Devotion for Thursday Before the Second Sunday of Advent, Year B (ELCA Daily Lectionary)

Above:  The Crack in the Fabric of the Universe, from Doctor Who:  The Time of the Doctor (2013)

A screen capture via PowerDVD and a legal DVD

Benefits of Cracks

DECEMBER 7, 2023

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The Collect:

Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son.

By his coming strengthen us to serve you with purified lives;

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19

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The Assigned Readings:

Hosea 6:1-6

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

1 Thessalonians 1:2-10

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I will listen to what the LORD God is saying,

for he is speaking peace to his faithful people

and those who turn their hearts to him.

–Psalm 85:8, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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To repent is to change one’s mind or to turn around.  The idea that it means merely to apologize or to express regret is false yet commonplace.  No, repentance is active.  After one has expressed regret and, if possible, apologized to those against whom one has offended, what will one do next?  That is the essence of repentance.

In Hosea God called the Hebrews back to covenant relationship, which rivalry between the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah as well as the ill-advised alliance with Assyria violated.  Divine judgment was a means to bring the people to repentance.  The pseudo-repentance of Hosea 6:1-3 displeased God, who demanded sincerity, not sycophantic, ingratiating, and vain words.  Where were the deeds?

St. Paul the Apostle, writing in 1 Thessalonians 2, mentioned deeds.  He understood the importance of orthodoxy and orthopraxy being of one piece.  As we think, we are, he wrote elsewhere.

Few offenses raise my hackles more than hypocrisy.  Recently I read a news story about a U.S. Congressman who had voted to require the drug testing of food stamps recipients.  Authorities caught him in possession of illegal drugs.  (Whom should the federal government test for drug use?)  I think also of stories of professional moral crusaders (including critics of gambling, which I oppose also) gambling in casinos.  And how many people who have condemned sexual promiscuity as sinful have been habitually sexually promiscuous while issuing those pronouncements?  “Do as I say, not as I do” does not inspire confidence.

All of us are broken, sinful people who, as St. Paul wrote elsewhere of himself, are frequently doing that which they know they ought to do.  Also, each of us carries secrets, mixed motives, and other flaws of characters.  But we can, bu grace, do the right thing when the opportunity presents itself.  Often our flaws, by grace, become factors which enhance our effectiveness in ministering to others and our drive to do so.  Yes, all of us have cracks, but, as Leonard Cohen has sung, the cracks let the light in.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 20, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MARY A. LATHBURY, U.S. METHODIST HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT BERTILLA BOSCARDIN, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND NURSE

THE FEAST OF JOHN HARRIS BURT, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

THE FEAST OF TARORE OF WAHAORA, ANGLICAN MARTYR

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This is post #350 of ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS.

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/benefits-of-cracks/

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