Hello all, I'm running perpetually behind today, and I'm drawing a blank on a devotional. Please forgive me. I hope by tomorrow morning I'll have something up at reverendbeard.com. 

Blessings, 

Fr. Ian

Note: While I was preparing to write this I noticed that the lectionary on www.commonprayer.org differs from the lectionary in the front of my BCP for today. I'm not entirely sure why, so if you're following along on that website, please forgive the discrepancy. 

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Revelation 21:1

It is easy to get weighed down and distressed about the sinfulness that runs rampant in this world and to grow eager to finally join with all the saints in singing the eternal praise to our Lord. We remember though that the world in which we reside is a beautiful place. 

We simply need to turn off the news and sit back for a moment of quietude and see God's handiwork in creation. In this, our hearts have a chance to sing praises to him in their own right. There are many songs of old that recognize how beautiful His creation is and lead us to praising Him. 

This morning, we read of how God will recreate the heavens and the earth, how they will be without the blemishes of sin. Already we can see how beautiful this world is, imagine how much more beautiful it will be without the tarnish of sin. We can look forward to that day of recreation, when our sanctification will finally be finished and when we will see the new heavens and the new earth in all their splendor. 

As we read this morning's lessons, they remind us of our eternal hope of a life of plenty at the feet of the king of kings. Today may bring tumult and trouble, but we look ever forward to this eternal joy. 

The first lesson foreshadows not only Israel's deliverance but the eventual salvation of the church that she may dwell in the house of the Lord. The second lesson reminds us of who the true King of Kings is. It is Him, Jesus Christ who we place our hope in, not in human princes. 

As tumultuous as life may be, it is always tempting to put our faith in the earthly things, whether it be another person, our next job, or some other tangent but we learn to hope in Christ alone. We may see earthly blessings; we maybe see tumult and trouble. Whatever life brings, we continuously seek to do good, living in kindness and love with our eyes focused on the Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and focusing intently on our eternal promise. 

IT is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy Name, O Most Highest. ~ Psalm 92:1

The Psalm reminds us of the joy of rejoicing in the Lord, but some days, we just don't feel like it. What do we do when this is the case? I think sometimes it's just a matter continuing to rejoice in His goodness, even when it's hard. 

One practical solution is to read the Psalms, read and pray a Psalm of lament and be reminded of how God delivers His people, read a Psalm of thanksgiving, and remember those things that we have to be thankful for: our friends, our family, our Church, and most importantly our salvation. Sometimes our list may feel short, but more often than not we just need to be reminded of God's great goodness. 

Take hearts, sing songs of praise, and persevere in the faith, and learn of the goodness of God. 

As Christians, we are rich, rich in grace and mercy, rich with the gift of wisdom from Holy Scripture, and rich in the loving-kindness of our Lord. 

We are reminded of this today. In the first lesson, we are told that it is through God alone that we are rich and in the second lesson we learn some important things about how the kingdom of heaven works. 

We see that the order to the world is different than the order in heaven. The humble and lowly will be brought high, and we see that the power resides in a lamb, not a lion. 

Our earthly desires are to acquire more money, more power, more prestige, but the reality is that all of these things are fleeting and can be gone in a moment. True wealth and power lie in the mercy of God. The lamb who was slain for our sins now sits at the right hand of the Lord. 

In this way, we are more wealthy than we could account. 

Rogation Sunday is a holiday that has fallen out of style in our western context. So many of the parishes I have served and visited do nothing or very little to observe it.  For so many of us, all we need to do to get whatever food we fancy is hop in our car, drive to the grocery store and pick it up. Any food from our wildest culinary dreams fills the local supermarket, and it is easy to forget that every good gift comes from God. 

In the exhortation this morning from Genesis we are reminded that every good gift that we receive comes from God. We have been examining our journey towards to eternal perfected kingdom throughout the season of Easter, but now we need to remember that the sustenance that we receive for that mission is also a good gift from God. God is our sustainer throughout every day. 

