This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 41 & 52; Joshua 7:1-13; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 26:36-46

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (“The First Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 12:2-6, BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)

Achan sinned by taking personal booty from Jericho (compare Joshua 6:17-19, with 7:1). His sin was a perfect expression of what, centuries later, Paul would describe as making “provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). The children of Israel were called to bring “the day” of God’s presence to a region that had been living in “the night” of the dominion of evil (Romans 13:12-13—think Conan the Barbarian). The utter destruction of Jericho and the dedication of all its valuables to the Lord were a matter of bringing things into God’s purifying, purging, and cleansing sunlight. 

Achan chose the darkness, and Israel’s mission suffered—thus, the failed campaign against the city of Ai. 

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus does not succumb to the darkness. His “not my will but Thine” opens a window onto one of the deepest and most wonderful of theological mysteries: the covenant made in eternity by which the Eternal Son assents to the mission of our rescue on behalf of the Father’s love. That mission called for the Son, having been “made man” (per the Creed), to drink the cup of judgment that all the Achans of the world—from Adam and Eve in that other garden, to you and me—deserve to drink:

For in the Lord’s hand there is a cup,

full of spiced and foaming wine, which he pours out,

and all the wicked of the earth shall drink and 

drain the dregs. (Psalm 75:8 BCP)

The result of Christ’s “not my will but Thine,” in order to drink that cup is that we are privileged to drink, instead, the cup of blessing:

I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call upon the Name of the Lord. (Psalm 116:11 BCP)

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;You anoint my head with oil;My cup runs over. (Psalm 23:5 NKJV)

And precisely because the cup of blessing “runs over” for us, even the Law, once a terrible threat and reminder of our sin, now takes on a different role. The law, no longer our bitter accuser, is now, in the hands of the Holy Spirit within us, our wise companion. For, having now been loved with the love of God’s eternal covenant poured out on the cross for us, we learn to love: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+