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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

October 16, 2023

Invitatory

Their sound has gone out into all the lands, and their message to the ends of the world.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Jeremiah 36:20-26

Leaving the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the secretary, they went to the court of the king; and they reported all the words to the king. Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary; and Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in his winter apartment (it was the ninth month), and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. Yet neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words, was alarmed, nor did they tear their garments. Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the secretary Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But the Lord hid them.

Meditation -Rebecca Northington

This week the New York Times posted an article about a man named Charles Feeney; a billionaire who gave most of his wealth away quietly before dying on Monday, at 92 years old. It’s a story that fascinates many because Feeney came from modest beginnings, and chose to live out his life in modest endings. But in his mid-life he became a king of sorts, living on a scale that many of us cannot even imagine with vast real estate holdings all over the world, extravagant toys, posh galas and the rest of the trappings of the ultra rich. Yet at some point he decided it was not what he wanted, and he slowly untangled his wealth and power until he was moving around the world in public transportation, and living in a two-bedroom rented apartment in San Francisco.

I think we can agree that while Feeney is not the only example of this kind of chosen humble living, he is the exception and not the rule. For many, as the money and power piles up, it becomes harder and harder to find sure footing and to hear that voice that urges modesty and humility. The saying goes: power corrupts, and ultimate power corrupts ultimately.

I do not know Charles Feeney’s relationship with God, and I am not suggesting that he was visited by a prophet who urged repentance. But I can speculate on the cycle of warning, threatening, and urging that fills much of the Old Testament regarding Prophets and the people. The Prophets warn the people to return to the covenant, to abandon new gods and false idols and to beg forgiveness of their one and only true YAHWEH. If the people heed the warning, God will be with them, if they do not, God’s wrath will come upon them.

Often the people, and kings, reject both the warning and the messenger, through persecution and violence, in which case, the prophecy comes true. In this reading the King is not surprised by Jeremiah’s message, he simply wants to make it disappear, burn it up. He does not want to relinquish his power, or show ultimate deference to God. He assumes he can operate without God, and he risks all of his people's safety and security in his arrogance.

In some ways the Prophets can represent that quite but firm voice inside each of us telling us the right way to live and the right way to love God; and our ego in this scenario, would be the other voice urging us to pursue our own false control, our own false power, resisting God’s role in our lives. Like the cartoons with the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. God was and is, always trying to lead us into a greater freedom, one that doesn’t involve the constraints of false gods, false powers and self-destructive habits. Feeney’s story is newsworthy because it reveals the unlikelihood of his choice; the unlikelihood on any scale, of us surrendering to something bigger than ourselves.

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.