To Revel in God's Deliverance - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 6/30/2020

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 131; Psalm 132; Psalm 133; Numbers 23:11-26; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 22:1-14

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Balaam’s second oracle. In this second of four oracles that Balaam is to deliver to Balak king of Moab, the seer reiterates Yahweh’s message that, “The Lord their God is with them, acclaimed as a king among them” (Numbers 23:21), and that no matter what, “no enchantment, … no divination” will prevail against Israel (Numbers 23:23). It’s humbling to watch Balaam say truthful and faithful things when we know his heart is actually far off. 

Whenever we are surrounded by voices that come from mixed motives and hidden agendas—talking heads on the right and on the left who know they are lying to us but do so anyway, politicians who put their fortunes above people’s well-being—it’s important to keep listening for the Lord’s voice. He is King, and eventually his purposes will prevail. 

Romans 8 is Paul’s elegant and powerful response to his own question: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” In Romans 8, he revels in the combined work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to accomplish just such a deliverance. 

Father. In this first paragraph (verses 1-11), Paul says that what the law could not do, God (meaning the Father) does: he sends his Son. There’s no such thing as a bad Old Testament God and a good New Testament God. As Paul has already said, “God proves his love for us in that … Christ died.” The Father puts his only beloved Son to the service of taking away the sins of the world, so that, in the words of the Anglican Puritan theologian Richard Sibbes, “God the Father, the party offended by our sins, is…well pleased with the work of redemption.” The entire mission of rescue is a mission of the Father’s love. 

Son. The mess that we could not get ourselves out of is the feeling—indeed, the knowing—that our sins merit utter condemnation from God. But now there is no condemnation, because the Son has come, says Paul, “in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin.” What a universe of meaning in those few words! 

…in the likeness…of flesh — Jesus Christ is like us in all things, save sin. He assumed the totality of our humanness so that the totality of our humanness could be saved—from the top of our heads to the tips of our toes! As the early church fathers said, “What cannot be assumed cannot be saved.” 

in the likeness of sinful flesh — God’s unfolding design ever since the Garden has been to gather up and to concentrate all the world’s sin into One Person—a Second Adam—who would stand in for all the rest of humankind, receiving in his own Person the full weight of the consequences of every sin ever committed. Note the “where” of Romans 5:20—“where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” That “where” was ultimately Calvary, where Isaiah 53’s Suffering Servant hung, “pierced for our transgressions … to justify the many” (Romans 4:25, and Isaiah 53:4-6, 11-12). 

and for sin. This is a most intriguing phrase. In Leviticus 5:7-8; 6:25 (= 6:18 in the Greek), it’s the offering for the little sins: the guilt offering. The big sins are handled by the propitiation of the Day of Atonement (to which Paul has already referred in Romans 3:25-26). Here in Romans 8, Paul wants us to know God also taken care of the tiny sins too—the unconscious, unintentional, not-exactly-what-I-intended sins. Those are the kind of sins that provoke the inner anxiety of Romans 7:14-25. It’s amazing—and comforting—that these are the sins that Paul would focus on here. His point is that Christ’s sacrifice is so exhaustive that it takes care of the subtlest and smallest as well as the most obvious and biggest-ticket sins. It takes care of the ones we can easily walk away from and forget (until maybe the middle of the night!) and the ones that will accuse our consciences day and night, all the days of our lives. No matter how trifling, no matter how enormous, Christ has handled them. 

Holy Spirit. The Father loves us, and therefore sends the Son. The Son comes and offers himself “for sin.” The Holy Spirit’s part is to become God’s onboard presence in our lives—which is largely Paul’s subject in the rest of this chapter. But for now, briefly, Paul wants us to know that the Spirit of God makes his home within us and begins to set our house in order. 

The Spirit of God enables a “walk,” declares Paul, that (utterly amazingly!) fulfills “the just requirements of the law” (Romans 8:4). I’ll write that again: The Spirit of God enables a “walk” that fulfills “the just requirements of the law” (Romans 8:4). That means—staggeringly!—that when God sees you and me taking baby steps, what he sees is giant Spirit-empowered strides. When we feel like we are offering obedience that is but scraps, God receives it as an abundance produced by the Spirit of the One who fed 5,000 with two loaves and five fishes. When we are aware our motives are mixed, God purifies them by the Spirit of love that he has poured out in our hearts because we are in Christ. 

God loves us. The Son gives himself for us. The Holy Spirit lives in us. The result: We—grab on to this!—offer love for God and neighbor that God himself finds satisfying. The mindset is utterly different than the “I’m a worthless shlub” mentality that besets so many people. I pray that this truth breaks in upon you today—and makes this a very special day. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "an unwitting victim...bwahahhahahaa" by bark is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Acknowledging What We All Feel - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 6/29/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:145-176; Numbers 22:41–23:12; Romans 7:13-25; Matthew 21:33-46

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Balaam had a good day today. He consults the Lord before speaking, and then blesses rather than curses Israel. 

But today we focus on the epistle.

Today’s reading in Romans is a head-scratcher. Paul has just said, “Do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies” and “Sin will have no dominion over you” (Romans 6:12, 14). But here he writes as though the opposite were true: “I am of the flesh, sold into slavery unto sin” and “With my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin” (Romans 7:14, 25). 

