The Certain Hope of the Victory of Christ - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 12/12/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 37:1–18; Isaiah 7:1–9; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; Luke 22:1–13 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Thursday of the second week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

Isaiah’s call to stand firm in faith. In his 5th chapter, the prophet Isaiah had chastised God’s people for failing to live up to their calling to be God’s life-giving vine. Yahweh had planted them among the nations so they could bring justice, temperance, and faithfulness into a desperately needy world. But they had responded with injustice, intemperance, and faithlessness.  

In his 6th chapter, Isaiah recalled how he had been called into the overwhelming majesty of the heavenly courts. There he had been purged of his own sinfulness so he could be sent as messenger of Yahweh’s lordship, despite knowing that people would resist with unhearing ears and unseeing eyes.  

Now, in his 7th chapter, Isaiah recounts how he began his ministry of announcing both judgment and hope. Judgment is coming—very soon for Israel to the north, and somewhat later for Judah in the south. As a result, Isaiah offers at least limited near-term hope for Judah, and massive long-term hope for both Judah and Israel (and the world as well), in a string of messianic passages, beginning with tomorrow’s promise of the birth of “Immanuel.” 

In today’s passage, Isaiah offers words of near-term hope to Ahaz, the young and beleaguered king of Judah, “the house of David.” Aram and Israel are trying to force Judah to join them in a military alliance to fend off an invasion by Assyria. To Yahweh, it is an unholy pact. Assyria will be his hand of judgment against faithless Israel. Isaiah’s mission is to bolster Ahaz in his resistance to the ill-fated coalition: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands…” (Isaiah 7:4).  

Even more fundamentally, Isaiah is sent to challenge Judah’s king to a deeper faith in Yahweh: “If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all” (see Isaiah 7:9, where there is a powerful wordplay on the Hebrew word for “faith/faithfulness,” emet, translated here as “stand,” in both halves of this verse). Standing firm is a challenge that is as good for our day as it was for Ahaz’s.  

Paul’s call to stand firm in faith. It is also a good challenge for Paul’s congregation in Thessalonica. They are rattled about judgment coming upon the world. Some have even stopped working (2 Thessalonians 3:6–15). In his first epistle to them, the apostle had assured the Thessalonians that they need not worry that they will be eternally lost should they die before the Lord’s return. He had insisted that those in their graves when the Lord returns will have an advantage over those still living on the earth: the dead will be first to be taken up to be “with the Lord.” “Let us encourage one another with these words,” he had concluded (1 Thessalonians 4:18). Now he is writing a follow-up letter to them because they’ve somehow gotten the idea that they may have missed “the day of the Lord,” and along with it, the Parousia of Jesus and the great “gathering together to him” that was supposed to happen for those still on the earth when he came (2 Thessalonians 2:1–2).  

His basic message to them is: “Chill! You’ll know it when it comes, and in the meantime be faithful.” Paul’s basic perspective on the “end times” is that Christ’s first coming has provoked an ultimately futile pushback from Satan. The Evil One received a mortal blow in the cross and resurrection of Jesus (see Colossians 2:15). But he has not stopped fighting. His response to the coming of the true Christ was to launch a program of evil that will eventuate in the emergence of a counter-Christ, whom Paul calls “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3,8), and whom John calls “the antichrist” (1 John 1:18,22).  

And just as the victorious campaign of God’s gospel is enabled by the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the Devil, in retreat, spews out “a mystery of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:7), strangely empowering “signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception” (2 Thessalonians 2:9b–10a). For now, God has placed a restraint on the Evil One (which, apparently, he explained somewhat to the Thessalonians, but not to us!—2 Thessalonians 2:5–6).  

At some point in the future, in what biblical scholar and theologian Herman Ridderbos calls an “explosion of evil,” the Devil’s “man of lawlessness” will have his own mock “parousia” (2 Thessalonians 3:9). At his “coming out,” he will seat himself in God’s temple (whether it’s a physical [rebuilt] temple or the spiritual temple of the church, Paul doesn’t tell us), “declaring himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4).  

Point is: when it happens, we’ll know. We’ll know because the Lord’s response will be decisive: “…the Lord Jesus will destroy [him] with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming [parousia]” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). 

In the meantime, Isaiah’s word to Ahaz is just as good for us: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint” (Isaiah 7:4). We know how the story ends. We know who wins! 

Resting in the sure and certain hope of the victory of Christ, be blessed this day!  

Reggie Kidd+ 

A Sinner's Need For Mercy - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 12/11/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 38; Isaiah 6:1–13; 2 Thessalonians 1:1–12; John 7:53–8:11 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Wednesday of the second week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

Relicta sunt duo, miseria et misericorda (“Two remain, misery and mercy”). In six Latin words, the fifth century bishop of Carthage, St. Augustine, offers the most elegant commentary imaginable on today’s gospel passage about the Woman Caught in Adultery.  

Despite the fact that this story just may embody Jesus’s ministry better than any other, it is the least well attested of any event of his life. Why? Well, this particular story, as it appears in John’s gospel, interrupts the narrative flow of the book. And it is not written in John’s Greek—in neither his writing style nor his vocabulary. As a result, some modern scholars reject the story’s authenticity altogether. But the story stubbornly and persistently commends itself. The likelihood, I think, is that the story is authentic, but that it was written by someone other than John. It earned a place in Scripture because it pressed itself upon early believers as being true to who Jesus is and as having come from reliable sources. Augustine simply treats it as an established part of Jesus’s ministry. I suggest we do the same.

