Homily for the Feast of the Transfiguration 2018

As preached by Brother Christopher
Holy Wisdom Church

One of my favorite places to visit is the Clark Museum over in Williamstown. I usually get there a couple of times a year and each time I go I’m struck by the magic of painting: how the most ordinary of objects, events, and situations turn into portraits of intense beauty. Often the magic is created by the play of light — say in “Sunrise in the Woods” by George Inness, or “Apples in a Dish” by Renoir. What is ordinary glows from within in the simplest of settings.

            Reality is like that as well. What is most common shimmers when we see it in God’s light. In this morning’s Gospel Jesus takes Peter, James and John up the mountain… probably just a normal walk that he initiates. But in their presence, something unexpected happens: Jesus is transfigured. His face shown like the sun and his clothes were as dazzling as light. Jesus speaks to Moses and Elijah, who symbolize the Law and the Prophets. Their presence affirms Jesus’ identity and path. What is crucial for us to remember is the context for this passage. In the previous pericope, Jesus has just finished rebuking Peter for trying to dissuade him from following his path, a path Jesus knows will lead to his death. The rebuke is uncompromisingly strong: “Get behind me Satan, for you are not thinking as God thinks, but as human beings do.” (Mt 16:23) The transfiguration follows up on this, allowing us to “see” Jesus as he truly is and the implications of this for all creation.

All of us know that life is not black and white. Just as we know that there is an abundance of grace and beauty in life, so also there is an abundance of darkness and tragedy. How can we not take note of the images of war, violence, exploitation, death, and sin that we see every day on our televisions, as well as in our personal lives? The temptation for us in the face of this is to lose perspective and grow depressed and dispirited. We miss the forest through the trees. What the transfiguration reveals for us is that God’s light penetrates, yes redeems, even the most profound darkness. Jesus can accept, even embrace his destiny because he sees it in the context of the whole, the fact that this is how God’s unconditional love will be manifest: through the way of the cross. Thus he can press on resolutely towards Jerusalem.

            Jesus makes clear that we share in this path. Immediately prior to the transfiguration it was Jesus who told his disciples, “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let them renounce themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” (Mt 16:24) Now he touches them and says, “Rise, be not afraid.” (Mt 17:7) This is not bad news, a call that ultimately leads to alienation and despair. Rather, just as the transfiguration reveals the light emanating from Jesus, a glow that now permeates the whole of creation, so does that glow become perceptible in our own journeys. The backdrop to our everyday is the fact that it is shot through, irradiated with the energy of divine light, even in the most challenging of circumstances. We have only to see with the eyes of our heart, and hope in what that reveals. “This is my beloved Son, Listen to him.”(Mt 17:5)

Sermon 158; Is 56:3,6-8; Rm 12:6-19; Mt 15:21-8. Whose first?

As Preached by Brother Luke
Holy Wisdom Chapel
August 05, 2018


I don’t know if others experience this, but I know for myself, if someone comes up to me out of the blue and asks me for something or to agree to something, my immediate, and seemingly knee jerk, response is no! So, when I began to reflect on this gospel reading, I was not put off by Jesus’ initial response to this woman. Undeterred, she persisted and, in the end, she got what she wanted. It reminds me also of the story about the unjust judge who finally relents after the woman who is pleading with him simply refuses to leave him alone until her demand is satisfied. So, persistence in prayer is at least one message in this gospel passage. Don’t be surprised by silence if you give up your prayer. Persistence, or we might say regularity, is needed to yield results. It is always easier to give up. We expect some immediate response and, in its absence, to let the feeling of despair or disappointment defeat us. Just as in this gospel story, St Paul says the same thing to the church in Rome: persevere in prayer. (12:12). Don’t give up.

However, another message is also embedded here. Notice what Jesus says to this Canaanite woman. It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs. Now Brother John of Taizé when touching on this passage notes that the word Jesus uses here is not dogs but the diminutive for that word which means puppies. We know that the Psalms have some references to dogs that are quite negative: they snarl all night, lips like swords, searching for food. They will tear you to pieces. But there is also the dog that consoles Lazarus at the gate of the rich man who never notices him. So, one might say that Jesus is not consigning this woman to outer darkness with an absolute rejection, he is, in a sense, pleading with her to understand that he has been sent on a mission to the children of Israel. That is his first priority. But as we see, even with that in mind, he relents and helps this woman too.

So, one might see in this passage the call to us to remember that our first task is to meet the needs of those nearest to us before we stretch ourselves out too far towards others. It does not mean that others do not matter, nor that we shouldn’t care about them, only that we need to work within our community and offer the needed healing there first and then widen our net. If we widen our net and forget those closest to us, we may be missing the most obvious meaning of love your neighbor. My neighbor is the one I meet regularly, who lives near to me, and who I cannot miss if I am observant. The rich man missed Lazarus right under his nose. It’s not just the rich who miss the needy living right under their noses.

