Thursday • 10/26/2023 •
Thursday of the Twenty-first Week After Pentecost (Proper 24)
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 37; Ezra 1:1–11; 1 Corinthians 16:1–9; Matthew 12:15–21
For comments on 1 Corinthians 14:20–42, see the DDD for Year 1, Tuesday of Lent 5
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)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you. On this Thursday in the Season After Pentecost our readings come from Proper 24 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.
The Bible’s most consistent through-theme is that of “exile and return.” There’s the loss of Eden by our original parents, and our return to Paradise on that future day when earth and heaven will be made new. There’s Israel’s succumbing to slavery in Egypt at the end of the patriarchal age, and their exodus under Moses to freedom in the Promised Land. There’s Israel’s exile in Assyria and Judah’s exile in Babylon at the end of the divided monarchy, and Isaiah’s promised new exodus back to the Promised Land under Ezra and Nehemiah.
Every story, every novel, every movie that tells of a quest to return home is a retelling of this motif, from Odysseus in Homer’s Odyssey to Shadow, Chance, and Sassy in the movie Homeward Bound. Our waywardness separates us from the God who, in his love, made us for himself. God’s persistent love, tireless faithfulness, and non-negotiable holiness work to win us back—over and over and over again, until his love, faithfulness, and holiness yield a renewed planet and restored fellowship between our Creator and us. “Exile and return” is our story.
Image: "The Father's Embrace" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
“Exile and return” in Ezra. Wonderful insights into God’s redeeming heart lie in today’s passage in Ezra. Yahweh “stir[s] up the spirit” of the polytheistic Persian King Cyrus to do enough homage to the one he calls “the LORD (Yahweh) the God of heaven” to return God’s people to their homeland and to call upon them to “rebuild the house of the LORD (Yahweh) the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem” (Ezra 1:1,3). It’s an event that Judah’s prophet Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 45), and it shows God’s people they should never be surprised to find the Lord working through people who don’t even know that they are in the crosshairs of his unrelenting love.
This return bears the marks of a “new exodus.” It repeats features of the original exodus. Cyrus’s decrees that Yahweh’s people may “go up” to Jerusalem, using the same verb that Moses had used in Exodus 32 to describe how God had brought Israel up from Egypt (Exodus 32:1,4,7,8,28). And just as the people of Egypt had provided gifts to the Israelites as they left (Exodus 12:35–36), so do the people of Babylon: “All their neighbors aided them with silver vessels, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with valuable gifts, besides all that was freely offered” (Ezra 1:6).
“Bringing justice to victory” in Matthew. The Bible’s quintessential account of “exile and return” is Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. Matthew’s gospel portrays Jesus’s death and resurrection as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision of God “bringing justice to victory” through his Servant (Matthew 12:20c, quoting Isaiah 42:3). God’s Servant will suffer in his people’s place to bear their iniquities and justify many (per Isaiah 53:11cd). By his rising, Jesus, as God’s servant, will fortify “bruised reeds” and rekindle “smoldering wicks” (Matthew 12:20a,b, quoting Isaiah 42:3).
The victory of justice through Jesus’s exile into death and his return from the grave will be so complete that his victory will include Gentiles as well as Jews: “And in his name the Gentiles will hope” (Matthew 12:21, quoting Isaiah 42:21). For this reason, Jesus insists that people not trumpet his miracles and identity during his earthly ministry. He is not on a tour of self-promotion. Rather, his mission is one of “exile and return” that he might “bring justice to the Gentiles” (Matthew 12:18).
1 Corinthians. Of all the early followers of Jesus, it is arguably the apostle Paul who most vividly sees the picture: God’s justifying love in Christ is winning the victory among the Gentiles. In fact, Paul spends much of his third missionary journey taking up a collection from the new Gentile churches for the sake of the financially struggling church back in Jerusalem. His mission is to create a tangible expression of the reunification of the human race that Jesus’s mission of death and resurrection has accomplished. All of humanity “exiled” itself from God’s presence through the disobedience of Adam, and all of humanity is included in the “return” marked by Jesus’s rising from the dead. The Gentile churches are themselves proof of that reunification, and so Paul instructs the believers in Corinth to set aside what they can to aid in that endeavor.
Praise be that Cyrus responded to the prompting of his spirit by the Spirit of Yahweh. Such a lovely way for God to anticipate his justifying love among the Gentiles!
Praise be that Jesus remained laser-focused on the mission of giving his life that all of us who are wayward could be brought home, and made straight and strong, vibrant and alive.
Praise be for generous hearts in Christ’s church who respond to the call to invest in the church as the visible manifestation of God’s plan to bring all of humanity back home from the long exile of sin and death.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+