This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 105:1-22; Numbers 17:1-11; Romans 5:1-11; Matthew 20:17-28
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)
Signature insights from Numbers, Romans, and Matthew wondrously converge in today’s readings.
Life from a Tree. When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. — Numbers 20:8. Life emerges from a dead tree, proof of God’s choice of Aaron’s priesthood. This is one of the amazing portraits of the coming Mediator in the book of Numbers. Millennia later God will prove his choice of Jesus’s priesthood in similar fashion, by raising him to life after death on Calvary’s tree. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that Aaron was priest solely by God’s choice (Hebrews 5:8), and that Jesus too is priest solely by God’s choice. Further, Hebrews points up the way the almond-graced rod was preserved in the ark as a permanent reminder of Aaron’s priesthood (Hebrews 9:3), and then portrays Jesus’s ongoing ministry as “high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:20, and following). While Aaron’s mortality meant that he had to be followed by many priests of his lineage, Jesus’s resurrection means he ministers forever: proclaiming the Father’s name, singing in the midst of the congregation, ever living to intercede, and bringing bread and wine from God’s holy altar (Hebrews 2:12; 7:25; 13:10). Although his work on the cross for us has been completed, Jesus does not cease his work in our lives. Even now. His ongoing ministry means he is praying for his church, praying for each of us. Praise be.
Paul’s John 3:16. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. — Romans 5:8. If there is one truth in Paul’s letters that is worth burning into our brains, it’s this one. The life-giving tree on which Christ hung is all the proof any of us needs that God does not hate us, but instead loves us. God gave his Son up to death that we may escape the wrath we deserve (Romans 5:9), and so that we may boast that on the day of the great reckoning we will have a share in the glory of God (Romans 5:3,10-11). That word, “boast,” gives some of us a little trouble. It is often too closely linked with “bluster” and “brag”—so, not in a good way. Paul doesn’t intend us to think of boasting as an excessive, vain, self-centered behavior. Rather, it’s a bit more like being proud of, and proclaiming the praises of, say, the Gators or the Seminoles (or Army vs. Navy if you are Peter Tepper). Paul thinks it is perfectly acceptable to “boast” about God and his mercy and kindness towards us. “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31).
Not only that, Paul says, but when trials come, we can see in every challenge the promise of Spirit-worked character: “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5, RSV). It’s almost too much to take in. It is almost too much to remember. So, because it is so wonderfully—and gloriously—and truly—true, even our “boasting” becomes a way to remind ourselves of the worth of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. Praise be.
The Great “So What?” …and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. — Matthew 20:27. And just so, we can let go of the need to make ourselves Number One. Jesus gives a comprehensive and sobering description of the ultimately world-changing things that are about to happen in Jerusalem: his arrest, condemnation, mocking, flogging, crucifixion, and—incomprehensibly—his rising from the dead.
Of all the possible reactions to that news, Matthew records this response: an overly ambitious mother lobbying to put her ambitious sons (see Luke 9:46) in the positions of highest honor when the Kingdom comes. At one level, it’s staggering to imagine such naked, selfish ambition right after they have heard the unhappy details of the awful things that were about to be done to Jesus. And yet, at another level, isn’t there a lot of that instinct in every single one of us?
Perhaps, knowing this about his disciples (and about us), perhaps this is why Jesus calls the disciples to him. To.Spell.It.Out: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Lord, have mercy. Give us grace this day to take our bearings from the Son of Man who “came not to be served but to serve.”
Give us grace, we pray, to give thanks for the life that blossomed from the tree, and that continues to intercede for us.
Give us grace, we pray, to delight in the love you have shown us, Father, in the gift of your Son, and that you continue to pour into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).
Give us grace, we pray, as simultaneously slaves of Christ and heirs of his kingdom, to attend not to our own needs this day, but to the needs of those around us. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+