Posts Tagged ‘Renewal’
“Where There Is No Vision” – Br. David Vyrhof
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Br. David Vryhof
I remember a sermon preached some years ago by the now-retired Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry. In it, he recalled waiting in an airport for his plane to board and deciding to get his shoes shined. As his shoes were being shined, he struck up a conversation with the man who was shining his shoes and learned that he had been doing this work for many years and that he worked very long hours every week. Bishop Curry asked him how he came to be so dedicated to his work. “Well, I have a son in college,” the man explained, “and I plan to keep shining shoes as long as I can, to see him through.”
“That man had a vision,” said Bishop Curry, a vision of his son receiving an education that had not been possible for his parents and that would open doors for him that they could never have entered. It was this vision that inspired and motivated him every day. “Where there is no vision, the people perish,” the Bishop reminded us, quoting Proverbs 29:18.
We all need a vision, especially if we hope to make a difference in the world: a vision of what the world can be and of what we can be that motivates us and inspires us to bring about change. Read More
Renewal and Rededication – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
1 Maccabees 4:36-37, 52-59
Luke 19:45-48
We have today two stories, both of which involve the cleansing of the Temple. Our first lesson from the book of Maccabees records the actions taken by Judas Maccabeus following the desecration of the Temple by the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Having conquered Antiochus’ army, Judas Maccabeus set about cleansing and purifying the Temple, replacing its defiled altar and furniture, and rededicating it to the worship of the God of Israel. In this case, the defilement of the sacred space was the direct result of outside forces attempting to suppress the religion of the Jews.
The second story, taken from Luke’s gospel, addresses defilement of the Temple from within, from the Jews themselves. Jesus cleanses and purifies the Temple by casting out the moneychangers and declaring plainly, “‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” Read More
Arise, My Love, My Fair One, and Come Away – Br. James Koester
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Br. James Koester,
Superior
There is a lot going on today. It’s the Sunday of the Labour Day weekend, a holiday marking the social, economic and political achievements of the labour movement. (As an aside, in the Nineteenth Century, our own Father Field was a great proponent of the move to implement a 5 ½ day work week for child labourers. He created a half-day fund, and each Saturday would take as many boys as he could find, sometimes in the range of over 200, out into the country for an afternoon of games and a picnic, bringing them back to the city in the evening tired, well fed, and happy.) Today is also the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, sometimes known as the Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. Over this is laid the first Sunday in the Season of Creation, when many parishes, including us, focus their attention on the beauty and wonder of creation, and our need to protect its integrity. Closer to home, I stand before you in the last moments as my time as Superior. Later this morning we will install our brother Keith as our new Superior.
All around us, different things are happening, and it’s hard to know where to look, where to focus. Some things are ending, while others are just beginning. Still others are in mid-course. What is true for the monastery and the church, is no doubt true in your own lives. It is certainly true for the world. So much seems to be changing all at the same time, with some things coming to an end, or even dying, while others are just beginning, and coming to life. Still others are somewhere in between. Read More
The Vindication of Wisdom – Br. Keith Nelson
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Zechariah 9:9-12;
Romans 7:15-25a;
Matthew 11:16-19; 25-30
Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: ‘How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?’ [i]
There are some who listen and follow, who find her dwelling and hold her fast. But there are many in the broad places of the world who ignore her. The marketplace is for many things, but not for wisdom. They don’t bother to look up from their tiny screens. Nimble fingers text and tweet faster than hearts can pause and feel.
‘We played the flute for them, but they didn’t dance. We mourned, but they didn’t wail.’ [ii]
With each comment thread, the bitter bickering shrinks the circle. Wisdom has not played by the rules.
He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.[iii]
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! he cries, ‘How often have I desired to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under wings, and you were not willing.’ [iv]
When the words of Wisdom finally find their target, the reaction is visceral. As one body united for the first time and the last, they cry: ‘CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!’[v]
Yet – Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.[vi]
Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. Or, in Luke’s version, Wisdom is vindicated by her children.[vii] In books such as Proverbs and Job, Sirach and Wisdom of Solomon, we encounter God’s Wisdom personified as a Woman of great gentleness and strength, offering food and drink, shelter and instruction, scorned by the masses but taking her stand nonetheless. In the book Sirach, the wise elder instructs a disciple: “Listen, my child, and take my advice, do not reject my counsel: put your feet into [Wisdom’s] fetters, and your neck into her collar; offer your shoulder to her burden, do not be impatient of her bonds… For in the end you will find rest in her and she will take the form of joy for you.”[viii] In the gospels of Matthew and John, we bear witness to a Spirit-led conversation between this multifaceted tradition of personified Wisdom and the early Christian experience of Jesus Christ. For us as for them, Wisdom is Jesus, the embodiment of all good things in Wisdom’s treasury and the incarnation of God, the source and ground of Wisdom. This Jesus is without doubt a Savior to be worshipped and an exemplar of how we are to act in the world. But he is also a Teacher of the heart, what today we are calling “inner work.” Read More