Resurrection trumps recycling: What has Easter to do with Earth Day?

Stephen Turley explains why the secular message of "Earth Day" pales in comparison to the cosmic significance of Christ's resurrection.

“What’s wrong with Earth Day?” my student asks incredulously from the back of the classroom. “What issue could you possibly have with being good stewards of our environment?” “There’s simply no point to it,” I respond. “We have Easter.” My student furls her brow; “What on earth does Easter have to do with saving the environment?”

Around the twenty-second of every April, I must admit that I do feel a certain affinity with Ebenezer Scrooge as he was interrogated by his nephew, Fred. “Christmas a humbug, uncle! You don’t mean that, I am sure.” And while I certainly demur from his assessment of Christmas, I am in agreement with old Scrooge that calendrical commemorations shape effectually our lives, and not always for the better. Time in its various dimensions—historical or cosmic, public or private, linear or cyclical, continuous or discontinuous—is a fundamental feature of life experience. And yet, cultural anthropologists are in broad agreement that what qualifies as ‘time’ is in fact a social-cultural construction marked-off by the frequency of the culture’s rituals, ceremonies, and festivals. Calendars don’t simply tell time; they contribute to creating and recreating cultural life and human experience in terms of a meaningful order. My concern, then, is that my student’s views on Earth Day and Easter are indicative of wider macro-cultural beliefs and practices that fail to recognize how these two calendrical events in fact reveal two incompatible ecologies.

If we were to travel back two thousand years ago, we would see a somewhat similar situation in the city of Athens, at a place called Mars Hill. There, instead of a cynical student in the classroom, we have literal philosophical Cynics in the midst of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. And in their gathering as the so-called Areopagus, the summit of Athenian intellectual life, there stood before them a man by the name of Paul, who proceeded to tell a grand and wonderful story: The God of the Hebrews, the so-called ‘Unknown God’ of the Athenians, created the entire universe as the prototype of a temple, a great cosmic arena to display day and night the fullness of his glory and majesty. And yet the presence of sin and death by virtue of the disobedience of humanity has marred this cosmic temple, resulting in the frustration of that glory both in creation and in the creature. But, in the midst of the fallen state, this God promised the Jewish patriarchs that he would one day decisively deal with the problem of sin and death and reconcile the creation back to himself, with every square inch of the cosmos emanating his divine glory. This promised time has now arrived with the coming of Jesus of Nazareth. As the Davidic King, Jesus is the one through whom the world is reconciled, so that sin and death no longer have dominion over us. “How could you possibly know this”, they would ask of Paul. His answer was consistent and unswerving: “Christos anestē! Christ is risen!” In his cross and resurrection, sin and death have been vanquished. The hope of the Hebrew has in fact broken into this world through the resurrection of Christ. The frustrated Hellenistic hope of resurrection, illustrated by Orpheus’ futile efforts to bring back his bride Euridice from death and Hades, has been now been fulfilled by Christ. The pursuit of unity in diversity, the Greco-Roman solution to the disorder of this world, has been realized in all nations being swept up into the unity in diversity in the fellowship of the Trinity.

Hence, Christ’s resurrection was from the beginning bound up with cosmic significance. The earliest Christian confessions (1 Cor 8:6; Phil 2:11; Col 1:15-20; Eph 1:3-14; Jn 1:3) pronounce Christ’s exaltation entailing Christ’s Lordship over all creation (cf. Rom 4:17). Paul’s letter to the Corinthians describes God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in what biblical scholar Greg Sterling calls prepositional metaphysics, where the dynamics of the cosmos were described with terms like ‘from,’ ‘in,’ and ‘through.’ Thus Paul says: “For us, there is one God the Father, from (ek) whom are all things and we in (eis) him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through (dia) whom are all things and we through (dia) him” (1 Cor 8:6).[1] Similarly, in Col 1:15-20, Christ is depicted as the one through whom all things are created and in whom all things cohere. Indeed, in Christ, the divine Logos, all things are made new (Rev 21:5).

However, the advent of the modern age represents a very different ecology, one that has been termed a ‘socialized ecology.’ Modernity theorist Anthony Giddens notes that the modern age is characterized by an unprecedented level of human intervention in the natural world. Irrigation and sanitation systems, drainage and sewer technologies, mechanisms for monitoring weather currents, and improved management of the natural environment collectively spare us from the droughts, contagions, floods, and other natural hazards that would have devastated pre-modern societies.[2] Indeed, ours is an age distinguished by what Bill McKibben has termed the ‘end of nature’; society and ecology are now so intimately bound together that the natural world no longer exists as a phenomenon independent of human activity and society.

Socialized nature comes with two consequences. The first is the concern of the modern environmentalist: this new ecological order is producing what has been called a ‘greenhouse effect’ that has the potential to inadvertently cause natural disasters which would wreak havoc on significant global populations. But, secondly, Giddens observes that the end of nature also entails the ‘end of morality.’ Insofar as social ecologies are organized and governed by modern scientific processes, they are comprised of mechanisms and operations considered value neutral and thus devoid of moral frames of reference. Social ecologies in effect sequester morality from a dominant ontology constituted by control and technique, management and prediction. As such, social ecologies are inhabited by persons emancipated from classical moral definitions, dispositions, and constraints. To the extent that the human person is an extension of the same processes that organize and govern socialized nature, there is an inward turn toward the self as the source for life, where the same processes that manage and manipulate nature can be applied to the reconstruction of the self. As theologian David F. Wells has observed, what was once a moral age has transformed into a therapeutic age, characterized by “a confidence in self-mastery, the belief that the self can be reconstructed, that its aches and pains, its bewilderment, its confessions, can all be healed with the right technique.”[3]

Of further interest is in how these two consequences interact. Because social ecologies are devoid of any collectively recognized moral law, modern ‘morality’ becomes consequentialist, in that only coercion, compulsion, and extortion can provide a motivation for ethical conformity. This is where the alarmism of the apocalyptic predictions for global warming comes in, and why dissenting scientific opinions, represented most notably by MIT climatologist Richard Lindzen, are ignored if not ridiculed. The significance of the very possibility of imperilment is artificially inflated and immanentized in a world that operates according to consequentialist motives and risk assessment. But these consequences, it is asserted, can in fact be avoided if we apply the appropriate techniques. This is the importance of stressing the salvific significance of activities such as planting trees, recycling, and reducing our carbon footprints. This turn towards technique to remake positively our world extends from the very subjective processes by which we reinvent ourselves; the sovereign self supplies the therapeutic resources by which we can reinvent the planet.

And herein lies my concern with Earth Day and what its observance reveals about ourselves. Earth Day commemorates the orientation of sovereign individuals toward a socialized ecology devoid of morality, constituted by discourses and practices that entail consequentialist ethics and reconstructive techniques. As such, Earth Day and Easter represent two fundamentally different ecologies, what we might call a ‘modern ecology’ versus a ‘moral ecology.’ This is why I find various Christian attempts to ‘baptize’ Earth Day so forced. To the degree Earth Day is a temporal and practical extension of a socialized ecology devoid of morality, it renders irrelevant the cosmic claims of the Christian gospel. Christianity has always affirmed man’s capacity to destroy God’s creation, at the heart of which is the defilement of the image of God which we all bear. What Christianity has not done is accommodate such detrimental capacities to thoroughly secular and amoral frames of reference. Thus, given the incessantly secularized piety of Earth Day, the call to good stewardship over our environment begs the question: Which environment? Are we to be good stewards over an artificially crafted ecology governed by consequentialism and technique, or an inherently moral ecology that has been incorporated into the transformative life, death, and resurrection of Christ?

It is no coincidence that Easter became historically the preferred time for proselyte baptism. The baptismal ritual began with exorcisms over the water, which was associated with the kingdom of the dead in ancient mythology. As death was the domain of Satan, Cyril could speak of baptism as a victory over the demonic forces indwelling the waters (Catechetical Lectures, III:10). Not only did the catechumenate undergo exorcism, but Christ conquering the seas of death meant that the spirit of evil was exorcised “from the air, water, and the oil as well. From this vantage baptism is a proleptic re-creation of the entire cosmos.”[4]

So what does Easter have to do with Earth Day? If we recover what Easter is really all about, then, well, nothing. Easter is not about recycling, but resurrection; it is not about saving the environment, but celebrating the one who already has. As Christians, we practice a Lenten fast not to reduce our carbon footprint, but to empty ourselves in a manner comparable to Christ’s kenosis, and to be filled with his presence through prayer and contemplation. We bless water, consecrate bread and wine, and plant gardens not for fear of an impeding ecological Armageddon, but to prepare time and space for their future transfiguration when Christ returns, when God will be all in all.

And so, yes, I’ll say it and mean it: “Earth Day? Humbug!” And in its place, I’ll proclaim that greeting which resounds throughout the globe at the dawn of Easter morning, the beginning of the renewal of all things: “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

He is risen! He is RISEN!

This is probably the first cinematic depiction of the resurrection in color: DeMille's original 1927 version of King of Kings. Typical of the silent era, the acting is overdone, while the resurrection itself is a bit understated. Jesus walks out of the tomb as if nothing else happened. Nevertheless, a very moving portrayal of the most glorious morning in history.

N.T. Wright: Stop trivializing Easter

A gem by N.T. Wright, written a few years back but still quite timely.

The historian must explain why Christianity got going in the first place, why it hailed Jesus as Messiah despite His execution (He hadn't defeated the pagans, or rebuilt the Temple, or brought justice and peace to the world, all of which a Messiah should have done), and why the early Christian movement took the shape that it did. The only explanation that will fit the evidence is the one the early Christians insisted upon - He really had been raised from the dead. His body was not just reanimated. It was transformed, so that it was no longer subject to sickness and death.

Let's be clear: the stories are not about someone coming back into the present mode of life. They are about someone going on into a new sort of existence, still emphatically bodily, if anything, more so. When St Paul speaks of a “spiritual” resurrection body, he doesn't mean “non-material”, like a ghost. “Spiritual” is the sort of Greek word that tells you,not what something is made of, but what is animating it. The risen Jesus had a physical body animated by God's life-giving Spirit. Yes, says St Paul, that same Spirit is at work in us, and will have the same effect - and in the whole world.

Now, suddenly, the real meaning of Easter comes into view, as well as the real reason why it has been trivialised and sidelined. Easter is about a new creation that has already begun. God is remaking His world, challenging all the other powers that think that is their job. The rich, wise order of creation and its glorious, abundant beauty are reaffirmed on the other side of the thing that always threatens justice and beauty - death. Christianity's critics have always sneered that nothing has changed. But everything has. The world is a different place.

Easter has been sidelined because this message doesn't fit our prevailing world view. For at least 200 years the West has lived on the dream that we can bring justice and beauty to the world all by ourselves.

The split between God and the “real” world has produced a public life that lurches between anarchy and tyranny, and an aesthetic that swings dramatically between sentimentalism and brutalism. But we still want to do things our own way, even though we laugh at politicians who claim to be saving the world, and artists who claim “inspiration” when they put cows in formaldehyde.

The world wants to hush up the real meaning of Easter. Death is the final weapon of the tyrant or, for that matter, the anarchist, and resurrection indicates that this weapon doesn't have the last word. When the Church begins to work with Easter energy on the twin tasks of justice and beauty, we may find that it can face down the sneers of sceptics, and speak once more of Jesus in a way that will be heard.

Easter Message from Bishop Mark Lawrence

As a parish priest I remember telling parishioners, on more than one occasion, "When death comes into your home he brings a lot of unwanted relatives with him." I do not mean relatives or in-laws who may come from out of town for the funeral. The relatives of death to which I refer are grief, fear, loneliness, guilt, shame, anger, depression, even anxiety. Once these come under the roof of your house it is difficult to show them the door. They tend to take up residence, over staying their welcome. Just this morning I read the story of Clint Hill, the secret service agent assigned to Jackie Kennedy during the days some refer to as Camelot. With poignant grief he recalled her words that day almost fifty years ago as the President's wounded head lay in her lap like a modern Pieta, "They shot his head off. Oh Jack, what have they done?"

