Has Not One God Created Us? - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 11/17/2022 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 105:1-22; Malachi 2:1-16; James 4:13–5:6; Luke 17:20-37 

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions. I’m Reggie Kidd, and every Monday through Friday, I offer devotional observations on some portion of that day’s readings for Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. Thanks for joining me this Thursday of Proper 28 in Year 2 of the Daily Lectionary.  

The covenantal life. “My covenant with [Levi] was a covenant of life and well-being, which I gave him; this called for reverence…” — Malachi 2:5. It’s worth pondering two features of the “covenant of life and well-being” that Malachi promotes, for they are as much about “life and well-being” in our own day as they were in his.  

The covenant with Levi was a “covenant of life and well-being,” in the first place, because it called for instruction in God’s Word (Malachi 2:6-8). Priests are ministers of the Word, because from cover to cover the Bible envisions the knowledge of God and of his ways jacketing the whole earth: “But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). Thus, the goal of teachers of the law is to work themselves out of a job: “No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:34). For instance, the writer of these Daily Devotions will have done his job when his readers need him no longer. And until then, he is responsible to “guard knowledge” and to make sure it is true instruction that he offers (Malachi 2:7). Dear Lord, let it be so! 

The covenant with Levi was a “covenant of life and well-being,” in the second place, because it bound God and us together in an indissoluble bond of mutual sacrifice. God established sacrifices of unblemished and specifically prescribed animals, a “pre-reflection” of a final and uniquely unblemished sacrificial lamb: his own dear Son. That sacrifice, in payment of the sin of the world, would restore life to spiritually dead people and return well-being to all of us whose lives have been wracked by the crushing consequences of sin.  

Israel’s covenantal duty—channeled through, and overseen by, the priestly sons of Levi—was to make sure that God’s self-offering in sacrifice was matched by his people’s self-offering in sacrifice. That is why Malachi rails against the holding back of the best of the flocks (Malachi 1:8,12-14), and against the withholding of tithes and offerings (Malachi 3:8-9). Christ’s sacrifice marks the end of the need for animal sacrifice, but it only heightens the significance of our offering ourselves as “living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1-2), and of our continuing to give “tithes and offerings” as expressions of the fact that we do not belong to ourselves, for we “were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23). “Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee…” 

God’s oneness and ours. “Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another…? … [S]he is your companion and your wife by covenant. Did not one God make her?” — Malachi 2:10,15. Extraordinarily, Malachi anticipates the apostle Paul’s perspective on the way belief in the “oneness” of God shapes our ethical lives. In the letter to the Romans, Paul shows that, as a Jew who believes that there is “one God,” he finds it inconceivable that there would be different routes to a relationship with God—for example, one for the Jew and another for the Gentile.  

God is not the deity of separate tribes. He is the God of heaven and earth. Therefore, he has one plan for a singular redemption of the entire human race: his Son Jesus Christ. “Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (Romans 3:29-30).  

This thought has revolutionary implications for every aspect of life. It cuts the heart out of any form of racism, classism, sexism, or tribalism. It means those who believe in this one God are obligated to see in every human being an expression of God’s likeness and image. It means those who believe in this God must treat every bearer of his image and likeness with the same dignity, respect, and love that they owe to God himself. That’s why Malachi denounces teachers for “partiality in your instruction”—the spinning of God’s story in favor of one party or race or family or check-writer over another.  

Thus, Malachi appeals to the fact that we have “one Father” and “one God” in order to rebuke people who treat each other faithlessly (Malachi 2:10). In doing so, he exposes all spheres of life: questionable business practices, “enhanced” résumés, tax fraud, plagiarism and academic cheating, narcissistic self-promotion, deceitful leadership, and exploitative relationships (to name just a few). 

Malachi invokes the oneness of God, especially, to reprove husbands who have been faithless to “the wife of your youth … your companion and your wife by covenant” (Malachi 2:14). “Did not one God make her?” asks the prophet. I wish my mother’s father had asked himself that question when he left home to strike out on his own as soon as my mother graduated from high school. If he’d just asked himself that one question — “Did not the same God who made me also make Myrtle?”—what loneliness, bitterness, and desperation of straits might he have spared himself and his family?  

To state Malachi’s concerns in positive terms: the God who reveals himself in the Bible loves thriving marriages—not to mention flourishing friendships, smooth working relationships, functional governance, comity among nations and people groups—because he is about oneness. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternal communion, the Lord, invites the creatures whom he loves into an eternal dance of love and harmony. May you experience the dance.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

We Need Hearts - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 11/16/2022 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 101; Psalm 109; Malachi 1:1,6-14; James 3:13–4:12; Luke 17:11-19 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions. I’m Reggie Kidd, and every Monday through Friday, I offer devotional observations on some portion of that day’s readings for Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m very glad to be with you this Wednesday of Proper 28 in Year 2 of the Daily Lectionary.  

Each of today’s readings provides a distinct angle of vision on the horror of sin. Presumption and stinginess are to the fore in Malachi. Ingratitude is front and center in Luke. In James, it’s everything and the kitchen sink. To keep it brief, I’m going to focus on James.  

Sin in James. For good reason, the Episcopal Eucharistic Prayer A confesses: “…we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death….” Sin is a pervasive and dominating force, taking us captive to soul-destroying appetites and self-deceiving motives, all of which leads to self- and other-destroying actions. James displays a white-hot anger over the sin that has reestablished dominion over these “beloved brethren” (James 1:5). Sin has made them, at least for the moment, “adulteresses” (James 4:4). Despite the masculine translation the NRSV employs (“adulterers”), the Greek word James uses is feminine (“adulteresses”), and it invokes Ezekiel’s and Hosea’s portraits of Israel as Yahweh’s unfaithful bride, sharing her intimacies with false gods. “Adulterous wife,” Ezekiel exclaims in disbelief, “who receives strangers instead of her husband!” (Ezekiel 16:32).  

James is stunned that his readers have allowed hell to reestablish a foothold on earth. The very existence of his audience is supposed to be a vanguard of the age to come—an advance presence of the marriage of heaven on earth (see James 1:18). What makes today’s passage so powerful is the not-so-subtle appeal that James makes to the Beatitudes his Elder Brother Jesus had taught in the Sermon on the Mount—an appeal, therefore, to becoming once again “a kind of first fruits” of new creation. A place where God has once again wedded his people, and where heaven has invaded earth.  

