The Book of Job, A Timely Read - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 8/22/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 15

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 131; Psalm 132; Psalm 133; Job 1:1-22; Acts 8:26-40; John 6:16-27

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)

Following the monastic tradition of the Western church, the Daily Office has us read Job during the months of August and September. Every era, I think, has reason to feel Job is a timely read — our day seems especially marked with loss: security, love, freedom, well-being, safety. I’m sure you can think of many ways Job fits your experience of late. A lot has been, and is being, lost. 

Image: Silvestro Chiesa , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A few things to pay attention to:

Job and faith. Job is our ally when our faith gets challenged by experience. Though he is “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned from evil” (and there’s no reason to discount that language), all the props that seem to be signs of God’s blessings get stripped. Job has to face this question: Is God enough? Or has Job’s blamelessness just been too easy? We will see him flirt with disastrous ideas. We will see him rage against God. We will see him express brutal frustration with God and with His ways. But even though God will seem to shout him down at the end, actually, in the end God will commend him. God will tell Job’s friends: “You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” 

During our challenging era, I pray that all that comes against you gives you a more honest and direct line of communication with God. He can handle it. 

Job and friends. Indeed, we will watch Job contending with his friends and their shallow “plug-and-play” wisdom theology that says only bad people experience bad things. And we will see that while they will have done their theology only in the third person (that is, they never pray it), Job will have the honesty to take his complaints to God. The result will be that the Lord will finally tell the friends to ask Job to pray for them: “My servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done” (Job 42:8).  

During the greatest challenges that come our way, I pray that we are attentive to the ways that others around us struggle with a meaningful faith. They need us to do what Paul describes as “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). When that happens, as Paul goes on to say, “we…grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” 

Meanwhile, our study of Job will reveal the battle within his own soul to hold on to the initial confession he makes when hardship first hits: “‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” The question is whether he—and by extension, you and I—will be able to hold on to that trust when things get worse and worse. 

Job & Isaiah’s Suffering Servant in Acts 8. Meanwhile, entertain the prospect that as an innocent sufferer, Job prefigures in some fashion the great Innocent Sufferer that Isaiah describes in his Suffering Servant song, and which Philip explains to the Ethiopian eunuch during the chariot ride on the road to Gaza. The Bible’s unique posture on suffering is that it is never ours to bear alone. Looking ahead, Job himself senses that he has an Advocate/Redeemer who will stand with him in his sufferings, and that death itself will not break the bond between them:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
    and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;
26 and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
    then in my flesh I shall see God,
27 whom I shall see on my side,
    and my eyes shall behold, and not another (Job 19:25-27). 

If only Job knew how that was going to come to pass—but we do! 

Job & Jesus and Food for Eternal Life. It is a hard lesson for Job—losing wealth and family and health as he does—but there is a glorious “far side” to the recognition that, as Jesus says in today’s gospel reading, there is one “food that perishes” and another “that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” From Genesis to Revelation, this is the great message of the Bible. And as you read Job alongside John’s telling of Jesus’s life, I pray that this food indeed nourishes you with the life which is eternal. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Longing for a Better Day - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 8/21/2024 •

Wednesday of Proper 15

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:145-176; Judges 18:16-31; Acts 8:14-25; John 6:1-15 

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)

Looking for a moment past today’s readings, the last three chapters of Judges (chapters 19-21) recount two of the most lamentable events in Israel’s history: the rape, murder, and dismemberment of a Levite’s concubine (Judges 19); and then the near extinction of the tribe of Benjamin, which is stopped only through the forced appropriation of “the young women of Shiloh” (Judges 20-21). Under the judges, Israel’s lack of submission to Yahweh has led to a horrible spiraling down of the treatment of women. In the beginning of the era, Deborah is a great hero. But then Jephthah sacrifices his daughter to a rash vow (11:34-40), and the book ends (though the Daily Office will not have us read) this appalling account of rape, murder, and dismemberment (Judges 19-20). The violence done to women in these last chapters of this sad book is illustrative of the death wish of a people chosen to be “married” to God: “On that day, says the Lord, you will call me “My husband” (Hosea 2:16).   

The whole book leaves us longing for a better day, and more importantly, a better Savior, who is: 

• even more “left-handed” than Ehud—"left-handed” enough to win by being pierced rather than by piercing

• able to sing a better song than Deborah’s (see Hebrews 2:12)

• more valiant, and more trusting than Gideon

• given in reality, unlike Abimelech, to his Father’s kingship (proving himself thus worthy of kingship)

• stronger than Samson—strong enough to be like us in all ways “yet without sin,” strong enough to pull down the twin pillars of sin and death. 

When we read today’s Judges passage in the light of today’s passages in John and Acts, we can rejoice that a better Savior, and a better day, have come. 

Judges 18 and John 6. Judges 18 recounts the descent of Moses’s line, as Moses’s great-grandson Jonathan chases the “bigger steeple” of (idolatrous!) service to the Danites. Acts 8 tells the sad tale of Simon the sorcerer who wants to monetize his newfound faith in Christ. 

Image: Giovanni Lanfranco , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Praise be to God, John’s gospel presents us, by contrast, with Jesus, the true King. As Israel’s true King, Jesus provides nourishment for his people, multiplying two fishes and five loaves into food enough for 5,000, with 12 baskets of leftovers. He refuses a crown on the people’s terms (John 6:15), but he will nonetheless acknowledge to Pilate (before his “coronation” on the cross) that he is indeed a King, simply “not from here” (John 18:36). 

