Genesis 1:26f tells us that human beings bear the image of God. This is not a physical description. No, the meaning of of “image of God” is profound.
Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, a Jewish scholar of the Bible, tells us:
Whatever it means, though, it implies that humans are understood here to share in the divine in a way that a lion or cow does not….The paradox, inherent in the divine-human relationship, is that only humans have some element of the divine, and only humans would, by their very nature, aspier to the divine, yet God regularly communicates with them means of commands. Although made in the image of God, they remain subordinates. In biblical terms, that would not bother a camel or a dove. It would bother humans a great deal.
—Commentary on the Torah, with a New English Translation and the Hebrew Text (2001), 12
The commandment to do love to each other, especially the vulnerable and the marginalized, has long been a controversial order. That this has been and remains so speaks ill of people.
Dr. Robert D. Miller, II, a professor at The Catholic University of America, and a translator of The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011), adds more to a consideration to the image of God. The Hebrew word of “image” is tselem. It literally means “idol.”
When Genesis 1 says that humanity is the tselem of God, it’s saying if you want to relate to God, relate to your fellow man?
—Understanding the Old Testament–Course Guidebook (Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses, 2019), 9
Biblical authors from a wide span of time hit us over the head, so to speak, with this message. If we do not understand it yet, we must be either dense or willfully ignorant.
John 1 offers us the flip side of Genesis 1: The Second Person of the Trinity outwardly resembles us. Moreover, as one adds other parts of the New Testament, one gets into how Jesus, tempted yet without sin, can identify with us and help us better because of experiences as Jesus of Nazareth, in the flesh. The theology of the Incarnation, with Jesus being fully human and fully divine, is profound and mysterious. I know the history of Christian theology well enough to understand that Trinitarian heresies originated with attempts to explain the Trinity rationally. I prefer to relish the mystery of the Trinity.
We bear the intangible image of God. Jesus bore the physical image of human beings. We reach out for God, who reaches out to us. These are thoughts worthy of every day of the year, but especially during Advent and Christmas.
One of the great virtues of High Churchmanship is having a well-developed sense of sacred time. So, for example, the church calendars, with their cycles, tell us of salvation history. We focus on one part of the narrative at a time. Much of Protestantism, formed in rebellion against Medieval Roman Catholic excesses and errors, has thrown the proverbial baby out with the equally proverbial bath water, rejecting or minimizing improperly the sacred power of rituals and holy days.
Consider, O reader, the case of Christmas–not in the present tense, but through the late 1800s. Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas when they governed England in the 1650s. Their jure divino theology told them that since there was no biblical sanction for keeping Christmas, they ought not to do it–nor should anyone else. On the other hand, the jure divino theology of other Calvinists allowed for keeping Christmas. Jure divino was–and is–a matter of interpretation. Lutherans, Anglicans, and Moravians kept Christmas. Many Methodists on the U.S. frontier tried yet found that drunken revelry disrupted services. Despite this Methodist pro-Christmas opinion, many members of the Free Methodist denomination persisted in anti-Christmas sentiment. The holiday was too Roman Catholic, they said and existed without
the authority of God’s word.
Thus, as the December 19, 1888 issue of Free Methodist concluded,
We attach no holy significance to the day.
–Quoted in Leigh Eric Schmidt, Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), page 180. (The previous quote also comes from that magazine, quoted in the same book.)
Many Baptists also rejected the religious celebration of Christmas. An 1875 issue of Baptist Teacher, a publication for Sunday School educators, contained the following editorial:
We believe in Christmas–not as a holy day but as a holiday and so we join with our juveniles with utmost heartiness of festal celebration….Stripped as it ought to be, of all pretensions of religious sanctity and simply regarded as a social and domestic institution–an occasion of housewarming, and heart-warming and innocent festivity–we welcome its coming with a hearty “All Hail.”
–Quoted in Schmidt, Consumer Rites, pages 179 and 180
Presbyterians, with their Puritan heritage, resisted celebrating Christmas for a long time. In fact, some very strict Presbyterians still refuse to keep Christmas, citing their interpretation of jure divino theology. (I have found some of their writings online.) That attitude was more commonplace in the 1800s. The Presbyterian Church in the United States, the old Southern Presbyterian Church, passed the following resolution at its 1899 General Assembly:
There is no warrant for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holy days, but rather contrary (see Galatians iv.9-11; Colossians ii.16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the gospel in Jesus Christ.
