The Upper Room Daily Reflections
– Monday, 6 January 2014 “The Light of the World”
Today’s
Reflection:
THE MAGI COME ASKING, “Where is the child who has been born king
of the Jews?” Tradition has it that there were three Magi, probably because the
Bible account names three gifts (gold, frankincense, and myrrh.) The names used
for these Magi are Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, and tradition also says
that they are of three different ethnic groups, signifying that Christ comes
not just for one nation but for all people.
In fact, that is what we celebrate in January at Epiphany: Jesus
Christ as the Light of the world. We celebrate Christ as Light to the whole
world, not as the Light to one small group in the world. …
Commentators have said we seem in a hurry after Christmas to box
up once again our patience, our tolerance, our generosity and put them back in the
attic, as if we can sustain good behavior for a few weeks but wouldn’t want to
risk making it a way of life. We may also put away our willingness to give a
bit more, to be more forgiving, even to be more patient in traffic as we often
are during the holidays. Perhaps we even box up our desires to hope and our
openness to miracles and mystery, as if the messages of the Christmas stories
can’t quite survive the rigors of real life in the rest of the year. The Magi
call us to continue our observance of Christ’s coming after December is over.(While
We Wait)
From pages 93-94 of While We Wait: Living the Questions of
Advent by Mary Lou Redding. Copyright © 2002 by Mary Lou Redding. All rights
reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/
Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question:
Do you observe the Day of Epiphany in your religious tradition?
Today’s Scripture:
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul
delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the
nations.(Isaiah 42:1, NRSV)
This Week: pray for someone who feels hopeless.
-------
Are you ever asked to raise money for a ministry or other
charity? Renowned author and teacher, Henri Nouwen, reminds us that fundraising
is actually a form of ministry. Join The Upper Room and the Henri Nouwen
Society for "Fundraising from the Heart," a series of call-in
telephone seminars featuring Parker Palmer and others. Whether you are a fund
development professional or a part time fundraiser, you’ll gain a fresh
perspective on fundraising.
-------
This week we remember:
Emily Balch (January 9).
Emily Greene Balch (1867-1961) grew up in a prosperous family,
graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1889 and eventually worked as a professor of
economics and sociology at Wellesley College. She worked with Jane Addams at
Hull House in Chicago and cared deeply about people in poverty.
As a Quaker and committed pacifist, Emily was passionate about
peace issues. She worked with Jane Addams organize the Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom and served several terms as its secretary. In 1915
Balch attended the international Congress of Women at Den Hague and was part of
a mediation delegation to Russia and Scandinavia. She proposed an
"International Colonial Administration" similar to what later became
the League of Nations.
Because of her active campaign against U.S. participation in
World War I she lost her Wellesley professorship. She took on the editorship of
The Nation. She also wrote several important books: Refugees as Assets in 1939,
One Europe in 1947, and Toward Human Unity, or Beyond Nationalism (1952).
For her lifetime of peace work Balch received the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1946; she gave the prize money to the Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom. Emily Greene Balch died in 1961.
If Emily Balch had taken the Spiritual Types Test, she probably
would have been a Sage. Emily Balch is remembered on January 9.
-------
Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
Isaiah The Servant, a Light to the Nations
42: Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my
soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth
justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in
the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning
wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully
bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has
established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the
heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the
earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
and spirit to those
who walk in it:
6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by
the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,[a]
a light to the
nations,
7 to open the eyes
that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those
who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord, that is my name;
my glory I give to no
other,
nor my praise to
idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now
declare;
before they spring forth,
I tell you of them.
Footnotes:
a. Isaiah 42:6 Meaning of Heb uncertain
Psalm 29: The Voice of God in a Great Storm
A Psalm of David.
1 Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,[a]
ascribe to the Lord
glory and strength.
2 Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name;
worship the Lord in
holy splendor.
3 The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory
thunders,
the Lord, over mighty
waters.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord
is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the
cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a
young wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
8 The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the
wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the Lord causes the oaks to whirl,[b]
and strips the forest
bare;
and in his temple all
say, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits
enthroned as king forever.
11 May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his
people with peace!
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 29:1 Heb sons of gods
b. Psalm 29:9 Or causes the deer to calve
Acts 10: Gentiles Hear the Good News
34 Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that
God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does
what is right is acceptable to him. 36 You know the message he sent to the
people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. 37 That
message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that
John announced: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by
the devil, for God was with him. 39 We are witnesses to all that he did both in
Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; 40 but
God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, 41 not to all the people
but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him
after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to
testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him
receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Matthew 3: The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be
baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be
baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be
so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then
he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the
water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said,
“This is my Son, the Beloved,[a] with whom I am well pleased.”
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 3:17 Or my beloved Son
-------
Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2013, a
ministry of GBOD
PO Box 340004
Nashville, TN 37203-0004 United States
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment