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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

October 3, 2022

Feast of John Raleigh Mott 1955

Invitatory

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Come let us adore him.

Reading: Luke 7:11-17

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen among us!” and “God has looked favorably on his people!” This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

What does one do to show that she is truly alive? Admittedly, this is an odd question. Isn’t it enough to breathe or to have a heartbeat, or, more exactingly, to register some demonstrable measure of brain function. Clinically maybe; but there are other dimensions to living that remain doggedly mysterious. Take, for instance, the profusion of books and television shows that have appeared in the last decade that are based on zombies – some representation of the “walking dead.” Why this fascination? And why has it suddenly become so popular? It may be that we’re a bit horrified by the potential of enduring bodily, even after all the capacities that define us as individuals have shut down. Or it may be that we’re quietly afraid that we can move through our years easily enough, yet without ever exhibiting or enjoying real vitality. Something essential is missing. Something animating.

In Luke’s account of the raising of the dead man in Nain, wouldn’t it have been enough if he had merely noted that Jesus’ command had authority. Told to get up off the bier, this cadaverous body did just that. He got up. This would have been surprising indeed (I’m aware that this is an immense understatement). But would it have been satisfactory? Or was something else more necessary?

Curiously, Luke tells us that the dead man not only sat up; he also began to speak. We’re not told what this man said (which is too bad; I’d have been interested). Nor are we told anything about the nature of his words. Were they garbled or intelligible? Did they provoke a response from the crowd all around him? Did the man address Jesus? Did he have something to say about the experience of death? Or did he say that there was nothing he could say about death because words are only able to express something about life? We’re given no clue. Nothing. It was sufficient to note only that as soon as this man was given his life again, he had something to say. Descartes could have written his famous dictum as: I speak, therefore I am… alive.

Robert Jenson, one of the most creative theologians of the last century, referred to human beings as the one animal who is able to pray, which entails a two-fold manner of speaking. First, Jenson observed: “I am not simply what I am, but I am what I am in a conversation [within me] about what I ought to be, what I can be.” This is the origin of our freedom. And second, he added: “the specificity of humankind is not [merely] that we talk, the specificity of humankind is to whom we talk” when we pray. This is our hope. And when freedom and hope are closely intertwined, then we are most alive.

(May it be also noted that zombies can do neither. Thus, the church’s concern and mission is not just found in securing an afterlife. How strange that would be. Its work is being a witness to what life in profusion can be, when the eternal is brought to bear in the present).

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

    hallowed be thy Name,

    thy kingdom come,

    thy will be done,

        on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

    as we forgive those

        who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

    and the power, and the glory

   for ever and ever. Amen.