Children from Stones
- David W Perkins
- Apr 16, 2024
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, April 16, 2024
The week of the third Sunday of Easter
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
9Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 961)
AM Psalm 26, 28; PM Psalm 36, 39
Exod. 19:1-16; Col. 1:1-14; Matt. 3:7-12
Today we celebrate the Feast of Mary (Molly) Brant. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
One phrase in today’s Gospel caught my eye in a new way. John the Baptist says, “God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” John came on the scene challenging his fellow Israelites to turn to God and prepare for the coming of God’s anointed Messiah. He called on them to submit to water baptism. At some point in the First Century, Judaism began immersing Gentiles who converted. Whether that already was happening in John’s day (and we can’t be certain). But, John was inferring that God was creating a new people and that the organizing principle was faith in the Messiah.
You and I probably would find it off putting if someone preached that we really were not part of the people of God unless we responded in a certain fashion. John’s language here responds to some of his detractors. That statement about raising up children to Abraham was a response to objections John heard that his hearers already were Israelites. It also reminds us that Christian community comes about because of God’s initiating grace and love.
Serving as the start up priest for a new congregation has altered my way of reading Holy Scripture. References to beginnings and to God’s intent to form community now move about on the page and look like raised 3-D images. God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Or, to put it in terms amenable to our cultural background, “God is able from the most unlikely appearing people to raise up stalwart members of this Episcopal community.”
Make new Episcopalians? How unlikely. Some of us behave as though there are only so many Episcopalians on the planet. We certainly can’t make new ones, so we must simply be certain that we get our share of the existing number. To frame reality in that way means that evangelism, the building of a new parish or the growth of an existing one, consists of finding the Episcopalians in our area and enlisting them.
God is able of these stones to raise up Episcopalians. Our calling is to follow Christ in the world, to serve the human need that presents itself, to value our experience with God enough to seek ways of sharing that experience with those whose lives give evidence of spiritual impoverishment and starvation. I experience people as hungering for genuine caring and community. If my response to them exhibits caring and patience and acceptance, that response provides a context in which I can express God’s love for them and talk about my experience of that love in ways that are noninvasive and nonpresumptuous.
Does that mean that every person I encounter becomes part of my particular community? Hardly. That’s not my goal. We do not engage in witness for the sake of the growth of our community. Rather, our goal is to work with God’s Spirit in that great adventure of raising up children for his family from the unpromising “stones” of seemingly disinterested people and of pointing them toward Christian community. Some of them won’t become Episcopalians, but they will become part of that larger venture of God in the world called Christian community.
If John’s preaching tells us anything, it tells us God is on mission, seeking to bring people into the experience of divine love and forgiveness and to gather those people into community. We are called to join in that mission of witness, service, and gathering love with no intent to make our community larger with new people for the sake of the community.
“God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”
Collect of the Day, Third Sunday of Easter
O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 224-225)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Mary (Molly) Brant, witness to the faith among the Mohawks (died 16 Apr 1796 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Mary (Molly) Bryant
O Maker of all creation, who endued Molly Brant with the gifts of justice and loyalty, and made her a wise and prudent mother in the household of the Mohawk Nation: Grant us grace, following her example, to nurture the household of faith with care and compassion; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
A Collect for Peace
Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen. (BCP, 123)
A Prayer of Self-Dedication
Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to you, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly yours, utterly dedicated to you; and then use us, we pray thee, as you will, and always to your glory and the welfare of your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 832-33)
A Collect for Early Evening
Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 3:7-12
7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8Bear fruit worthy of repentance. 9Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. 10Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
Daily Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, The Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, page 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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