Relationships
Choices That Endure – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
I Corinthians 3:10-14, Matthew 6:19-24
The great spiritual leader of India, Mahatma Gandhi, once said, “We become what we yearn after. Hence the need for prayer.”[1] What could he have meant by this?
“We become what we yearn after” does not mean that we will get whatever we desire. I may yearn to become wealthy or popular or successful, but this is no guarantee that I will become any of those things. Read More
Peace Coupled with Justice – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27).
This word “peace,” which we hear in our Gospel lesson, is not the mere absence of acrimony and conflict in the world that surrounds us. That would be the peace the world gives, which, of course, is desperately needed in our very torn world. However, Jesus is here talking about peace from the inside out. He’s talking about being at peace in the storm. This entails two things. Read More
Selfless Generosity – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
This early Christian community was on fire! Having just experienced the wild chaos of Pentecost, they are filled with the Spirit, aflame for God! Here’s how Luke describes them:
- They are “of one heart and soul,” bound together by their zeal for God and love for one another. They share a common vision and purpose, rooted in love.
- They have sacrificed private ownership and now hold their possessions in common, with the expressed purpose of meeting the needs of the poor among them.
- By doing so, they offer a counter-cultural witness, in stark contrast to the surrounding, often materialistic, Greco-Roman culture.
- They are empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit. They preach with power and proclaim the new life by their love, their commitment to one another, and their remarkable generosity.
- They maintain their Jewish faith and practice – attending the Temple and synagogues, and “continuing in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers” – but they have also opened their hearts to welcome and include Gentile believers.
- Their growth as a community is rapid, unstoppable and miraculous, with the church increasing in number daily.
Resurrection Therapy – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
The Great Vigil of Easter
Last year I experienced two exercise-related injuries. (I tell myself that this means I’m really acing my early forties). The first was a relatively minor but persistent shoulder injury. I found a physical therapy practice that helps patients return to their strength training goals, and I was paired with a young woman with a contagious smile, deep knowledge, and even deeper patience.
As people tend to do, she asked what I did for work. When I replied, “I’m a monk,” the predictable questions arose. But these quickly took on a unique substance and a quiet urgency. I found myself with needles in my back, hooked to low voltage electricity, muscles twitching, as she asked things like: “So how is Jesus both God and human?” or “What about hell?” or “If Christians believe in a God who is love, why are so many of them so full of hate?”
Week after week, we would dance from the robustly physical to the profoundly spiritual and back again, because of course: they are not separate. I did all I could to show her the face of Jesus as I have come to know and follow him. And I was shown more of Jesus through her healing touch. Read More
An Order of Reality Worth Giving Our Lives To – Br. Keith Nelson
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Br. Keith Nelson
The Sunday of the Transfiguration: The Last Sunday after the Epiphany
At its heart, the Feast of the Transfiguration is about the revelation of who God is in and through Jesus Christ – and who God is in and through Christ’s followers, as we are transfigured by this life-changing relationship of love.
But the transfiguration account we just heard, and its counterparts in Luke and Mark, are all preceded by a stark prediction, by Jesus, of his violent death. And in all three, this prediction is followed by an equally stark condition of discipleship: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). Luke adds, “every day.”
So while the mountaintop vision reveals Jesus, shining like the sun as he speaks face to face with the ancestors Moses and Elijah, they speak of his coming death. Read More
Brought to Jesus – Br. Lain Wilson
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Br. Lain Wilson
In the last decade of his life, my grandfather’s progressive hearing and memory loss caused him to turn inward. He would sit silently at meals, both unable to hear what was said and unable to follow the conversation. We loved him, of course we did, but it was also easy to notice that the everyday currents of relationship could skirt him by, like a boulder in a river – in the water but not moving with it.
I imagine that this is the kind of life that the deaf man in today’s gospel reading led. Unable to hear, with limited, if any, ability to speak, he would have been cut out of so much of the life of the community. I can’t help but notice how often in scripture we hear or read words like “spoke,” “said,” “proclaimed,” “shouted,” “cried,” and “sang.” How isolated must this man have felt in a time before widespread literacy and automatic captioning? Read More
The Worst Birthday Party Ever – Br. Jamie Nelson
Br. Jamie Nelson
What images or memories does the word vainglory bring to mind for you?
