Tuesday • 8/1/2023
Tuesday of the Ninth Week After Pentecost (Proper 12)
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 61; Psalm 62; 2 Samuel 3:6–21; Acts 16:6–15; Mark 6:30–46
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)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we draw insights from 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 Tuesday in the Season After Pentecost our readings come from Proper 12 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.
2 Samuel. There are not nice, neat Sunday school applications to be drawn from today’s passage in 2 Samuel. It’s a world of civil war, concubinage, broken promises, busted up marriages. Unworthy motives and less than honorable means toward a worthy goal: the establishment of a united kingdom under Yahweh’s anointed.
It’s important to remember that the Bible isn’t always being prescriptive (telling us what we ought to do). A passage like this one is more descriptive (telling us what happened). The Bible is realistic about the fallenness of the creatures through whom God is working his plan. To my mind, it’s part of what gives the Bible the ring of truth. Some actions are recorded not to inspire emulation, but to evoke from us, “Lord, have mercy. Give us grace to see your hand at work in the world around us, because bringing good out of evil is what you do. Praise be.”
In the wake of King Saul’s death, war breaks out between the house of Saul and the house of David. Abner, Saul’s former general, offers to go over to David’s side after Saul’s son Ishbaal accuses Abner of “going in” to Saul’s concubine. (Apparently, Ishbaal suspects Abner of making his own play to become Saul’s successor.) David accepts the offer under the condition that Abner bring him Michal, Saul’s daughter whom Saul had betrothed to David but had given instead to a different husband. Weeping, Michal’s husband, Paltiel, accompanies Michal and Abner until he is told to go home.
Today’s passage ends with the solidification of the pact between Abner and David, chiefly marked by Abner’s promise that he will convince all the generals from Israel (the northern tribes) to join David, thus uniting all Judah and Israel under David, just as Samuel had predicted.
Image: San Jose, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Mark. Thankfully, among the things the Bible describes are the unique acts by which God invades his fallen world to bring redemption and rescue. All four gospels celebrate one of those redemptive acts: the feeding of the 5,000. Here, anticipating the offering of himself in the Eucharistic feast, Jesus “takes … blesses … breaks … and gives” the bread and the fish (Mark 6:41). By God’s grace, what should feed only a handful of people nourishes a multitude. God comes to replace scarcity with plenty, and hunger with satisfaction.
Acts. As though to illustrate the dynamic of multiplication that Jesus’s Eucharistic act enacts, today’s reading in Acts shows breakthroughs in the gospel’s progress — the invasion of light into darkness.
Unwilling to force God’s hand (the Spirit has said “No” to their attempts to evangelize western and northern Asia Minor [“Asia” and “Bithynia”]), Paul and his itinerary wait in Troas on the western shore of Asia Minor. (It may be noted that Troas is the site of ancient Troy, the staging area for the Persian king Cyrus’s attempt to invade Greece and Europe centuries earlier.)
Paul has a nighttime vision of a man from across the Aegean Sea: “Come over to Macedonia (northern Greece) and help us” (Acts 16:9). Paul and his group decide that the Lord is calling them to take the gospel to Greece. The long-lasting effects of this incursion of God’s tiny army of evangelists from Asia to Europe will prove to be far more significant than Cyrus’s failed invasion. Europe will be forever changed by this boatload of gospel-bearers.
(Incidentally, for the first time, the narrator of Acts (Luke) includes himself in the account: “…we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them” — Acts 16:10-17; and see also, 20:5-15; 21:1-18; 27:1–28:16). Most commentators think this is a significant note. Some suggest the man from Macedonia was Luke himself, and that he himself came over to Troas from Greece and appeared before Paul that night. Alternatively, the “vision” may have been a true “vision.” The Greek Luke may have already been a part of the traveling band, and who now begins to write himself into the story as the gospel begins its foray into his homeland.)
In Philippi, the first named convert is a woman named Lydia, a merchant in expensive purple cloth. The Lord opens her heart to believe (one of several notes indicating Luke’s understanding that faith itself is God’s gift — see Acts 16:14; and also 13:48; 18:27). She becomes host and patron to Paul and his company. These are profound breakthroughs for the gospel — reminiscent of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes — from Asia to Europe, with the anchoring of ministry in the home of a woman.
Collect for Proper 12. O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+