More Than Conquerors - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 7/30/2024 •

Tuesday of Proper 12

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 61 & 62; Judges 2:1-5, 11-23; Romans 16:17-27; Matthew 27:32-44
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)

Paul closes his magisterial letter to the Romans with four flourishes:

Living in the tension. … keep an eye on those who cause dissensions and offenses, in opposition to the teaching that you have learned … — Romans 16:17. From Romans 14 & 15 we find that Paul is willing to allow dissent within the community over some things — in fact, his refusal to provide definitive answers on them indicates that he thinks “love” is truer than pedantic precision. However, when it comes to denial of the foundational, core truths of Christianity (“the teaching that you have learned”), Paul brooks no compromise. He presupposes the Romans’ basic grasp of these truths (“your obedience is known to all” — see also v. 26). It’s worth an in-one-seating read through Romans with this question in mind: what’s negotiable for Paul? what’s not? how does that affect my living and thinking? 

Image: Caravaggio , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Blessing One: More than conquerors, revisited. The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. — Romans 16:20. Paul offers an intriguing blessing that recalls God’s promise in the Garden of Eden that Eve’s seed would bruise Satan’s head. The final fulfillment of that promise will be even stronger, the crushing of Satan himself under the feet of the redeemed. It is profitable to meditate on the ways that Paul thinks about our situation as a “new creation” in Christ:

• We are beneficiaries of the Last Adam’s obedience (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15)

• We, like Eve, are susceptible to deception (2 Corinthians 11:3), and must be on our guard against the one who disguises himself as “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14)

• Despite the danger around us (and within us?), God will make us ultimately victorious (remember 5:17; 8:37-39) — Jesus will return, and we will judge even angels (1 Corinthians 6:3)

Keeping good company. Timothy, my co-worker, greets you… — Romans 16:21. Paul was no maverick outlier, aloofly pontificating from on high. Writing from Corinth, he shares how he surrounds himself with proteges like Timothy whom he is training for ministry, and with confidants like his amanuensis/secretary Tertius whom he trusts to capture and convey his thoughts accurately in this letter. Paul’s ministry includes people like Phoebe, as well, whose patronage he had enjoyed while in the environs of Corinth (of which Cenchrea was a suburb) and whose service as deacon has won for her his trust to carry the letter to the Romans and to help in its implement by the Roman Christians (Romans 16:1-2). And, of course, Paul expresses his gratitude for his host in Corinth, Erastus, who also happens to be the city treasurer (Romans 16:23). 

In an earlier letter, Paul warned the Corinthians that “Bad company ruins good morals” (1 Corinthians 15:33). His own life proves the converse—the power of the gospel is amplified in the koinonia—the sense of “partnership” or “friendship”—it creates (see, incidentally, Galatians 2:9; Philippians 1:5). I pray that each of us knows those relationships where there is mutual building up, support, and friendship in Christ. 

Blessing Two: Now to God who is able to strengthen you… — Romans 16:25. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise to find that Paul’s last wish for us in this letter is that we know God’s strength. Paul has just reminded us that God will finally vanquish all that is evil. In the meantime, we live here as forerunners and heralds of that victory. We are armed chiefly with the knowledge that the gospel is the culmination of God’s work from before time. And we understand that this message holds promise for life, through “the obedience of faith,” for each of us and for all of us. I pray that you will find God granting, in his mighty Son, all the strength and courage that you need for this day. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Our Tears - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 7/29/2024 •

Monday of Proper 12

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 56, 57, & 58; Joshua 24:16-33; Romans 16:1-16; Matthew 27:24-31 

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)

Sometimes in the Daily Office a single verse stops you in your tracks. Today, a single thought from Psalm 58 invites reflection: that of God bottling my tears:  

You have noted my lamentation;[you have] put my tears into your bottle; *are they not recorded in your book? — Psalm 56:8

On the run from the current King Saul, the future King David seeks refuge in a surprising place: “David escaped from Saul and went to King Achish of Gath,” of Philistia (1 Kings 21:10). David had to be pretty desperate to decide that, of all places, the safest place for him to seek refuge would be the home of Goliath. Gath had been the home of the Philistine champion Goliath, whom David had killed, bringing humiliating defeat to Philistia. Perhaps the fact that David now carries Goliath’s sword (see 1 Samuel 21:8-9) makes David think Gath’s king will honor him and provide him sanctuary. It turns out to have been as bad an idea as one might expect. “The officers of Achish were unhappy about his being there. ‘Isn’t this David, the king of the land?’ they asked. ‘Isn’t he the one the people honor with dances, singing, Saul has killed his 1,000s, and David his 10,000s’?” (1 Samuel 21:10-11). 

David, according to 1 Samuel 21:12-13, realizes his peril and plays a humiliating role: “he pretended to be insane, scratching on doors and drooling down his beard.” The psalm’s superscription—Of David. A Miktam, when the Philistines seized him in Gath—gives us the physical setting of the psalm. David writes while under custody, as King Achish weighs his fate. The “lamentation” (an alternative translation of the Hebrew is “wanderings”) and the “tears” receive their setting as well: fear, anxiety, failure, disappointment, rejection. Ultimately, David is banished from Gath: “Finally, King Achish said to his men, ‘Must you bring me a madman? We already have enough of them around here! Why should I let someone like this be my guest?” (1 Samuel 21:14-15). 

