Thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, "I dwell in the high and holy place and also with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite." Isaiah 57:15
Grant, O Lord, we pray, that we who keep the feast of the holy martyrs Blandina and her companions may be rooted and grounded in love of you, and may endure the sufferings of this life for the glory that shall be revealed in us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The New Testament is the answer to all the questions posed in the Old Testament. In Psalm 30 (vv. 8-10), we find these questions:
What is the New Testament's answer?
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5)
[Jesus said,] "Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." (John 5:25)
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." (John 11:25a)
In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. (Ephesians 4:9-10)
And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!" (Revelation 14:13).
The Psalmist asks, "Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?" Jesus Christ, in dying and rising again, answers with a resounding, "YES!"
Almighty and everlasting God, who found your martyr Justin wandering from teacher to teacher, seeking the true God, and revealed to him the sublime wisdom of your eternal Word: Grant that all who seek you, or a deeper knowledge of you, may find and be found by you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
It is one of the most emphatic and the most difficult points of Christ's own teaching that believing prayer will remove mountains. Our first reaction to such a text is to say "Believing prayer, yes, but of course one has to believe. If I had heroic faith, if I could sweat conviction from every pore. . .," but that anyhow is not the teaching of Christ. I find nothing there about heroic faith; that is his part, not ours. All he asks of us is something which genuinely joins on to his heroic faith. Even the least bit--"faith even as a grain of mustard seed"--will allow a foothold in us to the forces of omnipotence for removing the mountain from our path. Faith even as a grain of mustard seed will give irresistible force to our prayer. And yet, it would seem, many men who think they have faith--for example, the disciples of Jesus whom he was addressing in these words--have not this grain of true belief when they pray, for their prayers lack effect.
I don't find all that Christ asks us to lash ourselves up into a fine frenzy of faith. Faith is above all things serene, not agitated nor violent. What he requires is that our faith, though there be but a grain of it, should be genuine and simple. It comes down to this, that when we pray we should mean what we say. If we invoke God as Father, we are not asking that God should concern himself with certain limited troubles of our own, but that loving concern should take effect without any limits. We cannot pray, "I ask your fatherly love to take effect on me, but I do not want it to take effect through me on those whom you have given me." That prayer is unprayable, but then so is this, "I want your compassion to take me as I am, but I don't want that piece of your compassion which you have placed in me to take others as they are. Just as I am without one plea, but not just as they are, not with any number of pleas."
Father in heaven, by whose grace the mother of your incarnate Son was blessed in bearing him, but still more blessed in keeping your word: Grant us who honor the exaltation of her lowliness to follow the example of her devotion to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Separation is a common theme when Jesus speaks about judgment. The separation of the weeds from the wheat has, in fact, already been decreed from before the foundation of the world. All the way back in Genesis 1, there is the separation of light from darkness. What Jesus speaks about is not a new concept, but its meaning has been hidden up until this time. Now, Jesus elaborates on how God goes about separating the good from the evil in his kingdom.
Jesus usually does not explain his parables to his disciples. Here, however, he does explain that he is speaking about "the end of the age," a time of judgment and separation, the specific meaning of which will become more clear as the narrative unfolds.
"The end" should not be dismissed as past or put off as future. Parables are intended to describe deeper spiritual realities and their meaning is often somewhere below the surface. Judgment will come when we least expect it, in a manner we least expect.
Will judgment come today, tomorrow, or sometime in the far distant future? We cannot become enslaved by presumptuous speculation. Rather, we are to recognize that because, in Christ, God has made known the mystery of his kingdom from the foundation of the world, we are without excuse.
Judgment, separation, and the end of the age are always staring us right in the face. We are not guaranteed the next moment. Thus, we are to live each moment in constant awareness of the nearness of the kingdom of God.