For centuries, students of Paul have argued among themselves about Paul’s meaning in Romans 7:14-25. Some think that by adding Romans 7’s realism about feeling defeated by sin to Romans 6’s theme of victory over sin, Paul describes the normal Christian’s—including his own—continuing struggle with sin. Here, they say, Paul vividly engages the existential reality of a salvation that has already taken hold of the believer, but that has not yet become complete, and will not be made complete until final resurrection. Others think that Paul is describing two different people: in Romans 6 the Christian believer, and in Romans 7 the (probably Jewish) not-yet-believer, whose conscience has been pricked by the law. 

According to the first view, Romans 7’s bemoaning the effects of sin describes part of (almost) every Christian’s life. According to the second view, only Romans 6’s celebration of victory over sin, and not Romans 7’s lament about the effects of sin, describes the Christian life—or at least what the Christian life is supposed to be. 

Those who hold the first view worry that the second view leads to a naïve and shallow triumphalism about the Christian life—“If I’m not feeling the victory at every moment, there must be something wrong with me. Maybe I’m not really saved.” Those who hold the second view worry that the first view results in a sense that the Christian life is depressing and morbidly defeatist—“The best I can hope for in my Christian life is to get used to being justified as a sinner, feeling bad enough about my sin that I will constantly confess it and receive absolution.”

I happen to think that in Romans 7 Paul does reflect on the believer’s awareness of the drag of sin to which they are susceptible (the first view), even though they know the truths of Romans 4 & 5’s message that justification comes by faith and Romans 6’s good news that new life has taken hold of them. Sin still indwells, and it disturbs us, because it’s not supposed to be there! 

The resolution awaits Romans 8, where Paul will turn to the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us, to bear witness to our (self-condemning) spirits that we are indeed God’s children, to groan with us at our struggle as sinners in a still fallen world, to mold us to further conformity to Christ’s image, to shout down any lingering voices of condemnation, and to remind us that even in this life “we are more than conquerors.” 

Romans 7 allows us to acknowledge what we all feel: “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Romans 7 gives us words for the near schizophrenia we feel when we find ourselves at war within ourselves over “let Thy will be done” and “let my will be done.” Romans 7 gives voice to our cry for deliverance, for rescue—and in that very gift, Romans 7, sandwiched as it is between Romans 4-6 and Romans 8, reminds us that the Lord has already heard our cry. Faith justifies, the Spirit intercedes, Christ molds, the Father loves—the victory that began at the cross and resurrection will be completed, for “the sufferings of this present time (including the lingering—sometimes debilitating— effects of sin) are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us” (Romans 8: 18). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Adaptation, "Schizophrenic Reflection" by tj.blackwell is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.

The Donkey is the Smart One - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 6/28/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 120; Psalm 121; Psalm 122; Psalm 123; Numbers 22:21-38; Romans 7:1-12; Matthew 21:23-32

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) 

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Three insights today on how important the heart is. Balaam’s behavior may be restrained by external restraint, but his wayward heart is untouched. Paul reflects on the powerlessness even of God’s good law to restrain sinful passions. Jesus calls out the folly of professed faith that proves faithless, and commends honest resistance to faith when it turns into true profession and discipleship. 

Balaam’s “bit & bridle.” Balaam’s is a cautionary tale. He knows enough to do as he’s told. Yahweh has instructed him to accept Balak’s summons to court. Moreover, we will discover that, at God’s command, Balaam will not offer the curse on Israel that Balak demands. Yet God knows that Balaam’s “way is perverse,” that is, his heart does not belong to him. Balaam only does as much as he’s told, and no more. He will be a mouthpiece, but he will not give himself to be a follower of the Lord. All along, Balaam will be shrewdly looking to his own interests. 

It is richly ironic that it is by means of a donkey that the Lord channels Balaam’s behavior and then speaks to him. “A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools,” says Proverbs 26:3. And Psalm 32:9 cautions, “Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you.” In Balaam’s case, the donkey is the smart one, and the human is the one without understanding who needs bit and bridle. Even with the bit and bridle of the donkey’s turning from the path and speaking on Yahweh’s behalf, Balaam yields merely external, behavioral obedience. 

When the human heart is dead to the Lord, it doesn’t matter what circumstances or what voices the Lord uses. Unless the Lord makes the dead heart live, the response will be one of a dead person—the walking death of spiritual death. 

A good divorce. In this, the first paragraph of Romans 7, the apostle Paul reflects on the way that, holy as it is, God’s law is unable to solve the problem of spiritual death. Ultimately, the law is unable to put an effective bit and bridle on “sinful passions.” To the contrary, by forbidding them, the law makes them more attractive and more powerful, accentuating the need for a completely new start, a completely new set of desires. 

Paul employs two images—first, the image of a divorce by which one person becomes as dead to the other. It’s a nuanced metaphor—in this metaphor we are the wife trapped in a bad marriage; and we are released when “the husband dies” (understood, becomes dead to us through divorce — Romans 7: 3). In the rest of his epistle, Paul makes it clear that his point here is limited: in Christ, we actually become keepers of the law in its deepest sense, for now we have the capacity to love God (Romans 5:5; 8:28) and our neighbor (13:8-10). The law’s death-sentence against sin and disobedience has been satisfied in God’s setting forth his Son as propitiating sacrifice (Romans 3:25). In this sense, the law is now dead to us. And we are dead to any claim of condemnation that the law would otherwise have over us (Romans 8:1-4). 

