Daily Office Readings for Saturday of the First Week of Lent: Year 1
Morning Psalm 55; Evening Psalms 138 and 139:1-17;
Deuteronomy 11:18 to 28; Hebrews 5:1 to 10; John 4:1 to 26
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)
For me, this verse is the most profound in all Scripture, that God is Spirit, not male or female. God is not only beyond any human identifier, God is beyond anything we can begin to understand. Anselm, (Archbishop of Canterbury 1109), rightly proclaimed, “God is that than which nothing greater can be thought.” Anselm is so correct. I think we are so proud of God’s creation of us, that we began to think God was looking in a mirror in creating us. I don’t think so.
I believe the Spirit of God was patient enough to see how the God-Spirit host would evolve and then, in the fullness of time, God would come among us regardless of what we look like, or how many variations we are. It’s weird I know. And while none of us can capture the concept of God, as Anselm informs us, that also means none of us can be refuted. First and foremost, “God is Spirit, and those who worship [God] must worship in spirit and truth,” to the very best of our ability.
I have read many different daily readings from the Saints of God. One such is “Readings from the Daily Office from the Early Church” by J Robert Wright (1991) For yesterday, Friday, He featured “A reading from a commentary on the Song of Songs by Gregory: Bishop of Nyssa [c. 394]. The opening of this article reads:
“No one who has given thought to the way we talk about God can adequately grasp the terms pertaining to God. “Mother,” for example, is mentioned [in the Song of Songs 3:11] instead of “father.” Both terms mean the same, because there is neither male nor female in God. How, after all, could anything transitory like this be attributed to the Deity, when this is not permanent even for us human beings, since when we all become one in Christ we are divested of the signs of this difference along with the whole of our old humanity?” (p. 132)
You have no idea how good it feels when a person of strong faith and intellect, from so long ago, shares my exact beliefs about our Creator. I will never cease from pondering.
Today we remember Vincent De Paul, Helper of the Poor and Louise De Marillac, Monastic and Worker of Charity, (both 1660) and their information may be found at: Vincent de Paul.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: (The Collect for Saturdays BCP p. 99)
Almighty God, who after the creation of the world rested from all your works and sanctified a day of rest for all your creatures: Grant that we, putting away all earthly anxieties, may be duly prepared for the service of your sanctuary, and that our rest here upon earth may be a preparation for the eternal rest promised to your people in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
onewhoponders 