Scripture: John 14:23-29
The past few weeks we have been hit with a lot of weighty things to consider. To be asked if we truly lived as if the resurrection happened is hard to take in. I have asked this knowing full well that everyone here believes this whole-heartedly or else we would not be here. Like the apostle Paul says, “without the resurrection our faith is in vain.” And to me we are not people that live in vain. Vanity is not a testimony of Friends, the opposite where we like to hang our hats. We have a core value of simplicity, simplicity does not mean stingy or cheap, but honest and truthful, without pomp or vanity. This simplicity can be difficult to live. To be simple in speech and deed can be offensive to many. To speak the truth in all cases takes tact and a lot of practice, we must be slower to speak and quicker to observe.
So when I ask if we live as if we believe in the resurrection, I ask with full knowledge that offense could be taken. I take that risk because I want us to truly consider and examine our lives. To take a step back, out of our current situation to see if our words and actions match.
Jesus understands that He taught weighty things. He understands that it is difficult to live a life as His disciple. Difficulty is not an excuse. The most difficult things in life are often the most important to us. Marriage is difficult. Parenthood is difficult. School is difficult. Life is difficult. Jesus begins this passage saying, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” That single verse sums up the entire purpose of our existence.
When they began telling the story of our beginnings, the story was told that in the Garden, Adam and Eve lived at peace. Their needs were met and the desires fulfilled within themselves and the plants of the garden, and God would walk with them in the cool of the evenings. God would walk with them. The same concept is spoken in this statement of Jesus, “we will come to them and make our home with them.” Our first parents would live their day just to take that walk in the evening. They enjoyed this cool walk after spending their day tending the garden, and listening to the word of God. As long as the followed or kept the word, God would meet with them.
The story takes a drastic turn when they stopped keeping the word and decided take a route where they had the knowledge of good and evil. From that moment on there were two paths in life: one path would lead to ruin and the other to grace. One of the pathways seems right because the way is well traveled and the other is difficult, but only one pathway leads to God. The pathway that is easy leads away from God, that easy path is a life where our own self-interest is the focus of all of our efforts. And when our interests take the lead in our lives devastation is in the wake. Life is built in the relationships we have with each other, we were made to be social beings, created to live together with each other and with God. Sin happens when we put ourselves before our relationships, ourselves before the community. Sin is the “I” before the “We”. God cannot make a home with the self-centered because there is no room.
Jesus came to live among us to exemplify a life devoted to sacred community. He made it His custom to worship in the synagogues. He made it His custom to join with others in worship. There is power in the corporate worship experience. It is in these places where the community can encourage and support each individual. Jesus also would serve people in the community. Often He would serve the ones that everyone else would reject, the people that could do nothing to advance His own status, and in many cases relating to them would actually cause cultural harm. Both worship and ministry or service are done in community, we do these together with and for others. Jesus would also withdraw to a desolate place to pray. This on the surface may sound like a very self-centered discipline, but this is still a “we” oriented activity. Prayer is the place where we meet with God, where we provide a space for God to come to us and make a home in us. Prayer is where we relate and build our relationship with God. It is in that desolate place away from other humans where we can examine our lives, listen to the voice of God, and reengage in worship and service with and for others.
Worship, service, and prayer are disciplines. Disciplines are difficult; they are things that take practice. It is when we practice and engage in these activities where we begin walking that pathway that leads to God. The second verse in this passage says, “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words…” Love of God requires something of us. To love God we must keep His word. This is a loaded verse, it takes us back to the question I have asked nearly every week in this Easter season, “do we truly believe and live as if the resurrection happened.” Our actions reflect our true belief. The simplicity testimony of Friends covers actions more than declarations. Simple dress and simple speech are testimonies of action not just confessions of devotion. They took this testimony of action because they wanted to keep His Word, to live the Word. They lived witnessing how religion could become dry and empty, they witnessed professions of love for God without the keeping of the Word of God in the lives of the professors.
We have a dilemma. Do we live as if the resurrection is real, do we keep the word of God, or are we professors without the reality? This is the dilemma that faces each and every human everywhere in the world. It was a dilemma that faced the Jewish people in the first century during the ministry of Jesus and later the apostles. How do we know which pathway we are on? How do we know if we are keepers of the word or just professors of the word? One way is to study the witness of those that have gone before us. People throughout history have studied, memorized, and interpreted sacred scriptures for centuries. This is an important discipline. If we want to keep the word of God we must have a place to start, and that place is in scripture. The bible is the witness of human interactions with God; sometimes those interactions were a witness of human failure or greatness. Through the reading of scripture we can develop a theology or an understanding of God, but we can also remain void of any relationship with God. The study of scripture is a foundation but scripture in itself is not the full word of God. The word of God is relational. We can pound the bible and quote chapter and verse and be just as far from God as Cain. This is why the ancient theologians of the Christian tradition did not call scripture the word of God, but Jesus the Word of God.
The ancient understanding of Word in the case of the use in scripture is knowledge or wisdom from God. Jesus in this passage states that, “if you love me you will keep my word.” In essence Jesus is saying to them that He is the wisdom of God, if you follow him then you are with God. If you reject him then you do not only reject him but the one who sent him. This is powerful in that day and age, the study of scripture and theology was at the pinnacle in the first century. But Jesus takes it a step further, not only should you know the words but the person.
To be a true follower of God, a true lover of God; Jesus says that we must keep his word or wisdom. Wisdom that has been written for us to study, but how do words written thousands of years ago apply today? That is where the Advocate comes in. In the first century Jesus taught and explained, today we do not have that luxury because Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us. How do we continue to keep the word of God without the physical presence of Christ? The Holy Spirit is our advocate. The Spirit of God meets us in that quiet place of prayer, it intensifies when we gather together in worship, and it is directed when we serve those in our community. The Holy Spirit is the life and blood of God connecting persons of God together similar to how our blood connects our body together. Jesus says that this Spirit will teach and remind us of all that He has taught.
This is where the Society of Friends found its place in history. George Fox truly believed that the Spirit of God was active in the world just as much in his day as in the days of the apostles, and even today. Fox and the other early Friends were not the first to believe this; they only reminded the religious world of the things that they already knew. That is the problem with knowledge; at times we get used to doing the same things and forget. We stop listening for the Spirit and begin trying to control things ourselves. The disciples were all too aware of this; this is the pride of the Pharisees that Jesus would often preach against. The Spirit will teach and remind, we will begin to gain confidence and then we leave the Spirit behind as we walk forward. This is why Jesus would worship, serve, and withdraw to pray. This is why George Fox would encourage his Friends to meet in silence, and why the various monastic orders would call their members to prayer. Jesus then says, “peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
Do not be afraid; do not let your hearts be troubled. When George Fox was in a period of seeking his heart was troubled. He wanted a relationship with God but he was not able to find it in the methods that were taught by the professors of his day. In distress he wondered England and finally took his bible and climbed a hill. On that hill he heard the voice of God saying to him, “There is one, eve Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition.” And George testified of this event, “and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy.” Peace and Joy came when George found a rhythm of worship, prayer, and ministry.
To live a life with God, a life keeping the word of God is difficult. It requires each of us to engage in a lifestyle where we too keep the rhythm of prayer, worship, and service. A lifestyle of simplicity, and community, where we think less of our own needs and consider others needs as more important than our own. In this lifestyle we find something different, a life that is both different than the world around us, but also more satisfying. We lose ourselves but in the process we become gain our true identity. As we more fully engage in the rhythm of Christ we are taught and reminded by the Spirit of the wisdom of God and we are joined more fully with the God who created us to worship, serve, and relate to Him. A life with Christ is one that requires an investment of our total mind, body, and spirit. And the return of this investment is peace, not of this world. A peace that will overcome the greatest loss and highlight our greatest joys, a peace that will carry us through the difficulties of our relationships as well as drive us into greater challenges.
We face a changing of an era, the end of one stage of human history and the beginning of another. As we enter this time of open worship, a time where we wait in holy expectation let us seek the peace of Christ, let us listen to the reminders of the Spirit, and let us experience the joy of life with God. As we become a people who are defined and know for loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, Living the Love of Christ with others.
Scripture: John 21:1-19
The past few weeks I have asked what would happen if we really believed that Jesus rose from the dead, and how our lives would change if we lived as if that were the case. I know that it is an odd question because most, if not all of us believe this with our whole hearts. But do we live as if we believe that that power is available to us, even today 2000 years after the fact. Do we think of it as an ancient history that has no bearing on our current life or is the reality something that we can interact with even today?
