For Christians, we are entering a long and trying month. The June 1 Psalm and the writing by Paul Zeller Strodach (1876 - 1947) appointed for today’s Treasury of Daily Prayer readings for the Thursday After Pentecost are appropriate. Today is also the feast of St. Justin Martyr (ca 160 - ca 165), who was executed for refusing to participate in the pagan sacrifices demanded by polite society. This is a fitting time to reflect upon the cost of discipleship, and to come to grips with the countercultural nature of our life-giving, all-atoning confession of our Lord Jesus Christ: the Good News that is so needed in this dark and dying world.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
4 The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

Writing

The deeper we enter the Lententide, the more intense becomes the struggle between sin and righteousness, whether it be granted to us to see it revealed in our Lord’s suffering for us, or in the searchlight upon ourselves. The nearer we draw to the Cross, the more distinct sin becomes in its awful guilt and consequences. “Who is on the Lord’s side?” There is no neutralioty, no middle ground in the allegiances to the service of Christ, and it must be repeated, there cannot be a divided, nor an unpossessed heart! The Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of evil, of God and of the devil, are sharply contrasted. Each has its distinctive marks. Each has its powers. Each makes its appeal and each claims its followers. Slowly and deliberately, in order that every word may sink into the soul, Our Lord says: “He - that - is - not - with - Me - is - against - Me”! Think of the double and low standards of morality so pervalent in our modern age, the winking at wrong, the absorption in trivial things, the indifference in Religion, and that self-satisfying, conventional religion which so many have fashioned for themselves. And then think of Christ, who loved and gave, bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Turn your eyes toward the Lord, for He shall pluck your feet out of the net. According to this promise, the child of God pleads with his heavenly Father that He would look upon his every need and stretch forth the right hand of His Majesty and be his defense against all enemies.

~ Paul Zeller Strodach, The Church Year (Philadelphia: United Lutheran Publication House, 1924), 119-20, quoted in Treasury of Daily Prayer, 342-343.

Amen.