Restoration of Humans - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 5/30/2023 •

Tuesday of the Week of Pentecost (Proper 3) 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 26; Psalm 28; Deuteronomy 4:15–24; 2 Corinthians 1:12–22; Luke 15:1–10 

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. Today is Tuesday of the Week of Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 3 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

What we note in today’s readings is a fascinating convergence between Moses’s warning against idolatry, Paul’s claim to freedom of conscience, and Jesus’s resolve to find the lost.  

In Deuteronomy 4, Moses cautions people not to make idols for themselves, fashioning pretend images of God and worshiping them: “…so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure—the likeness of male or female…” (Deuteronomy 4:16). There’s a reason for the fact that the first figure not to consider using as a model for an image of God is the human form. Humans themselves are the image of God. There is nothing more godlike than a human who is filled with the glory, the mind, the heart, and the Spirit of the Living God. By worshiping a likeness of ourselves, we diminish our true likeness to God. In worship of him, we find that likeness as a free gift.   

In 2 Corinthians 1, we see what happens when we honor God instead of ourselves: he honors us. Paul says here that all of God’s promises are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:20). The principal “Yes” and “Amen” to the whole range of God’s promises is the restoration of humans as bearers of God’s image. What was lost in the Garden of Eden comes back to us, beginning with the capacity for a conscience that, because of our relationship with Christ, does not condemn ourselves. We, with Paul, can have the confidence that we are “behav[ing] in the world with frankness and godly sincerity” (2 Corinthians 1:12a). In Christ, we can trust that we are being guided “not by worldly wisdom but by the grace of God” (2 Corinthians 1:12b).  

Part of Paul’s amazing pastoral gift is his ability to discuss something as mundane as a change in travel plans (as here in verses 15–22) in terms as sublime as God’s faithfulness to make us new. Paul says his intentions towards the Corinthians have always been for their good, just as God’s are towards us. Further, Paul says that his ability to treat the Corinthians with integrity and honesty comes from Christ himself: “But it is God who establishes us with you in Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:21). And he doesn’t appeal to some special privilege he has as an apostle. He speaks in terms of the common Christian experience. He speaks in terms of what it is to know we are baptized. Note these terms from 2 Corinthians 4:21:  

First, Paul and we have been “anointed” (chrizein — the same Greek word that forms the title “Christ”). That is, in our anointing at baptism we have been appointed to bear our share of Christ’s priestly, kingly, and prophetic mission and identity. As Cyril of Jerusalem was later to say to the newly baptized: We are little Christs. With that identity comes the freedom, indeed the responsibility, to make judgments, even to change plans if we need to, in order to serve people better.  

Second, Paul and we have had God’s “seal put upon us.” That is, the Holy Spirit has permanently marked us out as God’s, so we can rest in the assurance of his love and favor. Just as the Father called Jesus his Beloved Son at his baptism in the River Jordan, so does the Father call us his beloved sons and daughters at our baptism.  

And third, Paul and we have received the gift of “his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment” of the glory that is to be ours completely when our whole being is made new on the day of resurrection. For now, though our outer person may (and will!) fade, our inner person will be renewed daily by the Holy Spirit who dwells within, as Paul will explain later in this letter: “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).  

With Jesus’s parables of the shepherd’s lost sheep and the woman’s lost coins in Luke 15, he goes to the heart of his mission among us. He has come for idolators and “sinners,” those who are crippled and confused about their own motives, and for “tax collectors,” those who use and abuse people. With this critical proviso: they are ready to admit it. Jesus never grew tired of reminding people that things are broken now and need fixing. People are lost and need finding.  

That’s why one of the prayers we pray at the Eucharist invites us to put ourselves in the line of fire of God’s love by lauding Christ for bringing us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, and out of death into life (BCP, p. 368). Trapped in error and sin and death is where we were. Praise be, Christ has come for us so that he can shout to the courts of heaven: “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost! … Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost!” (Luke 15:6,9). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Mission of the Church - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 5/29/2023 •
Monday of the Week of Pentecost (Proper 3)  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 25; Deuteronomy 4:9–14; 2 Corinthians 2:1–11; Luke 14:25–35 

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 Week of Pentecost, and our readings come from Proper 3 of Year 1 in the Daily Office Lectionary.  

“After Pentecost”: the church’s mission. Yesterday was the Feast of Pentecost, the feast that celebrates the founding of the church and the launching of its mission to the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, we begin the journey toward the season “After Pentecost.” “After Pentecost” is a season that lasts until the end of November when Advent launches the new Christian year. The overarching theme of the season of “After Pentecost” is the mission of the church in the world. Especially worth noting is the fact that the Old Testament readings for this year’s season of “After Pentecost” will survey the history of the kingship in Israel. We will learn about God’s mission for his people in the world from the rise of the kingship under Saul, to the consolidation of the kingdom under David and its apex under Solomon, to the sad division into Northern and Southern kingdoms (Judah and Israel) after Solomon’s death, to the exile in Assyria and Babylon, and finally to the return and restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah.  

Over the next two and a half weeks, the lectionary will introduce us to the history of the kingship by rehearsing the high points of the Book of Deuteronomy. In this fifth book of Moses, God lays out the way he designs his people to be his own special treasure. Yahweh intends for his covenant people to embody his grace, truth, love, and justice for the sake of a world that is trying (without success) to find its way without him.  

