Devotion for December 12 (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  The Good Samaritan, by Rembrandt van Rijn

The Universal Standard

DECEMBER 12, 2023

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Assigned Readings:

Isaiah 29:1-14

Psalm 50 (Morning)

Psalms 14 and 16 (Evening)

Jude 1-25

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A Related Post:

A Prayer for Compassion:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/a-prayer-for-compassion/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We read in Isaiah 29 that there is deliverance from judgment sometimes.  One of the poems seems to describe the deliverance of Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18-19).  Yet the same city has faced destruction more than once since then.

Destruction was also on Jude’s mind.  This time it was spiritual and personal doom for those who refused to trust God and obey divine commandments.  This destruction could also be communal if the community did not remain faithful.

My sense of history prompts me to become uneasy with regard to those who would go to any extreme to rid the community of alleged heretics and false teachers.  I recall reading and hearing of instances of heretics burned at the stake or tortured into recanting.  Inquisitions are not Christlike.  And those who disagree with us are not wrong because they disagree with us; we are not necessarily correct in all our opinions.  Many of our standards of right and wrong are culturally-conditioned, so slavery in the Antebellum United States was acceptable in the theology of many professing Christians.  That reality functioned as an indictment of such theologies.

There is one universal standard.  That is love, as God has demonstrated it.  New Testament authors wrote of the Law of Love, an idea they found in the Old Testament.  Maintaining correct Christology, essential to Christianity, must occur in the context of living compassionately.  We ought not proclaim the love of Christ with our words and belie it with our deeds.  Part of avoiding rank hypocrisy is surrendering ourselves to the mystery that is God and leaving judgment there. May we do so.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 11, 2011 COMMON ERA

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF OCTAVIUS HADFIELD, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF WELLINGTON

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/the-universal-standard/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Advertisement