God Intervenes - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 1/2/2025 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 117; Psalm 118; Isaiah 59:15–21; Revelation 2:8–17; John 4:46–54 

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 draw insights from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, Today I happen to be contemplating passages that are normally read on January 8, two days after Epiphany: Isaiah 59:15–21; Revelation 2:8–17; and John 4:46–54.  

John: an Epiphany of healing words. The “second sign” that Jesus performs in John’s Gospel manifests (we are talking about the season of Epiphany, after all!) the power of his spoken word. The Word became flesh, and the very words of that Word restore life. Jesus does not even have to go to the place where this dying son of a royal official lies. “Go; your son will live,” and it’s done. The boy begins to recover at that very hour. As a result, the father and his whole household believe in Jesus. The words that come from the Word create their own world of hope and life.  

Isaiah: an Epiphany of covenant words. Into his own world in which “truth is lacking,” Isaiah speaks on behalf of the Word who will centuries after him be manifest in the flesh. Where there is no truth, Isaiah says, there is no justice. The doing of right doesn’t exist in a world without truth: “Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice” (Isaiah 59:15). Where there is no truth there is no standard of right and wrong; only personal whim and tribal interests. Isaiah would be quite familiar with a world like ours, a world in which you choose your news network depending on what you want the news to say!  

Isaiah counters with the power of God’s own words. Into the prophet’s mouth God places words from the Spirit—words that enforce the irrevocable covenant that God has made with his people and anticipate God’s own intervention. Words insisting that God is not aloof and uncaring: “He … was appalled that there was no one to intervene” (Isaiah 59:16a). Words promising that God himself will personally enter the fray against evil and for the good (which he literally did in the incarnation of his Son): “[H]is own arm brought him victory … He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head” (Isaiah 59:16b–17). Words demand a hearing: “[M]y words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth … from now on and forever” (Isaiah 59:21). You and I need not—indeed, dare not—let ourselves be led around by self- and tribe-serving truth-spinners, but by God’s own Word and the Spirit of discernment.  

Revelation: an Epiphany of sustaining words. The Word’s words were spoken ahead of time through Isaiah. They came from his flesh and blood lips when he walked the earth. And in the Book of Revelation, the Word speaks from on high, as the “first and the last, who was dead and came to life” (Revelation 2:8). The words that Jesus speaks as ascended Lord give believers in Smyrna the power to endure intense trials—even unto death at the hands of those who should know better (members of the parent faith whose resistance to Jesus as Messiah has turned devilishly deadly—Revelation 2:9–11). Lord, have mercy!  

And if we listen closely enough despite whatever confusion surrounds us (in Pergamum, pagan-influenced heresy and debauchery were being promoted in the church! Like that would never happen now, right!?), we can hear Jesus whisper the “new name”—the new identity—he gives to each of us personally and intimately: “To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17).  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Wedding in Cana - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 1/1/2025 •

Happy New Year

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 103; Psalm 114; Isaiah 52:3–6; Revelation 2:1–7; John 2:1–11 

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 explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. Today, I happen to be contemplating two passages that are normally read on January 7, the day after Epiphany: John 2:1–11 and Revelation 2:1–7.  

The Wedding in Cana. As we were reading through John’s Gospel last August, we came upon this account of the wedding in Cana. Now we read it through the lens of the season of Epiphany. This is the first of seven “signs” that Jesus performs in John’s Gospel—illustrations of his “epiphany” or “manifestation.”  

For your further investigation, here is a list of the seven signs (as traditionally numbered—some scholars offer slightly different reconstructions): 

• Turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1–11—“the first of his signs”)   

• Healing of the official’s son in Capernaum (John 4:46–54—“the second sign”) 

• Healing of the paralytic at Bethesda (John 5:1–15) 

• Feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1–14) 

• Walking on water (John 16–24) 

• Healing of the man born blind (John 9) 

• Raising of Lazarus (John 11) 

Though some of these events are explicitly named “sign,” others are not. Each points up distinct aspects of Christ’s person and work. They are pointers to his glory, manifestations of the “grace and truth” he has brought into the world.  

As to the first of these signs: the turning of water into wine at the wedding banquet in Cana, here is what I find noteworthy and exciting:  

• “My hour has not yet come” — John 2:4. “The hour” for which Jesus has come into this world is the hour of his being lifted up on the cross. That “hour” will, ironically, be his “glory.” In that act he will take away the sin of the world, defeat Satan, and reunite in fellowship with himself a fractured human race (John 12:20–33). At the wedding of Cana, despite the fact that his “hour” has not yet come, Jesus graciously assents to provide this “first sign” of his “glory.” Jesus provides a glimpse into the amazing spectacle of what he has come to do for us.   

• … the steward tasted the water that had become wine … — John 2:9. What happens is that water set aside in jars for purification turns to wine that will fill goblets of celebration. These were huge jars—six of them, each able to hold twenty to thirty gallons. It must have been quite the wedding party! Because the Lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the world (as announced at Jesus’ baptism in the previous chapter of John), our baptism will not only purify, it will lead to the Eucharist of joy. Cinderella doesn’t just get cleaned up, she gets invited to the ball!  

• … there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee … — John 2:1. Jesus’s blessing of this wedding in 1st century Galilee echoes the profound biblical theme of God’s wedding his people to himself. For that very reason, John’s larger story line unites his Gospel to his Book of Revelation. Changing water into wine at the wedding at this point in time, Jesus foreshadows an invitation for us to join him at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb at the end of time: “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. … The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’” (Revelation 21:2; 22:17). Our Eucharist is not just a remembrance of what the Lamb of God has done in taking away our sin. Our Eucharist is a foretaste of a heavenly banquet. Alleluia, amen! 

• “But you have kept the good wine until now” — John 2:10. The Lord of History shows himself to be the ultimate host who has saved the best wine (his Son) for last: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 KJV).  

