The Good Shepherd - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 2/16/2022
Wednesday of 6 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 101; Psalm 109; Genesis 31:25–50; 1 John 2:12–17; John 10:1–18

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)

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Today’s Old Testament and Gospel readings converge in an intriguing way. 

John 10: Jesus is the Good Shepherd who protects his sheep from predators. He shows an affection for his flock unlike that of hirelings, posers who merely pretend to care for them. 

Genesis 31: Jacob’s shepherd is the LORD. After twenty years of abuse under his uncle Laban’s tent, Jacob has tried to leave quietly. But Laban has chased him down, gaslighting him by charging with being an ingrate and a thief (Genesis 31:25–28). God alone, complains Laban, keeps him from punishing Jacob. 

In angry exasperation, Jacob draws on his twenty years of shepherding for Laban to explain how much abuse he has endured at his uncle’s hands, despite which he has conducted himself honorably and fairly. He has cared for Laban’s flocks without stealing any for himself; he has absorbed the loss when he had been unable to protect any of Laban’s sheep from predators or thieves (Genesis 31:38–41). He has been anything but the kind of “hireling” Jesus will later declaim. He has been a “good shepherd,” only to have Laban reward him with deception, lies, and inconstancy. 

However, Jacob has come to understand that there is someone who cares for him. He has Yahweh (as his descendent David will describe it several generations later) as his shepherd: “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want…” (Psalm 23:1). Jacob recognizes that “the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac” has taken his side, protected him, and prospered him. He has come to know the care of his own Good Shepherd. 

Jacob is on his way to seek out his brother Esau, whom he knows he has profoundly wronged. There he hopes to find reconciliation. Here with Laban, he is content with a non-aggression pact. The so-called Mizpah benediction (Genesis 31:49) calls upon Yahweh to serve as watchman between the two of them, each erecting a testimonial pillar. 

A huge takeaway here is that sometimes our Good Shepherd: 1) gives us courage to cut the tie of a relationship in which we’ve been exploited, 2) the wisdom to build good boundaries, and 3) the strength to move on. 

The Collect for the Fourth Sunday of Easter seems a good conclusion for today’s devotion: O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Stained Glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, FL

Believing is Seeing - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 2/15/2022
Tuesday of 6 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Genesis 31:1–24; 1 John 2:1–11; John 9:18–41

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)

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The French artist Georges Rouault, himself a “sighted” person, recalls having escorted a blind mathematics professor on a walk. On the walk, the blind man recited poetry — a world to which Rouault was “blind” — all the while the blind man’s “eyes turned toward the sky.” Hearing the flow of the poetry, Rouault found himself ruminating over which of them was more limited in the perception of reality. 

Rouault would later render the scene in a most memorable panel of his Miserere, Plate 55. In that plate one man is guiding another. One is blind, the other is not. Normally, the “sighted” person would lead the blind person, as had been the case when Rouault led his blind friend. But in the  scene Rouault creates, the roles are reversed. In the lead is the blind man, his blank eyes lifted to the heavens, while the “sighted” person follows, his world-weary head bent down toward the ground. Rouault titles it, “Sometimes the blind have comforted those who see.”*

John 9: when believing is seeing. John’s narration of the story of Jesus’s healing of the man blind from birth makes the very same point. Over the course of this story, the man who “once was blind but now I see” comes to see more than just the world around him. The eyes of his heart become gradually open to the reality of who Jesus is, and increasingly open to what true life is. At first Jesus is just the guy who heals him. The man barely catches his name: “The man called Jesus made mud, … They said to him, ‘Where is he?’ He said, ‘I do not know’” (John 9:11b,12a). 

Later, when pressed by the Pharisees to account for why he thinks Jesus could feel the freedom to heal on the sabbath, the man surmises, “He is a prophet” (John 9:17). Pressed further, he says (I phrase), “Look, OK, you all call him a sinner. All I know is that I was blind, now I see. … Could it be that deep down you really want to become his followers? … If this man were not from God, he could do nothing” (John 9:25,27). He’s getting it, and he’s willing to be rejected by his questioners for telling the truth about what his experience of Jesus has taught him! 

Finally, Jesus meets with him one-on-one and poses the question: “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” (John 9:35). That’s a loaded question, calling up the image of the Messiah from heaven that Daniel had predicted (see Daniel 7:13–14). The man expresses his willingness to believe, if only he knew in whom he was to believe. Jesus forthrightly acknowledges his own identity: “You have seen (what a pregnant term!) him, and the one speaking with you is he.” The man’s response shows just how much his eyes have been opened: “‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped him” (John 9:37–38). The one who used to be blind now sees both with his once dead physical eyes and with his once dead spiritual eyes. 

Meanwhile, sadly, the Pharisees, stewards of God’s Word and those trained to discern true teaching and identify false, are stuck in the dark. They are blind to the fact that the Light of the World has dawned among them. Claiming to see heavenly things, their heads are bent to the ground and their eyes, though open, are unseeing. “Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains’” (John 9:39–41). If only, like Rouault, they would admit that despite their physical sight there was a whole new world they could not “see” — and to which only the experience of this formerly blind person could open them! 

There’s much to ponder here for those of us who sense we’ve been awakened to a world beyond what a radically secularized world has defined as “reality.” God give us grace to offer with humility our arms and with good humor our insights to those whose world-weary heads are bent to the ground with blank eyes. 

Genesis 31: the light begins to shine for Jacob. Change has taken hold in Jacob. The light has begun to dawn for him. The lens through which he has begun to see life is no longer secular, but sacred: “But the God of my father has been with me. … but God did not permit Laban to harm me. … Thus God has taken away the livestock of your father, and given them to me … Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’” (Genesis 31:6,7,9,11). 

1 John: walking in the light. When the eyes of our hearts have been enlightened, we see ourselves in a different light. We are able to be honest about our sins because we know they have been covered: “But if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous…the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:1b–2a). 

Knowing we have been loved from on high, we find we want to love back. And we find that love obeys the commandments: “…whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection” (1 John 2:5). 

Old commandments become new, from not profaning the sabbath to not coveting our neighbors’ possessions. The holiness and rest of one day in seven become a means of lovingly sacralizing every day and of flourishing in the six days of living out our calling. Contented gratitude for God’s kind provision for us frees us to love neighbors whom we no longer envy, but whose well-being we seek. “Beloved,” says John, “I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” (1 John 2:7–8). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: from Postage Stamp, 1961. 

* “L’aveugle parfois a console le voyant.” 

God Will Win the Day - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 2/14/2022
Monday of 6 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89; Genesis 30:1–24; 1 John 1:1–10; John 9:1–17

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)

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Genesis 30: children born of grace. The utter grace of it all! The Bible never lets us forget that. The twelve tribes of Israel, easily romanticized as the pillars of God’s people, came about through the bitter rivalry between Jacob’s wives, one wanted (Rachel) and one unwanted (Leah). Despite all the machinations and bruised relationships, it’s pure grace that causes unwanted Leah to become mother to Israel’s priestly and kingly lines (Levi and Judah — and ultimately, to Jesus). The same grace gives near-to-despairing Rachel a single child, the last to be fathered by Jacob. That son’s story will crown the Genesis account. The exile of this son, Joseph, to Egypt forecasts both the exodus under Moses and the figure of a future suffering and overcoming Savior. 

When we feel ourselves surrounded by bad actors who manipulate their way into favor and power, especially in the name of God, this portion of Genesis can be, ironically, a bracing and encouraging read. Somehow, God will win the day. He always does. His redemptive purposes stand. 

John 9: the light that enlightens. In John 9, the eternal Light of the World engages our blindness and confusion. Jesus comes upon a man who has been blind from birth. His disciples pose what must have seemed to them like a deep theological question: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Jesus dismisses their question: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:3). 

In a world conditioned by sin and colored by the Fall, there is no one-to-one correspondence between a person’s behavior or personal sinfulness and their physical health, or of their social status for that matter. Confusion over that fact is itself a part of the blindness of sin. Disability is not a sign of moral deficiency. Nor is health an index of spiritual well-being. Nor is privilege a sign of worthiness. As this story unfolds, we will see that the religious leaders are more blind than the man who can’t see with his physical eyes: the eyes of their hearts are blind to the Light of the World! 

Jesus presses past the speculative theological confusion about the origin of suffering. He spits on the ground and makes mud from his spittle and the dirt. Don’t read past that too quickly! Heaven’s Rescuer combines his spit with the dust of our origin (“from dust you came”) to heal this son of Adam. Jesus spreads the mud on the man’s eyes and sends him to a pool (the name of which means “Sent”). “Go wash,” he tells him. And in that washing the lights come on! Small wonder the early church called baptism an “enlightenment.”* John’s Gospel announces early on that “in him was life, and the life was the light of mankind” (John 1:4 NET). 

1 John: what we’ve seen with our eyes. Now, if the apostle John authored the gospel that bears his name (and I think he did) and if that same John penned the Johannine epistles (and I think he did), it’s easy to imagine him capturing his own reaction to just such a sign: “…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…” (1 John 1b–2a). To the healing of the man born blind add turning water into wine at Cana (John 2), healing the royal official’s son in Capernaum and the paralytic at Bethesda (John 4 & 5), the feeding of the 5,000 his walking on the water (John 6), and the raising of Lazarus (John 11). Crowning it all, of course, is Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, when he shows the disciples “his hands and his side” (John 20:20) and even invites Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe” (John 20:27). 

The grace that worked through the dysfunction of Jacob’s family was no abstraction. That Grace is capitalized. That Grace walked in sandaled feet. That Grace merged heaven and earth. That Grace spat and sent, healed and instructed — and died and rose again. Because he rose from the dead, that Grace comes still, and heals still. For now, we experience but partial healing, whether physical or emotional, psychological or relational. One day, we will experience full healing of body, soul, and spirit. One day, as John says later in 1 John,) “when [Jesus[ is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Then it will be our turn to join our voice to John’s “what we have seen, with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands!” May that Grace give us courage and strength and hope, 

… so that we may be blessed this day. Amen!

