Posts Tagged ‘Revelation’
Power and Hope – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
Just to warn you, I’m going to start this sermon with a personal story that makes me look bad. So hold on to your hats.
Back during the COVID lockdown, I joined an online men’s support group. It had about forty men in it, and we met weekly to discuss issues like toxic masculinity, mental health, emotional expression, and so on. Every month one man would volunteer to chair the meetings on Zoom and make sure everything went smoothly.
So one month there was a man, whom we will call Steve, who volunteered to chair the meetings for the following month. Steve was the worst Zoom host I’ve ever encountered. He was frequently a few minutes late, he would constantly forget to unmute himself and start yapping away – if you can imagine the image of forty men on little Zoom boxes gesturing wildly trying to communicate that the host is muted – and what bothered me the most, and what I judged him the most about, was frequently he would be talking to someone off-screen. Sometimes he would even get up and go take care of something in the middle of the meeting. Read More
God Is Always More – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Judges 13:2-7, 24-25
Luke 1:5-25
Our lesson from the Book of Judges and our Gospel lesson according to Luke speak of angelic revelations to childless women who will miraculously bear children: the mother of Sampson and the mother of John the Baptist. The angelic revelation to the Virgin Mary is soon to follow.[i] We will hear a stream of supernatural revelations during the remaining days of Advent, then Christmastide, then into the season of Epiphany: dreams and visions coming to Zechariah[ii], Elizabeth’s husband, and the same for Joseph.[iii] The wisemen in the east will follow a star to the Messiah, then follow a dream that will lead them safely home.[iv] The shepherds in their fields are visited by singing angels who invite the shepherds to the visit the infant Messiah.[v]
Many of us have heard these stories so many times. We may take these supernatural revelations for granted, though they are very revealing of God’s ways. These revelations do not make rational sense. There’s nothing to figure out or to understand. Rather, these revelations are to “behold.” This is simply what is. Behold God’s revelation, embrace it, and follow it.
If we were to tabulate the Bible, the amount of the scriptural text given over to the report of dreams, visions, prophecies, angelic visitations, miraculous events, and other references and allusions to God’s mysterious ways of meeting and leading people, we would find these non-rational revelations comprise approximately one-third of the Bible. Dreams, visions, prophecies, angelic visitations, miraculous events, the gift of knowledge and language, along with other indirect references to God’s mysterious and yet undeniable manifestations: one-third of the Bible. This supernatural way of knowing is quite countercultural for most of us who live in the western world. Yet the scriptures are replete with God’s ways being more than our mind can tell.
We know that the adult Jesus asked a seemingly-obvious question to the infirm: “Do you want to be healed?” I can imagine, in that same spirit, Jesus’ asking us: “Do you want to know more?” “Do you want to know more of God: the mind and heart and ways of God?” If so, make that your prayer, which would be a tremendous spiritual gift to unwrap this season. Open your hands, open your heart, open your mind to God’s supernatural revelation. God is always More. Ask for More.
[i] Luke 1:26-38.
[ii] Zechariah’s dreams: Luke 1:5-25, 39-80.
[iii] Joseph’s four dreams: Matthew 1:19-25; 2:13; 2:19-20; 2:22-23.
[iv] Luke 2:1-19.
[v] Luke 2:8-20.
The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Godbearer – Br. Curtis Almquist
Br. Curtis Almquist
The Dormition of Saint Mary the Virgin, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ
We find nothing in the Bible about the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom we celebrate today. The word “dormition” is from the Latin, dormitio, from which comes the English word “dormitory.” Dormitio is the act of sleeping.[i] Since the early centuries, this is how the church has remembered the death of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She simply “fell asleep” and was miraculously taken up into heaven. Mary has been heralded the saint of the saints: her death as mysterious as the birth she gave to Jesus.
If you were raised in an Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic tradition, today’s celebration will likely be familiar and comforting. If you come from a Protestant tradition, or no church tradition, today’s celebration may be quite foreign, perhaps quite inviting. There is an “assumption” of meaning around Mary which has grown through the centuries, where many have found Mary’s life story worthy of veneration, and a channel of help and hope. Over the centuries the Blessed Virgin Mary’s importance has grown for two reasons: because of recollection and because of revelation.
The church’s recollection traces back to the ancient predictions about the long-awaited Messiah. Centuries prior to Jesus’ birth, Isaiah had prophesied: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”[ii] But this does not fit Jesus’ pedigree. Jesus was born without title. Neither were his mother Mary nor his “stepfather,” Joseph, of noble lineage. Jesus’ birth to Mary would not only have been a disappointment to some, she could have been a scandal. Mary is a peasant, and she is unmarried. Mary clearly knows this. When she received the announcement from the angel Gabriel that she was to bear the Christ child, Mary was both afraid and incredulous. “How can this be?” she cries out. Read More
Family Photographs – Br. Lain Wilson
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Today’s Gospel lesson isn’t about Jesus.
Rather, it’s not about the Jesus we have come to know, to accompany in his ministry with the disciples. Instead, it’s about another Jesus, one of memory, of presumption, and of misplaced expectation.
In the Rule of our Society, we understand as part of the practice of silence the honoring of “the mystery present in the hearts of our brothers and sisters, strangers and enemies,” a letting go of “curiosity, presumption, and condemnation which pretends to penetrate the mystery of their hearts.”[1]
We can see in our Gospel reading today what this looks like in practice. It is significant, I think, that the only references to Jesus’s “hidden years”—those years of growth and formation between infancy and baptism—in Matthew’s gospel (and Mark’s) is this brief encounter between Jesus and those from his hometown. It’s a relic of a silent period, a family photograph held in the hands of these people, who glance uncomprehendingly between it and the living Jesus standing before them. Read More
Joseph’s Yes – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
St. Joseph
We frequently remember Mary for saying “yes” to God’s invitation. Joseph also said “yes” though none of his words are recorded in scripture. His life is his word. Joseph’s actions speak loudly.