To the Ephesians. One quick note, in closing, from Christ’s letter to the Ephesian church in Revelation: “But I have  this  against you, that you have  left your first love” (Revelation 2:4 NASB). Though it is valuable, theological accuracy is not a substitute for love. The Ephesians policed themselves well when it came to fighting off heresy, but not so much when it came to guarding their hearts against lovelessness. And so, Jesus urges the church to return to its “first love.”  

That’s one very good reason for us to remind ourselves that “the first sign” Jesus performs is at a wedding banquet, not a lecture hall. This truth suggests a powerful corollary to Thomas Cranmer’s adage, “What the heart wants, the mind justifies, and the will chooses.” The corollary is this: Engage the heart, and the mind (and the will) will follow. May God grant us the grace to love him first, foremost, and always — all else will follow.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Holy Name of Jesus - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 12/31/2024 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 103; Psalm 148; Genesis 17:1–12a,15–16; Colossians 2:6–12; John 16:23b–30 

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 here in Christmas Week.   

One more piece of lectionary-juggling. Today, I treat passages prescribed for January 1, the Feast of the Holy Name.  

In the Christian Year, the first day of the calendar year is the Feast of the Holy Name. This feast falls on the eighth day of Christmas, in recognition of the fact that, as Luke records, “After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb” (Luke 2:15).  

It is Matthew who explains why the baby is to be given that particular name: “…for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21 — the Hebrew Yeshua means “Yah saves!”). The cutting of his foreskin in this eighth day ceremony symbolizes how it is that Jesus is going to save us from our sins.   

Three decades later, Paul explains how the one “in whom the fullness of deity dwells bodily” experienced a second circumcision. Paul calls Jesus’s being nailed to the cross “the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11). On the cross, Jesus’s whole being—not just a tiny piece of his flesh—is cut off from the land of the living. His death brings pardon for us, and his resurrection brings, right now, life from spiritual death for us, and, at his return, resurrection from physical death. And this amazing gift is precisely in line with what Isaiah had prophesied: “For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. … When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days …”(Isaiah 53:8,10). 

The wonderful thing is that “the circumcision of Christ”—his being “cut off from the land of the living”—becomes our circumcision when we are plunged beneath the symbolically drowning waters of baptism: “In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision … when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead” (Colossians 2:11–12).  

In celebrating the Holy Name of Jesus, we also celebrate his naming us anew. Because he has saved us from our sins, we are no longer “Sinner,” but “Saint” (1 Corinthians 1:2)! No longer “Polluted,” but “Washed” (1 Corinthians 6:11)! No longer “Destined-for-the-Scrap-Heap,” but “Treasured” (Deuteronomy 7:6)!  The Vineyard Ministries song writer D. Butler put it magnificently in these lyrics, and rendered here by the Nesbitt family: 

I will change your name. 
You shall no longer be called: 
Wounded, Outcast, Lonely, or Afraid 

I will change your name. 
Your new name shall be: 
Confidence, Joyfulness, Overcoming One,  
Faithfulness, Friend of God, One who seeks my face.  

The whole thought is consistent with the renaming that takes place when God first gives the gift of circumcision in Genesis 17. There are new names and new identities for Abram who becomes Abraham, and for Sarai who becomes Sarah. His name will no longer mean simply “Exalted Father,” but “Father of a Multitude.” Hers will no longer mean (perhaps) “Mockery,” but “Princess.”  

No matter what the past looks like, I pray your future will be shaped by your “new name”—the one you received in your baptism in Christ.  

Collect of The Holy Name. Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

He Makes Things New for All - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 12/30/2024 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 20; Psalm 21; Isaiah 25:1–9; Revelation 1:9–20; John 7:53–8:11 

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 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 here in Christmas Week. 

Allow me to juggle the Daily Lectionary readings slightly. If you are following the Book of Common Prayer, you will notice that today I am meditating on a reading prescribed for December 30. That passage is Isaiah 25:1–9.  

First the bad news, then the good news. Isaiah 25 paints one of the most hope-filled pictures of the future anywhere in Scripture. To appreciate it, though, we have to see the horrid backdrop of the previous chapter. In Isaiah 24, the prophet foresees the earth being ravaged by human-created pollution: “the earth lies polluted under its inhabitants, for … they have violated the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth dwindled, and few people are left” (Isaiah 24:5–6). Does this sound at all like the world we live in?  

Lawlessness rules in the streets: “The city of chaos is broken down, every house is shut up so that no one can enter. There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine; all joy has reached its eventide; the gladness of the earth is banished. Desolation is left in the city” (Isaiah 24:10–11). Does this sound at all like the year we are just closing out?  

Heavenly powers as well as earthly rulers have conspired against Yahweh (Isaiah 24:21–23). Yahweh’s response has been to “open the windows of heaven” (as he did in Noah’s day) and unleash a storm of judgment. He overthrows earthly rulers, displaces heavenly powers, and establishes his own rule: “for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his elders he will manifest his glory” (Isaiah 24:21–23). 

Isaiah 25 is the manifestation of that glory. When the storm of judgment has passed, Yahweh will be shown to “have been a refuge to the poor, a refuge to the needy in their distress” (Isaiah 25:4). Because of the coming of Yahweh, “the song of the ruthless was stilled” (Isaiah 25:5).  

On the far side of that storm of judgment want gives way to plenty, and death gives way to life.  

Want gives way to plenty. Just as, during the exodus, Yahweh gathered the elders of Israel on Mt. Sinai to feast in his presence (Exodus 24), on one great day in the future, “On this mountain (Mt. Zion) the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear” (Isaiah 25:6). The Hebrew of this verse is quite difficult to render into English, but it has a beautiful assonance: 

mishteh shemanim,  
mishteh shemarim,  
shemanim memuchayim,  
shemarim mezuqqaqim  

Trying to preserve at least the feel of the text’s assonance and poetic parallelism, I render the text this way:  

a feast of filet,  
a feast of cabernet,  
filet mignon,  
cabernet sauvignon  

Whatever the precise meaning of the terms, the sentence would have been mouth-watering to Isaiah’s listeners. What lies ahead of us is a feast beyond compare! 

