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.

RCL - Christmas Eve - 24 Dec 2007

Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY

Br. Reginald Martin Crenshaw, OHC

RCL - Christmas Eve - Year A

“Oh I’m so Glad”

At this feast of the Nativity let each person wreathe the door of his heart so that the Holy Spirit may delight in that door enter in and take up residence there; then by the Spirit we will be made holy. Ephrem of Syria

With these words let each of us say to ourselves “Oh I’m so glad”. I am so Glad that by Christ’s birth we are able to experience the divine in a profound way. Glad that each of us with all our limitations and gifts, and foibles have within us the space in our very being to receive the Spirit so that we can be made holy.

Then how do we become holy? How do we let the door of our hearts open so that the spirit may enter? How do we welcome the event this day celebrates that is, the entrance of the divine into human life. How receptive are we really to this Christ, this wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace into our lives? What is this peace and righteousness that his birth brings into our space? And more specifically, the question is: “To whom do we belong? And how do we travel together as people of God?

This evening’s Isaiah reading tells us that we were once a people in darkness and upon this people (that is us-humanity) light has shined on us and the result is that we will live differently. A child has been born who is mighty the Prince of Peace, a wise counselor. He will establish and uphold the earth with justice and righteousness from this time onward. This child who is God among us brings salvation to all. That is what we celebrate and it is to that hope and reality that our identity as a people becomes enfleshed.

I have just returned from an extended trip to the West Coast, and as usual people still ask, “How do you like New York?” or better yet, “Do you still like New York? You of course are aware of the answer they are looking for. It should be a hesitant yes, or I getting tired of the hustle and bustle. And of course they all sigh with gratitude that once again the “Big Apple gets trashed.”

If we look at New York City this time of the year we find that it is a wonderful place to be at during the Advent and Christmas Seasons. New York City itself is festive. Many of the great Biblical oratorios that are usually sung in concert halls are done in the great churches and the acoustics allows a true spiritual experience and engagement with the music. People seem to be less edgy, there is a level of tolerance and a live and let live attitude that is amplified with graciousness, kindness and an apparent sense of community. This festive behavior is a tacit agreement by all of us to suspend the normal hustle and bustle of hurried city existence in the name of a “peace”. Yet this peace exists side by side with commercialism and consumerism. But somehow the winter weather and the implicit belief of most people that this is the time of the year when peace, peacefulness, graciousness should be exhibited in day to day behavior. And then the season ends and we return to the day to day behaviors that we have put on hold for the season. We return to what we call reality.

The Highest Point in New York City’s History
Originally uploaded by Rami Efal

What is reality? Reality are the things that are covered up, the things that are covered up and are very hard to unearth. One of those things that we seem to cover up is hope. We often live without hope. But Hope is a crucial component of human life because it is the energy that gives us the will to live and provides the vision for knowing what the good life is.

Reality is the good news that this incarnation of God in human life and consciousness is not a seasonal salvation, it is about the essence of human and divine life together, it is a partnership. It is through this birth of Christ, God becoming one of us. The incarnation is the place, the entrance to the communal and individual heart so that the Spirit may enter and take residence among you and us and make you and us holy.

The entrance is where the human meets the divine and in the intermingling of human and divine each partakes of the other. It is in God entering into human existence that makes all human life and all social contexts a part of the salvation scheme. This morning’s Isaiah reading makes this clear. No matter how much we try we are not permitted to forget about the people and the world around us. The question of who is our neighbor and what our relationship must be to our neighbor is laid before us in this birth of Christ with astounding clarity.

And what realities do we need to unearth and keep before us during this season? Besides individual acts of kindness, and the exercise of patience, and festivity we need to pay attention to the realities of our communal life. Realities such as the extreme global poverty and disease as well as the unnecessary poverty in the US, the need of finding a better path to national and global security, the hope of advancing a consistent ethic of the sanctify of life, the hope to healing the wounds of racism so that what happened in Jena LA this past year and in other places are addressed & effectively eliminated. The need and importance of a positive understanding and appreciation of the body so that the reality of exclusion due to sexism and homophobia is addressed, and eliminated, The need for ending human trafficking and for promoting human rights, the strengthening of families, the renewing of the moral fabric of our culture, and protecting all of God’s creation. These are the realties that are held up to us, for action by the birth, the incarnation of the mighty God, Counselor, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace who through his becoming one of us as Isaiah says, establishes a new humanity that will be secure in justice and integrity from this time onward and forever more. All of this we carry into this festive occasion and we celebrate all of it as INCARNATION.

Let me end with the words of Julian of Vezelay:

I pray that the Word of the Lord may come again this night to those who wait in silence, and that we may hear what the Lord God is saying to us in our hearts. Let us therefore, still the desires and cravings of the flesh, the roving fantasies of our imaginations. So that we can attend to what the Spirit is saying.

Amen.