There is one manuscript family that places the story here, where the Daily Office also places it: right after Luke tells us that during Holy Week, Jesus was spending his nights on the Mount of Olives and then teaching at the temple during the day (Luke 21:37–38). As Jesus returns from the Mount of Olives on one of these mornings to resume his teaching ministry in the temple, he is intercepted by a posse of righteous people. In their custody is a woman who has been caught “dead to rights” in the act of adultery. They want to know whether Jesus is going to comply with Jewish law that demands condemnation and execution; or whether instead, he is going to be true to his own teachings about love, compassion, and forgiveness. 

Jesus does not straightforwardly confront these enforcers with their hypocrisy. Contrary to the Law of Moses, they’ve only brought one of the guilty parties—the woman. It’s curious, isn’t it? He bends down and starts writing in the sand. What’s he doing? Gathering his thoughts? What’s he writing? Nobody knows. Maybe he’s writing out the Scripture, “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death” (Leviticus 20:10). Or maybe he’s just writing something like: “Adultery is horrible. But, hey, where’s the guy?!”  

Members of this coterie of morality-sheriffs persist in their demands, and after a while Jesus stands up and simply says: “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone” (John 8:7 The Message). He bends down again … and starts writing again. In The Gospel Road, the 1973 movie about Jesus’s life, Johnny Cash offers a wonderful suggestion: “Maybe he’s writing things like, ‘Liar’ … ‘Hypocrite’ … ‘Thief’ … ‘Rapist’ … ‘Murderer.’” Regardless, it’s enough to make the tattletales slink away, each of them, one by one. One of the reasons for thinking this story is true rather than fabricated is its understatement: somebody who is making up a fictitious Jesus might want to make him sound like their idea of the “real Jesus” by having him rail at the hypocrites. At the same time, the story’s pastoral sensibility sounds just like the Jesus we do know from the canonical gospels: Jesus, the discerner of hearts, gives each sinner—even these guys!—room to reflect, and space to repent.  

The next words in the text are: “…and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him” (John 8:9). What a dramatic moment. And Augustine gets it just right: All that is left is the sinner’s need for mercy, and Mercy’s readiness to give it. Jesus asks the woman where her complainants are, and whether there is anyone left to accuse her. Her answer is simply, “Nobody, sir.” Then again, it’s not that simple. The word she uses for “sir” is kurie, which also means “Lord.”  

Jesus’s answer also appears simple, but on reflection is not: “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again” (John 8:11). Jesus came neither to condemn sin nor to dismiss it—he came to absorb it and kill it. He has to tell some people to follow him so they can understand things better. However, our Lord trusts this one—delivered from the miseria of sin and condemnation—to work out how misericorda (Mercy) kills sin. So he can say to her very simply, “Go your way.”  

Living in that same misericorda, — living in the One who is Mercy — may you be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

One True Story - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 12/10/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 26; Psalm 28; Isaiah 5:13–17,24–25; 1 Thessalonians 5:12–28; Luke 21:29–38 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we draw insights from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Tuesday of the second week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Isaiah and God’s Word. “My people go into exile without knowledge…” —Isaiah 5:13. What stands out in today’s verses in Isaiah is the way the prophet traces Israel’s sin to its root: “…for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 5:24).  

I offer this one takeaway: it is worth reading the Bible deeply and consistently—even the hard parts, even the cringeworthy parts, even the parts that are subject to various interpretations. The Bible imparts “knowledge” … and … “the instruction of the Lord of hosts,” because it is “the word of the Holy One of Israel.”  

Truth is under assault in our culture. Online news services offer “clickbait,” designed to do nothing other than to keep us clicking. A 24-hour news cycle sustains itself by constantly stirring the pot: did somebody “steal” an election? is global warming real? is racism systemic or personal? Answers aren’t important. Viewership is. Keeping us agitated is. Media that never “sign off” demand our round-the-clock and undivided attention, and pummel us into being hopelessly skeptical or baselessly fanatical.  

The Word of God centers us in the one true story (“What was lost, is now found”), provides us the one true roadmap for life (“Your Word is a lamp to my feet”), and offers the one grid for sifting the surfeit of swirling supposed data (“In your light, we see light”)—see Luke 15:24; Psalm 119:105; Psalm 36:9.  

Paul and God’s People. “Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them” — 1 Thessalonians 5:13b–14. Paul’s closing words in this letter to recent converts who are confused about the “how” and “when” of Jesus’s return amount to this: Take care of each other.  

Most of these people are brand new converts from a pagan background: “…you turned from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven…” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). They are only now beginning their journey to understand the Bible—which, at the time, consisted merely of what we now call the Old Testament. There was no New Testament. Besides, in the culture of the first century Roman world, it is questionable how many would have even been able to read. 

That’s one of the reasons Paul insists that they come together so his letter can be read to them. It’s also one of the reasons Paul tells them (in the plural—i.e., when they are together) to listen carefully to words of prophets who rise up in the church, not “despising” their words, but also testing them (testing them together, it needs to be emphasized). We learn from each other as we learn from God’s word—and that means we need to read and listen to God’s word with one another. If biblical illiteracy seems rampant today—and it is—the situation is not that much different than in the world Paul confronted. And Paul’s solution is as powerful today as it was then. Come together; and read, listen, ponder, and discern.  

