Abide in the Truth - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 4/20/2023 •
Week of 2 Easter 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 18:1–20; Daniel 2:31–49; 1 John 2:18–29; Luke 3:1–14 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. This is Thursday of the Second Week of Easter, and I’m grateful to be with you. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

Daniel. Here in Daniel 2 the statue in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream is top-heavy: weighty and valuable materials at the top, and strong but fragile materials at the bottom. All it will take to bring the whole edifice down is a blow from a single stone to its iron-clay feet. Scholars are not unanimous in their interpretation of Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. But the simplest and most compelling one, it seems to me, sees the successive kingdoms as Babylon (gold), Media-Persia (silver), Greek (bronze), and Roman (iron and clay). Despite its aspiration to bring all people together under the pax Romana (a rule of law, shrewd administration, and military power), Rome’s attempt to “marry” different groups will prove to be brittle.  

God’s Messiah (the “stone…not cut of any human hands”—see 1 Corinthians 10:4) will strike a blow that will make the entire edifice of human grandeur fall. In its place will rise a new and eternal kingdom: “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people” (Daniel 2:44).   

Image: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Luke. John the Baptist’s mission is to announce the dawning of the day Daniel foretold. Unique among the gospel writers, Luke names contemporary rulers of the pax Romana—from the emperor himself, to his provincial governor, to his indigenous puppet kings, to the collaborationist stewards of Jerusalem’s temple. John’s message is that all this apparent power and glory is shortly to be proven to be brittle as clay.  

At the heart of the Baptist’s proclamation of the need for a baptism of repentance is his persuasion that the day is right around the corner when God will turn things upside down, or rather, put things right side up again: “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth” (Luke 3:5, quoting Isaiah 40:4).  

In anticipation of “seeing the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6), everybody must get ready—each person in their own way. Those who think themselves privileged by birthright or spiritual heritage must repent of their pride, and “produce fruit worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). At the same time, those thought to be automatically excluded from God’s favor—tax collectors and soldiers, for instance—they are invited to come to the preparatory waters. Not on their own terms, to be sure, but on God’s. They must turn from extortionist and predatory ways. The coming of Messiah means the kingdom of this world and its value system—most visibly expressed in John’s day in the enforcers of the pax Romana—is about to be overturned in favor of God’s rule of justice, righteousness, mercy, and love. Prepare the way… 

1 John. Beloved disciple and elder statesman of the church, John has seen a lamentable Satanic pushback in his churches. Jesus Christ, the Incarnate God-Man, has conquered sin and death on the cross, and has “thrown out” the ruler of this world in order to draw all sorts of people to himself (John 12:32). But a mark of the fact that this is “the last hour” is that the devil still has some fight in him. The devil wages war on the church (see Revelation 12). And his most effective strategy is to distort the truth of who the Messiah is, and create doubt and despair in the church. Thus, in John’s day and ours, the heretical emergence of “many antichrists” (false teachers, false leaders) in the church.  

In John’s day, the false teaching went along the lines of the “divine Christ” temporarily inhabiting the body of the “human Jesus,” so that you couldn’t say “Jesus is the Christ.” Such a split allowed the “divine Christ” to abandon the “human Jesus” on the cross, under the assumption that divinity could not be associated with death. Of course, that meant that there was no sacrifice for sin, nor was there need for such a thing. This teaching declared that knowing God really had nothing to do with the mundaneness and messiness of this life. Thus, following this reasoning, there was no need for confession of sin, and no need to adhere to the bothersome, meddlesome commandments of God.  

In our day, there’s probably no better representative of “antichrist”-thinking than that which Nobel Peace Prize winning missionary doctor Albert Schweitzer introduced in his Quest of the Historical Jesus. As a convinced modern secularist, Schweitzer could not conceive of an actual, physical resurrection. He believed that a thoroughly human Jesus died on the cross alone and in despair, crying out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The “historical Jesus” is lost to us, Schweitzer said, and is irrelevant to us anyway. He’s just dead and gone. What matters, he would say, is the “Christ of faith” who lives in our hearts and inspires us to be our better selves. That erroneous belief, it must be said, inspired Schweitzer to live one of the twentieth century’s most heroic lives: as a medical missionary to Africa, as a brilliant organist and scholar of Bach, and as a theologian of note. But underneath it was the spirit of “antichrist” that John saw in his day, and which he described as characteristic of living (as we continue to do today) in “the last hour.” 

Our job is straightforward: to continue to confess that Jesus and the Christ are one and the same person. In Mary’s womb, a unique thing took place: heaven and earth came together, and came together for good. The divine Second Person has permanently taken to himself the fullness of our humanity, has suffered for us, died for us, and has risen to life restored for us. He represents us now in heaven as a promise of what we shall be when he comes again in power and great glory. “Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he has promised us, eternal life” (1 John 2:24).  

Abide in this staggering truth, and be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Knowing Him Reveals Mysteries - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 4/19/2023 •
Week of 2 Easter  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:1–24; Daniel 2:17–30; 1 John 2:12–17; John 17:20–26 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1–3,11a,14c,18–19, BCP, p. 87);  following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68–79, BCP, p. 92) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter. We are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

We discover in our readings this morning powerful insights about learning who we are in loving God and loving one another.  

Daniel receives revelation about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. In today’s passage the king of Babylonian has seen “what will happen at the end of days” (Daniel 2:28). Because we are not reading the entire narrative all at once, we don’t learn the content of the dream today. Instead, today’s text shows us, first, Daniel’s praise and worship of “the God of heaven” (Daniel 2:19). Second, we see Daniel’s insistence before the king that it is not a special talent of his own that gives him the ability to perceive the dream and interpret it. As Daniel tells the king, “There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has disclosed to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen at the end of days” (Daniel 2:28). God is the giver of all good gifts (James 1:17).  

Image: From stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida 

Only half of Daniel’s message to the king addresses the content and the meaning of the dream itself. More fundamental is the other half of Daniel’s message: “There is a God….” And not just any God! That God—Yahweh, Israel’s covenant Lord—wishes to be known in Babylon. The key to acquiring any wisdom, including wisdom about oneself, is through knowing him. It is only in knowledge of Yahweh, Daniel dares to tell the Babylonian king, “that you may understand the thoughts of your mind” (Daniel 2:30).  

As John Calvin notes at the very beginning of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, to know God is to know oneself, and the route to knowing oneself is to know God. Amen that! 

1 John. When we are very young in Christ, just beginning the journey of self-understanding, we first need to know forgiveness and the love of God as our Father (1 John 2:12a,14a). When we are early in the process of establishing our identities and our place in the world, we need to know the power of God to help us resist evil and live for Him (1 John 2:13b,14c). When we are older and have come to the place where others look to us for mature wisdom, we need to be able to draw on a lifetime of experience with Him whom we’ve known “from the beginning” (1 John 2:13a,14b).  

At every stage of life, we need to be on guard, says John, against the seductions of illicit physical pleasure (“the lust of the flesh”), of the idolizing of beauty (“the lust of the eyes”), and of the pride of building our “brand” (“the pride of life”—1 John 2:15b RSV). Pleasure for pleasure’s sake, art for art’s sake, and feeling superior to other people—these are the main elements of what it is to “love the world and the things of the world” (1 John 2:15a).  In the end, their charms are fleeting, and the love of the Father is not in them. And if we belong to Christ, they are not who we are! 

In John 17, Jesus prays for us, his church. Our Great High Priest prays that we will experience something that is more valuable, more lasting, and more real than anything else in the world: love for one another. Whether we are young or old, whether we wrestle with sins of the flesh or of the eye or of the ego, our true selves are to be found in giving ourselves to one another in the Body of Christ.  

God’s very being is an eternal communion of love between the persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When we, Christ’s followers, love one another, we participate in that eternal communion. And when, in answer to Jesus’s prayer, we love one another, we come as close to making visible the invisible God as is possible for human beings: “I ask …  that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20a,21).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Jesus Sets the New Standard for Love - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 4/18/2023 •
Week of 2 Easter 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 5; Psalm 6; Daniel 2:1–16; 1 John 2:1–11; John 17:12–19 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90);following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we draw insights from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you. This is Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

1 John. First, John writes that those who say they have no sin and therefore do not need to confess their sin delude themselves about themselves. And they show themselves to be oblivious to an essential element of the Bible’s story line. The world has a desperate need for an “atoning sacrifice” (NRSV) or “propitiation” (KJV, ASV, NASB, ESV). “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1b–2).  

The Greek term that John uses here for Christ’s sacrifice is hilasmos. Its root hilaros means “cheerful, merry, joyful.” John means that by his sacrifice on the cross, Christ the God-Man has turned away God’s wrath by satisfying the hard demands of justice. Yes, the demands of the very God whose love sent Jesus in the first place! Indeed, as Cranmer’s prayer puts it, our Heavenly Father’s “property is always to have mercy.” The death of the Incarnate One on the cross is the means by which the God of mercy brings his mercy to bear on our lives. Hilasmos carries the sense of turning the Divine Judge’s righteous frown into a smile of welcome.  

Think of it this way: because Christ offers himself as hilasmos, God the Righteous Judge comes from behind the bench, takes off his robes, and, as Heavenly Father, embraces those sanctified and cleansed from unrighteousness, shame, and guilt. He invites them home, seats them at his Table, adopts them, not just as sons and daughters, but favored sons and daughters, and makes them, with his Son, heirs of his lavish estate.  

Image: Detail, Stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida 

Second, in this letter John addresses his opponents who are also confused about God’s commandments. Thinking themselves to be above sin, they have no use for commandments that would define as sin certain things they wish to do. They live in some sort of transmoral zone, making up their own rules—small wonder they can’t think of themselves as sinners! Making up your own rules leads inevitably and inexorably to one place: hating one another.  John calls it what it is: walking in darkness.  

In a remarkably pastoral move, John reminds them of Jesus’s commandment to love one another. It’s an old commandment in one sense, for Israel had been told long ago: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). During his earthly ministry, Jesus had reaffirmed that commandment (Mark 12:31 and parallels). But at the last meal when he washed his disciples’ feet, he made it a new commandment: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). He makes the neighbor even closer: “one another.” He makes the standard no longer merely “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (The way you love yourself is extravagant enough, right?) The new standard is Jesus’s own love: “the way I have loved you” (love that washes feet and that lays down its life for its friends).  

John 17. Thus, the hallmark of this portion of Jesus’s High Priestly Prayer is that his disciples be sanctified in the truth (verses 17,19) and protected from the evil one (verse 15). While Jesus could have prayed that his disciples be taken right out of this world along with him, he prays that they stay in the world, under protection from the evil one who would pervert God’s Word (exactly as John finds later in his churches). As the Word does its deep work to purify hearts and motives, creating communities of disciples who truly love one another the way they have been loved by Jesus, they will know deep joy (verse 13) and the world will indeed be given reason to believe (John 13:34–35; 17:21). Dear Lord, may your prayer find its “Yes!” in us.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Faith Is Empty Without Christ’s Resurrection - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 4/17/2023 •
Week of 2 Easter  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 1; Psalm 2; Psalm 3; Daniel 1:1–21; 1 John 1:1–10; John 17:1–11 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (“The First Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 12:2–6, BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the Second Week of Easter, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

Daniel. The book of Daniel is set in the early years of the Babylonian Captivity. Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, are part of the population that has been displaced to Babylon. In this far away and pagan land, Daniel and companions attempt what Jeremiah had exhorted the exiles to do: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare” (Jeremiah 29:7).  

As the readings from the early chapters of Daniel show, “seeking the welfare” of Babylon while maintaining fidelity to Yahweh is a perilous undertaking. In this opening chapter, despite paganized name-changes being forced upon them, Daniel and his companions resist the imposition of dietary requirements. They do so even while they submit to their education in Babylonian literature and wisdom. Throughout, Yahweh protects them as they navigate challenging waters.  

Reading and praying through the book of Daniel is a profoundly important exercise for a church that feels like it is in exile. Like Abraham, we look for “a better homeland” (Hebrews 11:14,16). As Paul says, we have our “citizenship in heaven” (Philippians 3:20). Nonetheless, for now, we live in a world that feels quite alien in many respects. Here, we are, as Peter says, “strangers and aliens” (1 Peter 1:1:1). And yet, we are called to pray for the well-being of the society in which we live—that its institutions and its peoples would thrive. We are to learn its wisdom and ways, and we are to bring to bear God’s wisdom and ways where we can. May God help us. May he make us, as Jesus says, “wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16).   

Image: Maerten de Vos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

In 1 John, the beloved apostle (and now elder statesman) in Christ’s church responds to those who would accommodate the faith to pagan assumptions about theology, self-understanding, and ethics.  

There are some people in John’s churches who can’t bring themselves to acknowledge that in Christ, God became fully human. They seem to have believed that the “divine Christ” and the “human Jesus” were perhaps temporarily conjoined in one being.  That the two natures actually formed one Person, and that the “divine Christ” actually died on the cross and returned in the “human Jesus”—well, that just didn’t fit their philosophical categories.  The first thing John wants us to know is that the faith is just so much empty gas without the genuineness of the Incarnation and the physicality of Christ’s return from the dead. Thus, John’s vivid, sensory, and graphic language: “…what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life…” (1 John 1:1). It’s clearly not a ghost whom John has heard, seen, and touched. It is the Living God, who has assumed flesh like ours.  

The second thing John wants us to know is that our faith is just so much delusional self-talk without the blunt confession of our sinfulness. Without due regard for our entrapment in sin, our proclivity for justifying ourselves and manipulating others, we are “walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true” (1 John 1:6).  

In tomorrow’s reading from 1 John, we see what gain our confession of sin brings. But for today, it is enough to note simply the need to confess. Here, John would agree with the words of the great Jesus Prayer that goes back to Evagrius Pontus (died 339), but that is based in the Synoptics: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (see Mark 10:47 and parallels).  

John 17. The task of living for Christ (abiding, loving, and testifying) is not something we are left to do in our own strength. Holding us up throughout is the prayer ministry of the Lord Jesus. Here in John 17, Jesus climaxes his post-dinner teaching by praying in advance for his followers’ ability, those in the room and all who will follow, to live out his final instructions. This prayer is of a piece with Jesus’s entire ministry of prayer for and with us. He prayed for the success of his mission on our behalf throughout his days on this earth “with loud cries and tears” (Hebrews 5:7); he prayed for Peter even during Peter’s denial (Luke 22:32); and he prays for us still at the right hand of the Father, for “he ever lives to intercede” for those who come to God through him (Hebrews 7:25).  

As he prepares to offer himself up on the cross, Jesus prays that the Father will indeed restore him to the glory he had from eternity. That Jesus could pray for something that would seem to be a certainty is a mark of how real his humanity was and is—and there could be no greater example for us never, ever, ever to neglect the call to prayer. And on this last night with his disciples, Jesus asks his Father’s protection for those who belong to him—we can never be grateful enough for his constant and ongoing intervention on our behalf.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Spirit of Truth - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 4/14/2023 •
Easter Week 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 136; Daniel 12:1–4,13; Acts 4:1–13; John 16:1–15 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“The Second Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 55:6–11; BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Friday of Easter Week. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

There is one hope. Old Testament readings this week have shown some of the great “Easter eggs” of resurrection hope. After three days and nights, Jonah emerges alive from the belly of a large fish (Jonah 2:1–9). Ezekiel sees dry bones scattered in a valley of desolation rising to new life (Ezekiel 37:1–14). Daniel says that for those whose names are written in the book of life, death will prove to be a sleep in anticipation of waking “to everlasting life,” and to “shin[ing] like the brightness of the sky … like the stars forever and ever” (Daniel 12:1–4,13).  

There is one name. In Acts 3, in the name of the resurrected Christ, Peter and John restore health to a lame man’s legs. In Acts 4, they testify that it is only by that name, “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,” that salvation comes (Acts 4:10,12).   

There is one source of power. For believers, belief in the one hope and in the one name brings conviction, confidence, and joy. Believers understand that the same power that had worked through Jesus during his earthly ministry now resides in them.  

[The Spirit of truth] will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. — John 16:14. John records Jesus’s teaching that the Holy Spirit’s role is to make the Father’s care and the Son’s work personal to us. Much about the inner workings of the Triune God is mysterious, but one thing is not. The role of the Holy Spirit is to bring Heaven’s reality into our lives now, in this life. Jesus says that his bodily absence will make way for this ministry of the Holy Spirit. While on earth, Jesus had been able to be “with” his followers. By going away and sending the Holy Spirit, he will be able to be “in” them (compare John 14:9 with 14:17 & 20).  

The Holy Spirit, says the apostle Paul, brings deep consolation and encouragement to our hearts. The Holy Spirit affirms that we really are our Father’s own dear children (Romans 8:16). The Holy Spirit leads us in our walk with Christ (Romans 8:14). The Holy Spirit produces Christ’s life in us (Romans 8:4; Galatians 5:22). The Holy Spirit even prays for us, and also with us when we are at a loss for words (Romans 8:26-27). 

The work of the Holy Spirit is so immense that Jesus wants us to understand that it’s not his disciples’ job to denounce the world and prove it wrong in its rejection of him. That’s the Spirit’s task: “He will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). All we have to do is follow the Spirit’s leading. We are to tell the truth about God’s love for the world (“God so loved the world…”) and about Jesus’s person and work. The Spirit will do whatever undertaking the Father and the Son have given him to do in people’s hearts—“The wind (pneuma, which means “wind,” “breath,” and “spirit/Spirit”) blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).  

May Christ’s resurrection inspire courage, may the Name of Jesus heal the broken places in our lives, and may the Holy Spirit continue his marvelous work of empowering our telling of God’s story. Finally, more and more, may the Spirit of Truth lead us from sin to righteousness and from darkness to light.  

Collect for Friday in Easter Week. Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Friends of Jesus - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 4/13/2023 •
Easter Week  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 146; Psalm 147; Ezekiel 37:1–14; Acts 3:11–26; John 15:12–27 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. This is Thursday of Easter Week, and I’m grateful to be with you. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

… but I have called you friends. (John 15:15).   

It’s a spectacular thing to know that Jesus calls you “friend.” To be befriended by him is amazing. It’s better than winning the world’s richest lottery. He is, after all, the Author of Life, and the King of kings and Lord of lords (Acts 3:15; Revelation 19:16). He has broken through the boundary of death, and he holds all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). To have him call you friend?! Serious bragging rights … if he were anybody else.  

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. … You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:12,14). But curiously, because of who Jesus is, his friendship doesn’t create a sense of entitlement or presumption. It doesn’t mean you get to the front of the line, or to the head table. To be his friend means something entirely different. It means you go to the end of the line. To be his friend is to cease striving to be noticed. To be his friend is to notice those whom nobody else notices. To be his friend is to quit trying to make other people think you are important. To be his friend is to make other people important to you.  

What a great — if brief and simple — reminder this first week of Easter.  

Collect for Thursday in Easter Week. Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ’s Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  

Be blessed … and be a blessing … this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Life From the Vine - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 4/12/2023 •
Easter Week 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Micah 7:7–15; Acts 3:1–10; John 15:1–11 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 11 (“The Third Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 60:1–3,11a,14c,18–19, BCP, p. 87);  following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (“The Song of Zechariah,” Luke 1:68–79, BCP, p. 92) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Wednesday of Easter Week. We are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

John 15:1–11 may be the most important words Jesus ever utters about the dynamic of the Christian life. 

The Father is an expert vinedresser. God intends Israel to be the means by which he re-Edenizes the world. That’s why, going back to the prophets and the psalms, God uses the metaphor of Israel as a vine (Isaiah 5; Jeremiah 2; Psalm 80). The Heavenly Vinedresser wants to produce grapes that will make great wine with which he can bless the world. Thus, he is absolutely committed to providing the best care for his vine.  

Jesus is the True Vine, Israel’s true Son and Seed. And we are branches of that one True Vine. Thus, we receive our life from the vine, not vice versa. A secular Israel is an oxymoron. The church as a self-sustaining institution is a self-contradiction. Editing the Bible into a mere manual for autonomous, moral self-improvement is a non-starter.  In Jesus we live. Apart from Jesus we die. Full stop.  

Image:  "I Saw it through the Grapevine" by Vainsang is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

Our job is simple, if not easy. All we “branches” need to do is “abide” (menein is a very simple Greek word that means essentially “remain” or “stay”) in the vine—that is, stay connected to our life source.  

“He lifts up every branch in me that bears no fruit” — John 15:2a, my translation. When we are unfruitful but “abiding,” the good Vinedresser (the Father) will “lift us up” so we can get better sunlight and rainfall (the NRSV’s translation of the first half of verse 2’s airein as “remove” is terribly misleading, making it appear as though unfruitful branches get cut off). No. A skilled vinedresser looks for vine branches that trail along the ground, cut off from rain and sun. He carefully “lifts them up” and finds them a place on the arbor where they will thrive. Here, Jesus uses a metaphor for the Father drawing us closer to himself—creating in us a desire for deeper and more intimate fellowship with him, putting us in closer contact with other believers who can encourage and instruct, drawing us to church for the ministry of Word and Sacrament, of praise and worship. That’s what your Heavenly Father does for you!  

“Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit” — John 15:2b. When we are growing, we get pruned. The Greek word is kathairein. It means “cleanse,” and it is a lovely word play on the previous verb airein (“lift up”). The “cleansing” of branches means, of course, cutting away unproductive growth. But it also involves pulling away insects, and protecting branches from diseases and fungi. Our Heavenly Vinedresser may very well do some healthy meddling: calling upon us to reorder priorities and to reorient values; he may even change tempting circumstances and comfortable but harmful associates. He may cut away things so that lesser fruitfulness in the present can lead to greater fruitfulness in the future.  

James Montgomery Boice provides two important cautionary notes. First, the sequence of the Father’s work is important. Before he eliminates the negative (the pruning), our Father builds the positive (the lifting up). He draws us to himself first, then takes away the extraneous or the harmful. We are like a girl who finds she no longer wants to play with dolls after she becomes interested in a young man. If we reverse things, we risk becoming proud of ourselves and judgmental of others.*  

Second, Boice cautions, the pruning takes place by the Word of God, not by human-made rules and standards. “It is always the Word that must cleanse us, otherwise our ideas of purity are man-made and not of God’s origin at all.” When we make up our own criteria of righteousness for everyone—what movies to watch, what to eat or drink, for whom to vote, how to dress, how to educate our kids—we substitute our own standards for God’s and we further divide the Body of Christ over non-essential matters. And the world rightly says, “See, they really are a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites.”  

“Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” — John 15:6. It’s always possible to contemplate the possibility of cutting ourselves off, of “not abiding.” That’s the scenario envisioned in verse 6. And Jesus asks us to consider that terrible “what if?”, only to remind us that by remaining “in him,” we find a profound sense of God’s responsiveness to our heart’s best desires, “love” and “joy” (verses 7-11). Ultimately, the Heavenly Vinedresser’s goal for us is that we participate in the eternal love that has always flowed between Father and Son, and that now has been extended to us: “Just as the Father has loved me, I have loved you; remain in my love. If you obey my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be made complete” (John 15:10–11).  

Collect for Wednesday in Easter Week. O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

* James Montgomery Boice, The Gospel of John, Volume 4 (Zondervan, 1978), pp. 229–230. 

A Mutually Shared Love - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 4/11/2023 •
Easter Week  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 103; Isaiah 30:18–21; Acts 2:36–41(42–47); John 14:15–31  

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83);  following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we draw insights from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you. This is Tuesday of Easter Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

In the ancient church, Easter was considered to be the most desirable day to receive baptism. Candidates had been told that baptism would introduce them to an adventurous and arduous life—a new existence of knowing God and being known by him. And so, the days right after baptism became a time for learning how to live out the baptized life. It was a season for instruction on the basics of the Christian life.  

Humility. It so happens that our Gospel readings for the next two weeks (John 14–17) present Jesus’s most thorough teaching about the essence of the Christian life. The hallmark of that life is a loving humility, a picture of which Jesus paints by washing the disciples’ feet in John 13. He closes the section in John 17, by praying what is called his High Priestly Prayer to fortify them for such a life. Between those chapters, in John 14–16, Jesus outlines what life will look like for his followers after his death, resurrection, and ascension, and before his final return in glory.  

Image: Icon of the Holy Trinity, Andrew Rublev, 1425. Adaptation by Sayaka Kamakari. Used with permission. 

Commandment keeping. Jesus tells us that if we love him, we will keep his commandments (John 14:15). In these chapters in particular, he emphasizes that we are to love one another (John 13:34–35; 15:12,17). Elsewhere, Jesus commands us to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned (Matthew 25:35). And he tells us, directly or through his apostles, to purify our hearts, live chastely, pray without ceasing, renounce idolatry, give proportionately and generously, expose error, and flee temptation (note this splendid string of verses: Matthew 5:8; 1 Timothy 5:2; Hebrews 13:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; Matthew 23:23; 2 Corinthians 8–9; Ephesians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22). However, this is not a cafeteria menu. It’s a full diet. All of it is necessary for health and well-being. Without any of it, we die.  

Mutual indwelling. Jesus also tells us we are not left to our own devices in these endeavors. We do not keep the commandments by our own devices, through our own resources. We do not pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. We enjoy the onboard presence of the fullness of God.  

Jesus tells his disciples he is going away after this night, but that he is only doing so in order that he may return to them in another way—in the way of the Spirit. To this point, the Holy Spirit has been present “alongside” Jesus’s disciples, because the Spirit that came to “abide” upon Jesus at his baptism (John 1:32) has been working through Jesus: “You know [the Spirit of Truth], because he abides alongside (para) you… (John 14:17, my translation). But in the future, when Jesus has departed bodily, the Spirit of Truth will enable Jesus himself to be not just “alongside” them, but “in” them: “and he will be in you” (John 14:17, my translation). Thus, says, Jesus, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you” (John 14:19b). In fact, both the Father and the Son will take up residence in the disciples when the Spirit comes to them: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).  

Christian thinkers refer to a “coinherence”—a mutual indwelling—within the life of the persons of the Trinity: the Father dwelling in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, the Son dwelling in the Father and in the Spirit, the Spirit dwelling in the Father and in the Son. A divine, shared, mutually deferential life of love. We will come to share in that same life: “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14:20).  

The love that Jesus calls forth from us is his own love within us, and flowing out from us.  

And so … peace, not anxiety. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid” (John 14:27). The result is that the physical absence of Jesus will create, not anxiety and distress, but peace and contentment. Not discouragement, but encouragement. Not cowardice, but courageousness. A great day is yet to come when, as John later writes, “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Though that day is “not yet,” there is nonetheless peace for us in the “now,” because the Spirit of the resurrected Jesus already lives within us.  

Collect for Tuesday in Holy Week. O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be dominion and praise for ever and ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Conquering King - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 4/10/2023 •
Easter Week  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 93; Psalm 98; Jonah 2:1–9; Acts 2:22–32; John 14:1–14  

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of Easter Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

Here we are on Easter Monday, and Psalm 98 invites us to, “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things” (Psalm 98:1). For me, the memory of Good Friday’s reading of Psalm 22 is still fresh, with its forecast of Jesus’s lament upon the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1). 

On that first Good Friday, I don’t suppose there was anybody on the scene who could have anticipated that day would be remembered as “good”— except perhaps the soldiers who won a scrap of clothing, or Barabbas who was spared the gibbet. On that first Good Friday, I doubt that Psalm 98’s “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things,” could possibly have come to anybody’s mind either.  

Image: Stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida 

Except for one person. The person who began the lament, “My God, my God….” As a practicing Jew, Jesus would have known that psalm turns a corner: “You have answered Me. I will declare Your name to My brothers and sisters; In the midst of the assembly I will sing a hymn to You” (Psalm 22:21c–22, my edit of NKJV). Even as he resigned himself to taking the curse of sin and death to himself, Jesus knew things would not end in abandonment, but in vindication. Not in curse, but in blessing. He would go away as condemned criminal, only to return as conquering King. He could sing the lament of abandonment because he knew he would rise to sing the chant of victory.  

And so, Psalm 98 is altogether fitting for us to read and sing and chant this Easter Monday.  

Jesus’s resurrection brings God’s victory over sin and death and error. “With his right hand and his holy arm has he won for himself the victory” (Psalm 98:2). At the exodus, Yahweh’s mighty and victorious arm cast Pharaoh’s army into the sea. Similarly, the power of Christ’s resurrection has “brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life” (BCP, p. 368).  

Jesus’s resurrection means God’s righteousness for the nations and his mercy and faithfulness to Israel. “…[H]is righteousness has he openly shown in 
the sight of the nations. He remembers his mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel…” (Psalm 98:3b–4a). Christ rises as (to use Paul’s language) “the Last Adam” or “the Second Man” (1 Corinthians 15:45,47). With Christ’s resurrection, God reasserts his righteous and just claim over all humanity, not just over one chosen nation. At the same time, Christ’s resurrection as Israel’s one true and faithful Son, means mercy for Israel, the rebellious people of Yahweh’s favor.  

Jesus’s resurrection means joy. “Shout with joy to the Lord,” enjoins Psalm 98:5. The Easter Vigil’s centerpiece song “The Exsultet” radiates such joy: “Rejoice now, heavenly hosts and choirs of angels … Rejoice and sing now, all the round earth … Rejoice and be glad now, Mother Church.” That joy is rooted in Jesus’s resurrection, where “wickedness is put to flight, and sin is washed away.” There is restoration of “innocence to the fallen, and joy to those who mourn” (BCP, pp. 286,287). There is no sadness we carry that has not been shared by the Man of Sorrows. Likewise, by virtue of his rising, there’s no gloom his presence cannot dispel.  

Jesus’ resurrection prompts the engagement of all creation in full-throated praise of God. “Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the voice of song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn … Let the sea make a noise and all that dwell in it…” (Psalm 98:6,7,8). As Psalm 98’s sister psalms put it, there is a beauty to God’s holiness, and there’s an adorning of that holiness to which we are called (Psalm 96:9; 93:6). Whether we sing beautifully or off-pitch, whether we play a musical instrument or just hum with the radio—regardless, we orchestrate creation’s praise. It is a glorious calling. I pray we know much joy and wonder, pleasure and awe, in its pursuit throughout this Eastertide. 

Collect for Monday in Easter Week. Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that we who celebrate with awe the Paschal feast may be found worthy to attain to everlasting joys; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Look For God's Easter Eggs - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 4/7/2023 •
Good Friday 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 22; Genesis 22:1–14; 1 Peter 2:10–20; John 13:36–38 

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“The Second Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 55:6–11; BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Good Friday.   

Genesis 22. There’s something unthinkable about the story of Abraham’s nearly sacrificing Isaac — unless its significance is to point beyond itself. Yahweh commands something that, on the face of it, is both inherently evil and abortive of his promise to his servant Abraham of “a seed.”  

And yet, on Mt. Moriah an angel speaks and stays the executioner’s hand. By contrast, on Mt. Calvary, the angels are mute as heaven’s lights go out and the executioners complete their grim work. On Mt. Moriah, a ram is offered as substitute for the favored son. On Mt. Calvary, the substitute is the favored Son. As the apostle Paul says, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Romans 8:32).  

It turns out that Genesis 22 is one of the many “Easter eggs” (see below) that God plants in his Bible to prepare us for the mystery of Good Friday. The evil miscarriage of justice committed against God’s Son that first Good Friday turns out to be the salvation of the world.  

Image: From the 14th century Icelandic manuscript AM 277 fol., now in the care of the Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland. Public Domain. 

Similarly, Psalm 22 anticipates, by a thousand years, Jesus descending into the abyss of abandonment to death (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), so he can rise to lead the praise of the God who rescues those “that fear him … the poor in their poverty … those who worship him … all the families of the earth … all who go down to the dust … [and] … a people yet unborn” (Psalm 22:1, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30).  

It seems fitting to reprise some observations from last year’s Good Friday Devotional based on the 1 Peter reading:  

…the Spirit of Christ…testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. — 1 Peter 1:11. Holy Week prompts me to remember the many Old Testament Scriptures that pointed to the life and saving work of Jesus Christ long before his appearance on earth. On the Emmaus road after his resurrection, Jesus explained to two disciples “the things about himself in all the scriptures” (Luke 24:27). I’m reminded of how movie directors charm audiences by embedding “Easter eggs” inside their films. You can find Alfred Hitchcock appearing momentarily in his films, and similarly, Stan Lee in the Marvel Comic Universe movies, for example. You’ll find images of Star Wars’ R2-D2 and C-3PO in the hieroglyphics of a pillar in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Look closer, the directors say.  

Peter tells us angels have been looking closer for a long time. His sweeping statement about the advance notice of Christ’s suffering and glory in the Old Testament invites us, too, to look and find God’s Easter eggs hidden throughout his Word:  

The Seed who will strike the Serpent’s head, despite suffering a bruised heel (Genesis 3). 

Escape from a storm of judgment in an ark built by the One Righteous Man, with a new start signaled by a rainbow (Genesis 6-9). 

The sparing of a beloved son by the substitution of a ram (Genesis 22). 

A snake lifted up on a tree for the healing of people snake-bit by the power of sin (Numbers 21).   

After three days and three nights in the belly of “a great fish,” deliverance unto life, and the renewal of a call to prophetic ministry (the whole book of Jonah).  

So, despite everything—Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s (and my own) denial, the whimsicality and the vitriol of the crowds, the obscene injustice of religious and political authorities—Good Friday is good because it marks the pivot point in the long epic of God’s unspeakable love and unstoppable plan. Because of Good Friday, the song at the Great Vigil can ring out in praise of the God who “casts out pride and hatred, and brings peace and concord,” joining earth and heaven, and God and humankind.  

Collect for Good Friday. Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen. 

Be blessed this Good Friday,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Washing the Feet - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 4/6/2023 •
Maundy Thursday 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 102; Jeremiah 20:7–11; 1 Corinthians 10:14–17; 11:27–32; John 17:1–11(12–26) 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you.  

Today is Maundy Thursday, a day that invites contemplation of the significance of the Table at which Jesus issues the mandate (thus, “Maundy”) that we love one another.  

According to the great twentieth century New Testament scholar Oscar Cullmann, John’s Gospel provides three angles of vision on the Eucharist.  

First, the Eucharist portrays atonement. Vessels for purification by water become vessels prefiguring blood for atonement (John 2). The wine of a Galilean wedding feast prefigures the wine of the eschatological wedding feast of the Lamb and his Bride the Church (Revelation 19). 

Second, the Eucharist is manna from heaven. Jesus is Bread from Heaven, and the Eucharist is the life-giving nourishment that the resurrected and ascended Jesus gives to his people on their journey through life (John 6).  

Third, the Eucharist is a fellowship of love. By depicting Jesus washing his disciples’ feet (John 13), John paints an amazing portrait of the Table as a place where we experience love. “Having loved his own while he was in the world, he loved them to the end,” in illustration of which, Jesus takes off his outer garment, wraps himself with a servant’s towel, and takes up a basin. The foot washing becomes a profound parable of the whole project of incarnation: love stoops to conquer. As Paul puts it in Philippians 2, he who was, and is equal with God, humbles himself in the most profound service to humankind; and in the end is exalted to receive the name that is above every name. The towel and the basin paint a mini-tableau of the whole redemptive drama of God’s love for us. 

Jesus’s “High Priestly Prayer.” Jesus rises from washing the feet of the disciples, and says (I paraphrase), “What I’ve done for you, you’re to do for one another. A new commandment I give to you: love one another. That’s how the world will know you’re my disciples” (John 13:34–35). And then after three chapters of teaching about various dimensions of being his disciple (John 14–16, a section which we will read in the first two weeks of Easter), Jesus prays in chapter 17. This prayer, often referred to as Jesus’s “High Priestly Prayer,” is the crowning event of their time at the Table. At the heart of Jesus’s prayer for his disciples is this (again, I paraphrase): “Father make them one as you and I are one, so that the world may know that I am in you and you are in me. May the world see our love for one another in their love for one another.”  

Jesus stakes his reputation, his Father’s reputation, and indeed the credibility of the gospel on one thing. It’s not the cleverness of our arguments. It’s not the sophistication of our apologetic. It’s not the slickness of our marketing. It’s not the beauty of our music or our architecture. It’s our love for one another.  

It’s interesting to observe that, for Paul, washing the feet of the saints becomes a shorthand for a lifestyle of meeting the needs of others. Think of 1 Timothy 5:10. When Paul lists qualifications for what he calls “enrolled widows,” the phrase washing the feet of the saints stands between “receiving strangers” and “relieving the afflicted.” To be sure, the objects of service are different: strangers, saints, and the afflicted, but the same attitude is expressed toward all. A spirit of humble self-giving. That’s part of what we learn at this Table. 

Discerning the body. And that, dear reader, is what Paul means when, in 1 Corinthians 11:29, he warns us not to come to the Table “without discerning the body.” What he means is that we must “discern Christ’s body” at the Table in this sense: we must recognize that Christ indwells those with whom we partake of this meal. His body is made up of all the people who are shoulder to shoulder with us there: the strangers, the saints, the afflicted, the widows and orphans, the people with whom we agree, and the people with whom we disagree. To come to the Table with a sense of independent pride or a feeling of spiritual or social superiority to anybody else there—that is what it is to come “in an unworthy manner.”  

Let me say this clearly and pointedly: you are not coming “in an unworthy manner” if you feel like you are an unworthy sinner; we are all—all of us—precisely that! The Table is a place to experience a fellowship of love. Jesus wraps himself with a servant’s towel and washes the feet of all his disciples, from John the beloved to Peter the impetuous … and, yes, even to Judas the betrayer. He loved each of them … he loves you and me … and he loves every other person at his Table.  

Collect for Maundy Thursday. Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+