According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
The kings in Isaiah 7:10-17 were Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah. Immediately–in context–God was with Judah and the leadership of that kingdom during the Syro-Ephraimite War. The conception of the future King Hezekiah to an almah (young woman) was the sign of this.
YHWH is the King of Glory in Psalm 24.
Jesus was the king in Romans 1:1-7. The death and resurrection of Christ revealed in yet another way that he was the Son of God. (May we avoid the heresy of Adoptionism.)
Herod the Great was a client king of the Roman Empire. To accuse Herod of being mean was to understate reality. The man ordered the deaths of relatives and strangers alike.
Therefore, I, as a historian, attest that the story of the Massacre of the Innocents is plausible. It is consistent with the character of Herod the Great.
Matthew 1:18 quotes and reapplies Jeremiah 31:15, a text about Israel, personified as Rachel, weeping for her lost children, exiles during the Babylonian Exile. Jeremiah 31:16 predicts the return of the exiles, though. There is hope, even if it is deferred sometimes.
That must have been cold comfort to grieving parents, though.
As we approach the twelve days of Christmas, may all of us cling to hope. That hope may seem like cold comfort, especially if we grieve the absence of someone who has died or has not been able to attend for another reason. I need encouragement to cling to hope as much as the next grieving person; I know the feeling of more than one “blue Christmas.” Yet hope abides.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 8, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT THORFINN OF HAMAR, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF A. J. MUSTE, DUTCH-AMERICAN MINISTER, LABOR ACTIVIST, AND PACIFIST
THE FEAST OF ARCANGELO CORELLI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF NICOLAUS COPERNICUS AND GALILEO GALILEI, SCIENTISTS
THE FEAST OF HARRIET BEDELL, EPISCOPAL DEACONESS AND MISSIONARY
THE FEAST OF SAINT PEPIN OF LANDEN, SAINT ITTA OF METZ, THEIR RELATIONS, AND SAINTS AMAND, AUSTREGISILUS, AND SULPICIUS II OF BOURGES, FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS ACROSS GENERATIONAL LINES
Ahaz, King of Judah (reigned 743/735-727/715 B.C.E.) was hardly a pious monotheist. In fact, he practiced idolatry openly. 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28 gave him scathing reviews. Ahaz, confronted with an alliance of Israel and Aram against him, chose to rely on Assyria, not God. That was a really bad decision. Nevertheless, God sent a sign of deliverance; a young woman of the royal court would have a baby boy. God would not only protect Judah but judge it also.
Surely God is our salvation, but how often do we take the easy way out and not trust in God? When God arrives in the form of a helpless infant, as in Matthew 1, one might not recognize the divine presence. What we expect to see might prevent us from seeing what is in front of us for what it is. God approaches us in many guises, many of them unexpected.
At first reading Romans 1:4 might seem surprising, perhaps even similar to the Adoptionist heresy.
…and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord….
—The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
One might think of John 1:1-18, which declares that the Son is co-eternal with the Father. One might also ponder the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:32-34) as well as the preceding testimony of St. John the Baptist in each Gospel. One might even recall the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2-8; Matthew 17:1-13; Luke 9:28-36).
The proclamation mentioned in Romans 1:4 need not contradict those other proclamations. No, one should interpret it as a subsequent proclamation that Jesus was the Son of God. One should notice the theological context in Romans 1: Easter as the beginning and foretaste of the prophesied age of divine rule on Earth.
“Kingdom of God” has more than one meaning in the New Testament. Usually, though, it indicates divine rule on Earth. This kingdom is evident in the ministry of Jesus in the Gospels, written after the death of St. Paul the Apostle. The Kingdom of God is both present and future; it is here, yet not fully.
As we, being intellectually honest readers of scripture, acknowledge the existence of certain disagreements regarding the dawning of the age of God, according to St. Paul and the authors of the canonical Gospels, may we also never cease to trust in God, regardless of how much evil runs rampant and how much time has elapsed since the times of Jesus and St. Paul. God keeps a schedule we do not see.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 15, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT ZACHARY OF ROME, POPE
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JAN ADALBERT BALICKI AND LADISLAUS FINDYSZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN POLAND
THE FEAST OF OZORA STEARNS DAVIS, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF VETHAPPAN SOLOMON, APOSTLE TO THE NICOBAR ISLANDS
The chronology of the Book of Daniel is frankly a mess impossible to reconcile with the rest of the Bible and with ancient history. The Book of Daniel is a collection of folktales, not history, so one ought not to mistake it for a factually reliable source of knowledge of past events. Those folktales do contain much truth and wisdom, however. We ought to interpret the Book of Daniel based on what it is, not what it is not.
Our story from the Book of Daniel affirms the wisdom of trusting God. That is a strong thematic link to last Sunday’s readings, which are generally gloomier than the pericopes for this Sunday. In fact, much of what I would like to write, based on the assigned readings, would prove redundant, compared to what I have written in the previous post in this series. Ackerman crafted his lectionary that well and tightly.
I prefer, therefore, to focus on Matthew 23:13-26.
Those much-maligned scribes and Pharisees were not mustache-twirling villains. Yes, some of them had spiritual issues pertaining to power and the illusion of control. And yes, they collaborated with Roman authorities. But no, they were not mustache-twirling villains. They were, as Henry Irving Louttit, Jr., the retired Episcopal Bishop of Georgia, said, the good, church-going people of their time. Many–perhaps most–of them sought to honor God by keeping divine commandments, as they understood them. Yet they were, in the words of Christ, “blind fools.”