The Thessalonians’ individual destinies are wrapped up in one another’s destiny—and that destiny is to be a rejoicing, praying, and thanksgiving (Greek: eucharistein) people (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18). That’s why Paul tells them to respect, esteem, and love their spiritual leaders (1 Thessalonians 5:13–14a), and to extend the peace of Christ by ministering to each person according to their spiritual needs (whether it means being straightforward with shirkers or long-suffering with “snowflakes” or tending to the infirm—1 Thessalonians 5:14b).  

Luke and God’s Kingdom. Jesus’s focus in his Final Discourse in Luke is on the way the upcoming destruction of Jerusalem will round out the events that establish God’s kingdom and initiate the season of testimony to its King: “Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place” (Luke 21:32). Downrange, however, there is still the fact that the Son of Man will return to usher in the eternal state, when heaven and earth are made new, and the heavenly Jerusalem descends. Downrange, we all will “stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).  

It’s helpful, I think, that we regard the first century event as a foreshadowing of the still future event. Jesus was coming into his rule as Ascended Lord, with the accompanying destruction of the earthly temple. Jesus’s disciples needed to cultivate a certain perspective in order to prepare for that “coming.” Jesus’s “Parousia,” his still future return in glorious triumph, will bring the Heavenly Jerusalem to a new earth and new heaven. A certain mindset is exactly what we ourselves need so that we may be ready for “Parousia”:   

First, the recognition that King Jesus will indeed finally prevail. No matter how bleak things look, and no matter how long it takes, nonetheless God’s rule and reign “will come upon all who live on the face of the earth” (Luke 21:35). All the pressing matters that face any generation of believers (e.g., partisanship, pandemics, persecutions) only come into perspective when seen in the light of this one amazing mystery: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again! 

Second, the same watchful diligence that was incumbent upon the disciples of Jesus’s day: “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap” (Luke 21:34).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Christ The King Is Closer - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 12/9/2024 •

Advent 2 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 25; Isaiah 5:8–12,18–23; 1 Thessalonians 5:1–11; Luke 21:20–28 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the second week of Advent (the Christian “New Year,” and we are in “Year One” in the cycle of readings of the Daily Office.  

Isaiah. In today’s verses in Isaiah (selected verses in chapter 5), the prophet provides a succinct summary of the reign of evil: injustice, intemperance, and mendacity.  

God had planted Israel as a vine among the nations. Her calling in this world was to be the place where God began to reverse the curse of Eden, and to bring life back into the world—restoring right relationships, personal wholeness, and faithfulness.  

As this past Saturday’s reading in the Daily Office put it: “My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. … he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes” (Isaiah 5:2). Instead of right relationships, Isaiah finds broken relationships. Israel’s social life is crippled by greedy landowners and developers who displace the poor, and leave themselves with vast, but barren estates: “Ah, you who who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!” (Isaiah 5:9–10,23).  

Instead of personal wholeness, Isaiah finds people destroying themselves with heavy drinking and dissolute partying: “Ah, you who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger in the evening to be inflamed by wine, whose feasts consist of lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine … Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink…” (Isaiah 5:11–12,22). 

Instead of faithfulness, Isaiah finds people perpetuating the lying that the serpent of Eden inserted into the human equation: “Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood … Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!” (Isaiah 5:20–21).  

In Isaiah’s stinging and comprehensive indictment, he anticipates Paul’s appeal to the Cretan self-indictment (“Cretans are always liars, vicious beasts, lazy gluttons”—Titus 1:12). And it’s perhaps not insignificant that in the verses in Isaiah 5 not included in today’s readings (verses 13–17), Isaiah calls Israel’s life worthy of Sheol, or Hell (verse 14). It so happens that both the Latin poet Virgil and the Italian poet Dante map Hell as a descent from “intemperance” to “injustice” to “mendacity”—a progression entirely reminiscent of Isaiah’s description of a Sheol-like life.  

If, this Advent, the world around (and even within) you looks too much like the world that Isaiah and Paul and Virgil and Dante saw, it’s because we still await that Second Coming in which all will be made finally right. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! 

Luke. Today’s passage in Luke is precisely parallel to Matthew 24:1–14. In that passage as well as in this one (Luke 21:20–28), Jesus is addressing a specific issue: the future of Jerusalem and the temple in the upcoming so-called Jewish War (A.D. 66–70). 

Recall how Jesus had wept tears over Jerusalem as he approached the city: “As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! … Indeed, the days will come upon you when your enemies … will crush you to the ground … and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God’” (Luke 21:41–44).  

Two things, I think, are worthy of note: 

Jesus understands that his redemption of creation will include the elimination of Jerusalem’s earthly temple. The temple’s destruction, coming at the violent hands of a Roman army, is a matter of deep grief to him. The desolation of the Temple Mount (still in effect) is cause for us to share Jesus’s tears and to call out to God for children of that city to recognize in Jesus, Son of David, their “visitation from God.”  

“People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory’” (Luke 21:27). While the desolation Jesus predicts will come upon Jerusalem, that destruction “down here” will mark the very moment that “up there” he receives from his Heavenly Father all authority and dominion over the earth.  This, I believe, is the  “coming” of the Son of Man into the dominion that Daniel 7 had prophesied for.  