As they recount the ups and downs of the kingship, the biblical historians (the authors of Samuel through Nehemiah) are constantly measuring the success of any particular king against Moses’s benchmark in Deuteronomy—and not surprisingly the historians’ accounts are ones of failure. That’s because this entire history is a prelude to God providing his own King, the One whose coming we announce every Advent. Along the way, there are lessons galore—some by way of caution, some by way of example—about how to love God and neighbor, and about how to be God’s treasure in and for the world, or as Paul says, “lights shining in the world” (Philippians 2:15).  

Deuteronomy: prelude to kingship. “But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). The words from this first verse in our reading of Deuteronomy could serve as a heading for the whole of our Old Testament reading “After Pentecost.” We need to read Israel’s story with an eye to our own story. Each of us is as likely to forget the Lord’s kind interventions in our lives, the rescues small and great that he has provided us. And regardless of what we think about whether our lives are influencing anybody, every one of us has the eye of somebody in the next generation who is getting their bearings in life from us. We will either help or hinder their journey.  

2 Corinthians: what Paul has to offer. Some people have the wrong idea about the apostle Paul. They think of him as a detached and uncaring theologian who lobs theological mortars from a lofty ivory tower. Not so! Paul speaks with authority to the hard places of life, and he does so because it’s in the hard places of life that he has found Jesus. The reality is that Paul only takes people where he himself has gone: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4).  

With today’s reading in 2 Corinthians, Paul opens what I’m pretty sure was a difficult letter for him to write. Certain people in Corinth have demanded that Paul produce credentials and defend his apostleship (see chapters 3,10,11,12,13). They are not sure why they should listen to him, despite the fact that he founded this church and has lived among them for a year and a half, during which time he has done spectacular miracles, offered profound teaching, and guided them through tricky pastoral relationships.  

The situation Paul faces in Corinth calls for delicate diplomacy. Paul writes a lengthy and chunky letter. Truth be told, this letter is Paul’s most stylistically roundabout and grammatically difficult. But he really only has two simple points to make. First, the Corinthians should listen to him because Paul has found Christ encouraging him in his sufferings, so Paul can offer them encouragement when they experience the same sufferings. Second, the way that Christ has already formed himself in their lives through Paul’s ministry is all the “letter of recommendation” that they need: “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all…” (2 Corinthians 2:2). Authority is as authority does.  

May the next couple of weeks of reading this complicated but profound (and in the end, exceptionally kindhearted) letter lead us all to say, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all consolation, who consoles us….” 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

The Dead Are Made Alive - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 5/26/2023 •
Week of 7 Easter 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 102; Ezekiel 34:17–31; Hebrews 8:1–13; Luke 10:38–42 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum(“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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 Seventh (and final) week of Easter. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

This our last day of a quick trip through some of the main themes of the Book of Ezekiel and of the first half of the Book of Hebrews; meanwhile, we continue our way through the Gospel according to Luke. This morning we are meditating on the way Hebrews captures the essence of the new relationship Jesus gives us with God, and we are reflecting on the amazing breadth of ways Ezekiel had forecast this new relationship we enjoy. 

Image: Jerusalem-Menora-40-Ezechiels Vision der Totengebeine-2010Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 

Today’s paragraph in Hebrews is a view-from-the-mountaintop statement. Jesus, the author writes, is our new and permanent “minister” or “worship leader” (the Greek leitourgos is the word from which we get “liturgist”) in the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 8:2). Jesus is mediator of a new covenant. Hebrews unpacks this amazing reality by using a paragraph from the prophet Jeremiah: God writes his laws on our hearts in such a way that we are now inclined to love him and obey him rather than not—Hebrews 8:10; Jeremiah 31:33). We are given such a new orientation from within that we don’t even need someone to teach us (Hebrews 8:11; Jeremiah 31:34).  Side note: As a teacher in the church, I have to conclude that this is at least a little hyperbolic! God has dealt mercifully with our wrongdoings; in fact, he “remembers them no longer” Hebrews 8:12; Jeremiah 31:34). This I do not take to be hyperbolic! 

In a strikingly similar vein, Ezekiel’s book climaxes by clustering several central new covenant promises. Each is worth lingering over.   

Yahweh promises his people a new shepherd-king in the line of David (Ezekiel 34). After the Jews return from Babylon to their homeland beginning in 538 B.C., no one arises with a claim to David’s throne for over 500 years. That is, until the angels sing, “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord” (Luke 2:11). “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel,” says Paul (2 Timothy 2:8).  

All hail King Jesus! 

Ezekiel promises the gift of new and sprinkled-clean hearts, and the conferring of a new Spirit (Ezekiel 36:25–27). That would be the gift of the washing and regenerating of our hearts by the Holy Spirit that comes with faith in Jesus (Titus 3:5–8).  

Come, Holy Spirit, make our hearts new this day! 

Ezekiel is shown a valley of dry bones that are raised up and brought back to life (Ezekiel 37). That is what happens to people who “were dead in our trespasses and sins,” and who, “by [God’s] great love with which he loved us,” are “made alive and seated together with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 2:1–5).  

For breathing life into the dead places of our lives, we praise you Holy Spirit! 

Yahweh says he will renew the relationship between the estranged people of Judah and Israel (Ezekiel 38). That is precisely what happens when the Lord sends Peter and John from Jerusalem (the heart of the old Southern Kingdom, Judah) to Samaria (the heart of the old Northern Kingdom, Israel). They witnessed the same Spirit of Pentecost fall upon these new Samaritan believers as had fallen upon them in Jerusalem (Acts 2 and 8).  

Praise you, Lord Christ, for your power to restore broken relationships, to bring love back into broken families, and to make enemies into friends.  

Ezekiel, finally, receives a grand and extended vision of a new temple with flowing waters, filled with the glory cloud that had departed at the beginning of the exile (Ezekiel 40–47). We, the Church of Christ, are that new temple constructed of living stones, “a holy temple in the Lord; in whom [we] also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God” (Ephesians 2:21—see also 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 1 Peter 2:5).  

Lord, live in us that we may live in you! Amen!!! 

May our hearts be encouraged with the long reach of God’s love, the way he has been working his good plans for you and me, and the way he nurtures each of us with his love and care right now.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

Jesus Will Hold Me Tight - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 5/25/2023 •
Week of 7 Easter  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 105; Ezekiel 18:1–4,19–32; Hebrews 7:18–28; Luke 10:25–37 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moss,” 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. Today is Thursday of the 7th (and final) week of Easter, and I’m grateful to be with you. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

It’s our next to last day of a quick trip through some of the main themes of the Book of Ezekiel and of the first half of the Book of Hebrews; meanwhile, we continue our way through the Gospel according to Luke.  

Image: Vincent van Gogh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Ezekiel: “the righteousness of the righteous shall be his own.” I once had a professor who said that in the Old Testament what counts is the group, while in the New Testament what counts is the individual. For instance, the entire nation of Israel gets “baptized” at the Red Sea, while each person individually goes “into the water” in Christian baptism. 

Today’s passage in Ezekiel is proof that my professor wasn’t entirely right. In today’s passage, Ezekiel has to speak up, because some people had gotten the impression that their individual decisions and behavior didn’t matter. They believed they were being held accountable “for the sins of the fathers.” So it didn’t matter how they behaved, good or ill, because they were fated to suffer punishment anyway at the hands of a vindictive God.  

Not so, insists Ezekiel. If punishment is being meted out, it is not for somebody else’s sins. Each person bears punishment for their sins alone. Conversely, blessing for any individual is as near as a sincere prayer of repentance. The genius of biblical faith—Old Testament as well as New—is that each of us is made in the very image and likeness of God. Each of us is a masterpiece of his love. None of us is the sole product of our genetic pool, our family of origin, or mysterious societal forces. None of us is unable to rise above “the sins of the fathers.” “Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!” (Ezekiel 18:31). That’s part of what Ezekiel says to a generation of slothful, self-pitying shirkers.  

The other part of Ezekiel’s message is that God is not a vindictive tyrant or an unfeeling, punishment-dispensing machine. Abraham had asked Yahweh: “Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?” (Genesis 18:25). It is of the very nature of God’s being that he works (albeit in his own time and in his own way) to set all things to rights. This passage in Ezekiel makes it clear that the joy for Yahweh lies in bestowing blessing in the face of repentance and faith. He takes no joy in leaving to their just deserts anyone who fails to respond to the overtures of his love.  

Hebrews: “he ever lives to intercede.” The writer to the Hebrews has the advantage, as do we, of living in “these last days” when God has given his Son to secure a relationship with us (Hebrews 1:1–4). The Son of God, Apostle and High Priest of God’s love, has made a perfect and final sacrifice for our sins “once for all when he offered himself” (Hebrews 7:27b). And now, resurrected from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father, “he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). Though I may falter, Jesus won’t. Though my zeal may flag, Jesus’s won’t. Though my love may cool, Jesus’s won’t. Though I may drift, Jesus will hold me tight. That’s what has changed as we move from the Old Testament to the New—we have a friend in a high place, holding each of us tighter and closer than we can possibly imagine.    

Luke: becoming the Good Samaritan. From one angle of vision, the Parable of the Good Samaritan points to Jesus who rescues us when we were cast aside and left for dead on the side of the road.  

But the real thrust of Jesus’s parable is to encourage us to neighborliness, that is, to be like the Good Samaritan ourselves, not like the uncaring people who walked past the castoff man on the side of the road. Love calls us, like the Good Samaritan, to refuse to be a party to societal attitudes. Our Samaritan, considered “less than” by the Jews in his world, ignored the cultural hostilities of his day. Instead, he went out of his way to extend help and compassion to someone he chose to see, not as a Jew, but as a human being in need. Martin Luther King, Jr., describes this heart-attitude as  “the strength to love”—answering cruelty with kindness, rejection with acceptance. The Parable of the Good Samaritan calls upon us to be strong, bold, and extroverted in our love. 

The most powerful meditation on this parable of which I am aware is Vincent Van Gogh’s painting of it. Van Gogh portrays a ginger-bearded, virile Samaritan lifting the battered roadside victim onto his donkey. Van Gogh imagines himself as the Samaritan. The painting was aspirational for Van Gogh, for he saw himself as a failure in relationships—he had failed as a missionary, he had failed in his attempt to “rehabilitate” a prostitute, he had failed in his attempt to create an artist colony around Gaugin, he had failed to sell his art (in his entire he life, he sold only one painting). His painting becomes a prayer: Lord, don’t let me be defined by my failures, in my own eyes or in the eyes of others. Give me grace and strength to be this guy. Give me your strength to love.  

May our Heavenly Father give you and me—each of us—grace to know we are personally loved and uniquely crafted to bear his image. May the Lord Jesus hold us close to the Father’s heart in his prayers of intercession for us. May the Spirit of strength and power embolden us to be neighbor to those around us.  

