Jesus
the Panhandler – Sculpture at Toronto’s Church of St Stephen in the Fields
Healing the Blindness
Welcome: Our readings today explore the ancient wisdom of healing and new
revelations of sacred paradox with thoughts and ideas for sharing. As we
listen, let us be ready to hear and respond to the Holy One’s loving
invitation.
Let us
pray: Holy One, every day we live in your Reality, believing it is
our reality. Your Reality is often unknown, hidden, or obscured from us as we
plan and hurry through our lives living our small realities. May we pause into
the fleeting moment of awe and slow our senses to contemplate your invitation. May we be able to trust and be pulled into
the light of your Reality and abundant grace.
Opening
Song: I Am
the One Within You by Karen Drucker
https://youtu.be/2xpa1U_Pa-E
LITURGY OF THE WORD
First
reading
from Richard Rohr: Holding the Tension
All the great religions at the more mature
levels learn and teach a different consciousness, which we call the
contemplative mind, the nondual mind, or the mind of Christ. Levels of spiritual development have been progressing
from dualistic, exclusionary, either/or thinking to become increasingly non-dual,
allowing for a deeper, broader, wiser, more inclusive, and loving way of
seeing.
If we are to live peacefully on this Earth,
we cannot bypass the necessary tension of holding contraries and
inconsistencies together. Daily ordinary experiences teach us non-duality,
obvious in everything and everybody, every idea, and every event, almost hidden
in plain sight. Everything created is
mortal and limited and, if we look long enough, paradoxical. By paradox, I mean
something that initially looks contradictory or impossible, but in a different
frame or at a different level is in fact deeply true. Opening oneself into a contemplative holding
pattern is the very name and description of faith. Unfortunately, in Christianity, faith largely
became believing things to be true or false (intellectual assent) instead of
giving people concrete practices so they could themselves know how to open up
(faith), hold on (hope), and allow an infilling from another Source
(love).
The practice of contemplative prayer loosens
our attachment to certainty to retrain our minds to understand the wisdom of
paradox. It is largely just being
present … a willingness to say, “I don’t know.” We must not push the river, we
must just trust that we are already in the river, and God is the certain flow
and current.
These
are the inspired words of Richard Rohr, and the community affirms them by
saying, AMEN.
Second reading from Miriam Therese
Winter: Paradoxology: Spirituality in a Quantum
Universe
Deep
within creation there abides a quantum Spirit emanating from the Divine. Spirit was there in the beginning of the
evolution of the cosmos, breathing life into every facet of everything that
came after, as ubiquitous as air.
Faith,
hope, and love are sacraments in a quantum society. They provide us with the ways and means of
celebrating the liturgy of life, not through rites of privilege but through
rituals of promise that arise out of our ordinary everyday routine and the
surprises inherent within it.
Faith
grounds us firmly in the matrix of the divine milieu, so that we can continue
steadfastly when buffeted by self-doubt, or when we are accused of losing our
faith when we are finding ways of living our faith more fully.
Hope
is what we turn to when all other means of survival have been exhausted, the
stepping-stone to deliverance that tomorrow will build upon.
Love
is all that really matters. Love is
patient. Love is kind. Love is the pathway to compassion and how
justice is defined. Every act of
kindness, every gesture of compassion, the tiniest touch of tenderness is a
fractal of the one Great Love from whom all love spills over and to whom all
love returns.
The
physical world is our primary source of Spirit and where our spirituality is
manifested visibly and concretely through who we are and how we behave. There is no longer a definitive separation
between physical and metaphysical, the embodied and the ephemera, the visible
and the invisible. In the quantum
paradox, natural and supernatural, once thought to be mutually exclusive, can
now be seen as trading places, meeting, and even merging.
These
are the inspired words of Miriam Therese Winter, and the community affirms them
by saying, AMEN.
