RCL - Epiphany Last A - 03 Feb 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Bernard Jean Delcourt, OHC
RCL - Epiphany Last A – Sunday 03 February

Exodus 24:12-18
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9

Episcopal Chapel of the Transfiguration, in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
c Shaun Santa Cruz

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts help us to co-create your Kingdom of Peace, O Lord.

*****

First, let me say a word on altered states of consciousness. “Altered states consciousness” or “altered states of awareness” are phrases used in anthropology and psychology to describe temporary conditions in which we experience reality in a very different way from what is usual or normative in our respective societies.

Our contemporary Western societies frown on such states. And we are socialized to repress the experience we gain in such experiences. The most commonly accepted altered state of consciousness amongst us is dreaming. As a Western society we accept altered states of consciousness to the extent that their content remains purely private and personal.

Most human societies recognize learning value to altered states of consciousness and accept that thought-leaders have something to share about the nature of reality in telling the story of their altered states of consciousness.

I have had the grace to have a couple of waking state mystical experiences, another phrase to describe one type of altered state of consciousness. They changed my life by the intensity and importance of what they taught me.

But if a video camera had been trying to record it, it would have captured nothing but the normalcy of the subway ride and subway station where it happened. Does it mean it didn’t happen? God speaks, even today, and God is not restricted in how we are spoken to.

*****

Moses gives us a great demonstration of contemplative leadership in today’s Exodus reading. He is obedient to God; he listens to what God tells him and he has no greater purpose than to fulfill God’s request.

God’s request is to come up on the mountain, wait and receive the tablets of the law. So Moses delegates his exercise of power to Aaron and Hur. He entrusts them to run a caretaker government until he returns. And he does this in front of 70 representatives of Israel. The mandate is not to undertake great projects -- such as a change of religion, for example -- but to arbitrate any dispute that may be brought to them. And Moses takes along his trusted assistant Joshua.

Moses knows that this endeavor to go meet with God on the mountain will take time and all his dedication; he frees himself up to attend to God only.

*****

Moses goes on the mountain. The Presence of God manifests itself in a bright shining cloud. Moses and God meet. Moses attends to the Presence of God for six days; apparently, simply waiting on God. On the seventh day, Moses is invited in and steps into the cloud, deeper into the Presence of God. To the people of Israel below it looks as if he entered a devouring fire and disappeared into it.

*****

As a monk who yearns to be ever more awake and present to the Presence of God, Moses struck me as a wonderful model as I read and prayed this text.

Free yourself up from the busy-ness, get the help you need, show up, make yourself available, sit there, don’t just do something.

And then, be ready to wait. Discerning God’s call is not your thing, if you are into instant gratification and multi-tasking.

*****

Jesus too wanted to show up for God. At this stage of his ministry, as described by Matthew, he knew his face was turned on Jerusalem. And he knew this was a perilous direction in oh so many ways.

It was perilous for him personally (he risked suffering violence, insults, torture and death). It was perilous to turn on Jerusalem for his disciples (they might be drawn into his own martyrdom, they might scatter into insignificance and oblivion, or they might misconstrue his way as the restoration of a self-governing Israel).

It was perilous for the people of Israel (if they came to believe that a political and militaristic messiah was at hand, they might rise in rebellion against the Roman occupier. And be bloodily quashed once more, as Caiaphas, the high priest worried about).

*****

On the seventh day after Peter confessed that Jesus is the son of the Living God, Jesus takes his three closest friends Peter, James and John, and escapes the madding crowds up a mountain.

He did this whenever prayer and rest took priority on the pressures of his ministry, whenever he needed a sabbath. Jesus must have needed to attend to God more fully. He may have wanted to discern if he was doing God’s will by turning toward Jerusalem.

And there, up the mountain, the group’s prayers open up new understandings for all of them, if only fleetingly for the disciples.

*****

The Transfiguration unfolds in several highly symbolic steps.

