Pulled From in Front by Tomorrow

Devotional Reflection, Wednesday, May 29,2024

Wednesday of the week of Trinity Sunday

The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection from today’s Gospel

43 ‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but it finds none. 44Then it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.’

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 968)

AM Psalm 38; PM Psalm 119:25-48

Prov. 17:1-20; 1 Tim. 3:1-16; Matt. 12:43-50

David’s Reflections

When poet Theodore Roethke died unexpectedly in 1963, numbers of notebooks with unfinished poems and fragments were found in his university office.  A posthumous work, Straw for the Fire, which still is in print, grew out of the editing of those notebooks. Lines from one of the poems therein came to mind in reading today’s Gospel.

Father, forgive me, I cried to His Face.

Forgive my words, no longer close to song.

What I once scorned, I secretly embrace.

Teach me, sweet love, a way of being plain!

My virtues are but vices in disguise *

Roethke’s lines capture the need for repentance that leads to a life filled with divine grace and virtue, rather than religion experienced as the pruning of the negative with little or nothing of the divine filling the void. Jesus warns us against a form of piety that involves little more than pruning our morals and ridding our lives of what we perceive to be negative virtues and behaviors.  That only leaves us like an empty house, one prepared for new occupants.  And, the new occupants turn out to be the former tenants; the dark spirits return, as do the old vices under the guise of new virtues (for example, religious pride in place of the negatives we’ve managed to purge from our lives).

Such a perspective does not take  seriously the darkness  within human  nature, a darkness  so profound that it can resist all efforts at self improvement and sabotage all efforts at reform.  And, it underestimates the power of the evil and darkness within and around us. The smothering, seductive atmosphere in which we live, combined with our own tendency to pride and self reliance, overwhelms our efforts at self-willed improvement.

The most crucial questions we can pose for Christian faith would be, “Where am I going?  Who am I becoming?  In whom am I trusting?”  Seeking to improve our status with God through self-improvement has us focused on the past and living a life pushed from behind by yesterday.  Christian faith invites us into a future-oriented focus, the resurrection of Christ and our experience of its power in Holy Baptism and the ongoing ministry of the Spirit.  Christian faith invites us into an experience of having our lives pulled from in front by the resurrection of Christ, which becomes our own future by faith.

As Roethke put it in the closing lines of that poem.

I move, unseeing, toward an absolute

So bright within it darkens all I am;

Am dropped away:  dropped out of time,

One still too frail to bear himself, alone

* Theodore Roethke, Straw for the Fire:  From the Notebooks of Theodore Roethke:  1943-1963, selected and arranged by David Wagoner (Garden City, NY:  Anchor, 1974), pp. 122-123.

Collect of the Day, Trinity Sunday

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through 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 227)

A Collect for Grace

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)

For the Church

Give to your Church, O God, a bold vision and a daring charity, a refreshed wisdom and a courteous understanding, that the eternal message of your Son may be acclaimed as the good news of the age; through him who makes all things new, even Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A Prayer for Light

Almighty God, we give you thanks for surrounding us, as daylight fades, with the brightness of the vesper light; and we implore you of your great mercy that, as you enfold us with the radiance of this light, so you would shine into our hearts the brightness of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (BCP, 110)

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)

Daily Office Gospel, Matthew 12:43-50

43 ‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but it finds none. 44Then it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.’

46 While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. 47Someone told him, ‘Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.’* 48But to the one who had told him this, Jesus* replied, ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ 49And pointing to his disciples, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 50For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.’

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