We Need Fear Nothing - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 3/29/2023 •
Week of 5 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:145–176; Jeremiah 25:30–38; Romans 10:14–21; John 10:1–18 

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

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 fifth week of Lent. We are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

It so happens that the very first posting of these Devotions appeared on the Wednesday of the fifth week of Lent in the year 2020, at the beginning of the outbreak of a worldwide pandemic.  

On this anniversary of a sorts, I’d like return to some orienting thoughts I offered at the time. Here’s an excerpt from the first Devotional I wrote: 

“Social distancing” can be, at one and the same time, lonely and suffocating.  

Lonely because you’re isolated from friends and coworkers.  

Suffocating if there’s no break, on the one hand, from family (and maybe work-from-home?) obligations, and, on the other, from bombardment by the media with oppressive and frightening words: pandemic … testing … economic collapse … hoarding … escalating deaths.  

One way to resist loneliness is to join millions around the world who practice Daily Morning Prayer, a daily routine of Scripture reading and of prayer (I follow the Book of Common Prayer 1979’s, Rite II, pp. 75–102). In Daily Morning Prayer (shorthand for which can be the “Daily Office” or simply the “Office”), Scripture reading is governed by a lectionary that takes us all together over time through the Bible’s amazing story of God’s saving, loving grace. And prayers are guided by biblical canticles and daily themes, uniting our hearts to lift “one voice,” and freeing space for our individual hearts to voice their unique needs.  

When I pray the Daily Office, I know that Jesus’s promise is being fulfilled, the one that says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” I know that friends around the world are doing exactly what I am doing. We become Christ’s Body gathered throughout space, and even throughout time, as we read what someone has called “ancient words ever true” and as we pray prayers crafted over centuries by godly hearts.  

At the same time that I resist loneliness through the Office, I push back against the suffocation of the day’s pressing demands and the oppressing assault of the news cycle. Instead, I breathe the fresh air of God’s promises, and I take my place among the kingdom of priests that intercede for a world that one day will be released from its bondage to decay. In Scripture reading, I inhabit a world in which there is hope, and in prayer I defy the darkness that otherwise seems so prevalent. …  

You don’t have to be alone. You can be a part of a vast family united by Word and prayer. You don’t have to be suffocated by obligations and fear. You can take in the vivifying truths of God’s goodness and offer up in prayer the world he promises to restore.  

As we travel in this next through the other half of the Old Testament and repeat the whole of the New Testament, may God richly form us in his Son, by the Spirit as we read and pray together.  

Image: Historien d'art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Now, for today’s readings: Wednesdays always take us through a portion of Psalm 119. Today’s section reminds us that we need fear nothing in this life. “You, O Lord, are near at hand, and all your commandments are true. Long have I known from your decrees that you have established them forever” (Psalm 119:151–152 BCP). May the nearness of the Lord and the truth of his Word sustain us this and every day.  

Jeremiah offers heartening words for those of us who grow weary of the “bad guys” always seeming to win, of evil seeming consistently to triumph over good, and of error seeming to be more plausible than truth to too many. Jeremiah promises that Yahweh will not let evil and error triumph: “Like a lion he has left his covert” (Jeremiah 25:38). One day, he will roar, and he will set all things to rights. 

Romans. Until that day, Paul urges us with joy to be about the task of proclaiming the fact that in the midst of the fallenness and brokenness of the human condition, God has planted his standard. God has raised his Son from the dead as the beginning of the setting of all things to right, and as a refuge against the coming storm of judgment.  Our chief task until he comes again is to proclaim that good news: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:15; quoting Isaiah 52:7). May we take our part in telling the good news of God’s risen Son. May we enjoy the beauty of participating in God’s reclaiming lost souls for his “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15).  

John introduces us today to one of his favorite themes. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Fierce though he may be in judgment against the false shepherds and the wolves, fiercer still is he in his love for his sheep. Fierce enough to give his life that they may live. May we know beyond a shadow of a doubt the ferocity—and the tenderness—of his love.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+  

Lift Up Our Sight - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesdayˀ• 3/28/2023 • 
Week of 5 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 121; Psalm 122; Psalm 123; Jeremiah 25:8–17; Romans 10:1–13; John 9:18–41 

More extended thoughts on today’s Romans reading in this post from last summer: on Romans 10:1–13 

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) 

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 is Tuesday of the fifth week of Epiphany, as we prepare for Holy Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

God turns things on their head: 

Judgments about power. Judah (“all the tribes of the north”) have failed to keep God’s covenant. As a result, Yahweh will subject them to seventy years of exile at the hands of the Babylonians. To that end he has raised up Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, even calling him “my servant.” While Nebuchadnezzar shows some signs of recognizing Yahweh’s lordship (see the account of his wrestling with faith in Daniel), his successors see themselves as the source of their own power. Yahweh will hold them to account for that arrogance. The “cup of the wine of the wrath” that Judah drinks will pass next to the nations that come against her. “For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them” (Jeremiah 25:15–16).  

