Sayers: not our kind of peace

Sunday, January 19, 2025
    Commemoration of Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095
Meditation:
    All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. They got up, drove [Jesus] out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
    —Luke 4:28-30 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I believe it to be a grave mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offence in it. Seeing that Christ went about the world giving the most violent offence to all kinds of people it would seem absurd to expect that the doctrine of His Person can be so presented as to offend nobody. We cannot blink [at] the fact that gentle Jesus meek and mild was so stiff in His opinions and so inflammatory in His language that He was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever His peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference; and He said in so many words that what He brought with Him was fire and sword.
    ... Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957), Creed Or Chaos?: and Other Essays in Popular Theology, Methuen, 1957, p. 36 (see the book)
    See also Luke 4:28-30; Matt. 10:22,34-35; Mark 13:13; John 7:43-44; 8:37-40,44,59; 14:27
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You will leave no idol intact. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Carmichael: second place

Saturday, January 18, 2025
    Feast of the Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle
    Commemoration of Amy Carmichael, Founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship, 1951
Meditation:
    [Jesus:] “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
    —Luke 14:8-11 (NIV)
Quotation:
    If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
    ... Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), If [1938], London: SPCK, 1961, p. 32 (see the book)
    See also Luke 14:8-11; Pr. 25:6-7; Matt. 19:30; 24:12; Mark 9:35; Luke 13:30; Phil. 2:5-7; Jas. 4:6
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, extinguish all resentment in my life. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Gore: correcting ignorance

Friday, January 17, 2025
    Feast of Antony of Egypt, Abbot, 356
    Commemoration of Charles Gore, Bishop, Teacher, Founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932
Meditation:
    After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
    —Matthew 6:9-10 (KJV)
Quotation:
    Man had been offering all sorts of prayers, sacrifices, propitiations. That God mercifully regarded such ignorant worship we cannot doubt: but it was ignorant of God’s character and method. Now, so far as is good for us, our Lord has enlightened us [through the Lord’s Prayer] about the nature and method of God: and He has shown us that prayer should not be an attempt to impose our own whims and fancies on the wisdom of God, but a constant act of correspondence by which we bring our short-sighted wills and reasons into correspondence, the intelligent correspondence of sons, with the perfect reason and will of God, the all-wise Father of all human souls and of the great universe.
    ... Charles Gore (1853-1932), The Sermon on the Mount [1910], London: John Murray, 1905, p. 139 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 6:9-10; Ps. 51:10; Eze. 36:26; Acts 17:29-30; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:22-24; 1 Pet. 1:14
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, conform my mind to Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rutherford: our Anchor

Thursday, January 16, 2025
Meditation:
    We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
    —Hebrews 6:19-20 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted thread, as, “I imagine so,” or “it is likely;” but the cable, the strong tow of our fastened anchor, is the oath and the promise of Him, who is eternal verity; our salvation is fastened with God’s own hand, and with Christ’s own strength, to the strong stoup [i.e., blessing basin] of God’s unchangeable nature.
    ... Samuel Rutherford (1600-1664), Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Edinburgh: William Whyte & Co., 1848, letter, 1637, p. 387 (see the book)
    See also Heb. 6:19-20; Ps. 33:11; Ps. 95:1; Isa. 14:24; 55:11; Mal. 3:6; Eph. 4:14; Jas. 1:17; 2 Pet. 1:16
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You are my firm foundation. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Pascal: Christ in the middle

Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Meditation:
    The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
    —1 Corinthians 15:56-57 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The knowledge of God without that of man’s misery causes pride. The knowledge of man’s misery without that of God causes despair. The knowledge of Jesus Christ constitutes the middle course, because in Him we find both God and our misery.
    ... Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), Pensées (Thoughts) [1660], P.F. Collier & Son, 1910, #527, p. 173 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:56-57; John 16:33; Rom. 3:22-24; 8:37; Gal. 3:10-13; 1 John 5:3-5;
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You have rescued me when I was without hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Bonhoeffer: rejoicing in bearing and forgiving

Tuesday, January 14, 2025
    Commemoration of Richard Meux Benson, Founder of the Society of St John the Evangelist, 1915
Meditation:
    [Jesus to His disciples:] “You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”
    —John 15:3 (NIV)
Quotation:
    We may suffer the sins of our brother; we do not need to judge. This is a mercy for the Christian; for when does sin ever occur in the community that he must not examine and blame himself for his own unfaithfulness in prayer and intercession, his lack of brotherly service, of fraternal reproof and encouragement—indeed, for his own personal sin and spiritual laxity, by which he has done injury to himself, the fellowship, and the brethren? Since every sin of a member burdens and indicts the whole community, the congregation rejoices, in the midst of all the pain and the burden that the brother’s sin inflicts, that it has the privilege of bearing and forgiving.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 102 (see the book)
    See also John 15:1-8; Ps. 46:4-5; Rom. 2:15-29; Eph. 2:21-22; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 2:5
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, we praise You, in that through You we can forgive. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Hilary: stamped

Monday, January 13, 2025
    Feast of Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher, 367
    Commemoration of Kentigern (Mungo), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde & Cumbria, 603
Meditation:
    “Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
    But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.”
    They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
    “Caesar’s,” they replied.
    Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
    —Matthew 22:17-21 (NIV)
Quotation:
    It behoves us also to render unto God the things that are His, namely, body, soul, and will. For Caesar’s coin is in the gold, in which his image was portrayed; but God’s coin is man, on which the Divine image is stamped; give therefore your money to Caesar, but preserve a conscience void of offence for God.
    ... St. Hilary (ca. 300-367?), quoted in Catena aurea, v. II, Thomas Aquinas, Oxford & London: J. Parker, 1874, p. 752 (see the book)
    See also Matt. 22:17-21; Mark 12:14-17; Luke 20:21-25; 1 Tim. 1:18-19; 3:9; Heb. 9:14; 10:19-22; 1 Pet. 2:13-17; 3:15-16; 1 John 3:19-21
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, cleanse my conscience and keep me from sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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