1 Peter 2:9-10

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Reflection:

This passage speaks of the formation not only of the individual, but also of a people. The calling to follow Christ is for all who are to be God’s special possession, living and doing His will, a people who are to advance His work and deeds. We are to be ambassadors of the Creator of all things who brought us into His wonderful light and mercy, striving to live and share this undeniable truth that invaded and rescued our lives while we were still in darkness wasting away.

Response:

As a church, we thank and praise God for His mercy and live to respond affirmatively to His calling. We can joyfully announce the mercy of God with confidence to those who are still not living in the wonderful light of Christ. Nothing greater in the world can even come close to this mercy He freely gives and the forgiveness we have received. Let’s pray that our churches, missional groups and campus fellowships would continue to become a people who powerfully share the reality of His light and mercy with others.

Rebecca Boehling, professor of history and director of the Dresher Center for the Humanities, will appear on WYPR’s Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast on Friday, December 16 at approximately 9:15 a.m.  The subject of the discussion will be Boehling’s recent book, Life and Loss in the Shadow of the Holocaust.

The broadcast can be heard live here, or after the show here.

“Paul Schurick’s recent conviction for voter fraud is a sad coda to the 2010 Martin O’Malley-Bob Ehrlich gubernatorial rematch,” writes UMBC political science professor Thomas Schaller in his latest Baltimore Sun column. Schaller notes that was saddens him most is a broader trend that Schurick’s actions exemplify: an increase in efforts to suppress U.S. voter turnout.

Schaller writes: “In the past year, 19 new laws and two executive orders were issued in 14 states to create stricter voter identification requirements.” Citing the Brennan Center for Justice, Schaller argues such restrictions “disproportionately disfranchise poorer and nonwhite voters, as well as senior citizens and college-age students” — populations that would be more likely to vote Democratic. Read the column for Schaller’s full argument.

Baltimore entrepreneur Greg Cangialosi ’96, English, has set his sights on helping new tech companies take off and fly.

The founder of Blue Sky Factory, a tech marketing firm Cangialosi founded in 2001 and sold this year, will team up with Sean Lane, chief executive of BTS Corp., a software company in Baltimore, the Baltimore Sun reports:

Their goal: Make small investments in several startups, germinate their own ideas, and help nurture the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

“We want to bring in bright people who are running companies, to help give them a shot in the arm,” Cangialosi said.

A former member of the UMBC Alumni Association Board of Directors, Cangialosi has stayed involved with UMBC, most recently acting as a judge in the university’s entrepreneurially-inspired “IDEA competition.”

Read the full Baltimore Sun story here.