Over all the vicissitudes of our lives, over all the madness of earth’s history—over it all—Jesus reigns. And one day he will return in visible, glorious triumph. Lord, haste the day when faith shall be sight… 

Paul. As though he had today’s words from Isaiah and Jesus on his mind, Paul writes for us in the meantime: “… let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:8b–11).  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Become What You Are - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 12/6/2024 •

Advent 1 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 16; Psalm 17; Isaiah 3:8–15; 1 Thessalonians 4:1–12; Luke 20:41–21:4 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Friday of the first week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Paul’s letters to the Thessalonians make for especially important reading during Advent. It appears from the Book of Acts that Paul’s evangelizing foray into their city had been cut short. He had taught there for only “three sabbaths” when “zealous” Jews “enlisted the help of a gang from the market place, stirred up a crowd, and soon had the whole city in an uproar” (Acts 17:2,5 Jerusalem Bible). The “brethren” decided Paul needed to leave (Acts 17:10). The questions that Paul addresses in subsequent letters to them indicate that the new converts in Thessalonica have follow up questions about one matter that Paul had introduced but had not been able to explain in full: that is, the second coming of Christ.  

In the second half of today’s chapter (tomorrow’s reading), Paul will clarify what happens to those who will have already died by the time Christ returns (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). And in 2 Thessalonians, Paul will respond to false rumors that he has taught that “the coming of the Lord and our being gathered together to him” has already taken place—as if! (Second Thessalonians 2:1–11—which will be next Thursday’s reading.)  

With a wisdom that seems heaven-sent to me, Paul urges believers not to allow worry or speculation about the “not yet” of Christ’s return to take away from the enormous importance of living for Christ in the “now.” That is the thrust of today’s epistle reading.  

Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more. For this is the will of God, your sanctification… — 1 Thessalonians 4:1–3a. The Thessalonians’ concerns about the end of time leads Paul to offer this most straightforward, helpful, and encouraging framing of the Christian life.  

When Paul was with the Thessalonians, he had taught them that followers of Christ live in a certain way. Their lives in the present can, in truth, be pleasing to God (that is worth thinking about!). There is one lifegoal for people who have been justified before the bar of God’s justice and forgiven their sins: to become sanctified, to grow in holiness and in likeness to their Lord. Paul is quick to affirm people when he sees them living that way, as he does here with the Thessalonians. He “asks” and “urges” them to do more of what they are already doing. Based on these verses, some students of Paul’s ethics sum up his approach in a formula that looks like this: “Become more of what you already are!” It’s as though Paul were saying: the future will take care of itself; let’s take care of what’s happening now. Personally, I find that to be life-giving.  

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from fornication… — 1 Thessalonians 4:3. Paul is concerned that the first thing that will go out the window if the Thessalonians become preoccupied with “end times” questions is their sense of sexual propriety. (I won’t go into the details of what Paul means by “controlling your own body” and “not exploiting your brother or sister.”) He exhorts them to practice philadelphia (brotherly love, v. 9) and agapē (self-giving love) toward one another (v. 9). But throughout this paragraph, he’s talking about honoring one another sexually. It’s as though he were able prophetically to look down the corridors of time and perceive an overthrow of sexual and interpersonal norms ahead of the coming kingdom. As early as the 14th century, Catholic heretics known as the Cologne Beghards advocated freedom without restraint for the new believer, without regard for the other person, in any kind of relationship (see the discussion in Robert Jewett, The Thessalonian Correspondence: Pauline Rhetoric and Millenarian Piety, 1986). It’s probably unnecessary to mention the ways presumed “breakthrough” Western culture has experienced dramatic shifts in the manner of life outlined and encouraged by the apostle Paul. 

…aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands as we directed you to… — 1 Thessalonians 4:11. Another inclination that arises when heads turn heavenward is a disinclination to work. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul cautions people not to go there. By 2 Thessalonians he must rebuke people for having done that very thing. Have you known people who are so sure that the Lord is returning immediately that they have quit their jobs and moved to the mountains or the beach to wait it out? I have. It’s not pretty. Paul says it is just plain wrong.  

Christ may come very soon. Or there may be a long way to go before he does so. The one thing that Paul makes clear elsewhere is that Christ doesn’t return until there is “fullness of Jew” and “fullness of Gentile”—the “full” number of those who will come to Christ (Romans 11:18,25). That is something only God reckons. Meanwhile, our job—a job that is worth meditating on during Advent, especially— is “becoming more of what we already are” (4:1-2), maintaining healthy and right sexual relationships (4:3–10), and “making it a point of honor” (that’s the Greek behind v. 11’s “aspire” in the NRSV) to work diligently and faithfully at whatever craft or profession or calling the Lord has set before us.  

Be blessed this day, as you pursue God’s will for you: your sanctification!  

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Deadly Sins - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 12/5/2024 •

Advent 1 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 18:1–20; Isaiah 2:12–22; 1 Thessalonians 3:1–13; Luke 20:27–40 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Thursday of the first week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Against the deadliest of the deadly sins: pride. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up and high … The haughtiness of people shall be humbled, and the pride of everyone shall be brought low; and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day. — Isaiah 2:12,17.  

Pride, say the ancient saints, is the deadliest of the deadly sins. If so, its chief manifestation is idolatry. The atheistic philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach contends that the idea of God is just a projection of the human ego. We worship “Him,” Feuerbach implies, in order to worship ourselves. Idolatry (humanity’s kingdom of self) creates surrogate deities: the sun, the moon, the planets, possessions, magical objects, lovers: all expressions of our exaltation of ourselves. Idolatry says to God, “No thanks. I’ll do it my way.”  

