Reflections on Scripture through the Daily Office (9)
Pentecost Sunday, and the week leading to Trinity Sunday
Sunday: Psalm 118; 145; Isaiah 11:1-9, 1 Corinthians 2:1-13, John 14:21-29
‘They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.’
The steadfast love of the Lord endures forever; see how the ever-giving Holy Spirit is given to us this day!
“The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I [Jesus] have said to you…now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe” — often, when we think about belief, we think about knowledge. We believe what we know, and we come to know by experiencing an event, reflecting on what we have seen, and through reasoning and collaboration with others come to a knowledge about our encounter with that experience. Yet this picture of knowledge and belief is centered around us as individuals, and contrasts starkly with Jesus’ explanation of how belief happens for us in John 14:21-29. Instead, we first hear of something, and then gain a memory of that teaching (along with whatever degree of comprehension and knowledge we acquire from hearing it); then, in a moment we do know ahead of time or have any degree of control over, we come to actually see and actually believe. Though we think we understand at the time, we only later see how impoverished, inadequate, or even wrong that understanding was.
Now, this does not devalue our journeys or disparage what knowledge we have in the present moment, but it does show how much we are quick to believe in our own selves and our own capacities of understanding rather than placing our belief in God in an open-handed trust. Jesus tells us beforehand so that we might actually believe rather than just think we believe, and Jesus simultaneously gives the great Helper and Reminder-er and Advocate to make it possible for each and every one of us to know him, and know everything by and through him.
Indeed, which one of us can explain how it might be that a bear and a lion will one day eat grass, and a toddler will play over the snake’s den without harm? That in this way the earth will be full of the knowledge of God (Isaiah 11:1-9)? Which of us picked out the cornerstone that the knowledgeable, successful, and experienced builders rejected out of their own good wisdom (Psalm 118:22-24)? We continue to marvel at what God has done in Christ, and we know and trust (we “believe”) that Christ will complete the work of reconciliation he started upon his return (e.g. John 14:2-3;16:20-24, 12:32). Yet! We do not know when or how this will be accomplished, beyond what Jesus has told us and commanded us—to follow his commandments by the help and teaching of the Holy Spirit, (2 Corinthians 2:11-12), and not with our own strength or by our own timing.
“One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts” (Psalm 145:4) — how incredible, that the same Spirit who the first Christians received as promised by Jesus on the heels of his ascension to the Father, is the same Spirit who is given to us today. How amazing, that the same Spirit who inspired the psalmist 3,000 some odd years ago to knowingly write of the God who is kind and just, writes to inform Jesus’ contemporaries and us today that God is a God who fulfills the desires of all, and saves those who call upon him (Psalm 145: 8-9; 15-20).
Today, it is Pentecost. Just as the people of Jerusalem heard the proclamation of the gospel in their own tongues (Acts 2:1-13), so too I hope we can hear from the saints whose feast days we celebrate this week, spanning the nations of Ireland, Syria, Cyprus, Canada-Minnesota, Portugal, and Cappadocia (within modern day Turkey). In other words, let us hear the Word of God from a diverse people of many time-periods, tribes, nations, and tongues, by his ever-revealing self, the Holy Spirit!
Prayer: How could one speak properly about love if you were forgotten, you God of love, source of all love in heaven and on earth; you who spared nothing but in love gave everything; you who are love, so that one who loves is what he is only by being in you. How could one speak properly about love if you were forgotten, you who revealed what love is, you our Savior and Redeemer, who gave yourself in order to save all. How could one speak properly of love if you were forgotten, you Spirit of love, who take nothing of your own but remind us of that love-sacrifice, remind the believer to love as he is loved and his neighbor as himself! O Eternal Love, you who are everywhere present and never without witness where you are called upon, be not without witness in what will be said and meditated upon this week. Amen (Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love p. 3, lightly adapted)
Monday: Psalm 56, 57, [58]; Deuteronomy 30:1-10, 2 Corinthians 10:1-18, Luke 18:31-43
Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. The LORD your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live. …the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the LORD your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. — Deuteronomy 30:4-6; 9b-10
Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ… We do not boast beyond limits, that is, in the labors of others; but our hope is that, as your faith increases, our sphere of action among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may proclaim the good news in lands beyond you… — 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; 15-16
Today St Columba (521-597 CE) is remembered, one of the great key figures to bring the gospel to Scotland. He was Irish, and obediently went to the island of Iona, even though he felt it as an exile at first. A controversy had irrupted in Ireland over who owned the rights to a psalter Columba had copied, and that controversy resulted in the death of as many as 3,000 men. Out of penance Columba went to Scotland with 12 others, with the aim to spread the gospel amidst the Pictish peoples.