It’s to this effect that Paul uses his second image in this paragraph: the law killed us by provoking in us the desperation of our hearts (“all kinds of covetousness”) that made the need for the cross so apparent. Thus, we have been divorced from the law (the law is dead to us) and we have died to the law (our old, guilty self was crucified with Christ on the cross). With our old husband (the law) dead, we are as though raised from the dead ourselves. We have entered a new marriage, a marriage to Christ Jesus. In this marriage, we are able to live by the Spirit, obey gladly and from the heart, and “bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). 

Praise be that the law has done its work of pointing up the need for a blood-soaked cross. Praise be for the living Christ who now lives, by the Spirit, in us to reproduce his life through us. 

Two sons. Then there are the two sons of Matthew 21. One declares obedience to his father, but never follows through. That son is the embodiment of the religious leaders who profess loyalty to Israel’s God, but who can muster up only a slothful and faithless, “We don’t know,” when God’s Son demands they deal with him and his mission. The other son says he’s not interested in doing the father’s will, but reconsiders. This son is the embodiment of the sinners and tax-collectors and prostitutes and ne’er-do-wells who repent and follow Jesus. 

Better the honest “Not interested” that reconsiders its rashness than the dishonest “I’m all in!” that is, and remains, mere lip service. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

Grace Has... - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 6/27/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 106; Numbers 22:1-21; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 21:12-22

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Introducing Balaam. This week’s readings in Numbers recount the sad adventures of the Syrian fortune-teller Balaam. He’s most remembered for the fact that Yahweh rebukes him by making his donkey talk. Scripture never gives him a title, such as prophet. But he makes a living by taking fees as a diviner. He at least respects Yahweh, calling him “Yahweh, my God” (Numbers). To his credit, Balaam refuses to curse those whom Yahweh blesses. Numbers even records him rendering a powerful Messianic prophecy: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near—a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” (Numbers 24:17). 

Nonetheless, Scripture’s verdict concerning Balaam is not good. When it comes to Yahweh, Balaam is more a user than a believer. He is remembered as a false teacher who subtly led Israelites into immorality and idolatry (Numbers 31:15-20; Revelation 2:14), ever looking to turn a profit by hawking words from God (Deuteronomy 23:4-5; Joshua 13:22; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11). Numbers 31 records the fact that the Israelites eventually kill him—no doubt, to rid themselves of his pernicious influence. (Numbers 31:8). 

It’s only fitting that we begin a week’s worth of readings about someone who uses religion instead of submitting to it on the day we read the apostle Paul’s “Gotta Serve Somebody” passage, that is, Romans 6:12-23. 

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody
It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Grace has one rule: You’re free. Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means — Romans 6:15. In Jesus Christ, I am justified. I am accepted into the very presence of God himself, as the hymn says, “Just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me…” That means I can stop trying to justify myself. I can stop trying to prove to you that I’m good enough. I can stop sinning against you by using you to feel good about myself—like taking a girlfriend just so I can be seen with her, or calling you only when I need something from you. I am free to stop asserting my rights and getting my needs met, so I can focus on what benefits you. For Paul, that’s what it means to live under grace instead of law. 

And so, as Jesus says in Matthew 10:42, being ready to give a cup of cold water becomes an instinct I don’t even have to think about. As does Matthew 25’s visiting Him in prison and in the hospital, clothing him, feeding him—as our baptismal vows put it: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? 

Grace has one school: the church. … obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted — Romans 6:17. Having been submitted for years to a sensei to learn a martial art for cutting targets with a steel Japanese samurai sword, it’s scary to watch YouTube videos of “backyard samurai.” Not only are they dangerous, but they haven’t submitted themselves to learning the whole manner of being and the attitude that goes with cutting those targets—a way of moving your body in space, of timing, of grace that’s just as much a part of the art as is cutting the targets. 

The Christian faith is just like that. We can’t free-form it, or we will be in big trouble. That’s why Paul says we have been “entrusted” to a “form of teaching” to give us our bearings. That form of teaching is the Scriptures, and then the way the Scriptures were summed up in the creeds and embodied in the church’s worship. It’s why it’s important to make worship-filled reading of and submitting to Scripture your first appointment of the day. It’s why worship with the saints—even in pandemic via streaming—is vital. It keeps us from being dangerous “backyard samurai.” 

For Paul, we don’t have to—in fact, we can’t—face the challenges of each day on our own. Whether the challenges are the ones everybody is facing—like global pandemic or societal reckoning with race—or ones that are personal to us—a relationship that isn’t working or health that’s failing or income that’s vanishing—we are not left to sort things out all on our own. We need to begin with “the form of teaching to which we were entrusted.” 

