Messiaen: He has gone away

Saturday, May 18, 2019
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
    —John 14:2-3 (KJV)
Quotation:
He has gone away, the Well-Beloved,
For our sake!
He is risen, the Well-Beloved,
For our sake!
He has prayed, the Well-Beloved,
For our sake!
He has spoken, He has sung,
The Word was with God.
Praises of the Father,
Substance of the Father,
The stamp and issue forever,
In Love!
Word of Love!
    ... Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), Three Small Liturgies of the Divine Presence [1944], Paris: Editions Durand & Cie., c1952, sec. II (see the book)
    See also John 14:2-3; Matt. 28:20; Luke 24:26; John 13:3; 14:28; 16:28
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have sent us Your Spirit! CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Barth: the justification of individuals

Friday, May 17, 2019
Meditation:
    Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.
    —Galatians 6:15 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It seems clear that those people who personally are completely convinced of justification by grace alone, and who heartily grant to people of another color the right to the same justification (as long as they remain in their own churches, schools, ghettos, handyman occupations), give an ugly expression to the Augustinian and Reformation understanding of justification. By their emphasis upon the primacy of individual justification, they deny the immediate social character and impact of the justification of the Jews and Gentiles, and they obstruct or delay the changes in common life which belong to the “new creation”.
    ... Markus Barth (1915-1994), “Jews and Gentiles”, in, vol. 5, 1968 Journal of ecumenical studies, Philadelphia, PA: Journal of Ecumenical Studies, periodical, pp. 241-267
    See also Gal. 6:15; Ps. 51:10; Eze. 18:31; Rom. 8:9; 1 Cor. 12:13; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me a heart that is free from partiality. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Middle English Sermons: on mercy

Thursday, May 16, 2019
    Commemoration of Caroline Chisholm, Social Reformer, 1877
Meditation:
    Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
    —Luke 14:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The seven works of bodily mercy be these: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked and needy, harbour the houseless, comfort the sick, visit prisoners, bury the dead. The seven works of spiritual mercy be these: teach men the truth, counsel men to hold with Christ’s law, chastise sinners by moderate reproving in charity, comfort sorrowful men by Christ’s passion, forgive wrongs, suffer meekly reproofs for the right of God’s law, pray heartily for friend and for foe.
    ... Middle English Sermons, Woodburn O. Ross, ed. by H. Milford, London: Oxford University Press, 1940, included in The New Christian Year, Charles Williams, London: Oxford University Press, 1958, p. 63 (see the book)
    See also Luke 14:12-14; Matt. 5:43-45; 10:42; 25:34-40; John 7:37-38; Rom. 12:20-21; Rev. 21:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, keep Your example ever before me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Weil: social causes

Wednesday, May 15, 2019
    Commemoration of Charles Williams, Spiritual Writer, 1945
Meditation:
    If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
    —Hebrews 11:15-16 (ESV)
Quotation:
    Social enthusiasms have such power today, they raise people so effectively to the supreme degree of heroism in suffering and death, that I think it is as well that a few sheep should remain outside the fold in order to bear witness that the love of Christ is essentially something different.
    ... Simone Weil (1909-1943), Waiting for God, Emma Craufurd, tr., Putnam, 1951, p. 81 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 11:15-16; Luke 12:32; Phil. 3:20; Heb. 12:22-24; 13:14; Rev. 21:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Take my eyes off the world’s affairs, Lord, so that they might focus on the Kingdom. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Newbigin: tempting God

Tuesday, May 14, 2019
    Feast of Matthias the Apostle
Meditation:
    And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?”
    —Exodus 17:7 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Tempting God is the precise opposite of faith. Faith is a complete founding of the whole man upon what God has said and done, upon His self-revelation. Tempting God means trying to get more assurance than God has given.
    ... Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998), The Household of God, London, SCM Press, 1953, New York: Friendship Press, 1954, p. 29 (see the book)
    See also Ex. 17:7; Num. 20:13; Ps. 95:7-9; Matt. 12:39; 16:4; Luke 11:29-30; Heb. 3:7-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, grant me peace in Your assurance. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Robertson: natural and holy pleasures

Monday, May 13, 2019
Meditation:
    Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
    —John 2:7-10 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It was not a marriage only, but a marriage-feast to which Christ conducted His disciples. Now, we cannot get over this plain fact by saying that it was a religious ceremony: that would be mere sophistry. It was an indulgence in the festivity of life; as plainly as words can describe, here was a banquet of human enjoyment. The very language of the master of the feast about men who had well drunk, tells us that there had been, not excess, of course, but happiness there and merry-making.
    Neither can we explain away the lesson by saying that it is no example to us, for Christ was there to do good, and that what was safe for Him might be unsafe for us. For if His life is no pattern for us here in this case of accepting an invitation, in what can we be sure it is a pattern? Besides, He took His disciples there, and His mother was there: they were not shielded, as He was, by immaculate purity. He was there as a guest at first, as Messiah only afterwards: thereby He declared the sacredness of natural enjoyments... For Christianity does not destroy what is natural, but ennobles it. To turn water into wine, and what is common into what is holy, is indeed the glory of Christianity.
    ... Frederick W. Robertson (1816-1853), Sermons, v. II, Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1861, v. 2, p. 259 (see the book)
    See also John 2:1-11; Rom. 11:16; 12:1-2; Eph. 2:19-22; Col. 1:21-22; Heb. 2:11; 1 Pet. 2:4-10
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your grace sanctifies ordinary life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Tozer: pure thinking

Sunday, May 12, 2019
    Commemoration of Aiden Wilson Tozer, Spiritual Writer, 1963
Meditation:
    Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
    —Philippians 4:8 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I believe that pure thinking will do more to educate a man than any other activity he can engage in. To afford sympathetic entertainment to abstract ideas, to let one idea beget another, and that another, till the mind teems with them; to compare one idea with others, to weigh, to consider, evaluate, approve, respect, correct, refine; to join thought with thought like an architect till a whole edifice has been created within the mind; to travel back in imagination to the beginning of the creation and then to leap swiftly forward to the end of time; to bound upward through illimitable space and downward into the nucleus of an atom; and all this without so much as moving from our chair or opening the eyes—this is to soar above all the lower creation and come near to the angels of God.
    ... A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), Man: The Dwelling Place of God, Harrisburg, Penn.: Christian Publications, Inc., 1966, p. 145 (see the book)
    See also Phil. 4:8; Matt. 23:27; 2 Cor. 10:5; 1 Thess. 5:21-22; 2 Pet. 1:3-4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, I seek to know you. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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