How bitterly sad, that such great death and strife would occur over ownership of a Psalter, containing the Psalms inspired by the Holy Spirit. How humbling and strange, that through this episode a significant Christian missionary movement was born. We see how God is faithful to his purposes, that all might love and know him in their own hearts, minds, and souls, even by means of the necessity of exile.
For God’s warfare is non-violent; it is Jesus impossibly risen from death after first being betrayed and ‘handed over’ by his kinsman and ‘flogged and killed’ by foreigners (Luke 18:31-34) that God works out his victory upon us. With the companionship of the Holy Spirit the weapons of persuasion are wielded to break down spiritual strongholds, where every stray thought is presented as a captive to Jesus Christ, where through the faith of the faithful the sphere of the gospel’s influence might ever widen (2 Corinthians 3-5, 15-16). God continues to take human violence, and defeat it through his nonviolent ways.
Prayer: In the words of St Columba, our laments are heard, and so too our praise— “Leaving my kith and kin, I give hint of my hurt! Nightly swift tears shall swim over my lids from my heart. I am come of the Irish—the Irish taught me—it has come of the Irish that churls mock me. Yet, sundering from the Irish, with their way my way blended, little loss if I die in a night, unbefriended… Alone with none but thee, my God, I journey on my way. What need I fear when thou art near, O King of night and day? More safe am I within thy hand, than if a host should round me stand.” Amen (St Columba, from Celtic Daily Prayer Book Two p. 1271, and The Society of St Columba’s website)
Tuesday: Psalm 61, 62; Deuteronomy 30:11-20, 2 Corinthians 11:1-21a, Luke 19:1-10
He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax-collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’
St Ephrem the Syrian (306-373 CE) is beloved throughout the Syriac, Eastern, Catholic, and Anglican churches as “the Harp of the Holy Spirit.” Living during the time of the first Council of Nicaea (325 CE), he deeply contributed to the worship, liturgy, and poetry of the church, exemplifying how the full humanity and divinity of Jesus is salvific, great news.1
From Luke today we read of Zacchaeus’ meeting with Jesus, which St Ephriam incorporated into one of his hymns:
“Who has given me a little breath of the Spirit?
It is not for prophecy—this would be a request for death—
But that I might be able to proclaim the glory
Of him who is greater than all, with my poor tongue.
Without the very gift of that Greatness,
Mouths could not distribute from its treasures.
Yet, with its key they are opened—
Its treasure, before its treasure-keepers.
Glory to the gift of speech in the mouth of orators,
Though it does not hinder their freedom through its discourse!
…Without the gift of the word, the mouth could not
Tell about the Word—how [it exists] or how great it is…
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…Inscribed in creation is the type of the Son of the Creator:
In light, fire, and water, along with the rest,
Through which and with which he can
Draw humanity into the type of Greatness…
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…If a person, through and by means of created things,
Can come to you, I, Lord, will come to you.
May the example of Zacchaeus, who grew up, instruct me
In you his shortness grew tall and he rose up to come to you.
A word from you brought him
To its side, though he had been far from you.
A fig tree with no fruits brought forth a wondrous fruit;
Something insipid, with no taste, brought forth taste.
An insipid fig tree, by means of its sickly
Fruits has seasoned the insipid.2
It is a marvel that the fig tree was deprived of its natural fruit
And bore another fruit, not of its nature.
