Bold Faith - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 12/20/2024 •

Advent 3 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 40; Psalm 54; Isaiah 10:5–19 (and 10:20–27, from Saturday’s readings); 2 Peter 2:17–22 (and Jude 17–25, from Saturday’s readings); Matthew 11:2–15.  

This morning’s Canticles are: 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 the third week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

Biblical faith is irrepressibly hopeful. In the middle of the night, it always prepares for day. Advent insists that darkness, disease, and death will not prevail, and that Christmas is just around the corner. And it’s not just that we can be confident that vaccines will suppress viruses, or that (at least in our system of government) checks and balances will eventually prevail over the feverish madness of authoritarians or libertines. No, really, Advent’s hope and Christmas’s promise is that a day will come when there will be no diseases to be protected from, nor bad rulers to be reined in. One day, death will be no more, and one righteous King will rule.  

Isaiah catches several glimpses of that hope over the course of his prophesying. In his tenth chapter (the readings for today and tomorrow), Isaiah raises his voice against the Assyrians who attack the northern kingdom of Israel, savaging its people and ravaging the countryside. Assyria has been Yahweh’s disciplining instrument against his covenant-violating people in Israel: “Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger—the club in their hands is my fury!” (Isaiah 10:5). But in its overweening pride, Assyria thinks it is doing its own bidding, and presumes to come against the southern kingdom of Judah as well. Yahweh will have none of it: “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride” (10:12).  

Isaiah invokes the language of the centuries-past exodus from Egypt and conquest of the Land of Promise. Yahweh will act once again on his people’s behalf: “O my people, who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. The Lord of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. On that day his burden will be removed from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck” (Isaiah 10:24–27). Further on, Isaiah promises a forerunner who will prepare the way for that new exodus and conquest: “A voice is calling out: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3). 

That forerunner is John the Baptist. When the imprisoned John the Baptist sought assurance about whether Jesus was the Messiah and inaugurator of the new exodus and conquest that God had been promising, Jesus answered John’s question with a resounding “Yes!” He instructed the Baptist’s messengers: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew 11:4–5). Those acts, prophesied by Isaiah 700 years earlier, are signs of the “breaking in” of God’s great deliverance: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped…” (Isaiah 32:5).  

The most intriguing verse in today’s passage in Matthew is the twelfth verse, with its note of conquest. I’m pretty sure the translation of the Evangelical Heritage Version gets verse 12 right: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been advancing forcefully (biazetai) and forceful people (biastai) are seizing it” (and see also the marginal note in the NRSV). The Greek verb biazetai is in the middle/passive voice, and therefore could be translated either with an active sense (“advancing forcefully”) or a passive sense (“suffering violence”). And the noun biastai denotes “forceful people,” but it could indicate literal force (“violent people”) or metaphorical force (“assertive people”).  

Most translators and commentators take the latter option for both words (i.e., that the Kingdom is “suffering violence” at the hands of “forceful people”) — these interpreters  think that in this verse Jesus is saying that ever since John began his ministry, the kingdom has faced resistance.  

While that is true enough, I don’t think it is what Jesus means here. In the previous chapter, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). And in Matthew 16, Jesus will insist that the gates of hell will not stand against the church that he himself will build (Matthew 16:18). Jesus’s ministry as a whole is one of carrying out God’s warfare against the evils of demon possession, of sickness and death, and of people’s subjugation to sin’s condemnation. In Jesus’s ministry, God’s kingdom is forcefully asserting itself against the kingdom of darkness. And with Matthew 11:12’s “forceful people are seizing it,” Jesus commends an assertive faith, a faith that resists the negativity of sin, death, and demonic influence. With his challenge, “Let anyone with ears listen!”, Jesus urges a faith that boldly takes hold of God’s kingdom promises.  

2 Peter and Jude on keeping hope alive. Before taking on the false teachers’ bogus teaching to the effect that the Lord is not returning (in 2 Peter 3), Peter fires one last salvo against their lethal combination of pretended profundity and ethical laxity: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption” (2 Peter 2:19). There’s a world of depth in this simple thought. It is worth long and slow pondering. Certain things that seem to offer liberation end up subjecting us to the most desperate and debilitating of life patterns.  

For help in keeping ourselves properly oriented to a vibrant hope during Advent, we give Peter’s spiritual twin Jude the last word (from tomorrow’s reading): “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 20–21).  

May your readings, your worship, and your meditation take you further into the glory and richness of our “most holy faith.” May the Holy Spirit deepen and enliven your prayers, especially that we may see Kingdom-come. May the love of God hold you tight. May the mercy of King Jesus await you at his return.  

Be blessed this day.  

Reggie Kidd+  

We Give Ourselves God Amnesia - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 12/19/2024 •

Advent 3 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Isaiah 9:18–10:4; 2 Peter 2:10b–16; Matthew 3:1–12 

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 this Thursday of the third week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

God hates the mess that sin makes of our lives. During Advent we inventory the ways that Scripture indicts sin. If flashes of self-recognition come, they give us the chance to come clean about the disarray. They invite us to step deeper into the grace of the Incarnate Lord and his determination to mend what is broken, heal what is sick, straighten what is twisted, and clean what is polluted.  

Common themes unite Isaiah, Peter, and John the Baptist today: greed, oppression of the poor, vacuous spirituality, adulterous hearts. Providentially, this morning’s psalm—Psalm 50—provides helpful hooks for the naming of our sins, and for putting ourselves on the path to their purging.  

“… and toss my words behind your back…” — Psalm 50:17. This Psalm of Asaph paints a graphic picture of what it is to disregard what God says. I think of receiving a letter with news I don’t care to hear, reading it, then crumpling it up and tossing it over my shoulder. To ignore his Word is to say, “Not so much!” to what God says is important. In the spirit of the psalmist, Isaiah rails against “iniquitous decrees” and “oppressive statutes.” He means unrighteous laws that allow rich and powerful people “to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!” (Isaiah 10:2). Israel’s story is replete with reminders like this one: “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan” (Exodus 22:21–22). Those are not words to toss lightly aside.  

“… and you thought that I am like you.” — Psalm 50:21. The psalmist knows how easy it is for us imagine God to be merely a projection of ourselves. We can delude ourselves into thinking he is there to affirm our preferences, endorse our values, and carry out our plans. Like the psalmist, John the Baptist will have none of it. He is preparing people for the coming of the great Day of the Lord. He confronts those who think that on that day “the Big Guy” will simply baptize the status quo, and lock in the privileged position of those at the top of the social pyramid.  The Scribes and the Pharisees are supposed to be stewards of the vision of God’s kingdom. Instead, they have recast God in the image of themselves. They have refashioned his kingdom and made it reflect their own self-worth. Bad idea.  

“… you who forget God.” — Psalm 50:23. Deep down, we know that this sort of thinking is bogus. We know God is not like us! So we simply block out the very thought of him. Alas, we give ourselves a “God-amnesia.”  Every one of us knows exactly what it’s like to contemplate doing something against conscience, but then shouting conscience down because we want to do what we want to do. It’s as though a fog of forgetfulness rolls in on us, and we welcome it. Peter understands this truth as well as the psalmist does. That’s why he warns against filling our eyes with adultery, becoming insatiable for sin, yielding our unsteady souls to sin’s enticements, training our hearts in greed—in a word, leaving the straight road and going astray (2 Peter 2:14–15). Peter recalls the example of Balaam whose greed allowed him to “forget” God’s call on his life, until the voice of a donkey snapped him back to reality.  

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving…” — Psalm 50:14,24. The psalmist offers an antidote to the folly of sin, whether of disregard for God’s Word, making God over into our likeness, or forgetting about God altogether. That antidote is the offering of thanks. Clearly, the psalmist doesn’t mean simply getting the liturgy and the prayer formulas right: “I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices … all the beasts of the forest are mine … If I were hungry, I would not tell you …” (Psalm 50:8–12). What the psalmist says that God is after is a heart full of gratitude. Accordingly, I pray:  

Lord, I thank you for the words of your Scriptures that shout to me the good news that you have rescued me from sin and death. Your Word says that though I was lost, you found me. Your Word says that though I was nothing, you so valued me that you sent your eternal and only Son to make me your child and heir. I am thankful, therefore, for the opportunity to reflect your character and your love to the lost and the least who cross my path this day. Amen.  

Lord, I thank you that you are not like me, but are a great God, king of the universe. I gratefully take my small place in your large design. I give myself anew to furthering your kingdom, not mine. Amen.  

Lord, in this Advent season especially, I thank you that though I am prone to forget you, you did not forget me. You came in grace and mercy so that my story would not end in dissipation through the indulgence of the sins of the flesh or of a heart alienated from you. As the thief on the cross, I ask, “Remember me” … as I remember you. Amen.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Stay True to the Biblical Story Line - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 12/18/2024 •

Advent 3 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:49–72; Isaiah 9:8–17; 2 Peter 2:1–10a; Mark 1:1–8 

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1–3,11a,14c,18–19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68–79, BCP, p. 92) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives 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 Wednesday of the third week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

2 Peter: why we still need Advent. The reason that Peter feels compelled to write this second letter to the churches in Asia Minor is that he has learned that some teachers have emerged among them who challenge the idea of the Lord’s return: “…saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!’” (2 Peter 3:4).  

In the third chapter of this epistle, Peter refutes the content of their teaching (the Daily Office covered that chapter over the course of the first two Sundays of this Advent—so we did not take them up in our Daily Devotions with the Dean). Basically, Peter’s response is to assert that God doesn’t reckon time the way we do, and then to reiterate Jesus’s teaching: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed” (2 Peter 3:10). What’s more, he concludes, we need to live our lives in full, sober, and eager anticipation of that day, “leading lives of holiness and godliness” (2 Peter 3:11)  

It is important to understand this dynamic in order to appreciate what Peter is getting at in this second chapter of his letter. As he faces martyrdom, what motivates him to write is not just that he wants to make sure his own voice is extended into the next generation. He knows what will happen—in fact, he fears it is already happening—to a church that no longer leans into the hope of Christ’s return.  

… in their greed they will exploit you … those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust and who despise authority — 2 Peter 2:3,10a. Peter, you may recall, has to assert that his teaching is not the fabricating of myths, but the recounting of the facts of Jesus’s life and ministry, including the Transfiguration that revealed the glory that awaits us. The false teachers are mocking that very hope as a fantasy: “Where is the promise of his coming?” In doing so, they are presuming to countermand the authority of Jesus himself (not to mention his apostles).  

Peter warns against something that many of us have experienced: a church that decides it can treat biblical teaching as just so much mythology (miracles, a virgin birth, a literal resurrection from the dead, and the hope of Christ’s return). If it is all mythology, it can be demythologized and then remythologized in terms that are more palatable to our predetermined values and worldview. When that happens, the faith just becomes a projection of our own fantasies and desires.  

No matter how idealistic the veneer that is laid over the language of faith (such as “faith” is “being true to yourself”; or “resurrection” is something that happens in our hearts; or that the “second coming” is something we make happen as we transform society into the “Kingdom of God”), Peter knows that what will take over are base desires: greed, licentiousness, depraved lust. For, as Ashley Null so nicely sums the heart of Thomas Cranmer’s thinking, and thus the genius of true Anglicanism: “What the heart wants, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.”  