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+ 

He Makes His Home in Our Hearts - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 5/24/2023 •
Week of 7 Easter  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 101; Psalm 109; Ezekiel 11:14–25; Hebrews 7:1–17; Luke 10:17–24 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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 Today is Wednesday of the 7th (and final) week of Easter. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

During this week the Daily Office continues a quick trip through some of the main themes of the Book of Ezekiel and of the first half of the Book of Hebrews; meanwhile, we are reading our way through the Gospel according to Luke. This morning we are meditating on Ezekiel and Hebrews.  

There are many displaced people in our world today. They are separated from anything that feels like home. They live in strange places with strange rules amid strange people. Longing for home. There’s a common sentiment that “It’s just not the same as being there.”  

Ezekiel has three lessons for us today. And the writer to the Hebrews describes “the indestructible life” by which Jesus Christ makes Ezekiel’s promises true for us.  

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

Ezekiel writes to his fellow Jews in Babylon who are removed from their beloved homeland with its holy city and temple. He wants them to know three things. First, there will be a homecoming. Nevertheless, it is in the heart that God plans to make his home with his people. And although they are currently in exile, they are not separated from God’s watchful and loving presence. 

First, the Lord will bring his people home. He’s not just going to leave them where they are. Their exile will end: “Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel” (Ezekiel 11:17). Following the decree of Cyrus the ruler of Persia in 538 B.C., the Lord brings his people back to Israel under the administration of the Hebrew leaders Ezra and Nehemiah (see Isaiah 45:1–6; Ezra 1:1–11).  

Second, though, it’s in his people’s hearts that the Lord plans to make his home. The lesson to be learned from the period of separation from land and temple is that the real place of Yahweh’s desired abode is within people themselves. He is working all things toward the day when not only can he bring his people back to a land that has been cleansed of “detestable things” and idols; but more, toward that day he promises to establish a new covenant with them. This will be a covenant that doesn’t stand outside them, but that resides within them. “I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19–20).   

Third, even in exile, the Lord is not absent. At the end of today’s passage, Ezekiel returns to his extraordinary vision of God’s mobile presence: the wheeled chariot-ark. The “glory of the God of Israel”—Yahweh’s very Presence—hovers above the chariot. Ezekiel sees the presence of Yahweh rise on the wings of the cherubim and leave the temple in advance of its desecration. Yahweh moves east toward his people in exile, and his chariot hovers over the Mount of Olives. The Lord has been, says, Ezekiel, “a sanctuary”—a holy dwelling place—for his people in exile, and will continue to be so for as long as they are there. Unlike many deities from antiquity, Yahweh is not tied to a particular geography. He is the creator of heaven and earth, and he fills all things with his presence. He has committed himself to his people, and he will be with them wherever they are.  

And there’s this from Hebrews: “the indestructible life” of God’s Son and its impact on our lives. Foreshadowed in the mysterious Gentile king-priest Melchizedek described in Genesis 14, Jesus Christ has a priesthood authorized “not through a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but through the power of an indestructible life” (Hebrews 7:16).  

By the power of that “indestructible life,” Jesus Christ will one day bring us to our true homeland—the one that Abraham and the patriarchs looked to beyond the geography of Palestine, with its city whose Architect and Builder is God himself (Hebrews 11:10). There is hope for all the earth’s lonely exiles, and for any of us who find ourselves yearning for “home.”   

By the power of that “indestructible life,” Jesus Christ has already taken up residence within us, writing the law of his new covenant on our hearts. The risen and ascended Jesus has, by the power of the Spirit, given his people “a heart of flesh.” Residing at the right hand of the Father, he works to bring us grace to help us in our time of need, and he works within us to incline our hearts to do his will.  

By the power of that “indestructible life,” weekly, even daily, wherever we are, Jesus Christ already brings us in our worship “to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly and congregation of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect” (Hebrews 12:22–23). When we know we belong to Jesus, we know that we are always in good company, already abiding, in part at least, at “home.”  

Be blessed this day,  

 Reggie Kidd+  

The Rod Has Blossomed - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 5/23/2023 •
Week of 7 Easter 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 97; Psalm 99; Ezekiel 7:10–15,23b–27; Hebrews 6:13–20; Luke 10:1–17 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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. Today is Tuesday of the 7th (and final) week of Easter. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

During this week the Daily Office continues a quick trip through the main themes of the Book of Ezekiel and of the first half of the Book of Hebrews. Meanwhile, we are reading our way through the Gospel according to Luke.  

Today, our meditation will key off of three different verses, one each from Ezekiel, Hebrews, and Luke. Ezekiel wants us to know that, despite appearances, God will bring justice to the earth. Pride and wickedness will not have the final say in human affairs. Hebrews would have us know that God’s promises for those who trust him are so sure, that his promises can serve as a secure anchor for our soul. And in Luke, Jesus urges us to be bold in speaking out on his behalf. He promises that he stands behind us, and that his Father stands behind him. 

Ezekiel: “the rod has blossomed.” First, consider this thought in Ezekiel chapter 7, verse 11: “The rod has blossomed, pride has budded. Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain….”  

Ezekiel writes from Babylon to Jews who remain in Jerusalem, and he does so not long before the puppet government in Jerusalem provokes the destruction of the city. Ezekiel presents one last rehearsal of Israel’s faults, one last plea for repentance. In chapter 6 verse 9 Ezekiel had said that the people’s “wanton heart” had turned away from Yahweh, and their “wanton eyes” had turned to idols. As a result, the exile and destruction that were upon them would make them “loathsome in their own eyes.” Here in chapter 7, he assures them that the prosperity acquired through violence and wickedness will be wiped out. Their military won’t save them, for “They have blown the horn and made everything ready, but no one goes to battle.” Nor will they be saved by delusional visions from prophets, manufactured instruction from priests, self-serving counsel from elders, or suicidal incitement to rebellion from the lackey “king” Zedekiah (2 King 25). The house of cards is coming down.  

Yahweh had called Israel a people of his own possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:5,6). But God’s people had presumed that the mere occupation of sacred position made that position inviolable. They wrongly assumed that the mere stewardship of God’s holy words put them beyond being answerable for obeying those words. But God had called them to holiness so that they might be holy. He had given them precious truths that they might live by them. Instead, however, they worshiped profanely and treated one another profanely—and so they were bringing profanity upon themselves. Lord, have mercy.  

Hebrews: an anchor for the soul. Second, there is this powerful word of assurance in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 9: “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…” (Hebrews 6:19).  

Threats like Ezekiel’s can seem so final. They do bespeak God’s unchangeable resolve to liberate the world he loves from the grip of evil. But those threats are not the final word. The final and unchangeable word is a word of promise. Hebrews quotes the terms of God’s promise to Abraham from Genesis chapter 22 verse 17 (which reads powerfully and meaningfully in the more literal King James Version): “Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.” Despite the downward arc of Israel’s sinfulness, God had sworn by his own character that he would turn that arc. He had done so back in Genesis 22, when he substituted a ram for Abraham’s son Isaac on Mt. Horeb’s altar of sacrifice. God did so again in an ultimate and unimaginable way when he substituted his own Son for all the world’s sin on the cross of Mt. Golgotha.  

Despite his people’s faithlessness, God ultimately remains faithful to his own promises. His promise had been to bless all nations through Israel, and through his Son Jesus, he has done just that. Hebrews makes the point that the arm of God’s promise is as long as his arm of justice. At the cross, promise and justice meet to enfold us in a divine embrace. And Hebrews promises us that if we will hold that promise in our hearts, it will serve as a strong anchor against all the currents of doubt and fear that try to shipwreck our souls.  

Luke: “Whoever listens to you…” And third, in the certainty that God will bring justice to the earth and bring to himself those who truly belong to him, Jesus promises that we can speak confidently on God’s behalf. Here’s what he says in Luke chapter 10, verse 16: “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects the one who sent me.”  

Luke presents Jesus as being altogether cognizant of his mission: its purpose, process, and outcome. Thus far in Luke’s narrative, Jesus has explained twice to his uncomprehending disciples that he will be betrayed, killed, and raised from the dead. On the Mount of Transfiguration, he has spoken about his upcoming “exodus” with Moses and Elijah. Thus, he has “set his face” toward Jerusalem.  

On this last journey to Jerusalem, Jesus gives his followers a taste of what their mission will be on the far side of his death and resurrection. He sends seventy (some ancient texts say seventy-two) on a brief missionary expedition. They go as “lambs among wolves,” that is, as innocents among the shrewd, as potential martyrs among potential persecutors. They can expect to be welcomed by some and rejected by others. Regardless, their message is “The kingdom of God has drawn near”—which nearness brings blessing or curse. The messengers aren’t in charge of making the kingdom happen; they are responsible only for telling the truth.  

This purpose applies to you and me. In the face of lies, we tell the truth. Where there is sickness of soul, we offer the medicine of Jesus. Where the kingdom of self and sin are in apparent ascendancy, we declare the reality of the dominion of love and justice and holiness. The Lord takes care of the results.  

May you and I take heart in today’s threefold truth. As Ezekiel says, evil will not have the last say. As Hebrews says, God’s promises are a firm anchor for our soul. And as Jesus says in Luke, our job is simply to tell the truth about the kingdom of God’s beloved Son and leave the outcome to the Lord himself.  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

A Gift and Sacrifice for Sins - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 5/22/2023 •
Week of 7 Easter  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 89:1–18; Ezekiel 4:1–17; Hebrews 6:1–12; Luke 9:51–62 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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 Seventh Week of Easter, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

Ezekiel as judgment-bringer. By God’s command, Ezekiel creates a replica of the city of Jerusalem. He then sets up an iron plate between himself and the model to demonstrate how God’s people’s sins have created a barrier between themselves and their God. Ezekiel proclaims God’s resolve to exercise judgment against his disobedient and rebellious people by destroying Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians. This prophetic action is a perfect embodiment of the prophet’s task as “prosecuting attorney”— in Yahweh’s covenant lawsuit against his people.  

Image:  Statue of Ezekiel on the West Front of Salisbury Cathedral, UK. Richard Avery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 

Ezekiel as sin-bearer. Then again, Ezekiel isn’t just a prophet -- he is a priest as well. It is a priestly calling, as we saw in last week’s reading in Hebrews, to be “taken from among the people and appointed to represent them before God, to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Hebrews 5:1). 

So for over a year, Yahweh requires Ezekiel to lie on his left side: “and so you shall bear the punishment of the house of Israel” (Ezekiel 4:5). Then for forty days, Yahweh requires him to lie on his right side: “and bear the punishment of the house of Judah” (Ezekiel 4:6). Ezekiel lies bound to the ground by cords, first on one side, then on the other, representing the people before God. Ezekiel himself becomes a gift and sacrifice for sins. It’s one of the most extraordinary “Easter eggs” in the Old Testament. It is a fantastic preview of Jesus Christ, bound to the cross, more by love than by nails, offering himself as gift and sacrifice for the sins of the whole human race. Praise be! 

As priest, Ezekiel represents God to his people and the people to God. As a prophet, he bears God’s word of judgment to them. In his symbolic acts, Ezekiel blends both priestly and prophetic roles. But Ezekiel isn’t finished … there’s a prayer dimension to his ministry.  

Ezekiel as mercy-supplicant. . God’s command to eat food cooked over human excrement (disgusting and unclean according to the Law — Deuteronomy 23:12–14) is an index of his disgust with his people’s sinfulness. Ezekiel’s revulsion at the thought is certainly more than understandable. His reaction (I paraphrase: “Dear God, don’t make me do that!”) opens to us one of the mysteries of prayer. Ezekiel takes his complaint to God, and God listens. God accommodates his sovereign will to his prophet-priest’s protest because God has made his point: sin disgusts him. It is sufficient for Ezekiel’s bread to be cooked over cow dung instead (cooking over cow dung was not an uncommon practice). God is totally in charge, but he takes our longings and thoughts into account. He wants us to pour our hearts out to him. And he delights to do his sovereign will in response to us! When, as the psalmist says, “a cry goes up from the poor man, … Yahweh hears, and helps him in all his troubles. … How good Yahweh is—only taste and see” (Psalm 34:6,8 Jerusalem Bible).  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Sweet as Honey - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 5/19/2023 •
Week of 6 Easter 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 85; Psalm 86; Ezekiel 1:28–3:3; Hebrews 4:14–5:6; Luke 9:28–36 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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 Sixth week of Easter. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

Today’s Scriptures bring us three gifts. 

Luke and Hebrews: The Father’s initiative. Somehow, people can slide into the notion that God is a grump whose Son has to cajole him into accepting us. Maybe it’s because people have their own father-issues. (Well, I mean, who doesn’t? I’m sure my own kids do; to this day they tease me by calling me “Bad Dad.”) But the architect of our redemption was not the Son. The architect was the Father. “Today I have begotten you” (Hebrews 5:5b). “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” (Luke 9:35 NASB NET). Hebrews and Luke agree with John: “God so loved the world that he gave…” (John 3:16).  

God has appointed us a High Priest, and has sent him as Apostle of his love (Hebrews 3:1). Deep down each and every one of us knows we need someone to represent us, and to bring us both mercy (the withholding of our just deserts) and grace (the gift of goodness we have not earned—Hebrews 4:14, and see below). Hebrews and Luke, along with John, go out of their way to say that God the Father has supplied what we need.   

Hebrews: A friend in a high place. The one who has “gone through the heavens” (a reference to Christ’s ascension to the right hand of the Father) is one who can “sympathize with our weakness” because he was here among us as one of us, “like us in every way—except for sin” (Hebrews 4:14,15). As one of us, he was set upon by every temptation. On our behalf, he responded the way we were designed to. He said “No!” And his “No!” counts for us!! 

We need to have every confidence that our prayers do not fall on deaf ears. The Son brought the mercy we needed: we have not received the judgment we deserve. The Son brought the grace we needed: we have received a life we did not merit. What’s more, we are encouraged, with the Son’s mediation, to come continually to ask for the additional mercy and grace that we need for each day, and for each moment of each day. “Therefore let us [keep] draw[ing] near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NRSV slightly edited).  

As we keep coming to the throne of grace, we do so knowing that our High Priest is already there, praying even harder than we, for “he ever lives to intercede” (Hebrews 7:25). Until we have arrived safely at home, we will still need mercy (to be delivered from what we deserve) and grace (to be provided with that which we cannot earn).  

Image: Icon of Ezekiel, 17th cent., North Russia, AnonymousUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Ezekiel: A word that comes alive in us. There’s an ironic twist in Ezekiel’s call. He’s thirty years old. He should be taking up his priestly duties in the temple, as that is the calling into which he was born. Thirty is the age at which aspiring priests normally begin their priesthood duties (Numbers 4:3). But Ezekiel is in an alien land, far from the temple. God touches him with the gift of prophecy instead. Not just any gift of prophecy, though. Yahweh gives him some of the most surreal visions in all the Bible (as we’ve just seen in the first part of Ezekiel 1), and calls him to some of the strangest prophetic actions in all the Bible (like lying on his side for over a year, and eating food he first cooks on human feces—Ezekiel 4:4–17). 

It was a difficult call to take up, comprising a mixture of the severest warnings at the beginning of his ministry, then containing the sweetest promises toward the end. So Yahweh’s Spirit prompts Ezekiel to listen and speak: “As He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me” (Ezekiel 2:2 NASB). Further, Yahweh calls upon him to eat a scroll the words of which are condemnatory, and yet the taste of which is sweet (Ezekiel 2:8–3:3)!  

May you and I trust that the same is true for us. May our confidence in God’s “Thus says the Lord…” (see Ezekiel 2:4) overrule our hesitancy to stand upon God’s Holy Word when we know it won’t be popular. May the Spirit of the Lord prompt us to “hear…, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest,” as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, “all holy Scriptures.” May we find them, as Ezekiel did, to be “sweet as honey” in our mouth (Ezekiel 3:3).   

Collect for Proper 28. Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Yahweh's Battle Chariot - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 5/18/2023 •
Day of Ascension 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 8; Psalm 47; Ezekiel 1:1–28; Hebrews 2:5–18; Matthew 28:16–20 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moss,” 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 am grateful to be with you.  

Today is the Day of Ascension, and it seems an especially appropriate time, here in Year 1 of the Daily Lectionary to begin reading the Book of Ezekiel. The vision that first appears to Ezekiel is loaded with symbolic freight for an ascension-imagination, one shaped by the wonder of the fact that Jesus Christ now reigns from heaven and at the same time dwells within his church on earth.  

Anticipation of incarnation. At the end of the vision that launches Ezekiel’s prophetic ministry, God appears to him in bodily form: Ezekiel sees a figure enthroned in God’s battle chariot that looks like a man who has an amber torso, gleaming and fiery, and who has lower parts that look like a burning flame, shining with splendor (Ezekiel 1:26–27). This “figure whose appearance resembles a man” strikes Ezekiel as “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh” (Ezekiel 1:26,28).  

Fra Angelico , Mystic Wheel: The Vision of Ezekiel, Basilica di San Marco, Florence. Public domain 

From a Jewish perspective, the vision is at least borderline scandalous, if not altogether blasphemous. From a Christian perspective, however, the vision is a peek into the day when the glorious Son of God would walk the earth in sandaled feet, and then ascend to heaven to re-take possession of his pre-existent glory. John narrates, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” And Jesus prays, “So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed” (John 1:14; 17:5).  

Intimation of gospel revelation. Yahweh’s battle chariot displays the faces of four creatures: a human, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (Ezekiel 1:10). Features of these creatures appear also on Babylonian religious statues. Their appearance on Ezekiel’s battle chariot signals that the true Lord and Master of all living things is Yahweh: creatures of the air (eagle), of wild beasts of the wilderness (lion), of domestic livestock (ox), and of humans themselves (man).  

These same creatures appear in a similar vision in the throne room vision in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 4:6–7). Early church tradition associates each creature with a particular Gospel:  

• the man with Matthew, whose gospel begins with genealogies stressing Jesus’s human lineage;  

• the lion with Mark, whose gospel begins with John the Baptist’s voice in the wilderness, the domain of the lion; 

• the ox with Luke, whose gospel begins with Zechariah the future father of John the Baptist carrying out his sacrificial duties in the temple, where on the Day of Atonement an ox would be sacrificed for the sins of the people; and  

• the eagle with John, whose gospel begins with the elevated, “high flying” perspective of Jesus, the Logos of God, being both “with God and God.”  

Doré - Bible Ezechielovo vidění. Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

Of course, there’s not a straight line from Ezekiel to this Christian application of his imagery. But the hints of God’s embodiment and the theme of God’s ability to be present to his people wherever they are (next point) make it easy to see how the imagination of early Christians would have adopted these symbols. Jesus, now ascended to the right hand of the Father, ministers his presence to us, in part, through the Gospels that are associated with these figures.  

Lack of geographical limitation to God’s presence. The creatures on the chariot of Ezekiel’s vision have wings that touch one another. In Ezekiel 10, we find that the creatures of Ezekiel’s vision are cherubim. Just like the cherubim atop the ark of the covenant in the Jerusalem temple, their wings touch (Ezekiel 1:9; 2 Chronicles 3:11). The wings give Ezekiel’s chariot-ark mobility, and so do its wheels: “As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them … When they moved, they moved in any of the four directions without veering as they moved. … When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels” (Ezekiel 1:15,17,19,20). The image inspired the spiritual “Ezekiel Saw the Wheel”: 

Ezekiel saw the wheel; 
Way up in the middle of the air. 
And the big wheel run by Faith, good Lord; 
And the little wheel run by the Grace of God; 
And a wheel in a wheel good Lord; 
Way in the middle of the air. 

It is a powerful symbol for every generation of believers who know they are strangers and aliens—from the Babylonian Captivity through the African dispersion, and beyond—that, unlike all the other gods, the God of the Bible is everywhere and anywhere. The absolutely majestic truth of the Ascension of Jesus Christ is that he now has the ability to be here, there, and everywhere. There’s not a moment he is not with us, nor a moment in which he is not superintending all things, “in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Matthew 28:18; Philippians 2:10).  

Collect of the Day: Ascension Day. Almighty God, whose blessed Son our Savior Jesus Christ ascended far above all heavens that he might fill all things: Mercifully give us faith to perceive that, according to his promise, he abides with his Church on earth, even to the end of the ages; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Faithful Dependance on Our Heavenly Father - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 5/17/2023 •
Week of 6 Easter  

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97–120; Baruch 3:24–37; James 5:13–18; Luke 12:22–31 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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 Sixth Week of Easter. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

Tomorrow is the Feast of the Ascension. Today is a remembrance of the last full day of Jesus’s earthly presence among the disciples. After today, he would be present to them in the same way he is present to us today: by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  

Baruch. The reading from Baruch looks back to intertestamental hopes for God’s wisdom to “appear on earth and live with humankind” (Baruch 3:37). Jesus’s disciples saw that very thing take place. And we, in their wake, are beneficiaries of their experience. Week by week we can pray (as our chancel party frequently does immediately before the start of Sunday worship services): “Be present, be present, O Jesus, our great High Priest, as you were present with your disciples, and be known to us in the breaking of bread; who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen” (Dennis Michno, A Priest’s Handbook, p. 269).   

Luke. While he was on the earth, Jesus both taught and modeled a life of faithful dependence upon his and our Heavenly Father. Worry can’t lengthen life. In the face of hostile, traitorous, and even demonic forces arrayed against him, Jesus trusted that his days were being precisely numbered by his Father. We can trust the Father to number our days as well.  

