Monica Coakley, Author at The Living Church

Coming In and Going Out

Monica Coakley — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 08:00:38 +0000

Daily Devotional • September 7

Catacomb of Priscilla | Rome, Italy

A Reading from John 10:1-18

1 “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

7 So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Meditation

John’s gospel recounts Jesus’ seven “I am” word pictures, which show us who Jesus is. Our reading for today includes one of the most loved of these word pictures, “I am the good shepherd.” Just a few verses earlier, we are given a related but distinct image, “I am the gate for the sheep.” In Jesus’ time, countryside sheepfolds often did not have an actual gate. Instead, there was a single, narrow opening and the shepherd would lay across the opening at night to protect his sheep from thieves and wild animals.

Jesus, the Gate and the Good Shepherd, does more than protect us from danger. Jesus says that those who enter by him will be saved, they will “come in and go out and find pasture” and will have abundant life. To “come in and go out” is an expression found in multiple places in the Old Testament, where it does not indicate physical movement but a whole way of life marked by freedom and flourishing. In the image that Jesus paints for us, Jesus is not showing us a flock that is confined to the sheepfold, or one that enters and leaves his Kingdom, moving in and out of the state of salvation. Jesus provides his flock with both safety and perfect freedom; eternal life in heaven plus fullness of life in the present. When the sheep come in and go out, the Good Shepherd goes with them, showing them the way to green pastures and still waters to nourish the body, comfort the heart and restore the soul. “I came that they may have life” — not just safety, not just survival, but life — “and have it abundantly.”

Monica Coakley, a graduate of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, provides pastoral care to men on Tennessee’s death row. She lives with her family on a small farm and hoards books and yarn.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Okigwe South – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
The Episcopal Diocese of New York

In God’s Hand

Monica Coakley — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 08:00:45 +0000

Daily Devotional • September 6

Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones | Dura Europe’s Synagogue

Psalm 31

1 In you, O Lord, I seek refuge;
do not let me ever be put to shame;
in your righteousness deliver me.

2 Incline your ear to me;
rescue me speedily.
Be a rock of refuge for me,
a strong fortress to save me.

3 You are indeed my rock and my fortress;
for your name’s sake lead me and guide me;

4 take me out of the net that is hidden for me,
for you are my refuge.

5 Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

6 You hate those who pay regard to worthless idols,
but I trust in the Lord.

7 I will exult and rejoice in your steadfast love,
because you have seen my affliction;
you have taken notice of my adversities

8 and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy;
you have set my feet in a broad place.

9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye wastes away from grief,
my soul and body also.

10 For my life is spent with sorrow
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my misery,
and my bones waste away.

11 I am the scorn of all my adversaries,
a horror to my neighbors,
an object of dread to my acquaintances;
those who see me in the street flee from me.

12 I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
I have become like a broken vessel.

13 For I hear the whispering of many—
terror all around!—
as they scheme together against me,
as they plot to take my life.

14 But I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, “You are my God.”

15 My times are in your hand;
deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.

16 Let your face shine upon your servant;
save me in your steadfast love.

17 Do not let me be put to shame, O Lord,
for I call on you;
let the wicked be put to shame;
let them go dumbfounded to Sheol.

18 Let the lying lips be stilled
that speak insolently against the righteous
with pride and contempt.

19 O how abundant is your goodness
that you have laid up for those who fear you
and accomplished for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of everyone!

20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them
from human plots;
you hold them safe under your shelter
from contentious tongues.

21 Blessed be the Lord,
for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was beset as a city under siege.

22 I had said in my alarm,
“I am driven far from your sight.”
But you heard my supplications
when I cried out to you for help.

23 Love the Lord, all you his saints.
The Lord preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts haughtily.

24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the Lord.

Meditation

Psalm 31 contains echoes of the Book of Job. The psalmist, David, is suffering deeply — in body, mind, spirit and relationship. David knows that he is not abandoned, however, which draws him deeper into relationship with God. David soothes himself with words and images that remind him of God’s sovereignty and loving protection: my refuge, my rock, my fortress, my rescue, my deliverance, my shelter, my safety. You are my God.

“Into your hand I commit my spirit” — words that we recognize as Jesus’ last words from the cross — are not spoken here by David as a dying release of his soul, but as a surrender of his whole being, his entire life, into God’s hands. “My times are in your hand” again imagines a physical surrender into God’s embrace. These verses remind me of a vision received by Julian of Norwich, an English anchoress of the Middle Ages, of a hazelnut cradled in the palm of God’s hand. The hazelnut, which is all of Creation, is so small and fragile that it could suddenly sink into nothingness, if not for the safety of God’s steadfast love and protection. We seek refuge in the little things of this world, Julian cautions, but God alone is the source of true rest.

Placing our times into God’s hand means being strong and taking courage as we wait for the Lord, because God’s timing often differs from our own. David confesses that, in his impatience, his trust in God has sometimes wavered. But even in his moments of doubt, David continues to talk to God; he stays in relationship and has seen that God remains faithful through it all. Blessed be the Lord!

Monica Coakley, a graduate of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, provides pastoral care to men on Tennessee’s death row. She lives with her family on a small farm and hoards books and yarn.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Okigwe – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Houston

Imago Dei

Monica Coakley — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 08:00:07 +0000

Daily Devotional • September 5

Illuminated Manuscript, Gospels, Walters Art Museum Ms. W.592, fol. 24a, by Walters Art Museum licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

A Reading from John 9:1-17

1 As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. 4 We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, 7 saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. 8 The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am he.” 10 But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” 11 He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” 12 They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

Meditation

This healing story both delights me and makes me cringe. Cringe because, as the mother of children who were born with disabilities, I fear that in these stories they will hear a message that they are less than whole, a mistake or misfortune in need of correcting. One of my children, when he was young, said to me through his pain, “I wish Jesus would give me a miracle…” More than a decade (and a seminary degree) later, that memory still leaves me wordless.

Nevertheless, there is much that I celebrate in this story, starting with the opening words, “he saw a man…” Jesus saw this man who, because of his disability, was invisible to most; misunderstood and marginalized by the rest. I know from my own family’s experience that the social effects of disability can be more painful than the disability itself. The miracle that Jesus performs does more than restore the man’s sight, it restores him to community, and it is these things together that bring the man to a state of wholeness.

I also rejoice that Jesus so clearly affirms that this man’s life has purpose. In a literal sense, we could understand “he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him” to mean that the man was born with a disability so that many years later, Jesus would have someone to heal in this brief encounter, but this reading would distort the dignity, complexity and full meaning of this man’s life. From the moment this man was born, God was already being revealed in him, because like every person, he was born to bear the image of God. The miracle that Jesus performs is to open our eyes, to restore our vision for the imago Dei in the marginalized and misunderstood, so that we can experience the revelation of God’s works in every person we encounter.

Monica Coakley, a graduate of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, provides pastoral care to men on Tennessee’s death row. She lives with her family on a small farm and hoards books and yarn.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ikwuano – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Holy Apostles Episcopal Church, Katy, Texas

Faith, Hope, and Presence

Monica Coakley — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 08:00:01 +0000

Daily Devotional • September 4

Job and His Friends, Ilya Repin | 1869

A Reading from Job 12:1, 14:1-22

1 Then Job answered:

“A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble,

2 comes up like a flower and withers,
flees like a shadow and does not last.

3 Do you fix your eyes on such a one?
Do you bring me into judgment with you?

4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No one can.

5 Since their days are determined,
and the number of their months is known to you,
and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass,

6 look away from them and desist,
that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days.

7 “For there is hope for a tree,
if it is cut down, that it will sprout again
and that its shoots will not cease.

8 Though its root grows old in the earth
and its stump dies in the ground,

9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth branches like a young plant.

10 But mortals die and are laid low;
humans expire, and where are they?

11 As waters fail from a lake
and a river wastes away and dries up,

12 so mortals lie down and do not rise again;
until the heavens are no more, they will not awake
or be roused out of their sleep.

13 O that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until your wrath is past,
that you would appoint me a set time and remember me!

14 If mortals die, will they live again?
All the days of my service I would wait
until my release should come.

15 You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.

16 For then you would not number my steps;
you would not keep watch over my sin;

17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.

18 “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
and the rock is removed from its place;

19 the waters wear away the stones;
the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
so you destroy the hope of mortals.

20 You prevail forever against them, and they pass away;
you change their countenance and send them away.

21 Their children come to honor, and they do not know it;
they are brought low, and it goes unnoticed.

22 They feel only the pain of their own bodies
and mourn only for themselves.”

Meditation

In Job’s poem of lament, he struggles against waves of despair brought on by unimaginable suffering — in today’s terms, what we would call trauma. The observations of trauma researcher Judith Herman capture Job’s experience: traumatic events “undermine the belief systems that give meaning to human experience. They violate the victim’s faith in a natural or divine order and cast the victim into a state of existential crisis.” Job is in just such a state, standing in a “Holy Saturday” kind of place — a place of brokenness, confusion, uncertainty, fear, and loneliness. In this place, Job struggles to make meaning of his life, as he feels his hope and his trust in God slipping away.

And yet, there are glimmers in this poem of yearning: a yearning for forgiveness, a yearning for loving relationship with God, even a yearning for life beyond the grave. It is as if Job is standing before a thin veil and can ever-so-faintly see a future hope that seems too good to be true, so he turns away. But his doubts and distress do not stop Job from yearning for God’s presence.

Standing on the other side of the Resurrection, it may be difficult to imagine a life without the hope that Jesus provides. But in times of deep suffering, we may find ourselves standing in a “Holy Saturday” place, where hope is faint and faith, fragile. In that place, the strongest demonstration of our faith might simply be the courage to stay in God’s presence and show him our struggle. Our Lord knows our suffering because he has already entered into it, and he promises that we are never alone.

Monica Coakley, a graduate of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, provides pastoral care to men on Tennessee’s death row. She lives with her family on a small farm and hoards books and yarn.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ikwerre – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Christ Church, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Walking in Covenant with God

Monica Coakley — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 08:00:30 +0000

Daily Devotional • September 3

William Blake, God Writing upon the Tables of the Covenant

¹Vindicate me, O Lord,
    for I have walked in my integrity,
    and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
²Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
    test my heart and mind.
³For your steadfast love is before my eyes,
    and I walk in faithfulness to you.

⁴I do not sit with the worthless,
nor do I consort with hypocrites;
⁵I hate the company of evildoers
and will not sit with the wicked.

⁶I wash my hands in innocence
and go around your altar, O Lord,
⁷singing aloud a song of thanksgiving
and telling all your wondrous deeds.

⁸O Lord, I love the house in which you dwell
    and the place where your glory abides.
⁹Do not sweep me away with sinners
    nor my life with the bloodthirsty,
¹⁰those in whose hands are evil devices
    and whose right hands are full of bribes.

¹¹But as for me, I walk in my integrity;
redeem me and be gracious to me.
¹²My foot stands on level ground;
in the great congregation I will bless the Lord.

Meditation

Psalm 26 starts and ends with David declaring, “I have walked in my integrity.” David invites God to test his heart and mind, as he sets himself apart from the “worthless,” “hypocrites,” “evildoers,” and “wicked.” It sounds like David could use a dose of humility and self-awareness. But when we look closer, we see that David is not boasting of his righteousness; he is revealing his deep desire to live in wholeness and faithfulness to God. When David opens his heart and mind to be examined by God, he is not proclaiming his innocence; he is turning his heart towards God in vulnerability and trust. This is not a psalm about what David has done. Rather, it is a psalm about who David longs to be — a man who lives in relationship with God.

The biblical concept of “covenant” sometimes sounds like a treaty between God and nations, handed down through intermediaries. But here, covenant is an intimate relationship that, like a contract, has the personal interaction of offer and acceptance. God offers hesed: a relentless, unwavering, steadfast love that never ends. Our human condition makes it impossible for us to perfectly reciprocate the hesed of God. Thankfully, God in his mercy does not require perfect reciprocity. David accepts God’s invitation to a covenant relationship by simply turning his heart towards God, offering what he can — his trust, faithfulness, (imperfect) obedience, thanksgiving and worship — and accepting God’s freely-given gifts of redemption and grace.

When we accept God’s offer of covenant relationship by turning our hearts towards God, revealing our own humble offerings of faithfulness and trust, we become bound to a divine love and loyalty that is unwavering, transcending all of our failings. The hesed of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning!

Monica Coakley, a graduate of Nashotah House Theological Seminary, provides pastoral care to men on Tennessee’s death row. She lives with her family on a small farm and hoards books and yarn.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ikwerre – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Christ Church, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.