Whatever power and authority we have in this world is a gift, and, “Every good gift comes from above,” says James, brother of Jesus (James 1:17). We do well to remember the gift comes with the special obligation of remembering its source. Only then will we use it for the good that he intends.  

Image: El Greco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

There will always be ultimate vindication for those who pray (per one of this morning’s psalms):  

Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, * 
for we have had more than enough of contempt, 
Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, * 
and of the derision of the proud (Psalm 123:4–5).  

Assessments about righteousness and goodness. Power is not the only thing that must be received and treated as a gift. So is righteousness or goodness. In Romans 10, Paul teaches that the purpose (the telos, or goal or aim) of the Law for him and his fellow Jews was, in the first place, to make them understand that they could not depend on a righteousness of their own. The Law, then, had its second purpose, to paint a portrait of the coming Christ. He would bring a righteousness “from God” that would be God’s own gift to us (Romans 10:3).  

Even for those of us who enjoy the privilege of being raised in a home where values and morality have been instilled in us, today’s passage still rings true. We all fall short (Romans 3:23). Nobody lives up completely to the standards to which they aspire. All of us face, then, the question of whether we should trust that our “best” is good enough, or whether we need to trust the inner voice that insists that our “best” is not enough. But more, can we trust what the Bible says about the Christ who has come down to us? We don’t have to (pardon the Led Zeppelin allusion) “climb a stairway to heaven.” Can we look to the One who did keep the law perfectly?  He offers the gift of his righteousness and goodness to be our own, if we will just accept it.  

Conclusions about (in)sight. Jesus says that his coming prompts the most amazing of reversals when it comes to spiritual sight: “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind” (John 9:39). This statement follows the authorities’ close investigation of the facts about the blind man’s healing (facts which their resolute lack of faith prevents them from acknowledging). Despite being stewards of the great tradition that looked for the world’s Redeemer, they refuse to “see” what is happening right before their very eyes. As for the man born blind, he continues to share the facts as he is dragged into a second inquisition. And with every expression of the plain truth that, “I once was blind, but now I see,” he awakens a bit more to who it is who has given him his sight. Eventually, he is granted spiritual sight as well as physical sight: “He said, ‘Lord, I believe.’ And he worshiped him” (John 9:38).  

Spiritual blindness is a constant, whether there is a “great tradition” like that of the Jews of Jesus’s day, or whether whatever “great tradition” that may have held sway in a society’s past is crumbling, as is the case in our day. May our eyes, as Psalm 123 says, stay open and lifted up. May we not be blinded by the purported light from competing sources around us—whether crazed conspiracy theorists, saccharine and smug defenders of the status quo, wannabe saviors from the left or the right, or self-styled prophets and prophetesses of narcissistic religion.  

May God grant us the grace to let our sense of what is real and true, of what we find to be beautiful and lovely, to be shaped more and more by His great story as it unfolds for us in these readings in the Daily Office. May our constant prayer be:  

To you I lift up my eyes, * 
to you enthroned in the heavens. … 
So our eyes look to the Lord our God, * 
until he show us his mercy (Psalm 123:1–3). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Light of the World - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 3/27/2023 •
Week of 5 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 31; Jeremiah 24:1–10; Romans 9:19–33; John 9:1–17 

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

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 fifth week of Lent, a season of preparation for Holy Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

Good figs and bad figs. There are so many wrinkles in God’s plan to reverse our fallen state through the children of Abraham. Anticipating Judah’s exile, Jeremiah says there will be two groups of people, each of which he likens to a basket of figs. One basket “had very good figs, like first-ripe figs” (Jeremiah 24:2). These “figs” will be taken away into exile in Babylon, where Yahweh will “build them up and not tear them down; … plant them and not pluck them up” (Jeremiah 24:6). These figs will be given “a heart to know that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:7).  

The other basket “had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten” (Jeremiah 24:2). These “figs” will remain behind in Jerusalem or seek refuge in Egypt, where their evil ways will provoke the utter destruction of the city, making them “a horror, an evil thing, to all the kingdoms of the earth—a disgrace, a byword, a taunt, and a curse…” (Jeremiah 24:9–10).  

Image: Andrey Mironov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 

Objects of wrath and objects of mercy. These two baskets of figs, one good and one bad, become illustrations of the point that Paul makes in Romans 9:6, “not all Israelites truly belong to Israel, and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants.” The principle that some are “objects of mercy” and some are “objects of wrath” cuts through the middle of the most favored people in the biblical storyline (Romans 9:22,23). The point is that nobody enjoys entitlement by virtue of pedigree. All of us depend upon a mercy that spares us the condemnation we deserve. All of us require God’s gracious gift of a heart that responds in love to God’s own loving heart.  

The determinative issue on our part is whether, like the “objects of wrath,” we think we are sufficiently good that we don’t need God’s mercy; or whether, like the “objects of mercy,” we know we ought to receive wrath, but gratefully discover we’ve been given the grace to ask for mercy through the cross of Christ. That’s really all we need to know about the whys and wherefores of the mystery of how God draws some into his work of new creation, and does not do so with others. In your mercy, Lord… 

The light of the world and faux light. One more wrinkle in God’s redemptive plan is the way the coming of the Light of the World, Jesus, exposes faux light for the darkness it is. 

