By John Bauerschmidt

The Rev. Dr. J. Robert Wright, priest, teacher, church historian, and noted ecumenist, died on January 12 of this year at his home in New York, after a brief illness. Wright taught for many years at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan, becoming the St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery Professor of Ecclesiastical History in 1974. He retired in 2010.

Wright attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he studied history, edited the school paper, and was an athlete; and then prepared for the priesthood at General Seminary. Following ordination he began studies at Oxford University, where he was a student at Wadham College. He won a Fulbright scholarship, and an Episcopal Church Foundation fellowship. He was awarded the D.Phil. degree from Oxford upon completion of his thesis, a study of relations between church, crown, and papacy in early 14th century England.

As a scholar, Wright brought to bear on his studies some of the features of his early doctoral work: a meticulous attention to detail, as well as an exhaustive consultation of sources. His students at General Seminary, where he regularly taught both patristics and the medieval church, grew accustomed to being presented with the entire text of Eusebius’s panegyric, The Life of Blessed Constantine, as introductory reading: an alarming prospect for those not familiar with the period! Those consulting Wright’s many journal articles, and essays on various subjects in the areas of church history, ecumenism, and the Prayer Book, knew that in each case the author was providing an important orientation to the subject, and giving invaluable pointers toward the crucial sources.

In his position at General Seminary, he was a mentor to successive generations of clergy. Always “Father Wright,” he was an early supporter of the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church: a noteworthy stance at the time from a Catholic Anglican. Perhaps drawing upon his undergraduate prowess as an athlete, for years Wright coached the seminary’s basketball team. On the campus, he was well known as an advocate for members of his student advisee group, and generous to all his students with his time. This advocacy and attention continued throughout their ministries as priests.

For many years at the seminary, Wright taught a class on liturgical celebration, otherwise known as “Mass class.” The class was a “rite of passage” for many at General Seminary, quite distinct from the more sober class on pastoral liturgy taught by his colleague Thomas Talley. Students were introduced to “the finger rule,” “the great swoop,” and other arcana of traditional liturgical celebration, a concern for which only partially veiled Wright’s love for the Eucharist. His pedagogical method was always to present every option, with a heavy thumb upon the scales for which one was, in his view, correct. His presence at academic assemblies in an Italianate four-bladed doctoral biretta, along with his Oxford doctoral robes, provided a notable counterpoint to the rest of the faculty’s attire.

It is in his work as an ecumenist, however, that Wright is best known to the Episcopal Church, and to a larger international audience. He served for many years on the bilateral dialogue between the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic Church in this country (ARCUSA). He was a member of the Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches, from 1977-1991; and also served on the international dialogue between the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, from 1983-1991 (ARCIC II).

Wright helped shape the World Council of Churches’ statement on “Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry,” issued at Lima in 1982, one of the most influential ecumenical documents of our time, which both marked a growing consensus among the churches, as well as fostering further ecumenical agreement. He was tireless in calling Episcopalians’ attention to its significance, which has informed many of the modern agreements between churches on the mutual recognition of sacraments and ordained ministries.  The Full Communion agreement between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a case in point. Wright introduced many to the idea that ecumenical documents, like Lima 1982 and the documents produced by successive ARCIC gatherings, were important but overlooked sources for theological reflection, and for the articulation of doctrine.

He was a passionate advocate for the unity of the Church. His list of other honors and distinctions is almost too large to recount. J. Robert Wright will be long and affectionately remembered by the students he taught on Chelsea Square, and gratefully recalled by scholars and others who have relied on his many contributions. The generation of ecumenists who have followed him owe him a particular debt for involving them in this work.

The Rt. Rev. John Bauerschmidt is Bishop of Tennessee and co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Theological Consultation in the United States of America (ARCUSA). A former student of Father Wright’s, he is also the president of the Living Church Foundation.

By James Cornwell

A Reading from Genesis 7:1-10, 17-23

1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7 And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

17 The flood continued for forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20 the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

Meditation

Most of us are familiar with this story from our childhood. We recall how Noah must have borne the mockery and ridicule of his fellows while he built his absurd ark based solely on a quixotic impression of a calling from God. We know of the labor of his family in building the massive ship, and of the work and toil that must have been involved in gathering two of every kind of animal so that they could escape God’s coming wrath.

But what we don’t typically reflect on is the first four words of verse 10: the rain that brought the flood did not begin for seven whole days after Noah and his family had shut themselves and the animals into the ark. What must have been going through his mind, as the sun burned hotly on this wooden mass that surely must have begun to stink? He had done everything the Lord had asked of him, but where was the promised flood? Was it all in his head after all?

We are well out of the season of Advent, but we find that, even here, in the season of the manifestation of Christ’s divinity, we find ourselves waiting. Those following the lectionary in church this morning will hear of Jesus’ divinity revealed in the wedding at Cana; and what is a wedding but a promise of things yet to come, things still hoped for? Christ’s glory was revealed in his first coming, and yet we still eagerly await his Second. As we listen during this season of light to the remembrances of Christ’s power made manifest, let us not forget that in this in-between time, the manifestation of his power will come in fits and starts — and we may need to quietly wait in a place that stinks — but we may rest in hope of the ultimate manifestation of what we seek.

♱

James Cornwell lives and teaches in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their seven children.

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♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

Christ Church, Cooperstown, N.Y.
The Church of England

By Pamela Lewis

A Reading from Psalm 116

1 I love the LORD, because he has heard the voice of
my supplication,
because he has inclined his ear to me whenever
I called upon him.

2 The cords of death entangled me;
the grip of the grave took hold of me;
I came to grief and sorrow.

3 Then I called upon the Name of the LORD:
“O LORD, I pray you, save my life.”

4 Gracious is the LORD and righteous;
our God is full of compassion.

5 The LORD watches over the innocent;
I was brought very low, and he helped me.

6 Turn again to your rest, O my soul,
for the LORD has treated you well.

7 For you have rescued my life from death,
my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.

8 I will walk in the presence of the LORD
in the land of the living.

9 I believed, even when I said,
“I have been brought very low.”
In my distress I said, “No one can be trusted.”

10 How shall I repay the LORD
for all the good things he has done for me?

11 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call upon the Name of the LORD.

12 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people.

13 Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his servants.

14 O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant and the child of your handmaid;
you have freed me from my bonds.

15 I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call upon the Name of the LORD.

16 I will fulfill my vows to the LORD
in the presence of all his people,

17 In the courts of the LORD’S house,
in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
Hallelujah!

Meditation

There’s a difference between listening and hearing, and being a good listener is one of the most powerful gifts a human being can possess. I hear a lot throughout the day, but I selectively listen to what I consider meaningful. If I am listening carefully to another person, that action should enable me to step through the doors of her heart and to come away having learned something new about each of us. But there is also the idea of being “heard,” which can mean, among other things, being listened to respectfully and having had one’s concerns taken seriously.

To be fully heard is to feel that one matters. The psalmist in today’s verses loves the Lord because he has heard his voice and his “supplications.” That the Lord “inclined his ear” offers the beautiful image of God bending down to listen. He does not provide the specific reason for why he cries out to the Lord, beyond saying that he was in death’s thrall and felt the pangs of Sheol; but the Lord is always fully engaged with the psalmist, who at that moment is the most important person in the world, and which is why the author will return to the Lord for as long as he lives. When something works for us, we keep doing it.

God not only listens, but acts, by extending compassion, graciousness, and protection to the psalmist, as well as to us. At times the psalmist has been dismayed, and written off others as “liars.” But where there is faithlessness and affliction, the Lord is unchanging and always ready to listen and to save. Our repayment for God’s abiding goodness is in fulfilling our vows to him and in expressing our gratitude.  Even in death and in our feelings of abandonment and anger at the death of loved ones, God is close. He will never abandon his “faithful ones” when they die, and this knowledge should comfort us. When we need to be heard, let us go to our best listener.