Isaiah says that all this folly will come to a dramatic end. On the day of Yahweh Sabaoth, people will “fling to moles and bats the idols of silver and the idols of gold” that they made for worship (Isaiah 2:20 Jerusalem Bible). 

Today’s passage is not Isaiah’s first volley against idolatry, nor will it be his last. As we work our way reading through Isaiah from Advent through Epiphany, we will find the prophet returning to the theme over and over again.  

Isaiah’s fundamental attack is against what lies at the base of all idolatry: our own tendency to be impressed with ourselves—as though we were like lofty trees, majestic mountains, soaring hills, high towers, or expensive baubles (Isaiah 2:13–16). The commentator John Goldingay notes the wordplay that contrasts people’s pretense to prideful majesty (ge’eh) with Yahweh’s actual majesty (ga’on—Isaiah 2:12,19). What Isaiah wants us to do is reevaluate and repent of that which is in us that leads us to worship ourselves: “Turn away from mortals, who have only breath in their nostrils, for of what account are they?” (Isaiah 2:22).  

Against the second deadliest of the deadly sins: sloth. At the opposite end of the spectrum from the pride that leads to idolatry is the sloth that shrugs off the implications of being made in the image and likeness of “the God not of the dead, but of the living” (Luke 20:38). We were made to bear, says the apostle Paul, “an eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). We are not, by implication, merely to be returned to the dust, nor reduced to ashes, when we die. The Sadducees did not believe life continues after physical death. Jesus expects them, and us, to infer the amazing truth of resurrection from the fact that the God of Israel’s patriarchs continues to be their Lord after their passing from this earthly sphere.  

If it is our eternal destiny to be returned to our bodies, and to outlive even the planets (as resurrection implies), it’s not difficult to see why some might wish to believe otherwise. For them it would be far easier to live this life as though physical death was final, the end of it all. And there would seem to be a certain courageousness, a certain honesty, about such a posture—not to mention, a certain consolation. When it’s over, it’s over, as Peggy Lee sang back in the 60’s:  

Oh, no, not me. I’m in no hurry for that final disappointment, 
for I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you, 
when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my last breath,  
I’ll be saying to myself, 

“Is that all there is, is that all there is? 
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing. 
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball 
If that’s all there is…” 

As the ancient epitaph put it: “I was not. I was. I am not. I will not be. It matters not.” Now as well at then, whether you play it out narcissistically or altruistically, whether dissolutely or chastely … it just doesn’t matter.  

Scripture’s verdict, however, is to the contrary! Scripture’s judgment is that God made us and fashioned us in bodily form so that, in bodily form, we may dwell with him and know him forever. That means, by implication, each and every one of us will literally outlive this earth, in one form or another. As C. S. Lewis put it towards the end of his “Weight of Glory” sermon: “You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” A Sadducean refusal of what is offered in that eternal destiny is damnably slothful. Scripture’s promise is infinitely, eternally, wonderfully more ennobling.    

This Advent, I pray that we will bask in a fresh realization of all that is promised in Jesus’s incarnation. He comes to humble us and convict us of every tendency to prideful self-worship. He comes, as well, to restore us to our true, fully human selves, and to usher us into an eternity of joyful fellowship with himself and with all the redeemed in a new earth and new heaven.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Swords Into Plowshares - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 12/4/2024 •

Advent 1 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:1–24; Isaiah 2:1–11; 1 Thessalonians 2:13–20; Luke 20:19–26 

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) 

  
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we ask how God might direct our lives from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Wednesday of the first week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

Swords into plowshares. Isaiah’s vision of the future is robust and challenging. He is the prophet of swords being beaten into plowshares (ch. 2), the prophet of the Virgin Birth (ch. 7), and the prophet of the Suffering Servant (ch. 53). Thus, he is the prophet of Advent, of Christmas, and of Holy Week. It is difficult to get our heads around the comprehensiveness of it all. At the same time, it is exhilarating to live with the knowledge of the fullness of God’s intentions for our lives.

In today’s reading in Isaiah, the prophet takes us to the distant day in which Jerusalem will have been ushered into her true destiny of being a beacon of God’s light for the whole world. It is a day when knowing the Scriptures entrusted to her become the goal and desire of all the nations, and when God’s peace—his shalom—reigns from pole to pole.  

Until the past century or so, Isaiah’s “swords into plowshares” theme was somewhat under-emphasized by biblical interpreters, artists, and by the church in general. Instead, Isaiah stirred earlier Christians’ imaginations with promises of incarnation and atonement. Two World Wars and a Cold War have made people—even secular people—more attentive to Isaiah’s vision of an era of peace. In 1959, the Soviet Union graced (if ironically!) the United Nations with a striking nine-foot tall statue by Ukrainian born Evgeny Vuchetich, entitled “Let us beat our swords into ploughshares.” (See the discussion in John Sawyer’s The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity, p. 232.) Such a day has become a universal—if sometimes disingenuous and ever elusive—aspiration.  

What is distinctive, however, about Isaiah’s forseeing a day for beating swords into ploughshares is that it falls on the far side of forsaking divination, materialism, and idolatry (Isaiah 2:6–11). It accompanies a universal hungering to “‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, … that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths…” (Isaiah 2:4 Jerusalem Bible).   