Alleluia: Celtic
Alleluia by Christopher Walker
https://youtu.be/4cs8NDVM3Vk
A
Reading from the Gospel of Mark 10:46-52
They came to Jericho. As he and his disciples and a large crowd
were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by
the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to
shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more
loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said,
“Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get
up, he is calling you.” Throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to
Jesus.
Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The
blind man said to him, “My teacher,[a] let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith
has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the
way.
These
are the inspired words of the disciple known as Mark. The community affirms
them by saying AMEN.
Footnote a. 10:51 Aramaic Rabbouni
Homily
and Shared Reflections
In today’s gospel, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus is doing
what he does every day while sitting at the side of the road. We can
imagine how the entire region was abuzz with healing miracles being performed
by Jesus of Nazareth. This scene is the last
miracle before the crucifixion and is found in each synoptic writing. In Luke 18:35-43 the man is not named and in
Matthew 20:29-34 there are two unnamed blind men speaking in unison, asking
Jesus to be healed.
Biblical scholars have identified 87
passages about blindness in both the Old and New Testaments. During Jesus’ day, the blind along with those
who had other disabilities were despised and reduced to a hard life of
begging. It was believed that sin put
them in darkness under God’s judgment (Zephaniah 1:17; Deuteronomy 28:20-29). Bartimaeus called out for mercy to the ‘son
of David’ because in his mind he was being punished by God as a sinner and he
believed the Messiah had the power to forgive and make him whole.
The perspective that physical ailments
were brought about by generational or personal sin was turned upside down by
Jesus. Despite admonishment from the crowd to stop crying out Bartimaeus
persevered, steadfast in his hopeful
longing for wholeness to live a fulfilling life. We can imagine Jesus standing in loving contemplative
stillness, touched by Bartimaeus’ spiritual energy of faith and hope. A
moment was seized after Jesus told his companions to bring
Bartimaeus forward. He immediately threw
off his cloak leaving a valued possession behind. This symbolic act also represents a
detachment from old beliefs, and it was from Bartimaeus’ own faith that healing
flowed.
Healing from blindness is portrayed in a
dynamic form of interaction, becoming much more than a physical change. Witnessing a profound transformation through
empowering compassionate love, everyone in this scene were drawn into a much
different reality – one of inner sacredness.
Out of darkness Bartimaeus was restored to wholeness leaving us to
imagine how full his life would become as he went on his way to follow Jesus.
Richard Rohr describes faith as an
opening into consciousness that exists beyond the limited confines of the brain
and things in the world. By calming human
fear filled tendencies, we are drawn to closer to God. Bartimaeus’
life had value despite his blindness and the ancient sinful beliefs of the
crowd. The sacredness of his life was
revealed as the certainty of ordinary rules of thinking, managing, and explaining
unravelled. There is a tension of contradictions and inconsistencies that need to be
held together, so that a deeper understanding of the physical and spiritual
realities can unfold into empowering action.
Miriam Winter provides a provocative insight
into the nature of energy that permeates the entire universe helping us to understand
that physical healing and spiritual healing are connected. Quantum physics has discovered that
everything is made of quantum particles, the building blocks of matter. The Spirit is the channel of Divine Energy
that is always present, flowing in chaos, in day-to-day living, and in the contemplative
stillness of consciousness. Miriam
explains that conscious spirituality opens a natural way of being, connecting
us with everyone and everything in the universe.
Jesus brought about a transformative way
of thinking about the Divine mystery of life and the healing power of love over
oppressive blindness. Miracles performed
by Jesus are pathways out of the darkness for everyone. The Divine energy of faith, hope, and love
hold a promise for healing and everlasting life. In John 14: 12-13, Jesus has given another
promise, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I
have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am
going to the Father … You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do
it.” This is an incredible revelation, that a cosmic consciousness exists requiring
trust in both the unfolding cycle of life and a unified spiritual reality that
is timeless, extending into eternity.