Stay true, says Peter, to the biblical story line—especially the parts that step on our toes, and perhaps even more especially the part that says we still need the Return of the King. That story, and no other, keeps our hearts from re-spinning God’s truth into a projection of our own dissolute desires. Apart from the living and ascended and returning Christ’s work in us, our desires are depraved. With the living and ascended and returning Christ living within us, however, our desires participate in that great makeover that Peter has already described: “participation in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). That’s what’s at stake in resisting the false prophets who say that this is all there is. Advent is our “No!” to that lie! 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Peter's Advocate - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 12/17/2024 •

Advent 3 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 45; Isaiah 9:1–7; 1 Peter 1:12–21; Luke 22:54–69  

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 of the third week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Luke. Peter remembered … And he went out and wept bitterly — Luke 22:61,62. We all have searing memories, memories that we wish we didn’t have, memories that make us cringe at their recall. Here, no doubt, in the story about his denial of Jesus, is Peter’s most painful memory.  

Who can’t love Peter? I think of him as the “Tigger” of the disciples, full of bounce, always ready to go. He’s the only disciple who has enough faith to get out of the boat and walk on water with his Master—until he sees how strong the wind is (Matthew 14:22–33). He’s the one who takes sword in hand to defend his Master, if wrongheadedly, from the arresting mob in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:10–11). When Jesus is arrested, everybody except Peter and the beloved disciple (probably John), flee. Peter and the beloved follow, into the courtyard of the hostile high priest.  

Here at a campfire in the courtyard, Peter is given three opportunities to stand up for his Master. The bravery melts, and, just as Jesus had predicted, Peter denies him. Their eyes meet across the courtyard as a rooster crows a third time, and Peter is cut to the heart. He is reduced to a sobbing mess. The balloon of bravado has burst.  

Happily, Peter’s story doesn’t end there. Jesus had prepared Peter to discover the worst about himself. More importantly, Jesus had told him he had prayed for him: “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32).  

Today’s epistle shows the fruit of Jesus’s prayers for Peter. And it should encourage any of us who look back on moments of abject failure. They are not the end of our story, and we have the same advocate that Peter had.  

There is no resource in heaven or on earth stronger than this High Priest’s prayers. The writer to the Hebrews says that that is precisely what the Ascended Jesus is doing for you and for me: “He ever lives to intercede” (Hebrews 7:25).  

2 Peter. I intend to keep on reminding you of these things … so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things — 2 Peter 1:12a,14b). The result of Jesus’s prayers for Peter are on display in his subsequent life. Not only does Peter strengthen the immediate band of the twelve, but he preaches the first Pentecost sermon (Acts 2). At a crucial moment, facing down the Jerusalem church, Peter defends Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles (Acts 15). And here in two magnificent epistles, with his own martyrdom in Rome looming, Peter strengthens the faith of believers hundreds of miles away, scattered throughout Asia Minor (see 1 Peter 1:1–2).  

In today’s passage from 2 Peter, the apostle strengthens these disciples, in the first place, by reminding them of his experience seeing Jesus’s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Luke 9:28–36). What was given Peter that day was an advance look at the destiny of all of us who are called and elect: a vision of the final end of all of us who are “participants in the divine nature,” when the Lord returns and we are finally and definitively delivered “from the corruption that is in the world because of lust” (2 Peter 1:4). To me, what is so encouraging about Peter’s recollection of Jesus’s ministry is that he does not recall his own failure, but Jesus’s gift of the vision of future glory. 

Peter strengthens these disciples, in the second place, by putting into words these precious truths (in this letter and in 1 Peter), so that they can share them with one another even after his “departure.” Along these same lines later in this letter, he will commend the writings of “our beloved brother Paul” as well, even elevating them to the same status as Old Testament writings, likening them to “the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15–16 ESV). Written words from the apostolic generation will be more and more important to the church that follows them. Twenty centuries later they are our lifeline to who Jesus is and what he has done for us!  

Peter strengthens these disciples in the third place, by pointing them to the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we have come to call the Old Testament. These writings are a “message more fully confirmed” (2 Peter 1:19). While Peter was writing, the apostolic testimony was still in flux: there were no written gospels, and the epistles had not yet been gathered into a fixed body. Peter wanted to make sure the disciples knew that the Scriptures they already had—from Genesis to Malachi—offered trustworthy guidance and powerful hope: “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21 ESV). Every word of those Scriptures, Peter says, comes from God himself.  

Isaiah. That’s why every day’s readings in the Daily Office include a portion of the Psalter and an Old Testament passage:  

For to us a child is born, 
    to us a son is given; 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 
    and his name shall be called 
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, 
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace 
    there will be no end, 
on the throne of David and over his kingdom, 
    to establish it and to uphold it 
with justice and with righteousness 
    from this time forth and forevermore. 
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6–7) 

Some days, like today, the Old Testament passage shouts its message of hope—as Peter says, like “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts….” (2 Peter 1:19). May the morning star of Advent prepare your heart for the rising of God’s full light in the birth of the Prince of Peace.  

Be blessed this Advent day, 

Reggie Kidd!  

Christ Now Lives Within Us - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 12/16/2024 •

Advent 3 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 41; Psalm 52; Isaiah 8:16–9:1; 2 Peter 1:1–11; Luke 22:39–53 

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) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the third week of Advent (the Christian “New Year,” and we are in “Year One” in the cycle of readings of the Daily Office.  

Isaiah. This week we continue to read God’s pronouncements, through Isaiah, of condemnation and destruction for Israel and Judah. God’s people have been horribly faithless towards Yahweh. They have spurned his blessings and presumed his protection without honoring him as the source of these good things. They have cheated on him. They are flirting with, or are having full-fledged affairs with, other gods. The consequence: Israel will be decimated by the Assyrians in 732 B.C.  

Judah, on the other hand, will be miraculously delivered from the godless Assyrians (2 Kings 19:32-36): 

32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city, shoot an arrow there, come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege ramp against it. 33 By the way that he came, by the same he shall return; he shall not come into this city, says the Lord. 34 For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.” 

35 That very night the angel of the Lord set out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; when morning dawned, they were all dead bodies. 36 Then King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went home, and lived at Nineveh.  

Nevertheless, Judah, too, will break faith with Yahweh, and later be destroyed by the Babylonians, marking the end of Davidic rule. 

Even in judgment, Yahweh leaves a remnant. Believing this truth, Isaiah says, “…I will hope in him. See, I and the children whom the Lord has given me are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion” (Isaiah 8:17b–18). As testimony, Isaiah names his own children Shear-jashub (“A remnant shall remain”) and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (“The spoil speeds, the prey hastens,” meaning Assyria will invade, but its victory will be short-lived—Isaiah 7:3; 8:3–4). Moreover, Isaiah promises that Yahweh will begin his greatest work of redemption in the north, in “Galilee of the nations (or Gentiles)” (Isaiah 9:1).  Centuries later, Matthew will record:  

12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 

15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, 

    on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles (or nations)— 

16 the people who sat in darkness 

    have seen a great light, 

and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death 

    light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:12-16) 

In the end, a faith like Isaiah’s prevails because Yahweh prevails.  

2 Peter. It is a lovely work of providence, I think, that today we begin a reading of 2 Peter. The epistle of 2 Peter is eloquent testimony to God’s faithfulness to Isaiah’s promise. Peter is a supposedly ignorant fisherman. He comes from “Galilee of the nations.” His home is Bethsaida, on the eastern shore of the River Jordan in the Golan Heights, literally “beyond the Jordan,” from an Israelite point of view.  

In this stunning first chapter of his second epistle, Peter writes in refined Greek to a literate Gentile Roman congregation about some of the richest benefits of the resurrected Christ’s work in our lives: 

4 Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.  

5 For this very reason, you must make every effort to support  
your faith with goodness,  

and goodness with knowledge,  

6 and knowledge with self-control,  

and self-control with endurance,  

and endurance with godliness,  

7 and godliness with mutual affection,  

and mutual affection with love.  

8 For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins. 10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. 

The coming of Jesus Christ into the world, Peter maintains, has enabled us to become “participants (koinōnoi, or “sharers”) of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). The pattern of growth into bearing God’s image that Peter lays out here has profoundly motivated believers, even if in different ways. Peter’s language has fired the imagination of churches of the Orthodox tradition in one way. They explain Peter’s meaning in terms of “theosis” or “divinization”—that is, of our bearing more and more the divine image. By contrast, Peter’s pattern of growth has inspired Catholic and Protestant churches more in terms of “sanctification” towards “glorification”—that is, of our bearing more and more the divine image. At the end of the day, I believe that we will find these to be different, but complementarily important, emphases.  

God’s very being is being poured into our lives as we grow in faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, mutual affection (philadelphia), and love (2 Peter 1:5–7). The Christ who once walked in “Galilee of the nations” now lives within us, reproducing God’s own life in us, giving us, as Peter says, everything needed for life and godliness. Praise be! 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Signs of the Greatness of God - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 12/13/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 31; Isaiah 7:10–25; 2 Thessalonians 2:13–3:5; Luke 22:14–30 

This morning’s Canticles are: 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 the second week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; I am as useless as a broken pot — Psalm 31:12. We all have fears. To wind up on the pile of life’s discards—that’s one of the biggest for me. To find this verse tucked away in the same psalm that gave my Savior such words of confident trust as, “Into your hands I commend my spirit” (Psalm 31:5), is beyond heartening. Hanging there on his cross, Jesus knew better than I what it is to feel forgotten and useless. Hanging there, he redeems every experience of being cast aside like a broken pot, and turns death to life.  

Isaiah today describes one of the saddest, and anticipates one of the gladdest, moments of biblical history.  

The sad. As we saw yesterday, Isaiah has been seeking to move the young king Ahaz to a posture of faith. Ahaz, a direct descendant of King David, is offered the power to preserve the Davidic dynasty. Yahweh says, “Ask a sign….” Ahaz waves the offer off with a statement of dramatic pseudo-piety: “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” In another context, this demurral might reflect genuine faith (e.g., Jesus in the wilderness with the Tempter). But in this case, it is the worst sort of unfaith. It is not the Devil who is being answered dismissively, but Yahweh himself! That is why verses 17 through 25 prophesy unmitigated disaster for the people and land. From this day forward, David’s dynasty becomes a puppet government—puppet to the Assyrians, then to the Babylonians, then to the Persians, then to the Romans. David’s true Son and heir will eventually be born in a small town in a country under Roman occupation.  

The glad. Yet there is a lightning bolt of hope in Isaiah’s words of gloom: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14 English Standard Version). I know full well that a century or so of biblical scholarship has insisted Isaiah’s word ꜥalmâ means simply “young woman,” not that she is a virgin. That push is driven less by textual evidence than by a Western secular prejudice offended by the idea of a Virgin Birth. In the Old Testament, the word ꜥalmâ normally refers to a female who is marriageable (i.e., virginal) and unmarried (see, for instance, the reference to the prayer of Abraham’s servant, asking for God’s help in his mission to find a suitable wife for Isaac in Genesis 24:43. I commend the illuminating discussion in J. Alec Motyer’s commentary on Isaiah).  

Two hundred years before Christ’s birth, the translators of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek Septuagint understood the term this way. That is why these Jewish scholars chose the Greek word parthenos, which more clearly delineates the virginity of a female who is marriageable and unmarried.  

