Monday • 5/24/2021
Monday of the First Week After Pentecost (Proper 3) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 25; Deuteronomy 4:9–14; 2 Corinthians 2:1–11; Luke 14:25–35

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)

“After Pentecost”: the church’s mission. Yesterday was the Feast of Pentecost, the feast that celebrates the founding of the church and the launching of its mission to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, then, begins the season “After Pentecost.” “After Pentecost” is a season that lasts until the end of November when Advent launches the new Christian year. The overarching theme of the season of “After Pentecost” is the mission of the church in the world. Especially worth noting is the fact that the Old Testament readings for this year’s season of “After Pentecost” will survey the history of the kingship in Israel. We will learn about God’s mission for his people in the world from the rise of the kingship under Saul, to the consolidation of the kingdom under David and its apex under Solomon, to the sad division into Northern and Southern kingdoms (Judah and Israel) after Solomon’s death, to the exile in Assyria and Babylon, and finally to the return and restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah.

Over the next two and a half weeks, the lectionary will introduce us to the history of the kingship by rehearsing the high points of the Book of Deuteronomy. In this fifth book of Moses, God lays out the way he designs his people to be his own special treasure. Yahweh intends for his covenant people to embody his grace, truth, love, and justice for the sake of a world that is trying (without success) to find its way without him. 

As they recount the ups and down of the kingship, the biblical historians (the authors of Samuel through Nehemiah) are constantly measuring the success of any particular king against Moses’s benchmark in Deuteronomy—and not surprisingly the historians’ accounts are ones of failure. That’s because this entire history is a prelude to God providing his own King, the One whose coming we announce every Advent. Along the way, there are lessons galore—some by way of caution, some by way of example—about how to love God and neighbor, and about how to be God’s treasure in and for the world, or as Paul says, “lights shining in the world” (Philippians 2:15). 

Deuteronomy: prelude to kingship. “But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). The words from this first verse in our reading of Deuteronomy could serve as a heading for the whole of our Old Testament reading “After Pentecost.” We need to read Israel’s story with an eye to our own story. Each of us is as likely to forget the Lord’s kind interventions in our lives, the rescues small and great that he has provided us. And regardless of what we think about whether our lives are influencing anybody, every one of us has the eye of somebody in the next generation who is getting their bearings in life from us. We will either help or hinder their journey. 

2 Corinthians: what Paul has to offer. Some people have the wrong idea about the apostle Paul. They think of him as a detached and uncaring theologian who lobs theological mortars from a lofty ivory tower. Not so! Paul speaks with authority to the hard places of life, and he does so because it’s in the hard places of life that he has found Jesus. The reality is that Paul only takes people where he himself has gone: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4). 

With today’s reading in 2 Corinthians, Paul opens what I’m pretty sure was a difficult letter for him to write. Certain people in Corinth have demanded that Paul produce credentials and defend his apostleship (see chapters 3,10,11,12,13). They are not sure why they should listen to him, despite the fact that he founded this church and has lived among them for a year and a half, during which time he has done spectacular miracles, offered profound teaching, and guided them through tricky pastoral relationships. 

The situation Paul faces in Corinth calls for delicate diplomacy. Paul writes a lengthy and chunky letter. Truth be told, this letter is Paul’s most stylistically roundabout and grammatically difficult. But he really only has two simple points to make. First, the Corinthians should listen to him because Paul has found Christ encouraging him in his sufferings, so Paul can offer them encouragement when they experience the same sufferings. Second, the way that Christ has already formed himself in their lives through Paul’s ministry is all the “letter of recommendation” that they need: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all…” (2 Corinthians 2:2). Authority is as authority does. 

May the next couple of weeks of reading this complicated but profound (and in the end, exceptionally kindhearted) letter lead us all to say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all consolation, who consoles us….”

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Detail, Stained Glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida