St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh
Midweek Devotion 23rd February 2023
Led by Rev Professor Kenneth Boyd
Scripture Reading
Our reading today is from the 9th chapter of the Gospel of St Luke, verses 21 to 35.
21 Jesus sternly ordered and commanded them not to tell anyone,22 saying, ‘The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.’
23 Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. 25 What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?
AMEN
Reflection
‘O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us/ To see oursels as others see us!’ Burns’ light-hearted lines "To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church" have often been quoted with more serious intent: from what errors and follies might we be saved, were we to see ourselves, not blinkered by our own self-centred preoccupations, but through the more clear-sighted eyes of others. And there’s truth in that, certainly: we need one another to warn as well as encourage us.
But of which other eyes are we speaking? Other people, depending on how well they know us, may each see us very differently: ‘some will hate you, some will love you, some will flatter, some will slight’; and which other person’s view of you is to be trusted? How other people see us cannot be ignored: but nor can one or another other’s view of us be taken over uncritically as a way of assuring ourselves who we really are.
And who are we, really? If we are to avoid the pitfalls of blinkered pride and the pit of blind despair, we need to try to understand what Jesus is saying in today’s reading about saving or losing your life. Part of what wanting to save your life means, I think, is wanting to be assure yourself that you know who you really are: maybe not a hero or a villain, but at least someone whose good deeds are praiseworthy and whose failings are excusable. But trying to cling to any such view as the real view of yourself, Jesus seems to be saying, is self-defeating: you do not know who you really are, because you are more than you know; and you will not know how much more, until you become more what you were created to be.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer from his prison cell in 1944 asked and ultimately replied to the question:
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me , these lonely questions of mine
Whatever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
AMEN
In peace let us pray to the Lord.
Psalm 131:3
I have calmed and quieted my soul. Like a child quieted at its mother’s breast: like a child that is quieted is my soul.
The collect for Ash Wednesday
Almighty and Everlasting God,
you despise nothing that you have made,
and forgive the sins of all who are penitent.
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts.
Give us grace worthily to lament our sins
and acknowledge our brokenness,
that we may receive from you,
the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
though Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN
A Gaelic Prayer
As the rain hides the stars, as the autumn mist hides the hills, as the clouds veil the blue of the sky, so the dark happenings of my lot hide the shining of thy face from me. Yet, if I may hold thy hand in the darkness, it is enough. Since I know that, though I may stumble in my going, thou dost not fall.
AMEN
Our prayers for others
Let us remember before God today:
Those who have lost their families and homes in Turkey and Syria,
The ordinary people of Ukraine and of Russia,
The women of Iran and of Afghanistan,
Our neighbours in our own country who cannot make ends meet:
O Lord Jesus, stretch forth thy wounded hands in blessing over thy people,
To heal and to restore, and to draw them to thyself and to one another in love.
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 Epitaphe