The four friends hike up a mountain to seek quiet and solitude. Mountains to them are places of greater proximity with God, as in the days of Moses.

While in prayer, Jesus’appearance changes under their eyes. He glows like the sun. He becomes light; that is, the source of wisdom and life.

Then, Elijah and Moses pay a visit and enter into conversation with Jesus as if they had only met last week. These two men of the Hebrew Scriptures represent many things to the disciples.

Moses is the messenger of the Law, the deliverer of Israel and its leader in an exodus to the Promised Land. Elijah represents the Prophets and is widely believed to be connected with the arrival of the Messiah. Both Moses and Elijah are men of God, who have themselves countenanced God. Like meets like; Jesus too is familiar with God.

At this, my beloved Peter -- impetuous, always well-intentioned and ready for action -- Peter can’t help himself and gushes out his joy and his desire to preserve the glory of this moment.

But God does not even let Peter finish his sentence and burns this moment into the disciples’ hearts and ours forever. The manifestation of the Presence of God itself engulfs them all. The Presence that engulfed Moses on Mount Sinai is with them. And God’s voice booms: “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

A greater than Moses and Elijah is here. There is no need to expend ourselves in pump and celebration of glories past. There is only one need and that is to see the Light, hear the Word, and follow the Way that is Jesus.

Jesus and his friends went up the mountain to pray for discernment. They each got answers. As many answers to prayers, they are not explicit but they are hard to escape.

Yes, Jesus must proceed to Jerusalem to complete the Exodus from the domination of sin. Yes, Jesus is the son of God, the glory of God. This answer of who Jesus really is will only come to roost with the disciples after Jesus’ resurrection. Such is the nature of discernment. It grows organically, until it is ripe for harvest.

As they all return from their altered state of consciousness, from their common mystical experience, the disciples find Jesus’ reassuring everyday presence. But all four have been transformed by the experience.

On their way down, Jesus uses his authority to preclude the disciples from spreading the story until after his resurrection. This is the first step of his non-violent passion. He refuses to use his ultimate honor status in Hebrew society at all. It would risk igniting a violent rebellion against the empire of Rome. God’s kingdom of peace does not compete with worldly empires; it surpasses them all.

And so, Jesus and his disciples return to the plain. They return to the people and return to their ministries. Jesus unassumingly continues to lead them in the greatest adventure of mankind -- the liberation from sin and death -- all the while, teaching, healing and loving.

The Transfiguration is not about transcendence if it is not also about immanence. Our God is here and now, deeply involved in creation and humanity, touching our shoulder to reassure us along the way.

And just the same, our God is beyond the beyond. God is both immanent and transcendent. It is no wonder that altered states of consciousness are privileged avenues for us to apprehend such wonders more deeply.

*****

Let us pray.

All in all, Moses was on the mountain in your Presence for 40 days and 40 nights, O God. That’s the duration of Lent which we will soon enter. Will we show up for You and listen, this Lent? Will we make space in our lives to be there for You; and to wait on You? Soon enough, we’ll all find out. May you inspire us to imitate Moses and do a bit of preparation ahead of time. May you strengthen our resolve as you did your Son’s on the day of His Transfiguration, that we may no longer dither and stray, but follow Him, the Way, the Word and the Life.

Amen.

RCL - Epiphany 3 A - 27 Jan 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Daniel Ludik, n/OHC
RCL - Epiphany 3 A - Sunday 27 January 2008

Isaiah 9:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23


When I was growing up in Namibia, my family, like most Namibians, would spend the December holidays at the coast. My father, having been an avid angler, made sure that everyone in the family had fishing tackle so that we could enjoy his hobby with him. We were supposed to be on holiday, but were chased out of bed at all hours of the night to get to the good fishing spots before it was too warm, or the fish had moved on, or whatever the reason was, but he usually knew, at least he thought he did. And there is no denying the thrill of actually hooking a fish and reeling it in.