Praise be to God, John’s gospel presents us with Jesus, the true Husband. Jesus has already done his first sign at the wedding in Cana, in anticipation of the wedding feast he will enjoy with his Bride the Church at the end of the age (Revelation 19). Now, in John 6 Jesus launches the Eucharistic Feast. He takes the loaves, gives thanks over them, and distributes them (John 6:11). Then he proceeds to explain how he is himself the Bread from Heaven (John 6:22-51), and that he will be present to his people in the eating of the bread (John 6:52-58)—provision for their ongoing journey on the way to the feast of the wedding of the Lamb. 

Judges 18 and Acts 8. The Danites (who are from Judah in the south) commit violence against their brothers and sisters in the north. Not only so, they establish a center of idolatry that will become one of the centerpieces of the religious divisions within God’s people. God intends his worship to be consolidated: first, in Shiloh with the ark of the covenant, then later in Jerusalem, with the temple. When the kingdom is divided after Solomon, Dan will become one of the northern outposts of spiritual rebellion and social rupture. 

In the Book of Acts, the division between the Southern Kingdom of Judah (centered in Jerusalem) and the Northern Kingdom of Israel (centered in Samaria) is being healed through the gospel. That is why the Holy Spirit does not fall upon the new believers in Samaria in the beginning of Acts 8, when Philip initially brings the gospel to them. The apostles in Jerusalem must send church leaders Peter and John to Samaria. Only then do the Samaritans receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, because the Jerusalem church needs to understand that the same Spirit that dwells among them dwells among the Samaritans—they are one body, one people, one fellowship, one citizenship. 

Under King Jesus, ruling now by the power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel is being unleashed as a power that heals ancient divisions. What Paul is eventually to call “the Israel of God” is made up of Jew and Gentile, Jerusalemite and Samaritan (and, by extension, Orthodox and Catholic and Protestant). 

The takeaway here is that Christ has died for one church, not for a myriad of sects. He has died for one people with one allegiance, not for separate tribes with mixed loyalties. I pray that you and I live into the reality of our confession of “one holy catholic and apostolic church.” 

Prayer for the Church (BCP, p. 816) 

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church.
Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace.
Where it is corrupt, purify it;
where it is in error, direct it;
where in any thing it is amiss, reform it.
Where it is right, strengthen it;
where it is in want, provide for it;
where it is divided, reunite it;
for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

"You Search the Scriptures ..." - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 8/20/2024 •

Tuesday of Proper 15

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 121; Psalm 122; Psalm 123; Judges 18:1-15; Acts 8:1-13; John 5:30-47

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)

Psalm 122. Today’s Psalm 122 extols the “peace of Jerusalem” secured by “thrones of the house of David.” This city “at unity with itself” and enjoying “quietness within your towers” stands in marked contrast to the situation today’s Judges passage describes from an earlier era when “In those days there was no king in Israel” (Judges 18:1).

Judges. Under Joshua after the conquest, the tribe of Dan had been assigned land in Judah to the south. Somehow, in a way that is never explained, “the territory of the Danites was lost to them” (Joshua 19:47). Judges 18 recounts how their search for a new home brings them north. They employ the same spying techniques Israel had used against the Canaanites; only now, their target—shamefully!—is their fellow Israelites. To make matters worse, recognizing a fellow southerner’s accent in the voice of yesterday’s “Levite-for-hire,” they secure a blessing supposedly from the Lord. Seeing the prospect of a better deal than Micah’s family had offered and the prospect of a “bigger steeple” for his ministerial services, the Levite tells the Danites what they want to hear: “Go in peace. The mission you are on is under the eye of the Lord” (Judges 18:6). 

Image: Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acts 8. It is only fitting that today’s passage in Acts provides cameos of two religious leaders who initially react to Jesus in opposite ways, and who will have equally contrasting ends. Saul (whom we will get to know better by his Roman name Paul) rages against Christ and his church—later he will become (to steal a moniker from historical fiction writer Taylor Caldwell) a “great lion of God” precisely on behalf of Christ and his church. Simon the sorcerer, by contrast, believes Philip’s preaching about Jesus at first, and is baptized. Being something of a religious celebrity himself, he attaches himself to Philip and is amazed at the signs and miracles that take place in the name of Christ. Only later (in tomorrow’s reading) will we find why the sin of “simony” (that is, “turning a profit from sacred things”) is named after him. 

John 5. “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me” — John 5:30. It’s remarkable that the Lord of the wind and the waves, the one who raises the dead to life and restores sight to the blind, has this one limitation: “I can do nothing on my own.” Jesus’s words unmask the self-serving spirit of the “Levite-for-hire” in Judges and of Simon the sorcerer. 

“… but I say these things so that you may be saved.” — John 5:34. The “Levite-for-hire” and Simon the Sorcerer will speak to benefit themselves. Jesus speaks for the benefit of his hearers, even when what he says is not what they want to hear. 

“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf … If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me … I know that you do not have the love of God in you.” — John 5:39, 46. Scripture itself can be misleading if it is read without the dual lens of: 1) attentiveness to the voice of the promised Redeemer; and 2) an eagerness to learn of God’s love and to return his love with one’s own love. Jesus’s words cut through the fog of Saul’s blinding rage: he had failed to understand (as he was later to discover) that every word of Holy Scripture had been pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ, and that with Christ’s coming the love of God would be “poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). 

