Above: The Triumph of Joseph in Egypt, by Antonio del Castillo y Saavedra
Image in the Public Domain
Serfdom and Liberation
DECEMBER 21, 2021
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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 binds us,
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
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The Assigned Readings:
Genesis 30:1-24
Psalm 113
Romans 8:18-30
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Who is like the LORD our God, who sits enthroned on high,
but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?
He takes up the weak out of the dust
and lifts up the poor from the ashes.
He sets them with the princes,
with the princes of his people.
He makes the woman of a childless house
to be a joyful mother of children.
–Psalm 113:5-8, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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This is the second consecutive post partially based on an account of God granting the wife of a Hebrew patriarch a pregnancy. This time Jacob and Rachel have Joseph, a central figure (for better and worse) of the latter part of the Book of Genesis. Joseph, whose story illustrates that God can use human perfidious plans for positive purposes, did reduce the Egyptian population to serfdom as the price of feeding them (Genesis 47:13-27). That was negative.
In contrast liberation via God to “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21, The New Revised Standard Version, 1989) occupies the mind of St. Paul the Apostle in the pericope from the New Testament. There is hope amid suffering, we read, and
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. And those whom he predestined he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
–Romans 8:28-30, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
That is freedom to become what one can be via divine grace and human obedience. No, that is not serfdom; it is liberation.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 21, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN ATHELSTAN LAURIE RILEY, ANGLICAN ECUMENIST, HYMN WRITER, 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
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:
1 Samuel 1:1-18 (Monday)
1 Samuel 1:19-28 (Tuesday)
1 Samuel 2:1-10 (Wednesday)
Luke 1:46b-55 (All Days)
Hebrews 9:1-14 (Monday)
Hebrews 8:1-13 (Tuesday)
Mark 11:1-11 (Wednesday)
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My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel,
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
The promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory be 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.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 119
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Stories of and set in the context of angelic annunciations of conception and birth are, of course, appropriate for the days leading up to December 25. In the previous post I dealt with the story of Samson. These three days we have Hannah (mother of Samuel) and St. Mary of Nazareth (Mother of God). To read Hannah’s song (1 Samuel 2:1-10) now is appropriate, for it was the model for the Magnificat.
This is a time to celebrate new life. I mean that on more than one level. There is, of course, the birth of Jesus. Then there is the new spiritual life–both communal and individual–available via Christ. As we celebrate this joyous time of year–one fraught with grief for many people also–may we, considering the assigned readings from Mark and Hebrews, consider why a birth occurred. The pericope from Mark tells of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. The readings from the Letter to the Hebrews, after much Greek philosophical language, culminate thusly:
For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!
–Hebrews 9:13-14, New Revised Standard Version (1989)
To the passage above I add that we must move along to the Resurrection, or else we will have Dead Jesus. I serve the living Messiah, not Dead Jesus. Christ’s Resurrection conquered evil plans, as the Classic Theory of the Atonement states correctly.
We find foreshadowing of the crucifixion in the words of Simeon to St. Mary:
…and a sword will pierce your soul too.
–Luke 2:35b, New Revised Standard Version (1989)
In a similar vein, one can sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” to the tune “Easter Hymn,” to which many people sing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today.” (The Methodist Hymnal/The Book of Hymns (1966) provides this option.) Advent and Christmas lead to the crucifixion and the Resurrection.
That is why the birth of Jesus occurred. Merry Christmas!
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
Above: David Brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem
Image in the Public Domain
Jesus and Uzzah
DECEMBER 21 and 22, 2023
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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
Joseph son of Jacob was a twit as a young man. His dreams fueled his out-of-control ego and enraged his (mostly older) brothers. Their reaction was unjustified, of course. Young Joseph did not realize that true greatness is located in service. This was a lesson which old Joseph also failed to learn, for he did reduce the vast majority of Egyptians to serfdom.
In contrast to the story of Joseph son of Jacob we have the genealogy of Jesus, son of St. Mary of Nazareth. A very different Joseph raised him. This Joseph did no harm to nobody so far as the Bible indicates. This Joseph spared the life of his betrothed, embroiled in a scandal, fled to Egypt with his family, and built a family life for the Son of God. And in this Joseph’s family history, the only named women were:
Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law by posing as a temple prostitute to become pregnant with the child he owed her according to levirate marriage. She got twins;
Rahab, a prostitute who saved the lives of Israelite spies; and
Ruth, a foreign woman who adopted her mother-in-law’s religion and seduced her mother-in-law’s kinsman, thereby securing her future and that of her mother-in-law.
Unnamed yet referenced was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah then of David. Their affair became the stuff of a major Bible story and a turning point in the history of the Kingdom of Israel. These four, though not as great as people measure greatness, were sufficiently notable to received such posthumous notice.
Through these women God worked great deeds despite their questionable sexual activities and reputations. Rahab was a prostitute, for example, and Tamar posed as one. At least two were seductresses and two were foreigners. All of them violated respectable social customs, and three of them receive positive press in the Bible. And none of them reduced a population to serfdom. All of them were preferable to Joseph son of Jacob.