David is the remarkable figure he is because of the way he processes his “stuff” with such honesty, and comes out with such faith in the end. Who can’t relate at some level to David’s tears? Who isn’t in need of such faith?

…you have put my tears in a bottle… — Psalm 56:8. Despite his situation, despite being hounded, attacked, and betrayed; despite his own fears and heartbrokenness in his circumstances; David holds fast to the truth that he is not alone in his distress. Yahweh has such care for him that David envisions each of his tears being acknowledged, treasured, and preserved by his Heavenly Father, his Counselor, Friend, and Advocate. The God who sees every sparrow that falls has numbered every hair on our heads; and he knows each and every tear we have shed (and will shed). He cares very much about the sorrow or fear or suffering we have endured, or are enduring, or will endure. He will give it meaning. He will make everything right one day.

An aside: Brilliant poet that he is, David uses a wordplay to communicate the tightness of the emotional connection between Yahweh and himself. It is David’s tears over his nōḏ (“lamentation” or “wanderings”) that God puts into his own nōʾḏ (“bottle” or “skin”). David can’t help but create something beautiful and elegant out of a situation that is anything but beautiful and elegant. Think of David as the original singer of “the blues.” 

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God whose word I praise… — Psalm 56:4; and this is repeated and expanded in verses 10-11: This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid. What rescues David from getting lost in despair is his trust in God who makes and keeps promises. What sustains David is the trustworthiness of the God who speaks order in the midst of chaos, peace in the midst of strife, hope in the midst of despair.  I pray we hear that voice in the midst of the chaos, strife, and despair all around us. 

This I know: that God is on my side. — Psalm 56:9. And I pray that you and I can hold on to this thought, as David did in his day. May we cling to this thought even more firmly with the apostle Paul, who having seen its truth confirmed and transcended in the dying, rising, and ascending of Jesus, amplified it for us: “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

God's Good Grace - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 7/26/2024 •

Friday of Proper 11

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 40 & 54; Joshua 9:22–10:15; Romans 15:14-24; Matthew 27:1-10

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)

Judas’s bad end. It is sober enough to think of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal in its own right. Despising the high privilege of being a part of Jesus’s circle of twelve, and thinking little of being appointed treasurer of the band that is heralding the coming of God’s kingdom, Judas commits one of the most treacherous acts in all of recorded history. 

Perhaps even sadder is the way he handles his self-discovery. The NRSV’s translation at Matthew 27:3 is not exactly inaccurate, but it is a bit misleading: “… he repented.” The Greek term is metamelesthai, and it means literally “to experience a change in what matters.” In this context, the REB’s translation more accurately conveys its nuance: “he was overcome with remorse.” What’s sad is that Judas’s remorse—his “change in what matters”—doesn’t drive him to God. His remorse leads to two dramatic, but empty, gestures: casting away the blood money, and the self-canceling act of suicide. Genuine repentance, rather than mere remorse, might have led to the simplest of prayers: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” But that’s all in the land of what-might-have-been. 

Paul’s reflection on God’s good grace. Today’s reading of Judas’s bad end juxtaposes with Paul’s meditation on his life’s work: “the grace that was given me” (Romans 15:15). 

… a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles … — Romans 15:16. The word that Paul uses to describe himself here—leitourgos (“people” + “worker”)—is someone who carries out a “service to people,” a leitourgia. Our word liturgy comes from this Greek term. The kind of service depends on the venue—from religious or liturgical service (see Exodus 31:10; 38:21 LXX; Ezra 7:24) to private service ( see 2 Kings 4:43; 6:15). In the Greco-Roman world, the word was used for someone who was called upon to perform any sort of public service—from underwriting the paving of a road to overseeing civic games. Paul regarded himself as an unworthy recipient of grace. But because of that grace, he would serve not himself, but other people. Lord, give us grace to do likewise. 

… in the priestly service of the gospel of God… — Romans 15:16. This is the only—really, the only!—time that any Christian in the New Testament is referred to as doing something “priestly.” (Lest there be any confusion, Episcopalians derive their word “priest” from the Greek word presbuteros, which is usually translated “presbyter” or “elder”—see, for instance, Acts 14:23; 1 Timothy 5:18; Titus 1:5). And Paul’s priestly service is not performing what we would think of as “liturgical” acts—it’s not overseeing the sacraments, or giving assurance of the absolution of sin, or offering a blessing. Well, except that Paul is offering the Gentiles to God—those who have accepted the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, who has ushered them into the blessing of becoming children of Abraham by faith, part of “the Israel of God” (Galatians 6:15). This is a wonderful note of the way that God can use any person in “priestly service,” through praying for and sharing the good news with those who do not yet know the Lord. 

… I make it my ambition to proclaim the good news… — Romans 15:20. This is one of Paul’s most daring statements, ever. The word translated “I make it my ambition” is philotimeisthai, and it means “love of honor” or simply “ambition.” According to classical social-historian, Ramsay MacMullen, philotimia (“love of honor”)  was the social capital of the pagan world; the term is not used to translate any words in the Old Testament canon. Nonetheless, Paul says here, in effect, “I make it a point of honor to proclaim the good news where nobody else has.” Not all of us have such a pioneering spirit. Not all of us are given that same call. But each of us can rightly consider our own distinct call, the particular place we are to serve Christ and his Kingdom. And each of us can “make it my ambition” to be true to that call. 

