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Morning Devotion for the Season of Lent

April 5, 2023

Wednesday in Holy Week

Invitatory

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.

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: Philippians 4:8-13

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things. As for the things that you have learned and received and heard and noticed in me, do them, and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I am referring to being in need, for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to be abased, and I know how to abound. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

It’s easy to pass over the Invitatory that begins the morning devotions. Repetition has a way of leading us to skim over these opening statements, and I know from my own reading that it’s tempting to jump immediately to the meditation. If the meditation proves interesting, then the Reading or the Invitatory might warrant more than a passing glance.

For many, Isaiah’s statement that “all we like sheep have gone astray” can’t be read without hearing Handel’s setting of this line in his Messiah. And it’s this phrase that captures our attention. That we have gone astray is the focus. How we have gone astray doesn’t much matter. And it might seem that Isaiah himself conceded this; for he offered no immediate list of examples – like the many entrancing series of notorious sins that Paul could spin out at will. He never asked his listeners to do their own quick inventory of offenses. A general declaration of our rebellion may have seemed enough. But I want to linger here for a moment.

“We have turned every one to his own way,” might, indeed, describe only an overarching malaise – a kind of inattention or indifference to God. As such, this pronouncement is more broadly descriptive than accusative. For no one is pointed out. And yet, isn’t this exactly the one, specific injury we are suffering in spades today. “Every one to his own way” is the singular and very personal insistence that is creating wave after wave of anger and shouting and rampant threat among us. And there’s no bottom to it because every one demands that, above all else, it is his or her or their fundamental right to be who he or she or they uniquely are, and it is everyone else's fundamental obligation to recognize, appreciate, and support each and everyone else. Anything less than this is an injustice – and if there’s no justice, there’s no peace.

But this is an impossible task that puts us all in an impossible place. Our unrest shows it. And in this light, Isaiah may have meant his second line – not in a summary way – but as his explicit naming of the one exceptional sin that is more dangerous than all the rest: “every one to his own way.” This is the very definition of an uncontrollable chaos, especially when it’s hailed as the greatest good. And if we read Isaiah’s declaration in this way, it has real bite.

And if we read it in this way, the great beauty of Paul’s benediction from Philippians shines forth. By his repetition of the word “whatever” along with “any” and “anything” he urged his readers to continually look outside themselves for all that is good, abiding, and satisfying. It is possible, he said, that we can seek out countless reasons for gratitude. It is possible to be amazed at all that is excellent all around us. It is possible to be thrilled by the sheer plenitude of gift that is the world, the world that God loves, and the world that God will, in all its fullness, redeem. There is such power and balm in the sweep of Paul’s rhetoric.

Would anyone dare, today, say that even in their abasement they can abound? Rage is far more immediate to us than is courage; resentment is easier than faith. But Paul would have us believe that at the root of life is God, and in God, life abounds, and in this we share. We need only to “think on these things.”

Prayer

Father in Heaven!

Hold not our sins up against us

But hold us up against our sins,

So that the thought of Thee should not remind us

Of what we have committed,

But of what Thou didst forgive;

Not how we went astray,

But how Thou didst save us!

Søren Kierkegaard