One can perceive divine wisdom only via God. Such wisdom, which is for the building up of community (faith and otherwise) and not of self at the expense of others, is frequently counter-cultural. We who claim to follow God should be careful to avoid the opposite fallacies of complete accommodation to social norms and of serial contrarian tendencies. Letting go of proper standards is at least as bad as distrusting everything “worldly,” much of which is positive or morally neutral.
The narrative pericopes from the Hebrew Bible for these days tell of God extending mercy to people via people. In one account the conduit is the prophet Elijah, who helps an impoverished widow of Zarephath. In the other story a captive Hebrew servant girl suggests that her Aramean master, Naaman, a military commander, visit the prophet Elisha for a cure for his skin disease. Naaman is surprised to learn that the remedy is to bathe in the humble River Jordan seven times. Divine help comes in unexpected forms sometimes. Having a receptive frame of mind–perhaps via divine wisdom–is crucial to recognizing God’s frequently surprising methods.
I have never had a miraculously refilling jar of flour or jug of oil, but I have known the considerably mundane and extravagant mercies of God in circumstances ranging from the happy to the traumatic. Either God’s mercies have been greater in proportion to my sometimes difficult circumstances or my perception was proportionately greater and divine mercies have been equally extravagant across time. Was the light bulb brighter or did I notice it more because the light outdoors became dimmer? I do not know, and perhaps the answer to that question does not matter. Recognizing divine mercy and wisdom then acting accordingly does matter, however.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 5, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF DAVID NITSCHMANN, SR., “FATHER NITSCHMANN,” MORAVIAN MISSIONARY; MELCHIOR NITSCHMANN, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND MARTYR; JOHANN NITSCHMANN, JR., MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; ANNA NITSCHMANN, MORAVIAN ELDRESS; AND DAVID NITSCHMANN, MISSIONARY AND FIRST BISHOP OF THE RENEWED MORAVIAN CHURCH
THE FEAST OF BRADFORD TORREY, U.S. ORNITHOLOGIST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK, NORTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR AND OPPONENT OF FUNDAMENTALISM
THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE UNITED REFORMED CHURCH, 1972
Everlasting God, you give strength to the weak and power to the faint.
Make us agents of your healing and wholeness,
that your good may be made known to the ends your creation,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 24
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The Assigned Readings:
Proverbs 12:10-21 (Thursday)
Job 36:1-23 (Friday)
Psalm 147:1-11, 20 (Both Days)
Galatians 5:2-15 (Thursday)
1 Corinthians 9:1-16 (Friday)
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He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
–Psalm 147:3, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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One important task to perform while reading and inwardly digesting the Book of Job is to remember who is speaking at a given point. Consider, O reader, Elihu. He was an original part of the poem, and he rehashed arguments of the three main alleged friends, who also blamed the victim. These four characters could not accept that the titular character had done nothing to deserve his circumstances of suffering. They were correct some of the time regarding aspects of their cases, but they proceeded from a false assumption.
One is repaid in kind for one’s sinful deeds.
–Proverbs 12:14b, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
Yet the Book of Job tells us that Job did not suffer because of any sin. No, the narrative tells us, God permitted the suffering as a test of loyalty.
Sometimes circumstances challenge our preconceptions and theological soundbites. May we recall that we are free in God to love God and to care for each other, not to win theological arguments. Alleged orthodoxy means far less than sound orthopraxy.
Here ends the lesson, O reader. Go forth to love your neighbor as yourself, bearing his or her burdens, weeping with those who weep, and rejoicing with those who rejoice. Be agents of divine grace to those to whom God sends you and whom God sends to you.
DECEMBER 1, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE SECOND DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF NICHOLAS FERRAR, ANGLICAN DEACON
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHARLES DE FOUCAULD, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT
THE FEAST OF SAINT EDMUND CAMPION, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
And sometimes one ought to act faithfully, not just be still faithfully. In the case of the Book of Ruth, for example, people were active, not passive. There was more going on than children’s Sunday School lessons (and even many, if not most, adult Sunday School lessons) admit, for that activity entailed seduction before love became a reality. As Jennifer Wright Knust writes in Unprotected Texts:
To the writer of Ruth, family can consist of an older woman and her beloved immigrant daughter-in-law, women can easily raise children on their own, and men can be seduced if it serves the interests of women.
–page 33
And, as Krust writes on page 35, the emotional bond and subsequent covenant between Ruth and Naomi helped both of them and Israel as a whole. I add that it has helped many subsequent generations all over the world due its role in the genealogy of Jesus.
Family–not in the sense of marriage or ancestry–unites the readings for these three days. The ethic of mutual responsibility (part of the Law of Moses) runs through the New Testament also. The more fortunate, who ought not to depend on their wealth in lieu of God, have responsibilities to the less fortunate. Philemon had responsibilities to Onesimus, who was not necessarily a slave or even a fugitive. (A very close reading of the text–one passage in particular–in the Greek raises serious questions about the traditional understanding).
