Emulating the Forerunner

Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, September 20, 2022

Proper 20, the week of the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key verses for reflection from today’s reading:

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 9850

AM Psalm 78:1-39; PM Psalm 78:40-72

Esther 5:1-14 or Judith 8:9-17, 9:1, 9:7-10; Acts 18:12-28; Luke 3:15-22

Today we celebrate the Feast of John Coleridge Patteson. (See below.)

Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer

Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer

Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Gospel, Luke 3:15-22

15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ 18So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. 19But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, 20added to them all by shutting up John in prison.

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

David’s Reflections

John the Baptist served as a forerunner to Jesus, one whose preaching and baptizing created a sense of expectancy for the arrival of Messiah. Jesus himself was one of John’s followers and was baptized by John. But, Jesus soon began his own ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing (and baptizing, according to John 3:26) and many of John’s disciples became Jesus’ followers.

The thought intrigues me that our lives can serve to prepare others for the coming of Jesus as did John’s. If Christ abides in my life and I desire that others receive him and begin to follow him, then each day can be framed differently. Who among my coworkers, neighbors, friends, and acquaintances might be hungering for God’s love and forgiveness? Their hunger may be secret and unacknowledged, even to themselves. The desires they do express in words and manifest in behavior and lifestyle might be layering over and expressing a deeper desire for God.

If we were to reframe each day and look at it through the window of that particular question, how would it alter our approach to the day and to those people? If we are feeling intolerant of a particular person because of behavior or lifestyle that feels inappropriate, looking at them through the window of that question might just reveal someone sharing our own deep desire for God’s love but manifesting that desire in a very different way.

Were we asking this particular question about those we regularly encounter or those with whom we have random encounters, we would be living toward one of the promises made in the baptismal vows, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself.” If we were to look for spiritual interest in those around us and only converse with those whose interest revealed an openness, we would be faithful witnesses without being intrusive. That would be our positive response to another baptismal promise, “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?” We answer, “I will with God’s help.”, to both questions.

As Episcopalians, many of us have been involved in the church since infancy. It is easy to be unaware of how many unbaptized adults, teens, and older children we are coming into contact with regularly. At All Souls, he new church in Richmond I served as start up priest, we baptized numerous older children, teens and adults; several times we baptized a parent and child together.

You might never be aware how God’s love has reached through something you said or did to touch someone and begin their journey toward God. Or, you might be fortunate enough to know and to witness that person’s conversion and to feel the surge of joy over someone lost to God but now returning. In either case, you would be tasting something of the joy John must have felt in prison as news of the growing response to Jesus reached him. The forerunner had run well and prepared people for the one coming after.

Leonard Hodgson, Oxford scholar and Anglican theologian of the previous generation touched me with these lines.

"When . . . we rise from the altar rail after making our communion, and turn west to go back to our seat in church or chapel, we should in our mind's eye look out beyond the walls of the building to all the world around, the world in which the Father's will is waiting to be done, reminding ourselves that we are in Christ and He in us in order that, enlightened by the Spirit, we may see that world as He sees it and find and do that work and offer it to the Father in Him. We need to practice ourselves in this attitude towards life until it becomes a second nature, as it was that of St. Paul and the other Christians of the New Testament.”*

*Leonard Hodgson, Christian Faith and Practice: Seven Lectures. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1952), pp. 83-84.

Collect of the Day, Proper 20, the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 233-234)

Today we celebrate the Feast of John Coleridge Patteson, Bishop of Melanesia and his companions, martyrs (died 20 Sep 1871 CE).

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/John_Patteson.htm

Collect of the Feast of John Coleridge Patteson and His Companions

Almighty God, who called your faithful servant John Coleridge Patteson and his companions to witness to the gospel, and by their labors and sufferings raised up a people for your own possession: Pour out your Holy Spirit upon your church in every land, that, by the service and sacrifice of many, your holy Name may be glorified and your kingdom enlarged; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Peace

O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)

Of the Departed

Eternal Lord God, you hold all souls in life: Give to your whole Church in paradise and on earth your light and your peace; and grant that we, following the good examples of those who have served you here and are now at rest, may at the last enter with them into your unending joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 253)

A Prayer for Light

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)