Monday • 3/6/2023 •
Week of 2 Lent
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 56; Psalm 57; Jeremiah 1:11–19; Romans 1:1–15; John 4:27–42
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)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the second week of Lent, a season of preparation for Holy Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.
Strength for Jeremiah. In this week’s section of the Daily Office, Jeremiah will be bringing God’s Word to Judah during the last years of their independence. It is a thankless task. Jeremiah will predict their military defeat, capture, and exile to Babylon. It breaks his heart that forced exile is the consequence of their rebelliousness. For good reason, Jeremiah is known as the “Weeping Prophet.”
What stands out about today’s passage in Jeremiah is God’s promise to give Jeremiah the strength, courage, and stamina he will need to fulfill his calling. “And I for my part have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you; but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you” (Jeremiah 1:18–19).
Sometimes, all you can do is hold fast to God’s promise to make you, like Jeremiah, “a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall.” Sometimes all you can do is muster up prayer for the Lord to do for you what he promised Jeremiah: “Though they fight against me, may they not prevail against me. Be with me, Lord, and deliver me. Amen!”
Image: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well, ca. 1420. Unknown artist. Public domain. The Met, NYC. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.
Food for Jesus. Sometimes, by contrast, there is so much satisfaction and joy in doing something that you forget about everything else. You are so immersed in it that you lose all sense of time. Everything else disappears. You may even work right through mealtime (or maybe a couple of mealtimes), not really sensing a need for food.
Something like that seems to be at work in the early verses in John 4. Exhausted (and probably hungry since his disciples have gone off to seek provisions), Jesus sits down by a well outside Sychar in Samaria (John 4:6,8). A conversation begins with his request for water, and launches into one of the most amazing dialogues in all of Scripture. A woman has come with the intention of drawing water from the well. Instead, she finds herself being drawn out of the shame of her past and present into a new future of worship “in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:7–26). Fully engaged, Jesus has offered to this Samaritan woman “living water”—the ultimate satisfaction for her soul’s thirst. So energized is Jesus by this encounter that when the disciples return and offer him food, he has to explain, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work” (John 4:34).
So many things for Paul. The Apostle Paul begins his magisterial letter to the Romans by giving evidence of what the gospel of Jesus Christ as “power of God for salvation” does, not only for others (Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish), but for himself.
What the good news of God’s Son Jesus Christ does for Paul:
God’s good news in Jesus makes all of the Scriptures that Paul had learned and loved before his conversion come together as one complete whole: the story of how God, in his Son, meets us in our “flesh” (our frailty and susceptibility to death) and raises us up to new and eternal life by the power of the “Spirit of holiness” (Romans 1:3–4).
God’s good news in Jesus makes all of Scripture not just a single story, but a story that is singularly about God’s love: “To all God’s beloved in Rome…” (Romans 1:7). Paul believes that God loves the people to whom he is writing! Don’t let that slip past!! One of the most delightful surprises awaiting us as we read through this letter that seems so theologically dense is the way it focuses on God’s love for us and his power to draw out love from us (note these verses: Romans 5:5–8; 8:28–39; 12:9–10; 13:8–10; 14:15; 15:30).
Along those lines, God’s good news in Jesus gives Paul a profound love for all people—people who are like him (Jewish and wise) and people who are not like him (“other” and boors). His indebtedness to the grace of God in Christ makes him “a debtor” to all (Romans 1:14). He wants to come to the Romans to impart truth to them. He wants to be with them “so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (Romans 1:12). The good news of God in Jesus Christ makes Paul long for reciprocal relationships. We will see this dynamic over and over again in Romans (see especially Romans 14 and 15). It is a feature not to be missed.
God’s good news in Jesus gives Paul courage to prepare to go to the center of power in the known world (Rome) to declare that the true source of power lies elsewhere. True power does not reside in Rome’s ability to conquer, rule, and build in the strength of iron will. True power lies in God’s power to conquer, rule, and build lives in the way of the cross. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
Finally, for today, God’s good news in Jesus makes Paul a profoundly thankful man: “I thank my God through Jesus Christ…” (Romans 1:8). One of the big problems in the Garden, Paul will say in tomorrow’s reading, was lack of gratitude (“…for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him”—Romans 1:21). In Christ, Paul’s life is filled with thankfulness.
Jeremiah received God’s promise for help to stand strong against opposition and obstacles. Jesus was fully immersed in the joy of being part of God’s marvelous power to transform. Paul discovered a deeper personal richness in God’s good news as he wrote to the Romans.
May God provide you everything you need to serve him, to enjoy him, and to learn from him today.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+