Tuesday • 7/23/2024 •

Tuesday of Proper 11

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 45; Joshua 8:1-22; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 26:47-56

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9-10, 13, BCP, p. 93)

Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. — Matthew 26:52. When Jesus tells Peter (named in John 18:10-11) to put his sword away, a pivot in the ages takes place. As today’s reading of Joshua’s conquest of Ai perfectly exemplifies, God’s conquest had come via the sword in the past. But a kingdom established by the sword is a short end game—the sword does not confer life. Jericho, to this day, exists as an archaeological dig, a tell. And the city that had once stood at Ai—well, not even its name has survived. The name “Ai” means “waste,” and the Israelites imposed that name after the destruction. Despite the heights to which Israel rose after the conquest of Canaan, it was inevitable that it would fall: The confederacy of tribes under the Judges was too frail. Saul was corrupt of heart. David’s hands were covered in blood. Solomon’s son provoked division. The Northern Kingdom was swept away by the Assyrians, and the Southern Kingdom was exiled by the Babylonians. The Persian release ushered in a series of vassalages, the latest being the one under Rome in Jesus’s day. God’s eternal Kingdom ultimately would not come by the sword, by conquest, or by power politics. That was never the way God intended to restore his fallen world.

And while Jesus, even in the Garden of Gethsemane, acknowledges that it would be possible to save the moment through force, the result would be to replace one regime of force with another. A church built by the sword would need to be enforced by the sword—and in the end, would fall by the sword. But because Jesus went the route of suffering, his church did not perish. Her foundation is different, and so is her destiny: “Not by might and not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). The church that forgets that lesson, becoming just another player in the world of power-politics and secular influence—whether accommodating to the right or to the left—is in peril. 

Romans 14: Kingdom logic in relationships. Jesus gives himself over to death, thereby conquering death, to win life, and taking up an invincible reign, where the logic is (looking ahead to tomorrow’s epistle reading): “[T]he kingdom of God is … righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Throughout Romans 14, Paul applies that logic to relationships. The proof of Christian truth, it turns out, lies in the way we treat one another. That’s why Romans, with all its dazzlingly profound theology about how we are justified and sanctified in Christ, leads to what can seem like an odd crescendo in this appeal: “If a person’s faith is not strong enough, welcome him all the same without starting an argument” (Romans 14:1 Jerusalem Bible). 

Progressive (“strong”) consciences in Rome’s house churches want to explore Christian liberty. Conservative (“weak”) consciences want to preserve traditional principles of holiness. Progressive believers look upon traditionalists condescendingly; traditionalists look upon progressives judgmentally. Paul refuses to resolve their issues in one direction or the other. The church Jesus is building is the church for all, both “strong” and “weak.” More critically, all believers need to understand that the Lord Jesus is lord of the conscience—He, and he alone, can and will, judge. 

People must recognize that even if other believers are wrong about something. Consider the apostle’s astonishing words: “It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Romans 14: 4). The Christian, whether young or old in the faith, is guided, encouraged, or indicted by the Holy Spirit who dwells within. This day, may we all examine our own consciences, listening for that voice to speak into us words of indictment, encouragement, or guidance, as we wait for the perfect unity of Christ’s body—his precious church—built with love, not swords—on earth as it is in heaven.

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+