Devotions for the Seventh Week of Easter
Monday of Easter VII – Prayer of the Week
O King of glory, Lord of hosts, uplifted in triumph far above all heavens, leave us not without consolation but send us the Spirit of truth whom You promised from the Father; for You live and reign with Him and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
I had an English teacher who really did not like double negatives. But there are a few times when it just works. Did you notice the double negative in the prayer? We pray that God leave us “not without consolation.” I suppose the simplest way would have been to ask God to give us consolation. But that word has some negative connotations for us. After all, who wants the consolation trophy at a basketball tournament?
I am at that stage of life where my children are launching into their adult lives. It is hard to drop them off at airports and see them driving away to adventures which do not immediately involve their parents. Our lives have been bound together for so long and now they must be lived at some distance from one another. We delight in their maturation and grieve the loss of the children who made our house so active. I wonder what emptiness the disciples felt as they watched Jesus ascend into heaven. Did it not hit them until they finally returned to that upper room where they had eaten the Passover on Maundy Thursday or the place where Thomas had touched his hands and side?
We pray today that Jesus does not leave us alone, but that he sends the Spirit of truth whom He promised us. We pray this prayer on the other side of Pentecost and the outpouring of that Spirit. We would be very lonely and miserable today had Jesus not heard this prayer, prayed by Christians for the millennia of the church’s existence and if He had not answered it that first Pentecost and every day since. He has opened the floodgates of God’s Spirit and in a continual waterfall (Spirit-fall?) of the Holy Spirit, our lives have been comforted, enlivened, and blessed. Praise God, he knows what we need, listens to our prayers, gives us all good things, even if our grammar is not always so good.
Tuesday of Easter VII – Acts 1:1-11
1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
(Observant followers of these devotions will notice that I have not used this past Sunday’s first reading for this devotion, that is because on Thursday of this past week we observed the festival of the Ascension – this is the account for that day.)
She had fallen for the scam once. Someone had offered her a great deal of money if she would just cash this one check and wire the money off. Of course, the check was no good. Her bank came back and took the money out of her own account, plus a bunch of fees. You would think she might wise up, and in a sense she did. When the same scammer came back again, she agreed, but this time had no intention of wiring the money off to the person who was scamming her. She intended to keep it and pay off the big hole in her account created by the first time.
Now she entered a whole other realm. She had been a victim, now she was a perpetrator. In doing this, she was trying to pass a bad check off to the bank, in this case a check cashing service, and pocket the money. Because it was over $1,000, in my state that was a felony. We, the members of the jury, considered the evidence and eventually were forced to find the woman guilty. The various witnesses and evidence, even the woman’s own words, simply left us with that inescapable verdict. She had done this. We urged the judge to leniency in her sentencing, but she had done this.
Jesus sends us out today as witnesses. If there are witnesses, there must be a trial. Who is on trial, you might ask? In a very real sense, it is the world which is on trial (John 16:5-10), but we are bearing witness not to the deeds of the world, but of God. Our world’s guilt, our own guilt, is beyond question and obvious. Just look at the broken children in Ukraine, peer into the eyes of a Holocaust survivor, listen to the lies and justification of lies which constitute our political discourse, or consider the suffering which goes on in the encampments which line our highways. They all speak to a world which has abandoned virtue and truth. But that is not really our witness. Our witness is to what God has done. We are Jesus’ witnesses. We bear a message into the world that Jesus has died for this world’s sins, all of them. His sacrifice of self on a cross was enough. God has raised Him from the dead. We have heard his voice and love him. We bear witness to the fact that God has dealt with sin, once and for all, and now forgiveness and righteousness have been given. Satan’s prosecutorial efforts have been thwarted by the strange and gracious love of God.
Wednesday of Easter VII – Psalm 133
1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.
We are reading this psalm just a couple of weeks before the start of the Northwest District convention. Coincidence? In truth, our Northwest District conventions are largely tame affairs. They are usually pretty mild compared to the Synodical conventions. That might be an even better place to hear this psalm read. That’s an idea. We flood the convention with memorials demanding that before every report and before every resolution is read, the delegates all must recite this psalm in unison. If nothing else, the convention will succeed in sending hundreds of folks who know how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.