Through the story of the healing of the man born blind in John 9, the religious leaders’ spiritual blindness becomes increasingly evident. So preoccupied with extra-scriptural scruples regarding sabbath-keeping are they (there is no law against healing on the sabbath in Torah!), that they fail to “see” the wonder of Jesus’s gift of light to the blind man.  

But there is also a more subtle faux light: the disciples need to understand the blind man’s state in the first place. They suppose there must be a direct, mechanical, tit-for-tat correlation between this man’s plight and sin. Either he sinned, they presume to think, or his parents sinned. The disciples don’t seem to grasp that sin is not that simple. There lies a powerful dominion of darkness beyond blithe answers and quick fixes. Jesus tosses aside their shallow supposition: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” (John 9:3). What is happening before their very eyes is God at work, bringing back into the world the radiant glory that departed when our original parents said, “Yes,” to the serpent rather than to their Maker. Jesus, the Light of the World, is turning back the darkness that descended that sad day.  

The next time something bad happens to you, I pray that your first thought is not, “What unconfessed sin in my life brought this on?”, but rather, “Lord, help me to ‘see’ what you wish to do here, and how I can be a part of it. And, if part of that is confession, here goes… Let your kingdom come! Amen!!”   

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

A Righteous Branch - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 3/24/2023 •
Week of 4 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 95; Psalm 102; Jeremiah 23:1–8; Romans 8:28–39; John 6:52–59 

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 fourth week of Lent, as we prepare for Holy Week.   

Promise of a new and better kingship in Jeremiah. After his conquest of Judah, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar appoints Zedekiah as a vassal king in Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:17). Though Zedekiah’s name means “Righteous is Yahweh,” he is no more righteous than any of his predecessors. Unwilling to be Nebuchadnezzar’s puppet, Zedekiah rebels. He is successful, however, only in provoking the utter destruction of Jerusalem and in bringing about the end of kingship in Judah. “He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, just as Jehoiakim had done. That this happened in Jerusalem and Judah was due to the anger of Yahweh, with the result that in the end he cast them away from him” (2 Kings 24:19–20 Jerusalem Bible).  

Jeremiah surveys the history of unworthy and ungodly shepherd-kings: “You have let my flock be scattered and go wandering and have not taken care of them. Right, I will take care of you for your misdeeds—it is Yahweh who speaks!” (Jeremiah 23:2b JB). Nonetheless, Yahweh is still the God of his people, the God who intends to renew his creation through these errant people anyway. Yahweh promises a return that will be so spectacular that the people will know him no longer as Lord of the Exodus, but as Lord of the Return: “So, then, the days are coming—it is Yahweh who speaks—when people will no longer say, ‘As Yahweh lives who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt!’ but, ‘As Yahweh lives who led back and brought home the descendants of the House of Israel out of the land of the North and from all the countries to which he had dispersed them, to live on their own soil” (Jeremiah 23:7–8).  

Image: bybondservant007. Permission applied for.  

Moreover, Yahweh promises a new and better kingship. Jeremiah predicts that God will provide in the line of David a “righteous Branch” who will reign wisely and justly. His days will bring salvation and security to God’s people. Reversing the terms in Zedekiah’s name (“Righteous is Yahweh”), Jeremiah says “the name by which he will be called [is]: Yahweh is Righteous” (Jeremiah 23:6 my translation). Still, even after the return, no descendant of David mounts the throne. That is, until…  

A King in John’s Gospel. Though Jesus eludes a crowd that wants to force him to become king in John 6:15, his feeding of the 5,000 demonstrates that he is the Good Shepherd (that is, Good King) of his people (see John 10). Later, at his trial, Jesus makes sure that Pilate understands that, yes, indeed, he is a King, though “not from here” (John 18:36). In John’s soaring perspective (remember: the church’s symbol for John’s Gospel is the eagle), Jesus’s crucifixion is, ironically, a coronation. Pilate’s sign atop the cross tells the truth: ‘The King of the Jews” (John 19:17). When the chief priests demand the sign be corrected to say instead, “This man said, I am King of the Jews,” Pilate refuses. He says, simply, “What I have written I have written” (John 19:21–22). At some level, Pilate knows—and so do we. Jesus is King. At last, the Righteous Branch of David has come. At last, “Yahweh is Righteous” rules. At last, Emmanuel, “God is With Us” is with us (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). At last, one worthy of the name Jesus (“Yah Saves”) is saving (Matthew 1:21).  

Therefore, we give thanks week after week for the Eucharistic Feast that Jesus inaugurates in John 6, when he takes the loaves, offers thanks over them, and gives them out for the people’s nourishment (John 6:11). Week after week, he gives himself to us anew, in the Bread of his Body and the Wine of his Blood. Week after week, he renews his gracious reign and nourishes his flock.  

Confidence in Romans. This reality accounts for the extraordinary confidence with which Paul climaxes the eighth chapter of Romans: “If God is for us, who can be against us? … Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:31,35).  

God the Father has shown himself to be more than a match for the sin that has kept his creation in bondage (Romans 1–3) and that causes our hearts to shudder under condemnation (Romans 5:1; 7:1–25).  

God the Son has carried to the cross every single thing for which we could ever be condemned, and every single thing that could make us cringe with shame (Romans 3:24–26; 5:6–8; 8:3). Even now, at the right hand of God, Jesus prays for us (Romans 8:34).  

God the Holy Spirit intercedes for us as well, pours out God’s love into our hearts, dwells in our hearts enabling us to love God and neighbor, speaks confident assurance, sustains hope, and accompanies us all the way to glory (Romans 8:27; 5:5; 8:17). 

All of which gives Paul reason to exclaim, without minimizing or trivializing our hardships in any way, “All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose….” (Romans 8:28).  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

God's Word - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 3/23/2023 •
Week of 4 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 69:1–23(24–30)31–38; Jeremiah 22:13-23; Romans 8:12–27; John 6:41–51 

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)   

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 is Thursday of the fourth week of Lent.  

A son of presumption. Jehoiakim, next-to-last king of Judah before the Babylonian captivity, is a sad study in the way a sense of entitlement leads to a desultory end. Jehoiakim’s father was Josiah, one of the good kings of Judah (2 Kings 22–23). Josiah had become king as a boy. Early in his reign, a forgotten copy of Scripture (perhaps the book of Deuteronomy) had been found by a member of his court. God’s Word captured Josiah’s heart, and he launched a life-long reformation that refreshed and renewed God’s people. Over the course of his long reign, Josiah practiced justice and righteousness, and “judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well” (Jeremiah 22:16).  

Amy Grant once sang, “When people look inside my life, I want to hear them say, ‘She’s got her Father’s eyes.’” Alas, that’s not the way it was for Jehoiakim. He did not have his Father’s eyes, though he should have been able to see Yahweh in his father’s eyes. Jehoiakim oppressed the poor, exploited labor, acquired illicit lovers, and built a lavish house as a monument to his own ego: “Are you a king,” asks Jeremiah, “because you compete in cedar?” (Jeremiah 22:15). All this, despite the fact that Jehoiakim had witnessed in his earthly father what Jeremiah means when he points to Josiah’s godly life and says: “Is this not to know me?” (Jeremiah 22:16).  

Image: Scroll of Esther, Wedding gift by Leah Jones, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons 

Jehoiakim becomes a foil for Jeremiah, an example of what it is not to have the law of God written on the heart. Jehoiakim’s future will be filled with suffering: “you will groan, when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in labor!”—but with no promise of redemptive offspring (Jeremiah 22:23). His death will be one unworthy of royalty: “They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Alas, lord!’ or ‘Alas, his majesty!’ With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried—dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem” (Jeremiah 22:18b–19). He will suffer alone, and to no good end—except to serve as an example of where a life of narcissism and inflated ego leads.  

Finally, and perhaps most tragically, Jehoiakim’s ears were closed to the voice of God that constantly appealed to him, “I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen’” (Jeremiah 22:21).  

Children without pretense. Paul ponders, by contrast, the state of those who do have their Heavenly Father’s eyes. Those who belong to Christ are, with him, made heirs of their Heavenly Father’s inheritance. They have his very heart within themselves, the Spirit of Christ: “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:15b–17).  

When suffering comes upon these children, their experience is entirely different than Jehoiakim’s.  

Jehoiakim suffered alone. Christ’s brothers and sisters suffer too, but in fellowship with him: “…if, in fact, we suffer with him.” Ours is not a Savior who accomplished a drive-by salvation, briefly inhabiting our valley of woe just long enough to win our assurance of heaven. He lies with us on our sickbed, walks the unemployment line with us, and absorbs every cruel word and gesture flung our way.  

Not only that, Christ’s brothers and sisters bear their “inward groaning” in hope. They know that their suffering puts them in solidarity with “the whole creation [that] has been groaning in labor pains,” eagerly waiting for the consummation of all things and the glory to come (Romans 8:18–23). For Jehoiakim, the end of suffering is destruction. By contrast, for Christ’s brothers and sisters, there’s a vision of a larger, loving purpose to everything they experience. Always, for them, the groaning is but a waiting for “adoption, the redemption of our bodies,” always an anticipation of resurrection.  

As a result, Christ’s brothers and sisters live, not lives of a “Jehoiakim-like” insistence on their “best life now,” but rather, “if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:25). It’s a patience that is willing to do without so that someone else can have. It’s a patience that is slow to anger and quick to forgive. It’s a patience that commits itself to serving the ends of justice and compassion, with high regard for the frailty of the human family and the dullness of the human heart.  