And being overly concerned about meeting physical needs like clothing and food can crowd out what should be our preeminent concern: God’s rule. It is, after all, God’s kind intention to wrest control of his world from the power of evil through his Son, and to restore it to being a garden of delight and a theatre of his glory, with a restored humanity as his vice-regents. Focus on these things and our place in God’s redemptive project, Jesus says, and the other things will follow. Keep the main thing the main thing, he insists, and the lesser things will come.  

James. Meanwhile, we are here for one another. Sickness and the decay of our mortal bodies and fragile spirits will come: “Are any among you suffering? (the Greek is kakopathein = “suffering evil”) … Are any among you sick?” (the Greek is asthenein = “experiencing weakness,” which can range from physical sickness to wounds of the spirit—James 5:13,14). Without discouraging us from seeking medicinal and psychological help for our infirmities, James points us to the spiritual resource that the Father provides in the prayers and the praises of the church. “Call for the elders and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord” (James 5:14). Oil is a sign of messianic power—it recalls the descent of the dove to anoint Jesus as Messiah and Second Adam, and to propel him into the wilderness to begin the reclamation of the cosmos from the forces of evil (see Luke 3:21–4:15).  

When I am so low that I can barely hold on to God’s promises, “the prayer of faith” offered up by my elders (those whose faith is strong when mine is weak) will be heard on my behalf. Their prayers can bring strength in the midst of my weakness, and, at times even raise me from my sickbed. They certainly can pull me out of my “slough of despond” (with a nod to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress). James understands perfectly well what Paul taught: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). We’ve not been put here to grind it out or to soldier through on our own.  

Jesus reigns now from the right hand of the Father, but he is no less engaged with your life and mine than he would be if he were still here physically. He told his disciples, “It is to your advantage that I go” (John 16:7). By his ascent, and his reception of and bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon us, he himself is able to be not just with us but in us as well: “you in me, and I in you” (John 14:20).  

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Do Not Forget the Lord Your God - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 5/16/2023 •
Week of 6 Easter 

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 78; Deuteronomy 8:11–20; James 1:16–27; Luke 11:1–13 

This morning’s Canticles are: before the Psalm reading, Pascha Nostrum (“Christ Our Passover,” BCP, p. 83); 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 Sixth Week of Easter, and we are in Year 1 of the Daily Office Lectionary. “Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!” 

Deuteronomy: Moses’s warning. Here is one grave cautionary note: “When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 8:12–14a).  

Temptations of the wilderness are one thing. Temptations that come with the Promised Land are another. The latter are not lesser than the former, just different—and no less deadly. It is a risky thing for the Lord to prosper us. It’s all too easy for us to take the credit and forget who got us to where we are.  

A feeling of entitlement is a malady to which those of us in the prosperous Western democracies are especially susceptible.  

Moses’s warning is good for us. As is James’s:  

James’s warning. “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers (and sisters, understood”—James 1:16). It’s a good thing, it seems to me, that the versifiers of the New Testament set these few words off on their own—almost as a standalone thought. They make us stop and wonder. Where might my thinking be upside down? How might I be confused about my actual circumstances? How might I be misreading my own heart? How might God’s face have gotten distorted in the muddle of life?  

James follows with two of the most soul-centering, spirit-settling, positively attitude-adjusting thoughts in all the Bible:  

God gives good gifts. “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:16–17). There’s no good thing we experience that is not worth a hearty and humble “Thank you.” There’s not a trace of whim or caprice in the mysterious mind of God. Wherever we are, whatever we are going through, we can be sure that a benevolent hand is in control. When he blesses us, it’s not to lure us into forgetting him. When he sends us into the wilderness, it’s not because he’s forgotten us or has abandoned us. He does not change his mind about his ultimately kind intentions toward his children, even if his mercies can be, for a time, severe (with a nod to Sheldon Vanauken), or if, as does also happen, his gifts seem to be almost too lavish. Always, the way to avoid self-deception is to give thanks.  

God makes everything new. “In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures” (James 1:18). God himself has stepped into a weary and sin-sick world with power to renew, and with resolve to bring life out of death. Which is why we pray on Good Friday, at the Easter Vigil, and at every ordination: “… by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord…” (BCP, pp.  280, 291, 525, 528, 540).  

Among those things that were cast down and are being raised up, that had grown old and are being made new, and that are now being brought to perfection are our very selves! We, as James says, are here to be vanguard (“a kind of first fruits”) of God’s new creation. That is profound truth of which we cannot remind ourselves enough! So, the first order of thanks is this: “Thank you, generous and gracious Lord, for raising me up, for making me new, and for putting me on the pathway to Christlikeness.”  

Jesus’s dual approach to prayer. Back-to-back Jesus gives us a pattern for prayer in the Lord’s Prayer, and then the exhortation to persist in asking, searching, and knocking. Jesus’s recipe for prayer is both patterned and persistent. Prayer that is just patterned can become rote. Prayer that is just persistent can become rambling and off-point.  

May the Lord’s Prayer focus our priorities around God’s own: the holiness of God’s name and the priority of his Kingdom (“Father, hallowed by your name; let your Kingdom come”); our daily dependence upon him for sustenance and all necessities of life (“give us this day our daily bread”); our constant need to keep our relational slate clean of grievances and offenses (“forgive us as we forgive others”); and our engagement in spiritual conflict (“lead us not into temptation”).  

May the Lord’s call for persistence keep us on our knees in quest, always, of the Father’s face and the presence and power of the Spirit of his Son in our lives: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+