May 21,2021

This from Shakespeare’s 91st Sonnet:

Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,
Some in their wealth, some in their body's force;
Some in their garments, though new-fangled ill;
Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;

We all look to put our identity in something: ancestry, merit, money, beauty, finery, and bling. That’s a fool’s errand and St. Paul knew it.  “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.” (Philippians 3:4-7)

The hamster wheel is exhausting anyway. Nice to have an excuse to opt out of all that, isn’t it?

“O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.” (Of the Incarnation – BCP p. 252)