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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

June 7, 2023

Invitatory

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

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 - Luke 17: 22-37

Then he said to the disciples, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. They will say to you, ‘Look there!’ or ‘Look here!’ Do not go, do not set off in pursuit. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking, and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulphur from heaven and destroyed all of them —it will be like that on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, anyone on the housetop who has belongings in the house must not come down to take them away; and likewise anyone in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife. Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it. I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.” Then they asked him, “Where, Lord?” He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”



Meditation - Winnie Smith

There are many details about the world of Harry Potter that I wish could be replicated in our own. The game of quidditch, the ability to fly, the perfectly weird chemistry of potions - I could go on. One thing I am particularly envious of is the mode of transportation known as apparating. This is magical teleportation. A witch or wizard can almost instantly appear or disappear from a place. I remember reading about this power in one of the early books of the series, and I could so easily picture the suddenness of people emerging or seemingly evaporating in an instant. I so wished it was possible.

I probably know more about apparating and disapparating than I do about the concept of “rapture.” But when I read today’s passage from Luke, the image that comes to mind is nearly identical to those images of wizards emerging and disappearing from the Ministry of Magic or Platform 9 ¾. What Luke describes is kind of terrifying: “I tell you, on that night there will be two in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. There will be two women grinding meal together; one will be taken and the other left.” My formerly evangelical friends tell me that this idea of rapture was taught to them from an early age, and they were terrified of it. One day, it is taught, true believers will be snatched away and will be brought into the clouds to meet Jesus alongside all other true believers. It will be a seismic event.

In every Eucharist we affirm our belief that Christ will one day return. “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” The Nicene Creed states Jesus “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” We don’t know when it will happen or what it will look like when Christ returns, but as Episcopalians we generally do not believe that it will involve this concept of rapture. I do not live in fear of one day being lifted up into the clouds with Jesus, nor, perhaps more frighteningly, being left behind as a non-believer. But I do hold to the belief that one day Christ will return and somehow - I won’t venture a guess as to how - change the world. God works in mysterious ways, so who knows - maybe then, like Hermione and Harry, I will finally gain the power of apparating.

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