to realize this. It must have been something like receiving a terminal diagnosis. Naturally, he would be sad over the impending losses. And perhaps one of the greatest griefs would be the loss of his earthly identity. Yet walk he does, along with Christ, who is the Way itself. (John 14:6)

Although Luke's Gospel doesn't say anything further about the rich young man, Mark's gospel gives us a hint: 'Jesus, looking at him, loved him.' (Mark 10:21). And John's Gospel refers to Lazarus as one whom Jesus loved. So perhaps we may assume how the young man's further story actually unfolds: as Lazarus, he does indeed give up everything, even his life. (John 11). And he is called forth out of death by Christ. He receives a new name, a new identity – Lazarus John. Christ initiates him into the mysteries of death so that the young man can stand by and accompany Christ with true understanding when He Himself dies and comes forth from the dead. Further, the young man now shares with us his hard-won inner experiences as a treasure from the spiritual world, as the writer of John's Gospel. 

As William Penn said,

Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can spirits ever be divided, that love and live in the same divine principle . . . *

*William Penn, from More Fruits of Solitude

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2nd February Trinity 2020, Quiet Seeds

2^nd February Trinity

Luke 8:4-15

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. Yet 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; afterward, 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 seeds that 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.

2^nd February Trinity

February 16, 2020

Luke 8: 4-15

Charles Andrade

Imagine a potted plant you could only view from a distance. How could you tell if it were a living plant or an artificial one? You could observe it over time. Does it grow and blossom? Does it change?

The Gospel says that Jesus uses agricultural images especially for the souls who stream to him from the city. These plant images are the most accurate for describing how the living seed of the Word of God changes and grows over time. So He uses images from the realm of living processes to describe how the Word of God lives and grows in the soul.

The life realm of the plants is a quiet realm. We don’t hear flowers open to a fanfare of trumpets. We don’t perceive a great symphonic flourish when fruit ripens. The living Word of God is as quiet as a seed. The very loudness of

modern life with its sorrows and riches and joys may distract us to the point where our souls can no longer provide the depth and richness, the fertility for the germination and growth of His Word.

We need to tend the field of our own souls. We need to till the ground of the heart, perhaps through suffering, certainly through attention and selfless deeds. We need to water the ground of the heart with our tears, warm it with our prayers, let shine the clear sunlight of our spiritual learning and understanding. We need to take in the seed of God’s Word and treasure it in our hearts. We need to protect it and nourish it in the womb of the soul so that it grows and develops there.

We can grow God in our hearts. We do this so that His Word can mature and ripen into a fruitfulness that we can offer to the world of earth and the world of the angels. God’s Word - as it quietly speaks in the Gospels, as it is imaged in nature, as it speaks through human destinies – God’s word resounds and manifests in the world through us. We can grow and carry God wherever we go. We can be the place where His Word becomes manifest, grows and transforms.

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1st February Trinity, Gratitude

February Trinity

Matthew 20: 1-16

[But many who are last will be first, and many who are first will be last.] The kingdom of the heavens is like a man, the master of his house, who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. Agreeing to pay them one denarius a day, he sent them out into his vineyard.

At about nine o’clock, he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace, and he said to them, “Go also into my vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.” So they went.

He went out again at about noon and at three o’clock and did the same. At five o’clock, he went out and found others standing there, and he said to them, “Why do you stand here all day idle?” They said, “Because no one has hired us.” He said, “You, too, go into the vineyard.”

And when evening came, the master of the vineyard said to his steward, “Call the workers and give them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”

Those who had been hired at five o’clock came forward, and each received one denarius. Therefore, when it was the turn of those who were hired first, they expected to receive more. However, they too also received one denarius each.

Burnand

They took it, but they began to grumble against the master of the house. “These men who were hired last only worked one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”

However, he answered one of them, saying, “Friend, I am not being unjust to you. Did you not agree with me for one denarius? Take what you have earned and go. I wish to give to the man hired last the same as I give to you. Have I not the right to do as I wish with what is mine? Or do you give me an evil look because I am generous? Thus will the last be first and the first will one day be last."

1^st February Trinity

Feb 9, 2020

Matthew 20:1-16

The story in today’s reading seems to be about fairness. Those who worked the entire day feel entitled to more than a day’s wage, because those who seemed to do less received the same day’s wage.

van Gogh

But on a social level, the story is actually about a generosity that is beyond fairness. The master, the great and generous heart of the world, would give daily bread, sustenance to all. Human dignity requires that all be sustained, regardless of circumstance. That is also our own human task—to work to feed others, not just ourselves.

On yet another level, this story is also about the broader reasons we labor on earth at all. Each day we come back from the fields of night, where we received our inspirations for the work of earth. We are all day laborers working on our own sense of self, our own integrity, our own great-heartedness. To be without outer work is to suffer a loss of meaning, loss of relationships to others, loss of a sense of self, and one’s place in the community.

For we have all come to labor on the fields of earth to build up our own inner strength, and to join with others in doing God’s work of earth, even if we appear to have no outer job at all. The poet Mary Oliver wrote:

My work is loving the world.

….Let me

keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be

astonished.

Which is mostly rejoicing….

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

that we live forever.*

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*Mary Oliver, “Messenger,” in Thirst