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "Jesus Feet" by Ben Lowery is licensed under CC BY 2.0

* Gregory of Nazianzus, Festal Orations, translation with introduction and commentary by Nonna Verna Harrison (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2008), Oration 40, “On Baptism,” ch. 3.

We Don't Need to be "Good Enough" - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 2/11/2022
Friday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 88; Genesis 27:46-28:4,10-22; Romans 13:1-14; John 8:33-47

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)

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Genesis: “Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin!” The Bible’s story is one long proof of this line from Julia H. Johnston’s (b. 1910) hymn. Today’s account of “Jacob’s Ladder” is case in point. 

If anybody ever needed grace, it was Jacob, the “Supplanter.” This second son had been prophesied to be the inheritor of his father Isaac’s estate, and the one through whom God’s promises to his grandfather Abraham would be fulfilled. Nonetheless, rather than trusting God to fulfill the prophecy and secure his inheritance, Jacob had conspired once to swindle his brother, and a second time to dupe his father. 

As today’s narrative picks up, Jacob is fleeing from his vengeful brother. At his mother’s urging, he is on his way to his uncle Laban’s home to seek refuge and simultaneously a wife. “He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set” (Genesis 28:11). In matter-of-fact fashion, Jacob takes a stone for a pillow, lies down, and goes to sleep. No Evening Prayer, no Compline, no “Now I lay me down to sleep.” He just lays down a weary head.

Unsolicited, Yahweh comes to him in a dream. A stairway to heaven opens and Jacob sees angels traveling back and forth between heaven and earth. It’s not a means by which merit and effort and pride climb up. Later, Jacob calls it “the gate of heaven.” It’s the gateway through which grace condescends to come down. “Grace, grace, God’s grace….” 

With not a single word of rebuke, Yahweh pronounces over this wayward sinner the same promises he had given faithful Abraham: “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:13b–15). Magisterially, Yahweh promises land, offspring, expansiveness, and presence. 

The good news is that for God to come to us, he doesn’t necessarily need us to be looking for him. He emphatically doesn’t need us to be good enough! “…Grace that is greater than all my sins!” 

John: whose child will we be? At some point, grace’s approach demands a receptive response. Jacob’s response takes time, but it does come. Eventually Jacob embraces Yahweh’s overture of love, and welcomes his role in his family’s unfolding mission to bless the nations. Sadly, not everyone in Jacob’s line does the same. (Well, they think they do, but they don’t.) That goes for too many of Jesus’s contemporaries, especially those who have risen to positions of spiritual authority. Abraham was promised “a seed,” a singular child (Genesis 12:7), through whom all the promises of land, of offspring, of expansiveness, and of God’s presence would come to fruition. That “seed” proved to be Jesus of Nazareth, but “He came unto his own,” John says, “and his own received him not” (John 1:11 KJV). To those who would not receive him Jesus utters the most chilling thing he ever says to anyone: 

“If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are indeed doing what your father does” (John 8:39b–40).

The stakes are high. Recognize the grace that is offered in Jesus. When it comes to us, whether we’ve been seeking it or not, decide to receive or spurn it. Embrace it (that is, embrace Jesus) and know what it is to be welcomed into God’s family. Rebuff it (or, him), and wake up one day staring into the most dreadful of faces, and bearing the most damning of family resemblances. 

A Prayer of Self-Dedication. Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to thee, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly thine, utterly dedicated unto thee; and then use us, we pray thee, as thou wilt, and always to thy glory and the welfare of thy people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

Truth That Sets Free - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 2/10/2022
Thursday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 146; Psalm 147; Genesis 27:30–45; Romans 12:9–21; John 8:21–32

For more extensive reflections on Romans 12:9–21 from 7/17/2020

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)

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The truth that “will set you free.” Truth that sets free is the fact that Jesus is the great “I AM” come in the flesh. John’s Gospel is characterized by the stupendous claim that Yahweh himself has come in the person of the Word, the true and only begotten Son of the Father. “I AM” is the name by which God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush of Exodus 3 & 4. Jesus has the audacity to claim the same name for himself (not the use of the pregnant, free-standing phrase “I AM” at 8:18,24,28, and especially 8:58, “Before Abraham was ‘I AM’”)! Truly, if Jesus isn’t lying or delusional, here is God in flesh! Christians believe, in fact, that the divine and eternal Word has come in the flesh to reverse the corruption that set in when the world came under the dominion of “the prince of the world” after the Fall. 

Truth that sets free, moreover, is the fact that Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12). To redeem the world, Yahweh had called Israel to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). Through Israel’s one true Son, Yahweh’s light indeed shines into the world, bringing enlightenment and truth where there once was only darkness and error.

And truth that sets free is the fact that Jesus’s being lifted up on the tree of Calvary is the way not to “die in your sins” (John 8:21,24).  

