Am I Really That Obtuse?

The Daily Office is, of course, an annual cycle of prayers and scripture readings that recognizes the essential need we have for repetition, reinforcement, and recollection in our spiritual lives. Sometimes I’m not as regular as I would like, but even long before I took to it as part of my Rule, I was well acquainted with the stories of the death of John the Baptist and our Lord’s feeding of the five thousand.

Meanwhile, we make it to Tuesday evening prayer of the Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity, and all of a sudden, I was just dumbfounded by the New Testament reading. We’re in St. Matthew’s Gospel and had just finished the story of the beheading of St. John the Baptist, which by the way, is for me one of the most disturbing stories in the Bible. I’ve always had an almost visceral reaction to the actions that lead to his most heinous death. On so many levels, it is shocking and devastating.

But, I was struck anew by the effect it had on Jesus: “When Jesus received this news, he withdrew from there in a boat by himself to a deserted place […]” (Matt. 14:13).

Of course, he wanted to be alone — to process this tragedy — to mourn. But the chapter continues. I know the chapter divisions are sort of arbitrary, but the narrative nevertheless continues.

And somehow, I've never noticed — or have forgotten — the juxtaposition of this tragedy with what comes next.

It makes my heart ache to continue reading. To pick up from the ellipsis above: “[…] but when the people learned of it, they followed him on foot from the towns.”

Just when he needs to be alone and grieve, the crowds find him and bombard him again. In my book, that would qualify as a nightmare.

But the narrative continues: “When he came ashore and saw the vast crowd, he had compassion on them and healed those who were sick.” Evening approaches and He has the disciples give them something to eat.

I’ve never put those stories together. I see and understand our Lord’s love in an entirely new light at this miracle now. “We love, because He first loved us.” Oh, that I could follow His example more often in my life.

Am I really that obtuse? … Yes, I am. But thankful when the Spirit instructs.

“LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Wonted Thanksgiving for the Book of Common Prayer

One of the most oft-repeated, and yes, tiresome in its dullness, criticisms of any use of the Book of Common Prayer is a perceived lack of spontaneity and sincerity. In his Christian Proficiency, Martin Thornton takes issue with the German Lutheran Friedrich Heiler where his “much lauded ‘primitive prayer from the heart’ is compared with the mere ‘recitation of formulae.’” Thornton goes on to discuss the Lord’s Prayer, but we can expand recitation to include the more “formal” prayers and collects included in the Book of Common Prayer, too, I think. Later Thornton stresses the importance and efficacy of having Rule in our lives as Christians, which must include the Office, Mass, and private prayer. He writes: “And plainly [the discipline of watching and waiting for Our Lord] is closely linked with Rule; it is remarkable how often God chooses to speak to us when we least expect it, and terrible to contemplate how much we miss by putting feeling before regularity (86).”

Or put another way, how many countless times, literally, has the “regularity” of the Daily Office blown my mind and helped me consider and contemplate things that were entirely outside of what I was thinking about.

Case in point: the collect for Trinity V: “GRANT, O Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

For a split second yesterday, I had the stupidity to think that this was one collect that might qualify as quaint and anachronistic in our day and age. What wishful, pie-in-the-sky, naive drivel, I thought subconsciously. Don’t judge - I said I was stupid. People are people, no matter the age, and Cranmer’s day was FULL of turmoil, of course.

What a bold prayer. What a censure of my timid faith and my mousy hopes.

Never on my own would I have prayed that this world would be so peaceably ordered by God’s governance that a joyful Church could possibly serve Him in godly quietness. And now I’m praying it annually at least twice a day corporately with Christians all over the world every day for a week.

E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come.