Devotions for the Third Week of Pentecost
Monday of Pentecost 3 – Prayer of the Week
Lord of all power and might, author and giver of all good things, graft into our hearts the love of Your name and nourish us with all goodness that we may love and serve our neighbor; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
I have several fruit trees in my back yard. We planted a quince tree not long ago since my wife’s source for them has dried up for us. When you plant a fruit tree you will almost always see that the trunk of the tree has a strange angle, just above the soil level. This is where the graft was made. The tree you are planting is really two trees. One of them is a rootstock which is vigorous and strong. The above ground part, however, is another tree, a branch which has been grafted onto the strong root. It has the genetics of another tree, a tree which likely does not produce such vigorous roots, but which produces the fruit which we want.
Did you notice that word “graft” in the prayer? We ask God to graft love into our hearts, a love which is directed up toward God and out toward neighbor. The original root stock of that tree I planted would not produce the fruit I want. No matter how well it was pruned, fertilized, and cared for, it just cannot do it. It is the wrong sort of tree.
We can go to all sorts of therapy, read self-improvement books all day long, we can engage in healthy practices and diligently police our words and deeds to the best of our ability, but we will not produce the good fruit that God demands, not that way. It is good to do many of these things, do not get me wrong, but they will never make us acceptable to God or even able to truly love Him. In order for that to happen, God has to act toward us. He must put that love in our hearts. One of my old friends was fond of saying, “If you take the letters for ‘God’ out of the word ‘Good,’ all you are left with is a zero.” God is author of our goodness, such as it is. By the work of the Spirit, by the gift of Christ, he has grafted godly good into you.
Tuesday of Pentecost 3 – I Kings 19:9b-21
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11 And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13 And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 15 And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17 And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18 Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” 21 And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.
In the Gospel according to John, at several points people recognize who Jesus is because of what he says or does. Often, he is doing the sorts of things that only God does. After he changes water into wine, the disciples believe in him (Jn 2). In the ancient world they did not understand yeast and the process of fermentation. Wine making was a mystery, something God did. After he opens the eyes of the blind man, the blind man worships him (Jn 9). After he raises Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders seek to move against him. John calls Jesus’ miracles “signs.” The people are reading the signs which point to the truth about Jesus.
Did you notice the repetition in this passage from I Kings? The Word comes and asks Elijah a question, “Elijah, what are you doing here?” After that, when God manifests Himself in powerful wind, earthquake, fire, and finally in a stillness, God asks Elijah the exact same question. I think we sometimes pass over these things too quickly as we read our English Bibles. Reading Hebrew is a much more deliberate process which must be done more slowly. Probably because it does not include any vowels in the text, forcing the reader to sound out every word and think about just what it is. The Word and God ask the same question. What could that mean?
I Kings 19 is making a point like what John is making. The Word of the LORD and God do the same thing. Jesus made wine, healed blindness, provided food, and raised the dead. Those are things which God does. The Word in this passage is God. It is the same One who asked the same question, first as the Word and then as the powerful Creator outside the cave. John begins his Gospel account with these words, likely familiar to us, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
The Word comes to us as well, speaking God’s message of judgment on a sinful world and grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is God speaking to us in that Word, whether we are reading it, hearing, or swallowing it in the Sacrament. Elijah listened and did what it said. Go and do likewise.
Wednesday of Pentecost 3 – Psalm 16
1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”
3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
in whom is all my delight.
4 The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names on my lips.
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices;
my flesh also dwells secure.
10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Yesterday we read the story of Elijah. He was having something of a crisis in that cave where God found him. He thought he had been a failure. A member of a prior parish I served observed for me that Elijah sounds like a classic case of burnout. She even said that God’s remedy for Elijah comports well with the sort of remedy a mental health professional would seek for a client who was suffering from burnout: Go on a trip (go to Damascus), get some help (anoint Elisha to replace you), and take a step back and see the truth of your successes (7,000 who have not knelt to Baal.)
