Daily Devotions with the Dean
This is part of a series of devotions based on the Daily Office, which is found in the Book of Common Prayer.
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 131, 132, 133; Exodus 7:25–8:19; 2 Corinthians 3:7-18; Mark 10:17-31
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (Song of Moses, Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)
A beautiful clustering of 3 psalms of assurance.
It’s assuring to know that God so takes care of me that my soul can rest “tranquil and quiet like a child in its mother’s arms” (Psalm 131:2 JB).
It’s assuring to know that I can rest in the truth that God is working all of history so as to dwell among us (Psalm 132:13) through an enthroned Son of David (132:11-12), revealed to us in the New Testament as Jesus Christ (Luke 1:31-33).
And it’s assuring and motivating to know that God is in the business of dwelling, through King Jesus, in a place where “all…live together like brothers” (Psalm 133:1).
Lord, may King Jesus be enthroned in my life in such a way this day that I may know peace within my heart, and be at peace with my brothers and sisters—because these days’ combination of distancing and confining can bring a strange mix of estrangement and conflict. Lord, have mercy.
Plagues of Frogs & Gnats—A Song Celebrating Gods’ Liberation of His People. The wild juxtaposition of the description of the second and third plagues (Exodus 7 & 8) with the Song of Moses from the far side of the Red Sea (Canticle 8 = Exodus 15) prompts within me this question: is my heart hardened against God’s purposes today? or am I yielding to “your constant love” with which “you lead the people you redeemed”? Christ, have mercy.
Vision Unimpaired versus Vision Impaired. On the one hand, Paul joyfully describes the wonder and the hope of having the Spirit of God live inside us in such a way that we begin to see ourselves as changed people (2 Corinthians 3:7-18). Our transformation, of course, isn’t into better versions of ourselves. As Paul says, as we reflect Jesus Christ in our lives, we actually become more and more like the One we are reflecting:
All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit (v. 18).
On the other hand, sadly, Jesus encounters a man whose wealth so clouds his vision that he can’t see true wealth (Mark 10:17-31). He has scrupulously kept the commandments regarding his behavior and relationships with others (e.g., parents and neighbors). However, he fails to recognize the treasure of a relationship with God. And as a result, he is unable to accept Jesus’s offer of that relationship: “Follow me.” Lord, give me eyes to see. Lord, have mercy.
Be blessed this day.
Reggie Kidd+
Noonday Prayer
Daily Devotions with the Dean
This is part of a series of devotions based on the Daily Office, which is found in the Book of Common Prayer.
This morning’s Scriptures are:
Psalm 119:145-176; Exodus 7:8-24; 2 Corinthians 2:14–3:6; Mark 9:42-50
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 14 (Prayer of Manasseh, BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 16 (Luke 1:68-79, BCP, p. 92)
Plague One: Water into blood. The beginning of the plague narrative in Exodus, a narrative that will take us through the rest of this week (even with the lectionary skipping some of the plagues). Next week during Holy Week, we will be reading Lamentations, and then we will return to the Exodus story during the first week of Easter.
For today, though, let me offer a Sidebar on “Plagues & Judgment.” Clearly, in the biblical story, Exodus is providing an interpretation of the point of its ten plagues: they are an instrument in the hand of God to redeem his people and punish those who resist his will. A question for our day is whether we are supposed to treat the present worldwide health crisis along similar lines, as a tool in God’s hands by which we can discern God’s rewarding and punishing hand.
The answer is NO.
COVID-19 should be put in the category of what theologians call “common grace.” As Jesus says, “He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and he makes the rain fall on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). More to the point, the destructive swath being cut through the human family is a function of a general state of “futility” or “decay” that all humans share.
We live in world simultaneously subject to God’s permanent care and yet subjected to temporary dissolution. The Bible’s premise is that God has not, for a single moment, abandoned his world. Yet something broke in the relationship between our original parents (Adam and Eve, stewards of creation) and their Creator. That break we call the “Fall.” As a result, all the world looks for redemption, an end to the grief and pain brought on by that broken relationship between God and humanity.
The Apostle Paul says, “For the creation waits in eager expectation … subjected to futility … [in] bondage to decay … groaning in labor pains…in hope…of the glorious liberation of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-21, my rendering). Paul is describing a drift that is the result of sin—a bent to decay, dissolution, disease, and death that has come to characterize our world. A pestilence like COVID-19 is a function of the Fall, a manifestation of what Paul elsewhere calls the reign of death (Romans 5:17). Through centuries of pestilences, earthquakes, floods, and other disasters, the great hope and expectation of Christ’s church has been the coming of Jesus Christ to reverse the Fall and make all things new.
