Devotion for September 4 (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  The Harrowing of Hades

Image in the Public Domain

2 Kings and Ephesians, Part I:  The Empowering Spirit

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

2 Kings 2:1-18

Psalm 96 (Morning)

Psalms 132 and 134 (Evening)

Ephesians 4:1-24

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The readings assume that God and Heaven are above the surface of the Earth and that the realm of the dead is below the surface.  So, from that perspective, to go to God, one must ascend.  Hence readings say that Elijah and Jesus went up.  I read accounts of assumptions and ascensions and interpret them as poetic elements.  But, whatever really happened, somebody went to God; that mattered.

We read in Ephesians that Jesus descended before he ascended.  This explains a line from the Apostles’ Creed:

He descended to the dead.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 120

The implication is that those Jesus visited in the realm of death were not beyond hope.  If nobody who has died is beyond hope, neither are we who have pulses.  And what does God expect of us but to renew our minds and spirits, to be humble and gentle, and to put up with each other’s failings in a spirit of love?  (It is difficult, I know.)  We have work to do, and we need to help each other do it.  Elisha needed a double portion of Elijah’s spirit.  We have the Holy Spirit and each other.  Shall we proceed or continue?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 4, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF MIEP GIES, RIGHTEOUS GENTILE

THE FEAST OF SAINT DAVID I, KING OF SCOTLAND

THE FEAST OF GEORGE FOX, QUAKER FOUNDER

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAULINUS OF AQUILEIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRIARCH

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/2-kings-and-ephesians-part-i-the-empowering-spirit/

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