“You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Galatians 5:7
I have six weeks to go until the Ironman Boise 70.3. Time has slipped past quicker on the calendar than the asphalt has passed beneath me since my decision to enter (The Agnostic will never be an Ironman). My training has been very consistent yet my time-on-legs has not accumulated as rapidly as I would have liked.
Two rules of thumbs have come to press me into an uncomfortable dilemma. I need to add running miles slowly to avoid injury. Yet, I need to begin tapering from my longest run, three weeks before race day so I will be fresh when it really matters. I have been adding one mile per week. If I get in a 10 mile run this weekend, then I can get to 13 miles over the next three weeks…
Let all creation give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Filled with His praises, give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Stepping out boldly, we claim resurrection. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Morning reading
John 21:1-14 ESV
“The Miraculous Draft of Fishes” Konrad Witz, 1444 Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva
After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Reflections:
necessity and lordship
The stories in this chapter reveal Jesus’ bringing his disciples, especially Peter, more completely under his lordship. The disciples do not know what to do, so they do that which is necessary, and in taking this initiative they put themselves in a place where Christ meets them. Here is the simple truth, attested to by the saints, that when we are uncertain what to do we should simply do our duty and God will guide.
obedience and abundance
That night they catch nothing, a graphic portrayal of barrenness. They have done what they thought was the right thing but experience utter failure. This prepares them to learn one of the central lessons of discipleship — apart from Jesus they can do nothing (15:5). Jesus has taught this lesson before, for “never in the Gospels do the disciples catch a fish without Jesus’ help” (Brown)! But they need the lesson repeated, as we often do as well.
The primary point seems to be Jesus’ lordship and the need to be obedient to him for any labor to be fruitful. Earlier, Mary recognized Jesus when he called her name, and the disciples recognized him through his wounds. Now he is recognized through the abundance that comes through obedience to his word.
appearance and recognition
The Lord has breakfast ready for the disciples, another sign of his grace and provision, like the catch they have just taken. There is no indication of where Jesus got the bread and fish; the appearance of the food is as mysterious as his own.
The first one to speak is Jesus, and he tells them to bring some of the fish they have caught. Throughout this encounter with Jesus the disciples have not said anything. The scene is one of great awe, with none of them daring to ask him, Who are you? There was something different about him, yet they were able to recognize him. The Lord Jesus is the focus of this story.
the last breakfast
After inviting them to come and eat, he himself comes to the fire. He took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This description echoes his action at the feeding of the five thousand and provides the climax of this story. It answers their unasked questions — he is recognized in this breaking of the bread (cf. Lk 24:30-31). The master who commands them also serves them, continuing a theme found during the ministry.
This association, as well as the tie in with the feeding of the five thousand, brings echoes of the Eucharist (cf. Brown). This meal itself is not a Eucharist, but it embodies a central aspect of what Eucharist itself is about — communion with the risen Lord in the midst of his people.
Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
Blessing
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________
Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.
Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.
On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.
Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.
Let all creation give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Filled with His praises, give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Stepping out boldly, we claim resurrection. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Morning reading
John 20:30-31 ESV
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Reflections:
purpose
John’s statement of purpose is directly linked with Jesus’ blessing upon those who have not seen and yet have believed. While many of Jesus’ signs were done in the presence of others, the presence of his disciples is the crucial fact, for it is they who have believed and been enabled to, by the Spirit, understand their significance and bear witness to Jesus and Jesus’ witness to the Father.
John’s purpose is precisely to enable others to experience the blessedness that Jesus has just spoken of, which comes through faith. The two central titles for Jesus are Christ and Son of God, representing in this Gospel both the fulfillment of Jewish expectation and much more — the personal presence of God himself in our midst. The purpose of this believing is to have life in his name.
life
Jesus has brought life, but this life is not a gift separate from himself. Rather, it is a life in himself who, like the Father, is life itself (Chrysostom). To live in his name is to live his own life, with its source in the Father, and therefore to live his pattern of life. This means to love as he loved, obedient to God, totally trusting him and interpreting all the events in our own lives in the light of his divine presence.
John expresses this same call — to share in God’s life — at the beginning of his first letter. “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ” (1 Jn 1:2-3).
Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
Blessing
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________
Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.
Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.
On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.
Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.
Let all creation give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Filled with His praises, give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Stepping out boldly, we claim resurrection. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Morning reading
“The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” Caravaggio, 1601–1602 Sanssouci Palace, Potsdam, Berlin
John 20:24-29 ESV
Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Reflections:
progession of faith
Faith throughout the Gospel is depicted as progressive, renewed in the face of each new revelation of Jesus. The other disciples have moved on to the next stage, but Thomas has not been able to. To not move on when Jesus calls us to do so is to shift into reverse and move away. Both believing and unbelieving are dynamic — we are growing in one direction or the other. Thus, when Jesus appears in their midst he challenges Thomas to move on ahead in the life of faith, to stop doubting and believe.
The actual expression used may capture the dynamic quality – translated woodenly it reads, “Stop becoming unbelieving and get on with becoming believing.” To get Thomas moving in the right direction again Jesus offers him the chance to feel his wounds.
confession of faith
Thomas’ confession of Jesus as my Lord and my God is yet another climax in this Gospel. Jesus has invited him to catch up with the others in their new stage of faith, and he shoots past them and heads to the top of the class. His confession is… an expression of the core of John’s witness to Jesus in this Gospel. Thomas confesses Jesus as God when he sees that the crucified one is alive. It is in the crucifixion that God himself is made known, for he is love, and love is the laying down of one’s life. But God is also life. In John, this God is revealed perfectly in the death of the Son, but this death would be nothing without the life. When Thomas finds death and life juxtaposed in Jesus he realizes who the one standing before him really is.
blessedness of faith
This beatitude, like others Jesus had spoken, is a shocking reversal of common expectations. It suggests that if seeing is believing, as it was for Thomas, believing is also seeing. What matters is the relationship established by faith. But this faith is openness and acceptance and trust directed toward God in Jesus.
In John, the concern is with events in history that demand an interpretation and a response. Thomas’ confession was such a judgment, and now Jesus challenges all who come after to venture a judgment upon this history, that is, upon his person, his presence through the Spirit in this particular community and through the life he offers. Peter later describes such believers: “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:8-9).
Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
Blessing
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________
Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.
Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.
On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.
Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.
Let all creation give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Filled with His praises, give thanks to the Risen Lord. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Stepping out boldly, we claim resurrection. Give thanks to the Risen Lord!
Morning reading
John 20:19-23 ESV
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Reflections:
commission
Over forty times throughout the Gospel, Jesus is said to have been sent by God, and now that will become the characteristic of his disciples also. The Son has a role in the sending of the Paraclete, and he plays a role in the sending of the disciples. The Son, like the Father, sends. Mission is at the heart of discipleship.
The sending of Jesus by God meant that in the words, works, and person of Jesus men were veritably confronted… by God himself. It follows that in the apostolic mission of the church . . . the world is veritably confronted not merely by a human institution but by Jesus the Son of God. It follows further that as Jesus in his ministry was entirely dependent upon and obedient to God the Father, who sealed and sanctified him, and acted in the power of the Spirit who rested upon him, so the church is the apostolic church, commissioned by Christ, only in virtue of the fact that Jesus sanctified it and breathed the Spirit into it, and only so far as it maintains an attitude of perfect obedience to Jesus (it is here, of course, that the parallelism between the relation of Jesus to the Father and the relation of the church to Jesus breaks down). The life and mission of the church are meaningless if they are detached from this historical and theological context. (Barrett 1978:569)
empowerment
Human beings in themselves are not capable of manifesting God’s presence and doing God’s will as Jesus did. Indeed, without the Spirit there is no spiritual life. But Jesus now has been glorified, so the Spirit can be given. At this point the life that has been in Jesus in his union with God is now shared with the disciples. The new state of affairs begins to take effect among the disciples. They have been reunited with Jesus and now are given his very life by the Spirit.
John’s account describes a preliminary stage of preparation for ministry. The breathing of the Spirit was not simply directed at the individuals present, as if one had to be hit by the molecules coming from Jesus’ mouth or nose in order to receive the Spirit. Rather, the Spirit is now unleashed into the world in a new way and begins to bring about new life where he finds faith. The disciples enter into a new phase in their life with God, but it is not yet the time of their active witness, as it will be from Pentecost on. Thus, it would seem John is describing the conception of the church, and Luke (in Acts), the birth.
authority
Through the disciples’ witness to Jesus by word and by the life and love of the community, the world will be forced to choose for or against Jesus, just as they were during Jesus’ own ministry. Those who repent and believe in Jesus can be assured of forgiveness, and those who refuse to repent can be assured that their sins are not forgiven. Such is the consequence of rejecting the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. This is how judgment takes place as people come in contact with the light.
+ The ancient church understood this forgiveness and non-forgiveness as referring to admission to baptism (cf. Brown). Since baptism is associated with the forgiveness of sins (for example, Acts 2:38) this is certainly an important way in which this commission has been fulfilled, though it does not exhaust the commission.
+ The text has also been applied to the matter of discipline within the community. Accordingly, the text has served to ground the sacrament of penance (cf. Brown). Such discipline was indeed necessary. The issue of cleansing and forgiveness among the disciples is of concern in the Gospel (Hoskyns). John’s later reference to the sin unto death and the sin not unto death (1 Jn 5:16) seems to deal with matters that preclude membership in the community (Whitacre).
Both of these matters—entering into the community and maintaining the health of the community and its members — are a significant part of the missionary part of this commission. For the life of the community itself is a major aspect of the witness to the world. It is through the disciples’ unity with God and with one another that the world will be confronted with the truth about the Father and the Son. Such unity in God cannot include error and evil, for they are not of God, hence the need for discipline for the sake of the mission itself.
Christ, as a light… illumine and guide me. Christ, as a shield… overshadow me. Christ under me; Christ over me; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful. Be in the heart of each to whom I speak; in the mouth of each who speaks unto me. This day be within and without me, lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light; Christ as a shield; Christ beside me on my left and my right.
Blessing
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
_____________________________________
Peanut Gallery: A brief word of explanation – the general format for Morning Prayer is adapted from the Northumbrian Community‘s Daily Office, as found in Celtic Daily Prayer (see online resources here.) The Scripture readings are primarily from the Gospel of John, with the intent to complete the reading by Easter. Other Scriptures which illuminate the Gospel of John will be included along the way.
Reflections from various saints will be included as their memorial days occur during the calendar year.
On Sundays, I’ll return to the USCCB readings (see online resources here) and various liturgical resources in order to reflect the Church’s worship and concerns throughout the world.
Photo illustrations and music videos, available online, are included as they illustrate or illuminate the readings. I will try to give credit and link to sources as best I can.
The Peanut Gallery 