• Sunday • 12/31/2023
New Year’s Eve Day, Year Two
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 46; Psalm 48; 1 Kings 3:5–14; James 4:13–17; 5:7–11; John 5:1–15
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“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)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions. I’m Reggie Kidd, and it’s a joy to be with you today, the Seventh Day of Christmas, which also happens to be New Year’s Eve Day. Happy New Year, in advance!
Turning towards a new year, I think less in terms of resolutions, and more in terms of requests from the God from whom every good gift comes. God’s Word commends four worthy requests:
1 Kings 3: Solomon and a wise and discerning heart. King Solomon represents an elevated phase in God’s plan to restore the human race to its fundamental mission: to tend God’s garden, to exercise dominion over creation, and to make the earth redound to his glory.
I daresay none of us has quite the governing responsibilities of a Solomon. But every one of us does have some realm to rule or space to oversee. It may be a kitchen to keep clean and productive, a lawn to tend, a store to manage, a spreadsheet to keep balanced, maybe even, I dunno, a rocket to help launch.
The greatest gift we can seek from the Lord is that which Solomon sought: a grasp of the reality we face, its opportunities and its challenges; and the wisdom to discern how to further God’s beautifying and redemptive purposes for the creation he loves.
Prayer for Guidance: Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, p. 832)
Image: iStock photo
James 4: Circumspection in planning. James 4:13–17’s wisdom is an expansion of Proverbs 16:9, “The mind of a person plans their way, but Yahweh directs their steps” (my translation). I can’t help but think of the semi-irreverent adage: “We plan. God laughs.” He may not laugh at us, but perhaps we should laugh at ourselves when we think we have life all planned out. The past couple of years have called upon every person I know to be flexible, adaptable, and nimble. It’s been a time to reckon much more seriously with passages like this one. We are fragile, and our days on this earth are fleeting. James cautions us against smugly over-planning: “Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that” (James 4:15).
It’s not a bad thing to have been put in a position where we are virtually forced to pray along with the psalmist: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).
James 5: The ability to wait out hard times. As if you need to be told, crazy abounds. Miami Herald columnist and novelist Carl Hiaasen was once asked how he could expect his readers to accept his utterly bizarre scenarios about life in South Florida. His answer was (I paraphrase from memory): “Every time I write something that seems over the top, and tell myself people will think I’ve lost my grip on reality, I read something crazier in the newspaper. My imagination isn’t big enough to capture the crazy.” That’s our world. A once-in-a-century killer disease rages. The corridors of power ring with incivility. News agencies pick sides. People in everyday life do the stupidest things, and keep the 24/7 news cycle cycling.
James says, “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. … You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts…” (James 5:7a,8a). To some extent, what we are called to do (besides calling out what craziness we can!) is to outlast it. Yes, crazy comes in waves. Those waves will crest and crash and eventually exhaust themselves. We must simply keep ourselves from being swept under or away. God, give us grace.
Prayer for Quiet Confidence: O God of peace, you who have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray you, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, p. 832)
John 5: The willingness to accept healing from Jesus. Jesus offers to fix what’s broken, in this case, non-functioning legs, for a man he encounters by a healing pool in Jerusalem. And Jesus winds up healing him over his excuse-making: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me” (John 5:7).
It may not be our legs that don’t work. It may not be that we have seen opportunity after opportunity to address our brokenness pass us by for 38 years. But we all have reservoirs of hurt or secret obsessions or masked pretenses that one day will have to be purged. And it may be that this next year is when Jesus will come up to us and ask, “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6b). May God give us the grace to say “Yes!” to Jesus.
Prayer for Trust in God in Time of Sickness: O God, the source of all health: So fill my heart with faith in your love, that with calm expectancy I may make room for your power to possess me, and gracefully accept your healing; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, p. 461).
Be blessed this day, and every day in the year ahead!
Reggie Kidd+