Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany
January 24, 2022
Feast Day of Florence Li Tim-Oi, 1992
Invitatory
Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.
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: Galatians 3:23-29
Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Meditation – Peter Vanderveen
Several years ago on a Sunday afternoon I was given the opportunity to attend an Eagles game. It was memorable – though maybe not in the way many might think. It was a frigid December day, and the game was scheduled for 4:00 PM. This allowed the group of us who traveled down together to suffer through several hours of standing, shivering, in a relatively empty parking lot, tending a small grill. I had the temerity to ask why we were subjecting ourselves to this discomfort. I was informed then that this was an essential part of the football ritual.
By the time the gates to the stadium opened, darkness was beginning to set in. I was wearing two jackets in the vain attempt to ward off the cold, and, when I had left my house, I had grabbed the only hat available to me. It was a Phillies cap. As we ambled in amid the swarming crowd, a number of raucous Eagles fans suddenly stopped me and announced that I was guilty of a terrible offense: how could I wear a baseball cap to a football game? They then loudly announced that I had no right to enjoy the game; I couldn’t be a true fan. Instead, they said, they would enjoy roughing me up. Thinking quickly – if not desperately – in the moment, I lost no time in pointing out a number of people nearby who were wearing New York Jets jerseys. Surely, I intimated, they were more deserving of mistreatment.
This proved to be a winning suggestion, at least for me. I had located a better target for the restless menace of these several young men – a more offensive tribe.
By common measure, I may be the worst kind of fan. For I tend to have more interest in the game than the competition. I marvel at the physical prowess of professional athletes and the complexity, power, and artistry engaged in team sports. Who wins and who loses is a secondary issue. Some might consider this a heretical statement; such is their sense of team loyalty (along with all the other loyalties that team devotion may include). But it makes any game worthy, regardless of the outcome. And it reduces the disappointment that many feel (and then may physically express) when their team loses.
In so much of our public conversation now traits that used to be distinctions are being hardened into insurmountable divisions. Whatever we claim our identity to be, it has to be over and against someone else’s identity. Any distinguishing quality will do. We can make use of it to set us apart so that we can then debate who, accordingly, has been treated fairly – or not – and who is winning and who is losing. And this is making our lives a bare-knuckled competition rather than an engagement that evokes interest, admiration, and respect for the differing skills exhibited by others.
Paul called this out in the strongest of terms. For what was accomplished by God in Jesus was the dissolution of the power of any distinction to divide us: not tribe, not gender, not status, not history – not even team. The distinctions still matter. They aren’t erased. But they are meant to be contributive to a far greater enjoyment of all that God in creation is continually setting before us. We are all at play together. And the play’s the thing. For Paul this wasn’t just a maxim we could adopt. We fail continually. But it’s the miraculous truth to which we can hold, which we can also express – not as a threat but as surprising invitation.
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.
