Cups

“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
—Mark 7:21-23

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You cleanse the outside of cup and dish, but inside they are full of plunder and self-indulgence.
Blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may be clean.”
—Matthew 23:25-26

I come to you so hungry, Lord,
so thirsty I have come
for wine that only you can pour
like honey on my tongue.
But how can I sit down with you
when I am all unclean
to take your drink and taste your food,
pretending I'm pristine?

But you are living water, true,
and I an empty cup.
If I would taste a drop of you
then you must fill me up—
but cups, they must be purified
before they can be filled.
You see the things I hold inside—
how shall a drop be spilled?

Yet pour your waters over me
and pour them through my heart
and I shall have your purity
in every inward part.
Then shall my overflow be love
that water once had been.
You clean the inside of the cup—
and wine flows from within.

The Holy Grail depicted on a stained glass window at Quimper Cathedral Photo By Thesupermat – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35772669

Scraps

Jesus went to the district of Tyre.
He entered a house and wanted no one to know about it,
but he could not escape notice.
Soon a woman whose daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him.
She came and fell at his feet.
The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth,
and she begged him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
He said to her, “Let the children be fed first.
For it is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She replied and said to him,
“Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps.”
Then he said to her, “For saying this, you may go.
The demon has gone out of your daughter.”
When the woman went home, she found the child lying in bed
and the demon gone.
Mark 7:24-30

Also inspired by this reflection on the above passage: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=114492308223659&set=a.112923281713895

Filthy souls and all unfit,
mercy still we claim.
Begging, at your feet we sit,
weeping out your name.
At the table or under it,
the bread of life's the same.

What are scraps of heaven, Lord?
Heaven all the way.
Everything in just a word,
with nothing left to say.
Throw your scraps out to the world:
loaves and fishes, they.

Fragments of infinity,
infinite within.
Dogs beneath the table eat,
feasting like a king.
I will never worthy be:
Savior, enter in.

The Woman of Canaan by Michael Angelo Immenraet, 17th century – http://www.unionskirche-retten.de/seiten/bildpatenschaft/bild-18.php, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37307817

All That Defiles Us Lies Within

Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.”
When he got home away from the crowd
his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them,
“Are even you likewise without understanding?
Do you not realize that everything
that goes into a person from outside cannot defile,
since it enters not the heart but the stomach
and passes out into the latrine?”
(Thus he declared all foods clean.)
“But what comes out of the man, that is what defiles him.
From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
Mark 7:14-23

To the tune ERHALT UNS, HERR (“The Glory of These Forty Days”):

All that defiles us lies within:
the hidden hardness of our hearts.
But if you dwell beneath our skin,
we can be purified, O God.

Come wash the inside of the cup;
let nothing poison what pours forth,
that when we lift your praises up
no shame may taint your name on earth.

You cleansed the ancient temple, Lord,
when it became a den of thieves.
Your Father's house now cleanse once more,
that we may see you and believe.

You called disciples to yourself
and taught them more than prophets knew:
That wisdom is your perfect wealth—
drive out from us all gold's allure.

Give us instead a longing for
yourself alive within our hearts
that we may seek your presence more
and from your mercy never part.

O Christ Incarnate on the earth,
take up your throne within our flesh.
Your coming is our second birth:
Reign in us, then, until our death.

*Jesus at the house of the Pharisean*, by Jacopo Tintoretto, Escorial – Scan using old “Original & Fälschung”-Pictures from HörZu, 1986, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5277212 Christus im Hause des Pharisäers, Gemälde von Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), Escorial

Opened

He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” —
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
Mark 7:31-37

For today’s readings, combining Isaiah and the healing of the deaf man with a speech impediment:

The wasteland stretches out before;
the desert road is long,
but we who heard you hear no more
and sing no more your song.

When will the desert bloom for us?
When will our closed ears hear?
When will the springs burst forth for us?
Oh, when will you draw near?

Our tongues are tied and mute, my Lord;
our feeble hands are bound.
Come, give us once again your word
and lift us from the ground.

Then shall our eyes be opened wide,
our wounded souls shall leap.
Your fountains welling up inside,
our hearts shall wake from sleep.

Then place your fingers in our ears;
reach out and touch our tongues.
If you will heal us, we can hear;
your songs can still be sung!

Then come, O Savior, flood the ground
'til deserts all are past.
Break open clouds and end the drought:
oh, let us bloom at last!

*Christ healing the deaf mute of Decapolis*, by Bartholomeus Breenbergh, 1635 – http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/O0017918.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5746158

Dirt

He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
“Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
“From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
Mark 7: 21-23

The dust of all the earth,
the centuries of grime
could never to such things give birth
as come from my own mind.

From there, as in good ground,
the seeds of evil grow,
and in my heart the roots are found
of every sin I know.

They ripen and come forth,
the fruits of my own hands,
and other seedlings, in their course, 
in other hearts they plant.

Come, sower of good seed,
and make this field your own.
Come, plant a different seed in me
from any I have known.

And let it bear your fruit:
Send sunlight and send rain.
Come, Christ the savior, Christ the root,
and grow in me your grain.

So what comes forth from me
shall be the fruit of love,
of Love himself, who sows the seeds
and reaps the grain thereof.