Finally, unlike Jehoiakim who persistently resisted the voice of God, Christ’s brothers and sisters find themselves keenly attuned to the presence of the very Spirit of God working within them. The Spirit intercedes for them when they’ve exhausted their own prayer resources. Providing something like a release valve for their troubled souls, the Spirit draws wordless (alalētos) sighs and groanings from deep within them (Romans 8:26–27). The Spirit leads them when they need wisdom, counsel, and even course-correction (Romans 8:4,13). And always, always, always the Spirit testifies to them that they are their Heavenly Father’s beloved, adopted treasures and heirs (Romans 8:17). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Potter's Hands - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 3/22/2023 •
Week of 4 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 101; Psalm 109:1–4(5–19)20–30; Jeremiah 18:1–11; Romans 8:1–11; John 6:27–40 

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

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

Jeremiah and the Potter. Anybody who has tried to fashion something using created material—whether it’s pottery or weaving or painting or knitting—knows that sometimes the material you’re working with responds to your touch, and sometimes it doesn’t. At a certain point when it doesn’t, you give up. You undo, set the effort aside, or start over with fresh material.  

 Jeremiah is told in chapter 18 to imagine Yahweh as a potter who is looking for the clay (his people) to yield to the touch of his hands. Accordingly, the prophet urges God’s people to become pliable to the Lord’s touch. Otherwise, judgment and exile seem inevitable, just as Jonah’s pronouncements against Nineveh seemed inevitable. However, calamity is inevitable only if Yahweh’s people remain unyielding in the Potter’s hands, unresponsive to his touch. 

Image:"Potter's Hands" by dbnunley is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 

Jeremiah and Jonah remind us of the truth captured in the Prayer of Humble Access: “But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy” (BCP p. 337). Yahweh issues strong warnings such as these through his prophets because his yearning is not to give people over to the consequences of their own intractability. Lord, have mercy upon us!  

Paul and the Mercy. Gratefully astounded to find himself in the grasp of God’s mercy, astonished to find himself not rejected for his early resistance to Jesus, Paul writes of the incomprehensible love and power that is at work in himself and which is offered to everybody—Jew and Gentile alike—through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

Having described in Romans 7 the tangled mess that sin makes of our hearts, Paul revels in God’s gracious antidote in Romans 8: the Father’s love, the Son’s sacrifice, and the Spirit’s indwelling. These three factors Paul weaves together throughout Romans 8 into an amazingly strong response to his question, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”  

The Father chooses us in his love, sends his Son on a mission of rescue, and holds us tight so that nothing can separate us from his love.  

The Son takes to himself the likeness of our sinful flesh so his perfect sacrifice can cover any and all of our sins—the huge ones and the tiny ones—anything that could lead to our condemnation.  

And the Holy Spirit becomes the Father’s onboard presence in our lives to speak comfort and assurance into our hearts, and to enable a “walk” towards the likeness of the Son.  

Jesus and the Father’s will. For all the vacillations we find in our hearts, all the internal resistance to Father Potter’s hands (to return to Jeremiah’s image), Jesus assures us that our final hope lies not within ourselves, but in those strong hands that are determined not to give up on us, not to set us aside. “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). And more: “And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:40). The Father chooses, and will not unchoose. The Son will let go of none of those in his grasp. Period. Full stop.   

To be sure, Jesus puts before us the profound responsibility to do the one job necessary: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29). But it seems as though the only thing one needs in order to be driven to do that “work” is to be tired of being hungry and thirsty. “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). That works for me! 

Collect for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

We Do the Very Thing We Hate - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 3/21/2023 •
Week of 4 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Jeremiah 17:19–27; Romans 7:13–25; John 6:15–27 

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 is Tuesday of the fourth week of Lent, as we prepare for Holy Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary.   

The Law puts the spotlight on sin—Romans. 

Every single one of us knows that it is one thing to want to do good, and another actually to do good (Romans 7:18–19). 

The apostle Paul has this same experience. “I delight in the law of God in my inmost self.” And yet, “I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:22,15). This is a stark juxtaposition, put as profoundly and poignantly as one could imagine.   

It seems odd to many students of Romans that as passionate a follower of Christ as Paul acknowledges such a deep, existential internal conflict: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:21–24).  

Image: "Split Personality" by CariSometimes is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 

Nonetheless, it seems to me, Paul describes an agony of soul that is unique to those who have been tracking with him. People who are “in Christ” now have the potential: no longer to let sin reign in their lives (Romans 6); truly to find the law as the delight of their inner selves (Romans 7); and genuinely to desire to walk by the Spirit (as he will discuss in Romans 8). They—and especially they, for most others could care less!—detect within themselves a resistance they recognize as being foreign to who they truly are in Christ (“sold into slavery under sin” … “another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin”—Romans 7:14,22). Paul’s agony of soul besets those whom Christ has reclaimed, and in whom he has begun his titanic campaign to reshape them after his likeness.  

It is the confession of countless saints through the ages that the closer they grow to Christ, the more tender their consciences become. There’s a very good reason why it was the desert fathers who formulated for us “the seven deadly sins.” They had left the evil world behind so they could pursue their relationship with Christ without all the world’s distractions and temptations, only to find that they brought “a world of iniquity” (James 3:6) with them, for it resided within them. It was in the purity of the desert environment that they discovered the pride, envy, bitterness, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust that dwelt in their hearts. Their gift to us is to affirm the struggle that Paul articulated so well in Romans 7. A Paul who can describe himself in terms of Romans 7 can also register an increasing tenderness of conscience as he matures in Christ: in 1 Corinthians, he is “least of the apostles”; by Ephesians, he is “least among the saints”; and by 1 Timothy, he is “chief among sinners” (1 Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8; 1 Timothy 1:15).  

