Devotion for the Third Sunday After the Epiphany, Year C (Humes)

Above:  The Ark Passes Over the Jordan, by James Tissot

Image in the Public Domain

The Scandal of Grace

JANUARY 24, 2021

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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 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

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2 Chronicles 12:1-14 or Joshua 3:7-17

Psalm 76

Ephesians 1:11-23

Luke 4:13-30

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Divine judgment and mercy come packaged together.  When the oppressed go free, what price do the oppressors pay?  We humans frequently judge ourselves and select our punishments.  Furthermore, as in 2 Chronicles 12, deliverance is partial sometimes.  To quote a cliché, God sometimes makes us lie down in the bed we have made.  Another example of the mixture of divine judgment and mercy comes from Joshua 3.  We read of the crossing of the Israelites into the Promised Land.  If we know the narrative well, we are aware that the generation that left slavery in Egypt did not enter the Promised Land.

May we be meek before God.  May we embrace the love of God for all people–including those quite different from us.  May we, unlike former neighbors of Jesus in Nazareth, never seek a claim to divine blessings just for ourselves and those similar to us.  May we celebrate the scandal of grace and the responsibilities grace imposes upon its recipients.  After all, grace is free, but not cheap.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 17, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND

THE FEAST OF EBENEZER ELLIOTT, “THE CORN LAW RHYMER”

THE FEAST OF HENRY SCOTT HOLLAND, ANGLICAN HYMN WRITER AND PRIEST

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAN SARKANDER, SILESIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND “MARTYR OF THE CONFESSIONAL,” 1620

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA BARBARA MAIX, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SISTERS OF THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/03/17/the-scandal-of-grace-vii/

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