Readings

October 10: Vida Dutton Scudder, Educator, 1954

The Collect of the Day

Vida Dutton Scudder

Most gracious God, you sent your beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in your church witnesses who, after the example of your servant Vida Dutton Scudder, stand firm in proclaiming the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Vida Dutton Scudder

Most gracious God, who didst send thy beloved Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Raise up in thy church witnesses who, after the example of thy servant Vida Dutton Scudder, stand firm in proclaiming the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Vida Dutton Scudder exemplifies the marriage of contemplation and action within an engaged Christian spirituality. As a contemplative laywoman, Scudder was a champion for peace, social action, and women throughout her life.

Scudder was born on December 15th, 1861, the child of Congregationalist missionaries in India. In the 1870s, Vida and her mother were prepared for confirmation in the Episcopal Church by Phillips Brooks, then Rector of Trinity Church, Copley Square, Boston, and later Bishop of Massachusetts. After studying English literatureat Smith College and Oxford University, Scudder began teaching at Wellesley College. Her love of scholarship was matched by her social conscience and deep spirituality. As a young woman, Scudder founded the College Settlements Association, joined the Society of Christian Socialists, and, in 1889, began a lifelong association with the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross, a community living in the world and devoted to intercessory prayer.

In 1893, Scudder took a leave of absence from Wellesley to workwith Helena Stuart Dudley in founding Denison House in Boston, a “college settlement,” where wealthy college-educated women provided social services to poor immigrant neighbors, in conversation withthe local parish priest. Stresses from teaching and her activism ledto a breakdown in 1901. After two years’ recuperation in Italy, she returned renewed and became even more active in church and socialist groups; she started a group for Italian immigrants at Denison House and took an active part in organizing the Women’s Trade Union League. In 1911, Scudder founded The Episcopal Church Socialist League, and formally joined the Socialist party. Her support of the Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile workers’ strike in 1912 drew agreat deal of criticism and threatened her teaching position. Though she initially supported World War I, she joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1923, and by the 1930s was a firm pacifist.

Throughout her life, Scudder’s primary relationships and support network were women. After retirement, she authored 16 books on religious and political subjects, combining her intense activism with an equally vibrant spirituality. “If prayer is the deep secret creative force that Jesus tells us it is, we should be very busy with it,” she wrote characteristically, adding that there was one sure way “of directly helping on the Kingdom of God. That way is prayer. Social intercession may be the mightiest force in the world.” Vida Scudder died on October 9th, 1954.

Lessons and Psalm

First Lesson

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Psalm

1To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul; my God, I put my trust in you; *let me not be humiliated, nor let my enemies triumph over me.

2Let none who look to you be put to shame; *let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.

3Show me your ways, O Lord, *and teach me your paths.

4Lead me in your truth and teach me, *for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.

5Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, *for they are from everlasting.

6Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; *remember me according to your love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.

7Gracious and upright is the Lord; *therefore he teaches sinners in his way.

8He guides the humble in doing right *and teaches his way to the lowly.

9All the paths of the Lord are love and faithfulness *to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

10For your Name’s sake, O Lord, *forgive my sin, for it is great.

11Who are they who fear the Lord? *he will teach them the way that they should choose.

12They shall dwell in prosperity, *and their offspring shall inherit the land.

13The Lord is a friend to those who fear him *and will show them his covenant.

14My eyes are ever looking to the Lord, *for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

Gospel

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Isaiah 11:1–10

1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. 3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. 10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

John 6:37–51

37 Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; 38 for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day.” 41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” 42 They were saying, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” 43 Jesus answered them, “Do not complain among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”