Do I sound a little bitter or cynical here? It could be. I am a son of a pastor and have served for over 30 years in my beloved Synod, and I do still love it. But sometimes we quarrel too much. I am not surprised. Divisive quarreling is often easier than unity. Unity takes work. Being one as a sinner with other sinners means I must admit that I am wrong sometimes. It means I forgive my fellow Christians and need their forgiveness. It means I put his or her needs first. It means I put aside my own goals/initiatives and submit to Christ’s mission for the church. It is not easy.
I have been blessed to see true and Christian unity as well. I have served with brothers and sisters in Christ and had a wonderful, joyful time. I praise God for those instances and opportunities just as I thank Him now for the people whom I am privileged to serve. I haven’t seen the oil on Aaron’s beard and collar. Not sure I want to. I have not seen the dew of Hermon either. But I have lived in a desert and know that oil and water are wonderful for dry skin and parched lips. I pray for the unity which comes from humble repentance, sincere forgiveness, and full-throated praise of God and His Son, Jesus. I need that, it is the necessary balm for any soul.
Thursday of Easter VII – Revelation 22:1-20
1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
6 And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
7 “And behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”
8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, 9 but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”
10 And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
14 Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15 Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
16 “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”
17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
I have never been to Seoul, South Korea, but I have seen pictures and I rather want to go. Seoul is one of the largest cities in the world. There are over 26 million people living in the metropolitan area and the city has some of the highest population densities in the world, twice that of New York and four times that of Los Angeles. I don’t like cities that much. But I still want to go.
Seoul has a river that runs through it. For many years it was covered up, literally forced under a layer of concrete and asphalt. But such density of people and a world exclusively of concrete and hard surfaces is not good for people. So, they uncovered the river and turned it into a meandering and beautiful park that runs through the city. When I see pictures of this park, I am reminded of this passage from John’s book of Revelation. In the Jerusalem which has descended from heaven, he sees a river flowing from the throne of God, it is the water of life. There are trees of life on every side, each of them bearing their fruit in every month of the year. Life never ends in this city. The leaves of these trees are for the healing of the nations. The nations need healing. I long for it.
I knew that the park in Seoul is not heaven. But it can remind me of what is to come. The river is named Cheonggyecheon. If you go online and search for images of it, you can see the park which the Koreans have created around it. You will see both images of what it used to be when a highway sat on top of it and today, when it flows through the city and children play in its water and people walk the wide paths among the trees planted along its banks. Today my world looks much like that concrete and ugly highway which once covered the river, an inhospitable place of utilitarian ugliness. But God has put His Son upon the throne and the water of life wells up from that cross and all creation will be remade.
Friday of Easter VII – John 17:20-26
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
I know a colleague who once found himself standing in a room full of important people. He was there at the invitation of one of them whom he knew. But my colleague did not know him well. The man had been to church a few times, usually sat in the back, but it was his wife who was a member of the parish. The man had asked my colleague to offer an opening prayer for a gathering upon the man’s retirement. He was shocked when this man took the podium and started heaping praise on someone who meant a great deal to him and then said, with his hand extended to my colleague, “so let me introduce you to my pastor.” He said he had the urge to turn around and look behind him because this fellow surely was talking about someone else. He hardly knew this man. He had only been in church a couple of times.
What did he did not know was that this fellow had been downloading his sermons for years and had even formed an informal study group with his own colleagues to read and consider those sermons. This man had come to know my colleague rather well through reading his sermons. It was why the man had invited him there that day, to introduce him to all his friends.
Jesus says he is praying not only for the dozen disciples who are gathered around him that day, but he is praying for you. That can be hard to grasp, but it is true. He prays for your unity with Him, just as the Father and Jesus have an unfathomable, personal union, Jesus is praying for that with you. He wants you to know that same love which the Father has for Jesus. He wants you to see His eternal glory. You cannot really hide in some faceless mass of humanity here, imagining that this is some platitude which is applied to all but not personally. Jesus is God. He doesn’t traffic in such platitudes. He means this personally, for every human, one at a time. He really is thinking of you, praying for you here.