Death gives way to life.  

… he will destroy … the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever — Isaiah 25:7–8a. Gone is the sense of inevitability and finality that hangs like a death pall over our lives. In Canaanite religion, there was always a fear that Mot, the god of death, would prove stronger than Baal, the Canaanite’s fertility-deity, and that ultimately death (Mot) would swallow up life (Baal). Isaiah says, to the contrary, Israel’s Lord, Yahweh, will swallow up death. The pall of death that seems to condition all of life—the sense of tentativeness and fear of death we all live with—will one day surrender to life that has been secured by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

That is why every funeral service for believers in Christ is a celebration of resurrection-life. That is why our funeral palls are resurrection-white. Our shrouds are temporary, our burial sheets are just helping us to mark time. We are merely renting our coffins and burial places or our columbarium niches. One day, we won’t need them any longer.  

… Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces… — Isaiah 25:8b. Gone are the grief and the sadness. Isaiah anticipates the apostles Paul and John. We do grieve, “but not like the rest,” says Paul (1 Thessalonians 4:13). As John brings the Bible’s story to a close in the Book of Revelation, he incorporates words from Isaiah: “he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).  

… and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth — Isaiah 25:8c. Gone are the shame, the guilt, the remorse, the sense of “being found out.” In the movie On the Waterfront, Marlon Brando’s character Terry Malloy sees the potential for a promising boxing career end when he lets himself be intimidated into throwing a fight. In what has become a classic cinematic moment, he looks back in despair: “You don’t understand! I could’a had class. I could’a been a contender. I could’ve been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let’s face it.” There’s at least a little bit of Terry Malloy in all of us. Always a question mark: did I cut too many corners? did I make the grade? did I do enough? Am I good enough, pretty enough, “cool” enough? In the movie, thanks to the intervention of a faithful priest and the power of “true love,” Terry Malloy experiences a sort of redemption. In real life, redemption comes from a greater faithful High Priest and from the source of Love itself.  

Isaiah’s promise is that our every bad decision is overruled, and is, in fact, woven into a tapestry of all things being made right. “Behold, I make all things new!” (Revelation 21:5).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Eagle - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 12/27/2024 •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 92; Exodus 33:18–23; 1 John 1:1–9; John 21:19b–24 

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

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 December 27, the Third Day of Christmas.   

Feast of St. John. In the tradition of the Christian Year, December 27 is a day to celebrate the life and ministry of St. John, Son of Zebedee, Beloved Disciple, and author of the Fourth Gospel, 1,2,3 John, and Revelation.  

John’s is the gospel in which Jesus unveils his divine nature—most especially, it appears, to John the Beloved Disciple. The early church’s choice of the soaring, majestic “eagle” to represent the Gospel according to John seems altogether appropriate. In this gospel, despite the all too familiar struggle of the disciples to understand, Jesus’s glory and majesty are unwrapped in high-altitude language. John begins: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” From the outset, we are put on notice that we are in a rarified atmosphere.  

One of the profound ironies of this gospel is that while it is unparalleled in its portrayal of the unambiguous divinity of Jesus, it has some of the most poignant cameos of his humanity. It also provides vital hints as to the course of his earthly ministry. Jesus has “compassion” all over the place in the synoptics, but this is the only gospel in which one of his associates is called “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7,20). Here are reflections of one whose words leap off the page: “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—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us!” (1 John 1:1b–2). And while Peter’s call is to bear the keys of the kingdom and to go the way of martyrdom, John’s call is to live long and to meditate deeply on the life and words of the One who loves him especially—and to make Him especially real to us.   

Because John’s Jesus is so preeminently divine, he is for that same reason so sublimely human. It is only in John’s gospel that he stands before a friend’s tomb and angrily weeps at the tragedy and awfulness of death (John 11). He attends a wedding (John 2). He accepts an interview with a member of the Sanhedrin (John 3). Instead of, as in Luke, talking about a Good Samaritan, here he actually befriends a Samaritan woman rejected even by her own folk (John 4). 

Maybe there’s a message in this point alone: the tendency of the church to pit Jesus’s humanity and divinity against one another is altogether wrong. In reality, the closer you get to his divinity, the more striking are his human features. He has forever wedded his eternal divine nature to our finitude and promises us a share in his glory. It was John’s Gospel in particular that inspired early church theologians to assert, “He became what we are that we might become what he is!”  

Christmas Day’s gospel reading from John includes this staggering claim: “And the Word became flesh and (literally) pitched a tent among us” (John 1:14). The eternally existent “I AM” who sent Moses to Pharaoh has now done more than make an appearance in a burning bush before which sandals must be removed—he has now walked the earth himself and sanctified it with his sandaled feet. In the past, the Bible’s great “I AM” (Yahweh) pictured his presence with the tent of the tabernacle that followed a pillar of cloud and fire. Now he has become the tent—and his life lights up the world. In the past, Yahweh displayed his “I AM-ness” in ten judging plagues. Now he has unpacked his “I AM-ness” with seven predicates of blessing: 

The Bread of Life and the True Vine (John 6 & 15). Having once provided manna from heaven, he now becomes bread from heaven. He provides the nourishment a man as crippled by his sloth as by his useless legs needs in order to stand and flourish (John 5). Not only is he food, he is drink as well: “if anyone is thirsty, let them come to me” (John 7:37). But he offers not just water. As True Vine, he offers a wine of celebration and joy. Somehow Jesus knows that the truly thirsty person at the well in Samaria is the woman who needs words of life and welcome and truthfulness from him. For every one of us who is joyless and famished and dying of thirst, here is food and drink.  

