Friday • 4/14/2023 •
Easter Week
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 136; Daniel 12:1–4,13; Acts 4:1–13; John 16:1–15
This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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 Easter Week. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!”
There is one hope. Old Testament readings this week have shown some of the great “Easter eggs” of resurrection hope. After three days and nights, Jonah emerges alive from the belly of a large fish (Jonah 2:1–9). Ezekiel sees dry bones scattered in a valley of desolation rising to new life (Ezekiel 37:1–14). Daniel says that for those whose names are written in the book of life, death will prove to be a sleep in anticipation of waking “to everlasting life,” and to “shin[ing] like the brightness of the sky … like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:1–4,13).
There is one name. In Acts 3, in the name of the resurrected Christ, Peter and John restore health to a lame man’s legs. In Acts 4, they testify that it is only by that name, “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,” that salvation comes (Acts 4:10,12).
There is one source of power. For believers, belief in the one hope and in the one name brings conviction, confidence, and joy. Believers understand that the same power that had worked through Jesus during his earthly ministry now resides in them.
[The Spirit of truth] will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. — John 16:14. John records Jesus’s teaching that the Holy Spirit’s role is to make the Father’s care and the Son’s work personal to us. Much about the inner workings of the Triune God is mysterious, but one thing is not. The role of the Holy Spirit is to bring Heaven’s reality into our lives now, in this life. Jesus says that his bodily absence will make way for this ministry of the Holy Spirit. While on earth, Jesus had been able to be “with” his followers. By going away and sending the Holy Spirit, he will be able to be “in” them (compare John 14:9 with 14:17 & 20).
The Holy Spirit, says the apostle Paul, brings deep consolation and encouragement to our hearts. The Holy Spirit affirms that we really are our Father’s own dear children (Romans 8:16). The Holy Spirit leads us in our walk with Christ (Romans 8:14). The Holy Spirit produces Christ’s life in us (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:22). The Holy Spirit even prays for us, and also with us when we are at a loss for words (Romans 8:26-27).
The work of the Holy Spirit is so immense that Jesus wants us to understand that it’s not his disciples’ job to denounce the world and prove it wrong in its rejection of him. That’s the Spirit’s task: “He will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). All we have to do is follow the Spirit’s leading. We are to tell the truth about God’s love for the world (“God so loved the world…”) and about Jesus’s person and work. The Spirit will do whatever undertaking the Father and the Son have given him to do in people’s hearts—“The wind (pneuma, which means “wind,” “breath,” and “spirit/Spirit”) blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
May Christ’s resurrection inspire courage, may the Name of Jesus heal the broken places in our lives, and may the Holy Spirit continue his marvelous work of empowering our telling of God’s story. Finally, more and more, may the Spirit of Truth lead us from sin to righteousness and from darkness to light.
Collect for Friday in Easter Week. Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+