The Spirit Unites Us - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 6/21/2023 
Wednesday of the Third Week After Pentecost (Proper 6) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97–120; 1 Samuel 2:12–26; Acts 2:1–21; Luke 20:27–40 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you Today is Wednesday of the 3rd Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 6 in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

1 Samuel: abusers of spiritual power. Eli’s sons are gluttons, lechers, and abusers of power. They demand offerings to which they have no right; they receive sexual favors from women who facilitate temple worship. Their story is ever a strong warning against clergy abuse of power, especially for gluttonous, avaricious, and lecherous ends.  

It’s an absolutely horrifying tableau. The sons had been set apart to handle holy things. Those things—the temple and its precincts and artifacts, not to mention the people who go there to be sanctified, and the fellow servants, especially the women, who support the ministry of consecrating all of life to the Lord—it’s all, in fact, objectively holy. There is a weightiness and purity to God’s own being that is constantly pressing down upon it all, ready to break in, or alternatively, that is constantly within it, ready to break out.  

Image: Pentecostal Icon. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 

Luke: dullards of spiritual reality. In corollary fashion, and for whatever reason, members of the Sadducee party of Jesus’s day have insulated themselves from the wonder of the living God. Whether it’s the luxury they enjoy by virtue of an aristocratic pedigree, or the impressiveness of the trappings of temple finery they oversee, they have relegated faith to a “this-worldly” dimension. They read Scripture as though it is aimed simply at giving meaning to this life.  

Jesus rebukes them for not having the spiritual sensors that should have indicated that a God who is called “the God of (the long departed) Abraham and Isaac and Jacob” is necessarily a God of the living, and therefore, necessarily (given the Bible’s high view of creation), a God who will raise the dead.  

Acts: recipients of God’s presence. The glory of Pentecost is the breaking in, or breaking out, of God’s holy presence in blessing. That numinous presence had been manifested from time to time in Israel’s history: at the burning bush, on Mt. Sinai, during the desert journey, in David’s singing, at the temple dedication. Now, in the Book of Acts, the Spirit of holiness breaks in, or breaks out, at the beginning of a permanent taking-up-of-residence in a people made holy by the once-for-all, sanctifying work of God’s Son on the Cross.  

In the past, the Spirit would come temporarily upon notables like a Moses or a David—or even a Saul. Now there’s a democratization of the Spirit, for the Spirit of God comes to old and young, men and women, servant and free. The spectacular ability suddenly to communicate in “every native language” (Greek, dialektos) seems to be not a permanent and abiding work of the Spirit. For the nearly 2,100 years that have passed since Pentecost, missionaries have had to go to language school to learn to minister in languages not their own. But this extraordinary display in Jerusalem (and to be repeated in Samaria, at Cornelius’s house, and in Ephesus—see Acts 8,10–11,19) depicts and symbolizes the power of the Spirit to unite people of all languages around the singular name of the Lord Jesus and his Father.   

Gracious God and Father, deliver us from pride and presumption when it comes to your holy name.  

Lord Jesus Christ, give us grace to live with a clear-eyed focus on, and an eager anticipation of, the Day of your return and our resurrection. 

Spirit of Holiness, dwell in us more deeply that we may speak to whomever you send us lovingly, truthfully, and compellingly of the grace of the Lord Jesus.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Great Story of God’s Restoring - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 6/20/2023 
Tuesday of the Third Week After Pentecost (Proper 6) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 78; 1 Samuel 1:21–2:11; Acts 1:15–26; Luke 20:19–26 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we draw insights from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you. Today is Tuesday of the 3rd Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 6 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

The Bible’s basic premise is that from Genesis 3 on, everything is upside down…and that God is in the business of putting things right side up again.  

We’ve recently read Deuteronomy’s warning about making idols out of human figures: “…take care and watch yourselves closely, so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure—the likeness of male or female” (Deuteronomy 4:15b–16). The reason for this particular proscription is that we humans ourselves bear God’s image. We are not made to worship ourselves, but instead to worship the Lord. We do so in no small part by offering ourselves as emissaries of his presence and rule. It is a high dignity. And the whole thing gets subverted when we reverse things.  

Luke. One of the ways the Roman Caesars projected their own presence and rule over their empire was through coinage that bore their image and name. Jesus’s enemies try to get him to declare himself to be either a collaborationist or an insurrectionist: support the despised Roman overlords by affirming Roman taxation and lose the support of the people, or throw in his lot with the revolutionaries and get himself arrested. It seems like a clever ruse.  

Image: "العملة المذكورة بالانجيل من زمن سيدنا المسيح ع The Biblical Tribute Penny: Tiberius AR Denarius 16-34 AD; Obverse" by Icarus Kuwait is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

Let Caesar have his coins, Jesus asserts, and by implication, his pretense of presence and his time-limited rule. But the tagline is even more significant: “…and to God the things that are God’s” (Luke 20:25). Each one of us bears the image of the ruler of the universe. Each one of us has God’s name inscribed into the fabric of our being. The fealty, tribute, service, obeisance, honor, worship, and praise we owe to him is far more significant than whatever demands an earthly ruler may impose upon us. God’s presence is ubiquitous, and his rule inescapable.  

Because humans have made idols out of lesser things, including “the likeness of male or female,” the universe has been knocked off its axis. No sooner, though, did Adam and Eve start us on this sad path than God began the slow, but inexorable, process of putting things back into kilter.  

