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

Above:  A Model of the Second Temple, Jerusalem

Image in the Public Domain

The Internalized Covenant with God

DECEMBER 9, 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:

Ezekiel 36:24-28

Psalm 85:8-13

Mark 11:27-33

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Mercy and truth have met together;

righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring up from the earth,

and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

The LORD will indeed grant prosperity

and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness shall go before him,

and peace shall be a pathway for his feet.

–Psalm 85:7-13, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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That positive vision is similar to the one in Ezekiel 36:24-28.  The internalized covenant in a renewed and restored Israel is happy news.  Yet one ought not to overlook or minimize Ezekiel 36:32 (New Revised Standard Version):

It is not for your sake that I will act, says the Lord GOD; let that be known to you.  Be ashamed and dismayed for your ways, O house of Israel.

God will act, Ezekiel tells us, on behalf of the holy divine name, which the Hebrews had profaned.

I read Mark 11:27-33 and 12:1-12 then imagine Jesus saying,

Be ashamed and dismayed for your ways, O chief priests, scribes, and elders.

That concept exists in the words of Mark 11:27-12:12.  The Temple system exploited the pious poor economically and collaborated with the Roman occupiers.  It also propagated a form of piety which only those of certain means (a minority of the population) could afford to maintain.  Woe indeed to those who benefited from that system!  Although Jesus refused to answer the trick question in 11:27-33, the Parable of the Wicked Tenants (12:1-12) provided an unambiguous reply just a few days before the death of our Lord and Savior, as the Gospel of Mark tells the narrative.

Lest we of today feel overly comfortable in our denouncement of people dead for thousands of years, we need to look around and ponder our contexts.  Are we complicit in structures which exploit people?  Do we participate in or make excuses for organizations which ignore the principle of the internalized covenant with God and twist religion into an instrument for improper spiritual authority?  If so, we ought to be ashamed and dismayed for our ways.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 25, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF HERBERT STANLEY OAKELEY, COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF ANGELINA AND SARAH GRIMKE, ABOLITIONISTS

THE FEAST OF SAINT PROCLUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CONSTANTINOPLE; AND SAINT RUSTICUS, BISHOP OF NARBONNE

THE FEAST OF VINCENT PRICE, ACTOR

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/the-internalized-covenant-with-god/

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