Theologian
Dr. Norman King summed up the message of today’s readings by saying, “The
deepest longing of our heart, so readily obscured, is to struggle beyond any
form of blindness, to see truthfully, to love deeply, and to do so with an
underlying trust that flows into a concern for one another, especially the most
vulnerable; and to recognize that our sacredness is deeper than any
woundedness.”
What
did you hear? Please share your thoughts and ideas.
Statement
of Faith
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
As we prepare for the sacred meal we bring to this table our blessings,
cares and concerns beginning with the words “I bring to the table…”
We pray
for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Let us
pray our Eucharistic prayer with open hearts and hands:
All: We
are grateful for our brother Jesus teaching us the way of compassion through
entering into the suffering of others. May
we care for ourselves as Jesus cared for us, seeing humanity through the eyes
of “Love”. Through his loving eyes we are healed, and we open our hearts to the
pain and suffering of others.
Because
of your empowering unconditional love, we are aware of your presence in and
among us. Your love radiates from our hearts, minds, and bodies. Nurturing ourselves and one another empowers
your embodied presence. With joy and
gratefulness today and always, we sing:
Holy,
Holy, Holy: Here in this Place – by Christopher Grundy
https://youtu.be/cVWY9ourooI
Holy One, you speak to our inner sacredness
and the gift of being alive and I hear you saying, “I don’t need anything from
you for me to love you - I don’t need you to evolve for me to love you - I
don’t need you to grow for me to love you - I don’t need you to succeed for me
to love you - I will stay with you in any circumstance. I was here at the
beginning, I am here in the middle, I will be here for all eternity. There
is nothing you can do to lose me.”
We
thank you for Jesus who heard the Divine voice of deep love for his human
nature as a beloved son. Jesus showed us
a pathway to comfort ourselves as the Divine Beloved would comfort us and we
nurture our own children, family, and friends. May we hear God’s voice as Jesus
did to love compassionately so that we may more fully love each other.
Please
extend your hands in blessing.
All: We
call upon your Spirit that is present in us at this Eucharistic table. We are
grateful for the bread and wine that remind us of our call to be the light of
Christ to the world.
Presiders stand at the table
On the night before he faced betrayal and
death, Jesus shared supper with his friends. He reminded them of all that
he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly with them, he bent down and
washed their feet.
Lift the plate as the community prays the following:
When he
returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing,
broke the bread, and offered it to them saying:
Take
and eat, this is my very self.
Lift the cup as community prays the following:
Then he took the cup of the covenant, spoke
the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take
and drink.
Whenever
you remember me like this, I am among you.
All:
Holy One, your love transforms us, so we love and heal each
other. We resolve to love as Jesus unconditionally loved the
marginalized, the poor, the homeless, the mentally ill, the immigrants, and the
stranger. Amen.
This is
the bread of life and the cup of blessing. Through it we are nourished, and we
nourish each other.
What we
have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives; as we share communion,
we will become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Let us
share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace.
Please receive the bread and cup with the words: I am loved today, tomorrow,
and for all eternity.
Communion
Song: Be
Still And Know - Song by Shaina Knoll
https://youtu.be/CCGsExqtYKo
Communion prayer:
Loving
Source of our being, You call us to live the Gospel of peace and justice. We
live justly, we love tenderly, we walk with integrity in Your Presence Amen.
Let us
pray as Jesus taught us:
Holy
One, you are within, around and among us.
We celebrate your many names.
Your wisdom come; your will be done,
unfolding from the depths within us.
Each day you give us all that we need.
You remind us of our limits and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us,
now and forever, Amen. Adapted
by Miriam Therese Winter
BLESSING
Please
extend your hands in blessing.
ALL: May
the infinite beauty and joy of Creation continue to astound us
May the Presence of the Divine always comfort and inspire us
May we be the face of the compassionate Holy One in all we say and do
May we be a blessing in our time. AMEN.
Closing
Song: Learn to Sit Without Knowing by Carrie Newcomer
https://youtu.be/I_t8WqgKL3I