Week of 3 Epiphany: Thursday, Year 1

Above:  Bronze Oil Lamp

Image Source = Rama

May Love and Encouragement Be Your Lamp Oils

JANUARY 26, 2023

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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Hebrews 10:19-25 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see Day drawing near.

Psalm 24:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it,

the world and all who dwell therein.

2 For it is he who founded it upon the seas

and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep.

3 “Who can ascend to the hill of the LORD?

and who can stand in his holy place?”

4 “Those who have clean hands and a pure heart,

who have not pledged themselves to falsehood,

nor sworn by what is a fraud.

5 They shall receive a blessing from the LORD

and a just reward from the God of their salvation.”

6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,

of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Mark 4:21-25 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

And he said to them,

Is a lamp brought in to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not on a stand?  For there is nothing hidden, except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret, except to come to light.  If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.

And he said to them,

Take heed what you hear; the measure you get will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.  For to him who has will more be given; and from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

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The Collect:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Our English word “anger” (as a noun) dates to the 13th Century C.E.  It descends from angr, an Old Norse word meaning “distress, grief, affliction.”  This makes much sense.   Grief and a sense of injustice informs our anger, does it not?  It is also true that many actions we commit out of anger perpetuate injustice and cause others grief.  So the cycle continues, and one grievance feeds another.

This is not healthy.

Instead, I recommend following the advice from Hebrews 10:  “…let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works….”   What would society look like if more of us rejected all the advice to live off our resentments and fears, and put away anger as a perpetual motivating source?  Talk radio would have to change, for fear mongers would have lower ratings.  Alleged cable news channels would have to change their programming for the same reason.  There would be less shouting filling the airwaves.  This all sounds very appealing to me.

May I share a nugget of wisdom I have learned from living?  Okay, here it is:  Anger can prove to be a helpful motivating factor in the short term.  It is, however, corrosive after that.  Anger helped keep me going for four months in 2007, during a time of persecution by an agent of the State of Georgia.  Surrender would have been an effective short-term fix, but I refused to give into that so-and-so.  I was not going to make his job any less difficult.  I learned, however, that I needed to abandon that anger after it had done its job.

Today I have a low threshold for anger tolerance.  Anger disturbs me, especially when I find it within myself.  I do not want to consume any media source or spend much time around anyone filled with anger.  I have had my fill.

Still, much of the multimedia world is replete with people who have lived and profited financially off anger for years and decades.  I don’t know that they would do if they had to air positive programming.  And I presume that large proportions of their audiences are angry, too.

There is too much anger in the world.  There will be will be less of it when more of us devote ourselves to stirring each other to love and good works, encouraging one another in this direction.  This I strive to do.  May you do likewise, or continue to do so.  I pray that this will be one of your lamps on a stand as you go through life.

And may the peace of God be with you always.

KRT

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/may-love-and-encouragement-be-your-lamp-oils/

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