Mid Pentecost Homily

As preached by Sister Cecelia
May 22, 2019
Holy Wisdom Chapel

1Peter 2:18-25, Ac 7:30-37,44-49, Jn 7:11-29

There were a lot of opinions about who Jesus really was. Some whispered that he was a “good man”. While true, that was not all Jesus was.  Some were convinced he was a prophet, a forth-teller of the will of God. Jesus was so close to God, being one with God, that he knew God’s mind and purposes.   The difference between a prophet and Jesus was that a prophet would say; “Thus says the Lord”, whereas Jesus would say, “I say to you”. 

Some thought Jesus was a deluded madman. Indeed he was mad enough to turn the world’s standards upside down. He chose a cross when he might have had power and esteem. He was the suffering servant when he might have been the conquering king. He washed the feet of his disciples when he might have had people kneeling at his feet. He came to serve and save when he could have subjected the world to servitude.

Some thought Jesus was a seducer. Most of the authorities saw in him one who was leading the people away from true religion. He was breaking all their sacrosanct laws. He was breaking the Sabbath, he was a drunkard and a glutton, he defiled himself by associating with sinners of all kinds. They saw him as destroying orthodox religion and if people believed his idea of religion over theirs - well! how could it be that they were wrong?!! So they hated him.

Some experienced Jesus as having a dynamic personality. The verdict of the soldiers sent to arrest him was that they had never heard anyone who spoke as Jesus did. From Jesus flowed a power that sent those dispatched to arrest him back to the authorities in empty -handed bewilderment.

Some saw Jesus as a man of courage. He had the courage to defy mistaken conventions and encourage behavior more pleasing to his Father. He entered Jerusalem knowing it was entering a lion’s den and would lead to his enduring terrible physical pain and mental anguish. He had the courage to go on when even most of his family abandoned him, his beloved disciples fled in fear and one of his own circle betrayed him. 

Then there were those who saw Jesus as Christ, the Anointed one of God. Jesus was truly the Wisdom of God.

There was amazement at how Jesus could expound an understanding of scripture when they thought him uneducated. Jesus assured them time and again that he did not speak on his own but the Father commanded him what he was to say. Jn 14:10. 

How do we learn what to say and what to do? A person willing to do God’s will, will come to understand. It is a common belief that God is only found in the extraordinary. The teaching of Christianity is just the opposite. If God is in the world only in the unusual, God would rarely be found. We have come to understand that God is present in all of creation. The Spirit of Jesus is with us at all times helping us to discern how to learn from the everyday happenings of our life’s journey. Whatever actions we take, need to be guided by taking time to reflect, to ponder if how we are living is a reflection of God’s love, both towards our own selves and towards others. Saint Augustine was supposed to have said, “Love God and do what you will”.  If one is truly loving God, one will want to do what pleases God. The motivation for any and all of our actions is what God sees. Joy and peace will come to us when we come to see God present everywhere enabling all our actions to be what we think will please God.

Sermon 165: May 12, 2019 1 Jn 4:16-21; Acts 5:12-20; Mk 15:42-16:8 “Sunday of the Myrrhbearing women”

As preached by Brother Luke
Holy Wisdom Church

Christ is Risen [Truly Risen] [3 times] Mothers’ Day

What does God’s love look like? What does love look like? I don’t think anyone has attempted to paint an icon and label it: God’s love. So, we won’t find it there. In this morning’s epistle reading, St. John tells us that: “God is love and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them.” [1Jn4:16] We are being called to live in union with God which also means living in God’s love. It is not unusual for a spiritual director to lead us toward that experience of being in God’s love. God is love. God is not doing love but being love. Sometimes the Trinity icon can help us grasp this. Although it is not labeled “God’s love” it is often referred to as the personified vision of God’s love. The three figures, understood to be the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are not in competition with each other but in perfect harmony. 

        The Myrrhbearing women went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. No one gave them instructions to do this. No one told them when to go or what spices to purchase or how to prepare them.  Afterall, the disciples had all fled. The Myrrhbearing women and St John were at the cross but it was the women alone who set out for the tomb. They were doing what was expected in that culture and society at that time. But even more, they were acting out of love for Jesus, their teacher who was now lying in the tomb. Their rabbi did more than teach, he exhibited God’s love and radiated it into the world. All who came into contact with him, were, in a real sense, entering into God’s love.  

        St Mark’s gospel is understood by many to end with the passage we heard today. Some manuscripts add to that ending, but the women fleeing in fear and telling no one what they saw, is considered the oldest rendition. This is a very human reaction to a shocking and unexpected experience. We also know from the witness of the church and the other gospels that their fear was turned to joy when they experienced the risen Lord. St. Peter and the Myrrhbearing women are both examples of Jesus most passionate followers and supporters and yet they flee. Experiencing the risen Lord revives them and their faith to such an extent that they take the message of this Good News to the ends of the earth and many of them die for it. Jesus’ appearances brought light and life to those who encountered him. And they carried that light to others.

