A Reading from Job 9:1; 10:1-9, 16-22

1 Then Job answered:

1 “I loathe my life;

    I will give free utterance to my complaint;

    I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;

    let me know why you contend against me.

3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,

    to despise the work of your hands

    and favor the schemes of the wicked?

4 Do you have eyes of flesh?

    Do you see as humans see?

5 Are your days like the days of mortals

    or your years like human years,

6 that you seek out my iniquity

    and search for my sin,

7 although you know that I am not guilty,

    and there is no one to deliver out of your hand

8 Your hands fashioned and made me,

    and now you turn and destroy me.

9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay,

    and will you turn me to dust again?

16 Bold as a lion you hunt me;
    you repeat your exploits against me.

17 You renew your witnesses against me
    and increase your vexation toward me;
    you bring fresh troops against me.

18 “‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
    Would that I had died before any eye had seen me

19 and were as though I had not been,
    carried from the womb to the grave.

20 Are not the days of my life few?
    Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort

21 before I go, never to return,
    to the land of gloom and deep darkness,

22 the land of gloom and chaos,
    where light is like darkness.’”

Meditation

I am the light of the world … (John 8:12) 

The eye doctor explained that my vision had probably started to blur in the decade of my forties. The mechanism for presbyopia is uncertain. Most efforts to explain near-sightedness suggest a loss of elasticity in the crystalline lens or possibly a loss of power in the muscles that bend and straighten the lens of the eyes. Knowing the ‘how’ of sight loss did not bring much comfort. 

I missed having eyes that did not have to depend on glasses for clear focus. Furthermore, it’s hard to appreciate the reminder that you’re simply not what you used to be. As if to add insult to injury, one description for this failure of sight includes the following sentence: “Similar to grey hair and wrinkles, presbyopia is a symptom caused by the disease of aging.” The disease of aging? Ah yes, the Fall — thorns, thistles, sweat of the brow, and dust to dust — the fractured creation resultant of human obstinence. 

The prophet Malachi promised that the Sun of Righteousness would bring healing in his wings and sight to the blind. The Son of God declared, “I am the light of the world.” When the disciple steps into the brilliance of this Light she cannot help but hope that it will erase the darkness that haunts her. More light may not provide for better reading, but it will quicken your heart and soul. In this way more light means more sight. It renews the possibility that you might not stumble at noon as in the twilight. This Light will enable you to keep in view the signposts on the way leading to the New Jerusalem.

 Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord… (BCP, p. 111) 

The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough is the director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of the Practice of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School. He was previously dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee.

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ikara – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Trinity Episcopal Church, Upperville, Virginia

A Reading from Job 9:1-15, 32-35

1 Then Job answered:

2 “Indeed, I know that this is so,
    but how can a mortal be just before God?

3 If one wished to contend with him,
    one could not answer him once in a thousand.

4 He is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
    who has resisted him and succeeded?

5 He removes mountains, and they do not know it
    when he overturns them in his anger;

6 he shakes the earth out of its place,
    and its pillars tremble;

7 he commands the sun, and it does not rise;
    he seals up the stars;

8 he alone stretched out the heavens
    and trampled the waves of the Sea;

9 he made the Bear and Orion,
    the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;

10 he does great things beyond understanding
    and marvelous things without number.

11 Look, he passes by me, and I do not see him;
    he moves on, but I do not perceive him.

12 He snatches away; who can stop him?
    Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’

13 “God will not turn back his anger;
    the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him.

14 How then can I answer him,
    choosing my words with him?

15 Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;
    I must appeal to my accuser for my right.

Meditation

Would that there were an umpire between us… (Job 9:33) 

Job’s deep in the ditch. It appears that all has been lost. Even his so-called friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Zophar the Naamathite, and Bildad the Shuhite have no comfort to offer the suffering Job. Instead they pile on: “If you are pure and upright, then God will rouse himself for you” and “Have the innocent ever so suffered?” and “Know this: God exacts of you less than your guilt deserves.”

 Job’s friends make sense of his suffering by way of understanding that he is getting what he deserves. Somewhere, in some moment, somehow, when Job wasn’t paying attention, or — worse — when he was paying attention and meant it as an affront to God, Job broke the law, broke the covenant, and for that he now pays the price. 

In verse 33 of chapter 9, Job longs for a mediator, someone who might help him explain his position to God, someone who might stay the hand of God, if only for a moment. “Would that there were an umpire between us!” he exclaims. “I’ve got a case to plead here. Maybe there is yet some discretion that the judge could exercise.”

 Job will get his comeuppance when the Almighty finally appears to speak to him from the whirlwind. Job’s friends misunderstood the cause of his suffering. Job underestimated his testing of God. But his longing for an umpire, his longing for a mediator, surely proved prophetic in the anticipation of the coming Messiah. 

Lord Jesus Christ … we pray to set your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls… 

The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough is the director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of the Practice of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School. He was previously dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee.

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ika – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Durham, North Carolina

Psalm 18:1-20

1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.

2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
    my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
    my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
    so I shall be saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death encompassed me;
    the torrents of perdition assailed me;

5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
    the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon the Lord;
    to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
    and my cry to him reached his ears.

7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
    the foundations also of the mountains trembled
    and reeled because he was angry.

8 Smoke went up from his nostrils
    and devouring fire from his mouth;
    glowing coals flamed forth from him.

9 He bowed the heavens and came down;
    thick darkness was under his feet.

10 He rode on a cherub and flew;
    he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his covering around him,
    his canopy thick clouds dark with water.

12 Out of the brightness before him
    there broke through his clouds
    hailstones and coals of fire.

13 The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
    and the Most High uttered his voice.

14 And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;
    he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.

15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
    and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O Lord,
    at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16 He reached down from on high; he took me;
    he drew me out of mighty waters.

17 He delivered me from my strong enemy
    and from those who hated me,
    for they were too mighty for me.

18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
    but the Lord was my support.

19 He brought me out into a broad place;
    he delivered me because he delighted in me.

20 The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
    according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.

Meditation

God rescued me because he delighted in me… (Psalm 18:20b)

Strong enemies (v. 18), the cords of hell (v. 5), the torrents of oblivion (v. 4), the breakers of death (v. 4), earthquakes (v. 8), those who hate (v. 18), all conspire to present the Psalmist with his own tailor-made day of disaster. Nevertheless the section read this morning begins “I love the Lord” and ends with the celebratory “the Lord is my support” and “God has rescued me.” 

To think of Psalm 18 as a companion to Job’s ‘friend’ Bildad the Shuhite’s monologue might predispose the reader to imagine God to be a god whose saving strength is reserved only for the “pure and upright” — the blameless. In the case of Bildad, he’s certain Job would not be in the fix he’s in if things had been right between Job and the Lord. 

It is hard to appreciate the Good News in the very select saving that Bildad’s God would seem to offer — a saving designed for those already redeemed. But God’s saving strength is sure because God delights in you. God’s saving strength is sure — not dependent on a successful life evaluation — because Jesus, his only Son, stretched his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross.

 Because God delights in you, he brings you in safety to this new day. Because God delights in you, he acts that you may not fall into sin nor be overcome by adversity. The Psalmist is in trouble this morning. If you cannot sympathize with him in his anguish, the day will come when you will. When it does, cry out with him to the Lord. Love the Lord for his mercy is everlasting and his rescue is sure. God delights in you. 

Come then…help your people, bought with the price of your own blood. (BCP, p. 96).

The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough is the director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of the Practice of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School. He was previously dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee.

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ijumu – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, St. Louis

A Reading from Acts 10:1-16

1 In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of the Italian Cohort, as it was called. 2 He was a devout man who feared God with all his household; he gave alms generously to the people and prayed constantly to God. 3 One afternoon at about three o’clock he had a vision in which he clearly saw an angel of God coming in and saying to him, “Cornelius.” 4 He stared at him in terror and said, “What is it, Lord?” He answered, “Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa for a certain Simon who is called Peter; 6 he is lodging with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the seaside.” 7 When the angel who spoke to him had left, he called two of his slaves and a devout soldier from the ranks of those who served him, 8 and after telling them everything he sent them to Joppa.