Joseph was a righteous man. Quiet Joseph resolved to do the right thing, to dismiss Mary quietly, to save her from disgrace. Then God told Joseph to do something different, to take Mary as his wife and name their child Jesus. Joseph listened and followed.
The righteous are attentive to listen, with a detachment and freedom to change their ideas—even, especially, of what they understand to be right—and being righteous means action, doing God’s will. Through the gospels, Jesus continually confronts those who cling tight to what they sense is right including who to eat with and how to worship.
When God spoke, Joseph listened and changed his plans. He took Mary as his wife. Later God told him to flee to Egypt with his family, and Joseph did. Further on, God told him to return to Galilee, and Joseph did. Read More
Hidden Presence – Br. Lain Wilson
Mark 12:28-34
Psalm 81:8-14
Hosea 14:1-9
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Jesus identifies who—and what—God is. He also offers up an indictment of all the alluring temptations in sight that lead us astray from a God who all too often remains hidden from us.
“O Israel, if you would but listen to me! There shall be no strange god among you; you shall not worship a foreign god” (Ps 81:8-9). This command is repeated throughout Scripture, and yet the pages of Scripture are filled with rebuke and lament for the failure to keep to this basic commandment.
This turning away, though, isn’t surprising, because our God is often hidden. In times of anxiety and uncertainty, we crave what is visible, tangible, assured. What people, institutions, processes, products do you turn to for assurance, for certainty? What are your idols today? Read More
We have seen his glory! – Br. David Vryhof
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Br. David Vryhof
What do we make of a story like this? Jesus leads three of his closest friends up a high mountain and there he is transfigured before them! His clothes become dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them! Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets, suddenly appear beside Jesus, speaking with him! A cloud overshadows them all, and a voice booms out of the cloud, “This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him!” No wonder the poor disciples are terrified!
What do we make of a story like this that describes a theophany so extraordinary, so spectacular, so dazzling, so supernatural, that it defies logic. The whole experience lies so far beyond anything any of us has or ever will see or know, it is almost impossible to imagine.
For a few brief moments, the veil is lifted and the disciples see the radiant glory of God beaming from the person of Jesus. And then it is over, as quickly as it began.
The remarkable incident described in today’s gospel reading calls to mind the earlier story of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist (Mark 1:9-11). There, too, a voice from heaven rumbled out of the clouds, though this time the message was directed to Jesus himself: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” It was a message of love and affirmation, which confirmed his identity as God’s Beloved Son, and signaled the start of his mission. Read More
King of Kings – Br. Luke Ditewig
Br. Luke Ditewig
Remember Daniel in a lions’ den and in a furnace of fire? Before those awesome saves, Daniel did what no magician could do. King Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E. and marched thousands of Jews 900 miles to Babylon to live in exile. He had some young men from Israelite nobility brought to serve in the palace including Daniel and three friends given new names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. King Nebuchadnezzar had a disturbing dream. He demanded wise men tell him both what he dreamed and what the dream meant. They replied: “No human can do that.” Enraged, the king commanded all the wise men be killed.[i]
Daniel said he would do what the king asked. Daniel went to his three friends and with them prayed for God’s mercy. Daniel had a vision that night which revealed the mystery. Daniel prayed thanking God.[ii] Then Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar both the dream and its interpretation. We heard that read tonight. There’s a large statue with layers of gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay. A stone cut not by human hands strikes the statue which completely breaks apart and is swept away. What this means is that Nebuchadnezzar all subsequent kingdoms will all fall away when God makes an eternal kingdom. Read More
Mary’s Brain – Br. Lain Wilson
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What if this story is all about Mary’s brain?
The beats of today’s Gospel reading are familiar to most of us. Here at the Monastery, we recount them in the Angelus, which we pray before Morning and Evening Prayer. “The angel of the Lord announced unto Mary . . .” pause, “and she conceived by the Holy Spirit.”
So much happens in that pause. And what if it’s all about Mary’s brain?
Of all the young women God could have chosen, God chose Mary. And what is the first thing we find out about her? That she hears the angel’s news, is perplexed, ponders over his words, and questions him. The first thing we find out about Mary is that she responds to God by using her own God-given faculties of reason and intelligence.
Byzantine writer Nicholas Mesarites provides a cognitive description of this episode: “The word comes to the hearing of the Virgin, and enters through it to the brain; the intelligence which is seated in the brain at once lays hold upon what comes to it, recognizes it by its perception, and then communicates to the heart itself what it had understood.”[1] This then leads Mary to question the angel to determine the truth of the angel’s words. Only after she verifies the truth does Mary gives her yes to the angel, and to God. Read More
Living in Wonder; Living in Love – Br. Curtis Almquist
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Br. Curtis Almquist
Thomas Traherne (1637-1674)
Job 12:7-13
John 3:1-8
Thomas Traherne, whom we commemorate today, was a mystic, a childlike mystic. If his own lifetime had overlapped with J. R. R. Tolkien, or C. S. Lewis, or George MacDonald, I think they would have been very good friends. However Traherne lived more than two centuries earlier than these other three, Traherne born in 1637. He was the son of a shoemaker, and he went on to earn three degrees at Oxford. His university days during the 1650s were the best of times and the worst of times. Best was the intellectual stimulation. However this was a time of civil war and of religious conflict, actually less religious conflict and more agnosticism, which was certainly true for Traherne. For him, life was without meaning; he was listless, full of dread, deeply lonely. In his journal, we read about one sad evening, his being alone in a field, when all things were dead quiet. He writes, “a certain want and horror fell upon me, beyond imagination.” Read More