While there was no food from one perspective,
The hungry ate it in the portions that he divided.
May your gift call even to me, as to Zacchaeus.
Not because I have divided [my] riches like him, Lord,
But because I have hastened—even me—
To return your money with interest!3
And consider this: when he gave his money to the merchants,
He showed us that without his abundance there is no commerce,
Just as without his gift, there is no true praise…”4
Prayer: Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you, when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me abide in your tent forever, find refuge under the shelter of your wings. For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Amen (Psalm 61:1-5)
Wednesday: Psalm 72; Deuteronomy 31:30-32:14, 2 Corinthians 11:21b-33, Luke 19:11-27
If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus (blessed be he for ever!) knows that I do not lie. In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas set a guard on the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands. — 2 Corinthians 11:30-33
Today we remember St Barnabas of Cyprus (?-61 CE), whose name was changed from Joseph by the first apostles, owing to how great an encourager Barnabas was (Acts 4:36). We first hear of Barnabas as the man who sold a field he owned in order to lay the proceeds at the feet of the apostle Peter. His zealous movement of faith is mimicked by Ananias and Sapphira, who wish for the communion of the Spirit on their own terms, showing so by their attempt to deceive the apostles by holding back some of the proceeds of their own field for themselves. The Holy Spirit reveals this to Peter, and they both individually die as a result of their lie (Acts 5:1-11).
Note how starkly the God of Deuteronomy 32 compares to the nobleman of Jesus’ parable in Luke 19:11-27! God reveals of himself through a song given to Moses, so that the people of Israel might remember him after they have spurned and turned away from him. “The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he…is he not your father, who created you, who made you and established you?” God is the sustainer, the shield, the guide, the nurse, the provider of all bountiful and good things (Deuteronomy 32:4, 6a, 10-14). Yet while God and Jesus call God our father (Deuteronomy 32:6, 2 Corinthians 11:31), we call God our harsh ruler who treats us as his slaves and takes away what rightfully belongs to us, justifying our own hate and distant hearts (Luke 11:20-21; 14).
Barnabas knew and served the God who self-discloses as a giving, just, and merciful God, while Ananias and Sapphira disbelieved God as proved through their actions, coveting gold they thought God ‘had not deposited, nor reaped in order to sow’ (Luke 11:21).
We note today too, that we have the Paul we know and love largely with thanks to Barnabas, who through his deep faith in the transformative power of God stood up for Paul when no one else would (Acts 9:26-28). The gospel Paul preaches is the gospel Barnabas did too, one where all boasting about one’s self is foolishness, unless it be of our weakness so that God might be better seen, and known, and enjoyed.
Prayer: Oh Lord, you deliver the needy when they call, and the poor and those who have no helper. You have pity on the weak and the needy; from oppression and violence you redeem their life; their blood is precious in your sight. May all nations be blessed in you, may they be pronounced happy in you. Amen (Psalm 72:12-14, 18-19, lightly adapted grammatically)
Thursday: Psalm [70], 71; Sirach 44:19-45:5, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10, Luke 19:28-40
As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’ — Luke 19:36-40
Today we remember a saint much closer to us in timeline, and only recognized by the Episcopal church—Reverend J. J. Enmegahbowh (1813-1901), who was the first Native American to be made a priest in the Episcopal church.5 He has been saved from historical oblivion, and is recognized by the church, almost exclusively owing to the efforts of his biographer Stephen Schaitberger, who published a book on his life in 2021 and successfully petitioned the Episcopal church to recognize him as a saint.6
Enmegahbowh’s name means “Stands Before His People”, and a name more prophetic of his life and undertaking he could not have been given. He often experienced misunderstanding and criticism from every side of the racial, national, and religious divides, yet remained deeply committed to the believe that peaceful and total devotion to Jesus Christ the Savior was the only hope for him and not only his people, the Ojibwe, but the entire American nation.7
