When the Worst Happens

Monday, December 18, 2006 -- Week of 3 Advent

"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. 938)
Psalms 41, 52 (morning) // 44 (evening)
Isaiah 8:16 - 9:1
2 Peter 1:1-11
Luke 22:39-53

There are times when nothing more can be said, when nothing more can be done, when what you have prayed to be delivered from, actually comes to be. These are desperate and threatening times.

Isaiah has said everything he can to convince young King Ahaz to forgo an alliance with Assyria and to trust God for deliverance. The king did not heed his warnings. So Isaiah withdraws, binds up his testimony, and waits with his disciples, knowing catastrophe is on the way.

Jesus prays earnestly, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done." His anguish is extreme. Then it happens. His friend Judas guides the temple authorities to this dark place, and betrays Jesus with a kiss. The prayer to avoid this time of trial has not been answered. Jesus must faces what he has dreaded. He faces it with a spirit of surrendered obedience to the will of God.

When one of Jesus' followers reacts with characteristically human defensiveness -- taking a weapon to defend his friend with force -- Jesus speak emphatically: "No more of this!" For many centuries the church followed this command literally. For a soldier to be baptized and admitted into the Christian fellowship, he had to give up his vocation. Jesus offers an alternative way from defensiveness and violence. He heals the injury that his disciple has caused in this violent attempt to defend Jesus. There will be no fight today. Jesus will do what Ahaz could not. Jesus will trust God in the time of trial.

From one perspective, Jesus' trust is misplaced. God does not rescue him. God does not save him from suffering. The worst happens. He is unjustly convicted, painfully tortured, and killed in a slow, public death. It doesn't get much worse than that.

But everything changes through resurrection. God raises Jesus from the dead. This was unexpected. It is the divine surprise. It is more than we can hope or pray for. This is what God can do when we surrender completely in trust. Anything less than that complete surrender in trust compromises the options that God wishes to employ on our behalf.

Sometimes the darkness comes. Sometimes the time of trial that we have prayed to be delivered from happens. That is when Jesus is with us most profoundly. We can unite our surrender and suffering to the surrender and suffering of Jesus, trusting that God will do with our suffering what God did with Jesus'. Resurrection.

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