Good morning. It's Friday the 30th of November 2018. I'm Jika, your friendly regular person, and this is the Daily Office from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer. We will use Morning Prayer right to we have special readings today because today is St.
Andrew's Feast Day. And so our readings today are Psalm 34, Isaiah 49, 1 through 6, and 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 through 16. We begin on the Book of Common Prayer on the... sorry, we begin in the Book of Common Prayer on page 7.
We give thanks to the Father who has made us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. We continue with the confession of sin on page 79. Dearly beloved, we have come together in the presence of Almighty God, our heavenly Father, to set forth his praise, to hear his holy word, and to ask for ourselves and on behalf of others, those things that are necessary for our life and our salvation. And so that we may prepare ourselves in heart and mind to worship him, let us kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient hearts confess our sins, that we may obtain forgiveness by his infinite goodness and mercy.
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you, and thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us. That we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your name. Amen. Almighty God, have mercy on us, forgive us all our sins through our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen us in all goodness, and by the power of the Holy Spirit keep us in eternal life.
Amen. Lord, open our lips and our mouth shall proclaim your praise. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.
The mercy of the Lord is everlasting. Come, let us adore him. The Lord is glorious in his saints. Come, let us adore him.
We'll use the jubilate at the bottom of page 82. Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song. Know this, the Lord himself is God.
He himself has made us and we are his. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Go into his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and call upon his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his faithfulness endures from age to age. The Lord is glorious in his saints. Come, let us adore him.
Psalm 34, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad.
O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Look to him and be radiant so your faces shall never be ashamed. This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord and was saved from every trouble.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. The happy are those who take refuge in him. O fear the Lord, you his holy one.
For those who fear him have no wants. The young lions suffer want in hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord, which of you desires life and covets many days to enjoy good.
Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking to seat. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry.
The face of the Lord is against evil doers to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the Christian spirit. Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.
Amen. A lesson from Isaiah, chapter 49, verses 1 through 6. Listen to me, O coastlands. Pay attention, you peoples from far away.
The Lord called me before I was born. While I was in my mother's womb, he named me. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand, he hid me.
He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver, he hid me away. And he said to me, you are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain.
I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity, yet surely my cause is with the Lord and my reward with my God. And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. He says, it is too light a thing that you should be my servant. To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel, I will give you as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Pentecal 10, the second song of Isaiah, is found on page 86. Seek the Lord while he wills to be found. Call upon him when he draws near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways, and the evil ones their thoughts. And let them turn to the Lord, and he will have compassion. And to our God, for he will richly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as rain and snow fall from the heavens, and return not again but water the earth, bringing forth life and giving growth, seed for sowing and bread for eating. So is my word that goes forth from my mouth. It will not have returned to me empty, but it will accomplish that which I have proposed, and cross for in that for which I sent it.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. A reading from 1 Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries.
Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted.
It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God. I have applied all this to apollos and myself for your benefit, brothers and sisters, so that you may learn through us the meaning of the saying, nothing beyond what is written, so that none of you will be puffed up in favor of one against another.
For who sees anything different than you? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift? Already you have all that you want.
Already you have become rich, quite apart from us who have become kings. Indeed, I wish that you had become kings, so that we might be kings with you. Where I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, as though sentenced to death, because we have become as spectacle to the world, to angels and to mortals. We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ.
We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty. We are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands.
When reviled we bless, when persecuted we endure, when slandered we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the drags of all things, to this very day. I am not writing this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you might have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers.
Indeed, in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I appeal to you then, the imitators of me. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. We continue in the Book of Common Prayer on page 96, where we stand and say together the apostles' creed.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, greater of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born with a Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life of our lives. Amen. The Lord be with you, and also with you. Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil. For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours. Now and forever. Amen.
We'll use suffragists at B on page 98. Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance. Cover in a pull them, now and always. Day by day we bless you.
We praise your name forever. Lord, keep us from all sin today. Have mercy on us, Lord. Have mercy.
Lord, show us your love and mercy. For we put our trust in you. And you, Lord, is our hope, and we shall never hope in vain. Almighty God, whose most dear son, went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified.
Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace. Through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, Amen. Almighty God, who gave such grace to your Apostle Andrew, that he readily obeyed the call of your son Jesus Christ, and brought his brother with him. Give us, who are called by your holy word, grace to follow him without delay, and to bring those near to us into his gracious presence, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen. Almighty and everlasting God, by who's spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified. Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you, for all members of your holy church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today, as I mentioned when I was telling you what our special readings were for today, is St. Andrew the Apostles feast day, the 30th of November. So I'm going to read to you from my book of the Saints, Stars in the Dark World, which I've read to you from before. Father John Julian is the one who edited and put it together if you're looking for it.
It's a pretty thick book online. It's called Stars in the Dark World, Stories of the Saints in Holy Days of the Liturgy, and I've just really been enjoying it. So this is a bit of a long reading, forgive me, but I'm happy to hear about St. Andrew and I hope that you are too.
Proto-Clete is a word with which few, is a word with which few in the Western church are familiar. Although the Greek Orthodox tradition knows it well. It is a Greek word that translates as first called, and it is the title given by the Greeks to the Apostle St. Andrew who is commemorated in today's feast.
Andrew was also a native of the town of Bessaeda and Galilee, and brother to Simon Peter. It was in their house that Jesus lodged when he preached in Capernaum. Before he encountered Jesus, Andrew was originally a disciple of the revolutionary John the Baptist, and he was with his master when John pointed out Jesus, whom he had baptized the day before, and said, there is the Lamb of God. Moved by those words, Andrew and another disciple of John's set out to catch up with Jesus, who turned and asked what are you looking for.
They asked for him as staying, and Jesus replied, come and see. And Andrew and his friend stayed with Jesus for two hours. Obviously Andrew accepted what he saw and heard of Jesus, and ran immediately to find his brother Simon Peter. We have found the Messiah, he said, and brought Simon to Jesus as well.
When Jesus began to gather the twelve men who would be his particular apostles, Simon and Andrew were the first he called, and their following of him from that time on became full-time and permanent. Andrew was the one who brought to Jesus the boy with the loaves and fishes at the feeding of the five thousand, and he and Philip also brought Jesus the crucial word that Gentile Greeks wanted to see him, assigned to Jesus that in finally reaching the Gentiles, his mission on earth was fulfilled. Almost all of the various traditions and legends concerning Andrew seem to give credence to the fact that after Jesus' resurrection, Andrew's apostolate was exercised mainly in Greece. However, the legends say that Andrew started his apostolate among the barbarians, Scythians, and what is now Eastern Europe.
At that, at the same time, Matthew had gone to Ethiopia where the peggins did not heed his preaching, put out his eyes and chained him in prison. An angel appeared to Andrew and commanded him to go to help Matthew on a ship that would be awaiting him at the nearby port. After a miraculous trip, he arrived at the prison, released Matthew, and in answer to Andrew's prayer, Matthew's sight was restored. All the traditions say that Andrew was martyred in Greece by being tied to a cross, rather than nailed, and that he preached to the people from that cross for two full days.
When the people came to release him, he pleaded to be left on the cross, and what purported to be St. Andrew's prayer from that cross was quoted by St. Augustine in his book on penance. Lord, do not let me come down alive.
It is time for you to entrust my body to the earth. You entrusted it to me, and I have carried it so long and watched over it and worked so hard, and now I long to be discharged of the sovietians and relieved of this burdensome garment. I think of how I have labored to carry its weight, to control its unruliness, to support its weakness, to compel its slow responses. You know, O Lord, how many and how grave pains it has inflicted on me.
O most kind father, I have resisted the assaults of this body for so long, and with your help I have mastered it. Just and loving rewarder, I beg of you not to leave it any longer in my care. I give back what you entrusted to me, commend it to the earth so that I will not have to take care of it, and it will not curb or hamper me, because I am thirsting to come freely to you, my inexhaustible source of life and joy. According to the tradition, after he had finished praying, a dazzling light shone and enveloped Andrea for half an hour, so no one could see him.
And when the light faded, he drew his last breath and died. Although there is a widely held custom that St. Andrew was crucified on a style tire or X-shaped cross, this tradition was apparently not known until the 13th century, and appeared primarily in Burgundian art. In 357, Andrew's relics were taken from Greece to the splendid church of the apostles, which the Emperor Constantine had built at Constantinople.
And in 1204, when Constantinople fell to the Crusaders, Cardinal Peter of Capua took the relics to the Cathedral in Amalfi in Italy. According to the legend in 369, the Abbot Regulus was instructed by an angel in a dream to take part of St. Andrew's relics to an unspecified place who would be shown towards the ends of the earth. By assigning the angel finally stopped him at a place in Scotland called Abernathy, now known as St.
Andrews, where he built a church to shelter the relics. Thus, Regulus became the first bishop of St. Andrews and preached among the Scots for 30 years. Another tradition says the relics were brought to Scotland from Rome by St.
Wilfred. Because of this tradition, St. Andrew came to be recognized as the patron saint of Scotland, a whimsical paradox, recalling the later avid animosity to relics and invocation of saints on the part of John Knox's Dower Presbyterian Scots, whose flag still carries the cross of St. Andrew for the very reason that such disdain and despised relics of Andrews had been brought to Scotland in the 4th century.
So that's just a little interesting excerpt on St. Andrew. I don't have a whole lot of personal thoughts, and so I don't believe in spending voice or time. Here's where mine when I don't have anything in particular to add, but I would ask that if it all possible today you read over the readings for today and think on them yourself, and if you have personal thoughts, share them with me either by commenting on this podcast and whatever forum you listen to it, or if you know me personally, sending me something directly.
However, and by whatever means, I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you, and may you all be blessed as we go into as we are on the cusp of early Advent season. At my church, we like to say Happy New Year, since the Advent season is the beginning of the new church year. So this coming Sunday, the second, is the first Sunday of Advent.
I'm sure that you and I will be speaking to each other before then, but until the next time, we raise our voices together. Please be blessed. We continue with the general thanksgiving on page 101. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we are unworthy servants to give you humble thanks, for all your goodness and loving kindness, to ask unto all whom you have made.
We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all for your immeasurable love and the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ. For the means of grace and for the hope of glory, and we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit, be honored and glory throughout all ages. Amen. Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you, and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in His name, you will be in the midst of them.
The fill now of Lord, our desires and petitions, is may be best for us, granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting. Amen. Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory to Him from generation to generation in the church, and increase Jesus forever and ever. Amen. We live without fear, for our Creator has made us holy, has always protected us, and loves us as a good mother loves her children.
We go now in peace to follow the good road, and may God's blessing be with us always. Amen.