I've been listening to Dr. Billy Graham's recent book Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well. He is no stranger to moments of national grief, like the one Clint Hill witnessed so painfully. At age 93 he has seen firsthand more than a little of our country's sorrow. Yet grief when it is personal strikes even deeper. In recounting the death of his beloved wife and best friend for almost sixty-four years, Ruth Bell Graham, he writes, "Although I rejoice that her struggles with weakness and pain have all come to an end, I still feel as if a part of me has been ripped out, and I miss her far more than I ever could have imagined." "Death", he goes on to say, quite accurately, "is always an intruder even when it is expected." Frankly, if there is no answer to death there is no answer to our most abiding enemy and all those blood relatives he brings with him. This, as you might imagine, brings me to Easter. I am happy to recall it. The apostle affirms, "Our Saviour Jesus Christ has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." (2 Timothy 1:10 NEB)

Easter unflinchingly confronts our enemies, death and sin that would lock us in a self-justifying bondage, and plague our lives from start to finish. Christ's death, however, is God's No to sin. In the cross God reveals his hatred of sin as Christ dies to destroy it; and shows his love for sinners as he dies to free us of it. In Christ's resurrection God speaks his Yes to life and human freedom, breaking the power of death. Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury put it well: "You may not like it. You may ignore it. You may deny it. But this is it. Take away the Cross and Resurrection from Christianity and you have a poor lifeless and maimed thing left..." And we must also say a dead religion dreadfully inadequate for our needs. Archbishop Coggan was right. We need to keep the Cross and Resurrection central. They tell us of God's No, to death, and the fear that is death's power; No, to sin and its tyranny of our lives; No, to fear that cripples us from living the dance of life freely; No, to the shame we don't deserve and grace for the shame we do; No, to the loneliness that dogs our steps for the Risen One is with us always. Let me say again. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the Great Yes of God. It has left us an empty tomb and an open door. It will in God's good time and grace sweep our lives clean of death and the unwanted relatives it brings into our homes. Even this Sunday as we say the words, "Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia." the joy of Easter may escort some these out the door. We can then live our lives in Christ, with Christ and for Christ freely, and for his sake for a hurting and broken world.

May the Peace of the Risen Christ be always with you,

--(The Rt Rev.) Mark Lawrence is Bishop of South Carolina

GAFCON Easter Message 2014

Easter Message to the Faithful of the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and friends
from Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, Primate of Kenya
and Chairman of the GAFCON Primates’ Council

17th April 2014

‘If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God’ Colossians 3:1

My dear brothers and sisters,

Greetings in the precious name of our Risen Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

What a wonderful truth we celebrate at Easter! The bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead assures us that our sins are atoned for and death is defeated. This is the reason we can be confident that despite failure, frustration and the things that perplex us, God’s saving purposes will certainly be fulfilled. The Risen Christ is already seated in triumph and glory at the Father’s right hand and we are already raised to new life in him, so we can be sure that the Church of God, which we too often see undermined from the inside by false teaching and attacked from the outside by persecution, will one day be wonderfully revealed as the great Church victorious.

So with joyful confidence we confess that Jesus is Lord and this gives our lives a new horizon. We ‘seek the things that are above’, not ignoring the world, but being those who live under Christ’s Lordship in the world. I was reminded of how transformative it can be to live for the Lordship of Christ when I shared fellowship last week with my brother GAFCON Primate, Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje, on the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. Out of terrible trauma, this is a nation that has experienced the power of the resurrection as people have been willing to submit to Jesus as Lord in repentance and costly forgiveness.

This is why confessions of faith, whether they are the ancient catholic creeds or later statements such as the Church of England’s Thirty-nine articles cannot be seen just as historical documents to be reinterpreted as we wish. In many countries, Anglican Churches are a significant voice in national life and we have a special responsibility to make sure that we confess Jesus as Lord with clarity and courage. It was for this reason that we produced the Jerusalem Statement and Declaration in 2008. Confessing Churches make a life-changing stand on the truth God has revealed. They proclaim the gospel, promote true godliness and should not be afraid to challenge the complacency of leaders who claim their nations are Christian while at the same time promoting laws and tolerating practices that are contrary to Christian belief.

To be truly an Easter people means being a people who joyfully confess the risen Christ as Lord. We experienced the richness of this fellowship as we met last year in Nairobi and now the GAFCON Primates are gathering for the first time since GAFCON 2013 to take counsel together. Please pray for us as we meet in London next week, for the sake of the Anglican Communion and for the blessing of the nations.

Finally, let us remember that for an increasing number of our brothers and sisters that confessing Christ is becoming as costly as it was for the early Christian martyrs who had to choose between Jesus as Lord or Caesar as Lord. As a global fellowship of confessing Anglicans, let us commit to pray for them, to stand with them and not compromise the truth for which they and martyrs through the ages have laid down their lives in love for Him who is the Resurrection and the Life.

Tintinnabulation!

Here the people smite their various metallaphones.

Easter message from Bishop Presider Steve Breedlove, PEARUSA

Of Easter, Ice, and Faith

As I sit looking out my window in North Carolina, the daffodils are waving in the breeze and an early-blooming tree is etched white against a bright blue sky. A long, cold Lenten season is ending. Resurrection Sunday is finally close. “Hallelujah” sits at edge of my tongue, ready to burst forth.

It seems odd, then, that my thoughts turn back to wintry ice, but I have a story to share.

Three plus decades ago I was a young associate pastor on my first assignment. Sally and I had moved across the country to Morris County, New Jersey. We began in the heat of Jersey summer but soon were experiencing a record setting full northern winter. In spite of the deep January cold and gloom, I was on the edge of my seat, anticipating something I had never experienced growing up in Texas. I had never seen a completely frozen body of water, and the lakes dotting the hills above our home froze during significant cold spells. I could hardly wait!

One afternoon I took off from work and drove into the hills in search of adventure. I passed several lakes on the way to higher elevations until I finally reached what looked to be a large, solidly frozen lake. I parked the car, went to the edge, and looked longingly at the expansive playground that stretched out before me. Oh, I wanted to run, jump, and slide! But this was new territory for me: how strong was the ice? I wasn’t about to risk falling into a hypothermic baptism and an early transit to my eternal rest. How could I test the ice besides poking at it from the shore?

