Devotion for Monday and Tuesday After the Second Sunday of Easter, Year B (ELCA Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Fiery Furnace

Image in the Public Domain

God and Kosmos

APRIL 8 and 9, 2024

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Collect:

Almighty God, with joy we celebrate the day of our Lord’s resurrection.

By the grace of Christ among us,

enable us to show the power of the resurrection in all that we say or do,

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 32

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Assigned Readings:

Daniel 3:1-30 (Monday)

Daniel 6:1-28 (Tuesday)

Psalm 135 (Both Days)

1 John 2:3-11 (Monday)

1 John 2:12-17 (Tuesday)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

O LORD, your Name is everlasting;

your renown, O LORD, endures from age to age.

–Psalm 135:13, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The readings from Daniel 3 and 6 tell of faithful Jews in deadly peril due to their fidelity to God, who delivered them.  After each deliverance a violent monarch became the earthly protector of the faithful.  Details of how this worked are not the content of warm and fuzzy lessons for children’s Sunday School.

1 John 2:15 says:

Do not love the world or the things in the world.

—The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

“The world” refers not to the created order but to the evil order in which faithful people face persecution.

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?  The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone.  Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me.  I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace.  In the world you face persecution.  But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

–John 16:31-33, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

The extraordinary context for that portion of the Johannine Gospel is that Jesus was about to die.  In the Gospel of John he said that immediately prior to his betrayal and crucifixion.  The worst which people did to him was terrible indeed, but God was more powerful, as the Resurrection revealed.

The call to reject the world which Christ has conquered is not a command to eschew all aspects of culture, popular and otherwise, many of which are beneficial and others of which are harmless.  No, it is a mandate to establish and stick to proper priorities; God must come first.  So may we recognize and respect the image of God within others and act accordingly.  May we reject the fear which leads people to harm each other instead of building each other up.

And now, my friends, all that is true, all that is noble, all that is just and pure, all that is lovable and attractive, whatever is excellent and admirable–fill your thoughts with these things.

–Philippians 4:8, The Revised English Bible (1989)

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 17, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF MARIA STEWART, EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB, FOUNDER OF SAVE THE CHILDREN

THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER

THE FEAST OF SAINT OLYMPIAS, ORTHODOX DEACONESS

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/12/17/god-and-kosmos/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++