the visitation: women and children first

the story of the visitation reads like an opera. all the spoken lines are poetry, but beyond the sheer beauty of the language, a lot of rather surprising things are going on.

would it have been unusual "n those days" for "mary" to "set out and [go] "with haste to a judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of zechariah and greeted elizabeth"?

"when elizabeth heard mary’s greeting," not only did "the child [leap] in her womb," but "elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry." in other words, elizabeth is described as a prophet. her words became the beginning of the marian praise song we call the hail mary:

"blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb."

mary responds in song as well, with the magnificat, often set to wonderful music:

“my soul magnifies the lord,
and my spirit rejoices in god my savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
he has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
he has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
he has helped his servant israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to abraham and to his descendants forever.”

how often outside of musicals and the gospel according to luke do women speak in such song? but of course they are speaking of a very great event indeed. the newly-conceived messiah, jesus, is making the first of many fateful trips to jerusalem if indeed that is where elizabeth and zecheriah reside, and he whom the universe cannot contain is contained in the womb of a young women about whom elizabeth says, "blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the lord.”

but it is not only the women who know and are beginning to understand the profound significance of this visit between cousins. elizabeth says, "as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy."

this first visit of jesus to jerusalem is a very different event from his last, when the children will still greet him as the king (see the gospel for palm sunday), but the king and priests and roman government will not greet him with joy. is it any surprise that the first one to meet the risen lord will be another woman, mary magdalene?

women and children seem better to understand the nature of real power than do those who consider themselves the powerful.

the second sunday after pentecost: musings

it's a little later in the week than usual for this post: i have been settling into my new town and digs and surroundings. being back in bellingham has been quite wonderful, with long coffee sippings with friends i hadn't seen for a year, and with the mysts of mystery every morning draping the bay and mountains.

it has also been a time of experiencing in a very wonderful way the gospel for the sunday. when i arrived i had no idea where i would live or how i would pay for my food or any of the things that make life easy. but i was not worried. i knew that our father knew what i needed, and would provide. and he did. i walked into the living room of a friend who works with recovering addicts who would otherwise be homeless people, providing lodging and food while they get back on their feet. "would i go to work?" yes. and she had a tiny loft apartment over the garage, with a little deck hanging over squalicum creek. sunday morning my shoes fell apart. in the corner, a little spider-webby, was a pair my size, abandoned. thanks be to god.

whitsunday: the alan parsons project - la sagrada familia

what can one say about pentecost? perhaps the most important is that "they were all gathered in one place with one accord."

Peter Gabriel - Here Comes The Flood

whitsunday is the english name for pentecost: the day when the rivers were warm enough for baptism. baptism, our death and burial.

4 may: the sixth sunday of easter: the koan returns

i can scarcely do better than to quote the whole gospel:

"these words spake jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, father, the hour is come; glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true god, and jesus christ, whom thou hast sent. i have glorified thee on the earth: i have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. and now, o father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which i had with thee before the world was. i have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. for i have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that i came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. i pray for them: i pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. and all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and i am glorified in them. and now i am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and i come to thee. holy father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."

"and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true god, and jesus christ, whom thou hast sent." (17:3) in the great arch-form of john's gospel, we are nearing the climax. here he concludes the theme begun at chapter 3, verse 16: eternal life. jesus' answer to philip from the fourth sunday is repeated within this great prayer, the eucharistic prayer of the last supper, as it were. and then the intent of the prayer: "holy father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are."

as i look at the claims of the church to be divided, the attempts we make to excommunicate one another, i cannot help but think we might do well to recover the use, throughout the church, of the book of common prayer's "prayer of humble access:

"we do not presume to come to this thy table, o merciful
lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold
and great mercies. we are not worthy so much as to gather
up the crumbs under thy table. but thou art the same lord
whose property is always to have mercy. grant us therefore,
gracious lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear son jesus christ,
and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him,
and he in us. amen."

if we truly dwell in him, the dear son, we cannot help but to dwell in the father also.

ascension: theology vs. incarnation 1.

