October 9, 2024

Wednesday Word:  Shine

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has dawned upon you.

This is the opening line of Canticle 11, The Third Song of Isaiah, from Morning Prayer and most often said on Wednesdays.  It also happens to be one of my favorite Canticles.

It goes on to say, “darkness covers the land, deep gloom enshrouds the peoples,” and, “Nations will stream to your light . . . Your gates will always be open.”

Looking around, Canticle 11 certainly seems to be speaking to us today.  Everything from the current political climate to the drought and fires around us to the devastation of Hurricane Helene and the impending disaster of Hurricane Milton to war in the Middle East and Ukraine, darkness covers the land and deep gloom enshrouds the peoples.

In the midst of all of that, though, we are called to shine the light of the Lord into the world.  We did a little of that when we gave $5000 to the Fire Relief Fund.  We do a little of that by providing Meals for the Soul for individuals who need a quick meal or a supplement between grocery trips.  We do a little of that through our support of the Food Pantry. 

Our gates aren’t always open, but we’ve begun opening them every weekday at noon for a time of prayer and/or quiet meditation for those who need the space.  Nations may not be streaming to us, but beginning on 10/13 or 10/20, we will be streaming out to the nations when our video feed goes live.  And I’m working out the details of putting a labyrinth on our grounds that will always be open for people to come and participate in that prayer walk.

Canticle 11 is a song of hope . . . hope in the fulfillment of God’s promises and hope that God’s people will do their part to shine the everlasting light of God onto the world around them.

I pray that each of us individually, and all of us corporately, shine the light of God onto a world covered in darkness and people shrouded by gloom.

Blessings,

October 2, 2024

Wednesday Word:  Serving as Holy Angels

This past Sunday was the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels; and it was also the day we baptized Hope into the household of God.  Last Thursday I came across a podcast from The Living Church where the host, Amber Noel, interviewed Fr. James Dominic Brent, a Dominican Friar who lives at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, and the title of the episode was, “Angels and Demons (but mostly Angels).”

In that episode Fr. James was discussing the mystery of the angelic hierarchy (which, by the way, was a word coined by a priest to divide the angels into orders) and he pointed out something interesting:  the mystery of the hierarchy is based in service; and not only service, but reversed service.

If you think about all of creation, the order of beings is God àAngels àHumans.  This is reflected in Hebrews 8:7 when the author writes, “You have made [humans] for a little while lower than the angels.”

You might normally think that humans, being the lowest of those beings, would serve the angels, who would then serve God.  But Fr. James pointed out that this wasn’t necessarily so.  The mystery of the hierarchy is that the higher serve the lower.  Angels serve and protect humans (think guardian angels, or the angels that protected Lot and his family from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah).  Archangels serve angels.  And God, in a stunning turn, also serves humanity.  This is most clearly shown in Philippians 2:6-8 when Paul writes that Jesus, though in the form of God, took human form and humbled himself, and in John 13:5 when Jesus washes the feet of the disciples.

If this angelic hierarchy is arranged in a “reversed service,” with even God serving us, the lowest of these forms, then what does that say about how we are to act and behave toward others?  Is there not only a mandate to care for the lowly, oppressed, and outcast because that’s the right thing to do, but shouldn’t we be serving the lowly, oppressed, and outcast because that is, in fact, the system God has ordained: the higher serves the lower.

Who do you see as “lower” than yourself, and how are you serving them?

Blessings,