You value gold; God created it. You value beautiful bodies; God is their creator. You value pleasant vistas; God created them. If you are neglecting God on account of what God has created, grant some worth to God himself. He has created everything that you value and love; how worthy he must be to be valued and loved. Go ahead and love the good things and people of this life, but love him more. I am not telling you not to love earthly things. I am saying “order your love.”

—Augustine, Sermon 335C.13

When all the boasting is over, what is any man but just another man?

—Augustine, City of God 5.17

Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD;

Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

If you, LORD, kept a record of sins,
Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,
so that we can, with reverence, serve you.

I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

—Psalm 130 (TNIV)

Today’s reflection is terribly personal.

Back on July 13 of this year, I wrote a blog entry about a stray little kitten who adopted my wife and me at the local cemetery as we were riding our bike. He was about 4 months old at the time and cute as he could be. He was tooling right along, enjoying his new family and growing nicely, until yesterday morning when we noticed his breathing was labored. We took him to the vet and then to the vet ER where we discovered he had irreparable heart disease. He didn’t respond to aggressive treatment to get the fluid off his lungs and the docs pretty much gave him no more than three months to live, if that, which forced us to make the painful decision to have him euthanized yesterday evening about 6:30. All of this in a span of about 8 hours.

Some of you reading this will probably scratch your head over what I am about to say. “What’s the big deal over a cat?” you may ask. But we are both devastated by this sudden turn of events because we loved the little guy and he brought great joy to our home. Now he is gone, yet another stark reminder that we live in a world created good but which now struggles under the curse caused by human sin, and about how terribly fragile and transient mortal life is.

My wife and I are grieving mightily today, in part because we did not see this coming at all nor did we have time to process it. All of this is made worse by the fact that Woody basically adopted us. We rescued him from starvation and a sure death, only to have him die an untimely and premature death. He was a very trusting and friendly little kitten that picked up everyone’s spirits in a family where there has been grievous loss and separation of all kinds of late. In short we loved him and quickly made him part of our family.

These are the times, then, when all we can do is to follow the psalmist and cry out to God for help, and to be reminded of God’s great love and mercy for his creatures, sometimes despite evidence to the contrary. In other words, these are times that demand a human response of faith and trust in God’s great love for us in Christ and the promise of New Creation. While there is no scriptural warrant for this, I hope (as in wish) that God in his tender mercy will redeem his innocent little creatures who loved his human creatures and who loved them. After all, if Christ died for someone the likes of me so that I might have a chance to live with him forever, he can surely redeem a sweet little creature like Woody.

Thank you, merciful God, for blessing our house with your little creature, even if it was only for 5 weeks. Help mend our broken hearts.

Our bodies are sacrifices because the flesh is put to death. They are living sacrifices, because the Spirit has given them life.

—Luculentius, Commentary 3

Love built a stately house: where Fortune came,
And spinning fancies, she was heard to say,
That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,
Whereas they were supported by the same:
But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.

Then Pleasure came, who liking not the fashion,
Began to make Balconies, Terraces,
Till she had weak’ned all by alteration:
But reverend laws, and many a proclamation
Reformed all at length with menaces.

Then entered Sin, and with that sycamore,
Whose leaves first sheltered man from drought and dew,
Working and winding slyly evermore,
The inward walls and sommers cleft and tore:
But Grace shored these, and cut that as it grew.

Then Sin combined with Death in a firm band
To raze the building to the very floor:
Which they effected, none could them withstand.
But Love and Grace took Glory by the hand,
And built a braver tower than before.

—The Temple

Here we see Herbert’s theology shine through. Love is always code for God in Christ. Note the acknowledgment of sin and its consequences. But note also the strong note of grace and the ultimate hope of glory in the New Creation. Anglican (and Christian) theology at its finest.

O Christ, my life, possess me utterly.
Take me and make a little Christ of me.
If I am anything but thy Father’s son,
‘Tis something not yet from the darkness won.
Oh, give me light to live with open eyes.
Oh, give me life to hope above all skies.
Give me they spirit to haunt the Father with my cries.

‘Tis hard for us to rouse our spirits up—
It is the human creative agony,
Though but to hold the heart an empty cup,
Or tighten on the team the rigid rein.
Many will rather lie among the slain
Than creep through narrow ways the light to gain—
Than wake the will, and be born bitterly.

But we who would be born again indeed,
Must wake our souls unnumbered times a day,
And urge ourselves to life with holy greed;
Now ope our bosoms to the wind’s free play;
And now, with patience forceful, hard, lie still,
Submiss and ready to the making will,
Athirst and empty, for God’s breath to fill.

—George MacDonald, Diary of an Old Soul

You alone are holy, Lord God, Worker of Wonders.
You are mighty.
You are great.
You are Most High.
You are omnipotent, our holy Father, King of heaven and earth.
You, Lord God, three in one, are our every good.
You, Lord God, all good, our highest good—Lord God living and true.
You are charity and love.
You are wisdom.
You are humility.
You are patience.
You are security.
You are peace.
You are joy and gladness.
You are justice and temperance.
You are riches altogether sufficient.
You are beauty.
You are meekness.
You are our protector.
You are our strength.
You are our refreshment.
You are our hope.
You are our faith.
You are our most profound sweetness.
You are our eternal life, great and admirable Lord, omnipotent God, merciful Savior!

—Carlo Carretto, I, Francis

And Saul approved of their killing [Stephen]. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison. Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city.

—Acts 8:1-8 (TNIV)

It is to the glory of God that he can use even severe persecution to spread his Gospel. Here we see the first example of it. The Gospel did not really begin to spread until the Church began to be persecuted and the history of the Church suggests it thrives best during times of persecution. I have often wondered if its safe and comfortable status in our society has resulted in its decline. As the various enemies of the cross ascend to power, however, I suspect this will change in a hurry. This amounts to bad news and good news for the church, if history is an accurate guide. The bad news is that we will be forced to suffer increasing hostility and persecution, and that is never good for anyone. The good news is that this seems to be what the church needs to become revitalized.

How is the body to become a sacrifice? Let the eye look on no evil thing, and it has already become a sacrifice. Let the tongue say nothing filthy, and it has become an offering. Let your hand do nothing evil, and it has become a whole burnt offering. But even this is not enough for we must have good works also. The hand must do alms, the mouth must bless those who curse it, and the ears must find time to listen to the reading of Scripture. Sacrifice allows no unclean thing. It is the first fruits of all other actions.

—John Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans 20

Especially at communion times [the priest] is in a great confusion, as being not only to receive God, but to break, and administer him. Neither finds he any issue in this, but to throw himself down at the throne of grace, saying, “Lord, you know what you did, when you appointed [communion] to be done this way; therefore fulfill what you appointed; for you are not only the feast, but the way to it.

—The Country Parson 1652

Herbert was an exemplary Anglican priest, one of my heroes whom I seek to emulate. Notice here the humility in his writing and the continuing emphasis on holiness, in this context Christ’s holiness, not the priest’s. If you are seeking to better understand Anglican eucharistic theology, you can see some glimpses of it here: Christ’s Real Presence in the elements that are not diminished by the sinful nature of the human who is presiding at the Eucharist.

“And in your name I will lift up my hands”: Lift up, therefore, hands in prayer. Our Lord has lifted up for us his hands on the cross, and stretched out were his hands for us, and therefore were his hands stretched out on the cross, in order that our hands might be stretched out with good works; because his cross has brought us mercy. Behold, he has lifted up his hands, andd has offered for us himself a sacrifice to God, and through that sacrifice have all our sins been effaced.

—Augustine, Commentary on Psalm 62

The experience of the race is clear that some things God never can do until he finds a man who prays. Indeed, Meister Eckhart, the mystic, puts the truth with extreme boldness: “God can as little do without us, as we without him.” If at first this seems a wild statement, we may well consider in how many ways God’s will depends on man’s cooperation. God himself cannot do some things unless men think. He never blazons his truth on the sky that men may find it without seeking. Only when men gird the loins of their minds and undiscourageably give themselves to intellectual toil, will God reveal to them the truth, even about the physical world. And God himself cannot do some things unless men work. Will a man say that when God wants bridges and tunnels, wants the lightnings harnessed and cathedrals built, he will do the work himself? That is an absurd and idle fatalism. God stores the hills with marble, but he never built a Parthenon; he fills the mountains with ore, but he never made a needle or a locomotive. Only when men work can some things be done. Recall the words of Stradivarius, maker of violins, as George Eliot interprets him:

When any master holds ‘twixt chin and hand a violin of mine, he will be glad that Stradivari lived, made violins, and made them of the best… For while God gives them skill I give them instruments to play upon, God choosing me to help him…. If my hand slacked I should rob Godsince he is fullest goodleaving a blank instead of violins…. he could not make Antonio Stradivari’s violins without Antonio.

Now if God has left some things contingent on man’s thinking and working why may he not have left some things contingent on man’s praying? The testimony of the great souls is a clear affirmative to this: some things never without thinking; some things never without working; some things never without praying! Prayer is one of the three forms of man’s cooperation with God.

—Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Meaning of Prayer

We need to be careful not to take Fosdick’s argument too far, but his point remains valid nevertheless. For whatever reason, God has ordained that human be active stewards of his creation as well as in our prayer life. What a wondrous and awesome privilege and opportunity!