This is a question that the apostles even 2000 years ago had to ask themselves. Their rabbi, their friend had been executed on a cross around two weeks before, they had been locking themselves in a room together waiting. Waiting. The greatest most amazing and unexplainable things have happened but they cannot leave this room out of fear. They had just spent the last 3 years of their life learning from and ministering with Jesus. Now the game had changed. Jesus is not physically at hand, he comes and goes like a mysterious wind, and they are at a loss for what to do. They are without direction and without a cause they lock themselves in a room and they sit in the cloud of uncertainty.
Then Peter gets tired of waiting and tired of sitting. He is a man of action and this waiting around is not for him. So he the leader of the apostles in many ways makes a bold statement, “I am going fishing.”
For those that like to fish this may seem like a very honorable thing to do and you would be at his heels, mainly because he has a boat. We might say that this statement of going fishing is a great way to relax and center down on God. But I want us to take a different look. Peter, James, John and Andrew were all fishermen by trade prior to becoming the apostles of Jesus. This is not a simple statement of let’s go out and enjoy the day fishing, but one of defeat.
“I am going fishing.” Peter proclaims. I am finished and I am going to go back to the life I once knew. For three years Peter and the others had seen the blind receive sight, the lame gain use of their limbs, they had even seen the lepers cleansed of their disease, they had seen great compassion on the vilest of sinners worthy of death, and had seen charity beyond their wildest imagination when a group of over 5000 was fed miraculously. Yet after all of that, when the situation changed they fall back to what they knew once before. “I am going fishing.” After seeing the empty tomb, after encountering the risen Christ not once but twice, after seeing and feeling the wounds on the hands and in the side of their teacher and friend. The friend who was rejected, tortured, and executed by the religious establishment and the government, yet had stood in the room with them not as a ghost but as flesh and bone. And he say, “I am going fishing.”
They not only have seen marvelous feats of God’s mighty hand but they had seen that hand raise the dead of a small girl, a grown man, and their beaten teacher. They shared meals with him, sat and conversed with him. They are confused and in their confusion they look back and say, “I am going fishing.” As far as they are concerned everything they hoped for in Jesus was buried, buried in an empty tomb. At that moment there was no future through this cloud and the only path left to take is the path back through the mists, back to a time and place where all that was needed and required was to toss a net and pull in the catch. “I am going fishing.”
They left the room, they shut the door on their hopes and they settled. They were standing at the gates of kingdom but instead of walking forward through the mist they settle for a life they once left because to walk forward takes a faith in something that is unsure. They fish all night; they toil in the darkness only to come up empty.
Then a voice cries out from the shore. “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They are transported back to the beginning, back to where they started; back again to the first day they met the man that would change their lives. “Throw the net off the right side.” The man says to them and there is a familiar tug, a resistance that only a fisherman knows and they realize that even in their unfaithfulness God is gracious.
Peter dives into the water swimming to the shore while the others drag in a catch. There on the shore the friend they all rejected, the friend they each turned their backs on was stoking the fire, cooking fish, and asking them to eat. They turned their backs on their Lord, they returned a past life, yet there was their Lord cooking fish for them and extending a hand of grace.
So often times we face the clouds and turn. Something comes into our lives that challenges our faith, challenges our understanding, or our traditions and we turn. Instead of moving forward along the path we have been lead to, we turn and walk the other way. We turn from the grace of God and we lean on our own strength. We look ahead into the mist and we say “lets go fish,” which is in actuality saying let us go our own way and use my own understanding. Why do we turn? Why do we throw up our hands, why do we lock our faith up in a room and bury it in an empty tomb?
It goes down to that base question, what would happen if we really believed? What would happen in our life if we actually believed and lived an expression of that belief in everything that we do?
Jesus sat down and ate with his friends. He ate without judgment; he ate the meal pouring out grace to a group of people that did not deserve any love. These men ran from his side when the cultural leaders came to threaten. These men locked themselves in a room and then turned back to their old lifestyles, yet Jesus cooked for them and loved them. These men believed with their heads but that belief did nothing for them in the world because that belief was just an empty tomb.
Jesus then pulls Peter aside. “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” Do you love me Peter? Do you love me more than these others, more than these fish? “Yes Lord; you know that I love you.” Peter answers. Then Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
“Simon son of John, do you love me?” Jesus asks again. Peter, do you love me more than these, more than a stable career and a steady income? Do you love me, Peter? “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Peter again answers and Jesus tells him to tend his sheep.
“Simon son of John, DO YOU LOVE ME?” Jesus asks for the third time. Simon, do you love me more than honor, more than power, more than status or prestige in the community? Simon do you love me more than clothes, more than education, more than politics or religion? Simon Do you love me? And Peter is hurt now, “You know everything; you know that I love you. “Feed my sheep.”
Do you love me? I can hardly speak these words because this is the question that Jesus asks every one of us. It is the question that I myself was asked about 14 years ago while I sat in a park eating lunch waiting for my next class to start. Do you love me more than… Do you love me more than wheat, cattle, or corn? Do you love me more than computers, music, or games? Do you love me more than your father and mother, your sister or you brother…do you love me more than your son? This is what Jesus is asking every single person in this room that says they believe. Do you love Him?
He gives a very specific answer to those of us that want to answer his question. Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, and feed my sheep. If you love him there is something that you must do. It is not a suggestion. If we love him it will show in a very specific way.
We show our love by feeding the lambs. By making sure that the children in our community, the children around us at any moment of time are brought up in a way that fosters healthy growth. This takes on many forms because there are many ways a child grows. They need the basic nutrition to survive. They need an education. They need encouragement, inspiration, and discipline. They need to play and imagine, they need to read and listen. They need to be challenged and they need to have fun. Without these things the child will not grow into a healthy adult. A child needs a balanced and stable life. And if we love Jesus we will feed his lambs. That does not mean we vote a certain way, but we personally feed his lambs, we take an active role in their lives.
We show our love for Jesus by tending his sheep. This is more than just gathering them in and making a large assembly. To tend sheep on must push back the wool and bring healing salves to wounds, sometimes you must nudge them to turn around and go a different way. It is taking a stand to protect the weak, as well as encouraging them to expand the herd. Tending the sheep is giving counsel, sitting in the hospital room, it is giving a mother a break so she can rest, it is providing a shoulder to cry on, and ensuring that they have a place to lay their head. We feed the lambs or the children, we tend the sheep or the adults but it does not stop there.
We show our love by feeding the sheep also. We also have to feed the adults. If wounds are going to heal then we need nourishment. If a sheep needs to turn then we better have something in that other direction for them to go to. If we love God we will feed those around us, both physically and spiritually. Adults as well as children need to be challenged, encouraged, filled, and supported. If we love Jesus we will actively take part in the feeding those around us.
These things are the fruit of a people that believe in the risen Christ, these are the fruit of people that live a life empowered by a risen Christ. Those that live this way have seen God do amazing things, because if we do these things we are asking God to work through us. Jesus asked Peter if he loved him. If he loved him more than that past life that after a time of uncertainty he decided to go back to. He answered him by saying if you love me then you will continue the ministry that I started.
There are two types of belief. One is locked in a room, buried in an empty tomb, and turning back to former ways. The other is one walking in the way of Jesus, feeding lambs, and tending to the flocks. One belief is left bound in a room and sitting in a mist of uncertainty. The other is boldly walking through the mist and expecting God to do amazing things all around. One is an empty net while the other is abundantly filled.
Do you believe? If you believe will it change your life? If it changes your life will you walk in the ways of Christ or turn back to the boat?
Scripture: John 12:1-8
St. Patrick’s day is one of the only saint days I ever like to celebrate. I do this because I find the life of Patrick fascinating even though most of what we know about him is seeped with legend. I like this day because it celebrates what one life devoted to God can really do. There is something remarkable about one man going into a nation that was opposed to his faith, starting a ministry, devoting his entire life to that ministry, and to see nearly an entire nation convert. What a dramatic story. It is a story that has attracted me to the Celtic Christian traditions in many ways. I have read about their spirituality and how they approached evangelism, and have found that it is actually very remarkable. They converted most people through encouragement. They started where they were at that moment and encouraged them to take a step closer to God.
In most legends of Patrick we hear about how he would teach the concept of the Triune God through the illustration of the shamrock. It is a great illustration in many ways. The first is that the Celtic people did not worship in buildings like we do but instead they would worship out in nature. The resurgence of the ancient Celtic religions is in a large part to this worship in and of nature. Patrick did not condemn nature because nature is part of creation, he would instead use what they knew already to teach them a deeper truth.
So often times we try to convince people of the truth, argue and debate over what is right, but we put so much effort in knowing all the answers to the potential questions that we fail to listen to the question. The early Celtic Church would go into areas and build monasteries. These monasteries would then become centers of villages that would educate people and eventually would become centers for trade. They would then plant another monastery and the cycle would continue until there were monasteries all around Ireland. This was early in the church and Ireland was nearly independent of the influences of the rest of the Catholic Church. The way that they did things was different; the leader of the church was not a bishop but the monastery’s abbot. This is important because the leader of the church was not appointed but was groomed to lead that community. Sometimes it was a tribal leader or a family, at other times the abbot was a person that rose to their position out of great spiritual devotion. They would lead the community in faith and action.
The Celtic form of Evangelism was Pray, Worship, and Ministry. They set up the house of prayer, they built the center for worship, and they lived among the people teaching and encouraging a faithful life. It is truly a beautiful history. For nearly a thousand years this community based approach flourished and even spread into other areas of Europe. They had a unique manner of expressing their faith in God, and it saved not only Ireland but also the Catholic Church. The Irish were an artistic people; they expressed this in poetry, song, and ink.
Today we celebrate that rich heritage of Ireland, but that rich heritage goes well beyond the emerald Isle. In many ways it goes right back to this meal at Bethany in the house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. This house is mentioned often in the gospels as if it became a central hub of the ministry of Jesus. There are really two centers, Capernaum to the North and Bethany in the south. Jesus spent so much time in this place; he was so fond of this family that one of the greatest miracles blessed them. This house of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary was one of the first churches of the Way; it was a place of worship and renewal. It was the sanctuary of Sabbath retreat for the traveling ministers of Christ. They meet there, they share a meal, and they praise God.
Why is this house so important? It is widely believed that this family was the major supporters of the ministry of Jesus and the apostles. Jesus was literally without a home. After his baptism in the Jordon his first disciple chased him down and wanted to follow him. Jesus told them that foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. So it was the houses of people like this family that became the home base for the ministry. But it goes deeper than this, it is often said that Mary was the woman caught in adultery that Jesus saved from execution, and that she was also delivered from bondage of seven demons. Lazarus was so dear to Jesus that he was raised from the dead after being buried in the family tomb. This family, if legends are true, was blessed by God through Jesus so it is no wonder that they would become some of the greatest supporters of the ministry.
We see in this story a great exchange. Mary anoints Jesus and washes his feet with her hair. It is a beautiful and intimate ritual. She is kneeling before her Lord the one that saved her life, and she gives him all that she has. She lathers the feet of Jesus with one pound of costly perfume. Let us consider this for just a moment. Nard is not easily found in Israel. It comes from the roots of a plant that is native in Nepal, China, and India. This is something that has been transported from the far eastern regions of the Persian Empire. This is a perfume that is costly; it was used in the Song of Songs by the woman to anoint her lover and king. This perfume is not something a common person would obtain, and it is not something that would be used in vain. In this scene Mary is expressing her total commitment and service to Jesus, she is anointing him as her king. She is expressing devotion and love for this man who saved her and gives her a purpose in life. She uses a pound of nard. This is a pound of thick oil being worked into the skin of Jesus’ feet and into her hair; the air is filled with the fragrant aroma. Which leads us to yet another use of nard. This same oil was used in the making of incense for the temple. It is still used by churches throughout the world to represent the sweet smell of pray and praise being lifted up into heaven as it is burned and the smoke fills the air. Mary and all present are in a state of worship.
Jesus sits and lets Mary do this to him. Mary’s brother is sitting there at the table with him. This is something that should be done in the marriage chamber but it is something more. There is a love and devotion that runs deeper than marriage; this is intimacy of God and man. But there is one that objects to this worship, Judas. The first thing out of his mouth is “Why was this perfume not sold for 300 denarii and the money given to the poor?” In the very act of worship the idolatry rears it’s head. Jesus says, “Leave her alone.”
Leave her alone. There is a place for beauty, and a place for ministry. There is a time for rest and a time to work. There is a time and place for everything under heaven. I say that this story links to the story of Ireland because the story of Ireland is not one of beauty and peace but is often plagued with war. Ireland was devoted to God and as a result they created some of the most priceless treasures of faithful art. In their monasteries they created or illuminated gospels to distribute throughout Christendom. They carried these treasures to each new monastery they established throughout all of Europe. The demand for the books copied by their monks were great and Ireland in their love for God was flooding the Holy Roman Empire with the Nard of the Word, and those in power became jealous. They became jealous of the power that the Irish monks had with the people because they lived with and encourage the people. They became jealous that these monks and priest of the Irish rite were not conforming to their will and a crusade was waged against them.
The great story of a nation coming to Christ through Patrick became a story of tragedy by jealous pride and betrayal. The greatest supporters of the church in Europe were betrayed by the very people they honored and represented. All because of money and power. Judas betrayed Christ for money, Judas was not capable to join the others in the worship of Christ as Mary anointed the feet of Jesus because he was not worshiping God but he was consumed by the idolatry of the denarii. A year’s wages was dumped on Jesus’ feet, and Judas could not fathom the waste because he had plans for that money. But money is just a tool. It is ultimately worthless. Yet this one tool often times become the purpose of many. Judas had plans for the money; he even had plans for this pound of perfume. He had good plans actually, plans for ministry. Give it to the poor, but why?
Why are we doing what we do? Why do we give what we give? Mary bought the perfume to honor Jesus so that she could keep it for the day of his burial. Yet Jesus was not dead, she instead used it to honor him while he still lived. And then Jesus says something that is very strange, “you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”
You always have the poor. This is a crazy cryptic phrase. It can be interpreted many different ways. Some people interpret it as meaning that there will always be people oppressing them. Some interpret it, as meaning there will always be people in need. If we combine the two it means that there will always be a need for ministry…[B]ut you do not always have me. We can look out at the people around us struggling to make ends meet, struggling to keep their businesses going, struggling to just feed their kids and keep a roof over their heads. We can become so consumed by the needs, that we can become focused on what we do not have instead of what we have. This is bondage, bondage to the cult of money. There is never enough when you are focused on what you do not have. There is always someone with more or someone with something better. Judas was caught in that bondage just as many of us are, bound by what we don’t have instead of what we do. We have enough to honor God.
Patrick started with what people had, a shamrock. And from that shamrock an entire nation turned to God. From that shamrock, Ireland turned to the light and carried that light into the world. He entered Ireland with nothing and left Ireland rich in faith. Mary worshiped Christ with what she had, she freely gave it all she gave in worship without knowing what would happen in the future, and she was honored.
I close today with a challenge as we move ever closer to the week of the year we remember the sacrifice of Jesus for each of us. I often encourage us to imagine ourselves in the scripture to identify with a character in the story. Today I ask whom do you identify with? Are you Mary? Pouring out your love and devotion to the king who lifted you out of a life of bondage and sin? Or are you trapped in bondage? Are you trapped by your past, by your circumstances, or by some sort of idolatry? As we enter into this time of open worship and holy expectancy, as we examine our lives or break open the jars of perfume in our hearts let us remember that Jesus came not to condemn the world but to love the world and to bring each of us to him through his life, his death, and his resurrection.
Saint Patrick’s “Breastplate” Prayer
I bind unto myself today The strong Name of the Trinity, By invocation of the same, The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this day to me forever. By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation; His baptism in the Jordan River; His death on Cross for my salvation; His bursting from the spicèd tomb; His riding up the heavenly way; His coming at the day of doom; I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself the power Of the great love of the cherubim; The sweet ‘well done’ in judgment hour, The service of the seraphim, Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word, The Patriarchs’ prayers, the Prophets’ scrolls, All good deeds done unto the Lord, And purity of virgin souls.
I bind unto myself today The virtues of the starlit heaven, The glorious sun’s life-giving ray, The whiteness of the moon at even, The flashing of the lightning free, The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks, The stable earth, the deep salt sea, Around the old eternal rocks.
I bind unto myself today The power of God to hold and lead, His eye to watch, His might to stay, His ear to hearken to my need. The wisdom of my God to teach, His hand to guide, His shield to ward, The word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard.
Against the demon snares of sin, The vice that gives temptation force, The natural lusts that war within, The hostile men that mar my course; Or few or many, far or nigh, In every place and in all hours, Against their fierce hostility, I bind to me these holy powers.
Against all Satan’s spells and wiles, Against false words of heresy, Against the knowledge that defiles, Against the heart’s idolatry, Against the wizard’s evil craft, Against the death wound and the burning, The choking wave and the poisoned shaft, Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.
Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the Name, The strong Name of the Trinity; By invocation of the same. The Three in One, and One in Three, Of Whom all nature hath creation, Eternal Father, Spirit, Word: Praise to the Lord of my salvation, Salvation is of Christ the Lord.