The chains from which “the truth will set you free.” Within this paragraph in John, the truly liberating truth is that those who trust him do not “die in our sin,” and therefore, we do not wind up in an eternity of separation from God (really, a separation that would have been an extension of the hell already begun in this life). 

Within today’s reading in Genesis about Jacob and Esau, the truly liberating truth is that we have been freed from living life as either manipulators (like Jacob or Rebekah) or manipulated (like Esau or Isaac). The great I AM has come to free us from feeling we have to lie and cheat our way into getting what we deserve (like Jacob). The great I AM has come to free us from feeling envy of  people, or enmity against a world that we feel has victimized us (like Esau). 

Within today’s reading in Romans 12 (Paul’s “Desiderata” — see an earlier DDD on this passage), the liberating truth is that we have been freed: 1) from a life of pretending to care about others when all we care about is ourselves (“let love be unhypocritical”); 2) from masking evil motives beneath a veneer of doing good things (“hate what is evil, and cling to what is good”); 3) from sloth, malaise of spirit, and a “who cares?” outlook on life itself (“do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord”); 4) from xenophobia and caring only about people who look/talk/think like us (“pursue hospitality”, literally, “love for the stranger”); 5) from quarrelsomeness (“live in harmony with one another”); 6) from arrogance (“do not be haughty … do not be conceited”); and 7) from vindictiveness (“do not repay anyone evil for evil … do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”). 

Oddly, looking over this list, I, for one, feel a great weight being lifted. I feel freedom from things that don’t have to define me, hold me down, bind me up, and set me against everybody around me. I hope it has the same effect on you. If so, that is Jesus providing truth that sets you free! 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

God Continues to Work His Plan - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 2/9/2022
Wednesday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97–120; Genesis 27:1–29; Romans 12:1–8; John 8:12–20 

For comments on Romans 12:1–8 from DDD 7/16/2020

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)

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Virtually every day gives me reason to thank God for this one truth: it is a mercy that the God of grace works his design to do us good despite our sometimes purposeful and sometimes unwitting penchant for fouling things up. I see this truth within myself. I see it in the people around me. I read it in the headlines. And I read it in the Bible. Every person in today’s account of Isaac’s blessing of Jacob acts in an unworthy, if not horrible, manner. Still, through all their questionable acts God advances his gracious plan to redeem the world.

Isaac and Rebekah both know that Yahweh has prophesied that their second son will receive the family inheritance, not their first-born: “And the LORD said to [Rebekah], ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger’” (Genesis 25:23). 

Moreover, Esau has sold his birthright to his younger brother: “Jacob said, ‘Swear to me first.’ So [Esau] swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob” (Genesis 25:33).

In defiance of what he knows, Isaac conspires with Esau to thwart God’s plans as well as the standing agreement between Esau and Jacob. Nor are Rebekah and Jacob innocents in the incident, as commentator Derek Kidner observes, “Rebekah and Jacob, with a just cause, made no approach to God or man, no gesture of faith or love, and reaped the appropriate fruit of hatred.”* 

Treachery and deceit win the day, as does, ironically, God’s sovereign will for the deliverance of the world through Abraham’s line. That God continues to work his saving plan through sinners desperately in need of salvation is, well, the point. Jacob’s very name testifies to God’s power to work through the mixed motives of his subjects. Jacob’s name can mean “May God be your rearguard” (that is, “…at your heels to protect you”). But instead of living up to his name, Jacob lives down to its other possible meaning: “You will grasp another by the heel.” He could be “Faith-filled.” Instead, he is “Supplanter” of his brother — and in today’s account, his mother is co-supplanter. 

Nonetheless, as Isaac himself eventually confesses, “Yes, and blessed [Jacob] shall be!” (Genesis 27:33b). And the writer to the Hebrews recognizes there is at least a kernel of faith in the blessing that has been coaxed out of Isaac under false pretense: “By faith Isaac invoked blessings for the future on Jacob and Esau” (Hebrews 11:20). 

John does a lovely thing when he juxtaposes Jesus’s teaching at the Festival of Booths that he is the source of living water (John 7) with his teaching that he is the Light of the World (John 8). Water and light happen to be main themes of the Festival of Booths. At the Festival of Booths, Israelites celebrated not only the future coming of the Spirit who would pour refreshing waters over the earth, but they celebrated Israel’s identity and destiny as bearers of God’s light to the nations. Moreover, Jesus claims that light to be himself, and that destiny to be his own, and therefore the destiny of all who belong to him and come to him. 

John begins his gospel by announcing that Jesus Christ has brought light into the world: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it,” says John (1:4,5). Thus, it is doubly lovely that the way John’s gospel came together,  the story of the woman caught in adultery is sandwiched between the themes of Living Water and the theme of the Light of the World. He is Living Water for souls in need of cleansing from sin — sin overt (like hers) and sin covert (like those of her accusers). He is Light of the World for image bearers stumbling in the dark of self-made rules for living and the harsh consequences thereof.  