These seem to be strong takeaways for today: 1) live under Yahweh’s authority, not my own; 2) look for Christ’s saving purposes everywhere; and 3) let love be more and more my heart’s basic drive. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

His Savior Has It Under Control - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 8/19/2024 •

Monday of Proper 15

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 106:1-18; Judges 17:1-13; Acts 7:44–8:1; John 5:19-29

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)

In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes. — Judges 17:6; 19:25 (see also 18:1; 19:1). This verse brackets the closing stories in Judges; and the half verse (“There was no king in Israel”) serves as a twice-repeated refrain. Though granted the land of promise, Israel has refused to accept Yahweh as their king. “They have not rejected you,” Yahweh will eventually say to Samuel (the last of the judges), “but they have rejected me from being king over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). 

Today’s passage from Judges sheds light on what happens to people’s lives when Israel’s Lord is not lord of their lives: 

• A mother is victim of embezzlement at the hand of her own son. But then the mother is herself complicit in Israel’s sin: she commits idolatry when she underwrites the casting of an idol to Yahweh. 

• The son bears the auspicious name Micah, which means “Who is like Yahweh?” Ironically, though, in violation of God’s prohibition of graven images “like Yahweh,” he builds a personal shrine to house the idol to Yahweh, along with an ephod and teraphim for divining. Initially, he establishes one of his sons as priest, and later hires a wandering Levite instead. Essentially, he thinks he’s bought God’s favors with a lucky rabbit’s foot: “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest” (Judges 17:13).  

• This young Levite should have been living in one of the Levitical towns in Judah where he is from. But he has headed north, seeking, it appears, his fortune. “Levite-for-hire” is far from God’s requirement for him to be a guardian of the holy things of Yahweh. Instead, he has abandoned Yahweh to minister before idols. We find later that this vain and greedy Levite is Moses’s great-grandson Jonathan (Judges 18:30). His fall is emblematic of Israel’s demise into spiritual apostasy and moral decay. 

The burden of the Book of Judges is to make us yearn for a better day. 

Image: Rembrandt , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Happily, that day has come: 

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life” — John 5:24. Hope for the restoration of all broken relationships lies in the mutual love and exchange of honor between Jesus Christ the Son of God and his Heavenly Father. Even death—the just verdict against all sin and the breaker of all relationships—yields to the “voice of the Son of God” (John 5:25). 

In Jesus, everything that the Book of Judges has described as broken has been restored. Jesus provides for his mother even from the Cross (John 19:25-27); and at his resurrection he commissions a woman to be “apostle to the apostles” (20:11-18). As God’s very Son, Jesus presents a true image of God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). He is, as the hymn says, “Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.” And rather than use his own priestly status for self-service, he “lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). 

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. Because the new day has come in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, even a story like Stephen’s martyrdom becomes a story of hope. Although the narrative of God’s redemptive love meets opposition, Stephen knows his Savior has it under control. We the readers are introduced to Saul, who is complicit in the stoning of Stephen. He will become the centerpiece of the account of the gospel’s progress in the rest of the Book of Acts. And, finally, we learn that “a severe persecution” begins against the church in Jerusalem, the force of which will start the dispatch of Christ’s witnesses from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria (Acts 8:4-25) and to the ends of the earth (Acts 8:26-40, and most of the rest of Acts). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

When the Spirit Will Re-Mold Resistant Hearts - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 8/16/2024 •

Friday of Proper 14

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 102; Judges 14:20–15:20; Acts 7:17-29; John 4:43-54

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)

Chapters 15 and 16 of the book of Judges complete Samson’s story (the OT readings for today, tomorrow, and the next day). I’ll make a few summary observations, and leave it to you to read the chapters as time and opportunity permit. 

Samuel’s story is narrated at more length than any of the other judges, and he is one of the most puzzling figures in all of Israel’s history. Ironically, he mirrors the enigma of Israel itself. The book of Judges offers its own conclusion of the woeful period it describes: “every man did what was good in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25 RSV). And if it were ever true of any person, it is true of self-willed Samson: “I did it my way.” 

Image: Lovis Corinth , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Samson the Nazirite. Nazirite vows are voluntary (Numbers 6)—but not for Samson; he is called to it while in the womb. In the same way, Israel is chosen by God: “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deuteronomy 14:2). And Samson and Israel both handle their calling equally badly. 

Samson cavalierly and repeatedly violates his Nazirite vow. He touches a carcass (Judges 14:5-9; 15:15), he drinks wine (14:10), and he allows his hair to be cut (16:16). His vow-breaking is a mirror of Israel’s serial covenant violations. 

Caught between “eros” and “charisma.” Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke poignantly describes Samson’s spirituality: “The spirit of I AM overwhelms him four times (13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14), more than any other warlord (3:10; 5:34; 11:29), marking him as the most charismatic but not as the most in tune with God’s Spirit” (An Old Testament Theology, p. 612). His birth is as auspicious and promising as Moses’s and Samuel’s. He is spiritually cheered on by a godly woman, his mother. But Samson’s heart is captured by three self-serving pagan women: his wife (Judges 14), a prostitute (Judges 16:1-3), and his infamous lover Delilah (Judges 16:4-20). “He flounders in the great conflict between eros and charisma,” summarizes Gerhard von Rad (Old Testament Theology, Vol. 1, p, 334). Likewise, Israel constantly seesaws between loyalty to the invisible and holy Yahweh and prostration before the earthy Baals and Asherahs of storm and fertility. 

Samson’s rebellion against God’s call on his life results in his being captured, blinded, and cast into a dark prison. Israel’s refusal to love God and keep covenant with him will result in her spiritual blindness (“Stupefy yourselves and be in a stupor, blind yourselves and be blind!” — Isaiah 29:9), and in her being sent into the darkness of Assyrian and Babylonian exiles.  

Samson’s prayer. When Samson comes to the end of himself, he prays. First, he prays for life (Judges 15:18-19), and at the end he prays for death (Judges 16:30). Israel’s story is a continual cycle of rebellion, repentance, restoration. Her great prophets will long for and look to a final restoration when the Spirit will not just temporarily come upon people (as with Samson), but will permanently take up abode within them—when the Spirit will not merely steer stubborn wills, but remold resistant hearts to will God’s will: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:26:27). 

Samson as deliverer. In the end, Samson, despite himself, fulfills his calling to “begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5). He is permitted to prefigure—if in a diminished way—One who will give his life for the rescue of his people. Samson stretches out his arms to pull down the pillars of the pagan temple (Judges 16:29), anticipating Christ stretching out his arms on the Cross (Colossians 2:14-15, for example). But the difference in their prayers is telling. Samson prays, “Strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes” (Judges 16:28). Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). 

I pray you may rejoice in that forgiveness. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

God Uses Flawed Messengers - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 8/15/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 14

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 105:1-22; Judges 14:1-19; Acts 6:15–7:16; John 4:27-42

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)

Samson

One of my favorite things about baseball is the way quirky unofficial traditions become a part of the game. For example, “walk-up music” appears nowhere in the baseball rule book. But these days, when a batter walks up to the plate, his journey is accompanied by music selected that describes him, and is designed to inspire him or to intimidate his opponents. In our reading today we are introduced to Samson, and the title of his walk-up song could be, “If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don’t Want to Be Right.” 

“Get her for me, because she pleases me.” — Judges 14:3. Rather than choose a wife from among his fellow Israelites, Samson desires a Philistine woman. He is a personification of the saying, “The heart wants what the heart wants.” As a result, a world of grief awaits him.

Image: Lucas Cranach the Elder , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

However, the story of Samson does not lend itself easily to the drawing of moral lessons. It portrays an ambiguous savior-figure, yet it is governed by a theology of God’s control: “for [Yahweh] was seeking a pretext to act against the Philistines” (Judges 14:4). The Lord has his own purposes, and he works despite—or through—humans’ ungodly motives (Judges 14:4).  In today’s reading, Samson’s wrongly placed anger causes him to kill thirty men. He slaughters the men simply to honor a bet he has made with Philistines who were present at his wedding festivities, but who were not his friends. Samson is strong and clever—a lion-slayer and a riddle-maker. But he is also subject to manipulation and he is vengeful, and his vengefulness will become a weapon in the hands of the Lord.

The reading or chanting or singing of Canticle 8 (from Exodus 15) feels especially timely this Thursday: “The Lord is a mighty warrior; Yahweh is his Name.” When it comes to battling for his people, he can do so by hurling chariots into the sea, and by sending a flawed warrior like Samson. 

These are good things to keep in mind when the world seems so out of control, and when there seem to be no adults on the playground of human affairs. God is in control. 

The Woman at the Well

John’s “Woman at the Well” is another example of God using a flawed messenger. It’s intriguing the way this five-times “married” woman who remains nameless to us (but who had to have been well known in Sychar) becomes herald of the good news. John’s expression is rich and elegant. After her life-altering conversation with Jesus, she goes back into town and tells the people there, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done!” That would have included some, ahem, interesting information, one would think. Then her phrasing is wonderful: “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 

The result is that many come and listen for themselves. They conclude, “This is truly the Savior of the world.” The whole story is a remarkable first step in the healing of the rift between Jews and Samaritans, between the Southern Kingdom and the Northern Kingdom. Jesus’s ministry to the Samaritans is a signal that God’s promises are to all people, not just the Jews. The phrase “Savior of the world” has deep roots. In Genesis 12, God calls Abram to leave Ur of the Chaldees, promising that “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Shechem was the first place Abram came to in the land of promise. Here at Shechem, at the oak of Mamre, God had said, “To your seed I will give this land.” Shechem represents Israel’s destiny to bless the nations. 

In Jesus’s conversation with the Woman at the Well, that promise is renewed. Shechem is the site of Jacob—“the Usurper’s”—well, of his burial site and that of his son Joseph (delivered from his own exile in Egypt—see Acts 7:15-16). Shechem stands between Mt. Gerizim of the covenant blessings and Mt. Ebal of the covenant curses. Shechem is home to Gideon’s son Abimelech, and witness to his sad tale. Good news comes through broken individuals to a broken people with broken lives, who have lost the vision for what God has called them to be. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth—full of restoration and healing!