Looking around, I saw my test instrument — a large rock, probably 15 pounds. I threw the rock. It landed with a bang about ten feet in front of where I was standing. The ice held; I cautiously slid out, and heaved the rock another ten feet. I repeated this experiment, venturing further and further from shore.

Eventually I came to the conclusion that the surface was adequate for my weight, and I began to trust the ice. Then the fun began! Running and sliding, skating on my street shoes, jumping up and down. An hour I’ll never forget. Eventually when I told the story to my Jersey friends, they had a good laugh. The ice on those lakes was two or three feet thick by that time of winter; a truck could drive safely across.

I learned a powerful lesson about faith that day. At first my faith was fragile: weak and frightened, I cautiously tested the ice step by step. As I began to experience and trust what lay beneath my feet, I relaxed until I rested my very life on it. Then and only then, I began to have real fun.

If I had boldly strutted with chutzpah (i.e., “great faith”) onto ice that was a quarter inch thick, covered over with newly fallen snow that obscured its thinness, I would have fallen to my death – my confidence non-withstanding. On the other hand, my weak faith in solid ice, even when I doubted, kept me safe as a baby in a government approved car seat. “Great” faith or small faith is not the issue. It is really about the thickness of the ice.

This Sunday we celebrate the historical fact, the heart of the Christian faith, “Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!”

The joy of this Sunday is that the object of our faith – the ground of our souls – is very “thick ice”. He is a Person who, in every reasonable way accessible to knowledge, lived, died, was buried, and rose again in space, time and history.

The reality of this historical event called the Resurrection beckons us to test the ice. Test and find him worthy of your whole heart, soul, and life. Taste, follow, obey, abide. He IS Risen! He is risen INDEED! Now go out and have some fun. Hallelujah! (Sorry: it wouldn’t stay locked up any longer.)

Bishop Steve Breedlove

Presider, PEARUSA

Easter message from Archbishop Duncan

Easter, A.D. 2013

Beloved in the Lord,

The Psalmist declares:

The Lord is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation.

[Psalm 118:14]

As I write this letter to you it is Wednesday in Holy Week. I am travelling to Juba in South Sudan to spend the Great Three Days (The Sacred Triduum) with Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, his clergy and his people. I am to be away from all the things that are familiar, except that the Church is one throughout the world, and the old, old story does not change (yet changes everything).

Flying today I could see the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays (Kent Island, Cape Henelopen, Cape May), places associated with boyhood and early ministry. Hours later there were Cape Trafalgar and Gibraltar and the North Coast of Africa, places I had never been but about which my historical studies and interests caused me to reflect over lots of years and lots of learning.

Easters have been spent mostly with the Church communities I have known well and with those who are family (blood, marriage and church) whether in New Jersey or Connecticut or New York or North Carolina or Delaware or Western Pennsylvania. One Easter, Nara and I spent at Canterbury, which was to be surrounded by things we knew (the cloud of witnesses, the music, the architecture) and those we did not know (the worshippers we were present with.) I know that this Easter in South Sudan will be all at once different and the same.

The seventeenth century poet and pastor George Herbert left us with two poems he entitled "Easter." The second of the poems ends:

 Can there be any day but this,

Though many suns to shine endeavor?

We count three hundred, but we miss:

There is but one, and the one ever.

This Easter I am looking back. Like Lady Julian of Norwich in the 14th century, I am asking, "What does it all mean?" Whether in Juba or in Pittsburgh - and wherever you find yourself - what I testify is that the Gospel is my strength and my song, and that Jesus has become my salvation. Easter is the day that lights and gives meaning to all the others, wherever I - we - spend it and with whomever I - we - spend it. The tomb is empty. The world, the flesh and the devil are defeated. Jesus is alive. In Him, the alien becomes familiar, loss becomes gain, sorrow becomes joy, and death becomes life. This Easter I am also looking around and looking ahead.

May the Father's love, the Son's victory and the Holy Sprit's power overwhelm you, penetrate you and those surrounding you, as they continue to do in me, with the Easter perspective that changes and transforms everything.

Faithfully in Christ,

Archbishop and Primate
Anglican Church in North America

Eve of Pentecost: Home life has its own rule of courtesy

Opening Sentence

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1

Commemoration: Augustine of Canterbury

O Lord our God, who by your Son Jesus Christ called your apostles and sent them forth to preach the Gospel to the nations: We bless your holy name for your servant Augustine, first Archbishop of Canterbury, whose labors in propagating your Church among the English people we commemorate today; and we pray that all whom you call and send may do your will, and bide your time, and see your glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 107:33-43, 108

Lessons: Ezekiel 36:22-27, Ephesians 6:10-24, Matthew 9:18-26

What chiefly distinguishes domestic from public conversation is surely very often simply its downright rudeness. What distinguishes domestic behaviour is often its selfishness, slovenliness, incivility – even brutality. And it will often happen that those who praise home life most loudly are the worst offenders in this respect: they praise it – they are always glad to get home, hate the outer world, can’t stand visitors, can’t be bothered meeting people, etc. – because the freedoms in which they indulge themselves at home have ended by making them unfit for civilized society. If they practised elsewhere the only behaviour they now find ‘natural’ they would simply be knocked down.

How, then, are people to behave at home? If a man can’t be comfortable and unguarded, can’t take his ease and ‘be himself’ in his own house, where can he? That is, I confess, the trouble. The answer is an alarming one. There is nowhere this side of heaven where one can safely lay the reins on the horse’s neck. It will never be lawful simply to ‘be ourselves’ until ‘ourselves’ have become sons of God. It is all there in the hymn – ‘Christian, seek not yet repose.’ This does not mean, of course, that there is no difference between home life and general society. It does mean that home life has its own rule of courtesy – a code more intimate, more subtle, more sensitive, and, therefore, in some ways more difficult than that of the outer world.

Finally, must we not teach that if the home is to be a means of grace it must be a place of rules? There cannot be a common life without a regula. The alternative to rule is not freedom but the unconstitutional (and often unconscious) tyranny of the most selfish member.

C.S. Lewis

God in the Dock

Spirit Song

Friday in Easter 7: The lowliest of people and the lowest people in the highest of places

Opening Sentence

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

Commemoration: Bede

Heavenly Father, who called your servant Bede, while still a child, to devote his life to your service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship: Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of your truth to his generation, so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make you known in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 102

Lessons: Jeremiah 31:27-34, Ephesians 5:1-20, Matthew 9:9-17

Jesus was willing to associate with both the lowliest of people and the lowest people in the highest of places.

"Tax collectors and sinners" represent two extremes of the economic ladder. Tax collectors ran a profitable racket, skimming money off the top of their collections for Rome. They were looked down upon as collaborators with the enemy.

"Sinners" were the riff-raff of society, looked down upon by the elites as undeserving of any favors. They probably didn't have enough money to do the tax collectors any good. Nevertheless, they probably hated the tax collectors as symbols of the pampered elite who had sold their souls to Rome for a profit.

When Jesus came along, these two opposite groups came together around him. In Jesus, both the tax collectors and the sinners saw what was missing in their lives--a genuine relationship with God which transformed the whole person. There's no diversity here; only a common recognition of a common need.

(JAG)

Oh Lord, You're Beautiful

Thursday in Easter 7: So rough a Messenger

Opening Sentence

Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24

Commemoration: Nicolas Copernicus

Almighty God, who have made the heavens to tell your glory and the firmament to proclaim your handiwork: we bless you for placing us in a rational universe, and for giving us rational minds suited for understanding it; and today we praise you especially for the gifts of intellect that you have given to your servants Nicolas Copernicus and others, by which our understanding of the nature of your creation has been much advanced, to our good and your glory, who live and reign, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 105:1-22

Lessons: Zechariah 4, Ephesians 4:17-32, Matthew 9:1-8

After much weakness and sickness when my spirits were worn out, and many times my faith weak likewise, the Lord was pleased to uphold my drooping heart, and to manifest his Love to me; and this is that which stays my Soul that this condition that I am in is the best for me, for God doth not afflict willingly, nor take delight in grieving the children of men: he hath no benefit by my adversity, nor is he the better for my prosperity; but he doth it for my Advantage, and that I may be a Gainer by it. And if he knows that weakness and a frail body is the best to make me a vessel fit for his use, why should I not bear it, not only willingly but joyfully? The Lord knows I dare not desire that health that sometimes I have had, lest my heart should be drawn from him and set upon the world. Now I can wait, looking every day when my Savior shall call for me. Lord grant that while I live I may do that service I am able in this frail Body, and be in continual expectation of my change, and let me never forget thy great Love to my soul so lately expressed, when I could lie down and bequeath my Soul to thee, and Death seemed no terrible thing. O let me ever see Thee that art invisible, and I shall not be unwilling to come, though by so rough a Messenger.

Anne Bradstreet

Journal, August 28, 1656

Jesus Saves (Jeremy Camp)

Wednesday in Easter 7: Giving diligence

Opening Sentence

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1

Collect of the Day

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 101, 109

Lessons: Isaiah 4:2-6, Ephesians 4:1-16, Matthew 8:28-34

But how is it possible to walk worthily of it? With all lowliness. Such an one walks worthily. This is the basis of all virtue. If you be lowly, and bethink you what you are, and how you were saved, you will take this recollection as a motive to all virtue. You will neither be elated with bonds, nor with those very privileges which I mentioned, but as knowing that all is of grace, you will humble yourself. The lowly-minded man is able to be at once a generous and a grateful servant. For what have you, says he, that thou did not receive? 1 Corinthians 4:7 And again, hear his words, I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. 1 Corinthians 15:10

With all lowliness, says he; not that which is in words, nor that which is in actions only, but even in one's very bearing and tone of voice: not lowly towards one, and rude towards another; be lowly towards all men, be he friend or foe, be he great or small. This is lowliness. Even in your good deeds be lowly; for hear what Christ says, Blessed are the poor in spirit; Matthew 5:3 and He places this first in order. Wherefore also the Apostle himself says, With all lowliness, and meekness, and long-suffering. For it is possible for a man to be lowly, and yet quick and irritable, and thus all is to no purpose; for oftentimes he will be possessed by his anger, and ruin all.

Forbearing, he proceeds, one another in love.

How is it possible to forbear, if a man be passionate or censorious? He has told us therefore the manner: in love, says he. If you, he would say, are not forbearing to your neighbor, how shall God be forbearing to you? If you bear not with your fellow-servant, how shall the Master bear with you? Wherever there is love, all things are to be borne.

Giving diligence , says he, to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Bind therefore your hands with moderation. Again that goodly name of bond. We had dismissed it, and it has of itself come back on us again. A goodly bond was that, and goodly is this one also, and that other is the fruit of this. Bind yourself to your brother. They bear all things lightly who are bound together in love. Bind yourself to him and him to you; you are lord of both, for whomsoever I may be desirous to make my friend, I can by means of kindliness accomplish it.

Giving diligence, he says; a thing not to be done easily, and not in every one's power.

Giving diligence, he proceeds, to keep the unity of the Spirit. What is this unity of Spirit? In the human body there is a spirit which holds all together, though in different members. So is it also here; for to this end was the Spirit given, that He might unite those who are separated by race and by different manners; for old and young, rich and poor, child and youth, woman and man, and every soul become in a manner one, and more entirely so than if there were one body. For this spiritual relation is far higher than the other natural one, and the perfectness of the union more entire; because the conjunction of the soul is more perfect, inasmuch as it is both simple and uniform. And how then is this unity preserved? In the bond of peace. It is not possible for this to exist in enmity and discord. For whereas there is, says he, among you jealousy and strife, are you not carnal, and walk after the manner of men? 1 Corinthians 3:3 For as fire when it finds dry pieces of wood works up all together into one blazing pile, but when wet does not act at all nor unite them; so also it is here. Nothing that is of a cold nature can bring about this union, whereas any warm one for the most part can. Hence at least it is that the glow of charity is produced; by the bond of peace, he is desirous to bind us all together. For just in the same way, he would say, as if you would attach yourself to another, you can do it in no other way except by attaching him to yourself; and if you should wish to make the tie double, he must needs in turn attach himself to you; so also here he would have us tied one to another; not simply that we be at peace, not simply that we love one another, but that all should be only even one soul. A glorious bond is this; with this bond let us bind ourselves together with one another and unto God. This is a bond that bruises not, nor cramps the hands it binds, but it leaves them free, and gives them ample play, and greater courage than those which are at liberty. The strong if he be bound to the weak, will support him, and not suffer him to perish: and if again he be tied to the indolent, him he will rather rouse and animate. Brother helped by brother, it is said, is as a strong city. This chain no distance of place can interrupt, neither heaven, nor earth, nor death, nor any thing else, but it is more powerful and strong than all things. This, though it issue from but one soul, is able to embrace numbers at once; for hear what Paul says, You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own affections; be ye also enlarged. 2 Corinthians 6:12

