This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 16 & 17; Exodus 16:23-36; 1 Peter 3:13–4:6; John 16:1-15
This morning’s Canticles are: Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Second Song of Isaiah, Isaiah 55:6-11; BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9-10, 13, BCP, p. 93)
Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord… — Exodus 16:23. Yahweh’s fatherly care is highlighted in this passage from Exodus. For his people on an arduous journey, Yahweh provides rest.
The Lord showers the ground with manna, the heavenly “bread,” with instructions to gather only enough for the day. Those who disobey and gather more than they need discover the extra rotting and filled with maggots the next day. But, in the sixth day, the people are instructed to gather enough for that day, plus one more day: the sabbath. There will be no gathering on the sabbath; and in the seventh day’s manna there is no rotting, nor are there maggots.
With a non-stop, soul-sucking daily schedule of “wash, rinse, repeat,” time can become a relentless cycle of day and night. Our Heavenly Father insists on a blessed rhythm of work and rest, of productivity and reflection, of doing and simply “being.” He endorses pushing hard for six days, and then kicking back on the seventh.
Many of us have to get creative about how to honor this pattern even under normal circumstances. Nonetheless, and especially given the conditions under which we are living at the moment, finding islands of sabbath-rest is critical. For me, racing the sun up each day is important. Engaging God’s story in Scripture & prayer before diving into the day’s news cycle puts everything in perspective for me. It beats back the wolves of anxiety, dread, and depression. Things like “soul-care” reading, exercise, and piano noodling are critical elements of my personal sabbath rest. If you don’t have your own equivalents, I hope you will consider creating some.
And I yearn for each Sunday’s worship with my Cathedral family, even though right now it’s from opposite sides of electronic screens.
Rest this day and every day in your Heavenly Father’s provision.
And baptism…now saves you…through the resurrection of Jesus Christ… — 1 Peter 3:21. Peter regales in the comprehensiveness of Christ’s work.
Peter is grateful for the substitutionary nature of Christ’s work—“the righteous for the unrighteous.” He mines its personally transformative power—“Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same intention.” According to some interpretive traditions (especially in Eastern and Catholic churches), Peter even describes Christ’s triumphant victory chant in the netherworld—“he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison.” Our baptism becomes the place where heaven and earth converge in our lives, where Christ sweeps us up into this resurrected life—“And baptism…now saves you.”
Rejoice this day and every day in the enormity of Christ’s love for you.
[The Spirit of truth] will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. — John 16:14. John records Jesus’s teaching that the Holy Spirit’s role is to make the Father’s care and the Son’s work personal to us. Much about the inner workings of the Triune God is mysterious. One thing is not. The role of the Holy Spirit is to bring Heaven’s reality into our lives in this life. Jesus says that his bodily absence will make way for this ministry. While on earth, Jesus had been able to be “with” his followers. By going away and sending the Holy Spirit, he will be able to be “in” them (compare John 14:9 with 14:17 & 20).
The Holy Spirit, says the apostle Paul, brings deep consolation and encouragement to our hearts. The Holy Spirit pours assurance into our hearts, affirming that we really are our Father’s own dear children (Romans 8:16). The Holy Spirit leads us in our walk with Christ (Romans 8:14). The Holy Spirit produces Christ’s life in us (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:22). The Holy Spirit even prays for us and with us when we are at a loss for words (Romans 8:26-27).
The work of the Holy Spirit is so immense that Jesus wants us understand that it’s not his disciples’ job to denounce the world and prove it wrong in its rejection of him. That’s the Spirit’s task: “He will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). All we have to do is follow the Spirit’s leading. We are to tell the truth about God’s love for the world (“God so loved the world…”) and about Jesus’s person and work. The Spirit will do whatever undertaking the Father and the Son have given him to do in people’s hearts—“The wind (pneuma, which means “wind,” “breath,” and “spirit/Spirit”) blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
Be renewed this day and every day by the power of the Spirit who takes all that the Father has given to the Son, and makes it real and personal to you.
Be blessed this day.
Reggie Kidd+