Devotion for Monday After the First Sunday of Advent, Year C (ELCA Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Moses and Korah

Image in the Public Domain

Maintaining Christian Hope

NOVEMBER 28, 2021

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The Collect:

Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.

By your merciful protection alert us to the threatening dangers of our sins,

and redeem us for your life of justice,

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

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 18

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The Assigned Readings:

Numbers 17:1-11

Psalm 90

2 Peter 3:1-18

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For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past

and like a watch in the night.

–Psalm 90:4, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Complaining frequently, rebelling occasionally, and angering God in the process are recurring motifs in the post-Exodus parts of the Torah.  The people were free, had sufficient food and water, and should have been grateful.  Many were, to be sure, but a large proportion of the population waxed nostalgically regarding Egyptian leftovers and kept angering God.  They were impatient.

Allowing for change in God concepts from Numbers 17 to 2 Peter 3, the principle of obeying God remains constant.  The context in 2 Peter 3 is the fact that expectations of the imminent return of Christ proved to be false.  Many early Christians were dying without the Messiah having come back and replaced the corrupt, violent, and exploitative world order with the fully realized Kingdom of God.  Many people were losing hope.  Some were seizing the opportunity to live wrongly.

God is never late, but we humans are frequently impatient.  We are fortunate, for God has blessed us in more ways than we can count, but often we murmur or shout our complaints.  Giving thanks, not kvetching, is in order.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

–John 14:15-17, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

We need not rely on our own power to have a proper, respectful, awe-filled relationship with God, who advocates for us and does not strike us down with plagues.  No, abundant grace is available.  Will we accept it, maintain Christian hope, and embrace divine love, which demands much of us?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 10, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF WAKEFIELD AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS SISTER, FRANCES JANE DOUGLAS(S), HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF EUNICE SHRIVER KENNEDY, FOUNDER OF THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS

THE FEAST OF SAINT LAURENCE OF ROME, ROMAN CATHOLIC DEACON AND MARTYR

THE FEAST OF SHERMAN BOOTH, ABOLITIONIST

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/maintaining-christian-hope/

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