Why do I go into all this? Pick your favorite hot button issue, and you will find an online know-it-all who, hoping to keep a fire of animus lit under his constituency, will blame the coronavirus on people who get his special issue wrong. But the sin problem runs so much deeper than any group’s foibles. COVID-19 is not spreading because God is exacting payment for global warming or materialism or tolerance/intolerance of LGBTQ+. At the moment, we are experiencing worldwide evidence of a creation “subjected to futility” and in “bondage to decay.”
In the Exodus story, God uses fallen creation to redemptive ends. In that story, by means of ten plagues, he rescues his people from their enemies and manifests his glory in the face of stubborn unbelief. With what’s happening now, no one should presume to “keep score” the way the book of Exodus does. A wiser course is to recognize that ours is a fallen world, one that longs for release—a release that will come with, and only with, what Paul calls, “the glorious liberation of God’s sons and daughters” (Romans 8:21, my translation). And that’s the story we need to keep before our eyes, and the story humbly to keep telling the world.
From the Great Litany (BCP, pp. 148, 149) Remember not, Lord Christ, our offenses, nor the offenses of our forefathers; neither reward us according to our sins. Spare us, good Lord, spare thy people, whom thou hast redeemed with thy most precious blood, and by thy mercy preserve us for ever. Spare us, good Lord.
From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and flood; from plague, pestilence, and famine, Good Lord, deliver us.
From all oppression, conspiracy, and rebellion; from violence, battle, and murder; and from dying suddenly and unprepared, Good Lord, deliver us.
By the mystery of thy holy Incarnation; by thy holy Nativity and submission to the Law; by thy Baptism, Fasting, and Temptation, Good Lord, deliver us.
By thine Agony and Bloody Sweat; by thy Cross and Passion; by thy precious Death and Burial; by thy glorious Resurrection and Ascension; and by the Coming of the Holy Ghost, Good Lord, deliver us.
In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our prosperity; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, Good Lord, deliver us.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+
Noonday Prayer
Daily Devotions with the Dean
This is part of a series of devotions based on the Daily Office, which is found in the Book of Common Prayer.
This morning’s Scriptures are:
Psalm 121, 122, 123; Exodus 5:1–6:1; 1 Corinthians 14:20-40
(note that the lectionary excludes verses 34-38); Mark 9:42-50
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (BCP, p. 88); following theEpistle reading, Canticle 18 (Revelation 4:11; 5:9-10, 13, BCP, p. 94)
Meditating on 1 Corinthians 14: As important as worship is to Episcopalians, it’s curious that our daily lectionary includes the reading of some words on worship (tongues & prophecy) that we apply in a nuanced rather than a literalistic fashion, but then passes over other instructions on worship (women in worship) that we take in a similarly nuanced fashion.
So, we do read, “each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation…let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.” We are expected, I suppose, to discern these words’ applicability to our worship despite the fact that our liturgy is not a study in spontaneity. In fact, whether our worship includes things like impromptu prophecy or not, or tongue-speaking or not, we can surely learn lessons from this passage about how true worship aims at building one another up rather than at putting our own spiritual prowess on display: “Let all things be done for building up” (14:26).
But the daily lectionary invites us to skip “women should be silent” (verses 34-38). Why? Because our tradition has decided these words may have been applicable to Corinth, but have nothing to say to us?
In fact, this teaching is important. Paul has already endorsed women speaking in church, when back in chapter 11 of this epistle, he urges women not to allow the piety of their public prophesying or praying to be undermined by impiety in their appearance (11:5-6). Here, in chapter 14, Paul is saying that when all the prophesying is over, he does not want the deliberation of the prophets (see the end of 14:32) to be interrupted by anyone (and specifically, in Corinth, some women) who interrupt the process by continuing to speak.
Just as uninterpreted tongues can be a cacophonous, perhaps even ego-inflating, hindrance to the edification of everybody, so can any speaking that is not (to use the language of v. 17) “in turn.” That’s why Paul concludes, “all things should be done decently and in order” (v. 40). As Solomon says, “A time for keeping silent, a time for speaking” (Ecclesiastes 3:7)—a time for prophesying, a time to refrain from prophesying.
Meanwhile … back in Egypt. The Israelites groan under the burden of having to make “more bricks with less straw” (Exodus 5). Today, that brings to mind the plight of countless doctors and nurses trying to care for COVID-19 patients with inadequate PPE (personal protection equipment), and too few beds and too few ventilators. May God soon strike down this plague, and in the meantime, may he provide “straw” for solid “bricks”: may he give guidance and strength and full resources to those now sewing masks, manufacturing ventilators, building temporary hospitals.
Collect for Peace (BCP, p. 99). O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Be blessed this day.
