Morning Devotion for Epiphany
January 26, 2022
Titus and Timothy
The Invitatory
The Lord has shown forth his glory: Come let us adore him.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
Reading: Hebrews 9:15-28
For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, because a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions under the first covenant. Where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Hence not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been told to all the people by Moses in accordance with the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the scroll itself and all the people, saying, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that God has ordained for you.’ And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Thus it was necessary for the sketches of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Holy Place year after year with blood that is not his own; for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
Some time during the course of television history, advertisers adopted a “catchy” phrase to entice buyers to renew their purchases to products that had perhaps lost their attraction: “New and Improved.” Companies call a product "new and improved" when they've created a new version of something or made improvements to it. You will often see "New and Improved!" written on a product's package. It is now widely regarded with contempt for the utterly insulting nonsensical term it appears to be. That said, something can be new without being improved. And something can be improved without being new. A thing can also be both new and improved: it can be argued that Windows 7, say, was, when released, both a new version of Windows and an improvement over the old version (Vista). It was still, for all intents and purposes, a new version of Windows and an improved version of Windows. Vista was a new version of Windows that many people felt was not an improvement over Windows XP. New, but not improved. Therefore, the claim "new and improved" is neither a tautology nor an oxymoron. Because this phrase is associated with advertisements, you wouldn't call something "new and improved" in a conversation with your friends unless you were making a joke by pretending to be in a commercial.
The Letter to the Hebrews makes such a (partial) claim about the covenant. God declares he will make a new Covenant under which he will show mercy toward iniquity and offer forgiveness for sins. The letter suggests that the new covenant must also involve a sacrifice, the self-sacrifice that Christ made through his crucifixion. This is the new covenant. God’s saving work is related to the themes of promise and covenant. The promises made to Abraham establish God’s intentions for people, but neither Abraham nor the generations that followed received fulfillment of the promises in full. The promises point to realities that are future and heavenly.
Sin which involves unbelief and their consequences build a barrier to the fulfillment of God’s promises because sin separates people from God. Jesus serves as the sinless high priest who establishes a new covenant to cleanse the human conscience and bring people into a right relationship with God. The establishment of the new covenant fulfills the promise of mercy God made in Jeremiah and it serves as a harbinger of the fulfillment of God’s promises, including everlasting life in God’s kingdom. There is constancy in God’s promise of blessing but change in the covenants by which God overcomes the promise of human sin in order to bring his promises to their fulfillment. The fact that there is “a place for a second” covenant proves that the first was not “faultless.” New covenant, yes. Improved, what think you? As for me, the prospect of a forgiveness that wipes the slate clean for eternity is unbelievably generous, promising and freeing. It speaks of a wideness and depth of love that is unfathomable and for which my gratitude is deep. I am blessed beyond measure. Thanks be to God.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