Grace has one goal: sanctification. … so now you present your members as slaves to righteousness for (older translations render unto) sanctification. — Romans 6:19. Paul says that the arc of our lives is heading in one direction or another: “unto lawlessness” which will eventuate in eternal death, or “unto sanctification” which will eventuate in eternal life. Of course, his premise is that outside of Christ we are already dead, and that when we accept Christ it is as though we are alive from the dead—for eternal life has already taken hold. 

C. S. Lewis wrote a profound parable about this reality. In The Great Divorce, Lewis imagines a bus ride from hell to heaven. In his fantasy (and it is a fantasy), residents of hell have the option of staying in heaven if they wish. The problem is: few of them do so. They are so acclimated to the ghostliness and the isolation of their place in hell (habits they acquired over the course of their lives on earth) that the solidity of the things in heaven and the nonstop joyful companionship of heaven are distinctly uncomfortable. Lewis’s point is that eventually, every one of us is going to wake up on the other side. There we will find that our whole lives have been preparing us to feel right at home where we are: the hell of narcissistic isolation or the heaven of blessed fellowship. 

So, grace makes you free not to be a narcissistic jerk. Grace takes you deeper and deeper into Scripture and the Church’s story—and takes that story deeper and deeper into you. And grace makes this day one step further into the life of heaven that has already taken hold in you. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Paradise Regained - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 6/24/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 102; Numbers 20:1-13; Romans 5:12-21; Matthew 20:29-34

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

A Flawed Mediator. Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them. — Numbers 20:12. As sympathetic a figure as Moses is—humblest on the earth, ever interceding for a rebellious people, and friend of Yahweh—he shows himself to be as powerless against sin as the rest of us. 

The Lord has simply told Moses to command the rock (and not, by the way, to scold the people) so that the water will flow for the people and their livestock. But Moses works himself up into a fury against the thirsty people. Not content obediently to command the rock, he oversteps and strikes the rock with the staff of God’s authority, and that not once, but twice. In Yahweh’s estimation, this lack of trust places Moses in solidarity with the rest of his generation that had tested Yahweh—those who identified with Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 10), the gluttons from the first plague (Numbers 11), the ten cowardly spies (Numbers 14), and most recently Korah and company, and the 14,700 who died in the second plague (Numbers 16). Moses will be the last of his generation to perish without entering the Promised Land—though, friend of God that he is, not without a glimpse of it. 

It’s a scene with a lot of pathos. It’s a sober reminder to all of us to be vigilant, as the hymn says, to “trust and obey.”

Paradise Regained. As a whole, the Old Testament unfolds as a saga of expulsion from the Garden—of exile from Paradise, a life in perfect communion with God—and of God’s preparing a way for humankind to return. Israel is entrusted with the oracles of God. Her mission is to bear the promise of return, and at the same time, the burden of its cost. We’ve just seen that Moses—the law-giver and one who spoke face to face with Yahweh himself—is susceptible to the curse of disobedience that is common to all humankind. 

Carrying forward the storyline of that saga, the epistle to the Romans is animated by an incredible sense of peace, hope, and confidence (for instance, in Romans 5:1-11—yesterday’s reading). The way “back in” has opened up. In today’s reading—some of the densest and most pregnant sentences he is ever to compose—Paul explains the source of such peace, hope and confidence. In Jesus Christ, Israel has ushered onto the stage of world history—and into our personal lives—the One who undoes the tragedy of the Garden. 

In brief, here are the points Paul makes in this brilliant paragraph: 

1. The “fall”—along with death that accompanied it—was a natural and just consequence of Adam’s disobedience; but the free gift of eternal life is an extraordinary, countervailing manifestation of “God’s grace” and his “gracious gift in Christ” (v. 15). 

2. It might have been easy for God to intervene to fix things immediately after the fall, but he did it only “after many transgressions” (i.e., after the situation had become arguably unfixable — v. 16). The fall set in motion a sorrowful domino-like series of tragedies (think Shakespeare), that would magnify the loving and merciful character of God in a way that something resolvable by a quick fix would not. Human self-help couldn’t reverse the cumulative effects of “many transgressions.” But God could. And he did. 

3. In sum: One man, Christ, offers “righteous conduct” (dikaioma)—i.e., the obedience of his whole life and of his mounting the cross of Calvary—that leads to the “rightwise-ing/justifying/making right” (dikaiosis) of all. One man, Christ, offers the perfect obedience that undoes the first man’s disobedience. 

4. Thus, while in the present, “sin reigns” because Adam forfeited his/our right to rule, when all is said and done “those who receive…the gift of righteousness will reign” (v. 17) and “grace also will reign” (v. 21). 

5. Result: the entrance of sin into human experience will prove to have brought about God’s greater grace (vv. 20-21). The line from the original “Exsultet” comes to mind: “O truly needful sin of Adam which was blotted out by the death of Christ! O happy fault (felix culpa) which merited so great a Redeemer!” 

I pray that our lives may be as animated as are Paul’s words with the sense of peace, hope, and confidence that comes from knowing that, in Christ, grace has taken the field on our behalf. And I pray we all may grip firmly onto the deep understanding that that grace is greater than all the evil, all the confusion, all the sickness we see around—and in—ourselves. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Adaptation, Pixabay

Life from a Dead Tree - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 6/23/2022 • y2p7th
Year 2, Proper 7

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 105:1-22; Numbers 17:1-11; Romans 5:1-11; Matthew 20:17-28

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Signature insights from Numbers, Romans, and Matthew wondrously converge in today’s readings. 