♱

Pamela A. Lewis taught French for thirty years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, N.Y., she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of San Joaquin
The Diocese of Northern Indiana

By Neva Rae Fox
Correspondent

The Episcopal Diocese of Taiwan has created an educational path for clergy and lay leadership that eliminates the requirement of traveling overseas or attending the seminary of another Christian denomination.

Thanks to a new, expansive curriculum, Taiwan’s Trinity Hall has blossomed into Trinity School for Christian Ministry (TSCM), in collaboration with St. John’s University (SJU) in Taipei.

Taiwan, at nearly 14,000 square miles and with a population of more than 23 million people, is home to the only overseas diocese of the Episcopal Church located in Asia. It comprises 15 congregations with about 1,200 members, eight kindergartens, and St. John’s University, the successor institution to St. John’s University, Shanghai.

SJU’s former chaplain, the Rt. Rev. Lennon Yuan-Rung Chang, was consecrated as Bishop of Taiwan in February 2020. He immediately set about reestablishing and developing Trinity Hall, where he had done all his theological training in the 1990s under the Rev. Canon David Chee.

Chee, recently retired from the Diocese of Los Angeles, has now returned home to Taiwan. The timing was perfect.

“It was natural for me to turn to my former teacher, David Chee, and invite him to take on the role of dean, and to use his expertise and enthusiasm to develop Trinity Hall,” Chang said.

Chang chairs both TSCM and the SJU Board of Trustees, and is working to build links between them.

Showing its support and commitment, in June the Episcopal Church’s Executive Council provided $30,000 to TSCM for mission support, as well as education and training resources.

In the latest development, TSCM is partnering with Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley, California, to provide cultural and educational exchange opportunities, hopefully beginning in 2022.

Having a relationship with a seminary is not new. Trinity Hall had an exchange agreement with St. Andrew’s Episcopal Seminary in Manila. It has recently sent a student to Virginia Theological Seminary.

Ecumenically, TSCM celebrated the inauguration of a partnership with the Methodist Graduate School of Theology, Taipei, on October 30, allowing students from both institutions to benefit from studying together on each other’s courses, with transferable credits.

Chee explained that the key goals of TSCM are clergy training, continuing education, and Anglican studies. It offers three degrees: Diploma in Theology, Diploma in Practical Theology, and Master of Divinity. All courses are primarily held in Mandarin Chinese, which ensures that they are accessible to people at all levels.

Classes may be accessed in three ways: the traditional weekday in-person classroom; online (mostly evenings); and overnight retreat-style classes.

Previously, classes at Trinity Hall were available only to those in the greater Taipei area. Now, thanks to online options, Chee says, “We are reaching out to the entire diocese, also attracting people from other denominations and even some international participation.

“In a mission to provide lifelong learning, study credits received have no time limit, and may be gradually accumulated to receive the award of a diploma or degree.”

In anticipation of deeper collaboration with SJU, TSCM complies with all the requirements of public colleges and teaching standards set by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.

It’s been a long road to this point in Taiwan’s theological offerings.

“The story has to begin with us being a small diocese, and when and where we train clergy,” Chee said. “That was a problem in the 1980s.”

At that time, clergy candidates had long been sent to the Presbyterian Tainan Theological College, and each student received supplemental courses in Anglican studies at Trinity Hall. Trinity Hall continued to fill the “Anglican gap,” even as the diocese started sending students to the Roman Catholic Seminary at Fu-Jen University, Taipei, during the 1990s.

In the last decade, the diocese was invited by the Archbishop of Hong Kong to send seminarians to Ming Hua Theological College, where classes are held mostly in English and Cantonese.

Pandemic restrictions have added impetus to the speedy development of TSCM. “Given the rapidly changing world and complex situation of present times, we feel it better to train our clergy here,” Chee said.

Looking 10 years into the future, “I see us as a part of a consortium that is not geographically located in one spot, and that addresses current and social issues too,” Chee said. “Using the best resources that we have, and being most optimistic, I hope our relationship with CDSP will mature into something great.”

Why all this effort? “Education is always learning today for the future,” Chee said.

“Our long-term vision is to grow our diocese to eventually become a province of three dioceses,” Chang said. “For that to be achieved, we need churches, clergy, and lay leaders who are theologically and spiritually mature, active in outreach, enthusiastic to share their faith and engage with society. We look forward to seeing how TSCM can support the Church to meet the future.”

By Pamela Lewis

A Reading from Genesis 6:1-8

1 When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals for ever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days — and also afterwards — when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created — people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.

Meditation

There is trouble in paradise. Human beings have followed God’s commandment to be fruitful and multiply, which brings the blessing of children. However, as some scholars believe, the “sons of God,” who were descendants of Seth, and the evil descendants of Cain (“the daughters of men”), intermarried, which weakened the good influence of the faithful and increased depravity in the world. Added to this were the Nephilim (“fallen ones”), a powerful race of giants, who probably used their great height to intimidate and oppress the people around them. The characters are different, but, like Adam and Eve, they succumbed to the same enticements; corruption, not multiplication, set the stage for the destructive cleansing to come.

God is the Creator of the universe, of humans, and of the animals and plants; but he is grieved to the heart at humanity’s choosing wickedness over a relationship with him. The author presents us with a humane God, who feels sorrow and bitterness over the mutilation of what he has made, and would rather destroy his creation outright than continue to see people destroy it along with themselves. Mindful that they are only mortal (“flesh”), he is patient with them — and with himself — by waiting 120 days before taking action.

Noah, although righteous, was imperfect and capable of sin; he got drunk on occasion (9:21), which was an embarrassment to his sons. But he “found favor” with the Lord by walking in faithful step with him as a living example to his generation. In Noah — whose name means “rest” — God finds relief from humanity’s unrelenting sinfulness, and will see in him the possibility of a new humanity.

We often know the right path, but yet yield to corrupting influences and abuse God’s gifts with impunity, which breaks God’s heart and tests his patience. And although human perfection is both impossible and unnecessary to walk with God on this earth, we, like Noah, can strive to align our life with God’s ways, because he wants us to find favor with him.

♱

Pamela A. Lewis taught French for thirty years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, N.Y., she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Jerusalem – The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East
The Diocese of Tennessee

By Kirk Petersen

After leading the world’s richest Episcopal church for two years as priest-in-charge, the Rev. Phillip A. Jackson has been called as the 19th rector of Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City.

“With its resources, Trinity has the unique opportunity – and responsibility – to respond to the needs of our times by feeding the hungry, working to end homelessness, and promoting racial justice, while supporting others who do the same,” Jackson said in the announcement.

Jackson has been at Trinity Wall Street since 2015, serving initially as vicar. He was named priest in charge in January 2020 after the abrupt resignation as rector of the Rev. Dr. William Lupfer. Jackson’s institution as rector will be February 26, at which time he will become the first Black rector in the church’s history. Jackson previously served parishes in Houston and Detroit, and started his career as an attorney in Hawaii.

It’s difficult to overstate the affluence of Trinity Church Wall Street. The church was founded in 1696, and in 1705 Queen Anne of England granted Trinity 215 acres of what is now Lower Manhattan.

Lower Manhattan real estate became valuable. Some of the land has been sold over the years, but the church’s most recent financial report shows $9 billion in net assets, of which $6 billion is real estate. That includes $2.3 billion in real estate held by joint ventures in which Trinity is the majority owner. Under accounting rules, those assets are included in Trinity’s financials even though the church does not wholly own or control them.

The church has an active philanthropy mission, and regularly donates millions of dollars to non-profits and social justice causes around the world. In 2021, the church made grants totaling $46 million.