But this psalm might also be a remedy for Elijah in his crisis. It might have helped him in his despair, or at least it seems the opposite of what Elijah was feeling. The psalmist notes that all his good comes from God. God cares about the lives of his saints, but the wicked will multiply their sorrows. It is verse 9 and 10, however, that might make this psalm very specifically for Elijah. His soul will not be abandoned to Sheol, and his holy one will not see corruption. Of course, Elijah did not die. You can read about that in II Kings 2. There, Elijah is taken up into heaven in a whirlwind accompanied by fiery chariots and horses.
Elijah really did not see decay. He shows up again at the mount of Transfiguration centuries later. To this day the Jewish people will set a place for him at Passover just in case he shows up. But Elijah is just Elijah. He came to that mountain of Transfiguration because he came to speak with another whose body did not see decay and whose soul was not abandoned to Sheol, Elijah’s Lord Jesus. Because of that Jesus who is greater than Elijah we too get to pray this prayer. Jesus’ suffering and death is our suffering and death, we have been baptized into it. Likewise, we have been baptized into Jesus’ resurrection. Not with fiery horses and chariots or a whirlwind, but with a trumpet and the mighty voice of God we too shall rise.
Thursday of Pentecost 3 – 5:1, 13-25
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
My father grimaced in pain and held his leg. We had come to the lake for a day of waterskiing but had entered what would come to be known in family lore as the “cruise into terror.” My father had been injured by the speedboat’s propellor, leaving a great gash on his lower leg. In the emergency room a whole team of people leapt into action, injecting him with painkillers, cutting, sewing, and applying all sorts of remedies to him. The doctors assured us that my father had been very fortunate, narrowly missing tendons and just skimming the bone on his lower leg. He fully recovered. We sold the boat.
As I reflect on the work of those emergency room doctors and the other instances in which I have accompanied people to the emergency room or to the doors of a surgery, I am struck by the fact that in any other circumstance, we would charge the surgeons doing this with a crime. They are taking sharp knives and cutting human bodies, but of course they are surgeons, and such violent actions are in fact intended for the well-being of the patient.
Did you notice above that Paul has some very specific things we should not do, but when he comes to what we should do it is spoken only in some rather vague generalities. Some of this is just the nature of the Gospel. It resists rules and rule-keeping. But it is also the case that love sometimes does things which in other instances would be hurtful or even hateful, such as a surgeon in an operating theater. Cutting people would normally be on the list of naughty activities above, but in the right circumstance, it is the loving thing to do. Against love there is no law, but there is a great deal of latitude in how you or I love. God has not always told us exactly what to do. But he has told us to love always.
Friday of Pentecost 3 – Luke 9:51-62
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
I began my ministry in the Salt Lake City suburbs of Utah. My community was over 92% LDS; but Salt Lake City itself had far more “gentiles” as the Mormons referred to us, about 50% when I was there. I have a good friend who is Jewish, and he always used to urge his Jewish friends to come out from Connecticut where he was from so they could experience being called a gentile for a few days.
Serving in an LDS community was a real blessing for me. I think it gave me a heart for anyone who feels like they are an outsider. It also made me look at some of the things we do differently. The Christians of Utah sometimes did not conduct themselves well, I have to say. I think some of it was born of their minority status. They would sometimes heap scorn or derision upon LDS beliefs and practices. I did not concur with the LDS, but they did me little harm and I know that the only way they would come to faith in Christ with me was through love. I was saddened to see the scorn and animosity which some Christians expressed toward them. One never mocks another person into faith.
Jesus rebukes James and John who wanted to call down fire upon the Samaritan village who rejected their Lord. He moves on to another place. He had his face set for Jerusalem, the place where He would lay down his life for the world, including all the folks who hate Him. The first baptism which I ever conducted was a recently retired fellow, a former Mormon, who had been married to a member of my parish for well over 30 years at that point. Through the gentle persuasion and persistent love of spouse and others, he had finally heard Jesus’ call to discipleship. It would have been so easy to reject this fellow for his obdurate refusal over the years. I am so glad that those who went before me did not.