Living Within the Story
- davidwperk
- Jun 8, 2023
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Friday, June 9, 2023
The week of Trinity Sunday (Proper 4)
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Hebrew Scripture reading:
3You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 4When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
(You will find the full text of today’s Hebrew Scripture reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings: (BCP, 968)
AM Psalm 40, 54; PM Psalm 51
Deuteronomy 26:1-11; 2 Corinthians 8:16-24; Luke 18:9-14
Today we celebrate the Feast of Columba. (See below.)
David’s Reflections
Episcopal priest and therapist John A. Sanford tells of the first dream his small daughter excitedly reported. "She came to the breakfast table and declared, 'Last night I had a bear story, and I was in it.'” Sanford then comments, “The power of Christianity does not lie in the over lays of theological doctrine, but in the power of the Christian story to affect us. The doctrine, without the story, would have no power." *
In the Old Testament reading, the worshippers tell the story of their ancestor Abraham entering the land and of the Israelites under Moses and Joshua escaping Egypt and reentering the land. The worshippers speak that story directly to God and do so in the first person. It is not “they” but “we,” even though the worshippers themselves were separated from those events by several centuries. In the words of Sanford’s daughter, they had a bear story and they were in it.
We pray in this way in the Great Thanksgiving of Eucharistic Prayer 1 from Enriching Our Worship. “Through Abraham and Sarah you called us into covenant with you. You delivered us from slavery, sustained us in the wilderness, and raised up prophets to renew your promise of salvation.” We are in that particular bear story.
Stories give meaning to life. They organize our reality. They give rhythm and structure to time. A charter story gives warrant to and explains our existence. For Israel the stories of Abraham and Moses were just such charter stories. The story shares the challenge faced, the struggle endured to meet that challenge and the outcome or resolution of the struggle.
Each Sunday in offering the Holy Eucharist, we speak our charter story of Jesus’ coming, his death and resurrection. We call it the Great Thanksgiving, and we speak it directly to God. It is our bear story, and we are in it. We would not exist as a believing community without this story; it defines us. And, it is not what happened to “them.” Rather, we are there in that story as it unfolds. The African American spiritual captures that in its haunting questions: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” And the saving power of those events comes into our experience in Holy Communion.
Families have their individual charter stories as well. Several years ago, along with my brother, John, I revisited a museum in Louisiana, a preserved sawmill from the beginning of the Twentieth Century, one to which logs were taken that my grandfather cut by hand with a cross-cut saw, many with his brother-in-law, Lonnie. I found myself relating to the curator the story of my grandfather’s being crushed by a cypress tree that kicked back as it fell. He lingered near death, survived, spent months bedfast, much of it in a body cast, and returned to the woods. He always walked with a slight limp as a result. We all were there in that story. It had a defining effect on our family.
“A wandering Aramean was my ancestor.” What are your charter stories? All of us, as people of faith, live in the story of Jesus. It’s our charter faith story. But, within that larger story lies your individual narrative. What stories define and explain your existence? Identifying them, relating them, and treasuring them will give meaning and power to your life. “Last night I had a bear story and I was in it.”
As poet Muriel Rukeyser put it in her poem, “The Speed of Darkness,”
The universe is made of stories,
not of atoms.+
* John A. Sanford, The Man Who Wrestled with God, (New York: Paulist, 1987), p. 4.
+Muriel Rukeyser, “The Speed of Darkness,” The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser. (Pittsburg, PA: Pittsburg UP, pp. 465-468.
Collect of the Day, Trinity Sunday
Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity: Keep us steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and eternal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 228)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Columba, abbot of Iona and missionary (died 8/9 June 597 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Columba
O God, who by the preaching of your servant Columba caused the light of the Gospel to shine in Scotland: Grant, we pray, that, remembering his life and labors, we may follow the example of his zeal and patience; 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 Fridays
Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies' sake. Amen. (BCP, 123)
Collect of Anglo-Saxon priest Aelfric: O almighty God, who caused your dear Son, our Saviour Christ, to assume human form and submit to being hanged on the cross, grant that we may benefit from the example of His endurance and participate in his true resurrection. Amen. https://www.riponcathedral.org.uk/anglo-saxon-crypt/
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, Deuteronomy 26:1-11
26:1When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, 2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. 3You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, "Today I declare to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us." 4When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the LORD your God, 5you shall make this response before the LORD your God: "A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. 6When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, 7we cried to the LORD, the God of our ancestors; the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8The LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; 9and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O LORD, have given me." You shall set it down before the LORD your God and bow down before the LORD your God. 11Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer Noonday Prayer, p. 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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