In the context of King Ahaz’s day, Isaiah foresees that there is a specific but unnamed woman (“the virgin”) who will shortly marry, conceive, and, in great faith, name her baby “Immanuel” (meaning “God with us”). By the time this “Immanuel” is weaned, Yahweh will have dealt with the threat from Israel and Damascus. Beyond that, however, Ahaz’s refusal of trust has also locked in Judah’s eventual devastation and the disenfranchising of the line of David.  

In the larger context, however—visible really only in hindsight—Isaiah provides one of the most elegant “Easter eggs” in all the Bible. One day, an angel would announce to a parthenos whose name we are given (Mary, and who herself is of the line of David) that she will, as the Virgin Mother, bear David’s heir: God’s own Son (Luke 1:26–38).  

God has no discards. The matter that is easy to overlook in today’s passage in Isaiah is the faith of the woman who, in the face of the gloom and destruction that are coming upon God’s people, nonetheless will name her baby “God with us.” In a context of dire judgment, she nonetheless clings to the God who promises to dwell among his people. Hers is a faith worthy of Psalm 31’s, “Into your hands….”  

Similarly, Paul piles extravagant language on people in Thessalonica who are outwardly altogether unimpressive. This band of recent converts to Christ appear to be largely working class people. “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat,” he tells them, urging them to “work quietly and to earn their own living” (2 Thessalonians 3:10b,12). Insignificant people they may be in the eyes of the world, but not to Paul, and not to God. Paul calls them “beloved,” and embraces them as adelphoi (rendered “brothers and sisters” in the NRSV). He says God has chosen them and will sanctify them and give them “the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:13–14). I don’t even know where to begin to unpack the richness of that language. All I can do is accept it, and wonder in it.  

Likewise, on the night of his betrayal Jesus takes the most common of elements—bread and wine—and gives them to the most ordinary of people—his disciples. He and they, he says, are participating in an anticipation of a most extraordinary meal. They taste ahead of time the feast of the Kingdom of God. Week after week, this is our privilege too: to find in the least significant of things signs of the greatness and wonder of God. And to find in the least significant of people—one another—signs of the promise of glory. That is our Advent hope. May we all know it in any discouragements, rejections, failures, or attacks that may lie before us. We are not discards, but God’s beloved.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Certain Hope of the Victory of Christ - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 12/12/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 37:1–18; Isaiah 7:1–9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Luke 22:1–13 

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 this Thursday of the second week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

Isaiah’s call to stand firm in faith. In his 5th chapter, the prophet Isaiah had chastised God’s people for failing to live up to their calling to be God’s life-giving vine. Yahweh had planted them among the nations so they could bring justice, temperance, and faithfulness into a desperately needy world. But they had responded with injustice, intemperance, and faithlessness.  

In his 6th chapter, Isaiah recalled how he had been called into the overwhelming majesty of the heavenly courts. There he had been purged of his own sinfulness so he could be sent as messenger of Yahweh’s lordship, despite knowing that people would resist with unhearing ears and unseeing eyes.  

Now, in his 7th chapter, Isaiah recounts how he began his ministry of announcing both judgment and hope. Judgment is coming—very soon for Israel to the north, and somewhat later for Judah in the south. As a result, Isaiah offers at least limited near-term hope for Judah, and massive long-term hope for both Judah and Israel (and the world as well), in a string of messianic passages, beginning with tomorrow’s promise of the birth of “Immanuel.” 

In today’s passage, Isaiah offers words of near-term hope to Ahaz, the young and beleaguered king of Judah, “the house of David.” Aram and Israel are trying to force Judah to join them in a military alliance to fend off an invasion by Assyria. To Yahweh, it is an unholy pact. Assyria will be his hand of judgment against faithless Israel. Isaiah’s mission is to bolster Ahaz in his resistance to the ill-fated coalition: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands…” (Isaiah 7:4).  

Even more fundamentally, Isaiah is sent to challenge Judah’s king to a deeper faith in Yahweh: “If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all” (see Isaiah 7:9, where there is a powerful wordplay on the Hebrew word for “faith/faithfulness,” emet, translated here as “stand,” in both halves of this verse). Standing firm is a challenge that is as good for our day as it was for Ahaz’s.  

Paul’s call to stand firm in faith. It is also a good challenge for Paul’s congregation in Thessalonica. They are rattled about judgment coming upon the world. Some have even stopped working (2 Thessalonians 3:6–15). In his first epistle to them, the apostle had assured the Thessalonians that they need not worry that they will be eternally lost should they die before the Lord’s return. He had insisted that those in their graves when the Lord returns will have an advantage over those still living on the earth: the dead will be first to be taken up to be “with the Lord.” “Let us encourage one another with these words,” he had concluded (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Now he is writing a follow-up letter to them because they’ve somehow gotten the idea that they may have missed “the day of the Lord,” and along with it, the Parousia of Jesus and the great “gathering together to him” that was supposed to happen for those still on the earth when he came (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2).  

His basic message to them is: “Chill! You’ll know it when it comes, and in the meantime be faithful.” Paul’s basic perspective on the “end times” is that Christ’s first coming has provoked an ultimately futile pushback from Satan. The Evil One received a mortal blow in the cross and resurrection of Jesus (see Colossians 2:15). But he has not stopped fighting. His response to the coming of the true Christ was to launch a program of evil that will eventuate in the emergence of a counter-Christ, whom Paul calls “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3,8), and whom John calls “the antichrist” (1 John 1:18,22).  

And just as the victorious campaign of God’s gospel is enabled by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the Devil, in retreat, spews out “a mystery of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:7), strangely empowering “signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception” (2 Thessalonians 2:9b–10a). For now, God has placed a restraint on the Evil One (which, apparently, he explained somewhat to the Thessalonians, but not to us!—2 Thessalonians 2:5–6).  