Reggie Kidd+
Palm Sunday Preparations - Will you help?
We can all agree that Palm Sunday will look a bit different this year. Instead of waving our palm fronds together on Sunday morning, we will be participating in the service on Facebook and YouTube and praying from afar. Well, we miss seeing your faces!
Will you help with a project? We’d love some #PalmSundaySelfies to include in our Sunday morning worship video. Forage your yard for your own palm frond (or something that resembles it!), create your own, or print one to color in. Then, snap a photo of you (or your whole family!) with your palm and email it to ccslwelcome@gmail.com by noon on Thursday, April 2.
Thanks! Can’t wait to see (and share!) your faces on Palm Sunday.
Any questions?
Direct them to Grace Symmons at ccslwelcome@gmail.com
Click below to print your own:
Noonday Prayer
Daily Devotions with the Dean
This is part of a series of devotions based on the Daily Office, which is found in the Book of Common Prayer.
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 31; 108; Exodus 4:10-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-19; Mark 9:30-41
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 9 (Isaiah 12:2-6, BCP, p. 88); following the Epistle, reading Canticle 19 (Revelation 15:3-4, BCP, p. 94)
“…[S]o that the church may be built up.” (1 Corinthians 14:5). In challenging times, God’s people do what they can to build up others. A cadre of Cathedralites have volunteered to make weekly “check in” calls to more vulnerable members. Cathedral Missioner Peter Tepper is putting his extraordinary “front of the camera” gifts to the side, to orchestrate from “behind the camera” our streaming of services. One does what one can “to build up others.”
My son and daughter-in-law in Chicago are scrupulously following that city’s stay-at-home order, but they join their fellow residents of the South Loop every night at 8:00 in a celebration of lights and noise to push back the dark and express solidarity with one another. Inspired by them, Shari and I have hung our Moravian Star on the front porch as a symbol of hope. It’s easy to find expressions of support everywhere: from people serenading each other from balconies in Italy, to folks applauding health care workers in Atlanta during a shift-change. A New Jersey pizzeria owner who took out a line of credit to guarantee his workers a paycheck for the next two months inspired a surge of pay-it-forward donations. We are all in this together, and we can build each other up in whatever way we can.
“My times are in your hands…” (Psalm 31:15). The enemies in the psalm are human; for us, the enemy right now is an invisible & insidious coronavirus. The truth is the same though: My times are in your hands, Lord. Per verses 23 & 24, I love you, Lord, and I worship you. I look to you for protection. I ask your grace to be strong and courageous, while with my brothers and sisters, I wait for you.
Collect for the Renewal of Life (BCP, p. 99). O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness during the day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+
Sunday Worship
Daily Devotions with the Dean
This is part of a series of devotions based on the Daily Office, which is found in the Book of Common Prayer.
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 107:33-43; 108; Exodus 2:23–3:15; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Mark 9:14-29
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 12 (BCP, p. 88); following the Epistle, reading Canticle 19 (BCP, p. 94)
From the burning bush, the Lord says, “I have observed the misery … I have heard their cry … I know their sufferings … The cry of the Israelites has now come to me.” Funny how this tender insight comes in the same passage as the revelation about God’s mysterious name: “I AM WHO I AM.” The Redeemer Lord of the Exodus is touched by our infirmities, but he’s no fuddy-duddy “Big Guy” in the sky either.
Not everybody reads or (as I do) sings the BCP’s suggested Canticles, each day. But I try to. It’s a way of making the Office a matter of prayer. I want to read, not just to get knowledge, but to grow in love (see 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”). And love comes through the combination of study and worship.
Most Canticles are straight from the Bible; today’s Canticle for the OT reading is a portion of an ancient paraphrase of Psalm 148. This “Song of Creation” (Canticle 12, p. 88) seems a fitting way to celebrate the grandeur of “I AM WHO I AM” and the tenderness of the Lord who observes mercy, hears a people’s cry, and knows their sufferings. God is head of the cosmic order, of the whole earth and its creatures—and he relates to “the humble of heart.”
If ever there was a time to go to the Lord of creation with humility of heart, it’s right now.
Here’s a Collect prompted by this Canticle:
Lord of sun and moon and stars; of all winds and fire and heat; of shining light and enfolding dark; of springs of water, seas, and streams; of whales and birds; of beasts of the wild; of all flocks and herds; Lord of men and women everywhere—we implore you, from our knees, to look with pity upon us, your fragile image bearers and stewards of your good creation; forgive us our wandering ways; grant us hearts that long for your rule; and intervene, we pray, in the running amok of the nova coronavirus, that we may live to love and serve and glorify the Name of the Great “I AM”: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+