Now then, what impairs this bond? Love of money, passion for power, for glory, and the like, loosens them, and severs them asunder. How then are we to see that they be not cut asunder? If these tempers be got rid of, and none of those things which destroy charity come in by the way to trouble us. For hear what Christ says, Matthew 24:12 Because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold. Nothing is so opposed to love as sin, and I mean not love towards God, but that towards our neighbor also. But how then, it may be said, are even robbers at peace? When are they, tell me? Not when they are acting in a spirit which is that of robbers; for if they fail to observe the rules of justice among those with whom they divide the spoil, and to render to every one his right, you will find them too in wars and broils. So that neither among the wicked is it possible to find peace: but where men are living in righteousness and virtue, you may find it every where. But again, are rivals ever at peace? Never. And whom then would you have me mention? The covetous man can never possibly be at peace with the covetous. So that were there not just and good persons, even though wronged by them, to stand between them, the whole race of them would be torn to pieces. When two wild beasts are famished, if there be not something put between them to consume, they will devour one another. The same would be the case with the covetous and the vicious. So that it is not possible there should be peace where virtue is not already put in practice beforehand. Let us form, if you please, a city entirely of covetous men, give them equal privileges, and let no one bear to be wronged, but let all wrong one another. Can that city possibly hold together? It is impossible. Again, is there peace among adulterers? No, not any two will you find of the same mind.

So then, to return, there is no other reason for this, than that love has waxed cold; and the cause again why love has waxed cold, is that iniquity abounds. For this leads to selfishness, and divides and severs the body, and relaxes it and rends it to pieces. But where virtue is, it does the reverse. Because the man that is virtuous is also above money; so that were there ten thousand such in poverty they would still be peaceable; while the covetous, where there are but two, can never be at peace. Thus then if we are virtuous, love will not perish, for virtue springs from love, and love from virtue. And how this is, I will tell you. The virtuous man does not value money above friendship, nor does he remember injuries, nor does wrong to his neighbor; he is not insolent, he endures all things nobly. Of these things love consists. Again, he who loves submits to all these things, and thus do they reciprocally produce one another. And this indeed, that love springs from virtue, appears from hence, because our Lord when He says, because iniquity shall be multiplied, the love of the many shall wax cold, plainly tells us this. And that virtue springs from love, Paul tells us, saying, He that loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. Romans 13:10 So then a man must be one of the two, either very affectionate and much beloved, or else very virtuous; for he who has the one, of necessity possesses the other; and, on the contrary, he who knows not how to love, will therefore commit many evil actions; and he who commits evil actions, knows not what it is to love.

Moral. Let us therefore follow after charity; it is a safeguard which will not allow us to suffer any evil. Let us bind ourselves together. Let there be no deceit among us, no hollowness. For where friendship is, there nothing of the sort is found. This too another certain wise man tells us. Though you drew a sword at your friend, yet despair not: for there may be a returning again to favor. If you have opened your mouth against your friend, fear not; for there may be a reconciliation: except for upbraiding, or disclosing of secrets, or a treacherous wound: for for these things a friend will depart. Sirach 22:21-22 For disclosing, says he, of secrets. Now if we be all friends, there is no need of secrets; for as no man has any secret with himself and cannot conceal anything from himself, so neither will he from his friends. Where then no secrets exist, separation arising from this is impossible. For no other reason have we secrets, than because we have not confidence in all men. So then it is the waxing cold of love, which has produced secrets. For what secret have you? Do you desire to wrong your neighbor? Or, are you hindering him from sharing some benefit, and on this account concealest it? But, no, perhaps it is none of these things. What then, is it that you are ashamed? If so, then this is a token of want of confidence. Now then if there be love, there will be no revealing of secrets, neither any upbraiding. For who, tell me, would ever upbraid his own soul? And suppose even such a thing were done, it would be for some good; for we upbraid children, we know, when we desire to make them feel. And so Christ too on that occasion began to upbraid the cities, saying, Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida! Luke 10:13 in order that He might deliver them from upbraidings. For nothing has such power to lay hold of the mind, or can more strongly arouse it, or brace it up when relaxed. Let us then never use upbraiding to one another merely for the sake of upbraiding. For what? Will you upbraid your friend on the score of money? Surely not, if at least you possess what you have in common. Will you then for his faults? No nor this, but you will rather in that case correct him. Or, as it goes on, for a treacherous wound; who in the world will kill himself, or who wound himself? No one.

Let us then follow after love; he says not simply let us love; but let us follow after love. 1 Corinthians 14:1 There is need of much eagerness: she is soon out of sight, she is most rapid in her flight; so many things are there in life which injure her. If we follow her, she will not outstrip us and get away, but we shall speedily recover her. The love of God is that which united earth to Heaven. It was the love of God that seated man upon the kingly throne. It was the love of God that manifested God upon earth. It was the love of God that made the Lord a servant. It was the love of God that caused the Beloved to be delivered up for His enemies, the Son for them that hated Him, the Lord for His servants, God for men, the free for slaves. Nor did it stop here, but called us to yet greater things. Yes, not only did it release us from our former evils, but promised, moreover, to bestow upon us other much greater blessings. For these things then let us give thanks to God, and follow after every virtue; and before all things, let us with all strictness practice love, that we may be counted worthy to attain the promised blessings; through the grace and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom, to the Father together with the Holy Ghost, be glory, might, and honor, now and for ever and ever. Amen.

