We Don't Need to be "Good Enough" - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 2/11/2022
Friday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 88; Genesis 27:46-28:4,10-22; Romans 13:1-14; John 8:33-47

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)

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Genesis: “Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!” The Bible’s story is one long proof of this line from Julia H. Johnston’s (b. 1910) hymn. Today’s account of “Jacob’s Ladder” is case in point. 

If anybody ever needed grace, it was Jacob, the “Supplanter.” This second son had been prophesied to be the inheritor of his father Isaac’s estate, and the one through whom God’s promises to his grandfather Abraham would be fulfilled. Nonetheless, rather than trusting God to fulfill the prophecy and secure his inheritance, Jacob had conspired once to swindle his brother, and a second time to dupe his father. 

As today’s narrative picks up, Jacob is fleeing from his vengeful brother. At his mother’s urging, he is on his way to his uncle Laban’s home to seek refuge and simultaneously a wife. “He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set” (Genesis 28:11). In matter-of-fact fashion, Jacob takes a stone for a pillow, lies down, and goes to sleep. No Evening Prayer, no Compline, no “Now I lay me down to sleep.” He just lays down a weary head.

Unsolicited, Yahweh comes to him in a dream. A stairway to heaven opens and Jacob sees angels traveling back and forth between heaven and earth. It’s not a means by which merit and effort and pride climb up. Later, Jacob calls it “the gate of heaven.” It’s the gateway through which grace condescends to come down. “Grace, grace, God’s grace….” 

With not a single word of rebuke, Yahweh pronounces over this wayward sinner the same promises he had given faithful Abraham: “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13b–15). Magisterially, Yahweh promises land, offspring, expansiveness, and presence. 

The good news is that for God to come to us, he doesn’t necessarily need us to be looking for him. He emphatically doesn’t need us to be good enough! “…Grace that is greater than all my sins!” 

John: whose child will we be? At some point, grace’s approach demands a receptive response. Jacob’s response takes time, but it does come. Eventually Jacob embraces Yahweh’s overture of love, and welcomes his role in his family’s unfolding mission to bless the nations. Sadly, not everyone in Jacob’s line does the same. (Well, they think they do, but they don’t.) That goes for too many of Jesus’s contemporaries, especially those who have risen to positions of spiritual authority. Abraham was promised “a seed,” a singular child (Genesis 12:7), through whom all the promises of land, of offspring, of expansiveness, and of God’s presence would come to fruition. That “seed” proved to be Jesus of Nazareth, but “He came unto his own,” John says, “and his own received him not” (John 1:11 KJV). To those who would not receive him Jesus utters the most chilling thing he ever says to anyone: 

“If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are indeed doing what your father does” (John 8:39b–40).

The stakes are high. Recognize the grace that is offered in Jesus. When it comes to us, whether we’ve been seeking it or not, decide to receive or spurn it. Embrace it (that is, embrace Jesus) and know what it is to be welcomed into God’s family. Rebuff it (or, him), and wake up one day staring into the most dreadful of faces, and bearing the most damning of family resemblances. 

A Prayer of Self-Dedication. Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

Truth That Sets Free - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 2/10/2022
Thursday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 146; Psalm 147; Genesis 27:30–45; Romans 12:9–21; John 8:21–32

For more extensive reflections on Romans 12:9–21 from 7/17/2020

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)

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The truth that “will set you free.” Truth that sets free is the fact that Jesus is the great “I AM” come in the flesh. John’s Gospel is characterized by the stupendous claim that Yahweh himself has come in the person of the Word, the true and only begotten Son of the Father. “I AM” is the name by which God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush of Exodus 3 & 4. Jesus has the audacity to claim the same name for himself (not the use of the pregnant, free-standing phrase “I AM” at 8:18,24,28, and especially 8:58, “Before Abraham was ‘I AM’”)! Truly, if Jesus isn’t lying or delusional, here is God in flesh! Christians believe, in fact, that the divine and eternal Word has come in the flesh to reverse the corruption that set in when the world came under the dominion of “the prince of the world” after the Fall. 

Truth that sets free, moreover, is the fact that Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12). To redeem the world, Yahweh had called Israel to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). Through Israel’s one true Son, Yahweh’s light indeed shines into the world, bringing enlightenment and truth where there once was only darkness and error.

And truth that sets free is the fact that Jesus’s being lifted up on the tree of Calvary is the way not to “die in your sins” (John 8:21,24).  

The chains from which “the truth will set you free.” Within this paragraph in John, the truly liberating truth is that those who trust him do not “die in our sin,” and therefore, we do not wind up in an eternity of separation from God (really, a separation that would have been an extension of the hell already begun in this life). 

Within today’s reading in Genesis about Jacob and Esau, the truly liberating truth is that we have been freed from living life as either manipulators (like Jacob or Rebekah) or manipulated (like Esau or Isaac). The great I AM has come to free us from feeling we have to lie and cheat our way into getting what we deserve (like Jacob). The great I AM has come to free us from feeling envy of  people, or enmity against a world that we feel has victimized us (like Esau). 

Within today’s reading in Romans 12 (Paul’s “Desiderata” — see an earlier DDD on this passage), the liberating truth is that we have been freed: 1) from a life of pretending to care about others when all we care about is ourselves (“let love be unhypocritical”); 2) from masking evil motives beneath a veneer of doing good things (“hate what is evil, and cling to what is good”); 3) from sloth, malaise of spirit, and a “who cares?” outlook on life itself (“do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord”); 4) from xenophobia and caring only about people who look/talk/think like us (“pursue hospitality”, literally, “love for the stranger”); 5) from quarrelsomeness (“live in harmony with one another”); 6) from arrogance (“do not be haughty … do not be conceited”); and 7) from vindictiveness (“do not repay anyone evil for evil … do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”). 

Oddly, looking over this list, I, for one, feel a great weight being lifted. I feel freedom from things that don’t have to define me, hold me down, bind me up, and set me against everybody around me. I hope it has the same effect on you. If so, that is Jesus providing truth that sets you free! 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

God Continues to Work His Plan - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 2/9/2022
Wednesday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97–120; Genesis 27:1–29; Romans 12:1–8; John 8:12–20 

For comments on Romans 12:1–8 from DDD 7/16/2020

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)

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Virtually every day gives me reason to thank God for this one truth: it is a mercy that the God of grace works his design to do us good despite our sometimes purposeful and sometimes unwitting penchant for fouling things up. I see this truth within myself. I see it in the people around me. I read it in the headlines. And I read it in the Bible. Every person in today’s account of Isaac’s blessing of Jacob acts in an unworthy, if not horrible, manner. Still, through all their questionable acts God advances his gracious plan to redeem the world.

Isaac and Rebekah both know that Yahweh has prophesied that their second son will receive the family inheritance, not their first-born: “And the LORD said to [Rebekah], ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger’” (Genesis 25:23). 

Moreover, Esau has sold his birthright to his younger brother: “Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’ So [Esau] swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob” (Genesis 25:33).

In defiance of what he knows, Isaac conspires with Esau to thwart God’s plans as well as the standing agreement between Esau and Jacob. Nor are Rebekah and Jacob innocents in the incident, as commentator Derek Kidner observes, “Rebekah and Jacob, with a just cause, made no approach to God or man, no gesture of faith or love, and reaped the appropriate fruit of hatred.”* 

Treachery and deceit win the day, as does, ironically, God’s sovereign will for the deliverance of the world through Abraham’s line. That God continues to work his saving plan through sinners desperately in need of salvation is, well, the point. Jacob’s very name testifies to God’s power to work through the mixed motives of his subjects. Jacob’s name can mean “May God be your rearguard” (that is, “…at your heels to protect you”). But instead of living up to his name, Jacob lives down to its other possible meaning: “You will grasp another by the heel.” He could be “Faith-filled.” Instead, he is “Supplanter” of his brother — and in today’s account, his mother is co-supplanter. 

Nonetheless, as Isaac himself eventually confesses, “Yes, and blessed [Jacob] shall be!” (Genesis 27:33b). And the writer to the Hebrews recognizes there is at least a kernel of faith in the blessing that has been coaxed out of Isaac under false pretense: “By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau” (Hebrews 11:20). 

John does a lovely thing when he juxtaposes Jesus’s teaching at the Festival of Booths that he is the source of living water (John 7) with his teaching that he is the Light of the World (John 8). Water and light happen to be main themes of the Festival of Booths. At the Festival of Booths, Israelites celebrated not only the future coming of the Spirit who would pour refreshing waters over the earth, but they celebrated Israel’s identity and destiny as bearers of God’s light to the nations. Moreover, Jesus claims that light to be himself, and that destiny to be his own, and therefore the destiny of all who belong to him and come to him. 

John begins his gospel by announcing that Jesus Christ has brought light into the world: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it,” says John (1:4,5). Thus, it is doubly lovely that the way John’s gospel came together,  the story of the woman caught in adultery is sandwiched between the themes of Living Water and the theme of the Light of the World. He is Living Water for souls in need of cleansing from sin — sin overt (like hers) and sin covert (like those of her accusers). He is Light of the World for image bearers stumbling in the dark of self-made rules for living and the harsh consequences thereof.  

I pray we live in the wonderful knowledge that our God graciously rules all things. He will not be thwarted in his design to reconcile heaven and earth through his Son. He is the God of whom Paul says, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 my translation). He will not fail to see through to the end the good work he has begun in each of his children. That includes you and me. It includes us when we are at our best and when, like Isaac and Rebekah and Isaac and even Esau, we are at our worst. God’s Son Jesus has come as the Light of the World, and “the darkness did not overcome” the Light. 

Collect for the 5th Sunday after Epiphany. Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

* Derek Kidner, Genesis, p. 155. 

Our Great Shepherd - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 2/8/2022
Tuesday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 78; Genesis 26:1-6,12-33; Hebrews 13:17-25; John 7:53-8:11

For comments on John 7:53–8:11 from 12/9/2020 

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)

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Closing out Hebrews’ “brief word of exhortation”

We are learning precious truths about: our great God, our great Shepherd, ourselves, our great fellowship, the coherence of the New Testament’s message.

