Above: The Moravian Logo in Stained Glass
Image Source = JJackman
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AgnusDeiWindow.jpg)
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The Collect:
O God, your Son makes himself known to all his disciples in the breaking of bread.
Open the eyes of our faith, that we may see him in his redeeming work,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 33
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The Assigned Readings:
Exodus 24:1-11
Psalm 134
John 21:1-14
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Some Related Posts:
Exodus 34:
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/week-of-proper-11-saturday-year-1/
John 21:
http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2010/10/29/sixth-day-of-easter-friday-in-easter-week/
http://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/fifteenth-day-of-easter-third-sunday-of-easter-year-c/
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Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,
you that by night stand in the house of the Lord.
Lift up your hands toward the sanctuary
and bless the Lord.
The Lord who made heaven and earth
give you blessing out of Zion.
–Psalm 134, Common Worship (2000)
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The daily realities and worldviews of biblical characters, being different from my own, require me to do some homework if I am to understand correctly what certain texts describe. A case in point is Exodus 24, which recounts the sealing of the covenant between the Israelites and Yahweh with Moses sprinkling the blood of sacrificial bulls on the people. Blood, in the worldview of these ancients, made life possible. Thus, in this ritual act,
Israel now begins a new life of obedience, signified by sacrifice, the “book of the covenant,” and by the “blood of the covenant.”
–The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume I (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1994), page 881
We know how obedient many of that group of Israelites turned out to be, do we not?
The interpretive angle that blood makes life possible fits well into atonement theology, especially when one considers Jesus, both priest and sacrifice. I recall to mind the image which the Gospel of John provides: Jesus dying as sacrificial animals die at the Temple. Jesus is the Passover Lamb; his death is the Passover meal. The original Passover (in Exodus) protected Israelites from the sins of Egyptians, so any properly reasoned theology of atonement which uses Passover imagery must move beyond a tunnel-vision focus on one’s own sins.
The theology of scapegoating disturbs me. Jesus became a political scapegoat, dying as one. I agree with others who reject Penal Substitutionary Atonement; Jesus did not take my place on the cross. Rather, the Classic Theory–the conquest of evil, completed via the Resurrection–is closer to my theology. Actually, I propose that the entire life of Christ was essential for the Atonement. And I interpret the death of Jesus as having several meanings, including the point that scapegoating does not work.
My holistic understanding of the Atonement takes into account the vital role of bloodshed in the New Testament reflections on the crucifixion. If the blood of sacrificial bulls made new spiritual life possible, even sealing the covenant, how much more does the blood of Christ affect those of us who follow him? We have a New Covenant through him, do we not? The imagery of blood fits well here.
More important, though, is the Resurrection, through which we have a living Jesus, not a dead one.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 15, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT: THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A
THE FEAST OF THOMAS BENSON POLLOCK, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM PROXMIRE, UNITED STATES SENATOR
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Adapted from this post:
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