Thursday • 7/20/2023
Thursday of the Seventh Week After Pentecost (Proper 10)
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 37; 1 Samuel 20:24–42; Acts 13:1–12; Mark 2:23–3:6
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); 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 consider some aspect of 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. On this Thursday in the Season After Pentecost our readings come from Proper 10 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.
Mark: what is “sabbath” for? Jesus deals with proper use of the sabbath. Despite the accusations leveled against Jesus and his disciples in Mark 2 and 3, gleaning and healing on the sabbath were never prohibited by the law of Moses. The word “sabbath” technically means “seven,” but theologically and metaphorically it means “rest.” On the seventh day, God’s people were told to do that: rest. What Jesus wants his detractors to understand is that sabbath is about more than not doing stuff. Sabbath is about restoration and healing.
Image: In this 1768 parchment, Jekuthiel Sofer emulated decalogue at the Esnoga Source: [1] at Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Amsterdam HS.ROS.PL.a-33. Jekuthiel Sofer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Today’s incidents about sabbath-rest provide an invitation to take a deeper look at any commandment: how does it further the flourishing and wellbeing for which we were created? You could reframe Jesus’s saying about sabbath (“People are not made for the sabbath, but the sabbath for people”) to apply to any of the 1o Commandments. For in the end, the commandments are about bringing our lives into sync with God’s life. Thereby, they are about making us more, not less, alive. Does “x, y, or z” activity promote, or hinder, my love for God and for neighbor?
Jesus’s gleaning and healing don’t, by any means, mean we are to take a casual approach to any of the commandments, including the sabbath. Exactly the opposite. This side of the Cross, each commandment needs to be filtered through the lens of the impact of Christ’s work and the apostles’ teaching. The idea is: how much greater is their weight now, rather than how much less? By becoming himself our sabbath rest (see Colossians 2:17), Christ deepened rather than diminished our responsibility for self- and neighbor-care, and for sanctifying time through worship. If there’s greater freedom, there’s also greater responsibility. (Huzzahs, by the way, to businesses that theoretically could improve their bottom line by staying open on Sundays but choose not to!)
1 Samuel: how to “honor” parents. Our reading in 1 Samuel today invites reflection on the 5th Commandment. That commandment enjoins honoring father and mother (see Exodus 20:12). Significantly, though, Jesus, God’s own Son, will say, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37a). The bearer of our Heavenly Father’s redemptive anointing merits a higher loyalty than any earthly authority, even parents. It is important that earthly fathers and mothers understand that! It’s worth looking back from this perspective on Jonathan’s treatment of Saul, his father. In Jonathan’s day, God’s redemptive anointing has been transferred from his father Saul to his friend David. It would not be a true “honoring” of his father for Jonathan to have participated in Saul’s attempt to murder David. Jonathan gives his father every chance to show a softening of demeanor. Alas, Saul does not relent in his murderous intent. Jonathan chooses loyalty to God’s anointed. Think about what that means: Jonathan surrenders the prospect of his own anointing as successor to his father’s throne. Jonathan chooses wisely.
Many of us as followers of Christ have had to make similar choices, even if reluctantly and as lovingly as possible. Often allegiance to Christ has meant following different career paths than our parents had laid out for us, going to churches that seem odd to our folks, taking on different philosophies of child-rearing than we’d been raised with. But Christ and the commandment call us to do so as respectfully as we can, mindful that we never know what God himself may be doing in hearts that had long grown cold to the faith. Sometimes, we find those stories turn in delightfully surprising directions.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+