So, while reading the gospel of today, and how Simon, Andrew, James and John just let go of the nets to follow Jesus, I saw my father’s reaction in my mind’s eye should some of us have done the same thing with our fishing tackle, especially if some unknown young man just happened to pass by and told us to follow him and fish for people! I mean, if those reels fell in the sand it would take hours to clean the cogs. Of course, I would not have been the one to just drop my things to follow this man. He would have had to have his ducks in a neat row to convince me to just drop everything and follow him. But, what I did not know then, was that I was hooked anyway, I was just too anaesthetized to feel it and it took many years for the anesthesia to wear off, but thank God it did!

I wonder what went through Zebedee’s mind when his sons and Simon and Andrew just upped and left.

How did Jesus manage to convince them so easily to follow him? What else did he say that the scriptures do not tell us? Did the four of them know something else that convinced them? I do not know the answer to this, but they were hooked and chose to follow him.

They exercised the amazing gift of choice that God had given us.

I often wonder though why God has given us free choice. Choices are so easy to make, however the difficult part is to live with the consequences of our choices.

Did our four intrepid disciples have any idea of the consequences of their choice to follow Jesus? Like many of us, I am sure, I have bought into the tradition of a smiling, blue-eyed Jesus holding a soft doe-eyed lamb in his arms, and you see the picture as if through some kind of haze. Well, I have become convinced that this is just public relations! This is not it at all!

What I see now is a cross that was made very roughly and it is full of splinters and it is uneven, which means it is very awkward to carry. Yet, what this does not mean is that following Christ is hardship. NO, what it means is that we have to face reality as it is and to live the life that we have. And Christ is always there to share in the load. It is up to us to allow him to help us.

I think one of the consequences of their choice to follow Jesus that the first disciples could not foresee, was the divisions in the church that they were instrumental in founding. If we look at the exasperation with which Paul writes about the disunity in the Church he could have been writing of the Church of today. Christ died for us on the cross, so that we can be one body in him, yet we have lost that focus. How can we attain peace and unity in the world when the church cannot get its act together? Yes, at least not everywhere is a war zone as was the case in Northern Ireland, but is violence necessarily physical and bloody?

How did it come about that we have lost sight of the Cross?

Randy has a T-shirt with a logo that says something to the effect of:

The time for action has long gone past and now is the time for senseless bickering.

Would this be the scenario that Chloe described to Paul in Corinthians? The division that there was in the Church of the day? Why does senseless bickering seem to be such a major part of our lives today as well? What are we trying to avoid or deny?

Are we trying to deny the cross?

As Paul explicitly says in Corinthians: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the Gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

Paul is very clear when he calls us back to the essence of the church: the Cross and in whose name we have been baptized.

The promise as given in Isaiah of a new light that has dawned is fulfilled in the folly of the cross, and there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. God fulfills his promise and manifests his incredible love and compassion.

What will we do when we truly love? How far will be willing to go?

Part of my family’s folklore is a story my mother told of when she was a young bride on the family farm in the south of Namibia. The neighbor’s daughter and one of the Nama workers on the farm fell in love with each other. For those who do not know, Namas are indigenous people of southern Namibia and North Western South Africa and they are closely related to the San or Bushmen. Anyway, the father tried everything in his power to break up this affair; he whipped them, he chased the man from the farm at gunpoint, and when he returned to be with the woman he loved, he was shot at and nearly killed. The two eventually eloped and the rest of their lives remains a mystery. What did happen, though, was that this example of love was the starting point of my mother’s conversion to a life of full inclusiveness against some very daunting odds.

How much more should the image of God‘s Son on the Cross be an impetus to all Christians for conversion and a desire for unity in the church?

Amen

RCL - Epiphany A - 06 Jan 2008

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Lary Pierce, OHC
RCL - Epiphany A - Sunday 06 January 2008

Isaiah 60:1-6
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

Today is the feast of the Epiphany. An Epiphany is a showing forth or a manifestation. Today we celebrate God’s showing forth God’s glory to the whole world, not just to Bethlehem or to Israel. To many the story of the Three Wise Men is just a myth. If you belong to the Joseph Campbell School of Theology, myths are pretty important in that they teach great truths. One of the commentators I read said that only an artist could effectively teach the meaning of this story, and I expect that each of us has seen many great paintings of the Adoration of the Magi. The question this brings up for me is where have I seen paintings in which the glory of God has shown forth.

I have seen many of them. I think that paintings can teach great truths and, they can elucidate great mysteries. To illustrate this I remember two paintings from Mt. Calvary. Both of them are by nineteenth century Mexican artists. One of them hangs in the galleria. It is a symbolic representation of the Godhead. It contains four faces arranged in a diamond shaped pattern. They are the Father, with a beard, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the fourth face, at the bottom of the diamond is the Virgin Mary. They all have the same face. I find it a strange and interesting painting. The second used to be in the refectory picture depicts a Capuchin friar adoring a mystical vision of the Virgin and Child. Again, they all have the same face. I think the teaching here has to do with the spiritual identity of God and the believer, that is the reality of the image and likeness of God in the soul of the believer. These are images that invite a good deal of meditation.

Today’s gospel reminds me of an art show I once attended in Toronto. I worked at St. Mathias’ Church. Br. Richard Vaggione was the priest in charge. A well known artist was a member of that parish. She didn’t come to church much, maybe two or three times a year, and I do not remember her name; let’s call her “Jane.” Jane did in her own way love St. Mathias; she said it was just like a little English country church. I remember one pleasant summer day she came to the Church bazaar a donated a bunch of posters she had made for a movie. She said, “I suppose these will be more valuable if I sign them.” She did, and I bought one for ten or twenty dollars. I had in my room for a long time. I think I left it at Mt. Calvary when I left there in 1994.

Jane was the first woman to have a retrospective art show at the Ontario Art Gallery. She asked Richard to bless the show before it opened. I wanted to see the show so I asked Richard if I could come along and he had me to carry the Holy Water bucket for aspurges. As we entered the art gallery he remarked that the blessing would take care of any demonic element that might be present. One of the first pictures we saw was a sort of comic strip which displayed Jane and her boy friend being very naughty. There were lots of paintings. One of them was of Hildegard of Bingen. It was an impressionistic sort of painting which showed Hildegard peering through a lot of greenery. Interestingly the Hildegard’s face was Jane’s face, the same one as in the comic strip. The third picture I remember showed the Flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. Joseph on foot leads a donkey on which Mary holding the infant Jesus is seated. There is an angel over head guiding and protecting the Holy Family on their journey. The angel has Jane’s face. I think that Jane was saying something about the image and likeness of God in her inner being. Maybe Jane Identified with Hildegard of Bingen. Maybe she saw herself as an angel guardian of the Holy Family. I think the glory of God glowed in her art. They say that all great art is ambiguous.

So what does this have to do with the Magi? I think that each of us is a Magus. Sometimes I think that God gives me the wisdom to see God’s glory shining forth in creation. I saw God’s glory shining in Jane, in her paintings, and in her asking Richard to bless her show. I see God’s glory right here in our monastery. I see it in our ministry of hospitality, especially to people who come here the busy, crowded cities nearby. I see it in Jim’s work with the homeless, in Bernard’s spiritual direction, in Randy’s bookstore and in his chili. I think that each of us is one of the Magi or a journey which takes us far from home to our true home, which is God.

One more profound truth of this myth, if it is a myth, is that in the course of our journey each of us encounters evil, just as the Magi encountered Herod the Great. Herod was just about as evil as human beings get. One Roman wit remarked after he rather be Herod’s pig than his son. Herod killed at least three of his sons. The thought was that since at least officially Herod did not eat pork, he might not kill his pig. Be like the Magi, when you encounter evil, recognize it; do not change course. Follow your star to see the glory of God, then heed God’s warning; go home a different way. I think that God does speak through myths and through art, and sometimes the message is not mysterious at all.