Our great God. “May the God of peace…” Notice who he is: the God of peace — our Father God is himself the source in eternity of a covenant to reunite heaven and earth. He is not the wrathful, vindictive tyrant he is often caricatured to be. He is not an insecure, fickle Zeus who is torqued because Prometheus has brought us fire. Our God’s goal and intent from eternity is our flourishing, and our rising to the full stature of bearing his own divine character (2 Peter 1:4). 

Our great God and Father is the one who sent his Son as Apostle and High Priest to reclaim us for that high calling. Notice what he has done: he raised Jesus from the dead. And notice the careful phrasing of verses 20 and 21: “May the God of peace …make you complete … so that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight.” Our great God works to equip us to do what aligns with who he is, and then he does that very work within us. 

Ourselves. Every one of us feels, I’m certain, the drag of “the sin that clings so closely” (Hebrews 12:1). Some of us have even, perhaps, felt the temptation to adjust the requirements of faith in apostate ways (like the congregation of the Hebrews — see Hebrews 6). But as we’ve just seen, we have something powerful within us: God himself working (as Paul put the same thought) “both the willing and the working” (Philippians 2:13). We have the privilege of cooperating with a most amazing, transformative process: our own makeover. We are created and destined to reclaim our stature as lords and ladies of the universe! Recall the way Hebrews 2:6–8 cites and comments on Psalm 8: “Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, ‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them …  you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.’ … As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus….” We see him, in fact, as Lord in advance of our return to the lordship we lost at the Fall. And now we enjoy the Father’s work in us, by the Spirit of his Son, molding us in that direction—an onboard presence to steer and to guide, as the hymns puts it. Amazing, but true. 

Our great Shepherd. “…our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep…” (Hebrews 13:20b). It is because Jesus has shed his blood for us that we can know we are forgiven. It is because he has been raised from the dead that he can now serve as our Shepherd, guiding us in our living and leading us in our worship. 

Our great fellowship. We have in front of us the example of Jesus. We have above us a great cloud of witnesses. We have the presence of one another around us “stimulating us to love and good works.” 

We have leaders so that we may “stimulate one another” well: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing—for that would be harmful to you” (Hebrews 13:17). The NRSV translation of the first sentence in this verse is perhaps a bit misleading (see discussion below). The thrust of the verse is that we trust that our spiritual leaders’ joy lies in helping us flourish. And the Lord will hold them to account for that. Our job is to receive  what serves to help us thrive in our relationship in Christ and with each other.  

Our great tradition. Nobody knows exactly who wrote this magnificent treatise on Jesus as our great High Priest and our need to stay true to him. Because the writer speaks of “exhortation/encouragement” (paraklēsis) in verse 22, because he is attentive to the contours of the priesthood, and because Joseph Barnabas was a Levite who came to be called “Son of Encouragement” (huios paraklēseōs — Acts 4:36), some people think Barnabas wrote the letter to the Hebrews. Some people notice how similar the Alexandrian manner of contrasting earthly things with heavenly things is, and they conclude the highly articulate Alexandrian Apollos wrote it (see Acts 18:24). Still others, sensing strong affinities with Paul’s thinking throughout Hebrews, and noticing that the writer references “our brother Timothy” and seems to be writing from Italy (the place of the last citing of Paul — see 2 Timothy), believe Paul may be the author. 

We just don’t know. What’s wonderful to me is that the overall coherence and congruence of the great teachers and leaders of the New Testament era is such that any of them could have given us this masterpiece from God. They were that much in sync. What a great tradition they have passed on to us!

I pray we can walk confidently in the great fellowship of those who know the God of peace, who has called us to life through his Son the Great Shepherd of the sheep, and who nurtures our life together in the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

*The first verb in this sentence (which the NRSV renders “obey”) is peithesthe, a passive imperative from a verb that in the active voice means “persuade.” In the passive voice, it means “be persuaded by.” The second verb (which the NRSV renders “submit”) is hupakouete, and is normally translated “obey”; but its etymology is revealing. Its parts are hupo, which means “under,” and “akouein,” which means “to hear” — it’s not naked, unthinking submission or blind obedience that is called for, but rather a “coming under the hearing of.” In combination, peithesthe … upakouete mean “listen to your leaders with a readiness to receive what they teach; listen attentively and discerningly.” 

A Foreshadowing of Christ - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 2/7/2022
Monday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 80; Genesis 25:19–34; Hebrews 13:1–16; John 7:37–52

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)

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Today’s New Testament readings provide subtle but powerful insights into Christ’s identity and into his ministry among us. 

In John 7, Jesus claims that he has come to fulfill the prophecies that streams of water would come gushing forth from God’s temple to bless the earth (Ezekiel 47:1–12; Joel 3:18; Zechariah 14:8). Jesus has already said that he will be building a new temple from his own body (John 2:19–22). Now, he offers a word about the life that will emanate from that new temple. 

Part of the beautiful symbolism of the Feast of Tabernacles was a pouring out of water on the altar of Jerusalem’s temple each morning of the week-long festival. The symbol reminded God’s people of Zechariah’s promise that in the last days “living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter. And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one” (Zechariah 14:8–9). 

On the last day of the feast, Jesus stands up in front of everybody assembled and shouts out (yes, really, he SHOUTS it out): “IF ANYONE IS THIRSTY, LET THEM COME TO ME… (John 7:37a). Most translations (including the NRSV) treat the rest of what Jesus shouts as promising that water would then flow from believers’ hearts. However, it’s not clear how the Greek should be punctuated (there was no punctuation in the originals). Along with a number of influential  commentators, I think that the rest of what Jesus shouts is: “AND LET THE ONE WHO BELIEVES IN ME DRINK. JUST AS THE SCRIPTURE SAYS, ‘FROM WITHIN HIM (by which Jesus means himself) WILL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER!” (John 7:37b–38). John explains that Jesus is talking about the Spirit that had not yet been given. On the Cross, water and blood will flow from his side (John 19:34). After his resurrection, the Spirit will flow from him to the apostles and the church (John 14:16; 20:22). In other words, first the living water flows from Jesus, King over all the earth — and then the living water flows from him into and through us, by the Spirit, to the world that he has come to reclaim, bless, and renew. 

Admittedly, we are in the deep end of the pool — but what a pool!!  

In Hebrews 13, the writer provides the fourth of four ways in which Jesus acts as High Priest in the line of Melchizedek and as our Worship Leader in the Heavenly Sanctuary. Hebrews has already recounted how Jesus declares the Father’s name in our worship, leads song when we assemble, and ever lives to intercede for those he has cleansed by his sacrificial death (Hebrews 8:1–2; 2:12; 7:25). Now, in Hebrews 13, the writer shows how Genesis 14’s Melchizedek  forshadowed Jesus as Priest when he brought “bread and wine” to Abraham, and received, in return, a tithe of the spoils of Abraham’s victory (Genesis 14; Hebrews 7). 

“We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat,” says the writer (Hebrews 13:10). As he does so, he invites us to go outside the provincial camp of the earthly temple’s rites in Jerusalem; he invites us, instead, to partake of fellowship with Jesus who “suffered outside the city gate” (Hebrews 13:12). Ancient readers of this text (and rightly I think) understood the writer to be inviting us to recall Melchizedek, Gentile priest and king of Jerusalem, the very city outside of which God’s Messiah was to be crucified. Melchizedek had come outside that city to bless Abraham and to offer him “bread and wine” (Genesis 14:18–20). 

As in Paul’s writings where “promise” precedes and takes precedence over “law,” here in Hebrews the church’s “bread and wine” for everybody precedes and takes precedence over the temple’s sin offerings that were consumed by Levitical priests only (Leviticus 6:26). As our great High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, Jesus brings us bread and wine from God’s holy altar. He does so week after week; and he will do so until that time when, at the end of time, he will host us at the great feast that ushers in the age to come (Isaiah 25:6–8; Luke 12:37). 

Here in Hebrews 13, instead of tithes from victorious Abraham, our Heavenly Melchizedek receives the twofold offering of: 1) “a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name”; and b) the doing of good and in the living of lives of koinōnia — a rich New Testament word that denotes “intimate fellowship,” “generosity,” and “sharing with one another” (see Acts 2:42; Romans 12:13; 15:26–27, and elsewhere). 

The first part of Hebrews 13 offers a beautiful catalog of what such a life of koinonia looks like: hospitality, care for prisoners, honoring marital and sexual boundaries, freedom from a greed that would inhibit generosity, the sharing of community-building sound teaching rather than community-destroying “strange” teaching (Hebrews 13:1–9). 

Praise be! The New Melchizedek leads us in worship services (that is, what we come in from the world to do on Sundays), and in service that is worship (that is, what we go out into the world do on Monday through Saturday). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "Melchizedek" by Nick in exsilio is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

To All Who Are Thirsty - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 2/4/2022
Friday of 4 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 69; Genesis 24:1–27; Hebrews 12:3–11; John 7:1–13

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)

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This morning, I find myself pondering two rich lessons, one from Hebrews about having a suppleness of spirit that fully receives the Father’s transformative work in our lives, and one from John about, well, letting Jesus be Jesus, and not projecting onto him our self-made plans for getting what we want. 

Hebrews. When our spirits are malleable and supple, rather than hard and resistant, we allow ourselves to receive the Father’s formative touch in any situation. The writer to the Hebrews knows that we may face hostility from others, that we may face all sorts of “trials,” that we may face temptation to sin, and, accordingly, that we may face chastisement for sin (yes, the Father chastens).

We can know that in all of it, our heavenly Father is molding us after the image of his Son, “that we may share his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). What a deep phrase that is. It is akin to 2 Peter 1:4’s “that you may become sharers of the divine nature.” One way to think of what the Father is doing in us is to picture ourselves on the far side of our deaths, waking up in a heaven in which we feel already (at least somewhat!) at home. We’re being shaped in the now to lessen the “culture shock” of that experience. Congruently, that process means the Father is using what he’s doing in us in this life to bring a bit of heaven into this world. #i.am.ok.with.that!

John. The central message, I think, from today’s reading in John is that Jesus goes about his mission despite other people projecting their goals and aspirations onto him. 

“Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near” — John 7:2. The Feast of Booths is highly symbolic. It is the third of the three annual feasts that the law of Moses calls for: the Passover Feast marking liberation from Egypt (Exodus 23:14–15), the Feast of the Firstfruits marking the beginning of the harvest season (Exodus 23:16a), and the Feast of Booths (or Ingathering) marking the end of the harvest season (Exodus 23:16b). The Feast of Booths points forward to the great Sabbath at the end of time, when a world dominated by the power of sin (the age of the “flesh”) gives way to righteousness, peace, and hope (the age of the “Spirit”). This Feast is pregnant with typological significance for Jesus’s mission: his mission is to usher in the age of the Spirit. 

However, Jesus’s brothers remain as confused about Jesus’s mission as those who sought to make him king at the Feeding of the 5,000. They want him to go public with his supernatural powers. To Jesus, such expectations amount to ego-projection, and are, at bottom, disbelief: “So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ (For not even his brothers believed in him.)” — John 7:3–5. 

Jesus’s head fake (“No, I’m not going,” but then going anyway — see John 7:6–10) gives him space to go surreptitiously, and to choose the time and place of his Epiphany. He plans to manifest himself at this Feast as the one who will bring to pass that great future Sabbath when God’s Spirit will govern from sea to sea, and from pole to pole. But he’s going to usher in the Spirit’s rule in his own way (by being lifted up on the Cross—see John 3:14–15; 12:32–33) and in his own time (that is, not just yet). 

Jesus wants us to know that he’s not a cipher for anybody else’s message. He’s not an avatar in anybody else’s game. He’s not a projection of anybody else’s ego-needs. He brings the beginning of the age of the Spirit…his way. His death will lead to his glory, his glory will bring the Spirit, and the Spirit will gush like rivers of living water from Jesus’s wounded side, to all who are thirsty for real life. #i.am.ok.with.that.too!

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

We Can Embrace Fearlessness - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 2/3/2022
Thursday of 4 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 70; Psalm 71; Genesis 23:1–20; Hebrews 11:32–12:2; John 6:60–71

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)

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Genesis 23: burying Sarah. Jesus chides resurrection-denying Sadducees for not seeing traces of resurrection-faith in the faith of their forebears. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he notes, is the God of the living, not of the dead (Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:27; Luke 20:38). In yesterday’s reading in Genesis 22, we saw Abraham receiving Isaac back, as from the dead — a mini-resurrection, one might almost say. And, in fact, the writer to the Hebrews does almost say so: “[Abraham] considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead—and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” Hebrews 11:19). Congruently, in today’s passage in Genesis 23, we read how Abraham makes elaborate arrangements so Sarah’s body may rest in peace and naturally decompose, while her bones await their call from the dead. Jewish burial practices reflected resurrection-hope.

Hebrews 11–12: eyes on Jesus. The writer to the Hebrews catalogues the way hope in the resurrection had sustained, fortified, and propelled hero after hero in the Old Testament. Faith enabled some to achieve great things in God’s kingdom (Hebrews 11:32–34). Faith enabled others not to succumb to withering attacks and discouraging defeats (Hebrews 11:35–38). No victory was final, nor was any defeat. All these Old Testament greats, says the writer to the Hebrews, were awaiting what we have been privileged to see: Christ’s victory over death for us and in us: “…looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2–3). 

Earlier in his tract, the writer has noted that while we do not see humans presently enjoying the dominion for which we were made, we do see Jesus (Hebrews 2:5–9). He has reclaimed for humans the dignity we lost at the Fall. By virtue of his sharing our humanity and by virtue of his death for us, Jesus is “now crowned with glory and honor” in advance of our sharing in that glory and honor (Hebrews 2:9). By his death and resurrection, Jesus has “destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14–15). 

The result is that we can embrace a certain fearlessness in the face of external hostility, an unyielding determination to resist an internal drift toward waywardness, and a resolute refusal to heed sloth’s siren call to drop out of the race towards holiness. We can do all this because we see Jesus traveling alongside us, our Pioneer and the Perfecter of our faith, urging us, “Come on, stay with me! I’ll get you home!” And above it all, of course, are those who’ve already run their race, and they’re cheering us on as well. 

John 6: staying with Jesus. Jesus asks us to do no more than what he has already done. Every temptation we could ever face—to drop out, lash out, give up, or give in—he faced it too. Today’s passage in John shows us the nadir of his ministry. His refusal of the crown, his claim to be bread from heaven, and his demand that people eat his flesh and drink his blood—it’s all been just too much! To some, it’s befuddling, to others it’s blasphemous. Everybody is bailing, and so he asks the twelve: “Do you also wish to go away?” (John 6:67). 

One can only imagine where his heart is—for here he is, like us in all respects (save sin). His best teaching material has turned off (or confused) as many people as it has turned on and enlightened. With every word and “sign,” his portfolio of enemies grows. He is surrounded by doubters. Now his friends (through their spokesman Peter … and praise God for Peter!) say they can only stick with him because they see no better option: “Lord, to whom can we go?” Even while acknowledging their reluctant willingness to stay with him, he says he’s aware that one of them will betray him. Still, he does not give up on them…any of them. He does not yield to the temptation to quit. He does not forsake the mission. He does not stop believing in his Father’s faithfulness or the Spirit’s residing presence. He presses on. And because he does, so can we. 

Jesus is Savior to us in the most comprehensive way imaginable: he pays a sin-price we could never afford, he defeats an enemy we wouldn’t stand a chance against, and he walks beside us when we are at our worst and when we experience the worst. Jesus saves to the uttermost. Praise his name!

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "courageous ladies" by derpunk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Isaac: Pointing Forward in Dramatic Ways to Christ - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 2/2/2022
Wednesday of 4 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 72; Genesis 22:1–18; Hebrews 11:23–31; John 6:52–59

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)

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John: “the one who chews my flesh.” The great 20th century New Testament theologian Oscar Cullmann brilliantly lays out the flow of thought in John 6: Jesus draws the line from the miracle of the feeding of 5,000 people with material bread (vv. 1-13), to the fact that despite the ordinariness of his birth as a human he is the “Bread of Life” come down from heaven (vv. 14–47), to the miracle of the fact that as the risen and ascended Lord he manifests his presence among his people in simple bread that is eaten and wine that is drunk: “For my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. The one who chews my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” (v. 56).*

Wonder of wonders: you and I commune each Sunday with the same Person who walked the shores of Galilee 2,000 years ago. And because he is eternal bread of eternal life, our fellowship with him will extend into a timeless, fully physical existence on a new earth and under new heavens. The Jesus of the Gospel’s historical account and the Christ of the Church’s worship and the Alpha/Omega of the coming eschaton are one and the same person—and altogether accessible to us. 

He came in the flesh. He comes in the bread and the wine. He will come again in power and great glory. Now, that is food for the soul. 

Genesis 22: the gift of an only son. Looking back on earlier revelation from this perspective, it’s impossible not to see the story anticipated repeatedly. Abraham’s testing on Mount Moriah is just such an instance. 

Abraham mirrors the love of God in being willing to give up his only son for the sake of relationship. Abraham also exemplifies utter faith in God’s promise to raise the dead to newness of life: “He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead—and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Hebrews 11:19). 

Isaac points forward in dramatic ways to Christ’s saving death for us. The destination of Abraham and Isaac’s journey is Mount Moriah, which, according to 2 Chronicles 3:1, is the place in Jerusalem where God makes a plague to cease and where Solomon builds the temple. Mt. Golgotha, the place of Jesus’s sacrifice, is a stone’s throw away. 

Isaac is remarkably quiescent in the face of the unfolding of events: “…like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7b). As Jesus will carry his wooden cross up to Calvary, so Isaac carries the wood for his altar. As Jesus will submit to the nails and to the agony of death, so Isaac submits to the ropes and is ready for the knife. On Mount Moriah, God substitutes a ram for Abraham’s “son your only son”; on Calvary, God will substitute his Son, his only begotten Son, for sinners.  

Nor should it escape our notice that everything happens “on the third day” of their journey (Genesis 19:4). By faith, Abraham does indeed receive him back from the dead “figuratively speaking” (Hebrews 11:19). And what a figure he has given us of the God-Man’s atoning and life-giving sacrifice! 

Hebrews 11: it takes faith. Because Moses is the Old Covenant’s “law-giver,” it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that he (no less than Abraham and other heroes in faith’s hall of fame), was driven by faith. Moses should never be thought of as the fountainhead of a project of merit, as the architect of a system of works righteousness, or as the standard-bearer for “judginess” toward the failings of others. “By faith he left Egypt,” says the writer to the Hebrews (11:27). “Faith” in the God of his people led him to say “No!” to the faux freedom of Egyptian court life and “Yes!” to the true freedom of life with Yahweh and his people through the waters of, and on the far side of, the Red Sea. 

I pray we too are able to live the wondrous mystery of “faith”: “Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!”

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Lucas Cranach the Elder , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

* Summarizing material in Oscar Cullmann, Early Christian Worship (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1953), pp. 37–38,91–102. 

The Only One Who Understands - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 2/1/2022
Tuesday of 4 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 61; Psalm 62; Genesis 21:1–21; Hebrews 11:13–22; John 6:41–51

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)

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Genesis 19: tears in a bottle. In today’s text from Genesis, the divine drama and the human drama seem to clash. Sarah’s laughter of skepticism turns to laughter of joy when Isaac the son of promise is born to her (compare Genesis 17:17; 18:12–15 with 21:6). But then there are the tears of Ishmael the legal heir,* left to cry himself to death out of earshot of a mother who cannot bear to hear.

I must have been four or five years old. I don’t remember what had transpired between my parents and me. What I do recall is sitting outside on the street curb in front of my house, with my arms around our pet dog “Tuffy,” and crying over and over again, “Tuffy, you are the only one who understands. You are the only one who cares.”  

“And God heard the voice of the boy….” — Genesis 21:17. I don’t imagine that a single one of us makes it through childhood without feeling something of what Ishmael felt. We’ve been left alone to cry hopelessly into the void. It doesn’t matter if we grew up with parents who did their best to love us, or with “caregivers” who treated us like worthless discards. We all, I imagine, know what it is to cry alone into the void. 

The thing is, there is no void. God’s got a bottle for every one of those tears: “You have noted my lamentation; put my tears into your bottle; are they not recorded in your book?” (Psalm 56:8). It must be a big bottle, for sure. A bottle the size of the world. But he hears. He does. And while we may think of God keeping a book on our offenses, the Bible says he’s keeping a book on our griefs. 

Despite the inattention of some of his servants (like Abraham and Sarah in today’s text), God gives ears to other servants to hear the crying. I give thanks for my friends whom God has called to make their homes into refuges of foster care and adoption. I give thanks for friends whom he has called to minister, through organizations like International Justice Ministry, to those who have been trafficked. And I give thanks for friends whom he has  called to create bridges of understanding between the spiritual children of Isaac and Ishmael, those who work to find principled common ground between Christians, Jews, and Muslims. 

In the Bible’s way of thinking, as ignoble as Sarah’s motives are, she is correct to believe that God plans to redeem the world through Isaac’s line, not Ishmael’s (Muslim accounts, of course, differ). It was an ill-conceived plan that led to Ishmael’s conception, and it guaranteed tension between what Paul called “the children of the flesh” versus “the children of promise” (Galatians 4:28–29). Nevertheless, what is remarkable about Ishmael’s story is that God does not regard Ishmael as the discard that his father and legal mother do. Others had cast him aside, but God does not. 

Hebrews. As the writer to the Hebrews recounts the heroes of the faith, he characterizes them as having one characteristic: living their days as “strangers and foreigners on the earth,” while constantly seeking “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:12,16). There is a stubborn trust that no matter how incomprehensible the circumstance or instruction, there’s always a redemptive end: Abraham intuits that Isaac’s end must be resurrection. Joseph understands Israel’s sojourn in Egypt is prelude to their exodus. 

The challenge for us is to respect the fact that on any given day we see only partially what the point of that day is. Loving a difficult child, doing seemingly meaningless work for a less than appreciative boss — we just don’t have the cosmic perspective to see how our faithful obedience is being woven into a rich tapestry of redemption. But “by faith,” we know somehow it is. May that be enough for this day’s journey!

John. At the heart of it all is “faith” that a mere carpenter’s son (“Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?”) did in fact “come down from heaven,” that he is in truth “living bread,” and that “Whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Crazy! Really, certifiably crazy … or crazy true! 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

* Because Abraham is eighty-six when Ishmael is born and one hundred when Isaac is born, Ishmael is in his teens when he and his mother are sent away (compare Genesis 16:16 with 21:5).

His Need for the Mercy of Yahweh - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 1/31/2022
Monday of 4 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 56; Psalm 57; Genesis 19:1–17(18–23)24–29; Hebrews 11:1–12; John 6:27–40

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)

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. “There are two ways, one of life and one of death, and there is a great difference between these two ways.” So begins The Didache, a guide that 1st-century Jewish Christians developed to introduce newly converted Gentile believers to the basics of their new life in Christ.* The statement crystallizes a life-premise that runs from Psalm 1’s contrast between “the way of the righteous” and “the way of the wicked” (Psalm 1:6) to Jeremiah’s, “…setting before you the way of life and the way of death” (Jeremiah 21:8). 

Today’s reading in Genesis 19 illustrates graphically and horribly “the way of the wicked.” By contrast, today’s reading in Hebrews 11 illustrates crisply and elegantly “the way of the righteous.”

Genesis: the way of the wicked. In Genesis 18, Yahweh promised he would spare Sodom and Gomorrah if ten righteous people could be found. The text of Genesis 19 goes out of its way to stress that each and every male individual of Sodom and Gomorrah is corrupt beyond comprehension: they attempt to force sex with the visiting messengers, a violation of universal laws of hospitality and certainly of Jewish scruples about sex and rape. 

Lot has worked hard to win a place in the city: at first, he had merely “pitched his tents near Sodom;” then, he had “settled in Sodom;” and eventually, he had earned a place of “sitting in the gate” where he could participate in civic affairs (Genesis 13:12; 14:12; 19:1). But Sodomites never let him fully “in.” To them, he is still an outsider. When he protests the Sodomites’ demand that he let them have their way with his guests, they shout, “This fellow came here as an alien, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them” (Genesis 19:9). 