–Page 430 of the Journal of the General Assembly, 1899 (I copied the text of the resolution verbatim from an original copy of the Journal.)
I agree with Leigh Eric Schmidt:
It is not hard to see in this radical Protestant perspective a religious source for the very secularization of the holiday that would eventually be so widely decried. With the often jostling secularism of the Christmas bazaar, Protestant rigorists simply got what they had long wished for–Christmas as one more market day, a profane time or work and trade.
–Consumer Rites, page 180
I affirm the power of rituals and church calendars. And I have no fear of keeping a Roman Catholic holy day and season. Thus I keep Advent (December 1-24) and Christmas (December 25-January 5). I hold off on wishing people
Merry Christmas
often until close to Christmas Eve, for I value the time of preparation. And I have no hostility or mere opposition to wishing anyone
Happy Holidays,
due to the concentrated holiday season in December. This is about succinctness and respect in my mind; I am not a culture warrior.
Yet I cannot help but notice with dismay the increasingly early start of the end-of-year shopping season. More retailers will open earlier on Thanksgiving Day this year. Many stores display Christmas decorations before Halloween. These are examples of worshiping at the high altar of the Almighty Dollar.
I refuse to participate in this. In fact, I have completed my Christmas shopping–such as it was–mostly at thrift stores. One problem with materialism is that it ignores a basic fact: If I acquire an item, I must put it somewhere. But what if I enjoy open space?
I encourage a different approach to the end of the year: drop out quietly (or never opt in) and keep nearly four weeks of Advent and all twelve days of Christmas. I invite you, O reader, to observe these holy seasons and to discover riches and treasures better than anything on sale on Black Friday.
Pax vobiscum!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 25, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SQUANTO, COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEING
THE FEAST OF JAMES OTIS SARGENT HUNTINGTON, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS
–Martin Luther; translated by William James Kirkpatrick
Yesterday I sang in my parish choir’s performance of the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah. We dropped “His yoke is easy and his burden is light,” culminating instead in the Hallelujah Chorus. The concert was glorious and spiritually edifying for many people.
There are still a few days of Advent left. So I encourage you, O reader, to observe them. Then, beginning sometime during the second half of December 24, begin to say
Merry Christmas!
and continue that practice through January 5, the twelfth and last day of Christmas. And I encourage you to remember that our Lord and Savior was born into a violent world, one in which men–some mentally disturbed, others just mean, and still others both mean and mentally disturbed–threatened and took the lives of innocents. Names, circumstances, empires, nation-states, and technology have changed, but the essential reality has remained constant, unfortunately.
The Hallelujah Chorus, quoting the Apocalypse of John, includes these words:
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
That is not true yet, obviously. But that fact does not relieve any of us of our responsibilities to respect the Image of God in others and to treat them accordingly. We must not try to evade the duty to be the face and appendages of Christ to those to whom God sends us and those whom God sends to us. We cannot save the world, but we can improve it. May we do so for the glory of God and the benefit of others.
May the peace of Christ, born as a vulnerable baby and executed as a criminal by a brutal imperial government, be with you now and always. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 17, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARIA STEWART, EDUCATOR
THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB, FOUNDER OF SAVE THE CHILDREN
THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER
The vision of Jerusalem in Isaiah 4 is that of a city purified from moral corruption, such as economic exploitation (3:13-15). The purified city, which the text describes in imagery reminiscent of the Exodus, will be a glorious place.
That is all very nice, but I become nervous when mere mortals become judges of purity. Then, in the worst cases, people undertake inquisitions, Donatism, and allegedly holy wars in the name of God. Less extreme cases also offend me greatly, for they violate the inclusive spirit of Acts 11:1-18. Besides, I fail the purity tests which other people design. I recall something which Philip Yancey wrote in a book. He attended a Bible college in the 1960s. That institution’s grooming standards for men would have excluded Jesus, as artists have depicted him traditionally. And there was no emphasis on social justice, such as civil rights.
