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ADVENT, NOVEMBER 27—DECEMBER 24, 2022
In Advent, we celebrate the beginning of the new Christian year, which begins in a mood of preparation for the arrival of the NEW.
December 4th was the birthday of the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. Rilke is quite well known for the poetry he wrote at the turn of the last century, but also for a small collection of letters—a correspondence with a younger fellow poet—a Mr. Kappus—who had asked him for his advice. This correspondence has proven to be of much value to generations since, not just in the help of writing poetry but also in the living of life (which is anyway one and the same thing to a poet!)
Rilke responds to this young colleague's frustration at not being able to find answers when he wants them by giving him this advice: not to seek the answers—for to receive them now may mean anyway that he would not be able to live them, to bring them down into life—but rather to live the questions, and perhaps someday find himself living into the answers. Living a question is certainly something quite more involved than simply asking it. It is letting the question be your guide...
This conscious stepping away from seeking the satisfaction of an answer and instead orienting oneself anew on the question itself which moves in the soul—this can inaugurate a radical shift in us, can even throw us into a kind of soul-movement we are unaccustomed to, that is uncomfortable at best, and which we may seek to avoid rather than embrace.
Isn't it rather impractical to remain so open? Perhaps with life’s most pressing matters. But with the deeper questions of life, maybe it is what is required of us. For how can we enter into a conversation with the NEW without first asking a question, and, as customary with an earnestly posed question, learning to wait patiently, listening for what the question calls forth from life? If we are truly preparing for the advent of something new—truly new—in us, and in the world, then something of equal value and risk is asked of us too, so that we can become equal partners to that which is coming to meet us from the future.
The courage, then, that we have practiced during the festival of Michaelmas, is a preparation for the time which is coming, which is already here, an apocalyptic time, when the things which are most important to us must be moved into the center. In the center of our lives, in our center, a place must be prepared: an open space in the soul, formed by a courageous question, in which new faculties can grow, new ideas and new springs of life can arise. So that at Christmas we do not just celebrate the birth of the Christ-child once long ago, but also the birth of the New Human Being, in us, today.
Le Christ du Silence by Odilon RedonTrinity III, July 24-Sept 28, 2022
On Love
By Kahlil Gibran
Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:
When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.
But if in your heart you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the heart of God.”
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.
From The Prophet (Knopf, 1923). This poem is in the public domain.
Photo by Rev. Liza Marcato
Johnstide 2022
St. Johnstide Contemplation
July 3, 2022
On June 24, we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist. This has long been a Feast day in Christianity, but with The Christian Community’s birth, in 1924, it became a monthlong festival within the Christian year. It is unusual to call upon a human being at the altar; but of this human being, Jesus said, “He is the greatest born of women.” Not quite an angel, but a human spirit who continues to work beyond history as we celebrate this festival each year.
John cries in the wilderness of the human soul: Prepare the path of the Lord! Free the way! It is John’s great task to help prepare humanity to experience the presence of the divine—the Kingdom of God—here, now, in our lives, in the world.
In the Sunday Service for Children, we describe the experience of the inner desert that called forth his cry when we say to the children: “Without love, human life becomes desolate and empty.”
The desert of human existence has to do with the experience of being cut off from the true source of life which is God, and our own true divine eternal nature. When we are born, we die out of the great communion of spirits we are surrounded by in the spiritual world, and we are born into ourselves—a process which takes a good part of our lives, if not many.
This being born into ourselves is a painful but also wonderful and necessary way that each of us must go. To become a self is as much a process of addition as one of deletion: to discern all the things which we are and which we are not, that we may become the one person who we most truly are in this life. We are created for this purpose; the divine wisdom that shapes our creation and development makes this clear. We all have to learn to stand on our own: to make our own decisions; to reckon with the immense freedom we have been given; to use this freedom as the true gift it is—a gift that then allows us to develop that which is ours into an offering to the world—to connect our oneness with something greater, but anew, in freedom.
Freedom can be quite lonely, terrifying, exciting, and risky. In our freedom, we must have the option to choose NOT to love, and continue separating ourselves from the world around us, our fellow human beings, from God and all of Creation. We have to be free. Thus, we can stand alone; and act as if we are alone–for our whole lives. But it seems that almost every person longs also for something else: for connection, and community; to be mirrored that we may know ourselves; we long to give ourselves to others in love. Who said this should be easy? For it is the most important thing in the world.
In John we experience a human being devoted to God with an intensity like no other. He is able to devote every breath of his existence to serving the coming of something new into the desert of the self. John is a human being who knows there is nothing more important than the spiritual love coming into the world. He knows that to perceive it, to receive it, to participate in it means clearing away the thoughts and feelings which would block us from living in it. To change ourselves inside and out is essential, that we may become that which we seek—for we become whatever we pay attention to.
In the festival of John the Baptist, we are invited to examine how each day we might prepare the way for the God of Love. This is our religious practice. Our sacrament and our prayer life and our practice all have this as the aim, to help us live in the flowing waters of divine love. If anything but awakened love flows forth from us, let us return to the river again and again, to baptize ourselves in His truth.
÷Rev. Liza Marcato
Baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist in the Jordan River, from an Armenian illuminated manuscript of the Gospel, 1268.
HOLY WEEK 2022
PALM SUNDAY
April 10, 2022
The Gospel Reading for Palm Sunday is from Matthew’s Gospel, telling of Jesus’ return to Jerusalem, where He knows for certain He is going to His death. The contrast between the euphoria of the crowds who praise His divine power and the humility and stillness with which He commits to His future is particularly poignant. Two songs follow the Gospel Reading for your Holy Week contemplation on the One who walks into the darkness with us, to bring Light of all light!
Beginning Monday, there will be a daily sharing from either the sermon or the presentation on The Sickness of Sin: the Path of Healing With Christ uploaded here.
÷Rev. Liza Marcato
HOLY MONDAY:
The
Cleansing of the Temple
April 11, 2022
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After His humble entry into Jerusalem—Christ begins a week of repeatedly entering into the City. He journeys out each night to stay with his friends in Bethany; but thus must re-enter again and again.
In this, He enters into the different aspects of the world which needs renewing, the world of sin—that is, the world which in no longer aligned with the divine, which must be saved from its ongoing fall into the death of matter, abstraction, evil.
The Cleansing of the Temple is an incredible and quite different moment in the three years of Christ; we have never seen Him speak with such force directed at human failure before. Yes, He has spoken like this to demons possessing human beings. Yes, He spoke to Peter quite forcefully when Peter wanted to shelter his Lord from the necessity of his suffering and death, and Christ answered: Get behind me, Satan! But there we can see, it was not even directed at Peter, but the Adversary working through Peter’s earthbound thinking.
On this Monday of Holy Week, He now calls upon words of scripture that everyone gathered in the Temple would know: words from two Prophets of God’s word, Isaiah and Jeremiah. He calls upon the power of these words to remind people of the original intention of building a Temple to God for the people to nourish their living relationship with HIM. (see Isaiah 56: 7; Jeremiah 7:11, links below)
Sometimes in life, we need a serious wakeup call. Holy Anger, the emotive response to injustice and wrong actions, the breaking of covenant with another person, or the sacrilegious use or treatment of a holy space or a thing, or in a worst case scenario, another living being—is a well warranted cleansing fire of intensity.
Christ does not get angry at the inevitable fact that we will sin. He has come into the world to help mitigate the fact of original sin, after all. He does, however, love us enough that His care can become a fiery presence of consciousness—and this will rise up in ourselves in the form of our own conscience—as if He is entering the inner sanctum of the soul, and “cleansing the temple.”
How we can discern this fiery love from the voices of spiteful or cruel anger directed at us from within by the adversaries of our humanity—this is our task to see….
The voice of the adversary would lame us, condemn us, and bind us to the past.
Always, always, always—Christ’s anger is love—and works within us in such a way that we feel empowered to act, supported to make a free decision, warmed to courageous creativity—for He calls upon our capacity to freely choose a new way and bring us into movement.
He gives us the awareness that the temple of the human being shall be made holy again, starting now.
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the sickness of sin and the path of healing with christ: original sin & ongoing sin presentation by ÷Rev. Liza Marcato
Holy Tuesday:
Nine Woes of the Pharisees
April 12, 2022
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23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore, whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do their works. For they speak, but do nothing. 4 They fasten heavy loads that are hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves will not lift a finger to move them.
5 “They do all their works to be seen by other people. They make their Scripture boxes broad and lengthen the tassels on their prayer shawls. 6 They love the places of honor at feasts, and the prominent seats in the synagogues, 7 and greetings in the marketplaces, and being called ‘Rabbi’ by other people.
8 “But do not be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, the Messiah, Christ, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Nor be called teachers, for you have one Teacher, the Christ. 11 He who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 For he who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of the heavens against people. For you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who are entering to go in. 14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses and for pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.
15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel sea and land to win just one follower, and when you have him, you turn him into a son of the abyss, twice as bad as yourselves.
16 “Woe to you! You are blind guides when you say, ‘It is pointless to call upon the power of the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18 And you say, ‘It is pointless to call upon the power of the altar, it is nothing. An oath is only of use when it is sworn by the gifts of the altar! 19 You blind fools! Which is greater, the offering or the altar by which alone the offering is made sacred? 20 Whoever calls upon the power of the altar, at the same time calls upon the power of of that which is on the altar. 21 And whoever calls upon the power of the Temple, at the same time calls upon Him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever calls upon the power of the heavens, at the same time calls upon the heavenly throne and upon HIM who sits upon it.
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You tithe mint and dill and cumin, but have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. 24 You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and greed. 26 You blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may also be clean.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You build the tombs of the prophets, and adorn the memorials of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have partaken with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt.
33 “You serpents! You generation of vipers! How can you escape the judgment of hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come on this generation.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not! 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you shall not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
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Holy Wednesday: embracing death
April 13, 2022
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Now the Passover and Festival of Unleavened Bread were two days away; and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to arrest Him covertly and kill Him; for they were saying, “Not during the festival, otherwise there will be a riot of the people.”
While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the Leper, He was reclining at the table, and a woman came with an alabaster vial of very expensive perfume of pure nard. She broke the vial and poured the perfume over His head. But there were some indignantly remarking to one another, “Why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume could have been sold for over three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they were scolding her. But Jesus said, “Leave her alone! Why are you bothering her? She has done a good deed for Me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good to them; but you do not always have Me. She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the entire world, what this woman has done will also be told in memory of her.”
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray Him to them. They were delighted when they heard this, and promised to give him money. And he began seeking how to betray Him at an opportune time.
MAUNDY THURSDAY: the healing medicine
April 14, 2022
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Now Pilate summoned to himself the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, and he said to them, “You brought this man to me on the ground that he is inciting the people to revolt; and behold, after examining Him before you, I have found no basis at all in the case of this man for the charges which you are bringing against Him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent Him back to us; and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him. Therefore I will punish Him and release Him.” [Now he was obligated to release to them at the feast one prisoner.]
But they cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release to us Barabbas!” (He was one who had been thrown into prison for a revolt that took place in the city, and for murder.) But Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept on crying out, saying, “Crucify, crucify Him!” And he said to them a third time, “Why, what has this man done wrong? I have found in His case no grounds for a sentence of death; therefore I will punish Him and release Him.” But they were insistent, with loud voices, demanding that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail. And so Pilate decided to have their demand carried out. And he released the man for whom they were asking, who had been thrown into prison for a revolt and murder; but he handed Jesus over to their will.
And when they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, as he was coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.
Now following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and grieving for Him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are those who cannot bear, and the wombs that have not given birth, and the breasts that have not nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Now two others, who were criminals, were also being led away to be put to death with Him.
GOOD FRIDAY: SAYING YES TO THE CROSS
April 15, 2022
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So Pilate then took Jesus and had Him flogged. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and placed it on His head, and put a purple cloak on Him; and they repeatedly came up to Him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and slapped Him in the face again and again. And then Pilate came out again and *said to them, “See, I am bringing Him out to you so that you will know that I find no grounds at all for charges in His case.” Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate *said to them, “Behold, the Man!” So when the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify, crucify!” Pilate *said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him; for I find no grounds for charges in His case!” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by that law He ought to die, because He made Himself out to be the Son of God!”
Therefore when Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid; and he entered the Praetorium again and *said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate *said to Him, “Are you not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all, if it had not been given to you from above; for this reason the one who handed Me over to you has the greater sin.” As a result of this, Pilate made efforts to release Him; but the Jews shouted, saying, “If you release this Man, you are not a friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar!”
Therefore when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Pavement—but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation for the Passover; it was about the sixth hour. And he *said to the Jews, “Look, your King!” So they shouted, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate *said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king except Caesar.”
Holy SaturDAY: transforming death & the sickness of sin
April 15, 2022
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So he then handed Him over to them to be crucified.
They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, carrying His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which in Hebrew is called, Golgotha. There they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side, and Jesus in between. Now Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It was written: “JESUS THE NAZARENE, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Therefore many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews were saying to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews’; rather, write that He said, ‘I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts: a part to each soldier, and the tunic also; but the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be.” This happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “They divided My garments among themselves, and they cast lots for My clothing.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.
Now beside the cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. So when Jesus saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He *said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He *said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture would be fulfilled, *said, “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
Now then, since it was the day of preparation, to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews requested of Pilate that their legs be broken, and the bodies be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who was crucified with Him; but after they came to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. Yet one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe. For these things took place so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.” And again another Scripture says, “They will look at Him whom they pierced.”
Now after these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one for fear of the Jews, requested of Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took away His body. Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred litras weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.