Lot’s lamentable willingness to surrender his daughters to the violent and lustful mob and his pathetic reticence to leave so corrupt a place illustrate how deep is his need for the mercy of Yahweh. He’s become so accustomed to the “way of wickedness” that it’s only God’s determined love that can pluck him out: “ But [Lot] lingered; so the [messengers] seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and left him outside the city” (Genesis 19:16). Lord, have mercy! Who doesn’t see a bit of themselves in this portrait?

Hebrews 11: the way of the righteous. The right path in life is “faith.” To be sure, faith proves itself by actions: “By faith Abel offered … By faith Noah … built an ark … By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out … By faith he stayed … in the land he had been promised … By faith he received power of procreation….” But in its essence, faith is more a direction of the heart than it is an accumulation of deeds. It is the disposition of receptivity, an intuition that from the other side of ordinary, everyday existence there is a Reality, in fact, a Presence, that shines through. 

The writer to the Hebrews declares that faith is a trust that God exists and that he “rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6)—rewards them with a taste of supernal pleasure, with the sound of angels’ wings, with a vision of blessedness, with the scent of holiness, and with the touch of a hand from another country (thank you, C. S. Lewis). Faith is a knowing in your “knower” truths not available to the senses: “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).  

John 6: faith in the Bread from heaven. In C. S. Lewis’s The Pilgrim’s Regress, the pilgrim’s journey begins with the vague sense that there is an island somewhere to which he needs to get. That’s a lot of what faith is: an instinct, an intuition, an itch of the inner being that puts you on a path towards something you suspect is wondrous. The Bible says, ”Follow that path, and delight will meet you.” Oops, nope, it actually says, “Delight will meet you, for Delight has already set out for you.” In fact, He describes Himself as “Bread from Heaven.” It’s in John 6 that perhaps more clearly than anywhere in Scripture the God of the Island of Delight says: “I’ve come to be food for your soul.” 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Picu Pătruţ, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, The Romanian Peasant Museum, 1842

* Adopting the analysis of Aaron Milavec, in his The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2003). 

Holy Amnesia! - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 1/28/2022
Friday of 3 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 40; Psalm 54; Genesis 17:15–27; Hebrews 10:11–25; John 6:1–15

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)

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Wisdom from Hebrews

One and done. “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified” — Hebrews 10:14. Seldom does Scripture bring the breathtaking scope of salvation into such sharp focus, a salvation that is past, present, and future. 

Christ made a single offering of himself (“for by a single sacrifice”) in the past to cover our sin. Therefore, a perfection or completeness of our humanity will be ours forever (“for all time”) after the Lord returns in glory. But even in the meantime, the writer can assert that we already stand in that perfection or maturity in God’s eyes (“he has perfected”). And in this meantime, we are in the process of being transformed in the direction of that perfection or maturity; the last phrase is more accurately rendered in the progressive present tense: “…those who are being sanctified (hagiazomenoi).” 

There is a past, present, and future to our salvation that mirrors the great confession of faith: “Christ has died (he won our forgiveness). Christ is risen (he lives to sanctify us by his Spirit). Christ will come again (he will bring us to the perfection of resurrection).” Praise be!

Holy amnesia! “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more” — Hebrews 10:17. In this verse, the writer to the Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:34. That verse takes its place in a cluster of Old Testament verses that describe a final and definitive putting away of our sin: “… you have cast all my sins behind your back (Isaiah 38:17b) … I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins (Isaiah 43:25) … You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19b) … as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). As otherwise irreverently unhelpful as this simile sounds initially, it is as though the omniscient, eternity-inhabiting, creator-of-time-itself God of the universe, by virtue of the Cross of Christ, comes down with Alzheimer’s Disease in this one respect: he just can’t remember us as sinners! Praise be!

In sync. “…let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” — Hebrews 10:22. What’s especially lovely in this verse is the wedding of external and internal. The notion of approaching (I’m reminded of the act of coming forward for Communion) and the idea of bodies being washed (baptism, of course) are physical acts. 

Each of these physical acts is paired with something internal. We dare to approach because faith in who God is, and what he has done for us in Christ, gives us confidence that we are welcome. We desire to approach because deep in our innermost being, our “heart,” we know that here in God’s presence is the only love that will ever satisfy. We give our bodies over to the waters of baptism with the confident prayer that God will do what only God can do: grant our inner being a liberating sense that we have been cleansed. While our heads can tell us that God no longer holds our offenses against us (see verse 17 above), deep down in our guts we need an intuitive conviction that we are no longer dirty. Praise be!

It’s a together thing. “And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together…” — Hebrews 10:24. Just as external practices and internal reflection reinforce each other, so it is with individual and corporate experience. I need you to prompt me to believe, and I depend on you to inspire me to love. You need me for the same. A friend used to tell me, “There are no Lone Ranger Christians. Even the Lone Ranger wasn’t a Lone Ranger. Tonto helped make him what he was.” The way it works in the Body of Christ is that on one day, I may be Tonto to your Lone Ranger, and on another, you may be Tonto to my Lone Ranger. Regardless, we can’t live this life without each other — and what a life it is! Praise be! 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: ABC Television, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons