This is the thirty-first in a series of daily Lenten devotionals by a group of Anglican bloggers and friends. Today’s entry is by Chip Johnson of the South Dakota Anglican blog. You can read other entries in the series here.
—-
Just Desserts
Wednesday of 4 Lent, March 29, 2006, collect for John Keble, Priest, 1866
Morning Prayer lessons from Genesis 50 and Psalm 109
Gen 50.15 And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. KJV
Psa 109.21 But do Thou for me, O God the LORD, for thy Name’s sake * because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. KJV
When we become afraid, because of man’s wrongdoings to man; we are like the sons of Jacob — they had grievously wronged Joseph in years past. They had become jealous of Jacob’s favoritism to his ‘son of old age’, and because of his dreams about his, and their, future. They teased him when they were all at home, lied to him, tricked him, beat him, put him down a desert well and told Jacob that the wild beasts had taken him.
When we have wronged another, we begin to ‘spin’ the story, making it better and better with each telling, to make ourselves ‘look good’, just as the older brothers spun the story to Jacob, showing a bloody cloak, and reporting a ‘terrible accident’. Today we cite ‘situational ethics’, bad genetics, new ‘revelations’ (spins) of Truth.
Just as Joseph’s brothers feared the wrath of their brother, who just happened to now be the number two man under Pharaoh; we are fit to receive a just punishment because our God, even though a God of love (I Jn 4.7,8), is also a just God, and justice is not always pleasant.
But – we have an advocate, a mediator, one to stand in the gap between where we find ourselves and our just reward! “But do thou for me, O God the LORD, for thy Name’s sake * because thy mercy is good, deliver Thou me.” - Psa 109.21
Only because of the infinite mercy of God, through the atoning sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, can we claim the psalmist’s promise of mercy – ‘deliver thou me!’
Grant, O God, that in all time of our testing, we may know thy presence and obey thy will; that, following the example of thy servant John Keble, we may accomplish with integrity and courage that which thou givest us to do, and endure that which thou givest us to bear; through Jesus Christ our LORD, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
—-
Chip Johnson is missioner for the Anglican Mission to South Dakota, based in Hot Springs. He is ordained in the Diocese of St Paul the Apostle of the Anglican Province of Christ the Good Shepherd, a professed third Order Franciscan of the Company of Jesus, a member of the Anglican Communion Network, and has been involved in pastoral and institutional ministry since 1971. He may be contacted at sdanglican@gwtc.net or www.sdanglican.blogspot.com.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.