The trick is to stay in the fight. It’s one thing to acknowledge helplessness in the face of an oppressive force. It’s another to surrender to it or to appease it. That is not the way of Paul. It was not the way of the desert fathers. Theirs was the way of repentance and confession—of naming the problem. And then of calling out for rescue: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” With that cry comes the immediate and instinctive response of the heart that lies more fundamentally under the dominion of Christ (Romans 6). It finds its deepest delight in God’s Word (Romans 7) and is where the Spirit vibrantly lives (Romans 8): “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a).  

Prayer from the Rite of Reconciliation: Therefore, O Lord, from these and all other sins I cannot now remember, I turn to you in sorrow and repentance. Receive me again into the arms of your mercy, and restore me to the blessed company of your faithful people; through him in whom you have redeemed the world, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, p. 450).  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Law is Holy - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 3/20/2023 •
Week of 4 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89:1–18; Jeremiah 16:10–21; Romans 7:1–12; John 6:1–15 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we explore that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd. Thanks for joining me. This is Monday of the fourth week of Lent, a season of preparation for Holy Week, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

On the 2nd through 5th Sundays in Lent, in our church we chant the 10 Commandments, and after each commandment we sing this couplet: “Lord, have mercy upon us, And incline our hearts to keep this law.” Today’s and tomorrow’s readings from Romans (chapter seven) remind us why the Commandments make us ask for God’s mercy: “Lord, have mercy upon us.” Wednesday’s, Thursday’s, and Friday’s readings from Romans (chapter eight) remind us why we can honestly ask for God’s help to obey: “And incline our hearts to keep this law.” 

“You have died to the law.” “The law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good,” insists Paul (Romans 7:12). The first five books of our Old Testament are called “torah” in Hebrew.  Paul embraces torah: the “law” as our total obligation, any “commandment” as a particular obligation, and “instruction” about how to implement God’s law—all of it—comes from God and expresses who God is. It outlines God’s character; and provides a template for what it is for the bearers of God’s image to, well, bear his image.  

Coming from God, then, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, just, and good.” The law tells us whom and how to worship, that we are to honor our parents, refrain from taking innocent life, honor wedding vows, respect our neighbor’s property, speak truthfully, and guard our hearts against covetousness. All of this is holy, just, and good.  (Much mischief in the history of the Christian church could have been avoided if this simple truth had been kept in mind. The law is not evil. It is not cruel. A person is not being “legalistic” or “moralistic” if they care about what God’s law says and what his commandments require. But that’s a complicated discussion, for another time and setting.)    

Image: "Beth El Synagogue Torah Mantels" by Sherri Lynn Wood is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0 

Paul’s point here in Romans 7, is that we are the problem. Or rather, the sin that has tainted our every wish, thought, inclination, and action—that is the problem.  

And so, in Romans 7, Paul uses an analogy of a marriage, in which the law is compared to a condemning husband who only points out our flaws and magnifies our errors (Romans 7:1–3). For when we look at the law, and then look at our lives honestly, we have to confess (at least we should confess): “I am undone!” Paul wants to help us understand that this bad “marriage” in which we know only condemnation, abuse, and barrenness of soul ends when we come to Christ. Our accuser (the law) is dead. We are no longer bound to the law. We belong to another: Jesus Christ (Romans 7:5).  

Then Paul reframes his analogy. Our accuser is dead, yes. At the same time, our “old self” has died, too. We are brand new creatures in Christ, free from the condemnation of the law. We belong wholly to Jesus Christ, with new life and new purpose. “In the same way, my friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4).  

When our “old self” dies, that is, when it is crucified with Christ, we are fully free to belong to another, to Christ himself. When we belong to Christ, we will know ourselves to be loved, nurtured, and cherished—and we will find “the new life of the Spirit” flowing through us (Romans 7:6—more about that in Romans 8).   

The law’s first function in our lives is to make us cry out for mercy, for freedom from its condemnation. This mercy flows from the wounds of Christ on the cross. Lord, have mercy upon us…  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Slavery and Freedom - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 3/17/2023 •
Week of 3 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 88; Jeremiah 11:1–8,14–20; Romans 6:1–11; John 8:33–47 

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

Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Friday of the third week of Lent, as we prepare for Holy Week.   

Three passages on slavery and freedom.  

A break with sin—Jeremiah. The covenant that Yahweh established through the exodus experience should have re-oriented God’s people around lives of freely offering themselves in grateful service to the Lord of the covenant. Alas, it didn’t. The overt demands that the Egyptians had laid on them, it turns out, were nothing compared to the covert demands imposed by their own disobedient, stubborn, and idolatrous hearts. “Cursed be anyone who does not heed the words of this covenant, which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron-smelter, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you” (Jeremiah 11:3–4). Rather than to Yahweh, God’s people gave themselves to “an evil will,” to “vile deeds,” and to offering empty sacrifices to idols instead (Jeremiah 11:8,15).  

Baptism is the believer’s exodus—Romans. Baptism into Christ’s death means to become dead to a former life of slavery, and to be made alive to a new life of freedom not to sin. With Christ’s resurrection, Paul believes that death to sin and newness of life are possible: “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).  

Image: "BREAKING THE CHAINS" by marc falardeau is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

Freedom—John. “The truth will set you free,” Jesus declares to people who had come to believe in him (John 8:31–32). Thus he implies that they are in a state of slavery from which they need to be released. They are flummoxed and insulted by his insinuation. They protest, “We have never been anybody’s slaves” (John 8:33). Jesus could have responded, “Never? Never to the Philistines or the Assyrians or the Babylonians—or now to the Romans?!” Instead, he goes deeper. “I tell you the solemn truth, everyone who practices sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34 New English Translation).  

His listeners are slaves to sin because they are children of the devil. Strong words: a challenge to examine what—or rather, whom—they love. “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here” (John 8:42). Love me, he says, and become children of my Father. And be rescued from your sin, and be set free!  

Collect for the Third Sunday in Lent. Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Paradise We Desire - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 3/16/2023 •
Week of 3 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: (Psalm 83); Psalm 42; Psalm 43; Jeremiah 10:11–24; Romans 5:12–21; John 8:21–32 

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 is Thursday of the third week of Lent.  

Romans: Christ and Paradise Regained.  

The most revealing words Paul ever wrote just may be these: “…Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:14). Paul’s entire perspective on life, on the world, and on us lies in these words. In sum, Paul is developing for us the central story of the Bible: in Adam, paradise is lost. In Christ, paradise is regained. Adam’s disobedience had led to the dissolution of the entire human race. Christ’s obedience leads to its restoration.  

Think back to Romans 4, and the way that Abraham is to be an example to us of faith (4:12). In several ways, Abraham’s faith in Romans 4 stands in contrast to the faithlessness of humanity as Paul outlined it in Romans 1. As the NT scholar E. Adams observed in a 1997 article in the Journal of the Study of the New Testament, entitled “Abraham’s Faith and Gentile Disobedience: Textual Links Between Romans 1 and 4”: 

• While humans had ignored God their Creator (1:20,25), Abraham believes in God who gives life and calls things “that are not” into “being” (4:17). 

• Humans did not glorify God as God (1:21). But Abraham, being made strong in faith, gives glory to God (4:20).  

• Though they are fully aware of God’s power (dunamis), humans refused him worship and thanks (1:20). Abraham, however, is fully convinced that God has the power (dunatos) to do what he has promised. Abraham does not doubt. 

Image: The Angel of the Divine Presence Clothing Adam and Eve with Coats of Skins. The William Blake Archive, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Abraham-like faith was what Yahweh’s people were supposed to bequeath to the whole world. Although they failed to do so, God brought forth, from this faithless nation, Christ, who, according to Romans 4:23–25, was “given over for our transgressions (see Isaiah 53:5,12) and raised for our justification” (Isaiah 53:11,12). What Paul explains in the first half of Romans 5 is that this justification brings peace now, the sure hope of glory later, and an unshakeable confidence in God’s love on the road to that glory.  

Here, in the second half of Romans 5, Paul explains how paradise, lost in Adam, is regained in Christ. The reason we can have peace, hope, and confidence is that Christ has more than made up for Adam’s fall, and has more than made up for its fallout as well. In today’s passage from Romans, Paul makes these points: 

• The “fall” was a natural and just consequence of Adam’s disobedience; but the free gift is an extraordinary manifestation of “God’s grace” and his “gracious gift in Christ” (5:15). 

• It would have been easy for God to intervene to fix things right after Adam and Eve tasted the forbidden fruit, but God decided to do so only “following many trespasses” (5:16), that is to say, only after the world had become an impossibly tangled, hot mess of sinfulness. God waits to fix things only after they are seemingly super-unfixable. To him be the glory! 

• As Paul summarizes in 5:18: One man, Christ, offers “the one righteous act” (dikaiōma New English Translation) that leads to the “right-wising/justifying/making right” (dikaiōsis) of all. One man, Christ, offers obedience that undoes the first man’s (Adam’s) disobedience. Right now, in the present, “death reigns” because Adam forfeited his (and therefore our) right to rule. When all is said and done, however, “those who receive … the free gift of righteousness [will] reign in life” (5:17 NET). And just as “sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (5:21 NET). 

• Result: the entrance of sin into human experience will only prove, in the end, to have brought about God’s greater grace (5:20–21).  

With Paul’s tour-de-force, he would have us know that because of what Christ has done, everything we have done wrong has been undone. Every hurt we’ve inflicted, he will make up for. Everything that would keep us punishing ourselves, he has forgiven. He has folded into his good design every regret and every bad decision. The paradise that probably every one of us grew up imagining for ourselves, and then eventually learned to despair of—it’s ours in Christ Jesus. And it’s on offer to everyone around us.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Tears and Joy - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 3/15/2023 •
Week of 3 Lent 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97–120; Jeremiah 8:18–9:6; Romans 5:1–11; John 8:12–20 

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) 

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 third week of Lent. We are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. 