At some point in the future, in what biblical scholar and theologian Herman Ridderbos calls an “explosion of evil,” the Devil’s “man of lawlessness” will have his own mock “parousia” (2 Thessalonians 3:9). At his “coming out,” he will seat himself in God’s temple (whether it’s a physical [rebuilt] temple or the spiritual temple of the church, Paul doesn’t tell us), “declaring himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).  

Point is: when it happens, we’ll know. We’ll know because the Lord’s response will be decisive: “…the Lord Jesus will destroy [him] with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming [parousia]” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). 

In the meantime, Isaiah’s word to Ahaz is just as good for us: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint” (Isaiah 7:4). We know how the story ends. We know who wins! 

Resting in the sure and certain hope of the victory of Christ, be blessed this day!  

Reggie Kidd+ 

A Sinner's Need For Mercy - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 12/11/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 38; Isaiah 6:1–13; 2 Thessalonians 1:1–12; John 7:53–8:11 

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1–3,11a,14c,18–19, BCP, p. 87); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68–79, BCP, p. 92) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives 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 Wednesday of the second week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

Relicta sunt duo, miseria et misericorda (“Two remain, misery and mercy”). In six Latin words, the fifth century bishop of Carthage, St. Augustine, offers the most elegant commentary imaginable on today’s gospel passage about the Woman Caught in Adultery.  

Despite the fact that this story just may embody Jesus’s ministry better than any other, it is the least well attested of any event of his life. Why? Well, this particular story, as it appears in John’s gospel, interrupts the narrative flow of the book. And it is not written in John’s Greek—in neither his writing style nor his vocabulary. As a result, some modern scholars reject the story’s authenticity altogether. But the story stubbornly and persistently commends itself. The likelihood, I think, is that the story is authentic, but that it was written by someone other than John. It earned a place in Scripture because it pressed itself upon early believers as being true to who Jesus is and as having come from reliable sources. Augustine simply treats it as an established part of Jesus’s ministry. I suggest we do the same.

There is one manuscript family that places the story here, where the Daily Office also places it: right after Luke tells us that during Holy Week, Jesus was spending his nights on the Mount of Olives and then teaching at the temple during the day (Luke 21:37–38). As Jesus returns from the Mount of Olives on one of these mornings to resume his teaching ministry in the temple, he is intercepted by a posse of righteous people. In their custody is a woman who has been caught “dead to rights” in the act of adultery. They want to know whether Jesus is going to comply with Jewish law that demands condemnation and execution; or whether instead, he is going to be true to his own teachings about love, compassion, and forgiveness. 

Jesus does not straightforwardly confront these enforcers with their hypocrisy. Contrary to the Law of Moses, they’ve only brought one of the guilty parties—the woman. It’s curious, isn’t it? He bends down and starts writing in the sand. What’s he doing? Gathering his thoughts? What’s he writing? Nobody knows. Maybe he’s writing out the Scripture, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:10). Or maybe he’s just writing something like: “Adultery is horrible. But, hey, where’s the guy?!”  

Members of this coterie of morality-sheriffs persist in their demands, and after a while Jesus stands up and simply says: “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone” (John 8:7 The Message). He bends down again … and starts writing again. In The Gospel Road, the 1973 movie about Jesus’s life, Johnny Cash offers a wonderful suggestion: “Maybe he’s writing things like, ‘Liar’ … ‘Hypocrite’ … ‘Thief’ … ‘Rapist’ … ‘Murderer.’” Regardless, it’s enough to make the tattletales slink away, each of them, one by one. One of the reasons for thinking this story is true rather than fabricated is its understatement: somebody who is making up a fictitious Jesus might want to make him sound like their idea of the “real Jesus” by having him rail at the hypocrites. At the same time, the story’s pastoral sensibility sounds just like the Jesus we do know from the canonical gospels: Jesus, the discerner of hearts, gives each sinner—even these guys!—room to reflect, and space to repent.  

The next words in the text are: “…and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him” (John 8:9). What a dramatic moment. And Augustine gets it just right: All that is left is the sinner’s need for mercy, and Mercy’s readiness to give it. Jesus asks the woman where her complainants are, and whether there is anyone left to accuse her. Her answer is simply, “Nobody, sir.” Then again, it’s not that simple. The word she uses for “sir” is kurie, which also means “Lord.”  

Jesus’s answer also appears simple, but on reflection is not: “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again” (John 8:11). Jesus came neither to condemn sin nor to dismiss it—he came to absorb it and kill it. He has to tell some people to follow him so they can understand things better. However, our Lord trusts this one—delivered from the miseria of sin and condemnation—to work out how misericorda (Mercy) kills sin. So he can say to her very simply, “Go your way.”  

Living in that same misericorda, — living in the One who is Mercy — may you be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

One True Story - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 12/10/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 26; Psalm 28; Isaiah 5:13–17,24–25; 1 Thessalonians 5:12–28; Luke 21:29–38 

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 of the second week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Isaiah and God’s Word. “My people go into exile without knowledge…” —Isaiah 5:13. What stands out in today’s verses in Isaiah is the way the prophet traces Israel’s sin to its root: “…for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 5:24).  

I offer this one takeaway: it is worth reading the Bible deeply and consistently—even the hard parts, even the cringeworthy parts, even the parts that are subject to various interpretations. The Bible imparts “knowledge” … and … “the instruction of the Lord of hosts,” because it is “the word of the Holy One of Israel.”  

