View as Webpage

Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany

February 6, 2023

Invitatory

I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

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: Galatians 6:11-16

See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!  As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

If I handed you a fly-swatter would you be able to give an impromptu exposition on its theological relevance?

This was once my unenviable task. In a former parish on the first Sunday of each month, I would include in the announcements after the primary service an opportunity for a designated child to “stump the rector.” He or she would present me with a brown paper bag, in which was a mystery object. My task was to reveal the object and, then and there, use it as the basis of a short homily. It was a real test of priestly acumen. I remember pulling out of the bag, among other things, a 40 year old turtle, an ancient fossil, and an autographed baseball. I had no idea what I would find. But, by far, the most challenging object I was given was a hot pink fly-swatter – glorious in color, menacing in purpose. It would have been convenient if Jesus had said that the wicked are like flies that will be squashed with nary a thought. But he didn’t. So, under the glare of 150 sets of eyes, I was left to wonder…

Sometimes, the texts that are appointed in our lectionary for rumination transport me back to that moment. They can provoke something of the same bewilderment about what could or should be said: what is one to make of these peculiar verses? There may be no obvious point that will surely offer edification or no quick moral to the story. Instead, from the very beginning, a text may throw one a bit off-kilter. Or more than a bit. So it is with the above selection from Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

It’s the conclusion of a lengthy and impassioned argument, but the issue itself has long ago lost even the merest sense of any remaining, vestigial relevance. To be honest, I know of no current context within which circumcision is a common topic of conversation. People would probably look askance if you tried to make it one. Paul’s scathing comments – approaching rage – are truly incomprehensible to us. For we live in a wholly different world, and we can’t share his emotional intensity. So the text can leave us cold: an ancient expression that lost its grit and meaning centuries back.

Except for this one thing: long ago circumcision was a mark of belonging. It was meant to be a sign of one’s being the possession of another. It was meant, as we say in baptism, to be an indication that someone was “God’s own forever.” But Paul was acutely aware that circumcision had become, instead, a tribal identification, by which some ordinary individuals could lay claim on others. It was a mark of ownership, an act of distinction and division by which someone could be counted with one group over against all the rest. And that counting was a measure of power. Belonging opens the way for boasting.

Circumcision doesn’t have, now, the prominence that it did in Paul’s time. But there are many other signs that, for us, have the same divisive function. We’re more than happy to claim allegiances that, in turn, claim us. (It’s a Philly thing). This has not changed at all. We continually find things about which we can boast, things that by sheer association makes us prideful. For some, even Jesus plays this role.

But Paul would strenuously object. He’d insist that there’s nothing in Christianity that gives us an opportunity to boast because it rejects all tribalism. Paul is clear, there is no distinction we can claim that holds before God – neither this nor that (fill in the blanks any way you want). All that truly lies before us is this promise: “a new creation is everything.” I wonder about this in a different way…

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.