Ideas That Have Us From Behind
- davidwperk
- May 27, 2024
- 6 min read
Daily Office Devotional, Monday, May 27, 2024
Proper 3, The second Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
22 Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute; and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see. 23All the crowds were amazed and said, ‘Can this be the Son of David?’ 24But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons.’ 25He knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?
You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 969)
AM: Psalm 25 PM: Psalms 9, 15
Prov. 10:1-12 1 Tim. 1:1-17 Matt. 12:22-32
Today we celebrate the Feast of Bertha and Ethelbert. ( See below.)
David’s Reflections
James Hillman, in a trenchant turn of phrase provides a window into today’s Gospel when he writes, “Ideas that we do not know we have have us. And then they shape our experiences from behind, unbeknown." * Jesus’ detractors in this reading reveal that they are being had by ideas they do not know they have. They had seen Jesus healing people and delivering people from evil spirits, but they were so opposed to his ministry that they attributed his power to dark magic as it were, to the enablement of Satan.
Jesus, with an irresistible logic, counters their aberrant reasoning. Satan cannot be fighting against himself or else his entire enterprise would be collapsing in the ashes of civil war. Jesus’ power to heal and to deliver speaks of the presence of God’s kingly reign among them, as Jesus put it in one place, “the finger of God.”
Their inability and unwillingness to see brings to mind the image of people living in a cave, preferring the darkness and dankness of that environment to the sunlight and fresh air of life outside the entrance. They hover just inside the cave’s mouth, and those outside appear as distorted shadows and threatening images silhouetted against the light of the sun behind.
Just how willfully stubborn and inwardly inflexible would one have to be to ascribe Jesus’ loving presence and consistently saving actions as originating in the kingly rule of the prince of darkness? What would an emissary from THEIR God be doing were that one before them now?
Jesus cautions us against resisting the Holy Spirit’s efforts to unveil God’s love and presence to us. Beyond the efforts of the divine Spirit there is no other hope for light. If we squander that light, we doom ourselves to perpetual darkness. We betray a level of obdurate hardness that renders God’s efforts to forgive as ineffective as trying to soften granite with water.
What ideas have us from behind? Perhaps today’s Gospel would provoke us to begin listing our biases and seeking feedback from those closest to us about those places of unteachableness within us. How easy for us to berate Jesus’ adversaries from our comfortable retrospective position. After all, we know the end of the Jesus’ story (or should we say the beginning – resurrection?). How about those new, uncharted regions into which Jesus’ Spirit bids us? How many of those areas have we written off as unacceptable?
I hunger for more freedom from ideas that have had me from behind, for a more honest intellectual, spiritual, and emotional life. That freedom grows and expands, thanks to the grace of God experienced individually and in community.
* James Hillman, Anima: An Anatomy of a Personified Notion (Woodstock, CN: Spring, 1985), p. 99.
Collect of the Day, Trinity Sunday
Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be peaceably governed by your providence; and that your Church may joyfully serve you in confidence and serenity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 229)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Bertha (died ca 612 CE) and Ethelbert (died 24 Feb 616 CE), queen and king of Trent.
Collect of Bertha and Ethelbert
God of Creation, who molded humanity from the fertile earth: Grant that we, following the good examples of Queen Bertha and King Ethelbert, may gladly receive and fruitfully nurture the seed of the Gospel to the bounty of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for the Renewal of Life
O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
In the Order of Worship for Evening
Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
Searching for God
O Lord my God, Teach my heart this day where and how to see you, where and how to find you. You have made me and remade me, and you have bestowed on me all the good things I possess, and still I do not know you. I have not yet done that for which I was made. Teach me to seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, or find you unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking. Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you. St. Anselm (1033-1109CE)
Saint Benedict’s Prayer Book (York: Ampleforth Abbey Press, 1993), p. 118
A Prayer for Discipleship
Not very good disciples, Lord. But we are disciples, at least at our best we want to be. Here we are. Here are our wills, our loves, our loyalties, our conflicts. Here are our compromises, our going to and fro, our giving way to pressures, our irresolutions, our failures to be loyal to love. All these we hold before you and offer them to you, in whom we pray our discipleship to you. We give that discipleship to you now and begin again to live it as we pray it—that is, as you live and pray it within us. You are our prayer and our choices are resolved in you. Amen. (John Coburn, A Life to Live—A Way to Pray (New York: Seabury, 1973), p. 64.
A Collect for Mission
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100, 257)
Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 12:22-32
22 Then they brought to him a demoniac who was blind and mute; and he cured him, so that the one who had been mute could speak and see. 23All the crowds were amazed and said, ‘Can this be the Son of David?’ 24But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, that this fellow casts out the demons.’ 25He knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. 26If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand? 27If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. 28But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. 29Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property, without first tying up the strong man? Then indeed the house can be plundered. 30Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31Therefore I tell you, people will be forgiven for every sin and blasphemy, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
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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