O God, we thank you for the glorious company of the apostles, and especially on this day for Simon and Jude; and we pray that, as they were faithful and zealous in their mission, so we may with ardent devotion make known the love and mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Daily Archives: October 28, 2010
About Saints Simon and Jude
Some ancient Christian writers say that Simon and Jude went together as missionaries to Persia, and were martyred there. If this is true, it explains, to some extent, our lack of historical information on them and also why they are usually put together.
Simon is not mentioned by name in the New Testament except on these lists. Some modern writers have used his surname as the basis for conjectures associating him, and through him Jesus and all His original followers, with the Zealot movement described by Josephus, a Jewish independence movement devoted to assassination and violent insurrection. However, there were many movements that were called Zealot, not all alike, and Josephus tells us (Jewish War 4,3,9) that the movement he is describing did not arise until shortly before the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD.
From the Morning Scriptures
And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.They triumphed over him
by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”–Revelation 7:7-12 (TNIV)
In vivid apocalyptic language John tells us what God has done about the problem of evil. He has overcome it by the blood of the Lamb!
“But wait!” you say, “Evil has not been conquered. Take a look around you!”
True enough.
But we live in the “already-not yet” time. God has overcome evil through the cross of Jesus and will finish his redemptive work when Jesus returns again in power and glory. That, in part, is what the book of Revelation is all about. We have to trust God to be true to his word.
But we who profess to be Christians also have to get busy while we are awaiting our final redemption. We have to roll up our sleeves and start living as Kingdom people. The cross of Jesus Christ is the symbol of God’s justice–thanks be to God!–and we who profess to follow him must embody those values.
In practical terms, this means that we are to extend mercy when none is warranted because we have received mercy. It means we are to be deeply concerned about the most helpless in our society–and do something about it. I don’t know what your particular call is, but God does, and each of us needs to listen to him so that we know our marching orders.
The story of Revelation is about the End Times and the impending New Creation. It is a story of triumph, God’s triumph over evil through suffering, humility, service, and love–not the sappy, sentimental stuff, but a love that desires the best for its beloved and understands that these are the means by which we receive the best love has to offer.
If God loves his creation and intends to redeem it at the End Time, then we who profess to love God must do our part to help him bring about his Kingdom. Make no mistake. Only God can bring about his Kingdom fully. We cannot do so. But we can do our part by loving God and neighbor, by living the Kingdom values as manifested in the cross of Christ.
Are you ready and willing to do your part? If you are, it will be very hard and you will pay dearly for it. But God promises you that your suffering will be only for a season. There will be a better day, a better eternity awaiting you.
More from C. S. Lewis
Below are more excerpts from C.S. Lewis, this week’s featured Anglican writer and theologian. See Monday’s post for more information on Lewis. Today’s excerpts cover a wide range of topics. See if you can see Lewis’ characteristic logic and insight. Also look for his ability to make difficult things easier to understand.
On the devil:
Enemy-occupied territory that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage. When you go to church you are really listening in to the secret wireless from our friends: that is why the enemy is so anxious to prevent us from going. He does it by playing on our conceit and laziness and intellectual snobbery. I know someone will ask me, “Do you really mean to reintroduce our old friend the devil–hoofs and horns and all?” Well, I am not particular about the hoofs and horns. But in other respects my answer is “Yes, I do.” I do not claim to know anything about his personal appearance. If anybody really wants to know him better I would say to that person, “Don’t worry. If you really want to, you will. Whether you’ll like it when you do is another question.”
—Mere Christianity
On pride:
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison, you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.
—Mere Christianity
On faith:
You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you. It is easy to say you believe a rope to be strong and sound as long as you are merely using it to cord a box. But suppose you had to hang by that rope over a precipice. Wouldn’t you then first discover how much you really trusted it? Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. Apparently the faith–I thought it faith–which enables me to pray for the other dead has seemed strong only because I have never really cared, not desperately, whether they existed or not. Yet I thought I did.
—A Grief Observed
On religion:
Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.