The concept of vainglory entered the Christian tradition through the writings of Evagrius Ponticus, a fourth-century Christian who lived as a monk in the Egyptian desert. He taught his followers to classify evil thoughts into the following eight categories: gluttony, lust, greed, anger, sloth, sadness, pride, and, finally, vainglory. Read More
Praying for the Lovely and the Nasty – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Hilary of Poitiers
In the calendar of the church we remember today a fourth-century bishop named Hilary of Poitiers, what is now central France. Hilary was pilloried. That is, Bishop Hilary was rejected and betrayed by a good many people, including those closest to him. Bishop Hilary was convinced that Jesus’ love was to encompass everyone, including those who so meanly rejected Hilary.
In the church calendar, this is the season of Epiphany. The Greek word “epiphany” means manifestation, which is a clear revelation. The church’s observance of the season of Epiphany is inspired by the wise men from the east who visited the Christ Child.[1] They were foreigners, most likely not Jewish, and yet they were received, honored, and remembered. From the very start, Jesus consistently bequeathed dignity and showed the warmest welcome to the widest cast of people: not just to kindred spirits; not just to those with gold, frankincense, and myrrh; but also to those among the least, and the last, and the lost. Jesus was at home with everyone.
Momentarily we will be invited to pray what we call the Lord’s Prayer.[2] It is the prayer Jesus shared in response to his disciple’s question, “How shall we pray?” Jesus’ prayer is addressed in first person plural, not first person singular. Jesus did not say, “My Father in heaven.” Nor did Jesus pray, “Give me today my daily bread.” The prayer is addressed in the plural to “our Father” and is about “our daily bread.”
Jesus’ prayer signals that our relationship with God is very personal, but it is not private. Not that our own needs are insignificant, nor that they go unnoticed by God. Jesus’ point is that we pray for ourselves in the same way that we are pray for others. And the “others” are everyone. We pray for people whom we love. We counterbalance our lovely prayer list with our nasty list: to pray for those whom we may find abhorrent and do not love. We pray for those whom we tenderly carry in our hearts, and we pray for those for whom our hearts are hardened; those with whom we most disagree and want to forget, or condemn, or punish, and those whom we regard with disdain. We pray for them like we pray for ourselves, for the intervention of God’s love. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”[3]
This is how Bishop Hilary understood Jesus, and how Hilary prayed and practiced his life. And he paid a considerable personal cost to his discipleship, which was stellar. May Hilary be a beacon for our inspiration and courage.
Blessed Hilary whom we remember today.
[1] Matthew 2:1-12.
[2] Matthew 6:5-15; Luke 11:1-13.
[3] Quoted from MLK, Jr.’s 1957 Christmas Day sermon, “Loving Your Enemies.”
Sermon for the Wedding of Betsy Noecker and John Scudder – Br. David Vryhof
Br. David Vryhof
Preached at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Some of you may be thinking, “I wonder what a celibate monk could possibly have to say to a young couple about to get married?”
Good point.
I’ve never been married. But for almost 40 years I’ve been part of a community of men who have taken vows to live together – and I think there are some parallels between entering a monastic community and entering into a marriage. Read More
Jesus, On Speaking Terms with Slavery – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22C)
This is one of Jesus’ parables, and I find it deeply troubling. Jesus’ parables are familiar scenes from everyday life. Jesus tells parables to teach his good news. Here he is speaking to his own apostles when he asks the rhetorical question, “Who among you would say to your slave . . . ?” And Jesus tells this parable: It is supper time, and the slave has come in from tending the sheep. Does the slave sit down with the master to eat? No, of course not. The slave is commanded to prepare the meal for the master. Should the master thank the slave? No, the slave has only done what a slave ought to do. And only later does the slave eat, “the worthless slave.”
Here Jesus does not denounce slavery. Rather, he acknowledges the presence of slaves and their required service. Jesus clearly presumes his apostles would understand how a master and a slave deport themselves: “Who among you [apostles] would say to your slave . . .” And the Gospel according to Luke presumes that we also, the reader, would understand the conduct expected between masters and slaves. This is not the only time Jesus tells a parable about slaves.[1] We could ask, how can this be that Jesus is on such comfortable speaking terms with slavery? The “good news” in this parable is elusive.[2] I want to take one step back in history before we search for Jesus’ message for us today. Read More