All this, and more, was what Jesus had in mind when he talks to his disciples about sower and reaper sharing the same joy, and of reaping what others have sown. The disciples are entering into a story that has been building and intensifying toward an amazing climax—a climax of which they themselves will play no small part. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

A Divine Appointment - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 8/14/2024 •

Wednesday of Proper 14

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 101; Psalm 109; Judges 13:15-24; Acts 6:1-15; John 4:1-26

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)

One good reason for staying in the biblical story is its power to inject wonder into life’s downward spiraling. God shows up when things seem most out of control, and says, “I’ve got this. I’ve got you!” Right now, for us, perhaps it’s global pandemic, destructive rage in the streets, self-serving public servants, a generation that may or may not get a decent education. But we are a people of God’s Book, and therefore a people of hope, because this Book recounts situations like ours in which God inserts himself in a saving way. 

Wonder for Samson’s parents. For forty years, Israelites have “been given into the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:1). Out of nowhere Manoah and his barren wife receive word from on high that they will have a son whom they are to dedicate to the Lord, and who “shall begin to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines” (Judges 13:5). Their wonder is palpable. The appearance of the angel of Yahweh is “most awe-inspiring” (Judges 13:6), his name is “too wonderful” (Judges 13:18). The instruction for the child’s prenatal care and “rule of life” are extraordinary: their son is to be a lifelong Nazirite. His name is Samson. Under his parents’ care, we are told, Samson grows, is blessed of the Lord, and the Spirit begins to stir in him (Judges 13:24-25). In the midst of Israel’s desperate state, God has come to bring relief. 

If we’ve heard or read Samson’s story before, we know that tragedy and heartbreak lie ahead. Samson will prove to be, arguably, the least worthy of all the judges—but deliverance will indeed come through him. Meanwhile, we take heart knowing that in the worst of times, God does not forget. And even if he must use the crudest and oddest of means, the Lord redeems. 

RobyBS89, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wonder at Jacob’s well. A woman’s life is in tatters. She is surrounded by profound reminders of God’s faithfulness: Jacob’s well is the source of her drinking water; her town, Sychar, is built on the site of ancient Shechem, standing in the shadow of Mt. Gerizim, where the first Israelites in the land had recited God’s covenantal blessings. But Israel’s united faith had long ago disintegrated, thus the divide between Samaritans and Jews: (“…Jews do not associate with Samaritans,” v.9). The woman’s five previous “marriages” have also fallen apart. As deep as the religious divide between Samaritans and Jews, so is the moral divide between this woman and her neighbors. That is why she comes to the well with her water jar alone, in the heat of the middle of the day, instead of communally with the other women of Sychar in the cool of the morning. 

It turns out that a “divine appointment” awaits the celebrated “Woman at the Well,” because Jesus “had to go through Samaria” (John 4:4) to return to Galilee. And what has brought the two of them together on this day at Jacob’s well is this wonder-bringing conversation. He starts the conversation as though it’s simply about obtaining drinking-water for himself. Quickly, though, he turns the topic to “living water” for her instead. When the conversation gets too personal (“You have no husband…”), she attempts to dodge that discussion by bringing up the topic of religion. While she’s done that to keep the conversation safely at arm’s length, Jesus zeroes in on her true need and directs her to the seeking Father and the worship-renewing Spirit. He discloses to her that he, this weary traveler, the one she is talking with, is at one and the same time, the Messiah she awaits (John 4:6). He is the great “I AM” (John 4:26). She drops her water jar, and runs off to share the good news with everybody in Sychar. 

With the coming of the Holy Spirit and studying the Scriptures, we have access to the mind of God and to his heart. We are told over and over in the Bible that he desires to bring those he loves into relationship with him. No one is too “bad” for him to love. That is as true today as it was the day the Samaritan woman encountered Jesus. As my friend Steve Brown says, “being bad isn’t bad enough” to prevent God from loving us. Praise be!

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

"...But If It Is from God..." - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 8/13/2024 •

Tuesday of Proper 14

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Judges 13:1-15; Acts 5:27-42; John 3:22-36

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)

I’m fascinated by the response to Jesus of Gamaliel in Acts and of John the Baptist in John 3.  

Gamaliel. “We must obey God rather than men…” and …they rejoiced that they were considered worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name. — Acts 5:29, 41. Surprisingly, perhaps, the book of Acts does not portray Peter and John as being filled with missionary zeal. They are not raising funds so they can obey Jesus’s command to go to the nations, baptizing, discipling, and teaching as they go. The mission to the nations begins only after persecution forces Jerusalem believers to leave Jerusalem—and even then, the apostles stay behind (Acts 8:2). What drives the Jerusalem apostles is the imperative they feel simply to tell the truth about what they have seen and heard. They tell their fellow Jews the truth about who Jesus Christ is, and what God has done to make him, as today’s passage puts it, “Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31). 

Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Lord calls some of us to go. He calls some of us to stay. He calls all of us to obey, and to be willing to suffer, if need be, for doing so—in fact, to rejoice at the privilege of suffering. As Paul will put it in one of his letters: “For [God] has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well” (Philippians 1:29). Gulp!