May we help others–not harm them–and find the greatness which exists in service.
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
eager for its own fulfillment, it does not deceive;
it comes slowly, wait,
for it will come, without fail.
See how he flags, he whose soul is not at rights,
but the upright man will live by his faithfulness.
Psalm 126 (The Jerusalem Bible):
When Yahweh brought Zion’s captives home,
at first it seemed like a dream;
then our mouths filled with laughter
and our lips with song.
Even the pagan started talking
about the marvels Yahweh had done for us!
What marvels indeed he did for us,
and how over joyed we were!
Yahweh, bring all our captives back again
like torrents in the Negeb!
Those who went sowing in tears
now sing as they reap.
They went away, went away weeping,
carrying the seed;
they come back, come back singing,
carrying their sheaves.
Hebrews 10:35-11:1 (The Jerusalem Bible):
Be as confident now, then, since the reward is so great. You will need endurance to do God’s will and gain what he has promised.
Only a little while now, a very little while,
and the one that is coming will have come; he will not delay.
The righteous man will live by faith,
but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.
You and I are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faithful until our souls are saved.
Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.
John 20:24-29 (The Jerusalem Bible):
Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said,
We have seen the Lord,
he answered,
Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger in the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.
Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and among them.
Peace be with you,
he said. Then he spoke to Thomas,
Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.
Thomas replied,
My Lord and my God!
Jesus said to him:
You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.
The Collect:
Everliving God, who strengthened your apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in your Son’s resurrection: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in your sight; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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My father served as pastor of Cooks Union United Methodist Church, about eight miles outside Colquitt, Georgia, in Miller County, from June 1985 to June 1986. One Sunday morning during that year, a laywoman whose name I forget delivered a children’s sermon about St. Thomas. She held a small book about the Apostles. You, O reader, might have seen this book or even own a copy. It features color paintings of each of the main Apostles with a brief profile on the facing page. The book is thin, with a two-tone hard cover. The church member explained that Thomas had doubted the resurrection of Jesus and that he had later taken the Gospel to India, where he died for the Christian faith. So, she said, Thomas was not all bad.
But Thomas not all bad, anyway. The presumption behind her concluding statement was that the Apostle’s doubt constituted a great stain on his character. This was a great misunderstanding.
Let us back up for a few moments, though.
St. Thomas was a twin, hence the Greek designation Didymus, which means “twin.” The canonical Gospels contain few details about him, and he did not write the Gnostic, non-canonical Gospel of Thomas. (I have read the Gospel of Thomas in three translations, and think that its non-canonical status is proper.) St. Thomas traveled through Persia all the way to India, where he introduced Christianity to the subcontinent by the 50s C.E. The modern-day Mar Thoma Church is the heir of this efforts. In India the Apostle met his martyrdom by spearing at Madras; Mylapore is his burial site. Today one can visit his tomb at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Thomas at Mylapore.
St. Thomas was a healthy skeptic. The resurrection was hardly a frequent event, so doubting it was natural. The Apostle was not the only follower of Jesus at the time to harbor doubts. The canonical Gospels indicate that St. Peter was initially skeptical, too. Yet I hear about Doubting Thomases, not Doubting Peters. Anyway, St. Thomas, the healthy skeptic, believed the evidence when he saw it, and dedicated the rest of his life to telling people about Jesus.
I am sufficiently a product of the Enlightenment to accept the premise that doubt is a legitimate path to knowledge. I ask questions when I harbor doubts, and I seek answers when I ask questions. Thus I increase the probability of finding answers when I experience and embrace doubt. Thomas admitted his doubt, received his answer, accepted it, and lived accordingly.
So, let us treat the label “Doubting Thomas” as a great compliment.
Finally, a personal note: St. Thomas is my favorite Biblical figure. He was an honest doubter and seeker, a good skeptic. So am I. If I were a Biblical character, I would be St. Thomas the Apostle.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 10, 2010
THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.), 1983
THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA, 1925
THE FEAST OF SAINT EPHREM OF EDESSA, ROMAN CATHOLIC DEACON AND HYMN WRITER
Isaiah 42 opens with a familiar Servant Song, a text many Christian interpreters have applied to Jesus. But read the rest of the chapter. The servant is the exiled nation of Judah. It is blind and deaf to God. It deserves punishment, which it has received. And God is preparing to vindicate the servant. This was good news for the exiles yet bad news for the Babylonian leadership.
Empire is of the essence in this day’s readings. The empire is Babylon in Isaiah 42 and Rome in Revelation 9. John of Patmos personifies the Roman Empire as a swarm of satanic destructive locusts. God would vindicate his servants, the sealed ones, according to Revelation 8. But as for the rest….
The victory will be God’s, not ours. The vindication will be ours. May we trust God and leave the battles in divine hands.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 3, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF EDWARD CASWALL, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF EDWARD PERRONET, BRITISH METHODIST PREACHER
THE FEAST OF SAINT GENEVIEVE, PROPHET
THE FEAST OF GLADYS AYLWARD, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY TO CHINA
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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