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Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

September 20, 2023

Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop, and his Companions, Martyrs,

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: Mark 8:34-37

He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

For quite some time now, at least several decades, the Episcopal church has tried in just about every way imaginable to get out the message that everyone is welcome in the church. On the more subtle side, countrywide, there are thousands of signs placed in strategic curbside areas that announce the nearby presence of a particular parish, with the discreet tagline that “All are welcome.” More aggressively, many banners hung at the entrance to church properties declare that “All are welcome - NO EXCEPTIONS.” This is a little too insistent for my taste; to my ears it’s like stomping one’s foot and making an invitation into something more like a battle cry. Nonetheless, the messaging tries to be comprehensively consistent. Anyone can come. Everyone can come. Even people like __________ (fill in the blank with any description that comes to mind) can come. Because God loves us all, each and every one.

Now, apart from the valid question of what welcome means when it is so universally extended and asks nothing in return, we must also know what it is to which we are welcoming others. If someone, anyone, simply wandered into a service one day, any day, and were to hear the Gospel reading above, he or she or they might, quite rightly, wonder what had happened to the welcome they had expected. What happened to the broad inclusion that was promised? Jesus seems to have closed the door significantly. And, all the more, what in the world does it mean, really, to “deny [oneself] and take up [one’s] cross?”

This should cause us to pause. And yet, this has become one of many routine Christian expressions that fall from our lips with hardly a thought or concern. We read it and hear it and say it or sing it as an essential part of the faith and, all the while, we’re much more preoccupied by the worry that the service is going long and the hymns aren’t that good anyway and, at this rate, there won’t be time to stop at the grocery store before getting the kids to their sporting events. So Jesus’ words become just a bit of Christian jargon for the idea that we must work for what we want. And if what we want is of eternal worth, then we had better be prepared to sacrifice a lot – or a lot more than a lot, and maybe more than that – at least in the opportune vagueness of theory.

But what if one wanted to take this more seriously and actually put it into practice? What would this entail? Is it even possible to make this statement anything other than a literal command without making it less than what Jesus asked? What would fit the bill? Let me know if you have an answer.

I think that Jesus’ point was to state emphatically that no one can do what he was doing. There is no cross for us. This is not our task. There is no way to follow after Jesus in this manner. He was telling us that he alone could do this. Measure yourself by his words. Have you accomplished this? Have any of us? We’re meant to hear this not as a general rule of faith but as it applies particularly to each of us. It shows us our true size.

And in similar manner, welcoming is not something that can be accomplished in general, by means of slogans and branding statements, however they’re disbursed. Welcome is particular; it waits upon each of us to see, in the moment, who is present in the full idiosyncrasy of their personhood, whatever their measure. The Gospels push us to see Jesus in this light; so, too, Jesus asks us to pay such close attention, no less, to those around us, seeing each not as one among many but for who each is, in the Gospel sense of being face to face.

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.