But the ultimate message to us may be a part of the story that is not written here. My neighbor is not the real starting point. Where did Jesus go after his baptism? To the desert. Why? To work first on himself. So even his mission to the Israelites came after his own inner work. The implication for us is to notice that even in attending to needs in my community, I can only be effective if I have also worked on myself. Yet, to probe my inner darkness can be the most painful challenge that I will ever have to face. But if I do not do that, then I may simply spread my wounds around, rather than bring healing to others.

Indeed, the message here is about healing, but healing in its many dimensions and levels. My relationship with myself and with God provides the foundation to move out to my neighbors, to those closest to me, and then, finally out to the broader world beyond my immediate community. This is the pattern Jesus models for us. And the good news is that he is with us in all levels of this work.



Christ is in our midst.

Homily, July 29, 2019

As preached by Sister Rebecca
Holy Wisdom Church

Matthew 14: 13-21

Our Gospel passage today reveals our Lord at a time of physical exhaustion and emotional distress.  It would be pushing it too far to say he was depressed or despondent, but a lesser person might have had a sense of hopelessness:  The religious authorities were dismissive of him, criticizing him and his followers for their petty infractions of minor rules governing eating and religious observances.  And just preceding today’s Gospel is the account of King Herod having executed his cousin John the Baptist, the one who baptized Jesus and had supported Jesus in many ways, and actually encouraging people to switch their allegiance from him to Jesus.

      It is in this context in which we see Jesus seeking out a desert place for silence and solitude with his Father-to replenish his intimacy with the Father and face the inevitable outcome of his mission-his own coming death.

     It did not work.  The crowds pursued him.  They traveled long distances from their homes to be near Jesus and hear his words for them.  Upon arriving Jesus sees the sick, the poor ones, the needy ones.  He knows that they are hungry, starving for the Word of God. This calls to mind the first reading where the prophet Isaiah uses the metaphor of food for God’s Word:  “Come, all of you..come without money ..Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen to me, and eat what is good and you will delight in the richest of fare.  Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live”. (cf. Is. 55:11 ff)

     Up to now, Jesus was not known to feed people with bread or other food.  In fact, he rejected this possible ministry when he was tempted in the desert to see his mission as resolving food shortage among his people.  His response to the tempter was:  “humans do not live on bread alone but every word that comes from God.  He saw this as his mission.” 

     Seeing the crowd, Jesus’ heart was filled with compassion for them. Jesus sees they are like harassed sheep without a shepherd.  The religious leaders have failed them also.  In the very Temple itself, which Jesus referred to as a market place – money changers filling their own pockets.

He begins by healing them many them of their bodily afflictions.   The Word – no matter where it comes from –even God’s -is hard to hear when people are in pain. He heals many and then preaches the Word.

    Matthew indicates that they were so determined to see Jesus and did not plan very well, for the day grew short and they were far from their homes with no food to hold them until they returned.  The disciples expressed a genuine concern to Jesus that the people would need to leave in order to avoid the problem of being stuck on the road, in the dark with no food. “Send the crowds away so they may go into the village and buy food for themselves.”  But Jesus too a different approach:  They need not go away:  He turns to his disciples and says;  You feed them.   Have them sit down on the green* grass.  Grass? Here we have here metaphor, a ‘code’ word alluding to Ps 23.  “The Lord is my shepherd I shall lack nothing; he makes me lie down in fields of green grass…he refreshes my soul. “ This is what this story is first and foremost really pointing to: Soul nourishment. 

The disciples are stunned out of their wits, as we can readily imagine:  We have only 5 loaves and 2 fishes here and you are telling us to feed them?  Jesus says “bring them to me”.    We know the story…Jesus takes the bread, blesses it, breaks it and the disciples distribute it among the crowd and all are satiated.  As they are distributing it, the bread does not run out, and not only does not run out there are a lot of left overs.

        I’d like to focus on one aspect of this event and the importance of Jesus’ command for the early disciples and for us today: “You Feed them”.

     We see this lived out in the early Christian community in the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles and in all of the writings and lives of exemplary Christians throughout the ages and right up to our own times.

      How many times in our lives have we found ourselves in situations where we feel pushed inwardly to help out, to be of service, to take the initiative to go out to someone in distress?   And yet we feel unequipped, or even helpless ourselves.  We may even feel overwhelmed like Moses did in the desert when God spoke to him within the burning bush: ‘Go to Pharaoh to save my people’.  He said “ask my brother”, he can speak better than me.”  A Midrash says that Moses stuttered.  God does not give up on him, and his resistances.  How plausible are his common sense reasons for pleading his cause!   The Spirit of God frequently chooses what is apparently poor and unequipped to step up to a task.  In such times it is so obvious that the service is not from one’s own ego efforts.  It is a question of willingness rather than willfulness.

