Stir up the wills of your faithful people, Lord God,
and open our ears to the preaching of John, that
rejoicing in your salvation, we may bring forth the fruits of repentance;
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19
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The Assigned Readings:
Numbers 16:1-19 (Monday)
Numbers 16:20-35 (Tuesday)
Micah 4:8-13 (Wednesday)
Isaiah 11:1-9 (All Days)
Hebrews 13:7-17 (Monday)
Acts 28:23-31 (Tuesday)
Luke 7:31-35 (Wednesday)
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But a shoot shall grow out of the stump of Jesse,
A twig shall sprout from his stock.
The spirit of the LORD shall alight upon him:
A spirit of wisdom and insight,
A spirit of counsel and valor,
A spirit of devotion and reverence for the LORD.
He shall sense the truth by his reverence for the LORD:
He shall not judge by what his eyes behold,
Nor decide by what his ears perceive.
Thus he shall judge the poor with equity
And decide with justice for the lowly of the land.
He shall strike down a land with the rod of his mouth
And slay the wicked with the breath of his lips.
Justice shall be the girdle of his loins,
And faithfulness the girdle of his waist.
The wolf shall lay down with the lamb,
The leopard lie down with the kid;
The calf, the beast of prey, and the fatling together,
With a little boy to herd them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
Their young shall lie down together;
And the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw.
A babe shall play
Over a viper’s hole,
And an infant pass his hand
Over an adder’s den.
In all of My sacred mount
Nothing evil or vile shall be done;
For the land shall be filled with devotion to the LORD
As water covers the sea.
–Isaiah 11:1-9, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
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In the Torah Moses was God’s choice to lead the Hebrews for many years. To oppose Moses, therefore, was to sin, according to that extended narrative, as it has come down to us in its final form. Disobedience to the principles of the Law of Moses, according to the theology of subsequent biblical books, led to the destruction of two Hebrews kingdoms. Yet, texts indicated, restoration and good times would follow the Babylonian Exile.
The theology of obeying religious leaders, which occurs in Hebrews 13, meshes well with the composite pericope from Numbers 16. The historical context of Christian calls to obey approved religious leaders, present in the Bible as well as in early Christian writings from subsequent centuries, occurred in the context of doctrinal formation. Doctrines did not fall from Heaven or appear magically, fully formed. No, human beings debated them and sometimes even fought (literally) over them. Orthodoxy, as approved church leaders have defined it, has changed over time. For example, Origen (185-254 C.E.) was orthodox by most of the standards of his time. Yet he became a heretic ex post facto and postmortem because the FirstCouncil of Nicaea (325 C.E.) contradicted elements of his Trinitarian theology.
Throughout the Christian past orthodox leaders have disagreed with each other and with those they have labeled heretics (often accurately) in real time. This raises a legitimate question: Whom is one supposed to regard as authoritative. This is an old problem. The ultimate answer has ways been God, but even heretics have tended to agree with that answer. Early Christianity was quite diverse–more so than historians of Christianity understood for centuries. How was one supposed to avoid following a false teacher? St. Paul the Apostle understood the answer as being to listen to him and his associates. Apostolic succession was another way of establishing orthodox credentials. There were always critics of orthodox leaders (who were no less imperfect than heretics), as there had been of Jesus and St. John the Baptist before them.
The question of who speaks for God remains a difficult one much of the time. I think, for example, that I am generally on the right path theologically, but I know people who disagree with that opinion strongly. My best answer to the difficult question is to evaluate people and their messages according to certain criteria, such as the following:
Do they teach and practice love of others, focusing on the building up of community without sacrificing the individual to the collective?
Do they teach and practice respecting the image of God in their fellow human beings, even while allowing for the reality of difficult moral quandaries relative to that issue?
Do they focus on the lived example of Jesus, leading people to God via him, instead of focusing on any human personality, especially that of a living person?
Do they teach and practice compassion, as opposed to legalism?
Salvation, which is for both the community and the individual, is a matter of God’s grace and human obedience. That grace demands much of its recipients. Go, take up your cross and follow Jesus, it says. Share your blessings and take risks for the glory of God and the benefit of others, it requires. Fortunately, it does not command that I have an answer for the question of whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son or just from the Father.
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
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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
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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)
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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)
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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
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
Isaiah 34 tells the destruction of Edom, a traditional foe of Judah. Then, in Isaiah 35, we read of the return of exiles from Judah. There is bad news for some, but it is good news for others.
The reading from Revelation contains part of a vision in progress. To read the chapter in isolation is to miss what precedes and succeeds it. The Lamb (Jesus), worthy to break the seals on the scroll, does so. War, pestilence, and death dominate much of the world. The martyrs wonder when God will avenge their deaths. And nature itself seems to come apart.
The imagery, which is disturbing, draws heavily from the Hebrew Scriptures and recent (for the initial audience) events. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius might have informed the chapter, for example. And pestilence and death were contemporary in the Roman Empire. Revolutions erupted in Roman Palestine from time to time, so violence was a recent memory.
How do we interpret disturbing recent events? Often we seek to see divine wrath in them. Sometimes we are correct; at other times we are imagining things or adding two and two, arriving at the sum of five. Yet some timeless lessons persist. Among them are:
God is in charge, and
Perpetual disobedience to God will not go unpunished.
Especially violent imagery might appeal most to those experiencing oppression, for such imagery tells them that God will avenge them. That analysis applies to the readings from Isaiah and Revelation. Yet there is more. All we need to do to find it is to continue reading. May we do so.
