Lamb Power

Thursday, February 22, 2007

"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. 950)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning) // 37:19-42 (evening)
Deuteronomy 7:6-11
Titus 1:1-16
John 1:29-34

"Here is the Lamb of God..." Later, John's Gospel will particularly connect Jesus' passion and death with the festival of the Jewish Passover. The Passover is the celebration of Jewish freedom. It recalls their people's escape from oppression and bondage in Egypt. On the night before their leaving, the Jewish households prepared a feast of lamb. With some of the blood of the lamb they marked the doors of their homes. That night the angel of death visited Egypt but passed over the homes marked with the blood of the lamb. In the face of such disaster, Pharaoh let them leave.

The Lamb of God is the one who brings freedom from bondage. In Christian tradition that bondage includes sin. John the Baptist declares, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"

John also connects the Lamb of God with the feast that creates the identity of a free community. We are a people who have been given our freedom from sin, bondage, oppression and death.

A lamb is a very different symbol to use for a liberating hero. It is much more common to use animals that eat lambs as symbols for heroic power -- the kingly lion, the Soviet bear, the bald eagle. As Christians, we follow a lamb, not tigers and the lions and bears, oh my, or even eagles. A lamb is a nonthreatening animal. It is a vulnerable animal. It gives its coat to warm the cold and its life to feed the hungry.

Part of the scandal of the Christian gospel is that we are a people who declare that a lamb is more powerful than a lion (or even the Roman eagle). Lamb Power is our image of God's Power. Several 20th century heroes of nonviolence such as Gandhi, the Dalai Lama, and Martin Luther King give which is to this Lamb Power. It is a different way of being in the world.

It seems inescapable, as troubling as it is, that's liberation does not come without sacrifice. The sacrificial lamb enables reconciliation, the overcoming of sin, liberation from bondage, life out of death, and the feasting of a free community. But the price is dear.

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

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

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worship weekly
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