The Confederates won the Second Battle of Bull Run, crossed the Potomac River in to Maryland and captured Harper’s Ferry. After the bloodiest day of fighting, the Confederate drive was halted at the Battle of Antietam. Abraham Lincoln responded by issuing his Emancipation Proclamation. On this day, December 1, 1862, President Lincoln stated in his Second Annual Message to Congress: “In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free… We shall nobly save - or meanly lose - the last, best hope of earth… The way is plain… which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.”

William J. Federer. American Minute

I find that to be a fool as to worldly wisdom,
and to commit my cause to God,
not fearing to offend men,
who take offence at the simplicity of truth,
is the only way to remain unmoved
at the sentiments of others.
--- John Woolman


He that loveth little
prayeth little,
he that loveth much
prayeth much.
--- Augustine

... from here, there and everywhere

21     A slave who is pampered from youth
will in the end be ungrateful.

22     Angry people stir up strife;
hot-tempered people commit many crimes.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

                The law and the gospel

     For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. --- James 2:10.

     The moral law does not consider us as weak human beings at all, it takes no account of our heredity and infirmities, it demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never alters, either for the noblest or for the weakest, it is eternally and abidingly the same. The moral law ordained by God does not make itself weak to the weak, it does not palliate our shortcomings, it remains absolute for all time and eternity. If we do not realize this, it is because we are less than alive; immediately we are alive, life becomes a tragedy. “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” When we realize this, then the Spirit of God convicts us of sin. Until a man gets there and sees that there is no hope, the Cross of Jesus Christ is a farce to him. Conviction of sin always brings a fearful binding sense of the law, it makes a man hopeless—“sold under sin.” I, a guilty sinner, can never get right with God, it is impossible. There is only one way in which I can get right with God, and that is by the death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the lurking idea that I can ever be right with God because of my obedience—which of us could ever obey God to absolute perfection!

     We only realize the power of the moral law when it comes with an ‘if.’ God never coerces us. In one mood we wish He would make us do the thing, and in another mood we wish He would leave us alone. Whenever God’s will is in the ascendant, all compulsion is gone. When we choose deliberately to obey Him, then, with all His almighty power, He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

  and there the scarecrow walked
over the surface of the brown
breakers tattered like Christ
himself and the man went
at his call with the fathoms
under him and because
of his faith in the creation
of his own hands he was
buoyed up floundering
but never sinking scalded
by the urine of the skies deaf
to the voices calling from
the high road telling him
his Savior's face was of straw.

R.S. Thomas, (Fayettesville: University of Arkansas Press), 1985.
The Poems of R.S. Thomas

     A Soft, Mysterious Voice

     In the midst of the deepest guilt and distress of the people, a voice speaks that is soft and mysterious but full of the blessed certainty of salvation through the birth of a divine child (Isa. 9:6-7). It is still seven hundred years until the time of fulfillment, but the prophet is so deeply immersed in God's thought and counsel that he speaks of the future as if he saw it already, and he speaks of the salvific hour as if he already stood in adoration before the manger of Jesus. "For a child has been born for us." What will happen one day is already real and certain in God's eyes, and it will be not only for the salvation of future generations but already for the prophet who sees it coming and for his generation, indeed, for all generations on earth. "For a child has been born for us." No human spirit can talk like this on its own. How are we who do not know what will happen next year supposed to understand that someone can look forward many centuries? And the times then were no more transparent than they are today. Only the Spirit of God, who encompasses the beginning and end of the world, can in such a way reveal to a chosen person the mystery of the future, so that he must prophesy for strengthening believers and warning unbelievers. This individual voice ultimately enters into the nocturnal adoration of the shepherds (Luke 2:15-20) and into the full jubilation of the Christ-believing community: "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us." A shaking of heads, perhaps even an evil laugh, must go through our old, smart, experienced, self-assured world, when it hears the call of salvation of believing Christians "For a child has been born for us, a son given to us."
--- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

     For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
--- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

     Go to  Isaiah 9:6-7

God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

     When Maimonides describes morality as an imitation of God’s actions he is describing a morality which has its roots in an intellectual understanding of God. The ground of this morality is neither specific rules nor principles but, rather, the actions of God as they are manifest in nature. The key difference between the morality of the multitude and the morality of the religious philosopher is that the former is rule-dominated and based in the juridical authority of God, the latter an imitation of the God of creation. Knowledge of God based on the study of nature reveals lovingkindness, righteousness, and judgment as constant features of being. The constancy of God’s ḥesed, reflected in being, guides the religious philosopher to act with ḥesed toward men even though they have no claim on him.

     Maimonides ends the Guide exactly as he began his earliest legal work. By distinguishing between morality before and after knowledge of God, Maimonides is expressing a key theme of his philosophy: theoretical knowledge of God affects practice.

     This essay began by showing that in his first legal work, Maimonides claimed that without the theoretical knowledge of God derived from the study of nature one cannot become a ḥasid. It continued with an explanation of how different orientations to Halakhah are a function of different conceptions of God. Knowledge of God derived from the study of physics and metaphysics is necessary in order to transcend the motive of self-interest and to become a person whose actions reflect the principle of lifnim mi-shurat ha-din.

     To Maimonides, practice is affected not only by moral knowledge. Practice also changes when one adopts a different orientation to life. “Man does not sit, move, and occupy himself when he is alone in his house, as he sits, moves, and occupies himself when he is in the presence of a great king.” It is not that a person who is alone is ignorant of or violates moral rules of behavior, but that intellectual worship of God and the awareness of being in His presence provide man with a different orientation to the significance of practice. The framework of life within which one locates oneself—anthropocentric or theocentric—will influence one’s characteristic patterns of behavior. The practice of the ḥasid results from a perspective on life where olam ha-ba is the telos of human history and of human existence. The ḥasid severs his attachment to what people ordinarily consider valuable, e.g., possessions and physical pleasures, as a direct result of his understanding of the purpose of life. Lifnim mi-shurat ha-din becomes the characteristic response of one who defines himself by the theocentric perspective. Anyone, at any given time, may perform an action that is beyond the strict requirement of Halakhah. Yet, to the ḥasid, such acts are not isolated moments of religious fervor; they derive from the nature of his intellectual love of God.

     Maimonides’ description of the relationship of philosophy to Halakhah has its roots in his understanding of the structure of Torah. Torah does not begin with the account of Sinai but with God’s relationship to the universe. For Maimonides the juridical moment of Sinai is only fully internalized by individuals who interpret Sinai from the perspective of creation:

     God, may His mention be exalted, wished us to be perfected and the state of our societies to be improved by His laws regarding actions. Now this can come about only after the adoption of intellectual beliefs, the first of which being His apprehension, may He be exalted, according to our capacity. This, in its turn, cannot come about except through Divine science, and this Divine science cannot become actual except after a study of natural science. This is so since natural science borders on Divine science, and its study precedes that of Divine science in time as has been made clear to whoever has engaged in speculation on these matters. Hence God, may He be exalted, caused His book to open with the “Account of the Beginning,” which as we have made clear, is natural science.

Hartman, D. (2009). Maimonides: Torah and Philosophic Quest (See all Torah Books) .

     Henry II was among England’s most remarkable kings, forceful and brilliant. But he is best known for his quarrel with close friend Thomas Becket. Becket was born in London in 1118. His father was a Crusader, his mother a princess. He was Henry’s equal in appearance—handsome, tall, commanding, affable, athletic, and alert. Henry appointed Becket, 37, chancellor of England, the highest civil post in the land, and for seven years Becket lived in splendor, traveled in style, and ruled in power. He became de facto king, Henry’s closest ally.

     In 1162 Henry wanted to appoint Thomas as archbishop of Canterbury. Becket warned him he would lose a friend, but Henry nonetheless made him head of England’s church. The change in Becket was immediate. He traded his splendid clothes for rags and wandered through his cloisters shedding tears for past sins. He whipped himself, read the Bible, and spent hours in prayer. And to Henry’s horror, Becket endlessly sided with church against crown. The frantic king finally banished him from the country.

     On December 1, 1170 Becket returned, electrifying all England. Henry, foaming with rage, shouted, “By the eyes of God, is there none of my cowardly courtiers who will deliver me from this turbulent priest?” Four knights took up the challenge, and on December 29 they fell on Becket during evening vespers. “In the name of Christ and for the defense of his church, I am ready to die,” Becket uttered as the blows fell. “Lord, receive my spirit.” The attackers slashed at his head, spilling his blood and brains on the floor. A violent thunderstorm broke over the cathedral.

     The Christian world reeled with horror, and Henry saw the tide turn against him. Walking through Canterbury’s streets with bleeding feet, he entered the cathedral, kissed the spot where Becket had died, and placed his head and shoulders on Becket’s tomb. There he was flogged by the priests. But the rest of his days were calamitous, and he died broken in spirit, cursing his life.

     Controlling your temper is better than being a hero Who captures a city. We make our own decisions, But the LORD alone determines what happens.
--- Proverbs 16:32,33.

Morgan, R. J. On This Day 365 Amazing And Inspiring Stories About Saints, Martyrs And Heroes

     “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah … has triumphed.…” Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain. --- Revelation 5:5–6.

     As there is such an admirable meeting of diverse virtues in Christ, so there is everything in him to render him worthy of your love and choice and to win and engage it. (The Works of President Edwards: Treatise Concerning Religious Affections. Justification by Faith Alone. Pressing Into the Kingdom of God. Ruth's ... of Sinners. the Excellency of Jesus Christ) Whatever there is or can be desirable in a friend is in Christ and that to the highest degree that can be desired.

     Would you choose for a friend a person of great dignity? [People like] to have those for their friends who are much above them, because they look on themselves honored by the friendship of such. Christ is infinitely above you and above all the princes of the earth, for he is the King of Kings. So honorable a person as this offers himself to you in the nearest and dearest friendship.

     And would you choose to have a friend not only great but good? In Christ infinite greatness and infinite goodness meet together and receive luster and glory from one another. His greatness is rendered lovely by his goodness. And how glorious is the sight, to see him who is the great Creator and supreme Lord of heaven and earth, full of condescension, tender pity, and mercy toward the degraded and unworthy! His almighty power and infinite majesty and self-sufficiency render his great love and grace the more surprising. And his condescension and compassion endear his majesty, power, and dominion and render those attributes pleasant that would otherwise be only terrible.

     Would you choose not only that the infinite greatness and majesty of your friend would be tempered and sweetened with condescension and grace, but would you also desire to have your friend brought nearer to you? Would you choose a friend far above you and yet on a level with you too? Thus is Christ. Though he is the great God, yet he has brought himself down to be on a level with you, to become human as you are, that he might not only be your Lord but your brother and that he might be the more fit to be a companion for such a worm of the dust. This is one purpose of Christ’s taking on him human nature, that his people might have the advantage of more familiar dealings with him than the infinite distance of the divine nature would allow. One design of God in the gospel is to bring us to make God the object of our undivided respect, that he may engross our regard every way, that whatever natural inclination there is in our souls, he may be the center of it, that God may be all in all.
--- Jonathan Edwards

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers

THURSDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT
YEAR 2

Psalms (Morning) Psalm 18:1–19
Psalms (Evening) Psalm 18:20–50
Old Testament Amos 4:6–13
New Testament 2 Peter 3:11–18
Gospel Matthew 21:33–46

Index of Readings

PSALMS (MORNING)
Psalm 18:1–19

1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.
2 The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
so I shall be saved from my enemies.

4 The cords of death encompassed me;
the torrents of perdition assailed me;
5 the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.

6 In my distress I called upon the LORD;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.

7 Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
8 Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
9 He bowed the heavens, and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
10 He rode on a cherub, and flew;
he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.
11 He made darkness his covering around him,
his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
12 Out of the brightness before him
there broke through his clouds
hailstones and coals of fire.
13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice.
14 And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.
15 Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare
at your rebuke, O LORD,
at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

16 He reached down from on high, he took me;
he drew me out of mighty waters.
17 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me;
for they were too mighty for me.
18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity;
but the LORD was my support.
19 He brought me out into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

PSALMS (EVENING)
Psalm 18:20–50

20 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
21 For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
22 For all his ordinances were before me,
and his statutes I did not put away from me.
23 I was blameless before him,
and I kept myself from guilt.
24 Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

25 With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
26 with the pure you show yourself pure;
and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
27 For you deliver a humble people,
but the haughty eyes you bring down.
28 It is you who light my lamp;
the LORD, my God, lights up my darkness.
29 By you I can crush a troop,
and by my God I can leap over a wall.
30 This God—his way is perfect;
the promise of the LORD proves true;
he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

31 For who is God except the LORD?
And who is a rock besides our God?—
32 the God who girded me with strength,
and made my way safe.
33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer,
and set me secure on the heights.
34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand has supported me;
your help has made me great.
36 You gave me a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip.
37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
and did not turn back until they were consumed.
38 I struck them down, so that they were not able to rise;
they fell under my feet.
39 For you girded me with strength for the battle;
you made my assailants sink under me.
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and those who hated me I destroyed.
41 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them;
they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
42 I beat them fine, like dust before the wind;
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

43 You delivered me from strife with the peoples;
you made me head of the nations;
people whom I had not known served me.
44 As soon as they heard of me they obeyed me;
foreigners came cringing to me.
45 Foreigners lost heart,
and came trembling out of their strongholds.

46 The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation,
47 the God who gave me vengeance
and subdued peoples under me;
48 who delivered me from my enemies;
indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries;
you delivered me from the violent.

49 For this I will extol you, O LORD, among the nations,
and sing praises to your name.
50 Great triumphs he gives to his king,
and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.

OLD TESTAMENT
Amos 4:6–13

6 I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,
says the LORD.

7 And I also withheld the rain from you
when there were still three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would be rained upon,
and the field on which it did not rain withered;
8 so two or three towns wandered to one town
to drink water, and were not satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,
says the LORD.

9 I struck you with blight and mildew;
I laid waste your gardens and your vineyards;
the locust devoured your fig trees and your olive trees;
yet you did not return to me,
says the LORD.

10 I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt;
I killed your young men with the sword;
I carried away your horses;
and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils;
yet you did not return to me,
says the LORD.

11 I overthrew some of you,
as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah,
and you were like a brand snatched from the fire;
yet you did not return to me,
says the LORD.

12 Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
because I will do this to you,
prepare to meet your God, O Israel!

13 For lo, the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind,
reveals his thoughts to mortals,
makes the morning darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!

NEW TESTAMENT
2 Peter 3:11–18

11 Since all these things are to be dissolved in this way, what sort of persons ought you to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness, 12 waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set ablaze and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire? 13 But, in accordance with his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home. 14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish; 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

GOSPEL
Matthew 21:33–46

33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. 44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

The Episcopal Church. Book of Common Prayer Lectionary