O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgement, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, to ask what you would have us do; that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, that in your light we may see light, and in your straight paths may not stumble, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The section finishes with the strange but telling little scene between Jesus and his family. Mark, in a similar passage, tells us that they were themselves anxious about his sanity (3.21); the implication certainly seems to be that Jesus regards their presence as a distraction, an interruption. But the point here is not so much a negative one about his physical family, as a strong and positive one about his disciples. They are doing God's will, he declares, by listening to his kingdom-teaching. They are therefore his true family.
For much of this chapter, Jesus has been assailed and attacked by people who regard him and his work as dangerous, subversive and possibly demonic. But there are some people--and here they are, sitting around him!--who are not threatened by this opposition. They are discovering that when they listen to Jesus they are brought into the presence of God, and into knowing and doing his will, in a whole new way.
That, of course, is the challenge for all of us as we study Jesus today. As we listen to what he says, and watch what he does, are we sitting back and criticizing? Are we wanting to interrupt, to say, 'Hold on a minute! Why are you doing it like that?' Or are we learning that by listening in humility, and then acting in obedience, we are brought into a new relationship with the one whom Jesus called 'father'?
The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. John 4:23
Almighty God, who have taught your people to praise you in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs: We thank you for your servants to whom you have given skill in the writing of hymns, especially at this time for Juraj Tranovsky, and we pray that by your grace we may sing your praises joyfully in this life, and finally attain to the harmony of the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Our world is incredibly verbal and we are so constantly flooded by words which have lost their meaning and therefore their power. Christianity reveals the sacredness of the word--a truly Divine gift to man. For this reason our speech is endowed with tremendous power either positive or negative. For this reason also we shall be judged on our words: "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" (Matt. 12:36-37). To control speech is to recover its seriousness and its sacredness, to understand that sometimes an innocent "joke," which we proffered without even thinking about it, can have disastrous results--can be that last "drop" which pushes a man into ultimate despair and destruction. But the word can also be a witness. A casual conversation across the desk with a colleague can do more for communicating a vision of life, an attitude toward other men or toward work than formal preaching. It can sow the seeds of a question, of the possibility of a different approach to life, the desire to know more. We have no idea how, in fact, we constantly influence one another by our words, by the very "tonality" of our personality. And ultimately men are converted to God, not because someone was able to give brilliant explanations but because they saw in him that light, joy, depth, seriousness, love which alone reveal the presence and the power of God in the world.
I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord." Psalm 122:1
Collect of the Day
Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be peaceably governed by your providence; and that your Church may joyfully serve you in confidence and serenity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
"And all the people," Matthew writes, "were amazed, and said, 'Could this be the Son of David?'" What had happened to cause the people to begin asking openly if Jesus might be the long awaited Anointed One? He had healed "a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute . . . so that the man spoke and saw." There were some, however, who did not share in the enthusiasm, for "when the Pharisees heard it, they said, 'It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.'"
Not only was this claim callous, it was also perilous, placing these self-proclaimed religious know-it-alls in danger of eternal separation from God. Jesus warns them that "every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come."
What was it which the Pharisees said which placed them outside the forgiveness of God? What was their "blasphemy against the Spirit?" Was it merely an outward act, a careless word spoken out of ignorance or hard-heartedness? Did the Pharisees' real sin involve only the words of their mouths, or did it involve, moreso, the attitude of their hearts? Were not their careless words merely a manifestation of a callous attitude which so clouded their perception that they could not even acknowledge, much less glorify, God even when the power of his Holy Spirit was on display right before their very eyes?
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the unforgivable sin not because of any failure on God's part to forgive "every sin and blasphemy." Rather, "whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" because such forgiveness is not desired. The merciful, forgiving, and healing God revealed in and through Jesus Christ is a total stranger to such a person, so much so that he is unable to give God all the glory, but instead gives the devil all the credit.