1 Samuel. Biblical saints have recognized God’s commitment to fix things from the very beginning—they recognized it, especially, in the calling of Israel to be a people of God’s possession and a blessing to the nations. Hannah, the grateful mother of Samuel, realizes that the birth of her son, Israel’s future kingmaker, represents a turning point in the great drama of redemption. For that reason, she lauds the God who lifts up the lowly and turns the table on the tyrants. Her song serves as the template for Mary, mother of Jesus.  

Hannah’s “My heart exults in the Lord” is a perfect set up to Mary’s “My soul magnifies the Lord” (compare Luke 1:46 with 1 Samuel 2:1). Mary’s “he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:51–53) crisply summarizes themes announced by Hannah. The arrogant will not carry the day. The feeble will defeat the mighty. The rich and the poor, and the fruitful and the barren, will exchange roles. All this the Lord will do, says Hannah, when he gives “strength to his king, and exalt[s] the power of his anointed” (1 Samuel 2:10). This very thing the Lord has now begun through his son, Jesus the Messiah-King.  

Acts. It is thrilling to see Peter and the band of 120 or so followers of Jesus (and witnesses to his resurrection) faithfully doing as they had been told: waiting in Jerusalem for power from on high. Even as they wait, they are conscious that they participate in the great story of God’s restoring, through a renewed Israel, all that had been lost in the Garden. To that end they ask God to bring the number of the inner circle of disciples back up to twelve.  

They faithfully wait—which is what we find ourselves doing a lot. But we do so, faithfully and prayerfully, for we know that the idols will fall, the Caesars will ultimately yield the field, the barren will bring forth children, and the weak will be made strong.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Prayers Play Their Part - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 6/19/2023 
Monday of the Third Week After Pentecost (Proper 6)  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 80; 1 Samuel 1:1–20; Acts 1:1–14; Luke 20:9–19 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the 3rd Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 6 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

“After Pentecost,” and the history of the kingship. During the rest of this “After Pentecost” season (that is, through November), our Old Testament readings survey the history of the kingship in Israel. The prophet Samuel reluctantly crowns Saul as Israel’s first king. Saul proves to be a dismal failure. He has no heart for God. Following Saul, valiant and humble David and wise Solomon rule over a united kingdom. It is a kingdom that partially—but only partially—models what God’s kingdom-life looks like here on earth. Following Solomon’s death, though, tensions between the southern area of Judah and the northern area of Israel lead to a division into separate kingdoms.  

Abraham’s descendants were called to be a blessing to the nations. Ironically, they go to Assyria and Babylon as exiles and captives. Eventually, they return, although without a king. Under Ezra and Nehemiah, they rebuild their cities and the temple. Finally, in preparation for the season of Advent and the coming of Israel’s and the world’s true King, we will read about the early days of the initial struggle led by the Maccabean family to free Judea from Hellenistic domination and to rededicate the temple to the Lord.  

Image: Hannah at prayer. Wilhelm Wachtel , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 

In a way that is so very fitting to the Bible’s way of seeing things, we open this chapter of Israel’s history with 1 Samuel 1’s vignette of a woman tearfully praying for the birth of a child. Without ever casting any doubt on the question of who is in charge of the universe, the Bible portrays a God whose plans unfold in conversation with his people and in response to the longings and desires of their hearts. 

Pentecost and “After Pentecost” in the Book of Acts. It seems only appropriate that during this “After Pentecost” season we read what the Book of Acts says about what happened in the early church “After Pentecost.” And so, we will be reading through Acts through the end of August. We will see the unfolding impact of Pentecost as the work Jesus “began to do” while on earth in the Gospel according to Luke (Acts 1:1) continues and expands in ever widening circles, “in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8b). As Isaac Watts’s great hymn puts it, “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun does its successive journeys run.”  

Two notes of interest: Despite everything else (Jesus’s amazing return from the dead, his convincing proofs, and his 40 days of teachings “about the kingdom of God”—Acts 1:3), the disciples are preoccupied with one question. They persist in asking, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).  

A most understandable question, given the Old Testament history that we are reading during these months. Jesus’s answer is oblique: he’s unwilling to discuss times and seasons the Father has set in his own sovereignty. Rather, Jesus assures them that the Holy Spirit will give them power (dunamis) from on high so they can be his witnesses around the world. Implicitly, he is answering in terms of a kingly rule that he will exercise through them as Ascended Lord. Through their gospel witness (augmented by Paul later), people will be turned from the dominion of darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God. In other words, Jesus answers his disciples as he had answered Pilate some 43 days prior, at his trial: “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Now he indicates that the witnesses to Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension are participating in Jesus’s kingly rule and its expansion.  

A second note of interest: just as Hannah knew that no baby was going to be given her without impassioned pleas to Yahweh her Lord, the disciples know that they’re not going anywhere until they have prayed and the Spirit has fallen. And so we are left with the assembly, the eleven remaining (following their abandonment by Judas Iscariot): “All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers” (Acts 1:14).  

The takeaway for you and me today is twofold: God’s kingdom will come in his own time and in his own way. Still, in some wondrously mysterious fashion, our earnest prayers play their own part.  

