Andrewes: the cost of peace

Friday, September 25, 2015
    Feast of Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester, Spiritual Writer, 1626
    Commemoration of Sergius of Radonezh, Russian Monastic Reformer, Teacher, 1392
Meditation:
    “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” [Jonah] replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.”
    ...
    Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm.
    —Jonah 1;12,15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    [Jesus] sheweth them His hands and His side, as much to say; See what I have suffered to procure your peace. Your peace cost Me this;—see you hold it dear. Now sure, if there were any one thing better than other, those hands would not have withheld it, and that heart would wish it. And peace it doth wish, therefore nothing more to be wished.
    There need no other sign be given but that of the Prophet Jonas, that Christ wished His wish: so the tempest may cease, and peace as a calm ensue, spare me not, “take me, cast me into the sea,” make me a peace-offering and kill me. This is enough to shew it is to be wished, to make it precious in our eyes. For we undervalue it at too low a rate, when that which cost so dear, for every trifling ceremony we are ready to lose it. Our faint persuasion in this point is the cause we are faint in all the rest.
    ... Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626), Ninety-six Sermons, v. II, Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841, p. 244 (see the book)
    See also Jonah 1:12,15; Matt. 12:39-41; 16:4; Luke 2:14; 11:29-30; 19:42; John 14:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You sacrificed all for us. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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