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Weekly Devotionals  |
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Good News DailyVolume VIII Sunday, December 28 Our Collect for today, Holy Innocents, begs God to establish His rule of justice, love, and peace here on earth. What would it be like if all of us lived according to the way of love that Christ, our Savior, taught? Would we have millions of children going to bed hungry every night? Would some people be getting richer and richer all the time and others poorer and poorer? Wouldn’t there be a great many more Jimmy and Rosalynn Carters and Bill and Melinda Gates, visibly loving and sharing with others? I think God wants you and me to do everything we can possibly do to help Him establish more love, justice, and peace on earth. He has taught us the way, and the Saints followed Him. You and I can sit down and moan about the evil in the world, or we can do all we possibly can to get rid of it within and outside of ourselves. Jeremiah 31:15-17; Psalm 124; Revelation 21:1-7 Monday, December 29 When the chief priests and the Pharisees asked the temple police why they didn’t arrest Jesus who was, they thought, committing blasphemy, the police replied that nobody had ever spoken like him before. What kinds of things has Jesus said that we have found impossible to obey? “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” When someone hurts us, insults us, causes us great pain, are any of us mature enough to utter such a prayer? “You give them something to eat.” When we read or hear about millions of our starving brothers and sisters, what is our response? Empty words? Action? Self-sacrifice? Indifference? “Love one another as I have loved you.” If we really loved others the way our beloved Lord loves us, wouldn’t this wondrous world that God has created for us be much more a place of justice, love, and peace? Isaiah 12:1-6; Psalm 18:1-20; Revelation 1:1-18 Tuesday, December 30 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery to Jesus as he was teaching in the Temple. They told him Moses had said such sinners should be stoned to death. Trying to catch him contradicting the teachings of Moses, they asked what he had to say. His reply was: “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” He was not contradicting Moses, nor was he condemning the woman, nor was he urging his fellow Jews to go against the commands of their Roman oppressors who didn’t permit them to kill those they considered criminal. Each of the accusers was given the grace to realize that he was as much or more of a sinner than the woman, and each slunk away after Jesus’ enlightening reply. Isaiah 25:1-9; Psalms 20, 21; Revelation 1:9-20 Wednesday, December 31 In today’s Scripture reading, Isaiah urges us to trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God we have an everlasting Rock. St. Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians—and us, tells us that in Christ everything has became new and we are now Ambassadors for Christ. And Christ tells us in the Gospel for today that he is the Light of the World, and whoever follows him will never walk in darkness. What powerful, reassuring messages for this New Year’s Eve! Take the leap of faith. Put your trust in God. Begin anew. Start afresh. Speak for Christ. Live for him and his way, his truth, and his love. He will enkindle your heart, enlighten your mind, and inflame your will if you ask Him to do so. “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19b). Another new, fresh year is beginning! Psalms 46, 48; 2 Corinthians 5:16—6:2; John 8:12-19 Thursday, January 1 Some of the most comforting (in the sense of strengthening, enabling, and empowering) verses in all of Scripture for me are ones about how great God’s power within us Christians is once we have been baptized. I think here of a combination of three translations of Ephesians 1:19 which have often been my joy and comfort: How vast, how tremendous, how infinitely great are the resources of the power available to those of us who believe in and trust in Christ. Another of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is: “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37). It doesn’t say “for God.” We all know God can do anything. It says “with God.” You and I can do and say whatever God asks us to do and say. The key words are: “with God.” Nothing will be impossible with God. Genesis 17:1-12a, 15-16; Psalm 103; John 16:23b-30 Friday, January 2 I read in John’s third letter (3 John 1:3) that he thinks we Christians walk in the truth, and he tells us a little further on in the letter that we are co-workers with the Truth. Peter tells us in John’s Gospel (6:69) that we Christians have come to believe and know that Christ is the Holy One of God. Such affirmations fill me with profound joy. To walk in the truth for me means to live in the light, love, joy, and hope of the abundant life made known to us by our Savior. To be a co-worker with the Truth means to do everything we possibly can to bring Christ’s kingdom of love and justice to earth here and now, where we are today. His Words and his Table will supply all our needs. “Trust in the Lord forever, for in the Lord God you have an everlasting rock” (Isaiah 26:4). Genesis 12:1-7; Hebrews 11:1-12; John 6:35-42, 48-51 Saturday, January 3 We had an instructed Eucharist one Sunday at Trinity Church in Boston a while ago. One Priest celebrated and another commented on what the Celebrant was saying and doing. We were also given a booklet explaining the words and actions of the Celebrant. The utterly astounding truth about the Creed that the Priest read from the booklet has been on my mind and, far more importantly, in my heart ever since. He asserted that when we say the Creed, we are proclaiming “our·belief that the Good News of God in Christ does in fact trump and triumph over all bad news personal, communal, and cosmic. In so doing we reaffirm our faith, our trust in God.” For almost fifteen hundred years, we Christians have been saying or singing “this love song to our mysterious Three-in-One God,” who has willed always and only to give us His love, joy, and hope—abundance of life. “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Genesis 28:10-22; Psalm 68; Hebrews 11:13-22by Sister Mary Michael Used with permission from the BIBLE READING FELLOWSHIP |
