Friday • 3/8/2024 •
Friday of 3 Lent, Year Two
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 88; Genesis 47:1–26; 1 Corinthians 9:16–27; Mark 6:47–56
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, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives 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 this Friday of the third week of Lent, as we prepare for Holy Week.
As we near the end of Genesis and thus approach the close of Jacob’s life, it’s wonderful to see three aspects of his self-understanding that have matured over time: his capacity to bless, his understanding of himself as a pilgrim, and his perspective on suffering.
Jacob blesses. When Jacob finally appears before Pharaoh, he does for the Egyptian king what Yahweh told Abraham he and his progeny would do for nations: “…and Jacob blessed Pharaoh…” (Genesis 47:7c; compare Genesis 12). And then once again at the end of their interview, “Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh” (Genesis 47:10). Blessings fore and aft. Blessings coming and going. The power and the authority to bring a good and kind and beneficent word from God to the world — that is the special mission of Abraham and his children.
In fact, through Joseph’s able administration during the famine, Pharaoh becomes lord over all the property of Egypt, and the people of Egypt proclaim Joseph “Savior” (we can acknowledge that the standard of justice employed for famine relief is Egyptian, not Hebrew and biblical). For a long time, the Israelites prosper and flourish in their Egyptian home away from home.
Nor is the irony to be missed that the mutual blessing and prosperity that transpire between Egyptians and Israelites here at the end of Genesis contrasts with the situation 400 years later at the beginning of Exodus, when another Pharaoh “who knew not Joseph” curses Israel and is himself cursed as a result.
Jacob is a pilgrim. “The years of my pilgrimage….” (Genesis 47:9b KJV; and see Deuteronomy 26:5). For all his heart-investment in his family and in the land of Canaan, Jacob, along with his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham, seek more than earthly goals. Their life-journey has as its aim, “the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:9–10). They are on a purposeful journey through life.
Sojourning creates a powerful impact on Israelites’ sensibilities. The mindset carries over to all who call themselves sons and daughters of Abraham. It is nicely captured in the hidden king Aragorn’s poem from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring:
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Jacob stands near the fountainhead of a rich spiritual heritage of pilgrimage. As a young man, Vincent Van Gogh aspired to the Christian ministry. One sermon from the days of that quest has been preserved for us. Vincent closes his sermon this way: “And when each of us goes back to the daily things and daily duties let us not forget that things are not what they seem, that God by the things of daily life teacheth us higher things, that our life is a pilgrim’s progress, and that we are strangers on the earth, but that we have a God and father who preserveth strangers, – and that we are all brethren.”
Jacob understands suffering. “…few and hard have been the years of my life… (Genesis 47:9d). As Jacob notes, the pilgrim’s life is not easy. Still, understanding that “not all those who wander are lost” gives God’s pilgrim-people resilience in the face of hardship.
It is a theme that animates Paul’s writing, and that is especially heightened in his letters to the self-satisfied Corinthians. For the pilgrim Van Gogh, 2 Corinthians 6:10 was especially captivating and motivating: “…as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” In the sermon we cited above, Vincent expands on this verse: “And the pilgrim goes on sorrowful yet always rejoicing — sorrowful because it is so far off and the road so long. Hopeful as he looks up to the eternal city far away, resplendent in the evening glow….”
I pray that like Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and his wives and sons, we may receive God’s blessing in such a way that we become a blessing to those around us. And may we take our place alongside Vincent and generations of saints as pilgrims on the way. May we always, always have a sober yet hopeful perspective on the trials that come with the journey toward the “city that has foundations, whose builder and architect is God.”
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+