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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

June 26, 2023

Feast Day of Isabel Florence Hapgood

Invitatory

Lord, open our lips.

And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

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: John 15:5-8

I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

It’s tempting to relegate Jesus to being very much like a genie. Televangelists have long made fortunes for themselves by doing just this. They sell their followers the promise that God will fulfill any and all their wishes. People need only to come to Jesus and (in so doing) realize that they will be greatly rewarded – especially if they give substantially to that televangelist’s ministry. What a deal!

Americans seem uniquely vulnerable to this con. Exceptionalism is just as much a part of our religion as it is our politics. God might be entirely silent elsewhere and for others, but, supposedly, we’re different. And our wishes, then, have a strange power to persist, no matter how or how often they’re disappointed. They transcend the limitations to which we ourselves are bound. For, it is suggested, God will get us what we want. Isn’t this, after all, what God is for? “Ask for whatever you wish.” Jesus will see that it comes true.

The verses above from John are regularly heard in just this way. The conditional seems clear. If you have faith enough, then God will do your bidding. It’s so simple; which makes it so enticing.

What is easily overlooked in this reading of the text however, is the substance of the conditional. We can be so eager to get to what we wish that we can miss the fact that first we must “abide.” And abiding is the central emphasis of these verses: we in Jesus, and Jesus’ words in us. What does this ask of us? In this context, abiding is a form of waiting upon or entrusting one’s self. And if the weight of this is taken into account, then the whole thrust of Jesus’ promise is changed. Abiding isn’t something to be done as the means to having our own wishes fulfilled. It’s rather the discipline that reforms the very things for which we wish. Abiding is the fundamental act that informs what it is that we will desire.

Jesus prayed for God’s kingdom to come. This was his desire. He said that we should pray for the same, as that for which we wish above all. For when this defines the “whatever you wish,” then asking itself is changed. It’s no longer looking to get something that you do not have. It’s hoping for eyes to see what is right before you that remains yet unperceived. No magic is necessary. Nor is its inherent disappointment lurking. Instead, the world itself and our time within it comes increasingly into sight as the vast theater of God’s grace.

Can any of us wish for more?

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,

         forever and ever. Amen.