This notion of mutual responsibility and the opinion of wealth one finds in Luke and James are profoundly counter-cultural in my North American setting, where rugged individualism and the quest for wealth are accepted values. Yet with mutual responsibility comes inderdependence. And the quest for enough wealth for one’s present and future needs, although laudable, becomes insatiable greed for some people. Such greed is socially destructive, denying others enough. There is always enough for everyone in God’s economy; scarcity is a feature of human, sinful economic systems.
May we, by grace, act faithfully and effectively to reduce such sinfulness where we are. And, if we have not fallen into greed, may we not do so. If we have, may we confess and repent of it.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 8, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT BRIDGET OF SWEDEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN
THE FEAST OF ERIK ROUTLEY, HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM DWIGHT PORTER BLISS, EPISCOPAL PRIEST; AND RICHARD THEODORE ELY, ECONOMIST
Liturgical time matters, for it sacramentalizes days, hours, and minutes, adding up to seasons on the church calendar. Among the frequently overlooked seasons is the Season after Epiphany, the first part of Ordinary Time. The Feast of the Epiphany always falls on January 6 in my tradition. And Ash Wednesday always falls forty days (excluding Sundays) before Easter Sunday. The Season after Epiphany falls between The Feast of the Epiphany and Ash Wednesday. In 2013 the season will span January 7-February 12.
This season ought to be a holy time, one in which to be especially mindful of the imperative to take the good news of Jesus of Nazareth to others by a variety of means, including words when necessary. Words are meaningless when our actions belie them, after all. Among the themes of this season is that the Gospel is for all people, not just those we define as insiders. No, the message is also for our “Gentiles,” those whom we define as outsiders. So, with that thought in mind, I encourage you, O reader, to exclude nobody. Do not define yourself as an insider to the detriment of others. If you follow this advice, you will have a proper Epiphany spirit.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 9, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARTIN CHEMNITZ, GERMAN LUTHERAN THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF BARTON STONE, COFOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST)
The readings for January 31 and February 1 make more sense together then spread across two days. That is my conclusion, at least.
“False prophets” is the unifying theme. In Zechariah the speak lies, console with illusions, and lead members of the flock astray. Thus God, angered, vows to punish these bad shepherds and provide proper leadership for the human flock. To continue the theme, we read that, in the Last Days,
There will be some difficult times. People will be self-centred and avaricious, boastful, arrogant, and rude, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious; heartless and intractable; they will be slanderers, profligates, savages, and enemies of everything that is good; they will be treacherous and reckless and demented by pride, prefering their own pleasure to God. They will keep up the outward appearance of religion but will have rejected the inner power of it.
–2 Timothy 3:1b-5a, The New Jerusalem Bible
(Human nature has at least been constant. The past, present, and future seem identical in this regard.) Anyhow, we read in 2 Timothy to follow the truth, accept sound teaching, and be on guard against harmful people.
We–beginning with the author of this post–must always be careful not to confuse disagreement with one (in my case, myself) as proof positive that the other person is a bad shepherd, a false prophet, a harmful individual. Maybe the other person is all those things, but perhaps he or she just has some different opinions. I am convinced, for example, that early Church leaders were correct to insist that Gnosticism constituted false doctrine. The main problem with Gnosticism is that it denies the Incarnation, without which there is no Christianity. That one was easy. Law and theology are easy at the extremes. But what about opinions regarding certain points of Calvinism, for example? Christians of good will can–and do–disagree strongly. And all follow Jesus.
Speaking of Calvinism, one aspect of it offers a nice and good way out of many disputes. John Calvin spoke and wrote of a category called “Matters Indifferent.” Anything in that category is optional. The Incarnation is vital, but whether one observes Christmas is a Matter Indifferent, for example. So, with Calvin’s category in mind and a well-honed sense of theological humility before us, may we avoid idolizing our own opinions. We might change them one day, after all. And we are imperfect.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 11, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY NEYROT, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
THE FEAST OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, ANGLICAN PRIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND
THE FEAST OF SAINT STANISLAUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF KRAKOW
Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada. I invite you to follow it with me.
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1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
When David’s time to die drew near, he charged Solomon his son, saying,
I am about to the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn; that the LORD may establish his word which he spoke concerning me, saying, “If your sons take heed of their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.”
…
Then David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. And the time that David reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years at Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. So Solomon sat upon the throne of David his father; and his kingdom was firmly established.
Psalm 132:10-19 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
10 For your servant David’s sake,
do not turn away the face of your Anointed.