Later this year, the church is scheduled to open Trinity Commons, five floors of community space in the 27-story Trinity Place office building, which Trinity developed next to the historic church at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street. The public portion of the building includes a full-court gymnasium, a teaching kitchen, a large hall that will seat 300, and a variety of studios and meeting spaces. The church’s administrative offices are planned for three floors above the public space.

In March 2019, Trinity essentially acquired the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California.

A spokesperson said by email that Jackson would not be doing interviews until after officially starting as rector in late February. But Lupfer, who was not mentioned in Trinity’s announcement, spoke enthusiastically with TLC about his current role as priest in charge at a small church at a Colorado ski resort. “I’m going skiing with one of my vestry members this afternoon,” he said with a laugh on January 13, adding that he had similar ski dates the day before and after.

Christ Episcopal Church sits at an elevation of 8,000 feet in Aspen, an isolated celebrity playground of 7,000 people, 200 miles west of Denver. The church had a pre-pandemic average Sunday attendance of 64, whereas Trinity in normal times holds five services every Sunday and multiple services on weekdays.

Lupfer’s unexplained resignation in 2020 generated speculation, and TLC asked him why he left. He said his departure was not as abrupt as it seemed, and that he had been discussing it with the vestry for months. After working up to 80 hours a week for five years, he said he had accomplished his primary goal, which was to change the business model of Trinity “from an owner-operator to an asset manager,” and that the church was on strong financial footing.

“I’m more vision than management,” Lupfer said, adding that Trinity’s challenge now is to manage into the new business model. “Most people would cling to that role forever,” he said, but he believes “all my other calls may have been preparing me for this call” in Aspen. He served churches in Illinois, Michigan, and Oregon before joining Trinity Wall Street in 2015. After leaving Trinity, he was interim rector at All Saints in Phoenix, Arizona, before being called to Aspen.

“I’m returning to the place where I began my ordination journey,” Lupfer said. After growing up in Chicago, he attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he began discerning a call to the priesthood.

Christ Church Aspen has a staff of five, including Lupfer. He said the number of employees at Trinity could vary wildly “depending on how you count them,” in part because the church paid the salaries of union trades people whom it did not technically employee. He gave a range of employees from 250 to 500.

That transition is the source of one of his greatest joys in his current role. “I worked with staff” at Trinity, he said. “Now I work with parishioners.”

Trinity Wall Street is a sponsor of The Living Church Foundation, Inc.

By Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

A number of years ago I was invited to speak at a Pentecostal seminary in Germany and make the best case I could for infant baptism, which was, as you might well imagine, not just unfaithful but downright unintelligible to my audience. The fact that I represented Lutheranism did not make my task any easier, since they were acutely aware of the historic Lutheran church’s dislike of “free churches” — though I can’t say that, as an American, I felt much inclined to admire state Protestantism politically or theologically anyway.

But by this time I had learned a thing or two about voluntary or “believer’s baptism” in the churches that espouse it, so I began my talk by asking how many of the people present had been baptized in water. All of them raised their hands. Hardly surprising.

Then I asked how many had been baptized in water twice. Result: fully half of the crowd of over 100 students raised their hands.

Then I asked how many had been baptized in water three times. Four or five people raised their hands.

Four times? Just one person — who promptly explained it was because she’d “been living in America at the time.” So much for my illusion that escaping the state church/free church tension solves sacramental problems.

Still, I pointed out that, whatever you might think about infant vs. believer’s baptism, there is not one single case of rebaptism in the New Testament. The oft-misinterpreted situation in Acts 19 deals with Ephesian disciples who had received John’s baptism but not Jesus’. Paul ferrets out the insufficiency when he discovers that these John-baptized disciples hadn’t even heard of the Holy Spirit, much less received him. As a result, at Paul’s initiative, the Ephesians received Christian baptism for the first and only time.

From there I moved into more familiar Lutheran territory, laying out the conviction that baptism is primarily God’s work upon us, not our work for God. That’s the real crux of the difference between infant and believer baptizers: not age, but who the primary agent is. If God is the primary agent, then there is no reason not to baptize infants, and compelling reasons to do so — not least Peter’s declaration on the day of Pentecost: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children” (Acts 2:38–39a), and the later bald assertion that baptism saves (1 Pet. 3:21).

When I was wrapping up, my interpreter turned and interrupted me. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” he remarked, “but I think now that actually you Lutherans take baptism more seriously than we do.” I didn’t disagree.

It would be self-serving, however, to conclude on this triumphalist note. I’d like to think that my fellow Lutherans, and all my fellow Christians who baptize infants because we take the sacraments to be God’s work upon us rather than our work for God, universally take baptism with utmost seriousness.

Alas, this is not so. It’s just that our failures are a bit more hidden than the overt act of rebaptism.

For over ten years now I’ve taught an annual course on Luther’s theology in Wittenberg, Germany, for pastors from all over the world. I remember one particular pastor from Sweden — famous for being the least-believing nation in the world, despite membership in the official Lutheran church remaining rather high — describing, at the outset of our two weeks together, her ministry of baptism. As a rule, she reported, her baptismal candidates were infants presented by their parents, whom she’d never seen before and never expected to see again. But it gave her great joy to baptize these children anyway. After all, what is grace but to give the things of God with no requirements or strings attached?

At the end of our seminar, having immersed herself in Luther’s writings on grace, faith, law, gospel, and indeed baptism, this same Swedish pastor observed ruefully that maybe there was more to grace than a drive-by sacrament without faith, without church, and quite frankly without God.

I know by now how deeply embedded is a certain abstraction about grace that finds the mere suggestion that more ought to be required for baptism as offensive, legalistic, and the first step into the very revivalist Christianity that results in unbounded rebaptisms. The short rebuttal to this is to immerse yourself in Luther and see if he doesn’t talk you out of it. But a more immediate response is that it is exactly this kind of careless, cheap-grace administration of infant baptism that gives rise to rebaptism. You can’t stop the latter without also stopping the former. This is truly an ecumenical all-team effort.

Historically, after all, the Anabaptist movement arose in objection to the universal infant baptism of all subjects of Christian kingdoms, which did a poor job of cultivating disciples. In a way, the medieval church had already passed judgment about the inadequacy of baptism, shifting the locus of attention from the sacrament that everybody received sheerly for the sake of escaping hell to the vowed life of priest or monastic.

Yet for all that is said and taught about Luther’s reforming work, it has been all but forgotten that he also reformed baptism. Not by reassigning it from infancy to adulthood, or shifting the locus of attention from divine agency to human agency. Rather, by making it the foundational act of God’s saving work in this particular human life, upon this particular human body, at this particular moment in time.

Grace is not abstraction but concretion: water and trinitarian name applied by God himself through the medium of the pastoral ministry (or, in a pinch, the midwife). Just like physical childbirth occurs only once, so does the spiritual rebirth of baptism occur only once. But it is to be taught again and again, and Christians are to return to it — to the historic fact of God’s action upon them — in all times of doubt and need. “But I am baptized!” Luther’s anguished soul is instructed to protest against fear and guilt. “And if have been baptized, I have the promise that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body” (see “The Large Catechism” in The Book of Concord, edited by Kolb and Wengert, p. 462).

If that is what is at stake in baptism, then both careless parodies of grace in infant baptism and faithless repetitions of it in rebaptism are ruled out of court. Your baptism matters enormously because it is what you turn to, in the story of your own life, as the source and renewal of your faith and discipleship. Neither a half-hearted enactment of cultural ritual nor a frantic effort to feel it and desire it enough to deserve it will see you through.

In my decade-plus talking through baptismal theology and practice with the pastors in Wittenberg, I always found that faith and grace and justification and all the rest really came into focus only when we talked about baptism, and baptism came into focus when we worked our way through case studies. If baptism is of ultimate importance in this person’s life, then the pastoral task is to make the right judgment call on, for instance, whether a real baptism has already taken place, or how to administer an as-yet not-done baptism under difficult or confusing circumstances. Over the years I collected many case studies from the pastors, and early in 2021 I realized it was time to put both the theology and the cases, with judgments on each included, in front of a wider audience.

The resulting To Baptize or Not to Baptize: A Practical Guide for Clergy breaks down baptismal case studies into three broad categories. The first is validity: assessing whether a putative baptism really is a baptism. So, for example, since Christian baptism is performed “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” then an act involving water and another name such as “Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier” is not a Christian baptism. But then again, a baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” administered in a Mormon setting with Mormon beliefs about the nature of God and grace, doesn’t get a pass for using the right name, any more than a Jehovah’s Witness baptism does, for neither group baptizes as the Christian Church does.

The second section of the book deals with “integrity of witness.” The question here is not whether the baptism is valid — in all cases, I assume it is — but whether the administration of that baptism takes place in circumstances that contradict or militate against baptism, rendering the whole act incoherent (and quite possibly leading to a choice for rebaptism later in life).

The automatic baptism of infants of unbelieving parents in state and folk churches certainly qualifies as a valid baptism that fatally undermines itself. But so does private baptism, which treats baptism as a family matter and judges the Church as an unnecessary add-on to the gospel, rather than the matrix in which the gospel reaches private individuals to draw them into the Church. So does virtual baptism, which deletes the very baptized body that is to be raised on the last day. So does destination baptism, in the Jordan or elsewhere, making the water more important than anything else, and so does novelty baptism — most egregiously, to my mind, applying the water with a squirt gun to maintain social distancing. It’s one thing to be crucified with Christ; it’s quite another thing to be shot by him.

The third and final category dealt with questions about safety and permission. It’s appalling to consider that anything should stand between God and those on whom he wishes to bestow baptism. But sometimes other parties intervene, with consequences that can’t be dismissed lightly. Pastors from Islamic nations are forbidden to baptize Muslims on pain of imprisonment or death, so what are they to do when asked to baptize anyway? Or what if they suspect that the request for baptism is an insincere attempt to trick them into a punishable offense? What if a child or teen wants baptism but the parents forbid it? These are but a few of the real-life dilemmas that pastors must be prepared to parse.

Widespread baptismal malpractice means that all of us are going to face uncomfortable conversations sooner or later. But it can be done, and the grace that follows after such discomforts superabounds to the good of the whole church. For on baptism, as Luther says, “God himself stakes his honor, his power, and his might” (Book of Concord, p. 458).

The Rev. Dr. Sarah Hinlicky Wilson serves as associate pastor at Tokyo Lutheran Church in Japan. She hosts the podcast “Queen of the Sciences: Conversations between a Theologian and Her Dad” and writes a quarterly newsletter, “Theology & a Recipe.” Find out more about these and her books at sarahhinlickywilson.com. To Baptize or Not to Baptize is available at all online sellers, or go direct to thornbushpress.com to learn more.

By Pamela Lewis

A Reading from the Gospel of John 1:43-51

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you come to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Meditation

In the passages immediately preceding these, Jesus’ new disciples are gradually becoming acquainted with their new leader, and an intricate pattern of witnessing unfolds. The disciples use various names when speaking about or referring to Jesus: “Rabbi,” “Messiah,” or “Lamb of God” (this last name, notably, from John the Baptist). Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, plays perhaps his most important part in this gospel when he tells his brother, “We have found the Messiah.”

The enthusiastic witnessing comes to a halt when Philip tells Nathanael that the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote — Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth — has been found, to which Nathanael responds with his now famously dismissive question. This put-down may reflect small-town rivalry that existed between Cana and Nazareth, only a few miles apart; but it speaks to Nathanael’s bias toward Jesus before coming to know him fully.

Jesus knows Nathanael, however, when he was “under the fig tree.” But this is a supernatural knowledge, as Jesus was not present when Philip called Nathanael. In a subtle allusion to the Genesis story of Jacob and Esau, where Isaac told Esau that his brother Jacob had come “with deceit” to take his blessing, Jesus makes the point that Nathanael, unlike Jacob, is a truthful Israelite, moving Nathanael to call Jesus the “son of God and King of Israel” (two controversial titles). While Nathanael may not have meant for this title to denote Jesus’ divinity, he is proclaiming nonetheless a truth beyond his understanding.

The “you” Jesus addresses in the ending verses could be Nathanael, the larger group of disciples, or, through this gospel, the whole Church, who will see greater things. We know little of Nathanael’s life, but he witnessed the risen Christ, and God has completed and continues to complete the work of opening heaven on his people to reveal the Son of Man.

♱

Pamela A. Lewis taught French for thirty years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, N.Y., she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Jebba – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Camp Allen, Navasota, Texas

Appointments

The Rev. Carl Adair is curate at Zion, Douglaston, N.Y.

The Rev. Larry Adams-Thompson is deacon in charge of St. John’s, Marlin, Texas.

The Rev. Rob Banse is interim rector of Christ Church, Millwood, Va.

The Rev. Mary Barnett is missional priest in charge of Holy Trinity, Middletown, Conn.

The Rev. Miguel Carmona is curate of St. Barnabas, Garland, Texas.

The Rev. Amber B. Carswell is rector of Christ Church, Warwick, N.Y.

The Rev. David Casey, O.P., is priest in charge of the Free Church of the Annunciation and Mount Olivet, New Orleans.

The Rev. Dr. John Day is the Diocese of Northern California’s transition ministry officer and priest in charge of St. Mary’s, Elk Grove, Calif.

The Rev. Canon Jennifer Deaton is rector of St. Stephen’s, Indianola, and vicar of St. John’s, Leland, Miss.

The Rev. Jonathan W. Evans is rector of St. Monica’s, Naples, Fla.

The Rev. Maria Evans is interim pastor of Christ Church, Rolla, Mo.

The Rev. Delia Fay is priest in charge of St. Nicholas, Paradise, Calif.

The Rev. Todd FitzGerald is priest in charge of St. John’s, West Hartford, Conn.

The Rev. Hailey Jacobsen is assistant rector of St. Paul’s Memorial, Charlottesville, Va.

The Rev. Celal Kamran is assistant rector of Pohick, Lorton, Va.

The Rev. Erik Karas is ecumenical and interfaith officer of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.’

The Rev. Alex Leach is priest in charge of St. Luke’s, Woodland, Calif.

The Rev. Canon Scott Leannah is the Diocese of Milwaukee’s canon for ministries.

The Rev. Canon Caleb Lee is rector of St. Paul’s, Wilmington, N.C.

The Rev. Susan Oldfather is priest in charge of St. Mark’s, Perryville, Md.

The Rev. Janet Oller is interim rector of St. Luke’s, Denver.

The Rev. Christie Olsen is interim rector of St. James, Hendersonville, N.C.

The Revs. Bob and Jeanette Reese are chaplains to the retired clergy of the Diocese of Georgia.

The Rev. Dennis Reid is the Diocese of Bethlehem’s consulting missioner for convocations.

The Rev. Canon Franklin L. Reid is priest in charge of St. Paul’s, Spring Valley, N.Y.

The Rev. James Reiss is curate at Centro Franciscano, East End Mission, East Hampton, N.Y.

The Rev. Beth Scriven is vicar of Good Samaritan, Brownsburg, Ind.

The Rev. Matt Seddon is rector of Trinity, Bloomington, Ind.

The Rev. Jean-Pierre Seguin is vicar of the Diocese of New York’s Catskill Regional Ministry.

The Rev. Danielle Thompson is rector of Grace, Sheffield, Ala.

