The Impacts of a Life Story

Devotional Reflection, Monday, June 27, 2022

Proper 8, the week of the third Sunday after Pentecost

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

Key phrases for reflection from today’s reading:

12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 973)

AM Psalm 106:1-18; PM Psalm 106:19-48

Num. 22:1-21; Rom. 6:12-23; Matt. 21:12-22

Today we celebrate the Feast of Cornelius Hill. (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, Matthew 21:12-22

12 Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer”; but you are making it a den of robbers.’ 14The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he cured them. 15But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they became angry 16and said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, “Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself”?’ 17He left them, went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

18 In the morning, when he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19And seeing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went to it and found nothing at all on it but leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May no fruit ever come from you again!’ And the fig tree withered at once. 20When the disciples saw it, they were amazed, saying, ‘How did the fig tree wither at once?’ 21Jesus answered them, ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,” it will be done. 22Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.’

David’s Reflections

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, quotes from the prophet Jeremiah when he says, “you are making it (the Temple) a den of robbers.” Jeremiah 7 records a sermon in which that prophet challenged dependence on the Temple as some sort of religious talisman that would keep the people of Judah safe from outside invaders. Because they understood the Temple was God’s throne room, the center of divine presence on earth, the people of Jeremiah’s day reasoned that surely God would not allow the Temple and its environs to be plundered and destroyed.

Jeremiah served as a prophet in the 7th. and 6th. Centuries BCE, a turbulent time in Judah’s history. Judah was a vassal state in the orbit of the Babylonian Empire (centered roughly in modern Iraq), and Jeremiah counseled nonresistance to the Babylonians, His views were caricatured as unpatriotic by extremists who favored military alliances with others (like the Egyptians) and he suffered persecution and imprisonment.

The form of Jeremiah’s ministry evidently exerted a profound influence on Jesus and on Paul (Paul describes his conversion in Galatians 1 in language drawn from Jeremiah’s call experience in Jeremiah 1). For one thing, Jeremiah was called to celibacy (Jeremiah 14). For another, his life was wracked with a sense of suffering and agony that arose from his close identification with his people, which made his preaching of judgment especially painful for him. Also, much of Jesus’ Jerusalem ministry centered in the Temple. as did Jeremiah’s. (See the last two of his poignant laments in Jeremiah 20,) Jesus’ life shows the influence of Jeremiah’s, not just in texts quoted from that prophet but also in the form of his ministry (celibacy, rejection, laments).

Whose lives have shaped and influenced yours? What have you learned about living from those who have gone before you? And, equally as importantly, who looks to your life and learns from how you are living? I feel fortunate to have had several mentors whose influence shaped my life. Delta Perkins, my paternal grandfather, a lumberjack/farmer became a lay Bible scholar as a Baptist deacon and a social progressive. H. T. Sullivan, my pastor growing up, modeled Biblical preaching, and persistent, courageous pastoral leadership. Malcolm Tolbert, my major professor in seminary combined forward-leaning scholarship with a passion for doing scholarship that impacted the church rather than the echo chamber of the academy.

Life can be thought of as a story, a narrative that we are writing each day. The text of our life draws on the texts of others and, in turn, gets drawn on by others in the writing of their own live stories. We can be grateful for those whose scribed lives have gotten written into ours. And, at times we may become aware of those whose texts weave our own into theirs. The latter always comes as a sobering realization that our lives are intimately interconnected and the interweaving of stories is inevitable, especially that others may be modeling on or influenced by our story.

Collect of the Day, Proper 8, the third Sunday after Pentecost

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 230)

Today we celebrate the Feast of Cornelius Hill, priest and chief among the Oneida (died died 25 Jan 1907 CE).

http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/cornelius_hill.htm

Collect of the Feast of Cornelius Hill

Everliving Lord of the universe, our loving God, you raised up your priest Cornelius Hill, last hereditary chief of the Oneida nation, to shepherd and defend his people against attempts to scatter them in the wilderness: Help us, like him, to be dedicated to truth and honor, that we may come to that blessed state you have prepared for us; through Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

A Collect for the Renewal of Life

O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)

Prayer in a Time of War

O Almighty God, the Father of all humanity, turn, we pray, the hearts of all peoples and their rulers, that by the power of your Holy Spirit peace may be established among the nations on the foundation of justice, righteousness and truth; through him who was lifted up on the cross to draw all people to himself, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

William Temple (1881-1944), Archbishop of Canterbury

A Prayer for Light

O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100, 257)