“…but if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” — Acts 5:39. Here is an instance of the truth of Jesus’s saying: “Whoever is not against us is for us” (Luke 9:50). Rabbi Gamaliel, this powerful member of the Sanhedrin, argues for tolerance for the Jerusalem followers of Jesus. Like Nicodemus from John’s Gospel, he is part of a tiny minority of Pharisees in the Sanhedrin. Gamaliel is grandson to Hillel the Great, founder of a school of Torah-interpretation that emphasized love over rigor: “Do not judge your fellow until you are in his place” (Pirke Avot 2.4). Later in Acts, we find out that Paul had been “brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel” (Acts 22:3). That, in particular, is an intriguing fact, because the tolerance that Gamaliel advocates here is opposite to the zealotry that Paul originally adopts against the Christians.  

The current climate in which we live is characterized by anything but Gamaliel’s philosophy of taking the long view. We can choose the specific cable news network that confirms us in views we already have about current events. It’s easy enough to find blogs and podcasts that endorse our fears about just who the “bad guys” are who are bringing disaster on us right now! 

Gamaliel speaks with two kinds of wisdom: 1) historical perspective, and 2) theological humility. 

As to historical perspective, Gamaliel draws upon the precedents of two figures, Theuddas and Judas the Galilean, who promised revolutionary change, and who gathered followers to try to make that transformation happen. Both men, however, perished. Their followers sort of trickled away and any threat dissipated. Gamaliel’s counsel: let’s see if the Christians are a similar type of short-lived “flash in the pan.” 

As to theological humility, Gamaliel has enough faith in and fear of God that he would rather see things play out than risk fighting against God. Of course, it’s not always right or good to let things ride. But wisdom—especially humble wisdom—looks to Ecclesiastes 3, and asks, patiently and before God, whether it’s “a time to break down” or “a time to build up,” “a time to keep silence” or “a time to speak,” “a time to love” or “a time to hate,” or “a time for war” or a “time for peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:3, 7-8). May God grant us more of a spirit of patient discernment in our day.  

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” — John 5:30. Speaking of humility, despite the understandable anxiety John the Baptist later expresses following after his arrest, the basic heartbeat of John the Baptist lies here, in these seven words: “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John the Baptist. We saw in John 1 that John the Baptist believes that Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Here in John 5, we see that John the Baptist believes Jesus is the fulfillment of Hosea’s promise: “On that day, says the Lord, you will call me “My husband” (Hosea 2:16), a fact that Jesus prefigures by turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. In Jesus Christ, God himself has come to take to himself a bride -- the church. And John the Baptist finds his joy in his Master’s joy. In the lovely rendering of the NIV, John explains his own role to his disciples: “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.” (John 3:29 NIV). John the Baptist knows Jesus is the Groom, and he is the Best Man. John knows his purpose is to “attend” his Master and make much of him and little of himself. 

The irony is that by becoming less, John becomes more. Accepting a “lesser” role at the appearance of Jesus, John joyfully inhabits the perfect purpose for which he was made. The more our lives become about magnifying the Lord’s glory, the more we become transformed into that same glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). Much joy to you as you become transformed into the glory of the Son. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

His People's Shepherd - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 8/12/2024 •

Monday of Proper 14

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89; Judges 12:1-7; Acts 5:12-26; John 3:1-21

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)

“You like ‘to-MAY-to,’ I like ‘to-MAH-to,’” sings Fred Astaire to Ginger Rogers in the 1937 movie Shall We Dance. Romantic comedy that the film is, the newly, but secretly, married couple does not, despite the song’s title, “call the whole thing off.” 

You like ‘sibboleth,’ I like ‘shibboleth,’ isn’t so innocent. The difference in pronunciation means life and death in the blood feud between Ephraim, Manasseh, and Gilead—the descendants of Joseph (Judges 12:5-6). It’s a sad tag line for that tribe’s internecine war, and its resultant loss of its lead role in Israel. The Gileadites had reached out to the Ephraimites, their fellow offspring of Joseph, for help in the battle against a common enemy, the marauding Ammonites, but were rebuffed. After defeating the Ammonites on their own, the Gileadites use the difference in dialect to “out” Ephraimites, and make them pay with their lives. And then, as Psalm 78 was later to say: 

The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow, turned back in the day of battle; They did not keep the covenant of God,and refused to walk in his law;…

[The Lord] rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;He chose instead the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion, which he loved…He chose David his servant… (Psalm 78:9-10, 67, 68, 70a BCP).

Today’s reading in Judges lays the groundwork for the establishment of monarchy in Israel, and in particular of the establishment of the Davidic monarchy, as celebrated both in Psalm 78 (above) and in today’s Psalm 89: 

Your love, O Lord, forever will I sing; from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness.For I am persuaded that your love is established for ever;you have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.“I have made a covenant with my chosen one;I have sworn an oath to David my servant:‘I will establish your line for ever,and preserve your throne for all generations.’” (Psalm 89:1-4 BCP).

Then again, even David’s line proves faulty. The kingdom divides after Solomon, and falls into idolatry again and becomes subject to exile. No mere earthly king can rule as wisely and perfectly as Yahweh himself can rule. The prophet Ezekiel says that eventually Yahweh—the great I AM—will indeed come himself to shepherd his people: “I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God.  I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy” (Ezekiel 34:15-16).  

In John’s gospel, Jesus will reveal himself as that great I AM—as his people’s shepherd: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). With last Friday’s reading about Jesus’s “first sign” at the wedding at Cana, and with Saturday’s reading about Jesus’s cleansing of the Temple, we see the kickoff of the Good Shepherd’s campaign to bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, and strengthen the weak.