John Chrysostom

Homily 9 on Ephesians

New Advent Collection

Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken

Tuesday in Easter 7: The floods have lifted up their voice

Opening Sentence

On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Collect of the Day

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 97, 99, 100

Lessons: 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Ephesians 3:14-21, Matthew 8:18-27

You have undertaken the office of bishop, and now, seated at the helm of the Church, you are steering the ship in the teeth of the waves. Hold fast to the rudder of faith, that you may not be shaken by the heavy storms of this world. The sea, indeed, is vast and deep, but do not fear for "He has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waves."

Rightly, then, the Church of the Lord amid all the seas of the world stands immovable, built, as it were, upon the apostolic rock. On that solid foundation it endures the force of the raging billows. The waves pour over it, but it is not shaken. Although this world's elements often dash against it only to be thrown back with a mighty roar, still it offers a secure harbor of safety to receive the distressed. It is tossed on the sea, but rides the floods, and perhaps chiefly those floods of which it is said: "The floods have lifted up their voice." For there are rivers which shall flow out of the belly of him who has received to drink from Christ and partakes of the Spirit of God. These rivers, then, when they overflow with spiritual grace, lift up their voice.

Ambrose of Milan

Be Still My Soul

Monday in Easter 7: The evangelical promise

Opening Sentence

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:57

Commemoration: John Eliot

Almighty and everlasting God, we thank you for your servant John Eliot, whom you called to preach the Gospel to the native peoples of North America. Raise up in this and every land evangelists and heralds of your kingdom, that your Church may proclaim the unsearchable riches of our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 89:1-18

Lessons: Joshua 1:1-9, Ephesians 3:1-13, Matthew 8:5-17

The Gospel proclaims repentance and the promise of grace and eternal life. The promise should be diligently distinguished from the Law. And although the Law has certain promises of its own, nevertheless, these differ from the unique promise of the Gospel. Moreover, the promises of the Law require the condition of perfect obedience as is said in the first commandment: "I will do good to those who love me" (cf. Deut. 5:10). But the evangelical promise--about remission of sins, justification, and the gift of eternal life--is gratuitous, offered on account of Christ, without a condition of our merits or our worthiness.

No human language is able to express the greatness of this benefit, which God imparts to us through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: with sin wiped out and death destroyed, we may enjoy the vision of God in eternal life, righteousness, and joy. The promise of this benefit is only divinely revealed, as John (1:18) says: "The Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared it to us." For although we are born with some knowledge of the Law, we certainly are not born with knowledge the Gospel. Human reason by itself by no means sees this will of God--that God would send His Son that he might become a sacrificial victim for the church, that God wants to remit sins gratis. These things lie far beyond the scope of human reason. Therefore dicta of the Law ought to be carefully distinguished from the evangelical promise.

Philip Melanchthon
Commentary on Romans

Sing Your Praise to the Lord

Seventh Sunday of Easter: Both the mother that bears and the child that is born

Opening Sentence

On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Collect of the Day

O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 66, 67

Lessons: Exodus 3:1-12, Hebrews 12:18-29, Luke 10:17-24

The weeks passed and seemed to bring no light, but only increased the earnestness of his search after it. He would have to find an answer before long, he thought, or he would have no choice but to resign his curacy and look for a position as tutor.

Of course all this he ought to have gone through long ago. But how can a man go through anything till his hour is come? Wingfold had all this time been skirting the wall of the kingdom of heaven without even knowing there was a wall there, not to say seeing a gate in it. The fault lay with those who had introduced him to the church as a profession, just as they might introduce someone to the practice of medicine, or the bar, or the drapery business--as if the ministry were on the same level of choice with other human callings. Never had he been warned to take off his shoes for the holiness of the ground. And yet how were they to have warned him when they themselves had never discovered the treasure in that ground more holy than libraries, incomes, and the visits of royalty? As to visions of truth that make a man sigh with joy and enlarge his heart with more than human tenderness--how many of those men had ever found such treasures in the fields of the church? How many of them knew, except by hearsay, whether there be any Holy Ghost? How then were they to warn other men from the dangers of following in their footsteps and becoming such as they? Where in a community of general ignorance shall we begin to blame? Wingfold had no time to accuse anyone. He simply had to awaken from the dead and cry for light, and was soon in the bitter agony of the paralyzing struggle between life and death. He thought afterward, when the time had passed, that surely in this period of darkness he had been visited and upheld by a power whose presence and even influence he was completely unaware of. Strange helps had come to him from time to time. The details of nature wonderfully softened toward him, and for the first time he began to notice her ways and shows and to see in them all the working of a different humanity. He later remembered how a hawthorne bud once set him weeping; and how once, as he was walking miserably to church, a child looked up in his face and smiled. In the strength of that smile, he had been able to confidently approach the lectern. He never knew how long he had been in the agony of his most peculiar birth--in which the soul is at the same time both the mother that bears and the child that is born.

George MacDonald

The Curate's Awakening

All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name

Saturday in Easter 6: As one who had authority

Opening Sentence

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1

Commemoration: Dunstan of Canterbury

O God of truth and beauty, who richly endowed your bishop Dunstan with skill in music and the working of metals, and with gifts of administration and reforming zeal: Teach us, we pray, to see in you the source of all our talents, and move us to offer them for the adornment of worship and the advancement of true religion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 87, 90

Lessons: Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29; Ephesians 2:11-22; Matthew 7:28-8:4

Matthew records that "the crowds were astonished at [Jesus's] teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes."

Jesus was not merely rehashing the law in some dull, pedantic fashion. Neither, however, was he teaching anything new. What he was saying had been there all along but the scribes had obscured it. They had piled on layer upon layer of human tradition, greatly benefiting themselves (since they enjoyed controlling the lives of others) but leaving the people with no practical means for living lives that glorified God.

While the religious elites boasted in their self-righteous confidence, the common people saw only the grim prospect of judgment for having failed to live up to "God's standards." Jesus breathed new life into the law and, thus, gave new life to those dead in their transgressions.