9 About noon the next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. 10 He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while it was being prepared he fell into a trance. 11 He saw the heaven opened and something like a large sheet coming down, being lowered to the ground by its four corners. 12 In it were all kinds of four-footed creatures and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 Then he heard a voice saying, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is profane or unclean.” 15 The voice said to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” 16 This happened three times, and the thing was suddenly taken up to heaven.

Meditation

 At Caesarea there was man named Cornelius, a centurion… (Acts 10:1)

 The Church’s sanctoral calendar celebrates the witness of Cornelius the Centurion on February 4. Nevertheless, the Office lectionary brings the story of Cornelius and his household to the attention of the reader this morning. His devotion, his prayers, and almsgiving lead to an appearance of the angel of the Lord. That encounter, characterized by fear, curiosity, and divine assignment, then sets in motion a whole new trajectory for Gospel proclamation. 

Peter’s preaching had been shaped by the call to leave his nets, by the haunting three-times question “Do you love me?”; by his testing in the shadow of Christ’s Passion, and his witness to the Resurrection: The Messiah had come to save him and the People of Israel. But the Cornelius-challenge and the divinely inspired dream of Peter would ask, was the Good News of Jesus Christ meant only for those in the blood-line of the Blessed Mother? 

Though a gentile, Cornelius’ way of life — his fear of God, his almsgiving, his habit of prayer — show him to be the exception that anticipated a new and coming rule. A world where “God shows no partiality” begins to unfold for all in the testimony of Cornelius. Linger with Cornelius and Peter this morning. Consider the devotional commitments of your life as memorial offerings to God — fear of God, almsgiving, the habit of prayer. 

For by these, as magnified by the dream of the large sheet and the course and content of  the Good News, proclamation comes to fulfill God’s plan for the world’s salvation. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much (James 5:16). 

The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough is the director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of the Practice of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School. He was previously dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee.

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ijesha North – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
St. Anne’s Parish, Annapolis, Maryland

Psalm 6

1 O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
    or discipline me in your wrath.

2 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing;
    O Lord, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.

3 My soul also is struck with terror,
    while you, O Lord—how long?

4 Turn, O Lord, save my life;
    deliver me for the sake of your steadfast love.

5 For in death there is no remembrance of you;
    in Sheol who can give you praise?

6 I am weary with my moaning;
    every night I flood my bed with tears;
    I drench my couch with my weeping.

7 My eyes waste away because of grief;
    they grow weak because of all my foes.

8 Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
    for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.

9 The Lord has heard my supplication;
    the Lord accepts my prayer.

10 All my enemies shall be ashamed and struck with terror;
    they shall turn back and in a moment be put to shame.

Meditation

 …every night I flood my bed with tears; I drench my couch with weeping… (Psalm 6:6) 

The night watch can be brutal. Somehow every trial of the midday seems to be amplified at night. Worry for the teenager out past curfew torments the parent getting ready for bed. The word of discouragement from the worker’s boss can become a soliloquy between the time his head hits the pillow and he finally falls asleep after midnight. Unresolved dissension between the married couple becomes a mental war before the morning light creeps through the bedroom blinds. Not to mention those moments in life when it seems that all of your friends have abandoned you. 

Have you ever “drenched your couch with weeping”? What do you do when you “flood your bed with tears”? Some will get up and make a plan made up of lists, action items, and things to do that will resolve the crisis. Others simply languish without any sleep. Some will pace or take something to “calm the nerves.”

 The Psalmist cries out to the Lord. The Psalmist prays and lays every despair from every corner of life before the throne of God. Did you notice how the voice of the Psalmist grew more confident as the Psalm progresses. “Rebuke me not,” he began. “Be gracious,” he continued. “Save me for the sake of your steadfast love,” he exclaims, as he makes ready the detail of his complaint. Here he is at his most vulnerable. The night watch can be brutal. But the example of the Psalmist can lead you toward the morning light and the assurance that “the Lord has heard your plea.” Speak aloud the deepest fear that will not let you go at night. Seek release from the demon that torments. Rest, finally, in the promise that “the Lord has heard your plea.” 

The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough is the director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of the Practice of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School. He was previously dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee.

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ijesa North East – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Mockingbird Ministries