11 The LORD has sworn an oath to David;
in truth, he will not break it:
12 “A son, the fruit of your body
will I set upon your throne.
13 If your children keep my covenant
and my testimonies that I shall teach them,
their children will sit upon your throne for evermore.”
14 For the LORD has chosen Zion;
he has desired her for his habitation:
15 “This shall be my resting-place for ever;
here will I dwell, for I delight in her.
16 I will surely bless her provisions,
and satisfy her poor with bread.
17 I will clothe her priests with salvation,
and her faithful people will rejoice and sing.
18 There will I make the horn of David flourish;
I have prepared a lamp for my Anointed.
19 As for his enemies, I will clothe them with shame;
but as for him, his crown will shine.”
Mark 6:7-13 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
And he called to him the Twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them,
Where you enter a house, stay there until you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet for a testimony against them.
So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.
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The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
We have come to the end of David’s story, according to 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, and 1 Kings. David gives happy, righteous advice in the portion from 1 Kings 2 the Canadian Anglican lectionary specifies. But open a Bible and read 1 Kings 2:5-9, in which the dying king advises Solomon to kill Joab, or as the Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition renders one line, “not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace” (6b). “Obey God,” David says, “and kill Joab very soon.” I do not feel better.
Anyhow, it is vital to understand the nature of 1 and 2 Kings. As Ziony Zevit wrote in the introduction to 1 Kings in The Jewish Study Bible,
Kings is not a history in the contemporary sense of the word, that is, a factual description of past events and an explanation for their occurence that a modern reader might expect. It is, in the main, an extended theological essay, written by a person of persons with passionately held beliefs, convinced that the destruction of the Northern Kingdom and the fall of the southern one were due to the misguided policies of their kings. The author described past events selectively, commenting or summarizing them as illustrations that he believed they taught.
The author maintained that the LORD, the God of history, made His will known to Israel with regard to specific key issues, that punishments are preceded by warnings through prophets, and that people are responsible for the consequences of their choices. He further maintained that kings were responsible for the fate of their people. For him, it was axiomatic that those ruling over the tribes of Israel were obligated to maintain the centrality of the Jerusalem Temple as the unique place where offerings acceptable to God might be made and to eliminate the illegitimate worship of any deity other than the LORD. The author’s composition demonstrated how all northern and most southern kings failed to follow their obligations and how all adversity, from minor disasters to the final catastrophe, followed as a consequence of this failure. (Page 669)
I side with the existence of authors, not a single author, by the way, but let us not quibble. Rather, may we focus on the main idea.
And what is the main idea? Thank you for asking. The main idea is that, according to 1 and 2 Kings, originally one book on two scrolls, Solomon laid the foundation for the division of the kingdom after his death and the downfall of each successor kingdom. We will get to details as the lectionary takes the grand tour of 1 Kings during the Weeks of 4 Epiphany and 5 Epiphany (at this weblog, obviously) and Propers 5, 6, and 7 (at ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS, to which I plan to return after updating this weblog for this church year then doing the same for LENTEN AND EASTER DEVOTIONS). There will also be a healthy sampling of major and minor prophets, an understanding of whose writings and dictations depends on a grasp of the books of Samuel and Kings.
The key aspect of 1 Kings 2 to remember is that the promise of God to fulfill the promise to David was conditional. The Davidic line would not end if members of it it governed properly. “If” is a very big word, despite consisting of only two letters.
There is an application for you, O reader, and for me today. God loves us always; nothing can change that. But an overly indulgent parent is a bad one, hence the necessity of proper discipline. We err, and we reap consequences of our actions, but God gives us another chance. What will we do with it? Also, our choices will affect others, for we are social creatures. So our decisions are not purely individual. What will we decide? Whatever it is, may it be wise.
I dwell on the social justice end of the Christian spectrum. My Lord and Savior has commanded me to love my neighbor as I love myself. This entails caring about my neighbors’ needs then acting, as I am able and circumstances present opportunities. It is no accident that the U.S. Civil Rights Movement was related closely to many churches in the Twentieth Century and Abolitionism to Christian work in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Morality consists of far more than being careful of what one does and with whom, although that is part of it. Moral living is inherently public, concerned with those Jesus called “the least of these.”
In the 1990s I read an interesting news story in an early 1980s issue of The Christian Century. Staffers of the denominational headquarters of the Church of Brethren, one of the historic peace churches, pooled the money they received from the Reagan tax cuts. They bought thirty pieces of silver and mailed them to the White House with a letter protesting increased military spending and decreased funding for social programs. They received a bland letter thanking them for their concern. At least they spoke up. Their example remains germane in the United States of June 2011, when I write these words.