—A Grief Observed
Eveyln Underhill on Mortification and Prayer
The old writers call these two activities Mortification and Prayer. These are formidable words, and modern man tends to recoil from them. Yet they only mean, when translated into our own language, that the development of the spiritual life involves both dealing with ourselves, and attending to God. Or, to put it the other way round and in more general terms, first turning to Reality, and then getting our tangled, half-real psychic lives–so tightly coiled about ourselves and our own interests, including our spiritual interests–into harmony with the great movement of Reality. Mortification means killing the very roots of self-love; pride and possessiveness, anger and violence, ambition and greed in all their disguises, however respectable those disguises may be, whatever uniforms they wear. In fact, it really means the entire transformation of our personal, professional and political life into something more consistent with our real situation as small dependent, fugitive creatures; all sharing the same limitations and inheriting the same half-animal past. That may not sound very impressive or unusual; but it is the foundation of all genuine spiritual life, and sets a standard which is not peculiar to orthodox Christianity. Those who are familiar with Blake’s poetry will recognise that it is all to be found there. Indeed, wherever we find people whose spiritual life is robust and creative, we find that in one way or another this transformation has been effected and this price has been paid.
Prayer means turning to Reality, taking our part, however humble, tentative and half-understood, in the continual conversation, the communion, of our spirits with the Eternal Spirit; the acknowledgment of our entire dependence, which is yet the partly free dependence of the child. For Prayer is really our whole life toward God: our longing for him, our “incurable God-sickness,” as Barth calls it, our whole drive towards him. It is the humble correspondence of the human spirit with the Sum of all Perfection, the Fountain of Life. No narrower definition than this is truly satisfactory or covers all the ground.
—The Spiritual Life
Charles de Foucauld: Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing
In my thoughts, words and actions, whether directed to myself or my neighbour, I must never trouble about worldly position, celebrity, human esteem, but respect the poor equally with the rich. I must take as much trouble about the humblest workman as about a prince, since God appeared as a humble workman. Always, for myself, seek the lowest place, and be as low as my Master, so as to be with him and walk in his steps like a faithful servant and disciple (since in his infinite and incomprehensible goodness he lets me speak so), as a faithful brother, a faithful spouse. Thus I must arrange my life so that I am the lowest and most despised of men, so that I live it beside my Master, my Lord, my Brother, my Spouse, my God who was the outcast of the people, and the reproach of the earth, a worm and no man. It is my desire to live in poverty, abjection and suffering, in solitude and neglect, so that all my life I may be beside my Master, my Brother, my Spouse, my God, who lived thus all his life, and has given me the example ever since his birth.
—Meditations of a Hermit
Last Sunday I preached a sermon on unanswered prayer. Look closely at de Foucauld’s desires and ask yourself how likely it would be for Jesus to reject such a prayer.
John Wesley: Living Life Expectantly
Nor yet do you say, “I must do something more before I come to Christ.” I grant, supposing thy Lord should delay his coming, it were meet and right to wait for his appearing, in doing, so far as you have the power, whatsoever he has commanded you. But there is no necessity for making such a supposition. How do you know that he will delay? Perhaps he will appear, as the day-spring from on high, before the morning light. Oh do not set him a time! Expect him every hour. Now he is nigh! Even at the door!
The Practicality of Following Jesus
It has never been either practical or useful to leave all things and follow Christ. And yet it is spiritually prudent.
–Thomas Merton, The Monastic Journey
Jesus’ and John’s Call to Repentance Contrasted
Somewhat in contrast to John the Baptist, who preached a stern call to repentance almost as an end in itself, Jesus’ call to repentance and conversion spotlighted a further dimension. One was to turn around in order to face a new, much more hopeful direction. One was to hear the word of judgment on one’s sins, since that was the preliminary to hearing the glad tidings of salvation, of the Kingdom come. The Kingdom, as we have indicated, was Jesus’ central preoccupation, and as the angels are imagined to have sung joyously at Jesus’ birth, so “joy to the world” is a good epitome of Jesus’ message. The world was to hear the surpassingly joyous news that God’s reign was breaking forth, that all humanity’s longings were on the verge of fulfillment. Moreover, those who then suffered from the world’s injustices could count themselves especially blessed: The kingdom of God was theirs in a particular way.
–John Carmody, The Heart of the Christian Matter
Mother Teresa on Imitating Jesus
Anyone who imitates Jesus to the full must also share in his passion.
We must have the courage to pray to have the courage to accept.
Because we do not pray enough, we see only the human part.
We don’t see the divine.
And we resent it.
I think that much of the misunderstanding of suffering today comes from that from resentment and bitterness.
Bitterness is an infectious disease a cancer an anger hidden inside.
Suffering is meant to purify to sanctify to make us Christlike.
—Words to Love