The Rev. Fred E. Thompson Jr. is interim priest in charge of St. Mark’s, Charleston, S.C.

The Rev. Owen C. Thompson is dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Cincinnati.

The Rev. John Thorpe is interim priest in charge of St. Michael’s, O’Fallon, Ill.

The Rev. Anna Woofenden is rector of St. John’s, Northampton, Mass.

The Rev. Ryan Wright is rector of St. Mary’s, Bonita Springs, Fla.

The Rev. David Wyly is rector of St. Stephen’s, Goldsboro, N.C.

The Rev. Francine Young is dean of administration for the Diocese of Texas’ Iona School of Ministry.

The Rev. Lu Zhang is priest in charge of St. George’s, Flushing, N.Y.

Retirements

The Rev. Virginia Army as rector of St. John’s Church, Vernon, Conn.

The Rev. Khushnud Azariah as vicar of St. George’s, Riverside, Calif.

The Rev. John Balicki as rector of St. Mark’s, Waterville, Maine.

The Rev. Kathleen H. Berkowe as priest in charge of Holy Communion, Mahopac, N.Y.

The Rev. Audley Donaldson as rector of St. Stephen and St. Martin’s, Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Rev. Michael Engfer as rector of All Saints,’ Las Vegas.

The Rev. Michael James Fay as rector of Ascension, Salida, Colo.

The Rev. Willis Foster as rector of St. Stephen’s, Petersburg, Va.

The Rev. Carol Gadsden as rector of St. Thomas’, Mamaroneck, N.Y.

The Rev. John Hardie as rector of St. Mark’s, Corpus Christi, Texas.

The Rev. Paul Hartt as rector of St. Peter’s, Albany, N.Y.

The Rev. David Meginniss as rector of Christ Church, Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The Rev. Dr. Craig Phillips as rector of St. Peter’s, Arlington, Va.

The Rev. Jennifer Phillips as rector of St. John’s, Westwood, Mass.

The Rev. Michele Quinn as rector of St. Joseph’s, Lakewood, Colo.

The Rev. Diane Rhodes as rector of St. Andrew’s, Harrington Park, N.J.

Ordinations

Diaconate

Northwest Texas: Russell Dickerson (parish deacon, Heavenly Rest, Abilene), Rachel Lei Petty, Matthew Roberts

Ohio: Megan Alicia Allen, Jon Michael Coventry

Oregon: Elizabeth Gordon Wanzer Klein, SuEllen June Johnson Pommier

South Carolina: Christian Paul Basel

Southern Ohio: Patricia Marie Rose

Southern Virginia: Darlene Ann Jackson

Southwest Florida: Brian P. Cleary

Southwestern Virginia: Benjamin Cowgill (curate, St. John’s, Lynchburg)

Texas: Larry Adams-Thompson, Christine Elridge Brunson, Ryan Ashlea Hawthorne, Joel C. McAlister, Jason Phillip Myers, Beth Anne Nelson, Lynn A.K. Osgood

By Pamela Lewis

A Reading from Hebrews 2:11-18

11 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12 saying,
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters,
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
“Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”

14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16 For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.

Meditation

The brief passage from Psalm 22 quoted in these verses reinforces the message that, through Jesus, we have been set apart for God’s service. His Father is our Father, thereby making us his brothers and sisters (who in Greek were called adelphoi, meaning “believers”). Those who have no siblings can take comfort in knowing that they are supernaturally related to Jesus and are beneficiaries of his grace and love. Inasmuch as Jesus was not ashamed to call ordinary people his brothers and sisters, we should not be ashamed to claim Jesus as our brother.

If we forget or do not understand why Jesus was born and lived among flesh-and-blood human beings, we need only to read this author’s explanation: we needed someone who was like us yet greater than we are to confront and destroy the one who is, literally, hell-bent on destroying us. It is not without reason that the word “slavery” is used to describe the condition to which humanity is subjected, as many are enslaved by various demonic forces, be they of their own or of others’ making. The fear of death, too, is included in this enslavement. But through his suffering Jesus became the new high priest, who in the Old Testament was mediator between God and the people. Jesus’ death and resurrection made atonement for the sins of his brothers and sisters and freed them from their sins; this was true then, and is still true today.

Even angels don’t have what we have. It is we, Abraham’s descendants, who need Jesus’ help in just this way: only someone who looked, lived, and was tempted, like a human, yet did not become the devil’s slave, could do the hard and holy job of saving us.

♱

Pamela A. Lewis taught French for thirty years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, N.Y., she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands – The Church in the Province of the West Indies
The Diocese of New Jersey

The January 23 Parish Ministry issue of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers.

Our cover introduces a package of three articles on the Most Rev. Desmond Mpilo Tuto, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning former Archbishop of Cape Town, who died the day after Christmas. Mark Michael traces the archbishop’s earthly journey in an obituary; Vicentia Kgabe, the seventh Bishop of Lesotho, shares her memories of the second Bishop of Lesotho (Tutu); and biographer Michael Battle describes how Tutu urged us to think beyond racial identity.

In other news, Kirk Petersen reports on arrangements to oversee same-sex marriage rites in the Diocese of Albany, and looks ahead to the election of the Rev. Gay Jennings’s successor as president of the House of Deputies.

Sarah Hinlicky Wilson delves into the long-standing debate over infant baptism, while Neva Rae Fox profiles an excitin new chapter for a seminary in Taiwan.

Ministries everywhere are pivoting into pandemic mode for the long term, and Jonathan French offers some tips that worked at his Florida church.

All this plus more news, book reviews, obituaries, and Sunday’s Readings, from an independent voice serving the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion since 1878. Consider subscribing today.

NEWS

• Archbishop Desmond Tutu Dies at 90
  By Mark Michael

CATHOLIC VOICES

• Desmond Tutu: Bishop, Pastor, Mentor
  By Vicentia Kgabe
• Tutu’s Legacy: Habits of Restoration and Resurrection
  By Michael Battle

FEATURES

• Baptism: God’s Work Upon Us
  By Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
• New Life for a Taiwanese Seminary
  By Neva Rae Fox
• Pandemic Pivoting | By Jonathan French
• From the Archives: At Least I Can Kneel
  By Grace Sears

BOOKS

• Why Can’t Church Be More Like an AA Meeting?
  Review by Chilton R. Knudsen
• 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving
  in a Decade of Accelerating Change
  Review by Matt Marino

OTHER DEPARTMENTS

• People & Places
• Sunday’s Readings

By Pamela Lewis

A Reading from Psalm 5

1 Give ear to my words, O LORD;
consider my meditation.

2 Hearken to my cry for help, my King and my God,
for I make my prayer to you.

3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice;
early in the morning I make my appeal and watch for you.

4 For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
and evil cannot dwell with you.

5 Braggarts cannot stand in your sight;
you hate all those who work wickedness.

6 You destroy those who speak lies;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful, O LORD, you abhor.

7 But as for me, through the greatness of your mercy I will
go into your house;
I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you.

8 Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness,
because of those who lie in wait for me;
make your way straight before me.

9 For there is no truth in their mouth;
there is destruction in their heart;

10 Their throat is an open grave;
they flatter with their tongue.

11 Declare them guilty, O God;
let them fall, because of their schemes.

12 Because of their many transgressions cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you.

13 But all who take refuge in you will be glad;
they will sing out their joy for ever.

14 You will shelter them,
so that those who love your Name may exult in you.

15 For you, O LORD, will bless the righteous;
you will defend them with your favor as with a shield.

Meditation

In his essay “Of Friendship,” 16th-century philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon wrote of the value of a true friend “to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress, in a kind of civil shrift or confession.” Bacon was writing solely about what constitutes a true earthly friend, but he was also writing about God.

