Kierkegaard: increasing His sufferings

Saturday, January 16, 2010
Meditation:
    Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
    —Hebrews 9:26-28 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Lord Jesus Christ! A whole life long didst thou suffer that I too might be saved; and yet thy suffering is not yet at an end; but this too wilt thou endure, saving and redeeming me, this patient suffering of having to do with me, I who so often go astray from the right path, or even when I remained on the straight path stumbled along it or crept so slowly along the right path. Infinite patience, suffering of infinite patience. How many times have I not been impatient, wished to give up and forsake everything; wished to take the terribly easy way out, despair: but thou didst not lose patience. Oh, I cannot say what thy chosen servant says: that he filled up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh; no, I can only say that I increased thy sufferings, added new ones to those which thou didst once suffer in order to save me.
    ... Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Journals, ed. Alexander Dru, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 361 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    You, Lord, have borne what I cannot. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Berger: religious affirmation of secular values

Friday, January 15, 2010
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
    —John 9:5 (NIV)
Quotation:
    There is a continuum of values between the churches and the general community. What distinguishes the handling of these values in the churches is mainly the heavier dosage of religious vocabulary involved... Another way of putting this is to say that the churches operate with secular values while the secular institutions are permeated with religious terminology... An objective observer is hard put to tell the difference (at least in terms of values affirmed) between the church members and those who maintain an ‘unchurched’ status. Usually the most that can be said is that the church members hold the same values as everybody else, but with more emphatic solemnity. Thus, church membership in no way means adherence to a set of values at variance with those of the general society; rather, it means a stronger and more explicitly religious affirmation of the same values held by the community at large.
    ... Peter L. Berger (b. 1929), The Noise of Solemn Assemblies, Garden City: Doubleday, 1961, p. 41 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I cannot remake myself; only You can. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Cassell: the roots of national power

Thursday, January 14, 2010
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
    —Judges 2:18-19 (NIV)
Quotation:
    When law and sin ceased to be distinguished in Israel, compassion induced Him to appoint judges again. If these are gifted with heroic qualities, to vanquish the oppressors of Israel, it is nevertheless not this heroism that forms their principal characteristic. That consists in judging. They restore... the authority of the law. For this reason, God raises up judges, not princes. The title sets forth both their work and the occasion of their appointment. Israel is free and powerful when its law is observed throughout the land.
    ... Paulus Cassell, from The Book of Judges, tr. P. H. Steenstra, in A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, vol. IV, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, John Peter Lange, New York: C. Scribner & Co., 1871, p. 61 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your people await the day when Your laws are observed throught the world. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: the evil threatened

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
    —Hebrews 11:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is one thing to fear God as threatening, with a holy reverence, and another to be afraid of the evil threatened.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ch. XI ff, in Works of John Owen, v. XXIV, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1855, p. 50 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, assist Your people, so that they may reach the world while there is still time. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gossip: the meaning of pain

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
    Feast of Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167
    Commemoration of Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, Scholar, 689
Meditation:
    After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
    —Isaiah 53:11-12 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Pain is a kindly, hopeful thing, a certain proof of life, a clear assurance [that] all is not yet over, that there is still a chance. But if your heart has no pain, well, that may betoken health, as you suppose. But are you certain that it does not mean that your soul is dead?
    ... A. J. Gossip (1873-1954), The Galilean Accent, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1926, p. 277 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, since You suffered so much for me, I must not refuse the small discomforts that You permit for my chastening. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Chesterton: the end of doubt

Monday, January 11, 2010
    Commemoration of Mary Slessor, Missionary in West Africa, 1915
Meditation:
    “You have said harsh things against me,” says the LORD.
    “Yet you ask, ‘What have we said against you?’
    "You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out his requirements and going about like mourners before the LORD Almighty? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper, and even those who challenge God escape.’”
    —Malachi 3:13-15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It is vain for bishops and pious bigwigs to discuss what dreadful things will happen if wild skepticism runs its course. It has run its course. It is vain for eloquent atheists to talk of the great truths that will be revealed if once we see free thought begin. We have seen it end. It has no more questions to ask; it has questioned itself. You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more skeptical world than that in which men doubt if there is a world. It might certainly have reached its bankruptcy more quickly and cleanly if it had not been feebly hampered by the application of indefensible laws of blasphemy or by the absurd pretense that modern England is Christian. But it would have reached the bankruptcy anyhow.
    ... Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936), Orthodoxy, London, New York: John Lane Company, 1909, p. 65-66 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, may the day come soon when all nations bow before You. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: the pilgrim people

Sunday, January 10, 2010
    Commemoration of Lesslie Newbigin, Bishop, Missionary, Spiritual Writer, 1998
Meditation:
    These [saints] were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
    —Hebrews 11:39-40 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The Church is the pilgrim people of God. It is on the move—hastening to the ends of the earth to beseech all men to be reconciled to God, and hastening to the end of time to meet its Lord, who will gather all into one. Therefore, the nature of the Church is never to be fully defined in static terms, but only in terms of that to which it is going. It cannot be understood rightly except in a perspective which is at once missionary and eschatological, and only in that perspective can the deadlock of our present ecumenical debate be resolved.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 18 (see the book)
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have focused Your church on her destination, not her present condition. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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