Life from a Tree. When Moses went into the tent of the covenant on the next day, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted. It put forth buds, produced blossoms, and bore ripe almonds. — Numbers 20:8. Life emerges from a dead tree, proof of God’s choice of Aaron’s priesthood. This is one of the amazing portraits of the coming Mediator in the book of Numbers. Millennia later God will prove his choice of Jesus’s priesthood in similar fashion, by raising him to life after death on Calvary’s tree. The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that Aaron was priest solely by God’s choice (Hebrews 5:8), and that Jesus too is priest solely by God’s choice. Further, Hebrews points up the way the almond-graced rod was preserved in the ark as a permanent reminder of Aaron’s priesthood (Hebrews 9:3), and then portrays Jesus’s ongoing ministry as “high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:20, and following). While Aaron’s mortality meant that he had to be followed by many priests of his lineage, Jesus’s resurrection means he ministers forever: proclaiming the Father’s name, singing in the midst of the congregation, ever living to intercede, and bringing bread and wine from God’s holy altar (Hebrews 2:12; 7:25; 13:10). Although his work on the cross for us has been completed, Jesus does not cease his work in our lives. Even now. His ongoing ministry means he is praying for his church, praying for each of us. Praise be. 

Paul’s John 3:16. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. — Romans 5:8. If there is one truth in Paul’s letters that is worth burning into our brains, it’s this one. The life-giving tree on which Christ hung is all the proof any of us needs that God does not hate us, but instead loves us. God gave his Son up to death that we may escape the wrath we deserve (Romans 5:9), and so that we may boast that on the day of the great reckoning we will have a share in the glory of God (Romans 5:3,10-11). That word, “boast,” gives some of us a little trouble. It is often too closely linked with “bluster” and “brag”—so, not in a good way.  Paul doesn’t intend us to think of boasting as an excessive, vain, self-centered behavior. Rather, it’s a bit more like being proud of, and proclaiming the praises of, say, the Gators or the Seminoles (or Army vs. Navy if you are my friend, and West Point grad, Peter Tepper). Paul thinks it is perfectly acceptable to “boast” about God and his mercy and kindness towards us. “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). 

Not only that, Paul says, but when trials come, we can see in every challenge the promise of Spirit-worked character: “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5, RSV). It’s almost too much to take in. It is almost too much to remember. So, because it is so wonderfully—and gloriously—and truly—true, even our “boasting” becomes a way to remind ourselves of the worth of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. Praise be. 

The Great “So What?” …and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. — Matthew 20:27. And just so, we can let go of the need to make ourselves Number One. Jesus gives a comprehensive and sobering description of the ultimately world-changing things that are about to happen in Jerusalem: his arrest, condemnation, mocking, flogging, crucifixion, and—incomprehensibly—his rising from the dead. 

Of all the possible reactions to that news, Matthew records this response: an overly ambitious mother lobbying to put her ambitious sons (see Luke 9:46) in the positions of highest honor when the Kingdom comes. At one level, it’s staggering to imagine such naked, selfish ambition right after they have heard the unhappy details of the awful things that were about to be done to Jesus. And yet, at another level, isn’t there a lot of that instinct in every single one of us? 

Perhaps, knowing this about his disciples (and about us), perhaps this is why Jesus calls the disciples to him. To.Spell.It.Out: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.  It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave;  just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Lord, have mercy. Give us grace this day to take our bearings from the Son of Man who “came not to be served but to serve.” 

Give us grace, we pray, to give thanks for the life that blossomed from the tree, and that continues to intercede for us.

Give us grace, we pray, to delight in the love you have shown us, Father, in the gift of your Son, and that you continue to pour into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). 

Give us grace, we pray, as simultaneously slaves of Christ and heirs of his kingdom, to attend not to our own needs this day, but to the needs of those around us. Amen.

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Adaptation, Pixabay

Grace Intervenes - Daily Devotions with the Dean

The Bible is all about turning death into life, foul stench into fragrant aroma, enmity into amity.

Wednesday • 6/22/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 101; Psalm 109; Numbers 16:36-50; Romans 4:13-25; Matthew 20:1-16

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

God “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” With these words from his epistle to the Romans, Paul marvels at the fact that the gift of faith lifts Jews out of spiritual death and calls Gentiles out of spiritual nonexistence.

Death, Spiritual and Otherwise. The spiritual death of which Paul speaks is vividly displayed in today’s Numbers passage—and so is the summons from death to life. Instead of recognizing Yahweh’s perfect and righteous judgment against the sin of Korah, “the whole congregation of the Israelites” blame God’s punishment on Moses and Aaron. “You have killed the people of the Lord,” they claim. This rebellion of unbelief is nothing but the manifestation of an ultimately fatal underlying condition. Sin is a walking death—deserving of God’s wrath. God tells Moses, “Get away from this assembly so I can put an end to them at once.” When the glory cloud of Yahweh descends upon the people (who are already dead, spiritually) it has the effect of finishing the process. Thus, a plague breaks out. Over 14,000 people die, the physical death completing the end of their earthly existence.

