Daily Devotions with the Dean

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:97-120; Joel 2:12-19; Revelation 19:11-21; Luke 15:1-10

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)

Today is Veterans Day in the United States. This holiday in remembrance of military veterans began as Armistice Day. When armistice was declared on November 11, 1919, the world was wracked not only by mutually suicidal warfare among European powers, but it was in the throes of the H1N1 virus flu (the Spanish flu) that, between 1918 and 1920, infected 500 million people (a third of the world’s population), and killed perhaps 100 million. 

If you are a military veteran, God bless you for your service. 

Now, as on the original Armistice Day, we look for equilibrium in a world in which the human family seems unhinged. We search for sanity in a seemingly crazed & malevolent universe.  

In a freefall world, equilibrium. Hold me up, and I shall be safe, * and my delight shall be ever in your statutes. — Psalm 119:117. Though this note may seem like an inconsequential sidebar, I am grateful that every Wednesday, the Daily Office offers a portion of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the whole Bible, a chapter dedicated to praise of the God who, in the words of Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer, “is there, and he is not silent.” It is of no small importance daily to soak oneself in God’s statutes and ordinances; promises and proverbs; and prayers and praises. In a freefall universe, doing so can bring equipoise, grace, and even “delight.”  

It’s never too late to repent. Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing — Joel 2:12-13a. Unlike other prophets, Joel does not rehearse specific charges against God’s people for the ways they have violated their relationship with Yahweh. Still, he urges them to recognize their sin, and to return to Yahweh “with all your heart.” I’ve known too many people who have said: “I’ve been so bad, I know it’s too late for me.” It is never too late … no matter how late … no matter how bad. 

Joel points us to the God who is the very definition of grace and mercy, of reticence in punishment and abundance of steadfast love (Joel 2:13). Joel’s “who knows whether he will not turn and relent” is one of the most wonderful understatements in all of Scripture—if you will “turn,” the Lord of grace and mercy will indeed “turn” as well! As the Prayer of Humble Access so elegantly puts it: “But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy.” That’s a line worth returning to again and again.   

There really is a new sheriff in town. …he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’. — Revelation 19:15-16. 

Hovering above what’s happening on the historical plane, according to the Bible’s view of things, are sinister supernatural forces. The Bible foresees a day when there is, in the words of theologian Herman Ridderbos, “an explosion of evil.” Revelation anticipates that day when an unholy trinity emerges—the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet—to rally unrepentant humanity against the Lord’s anointed and his people. The last half of Revelation 19 prophesies the demise of the beast and the false prophet at the hand of the Faithful and True Rider, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11,20). Revelation 20 (which the Daily Office will cover at this same time next year!) prophesies the dispatching of the dragon (20:7-10). 

So jealous is the Heavenly Groom for the Bride who is presented to him in the first half of this chapter—and “Jealousy” is his name!—that he discloses “the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” for her honor, her purity, her safety, her beauty. We dare not emotionally neuter God. We dare not consign an imagined weak or mild Jesus to the gentle slopes of Galilee. We must follow Warrior Jesus to the Temple where he takes up the whip for its sanctity. We need to understand that while one reason he mounts the cross is to suffer for the sins of the world, another reason he is “lifted up” on that cross is to completely conquer evil, and to be enthroned as King of kings. On the cross, Jesus is simultaneously “Suffering Servant” and “Christus Victor.” 

You can make heaven smile. Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’ — Luke 15:8. As lost and disoriented as you may feel in this moment of your life, you can be confident that the Shepherd of your soul is not in the business of just letting his sheep wander off without his coming after them. You may feel that your life has fallen through the cracks like a forgotten penny, and that you’ve long been given up as lost. Not so. He counts his coins diligently, and is determined not to lose a single one—and that includes you! Contemplate the joy when what is lost has been found! 

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Midday Eucharist

Noonday Prayer

Noonday Prayer

Daily Devotions with the Dean

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 80; Joel 1:1-13; Revelation 18:15-24; Luke 14:12-24

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)

Joel 1:1-13. To a farmer there can hardly be anything more horrific than invasion by an army of locusts. There’s no defense. There’s a singular result: total wreckage, and the loss of a season’s worth of labor. The prophet Joel surveys the wake of just such an attack. He may very well have witnessed ransacking by actual locusts at some point in his lifetime. But the locusts serve as a metaphor, or a symbol, of the way invading armies have plundered and pillaged his homeland: “For a nation has invaded my land, powerful and innumerable” (Joel 1:6).