How many of us are “blind fools” and do not know it?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 29, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS BOSA OF YORK, JOHN OF BEVERLEY, WILFRID THE YOUNGER, AND ACCA OF HEXHAM, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS
THE FEAST OF SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN
THE FEAST OF TIMOTHY REES, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LLANDAFF
Timothy Matthew Slemmons, in creating his proposed Year D, has grouped stories of rebellion against God and cautions against opposing God together in Advent. It is a useful tactic, for, as much as one might know something, reminders prove helpful.
In Hebrews we read of the reality of apostasy (falling away from God) and the imperative of not doing so. It is a passage with which those whose theology precludes the possibility of apostasy must contend. I, as one raised a United Methodist and, as of a few years ago, converted to affirming Single Predestination, know much about the theology of free will in relation to salvation. On a lighter note, I also recall an old joke about Methodists: Not only do they believe in falling from grace, but they practice it often. (If one cannot be religious and have a well-developed sense of humor, one has a major problem.) Although I like Methodism in general (more so than certain regional variations of it), I cannot be intellectually honest and return to it, given Methodist theology regarding the denial of Single Predestination.
As Hebrews 6:19-20 tells us, the faithfulness of God is the anchor of our souls, and Jesus is a forerunner on our behalf. In John 3:22-38 we read of his forerunner, St. John the Baptist, who pointed to Jesus, not to himself. I have no doubt that
He must grow greater; I must become less.
–John 3:30, The Revised English Bible (1989),
words attributed to St. John the Baptist, are not historical. Neither do I doubt their theological truth. St. John the Baptist probably said something to the effect of that sentence, I argue. I also insist that those words apply to all of us in the human race. Jesus must grow greater; each of us must become less. To act according to the ethos of glorifying oneself might lead to short-term gain, but it also leads to negative consequences for oneself in the long term and for others in the short, medium, and long terms.
The call of God entails the spiritual vocation of humility, or, in simple terms, of being down to earth. The highest and chief end of man, the Westminster Catechisms teach us correctly, is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. To arrive at that point one must trust in and follow God, whom we ought not to forget or neglect at any time, but especially in December, in the immediate temporal proximity of the celebration of the birth of Jesus.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 22, 2016 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JACK LAYTON, CANADIAN ACTIVIST AND FEDERAL LEADER OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY
THE FEAST OF JOHN DRYDEN, ENGLISH PURITAN THEN ANGLICAN THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC POET, PLAYWRIGHT, AND TRANSLATOR
that we may receive you in joy and serve you always,
for you live and reign with the Father and
the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 20
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings:
Isaiah 66:7-11
Psalm 80:1-7
Luke 13:31-35
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Restore us, O God of hosts;
show us the light of your countenance,
and we shall be saved.
–Psalm 80:7, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The reading from Isaiah 66 exists in an immediate literary context. God does not need sacrifices, we read, but the system of sacrifices exists for human benefit. Some people make a mockery of sacrifices; God mocks them in return. No, God tends to the faithful and consoles Jerusalem. Once again, divine judgment and mercy coexist.
Jesus laments over Jerusalem in Luke 13:31-35. Many prophets have died unjustly there. Christ’s life was at risk during the lamentation.
Advent, the time of preparation for Christmas, is an appropriate occasion to recall the violence of the world into which Jesus came, in which he lived, and in which he died. Yes, the birth of Jesus is a cause for celebration, but even the Christmas season provides sobering moments. December 26 is the Feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. December 28 is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. And December 29 is the Feast of St. Thomas Becket, the “troublesome priest” and Archbishop of Canterbury whom agents of King Henry II killed at Canterbury Cathedral. We should be happy during Advent and Christmas, but we should also note the coexistence of divine light and the darkness of the world.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 20, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN BAJUS, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
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
Above: David Brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem
Image in the Public Domain
Jesus and Uzzah
DECEMBER 17 and 18, 2020
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Collect:
Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come.
With your abundant grace and might,
free us from the sin that would obstruct your mercy,
that willingly we may bear your redeeming love to all the world,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings:
2 Samuel 6:1-11 (Thursday)
2 Samuel 6:12-19 (Friday)
Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26 (Both Days)
Hebrews 1:1-4 (Thursday)
Hebrews 1:5-14 (Friday)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your love, O LORD, for ever will I sing;
from age to age my mouth will proclaim your faithfulness.
For I am persuaded that your love is established for ever;
you have set your faithfulness firmly in the heavens.
–Psalm 89:1-12, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
God, I am convinced, does not change, but human perceptions of God do. They have transformed, in fact. The Bible records some of those inconstant perceptions of the divine.
Consider, for example, the Ark of the Covenant, O reader. It was a tangible link to the intangible God. Unfortunate Uzzah, out of piety, reached out to steady the Ark, which oxen were causing to tip. He died. 2 Samuel 6:7 tells us that God was angry with Uzzah and struck him dead. That verse does not reflect my understanding of God.
Later in 2 Samuel 6 King David danced immodestly in public. Michal’s scorn was justified. The author of the text seemed to have a different opinion.
In contrast to the deity who allegedly struck Uzzah dead, we have a high Christological text in Hebrews 1:1-14. Jesus, the reflection of the divine glory, is greater than the angels, it says. Yet people touched Jesus and found healing, not death. He was God in the flesh (however that worked), among people, dining in homes, and weeping. Although the scriptures do not record any such incident, I think it likely that he had some deep belly laughs. In Jesus, my faith tells me, I see God.
Uzzah should have lived a few centuries later, for Jesus would have blessed him.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 27, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CAMPBELL AINGER, ENGLISH EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT AEDESIUS, PRIEST AND MISSIONARY; AND SAINT FRUDENTIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF AXUM AND ABUNA OF THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHEDO CHURCH
THE FEAST OF THE VICTIMS OF THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS
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
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
You must be logged in to post a comment.