Sin’s antidote in James. Today’s passage in James comprises the closest thing to a commentary on the beatitudes that you will find in all the New Testament: 

When Jesus says that it is “the poor in spirit” to whom belongs the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3), what he means is what James says: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. … Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (James 4:6,10).  

Jesus calls those who mourn “blessed” (Matthew 5:4). It is they, not the envious, who will be comforted. James doesn’t just double down on Jesus’s teaching. He quintuples down: “Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection” (James 4:9). There’s no better explanation of what Jesus means when he blesses the act of mourning than here in James, where James contrasts appropriate sorrow over your own sin with the stinging sorrow of “bitter envy” (Jas 3:14). Envy is bad because it is sadness over what others have that you don’t (possessions, importance, position, whatever). Envy is a sadness for which there is no comfort. It only makes you covet and fight to get what you don’t have, or at least to keep others from enjoying what they do have — maybe envy will even lead you to take your complaint to God (James 4:3). Envy is a black hole of emotional energy. It only destroys. God’s forgiving grace readily turns mourning to laughter and dejection to joy. Trust me on this.  

Jesus promises the world to the meek: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). A person who is meek has self-restraint, a kind of spiritual poise. At the end of James 3:13, where the NRSV has “gentleness born of wisdom,” the Greek (and the older RSV) actually have “meekness of wisdom.” Ah, wisdom! Central to James’s teaching is wisdom, and wisdom succeeds not through brute strength and intimidation, but through persuasion and by striving for common ground. As Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is fond of saying (I paraphrase): “We need legislation for a more just society, but more, we need hearts to be persuaded to live more justly.” That’s the meekness of wisdom!  

Jesus urges a hunger and a thirst for righteousness that he promises will be satisfied (meaning God will satisfy it — Matthew 5:6). James promises a harvest of righteousness will come to those who sow — and who do so God’s way: in peace (James 3:18). 

Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). James says, “The wisdom from above is … full of mercy and good fruits” (James 3:17). For both Jesus and James, a generosity of heart comes back to you. There’s much wisdom there! 

Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). In echo, James says, “Purify your hearts” (James 4:8). And then when James describes the wisdom that comes from above, “pure” is the first attribute he gives it (James 3:17). That’s because the wisdom that comes from God is not diluted by worldly, carnal or demonic elements (James 3:15). And because purity of heart is, as philosopher Soren Kierkegaard would later observe, “to will one thing,” purity of heart underlies James’s persistent theme against “partiality or hypocrisy” (3:17) and double-mindedness (4:8).  

According to Jesus, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). For James, precisely echoing Jesus’ words, it is those who “make peace” who will see right prevail.  

“Blessed are the persecuted …” (Matthew 5:10). The theme of persecution is more subtle in James, but it’s certainly here: “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?” (Jas 4:4).  

James’s charge to us throughout is quite simple (again, I paraphrase): you are not called to be “adultresses.” You are called to be God’s bride! How dare you break that trust! How dare you give yourself to someone else!  

Moreover, James promises that if we but resist the devil’s adulterous advances, and draw near instead to God, we will find that all along the God who loves us dearly has been most eager for us to make that move: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8).  

Collect of James of Jerusalem. Grant, O God, that, following the example of your servant James the Just, brother of our Lord, your Church may give itself continually to prayer and to the reconciliation of all who are at variance and enmity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, p. 245).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Made in the Likeness of God - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 11/15/2022 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Habakkuk 3:1-18; James 3:1-12; Luke 17:1-10 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions. I’m Reggie Kidd, and every Monday through Friday, I offer devotional observations on some portion of that day’s readings for Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m so very glad to be with you this Tuesday of Proper 28 in Year 2 of the Daily Lectionary.  

Habakkuk. …in wrath may you remember mercy. — Habakkuk 3:2. In this beautiful third chapter, in a prayer that the prophet Habakkuk sings to Yahweh, he gathers up all his emotion at Israel’s desolation. As though writing a psalm, he includes musical instructions at the beginning and at the end. In fact, this chapter begins with the identical superscription, “according to Shigionath,” that appears also at the beginning of Psalm 7. The term “Selah” occurs at the end of verses three, nine, and thirteen of Habakkuk 3; as in the psalms, it probably (though not certainly) means “instrumental interlude.” And although the Daily Office does not include verse 19, this final verse of the entire book of Habakkuk also includes a musical instruction: “To the leader: with stringed instruments.”  

The point? What better time to sing than when you are in your deepest funk! And Habakkuk’s song illustrates the amazing transformation that can come when you do. 

Throughout his song, Habakkuk appeals to Yahweh as the Divine Warrior he had shown himself to be when he rescued Israel from Egypt. Rehearsing that profound and pivotal moment in his people’s history inspires Habakkuk to do three things: 

First, Habakkuk asks Yahweh, “in wrath may you remember mercy.” If we sense God’s burning anger in what we see going on around us, we can know that in the end his ire serves his kind, good, and merciful purposes.  

Second, Habakkuk confesses that he is willing to “wait quietly for the day of calamity to come upon the people who attack us” (Habakkuk 3:16). Because ours is the God who says, “Vengeance is mine,” we can hit “pause” when the temptation arises to strike back at attackers.  

Third, in the meantime, Habakkuk finds the capacity for praise: “…yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:18).  

Your musical heart language may be hymns and anthems. Or it may be contemporary praise and worship songs. Regardless, I hope you’ll take some time to inventory the songs that bring to mind God’s great acts in rescuing you, that give you hope for the future, and that move you to love him more and more. I don’t know what works for you, but lines like these come readily to mind for me: Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father; there is no shadow of turning with thee… and, O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless, free… 

James. Casual readers of the New Testament have the impression that James is a shallow behaviorist, merely exhorting, “Don’t just talk the talk. Walk the walk!” But some of the Bible’s most penetrating words about the depths of human psychology come from James. In chapter three, he meditates poignantly, even poetically, on the profound inner conflict we all experience over the power of the tongue.  

In the first place, James acknowledges that there is a world of evil within each of us: “a world of iniquity … set on fire by hell” (James 3:6). Know what? It’s best just to admit that. “Hi, I’m Reggie. My heart is a world of iniquity, set on fire by hell.”  

In the second place, the first outlet for that world of iniquity is my speech. I don’t know about you, but over the course of my life, there have been too many hurtful words I wish I could take back.  

In the third place, however, if my speech can be controlled, there’s hope for the rest of me as well! That’s why your mother and mine taught us to “Count to ten!” before speaking when provoked.  That’s why James wrote earlier in his letter, “Quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.” The negative “Such a small spark, such a large fire” (James 3:5) can become a positive: “Such a small compliment, inspiring such great endeavors!” I’m sure that all of us bear scars from hurtful words hurled at us, often years and years ago: “You are so ugly!” “What a klutz!” “Are you really that stupid?” I’m also sure that most of us have found energy, direction, and motivation from words of praise. I know a person who became a famous scholar in their field just because when they were very young, they accidentally heard a grown up tell their parents: “Your kid has no idea how smart they are!” For years now, that person has been living up to those words of praise.  

For James, we don’t have to live with the contradiction of praising God and tearing down people: “With [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God” (James 3:9). That’s why he writes what he writes. Like his Elder Brother, James would have us find the blessedness of an internal integrity and coherence: “purity of heart” and singleness of eye (Matthew 5:8; 6:22-23). We can see others through the lens of God’s good intentions for them. And our lives, beginning with our words, can be springs of fresh and life-giving water. Who might need a word of encouragement and praise from you today? 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Aspects of Faith - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 11/14/2022 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89; Habakkuk 2:1-4,9-20; James 2:14-26; Luke 16:19-31 

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (“The First Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 12:2-6, BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions. I’m Reggie Kidd, and every Monday through Friday, I offer devotional observations on some portion of that day’s readings for Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. Thanks so much for joining me this Monday of Proper 28 in Year 2 of the Daily Lectionary.  

Different aspects of faith come into view in today’s readings. Here’s food for the soul! 

Habakkuk on living by faith. … but the righteous live by their faith. — Habakkuk 2:4. The prophet Habakkuk rises up sometime after the Babylonians have conquered Judah, burned Jerusalem, and razed and plundered the temple. Babylon has been God’s instrument of judgment against God’s sinful people. Nonetheless, in yesterday’s reading, Habakkuk has bitterly complained to God about Babylon’s own arrogance, violence, and idolatry: “Why do you look on the treacherous, and are silent when the wicked swallow those more righteous than they?” (Habakkuk 1:13).   

In today’s reading, Habakkuk proclaims hope. Yahweh has not abandoned his people. He has not set aside his covenant love for them. Through Israel, ultimately “… the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). And though the earthly temple lies in ruins for now, God’s heavenly—and true—temple still stands, inviolate: “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20). Habakkuk imagines Yahweh turning the tables on Babylon who forced upon Judah the cup of judgment: “The cup in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory!” (Habakkuk 2:16).  

When Habakkuk says the “righteous live by their faith,” what he means is that if God’s people will stay true, even in the face of discouragement, dismay, and delay, they will find that life will come to them. As we discover in the New Testament, life has come in Jesus Christ, Messiah and King. It is marvelous to consider the larger backdrop in Habakkuk when Paul appeals to this verse about “the righteous living by faith,” in his letter to the Romans. In fact, Romans 1:16 hoovers up rich depths of Habakkuk’s meaning.  

• In the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ, Israel’s true Son, indeed, the promise is being fulfilled that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.  

• Precisely where people are “present[ing their] bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [their] spiritual worship,” the Lord of heaven and earth is indeed in his holy temple—and all the earth, indeed, should bow in awed silence (Romans 12:1-2).  

• And, altogether in agreement with the Revelation of John’s verdict on Babylon, “the great whore,” who is forced to drink the cup of the wrath of God, Paul asserts that “the God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). Fittingly, Paul concludes: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

James on faith and works. Apparent discrepancies—and they are merely apparent discrepancies—between Paul’s approach and James’s should not mask the profound synchronicity between them. Leaving a full treatment of this rich passage for treatment at another time, let me make a dual observation.  

In response to legalists (those who teach that right living establishes a relationship with God), Paul stresses lex credendi lex vivendi, “your believing will determine how you live.” Paul says “faith apart from (God’s taking account of) works” justifies (Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:16). He would absolutely agree with James that works are part of the package of the Christian life: he tells the Galatians that what matters is “faith working through love,” and he tells the Corinthians that what matters is “keeping the commandments of God” (Galatians 5:6; 1 Corinthians 7:19). Moreover, Paul would be able himself to pen James’s: “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17).  But when Paul has to stand up to people who proudly think they can “climb a stairway to heaven,” he insists: only faith will get you there!   

In response to antinomians (those who maintain that in the Christian life, obedience is “an elective course,” not “a required course”), James stresses lex vivendi lex credendi, “your living will manifest what it is you actually believe.” James says, “a person is justified by works and not by a faith that is alone” (a more accurate translation of James 2:24). James would entirely agree that faith in “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” is necessary, and that that life is a gift from God himself (James 1:18; 2:1). But when James has to stand up to people who people who slothfully and cynically manipulate statements of theological orthodox (“God is one!” “Jesus is Lord!”) to justify mistreatment of the poor (see James 2:1-7,14-15), he insists: your only justification for calling yourself God’s child is that you show it in your life!  

Paul and James may need to emphasize different aspects, given the pastoral needs of their people, but they both agree: faith and works are inseparable—distinguishable, to be sure, but inseparable nonetheless. 

The rich man and Lazarus. Lessons from James and Habakkuk are so nicely personified in this powerful parable. Plain and simple, for a person who claims to know the God of the Bible to live a life of exorbitant luxury and ease when disease and poverty are camped out in front of their house—well, that is to refute, rebut, and betray that faith. By contrast, for a person holding fast to faith in the God of deliverance, while suffering running sores, scorn, and neglect—well, that is to make the most elegant, eloquent, and compelling statement of faith possible. Let those who have an ear to hear, let them hear.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

The Invariable Goodness of God - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 11/11/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 88; Joel 2:28–3:8; James 1:16-27; Luke 16:1-9

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)

roper 27 in Year 2 of the Daily Lectionary. 

Joel provides the chief Old Testament text for Pentecost (see Acts 2:17-21). Today’s Joel passage is also a text vindicating God’s people in their sufferings, and promising retribution against those who have sold them “to the Greeks”: who “have divided my land, and cast lots for my people, and traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine, and drunk it down” (Joel 3:2,3,6). In some respects, our Savior wins for us forgiveness; in other respects, vindication. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, poured out in our hearts, to remind us that Christ is both our Substitute and our Champion. 

James highlights the invariable goodness of God. The “Father of lights” provides every good gift (it’s not a bad idea to begin each day with an inventory of thanksgiving, by the way!), including rebirth by the Word of God into a whole new personal identity. According to James, we are part of the vanguard (“a kind of first fruits”) of a new humanity (James 1:18). Then James offers a meditation on dimensions of that “first fruits” life: 

• the freedom of offering a measured response (“quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” — James 1:19).

• the “perfect liberty” that is found in reading God’s word the right way—liberty, first, in seeing myself for who I really am (James 1:23-25). This is one of those many places in James where, with “eyes to see and ears to hear,” one discovers a magnificent invitation to cross-reference Paul: “…with unveiled faces, [we see] the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, [and] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Characteristically, James puts this transformation in terms of being a “doer” of the word, and not merely a self-deceiving “hearer.” To which Paul—and the church historical—adds a hearty “Amen!” 

• the right to the claim of being genuinely “religious” (please note, in passing, that the Bible has no patience with the idea that you can somehow be a “Christian” without being “religious”—that’s a meditation for another day). The “religious” life consists of “caring for orphans and widows in their distress, and keeping oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:26-27). Exactly what James’s Elder Brother had said in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the merciful” … and … “Blessed are the pure in heart” (Matthew 5:7-8). 

So much goodness to ponder in James. Don’t read it in a hurry!!!

Luke. And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly… — Luke 16:8. If there were a contest for Most Challenging Parable of Jesus, the hands down winner would be today’s Parable of the Shrewd Steward. I offer a couple of keys to interpreting it. First, unlike other parables that invite us to compare figures in the story with God or Jesus (e.g., in the Parable of the Sower, the Sower is Jesus), this parable doesn’t work that way. This parable is not saying God will let you finagle your way into heaven through shifty financial maneuvers. Expect from this parable a more limited, indirect, and non-allegorical point. 

Second, take in the story itself. 

The business manager of a rich man’s vast agricultural holdings has been fired for “squandering” assets. Told to leave a final accounting on his way out, the crafty manager devises an ingenious plan. He goes to two tenants and allows them to reduce, on the strength of their signatures (not his — he’s been fired!), to reduce their indebtedness by significant amounts. Both these debtors are working large and productive tracts of land—large enough and productive enough that these renters might themselves be in need of a business manager. That could be good for a recently fired manager, especially one who can’t dig and doesn’t want to beg. That’s potentially pretty smart. Not only that, in the shame-culture of the Near East, the rich man is not likely to renounce the generosity the manager has made it look like he (the rich man) has extended to his clients. I like the way commentator John T. Carroll puts it in the New Interpreter’s Bible One Volume Commentary: 

The rich man, his hands tied by the manager’s generosity—he would not dare reinstate the forgiven debts, thus forfeiting honor in the community—can only commend his cunning manager. Ironically, the manager wins his master’s praise by doing what got him fired, squandering the rich man’s property. 

The poignancy of this parable is the statement: “And his master commended the dishonest (adikia) manager because he had acted shrewdly (phronimōs). Within the limited scope of this parable, we are given a case in which a person who to this point had known only how to use money wastefully learns how to use it “shrewdly.” That last word is worth a closer look—“shrewdly” is not the best translation. The Greek word phronimōs is an adverb, and it is normally translated “prudently.” One of the principal virtues in the contemporary world of the New Testament is “prudence,” meaning: rightly relating to reality. 

Rightly relating to reality implies, first, an understanding of reality. For believers, the “children of light,” reality looks a bit different than it does for “the children of this age.” Christians understand that there is a spiritual dimension to life that provides a larger context for events and actions. Jesus reminds his hearers of the long-range destination “eternal homes.”

Utilizing the resources under his control, the dishonest steward acted with an eye to his future. With our own resources, we are encouraged to do the same. The day may well come when we arrive on “the other side,” to discover that an investment in the well-being of someone here on earth pays an unexpected dividend: we are known and welcomed in heaven by the very recipients of our support!

Luke is all about a theology of wealth—of its right use. Just as James is concerned that right “religion” involves the use of wealth to care for widows and orphans, the Jesus of Luke’s gospel puts a premium on the same thing. In fact, it’s not accidental that Luke follows this parable with the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (which will be included in this coming Monday’s readings). Stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, the question for each of us is: as part of a new humanity, how might I use my resources for the bigger picture? How can I contribute to a declaration that Christ lives, he reigns, and it all belongs to him anyway?

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Envy is the Thief of Joy - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 11/10/2022 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 83; Joel 2:21-27; James 1:1-15; Luke 15:1-2,11-32

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)

Our readings in the epistle and the gospel present us with two sets of brothers. 

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is a story of two sons—both lost, though in different ways. The one to prodigality, the other to resentment and envy. One lost son is found. The other … the parable leaves his story open, so the listener and reader can consider whether their own lives are as consumed as he is by resentment and envy. 

In his portrait The Prodigal, Rembrandt reveals much more than the emotional embrace of father and returning son. We have in the foreground of this most deservedly famous painting, of course, the younger brother, who is being tenderly received by his loving and forgiving father. The foregrounding of the prodigal is precisely the problem for the resentful elder brother. He—the faithful stay-at-home, self-styled “slave” of the estate—begrudges the attention lavished on the returning prodigal.  

Rembrandt’s portrayal is chilling and noteworthy. In the painting, the elder brother stands apart. His bearded face is a younger version of the father’s — only this is a hard face. He wears the same red mantle as the father, but he stands tall, straight, aloof. He clutches his hands, one hand shielding the other. You can imagine just this sort of self-protective move when the father says to put a ring on the younger brother’s hand. Envy always thinks that sharing means losing. Jesus’s parable is aimed primarily at “the elder brothers” — folks scandalized that Jesus is spending time with tax collectors and sinners. Rembrandt’s prayer is that the respectable people will remember that they, too, need grace. It’s not enough to look like the Father and to wear his clothes. You have to have his heart. 

The letter of James is also—if indirectly—a story of two sons. First, a bit of background. James writes with such authority that he has been almost universally identified as “James the brother of the Lord” (Galatians 1:19). The gospels list James as one of the sons of Mary, Jesus’s mother (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). Along with his other brothers, James did not believe in Jesus during his earthly ministry (John 7:5). 

However, James is converted when his risen Brother appears to him personally (1 Corinthians 15:7). Quickly, he emerges as leader of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 15). At the Council of Jerusalem, James offers the clinching argument for the validity of Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles, and of his message of salvation as a free gift to all who believe. In James’s epistle, he powerfully bridges Jesus’s teaching and Old Testament themes from the Law, the Wisdom books, and the Prophets. And if we read closely enough and more accurately than is often done, we will see that James bridges the gap between champions of “faith” and champions of “works.” 

How wonderful that on the same day that we read the Parable of the Prodigal Son (and His Embittered Brother), we begin a week-and-a-half long read-through of James’s epistle. I receive the converging of these readings as quite a gift of providence. James could have been a similarly embittered and aggrieved brother. Jesus is foregrounded in the Gospels, while the disbelieving James and his other brothers lurk in the background. Throughout the New Testament, one Son is foregrounded. James and the other brothers show that they understand the celebrity status of their half-brother Jesus. In fact, they offer unsolicited advice about how Jesus ought to thrust himself into the limelight (John 7:3-4). But in that very passage, John notes that they do not believe in Jesus—that is, they do not really understand who he is, nor comprehend in the least what his mission is. One of these unbelieving brothers, at least—and praise God for this fact!—proves to be ready to respond in faith. It’s not difficult for me to imagine James following his Elder Brother’s ministry, listening carefully, taking notes, and pondering. Because when Jesus appears to him after the resurrection, he seems “packed and ready to go”! 

The benefit to us is that James’s epistle is replete with recollections, interpretations, and applications of his—and our—Elder Brother’s teachings. Today’s passage brims with Jesus-sounding instruction about standing fast in tribulation (with James 1:2-4, compare Matthew 10:22; 5:49); about looking to God for wisdom (with James 1:5, compare Matthew 7:7); about gauging true wealth and poverty (with James 1:9-10, compare Luke 6:20,24); and about handling temptation (with James 1:13-15, compare Matthew 4:1-11). 

Envy is the “thief of joy.” How grateful I am that we don’t have to live in that space! The good news is that we all share in the blessings and riches lavished upon every believer - we are all heirs through Jesus Christ. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

He Is Determined Not to Lose a Single One - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 11/09/2022

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97-120; Joel 2:12-19; Revelation 19:11-21; Luke 15:1-10

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)

In a freefall world, equilibrium. Hold me up, and I shall be safe, * and my delight shall be ever in your statutes. — Psalm 119:117. Though this note may seem like an inconsequential sidebar: I am grateful that every Wednesday, the Daily Office offers a portion of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the whole Bible, and a chapter dedicated to praise of the God who, in the words of Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer, “is there, and he is not silent.” It is of no small importance daily to soak oneself in God’s statutes & ordinances, promises & proverbs, and prayers & praises. In a freefall universe, doing so can bring equipoise, grace, and even “delight.”  

It’s never too late to repent. Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing — Joel 2:12-13a. Unlike other prophets, Joel does not rehearse specific charges against God’s people for the ways they have violated their relationship with Yahweh. Still, he urges them to recognize their sin, and to return to Yahweh “with all your heart.” I’ve known too many people who have said: “I’ve been so bad, I know it’s too late for me.” It is never too late … no matter how late … no matter how bad.

Joel points us to the God who is the very definition of grace & mercy, of reticence in punishment & abundance of steadfast love (Joel 2:13). Joel’s “who knows whether he will not turn and relent” is one of the most wonderful understatements in all of Scripture—if you will “turn,” the Lord of grace and mercy will indeed “turn” as well! As the Prayer of Humble Access so elegantly puts it: “But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy.” That’s a line worth returning to again and again.   

There really is a new sheriff in town. …he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’. — Revelation 19:15-16. 

Hovering above what’s happening on the historical plane, according to the Bible’s view of things, are sinister supernatural forces. The Bible looks to a day when there is, in the words of theologian Herman Ridderbos, “an explosion of evil.” Revelation anticipates that day when an unholy trinity emerges—the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet—to rally unrepentant humanity against the Lord’s anointed and his people. The last half of Revelation 19 prophesies the demise of the beast and the false prophet at the hand of the Faithful and True Rider, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11,20). Revelation 20 (which the Daily Office will cover at this same time next year!) prophesies the dispatching of the dragon (20:7-10). 

So jealous is the Heavenly Groom for the Bride who is presented to him in the first half of this chapter—and “Jealousy” is his name!—that he feels “the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” for her honor, her purity, her safety, her beauty. We dare not emotionally neuter God. We dare not consign a meek and mild Jesus to the gentle slopes of Galilee. We must follow warrior Jesus to the Temple where he takes up the whip for its sanctity. We need to understand that while one reason he mounts the cross is to suffer for the sins of the world, another reason he is “lifted up” on that cross is to conquer evil, and to be enthroned as King of kings. On the cross, Jesus is simultaneously “Suffering Servant” and “Christus Victor.” 

You can make heaven smile. Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ — Luke 15:8. As lost and disoriented as you may feel in this moment of your life, you can be confident that the Shepherd of your soul is not in the business of just letting his sheep wander off without his coming after them. You may feel that your life has fallen through the cracks like a forgotten penny, and that you’ve long been given up as lost. Not so. He counts his coins diligently, and is determined not to lose a single one—and that includes you! Contemplate the joy when what is lost has been found! 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

A Confident Sense of God's Favor - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 11/8/2022 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 78; Joel 1:15–2:11; Revelation 19:1-10; Luke 14:25-35

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)

Today … Revelation 19’s fourfold Hallelujah … finally! The word “Hallelujah” is a transliteration of a Hebrew word that means, “Praise Yah[weh]!” It is an exuberant exclamation of worship that courses through the Book of Psalms. It especially marks the times when Israel celebrates Yahweh as King (e.g., Psalms 96 & 98). And there is a glorious clustering of “Hallelujah” psalms at the end of the Book of Psalms, as though Israel’s hymnbook were forecasting the end of time, when Yahweh will be exalted as King of the whole earth— when Yahweh “lifts up those who are bowed down,” when Yahweh “adorns the humble with victory,” and when it’s finally time to “Let everything that has breath praise Yahweh! Hallelujah!” (Psalm 146:8; 149:4; 150:6). 

It is surprising to many readers of the Bible to discover that the word occurs in the New Testament only four times—and all of them are in today’s passage almost at the end of the New Testament. No “Hallelujahs” in the narratives of Jesus’s birth; nor at his baptism, nor at any of his miracles or teachings—not even at his resurrection. It’s almost as though the New Testament holds back its fourfold “Hallelujah,” waiting for today’s moment. 

The New Testament celebrates with its sole “Hallelujahs” the culmination of the story of two women: the destruction of “the great whore,” and the presentation of “the bride” for “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Two things are worth the wait: the end of everything that corrupts and destroys humankind, and the consummation of the love of the Divine Husband for his Bride. These are the things that make John the Revelator go all George Frideric Handel on us: “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

The marriage arc. “And I will take you for my wife forever…” — Hosea 2:19. Our readings in the Daily Office the past few months have provided us ample opportunity to explore the theme of God as husband and Israel as bride, or Christ as husband and the Church as bride. This portrait is one of the most powerful of all the many images the Bible provides for the way God establishes a relationship between himself and us. 

It is small wonder that historically, both for Jews and Christians, marriage has taken on a “sacramental cast”—that is, every marriage has the potential for pointing beyond itself to our union with God. In Jewish practice, Song of Songs is Shabbat evening reading. And Christian weddings often cite Paul’s reference to human marriage as a “mystery” of something beyond itself: “It signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church, and Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 423, drawing on Ephesians 5:32). 

From celibate mystics to married couples with children, believers have clung tenaciously to the sacramental nature of marriage as being vital to the church’s identity and witness. At its heart, the analogy between a husband and a wife becoming “one flesh” provides each of us with the heart-pounding and enthralling possibility of seeing ourselves as someone Christ loves personally and passionately. 

The righteous deeds of the saints. “’…his bride has made herself ready; to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’ — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. — Revelation 19:7b-8. 

Most Christians I know are guilt-ridden. They’re pretty sure that there’s nothing about their lives that is praiseworthy or commendable. And, to be sure, the Bible is clear that none of us merits eternal life. It’s a gift, pure and simple: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified freely by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). True enough. And, thanks be, for Jesus’s dying and rising, by which we are forgiven and made new. 

Beyond that, when we consider the church, it’s hard for most of us, I think, to imagine that the church as we know it measures up to the picture of its being ready to be given “fine linen” because of “the righteous deeds of the saints.” It’s hard for any of us, I suppose, to imagine that the church we experience approximates what Paul envisions when he says it is his goal to present the church “as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). 

God’s perspective, however, seems to be different. When he looks at us, and when he looks at the church, he sees not so much what is, but what shall be. And then when he considers the paltry offerings we make of our lives, he sees not paltriness, but plenitude—not deficiency, but abundance. I’ve been helped a lot—in my thinking about myself and about the church—by these words from John Calvin:

God’s children are pleasing and lovable to him, since he sees in them the marks and features of his own countenance. For we have elsewhere taught that regeneration is a renewal of the divine image in us. Since, therefore, wherever God contemplates his own face, he both rightly loves it and holds it in honor, it is said with good reason that the lives of believers, framed to holiness and righteousness, are pleasing to him. (Institutes 3.17.5)

Therefore, as we ourselves, when we have been engrafted in Christ, are righteous in God’s sight because our iniquities are covered by Christ’s sinlessness, so our works are righteous and are thus regarded because whatever fault is otherwise in them is buried in Christ’s purity, and is not charged to our account. Accordingly, we can deservedly say that by faith alone not only we ourselves but our works as well are justified. (Institutes 3.17.10) 

May you—his dear child and beloved member of the bride of Christ—enjoy a confident sense of God’s favor, through Christ our Lord.

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Setting Things Right - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 11/7/2022 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 80; Joel 1:1-13; Revelation 18:15-24; Luke 14:12-24

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)

Today’s readings from Joel and Revelation and Luke combine to reckon with the sadness of the human condition, but then to set our eyes and our hearts on God’s promise finally to set all things to right and to host us at history’s final banquet. 

Joel 1:1-13. To a farmer there can hardly be anything more horrific than invasion by an army of locusts. There’s no defense. There’s a singular result: total wreckage, and the loss of a season’s worth of labor. The prophet Joel surveys the wake of just such an attack. He may very well have witnessed ransacking by actual locusts at some point in his lifetime. But the locusts serve as a metaphor, or a symbol, of the way invading armies have plundered and pillaged his homeland: “For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable” (Joel 1:6).

There’s no way to date Joel’s writings exactly. We’re not told under what king he served. What’s so powerful about Joel’s graphic vision of a land blighted by locusts is that it could have applied after either of the invasions—Israel in the north by the Assyrians, or Judah in the south by the Babylonians. In each case, everything has been leveled. Everything that has made the Promised Land the Promised Land has been taken. 

And so, the prophet calls, in the first place, simply for lament. Everybody—from drunkard to virgin, from priest to vinedresser— needs to grieve. People can’t even worship aright: “Grain offering and drink offering are withheld (there being no crops left!) from the house of God.” All they can do in the moment is grieve. 

Eventually, Joel will call for repentance, and then he will make promises of an extraordinary future. But first, he says: “Put on sackcloth and lament…” (Joel 1:13). 

We live in not dissimilar days. We’ve seen a locust-like coronavirus devastate the earth, emptying city streets and filling hospital emergency rooms. At the same time, a locust-like plague of discontentment and grievance has beset the hearts of citizens of the U.S., whether on the left or the right. Internationally, invading armies eerily evoke Joel’s complaint: “For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable … The fields are devastated, the ground mourns” (Joel 1:6a,10a). And I believe the first thing to do is simply to let the sadness settle in. 

Revelation 18:15-24. Eventually, all will be set to rights: that’s what the Book of Revelation wants us to know. And setting to rights will entail the bringing down of every destructive and defiling impulse that has ever been let loose against the human race. No more war. No more abuse. No more racism. No more slights or insults. “Babylon” will fall. Ultimately, even nature itself will be brought back into equilibrium, with chapter 21’s “new heaven and new earth.” No more killer diseases, no more sickness of any sort. No more dying, no more hurricanes or earthquakes or devastating fires. But the hinge of it all, the fulcrum, will be the elimination from among humans of every corrupting influence. “Babylon” will fall. As Paul puts it: all of creation will be set free from its corruption with the redemption of the human race (Romans 8:19-21). 

And once “the great whore” Babylon has fallen, the stage will be set for Revelation 19’s wedding feast of the Bride (tomorrow’s reading).  

Luke 14:12-24. “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God” — Luke 14:15. An invitation to that banquet is to be prized above any invitation you might receive, ever. And yet, inconceivably, it is an invitation that too many of us are inclined to put in the trash can: “But they all alike began to make excuses.” There’s land to survey, there are oxen to yoke, there’s a new marriage to begin. (I just bought a car. I just got a new job. We’re heading out on our honeymoon...) 

It’s possible to have your field of vision so filled with this life’s possibilities that you miss life’s number one possibility: a place at the Table of the Feast of God. Jesus is not saying don’t take the job, or don’t commit to the marriage. But he is saying that it’s wise to hold all these things with a loose grip, because a great day is coming. “The poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” … people from “the roads and lanes” will fill God’s house—and there will be a place there for you and for me, if only we have prepared ourselves to say “Yes!” when the invitation comes. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

To Guard and Cherish Our Relationships - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 11/4/2022 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 69; Song of Songs 8:8-14; Revelation 17:1-18; Luke 13:31-35 

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

For our Old Testament reading the past two weeks and this week, I am treating the Song of Songs instead of the lectionary’s Ecclesiasticus. Together, I hope we have been discovering or rediscovering some of the power of this enchanting “Best of Songs.” Today’s portion is Song of Songs 8:8–14.  

Wrapping up Song of Songs. Let me explain why I inserted a study of Song of Songs into the cycle of Daily Office readings. For me, the Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft added a certain sparkle to the trilogy of Old Testaments writings (Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs) when, in his little book Three Philosophies of Life, he compared them to the three sections of Dante’s Divine Comedy.  

Ecclesiastes shows us how life without God is hell on earth—the Inferno. Job shows us that the path of salvation and of suffering are one and the same—the Purgatorio. Song of Songs shows us that God made us for joyous intimacy—the Paradiso.  

It so happens that in this year’s cycle of Old Testament readings, the Daily Office has taken us through Ecclesiastes and Job, studies in seeing that life is a dead end without God, and in learning how God uses suffering to enable us to know him more deeply. I noticed, thanks to Professor Kreeft, that there was an omission in the readings: despite its historical importance to the church (not to mention the synagogue), the Song of Songs is excluded from the Daily Office. We were being deprived, I concluded, of what Paul Harvey might have called “the rest of the story,” namely, this precious “best of songs” that acknowledges what we all know—that we are desperate for love—and, what we need to learn: “the flame of Yah” will not disappoint.

As we leave our musings over this “best of songs”, I pray for you now exactly what I prayed three weeks ago when we began: a renewed sense that Christ, our Heavenly Bridegroom, loves you intimately, tenderly, and persistently. And I pray for you a certain “sacramental cast” to all your relationships here on earth, that they would all be consecrated to the Lord. This “best song” teaches us to guard all relationships—and especially those of intimacy—to cherish them, to preserve them, and to be wholeheartedly and unreservedly given to them.  

With today’s verses, our singers do their own bit of wrapping up: “Take care of the ‘little sisters’ who are coming along after you,” they say (Song of Songs 8:8-10). “Ignore distractions along the path to a love that is exclusive and therefore true,” they implore (Song of Songs 8:11-12); And finally, they urge us to be watchful and to pray, “Make haste, my beloved…” (Song of Songs 8:13-14). Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord, and save! 

Revelation. Speaking of “come quickly, Lord,” we leave the Old Testament’s version of God’s Love Story, to swing into the last few days of the New Testament’s version of the Love Story. First, in Revelation 17, we must meet the story’s “other woman,” the whore of Babylon.  

Part of the Bible’s overarching story line points to two different paths to fulfilling the mandate God gives to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: “fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). One is a path of faith, and the other of faithlessness. Genesis chapter four provides the opening manifestation of the “two ways.” Enoch, son of the faithless murderer Cain, builds the first city, which he names after himself (Genesis 4:17). (Perhaps there’s a message in that fact alone.) In this line of unbelief flourish the great gifts of culture-building. of “filling the earth and subduing it”: animal husbandry, music, and manufacturing (Genesis 4:20-22). Meanwhile, in the line of the believing Seth (the murdered Abel’s replacement) flows just one gift: the ability “to invoke the name of Yahweh”—that is, to relate to God by name (Genesis 4:25).  

Two tracks—two possibilities—for human existence are hereby laid down. Israel’s mission, in the midst of faithless nations, is to incubate and nourish a redemptive vision of culture-building. That is why Yahweh calls these descendants of Seth into covenant with himself, and to “be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).  

The 5th century AD North African theologian Augustine will name the two paths the “City of Man” and the “City of God.” In the Book of Revelation, they take the form of the “whore of Babylon” and the “bride of Christ.” By the end of the Book of Revelation, God will perfect the beautification of the Bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7-10), and bring about a New Jerusalem on a new earth under new heavens (Revelation 21-22). 

In the meantime, though, God must dispatch the “whore of Babylon,” the embodiment of a faithless and disobedient humanity’s project of “filling the earth and subduing it”—in a word, Augustine’s “City of Man.” Students of the Book of Revelation have struggled to identify the Babylon to which John refers. To some, the “whore” looks like literal Babylon in Assyria. To some, her seven hills suggest that Babylon is Rome (17:9). To others, the fact that Revelation refers to “the great city” as the place where Jesus was killed means that “Babylon” is Jerusalem (11:8). I think it’s most likely that John’s “Babylon” is intended to resonate with each of these cities. But in the end, the whoring “Babylon” is a spiritual reality: a composite for the entirety of the human project that has sought to build civilization without God, and has been proven to be rapine, exploitative, and blasphemous. To turn to another biblical image: Babylon, “the great whore” is a reprised—and final—Tower of Babel that must be felled. Stay tuned.  

Luke. “…as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…” — Luke 13:34. As I noted a few months ago when we encountered this image in Matthew’s gospel, it’s significant that Jesus meets his contemporaries’ rejection of him not with anger, but with sadness: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” He laments their repudiation, even while he knows its outcome will be good: the salvation of the world. And he looks to the day when the unfolding sadness will be turned to joy, when his countryfolk will confess: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Blessed, indeed, is he… 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Where Love Proved Strong - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 11/3/2022 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 71; Song of Songs 8:6-7; Revelation 16:12-21; Luke 13:18-30 

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

For our Old Testament reading the past two weeks and this week, I am treating the Song of Songs instead of the lectionary’s Ecclesiasticus. Together, I hope we are discovering or rediscovering some of the elegance of this enchanting “Best of Songs.” Today’s portion is Song of Songs 8:6–7.  

I noted at the beginning of our meditations on Song of Songs that this “best of songs” is a song about yearning for love. We’ve seen how elusive love can be, and how dedicated our “Solomon” and our “Shulammite” are to finding each other and to satisfying each other’s desire for love.  

In something of a climax, the Song—and we must remember that Song of Songs is a song—extols love itself. Song of Songs 8:6-7 marks a zenith, not just because its topic is the very love that has drawn our couple together, but because this couplet includes the singular mention of God’s name. Here is the more accurate rendering of the last phrase of 8:6, where jealous love is said to be “a flame of Yahweh himself” (8:6d). This song is “the best of songs” because, finally, it extols the God who is love.  

“Set me as a seal…” — Song of Songs 8:6a. A seal is the way, especially in societies where literacy was not universal, by which one person would certify their identity. We are not sure who is speaking in these verses—some commentators think it’s the Bride, others that it’s the Groom. It doesn’t matter, because either could be expressing this desire. When I ask you to take me “as a seal (hanging as a pendant around your neck) over your heart,” I commit myself to adapting my thoughts and attitudes and expressions to you; and to do so in such a complete way that when people see and hear me, they see and hear you. Scripture speaks elsewhere of being “one flesh” — that is, two people with a common identity. That is our Bride and her Groom.  

This kind of love becomes what Charles Williams (Christian novelist and “Inklings” member) calls “coinherence”: something like a mutual indwelling. And to a Christian sensibility, coinherence is possible because, and only because, it is a sharing in the inner life of the Triune God. Jesus promised his disciples: “…you will know that I am in the Father and you in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). As Williams’s fellow Inkling C. S. Lewis put it, our Heavenly Father wishes to absorb us into his life without devouring us; he “wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.” Such is the intimacy our “Solomon” and our “Shulammite” desire for and in each other. Such is the mystery of the bond between Christ and his Bride (Ephesians 5:32). Such is the aspiration, at least, of a man and a woman when they pledge their lives in the bond of marriage.  May God grant grace.  

“For love is strong as Death…” — Song of Songs 8:6b. Our loving couple rhapsodize about love being stronger than death. They liken love to a fire no amount of water can put out, and they claim their love is so much beyond price that money can’t sully it. Experience teaches, however, that such rhapsodizing feels like a leap into unbridled romanticism—like so many songs from the youth culture of my teenage years. Wedding services that may even include today’s verses about love being as strong as death may nonetheless stipulate that the vows taken are: “till death do us part.” Love can flame out—with or without external flooding. And finances have shipwrecked countless marriages.  

But then, notice the capital “D” in Death as I’ve quoted it above. Here’s the Jerusalem Bible’s rendering of Song of Songs 8:6-7. I commend it to you:  

6 For love is strong as Death 
jealousy relentless as Sheol. 
The flash of it is a flash of fire, 
a flame of Yahweh himself. 
7 Love no flood can quench, 
no torrents drown. 
Were a man to offer all the wealth of his house to buy love,  
contempt is all he would purchase.  

This passage is brimming with theological meaning. In Canaanite religion “Death” (Mot) is the force that the pagan god Baal fought against. Sheol is the place inhabited by spirits entrapped by death. And the twice appearing word “flash” could have been capitalized too as “Flash,” because it is Resep, the name of the Canaanite god of pestilence (per Jenson). The Old Testament treats Yahweh as the one who delivers, not just from the torrential flood of the Red Sea, but from cosmic watery chaos (Psalm 93:3-4; Habakkuk 3:8,15). And in the biblical world, money isn’t just money, it is Mammon, the worship of which is idolatry.  

Intriguingly, the last phrase of verse six includes the single mention of God—and that, by his personal name—in the entire Song: more precisely, “a flame of Yah.” It’s mystifying to me that most translations bury the reference to Yahweh. The verse invokes as guarantor of love’s strength the God who has revealed himself in Exodus 3 in a burning bush as Deliverer (“I AM THAT I AM,” from which “Yahweh” derives), who loves his people for no other reason than that “love” is who he is (Exodus 34; Deuteronomy 7), whose name is “Jealous” (Exodus 34:14), and who therefore is “a consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24; Hebrews 12:29). The God of the Bible is a consuming fire that comes against all that would destroy the creation he loves, and above all, the humans he has lovingly fashioned to bear his image and to steward and tend his creation.  

There is, therefore, a place where love proved strong as Death: the Cross and Empty Tomb of Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus (whose name means “Yahweh saves”) that Yahweh takes on and defeats the enemies of his people: death, disease, chaos, and cupidity. Jesus is God’s jealously protective love. It is to him that the Song of Songs elegantly, exquisitely, and evocatively points. 

And that, to offer one final point, is why it is so important to choose not to be among the citizens of Babylon who drink “the wine cup of the fury of his wrath” (Revelation 16:19), but, instead, to be a part of the Bride of Christ and to prepare to “feast in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29 Jerusalem Bible). May you choose wisely. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+