I pray that the grace given will enable each one of us, like Paul, to “love the honor” of offering our own “priestly service,” in the spaces where the Lord has called us. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

That We Might Have Hope - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 7/25/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 11

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Joshua 9:3-21; Romans 15:1-13; Matthew 26:69-75

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

The passage about the Gibeonites’ trickery is intriguing when read against the backdrop of today’s Romans reading about welcoming one another. Indeed, Paul says that “whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). 

…so that by steadfastness… There is a dogged determination—a will to survive—about the Gibeonites that is admirable. The Gibeonites’ fear of Yahweh drives them toward him rather than away from him. So, unlike the six kings who unite to attack Yahweh’s people (Joshua 9:1), the Gibeonites conspire to unite with the Israelites and to come under their God’s protection. Stories have circulated among the Gibeonites for a generation about the Israelites’ miraculous deliverance from Egypt and their irresistible march toward Canaan. The Gibeonites are prepared—here’s the steadfastness—when the time comes. They have a plan. They are ready to produce dry and moldy bread, and not-so-gently worn garments and sandals—all trappings to pull off the illusion that they have come from beyond the borders of the territory subject to Yahweh’s ban (Deuteronomy 20:10-18). 

Image: Pixabay

…and by the encouragement of the scriptures… Joshua and the rest of Israel’s leaders fail to consult Yahweh the way they should. Their rashly mediated covenant with the Gibeonites puts them in a position in which they have to disobey God’s command to annihilate inhabitants of the land (Numbers 30:2 versus Deuteronomy 7:1-5; 20:16-18). Nonetheless, Yahweh withholds his wrath and ultimately gives his own blessing to the covenant by fighting for the Gibeonites (tomorrow’s reading). It’s encouraging to know that the Lord works for our good and the good of others even through our failures. 

There’s even encouragement in noting the wisdom of assigning the Gibeonites to serve “for the altar of the Lord in the place that he should choose” (Joshua 9:27). Rather than potentially becoming tempters to idolatry (one of the principal reasons for putting the resident nations under the ban—see Deuteronomy 20:18), the Gibeonites are conscripted to support the worship of Yahweh, “to continue to this day” (Joshua 9:27). 

…we might have hope. The Gibeonites’ shrewdness is an implicit faith, and it obliquely points us to Israel’s mission to bring God’s light to the nations. Their machinations and Israel’s covenant-that-never-should-have-been become an ironic, but redemptive, foretaste of the uniting of Jew and Gentile in the good news of Jesus Christ (servant of the circumcision and bringer of mercy to the Gentiles—Romans 15:8-9) that Paul celebrates. Paul produces a sequence of Scriptures that forecast what has now happened in Christ: Jews and Gentiles are united “with one voice” to offer praise to God through his anointed Messiah-King, Jesus. The God of hope will win through in the end. 

That’s why Paul can close this remarkable paragraph with these words of blessing: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). I pray that is abundantly true for you. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Walking in Love - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 7/24/2024 •

Wednesday of Proper 11

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 119:49-72; Joshua 8:30-35; Romans 14:13-23; Matthew 26:57-68

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)

But Jesus was silent. — Matthew 26:63. In John’s gospel, Jesus is straightforward about his identity: “Before Abraham was I AM” (and expounded in seven “I AM” sayings). In the Synoptic gospels, Jesus’s approach is more oblique: he leaves it to others to figure out his identity and the nature of his mission—until he decides to clarify. Pressed by the high priest, Jesus finally acknowledges his identity as the “Son of Man” figure that Daniel had prophesied. The unfolding events would eventuate in his “coming” into his authority at the right hand of Power. In a word, “Yes,” Jesus is saying, “I am the Son of God” (Matthew 26:64).  At that point, the Jerusalem leadership finally “got it” (but not in a good way).

With today’s reciting of the blessings and curses at Mounts Gerizim and Ebal in Joshua 8, renewing the covenant between God and his people, we are reminded of the most significant choice any human being on planet Earth has: what am I going to do with God’s claim on me? Do I track with the Bible’s account of creation, fall, and redemption—is the cosmic and global story contained in the Scriptures my own as well? If so, how do I find my way to live faithfully, truthfully, and consistently with that story? 

Image: "Bacon!" by Didriks is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Throughout Paul’s letter to the Romans, he has developed and delivered that very roadmap. He has shown the way Jesus—his divine person and his redemptive work—is the crown, the telos—of an elaborate and profound story line. Adam was “type of one who was to come” (Romans 5:12-21). Abraham was “father of all of us” who believe (Romans 4:16). The Passover prefigured the setting forth of an atoning sacrifice, and Moses’s leadership prefigured a Spirit-led journey from slavery to freedom (Romans 3:21-25; chapters 6-8). David gave us a preview of a royal Son who rises from weakness to power, and who sings God’s glory among the nations (Romans 1:3-4; 15:9). 

I once recall a professor declaring, “If your metanarrative is stable enough, you can allow wiggle room around the periphery.” At the beginning of Romans 12, Paul looks back on this grand story, this metanarrative, and then commends a lifestyle of worship that is congruent with that story. “I appeal to you, in view of the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifices” (Romans 12:1). Thus, with Paul’s help, we have God-honoring guidance for responding to situations where there is disagreement. Part of that living sacrifice is extending to one another grace in disputable matters—not because they don’t matter, but because the whole is more important than the periphery.  

In today’s reading, Paul is discussing a situation where some believers feel free to eat meat offered to idols, while others feel it is sinful to do so. Paul’s instruction is that it is wrong to flaunt one’s freedom in that matter, or to lead others to do something they think is wrong. “Do not let what you eat cause the ruin of o

ne for whom Christ died.” 

There are any number of modern-day equivalents we can use to illustrate the kind of situation Paul addresses, but an example about pork might offer some insight. Some Christians believe that the Old Testament prohibitions against eating pork still apply today. Others believe those prohibitions no longer apply. If a child from a “non-pork” family was a guest in your home, it would be wrong for you to knowingly serve him, or persuade him to eat, bacon for breakfast. Before God, according to your own conscience, eating pork is not a sin, but to your brother in Christ, it is sin.  “Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others fall by what you eat.” Leading someone, adult or child, to violate their own conscience does not make for peace or mutual upbuilding. Flaunting one’s freedom is not “walking in love.” 

In today’s paragraph, Paul sketches important priorities concerning Christian liberty:

• Those of us who think of ourselves as having, before God, freedom regarding some debatable, but peripheral matters, have the responsibility for reining ourselves in for the sake of brothers and sisters who would be led to violate their consciences by our examples (Romans 14:15, 23). 

• Negatively put: I may not “destroy” my brother or sister with my liberty (Romans 14:20). Positively put: my job is to “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Romans 14:19). 

• We can, with integrity, deny ourselves some liberties, without denying our identity in Christ. In fact, this is one way we take on a Christ-shaped identity (looking ahead to tomorrow’s reading): “For Christ did not please himself” (Romans 15:3).  

• Forcing our practices on others is not what the kingdom of God is about. The kingdom is about “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” 

• If the central storyline of Jesus Christ’s work of redemption for sinners is intact, then it’s actually OK to allow each other some breathing room. We don’t need, nor can we demand, that there be complete agreement between us on lesser points of teaching, worship, and practice. “The faith that you have, have as your own conviction before God. Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve.”

I pray that today you know, in all things, righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

Christ's Church, Built With Love, Not Swords - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 7/23/2024 •

Tuesday of Proper 11

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 45; Joshua 8:1-22; Romans 14:1-12; Matthew 26:47-56

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)

Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. — Matthew 26:52. When Jesus tells Peter (named in John 18:10-11) to put his sword away, a pivot in the ages takes place. As today’s reading of Joshua’s conquest of Ai perfectly exemplifies, God’s conquest had come via the sword in the past. But a kingdom established by the sword is a short end game—the sword does not confer life. Jericho, to this day, exists as an archaeological dig, a tell. And the city that had once stood at Ai—well, not even its name has survived. The name “Ai” means “waste,” and the Israelites imposed that name after the destruction. Despite the heights to which Israel rose after the conquest of Canaan, it was inevitable that it would fall: The confederacy of tribes under the Judges was too frail. Saul was corrupt of heart. David’s hands were covered in blood. Solomon’s son provoked division. The Northern Kingdom was swept away by the Assyrians, and the Southern Kingdom was exiled by the Babylonians. The Persian release ushered in a series of vassalages, the latest being the one under Rome in Jesus’s day. God’s eternal Kingdom ultimately would not come by the sword, by conquest, or by power politics. That was never the way God intended to restore his fallen world.

Image: Adaptation, Pixabay

And while Jesus, even in the Garden of Gethsemane, acknowledges that it would be possible to save the moment through force, the result would be to replace one regime of force with another. A church built by the sword would need to be enforced by the sword—and in the end, would fall by the sword. But because Jesus went the route of suffering, his church did not perish. Her foundation is different, and so is her destiny: “Not by might and not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). The church that forgets that lesson, becoming just another player in the world of power-politics and secular influence—whether accommodating to the right or to the left—is in peril. 

Romans 14: Kingdom logic in relationships. Jesus gives himself over to death, thereby conquering death, to win life, and taking up an invincible reign, where the logic is (looking ahead to tomorrow’s epistle reading): “[T]he kingdom of God is … righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Throughout Romans 14, Paul applies that logic to relationships. The proof of Christian truth, it turns out, lies in the way we treat one another. That’s why Romans, with all its dazzlingly profound theology about how we are justified and sanctified in Christ, leads to what can seem like an odd crescendo in this appeal: “If a person’s faith is not strong enough, welcome him all the same without starting an argument” (Romans 14:1 Jerusalem Bible). 

Progressive (“strong”) consciences in Rome’s house churches want to explore Christian liberty. Conservative (“weak”) consciences want to preserve traditional principles of holiness. Progressive believers look upon traditionalists condescendingly; traditionalists look upon progressives judgmentally. Paul refuses to resolve their issues in one direction or the other. The church Jesus is building is the church for all, both “strong” and “weak.” More critically, all believers need to understand that the Lord Jesus is lord of the conscience—He, and he alone, can and will, judge. 

People must recognize that even if other believers are wrong about something. Consider the apostle’s astonishing words: “It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Romans 14: 4). The Christian, whether young or old in the faith, is guided, encouraged, or indicted by the Holy Spirit who dwells within. This day, may we all examine our own consciences, listening for that voice to speak into us words of indictment, encouragement, or guidance, as we wait for the perfect unity of Christ’s body—his precious church—built with love, not swords—on earth as it is in heaven.