I pray we live in the wonderful knowledge that our God graciously rules all things. He will not be thwarted in his design to reconcile heaven and earth through his Son. He is the God of whom Paul says, “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6 my translation). He will not fail to see through to the end the good work he has begun in each of his children. That includes you and me. It includes us when we are at our best and when, like Isaac and Rebekah and Isaac and even Esau, we are at our worst. God’s Son Jesus has come as the Light of the World, and “the darkness did not overcome” the Light. 

Collect for the 5th Sunday after Epiphany. Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

* Derek Kidner, Genesis, p. 155. 

Our Great Shepherd - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 2/8/2022
Tuesday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 78; Genesis 26:1-6,12-33; Hebrews 13:17-25; John 7:53-8:11

For comments on John 7:53–8:11 from 12/9/2020 

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)

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Closing out Hebrews’ “brief word of exhortation”

We are learning precious truths about: our great God, our great Shepherd, ourselves, our great fellowship, the coherence of the New Testament’s message.

Our great God. “May the God of peace…” Notice who he is: the God of peace — our Father God is himself the source in eternity of a covenant to reunite heaven and earth. He is not the wrathful, vindictive tyrant he is often caricatured to be. He is not an insecure, fickle Zeus who is torqued because Prometheus has brought us fire. Our God’s goal and intent from eternity is our flourishing, and our rising to the full stature of bearing his own divine character (2 Peter 1:4). 

Our great God and Father is the one who sent his Son as Apostle and High Priest to reclaim us for that high calling. Notice what he has done: he raised Jesus from the dead. And notice the careful phrasing of verses 20 and 21: “May the God of peace …make you complete … so that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight.” Our great God works to equip us to do what aligns with who he is, and then he does that very work within us. 

Ourselves. Every one of us feels, I’m certain, the drag of “the sin that clings so closely” (Hebrews 12:1). Some of us have even, perhaps, felt the temptation to adjust the requirements of faith in apostate ways (like the congregation of the Hebrews — see Hebrews 6). But as we’ve just seen, we have something powerful within us: God himself working (as Paul put the same thought) “both the willing and the working” (Philippians 2:13). We have the privilege of cooperating with a most amazing, transformative process: our own makeover. We are created and destined to reclaim our stature as lords and ladies of the universe! Recall the way Hebrews 2:6–8 cites and comments on Psalm 8: “Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. But someone has testified somewhere, ‘What are human beings that you are mindful of them …  you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.’ … As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus….” We see him, in fact, as Lord in advance of our return to the lordship we lost at the Fall. And now we enjoy the Father’s work in us, by the Spirit of his Son, molding us in that direction—an onboard presence to steer and to guide, as the hymns puts it. Amazing, but true. 

Our great Shepherd. “…our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep…” (Hebrews 13:20b). It is because Jesus has shed his blood for us that we can know we are forgiven. It is because he has been raised from the dead that he can now serve as our Shepherd, guiding us in our living and leading us in our worship. 

Our great fellowship. We have in front of us the example of Jesus. We have above us a great cloud of witnesses. We have the presence of one another around us “stimulating us to love and good works.” 

We have leaders so that we may “stimulate one another” well: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls and will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sighing—for that would be harmful to you” (Hebrews 13:17). The NRSV translation of the first sentence in this verse is perhaps a bit misleading (see discussion below). The thrust of the verse is that we trust that our spiritual leaders’ joy lies in helping us flourish. And the Lord will hold them to account for that. Our job is to receive  what serves to help us thrive in our relationship in Christ and with each other.  

Our great tradition. Nobody knows exactly who wrote this magnificent treatise on Jesus as our great High Priest and our need to stay true to him. Because the writer speaks of “exhortation/encouragement” (paraklēsis) in verse 22, because he is attentive to the contours of the priesthood, and because Joseph Barnabas was a Levite who came to be called “Son of Encouragement” (huios paraklēseōs — Acts 4:36), some people think Barnabas wrote the letter to the Hebrews. Some people notice how similar the Alexandrian manner of contrasting earthly things with heavenly things is, and they conclude the highly articulate Alexandrian Apollos wrote it (see Acts 18:24). Still others, sensing strong affinities with Paul’s thinking throughout Hebrews, and noticing that the writer references “our brother Timothy” and seems to be writing from Italy (the place of the last citing of Paul — see 2 Timothy), believe Paul may be the author. 

We just don’t know. What’s wonderful to me is that the overall coherence and congruence of the great teachers and leaders of the New Testament era is such that any of them could have given us this masterpiece from God. They were that much in sync. What a great tradition they have passed on to us!

I pray we can walk confidently in the great fellowship of those who know the God of peace, who has called us to life through his Son the Great Shepherd of the sheep, and who nurtures our life together in the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

*The first verb in this sentence (which the NRSV renders “obey”) is peithesthe, a passive imperative from a verb that in the active voice means “persuade.” In the passive voice, it means “be persuaded by.” The second verb (which the NRSV renders “submit”) is hupakouete, and is normally translated “obey”; but its etymology is revealing. Its parts are hupo, which means “under,” and “akouein,” which means “to hear” — it’s not naked, unthinking submission or blind obedience that is called for, but rather a “coming under the hearing of.” In combination, peithesthe … upakouete mean “listen to your leaders with a readiness to receive what they teach; listen attentively and discerningly.” 

