Chosen Blessings

Wednesday, November 29, 2006 -- Week of Proper 29

"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


Today's Readings for the Daily Office (p. 995)
Psalms 119:145-176 (morning) // 128, 129, 130 (evening)
Zechariah 12:1-10
Ephesians 1:3-14
Luke 19:1-10

I like "The Access Bible." I use it for my daily reading. The Introduction to the letter to the Ephesians caught my attention today. Here's part of the commentary.

"[Ephesians] reads like a liturgy about the powerful and beneficent love of God in bringing Jews and gentiles into one body and in exalting that body to a cosmic level. Praise and thanksgiving celebrate God's predetermined plan of love in raising Christ from the dead, in placing him over all things, in sealing the church with the Holy Spirit, and in making Christ the head of the universal church, his body."

The opening verses of chapter one are a rich praise to God. They sound with particular grace if you imagine them being spoken with great spirit, spoken aloud by a priest or liturgical reader. It has a creedal quality. Blessed be God who has blessed us, chosen us and lavished goodness upon us as God's children in Christ.

Jesus also extends the benefits of a child's inheritance, reaching out to the rich tax collector Zacchaeus. (In the previous chapter we read how difficult it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God.) By inviting himself to eat a Zacchaeus' house, Jesus is making a public pronouncement of acceptance and relationship with Zacchaeus. Such meals were a serious commitment in Jewish culture. People who were serious about their religious practice were very careful never to share a meal with someone of compromised integrity or doubtful religious observance. Jesus' meal with a public sinner was scandalous.

Zacchaeus responds to Jesus' generous acceptance with a free, open generosity. His willingness to pay back four times what he has embezzled exceeds the demand of the Torah. Jesus announces Zacchaeus' salvation, "because he too is a son of Abraham." Blessed be God who has blessed Zacchaeus, and chosen him and lavished goodness upon him as God's child.

It is worth the time to re-read the passage from Ephesians, and let it speak personally to us. Now that God in Christ has so richly blessed us, how shall we respond in generosity and grace toward a world of Zachaeuses.

Lowell
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The Rev. Lowell Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, AR