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

The Cup of Blessing Runs Over for Us - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Monday • 7/22/2024 •

Monday of Proper 11

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 41 & 52; Joshua 7:1-13; Romans 13:8-14; Matthew 26:36-46

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)

Achan’s sin at Jericho. Achan sins by taking personal booty from Jericho (compare Joshua 6:17-19, with 7:1). His sin is a perfect expression of what, centuries later, Paul describes as making “provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). The children of Israel are called to bring “the day” of God’s presence to a region that had been living in “the night” of the dominion of evil (Romans 13:12-13—think Conan the Barbarian). The utter destruction of Jericho and the dedication of all its valuables to the Lord are a matter of bringing things into God’s purifying, purging, and cleansing sunlight. 

Achan chooses the darkness, and Israel’s mission suffers—thus, the failed campaign against the city of Ai. 

Image: "overflow" by jordandouglas is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Jesus’s obedience in the Garden. In the Garden of Gethsemane, by contrast, Jesus does not succumb to the darkness. His “not my will but Thine” opens a window onto one of the deepest and most wonderful of theological mysteries: the covenant made in eternity by which the Eternal Son assents to the mission of our rescue on behalf of the Father’s love. That mission called for the Son, having been “made man” (per the Creed), to drink the cup of judgment that all the Achans of the world—from Adam and Eve in that other garden, to you and me—deserve to drink:

For in the Lord’s hand there is a cup,
full of spiced and foaming wine, which he pours out,
and all the wicked of the earth shall drink and
drain the dregs. (Psalm 75:8 BCP)

The result of Christ’s “not my will but Thine,” in order to drink that cup is that we are privileged to drink, instead, the cup of blessing:

I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call upon the Name of the Lord. (Psalm 116:11 BCP)

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over. (Psalm 23:5 NKJV)

Encouragement from Paul. And precisely because the cup of blessing “runs over” for us, even the Law, once a terrible threat and reminder of our sin, now takes on a different role. The law, no longer our bitter accuser, is now, in the hands of the Holy Spirit within us, our wise companion. For, having now been loved with the love of God’s eternal covenant poured out on the cross for us, we learn to love: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law” (Romans 13:10). 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

God's "Desiderata" - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Friday • 7/19/2024 •

Friday of Proper 10

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 31; Joshua 4:19-5:1; 5:10-15; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 26:17-25

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)

Being of a certain age and therefore growing up in a certain musical generation, when I read today’s verses from Paul’s letter to the Romans, I cannot but hear in my head Les Crane’s hauntingly beautiful 1971 recording of Max Ehrmann’s poem “Desiderata”. These verses in Romans are, it seems to me, Paul’s version of the “Desiderata,” i.e., “things desired.”   

Now, unlike Max Ehrmann, who penned the “Desiderata” in the 1920s, Paul didn’t think of God as “whatever you conceive Him to be.” Nor does Ehrmann’s “you are a child of the universe” resonate much with Paul’s sense that we are children, instead, of a quite specific God—and that we are children not with an inherent “right to be here,” but by a costly adoption. And for Paul, the only reason that “the universe is unfolding as it should” is because the Lord of creation has decisively intervened to arrest the dissolution that was set in motion at the Fall. With a romantic vision of a “universe unfolding as it should,” Ehrmann’s “Desiderata” leaves one with little reason to question whether whatever is, is OK. The reality is that much of what happens in this world is not OK! In Paul’s “Desiderata,” there is real evil—but it is evil that is overcome (and not simply stoically endured) by good.  

Image: Official Navy Page from United States of AmericaMass Communication Specialist Seaman Zachary S. Welch/U.S. Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

There is, therefore, something more bracing and realistic in Paul’s Desiderata. Ehrmann’s “Desiderata” might illustrate a Thomas Kinkade painting. Paul’s belongs on a Rembrandt. Paul’s “let love be genuine” (the Greek is “unhypocritical”) is offered squarely in the face of the fact that our love may be rebuffed: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and not curse them.”  

There’s not a phrase in Paul’s Desiderata that’s not worth lingering over. Especially motivating to me, however, are these lines: 

Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Paul here is expanding on what he means when he says “Let love be genuine (again, not hypocritical).” It’s simply wrong to parrot the bumper sticker “Love is love,” as though every possible expression of love is good and right. White southerners loved white southerners, at their black slaves’ expense. Aryans loved their vision of a race of Übermenschen—too bad for Untermenschen. Abusive men may “love” the wives they batter. For Paul, love that is “unhypocritical” honors what God says is good, and resists what God says is evil.  

Outdo one another in showing honor. These words may be the most revolutionary that Paul ever wrote. Yale’s classical historian Ramsay MacMullen has argued that the quest to gain for oneself “honor”—recognition, fame, glory—was the single most important value in the social world of the Romans. Paul turns that value system upside down, by telling us, literally, “go first and lead the way in showing one another honor.” Actually, it is Paul’s Master who turns the Romans’ social world upside down. It is Paul, and only Paul, who records Jesus’s teaching: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). As a citizen of Rome, Paul is more deeply attentive to the alien Roman/pagan value system than perhaps other apostles. He perceives how radically Jesus cuts into the Roman sense of social capital. And—the words have as much punch in our power-mad, status-worshiping world as they did in Paul’s.  

Extend hospitality (the Greek says, “pursue love for the stranger”). Paul urges an active and outward-bound seeking of the outsider. The God who gave his Son while we were his enemies looks to us to bring new people inside our existing circle of warmth and conviviality. That’s a healthy challenge for all of us who get comfortable with our social status quo.  

If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Peaceability is a hallmark of a disciple of Christ. To be sure, Paul wound up in theological tussles, but it wasn’t because he went around looking for fights. Francis Schaeffer once wrote that God wants warriors with tears in their eyes. And Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons (and daughters) of God” (Matthew 5:9).  

…for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Paul can dare to imagine that such surprising love just might bring an enemy to their senses, because that’s exactly what God in Christ has done for us. God took the evil of the cruel execution of his Son at the hands of sinners and turned it to the good of the salvation of the world. That’s something Ehrmann’s “Desiderata” cannot take into account. But it’s everything to Paul’s “Desiderata.” That’s why I take it as a happy providence that today’s epistle reading is sandwiched between the account of the first Passover meal that the children of Moses enjoy in the Promised Land, and the account of Jesus’s Passover meal with his disciples on the night of his arrest. Joshua, the “commander of the army of the Lord” will lead the newly nourished Israelites into conquest. And the ultimate Joshua (remember that the Greek name for Joshua is “Jesus”) will take up his authority as “Son of Man” (remember a few days ago, and our reflections on Daniel 7) through, and in spite of, the treachery of his betrayal at the hands of “the one who has dipped his hand in the bowl with me.”  

May you and I live God’s “Desiderata,” and be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+ 

Stones of Remembrance - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Thursday • 7/18/2024 •

Thursday of Proper 10

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 37:1-18; Joshua 3:14–4:7; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 26:1-16 

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

Three phrases of remembrance grab my attention today: 

So these stones shall be to the Israelites a memorial for ever. — Joshua 4:7. 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God… — Romans 12:1. 

… what she has done will be told in remembrance of her. — Matthew 26:13. 

Crossing over Jordan. This second dry-ground-water-crossing completes Israel’s baptism, her journey from slavery to freedom. Stones from the riverbed mark the occasion. For millennia, this narrative has inspired followers of Yahweh to note specific moments of the Lord’s deliverance or protection or presence. We take pictures. We collect things. We tell stories. We remember when God “showed up” for us, sometimes doing the impossible, always doing that which is redemptive. 

Image: Pixabay

In the spirit of this passage, I surround myself with what I think of as “stones of remembrance.” One of my favorites is a piece of granite I brought home (legally) from Crazy Horse Monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When I hold it, I am transported back to two family vacations in the Black Hills. And this fist-sized rock puts me in mind of three different, competing expressions of aspiration to freedom in the Black Hills. 

• The first is the granite carvings in Mount Rushmore, memorializing the presidents who worked toward freeing up the West for the expansive American spirit. 

• The second is the granite rendering of Crazy Horse, a protest in behalf of a very different view of freedom: that of the Lakota and other tribes who were robbed of their freedom by American expansion. 

• The third is the granite pulpit that stands on Boot Hill (Mount Moriah Cemetery) in Deadwood, SD, atop the grave of Preacher Henry Weston Smith, the martyred Methodist missionary who sought to bring to the goldmining camps of the Black Hills the liberating truth of the power of God for salvation in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

My little piece of granite always reminds me, above all, of Preacher Henry Smith, and the truth that standing above all the competing aspirations for freedom that emerge from the human breast, there is one that bears ultimate promise of reconciling all the others, the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. My little piece of granite reminds me to be grateful for God’s call to take my small part in the ministry of that saving truth. 

Paul’s “by the mercies of God.” With that little phrase, Paul pivots from his great telling of the series of manifestations of God’s mercy in Christ, to his exhortation for us to live lives worshipfully reflective of those mercies. 

The entire letter to the Romans is itself a “stone of remembrance” for me, a reminder to recount the grand “mercies of God.” Over the years, I’ve so marked up this letter in my Greek New Testament with colored pencils that it’s become illegible, and I have recently had to change to a third copy. Paul’s remembrances of “the mercies of God” in Romans are precious to me:  

• The mercy of the obedience of the One, Christ Jesus, who counters and undoes the disobedience of Adam (Romans 5). 

• The mercy of the faith in God’s faithfulness that is found in Jesus, and which Abraham’s justifying faith had anticipated, modeled, and now calls forth from us (Romans 4). 

• The mercy of the “setting forth” in Christ’s blood of an effectual, final, and permanent sacrifice for sin that the annual whole burnt offering on the Day of Atonement had only been able to anticipate (Romans 3). 

• The mercy of the bestowing of the Holy Spirit, to lead us all the way into the glory that is to come—and to do so from inside our hearts, not merely from outside the camp as the Spirit had formerly led the children of Israel through the wilderness (Romans 8). 

• The mercy of a King who, “was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead,” thus fulfilling the promise of a scion of David (Romans 1 & 15).   

In view of those mercies, how can I not set my heart on not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of the mind? How can I not offer my body as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is [my] spiritual worship”? How can I not wish to think of myself soberly, and not “more highly than [I] ought”? How can I not long to find my unique place in making the one body of Christ vibrantly alive and healthy? 

A jar of anointing. Utterly humbling is the example of the unnamed woman who anoints Jesus with costly ointment. He receives the anointing as preparation for his burial. Surely it meant the world to him. She violates who knows how many social taboos to make her gift. She joins Jesus in the home of an unclean leper. Here is a woman physically touching a man in a public setting. With her lavish gift she invites the wrath of the disciples and prompts their discovery of social-justice-warriordom (masking, no doubt, their embarrassment at being outshined in devotion to their Lord). 

I keep on my keychain a small vial as one more “stone of remembrance.” Designed to hold anointing oil, the vial was issued to me when I became an elder at Northland, a local non-denominational church, where I served for a number of years before coming to the Cathedral Church of St Luke and eventually becoming a priest. Even though Northland’s theology was not highly sacramental, the church had a sense that if elders were told to anoint (per James 5), they should do so. Now that the Lord has called me to a church that ministers the Sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist) and the so-called “sacramentals” (among which, I would include anointing for healing) with greater intentionality, this precious vial reminds me what we’ve all known ever since Matthew 26’s dear lady saint crossed so many barriers in her affection for Jesus: life and healing flow from him.

Be blessed this day,

Reggie Kidd+

Outsiders Who Need a Way Back In - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Wednesday • 7/17/2024 •

Wednesday of Proper 10

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 38; Deuteronomy 3:1-13; Romans 11:25-36; Matthew 25:31-46

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)

A couple of rich truths to take in from Jesus and Paul today.

From Jesus. The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ — Matthew 25:40. Wow! The King so identifies himself with his subjects that he receives service to “even the least of them” as though it were service to Himself. It blows the mind. What a value that places on each and every person who comes into my path today. I can barely take it in. May I, as our baptismal covenant dares to say, “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving [my] neighbor as [my]self.” 

From Paul. The apostle Paul wants to inculcate a similar sensibility—seeing Christ in the other— among the Roman Christians, especially the haughty Gentile Christians he has pointedly been addressing in Romans 11: “Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. … do not boast over the [Jewish] branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. … do not become proud, but stand in awe” (Romans 11:13, 18, 20). 

Image: Pixabay

In today’s paragraph, Paul unpacks something he calls a “mystery,” how God is saving “all Israel” (Romans 11:25). It’s a thorny mxfatter, but it is tremendously practical. It’s a call to a deeper love for Christ in the people he has come to redeem. 

Paul says that “all Israel” will be saved (Romans 11:26). To cut to the chase, Paul’s “all Israel” consists of a full number of Jews (Romans 11:12, “their fullness”), plus a full number of Gentiles (Romans 11:25, “the fullness of the Gentiles”). 

Notice that the second word in verse 26 is “so,” and not, “then.” Grammatically, Paul is saying, “in this manner” all Israel will be saved, not “after this” all Israel will be saved. Some interpreters wrongly—very wrongly, in my view—think that Paul means that after a period of time in which God brings in “the fullness of the Gentiles,” he will reverse course (say, by “rapturing” the Gentile church up to heaven) and begin working again among Jewish people to save “all Israel.” No, that’s not what Paul is saying. What he’s saying is that a partial hardening of Jews is the mysterious means by which God is saving Jews and Gentiles together right now, in an Israel that has been reconstituted in and around Jesus Christ. 

In this Israel, Jew and Gentile are equally members of the “olive tree”—fellow citizens of Israel and members of the household, fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promise (Ephesians 2:19; 3:6). Paul’s “all Israel” is the “Israel of God” that he has also referred to in Galatians 6:15—all the sons and daughters of Abraham: “children of God through faith … baptized into … and clothed with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27). Earlier in Romans 11, Paul had put it in terms of natural branches (the Jews’ “fullness”) who simply belong there in the first place, plus the wild branches (“the fullness of the Gentiles”) who are grafted in—both groups belong in the “olive tree” that is Paul’s “all Israel.”

The way in which this “all Israel” emerges is the process that Paul is describing here. “All Israel” comes to fruition through the proclamation of the good news of redemption in Jesus Christ. By the unexpected arms-wide-open reception of the gospel by the Gentiles and the equal-and-opposite closed-hearted rejection of the gospel by Jews, both groups have been put on the same footing. Both are equally in need of God’s mercy: “For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all” (Romans 11:32). 

Both, in a word, have become outsiders who need a way back in. The good news is that the way is open. The way is Jesus Christ. Natural branches that have been broken off can be grafted back in simply by the obedience of faith (Romans 11:23)—and this is Paul’s urgent hope for Jewish nonbelievers. Conversely, wild branches who have been grafted in, but who scoff at those who have been displaced, can be broken off again simply by the lack of faith that their pride expresses (Romans 11:21)—this is Paul’s desperate warning to anti-Jewish Gentile believers. 

This is Paul’s “sheep” and “goats” passage. What’s not always appreciated by interpreters of Romans 11 is the fact that Paul is less concerned to solve a theological problem (what’s God’s big plan for Jews?) than he is to address the lovelessness of the Gentile Christians in Rome. 

Jesus redefines love for the neighbor as love for his own Person. Paul redefines the people of God around Jesus, making the honoring of Jesus all about honoring the fullness of his people—Gentile and Jew alike. 

I pray you and I live in these rich truths. 

Be blessed this day, 

Reggie Kidd+

The Scarlet Rope - Daily Devotions with the Dean

Tuesday • 7/16/2024 •

Tuesday of Proper 10

This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalms 26 & 28; Joshua 2:15-24; Romans 11:13-24; Matthew 25:14-30

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)

We remain focused today on the Old Testament and the epistle readings. For your consideration, I want to offer observations from three ancient Christian interpreters. I realize that in some quarters of the church and the academy, these early voices don’t count for much. But in recent years, I have come to sense that the first generations of interpreters of Scripture are more attuned to the Bible’s own dense symbolic bandwidth.* Again, … for your consideration. 

Image: Adaptation, Rahab hangs the scarlet cord from her window. Autotype after F.J. Shields, 1877. Frederic Shields , CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

First, from Clement of Rome, who toward the end of the 1st century AD offers the first post-New Testament interpretation of the significance of Rahab. Combining perspectives from James 2:25 and Hebrews 11:31, Clement says: “Because of her faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved” (1 Clement 12.1). Then, after recounting the Joshua narrative about Rahab hiding the Hebrew spies, misdirecting the Jericho king’s men, expressing her faith in Israel’s God, and receiving the spies’ instructions to gather her family under her roof when she sees the Israelites coming, Clement adds an extraordinary note: 

And in addition, they gave her a sign (Gk., sēmeion), that she should hang from her house something scarlet—making it clear that through the blood of the Lord, redemption will come to all who believe and hope in God. You see, dear friends, not only faith but also prophecy is found in this woman (1 Clement 12:7-8). 

Next, a half century later, in the middle of the 2nd century, also from Rome, Justin Martyr expands upon Clement’s offering the scarlet rope as a “sign” of the blood of Christ. Justin compares Rahab’s scarlet thread with the blood of the Passover lambs that had been sprinkled on the doorposts and lintels of Hebrew households during the exodus—another sign bringing deliverance from death. Justin draws this lesson: 

For the sign of the scarlet thread … also manifested the symbol of the blood of Christ, by which those who were at one time harlots and evil persons out of all nations are saved, receiving remission of sins, and continuing to sin no longer (Dialogue with Trypho 111.4). 

Finally, in the 3rd century AD, Origen of Alexandria sees Rahab not only prefiguring, by the scarlet thread, that “there was no salvation for man, save in the blood of Christ,” but forecasting also that it is only in one particular house, i.e., the Church, that that salvation is to be found. 

She who was formerly a harlot receives this injunction: All who shall be found in thy house shall be saved … if anyone wishes to be saved, let him come into the house of her that was a harlot. Even if anyone of this people [that is, Jewish people] wishes to be saved, let him come into this house to obtain salvation. Let him come into this house in which the blood of Christ is the sign of redemption. Let there be no mistake, let no one deceive himself: outside this house, that is outside the Church there is no salvation (Third Homily 841C-842A). 

This is the first time, as far as I know, that a phrase that is to become a hallmark of the early church appears: “outside the Church there is no salvation.” It all goes back, dare one say, to a whorehouse. What an amazing image for a call to church membership! Well, we won’t linger over that.

Then, as though Origen were following our own Daily Office lectionary, he embellishes his point by turning to Romans 11:13-24. Origen asserts that Rahab was one of those “wild branches” who, by God’s mercy and because of her faith, has been grafted into the trunk of the good olive tree, which is to say, she has become a true daughter of Abraham and citizen of the true Israel: 

If you wish to understand more clearly how Rahab was incorporated into Israel, see how the branch of the wild olive is grafted onto the trunk of the good olive tree and you will understand how those who are grafted into the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are rightly said to be incorporated into Israel until this day. We [Origen is himself a gentile], branches of the wild olive tree, who were prostitutes adoring wood and stone instead of the true God, we have been truly incorporated into this root until this day (Preface to the Psalms 860C). 

Origen’s invitation for Jewish people to “come into this house” of which the pagan harlot Rahab’s house is a picture (above), is, then, perfectly in line with Paul’s hope that his fellow Jews will one day no longer “persist in unbelief,” but rather, embrace Jesus as Messiah and see “God[‘s] … power to graft them in again.” 

Lessons for today: 

Whether the Lord originally intended for his church to see the prophecy of Jesus’s blood in Rahab’s scarlet rope, our brothers and sisters saw it there from the earliest days of New Testament interpretation. Regardless, that blood—and that blood alone—saves from a cataclysm even more devastating than the destruction of Jericho: the judgment of the world. 

It is indeed into a single house—the church universal that God is building, with Christ Jesus as cornerstone and his apostles and prophets as foundation (Ephesians 2:20)—that the Lord is calling all his people. When we work and pray and teach towards “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5), we are cooperating with one of the Bible’s deepest and oldest truths. 

Finally, we will never exhaust the mercies of the kind of God who redeems spiritual and literal whores, and who has a mysterious way of making the “righteous” as dependent upon the Mercy as are the “unrighteous.” 

Be blessed this day,  

Reggie Kidd+

*Highly instructive in the early church’s interpretation of the Bible are these two books:

Jean Danielou, S.J., From Shadows to Reality: Studies in the Biblical Typology of the Fathers. Ex Fontibus Company, 1950, 1960, 2018.

Hans Boersma, Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church. Baker Academic, 2018.