The Light of the World (John 8–9). For the darkness of the man born blind, there is light; for the pretended sight of the blind teachers, darkness (John 9). For the shame of the woman caught in adultery, there is the bright new day of being forgiven and being given a new start (this is why, I think, this independent story found its way to its home at the beginning of John 8). For the pseudo-righteous who would cast stones, there is the glaring light that exposes their own stonable offenses. For every one of us stumbling in the dark, especially the darkness of self-destructive behavior and guilt and shame, here is the light of pardon and a new direction.  

The Door of the Sheep (John 10). The door of the sheepfold both protects the sheep from predators and provides them their only access to their pasture. From a world that would savage us, there is, finally, protection. To places where our souls can feed, an opening—no, the opening. For lepers who have to live outside the gates, for demon-possessed and smelly beggars whom nobody wants to be around, here is a door into a fellowship where we are really wanted.  

The Good Shepherd (John 10). On the one hand, the old covenant promised that a Shepherd King in David’s line would rule. On the other, God himself—so said Ezekiel—would need to come: “I will feed my flock and I will lead them to rest,” declares the Lord God. “I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment” (34:15-16). For a Nicodemus, the great teacher of Israel, who needs a new birth so he can understand the point of the story, here is the point of the story: in one and the same Person, the King has come and God has come. For every person to whom the Bible is a closed book—even for every lost soul in seminary or Bible college or Sunday school, here’s the point: the King has come and God has come, for you!  

The Resurrection and the Life (John 11). So captivated is John by the glory of the resurrection that it governs his perspective on the death of Jesus. The Good Shepherd will sovereignly lay down his life for his sheep (John 10). Jesus is a friend laying down his life for his friends (John 15). At his arrest—can you even call it that? —, his thrice-repeated “I AM” (John 18:5,6,8) throws his would-be captors to the ground. On the cross, instead of Psalm 22:1’s plaintive “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (as in all three synoptics), John records something like Psalm 22:31’s triumphant “He has performed it.” At John 19:30, Jesus says “tetelesthai = it is finished.” And as if to offer an inclusio on the sayings about the shepherd giving his life for his sheep, about no one taking his life, and about the friend giving his life for his friends, John says Jesus “gives up” his spirit. The “lifting up” of Jesus on the cross is simultaneously his “lifting up” to resurrection, to ascension, to glory. For every person who knows their so-called “life” is but a walking death, Jesus is resurrection, and he is new and everlasting life.  

The Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14). He is the Way: not a set of principles about how to discern the correct path among the many choices in a given situation, but a person who leads. Not a map, but a personal guide. Jesus is the Truth: not abstractions about how to get to truth among the various claims for normativity, but a person who teaches. Not a rulebook, but a coach. Jesus is the Life: not a leap into an existential mystical goo or a brave assertion of personal worth, but a presence that makes alive. Not a dead end to “personal authenticity,” but a friend who takes up life in and with you.  

We remember this day “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” I pray you know your measure of that same love, and are able to answer it: “A new commandment I give you: love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34).  

Collect of Saint John. Shed upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light, that we, being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John, may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain to the fullness of eternal life; 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+ 

Stephen the First Martyr - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 12/26/2024 •

Feast of St. Stephen • Year One •

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 28; Psalm 30; 2 Chronicles 24:17–22; Acts 6–7 

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.

While everybody else is taking down the Christmas decorations and sending Santa on his merry way back to the North Pole, Christians who follow the Christian year are just beginning the party. We celebrate twelve days of Christmas. Through Advent, it’s been all about anticipation. Now for a season of celebration.  

Characteristic of Christian joy, however, is a tinge of pain. Jesus’s incarnation brought the Second Person of the Trinity all the way into the mess he had come to redeem: murder in the name of God, lovelessness among the “godly,” callous disregard for life’s “little ones.” The Christmas year acknowledges this reality with what I think of as “A Christmas Triptych.” We remember Stephen and his martyrdom on December 26, the apostle John and the commandment of love on December 27, and the “Holy Innocents” and the need to protect the vulnerable on December 28.

Collect of Saint Stephen: We give you thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors to your Son Jesus Christ, who stands at your right hand; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. 

Few of us are asked to take up our cross as severely as Stephen. However, in many parts of the world, losing your life for your faith is not uncommon. As a professor, I was humbled by the risks some of my students took in coming to the US for training in ministry. At least one student won a martyr’s wreath upon his return to his homeland.  

But there are other kinds of deaths besides crucifixion or stoning. They vary from lost job opportunities, to rejection by spouses or family members, to subtle and not so subtle snubs by former associates or friends. We can use these experiences to be reminded by St. Stephen that “the fellowship of the sufferings” of Christ is part of the privilege that comes with the Incarnation.  

The Christian story is one of forgiveness, forgiveness, always forgiveness. Stephen’s “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:50b) is both a lovely echo of Jesus’s own forgiving prayer from the Cross, and also a powerful call to Christ-followers to resist the haters by not hating them back. It is a call to translate loss, rejection, and snubs into thankful praise for the new friendships and for the newly opened doors that always seem to follow the doors that get slammed in your face.  

Most importantly, Stephen teaches us that above it all, always, is Jesus: “But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’” (Acts 7:55–56). By his death Jesus destroyed death, and by his life he destroys our fear of death—every kind of death, the big ones and the little ones. As Lord of all, he is lord even when (as was the case with Stephen) deluded people are running the show and have you in their power. You never know when (as was the case with Stephen—see Acts 8:1) there’s a Saul/Paul in the wings observing, if uncomprehendingly in that moment, your equilibrium, your faith, and your undeniable love.   

