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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

November 16, 2022

Invitatory

Give thanks to the Lord, and call upon his Name; make known his deeds among the peoples.

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.

Reading: James 3:13-4:4

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity. And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.



Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

Sometimes there’s nothing better than a well-placed expletive. Anyone who has ever driven a car knows this. Expletives erupt as both needful and supremely satisfying.

The common expletives of our own time tend to be rude and insulting – verbal projectiles of words that we’d otherwise have trouble fitting into amicable or civilized conversations. In order to appear less offensive, we sometimes reduce them to mere initials, which allow us to quietly jab without giving the sense that we’ve thrown a punch. 

But expletives aren’t required to be coarse to be effective. The best of them prove to be witty or even devastatingly insightful. In a word or two they can precisely sum up what is the case. While much of our language can seem to be the exercise of circling around what’s really at issue (in long excursuses that are meant to be explanative – giving examples, dismissing excuses, pressing the point with methodical repetition), such expletives land solidly on center, granting no possibility of retort. And they carry with them an immediate impatience: the astonishment that others just don’t see what is simply, painfully evident.

There are a fair number of expletives in the Biblical texts. It seems only fitting. James included one in the text above. And if you read the passage with any attention, you can almost see it coming. Nothing he says is surprising, neither about what drives our evil nor about the contrary gift of peace. But who really listens to this? It’s long-winded, and we’d rather just continue on as we will. Thus, James’ moment of frustration, expressed in two biting words: “unfaithful creatures!” 

This actually says far more than any of our preferred expletives. For it reminds us of the fundamental breach at the core of our being and not just a momentary act of idiocy. We are creatures – an aspect of ourselves that we almost completely ignore. And by ignoring this, we snub the very one to whom we owe our existence, meaning, and worth. Damn (pardon the expletive). 

In the Biblical context, however, James’ expletive doesn’t stand alone as a concluding judgment. It serves, instead, as the rather fierce backdrop that reframes in sharper lines the nature of God’s own faithfulness to us – which is beyond explanation or definition or accounting. It’s infinite. For which we have one word, an antonym for all our expletives: Alleluia.

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.