Our Chance is Still to Be

Daily Office Devotional, Friday, April 16, 2021

The week of the second Sunday of Easter

The Rev David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Peter W. Cassey and Annie B. Cassey. (See below.)

Daily Office Lectionary readings:

AM Psalm 16, 17; PM Psalm 134, 135

Daniel 3:1-18;; 1 John 3:1-10; Luke 3:15-22

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 Epistle, 1 John 3:1-10

3:1See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 3And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

4 Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. 7Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. 10The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.

David’s Reflections

The poet Theodore Roethke ended his poem “The Motion” with these lines.

Wings without feathers creaking in the sun,

The close dirt dancing on a sunless stone

God's night and day: down this space He has smiled,

Hope has its hush: we move through its broad day,--

O who would take the vision from the child?--

O, motion O, our chance is still to be! *

We do move through hope’s broad day, a hope promised us by God in texts like today’s Epistle. And, in that hope is our chance still to be. God has smiled on us “down this space,” as Roethke puts it, with God’s own love and made us children of God. That means our hope beyond death is based on a relationship with God that God has given us in love in our present life experience. Our hope does not lie in human worth or performance or obedience to divine law. Rather, our hope lies in God’s love, a love manifest in Jesus of Nazareth.

Note the definiteness of this hope. The writer admits that we do not yet know what we shall be like on the other side of resurrection. But, there are things we can know. Jesus will appear and we will see him. He does not say that we might; rather, the writer affirms that we certainly will see Jesus as he is. And, he does not say that we might be like him; rather, we know that we shall be like him.

Death does not mean the end of our existence. As we pray regarding death in the Great Thanksgiving, “”For to your faithful people, O Lord, life is changed,m not ended.” (BCP, 382) As a Christian I can see death as “a motion,” again to use Roethke’s words. God’s love takes us through the passage of death and on the other side of that passage we see God and Christ. We will know how tall Christ is and what his voice sounds like because we shall see face to face. Then, in the resurrection, we will share the same kind of bodily existence as Christ’s, as Christ’s brothers and sisters and as God’s children. In this family, everyone receives the same loving treatment.

Does this hope distract us from life here, from witness, healing, social justice, care for the environment? Absolutely not. As the writer puts it those who have this hope purify themselves—they devote themselves to a life governed by the teachings and the earthly life of the Christ whom one day they shall see. For example, if Jesus will heal the environment when he returns (his resurrection is the future for the entire globe, including the natural world, as Romans 8 teaches), those who have this hope throw themselves into the struggle to heal the earth.

How exciting life becomes if the promise is for more becoming even on the other side of death.

“O motion, O, our chance is still to be!”

* Theodore Roethke, The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke [New York: Doubleday, 1966], p. 235.

Collect of the Day, Second Sunday of Easter

Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (BCP, 224)

Collect of the Weekdays of Easter

Grant, O Lord, that we may so live in the Paschal mystery that the joy of these fifty days may continually strengthen us, and assure us of our salvation; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Today we celebrate the Feast of Peter W. Cassey priest, and Annie B. Cassey (died 1917 and 1875). http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/peter&annie_cassey.html

Collect of the Feast of Peter W. Cassey and Annie B. Cassey

O God of justice and mercy, we remember before you your servants Peter Williams Cassey and Anna Besant Cassey, who, in the face of slavery and discrimination, gave the blessings of education and spiritual haven to the marginalized; Grant us to be fearless in the face of injustice and to work for blessings that will touch those whom the world does not count of value; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you. Amen.

A Collect for Fridays

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 97)

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)

A Collect for Mission

Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 280)