I pray that as the Collect invites us to pray, we may know the absolute supremacy of Christ over every hand of opposition that comes against us or voice of criticism that we hear. I pray that the power of forgiveness and grace has the upper hand in our lives, and that it overflows to those around us.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Annunciation - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 12/25/2024 •

Christmas Day

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 72; Isaiah 28:9–29; Revelation 21:9–21; Luke 1:26–38 

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 this Wednesday of the fourth week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

Luke. In today’s gospel reading I think it is worth paying attention to the way Gabriel speaks to Mary of the joy she is to help to bring into the world, of the utter grace that is being bestowed upon her and upon all who learned to receive that same grace, and of the fact that the Lord’s presence in and through her means she will never be alone: “Greetings (literally, “Rejoice”), favored one (literally, “she who has received grace”)! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). This passage resonates richly with the other Scriptures in today’s readings. 

Psalm 72. This psalm “of Solomon” (verse 1 in the Hebrew) celebrates the reign of David’s son. King Solomon was the last to govern a united kingdom, and this psalm sees his rule as being characterized by long duration, by care for the needy, by international fame for Israel, and by productivity of the land.  

Christians have always read in Psalm 72 an anticipation of the reign of Christ, who described himself as “greater than Solomon” (Matthew 12:42). His resurrection (not to mention his pre-existence) means that he will be “established” even longer than “the sun endures” (compare with Revelation 21:23–24 — “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it”).  

As the heir of David that Gabriel promises to Mary, Jesus unites not only Samaria and Judah, but Jew and Gentile (John 4:22–24; Acts 1:8; 8:4–8; Romans 15:7–13; Ephesians 2:11-22). He preaches good news to the poor (Luke 4:18). He receives “all authority under heaven and on earth,” sending his disciples to the ends of the earth to make disciples, that is, to claim citizens for his kingship (Matthew 28:18–20). And at his return, believers expect him to usher in a completely new creation, where the tree of life brings healing to the nations (Revelation 22:1–22).   

Psalm 72 was, accordingly, one of the most obvious psalms for Isaac Watts (1719) to recast in Christ-centered terms: 

1 Jesus shall reign where’er the sun 
does its successive journeys run, 
his kingdom stretch from shore to shore, 
till moons shall wax and wane no more. 

2 To him shall endless prayer be made, 
and praises throng to crown his head. 
His name like sweet perfume shall rise 
with every morning sacrifice. 

3 People and realms of every tongue 
dwell on his love with sweetest song, 
and infant voices shall proclaim 
their early blessings on his name. 

4 Blessings abound where’er he reigns: 
the prisoners leap to lose their chains, 
the weary find eternal rest, 
and all who suffer want are blest. 

5 Let every creature rise and bring 
the highest honors to our King, 
angels descend with songs again, 
and earth repeat the loud “Amen!”  

With Mary’s “Let it be done unto me,” she assents to bringing into the world and to nurturing this very reality. Praise be!  

Isaiah. Because of Israel’s idolatries—her “covenant with death”—Isaiah promises a storm of judgment: “hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter” (Isaiah 28:17). That indeed, was the effect of the Assyrian and the Babylonian armies as they unleashed their fury against God’s people. Nonetheless, Yahweh promises that he is using the process to lay “in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:16). In the midst of storm, faithful Israelites who put their trust in Yahweh will find one piece of solid ground upon which to stand.  

Mary is one such faithful Israelite, saying “Yes!” to the Lord’s overture to her. And so Edward Mote’s (1834) hymn is as true for her as it is for you and me:  

In ev’ry rough and stormy gale, 
my anchor holds within the vale. 
When all around my soul gives way, 
he then is all my hope and stay.  

On Christ the solid rock I stand,  
all other ground is sinking sand… 

Revelation. Today’s passage presents the next to last mention in the Bible of God’s bride: redeemed humanity. The church. Here is the culmination of a massively glorious theme we have seen developing for months in our Daily Office readings. Prior to the Book of Revelation, the theme has been especially prominent in the prophet Hosea and in the Song of Songs. Then, from Revelation 12 forward, Scripture accelerates this theme toward its destination: the magnificent marriage of the Lamb. In Revelation 12, the church, in the figure of a woman, is rescued and whisked into the wilderness for protection. In Revelation 19, the church is made ready as a bride for her wedding. Now, finally, she is shown in her full glory: “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb” (Revelation 21:9). And the vision consists of the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God perfected: “And in the [S]pirit he carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God” (Revelation 21:10).  

At this point, we just have to stand back and ponder, maybe even wordlessly, the magnificence of the imagery John is given. Back in Revelation 19, we are told that the bride who has made herself ready, “‘to her it has been granted to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:7–8). There the “righteous deeds” by which she has prepared herself are “fine linen.” Here, those “righteous deeds” take on the features of a beautiful symmetry of construction—the balancing of twelve tribes of Israel and twelve apostles of Christ (Revelation 21:12,14). And instead of linen, we behold valuable stones and precious metals. What seem to humble believers to be the feeblest attempts to honor Christ in this life bear promise of being eternally majestic ornaments. That’s about all I know to say. Except to repeat Revelation 19’s fourfold, “Hallelujah! … Hallelujah!! … Hallelujah!!! … Hallelujah!!!!  

Oh, Mary, did you have any idea what you were saying “Yes!” to? 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

In Imitation of Him We Offer Ourselves - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 12/24/2024 •

Advent 4 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 66; Isaiah 11:1o–16; Revelation 20:11–21:8; Luke 1:5–25  

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 this Tuesday of the fourth week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Isaiah: a signal for the nations. Isaiah is an extraordinary seer of God’s nuanced future for his people and for the world. In today’s vision, Isaiah foresees an heir to David’s throne (the “root of Jesse” from the first half of Isaiah 11) reigning from Jerusalem, and restoring peace between the northern kingdom (Israel or Ephraim) and the southern kingdom (Judah). Yahweh will “raise a standard” and gather children of Abraham and Sarah from all directions of their dispersion: from east (Elam in Iran, Shinar in Babylon, Hamath in Syria) and south (Pathros in Egypt, Ethiopia) and west (“the [Mediterranean] coastlands”). And God’s army will once again renew his campaign against the surrounding godless nations (Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon).  