There’s no way to date Joel’s writings exactly. We’re not told under what king he served. What’s so powerful about Joel’s graphic vision of a land blighted by locusts is that it could have applied after either of the invasions—Israel in the north by the Assyrians, or Judah in the south by the Babylonians. In each case, everything has been leveled. Everything that has made the Promised Land the Promised Land has been taken. 

And so, the prophet calls, in the first place, simply for lament. Everybody—from drunkard to virgin, from priest to vinedresser— needs to grieve. People can’t even worship aright: “Grain offering and drink offering are withheld (there being no crops left!) from the house of God.” All they can do in the moment is grieve. 

Eventually, Joel will call for repentance, and then he will make promises of an extraordinary future. But first, he says: “Put on sackcloth and lament…” (Joel 1:13). 

We live in not dissimilar days. A locust-like coronavirus has devastated the earth, emptying city streets and filling hospital emergency rooms. At the same time, a locust-like plague of discontentment and grievance has beset the hearts of citizens of the U.S., whether on the left or the right. And I believe  the first thing to do is simply to let the sadness settle in. 

Revelation 18:15-24. Eventually, all will be set to rights: that’s what the Book of Revelation wants us to know. And setting to rights will entail the bringing down of every destructive and defiling impulse that has ever been let loose against the human race. “Babylon” will fall. Ultimately, even nature itself will be brought back into equilibrium, with chapter 21’s “new heaven and new earth.” No more coronavirus, no more sickness of any sort. No more dying, no more hurricanes or earthquakes or devastating fires. But the hinge of it all, the fulcrum, will be the elimination from among humans of every corrupting influence. “Babylon” will fall. As Paul puts it: all of creation will be set free from its corruption with the redemption of the human race (Romans 8:19-21). 

And once “the great whore” Babylon has fallen, the stage will be set for Revelation 19’s wedding feast of the Bride (tomorrow’s reading).  

Luke 14:12-24. “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God” — Luke 14:15. An invitation to that banquet is to be prized above any invitation you might receive, ever. And yet, inconceivably, it is an invitation that too many of us are inclined to put in the trash can: “But they all alike began to make excuses.” There’s land to survey, there are oxen to yoke, there’s a new marriage to begin. (I just bought a car. I just got a new job. We’re heading out on our honeymoon...) 

It’s possible to have your field of vision so filled with this life’s possibilities that you miss life’s number one possibility: a place at the Table of the Feast of God. Jesus is not saying don’t take the job, or don’t commit to the marriage. But he is saying that it’s wise to hold all these things with a loose grip, because a great day is coming. “The poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” … people from “the roads and lanes” will fill God’s house—and there will be a place there for you and for me, if only we have prepared ourselves to say “Yes!” when the invitation comes. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Sunday Worship

Noonday Prayer

Noonday Prayer

Daily Devotions with the Dean

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 69; Song of Songs 8:8-14; Revelation 17:1-18; Luke 13:31-35

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)

Wrapping up Song of Songs. Let me explain why I inserted a study of Song of Songs into the cycle of Daily Office readings. For me, the Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft added a certain sparkle to the trilogy of Old Testaments writings (Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs) when, in his little book Three Philosophies of Life, he compared them to the three sections of Dante’s Divine Comedy. 

Ecclesiastes shows us how life without God is hell on earth—the Inferno. Job shows us that the path of salvation and of suffering are one and the same—the Purgatorio. Song of Songs shows us that God made us for joyous intimacy—the Paradiso. 

It so happens that in this year’s cycle of Old Testament readings, the Daily Office has taken us through Ecclesiastes and Job, studies in seeing that life is a dead end without God, and in learning how God uses suffering to enable us to know him more deeply. I noticed, thanks to Professor Kreeft, that there was an omission in the readings: despite its historical importance to the church (not to mention the synagogue), the Song of Songs is excluded from the Daily Office. We were being deprived, I concluded, of what Paul Harvey might have called “the rest of the story,” namely, this precious “best of songs” that acknowledges what we all know—that we are desperate for love—and, what we need to learn: “the flame of Yah” will not disappoint. 

As we leave our musings over this “best of songs”, I pray for you now exactly what I prayed three weeks ago when we began: a renewed sense that Christ, our Heavenly Bridegroom, loves you intimately, tenderly, and persistently. And I pray for you a certain “sacramental cast” to all your relationships here on earth, that they would all be consecrated to the Lord. This “best song” teaches us to guard all relationships—and especially those of intimacy—to cherish them, to preserve them, and to be wholeheartedly and unreservedly given to them. 

With today’s verses, our singers do their own bit of wrapping up: “Take care of the ‘little sisters’ who are coming along after you,” they say (Song of Songs 8:8-10). “Ignore distractions along the path to a love that is exclusive and therefore true,” they implore (Song of Songs 8:11-12); And finally, they urge us to be watchful and to pray, “Make haste, my beloved…” (Song of Songs 8:13-14). Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord, and save!

Revelation. Speaking of “come quickly, Lord,” we leave the Old Testament’s version of God’s Love Story, to swing into the last few days of the New Testament’s version of the Love Story. First, in Revelation 17, we must meet the story’s “other woman,” the whore of Babylon. 

Part of the Bible’s overarching story line points to two different paths to fulfilling the mandate God gives to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden: “fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). One is a path of faith, and the other of faithlessness. Genesis chapter four provides the opening manifestation of the “two ways.” Enoch, son of the faithless murderer Cain, builds the first city, which he names after himself (Genesis 4:17). (Perhaps there’s a message in that fact alone.) In this line of unbelief flourish the great gifts of culture-building. of “filling the earth and subduing it”: animal husbandry, music, and manufacturing (Genesis 4:20-22). Meanwhile, in the line of the believing Seth (the murdered Abel’s replacement) flows just one gift: the ability “to invoke the name of Yahweh”—that is, to relate to God by name (Genesis 4:25). 

Two tracks—two possibilities —for human existence are hereby laid down. Israel’s mission, in the midst of faithless nations, is to incubate and nourish a redemptive vision of culture-building. That is why Yahweh calls these descendants of Seth into covenant with himself, and to “be my treasured possession out of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6). 

The 5th century AD North African theologian Augustine will name the two paths the “City of Man” and the “City of God.” In the Book of Revelation, they take the form of the “whore of Babylon” and the “bride of Christ.” By the end of the Book of Revelation, God will perfect the beautification of the Bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7-10), and bring about a New Jerusalem on a new earth under new heavens (Revelation 21-22).

In the meantime, though, God must dispatch the “whore of Babylon,” the embodiment of a faithless and disobedient humanity’s project of “filling the earth and subduing it”—in a word, Augustine’s “City of Man.” Students of the Book of Revelation have struggled to identify the Babylon to which John refers. To some, the “whore” looks like literal Babylon in Assyria. To some, her seven hills suggest that Babylon is Rome (17:9). To others, the fact that Revelation refers to “the great city” as the place where Jesus was killed means that “Babylon” is Jerusalem (11:8). I think it’s most likely that John’s “Babylon” is intended to resonate with each of these cities. But in the end, the whoring “Babylon” is a spiritual reality: a composite for the entirety of the human project that has sought to build civilization without God, and has been proven to be rapine, exploitative, and blasphemous. To turn to another biblical image: Babylon, “the great whore” is a reprised—and final—Tower of Babel that must be felled. Stay tuned. 

Luke. “…as a hen gathers her brood under her wings…” — Luke 13:34. In the face of this poignant image, I don’t know what else to do (since I’ve already quoted myself once in today’s devotional) to repeat what I wrote when we came upon the parallel expression in Matthew (7/8/2020). It’s significant that Jesus meets his contemporaries’ rejection of him not with anger, but with sadness: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” He laments their repudiation, even while he knows its outcome will be good: the salvation of the world. And he looks to the day when the unfolding sadness will be turned to joy, when his countryfolk will confess: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” Blessed, indeed, is he…

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Noonday Prayer

Noonday Prayer