Devotion for December 22, Year A (ELCA Daily Lectionary)

Above:  The New Jerusalem

Good News and Bad News

DECEMBER 22, 2022

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The Collect:

Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come!

With your abundant grace and might,

free us from the sin that hinders our faith,

that eagerly we may receive your promises,

for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19

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The Assigned Readings:

Isaiah 33:17-22

Luke 1:46b-55

Revelation 22:6-7, 18-20

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The readings today contain good news and bad news.  God will scatter the Assyrians who would conquer the Kingdom of Israel.  Yet we know that the Chaldeans/Babylonians will defeat this realm in time.  Revelation 22 is no less mixed:  The righteous will rejoice in their deliverance by God, who will build the new world order after having obliterated the old one.  Many people are invested in the world order God will destroy; woe to those who mourn its passing, Revelation says.  And, in the Magnificat, the lowly and the hungry have good reason to rejoice, but the the powerful and the rich have understandable reasons to lament.  Oppressors who refuse to cease oppressing will pay a steep price for their persistent sin.  A familiar hymn tells us:

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;

He chastens and hastens his will to make known;

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing:

Sing praises to his name; He forgets not his own.

–Translated by Theodore Baker (1851-1934)

Among the major themes in the Gospel of Luke is reversal of fortune.  There we find the Magnificat.  A few chapters later we find the Beatitudes and Woes.  (Those are just two examples.)  That theme and the other readings for today point to the same reality.  Sometimes divine deliverance of some is judgment upon others who have not ceased from oppressing and distressing.  They had opportunities, which they rejected.  This principle makes sense, for bad news for Herod the Great was good news for many other people, was it not?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 5, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY MARY ZACCARIA, FOUNDER OF THE BARNABIES AND THE ANGELIC SISTERS OF SAINT PAUL

THE FEAST OF SAINTS ADALBERO AND ULRIC OF AUGSBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS

THE FEAST OF H. RICHARD NIEBUHR, UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST THEOLOGIAN

THE FEAST OF WILLEM A. VISSER ‘T HOOFT, ECUMENIST

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/good-news-and-bad-news/

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