A Foreshadowing of Christ - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 2/7/2022
Monday of 5 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 80; Genesis 25:19–34; Hebrews 13:1–16; John 7:37–52

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)

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Today’s New Testament readings provide subtle but powerful insights into Christ’s identity and into his ministry among us. 

In John 7, Jesus claims that he has come to fulfill the prophecies that streams of water would come gushing forth from God’s temple to bless the earth (Ezekiel 47:1–12; Joel 3:18; Zechariah 14:8). Jesus has already said that he will be building a new temple from his own body (John 2:19–22). Now, he offers a word about the life that will emanate from that new temple. 

Part of the beautiful symbolism of the Feast of Tabernacles was a pouring out of water on the altar of Jerusalem’s temple each morning of the week-long festival. The symbol reminded God’s people of Zechariah’s promise that in the last days “living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter. And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one” (Zechariah 14:8–9). 

On the last day of the feast, Jesus stands up in front of everybody assembled and shouts out (yes, really, he SHOUTS it out): “IF ANYONE IS THIRSTY, LET THEM COME TO ME… (John 7:37a). Most translations (including the NRSV) treat the rest of what Jesus shouts as promising that water would then flow from believers’ hearts. However, it’s not clear how the Greek should be punctuated (there was no punctuation in the originals). Along with a number of influential  commentators, I think that the rest of what Jesus shouts is: “AND LET THE ONE WHO BELIEVES IN ME DRINK. JUST AS THE SCRIPTURE SAYS, ‘FROM WITHIN HIM (by which Jesus means himself) WILL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER!” (John 7:37b–38). John explains that Jesus is talking about the Spirit that had not yet been given. On the Cross, water and blood will flow from his side (John 19:34). After his resurrection, the Spirit will flow from him to the apostles and the church (John 14:16; 20:22). In other words, first the living water flows from Jesus, King over all the earth — and then the living water flows from him into and through us, by the Spirit, to the world that he has come to reclaim, bless, and renew. 

Admittedly, we are in the deep end of the pool — but what a pool!!  

In Hebrews 13, the writer provides the fourth of four ways in which Jesus acts as High Priest in the line of Melchizedek and as our Worship Leader in the Heavenly Sanctuary. Hebrews has already recounted how Jesus declares the Father’s name in our worship, leads song when we assemble, and ever lives to intercede for those he has cleansed by his sacrificial death (Hebrews 8:1–2; 2:12; 7:25). Now, in Hebrews 13, the writer shows how Genesis 14’s Melchizedek  forshadowed Jesus as Priest when he brought “bread and wine” to Abraham, and received, in return, a tithe of the spoils of Abraham’s victory (Genesis 14; Hebrews 7). 

“We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat,” says the writer (Hebrews 13:10). As he does so, he invites us to go outside the provincial camp of the earthly temple’s rites in Jerusalem; he invites us, instead, to partake of fellowship with Jesus who “suffered outside the city gate” (Hebrews 13:12). Ancient readers of this text (and rightly I think) understood the writer to be inviting us to recall Melchizedek, Gentile priest and king of Jerusalem, the very city outside of which God’s Messiah was to be crucified. Melchizedek had come outside that city to bless Abraham and to offer him “bread and wine” (Genesis 14:18–20). 

As in Paul’s writings where “promise” precedes and takes precedence over “law,” here in Hebrews the church’s “bread and wine” for everybody precedes and takes precedence over the temple’s sin offerings that were consumed by Levitical priests only (Leviticus 6:26). As our great High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, Jesus brings us bread and wine from God’s holy altar. He does so week after week; and he will do so until that time when, at the end of time, he will host us at the great feast that ushers in the age to come (Isaiah 25:6–8; Luke 12:37). 

Here in Hebrews 13, instead of tithes from victorious Abraham, our Heavenly Melchizedek receives the twofold offering of: 1) “a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name”; and b) the doing of good and in the living of lives of koinōnia — a rich New Testament word that denotes “intimate fellowship,” “generosity,” and “sharing with one another” (see Acts 2:42; Romans 12:13; 15:26–27, and elsewhere). 

The first part of Hebrews 13 offers a beautiful catalog of what such a life of koinonia looks like: hospitality, care for prisoners, honoring marital and sexual boundaries, freedom from a greed that would inhibit generosity, the sharing of community-building sound teaching rather than community-destroying “strange” teaching (Hebrews 13:1–9). 

Praise be! The New Melchizedek leads us in worship services (that is, what we come in from the world to do on Sundays), and in service that is worship (that is, what we go out into the world do on Monday through Saturday). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "Melchizedek" by Nick in exsilio is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

To All Who Are Thirsty - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 2/4/2022
Friday of 4 Epiphany, Year Two 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 69; Genesis 24:1–27; Hebrews 12:3–11; John 7:1–13

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)

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This morning, I find myself pondering two rich lessons, one from Hebrews about having a suppleness of spirit that fully receives the Father’s transformative work in our lives, and one from John about, well, letting Jesus be Jesus, and not projecting onto him our self-made plans for getting what we want. 