Peace—but on whose terms? In his ministry among us, the Lord Jesus showed himself to be resistant to all attempts to take him captive to any human’s vision for the way things ought to be, or how to get there. The scribes and chief priests—accomplices of the Roman occupation and custodians of the opulent Nero-built Temple—want to trap Jesus with a question about taxation. If he supports the unpopular Roman tax, he risks alienating the people, and aligns himself with the occupying Roman power. If he renounces the tax, he becomes a folk hero, but virtually declares himself a dangerous revolutionary in Roman eyes. Jesus refuses the terms of the question altogether (I paraphrase): “If Caesar wants to put his image on coins that express his dominion, fine. But what about the God who puts his image on each of you? What are you doing with your responsibility to bear his image into the world?” End of discussion.  

Jesus does carry forth Isaiah’s vision of an era of peace—but on God’s terms, not ours. His incarnation, as the angels sing when they herald Jesus’s birth, is itself an expression of God’s goodwill and intention to bring peace (Luke 2:14). But it’s a peace that comes through the suffering of Mary’s Son (Luke 2:34–35). And it’s a peace that does not come without the Spirit’s empowering of a proclamation of “good news for the poor” (Luke 4:18–19).  

May this Advent season find us newly energized. First, may we be newly grasped by the way that our being made in God’s image takes on its proper luster by virtue of Christ’s incarnation. Second, may we be freshly awed and humbled by the way that his coming makes possible his shouldering our iniquities and our sorrows. Third, may we become more and more people of peace and of peacemaking, that the distant vision of “swords into plowshares” may be, at least in us, not as distant.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

God Draws Near - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 12/3/2024 •

Advent 1 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 5; Psalm 6; Isaiah 1:21–31; 1 Thessalonians 2:1–12; Luke 20:9–18 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we draw insights from that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Tuesday of the first week of Advent, as we begin a new year (Year 1) of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

God comes courting. How the faithful city has become a whore… — Isaiah 1:21. One of Scripture’s most powerful metaphors for our relationship with God is that of faithful wife to loving husband. The marital theme has coursed through our readings over the past few months, and is especially concentrated in Hosea, the Song of Songs, and Revelation. It’s one of the most beautiful “through-lines” of the biblical narrative, and it climaxes when John exclaims, in Revelation 21:2: “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”  

Yahweh created the people of Israel to embody that relationship. “Love the Lord your God…” and “Love your neighbor…” are not, therefore, the cold and calculated terms of a legal contract. The commandments to love God and neighbor outline the contours of intimacy—intimacy between humans and their Divine Lover. Right worship and right relationships “marry” us to God. Idolatry, cruelty, and neglect violate that relationship.  

Sadly, Israel resists Yahweh’s gracious overtures to take her as his radiant bride. She does so by pursuing false gods (the “oaks” and the “gardens” of verses 29 and 30 refer to Canaanite fertility cults) and by practicing injustice: “She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her—but now murderers!” (Isaiah 1:21).  

Nonetheless, Yahweh pursues this faithless bride. And he pledges to prevail: “I will restore your judges as at the first,” and make her once again “the city of righteousness, the faithful city” (Isaiah 1:26).  

The wonderful promise of Advent is that the Lord indeed draws near to take his bride to himself—he will clear false gods from our lives, and he will convict us of ways in which we have wronged our neighbor.

God’s vineyard. An owner of a vineyard employs tenants to tend it, Jesus tells his audience in the Parable of the wicked Tenants. When the owner sends a servant to collect his profits, the tenants beat the servant, and he returns empty-handed to the owner. Another emissary suffers the same fate, so the owner sends his son, thinking the tenants will respect the son. Wrong—the tenants kill the son. By some mysterious logic, they think that by this action they will take possession of the vineyard. This parable about God entrusting a vineyard to tenants (the Greek is “workers of the earth,” more organically translated “farmers”) conjures up the traditional Old Testament theme of Israel as God’s own vineyard—a colony of life and blessing for the world (Isaiah 5:1–2; 27:2–6). The return the master seeks is the fruit of their joint venture as they “work the earth” on his behalf. The tenants delude themselves into thinking that they can make wine from God’s vineyard without the God of the vineyard. Such a bad choice.  

In the parable before us, the saddest thing about Jesus’s contemporaries is how wrongly they interpret his mission. The Divine Vintner will not be frustrated, however. The death of God’s Son will instead prove to be the founding (Jesus changes the metaphor!) of a new building: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone” (Luke 20:17). Luke’s traveling companion Paul will develop this metaphor in terms of a symbolic house, composed of both Jews and Gentiles—a totally new residence for God’s presence (Ephesians 2:11-22). In terms of Jesus’s vineyard metaphor, the grafting of Gentiles into an existing rootstock (with Jesus as the foundation of a true Israel) will produce a new variety, a superior wine.   

God’s heart. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us — 1 Thessalonians 2:8. Paul immerses himself in the Gentile community to which he brings “the gospel of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:8). Paul is entranced by the notion of God building a dwelling place for himself made up of Jews and Gentiles. This idea is at the core of his passion to take the gospel, in all its tenderness and truth, to the Gentiles. The Thessalonians, the former idolators (see 1:9), observe the contours of Christ’s incarnation (and therefore of God’s heart) in Paul’s exemplary lifestyle among them. They see his labors to support himself, his nursing care for them, and his loving fatherly demeanor. 

What a gift we can be to each other during this Advent season, carrying forward the model Paul has given us! We can speak good news to one another, pray fervently for one another, be there for one another! 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Find Delight In His Word - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 12/2/2024 •

Advent 1 Year 1

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 1; Psalm 2; Psalm 3; Isaiah 1:10–20; 1 Thessalonians 1:1–10; Luke 20:1–8 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me.   

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a new year in the Christian calendar. So, Happy New Year! With the new year comes a new cycle of daily readings. In the Book of Common Prayer, the daily readings are laid out in a two-year cycle, allowing us to read through the Old Testament every two years, and through the New Testament every year. This year happens to be “Year One” in the cycle, and the listings begin on page 936 of the BCP. 

In happy conformity with a practice that goes back to the days of Queen Elizabeth I, the Old Testament readings for Year One cover large portions of the Book of Isaiah from Advent through Epiphany—actually, the BCP extends the Isaiah readings all the way up to Lent.  

Isaiah is an amazing docent for the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. A 17th century commentator called Isaiah “the fifth evangelist” because his prophecies so clearly anticipate Christ’s coming:  

• “A voice cries in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord’” (Isaiah 40:3) 

• “A virgin shall conceive, and shall bear a son, and you shall name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14) 

• “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders…” (Isaiah 9:6)  

• “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach good news to the poor…” (Isaiah 61:1) 

• “He was wounded for our transgressions…” (Isaiah 53:5) 

• “Arise, shine, for your light has come…” (Isaiah 60:1)  

• “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6) 

For all the good news that Isaiah pronounces, however, there is the bad news of the sin that must first be dealt with. As we take up his prophecies, we find him calling Israel “Sodom” and “Gomorrah.” He accuses them of the idolatry that nullifies their worship, and of the injustice that belies their mission to be God’s colony of goodness and justice on the earth. One of the reasons that Isaiah makes for powerful reading during Advent is that we find ourselves needing to do just what Israel needed to do: take stock and prepare. In the older translations, the invitation of verse 18 to “Come now, let us reason together” is, in fact, a legal summons. Even the NRSV’s attempt to bring out that nuance, “let us argue it out,” creates the wrong impression if it makes us think that God and we are on the same level. It’s not like he’s calling us to an arm-wrestling match in which we have half a chance of winning. The truth is, he has damning evidence of our high crimes against his character, and is calling us to account.  

But instead of consigning us to the eternal separation from him that we deserve, the Lord signals, even in the summons, that he plans to forgive—if we will simply prepare, if we will simply repent: “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).  

Isaiah winds up being an extended invitation to do as the Thessalonians did: turn from idols to serve the “living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).  

One last word for today. We’ve observed in the past that the Daily Office organizes the Book of Psalms in such a way as to give us a chance to read all the way through them every seven weeks. We begin a new seven-week cycle today. A good way to round out today’s readings is to meditate on the powerful messages of each of these first three psalms:  

Psalm 1. Over the course of this next year, may we find true delight in God’s Word, planting  ourselves beside its “streams of water,” that our souls may be nourished and that our lives may flourish.  

Psalm 2. May the riches of Scripture bring us time and again to the wonder of the fact that, despite all that opposes him, God has established his Son as the world’s—and our—true King.  

Psalm 3. And no matter what personal attacks or setbacks might arise this next year, may we know that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a shield about us, our glory, and the one who lifts up our heads.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Jesus Is King - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 11/29/2024 •

Proper 29 Year 2

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 140; Psalm 142; Zechariah 14:1-11; Romans 15:7-13; Luke 19:28-40 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Friday of Proper 29 in Year 2 of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Today’s Daily Devotion closes the Christian year. Advent begins this Sunday, marking the beginning of the New Year in the Christian calendar. Our readings invite reflection of God’s Kingdom—its inauguration, its continuation, and its consummation (with thanks to my friend Richard Pratt for the terminology).  

Luke: Inauguration of the Kingdom. Luke’s account of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem plays a part in the inauguration of Jesus as King. Just as Zechariah 9 had prophesied, he comes humbly, mounted on a donkey. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives he is met by a carpet of cloaks and by greetings of “Blessed is the king!” and “Peace in heaven!” and “Glory in the highest heaven!” Nonetheless, this phase of Jesus’s kingship will involve a crown of thorns, a mocking purple robe, and a reed for a scepter. That is why, in the verses immediately following today’s, Jesus weeps over Jerusalem: “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:41). He knows that rejection and suffering await him, and that destruction lies ahead for Jerusalem, “because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God” (Luke 19:44).  

Nonetheless, Jesus’s coming is indeed the time of God’s visitation in peace—his rejection, his sufferings, and his crucifixion will result in the inauguration of the kingdom of God. Beautifully, if ironically, the greetings from the crowd at Jesus’s triumphal entry recall the angels’ song at the nativity: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14). Jesus’s redeeming death, his victorious resurrection, and his crowning ascension will bring in an era in which God’s peace will be announced on the earth and God will receive glory through the growth of the church.  

Romans: Continuation of the Kingdom. Like perhaps nobody else, the apostle Paul understands the time in which we live. It is a time when the Kingdom, having been established by Jesus’s earthly ministry, continues now through the proclamation of the good news of the forgiveness of sins and of God’s welcome of Jew and Gentile alike. This “between time”—between the Kingdom’s inauguration at Jesus’s first coming and the Kingdom’s consummation at his second—is a time characterized by hope, joy, peace, and faith: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).  

Zechariah: Consummation of the Kingdom. Zechariah foresees the day when “hope” and “faith” are no longer necessary, and when “joy” and “peace” abound for God’s faithful—a day when Jesus returns in all his might, and when God’s Kingdom is finally consummated.  

Zechariah foresees the Mount of Olives, once the staging area of Jesus’s humble entry into Jerusalem, as the place where the Lord descends to fight for his embattled people, when “his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives … and [it] shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley” (Zechariah 14:4). 

What Zechariah pictures with vivid imagery is a reality he sees from quite some distance (and we still stand at some unknown distance from it as well!). What he sees is the descent of the returning conquering King Jesus, who brings “all the holy ones” (Zechariah 14:5—that is, the dead in Christ and his angelic army) to deliver a final death blow to sin, to evil, to Satan, and to death itself (see Revelation 19 and 20).  

And what Zechariah predicts—“”Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site … Jerusalem shall abide in security”—will prove to be “the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,” descending to be the place where God takes up his abode with his people on “a new earth” under “a new heaven” (Revelation 21 and 22).  

What Zechariah sees as “living waters” flowing out from Jerusalem, the Book of Revelation will see as the new Jerusalem’s “river of life” which will nourish trees that produce fruit and leaves “for the healing of the nations” (Zechariah 14:8; Revelation 22:1-2).  

Finally, what Zechariah sees most accurately is that the consummation of the Kingdom proves once and for all the singularity and sovereignty of Israel’s God: “And the Lord will become king over all the earth; on that day the Lord will be one and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9).  

No matter what turbulence or uncertainty we may be facing right now, Jesus is King! Jesus became King when first he came; he is King for us right now; and he will return in power and great glory as the world’s true King, on the day appointed by his Father and ours.  

Be blessed this—and every—day! 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Jesus Exercises Headship Over All for the Church - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 11/28/2024 •

Proper 29 Year 2

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 131; Psalm 132; Zechariah 13:1-9; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 19:11-27 

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) 

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Thursday of Proper 29 in Year 2 of the Daily Office Lectionary.  

Happy Thanksgiving! It so happens that today’s readings in Zechariah and Ephesians recount profound reasons for the giving of thanks.  

Zechariah. The apostle Peter describes the prophets of the Old Testament “looking and searching so hard” to try to understand the future salvation that was being revealed through them. Peter says that they had been given sketches of “the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would come after them.” As a result, the prophets “tried to find out at what time and in what circumstances all this was to be expected” (1 Peter 1:10-11 Jerusalem Bible).  

One of the prophetic passages Peter must have had in mind is this one from today’s reading in Zechariah: “Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered” (Zechariah 13:7b). Jesus Christ had quoted it to Peter and the rest of the disciples as they arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane, in anticipation of his arrest. And Peter, being Peter, protested its applicability to him: “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away” (Matthew 27:30-33). This is fresh off their leaving the Upper Room, where Jesus had prophesied Peter’s betrayal. Yes, I’m pretty sure Peter recalled this passage in Zechariah.  

Five hundred years in advance, Zechariah provides a staggering constellation of previews of the Messiah’s sufferings and glories: 

• “humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9)—think of Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:5) 

• a new exodus “through the sea of distress…and the scepter of Egypt shall depart” (Zechariah 10:11)—think of God calling Jesus “out of Egypt” (Matthew 2:13-15) 

• “thirty shekels of silver thr[own] into the treasury in the house of the Lord” (Zechariah 11:12-13) — think of the price for Judas Iscariot’s betrayal (Matthew 27:3-10) 

• weeping and mourning “as over a firstborn,” when “they look on the one whom they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10) — think of the spear in Jesus’s side (John 19:34) 

• God’s pouring out “a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem”—think of Pentecost in Act 2 

Add to these passages, of course, today’s reference to the sheep being scattered when the shepherd is struck. As we saw above, Jesus sees here an anticipation of his disciples being “scattered” at his arrest.  

But then read Zechariah more deeply. The previous chapter’s “piercing” from yesterday’s reading (Zechariah 12:10) has led to the opening of a fountain “to cleanse them from sin and impurity” (Zechariah 13:1). Five hundred years later, the apostle John notes that from Jesus’s pierced side flow blood and water: “[O]ne of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out” (John 19:34). Thus, the hymnist William Cowper writes, “There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins. And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.” Amen! 

But wait, there’s more! Zechariah 13 goes on to describe a winnowing process by which idolatry is eliminated, false prophets are exposed, God’s remnant is refined like gold, and the covenant is renewed: “I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God’” (Zechariah 13:2-9). The passage anticipates the full sweep of the Holy Spirit’s work during the gospel age in which we have been living since Pentecost.  

Ephesians. The apostle Paul’s magnificent prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23 arises out of his awe at living in this gospel age. Paul is overwhelmed that “all things” have been laid at the resurrected Jesus’s feet. Perhaps even more amazing to Paul is the fact that Jesus—Lord of the whole universe—exercises this headship over “all things” for the sake of and in the interest of the church (Ephesians 1:22)!  

The thrust, then, of Paul’s prayer is that God opens “the eyes of our hearts” to see how these wonderful truths are true for us. That means for me! That means for you! I pray that in spite of all the things in our lives, and in our world, that make it difficult to see the depth of God’s riches for us and the extent of his love for us, that Paul’s prayer will nonetheless prevail for each one of us. I pray that, as Paul will pray later in this letter, “you will know the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:18-19).  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+