(JAG)

O God Our Help in Ages Past

Friday in Easter 6: We must begin with prayer

Opening Sentence

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

Commemoration: Florence Nightingale

Life-giving God, who alone have power over life and death, over health and sickness: Give power, wisdom, and gentleness to those who follow the lead of your servant Florence Nightingale, that they, bearing with them your presence, may not only heal but bless, and shine as lanterns of hope in the darkest hours of pain and fear; through Jesus Christ, the healer of body and soul, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 85, 86

Lessons: 1 Samuel 2:1-10, Ephesians 2:1-10, Matthew 7:22-27

The Trinity is nigh unto all things, and yet not all things are nigh unto It. Only with holy prayers and pure minds and with souls prepared for union with the Godhead do we come nigh to It; for It is not in space, so as to be absent from any spot, or to move from one position to another, and to speak of It as omnipresent does not express this all-transcendent and all-embracing infinitude. But let us press on in prayer, always thirsting for the divine benignant rays.

As if a luminous chain hung suspended from the heights of heaven and reached down to this world below, and we by seizing it, first with one hand, then with the other, seemed to be pulling it down, but in very truth instead of pulling it down, we found ourselves carried upward to the higher splendors of the shining rays.

Or as if we were on a ship, clinging to the ropes which bound the ship to some rocks, and we were pulling on the ropes, but we would not be drawing the rocks toward the ship, but in very truth we would be pulling the vessel close to the rocks.

Or as if we were standing on a ship pushing away the rock on shore, but we would not be affecting the immovable rock, for in very truth we would be separating ourselves from it; and the more we push it, the more we would be warding it off.

So it is, before every endeavor and especially those endeavors which concern divinity, we must begin with prayer: not to pull down to ourselves what is nigh both everywhere and nowhere, but to commend and unite ourselves to God by these invocations and remembrances.

Dionysius the Areopagite

De divinis Nominbus, III

My Hope is Built

Ascension Day: What is and is to be

Opening Sentence

Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24

Collect of the 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.

Psalter: Psalm 8, 47

Lessons: Daniel 7:9-14, Hebrews 2:5-18, Matthew 28:16-20 (see also Acts 1:1-11)

Christ's ascension into heaven is, for the church, the symbol of what she is and is to be in him. As Christ, having endured the ordeal of suffering, death, and resurrection, is vindicated as the true Son of Man (Luke's account of the ascension in Acts 1.1-11 is replete with the imagery Daniel 7.13-14, including Jesus' being taken up to heaven in a cloud), so the church, having endured the same, will be united with Christ in everlasting glory.

There are two ways in which we are not to anticipate this final, glorious consummation of the union of Christ and the church. First, we are not to concern ourselves with "the times or periods the Father has set by his own authority." Rather, we are to be Christ's witnesses "in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Luke's account of the ascension roughly corresponds with the conclusion of Matthew's Gospel,in which Jesus commands his disciples to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."

Second, we are not to waste our time staring off into space, waiting for Jesus to drop out of the sky. Jesus, the disciples are told, "will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." Here is where it becomes very important for the church to understand the nature of her union with Christ and how that union is consummated. How the disciples "saw" Jesus "go into heaven" must be understood in the much wider context of the ordeal of suffering, death, and resurrection which preceded this particular episode. The account of Acts 1.1-11 is only the culmination of a series of events which began with Jesus' setting his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9.51).

Thus, for Jesus to "come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" must involve the ordeal of suffering, death, and resurrection. This does not mean that Jesus himself must literally go through that ordeal again. Rather, it means the church, the Bride of Christ, must continually remember that singular event which brought her into existence. It is through worship that the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ is kept constantly at the forefront of the church's memory as she prays and longs for her Bridegroom to come and make their union complete.

The proper attitude, then, for anticipating Christ's coming in glory is the attitude of worship. Such an attitude forms the church's whole understanding of herself as a community in covenant with God, empowered by the Holy Spirit to be witnesses for Christ "to the ends of the earth," being assured by her Lord, "And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise

Wednesday in Easter 6: Elected for holiness

Opening Sentence

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1

Collect of the Day

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 119:97-120

Lessons: Leviticus 26:27-42, Ephesians 1:1-10, Matthew 22:41-46

What he means is this: The one through whom he has blessed us is the one through whom he has elected us. . . . Christ chose us to have faith in him before we came into being, indeed even before the world was founded. The word foundation was well chosen, to indicate that it was laid down from some great height. For great and ineffable is the height of God, not in a particular place but rather in his remoteness from nature. So great is the distance between creature and Creator.

"You have been elected," he says, "in order to be holy and unblemished before his face." . . . He himself has made us saints, but we are called to remain saints. A saint is one who lives in faith, is unblemished and leads a blameless life.

Everywhere the purpose or good pleasure means God's antecedent will. Yet there is another will. For God's first [or antecedent] will is that sinners should not perish. His second or consequent will is that those who become evil should perish. Hence he does not chastise them from necessity, but due to their own willing.

John Chyrsostom

Homily on Ephesians

Christ is Made the Sure Foundation

Tuesday in Easter 6: Riches choke the word

Opening Sentence

On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24

Collect of the Day

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Psalter: Psalm 78:1-39

Lessons: Leviticus 26:1-20, 1 Timothy 2:1-6, Matthew 13:18-23

"The seed sown among the thorns is the person who listens to the word, but the anxiety of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it is made fruitless." This reminds us of the words spoken to Adam: "You shall eat your bread among thorns and thistles." This mystically signifies that those who give themselves over to the pleasures and cares of this world eat the heavenly bread and true food among thorns. Hence the Lord fittingly added, "The deceitfulness of riches chokes the word." Riches are enticing indeed, promising one thing and doing another. The possession of riches is uncertain. They are borne from place to place. Unpredictably they either desert the haves or gorge the have-nots. The Lord also states that it is difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, for riches choke the word of God and weaken the force of the virtues.

"And the one sown upon good ground is he who hears the word, understands it and bears fruit." Even as on bad ground there were three diverse situations (by the path, upon rocky ground and among thorns), so too on good ground the diversity is of three types: fruit of one hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold. Both in one and the other there is a change that takes place in the will, not in the nature itself. In both the unbelievers and believers it is the heart that receives the seed. "The wicked one comes," he says, "and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." In the second and third cases, he says, "That is he who hears the word." In the explanation of the good ground, he is the one who hears the word. First we must listen, then understand; after understanding, we must bear the fruits of good teaching and yield fruit either one hundredfold, sixtyfold or thirtyfold.

Jerome

Commentary on Matthew 2.13-23

Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee