Beloved, Devote Yourselves to Holy Conduct and Piety

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“Beloved.” That’s how the Apostle Peter addresses his hearers. And it’s how God addresses you. Even when He reproves you—through me, the preacher whom He also reproves—He reproves you as His beloved.

“Beloved, do not forget this one thing.” It would be better to say, “Don’t let this escape your notice.” The Holy Spirit in the Holy Scriptures is telling us a hidden truth. He’s revealing to us a secret, or a mystery. It is the mystery of how time with God is not at all as we experience time….

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Circumcision and Name of JESUS

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“Eight days were completed.” Completed … or better, fulfilled. For this is no mere random passage of time. “The days were fulfilled” reveals the jurisdiction of God over all things. God is sovereign over time itself. This event, and every event recorded in Scripture, is governed by His plan.

We track the passage of time with calendars. Modern life requires us to juggle multiple calendars: civil holidays and tax deadlines; work calendars, school calendars, family birthdays and anniversaries. We Christians have our own calendar, often out of step with what everyone else is doing. The liturgical calendar reminds us that Christians are to be different.

We learn from the Gospels something about Joseph and Mary: they are pious. They follow the liturgical calendar, and they also conform their personal lives to what the Law of Moses expected, down to the day. “And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.”

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The Tenth Sunday after Trinity

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“From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.” Thus the Apostles’ Creed summarizes what God’s Word says about the end of the world, the Day of Judgment.

Be not deceived: The judgment of Jesus is coming. On that day, your thoughts will be revealed. The things done in darkness will be brought to light; there is nothing secret that will not be exposed.

As Jesus approaches Jerusalem in today’s Gospel, He anticipates the coming judgment on that city. In less than four decades, Jerusalem would be burned, her stones toppled, the temple looted and razed, blood running through the streets as water. Jesus’ prophecy came to pass in the year 70 when Titus conquered Jerusalem.

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