Holy Intent
- davidwperk
- Mar 8, 2024
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Friday, March 8, 2024
The week of the third Sunday in Lent
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:
19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. . . . I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 955)
AM Psalm 95 [for the Invitatory] 88; PM Psalm 91, 92
Gen. 47:1-26; 1 Cor. 9:16-27; Mark 6:47-56
Today we celebrate The Feast of G. A. Studdert-Kennedy. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
Maurice Barrés said, "Life is unbearable for the (person) man who does not always have an enthusiasm at hand." * If Barrés was right the Apostle Paul found life more than bearable. Today’s epistle exudes the enthusiasm of the New Testament’s premier church planter, his life’s driving passion. Paul’s life was energized by a desire to see people come to faith in Christ.
As is often true of people with a central, energizing passion, he came under severe criticism. Think of Abraham Lincoln’s passion to preserve the union. Think of Susan B. Anthony’s passion for women’s rights. Think of Gandhi’s passion for the freedom of his people from British rule. Think of Martin Luther King’s passion for racial justice. Think of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s passion to end apartheid in South Africa. These people were controversial and met stiff resistance. Jesus gives us the ultimate example of someone passionately intent and focused; he met constant sabotage and an unjust death.
You probably could add your own names to that list. I think of my high school choral teacher, Nell Erwin, who died August of 2003. She exuded a passion for music and the desire that her students love it as she did. And, some of us found that passion infectious. I think of Malcolm Tolbert, my doctoral advisor and mentor in seminary. Malcolm died on Thanksgiving Day 2017 in his home town of Baton Rouge, His passions were the study of the New Testament and the proclamation and embodiment of radical grace.
I look at my two children, Ben and Katie, and wonder whether they have found in me an adequate example of someone with enthusiasms at hand. They discovered a passion for music at ages seven and four and went on to become professional musicians. At this writing in 2024, Katie, and her husband, John play French horn professionally and both their teenage children have become promising musicians as well. Son, Ben, teaches elementary school music and serves as choirmaster at a Lutheran church in Milwaukee. He’s a professional tenor. His wife, Jenny, serves as an assistant professor of music education at The University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and is a gifted conductor. Their son plays guitar and acts in children's’ theater.
As a Christian and a church planter, as was Paul, I would that all of us shared more of his passion to gather people unto God. If we were possessed more fully of that desire, our lives would be lived differently and more people would be living with faith and experiencing God’s saving love in Christ.
We each also need our own individual enthusiasms, that love of life and of our vocation that keeps pushing us forward and calls the best from us. I have conversations with many who struggle with boredom in their work and in their personal lives. The lack of enthusiasms lies at the root of that boredom. Perhaps today’s prayer might be that God awaken from deep within the passions that are unique to our natures and give us each the courage to heed them and to follow them.
Like Paul and all others who have lived with such passion, you will meet resistance and experience criticism and hardship. You will find in God’s loving presence and in the energy of your enthusiasm the ability to push through hardship and persist. An easy life might just be the most boring of all. Better to be stretched and tested in the name of your enthusiasms.
Our ultimate model and mentor in this regard has to be Jesus of Nazareth, driven by the passion to love and serve God and bring all of us into the embrace of God’s love. May the Christ ignite our passions and give iron to our intent to live boldly and purposefully. As Frederich Buechner put it, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.”+
Personal note: Today’s feast honors G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, one of the most accomplished preachers and prophets the Anglican Communion has known. He lived a fully focused life. He’s one of my heroes. I’ve provided two BBC links regarding his unique life story. You can find his complete poetry online at this link. https://webfiles.acu.edu/departments/Library/HR/restmov_nov11/www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/dasc/TUB.HTM. His poem, “Indifference,” found on page 24, came to my attention as a high school student and began my life-long fascination with him and his life, preaching, and poetry.
*Cited by Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos, trans. Daniel Russell (Boston: Beacon, 1971), p. 143.
+ Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC. (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), p. 95.
Collect of the Day, The Third Sunday in Lent
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, p. 218).
Collect for Friday of the Third Week in Lent
Grant us, O Lord our Strength, a true love of your holy Name; so that, trusting in your grace, we may fear no earthly evil, nor fix our hearts on earthly goods, but may rejoice in your full salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Holy Women, Holy Men, p. 52.)
Today we celebrate The Feast of G. A. Studdert-Kennedy, priest, prophetic voice, poet (died 8 Mar 1929 CE).
Collect of the Feast of G. A. Studdert-Kennedy
Glorious God, we give thanks for high and holy things as well as the common things of earth. Awaken us to recognize your presence in each other and in all creation, so that we, like Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, may love and magnify you as the holy, undivided Trinity; who lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Of the Holy Cross
Especially suitable for Fridays
Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 253)
A Collect for Quiet Confidence
O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 832)
In the Evening
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen. (BCP, 833)
A Collect for Mission
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 280)
Daily Office Epistle, 1 Corinthians 9:16-27
16If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! 17For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. 18What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. 20To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. 22To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 26So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
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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