Above: Candle Flame
Image in the Public Domain
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The Collect:
O God, you have prepared for those who love you joys beyond understanding.
Pour into our hearts such love for you that,
loving you above all things,
we may obtain your promises,
which exceed all we can desire,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 34
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The Assigned Readings:
Isaiah 49:5-6 (Thursday)
Isaiah 42:5-9 (Friday)
Deuteronomy 32:44-47 (Saturday)
Psalm 98 (All Days)
Acts 10:1-34 (Thursday)
Acts 10:34-43 (Friday)
Mark 10:42-45 (Saturday)
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Shout with joy to the LORD, all you lands;
lift up your voice, rejoice, and sing….
In righteousness shall he judge the world
and the peoples with equity.
–Psalm 98:5, 10, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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A sense of having a covenant with and a special revelation from God ought not to lead one into spiritual and theological elitism, the religious equivalent of ethnocentrism, which is just as false as cultural relativism. Of course I condemn legalism and spiritual and theological elitism wherever they rear their ugly heads, but more importantly I advocate a healthy sense of ecumenism. I emphasize what I favor–loving one’s fellow human beings in the name of God and behaving toward them accordingly.
For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
–Mark 10:45, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
I, as a professing Christian, claim to follow Jesus. Thus, if I am to be an intellectually and spiritually honest Christian, I must serve others in the name of Christ, regardless of the human categories into which they fit. I retain definitions of true religions (Judaism and Christianity), merely false religions, and predatory cults, for I am not a Universalist. Yet my theology is ecumenical, drawing from Judaism and various Christian traditions. Those Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons (members of merely false religions) who come to my front door and whom I fail to avoid sometimes, do not understand this, for they think that they have the ultimate revelation of God. Meanwhile, I live in a home with crucifixes, a menorah, hymnals and service books from a range of denominations, and Bibles from Jewish, Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant backgrounds. I remain an observant Episcopalian, but other denominations fascinate me–some more than others. Lutherans and Moravians are especially interesting.
There is God; no such beings as gods exist. Thus all of us are children of God, although many do not know that. To be an effective light to the nations one must, among other things, lay aside contempt for the people one hopes to convert. The failure to do so has been among the most grievous faults of many missionaries for centuries. They people who have set out to do something righteous have destroyed cultures and functioned as agents of imperial powers instead, for the shackles of ethnocentrism have chained them. Fortunately, modern schools of missions are among the places where one may learn how to avoid following in those footsteps.
To be a light to the nations–or one’s community–is a great responsibility, one to approach with much reverence and humility. It is a goal one can accomplish only by grace and which requires the acknowledgment that one does not have a complete understanding of God. Nobody has such a grasp of the divine, but some of us have learned more of the truth than others.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 20, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE TWENTY-FIRST DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF SAINT DOMINIC OF SILOS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER CANISIUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
THE FEAST OF KATHARINA VON BORA LUTHER, WIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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