Week of 7 Epiphany: Tuesday, Year 2

Above:  Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Image Source = Turelio

True Greatness = Serving Others

FEBRUARY 22, 2022

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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James 4:1-12 (Revised English Bible):

What causes fighting and quarrels among you?  Is not their origin the appetites that war in your bodies?  You want what you cannot have, so you murder; you are envious, and cannot attain your ambition, so you quarrel and fight.  You do not get what you want, because you pray from the wrong motives, in order to squander what you get on your pleasures.  Unfaithful creatures!  Surely you know that love of the world means enmity to God?  Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.  Or do you suppose that scripture has not point when it says that the spirit which God implanted in us is filled with envious longings?  But the grace he gives is stronger; thus scriptures says,

God opposes the arrogant and gives grace to the humble.

Submit then to God.  Stand up to the devil, and he will turn and run.  Come close to God, and he will draw close to you.  Sinners, make your hands clean; you whose motives are mixed, see that your hearts are pure.  Be sorrowful, mourn, and weep.  Turn your laughter into mourning and your gaiety into gloom.  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Friends, you must never speak ill of one another.  He who speaks ill of a brother or passes judgement on him speaks ill of the law and judges the law.  But if you judge the law, you are not keeping it but sitting in judgment upon it.  There is only one lawgiver and judge:  he who is able to save life or destroy it.  So who are you to judge your neighbour?

Psalm 51:1-18 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

11 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

12 Cast me not away from your presence

and take not your holy Spirit from me.

13 Give me the joy of your saving help again

and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

14 I shall teach your ways to the wicked,

and sinners shall return to you.

15 Deliver me from death, O God,

and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness,

O God of my salvation.

16 Open my lips, O Lord,

and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

17  Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice,

but you take no pleasure in burnt-offerings.

18  The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Mark 9:30-37 (Revised English Bible):

They left that district and made their way through Galilee.  Jesus did not want anyone to know, because he was teaching his disciples, and telling them,

The Son of Man is now to be handed over into the power of men, and they will kill him; and three days after being killed he will rise again.

But they did not understand what he said, and were afraid to ask.

So they came to Capernaum; and when he had gone indoors, he asked them,

What were you arguing about on the way?

They were silent, because on the way they had been discussing which one of them was the greatest.  So he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,

If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself the last of all and servant of all.

Then he took a child, set him in front of them, and put his arm round him.

Whoever receives a child like this in my name,

he said,

receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.

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The Collect:

O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Week of 7 Epiphany:  Tuesday, Year 1:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/week-of-7-epiphany-tuesday-year-1/

Matthew 17 and 18 (Parallel to Mark 9):

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/week-of-proper-14-monday-year-1/

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/week-of-proper-14-tuesday-year-1/

Luke 9 (Parallel to Mark 9):

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/04/14/week-of-proper-20-saturday-year-1/

http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/04/16/week-of-proper-21-monday-year-1/

A Germane Hymn Text:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/lord-help-us-walk-your-servant-way/

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Humility is a topic I have covered in other devotional posts, for many passages of scripture address it.  So most of what I write here duplicates the essence of what I have written elsewhere.

True greatness comes in service to others.  Jesus modeled this behavior, and some of the Apostles did not learn the lesson immediately.  But the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta exemplified the principle of service which our Lord taught by his words and deeds.  Not everyone has a vocation to help the poor of Calcutta, but every person does have a calling to help others as able.  Given the variety of needs, there is a wide range of ways to help others.

Sometimes we judge others, claiming that they do not do enough.  But we have limited knowledge of the circumstances they must face and the resources they have at their disposal.  And maybe they are doing certain good works anonymously.  Furthermore, God knows better than we do how others ought to help.

Mother Teresa said at least once that God calls us to be faithful, not successful.  Of all the messages contained in these readings and this devotional, that might be the most counter-cultural, the one we need to hear the most.  In faithfulness we will find true greatness, that is, greatness as God defines it.  May we succeed in that, by grace.

KRT

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