Nesting in the Greatness of God
- davidwperk
- Jan 5, 2022
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, January 5, 2022
The week of the second Sunday after Christmas
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:
41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, `Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.' 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, `Lazarus, come out!' 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, `Unbind him, and let him go.'
Eve of the Epiphany
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 941)
AM Psalm 2, 110:1-5(6-7);
Jonah 2:2-9; Eph. 6:10-20; John 11:17-27,38-44
Today we celebrate the Feast of Sarah, Theodora, and Syncletica. (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, John 11:17-27,38-44
17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21Martha said to Jesus, `Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.' 23Jesus said to her, `Your brother will rise again.' 24Martha said to him, `I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.' 25Jesus said to her, `I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?' 27She said to him, `Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son
of God, the one coming into the world.' 38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, `Take away the stone.' Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, `Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.' 40Jesus said to her, `Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?' 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, `Father, I thank you
for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.' 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, `Lazarus, come out!' 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, `Unbind him, and let him go.'
David's Reflections
If four portrait painters painted portraits of the same model, the four portraits would be unique efforts to interpret the model's identity as understood by each artist. And, each portrait would differ because the gifts of each artist differ. Yet, if you lined up the four portraits and compared them with the model, you would know they were all portraits of the same person.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John could be understood as painters, trying to depict the personality and identity of Jesus for their particular readers. The four Gospel portraits do present Jesus differently. The unique interpretations of Jesus and the literary skills and gifts of each writer account for much of that. Yet, we stand the four "portraits" alongside each other in our reading, and the one obvious conclusion is that they are indeed portraits of the same "model."
John's portrait presents several miracles in the first twelve chapters that serve as acted signs of Jesus' identity. Here, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. What better way to underline that Jesus gives life and delivers us from our entangled existence in a spiritual void of death and darkness? Salvation for John means to experience God's rich, everlasting life.
The conversation with Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha, takes us a step farther. To experience that transforming and freeing life within ourselves calls for faith on our part, trusting in Jesus' intent and ability to lift us into another existence, a new experience of love, forgiveness, and eternal life.
Even that faith comes to us as gift. Mary and Martha found themselves in dialog with Jesus, dialog in which their lack of faith and their anxiety met with a response of loving encouragement from Jesus. How odd to realize that our internal dialog with ourselves about our doubts, our reservations, and our struggle with faith might indeed be a dialog with another presence within us, the Spirit of Jesus.
The Marshes of Glynn on the Georgia coast always have a soothing effect on my spirit. I often park in south Brunswick on the edge of the marshes and sit in silence. God’s enveloping life and grace feel so present there. I offer you a few lines from Sydney Lanier’s poem, written about those marshes. They express so much of what this reading relates to us.
As the marsh-hen secretly builds on the watery sod,
Behold I will build me a nest on the greatness of God:
I will fly in the greatness of God as the marsh-hen flies
In the freedom that fills all the space twixt the marsh and the skies:
By so many roots as the marsh-grass sends in the sod
I will heartily lay me a-hold on the greatness of God:
Oh, like to the greatness of God is the greatest within
The range of the marshes, the liberal marshes of Glynn.*
*Sydney Lanier, “The Marshes of Glynn.” file:///Applications/Microsoft%20Word/Poems/00.Poems.D-L/Lanier.Marshes%20of%20Glynn.html
The Collect of the Day, Second Sunday after Christmas Day
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, you Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 214)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Sarah, Theodora, and Syncletica, Desert Mothers (4th-5th. Centuries CE).
A Collect for Protection
O God, the life of all who live, the light of the faithful, the strength of those who labor, and the repose of the dead: We thank you for the blessings of the day that is past, and humbly ask for your protection through the coming night. Bring us in safety to the morning hours; through him who died and rose again for us, your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 124)
A Collect for Early 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)
A Collect for Mission
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)
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