St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh
Midweek Devotion 30th March 2023
Led by Rev Professor Kenneth M Boyd
Welcome to online devotion with St Giles’ Cathedral, today, Thursday the 30th of March 2023.
Scripture Reading
Our reading today is from the 12th chapter of the Gospel of St John, verses 27 to 32.
Jesus said: 27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say — “Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30 Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ AMEN
Reflection
Many of the first Christians believed that the risen Jesus would return ‘on the clouds with power and great glory’, and that this would happen in their own lifetime: but by the year 100 many of them had now died and Jesus’ return apparently had not happened; and some were doubting their faith. St John’s Gospel, from which our reading today comes, was written both to warn and to encourage them. John warns them, in effect, that God, the ultimate power and energy behind everything, does not need or want to display power in the intimidating ways potentates, politicians or our human pride long to do. The power of God is the power not of coercion but of attraction; and the true glory of God is seen in Christ lifted up, not on the clouds, but on a cross.
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,” John’s Jesus says “will draw all people to myself.”: will draw them by the power of love; love, so amazing, so divine, that even through his agony he could pray – and really mean it - “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23. 34). And really mean it: God’s forgiveness seen in Christ is all-embracing and all-accepting. It offered then, and offers still, the never-withdrawn opportunity of a fresh start for everyone, no matter what they have been or done; the opportunity to keep rising from the dead, to keep rising above dead moods dragged down by failures in our human relationships or in our or others’ efforts to make the world a better place.
“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself.” The truth of Jesus’ words is amply confirmed in the experience of those who have trusted in them over many centuries. In the everyday experience of loving, forgiving, and being forgiven by, one another, and then in the quietness of prayer, ordinary people have again and again re-discovered the glory of what George Herbert called ‘heaven in ordinary… something understood’. AMEN
In peace let us pray to the Lord.
As we look forward to Holy Week, our prayers are from A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie.
O God, you have proved your love for all people by sending us Jesus Christ our Lord, and you have illuminated our human life with the radiance of his presence. Thank you for this, your greatest gift.
Thank you, God –
For every day my Lord spent on this earth;
For the record of his deeds of love;
For the words he spoke for my guidance and help;
For his obedience, even to death;
For his triumph over death;
For the presence of his Spirit with me now.
Help me, Lord, to remember the blessed life that was once lived out on this common earth, under these ordinary skies. May I take this memory into each task and duty of today.
Help me to remember –
His eagerness to help others, rather than be helped;
His sympathy with suffering of every kind;
His bravery in the face of his own suffering;
His gentleness towards others, so that when he was abused he did not retaliate;
His steadiness of purpose in keeping to his appointed task;
His simplicity;
His self-discipline;
His serenity of spirit;
His complete reliance upon you, his Father in heaven.
In each of these ways give me grace to follow in his footsteps.
Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, I commit all my ways to you. I entrust my soul into your hands. I pledge my life to your service. May this day be for me a day of obedience and love, a day of happiness and peace. May all I do and say be worthy of Christ and his gospel. AMEN
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
AMEN
Blessing
And now may the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
bless, preserve and keep us and all God’s children,
in the joy, simplicity, and compassion of the gospel.
AMEN
Organ Music
Louis Vierne Légende