Grace Intervenes. But then—and herein lies the glory of the Bible: like a brilliant shaft of light in the dark, grace (unmerited favor), breaks into the story. Here’s where Israel’s narrative differs from the epics and the myths and the stories of ancient heroes, gods, and goddesses. Instead of letting dike or kharma or divine vengeance have its way, the Bible recounts a redeeming mediation. Interceding for the people at Yahweh’s anger, Moses and Aaron “fell on their faces.” Moses sends his brother Aaron the high priest with lit censer “into the middle of the assembly where the plague had already begun among the people.” There Aaron puts incense on the lit coals, and offers the smoke. Standing “between the dead and the living,” Aaron’s billowing smoke “made atonement for the people”—literally, “covered the people.” The sweet savor of the incense covered the stench of rebellion, of mistrust, of spiritual death. It brought the plague to a halt. The Bible is all about turning death into life, foul stench into fragrant aroma, enmity into amity. And the Bible proclaims this truth: believe Yahweh unto life, renounce rebellion unto death.

Christ as Fragrant Offering. In precisely these terms Paul calls his readers to believe “him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.” Or, as he says in a later epistle, “Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). Under the Old Covenant, smoke of incense and of whole burnt offering rose upward in Israel’s sacrifices to cover—and thus, temporarily to atone for—the offensive stench and rottenness of sin. In the New Covenant, our Great High Priest places himself, first, in the midst of the congregation. Then, on the Cross, Christ our Mediator offers his own body and blood, bringing an end to the malodorous stench of sin-death and inaugurating the fragrance of life.

Grace in Response. Without going into the details of today’s Gospel reading, Matthew records the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard to remind Jewish Christians (those who have labored all day in the vineyard) not to be envious when Gentile Christians (those who have only labored for the last hour the day) receive the same wage, a metaphor for the promise of life in the Kingdom of Heaven. In Paul’s terms, there is the grace of being raised from the dead (Jews becoming alive to their true inheritance through the coming of Christ as Messiah) and there is the grace of being called from non-being to being (Gentiles being brought from totally outside the sphere of God’s redemptive work). This parable is Matthew’s version of Luke’s Parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s a reminder to us not to envy grace given to others, but to be grateful for the grace that’s been lavished on us. Praise be to the God whose grace raises the dead and brings into being that which was not—and robs either side of any boast save one, “Let those who boast, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31).

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

Trust in the Giver - Daily Devotions with the Dean

According to Jesus, the question is whether to trust the gifts or the Giver.

Tuesday • 6/21/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Psalm 100; Numbers 16:20-35; Romans 4:1-12; Matthew 19:23-30

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) 

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Although today’s readings present a range of situations, they unite in pressing one issue: trust. Trust is the question throughout this week’s readings. In fact, believing God is the most pressing of issues throughout the Bible.

Romans. “Abraham believed God,” says Paul, in Romans 4:3, quoting Genesis 15:6. On its face, that seems to be an utterly simple statement. Yet it is profoundly complex. In the eyes of Paul the apostle, God’s promise of a numberless “seed” and a vast nation—the promise Abraham is credited with having believed all the way back in Genesis—turns out to be anything but simple. Millennia after the fact, Paul realizes that the promise that Abraham believed included a specific “Seed”—Jesus Christ—whose life, death, and resurrection have now brought forgiveness of sins for the whole world. Not only that, but Jesus brings the beginning of the undoing of the treasonous and ruinous unbelief of the Garden. Abraham’s simple decision to trust God has worked incalculable good. And Paul urges us toward a faith like that of Abraham, “the ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have righteousness reckoned to them, and likewise the ancestor of the circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised” (Romans 4:11-12). In other words, Abraham is the ancestor of all who trust God, whether Gentile or Jew. 

Numbers. Korah and company’s fantasies about Egypt seem plausible to a congregation wearied of the wilderness’s hardships. Trusting God is something they just cannot do. At Korah’s challenge to their authority, Moses and Aaron beg Yahweh to limit punishment to the instigators of this rebellion of unbelief. So the congregation as a whole must choose whether to stand with the rebels and perish, or trust their appointed leaders, Moses and Aaron, and live. In today’s passage, they make a good choice. The people stand with Moses and Aaron. In tomorrow’s passage, they will revert to mistrust, accusing Moses and Aaron, “You have killed the people of the Lord.” 

In their turn, Moses and Aaron trust that their vindication lies not in power politics and clever maneuvering against their attackers, but in simply submitting to Yahweh’s power to sort the evil from the good. 

Matthew. For rich people, according to Jesus, the question is whether to trust the gifts or the Giver. Reflecting this very teaching, Paul will later urge Timothy to warn rich Christians not “to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share, thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life” (1 Timothy 6:17-18). 

May you, like Abraham, trust God’s promise for peace with him now and a sure future to come through Jesus Christ.

May you, like Moses and Aaron, trust God even when you are weary from hardships or difficulties that discourage you. 