Jesus answers the critical Pharisees upon his fatal, kingly entry into Jerusalem, “I tell you, if these [people] were silent, the stones would shout out” (Luke 19:40). Enmegahbowh’s recounting of the devoted life of his friend Nabunashkong (also called Isaac H. Tuttle) relates to Jesus’ remark in an ironic and theologically pregnant way:
“The [Baptismal] Service was over. Now comes the struggle. As he [Chief Tuttle] walked homeward, he met a Grand Medicine man, who told him how foolish he was to cut his hair locks, and become a Christian man; and how his people would look upon him, and he would lose his influence among his people; and the best thing he could do was to retract his new religion. Tuttle said to his friend, ‘Do you see, yonder, those rocks that lie on the hill? Go to them direct, and ask them to give me permission to retract my new religious faith. If they cannot, I shall be more firm and unmovable to the great work I have engaged in.’”8
Prayer: Oh Heavenly Father, whose days are without end, and whose mercies cannot be numbered; make us, we ask you, deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of human life. Let your Great Spirit lead us through this vale of misery in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives, that when we have served you in our generation we may be gathered to our fathers, having the testimony of a good conscience, in the communion of the catholic Church, in the confidence of a certain faith, in the comfort of a reasonable, religious, and holy hope, in favor with you our God, and in perfect charity with the world. All which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen (Enmegahbowh, lightly modernized and adapted)
Friday: Psalm 69; Sirach 45:6-16, 2 Corinthians 12:11-21, Luke 19:41-48
Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? We are speaking in Christ before God. Everything we do, beloved, is for the sake of building you up. For I fear that when I come, I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish; I fear that there may perhaps be quarrelling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you, and that I may have to mourn over many who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness that they have practiced. — 2 Corinthians 12:19-21
St Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) might be familiar to those among us who were raised in the Catholic Church, but for myself I didn’t know of this Portuguese “Ark of the Testament” (more popularly known today as the “Hammer of Heretics”), until I started preparing for this week’s devotionals. St Anthony lead a short but passionate life, being well-liked by Francis of Assisi, and was one of the first to be entrusted as a preacher of the Franciscan Order. His preaching was memorable because of how he balanced a zeal for life being shaped like the cruciform Christ’s with an intellectual and Scriptural rigor. “St Anthony writes: ‘Christ who is your life is hanging before you, so that you may look at the Cross as in a mirror. There you will be able to know how mortal were your wounds, that no medicine other than the Blood of the Son of God could heal. If you look closely, you will be able to realize how great your human dignity and your value are.... Nowhere other than looking at himself in the mirror of the Cross can man better understand how much he is worth’” (Pope Benedict XVI, “Saint Anthony of Padua,” February 2010).
Are we too scared to repent? Are we afraid to admit of the wrongs we have done, because of fear that we are then counted among the despised and the outcast; that we therefore “aren’t Christian” and “aren’t Christ’s”? How quickly we forget the core of the gospel! It is painful, but liberating, to continue to see and bring our faults before the Crucified and Risen One, who ‘ate poison for food and drank sour wine’ on our behalf, and who ever-endures our reproaches (Psalm 69:21; 9). Let us remember afresh that his Way really is the best and life-giving Way (2 Corinthians 12:19-21), and that He Has Done It so that we might repent, and live.
Prayer: Let us pray, then, dearest, to the almighty Father: that he would grant us to do his will, to purify the temple of our heart from all uncleanness, and to celebrate the true Passover; that we may be made fit to come to the eternal heritage he has promised us through our joint heir, Jesus Christ his beloved Son. May he grant this, who with his most dear Son and the Holy Spirit is one eternal God, living and reigning for ever and ever. Let the whole Church say. Alleluia, Amen (St Anthony of Padua)
Saturday: Psalm 75, 76; Sirach 46:1-10, 2 Corinthians 13:1-14, Luke 20:1-8
We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks; your name is near.