So may we strive, by grace, to love our neighbors as ourselves and to respect the dignity of every human being. May we not be too afraid to act compassionately toward each other. May mere human decency be a hallmark of our behavior. And may we leave matters of purity to God.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 26, 2014 COMMON ERA
PROPER 25: THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
THE FEAST OF SAINT ALFRED THE GREAT, KING OF THE WEST SAXONS
THE FEAST OF SAINT CEDD, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF LONDON
THE FEAST OF DMITRY BORTNIANSKY, COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF PHILLIP NICOLAI, JOHANN HEERMANN, AND PAUL GERHARDT, HYMN WRITERS
The theme of restoration unites all these readings.
National restoration is one thread running through some of the lections. The Babylonian Exile will come. Before that Jerusalem will survive an Assyrian siege. But Jerusalem will fall one day. And restoration will follow. As Gordon Matties wrote in the introduction to Ezekiel in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (2003), God will deal with evil decisively, destroy the Temple and purify the land
polluted by Israel’s economic injustice, violence, and idolatry,
and only then
take residence again among the people. (page 1154)
Thus restoration will be to a condition better than the previous one. The strong arm of God will accomplish this. And such extravagant grace will impose certain responsibilities upon the redeemed; they are to be a light to the nations, living for God’s glory and the benefit of others, not their own selfish desires.
Speaking of the glory of God and the benefit of others…..
Healings in the Bible restored the healed to wholeness in society. The ritually unclean were pure again, the economically marginalized could cease from begging or avoid slavery, etc. Yet sometimes the community, which defined itself in opposition to the marginalized, disapproved of the healing of the marginalized. Who were they now that the marginalized person was in his right mind? Pure compassion disrupted the status quo ante. Such people should have heeded timeless advice (not yet written in these words at the time of the incident):
…keep yourselves in the love of God…..
–Jude 21a, The New Revised Standard Version
That advice merely rephrased an already ancient ethos. That advice owed much to the Law of Moses, with its myriad rules regarding compassion for members of one’s community. For how we think and treat those whom we can see indicates much about how we think of and behave toward God. Those around us are the least of our Lord and Savior’s brothers and sisters; as we treat them, we do to him.
Those are challenging words, for we humans tend to like to think of ourselves as good people who do good things, especially when we are plotting or committing bad deeds. A villain probably does not see a villain when he or she looks into a mirror. Yet reality remains unchanged by human delusions.
Advent is about preparing for God to act. When God acts God might overturn our apple cart and/or neutralize the pattern according to which we define ourselves. Yes, grace can prove very upsetting and disturbing sometimes. Every time it does so, that fact speaks ill of those who take offense, does it not?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 3, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF HENRY THOMAS SMART, ENGLISH ORGANIST AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF ELIZABETH FERRARD, ANGLICAN DEACONESS
THE FEAST OF SAINT ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, QUEEN
THE FEAST OF JOHN CENNICK, BRITISH MORAVIAN EVANGELIST AND HYMN WRITER
Advent receives inadequate attention. The season is certainly not commercial. Indeed, Christmas receives much commercial attention even before Halloween, for retailers need the money from Christmas-related sales to sustain stores through other times of the year. I admit to being of two minds. On one hand I do my rather limited Christmas shopping at thrift stores, so my deeds reveal my creed. Yet I know that many jobs depend on Christmas-related sales, so I want retailers to do well at the end of the year. Nevertheless, I am not very materialistic at heart; the best part of Christmas is intangible. And nobody needs any more dust catchers.
Observing Advent is a positive way of dropping out of the madness that is pre-December 25 commercialism. The four Sundays and other days (December 2-24 in 2012) preceding Christmas Day are a time of spiritual preparation, not unlike Lent, which precedes Easter. Garrison Keillor used the term “Advent Distress Disorder” (ADD) in a monologue last year. Indeed, finding positive news in the midst of apocalyptic tones of Advent readings can prove difficult. Yet the good news remains and the light shines brightest in the darkness.
So, O reader, I invite you to observe a holy Advent. Embrace the confluence of joy and distress, of darkness and light. And give Advent all the time it warrants through December 24. Christmas will arrive on schedule and last for twelve days. But that is another topic….
