Jesus is Astonished - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 1/26/2021
Week of 3 Epiphany

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 45; Isaiah 48:12–21; Galatians 1:18–2:10; Mark 6:1–13

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

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There are two equal and opposite ways of getting Jesus wrong. One is so to deify him as to his diminish his humanity (as though “and the Word was God” negated “and the Word became flesh”). The other is so to humanize him as to dismiss his deity (as though “and the Word became flesh” overrode “and the Word was God”). 

John’s Gospel (which we were reading during Christmas and Epiphany) pointedly shows the balance: Jesus is the enfleshment of the great I AM. And the touch of God-in-flesh transfigures those whom he touches. Thus, his encounters with the likes of Nicodemus, the woman at the well, the lame man beside the healing pool, the man blind from birth, Lazarus in the grave. 

The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are more subtle about it, but they stand with John. In today’s gospel passage, Mark (which we are reading during After Epiphany) shows the folly of making Jesus too familiar. Where does such “wisdom” come from in this man who is but “the carpenter” (Mark 6:2,3)? Where does such “power” come from in this mere “son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” (also Mark 6:2,3). The thought that this mere son of Nazareth may be more than merely a carpenter, a son, and a brother offends people of his hometown (Mark 6:3). 

Jesus admonishes them for their over-familiarizing of him: “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house” (Mark 6:4). In different  situations, he confirms that he is “more than a carpenter”—as he does when he heals a lame man by forgiving his sins (Mark 2:1–12), or silences the winds and waves (Mark 4:35–41).

But here in Nazareth, he demurs. He, shockingly perhaps, allows his deeds of power to be restricted by people’s lack of faith (Mark 6:5). When Mark says “he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few…,” we should read this saying in a nuanced way. When you’ve come to your limit in a dead-end conversation, you may wisely decide to shut it down with the grace of, “I just can’t do this right now,” rather than search your brain for the perfect (and maybe relationship-ending) put-down, like, “You always were a complete imbecile.” 

Jesus is astonished at them. They fail to recognize the gift that stares them in the face merely because his face is too familiar to them. Jesus shows disappointment rather than wrath, restraint rather than resentment. In doing so, he gives room for them to reconsider and reassess. He takes his ministry elsewhere, for now, and even uses the opportunity to begin to share his powers with his disciples. Throughout, Jesus opens a door on the subtlety and the complexity of the duality of his identity both as “Son of God” and “Son of Man.”

One thing that a passage like today’s in Mark demonstrates is that when people think they know Jesus too well, they are liable to get him wrong. There’s a warning here even for people in his church, people like you and me. I pray God’s grace for you and me, that we render him the awe, respect, and circumspection that his wisdom and power demand, that we honor him as more than a carpenter from Nazareth. I pray that God grant us as well the grace to believe that he has come purposely as “carpenter, son, and brother,” to love us for who we are, and to touch us where we hurt, whether we are carpenters or [fill-in-the-blank] or sons or daughters.  

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Do Not Fear - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 1/25/2021
Week of 3 Epiphany

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 41; Psalm 52; Isaiah 48:1–11; Galatians 1:1–17; Mark 5:21–43

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

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I remember (painfully) a couple of times in my childhood when my mother grabbed my ear and said, “Are you listening to me?!” 

Suddenly brought back from whatever had been distracting me, I’d reply, “Now I guess I am!” 

“What does it take to get your attention?!”

Isaiah is having one of those moments with Israel. The prophet has been laying out Yahweh’s plan for an exciting new exodus, promising to bring the nation home from their exile in Babylon. Instead of seeing the repentance and renewal of worship that such good news should have called forth, Isaiah is watching the children of Israel carry on their compromised and idolatrous—religion. They presume to call themselves by Yahweh’s name “but not in truth or right,” because they continue to fashion for themselves idols, and put their trust in carved and cast images (Isaiah 48:1b,5b). 

Yahweh reminds them of their long history of treachery towards him, and their rebelliousness against this voice (Isaiah 48:8). He accuses them of having necks as unyielding as iron and heads as impenetrable as brass (Isaiah 48:4).  Nonetheless, he’s deferring his anger, he says, and he will not destroy them. They are people he’s made for the peculiar honor of praising him. Through their praise, implicitly, they will serve as the vanguard of his renewal of all of creation. 

Isaiah reminds Israel that her recent travails (like my mother’s ear-pulling) have been for her refining (Isaiah 48:10). He has not rejected her; he is still committed to her. However, it’s time for her to put away the distractions, to get rid of the fake gods, and to revere the most precious name of the only true God in the universe. 

“My glory I will not give to another!!” (Isaiah 48:11). This is Isaiah saying, a bit like my mother, “Are you listening to me?!”  

Paul begins a similar conversation with the churches in Galatia (a province in southern or central Asia Minor (current-day Turkey). After an initial enthusiastic response to Paul’s message of the free gift of God in Christ—“who gave himself for our sins to free us from the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4)—these mavericks are thinking about adding a codicil to that message. They want to require and adjoin the shedding of their own blood (via circumcision) to the shedding of Christ’s blood. To Paul, that would be the undoing of the whole relationship. They would be presuming to become their own payers of sin’s debt. 

And so, like my mother, Paul writes this first paragraph of his letter to grab their ear and overture an extended brief, “Are you listening to me?! Christ pays it all, or he pays none of it!!” (Stay tuned.) 

Mark. The ultimate grace is that grace has come in person, in the person of Jesus Christ. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus offers healing at the mere touch of the hem of his garment (Mark 5:24b–34), and by the simple taking of a hand and the offering of tender words (Mark 5:21–24a,35–43). All this in response to one single thing: faith.

To the woman who has been hemorrhaging for twelve years, Jesus says, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease” (Mark 5:34). 

To the man who is on the verge of losing his twelve year old daughter, Jesus says, “Do not fear, only believe” (Mark 5:36). 

This season of After Epiphany is one in which we give thanks for the epiphany or manifestation of God’s astoundingly great love in the life and ministry of his Son Jesus Christ. It is not the nature, really, of our Heavenly Father to content himself with yanking on our ears and constantly haranguing us with, “Are you listening to me?!” He sent his Son, that healing may flow from his very being—sometimes healing of the body in this life, always healing of sin’s carnage and eternal condemnation. “Do not fear,” he says, “only believe.” 

Collect for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany. Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Master of Wind and Sea - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 1/22/2021
Week of 2 Epiphany

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 31; Isaiah 45:18–25; Ephesians 6:1–9; Mark 4:35–41

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

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Ephesians. All of us inhabit different sorts of over-and-under relationships—at home, at work, at school, in our communities. And though it is difficult to figure out how instructions addressing relationships as different from ours as were those of the 1st century Mediterranean world, there are principles in play that are important for us to heed. 

(To keep this devotional short, I am going to skip child-parent relationships.)

In Ephesians 6:5–7, Paul addresses us when we are on the “under” side of work- (or school-, or whatever) relationships. What we owe to our bosses (or whatever) is free, sincere, and heartfelt respect for their position. What we owe to ourselves is a definition of ourselves that comes from Jesus, not from our bosses—“You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of human masters,” says Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:23. Our worth lies in the value that Jesus assigns us—which is enormous!—not in our position or in our bosses’ estimation of us. Once that is settled, we can model the pattern of the One who came “not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). We really work for our bosses’ Boss, “doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6). 

In Ephesians 6:8–9, Paul addresses us when we are the boss, when we are on the “over” side of a work- (or school-, or whatever) relationship. With Paul’s brilliant “do the same for them,” he gives us our mandate for how to wield the authority of that position—here too, we look to the One who came “not to be served, but to serve, but to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Just like the person who answers to us, we ourselves also answer to the very same Person—“for you know that both of you have the same Master in heaven, and with him there is no partiality” (Ephesians 6:9). Our Boss requires us to lead as though we were servants—because that’s what we are. 

Meanwhile, Jesus is not asleep in the boat…

Mark. Well, actually, Jesus was asleep in the boat. But his reaction to the disciples when they wake him up indicates that even asleep he had had the situation under control: “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:40). 

When the storm rages around us—say, when things really aren’t working out with a horrible boss, or when we find that we are the horrible boss—it can seem like Jesus doesn’t care. It can seem like he’s asleep while the storm is about to sink the boat. Appearances are deceiving. 

Which points us back to Isaiah…

Isaiah says two important things in today’s passage:

…he did not create [the earth] a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited! — Isaiah 45:18b. Yahweh created for us a context in which to flourish, not to flounder. After the Fall, all our efforts meet resistance, and every relationship gets colored by our fallenness and the fallenness of the other person. But the Lord did not create his world to be subject to chaos. The Bible’s great story line is this: he has been re-creating his world ever since chaos invaded the Garden. He works for our flourishing, for it is to that end that he formed us. No matter the situation, the Lord is working to bring order out of chaos, freedom out of bondage, sanity out of craziness, and ultimately life out of death.

“To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” — Isaiah 45:23b. Isaiah makes this declaration in proof that Yahweh is the only true God. He will share that dignity with no other. Extraordinarily, the apostle Paul applies that very saying to Jesus Christ, who, by virtue of humbling himself to incarnation and death, and by virtue of being exalted in resurrection, receives “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6–11). 

Isaiah’s and Mark’s words reaffirm what Paul wants us to know: our Savior showed that the way of the cross is the way of life. Wherever we are—“over” or “under,” in smooth waters or stormy—we can trust the Lord Jesus, Master of wind and sea, of chaos and all the powers of heaven and earth. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Like a Mustard Seed... - Daily Devotions with the Dean

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 37; Isaiah 45:5–17; Ephesians 5:15–33; Mark 4:21–34

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

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“… truly you are a God who hides himself…” — Isaiah 45:15a. 

Isaiah is explaining the nearly unexplainable. Yahweh calls by name a Persian pagan, Cyrus, to be savior and redeemer of his people: “I have roused Cyrus in righteousness, and I will make all his paths straight; he shall build my city and set my exiles free, not for price or reward, says the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 45:13). Yahweh—besides whom there is no god—forms light and creates darkness, makes weal and creates woe: “I the Lord do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7). On behalf of Yahweh, Isaiah says that the pottery (we) need not demand explanation from or offer advice to the potter (God). 

Rightly did hymnist William Cowper write, “God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform.” There is a deep hiddenness, a profound inscrutability, to Yahweh, master and maker of heaven and earth, Lord of history and of our lives. Then again… 

“This is a great mystery…” — Ephesians 5:32a. 

The entire drift of Scripture has been toward a bringing together of God’s life and ours, of his uniting his heart with ours. We have traced the theme of this Divine Romance through Hosea, Ezekiel, the Song of Songs, and the Book of Revelation. And today’s passage in Ephesians presents a crowning moment in that story. 

The God “who hides himself” has revealed his face in the person of his Son Jesus. Jesus has done intentionally what Cyrus did unknowingly: Jesus was raised in perfect righteousness; walked the straightest path, that of obedience to his Father. He began to build the City of God in his acts of healing and in his teachings. He set sin’s exiles free by his death, and that at no cost to them. Moreover, he has rounded out Israel’s story of the disgraced prostitute who was to be beautified and made “one flesh” with her Divine Lover, in an eternal embrace of love: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:25b–27).  

In the second half of Ephesians 5, Paul lays out the ways that this “mystery” makes God no longer hidden. The Lord becomes visible in his people’s worship and in their relationships. 

Their worship is characterized by wisdom-shaped and Spirit-filled singing of thanks “to the Lord in your hearts” (Ephesians 5:15–20). In that kind of worship, people manifest a vision of the courts of heaven, where praise rings out “day and night” (Revelation 4:8). In their worship, God’s people, in a sense, “unhide” the hidden God. 