       Most often the call: ‘you feed’ them, is in the small stuff of everyday. But still it is an embrace of what is a leap of faith, into the unknown.  Life as a disciple of Jesus involves risk, and there is no proof ahead of time to give us assurance that this is really what is asked of us. But we ourselves are stunned when we do respond-there is a great sense of blessing and inner strength and peace that come through it.   Jesus, himself, offers our lives, broken pieces and all, and brings us before the Father. That's the grace and favor that He alone can bring into our lives in the midst of dark places.

  

      The call is the same:  a metaphor for breaking our own selves for others, the giving of our broken selves.  In this story we become more acutely aware that we cannot do anything totally on our own:  it is the life in Christ Jesus that enables us to give beyond our awareness of our capacity to do.  “Without me you can do nothing.”  And as Jesus gave of himself for us we are called to likewise give of ourselves for the Life of the World, this very one desperate for healing, meaning and wholeness.

Christ is in our midst!

*Mark’s account-6:13- says “green”

Sermon 157; Prv 8:4-11; Ac 13:16-31; Lk1:57-80: Birth of John the Baptist.

As preached by Brother Luke
June 24, 2018
Holy Wisdom Church

            This spring we have been blessed with several new litters of puppies. And it is always a great joy to see the smiling faces of the families when they come to pick up their puppy. During the meeting with the families we go through a number of documents that they have to sign to satisfy NY State requirements. And usually at the end of that process, but before they see their puppy, we go through a long list of cautions and recommendations about how to handle the early stages of bringing the puppy home and guiding its growth and development. Then the puppy comes in and everything else recedes into the background as they delight in the wonder of the new being that is entering their life. They are in for a big change in their life style, but at that moment, if this is their first puppy, they cannot possibly know what that change will entail. 

            But before that puppy is even born, a lot of other work is going on to bring that puppy into the world. For us, managing the entire breeding program is the foundation supporting each puppy. We have to select and then mate the sire and dam. A process with many possibilities for complications. Once bred, then mother is monitored to ensure she stays healthy and the pups can develop in her. A few days before her delivery date we x-ray her to learn if she has puppies, and if she does, how many. From that day forward, we watch for signs that she may be about to give birth. Is she nesting, still eating, temperature dropping, becoming anxious, eyes dilated and finally has she broken her water? At that point we go to the kennel, maybe with a puppy in hand if she has already had a puppy in the house first. Now we stand by waiting for the puppies. If there are no complications, we assist her in the whelping, as needed, including weighing and identifying each puppy with a colored ric rac. We are always prepared to go to the vets if complications arise. The puppies are with mother for 4 weeks.  Between weeks 3 and 4 we begin the weaning process. The hungry puppies begin to eat food, no longer relying exclusively on mother’s nursing. All the while they are being socialized as they learn about the world they have been born into. At week 8 they go to their new homes. 

            We have lived with this puppy process for decades. But there are many examples of events both special or quite ordinary that we all encounter in life where the preparation is often not noticed, such as eating a meal at a fine restaurant, attending a concert or play, or enjoying an outing at a state park. The meal doesn’t just appear out of thin air, concerts and plays are preceded by many hours of rehearsals and study and parks do not create or groom themselves! 

            So when the crowd gathered to congratulate Zachariah and Elizabeth on the birth of their son, the visitors were taken up in the moment and concerned only about the boy’s name! This elderly couple had experienced an emotionally jarring period leading up to the birth of their son that others could not ever fully appreciate. Zachariah received startling news in the temple. His elderly wife then went through a pregnancy and birth. Even the naming of John, was something far from ordinary. But through it all they remained faithful.

            For us the birth of John the Baptist is a lesson about faith. But faith that doesn’t just emerge fully developed. Much goes into the blossoming of faith. Part of the process is learning by doing, for example, coming to church and participating in the prayer of the community. Taking the lessons of that experience and applying them to daily life, whether at work or throughout one’s daily activities. Then deepening the faith by private personal prayer and meditation. All of this is working on us to prepare us for something even greater. 

            After all, the birth of John the Baptist is not just about the birth of a baby boy but the beginning of that child’s vocation as the forerunner, the one preparing the way for the messiah. We too are called to take up that same task. To prepare the way for Christ to enter into our hearts. John the Baptist preached repentance so that those who changed would then be prepared for the coming of the Messiah. Likewise, we are called to repentance, self-examination that opens us up to receive the message of Christ which is the central key to the process of allowing Christ to accomplish his work in this world. We are his agents, his forerunners if you will. 

            John the Baptist was a forerunner not only for Christ but also for us. His call to repentance is for all generations. And it is not intended to be a one-time act followed by coasting through life. It is the opening of the door to a journey that continues throughout our lives. It is something we must remind ourselves about afresh with each new challenge life presents to us. As forerunners we are carrying a valuable and precious message to all we meet. And like Elizabeth and Zachariah, no matter how difficult the burden may seem to be, the key is to keep the faith, to remember the connection, or covenant, we have with God. To trust in that relationship and promise. And to know that we always have help.

            Christ is in our midst.