God in this psalm is the true friend Bacon describes in his essay, for the psalmist can pray and cry out to him with intense honesty. Beset by the “bloodthirsty and deceitful,” the psalmist begins his day by praying and crying out to God for help against these enemies. But he can also tell God that he is a God who takes no pleasure in evil, and does not condone or even excuse the smallest sin. The author’s enemies are also God’s enemies, and using legally-tinged language the psalmist exhorts God to be sensitive to their sin and to declare them guilty, because their rebelliousness is their greatest transgression.

The importance of communication is the common thread that runs through many of today’s books about cultivating healthy friendships. This psalm’s author models this understanding through his consistent behavior toward God: regular prayer, spending meaningful time in God’s house, and placing his trust in the Lord. He also consigns his enemies to God, who will know how best to handle them. At the end, the psalmist asks that all who take refuge in God find joy, and he affirms that God defends and blesses the righteous. This sounds like the kind of friend Francis Bacon had in mind.

♱

Pamela A. Lewis taught French for thirty years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, N.Y., she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Jalingo – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
The Diocese of Springfield

By Pamela Lewis

A Reading from the Gospel of John 1:1-18

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

Meditation

We are immersed in words. Though they are imperfect conveyors of our thoughts and emotions, yet we rely on them to tell our stories and to express our needs, desires, and points of view.

John begins his gospel by referring forthrightly to the Word, a term that was used in different ways by both Jewish and Greek theologians and philosophers. In Hebrew Scripture, the Word was an agent of creation (Ps. 33:6), as well as God’s means of communicating his law. Here, John is clearly speaking of Jesus as the Word, — the Logos — who stands above all others because he embodies “grace and truth.” Unlike other words, this Word is perfect, in that it derived from God and was God. Whereas our words are arbitrary and often fail to communicate their intended messages, this Word, being eternal, never fails.

Although not a biography, John’s Gospel is a reliable account of one who was an eyewitness to Jesus’ life and ministry, and whose task here is to reveal Jesus’ true identity as the light of the world. But John deftly layers his account by witnessing, in turn, to another witness: John the Baptist. Although not “the” light, the Baptist came as a witness to testify about that light. Many paintings from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance show John the Baptist pointing to Jesus to signify that he should be the focus of our attention.

The grand takeaway from both John and John the Baptist is that Jesus’ life became deeply bound up with ours when he walked among us and made it his mission to share his grace with us and to give us the right to become part of God’s family. That mission came at a high price. God spoke through prophets, but no one ever saw God; but when the Word became flesh, God became visible. May we be ever thankful for these two powerful witnesses.

♱

Pamela A. Lewis taught French for thirty years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, N.Y., she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

All Saints’, Beverly Hills, Calif.
The Diocese of Jaffna – The (united) Church of South India

By Pamela Lewis

A Reading from Genesis 1:1-2:3

1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. 8 God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. 11 Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights — the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night — and the stars. 17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”

27 So God created humankind in his image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” 29 God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. 2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

Meditation

An amusing cartoon from 1977 by Brooklyn-born artist Sidney Harris shows two scientists standing at a blackboard looking at a complex mathematical problem, its numbers and symbols covering the board from end to end. At the center of the complicated problem are the words “Then a Miracle Occurs.” Pointing to these words, one scientist says to the other, “I think you should be more explicit here in Step Two.”

The math problem may relate to any of the various questions mathematicians and scientists scratch their heads over; but I like to think of it as referring to speculations about the origin of the universe, where the “spiritual” word, “miracle,” is in the midst of man’s complicated formulas. The universe is enormous and complex, but Genesis makes clear that God is the Creator who spoke everything into existence with the words “Let there be.” We are presented with his rational and orderly creative method: of course it makes sense on the first day to turn on the celestial lights before filling the planet with animals and vegetation; it is right that on the sixth day man and woman become the pinnacle of God’s creation and are given dominion over what he has made; and it is sensible that rest must follow labor.

The author of Genesis seeks to tell us that the world was created by God, as well as show us who God is. While distinct from his creation, he has endowed it with value, appraised it as “good,” and bestowed on us godly attributes of reason, creativity, and love.

We have known or will know the experience of bringing something out of nothing: starting over after a loss, creating a work of art that never before existed, or leaving a familiar place to begin a new life elsewhere. Our void-to-light experiences are continuations of the creation story, where God took a risk and chose to make something out of nothing and declared it good. Now that’s what we can call a miracle.

♱

Pamela A. Lewis taught French for thirty years before retirement. A lifelong resident of Queens, N.Y., she attends Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, and serves on various lay ministries. She writes for The Episcopal New Yorker, Episcopal Journal, and The Living Church.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

Iglesia Anglicana de Chile
Trinity Episcopal Church, Red Bank, N.J.

By Mark Michael

The Rev. Canon Peter Koon Ho-Ming, a senior leader of Hong Kong’s Anglican Church, has resigned his church position after being chosen as a member of Hong Kong’s legislature in a controversial “patriots only” election in late December.

He told reporters at the swearing in ceremony for the new legislature on January 3 that he would resign from his church leadership responsibilities “to better fulfill his role” in the legislature. Koon, who was sworn to his new post wearing clerical dress, remains a priest in good standing.

Koon, 55, is the third religious leader to serve on Hong Kong’s 90-member Legislative Council. Active on the fringes of Chinese Communist Party politics for the last several years, he also played a significant role in the criminal case that touched off a series of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2019. The legislature in which he will serve is seen by many as part of Beijing’s efforts to sideline the popular movement.

The scion of a once-prominent Shanghai banking family, Koon has served since 2007 as secretary-general of the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, a three-diocese province uniting Anglicans in Hong Kong and Macau. He was elevated to the post just two years after his ordination, following a career in commercial real estate with a Shanghai-based firm.

As provincial secretary, Koon has been overseeing the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui’s extensive work in education and social welfare provision, including chairing the governing council of its retirement home and directly supervising several of its prestigious schools. He was the publisher of The Echo, the official provincial newsletter, and appears to be remaining on the staff of St. John’s Cathedral, a Victorian-era monument in Hong Kong’s historic core, which mentions his legislative role on its website.

Friends say that Koon consistently describes himself as “not a politician, always a priest,” and political involvement is a recent career development. In 2014 he became an advisor to the Our Hong Kong Foundation, a public policy think tank established by Hong Kong’s former chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa. Chee-hwa, the first to serve in the role after the transfer of sovereignty from Britain in 1997, was known for his pro-Beijing tendencies, and became vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CCPPCC) upon his abrupt resignation in 2005.

The CCPPCC, a Beijing-based body with more than 6,000 members, advises the Chinese Communist Party on policy priorities. It includes senior leaders from the country’s eight legally permitted parties as well as prominent business, academic, military, and civil society leaders. Koon has himself served on the CPPCC since 2018, as a member of its Beijing Municipal Committee, “striving to promote communication and mutual understanding between Hong King and the Chinese mainland,” according to his biography on the Our Hong Kong Foundation website.

In a 2017 interview with South China Morning Post, Koon bristled at the suggestion that he views the Chinese Communist Party through rose-colored glasses, noting that his uncles were among the millions of Chinese elites who were purged during China’s 1960’s Cultural Revolution. His cooperative stance instead, he implied, is rooted in his faith. “As a religious leader, we don’t want to see turmoil in our country,” he said. “We ought to do our utmost in negotiating with authorities to achieve fairness, justice and harmony.”

Koon played a high-profile role in the crisis provoked by the flight from Taiwan of Hong Kong native Tony Chan Tong-kai, who admitted to killing his pregnant girlfriend Amber Poon Hiu-wing while on vacation in Taipei in February 2018.