Hebrews. When our spirits are malleable and supple, rather than hard and resistant, we allow ourselves to receive the Father’s formative touch in any situation. The writer to the Hebrews knows that we may face hostility from others, that we may face all sorts of “trials,” that we may face temptation to sin, and, accordingly, that we may face chastisement for sin (yes, the Father chastens).

We can know that in all of it, our heavenly Father is molding us after the image of his Son, “that we may share his holiness” (Hebrews 12:10). What a deep phrase that is. It is akin to 2 Peter 1:4’s “that you may become sharers of the divine nature.” One way to think of what the Father is doing in us is to picture ourselves on the far side of our deaths, waking up in a heaven in which we feel already (at least somewhat!) at home. We’re being shaped in the now to lessen the “culture shock” of that experience. Congruently, that process means the Father is using what he’s doing in us in this life to bring a bit of heaven into this world. #i.am.ok.with.that!

John. The central message, I think, from today’s reading in John is that Jesus goes about his mission despite other people projecting their goals and aspirations onto him. 

“Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near” — John 7:2. The Feast of Booths is highly symbolic. It is the third of the three annual feasts that the law of Moses calls for: the Passover Feast marking liberation from Egypt (Exodus 23:14–15), the Feast of the Firstfruits marking the beginning of the harvest season (Exodus 23:16a), and the Feast of Booths (or Ingathering) marking the end of the harvest season (Exodus 23:16b). The Feast of Booths points forward to the great Sabbath at the end of time, when a world dominated by the power of sin (the age of the “flesh”) gives way to righteousness, peace, and hope (the age of the “Spirit”). This Feast is pregnant with typological significance for Jesus’s mission: his mission is to usher in the age of the Spirit. 

However, Jesus’s brothers remain as confused about Jesus’s mission as those who sought to make him king at the Feeding of the 5,000. They want him to go public with his supernatural powers. To Jesus, such expectations amount to ego-projection, and are, at bottom, disbelief: “So his brothers said to him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea so that your disciples also may see the works you are doing; for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ (For not even his brothers believed in him.)” — John 7:3–5. 

Jesus’s head fake (“No, I’m not going,” but then going anyway — see John 7:6–10) gives him space to go surreptitiously, and to choose the time and place of his Epiphany. He plans to manifest himself at this Feast as the one who will bring to pass that great future Sabbath when God’s Spirit will govern from sea to sea, and from pole to pole. But he’s going to usher in the Spirit’s rule in his own way (by being lifted up on the Cross—see John 3:14–15; 12:32–33) and in his own time (that is, not just yet). 

Jesus wants us to know that he’s not a cipher for anybody else’s message. He’s not an avatar in anybody else’s game. He’s not a projection of anybody else’s ego-needs. He brings the beginning of the age of the Spirit…his way. His death will lead to his glory, his glory will bring the Spirit, and the Spirit will gush like rivers of living water from Jesus’s wounded side, to all who are thirsty for real life. #i.am.ok.with.that.too!

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Image: Pixabay

We Can Embrace Fearlessness - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 2/3/2022
Thursday of 4 Epiphany, Year Two

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 70; Psalm 71; Genesis 23:1–20; Hebrews 11:32–12:2; John 6:60–71

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)

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Genesis 23: burying Sarah. Jesus chides resurrection-denying Sadducees for not seeing traces of resurrection-faith in the faith of their forebears. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he notes, is the God of the living, not of the dead (Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:27; Luke 20:38). In yesterday’s reading in Genesis 22, we saw Abraham receiving Isaac back, as from the dead — a mini-resurrection, one might almost say. And, in fact, the writer to the Hebrews does almost say so: “[Abraham] considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead—and figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” Hebrews 11:19). Congruently, in today’s passage in Genesis 23, we read how Abraham makes elaborate arrangements so Sarah’s body may rest in peace and naturally decompose, while her bones await their call from the dead. Jewish burial practices reflected resurrection-hope.

Hebrews 11–12: eyes on Jesus. The writer to the Hebrews catalogues the way hope in the resurrection had sustained, fortified, and propelled hero after hero in the Old Testament. Faith enabled some to achieve great things in God’s kingdom (Hebrews 11:32–34). Faith enabled others not to succumb to withering attacks and discouraging defeats (Hebrews 11:35–38). No victory was final, nor was any defeat. All these Old Testament greats, says the writer to the Hebrews, were awaiting what we have been privileged to see: Christ’s victory over death for us and in us: “…looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2–3). 

Earlier in his tract, the writer has noted that while we do not see humans presently enjoying the dominion for which we were made, we do see Jesus (Hebrews 2:5–9). He has reclaimed for humans the dignity we lost at the Fall. By virtue of his sharing our humanity and by virtue of his death for us, Jesus is “now crowned with glory and honor” in advance of our sharing in that glory and honor (Hebrews 2:9). By his death and resurrection, Jesus has “destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14–15). 

The result is that we can embrace a certain fearlessness in the face of external hostility, an unyielding determination to resist an internal drift toward waywardness, and a resolute refusal to heed sloth’s siren call to drop out of the race towards holiness. We can do all this because we see Jesus traveling alongside us, our Pioneer and the Perfecter of our faith, urging us, “Come on, stay with me! I’ll get you home!” And above it all, of course, are those who’ve already run their race, and they’re cheering us on as well. 

John 6: staying with Jesus. Jesus asks us to do no more than what he has already done. Every temptation we could ever face—to drop out, lash out, give up, or give in—he faced it too. Today’s passage in John shows us the nadir of his ministry. His refusal of the crown, his claim to be bread from heaven, and his demand that people eat his flesh and drink his blood—it’s all been just too much! To some, it’s befuddling, to others it’s blasphemous. Everybody is bailing, and so he asks the twelve: “Do you also wish to go away?” (John 6:67). 

One can only imagine where his heart is—for here he is, like us in all respects (save sin). His best teaching material has turned off (or confused) as many people as it has turned on and enlightened. With every word and “sign,” his portfolio of enemies grows. He is surrounded by doubters. Now his friends (through their spokesman Peter … and praise God for Peter!) say they can only stick with him because they see no better option: “Lord, to whom can we go?” Even while acknowledging their reluctant willingness to stay with him, he says he’s aware that one of them will betray him. Still, he does not give up on them…any of them. He does not yield to the temptation to quit. He does not forsake the mission. He does not stop believing in his Father’s faithfulness or the Spirit’s residing presence. He presses on. And because he does, so can we. 

Jesus is Savior to us in the most comprehensive way imaginable: he pays a sin-price we could never afford, he defeats an enemy we wouldn’t stand a chance against, and he walks beside us when we are at our worst and when we experience the worst. Jesus saves to the uttermost. Praise his name!

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Image: "courageous ladies" by derpunk is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

"One Garage Sale So Many Blessings"

“It’s hard to be seen at your worst. Perhaps that’s why our deepest tears are often shed alone. We’re afraid friends will tire of our struggles, so we keep them to ourselves, especially the ugly ones that we can’t quite manage to put behind us,” Larry Crabb wrote these words in his book Connecting. Edna Ramsey shares a story about the people of our Cathedral Community. It is a story of friends who don’t tire of the struggles of others, who open themselves up to accept us at the worst time in our lives and who extend their hands to care for and stand beside us when we are most in need. Be blessed as you read!

            One Garage Sale So Many Blessings 

By Edna Ramsey

When a person has a garage sale it is usually to declutter their house.  This garage sale was different in so many ways.  First, God heard our prayers when we asked what we could do for a family in need.  He answered by giving us the idea of a garage sale: “Be a blessing”.

I’m not one for planning and this one would have to happen fast. Immediately the St. Elizabeth Guild started to work.  Some of our members are in St. Martha Guild as well so they recruited that guild to join, a friend of one of our members told a friend from the choir and they said let's pass the word and so it went…

A Blessing.

Within a week my garage was full, computer room was full, hallway full, and family room filling up.

A Blessing.

Now came the fun part, pricing all of our treasures.  A group of us met and spent the morning marking items, buying items, and remarking about items and enjoying each other's company and friendship.

A Blessing.

I told my neighbors that weekend there would be a lot of cars because of the garage sale.  I Told them the reason for the sale and again an outpour of items for the sale and donations were given.

A Blessing.

I told my friends about the sale items and donations were given.

A Blessing.

Early Saturday, we started setting up the sale in a misty morning that soon turned into a beautiful day.

A Blessing.

And what a sale we had!  People started early and never stopped.  We thought we would end at 2 and we stayed until 4.

A Blessing.

Some people wanted lower prices and I told them the reason for the sale. They dug deeper into their pockets and gave more.

A Blessing.

A sweet little girl found a pretty pink and turquoise jacket.  She was so excited she just held it close and twirled around.

A sweet Blessing.

A young man rode his bike to the sale. First time he had a little money and bought his mom a lemonade jug.  Second time he bought a few items to trade for what he wanted.  A cookbook for his mom and a picture of the blue angels for his dad.  We had to follow him home as he couldn't ride and carry everything. The third time he came he again had no money but wanted to trade game points for DVD player and games.  We told him he was such a good customer he could have them.

A Blessing.

A parishioner experiencing homelessness had just gotten an apartment and was in need of many household items.  We were given a list and we filled most of it.

A Blessing.

As we were packing up, we were able to give to two elementary schools small items for their school stores. All clothes went to the Russell Home. A few baby toys went to a church preschool. The Blessed Trinity Catholic Church was having a garage sale the next weekend, so we gave to them.

A Blessing.

And a fellow parishioner showed up with his pickup truck to help make all the deliveries.

A Blessing.

In the end we were able to give our family in need a very generous donation.
A blessing for them and a blessing for us. 

All from one garage sale.