Pax vobiscum!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 6, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM TEMPLE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF TE WHITI O RONGOMAI, MAORI PROPHET
THE FEAST OF SAINT THEOPHANE VERNARD, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, MISSIONARY, AND MARTYR IN VIETNAM
On that day this must be the message to Jerusalem:
Fear not, Zion, let not your hands hang limp.
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a warrior who will keep you safe.
He will rejoice over you and be glad;
he will show you his love once more;
he will exult over you with a shout of joy
as on a festal day.
I shall take away your cries of woe
and you will no longer endure reproach.
When that time comes;
I shall deal with all who oppress you;
I shall rescue the lost and gather the dispersed.
I shall win for my people praise and renown
throughout the whole world.
When that time comes I shall gather you
and bring you home.
I shall win you renown and praise
among all the peoples of the earth,
when I restore your fortunes before your eyes.
It is the LORD who speaks.
Canticle 9, from The Book of Common Prayer, page 86:
(Isaiah 12:2-6)
Surely, it is God who saves me;
I will trust in him and not be afraid.
For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense,
and he will be my Savior.
Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing
from the springs of salvation.
On that day you shall say,
Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name;
Make his deeds known among the peoples;
see that they remember that his Name is exalted.
Sing the praises of the Lord, for he has done great things,
and this is known in all the world.
Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy,
for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Philippians 4:4-7 (New Revised Standard Version):
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Luke 3:7-18 (New Revised Standard Version):
John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him,
You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
And the crowds asked him,
What then should we do?
In reply he said to them,
Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.
Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him,
Teacher, what should we do?
He said to them,
Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.
Soldiers also asked him,
And we, what should we do?
He said to them,
Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying,
I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
The Collect:
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
If anyone had a good reason to fear, an exile living in the territory of a foreign power infamous for its cruelty did. If anyone had a good reason to fear, someone living under foreign occupation did. If anyone had a good reason to fear, someone likely to suffer and perhaps die for merely being a Christian did. Yet the words of Zephaniah were comforting ones; a remnant would return one day. They did, thanks to God and the Persians. And Paul, who advised the Philippians not to worry, had suffered for his faith and became a martyr in time.
Sometimes, when we fear, we act foolishly, even cruelly, toward each other. We seek our self interests at the expense of others. We exploit each other and condone the exploitation others commit. We act as if the Golden Rule is
He who has the gold makes the rules.
All who act accordingly need to repent–to turn around, to change one’s mind.
The confidence of love is vastly superior to the uncertainty of fear and the perfidious deeds which flow from it. Yes, the world is dark and evil runs rampant. But God is doing a new thing; a great light is about to shine upon us. The world into which that light was born was one in which a tyrant killed innocents as part of an effort to murder one perceived threat. Light confronts darkness, so darkness cannot tolerate it. But, in the end, light scatters the darkness.
So may we, confident in God, act toward each other in love and compassion. It is what Jesus did.
We read in Isaiah 29 that there is deliverance from judgment sometimes. One of the poems seems to describe the deliverance of Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18-19). Yet the same city has faced destruction more than once since then.
Destruction was also on Jude’s mind. This time it was spiritual and personal doom for those who refused to trust God and obey divine commandments. This destruction could also be communal if the community did not remain faithful.
My sense of history prompts me to become uneasy with regard to those who would go to any extreme to rid the community of alleged heretics and false teachers. I recall reading and hearing of instances of heretics burned at the stake or tortured into recanting. Inquisitions are not Christlike. And those who disagree with us are not wrong because they disagree with us; we are not necessarily correct in all our opinions. Many of our standards of right and wrong are culturally-conditioned, so slavery in the Antebellum United States was acceptable in the theology of many professing Christians. That reality functioned as an indictment of such theologies.
There is one universal standard. That is love, as God has demonstrated it. New Testament authors wrote of the Law of Love, an idea they found in the Old Testament. Maintaining correct Christology, essential to Christianity, must occur in the context of living compassionately. We ought not proclaim the love of Christ with our words and belie it with our deeds. Part of avoiding rank hypocrisy is surrendering ourselves to the mystery that is God and leaving judgment there. May we do so.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 11, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF OCTAVIUS HADFIELD, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF WELLINGTON
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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