Chan fled back to Hong Kong the day after the murder, and admitted to it when questioned by Hong Kong police a few days late. He could not, however, be charged with the crime in Hong Kong or extradited back to Taiwan, because of the lack of an extradition treaty between the two governments.

Koon began visiting Chan while he was in police custody, eventually preparing him for baptism. He served as Chan’s spokesman for a time, and after Chan expressed his willingness to surrender himself to Taiwanese authorities, Koon helped him secure a visa and a purchased a flight to Taipei for him. Tension between Hong Kong and Taiwan ultimately made the plan impossible, but Chan did publicly apologize for his deeds in October 2019, asking for forgiveness from Poon’s parents.

In the meantime, the Hong Kong government used the Chan case as the pretext for a February 2019 bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be extradited for trial both to Taiwan and to mainland China. Protests against the bill began in June 2019, and escalated quickly, with of tens thousands of mostly young Hong Kong residents closing down the city center at points, and clashing at times with police and counter-protesters.

The protests plunged the city into a recession and led to deep social divisions over the role of the police and the city’s relationship with the mainland Chinese government. The November 2019 Hong Kong District Council election, the first to be held since the protests began, resulted in record-high turnout of 71.2% of voters, and was a landslide for pro-democracy forces, who saw their share in seats on the council increase from 30% to 80%.

The Beijing government’s response came in June 2020, when the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed a national security law for Hong Kong. The law establishes crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign organizations, and criminalizes the promotion of Hong Kong’s secession from China. It gives expanded powers to the police and establishes an office outside Hong Kong jurisdiction to administer and enforce the law.

In May 2021, the National People’s Congress also began an overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system, aiming to ensure, in the words of Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, that “patriots governing Hong Kong” would become the new “legal norm.”

The new laws expanded the size of Hong Kong’s Election Committee (which chooses the chief executive) as well as its Legislative Council, with more seats directly appointed by the Beijing government and party-controlled entities. Prior to the reforms, half of the Legislative Council’s 70 seats were directly elected; in the new 90-seat body, only 22% are, while twice as many are chosen directly by the Election Committee. The reforms also require that all candidates be vetted by the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, a body established by the national security law.

Koon’s foray into Hong Kong politics comes in the midst of this major shift. He was first chosen as part of the Election Committee in April 2021, and then ran for one of the forty seats elected by the members of the Elections Committee in December. The December Legislative Council elections had historically low turnout, with only 30.2% of eligible voters participating. Only one of the 20 popularly elected seats will belong to a member not from the pro-Beijing bloc.

It’s certainly unusual for a priest to serve as an elected official in China. China’s Communist Party remains officially atheist, and the party’s constitution bans its members from belonging to religious organizations. Since 1979, however, the state has officially protected religious freedom, though many have expressed concern about sporadic government crackdowns on unauthorized religious groups and proselytism. In late December, for example, the government announced a ban on the dissemination of religious information on the Internet by unauthorized groups.

At the same time, two of the elected bodies charged with advising the party to which Koon belongs, the CCPPCC and Hong Kong’s Election Committee, set aside a certain number of seats for religious leaders (65 of 6512 members of the CCPPC and 40 seats of 1500 on the Election Committee). The Hong Kong Christian Council, of which the HKSKH is a prominent member, is one of six bodies that has long been charged with selecting members for the Election Committee to represent the region’s religious groups.

SUNDAY’S READINGS | January 16, 2022

Isa. 62:1-5
Ps. 36:5-10
1 Cor. 12:1-11
John 2:1-11

The preface to the Marriage Rite mentions the first miracle of Jesus recorded in St. John’s Gospel. “The bond and covenant of marriage was established by God in creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee” (BCP, p. 423). Several previous prayer books rather touchingly say, “which holy estate he adorned and beautified with his presence and first miracle” (1928, 1892, 1789, and 1662). Indeed, to adorn is to beautify and add luster. The presence of Christ at the wedding is “a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God” (Isa. 61:3). More beautiful than the bride and groom, Jesus “shines out like the dawn,” gives light “like a burning torch,” though in a manner at first hidden because he is merely one of many guests. He blends in, standing with his mother and his disciples.

The wine runs out, something the mother of Jesus notices, and she mentions this to her son. Jesus seems to rebuff her request, though without any lack of respect, as many commentators are quick to point out. It simply is not, Jesus says, “my hour,” which may allude, as it often does, to his passion, suggesting perhaps the greater miracle of transforming wine into his blood and the outpouring of his blood for the salvation of the world. “My hour” may also suggest that it is not the right moment, though it would seem the right moment arrives just minutes later. In any case, Jesus will do what he will do in his time, and he is subject to no necessity.

Mary “has pondered all these things in her heart” for many years, and so she may sense that something new is about to happen through her son. She trusts him and says to the servant, “Do whatever he tells you,” giving an encapsulated statement of all Christian discipleship. Indeed, Jesus speaks to the Church today, saying, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them . . . and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me” (John 14:23-24). The word of Jesus, being the very word of the Father, is given in the form of a command to the servants at the feast. Like the calling of the fisherman, Jesus calls out to those at work. He finds people in the world as they live their daily lives. He speaks not to those at rest and ease but to those who labor and are heavy laden.

Speaking to the servants, telling them to fill water jars, commanding that they draw out the water-become-wine and take it to the steward: Jesus is at work in human lives and upon the substance of creation. Of the miracle, we are told “the servants knew,” indicating at least the possibility of their conversion. Do we not find ourselves in these servants? Jesus addresses us in the imperative; he tells us, “Follow me.” We respond to his call because we know him, and he knows us.

And, to strengthen our faith, he gives a sign, the changing of water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. What is this other than a miracle of abundance and joy? And, as with the Eucharist, a change is effected in us through Christ’s command and omnipotent power. We partake of new and better wine, and so, to quote Richard Hooker, “there ensueth a kind of transubstantiation in us, a true change both of body and soul, an alteration from death to life.”

The new wine is Christ himself at work in our lives!

Look It Up: Psalm 36:8

Think About It: Drink from the river of your delights.

By David Baumann

A Reading from Colossians 1:15-23 

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the Church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

21 And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him — 23 provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

Meditation

After the warm and encouraging greeting in his letter and the urging to the believers in Colossae to remain faithful, Paul opens up a vision of Jesus whose magnificence is striking. It is cosmic in its scope; Earth is too small to contain this grand explosion of glory. Jesus is “the firstborn of all creation. In him all things were created, things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible.” Everything that exists has been “created through him and for him.” Then, as if that were not enough, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.” Yet even this cannot sufficiently express all the splendor of Paul’s rhapsody. Through Jesus, God reconciled “to himself all things, whether things on earth or in heaven.” One can envision the power and truth of Jesus holding true a billion years from now, and into the farthest stretches of the galaxy. All of time and space are swelled to bursting with this dazzling glory. And then Paul lowers his sights to the humble folk of Colossae: God “has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” Can anything be more desirable than this, even while it is utterly impossible to earn? And he urges them not to move from “the hope held out in the gospel.” Who were these believers? They lived in a small town in what is now Turkey nearly 1,900 years ago — people with needs, hopes, and anxieties; with friends and families; who earned a living. People for whom Christ died, whom he loved and redeemed — loved and redeemed with a supremacy for which the entire universe is too small. They were loved by the cosmic Christ whose ineffable majesty came down from heaven to show perfect love… to people like us.

♱

David Baumann served for nearly 50 years as an Episcopal priest in the Dioceses of Los Angeles and Springfield; he retired last year. He has published nonfiction, science fiction,  and short stories. Two exuberant small daughters make sure he never gets any rest.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

St. Anne’s Parish, Annapolis, Md.
The Diocese of Jabalpur – (United) Church of North India

By David Baumann

A Reading from Colossians 1:1-14

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ in Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3 In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 for we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel 6 that has come to you. Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. 7 This you learned from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 and he has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Meditation

In the early years of my ministry I had to deal with the suicide of a troubled young woman, a member of an inactive family at the church where I was the assistant. I put a ton of effort into writing a fitting sermon. A few days after the funeral, the woman’s sister came to see me and said that as a result of my sermon, she wanted to renew her life in Christ. But did she have to change her job? “What do you do?” I asked. “I’m an exotic dancer,” she said. Well, I knew she didn’t have a high school education and was the sole support of her widowed mother, so I advised her not to quit cold but to look for a better job while bearing witness where she was. Within a month she brought a man to church whom she had converted while she was working at her bar. The man was later baptized: an inspiring story of a new convert whose light enlightened another.

This was the case in the church at Colossae, a small inland town about a hundred miles east of Ephesus. A man named Epaphras was converted by Paul, maybe in Ephesus, and then went home and founded a church in his hometown. Paul had never been to Colossae, but wrote to the new Christians there, probably at Epaphras’ request. He begins with a strong commendation for their faith, love, and hope — Paul’s Big Three — and urges their continuing growth in Christ. He assumes that it is normal that the light of Christ in believers will light the way for others. And so it should be, and is.

By the way, within six months of her conversion the exotic dancer had indeed found a new job. She remains a good friend and devout Christian 46 years later.

♱

David Baumann served for nearly 50 years as an Episcopal priest in the Dioceses of Los Angeles and Springfield; he retired last year. He has published nonfiction, science fiction,  and short stories. Two exuberant small daughters make sure he never gets any rest.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

Diocese of Fond du Lac
Diocese of Western Izon (Church of Nigeria)

Commentary by Kirk Petersen

January 6 will live forever in history as a red-letter day.

It is, of course, the day on which we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany — the visit of the three Magi to the Christ child. The beginning of the introduction of Jesus to the corners of the world.

Secular forces have a way of overwhelming religious observances. For most people, “Christmas” will first evoke images of presents under a tree, rather than of a Savior in swaddling clothes. Among Gentiles, the best-known Jewish holiday is Hanukkah — a December observance of relatively minor religious importance, supercharged by an accident of the calendar.

Epiphany has a head start of two millennia, but in the United States at least, January 6 will be indelibly stained for many years to come by images of hundreds of trespassers at one of the country’s most famous buildings.

“It never occurred to me, in my 68 years of living, that it would be necessary for me to stand up in front of the people of God and declare that it is necessary to reclaim Epiphany,” Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry said, at the beginning of an Epiphany sermon livestreamed from the Church of the Epiphany in Washington.

“But one year ago, on the Feast of the Epiphany, January the 6th, 2021, darkness descended the land and Epiphany was eclipsed at the Capitol of the United States of America,” he said.

Whenever Curry preaches or speaks, his words have far more power when they can be experienced directly, rather than read from a transcript. His ancestry includes enslaved people and Baptist ministers, and he evokes that heritage through thunderous cadences that alternate with near whispers. He earned the nickname “Royal Wedding Preacher” with a relatively tame 2018 homily that was seen by more people than any Episcopal sermon in history.

Which makes it all the more unfortunate that his Epiphany sermon was marred by technical disaster.

Curry preached for 32 minutes, and for the first half, the sound quality was merely annoying. The static and volume shifts did not obscure the output of his lapel microphone, and his energy came through both visually and audibly. Churches everywhere have struggled with livestreaming, and any virtual churchgoer can sympathize. Only the largest churches can afford sophisticated equipment and professional technicians. The Church of the Epiphany’s pre-pandemic average Sunday attendance was about 170 — substantial but not huge.

At about minute 15 of the sermon, there was an audible “pop,” and thereafter the sound quality ranged from unintelligible to very, very bad. Curry continued his sermon with energy and passion, clearly unaware that nobody outside the nave of the church could enjoy the experience. Moderators repeatedly acknowledged the problems in real-time comments on Facebook, and promised a transcript would be posted.

TLC asked why the sermon was not given from the Washington National Cathedral, which has studio-quality equipment and personnel. Public Affairs Officer Amanda Skofstad issued the following statement:

We sincerely apologize for the audio issues viewers experienced during today’s live-streamed Epiphany service. This happened despite thorough site testing and other successful virtual events at this church and is an obvious aberration from the high quality of our digital media team’s work.

Partnering with Church of the Epiphany on Epiphany offered an opportunity to highlight this church’s commitment to serving and seeing Christ in all people, particularly homeless people and communities of color.

For whatever consolation it may be, even a flawless presentation would have had trouble breaking into the narrative of the day. Curry’s sermon came less than three hours after President Joe Biden stunned some commentators by delivering the most aggressive criticism he has ever aimed at his predecessor. The Church Center vigorously promoted Curry’s planned Epiphany service, and The Living Church helped spread the word in advance. But the president obviously has a bigger megaphone.

It’s tempting to see the technical mishap as a foreshadowing of the difficulty of reclaiming Epiphany from the forces of secular upheaval. Epiphany may eventually regain primacy as the meaning of January 6, but it will likely take many decades.

But in support of Curry’s worthy effort, TLC has transcribed a portion of the first half of the sermon. The text below omits the phrase-by-phrase Spanish translation of the fully bilingual service.

Epiphany at its deepest roots is about the life and light and love of God. And what happened here in this country that we love a year ago, was not about light and love and life. And we are better than that.

We must reclaim Epiphany. That is why we are here. We must reclaim it by choosing the light.

Last year we were living in some darkness. … We were facing some deep divisions among us, and slowly realizing that there were those who were fostering those divisions among us.

But then a deeper darkness descended, about midway through the afternoon. And we all saw it. We turned on our television.

We saw the Capitol of the United States of America — breached! The temple of democracy, descecrated. And darkness descended this land. We saw symbols of Christianity used to perpetuate the desecration.

The audio disruption occurred shortly after that point. A link to the full official transcript will be posted when available.

Feast of the Epiphany

By David Baumann

A Reading from Revelation 21:22-27 

22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day — and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Meditation

Even in this age of confusion and weak hopes, and a Church that (let’s face it) is often unimpressive, most popular movies and books still end well. Evil is overcome. Goodness triumphs. Love conquers. This is because such desires are at the very heart of what it means to be human, and even today the Great Story holds its truth. It is what people really want, and what people are truly made for. Down deep, we know that we are broken and we long to be set right. Dystopian science fiction and stories that exalt “anti-heroes” might have their place, pointing out what’s wrong or where our sins might lead, but they don’t carry our imaginations to the ultimate end.

Today’s reading comes from the very end of the Bible. It describes the consummation of the great promises given throughout the entire canon of Scripture, but in few of them is that consummation presented with such transformative rapture. Here, at long last, is the opening of the door to eternal joy. The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb take the place of any transitional place of worship; the sun and moon are replaced by the true glory. Euphorically, the greatness of human culture will be purified, preserved, and included in the consummation: “the glory and honor of the nations will be brought into [the city]”; the city will have familiarities. The impurities, shames, and deceits of the fallen world will finally be utterly removed. Holiness will become normal, the order of the day.

A colleague told me that once a friend of his whom he hadn’t seen for years came through his door. The friend’s face glowed with the joy of long friendship, but also with the joy of a newly shared faith. His first words after years of separation were, “About Jesus! It’s all true!!” Today’s lesson tells us that all that we have ever wished for is “all true!”

♱

David Baumann served for nearly 50 years as an Episcopal priest in the Dioceses of Los Angeles and Springfield; he retired last year. He has published nonfiction, science fiction,  and short stories. Two exuberant small daughters make sure he never gets any rest.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

Mockingbird Ministries
The Diocese of Northern Izon (Church of Nigeria)