yesterday, the feast of the ascension of our lord jesus christ, i helped a friend clean out a house he had rented for six and a half years to someone who seems to me to epitomize a miserable sinner.

how can i say that? you might ask. am i not being judgmental? no. merely observant.

sin is what makes us miserable. for six and a half years through i have no idea how many different boy friends and different drugs the occupant of that house had been surrounding herself with the detritus of a life lived ugly. the furniture, a collection whose unifying style was filthiness and odour, we put on the curb to be picked up as garbage, along with boxes of beer cartons and candles stubs and forks, remnants of some kind of business and broken pieces of once-useful objects.

like most cities in the united states, eureka springs is a collection of cultures, different outlooks, with little mutual recognition or understanding. tourists driving by the little yellow victorian cottage we were emptying would have no idea that the inhabitants were not living happy, fulfilling lives in this tourist haven. nor would the inhabitant of the little yellow house have any obvious reason to doubt the lives of the tourists passing in their new suv's were less than the joyful events vacations advertise.

the joyless artifacts i carried to the curb, as i found myself being covered with the dust and filth of the misery which passes unobserved and approved by modern life, made me especially aware of what we pray on ascension day:

"grant, we pray, almighty god, that as we believe your
only-begotten son our lord jesus christ to have ascended
into heaven, so we may also in heart and mind there ascend,
and with him continually dwell; who lives and reigns with
you and the holy spirit, one god, for ever and ever. amen."

and they made me wonder why we so easily settle for lives of quiet, filthy desperation when the kingdom is at hand.

ascension day

this ascension day is the 22nd anniversary of "my first celebration of the eucharist," an event the synchronicity of which has gained significance for me over the years as my understanding of the place of the ascension in the liturgy has grown. celtic daily prayer from the northumbrian community has added another glimpse of understanding: the ascension as a marriage. of course! and of course this is part of the implicit orthodox understanding of the liturgy, but which i seldom remember explicitly.

the northumbrian "liturgy combines material from a variety of sources: . . . traditional scottish prayer . . ., the imagery of jewish betrothal custom and catherine de hoeck doherty's vision of the bride as a 'servant of the poor.' the scriptures used are from the song of solomon and st john's gospel.

"jesus betrothed his followers to himself. he offered his love. his own body and all his kingdom. he looked for our love, our willingness to follow him, our promise to be his alone, to wait for him.

"you have not chosen me', he said, 'but i have chosen you. receive my love. do not be afraid. drink from my cup as the sign of your betrothal to me. trust in my love and believe in me. if only you could see me for who i am!'

"'my father is rich in houses and land. i am going to prepare such a wonderful place for you, so where i am you can be with me. when all is ready, i will return and take you to myself.'

"'walk as my own in the world, and remember how i have loved you. it is better that i leave you now--for time is short, and you have much to do as you prepare for my returning.'

"clouds of heaven covered him as he was taken up out of their sight.

"when the people of heaven welcomed their heart-love, mary's beautiful son broke into tears before them.

"'i am my beloved's,' he said, 'and she will be mine. my desire is towards her, and she will not fail me. soon she will shine as brightly as the sun, reaching out for me, urgently as a mighty army, radiant and terrifying. my sister, my bride, she is mine!'

"the spirit of promise gave this vision, the spirit he said would lead us deeper into truth. it is a vision of what we, as his own, can become.

"there she stands, above the treeline, shining in the rays of the noonday sun.

"she is beautiful and simple, with her doors wide open: and into her stream the rich and poor alike.

"she is the bride of christ. she is his beloved and he is all tenderness, all love, towards her.

"not only is she his beloved, but she serves the people whom he loved, the poor. the people whom he fed with loaves and fishes, she now feeds with bread and wine.

"from her heart rises an immense cry of adoration:

"'my lord has died,
jesus, my lord is risen.
jesus our lord will come again to take us to himself--that where he is we may be also.'
. . .
"lord, hasten the day when those who seek you in every nation will come from the east and west, from north and south, and sit at table in your kingdom."

--from celtic daily prayer (harpersanfrancisco, 2002), pp.281-283.