May you, at Jesus’s invitation, trust in the wealth that comes from knowing him. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

God's Gift of Unspeakable Grace - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 6/20/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89:1-18; Numbers 16:1-19; Romans 3:21-31; Matthew 19:13-22

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Throughout the book of Numbers, Moses prepares the 2nd generation to cross over into the Promised Land. Here in Proper 7 of the Daily Office, our lectionary has us in the middle portion of Numbers, a section that recounts a series of rebellions. These rebellions illustrate different aspects of the sinfulness of the human heart. This middle section of the Book of Numbers also offers a series of images of mediation, as Moses stands between the people and the consequences of their faithlessness.

Breathtaking presumption. Korah’s and his followers’ claim that “all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them” is partially correct, but mostly wrong. They are correct in that the Lord had indeed said that Israel would be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). They are correct in that the Lord dwells “in their midst” (Numbers 5:3). 

But Korah and company are more wrong than they are correct, because they fail to take into account how the congregation becomes holy. A sinful people are inherently unholy. In the first place, that means they must be shielded from the presence of the Holy One—thus, the permission for Moses alone to ascend the holy mountain back in Exodus 24. In the second place, that means their holiness must be established through God-ordained sacrifices (for instance, the Day of Atonement sacrifices in Leviticus 16, symbolizing purification for sin) and then maintained through God-instructed living (“You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy,” Leviticus 19:6). 

Breathtaking stupidity. Further, Korah and his followers are profoundly wrong to claim that Moses and Aaron “exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord” and “lord it over us” (Numbers 16:3, 13). At age 40, Moses had indeed taken it upon himself to deliver his people, when he killed the Egyptian—and had failed miserably (Exodus 2:11-14; Acts 7:23-29). For the next 40 years, he had tended his father-in-law’s sheep in obscurity. At 80 years of age the Lord had appeared to him in a burning bush and, over Moses’s protestations, had called him to this task (Exodus 3 & 4; Acts 7:30-36). Aaron was pressed into service because of Moses’s claim to inelegance of speech: “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10). And Numbers has already stated, “Now the man Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). Moses doesn’t have a “dog in this fight,” nor any “turf to defend.” He’s willing to let the Lord show how He wants to order leadership among the Israelites. Not to mention, Korah and his family—of the tribe of Levi—had already been set apart in service to Yahweh and his people! What??

Breathtaking remedy. Numbers is part of a whole history that proves, according to Paul in Romans 2–3:20), that Israel is just as sinful as the rest of the human race (Romans 1). Paul draws the lessons from Israel’s history (Romans 2–3) and adds it to his indictment of the rest of the human race (Romans 1). Paul’s summation is that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”. And that summation leads to perhaps the profoundest words he is ever to pen: “…they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:24-26). 

The tangled history of Israel has led to this singular Son, Jesus Christ, whose atoning sacrifice the heavenly Father would set forth to cover all the Korahs and all our rebellions. Here is God’s gift of unspeakable grace, in fulfillment of his promise to make right all that went wrong in the Garden, all that went wrong in the wilderness, and all that has gone wrong in the myriad of ways we continue to prove that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory.” Through Christ, the God who keeps faith becomes “just and justifier.” All that is required is that his faithfulness be met with our own faith. As Romans 1:17 has already put it: “from (understood, his) faith to (understood, our) faith.” 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

A Listening Faith - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 6/17/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 40; Psalm 54; Ecclesiastes 5:1-7; Galatians 3:15-22; Matthew 14:22-36

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Today is the Friday following Trinity Sunday. Given where Easter falls this year, our readings should have us in Proper 6 of the Daily Lectionary, but my teaching schedule with my friends at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies has caused me to scramble things a bit. This week, we are contemplating passages from Proper 4 — I want to give some attention to the early chapters of the Book of Ecclesiastes and of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Thanks for your flexibility. Next week we will be back on track with readings from the Daily Lectionary’s Proper 7. 

Sometimes the Lord takes the props away. For our Cathedral family during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, it was the beautiful building, the physical bread and wine, the hugs at the peace, the voices blended in praise. Sometimes other things get removed from people—a secure income, good health, close friends, a fulfilling job, a feeling of God’s presence. Your mother – or father – or spouse – or child dies. Your dog (or cat) dies. It’s awful. Sometimes all the supports disappear, and it’s just you — and the emptiness, the “vanity.” Or — it’s you — and God. 

Whatever has been the process, the Lord, in his kindness, has brought Solomon to such a place. Over the course of this week’s readings in Ecclesiastes, we have observed Solomon’s increasingly unhappy depictions of the limited satisfactions of pleasure and power, of ambition and wisdom — of life itself. He’s come to the end of himself. And he realizes it’s either him and the void (“Vanity of vanities. All is vanity.”). Or it’s him and God.

Wisely, he chooses God. But even here (Ecclesiastes being a book all about dead ends) a narrow window opens to him showing how even the choice of “religion” can be a dead end. There’s a way to try to relate to God that is itself vanity. 

A listening faith. “…to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools…nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God…It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not fulfill it.” — Ecclesiastes 5:1,2,5. There is an approach to God himself that is a “sacrifice offered by fools.” Effusive religious enthusiasm and over-promising devotion to God lead to one more dead end. 

Paul amplifies the point. The zealot-turned-apostle explains that the giving of the law of Moses was designed from the beginning to make Israel attentive—to listen to the retelling of God’s promise. The law never overrode that promise. The law illuminated our tendency to be lured by sin, to lean into sin — to love sin. The law was intended to lead us to listen for the “why” of the ongoing provision for sacrifice to cover sin. To listen, and hear anew, the promise that God had already made to Abraham of an offspring who would eventually mediate the broken relationship between God and us: “… so that what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe” (Galatians 3:22). 

Jesus proves the point. Today’s passage in Matthew shows Jesus, who is Emmanuel (God-with-us) walking on water. One of his more spectacular gifts, right? What is worthy of note is the prelude: “…he went up to the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone… And early in the morning he came walking down…” (Matthew 14:23,25). In other words, he has been up there all night with his Father. Do we imagine the prayers of Jesus that night were one-sided? That Jesus did all the talking, all night long? The One who taught,“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7-8). The book of Hebrews states that “in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission” (Hebrews 5:7-8). It’s not hard to believe that over the course of his night of prayer, there was a good measure of listening to the Father and communing deeply with him.  With all his superpowers (to apply a modern anachronism), Jesus presents himself among us to show us how to avoid the religiosity that is, in reality, just blather or bloviating vow-making. (A study of today’s Psalm, Psalm 40, reveals a form of honest prayer, displaying expressions of thanksgiving; distress; supplication; and praise.) 

By the way, I’m pretty sure that some features of today’s passage in Matthew are unique to the moment it narrates. I have friends who are skeptical about whether Jesus ever literally walked on water. I’m not. But his walking on the water looks like a “one off” phenomenon designed to make a point. The point was: trust me. Peter’s temporarily-enabled walking on water looks like it provided the teaching moment: Keep your eyes on me, and you’ll be OK. Pay attention to the storm around you, and you’ll sink. The things that transpired physically outside the boat that night appear to be unique to those moments. Their significance for life — let the reader discern. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Philipp Otto Runge, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, unfinished altarpiece that was originally commissioned to furnish the chapel in Vitt on Rügen, circa 1806-1807

A Sacred Sustenance for Souls - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 6/16/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Ecclesiastes 3:16–4:3; Galatians 3:1-14; Matthew 14:13-21

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)

An audio or video version of this devotional can be found here: Apple Podcast, Spotify Podcast, YouTube

Today is the Thursday following Trinity Sunday. Given where Easter falls this year, our readings should have us in Proper 6 of the Daily Lectionary, but my teaching schedule with my friends at the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies has caused me to scramble things a bit. This week, we are contemplating passages from Proper 4 — I want to give some attention to the early chapters of the Book of Ecclesiastes and of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Thanks for your flexibility. Next week we will be back on track with readings from the Daily Lectionary’s Proper 7. 

Death & “life under the sun.” For Ecclesiastes, the most obvious dead end is death itself. In the face of death, according to the writer, the best that human observation can offer—the best that we who live “under the sun” can surmise—is: “Who knows whether the human spirit goes upwards and the spirit of animals goes downwards to the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:21). If animal existence is all there is, you cope in resignation, just going about your business oblivious to any larger question. And perhaps you raise a glass to the dead or the not-yet-born for not having to lay eyes on a world where the oppressors have power and the oppressed have only tears. Who knows, asks Ecclesiastes, if there’s any point at all to life “under the sun”? 

“Who knows, indeed?,” responds the Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft, “Here under the sun, no one. Unless there should appear here under the sun a man who came from beyond the sun, beyond the horizon of death’s night—unless we saw the Rising Son. But Solomon had not yet seen that man….” (Three Philosophies of Life [Ignatius Press, 1989, p. 47).  

The rest of the Bible, observes Kreeft, provides answers to questions that the book of Ecclesiastes raises: Who knows? What’s the point? Because the rest of the Bible has seen the Man who came from beyond the sun. 

Matthew has seen the Man from beyond the sun. Thus, in our reading today Matthew describes the day the Man from beyond the sun multiplies loaves and fishes to feed people with physical hunger, prefiguring a sacred sustenance for souls. “Taking the five loaves and two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke loaves, and gave them…” (Matthew 14:19). Jesus uses the same actions here that he will use at the Last Supper. Matthew 26:26 recounts, “While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” Matthew wants us to know that these physical provisions are gifts in promise of spiritual nourishment for bearers of the eternal, divine image. We are not soul-less animals! 

Paul, too, has seen the Man from beyond the sun—the Man who shook off the curse of death, who reversed death itself. That is why in yesterday’s reading in Galatians, Paul speaks of being crucified “with Christ.” He declares, “It is “no longer I who live…,” meaning, to paraphrase Ecclesiastes, “I no longer live ‘under the sun’,” (that is, with futility and without purpose). He continues, “…it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). 

And so, in today’s passage from Galatians, Paul rejoices because Jesus’s seemingly meaningless death—which was both like, and unlike, so many other seemingly meaningless deaths before and after his—becomes promise and hope and purpose. It is God’s blessing for Gentiles as well as for Jews (Galatians 4:3). Which is to say, it is for everybody who will believe—for all who refuse to let their horizons be defined by what is observable “under the sun,” and who say instead, “Yes!” to the Rising Son.  

I pray you say “Yes!” to Jesus today. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: adaptation, Pixabay