The New Testament interprets these prophecies’ fulfillment, in part, at Jesus Christ’s First Coming and in the proclamation of the good news of God’s victory over sin and death in the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus, a descendant of the royal line of David, ministers in Galilee and Samaria (the old northern kingdom) and in Jerusalem and its environs (the old southern kingdom). From all around the Mediterranean basin, Jews come to Jerusalem at Pentecost. Here thousands believe in Jesus, are baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. Then, as the gospel goes out from Jerusalem, it goes first to Samaria—symbolically reuniting Israel and Judah under the banner of Christ. From there, the gospel goes to the nations, claiming hearts for the service of King Jesus.  

Revelation: “I make all things new.” The finality of Isaiah’s promise awaits, of course, Christ’s Second Coming. And that is what John depicts in today’s reading in Revelation. The byline for today’s passage in Revelation comes from the Returning Jesus: “See, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5): 

• A new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1) 

• The new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2) 

• The earthly bride (the church) adorned for her husband (Jesus)—newly constituted communion between God and us (Revelation 21:2–3) 

• Each human life shown to have eternal significance (Revelation 20:11–15) 

• Joy returns—no more tears (Revelation 21:4) 

• Life returns—no more death (Revelation 21:4) 

• Flourishing prevails—all the things marking the diminishment of human worth and dignity are banished from God’s new creation (Revelation 21:6–8) 

Luke: “your prayer has been heard.” The drama of the fulfilling of the Isaianic vision begins, as far as Luke is concerned, with a priest named Zechariah performing his duties in the temple, attending to the incense (a symbol of prayer). The angel Gabriel announces to him that he and his wife Elizabeth, though they are “both getting on in years,” will have a child in answer to their prayers. And not just any child. Their son will minister in the “spirit and power of Elijah” to prepare God’s people for a most amazing visitation from the Lord. Most people probably find the most memorable feature of Luke’s account to be Zechariah’s laugh of incredulity, and his consignment to muteness until time to name the child (as commanded) John.  

Seems to me, the three things to be remembered from this story are:  

• God has a sovereign will and plan to bring redemption to the human race, but he seems to take pleasure in effecting it in response to his people’s prayers. 
   

• Zechariah is not the first, nor will he be the last, person in the Bible who does not respond to God’s promises with a perfect faith—think of Sarah’s laugh when God promises her a son at ninety-something years; and think of Peter’s shaky faith or Thomas’s understandable doubt. Thankfully, God’s grace has a way of overriding our vacillation. When “the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41), Christ’s prayers for us prevail.  
   

• In Christian art, the Gospel of Luke, by the way, is represented by the “bull” of Ezekiel 1:10 and Revelation 4:7, because Luke begins his narrative in the temple, the place of sacrifice. Christ comes among us humbly, to offer himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. In imitation of him, we give ourselves—even when God has to override our pride and pretense, our sloth and indifference—in sacrificial service. Even when that sacrificial service amounts, as it did with Zechariah, to something as seemingly insignificant as being where we are supposed be … and paying attention.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

His Good News Unites Us - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 12/23/2024 •

Advent 4 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 61; Psalm 62; Isaiah 11:1–9; Revelation 20:1–10; John 5:30–47 

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 fourth week of Advent (the Christian “New Year),” and we have begun “Year One” in the cycle of readings of the Daily Office.  

Isaiah’s vision of the ministry of Messiah. In today’s passage, Isaiah opens the curtain for a moment to give the people of his generation an extraordinary peek into the work of the Messiah who was to come. When Jesus came to the earth, he took up precisely the mantle Isaiah describes here.  

• Jesus is of David’s royal lineage: “from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1; Luke 1:32; Acts 13:22–23, “of [David’s] posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised”).  

• Jesus ministered in the power and under the illumination of the Holy Spirit: “The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him…” (Isaiah 11:2; Matthew 3:16; John 1:32, “the Spirit descended from heaven … and rested on him”).   

• He clothed himself with justice, righteousness, equity, and truthfulness, not self-promotion, ego, favoritism, and prevarication: “Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist….” (Isaiah 11:3; John 5:30; 8:16, “Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid”). 

• The Kingdom-gospel that he proclaims brings conviction of sin; it exposes sham religiosity and deathly false dealing: “with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked” (Isaiah 11:4b; Romans 1:17–18; John 16:7–9, [the Spirit] “will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment”).  

• His good news turns enemies into friends; he unites republican and democrat, pacifist and militant, extrovert and introvert, Red Sox fan and Yankees fan, dog lover and cat lover “The wolf shall live with the lamb…” (Isaiah 11:6–8; Ephesians 2:14, “For he is our peace…”).  

• The life-giving gospel that emanates from Jerusalem’s holy mountain will go to the ends of the earth: “for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the earth” (Isaiah 11:9; Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:18–20, “make disciples of all the nations”).  

Revelation and the “now” and the “not yet.” In the Book of Revelation, John is given a breathtaking vision of the way that Jesus’s messianic ministry plays out both in the “now” and in the “not yet”—that is, how it begins in his First Coming and culminates in his Second Coming. 

Revelation 20 is one of the trickiest passages in all of Scripture, and there are several schools of thought about its overall thrust. In the course of a devotional writing, I ask your indulgence to allow me to offer insights from where I land in the landscape of interpretations. To cut to the chase, I believe that in Revelation 20:1–3, John is not looking into the distant future. Instead, I believe he is looking back at what transpired during Jesus’s earthly ministry, that is, during his First Coming. He “bound” Satan through his exorcisms, his healings, and his allowing himself to be lifted up on and nailed to the cross.  

When you have the opportunity, compare Revelation 20:2 with these verses from the Gospels and Paul about how, at his First Coming, Jesus “bound” Satan: Matthew 12:29; Mark 3:27; Luke 13:16; John 12:31–32; and Colossians 2:14–15).  

Most significantly, the work that Jesus began in his exorcisms and that culminated on the cross means that Satan is no longer able to “deceive the nations,” so that the saving good news of our liberation from sin and death can be spread and joyfully embraced around the world (Revelation 20:3; Acts 26:18; Hebrews 2:14–15).  

What began in Jesus’s First Coming is a long period of time (of which 1,000 years is symbolic) in which our now Ascended Jesus reigns. Believers have experienced the “first resurrection,” that is, their new birth in Christ (John 3:3’s “You must be born again”; alternatively, this language of “first resurrection” may refer ironically to the deaths of martyrs, as representatives of all believers). As a “kingdom of priests” (Revelation 1:6; 20:6) believers (and especially the martyrs) share in Christ’s reign: they see Christ’s victorious gospel spread from pole to pole and all around the globe.  

Isaiah foresaw all of this, if only from a distance. But what he also saw was a complete elimination of all that is evil—something that awaits the Second Coming. We know that the peaceability that Isaiah described between enemies and rivals has never yet been completely realized. Revelation 20 spells out the exact nature of Satan’s circumscription during this age: he cannot prevent the gospel’s advance among the nations. As Jesus tells Paul when he commissions him to take the good news to the Gentiles: “...to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). At the end of the (symbolic) 1,000 years of gospel-expansion, Satan will be released for one (in the terms of biblical theologian Herman Ridderbos) “final explosion of evil.” And then the Lord will return—his Second Coming. At that time, he will consign the Devil and his cohorts to their eternal lot, eliminating all evil from the human and cosmic experience (Revelation 20:7–10).  

John and belief. Meanwhile, the Lord Jesus himself calls for one main thing: belief. Not an unteachable belief in the details of the final scenario (we’re all going to be in for surprises in that regard, I’m sure). No, belief that he is Lord. Belief in him. Belief that, as he says in today’s gospel reading: “The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me” (John 5:36). Belief that the Father has sent him for you and me—and for many who as yet do not know him. Belief that life right now may be full of the sense of newness in him and gratitude for a share in his reign. Belief that when he comes again, we will be able to welcome him with joy and anticipation at the eternal fellowship that awaits.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Bold Faith - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 12/20/2024 •

Advent 3 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 40; Psalm 54; Isaiah 10:5–19 (and 10:20–27, from Saturday’s readings); 2 Peter 2:17–22 (and Jude 17–25, from Saturday’s readings); Matthew 11:2–15.  

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

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 third week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

Biblical faith is irrepressibly hopeful. In the middle of the night, it always prepares for day. Advent insists that darkness, disease, and death will not prevail, and that Christmas is just around the corner. And it’s not just that we can be confident that vaccines will suppress viruses, or that (at least in our system of government) checks and balances will eventually prevail over the feverish madness of authoritarians or libertines. No, really, Advent’s hope and Christmas’s promise is that a day will come when there will be no diseases to be protected from, nor bad rulers to be reined in. One day, death will be no more, and one righteous King will rule.  

Isaiah catches several glimpses of that hope over the course of his prophesying. In his tenth chapter (the readings for today and tomorrow), Isaiah raises his voice against the Assyrians who attack the northern kingdom of Israel, savaging its people and ravaging the countryside. Assyria has been Yahweh’s disciplining instrument against his covenant-violating people in Israel: “Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger—the club in their hands is my fury!” (Isaiah 10:5). But in its overweening pride, Assyria thinks it is doing its own bidding, and presumes to come against the southern kingdom of Judah as well. Yahweh will have none of it: “When the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he will punish the arrogant boasting of the king of Assyria and his haughty pride” (10:12).  

Isaiah invokes the language of the centuries-past exodus from Egypt and conquest of the Land of Promise. Yahweh will act once again on his people’s behalf: “O my people, who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrians when they beat you with a rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did. For in a very little while my indignation will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction. The Lord of hosts will wield a whip against them, as when he struck Midian at the rock of Oreb; his staff will be over the sea, and he will lift it as he did in Egypt. On that day his burden will be removed from your shoulder, and his yoke will be destroyed from your neck” (Isaiah 10:24–27). Further on, Isaiah promises a forerunner who will prepare the way for that new exodus and conquest: “A voice is calling out: In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3). 

That forerunner is John the Baptist. When the imprisoned John the Baptist sought assurance about whether Jesus was the Messiah and inaugurator of the new exodus and conquest that God had been promising, Jesus answered John’s question with a resounding “Yes!” He instructed the Baptist’s messengers: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them” (Matthew 11:4–5). Those acts, prophesied by Isaiah 700 years earlier, are signs of the “breaking in” of God’s great deliverance: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped…” (Isaiah 32:5).  

The most intriguing verse in today’s passage in Matthew is the twelfth verse, with its note of conquest. I’m pretty sure the translation of the Evangelical Heritage Version gets verse 12 right: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been advancing forcefully (biazetai) and forceful people (biastai) are seizing it” (and see also the marginal note in the NRSV). The Greek verb biazetai is in the middle/passive voice, and therefore could be translated either with an active sense (“advancing forcefully”) or a passive sense (“suffering violence”). And the noun biastai denotes “forceful people,” but it could indicate literal force (“violent people”) or metaphorical force (“assertive people”).  

Most translators and commentators take the latter option for both words (i.e., that the Kingdom is “suffering violence” at the hands of “forceful people”) — these interpreters  think that in this verse Jesus is saying that ever since John began his ministry, the kingdom has faced resistance.  

While that is true enough, I don’t think it is what Jesus means here. In the previous chapter, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). And in Matthew 16, Jesus will insist that the gates of hell will not stand against the church that he himself will build (Matthew 16:18). Jesus’s ministry as a whole is one of carrying out God’s warfare against the evils of demon possession, of sickness and death, and of people’s subjugation to sin’s condemnation. In Jesus’s ministry, God’s kingdom is forcefully asserting itself against the kingdom of darkness. And with Matthew 11:12’s “forceful people are seizing it,” Jesus commends an assertive faith, a faith that resists the negativity of sin, death, and demonic influence. With his challenge, “Let anyone with ears listen!”, Jesus urges a faith that boldly takes hold of God’s kingdom promises.  

2 Peter and Jude on keeping hope alive. Before taking on the false teachers’ bogus teaching to the effect that the Lord is not returning (in 2 Peter 3), Peter fires one last salvo against their lethal combination of pretended profundity and ethical laxity: “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption” (2 Peter 2:19). There’s a world of depth in this simple thought. It is worth long and slow pondering. Certain things that seem to offer liberation end up subjecting us to the most desperate and debilitating of life patterns.  

For help in keeping ourselves properly oriented to a vibrant hope during Advent, we give Peter’s spiritual twin Jude the last word (from tomorrow’s reading): “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 20–21).  

May your readings, your worship, and your meditation take you further into the glory and richness of our “most holy faith.” May the Holy Spirit deepen and enliven your prayers, especially that we may see Kingdom-come. May the love of God hold you tight. May the mercy of King Jesus await you at his return.  

Be blessed this day.  

Reggie Kidd+  

We Give Ourselves God Amnesia - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 12/19/2024 •

Advent 3 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Isaiah 9:18–10:4; 2 Peter 2:10b–16; Matthew 3:1–12 

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 this Thursday of the third week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

God hates the mess that sin makes of our lives. During Advent we inventory the ways that Scripture indicts sin. If flashes of self-recognition come, they give us the chance to come clean about the disarray. They invite us to step deeper into the grace of the Incarnate Lord and his determination to mend what is broken, heal what is sick, straighten what is twisted, and clean what is polluted.  

Common themes unite Isaiah, Peter, and John the Baptist today: greed, oppression of the poor, vacuous spirituality, adulterous hearts. Providentially, this morning’s psalm—Psalm 50—provides helpful hooks for the naming of our sins, and for putting ourselves on the path to their purging.  

“… and toss my words behind your back…” — Psalm 50:17. This Psalm of Asaph paints a graphic picture of what it is to disregard what God says. I think of receiving a letter with news I don’t care to hear, reading it, then crumpling it up and tossing it over my shoulder. To ignore his Word is to say, “Not so much!” to what God says is important. In the spirit of the psalmist, Isaiah rails against “iniquitous decrees” and “oppressive statutes.” He means unrighteous laws that allow rich and powerful people “to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!” (Isaiah 10:2). Israel’s story is replete with reminders like this one: “You shall not wrong or oppress a resident alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. You shall not abuse any widow or orphan” (Exodus 22:21–22). Those are not words to toss lightly aside.  

“… and you thought that I am like you.” — Psalm 50:21. The psalmist knows how easy it is for us imagine God to be merely a projection of ourselves. We can delude ourselves into thinking he is there to affirm our preferences, endorse our values, and carry out our plans. Like the psalmist, John the Baptist will have none of it. He is preparing people for the coming of the great Day of the Lord. He confronts those who think that on that day “the Big Guy” will simply baptize the status quo, and lock in the privileged position of those at the top of the social pyramid.  The Scribes and the Pharisees are supposed to be stewards of the vision of God’s kingdom. Instead, they have recast God in the image of themselves. They have refashioned his kingdom and made it reflect their own self-worth. Bad idea.  

“… you who forget God.” — Psalm 50:23. Deep down, we know that this sort of thinking is bogus. We know God is not like us! So we simply block out the very thought of him. Alas, we give ourselves a “God-amnesia.”  Every one of us knows exactly what it’s like to contemplate doing something against conscience, but then shouting conscience down because we want to do what we want to do. It’s as though a fog of forgetfulness rolls in on us, and we welcome it. Peter understands this truth as well as the psalmist does. That’s why he warns against filling our eyes with adultery, becoming insatiable for sin, yielding our unsteady souls to sin’s enticements, training our hearts in greed—in a word, leaving the straight road and going astray (2 Peter 2:14–15). Peter recalls the example of Balaam whose greed allowed him to “forget” God’s call on his life, until the voice of a donkey snapped him back to reality.  

“Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving…” — Psalm 50:14,24. The psalmist offers an antidote to the folly of sin, whether of disregard for God’s Word, making God over into our likeness, or forgetting about God altogether. That antidote is the offering of thanks. Clearly, the psalmist doesn’t mean simply getting the liturgy and the prayer formulas right: “I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices … all the beasts of the forest are mine … If I were hungry, I would not tell you …” (Psalm 50:8–12). What the psalmist says that God is after is a heart full of gratitude. Accordingly, I pray:  

Lord, I thank you for the words of your Scriptures that shout to me the good news that you have rescued me from sin and death. Your Word says that though I was lost, you found me. Your Word says that though I was nothing, you so valued me that you sent your eternal and only Son to make me your child and heir. I am thankful, therefore, for the opportunity to reflect your character and your love to the lost and the least who cross my path this day. Amen.  

Lord, I thank you that you are not like me, but are a great God, king of the universe. I gratefully take my small place in your large design. I give myself anew to furthering your kingdom, not mine. Amen.  

Lord, in this Advent season especially, I thank you that though I am prone to forget you, you did not forget me. You came in grace and mercy so that my story would not end in dissipation through the indulgence of the sins of the flesh or of a heart alienated from you. As the thief on the cross, I ask, “Remember me” … as I remember you. Amen.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+