On this day the Lord has acted; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24
Collect of the Day
O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
55. Furthermore man crowned with glory and honour," and "glory, honour and peace" are laid up by promise "to every man that worketh good." There is moreover a special and peculiar glory for Israelites "to whom," it is said "pertaineth the adoption and the glory ... and the service," and the Psalmist speaks of a certain glory of his own, "that my glory may sing praise to Thee ;" and again "Awake up my glory" and according to the Apostle there is a certain glory of sun and moon and stars, and "the ministration of condemnation is glorious." While then so many things are glorified, do you wish the Spirit alone of all things to be unglorified? Yet the Apostle says "the ministration of the Spirit is glorious." How then can He Himself be unworthy of glory? How according to the Psalmist can the glory of the just man be great and according to you the glory of the Spirit none? How is there not a plain peril from such arguments of our bringing on ourselves the sin from which there is no escape? If the man who is being saved by works of righteousness glorifies even them that fear the Lord much less would be deprive the Spirit of the glory which is His due.
Grant, they say, that He is to be glorified, but not with the Father and the Son. But what reason is there in giving up the place appointed by the Lord for the Spirit, and inventing some other? What reason is there for robbing of His share of glory Him Who is everywhere associated with the Godhead; in the confession of the Faith, in the baptism of redemption, in the working of miracles, in the indwelling of the saints, in the graces bestowed on obedience? For there is not even one single gift which reaches creation without the Holy Ghost; when not even a single word can be spoken in defence of Christ except by them that are aided by the Spirit, as we have learnt in the Gospels from our Lord and Saviour. And I know not whether any one who has been par-taker of the Holy Spirit will consent that we should overlook all this, forget His fellowship in all things, and tear the Spirit asunder from the Father and the Son. Where then are we to take Him and rank Him? With the creature? Yet all the creature is in bondage, but the Spirit maketh free. "And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Many arguments might be adduced to them that it is unseemly to coordinate the Holy Spirit with created nature, but for the present I will pass them by. Were I indeed to bring forward, in a manner befitting the dignity of the discussion, all the proofs always available on our side, and so overthrow the objections of our opponents, a lengthy dissertation would be required, and my readers might be worn out by my prolixity. I therefore propose to reserve this matter for a special treatise, and to apply thyself to the points now more immediately before us.
56. Let us then examine the points one by one. He is good by nature, in the same way as the Father is good, and the Son is good; the creature on the other hand shares in goodness by choosing the good. He knows "The deep things of God;" the creature receives the manifestation of ineffable things through the Spirit. He quickens together with God, who produces and preserves all things alive, and together with the Son, who gives life. "He that raised up Christ from the dead," it is said, "shall also quicken your mortal bodies by the spirit that dwelleth in you;" and again "my sheep hear my voice, ... and I give unto them eternal life;" but Spirit" also, it is said, "giveth life," and again "the Spirit," it is said, "is life, because of righteousness." And the Lord bears witness that "it is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." How then shall we alienate the Spirit from His quickening power, and make Him belong to lifeless nature? Who is so contentious, who is so utterly without the heavenly gift, and unfed by God's good words, who is so devoid of part and lot in eternal hopes, as to sever the Spirit from the Godhead and rank Him with the creature?
57. Now it is urged that the Spirit is in us as a gift from God, and that the gift is not reverenced with the same honour as that which is attributed to the giver. The Spirit is a gift of God, but a gift of life, for the law of "the Spirit of life," it is said, "hath made" us "free;" and a gift of power, for "ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." Is He on this account to be lightly esteemed? Did not God also bestow His Son as a free gift to mankind? "He that spared not His own Son," it is said, "but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" And in another place, "that we might truly know the things that are freely given us of God," in reference to the mystery of the Incarnation. It follows then that the maintainers of such arguments, in making the greatness of God's loving kindness an occasion of blasphemy, have really surpassed the ingratitude of the Jews. They find fault with the Spirit because He gives us freedom to call God our Father. "For God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into" our "hearts crying Abba, Father," that the voice of the Spirit may become the very voice of them that have received him.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5)
