Sharing in Christ’s Sufferings

Devotional, Thursday, May 5, 2022

The week of the third Sunday of Easter

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

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

24I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 25I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 961)

AM Psalm 37:1-18; PM Psalm 37:19-42

Exod. 20:1-21; Col. 1:24-2:7; Matt. 4:1-11

Today we celebrate The Feast of The Martyrs of the Reformation Era. (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 Epistle, Colossians 1:24-2:7

24I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 25I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, 26the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. 27To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. 29For this I toil and struggle with all the energy that he powerfully inspires within me.

2:1For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. 2I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

4 I am saying this so that no one may deceive you with plausible arguments. 5For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ. 6As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

David’s Reflections

How easy it is to lose sight of the concept of suffering for your faith. Most of us have been spared that experience. Yet, even beneath the calm surface of the lake of American culture swims the dragon of intolerance and persecution. One parishioner in Louisiana lost his executive position (his entire department was phased out temporarily) because he wrote a letter to the owner of the company in which he shared his faith. He wrote in response to an interview in the Sunday paper in which the owner expressed his religious skepticism. In spite of the gentle and sincere tone of the letter, my friend found himself with sixty days severance.

Today’s epistle reading speaks of completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. Obviously this does not mean that Christ’s sufferings on the cross needed to be supplemented somehow for us to be forgiven and delivered. Rather, that phrase stands in a context where the topic is the mission of the church in the world.

Could it be that sharing our faith, telling the story of God’s saving work in Christ, will bring inevitable resistance and suffering into the experience of the church? That has been true historically. Aleksandr I Solzhenitsyn tells the story of one particular woman who spent ten years in a Soviet prison. He says of people like her. "They were supposedly being arrested and tried not for their actual faith but for openly declaring their convictions and for bringing up their children in the same spirit."*

This particular woman wrote poetry about religious repression in the USSR. One line read:

You can pray freely

But just so God alone can hear.

She received a ten-year sentence for those verses.

Our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world suffer impoverishment, imprisonment, and death because they persevere in practicing their faith. Can we not take courage from their example and be more assertive and risk-taking in our efforts to share our own story of faith with those around us? Risking embarrassment and rejection feels like a small price to pay compared to what others suffer.

(Note: For one example, see this article. https://faith-usa.org/issues/coptic-christians-remember-the-21-martyrs-beheaded-by-terrorists/. When you read this, please remember that religious violence betrays the essential teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Adherents of all three faiths betray their faith’s core values when they resort to violence. Today’s feast remembers those martyred in England—Anglicans by Catholics and Catholics by Anglicans.)

Whatever might happen to us at the hands of those who resent our identity and resist our story will simply be our completing of what remains of the affliction of Christ, a sharing in his place of rejection and suffering in the world. It will be the inevitable living out of our being identified with Jesus’ mission of saving love in the world.

*The Gulag Archipelago, trans. Thomas P. Whitney (New York: Harper, 1973), p. 37.

Collect of the Day, Third Sunday of Easter

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 224-225)

Today we celebrate The Feast of The Martyrs of the Reformation Era.

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/martyrs_reformation.html

Collect of the Feast of Martyrs of the Reformation Era.

Almighty and Most Merciful God, give to your Church that peace which the world cannot give, and grant that those who have been divided on earth may be reconciled in heaven, and share together in the vision of your glory; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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 GAELIC PRAYER

As the rain hides the stars,

As the Autumn mist hides the hills,

As the clouds veil the blue of the sky,

So the dark happenings of my lot

Hide the shining of thy face from me.

Yet, if I may hold thy hand in the darkness,

It is enough.

Since I know, that though I may stumble in my going

Thou dost not fall.

(Theme prayer for the congregation of the Saxon Church of Escomb, England

Church constructed in 670-690 CE and still the site of worship for the parish. The visitor's handbook attributes some of the architectural features to Irish Celtic influence. Source: The Saxon Church: Escomb: A Guide for Pilgrims. The Saxon Church. Escomb, Durham County, England.)

A Prayer for Light

Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship you, all nations obey you, all tongues confess and bless you, and men and women everywhere love you and serve you in peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 124)