Image: Pixabay

Today Jesus comes for Nicodemus, “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10—there’s a very important definite article in the Greek that the NRSV fails to render) who reveals his need for a lesson in what the Bible—and thus, Israel’s story—is really all about. Nicodemus is a “shepherd” who is, himself, a strayed sheep. Having come to quiz Jesus, he winds up sitting quietly, as his Good Shepherd opens up the Scriptures in a new way:  

• “You must be born again (or from above).” — John 3:7. We need a new, and heaven-sent birth: a new start, a life given by God’s very Spirit. Just as Adam was simply a lump of clay until God breathed life into him in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:7), so we have no spiritual life in us until God breathes his life-giving Spirit into us—until we are “born again” by the Spirit. This is exactly what Ezekiel had said must happen: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
  

• “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” — John 3:14-15. The new birth by the Spirit lies on the far side of Jesus’s substitutionary, atoning, death-destroying death on the cross. The Lamb of God will take away the sin of the world, by taking the soul-sickness of sin all the way into himself, and then all the way into the grave—indeed, all the way into the bowels of hell itself; so that he can emerge triumphant, as Christus Victor. As the Philip Bliss hymn puts it:
  
  Lifted up was He to die;
  “It is finished!” was His cry;
  Now in Heav’n exalted high.
  Hallelujah! What a Savior!
  

• “God so loved the world… — John 3:16. The Spirit will give life because the Son will be lifted up on the cross. And the Son has arrived because the Father loves. The Father loves! There is no greater summary of what the Bible is all about. Here is the ultimate lesson for Nicodemus, and for all the sheep that have strayed: “God so loved [insert your name here] that he gave his only begotten Son that [insert your name] should believe in him and not perish but have everlasting life.” 

I pray you know the Father’s love for you. I pray you believe the Son’s work for you. I pray you breathe deeply the new life of the Spirit. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

"There Are Only Two Religions in the World" - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 8/9/2024 •

Friday of Proper 13

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 88; Judges 9:1-21; Acts 4:13-31; John 2:1-12 
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)

Abimelech. Abimelech’s story stretches over two days of reading in the Daily Office. It is a sad tale of just retribution. Abandoning the redeeming, covenant-making God of grace, Yahweh, to worship a false god of covenant, Baal-berith, Israel is, consequently, at the mercy of the iron law of retribution. Gideon had seventy sons.  One of them, the son of a concubine, Abimelech, conspires with the leaders of his hometown Shechem to become Israel’s sole ruler. Following this, he murders all but one of his seventy half-brothers (who likely have a stronger claim to rule Israel). His half-brother Jotham hides and survives this massacre. Jotham tells a fable of faithless trees that select as their ruler a bramble that will rain down fire that will destroy both the faithless trees and the bramble itself. 

The fable, which is actually a curse, plays itself out (in tomorrow’s reading) in ruthless precision. “This happened so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be avenged and their blood be laid on their brother Abimelech, who killed them, and on the lords of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers” (Judges 9:24).  God sends an evil spirit which turns the lords of Shechem against Abimelech. This hostility results in the ruin of both Shechem and Abimelech. Abimelech burns the Shechemites’ stronghold by fire. As he is doing so, a woman throws down a mill stone crushing Abimelech’s head, recalling the fact that it had been on a certain stone that Abimelech had murdered his half-brothers (Judges 9:5, 53).

Scriptures observes, “Thus God repaid Abimelech for the crime he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers; and God also made all the wickedness of the people of Shechem fall back on their heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal” (Judges 9:56-57).

During Midday Eucharist one day at the Cathedral Church of St Luke, Father Peter Tepper reminded us of U2 singer Bono’s remark that there are only two religions in the world, one of grace, and one of karma. Bono says, “the thing that keeps me on my knees is the difference between Grace and Karma. You see, at the centre of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you … And yet, along comes the idea called Grace to upend all that… Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed….” 

Abimelech’s story is a perfect illustration of “what you put out com[ing] back to you.” It’s a picture of the whole age that Paul will much later describe as life “under the law.”

Image: Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Wedding in Cana. With the coming of Christ, however, grace walks into the world. The wedding scene at Cana is one of the most beautiful demonstrations of the difference that God’s grace in Christ makes.

• Despite the fact that his “hour” has not yet come, Jesus graciously assents to the “first sign” of his “glory.” 

• Water set aside in jars for purification turns to wine that will fill goblets of celebration.  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. 

• In John’s meta-narrative, Jesus’s blessing of this wedding in 1st century Galilee forecasts his invitation to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb at the end of time (Revelation 19).  

• The Lord of History shows himself as the ultimate host who has saved the best wine (his Son) for last (John 2:10). 

The Acts of the Apostles and the triumph of grace. In today’s passage in Acts, we find the ultimate transformation of Bono’s “karma” into “grace.” Actually, let’s put it in more biblical terms: “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). After Peter and John are released from prison, their friends gather and raise their voices in worship and thanksgiving—they praise God for transforming the violence done to Christ into grace for the healing of the nations.  In a kind of mini-Pentecost, they are “filled with the Holy Spirit and [speak] the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). 

Citing Psalm 2, the community recalls the evil that had been brought against Christ, God’s Anointed: “Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel” taking the part of Psalm 2’s Gentiles raging, of peoples imagining vain things, of kings of the earth taking their stand, and of rulers gathering together “against the Lord and against his Messiah” (Acts 4:26-27, quoting Psalm 2:2). 

While the psalm addressed the revolt of earthly powers with God’s wrathful and derisive laughter (Psalm 2:4-5—which would be the legitimate response of pure justice), the church sees something different, by virtue of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. The violence that Herod, et al., have perpetrated against the Lord’s anointed turns out to have been, instead, a boomerang—this is God’s predestined means to bring liberation from sin, and freedom from death’s power. If there is laughing now, it’s God’s laugh of victory, as he “stretch[es] out [his] hand to heal,” and his people’s laugh of joy. 

Grace has triumphed—may you walk in the knowledge and the confidence that His grace is for you!

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

The Power of God's Re-Creative Life-Giving Spirit - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 8/8/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 13

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 83; Psalm 145; Judges 8:22-35; Acts 4:1-12; John 1:43-51
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)

We’ll wrap up Gideon’s story today, contrasting his experience of God’s Spirit with that of Peter in Acts. Then we’ll note the strong initiating love of Jesus in his approach to Nathaniel in John’s Gospel. 

Gideon’s end. After the victory over their enemies, the Israelites ask Gideon to establish a royal dynasty. Piously, he demurs: “The Lord will rule over you” (Judges 8:23). Despite the appearance of humility, however, Gideon takes on the trappings of a king. He demands tribute from his fellow Israelites: “let each of you give me an earring he has taken as booty.” He takes to himself many wives—exactly what Moses had warned the people a king would do (Deuteronomy 17:17). Perhaps the most revealing thing as to what’s going on deep in his heart is the fact that Gideon names the son of his concubine “Abimelech,” which means “My father is king.” 

Gideon is no longer the humble, overly timid man who initially responded to God’s call to be a “mighty warrior” with: “But, sir, how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family” (Judges 6:12, 15). 

And yet, our friend Gideon is quite the mixed bag. The book of Judges does recognize “all the good that [Gideon] had done to Israel.” And in fact, Israel enjoys forty years of “rest … in the days of Gideon.” However, he does not keep the faith. Despite his protestations of loyalty to the Lord, and despite the fact that it was the Spirit of the Lord that had empowered his victories, Gideon forges an “ephod” from the gold of the earrings; in this context, an image or idol of some sort (Judges 8:27). When he sets it up in his town, in Ophrah, the ephod becomes an object of worship: “And all Israel prostituted themselves to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family.” After his death, there is a widespread lapse of faith in Israel, and the people convert to the worship of Baal-berith, “Baal of the covenant” (Judges 8:33). And, as we will see in tomorrow’s reading, if you name a son “My father is king,” it’s altogether possible you are bequeathing a sense of entitlement with unfortunate consequences. 

Gideon’s life offers sober lessons about how easily external obedience and piety can mask ungodly motives and insecurities. His life also demonstrates how it’s possible for someone to yield to the work of the Spirit just enough to manifest God’s power in the world, without yielding to God’s power in one’s own life. It’s as though what Gideon opens himself to is more like a temporary possession by the Spirit, rather than a deep and personal indwelling. 

Image: Byzantine Institute staff, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Peter as Gideon’s opposite. Post-Pentecost Peter is a man in process of experiencing the deep, transformative work of God’s re-creative, life-giving Spirit. In today’s reading from Acts, Peter is given courage by the Holy Spirit to stand before the resurrection-denying leadership of the Temple and insist not only that the Jesus whom they crucified had risen from the dead, but that his name is the only one “under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Pentecost is remaking the coward who wouldn’t even admit to knowing Jesus around the fire in the temple courtyard the night of Jesus’s arrest. 

The word becomes flesh and grabs a non-seeker. Some of us are seekers. Some are not. Andrew (from yesterday’s reading in John) is a seeker. Nathaniel (in today’s reading) is not—at least he’s not looking for anything from Jesus. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” is his retort to claims that Jesus might be the Messiah. (Jesus and Nathaniel are from different towns in Galilee.) Reluctantly, though, Nathaniel agrees to go with his brother Philip to check things out. 

Jesus seizes the initiative. And what an initiative it is: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (John 1:47 RSV). Nathaniel is surprised: “How do you know me?” Surely with the most generous laugh, Jesus responds: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you” (John 1:48). As enigmatic as that sounds, it has to mean something like: “Look, I know you’ve simply been trying to be a faithful Israelite—learning your Torah, saying your prayers, going to synagogue, giving alms. All that time, I’ve had my eye on you.” (Now, we, the readers, have already been told that it’s the Eternal Word who has said to Nathaniel, “When you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” We may be forgiven for wondering if this isn’t a “seeing” that extends back into eternity.)

It’s enough for Nathaniel. The lights come on. Here’s God’s Son, he realizes, Israel’s King. Quite a leap, but just because Nathaniel has been living in as much of the light as has been available to him, he “gets it.” And Jesus promises (I paraphrase): “You figured all that out on the basis of how little I showed I already know about you? Just wait” (see John 1:50-51). 

I’m struck, first, by how “from out of nowhere” it is that Jesus shows up in Nathaniel’s life, second, by how affirming Jesus’s expressed purposes are, and third by how much Nathaniel’s future has been prepared for simply by his staying “under the fig tree.” 

Be blessed this day

Reggie Kidd+