Collect of the Reign of Christ. Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Test Yourselves - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 6/16/2023 
Friday of the Second Week After Pentecost (Proper 5) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 69; Ecclesiasticus 45:6–16; 2 Corinthians 12:11–21; Luke 19:41–48  

And Saturday’s epistle: 2 Corinthians 13:1–14 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Friday of the 2nd Week After Pentecost. We are in Proper 5 of Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

This morning’s readings in Ecclesiasticus and Luke make poignant bookends.  

Ecclesiasticus offers praise of Aaron, highlighting the way the high priest’s fabulous garb served his role in bringing together the Lord and his people. On Aaron’s chest he bore precious stones “in a setting of gold, the work of a jeweler, to commemorate in engraved letters each of the tribes of Israel.” Atop his head he wore “a gold crown upon his turban, inscribed like a seal with ‘Holiness’” (Ecclesiasticus 45:11,12).  

By contrast, Luke records Jesus weeping as he approaches Jerusalem and its temple—a temple that had never known as much finery as was being lavished ever since Herod the Great launched his renovation project forty-six years prior. In Jesus’s estimation, however, religiosity had become robbery. Pomp had produced plunder rather than prayer. The master of the house, and its true and final High Priest, weeps as he begins to clean house: “Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there; and he said, ‘It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers’” (Luke 19:45).  

Image: Mosaic of St Paul in Westminster Cathedral. "St Paul the Apostle" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 

The Corinthians, too, have profaned a sacred space. That sacred space is the Corinthians themselves, for as the church, they are God’s holy dwelling place. It is this profanation that Paul has been contending so hard to reverse in his two letters to them, and it is why he includes in today’s reading a warning against their broken relationships and their sexual misbehavior: “I fear that there may perhaps be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear … I may have to mourn over many who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced” (2 Corinthians 12:20–21).   

 Together, as “one body with many members,” the Corinthians comprise God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16). The whole is God’s temple, but so is each member. For Paul can say of each believer, “your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Believers are God’s temple corporately, and each is God’s temple individually. That’s an extraordinary feature of the Christian faith. God has committed himself to living among us in one particular human person, his Son Jesus Christ, and that makes the “all” and the “each” equally important.  

The problem at Corinth is twofold. By their factious and fractious relationships, the Corinthians defile the corporate temple. At the same time, by their sexual libertinism they defile the individual temple.  

And so Paul challenges them: “Test yourselves” (heautous dokimazete—2 Corinthians 13:5b). It’s the same term Paul uses when he encourages the Romans to “prove” (dokimazein) what is the will of God (Romans 12:1). It’s not like the test that (hypothetical) mean professors write when they try to fail students. It’s like the test that good professors write when they are trying to help students pull things together and show what they know. What is the test? “[S]ee,” Paul says, if you are “living in the faith.” He genuinely believes that they belong to “new creation,” and so he urges them to “rejoice, set things right, and be encouraged” (2 Corinthians 13:11b NET).  

“Set things right,” he says. What’s that look like? Well, rather than selfishly quarrel and press their own priorities, predilections, prejudices, and preferences on each other, Paul wants them to strive for peace with one another. He wants them to learn to work toward agreeing with one another (which has to begin with listening to one another!). “[A]gree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11c,d).  

“Greet one another with a holy kiss” (2 Corinthians 13:12). He wants, as well, kisses that are holy, not unholy—which would mean embraces that are chaste, not licentious; and words that are edifying, not debasing. It means valuing one another as precious image-bearers rather than as potential partners in impermissible behavior, or objects for pleasure, or victims of exploitation. It means not reverting back to old patterns of defiling the wedding bed (1 Corinthians 5) or other practices that Paul (along with the rest of Scripture) considers to be out of bounds. From such practices they had been rescued (1 Corinthians 6:9,15): “[Y]ou were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).  

And always, always, always, Paul wants for these Corinthians what Jesus wants for them (and for us as well): “I do not want what is yours but you…” (2 Corinthians 12:14). May you and I live in the joy of being wanted, loved, and rejoiced over by the one who died in weakness for us but now lives in power within, for, and through us.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Sing Praises of Famous Men - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 6/15/2023 
Thursday of the Second Week After Pentecost (Proper 5) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 70; Psalm 71; Ecclesiasticus 44:19–45:5; 2 Corinthians 12:1–10; Luke 19:28–40 

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. We are in the 2nd Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 5 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Ecclesiasti-what?! The Old Testament readings for today through Sunday come from latter chapters in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, otherwise known as the Wisdom of Ben Sirach. Ecclesiasticus provided the curriculum for Jewish scribes-in-training in the second century before Christ. This book is regarded as fully Scripture in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, but as having a lesser authority in Jewish and Protestant circles. Our Daily Office selections offer a brief summary of Israel’s history from Abraham through Samuel in anticipation of this coming Monday’s launch into the history of the kingship in Israel.  

The overall theme of this portion of Ecclesiasticus is stated at the beginning of this chapter: “Let us now sing the praises of famous men, our ancestors in their generations.” Abraham was found faithful. Isaac received assurance. Jacob distributed the inheritance. Moses was godly and beloved of God, and he was consecrated because of his faithfulness and meekness. Always good to keep such things in mind.  

Image: Hortus Deliciarum, Public Domain. 

2 Corinthians: reluctant self-revelations. For his part, the apostle Paul is embarrassed to have to keep talking about what it is about his own life that should command a following from the Corinthians (a church which he himself had founded!). Chiefly, he has been at pains to talk about his apostolic sufferings, in imitation of Christ.  

Nonetheless, so much is at stake with these Corinthian believers whom he loves, that he reluctantly, even with significant embarrassment, speaks of something that eclipses anything his opponents could offer. He has been taken up into the very abode of God (the “third heaven,” beyond the first heaven of our atmosphere and beyond the second heaven of the stars in the sky). There he has seen and heard things he can neither describe nor explain. To imagine the scenario, I suppose we have to think in terms of the imagery of the Book of Revelation, especially chapters 4 and 5. Though of such things Paul himself will not speak.  

There is a tradition of mystical experiences that are called apophatic, meaning, “unspoken” or “unspeakable.” Experiences that make a person say, not to put it too colloquially, “Well, shut my mouth!” Experiences that can only be responded to with stunned and awestruck silence. Paul has been there. His opponents haven’t. So, maybe they should shut their mouths! 

Then Paul turns on a dime. He insists that to keep him from being overly impressed with himself, “to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7). This “messenger from Satan” Paul will describe no further. That fact hasn’t kept interpreters from speculating: an affliction of the eye? a besetting temptation? a guilt-ridden conscience? Perhaps Paul’s silence on the matter is good, because it means every one of us can more easily relate. Every person I know can write themselves into this story! We all have things we’d just as soon be rid of. But we nonetheless sense that the Lord does deeper work in us by ministering to us through them than he would if he were to rescue us from them. In other words, he allows us to see the necessity of dependence upon him. 

Paul’s thrice-prayed prayer for deliverance has been answered simply: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). I offer my own paraphrase: “You don’t need less of that, my child. You need more of me.” The invitation is there for each of us to write ourselves into this story, and along with Paul, to exclaim: “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).  

Luke: into Jerusalem. We readers know that Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem is deeply ironic and full of pathos, for it will lead in less than a week to the ignominy and apparent defeat of the cross. However, Luke’s version of the entry encapsulates some preciously enduring truths that transcend the irony. Here, indeed, is the King that Psalm 118 had envisioned as Savior of God’s people. Joyful praise is altogether appropriate to his advent: “the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen” (Luke 19:37). And their song of joy forms a gorgeous inclusio to the angels’ song for the shepherds of Bethlehem: “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” (Luke 19:38—see Luke 2:14).  

At Luke 19:40, Jesus says even the rocks will cry out in praise if we can’t. But we can! We can cry out in praise while seeking to emulate the faithfulness of old covenant saints. We can praise in “shut-my-mouth” visions or in “dear-Lord-deliver-me” trials. May we never outlive our wonder at the King who comes to save!  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Play the Long Game - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 6/14/2023 
Wednesday of the Second Week After Pentecost (Proper 5) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 72; Deuteronomy 31:30–32:14; 2 Corinthians 11:21b–33; Luke 19:11–27 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you Today is Wednesday of the 2nd Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 5 in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Recently, I felt offended by somebody. I don’t know if they even meant it. But I felt it anyway. I don’t think I showed anything on the outside, but inside I spent too much time stewing. I was surprised to find my thoughts going to ingratitude, entitlement, and distrust. Ingratitude: in that moment, all the good things in my life vanished, and all I could see was deficits—like I was a piece of Swiss cheese with more holes than cheese. Entitlement: I thought I deserved more respect than I had been shown (or thought I had been shown). Distrust: where was God when my investment in relationships produced disappointment?  

Then along came today’s passages.  

Deuteronomy: Gratitude for benefits in the wilderness. The Book of Deuteronomy is written in full awareness of the story that is to unfold in Israel’s life, from judges to kingship to exile to restoration. Moses closes this cautionary book with a song that reminds Israel that throughout it all, Yahweh is the God who loves and cares for his people. Just as “He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste,” and just as “he shielded him, cared for him, [and] guarded him as the apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10), so will he always do.  

With this song, Moses forever plants in God’s people’s minds the images of Yahweh as a loving (and disciplining) Father, as a mother eagle that nourishes and protects her young, and as a great banquet master who provides produce, honey, milk, choice meat, and the finest breads and wines (Deuteronomy 32:13–14).  

In the leanest and hardest times, may Moses’s song keep God’s song alive in us!  

2 Corinthians: The true marks of a minister of Christ. Belonging to Christ means that your pedigree, privilege, and credentialing don’t mean much. In fact, as with the false “super-apostles” Paul is dealing with in Corinth, those things can get in the way. Paul is embarrassed to note that he has just as much going for him in the way of entitlements, but the only thing that entitles him to be heard is that he “out-servants” the “super-apostles”: “Are they ministers (or servants, diakonoi) of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one” (2 Corinthians 11:23). This last phrase is huper egō, and could colloquially be rendered: “I’m in hyper-drive when it comes to ministering!” Then follows his catalog of sufferings—some external (lashings, shipwrecks…) and some internal (anxiety for churches and empathy for struggling believers).  

Dignity, it seems, does not come from being treated with the worth you think you are entitled to. The entitlement of the Christian life is the privilege of what Paul calls elsewhere “the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings” (Philippians 3:10). There is a knowing of him that comes only in the place of lowliness, only in the place of service, only in the place of renouncing privilege.  

Luke: Playing the long game. What’s interesting about the Parable of the Ten Pounds (the “mina” is a gold coin worth about 100 days of a worker’s wages) is its introduction: “[Jesus] went on to tell a parable, … because [people] supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately” (Luke 19:11). Jesus did not actually teach that the final cataclysm ending history as we know it was right around the corner. He taught that, in a sense, the end of that world had already come—the end of a world in which importance was measured by power and wealth. His cross and resurrection would indeed mean there was “a new sheriff in town.” But his governance would be established in the midst of a world in which things continue, for the time being, under the old rules of domination, pride, license, and exploitation.  

What he taught is that he would leave behind for each of his followers a measure of his resources appropriate to each. Our calling would be to invest in making manifest his alternative kingdom. Risky business! The kind of thing that just might get us “crucified” right along with him: the risk of being misunderstood, misconstrued, rejected, persecuted, even killed. Or — it could be the kind of thing that might see others brought in, and the new reality of God’s kingdom becoming more visible. Either way, in Jesus’s terms, a return on investment.  

Within the framework of this parable, the only sin is to bury fearfully, faithlessly, cowardly, and ungenerously the resources entrusted to us. That sad reality looks different in different people and different situations. The commonality is this pitiful statement: “I was afraid of you, because you are a harsh man; you take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow” (Luke 19:21). These words come to my rescue when, as on the occasion of my recent feeling of being slighted, I want to retreat into a safe place of disengagement. These words force me to ask whether I trust that God is good rather than harsh, and generous rather than miserly. And whether I can trust him to work his good pleasure in the messy and uncertain business of relationships, regardless of consequences. That’s the way Jesus wants us to play the long game.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

A Healthy Check for All of Us - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 6/13/2023 
Tuesday of the Third Week After Pentecost (Proper 5) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 61; Psalm 62; Deuteronomy 30:11–20; 2 Corinthians 11:1–21a; Luke 19:1–10 

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, 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. Today is Tuesday of the 2nd Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 5 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

In Deuteronomy, Moses calls for, and in Luke, Zaccheus exemplifies, simplicity of vision and purity of passion. What we find in 2 Corinthians is that these are the very things Paul has worked to instill in the Corinthian church. Paul sees a threat to the simplicity and purity of faith in the different view of Jesus, of the gospel, and of the Holy Spirit being foisted on the Corinthians by false teachers who claim to have greater credentials and deeper knowledge than Paul.  

Sometimes our enemies make us better. In this case, Paul is pushed, for the first time in his writings, to portray the church as the bride of Christ. She is betrothed to Christ, but her chastity is being threatened by seducers: “I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2–3).  

In painting this portrait, Paul recalls the Bible’s long story arc about God marrying his people to himself. Later, and in a context of less pressing circumstances, Paul elaborates on the metaphor of Christ as Groom and the Church as Bride, composing a lovely description of the mystery of the love relationship God has been building between himself and redeemed humanity (Ephesians 5).  

For now, though, Paul utilizes this powerful image of Eve’s deception to warn the church against being seduced by smooth-tongued pseudo-teachers. We can only dimly make out the contours of their teachings: 

Another Jesus. Paul’s opponents exude an air of superiority. Theirs is a Jesus who promotes pride rather than humility, and competitiveness rather than kindness. This “other Jesus” is a chaplain for the successful—a Jesus who has no place for the “nobodies,” and who shoves the “have nots” to the rear of the line (1 Corinthians 1:28; 11:22).  

A different spirit. Thus, for Paul, the chief mark of the Spirit of God is love. For the Corinthians, it’s power. Paul has accepted financial support from the impoverished Macedonian church, but has refused support from the prosperous Corinthian church. Paul knows that the Macedonians give because they love, but that the Corinthians give because they want to put Paul under obligation to themselves. The Corinthians understand the Spirit of God when the Spirit inspires tongues and creates miracles. But they misunderstand the Spirit when the Spirit lovingly says “No” to their manipulative ways.  

A different gospel. Accordingly, theirs is a gospel that is unfamiliar with “the foolishness of the cross” (1 Corinthians 1:18-25). Their gospel has little room for Paul’s: “…Christ died for our sins…,” much less his “…he became sin for us…” (compare 1 Corinthians 15:3 with 2 Corinthians 5:21). They would be unable to make sense of the Book of Common Prayer’s Palm Sunday prayer: “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 our Lord. Amen.” 

The devil: posing as an angel of light. Though the false message seems flattering and appealing to the Corinthians’ ego, Paul points out that it is ultimately degrading. He says the false “super-apostles” are “deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:13–14). These false teachers, insists Paul, are enslaving the Corinthians, exploiting them, taking advantage of them, behaving arrogantly toward them, and slapping them in the face (2 Corinthians 11:20). Behind the veneer of light (their Jesus for winners, their spirit of self-aggrandizement, their Cross-less gospel) lies a deep abyss of darkness. The logic was well captured in C. S. Lewis’s sketch of the mind of the Devil in his The Screwtape Letters: “We (devils) want cattle who can finally become food; He (God) wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over.” 

Today’s passage presents a healthy check for all of us: is our Jesus a Jesus of humility, or of pride? Does the Spirit within us prompt love for others, or put us on a quest for power or control or influence for ourselves? Does our gospel have as its centerpiece, “Christ died for our sins”? In the wrong answer to these questions lies the path to death, in the right answer, fullness of life.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Christ's Kindness - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 6/12/2023 
Monday of the Second Week After Pentecost (Proper 5)  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Deuteronomy 30:1–10; 2 Corinthians 10:1–18; Luke 18:31–43 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the 2nd Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 5 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

2 Corinthians and accusations against Paul. It’s not enough that Paul is having to call the Corinthians to account for their tardiness in generosity. In addition, he is embroiled in a power struggle with some notables in the congregation. These individuals find Paul’s tactics to be worldly and manipulative (remember his reneging on his promise to visit them). They allege that it is cowardice that is keeping him away. He writes bold letters from a distance, they contend, to compensate for his weakness in person. They find his rhetorical skills, frankly forgettable: “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible” (2 Corinthians 10:10b).  

Someone else might have flipped the table on these folks, and said, “Why am I wasting my time on the likes of you? I shake the dust off my sandals!” Or they might have decided to come in with guns blazing: “Boldness!? Boldness you want? Batten down the hatches, because here I come, and I’m bringing the heat!!” 

Instead, Paul sees a teaching moment.  

Restraint and the kindness of Christ. In a former life, Paul might have responded differently than he does. One could easily imagine his zeal leading him to come after the Corinthians the same way he had first begun to hunt down the followers of Christ in Damascus. But Christ has taught him a different approach, described here in four gorgeous terms. He says that the “meekness” (praütēs) and “kindness” (epieikeia) of Christ have taught him to be “humble” (tapeinos), even in his apostolic “confidence” (pepoithēsis—2 Corinthians 10:1–2). Christ has dealt with Paul with a meekness, a kindness, and a humility that was altogether opposite to what his pride and ruthlessness had merited. As a result, with all the confidence of his apostolic calling, Paul has learned how to measure his words and actions. Here is a “new creation” way of doing things. May you and I take note! 

Building up and tearing down. Paul insists his lone goal is to build these people up: “…our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for tearing you down…” (2 Corinthians 10:8b). This language of “building up” (oikodomē) is the very language he had used in 1 Corinthians to describe what everybody is supposed to do with their spiritual gifts: use them, not for ego-gratification, but for other-gratification. The goal of “building up” is, moreover, to be a life principle that informs every decision: “All things are lawful for me, but not all things build up (my translation; oikodomein, usually translated “edify,” as in “to build an edifice,” or “to be beneficial,” or “to be helpful”— see 1 Corinthians 6:12a; 10:23a).  

Sometimes before a new, beautiful, and useful edifice can go up, an old, decrepit, and useless edifice must first come down. Paul labors with his words—whether in person, or in writing—to help the Corinthians see that there’s some demolition work that has to be done among them. People there are overly awed by secular credentials matched to impressive displays of hyper-spirituality (a deadly combination). They have picked up the notion that Christ is for the winners. They are “king’s kids.” They already rule with Christ: “Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you!” (see 1 Corinthians 4:8–13; 11:22). And, accordingly, they conclude that Paul’s weaknesses, his ailments, and his sufferings are a sign of God’s lack of blessing on his ministry.  

The Corinthians need to see that the opposite is true. Paul wants the Corinthian congregation to ask themselves: What would the life of Christ look like among us? Does he call us to wear the crown of glory in the present life, or does he call us to take up a cross? Who loves us the way Christ loves us? Paul, or these posers? Paul is certain that in the end the Corinthians will conclude that it is Paul who has their best interests at heart, not his detractors. That is the brief Paul began to build in 1 Corinthians, and it is a brief he brings to its conclusion in these closing chapters of 2 Corinthians. To look ahead, he is putting before them a proposition and a test: 

The proposition: “For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.”  

The test: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves” (2 Corinthians 13:4–5).  

Even so, we ought not forget that Paul’s ultimate aim is not to tear down, but to build up.  Nor ought we forget that Paul’s “hope is that, as your faith increases, our sphere of action among you may be greatly enlarged” (2 Corinthians 10:15b). That’s why his final words to them will be words of blessing: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).  

Collect for Proper 5: O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Mercy of the Cross - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 6/9/2023 
Friday of the First Week After Pentecost (Proper 4) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 40; Psalm 54; Deuteronomy 26:1–11; 2 Corinthians 8:16–24; Luke 18:9–14  

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Friday of the 1st Week After Pentecost. We are in Proper 4 of Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Could there be a more hell-scented prayer than this one: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people…” (Luke 18:11b)? I remember being asked in my pre-Christian days what there was about me that might commend me to God if I were to face him. My answer was a soft version of the Pharisee’s sentiment: “Well, I’m not perfect, but I’m not as bad as the next guy.” What I couldn’t admit out loud was that I thought there was quite a lot about me that should make me look good in God’s eyes. Several conversations later, I concluded that I was quite wrong—that I was no less grasping, no less profligate, no less self-centered than anybody I could imagine.  

The tax collector’s prayer became mine. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” There are a couple of features of the tax collector’s (and my) prayer that deserve a closer look.  

Image: The Pharisee and the Publican (Le pharisien et le publicain) by James Tissot, 1886-94, Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Brooklyn Museum. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 

This request for mercy employs a distinct vocabulary. The tax collector doesn’t use the normal term to ask for mercy, eleēson (e.g., Luke 18:38). Instead, he asks hilasthēti, which is, literally and etymologically “smile upon me.” He’s come to pray in the temple, the building that houses “the mercy seat,” which in Greek is hilastērion (literally and etymologically “the smiling place”). The hilastērion is the place where God’s wrath is satisfied by the annual atoning sacrifice that covers sins (see Leviticus 16). The tax collector asks for the mercy that comes from the shed blood of another. His prayer becomes a subtle hint as to why Luke’s gospel (who alone recounts this parable) is associated with the sacrificial ox. The cross of Jesus will become the tax collector’s and our hilastērion, our (irony totally intended) “smiling place.”   

 What’s more, the tax collector doesn’t merely refer to himself as “a sinner.” No, he says, “Be merciful to me, the sinner” (all the translations ignore the definite article that’s in the Greek). I don’t understand the translators’ thinking, but I do think I understand the tax collector’s mindset. So aware is he of his own failings—failings that have led him to assume a posture “standing far off … not even look[ing] up to heaven, but beating his breast”—that he cannot see himself in any other light than as though he were the worst sinner in all the human race.  

Characteristic of Christian faith is that that awareness of the depth of one’s sin, and appreciation of the depth of the mercy of the cross, come in one fell swoop. That’s the way it happened for the tax collector. That’s the way it happened for me. I pray it happens for all of us.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+  

God's New Creation - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 6/8/2023 
Thursday of the First Week After Pentecost (Proper 4) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Deuteronomy 16:18–20; 17:14–20; 2 Corinthians 8:1–16; Luke 18:1–8 

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. We are in the 1st Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 4 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Since the Fall, it’s become a confused and confusing world. It really has. According to the Bible’s story line, it won’t always be this way. And, praise be, the “new creation” that has been anticipated for the longest time has already invaded the present: “If anyone is in Christ, there is new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and present position at the right hand of the Father mean that history has turned a corner.  

Image: Une Loterie philantropique, Honoré Daumier (France, Marseilles, 1808-1879), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Accommodations to the fall are still in place, though. They are temporary, but they are still necessary.  

Luke: on persistence in prayer. So, even in our prayer lives, we need Jesus’s parable of the unjust judge. We need it, but not because God is disinclined to listen to us and can only be made to hear us because we pester him. No, we need this parable because we do not know how his counsels work or what his timeline looks like. We need to be persistent—as though he were hard of hearing and disinclined to do the right thing—even though we know he is not hard of hearing or disinclined to do the right thing. We need to ask and keep on asking—because prayer reminds us to whom we properly appeal for relief, for resolution, for answers. 

Deuteronomy: on “judges” and “kings.” Similarly, in this fallen world, we know that “judges” do not judge justly nor do “kings” accept that God has “set them above” their people, yet not so that they may “exalt themselves over” their people. For that very reason, it is a very good thing to have standards of leadership set out in Scripture as points of accountability. We accept it as our duty to urge adherence to those standards, because we know the world works better that way, because people flourish that way, and because eventually, in God’s own timing, that’s the way it’s going to be.  

2 Corinthians: on caring and sharing. Even in the church—the place that presently manifests God’s “new creation”— the confused and confusing effects of the fall have to be countered. Paul faces a huge instance here in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9 as he addresses the Corinthians about their wealth.  

It’s easy to get the wrong impression about the Corinthians. With a rhetorical flourish at the beginning of 1 Corinthians, Paul makes it sound to many readers like Corinth is home to an impoverished church: “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. … But God chose …what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are” (1 Corinthians 1:26,28).  

Reality is different than appearance, however. In the first place, all those “not many” phrases could very well be read “are not many?” (Apologies, it’s a curious feature of Greek.) In the second place, this church is plagued with problems of wealthy people throwing their weight around (whether in the minority or not): rich Christians are suing each other, and the “haves” are making the “have nots” eat separately at their supposed Lord’s Supper (see 1 Corinthians 6 and 11).  

The apostle Paul has spent the better part of this his third missionary journey among the churches in Greece and western Asia Minor soliciting relief money. He has been raising funds from these mostly Gentile churches to provide for impoverished Jewish Christians in Judea. A combination of self-renunciation (see Acts 2:45; 4:32) and famine (see Acts 11:27–30) has left the Jerusalem mother church in dire straits. Paul sees the opportunity both to address the physical need and to help Gentile and Jewish believers realize their oneness in Christ.  

Delicately and diplomatically, Paul seeks to reshape their understanding of how to use their wealth in light of God’s “new creation” that has taken hold in their lives. In 2 Corinthians Paul confronts them with the fact that a year earlier they made a commitment to support the impoverished church in Jerusalem and environs, but have not yet come through with their pledge. For two chapters of the densest Greek he is ever to pen, Paul discusses the topic of money without ever using the term. He employs various euphemisms instead. These chapters are especially redolent with the term “grace” (charis), referring to the theological concept (2 Corinthians 8:9), and as a stand-in term for “giving” money — 2 Corinthians 8:1,4,6).   

Paul is at pains to let the Corinthians (and us) know several things: 

We give because we have been given unto. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9 RSV).  

We give as part of a whole Body of Christ because when one suffers all suffer (1 Corinthians 12:26), and because the whole Body works together to take care of itself (as Paul will later explain in the fourth chapter of his letter to the Ephesians).  

God looks more for our desire to give than for the gift itself—though not the desire without the gift, either. (Thus, Paul’s delicate urging of the Corinthians to follow through on the pledge that they had made a year earlier.)    

When it comes to “haves” giving to support “have nots,” it’s important to build in safeguards against condescending paternalism. There is a mutuality, a reciprocity, even an “equality” (isotēs) to be worked toward and understood. For the moment, these wealthy Greeks are the “haves,” and their impoverished Jewish brothers and sisters are the “have nots.” There’s no guarantee it will always be that way. Nor is it possible to put a price on the value of Jewish believers’ prayers for these recent Gentile converts. Priceless, in fact!  

Not to mention the value to the whole world of the church’s modeling “new creation.” Since the Garden, the world has been devolving into rival nations, warring factions, mutually loathing ethnicities. Since the cross, where Christ united in himself Jew and Gentile, God has set forth his church as the place where those rivalries, and that warring and loathing end. Doubly priceless!! 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+  

Matters of Morality Matter - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 6/7/2023 
Wednesday of the First Week After Pentecost (Proper 4) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:49–72; Deuteronomy 13:1–11; 2 Corinthians 7:2-16; Luke 17:20–37 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you Today is Wednesday of the 1st Week After Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 4 in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

One of the reasons for immersing ourselves in the Bible’s story, in its world, and in its ethos is that the Bible challenges so many basic presuppositions of our lives. That’s especially on display in today’s readings.  

Deuteronomy: don’t just look, but listen. Just because a “prophet’s” words come true, the prophet is not necessarily telling the truth. “If prophets or those who divine by dreams appear among you and promise you omens or portents, and the omens or the portents declared by them take place, and they say, ‘Let us follow other gods’ (whom you have not known) ‘and let us serve them, you must not heed the words of those prophets or those who divine by dreams…’” (Deuteronomy 13:1–3a).  

Moses’s words would call upon a generation like ours that values pragmatism above everything to ask deeper questions. Not just, does such-and-such work, but is it true? A medieval heresy taught that forgiveness and freedom from guilt (a good result…) could be bought by donations to the church (…based on a lie). Contemporary theologies can be just as bad. One faulty approach substitutes action for prayer—action is good, prayer-bereft spirituality is mere humanism. Another faulty approach promotes self-absorbed prayer, with no concern for the welfare of others. A robust sense of self should indeed come from knowing God, but there’s no knowing God apart from love for neighbor. Each approach gets the results it is after, but those results are based on lies that need to give way to deeper truths.  

Apostle Paul, Jan Lievens , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

2 Corinthians: on godly grief. Matters of morality and immorality matter. Bedroom ethics are not merely private concerns. They affect the whole community. In fact, the Corinthians themselves had taken pride in the liberated ethic that permitted a man to have intimate relations with his stepmother (see 1 Corinthians 5). The Corinthians likely supposed the couple to be expressing what it is to live in the new eschatological reality, “new creation” where there is no “male and female” (see Galatians 3:28; 5:16; 2 Corinthians 5:17). It’s likely that they even thought they were honoring Paul. With a painful letter between 1 and 2 Corinthians (which we do not have), Paul has risked alienating a church he feels quite close to in order to get them to address that delicate situation. In this chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul expresses relief and joy over Titus’s report that they had repented with “a godly grief” (2 Corinthians 7:9). There’s reason for all of us to take a closer look at God’s design for human intimacy, not just for ourselves, but for our churches and for our society.   

Luke: where is the Kingdom? Much of what Jesus says in today’s passage in Luke he says elsewhere as well. What stands out about this particular passage, though, is whose question prompts the discourse: the Pharisees. Jesus lays out the end times game plan for his followers. But first he gives skeptics and opponents a chance to reconsider their skepticism about him and their opposition to him. “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you’” (Luke 17:20–21 King James Version).  

This last statement, “for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you,” is not a saying that appears in any of the other gospels. And I have used the KJV because it preserves the more literal translation of the term “within” (entos). It’s important to keep in mind whom Jesus is addressing: the Pharisees, his opponents. Modern translators sense the incongruity of Jesus telling his antagonists that the Kingdom was inside them. They were on the outside looking in. So modern translations generally render the phrase along the lines of “in your midst,” or “among you” — i.e., (to paraphrase) “standing here in front of you, in your very midst, is the Kingdom personified in me.” That makes sense, except that this would be a unique use of the Greek entos, which really denotes inwardness.  

I rather like the suggestion of some students of Luke (e.g., Darrell Bock and Max Zerwick) that Jesus means “within you” as in “within your grasp (if only you would take hold of it!).” To paraphrase (yet again): “You are not going to find it by looking to the heavens and into ancient texts, for ‘it cometh not with observation.’” But, in fact, as modern translators with their “in your midst” or “among you” translation, rightly note, the Kingdom stands right in front of them in the person of Jesus. With his “the kingdom of God is within you,” Jesus puts the question to them: will you not search your hearts and find there the slightest inclination to see and embrace the Kingdom — in me?   

The question comes to all of us: do we spend anxious hours searching news sources for the latest signs of the apocalypse? Conversely, do we expend our life’s energy trying to make the Kingdom happen through our own efforts? Or instead, will we take a look within and see there the world of need that Jesus has come to take dominion over, to begin “new creation” in, to set right again, to heal, and to reorient in service to him? 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+