Morning Devotion for Epiphany
Monday February 14, 2022
The Invitatory
I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
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.
The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.
Reading: John 9:1-17
As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”
They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”
Meditation – Michael Palmisano
Theresa and I flew out to California for her cousin’s graduation from Cal Berkeley back in 2018. The commencement address was slated to be offered by then-Senator Kamala Harris, but standing in solidarity with the striking UC workers, she pulled out from the engagement days in advance. In Harris’ stead, University Chancellor Carol Christ offered the address to the student body and their loved ones gathered in the football stadium on that beautiful California afternoon.
During her address, countless students protested in solidarity with Harris by standing with their backs turned to Chancellor Carol Christ. Likewise, a number of students offered a counterprotest by standing and holding a flag of sorts (it was hard to see what it was). To add to the tensions and confusion, there appeared to be yet more protesters signaling an entirely different issue – this was later confirmed when found out from Theresa’s cousin that there were other simultaneous, unrelated protests going on. All in all, that span of about a dozen minutes must have been one of the greatest spectacles that football stadium had provided all year.
This is no judgement on the power of protest. Certainly not. Non-violent protest is one of the great liberties afforded to the people of this nation. However, I couldn’t help but think of that day when I read the following line in today’s text: “And they [the Pharisees] were divided.” One would have thought that the Pharisees’ common enemy in Jesus would have ostensibly unified them in their anger – as can so often and tragically be the case when people and nations scapegoat common foes. However, instead we see in them the true fruit of anger – division. In my estimation, division on a communal scale is only the outward sign of the internal division that anger exacts upon individuals.
The objects of our anger demand from each of us an infinite supply of our energy and attention. An unquenched anger merely suggests that we have not yet expended enough of ourselves to address the source of our ire. However, throughout the Gospel and at its climatic moment on the cross, Jesus offers a different, more creative path than human anger. Jesus effectively protests all human anger and hatred by absorbing it and returning to us only Love. By Him we come to know that Love builds up. Love unifies the self. Love unifies communities. Love seizes us and gives us clarity of sight and a wellspring of energy to enact lasting changes in our world. In exchange for our anger, Jesus extends to us a Love from which our divided selves might even be capable of finding oneness.
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.
Closing Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