Truth is under assault in our culture. Online news services offer “clickbait,” designed to do nothing other than to keep us clicking. A 24-hour news cycle sustains itself by constantly stirring the pot: did somebody “steal” an election? is global warming real? is racism systemic or personal? Answers aren’t important. Viewership is. Keeping us agitated is. Media that never “sign off” demand our round-the-clock and undivided attention, and pummel us into being hopelessly skeptical or baselessly fanatical.  

The Word of God centers us in the one true story (“What was lost, is now found”), provides us the one true roadmap for life (“Your Word is a lamp to my feet”), and offers the one grid for sifting the surfeit of swirling supposed data (“In your light, we see light”)—see Luke 15:24; Psalm 119:105; Psalm 36:9.  

Paul and God’s People. “Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them” — 1 Thessalonians 5:13b–14. Paul’s closing words in this letter to recent converts who are confused about the “how” and “when” of Jesus’s return amount to this: Take care of each other.  

Most of these people are brand new converts from a pagan background: “…you turned from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven…” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). They are only now beginning their journey to understand the Bible—which, at the time, consisted merely of what we now call the Old Testament. There was no New Testament. Besides, in the culture of the first century Roman world, it is questionable how many would have even been able to read. 

That’s one of the reasons Paul insists that they come together so his letter can be read to them. It’s also one of the reasons Paul tells them (in the plural—i.e., when they are together) to listen carefully to words of prophets who rise up in the church, not “despising” their words, but also testing them (testing them together, it needs to be emphasized). We learn from each other as we learn from God’s word—and that means we need to read and listen to God’s word with one another. If biblical illiteracy seems rampant today—and it is—the situation is not that much different than in the world Paul confronted. And Paul’s solution is as powerful today as it was then. Come together; and read, listen, ponder, and discern.  

The Thessalonians’ individual destinies are wrapped up in one another’s destiny—and that destiny is to be a rejoicing, praying, and thanksgiving (Greek: eucharistein) people (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). That’s why Paul tells them to respect, esteem, and love their spiritual leaders (1 Thessalonians 5:13–14a), and to extend the peace of Christ by ministering to each person according to their spiritual needs (whether it means being straightforward with shirkers or long-suffering with “snowflakes” or tending to the infirm—1 Thessalonians 5:14b).  

Luke and God’s Kingdom. Jesus’s focus in his Final Discourse in Luke is on the way the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem will round out the events that establish God’s kingdom and initiate the season of testimony to its King: “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place” (Luke 21:32). Downrange, however, there is still the fact that the Son of Man will return to usher in the eternal state, when heaven and earth are made new, and the heavenly Jerusalem descends. Downrange, we all will “stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).  

It’s helpful, I think, that we regard the first century event as a foreshadowing of the still future event. Jesus was coming into his rule as Ascended Lord, with the accompanying destruction of the earthly temple. Jesus’s disciples needed to cultivate a certain perspective in order to prepare for that “coming.” Jesus’s “Parousia,” his still future return in glorious triumph, will bring the Heavenly Jerusalem to a new earth and new heaven. A certain mindset is exactly what we ourselves need so that we may be ready for “Parousia”:   

First, the recognition that King Jesus will indeed finally prevail. No matter how bleak things look, and no matter how long it takes, nonetheless God’s rule and reign “will come upon all who live on the face of the earth” (Luke 21:35). All the pressing matters that face any generation of believers (e.g., partisanship, pandemics, persecutions) only come into perspective when seen in the light of this one amazing mystery: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again! 

Second, the same watchful diligence that was incumbent upon the disciples of Jesus’s day: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap” (Luke 21:34).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Christ The King Is Closer - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 12/9/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 25; Isaiah 5:8–12,18–23; 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11; Luke 21:20–28 

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) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the second week of Advent (the Christian “New Year,” and we are in “Year One” in the cycle of readings of the Daily Office.  

Isaiah. In today’s verses in Isaiah (selected verses in chapter 5), the prophet provides a succinct summary of the reign of evil: injustice, intemperance, and mendacity.  

God had planted Israel as a vine among the nations. Her calling in this world was to be the place where God began to reverse the curse of Eden, and to bring life back into the world—restoring right relationships, personal wholeness, and faithfulness.  

As this past Saturday’s reading in the Daily Office put it: “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. … he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (Isaiah 5:2). Instead of right relationships, Isaiah finds broken relationships. Israel’s social life is crippled by greedy landowners and developers who displace the poor, and leave themselves with vast, but barren estates: “Ah, you who who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!” (Isaiah 5:9–10,23).  

Instead of personal wholeness, Isaiah finds people destroying themselves with heavy drinking and dissolute partying: “Ah, you who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger in the evening to be inflamed by wine, whose feasts consist of lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine … Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink…” (Isaiah 5:11–12,22). 

Instead of faithfulness, Isaiah finds people perpetuating the lying that the serpent of Eden inserted into the human equation: “Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood … Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20–21).  

In Isaiah’s stinging and comprehensive indictment, he anticipates Paul’s appeal to the Cretan self-indictment (“Cretans are always liars, vicious beasts, lazy gluttons”—Titus 1:12). And it’s perhaps not insignificant that in the verses in Isaiah 5 not included in today’s readings (verses 13–17), Isaiah calls Israel’s life worthy of Sheol, or Hell (verse 14). It so happens that both the Latin poet Virgil and the Italian poet Dante map Hell as a descent from “intemperance” to “injustice” to “mendacity”—a progression entirely reminiscent of Isaiah’s description of a Sheol-like life.  

If, this Advent, the world around (and even within) you looks too much like the world that Isaiah and Paul and Virgil and Dante saw, it’s because we still await that Second Coming in which all will be made finally right. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! 

Luke. Today’s passage in Luke is precisely parallel to Matthew 24:1–14. In that passage as well as in this one (Luke 21:20–28), Jesus is addressing a specific issue: the future of Jerusalem and the temple in the upcoming so-called Jewish War (A.D. 66–70). 

Recall how Jesus had wept tears over Jerusalem as he approached the city: “As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! … Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies … will crush you to the ground … and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God’” (Luke 21:41–44).  

Two things, I think, are worthy of note: 

Jesus understands that his redemption of creation will include the elimination of Jerusalem’s earthly temple. The temple’s destruction, coming at the violent hands of a Roman army, is a matter of deep grief to him. The desolation of the Temple Mount (still in effect) is cause for us to share Jesus’s tears and to call out to God for children of that city to recognize in Jesus, Son of David, their “visitation from God.”  

“People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory’” (Luke 21:27). While the desolation Jesus predicts will come upon Jerusalem, that destruction “down here” will mark the very moment that “up there” he receives from his Heavenly Father all authority and dominion over the earth.  This, I believe, is the  “coming” of the Son of Man into the dominion that Daniel 7 had prophesied for.  

Over all the vicissitudes of our lives, over all the madness of earth’s history—over it all—Jesus reigns. And one day he will return in visible, glorious triumph. Lord, haste the day when faith shall be sight… 

Paul. As though he had today’s words from Isaiah and Jesus on his mind, Paul writes for us in the meantime: “… let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:8b–11).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Become What You Are - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 12/6/2024 •

Advent 1 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 16; Psalm 17; Isaiah 3:8–15; 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12; Luke 20:41–21:4 

This morning’s Canticles are: 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 the first week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians make for especially important reading during Advent. It appears from the Book of Acts that Paul’s evangelizing foray into their city had been cut short. He had taught there for only “three sabbaths” when “zealous” Jews “enlisted the help of a gang from the market place, stirred up a crowd, and soon had the whole city in an uproar” (Acts 17:2,5 Jerusalem Bible). The “brethren” decided Paul needed to leave (Acts 17:10). The questions that Paul addresses in subsequent letters to them indicate that the new converts in Thessalonica have follow up questions about one matter that Paul had introduced but had not been able to explain in full: that is, the second coming of Christ.  

In the second half of today’s chapter (tomorrow’s reading), Paul will clarify what happens to those who will have already died by the time Christ returns (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). And in 2 Thessalonians, Paul will respond to false rumors that he has taught that “the coming of the Lord and our being gathered together to him” has already taken place—as if! (Second Thessalonians 2:1–11—which will be next Thursday’s reading.)  

With a wisdom that seems heaven-sent to me, Paul urges believers not to allow worry or speculation about the “not yet” of Christ’s return to take away from the enormous importance of living for Christ in the “now.” That is the thrust of today’s epistle reading.  

Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. For this is the will of God, your sanctification… — 1 Thessalonians 4:1–3a. The Thessalonians’ concerns about the end of time leads Paul to offer this most straightforward, helpful, and encouraging framing of the Christian life.  

When Paul was with the Thessalonians, he had taught them that followers of Christ live in a certain way. Their lives in the present can, in truth, be pleasing to God (that is worth thinking about!). There is one lifegoal for people who have been justified before the bar of God’s justice and forgiven their sins: to become sanctified, to grow in holiness and in likeness to their Lord. Paul is quick to affirm people when he sees them living that way, as he does here with the Thessalonians. He “asks” and “urges” them to do more of what they are already doing. Based on these verses, some students of Paul’s ethics sum up his approach in a formula that looks like this: “Become more of what you already are!” It’s as though Paul were saying: the future will take care of itself; let’s take care of what’s happening now. Personally, I find that to be life-giving.  

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication… — 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Paul is concerned that the first thing that will go out the window if the Thessalonians become preoccupied with “end times” questions is their sense of sexual propriety. (I won’t go into the details of what Paul means by “controlling your own body” and “not exploiting your brother or sister.”) He exhorts them to practice philadelphia (brotherly love, v. 9) and agapē (self-giving love) toward one another (v. 9). But throughout this paragraph, he’s talking about honoring one another sexually. It’s as though he were able prophetically to look down the corridors of time and perceive an overthrow of sexual and interpersonal norms ahead of the coming kingdom. As early as the 14th century, Catholic heretics known as the Cologne Beghards advocated freedom without restraint for the new believer, without regard for the other person, in any kind of relationship (see the discussion in Robert Jewett, The Thessalonian Correspondence: Pauline Rhetoric and Millenarian Piety, 1986). It’s probably unnecessary to mention the ways presumed “breakthrough” Western culture has experienced dramatic shifts in the manner of life outlined and encouraged by the apostle Paul. 

…aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands as we directed you to… — 1 Thessalonians 4:11. Another inclination that arises when heads turn heavenward is a disinclination to work. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul cautions people not to go there. By 2 Thessalonians he must rebuke people for having done that very thing. Have you known people who are so sure that the Lord is returning immediately that they have quit their jobs and moved to the mountains or the beach to wait it out? I have. It’s not pretty. Paul says it is just plain wrong.  

Christ may come very soon. Or there may be a long way to go before he does so. The one thing that Paul makes clear elsewhere is that Christ doesn’t return until there is “fullness of Jew” and “fullness of Gentile”—the “full” number of those who will come to Christ (Romans 11:18,25). That is something only God reckons. Meanwhile, our job—a job that is worth meditating on during Advent, especially— is “becoming more of what we already are” (4:1-2), maintaining healthy and right sexual relationships (4:3–10), and “making it a point of honor” (that’s the Greek behind v. 11’s “aspire” in the NRSV) to work diligently and faithfully at whatever craft or profession or calling the Lord has set before us.  

Be blessed this day, as you pursue God’s will for you: your sanctification!  

Reggie Kidd+