Even if we are not gardeners or farmers, let us not forget this basic truth and let us pray throughout this time of Rogationtide that God would continue to sustain and bless us bountifully. 

When God seems quiet

There are periods of time in our lives, days, months, sometimes even years when it seems God has gone quiet or taken a vacation. It feels as though we were left alone, that all our prayers are going to voice mail, or worse, we're getting the please hold message. "Your prayers are very important to us; please hold for the next available representative." 

What do we do when this happens? How are we to press on, to be faithful witnesses when it seems like there is only emptiness? 

We press on; we do the next thing, we pray always, and keep reading the scriptures. This morning the Psalmist cries out: show thou me the way that I should walk in; for I lift up my soul unto thee. 

We may not be given clarity immediately on things like careers, or spouses, or trials, or whatever it is we are struggling with, but we see clearly who our God is. As we've wandered with the Israelites through the desert, in their time of delivery we have seen time and again that when they thought the answer and solution they were seeking was never going to come, it was right around the corner. 

Even in the darkest of hours, don't lose hope, for joy does come in the morning. 

Let brotherly love continue. ~Hebrews 13:1

The second lesson for this morning is rich with wisdom. If you have an extra minute re-read it, you will not regret it. 

We are continuously called to let love abound. While we have many definitions of love, the one that I think is most appropriate for brotherly love is an overwhelming care for the well-being of our brothers and sisters in Christ and the whole world. This exhortation to love is hard for the world delights in the failure of others. 

A mark of the new kingdom, the kingdom that we have been discussing throughout the season of Easter, the realm that our hearts are entering into, and we look forward to being completed at the end of times is Love. Both agape love and brotherly love will rule in that new kingdom. We look forward to that in the future but strive to establish the marks of it in our Christian communities in the here and now. 

The benefit of brotherly is the creation of a healthy Christian community, forsaking the urge to rule over others while seeking to encourage, edify and teach them in the ways of Christ. It encourages us to open our homes and hearts to those who need compassion and fellowship. In this way, we have been the body of Christ to the hurting, and we have ministered to Christ. In this way, some have had the privilege of entertaining angels. 

Let us be sure that our local Christian community is known for its brotherly love. 

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire. ~ Hebrews 12:28+29

Our Easter hope is not in the things of this world. Christ taught that we are not to store our treasures in the things of earth but in heavenly hopes. This teaching is a difficult challenge in a materialistic age when it seems like we all have to keep up with the latest trends and have the hottest new toys. We know that God will shake and destroy those things that do not act to build the kingdom within and around us. 

The true kingdom is the kingdom of heaven, and we attach our hope to that promised new kingdom that will be complete the end of time. All other hopes will fail us, earthly kingdoms will fall, people will betray us, and our might will falter, but God will never fade or fail his children. 

Let us place our hope in the King of the kingdom that cannot be moved, trusting in the grace found in Jesus Christ, and dwelling in the consuming fire of the joy of Christ. 

This morning's lessons remind us yet again of the generous provision of God, and perhaps it seems as though we are beating a dead horse, but we remember the Israelites and how easily they lost faith, just as we are often prone to doubt when things don't seem to go our way. The human heart is a fickle thing, growing distracted by any trouble or pastures we perceive as greener. 

This morning the Israelites look back at their slavery and bemoan that it was better to be there than wandering in the desert. They would rather be brutally bound to the Egyptians than to have freedom and to enjoy God's provision. How often are our hearts tempted towards these lesser things, prone to deeming that they are more enjoyable in our moments of doubts? How often does sin seem better than righteousness or at least easier? 

God uses the Israelites and all of the saints to witness to us that His provision is absurdly bountiful, but we are called to trust and believe, we are called to persevere even when things seem hopeless. Our hope lies in Christ our Lord, alone. Our hope is to live in the grace found in Christ alone.