I grew up looking for the stoic middle ground between happy and sad. “Don’t let your highs be too high, son, or your lows too low,” was my dad’s advice. Coming to faith in Christ shook all that up. Christ’s death and his embracing of the worst of human suffering made space for me to “weep with those who weep.” Christ’s resurrection and his jubilant cry, “Behold, I make all things new,” made space for me to “rejoice with those who rejoice.”  

Image: Jeremiach Lamenting. Rembrandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Weep with those who weep. The prophet Jeremiah so loves Yahweh, for whom he speaks, that he feels Yahweh’s own grief over the plight of the unfaithful soon-to-be-exiled nation. Jeremiah’s and Yahweh’s feelings become so intermingled in today’s reading that it’s impossible to tell who is speaking when. It is a combined voice of agony and lament: “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land… O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people!” (Jeremiah 8:18–19; 9:1).  

God’s people are stuck in their rebellious, idolatrous, and truth-bending ways. They only know how to complain about the lack of God’s provision for them, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20). They don’t get it: the lack of blessing is penalty for not acknowledging Yahweh. They’ve forgotten how to repent, and how to ask for forgiveness. They only know how to “wear themselves out in their iniquity” (Jeremiah 9:5).  

Nonetheless, God’s heart and his prophet’s heart are broken: “For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me” (Jeremiah 8:21).  

Our world is not that different from Jeremiah’s. There is untruth all around us: “Fraud after fraud! Deceit after deceit! They refuse to acknowledge Yahweh” (Jeremiah 9:6 JB). And yet, like Jeremiah, it is for us to weep, not turn our backs. It is for us who know, as Jeremiah knew, and as the African-American spiritual knew, “There is a balm (a healing medicinal tree sap) in Gilead” (Jeremiah 8:22). We know that the blood shed on Calvary’s tree is for the healing of the nations. And so, like Jeremiah and like Yahweh himself, we weep for and with those who do not know—and especially for those who seem intent on not knowing. And with Jeremiah, we insist that Gilead has brought forth a Physician of souls (Jeremiah 8:22).  

Rejoice with those who rejoice.  Even though he expressed it differently, Paul had as much passionate love for his people as Jeremiah did (Philippians 3:6; 2 Corinthians 11:2). The big difference is that Paul had the privilege of finding himself on this side of the resurrection of Christ. And so, his writings pulse with an irrepressible joy—a knowledge that victory over deceit, over misplaced affections, over sin, over death, and over hell itself has been won.  

The first half of Romans 5 shows Paul at his most exuberant best. Paul’s exuberance is not at all romantic sentimentality. His exuberance envelopes the full depth of suffering, and the need for an endurance that builds character and requires a posture of hopefulness (Romans 5:3–4). Paul knows that divine Justice has cleared us of guilt by the death of Christ: “…we are justified by faith” (Romans 5:1). At just the right time, Christ has died for us who are our weak, who are sinners, who are ungodly, who are God’s enemies (Romans 5:6–10). Paul knows that divine Mercy has taken away our shame and adopted us into the Father’s family: “…we have peace with God …we have access to this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:2). Most of all, Paul knows that God loves us—and, indeed, that “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given us” (Romans 5:5).  

And Paul knows we have not arrived. But he knows that we will arrive! “Much more surely then … will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. … [M]uch more surely … will we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:9–10). So much so that he can look forward to that day anticipating that we will cross our finish line, “… even boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Romans 5:11—my translation*). Paul almost imagines us dancing across the finish line, filled with a sense of victory and joy.   

Two grammatical notes about this verse (Romans 5:11): 

First, readers who know Greek will recognize that verse 11’s kauchōmenoi (which I’ve rendered boasting) is a present aspect participle, meaning its action is contemporaneous with the future indicative verb sōthēsometha (we will be saved) in verse 10 that it qualifies adverbially (modally, in my judgment). In colloquial English we might say, “As we cross the finish line, we will be boasting.” All the translations miss this important nuance.  

Second, while some translations render the participle kauchōmenoi as “exulting” or “rejoicing,” the NRSV and the ESV rightly, in my judgment use “boasting.” Paul is saying that we will be crossing the finish line chest out, high-fiving ... or spiking the ball as we cross the goal line, … or doing the bat flip as we start the game-winning home run trot. Despite all the suffering and trials on the way, when we get there, we will be doing the Tiger Woods fist pump at the 18th hole of Augusta. Pick your sports metaphor. I think that’s exactly what the grammar of Romans 5:11 is saying. Yup: “we also boastingly will be saved!” Praise God from whom all blessings flow! 

Jeremiah’s tears and Paul’s dancing joy—both are true to the emotional life of followers of Christ. Especially during Lent, it is good to be reminded that our Lenten season of self-examination and repentance is a preparation “with joy for the Paschal feast” of Easter (BCP, p. 379).  

Lenten Preface: You bid your faithful people cleanse their hearts, and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast; that, fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and renewed by your Word and Sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace which you have prepared for those who love you. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+