        A couple of days after Pascha I visited our Brother John at the Bennington Vermont Rehabilitation Center. I had my dog Kahn with me. We went through Br John’s mail and I gave him an update on community news and the puppy kennel. He talked about the most recent efforts by his doctors to deal with his latest health issues. He has suffered so much, and his pain is unrelenting and it inevitably turns his mind to decisions he faces about his future. Then I asked him about visitors and he began to talk about the many people who came to see him on Pascha. His face lit up, he became animated, and he took great delight in recalling who had come that day and what they had talked about and the gifts that some had brought. It was the old Brother John. He was like the desert father story of Abba Lot visiting Abba Joseph. Abba Lot described his life of prayer and asked what else he could do and Abba Joseph stood up and stretched out his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said, “If you will, you can become all flame.” Brother John had become all flame. The love that had visited him that Pascha burst forth from him like fire. That is what love looks like!

Christ is risen!

2nd Sunday of Easter:

Homily by Sr. Rebecca 

Holy Wisdom Church

      Today’s Gospel focuses on 2 appearances of the Risen Lord Jesus.  The second one, which describes the disbelief of Thomas, seems to me to take precedence over other important aspects of what is celebrated in todays Gospel.   What first and foremost holds my attention are the words of Jesus to his disciples, when, after breathing upon them the Holy Spirit, he says to them in a most frequently quoted English translation:

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are they are forgiven; if you retain them they are retained.” 

     Now, Sandra Schneider, [1]well known and credible biblical scholar offers an alternative translation: Of whomever you forgive sins, they (=the sins) are forgiven to them; whomever you hold fast (or embrace) they (the persons) are held fast.  What Jesus is really saying and emphasizing:  it is the PERSONS who are held fast, not their sins.  It is not conceivable that Jesus, who is sent by the Father to take away the sin of the world, would tell his disciples to perpetuate sin by the refusal of forgiveness, that is by retaining of sins.

     With this in mind we can segue now to 8 days later during the exchange between Jesus and Thomas.  Jesus’ encounter with Thomas manifests Jesus holding Thomas fast through his struggle, and painful doubt to faith.

 

    What the Risen Lord is implying: ‘your betrayal, your disloyalty, I do not hold this against you.  It is gone. It is no more…I give you peace of mind, body, heart. 

And secondly, I hold you and have been holding you even before, during and after you sin.  I have gone to the space of your alienation, your anguish, your fears, your misguided thoughts and desires…I pierce the abyss and bring you New Life, and Light of who you really are from the very beginning. Your deepest reality is goodness, you are beautiful, and you are my beloved’. 

    This is a 180 degrees turnabout – from the disciples closing themselves off identifying themselves as sinners, alienated ones, to shifting their identity to a deeper soul identity that Jesus is manifesting to them and to all:  ‘Do not stay imprisoned in your small selves, go beyond your thoughts, your feelings that keep you there confined; go to who you really are.  And as you are aware of being embraced, held by God you will also do likewise to others.’

     In the second part of this gospel, Thomas’ dilemma is his own holding fast to his own self-reliance on his imagined need to see, to touch Jesus’ wounds.  But Jesus manifests his own ‘holding fast’ to Thomas’ true identity-not just his thoughts and feelings.  He knows Thomas’ deepest heart, his overwhelming sorrow, disorientation at what has happened and that he is stuck in his own brain wrestling with his thoughts.   Jesus calls Thomas to himself : ‘here, you want to see with your own eyes, and touch me with your own fingers my wounds, my side…’

      From Thomas’ depths he exclaims:  “My Lord and my God”.  There is no indication that this moment of deep soul understanding of God’s presence comes from having really tangibly touched or seen Jesus as he thought he must. It is a kairos moment, a God’s time moment.  The stone was removed from his heart, he perceives from enlightened innermost eyes.  In experiencing the compassion of Christ, whose own deep open wounds swallow up the deep chasms of Thomas’ doubt in love, Thomas experiences the presence of God in the Risen Christ. 

     In all the appearances of the Risen Lord, Jesus is reiterating in his own person what he has taught from the very beginning:  ‘I want to show you the Astonishing Light of your own being’ – this is what defines us.  The Light that God has put in us never goes out even when we try to put it out.  We cannot undo our own goodness.  We need to see the Risen Lord, not with our physical eyes and touch…but from the ground of our own being.  It is looking within that we perceive Him.

      I’d like to end with a passage from the poet Rumi who eloquently expresses this reality:

“The light that shines in the eye is really the light of the heart.

The light that fills the heart is the light of God, which is pure and separate from the light of the intellect and senses.”

[1]  Cf. Sandra Schneider’s conference on “The Lamb of God and the forgiveness of sin”

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