The greatest failure of most of the kings of Israel and Judah was that they did not act in the best interests of their poor and vulnerable subjects. Instead, they sought dubious foreign alliances, some of which backfired terribly, wasted their money on foreign wars, and delivered the bill for all this to those who could least afford to pay. If this sounds contemporary and scary, it is.
Above: Esau Selling His Birthright, by Hendrick ter Bruggen, c. 1627
Missing Grace–Or Not
FEBRUARY 1, 2023
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Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada. I invite you to follow it with me.
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Hebrews 12:4-17 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
In your struggle against sin you have not resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortations which address you as sons?–
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor lose courage when you are punished by him.
For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time at their pleasure, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fail to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” spring up and cause trouble, and by it the many become defiled; that no one be immoral or irreligious like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
Psalm 103:1-2, 13-18 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
13 As a father cares for his children,
so does the LORD care for those who fear him.
14 For he himself knows whereof we are made;
he remembers that we are but dust.
15 Our days are like the grass;
we flourish like a flower in the field;
16 When the wind goes over it, it is gone,
and its place shall know it no more.
17 But the merciful goodness of the LORD endures for ever on those who fear him,
and his righteousness on children’s children;
18 On those who keep his covenant
and remember his commandments and do them.
Mark 6:1-6 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
He went away from there and came to his own country; and his disciples followed him. And on the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue; and many who heard him were astonished, saying,
Where did this man get all this? What is the wisdom given to him? What mighty works are wrought by his hands! Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?
And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to him,
A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
And he could not do mighty work there, except that he laid hands upon a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went about among the villages teaching.
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The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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The 1972 revised edition of the J. B. Phillips New Testament in Modern English states in Mark 6:6, “…their lack of faith astonished him.” In the Gospel According to Mark, Jesus has done astonishing deeds of late. He has exorcised a legion of demons, doomed a herd of swine, raised a girl from the dead, and healed a woman afflicted with a menstrual hemorrhage. Jesus has been welcome in most places, except the town where he cured the man with the legion. Jesus has astonished people, some of whom have rejected him because, not in spite of, what he has done. And now, in his hometown, Nazareth, Jesus encounters a lack of faith and works few miracles. Townspeople recognize who he his and what he has done, but they cannot reconcile the cognitive dissonance between knowing Jesus as a younger person and hearing about what he has been doing recently. And Jesus was the astonished person. He found their lack of faith astonishing.
A cliche states that “familiarity breeds contempt.” This is true much of the time, but I propose that we are often not as familiar with others as we think we are. Certainly, the denizens of Nazareth did not Jesus as well as they thought they did. And note the tone of hostility; they called him a “son of Mary,” not “of Joseph.” There were long-standing rumors of Jesus’ paternity, and I wonder how Joseph, Mary, and Jesus stood it all those years.
Hostile and faithless residents of Nazareth missed grace when grace stood in their midst. They saw it yet failed to recognize it. They were too busy clinging to whispered rumors and old memories.
Genesis 25:28-34 an 27:1-39 tells how Esau, who had sold his birthright for a meal, realized the depth of his error yet failed to reverse it. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews makes the plain point that Esau, who had put the needs of his body first, had thrown away a great promise. Later he sought an opportunity for repentance–literally, turning around or changing one’s mind–but he had to live with the consequences of his actions. He was not beyond forgiveness, but the toothpaste was already out of the tube. That was that. So Esau, by his own bad decision, missed some grace.
Each of us has missed some grace because of bad decisions. Yet we remain within the bounds of forgiveness, if we ask. We can learn from our mistakes and those of others. Furthermore, repentance remains an option in many circumstances. So let us focus on the positive, on the possibilities for living in grace. But this requires faith in God. The townspeople of Nazareth saw Jesus among them yet rejected him. I write nearly 20 centuries later, and I choose each day to continue to accept him. I hope that, in my familiarity with the Bible and other traditions of Christianity, I do not miss something essential. Maybe I do not know as much as I think I do. May God, by grace, help me to see more clearly.
I know for a fact that I see more clearly today than I did just a few years ago. The discipline in Hebrews is suffering. I have made some bad choices, mostly out of ignorance. I have been too trusting sometimes. In 2007, I faced potential legal ramifications (which did not come to pass) and suffered emotional and spiritual distress because of certain past associations. I learned immediately to be less trusting of some people. And I learned, through suffering, to be more patient with others, less judgmental toward others, more humble with regard to myself, and more trusting in God. Discipline accomplished its goal, and I am a better person for it, but I have no desire to repeat the process.
This discipline was simply the consequences of my actions, not God, like Zeus, throwing a thunderbolt in my direction. Actions have consequences, and they must play out. How we handle the situation determines whether we fall into the same category into which the author of Hebrews placed Esau. He spent the rest of his days weeping over his loss. May you and I gain more than we have lost and find discipline to be the beginning of a new, better start in Christ.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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