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Morning Devotion for the Season of Easter
May 1, 2024
Sts. Philip and James
The Invitatory
Alleluia! Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
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: 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
I invite you to a time of deep, deep humility. Try to surrender all that you think you know and understand, all that which distinguishes you from all your fellow human beings. Admit, acknowledge what you do not understand or, perhaps believe, about the power of God in Jesus Christ. Deep breath. Wait.
For a moment, well, really for several minutes, if you will, consider how you believe and/or perceive that God manifests himself in the world. Does God just show himself in wealth, power, a self-developed wisdom none of which are altered in any degree by what does not serve their interests? If so, now is the time to acknowledge the false god that has perhaps taken up residence in your mind, heart, indeed, your life. These false gods prevent us from seeing the light that the Gospel discloses.
Is it a great surprise to you that the answer is God? For it is God alone who can compensate, if not, defend and overcome our refusal to take God seriously. What the light of the Gospel manifests is the glory of the crucified Jesus Christ: His unending sadness for us; his dying for all that all might live — is the very Wisdom of God, and so it is a reflection of eternal light, an undimmed reflection to us of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. The implication is that our perceiving and seeing this light take place in the midst of our overwhelming vulnerability. We do not have a convenient space in which we might hide.
We may come to an understanding of this in Jesus’ death in this manner. In the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, one of the Comfortable Words was rendered in this fashion: “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the Propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.” I was fascinated by the word “Propitiation.” It is a Greek word that, In essence, means satisfaction of the wrath of God against sin, turning away God's wrath, or offering a sacrifice that appeases God’s just judgment and righteous anger against us and our sin. Jesus is not simply “the propitiator” but the “propitiation.” He is what satisfies the justice of God. This users in for us the “commonwealth” that we might inhabit with God and with one another. For it is all due to Jesus Christ’s willingness to take upon himself all our hurtful behaviors, our destructive and miserable and self-harming habits, our presumptions of pride. Jesus demonstrates a love extended to us without reservation or exception, even for those whom we might say do
Rowan Williams writes in Meeting God in Paul:
Jesus, in whom the life of God is uniquely alive, the embodiment of God’s power and wisdom, God’s own mind, gives himself over completely to the task of reconciliation. The cross shows that God’s mind is oriented towards forgiveness, whatever has been done by us. And only the extreme of human violence, the rejection of this divine mind, can make plain our deep our need is, how serious our sickness. For Jesus on behalf of God to take on himself the consequences of that sickness is for him to do what all sacrificial action had tried to do - to restore a connection or relation that had been broken.
On Sunday
O God, our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steal us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great Day; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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