Gospel text for Sunday 23 September 2018

Mark 9:30-37        Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”

Reflection       Last Tuesday evening I attended the Yom Kippur service with Rabbi Helen Cohn’s congregation. Yom Kippur, the highest and holiest day of the year, marks the end of the Jewish people’s ten days of penitence in preparation for their New Year. During her rabbinic reflection Rabbi Helen spoke about “sacred uncertainty,”  explicating an attitude of humility we are meant to bring to our relationships with God and one another. She counseled, “Do not to look at other people as incompetent versions of yourselves.” Hidden in the rabbi’s wisdom I heard Paul’s instruction to the Philippians,  “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” (Phil 2.5)

What if we took this counsel to heart and began to frame our questions from a humble  non-dualistic perspective? What if rather than regarding ourselves as equal with God, judging people and putting them in pigeonholes, good, bad, right, wrong, what if we adopted an attitude of “sacred uncertainty?”   What if we began to think with the Mind of Christ, as servants of humanity looking for connections rather than distinctions? 

Several months ago I encountered a person in a leadership role whom I was not able to  assign to a particular gender identity. At first I found this disconcerting. As I struggled to put this person in one box or another it occurred to me that I was asking the wrong question. The question is not, “Was this person born a biological male or female?” Nor is it, “In what gender role am I supposed to identify them?” The question is, “How am I connected with this person? What does this person have to say to me?” Which catapulted me out of the tension between this or that, male or female. When I let go of my dualistic way of looking at this person, I was able to experience them in relationship with me. 

“How am I connected with them?” In the deepest desires of our hearts; to be treated with respect,  to have access to decent lives and thereby experience meaning and value. I am connected with this person in our shared humanity and divinity and we both chose to be in this place this day.

Jesus, the Son of Humanity, the Son of God, is praised as King yet arrives in Jerusalem riding on an ass, presides at the Passover banquet then washes his guests feet. Jesus is haled as king of the chosen and executed as a criminal. Jesus is the embodiment of both-and, non-dual consciousness. This is the picture painted for us by Mark’s narrative and it raises some important questions.

What kind of mind set is this gospel inviting us to adopt? What might it look like if individually and as One Body we break out of our pigeon-holing boxes, stop asking questions that demand unproductive dualistic responses?  What if we fervently prayed to embody a both-and life of “sacred uncertainty/“ What if we put on the humble, nonpartisan Mind of Christ?

* Please listen to James Finley’s reflection on Thomas Merton’s teachings about the realization of uncertainty by clicking on image at the upper right of this post.

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Gospel text for Sunday 11 February 2018

Mark 9:2-9        Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Reflection       When Peter witnesses the dazzling Presence of the Spirit of God and the prophets Moses and Elijah with Jesus, Peter wants to keep the Spirit with him and so suggests “let us make three dwellings.”  Here is the thing, along with countless theologians I have preached a fair few sermons chastising Peter for trying to cling to Jesus and the dead prophets by securing them in dwelling places. I have berated Peter’s notion of making an earthy dwelling for the Spirit of God as if the spiritualization of matter was not a good thing.

Here is another perspective. The Episcopal priest, teacher of our Christian Wisdom tradition and author of numerous books on contemplative theology and practice, Cynthia Bourgeault puts it this way.  “If the heart is awake and clear, it can directly receive, radiate, and reflect the unmanifest divine Reality.”*  Sounds like we (matter) are intended to be a dwelling place for Spirit. 

When we choose to turn toward God, our lives are transfigured which basically means any barriers or false notions of separation between God and us melt away. The dark cloud of unconsciousness recedes as we wake up to the truth of our being, that like the exemplar Jesus, we are aflame in the Spirit of God with us. We are both human and divine.

In order to “be” all we are intended, we must receive our full inheritance and radiate Divine fire in the way we choose to live our lives. I believe when Peter protested, “Let us make three dwellings, one for (Jesus), one for Moses and one for Elijah,” he was expressing in concrete terms a deeper spiritual wisdom and longing to “receive, radiate and reflect the unmanifest divine Reality.”

Christian life is a both-and process; receiving and radiating the Spirit of God. When we consent to our full inheritance as both human and divine beings, (which means no more justifying our less than Divine behavior professing, “I am only human,”) we wake up, fully alive and cannot help but radiate the dazzling glory of God with us. 

* Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart (Jossey-Bass: 2003), 33-35.

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Hebrew Testament Text for 30 August 2015

Song of Songs 2.8-13   

The voice of my beloved!

Look, he comes,

leaping upon the mountains,

bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle

or a young stag.

Look, there he stands

behind our wall,

gazing in at the windows,

looking through the lattice.

My beloved speaks and says to me:

“Arise, my love, my fair one,

and come away;

for now the winter is past,

the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of singing has come,

and the voice of the turtledove

is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs,

and the vines are in blossom;

they give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my fair one,

and come away.”   

Reflection        Unlike most of the rest of the Bible, nearly seventy-five percent of the words spoken in the Song of Songs are the woman’s voice. This poetic call to love with its references to mountains and hills, a gazelle and a stag, fchanging seasons, verdant vines and fragrant blossoms locates human love in the context of the garden, and associates human love with all that is good in creation.  This offers an alternative view to the longstanding historical interpretation of the woman in the Song (not to mention many other parts of the Bible) as the adulterous, betraying woman who represents Israel’s idolatry or sinful woman, the church, who has lost her way. These interpretations of women have had a far ranging effect particularly as they are promoted in commentaries on the most widely published book in the world, the Bible with more than 5 billion copies printed since 1815.

We live in a time wherein many women are bought, sold, abused and exploited. Across the globe women are discounted, disrespected and held in contempt. The outrageous fact is, in many places the status of women has not much improved in the twenty-six hundred years since the Song of Songs was written. That said, we need to hear the Song of Songs because it reminds us of what love can be. The Song is a finger pointing beyond the edifice of human codes and concepts, interpretations, traditions and doctrines that separate us from the love of God and our neighbor. The Song of Songs is an invitation to acknowledge our deepest desires and longing and accept the invitation to live fully and freely rooted in the commandment to love. 

Of course we can extrapolate from the dramatic poem and offer theological reflections on God’s love of God’s people and Jesus’ love of the Church. But we must be careful “Not to teach human precepts as doctrines,”(Mk 7.8) in other words,  not to ignore God’s commandments and hold onto human tradition.  We must be careful not to slip into dualistic thinking, creating codes and characterizing love as human versus divine.  When one of the scribes asked Jesus, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;  you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk 12.28-31) 

When a  scribe asks Jesus  for the singular decisive commandment, Jesus’ non-dualistic response, love God with all your heart AND soul, mind AND strength, And love your neighbor AS your self, refuses to be constrained in a container of singular certainty. Both Jesus and the unknown writer of the Song of Songs shows us what love looks like. Fully human and fully divine, freely given and joyfully received. Amen. 

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Gospel text for Sunday 17 August 2014

Matthew 15.21-28        Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly

Reflection        Oh dear, how shall we deal with this incredibly rude Jesus? How will we justify his heartless behavior? How could the son of God behave this way? And then the Canaanite woman reminds us, Jesus is Lord and he is also the son of David, born of Mary, of woman. He is also fully human. He was raised as an observant Jew. He knew the Hebrew scriptures and the temple customs. It was as natural for Jesus to see the Canaanite woman as an untouchable stranger who had no business approaching him and asking for his help as it is for many Americans to see the Central American women and children entering this country illegally as strangers or aliens who have no business entering this country and asking for help. 

Yes, Jesus is the son of God and Jesus is the son of humanity; fully divine and fully human. For reasons we will never know the Canaanite woman recognized the dual natures of Jesus, Lord and Son of David. After all his healing, preaching, exorcisisms and raising people from the dead, this story offers a glimpse of Jesus’ humanity. Just like every one of us, Jesus was subjected to the conditions of his social, cultural and religious context. And, just like us, Jesus had the capacity to stretch beyond the limits of his condioned social and emotional responses and become more compassionate. 

Something happened to Jesus in his exchange with the Canaanite woman. His original idea of who he should and should not relate with was changed. His notion of who was eligible for his help and healing was radically challenged. The Canaanite woman’s persistent faith pierced the depths of Jesus’ humanity and sparked the mercy of his divinity.  And he was changed. Who are the people seeking mercy from us? With our human and divine natures balanced and engaged, how shall we respond? Do we dare follow Jesus, step into foreign territory, meet the stranger face to face and allow ourselves to be changed?

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Gospel Text for Sunday, August 21st, 2011

Matthew 16:13-20

When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.