People tell of your wondrous works. — Psalm 75:1
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There he broke the flashing arrows, the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war…
At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both rider and horse lay stunned…
Human wrath serves only to praise you, when you bind the last bit of your wrath around you. — Psalm 76:3, 6, 10
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He [Christ] is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God. — 2 Corinthians 13:3b-4
American Episcopalians remember and give thanks for St Basil the Great (329-379 CE) today, which feels fitting being on the eve of Trinity Sunday.9 For, without Basil’s monumental political and theological efforts Christians might not enjoy the understanding they do of the Holy Trinity today. While struggles during Basil’s lifetime continued over how to understand the divinity of Jesus, so too did struggles persist in accepting the Holy Spirit as equally divine and deserving of personhood as God the Father and Jesus the Son. For example, throughout Basil’s copious writings he wrote and taught that “The Son is inseparably conjoined with the Father and the Spirit with the Son”, and “Wherever is the presence of the Holy Spirit, there is the indwelling of Christ: wherever Christ is, there the Father is present.”
Yes, it really is good news that our God is Trinity. For the Holy Trinity reveals God to us as more personable, more loving, more relational, more joyous in being, more mysterious in expressions of wisdom, will, and purpose as a Creator, than we ever could have imagined or hoped for on our own.
In companionship with the unbroken line of the saints, let us each say by the graciousness of the ever-giving Spirit, “Go forth today, for He has done it! Go forth this day, He is doing it! Go forth into the day, for He will do it!”
Prayer: Finished and perfected, so far as we are able, is the mystery of thy incarnate work, O Christ our God. For we have kept the memorial of thy death, we have seen the figure of thy resurrection, we have been filled with thine unending life, we have rejoiced in thine unfailing joy. Grant that we may be counted worthy of that same joy also in the age to come. Amen (from the liturgy of St Basil the Great)
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St Ephrem the Syrian, also known as St Ephrem of Nisibis, is usually remembered on June 9th, but the Episcopal Church breaks from this and recognizes him on June 10th (quite possibly so that St Columba and St Ephrem need not compete for attention with worshipers).
“In the Lukan narrative, Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree to see Christ. The Syriac term for ‘sycamore tree’ is tītā pakkīhtā, literally “tasteless fig tree.” While never using the term, Ephrem clearly alludes to it in this passage, rendering the ‘sycamore tree’—a fig tree without figs—an image of Zacchaeus [himself]. Ephrem…[also] probably has Matthew 21:18-19 in mind.” — p. 170n11, The Fathers of the Church: St. Ephrem the Syrian, The Hymns of Faith.
See how Ephrem reads and interprets the text of Luke as a cohesive whole! This line about returning money with interest is a reference to the parable Jesus teaches about the nobleman’s money (headed as “The Parable of the Ten Pounds” in the NRSV translation of the Bible), which Luke places directly after the story of Zacchaeus.
See lines 1-4, 7, 12-17 of Hymn 25, pp. 169-170 in The Fathers of the Church: St. Ephrem the Syrian, The Hymns of Faith.
There are two competing dates for Enmegahbowh’s life online. The most commonly found one is 1820-1902, but the synopsis of Enmegahbowh’s recently published biography places his life between 1813-1901.
“Stands Before His People, A well-researched, if hagiographic, account of a leading Ojibwe Protestant missionary,” on Kirkus Reviews (July 27, 2022).
E.g. see page 10 of the autobiographical Enmegahbowh’s Story: An Account of the Disturbances of the Chippewa Indians at Gull Lake in 1857 and 1862 and their Removal in 1868 (1904), “I was born in Canada under the paw of the king of beasts, which is most dreaded and a terror to the American nation.”
The Church and the Indians: Letter from the Rev. J. J. Enmegahbowh, The Death of Chief I. H. Tuttle, White Earth Reservation, Minn., January 13, 1874, p. 5.
The American Episcopal church remembers Basil the Great on his consecration day as bishop, rather than on his death date. The Anglican Commune primarily joins the Catholic Church by remembering St Basil on January 2nd, while the Eastern Orthodox are the ones to keep to remembering St Basil on the day of his death on January 1, 379. Episcopalians wish to give non-competitive primacy to the other feast day on January 1st, The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ (known as The Circumcision of Our Lord before 1979).