Their relationships bring to light key aspects of the Divine Romance that Scripture celebrates. Christ has come in loving obedience to his Father’s eternal purpose to redeem. Christ has won his bride by serving her, not by dominating her; by dying for her, not by diminishing her; by ennobling her, not by demeaning her. In what can best be described as a dance, the Bride answers with a “Yes” of finding her life in his, her own glory enhanced in his. In a whirl of ever-evolving mutual deference, they “love, honor, and cherish each other in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and godliness” (BCP, p. 431).  Together, they mirror what ancient Christian theologians called the eternal perichoresis—the everlasting dance—that makes up the inner life of the members of the Trinity. 

“It is like a mustard seed…” — Mark 4:31a. 

Jesus refers to a plant that was, as New Testament scholar Craig Keener puts it, “proverbially small and yet yielded a large shrub.” To that, Jesus likens the Kingdom of God, which “might begin in obscurity, but it would culminate in glory.” The comfort you and I can take from this image today is this: good worship and right relationships seem like small things. But when the Spirit inhabits the worship and the Son shapes the relationships, our worship and our relationships become powerful demonstrations of, and pointers to, the love of “the Father from whom every family in heaven and earth takes its name” (Ephesians 3:14b–15). William Cowper, again:

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sov’reign will. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Sleeper Awake! - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday, 1/20/2020
Week of 2 Epiphany

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 38; Isaiah 44:24–45:7; Ephesians 5:1–14; Mark 4:1–20

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

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 Sleeper awake! (Ephesians 5:14)

There’s one thing the reading of Scripture keeps bringing me back to: the Bible is a book of hope. 

And the apostle Paul’s words in particular radiate that hope. 

In the second half of Ephesians 4 and the first half of Ephesians 5, Paul elucidates all the ways that it’s possible, even for those who profess Christ, to think that they can continue in the “walking death” and social alienation of sin (recall both halves of Ephesians 2): fornication, greed, lying, stealing, wrangling, slander. 

I think we are all entirely too familiar with the powerful downward dragging forces of those impulses—vestiges of what Paul calls “the old self” (Ephesians 4:22). But he really does seem to think that the people he’s writing to don’t have to stumble around in the dark. They don’t have to succumb to the spiritual death that pervades the world around them, and that once controlled their being. “That is not the way you learned Christ!”, he says (Ephesians 4:20).

Paul truly believes that Christ’s light has begun to shine on these believers, that Christ’s own resurrection life is something that he shares with them. And so, Paul calls to them: “Sleeper awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!” (Ephesians 5:14).

I’ve thought a lot about what these words mean for me. Paul’s “Sleeper awake!” challenges my bent towards “Eeyore-ness”—that is, my assumption that it’s best to prepare for the worst to happen. Paul’s “Sleeper awake!” challenges me to look for Christ to bring goodness and to show redemptive purpose in any situation. 

Paul’s “Sleeper awake!” challenges my bent to sink into ultimately self- and relationship-destroying sources of solace when I’m tired or discouraged (you can fill in the blanks as to what those temptations might be for you—I know what they are for me). Paul’s “Sleeper awake!” challenges me, instead, to “thanksgiving” (Ephesians 5:4, that is, taking stock of how much there is to be encouraged about), and to “building up” (Ephesians 4:29, that is, to looking outside myself to those who need encouragement). 

Finally, on this Inauguration Day in the United States, Paul’s “Sleeper awake!” challenges my bent to throw up my hands in despair at the political, social, and economic divides in our society and in our world. Paul’s “Sleeper awake!” challenges me to care more deeply about truthfulness in the public square, and about the possibilities for “being ready for every good work,” as Paul puts it when he contemplates believers taking their place in the public square (Titus 3:1). 

I pray that we find Paul’s “Sleeper awake!” giving us hope, strength, and resources beyond our imaginations. I pray we find Christ himself shining upon us, as Paul says, radiating his own joy at his life in you and in me. 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+