Psalm 1 might be overly optimistic, but it functions as a fine counterpoint to the other readings. Those readings address groups. Jeremiah spoke to the Kingdom of Judah. St. Paul the Apostle, addressing Jews in Antioch in Pisidia (in Asia Minor), spoke of the actions of religious authorities in Jerusalem. St. (Simon) Peter the Apostle or someone writing in his name addressed congregations in Asia Minor. Those three pericopes fit well together, for they diagnose societal problems. Hubris is the main ill in Jeremiah 13. From that pride flow other sins. Such a diagnosis fits the pericope from Acts 13 well, for hubris contributed to the execution of an innocent man. The readings from 1 Peter takes as its theme obedience to God.
Then away with all wickedness and deceit, hypocrisy and jealousy and malicious talk of any kind!
–1 Peter 2:1, The Revised English Bible (1989)
So much for a great deal of politics, talk radio, celebrity news, and Internet content!
The words of these days’ pericopes indict as strongly today as they did when they were fresh. Human nature has not changed over time. As Koheleth wrote,
Only that shall happen
Which has happened,
Only that occur
Which has occurred;
There is nothing new
Beneath the sun!
–Ecclesiastes 1:9, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
Time passes, technology changes, and political and economic systems come and go, but we are really playing out variations of old themes, are we not? Hubris remains current, malicious gossip has never ceased, and people in power continue to cause innocents to die.
May God have mercy on us all!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 14, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ALL CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES
THE FEAST OF SAMUEL ISAAC JOSEPH SCHERESCHEWSKY, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF SHANGHAI
THE FEAST OF THOMAS HANSEN KINGO, DANISH LUTHERAN BISHOP, HYMN WRITER, AND “POET OF EASTERTIDE”
and called the world from the rising of the sun to its setting.
Out of Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth;
our God comes and will not keep silence.
Consuming fire goes out before him
and a mighty tempest stirs about him.
He calls the heaven above,
and the earth, that he may judge his people:
“Gather to me my faithful,
who have sealed my covenant with sacrifice.”
Let the heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge.
–Psalm 50:1-6, The Book of Common Prayer (2004)
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The readings for these three days weave together two themes: the reality of God and the influence of holy people. Often these holy people were prophets of God; I point to Ahijah of Shiloh (1 Kings 11 and 14) and Jehu son of Hanani (1 Kings 16), who were instrumental in establishing and replacing monarchs. There were many others, such as St. Paul the Apostle (2 Corinthians 2), pseudo-Paul (1 Timothy 1), and Jesus himself (Luke 19). The messenger is crucial, as is the message. If someone refuses to deliver a message from God, another will accept the mission. The message will go forth.
To ponder divine mercy is pleasant, but that statement does not apply to God’s wrath. God is not a teddy bear, so to speak; if one thought to the contrary, one was in serious error. May we have a balanced perspective, one which takes into account both divine judgment and mercy in proper proportions. (This is possible by grace, not human power.) And may we remember that Jesus sought forgiveness for those who had him crucified.
I do not pretend to know the details of every person’s spiritual vocation from God. Sometimes, in fact, my vocation from God confuses me. Yet I am confident that all such vocations for Christians include, in the words of St. Paul the Apostle, being:
…the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.
–2 Corinthians 2:15-16a, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
May we bear the aroma of Christ faithfully.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 4, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FIFTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH MOHR, AUSTRIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT BARBARA, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OF DAMASCUS, HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN CALABRIA, FOUNDER OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE POOR SERVANTS AND THE POOR WOMEN SERVANTS OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
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:
Leviticus 13:1-17 (Thursday)
Leviticus 14:1-20 (Friday)
Leviticus 14:21-32 (Saturday)
Psalm 30 (All Days)
Hebrews 12:7-13 (Thursday)
Acts 19:11-20 (Friday)
Matthew 26:6-13 (Saturday)
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Hear me, LORD, and be kind to me,
be my helper, LORD.
–Psalm 30:11, The Psalms Introduced and Newly Translated for Today’s Readers, Harry Mowvley (1989)
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Ritual impurity and purity were major concerns in the Law of Moses. Among the major forms of ritual impurity were those which tzara’at, or the leakage of life, caused. In people it manifested as a range of skin conditions, which were not leprosy, technically Hanson’s Disease. In fabrics (Leviticus 13:47-59) it consisted of damage which mold or mildew caused. And in building materials (14:33-47) people saw evidence of it via mildew or rot in walls.
Dermatological impurity received more fear and attention, however. Some even argued that it constituted divine punishment for sin. The combination of shunning and guilt must have been a terrible burden to bear. Hence restoration to wholeness and community must have been all the more wonderful.
May we refrain from laying burdens atop people. Rather, may we function as instruments of divine healing and reconciliation. May God work through us to restore others to wholeness and community. May God bless others through us. We will receive our blessings as part of that process. There will be blessings all around. Is that not wonderful?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 2, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE THIRD DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF SAINT BRIOC, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT TUDWAL, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND BISHOP
THE FEAST OF CHANNING MOORE WILLIAMS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP IN CHINA AND JAPAN
THE FEAST OF JOHN BROWN, ABOLITIONIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT OSMUND OF SALISBURY, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
One of the recurring biblical themes is the coexistence of divine mercy and judgment. It is evident in 2 Kings, where King Josiah deferred yet did not cancel out via national holiness (however fleeting) the consequences of successive generations of national depravity and disregard for holiness. The Hollywood tacked-on happy ending, in the style of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) after the studio took the film away from Orson Welles, would have been for forgiveness to wipe away everything. Yet judgment came–just later than scheduled previously.
I would like to be a Universalist–a Christian Universalist, to be precise. Yet that would be a false choice. No matter how much grace exists in Jesus, the reality of the Incarnation does demand a response to the question,
Who do we say Jesus is?
(Thanks to Professor Phillip Cary, in his Teaching Company course on the History of Christian Theology for making the point that the Synoptic Gospels pose that question to audiences.) And, as C. H. Dodd, while explaining Realized Eschatology in The Founder of Christianity, wrote of Jesus in that book:
In his words and actions he made men aware of [the kingdom of God] and challenged them to respond. It was “good news” in the sense that it meant opportunity for a new start and an unprecedented enrichment of experience. But when a person (or society) has been presented with such a challenge and declines it, he is not just where he was before. His position is the worse for the encounter….The coming of the kingdom meant the open opportunity of enhancement of life; it also meant the heightening of moral responsibility.
–1970 Macmillan paperback edition, page 58
So, regardless of the number of challenges and severity thereof we might face due to our fidelity to God, may we find encouragement to continue to follow Christ, our Lord and Savior, who suffered to the point of death and overcame that obstacle.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 10, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN LEONARDI, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD; AND SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
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)
Job needed friends. He got Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite instead. Alas for Job! And he lamented the lack of support. I would prefer strangulation too; at least it would get me away from those alleged friends.
Counterpoints occur in John. We being with John the Baptist, whose movement had fewer followers than that of Jesus. John continued to point toward our Lord. Then, in Chapter 4, Jesus commenced the longest recorded conversation in the canonical Gospels. This conversation was with not only a woman–unheard of in many circles–but with a Samaritan woman–even more scandalous. Many interpreters–out of mysogyny or tradition or both–have assumed that she had a dubious sexual reputation, but there is no textual proof for that. She could, for example have been in a levirate marriage–legal under the Law of Moses. Jesus helped the woman at the well. I can only imagine what harm Eliphaz, Bildad, or Zophar would have wrought.
Until the next segment of our journey….
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 15, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR B
THE FEASTS OF SAINT OLGA OF KIEV, REGENT OF KIEVAN RUSSIA; ADALBERT OF MAGDEBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; ADALBERT OF PRAGUE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP AND MARTYR; AND BENEDICT AND GAUDENTIUS OF POMERANIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF SAINT DAMIEN DE VEUSTER, A.K.A. DAMIEN OF MOLOKAI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
THE FEAST OF SAINT EGBERT OF LINDISFARNE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK AND SAINT ADALBERT OF EGMONT, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY
THE FEAST OF SAINT MELLITUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
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 11:29-32; 12:19 (TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures):
During that time Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem went out of Jerusalem and the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh met him on the way. He had put on a new robe; and when the two were alone in the open country, Ahijah took hold of the new robe he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.
Take ten pieces,
he said to Jeroboam.
For thus said the the LORD, the God of Israel: I am about to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hands, and I will give you ten tribes. But one tribe shall remain his–for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel….
…Solomon dies and Rehoboam succeeds him and maintains and makes more severe his policies regarding “the harsh labor and the heavy yoke,” per 12:4 and 12:11…
Thus Israel revolted against the House of David, as is still the case.
Psalm 81:8-16 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
8 Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you:
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
9 There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not worship a foreign god.
10 I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said,
“Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
11 And yet my people did not hear my voice,
and Israel would not obey me.
12 So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their hearts,
to follow their own devices.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me!
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I should soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe before him,
and their punishment would last for ever.
16 But Israel would I feed with the finest wheat
and satisfy him with honey from the rock.
Mark 7:31-37 (J. B. Phillips, 1972):
Once more Jesus left the neighbourhood of Tyre and passed through Sidon towards the Lake of Galilee, and crossed the Ten Towns territory. They brought to him a man who was deaf and unable to speak intelligibly, and they implored him to put his hand upon him. Jesus took him away from the crowd by himself. He put his fingers in the man’s ears and touched his tongue with his saliva. Then, looking up to Heaven, he gave a deep sigh and said to him in Aramaic,
Open!
And his ears were opened and immediately whatever had tied his tongue came loose and he spoke quite plainly. Jesus gave instructions that they should tell no one about this happening, but the more he told them, the more they broadcast the news. People were absolutely amazed, and kept saying,
How wonderfully he has done everything! He even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Reign of Solomon, a.k.a. Jedidiah or Yedidiah, King of (united) Israel = 968-928 B.C.E.
Reign of Rehoboam, King of Judah (southern kingdom) = 928-911 B.C.E.
Reign of Jeroboam I, King of Israel (northern kingdom) = 928-907 B.C.E.
Reign of Hoshea, last King of Israel = 732-722 B.C.E.
Reign of Zedekiah (Mattaniah), last King of Judah = 597-586 B.C.E.
–courtesy of The Jewish Study Bible, page 2111
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“What,” [King Rehoboam] asked [the elders who had served his father Solomon], “do you advise that we reply to the people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father placed upon us’?” And the young men who had grown up with him answered, “Speak thus to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now make it lighter for us.’ Say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. My father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions.'”
–1 Kings 12:9-11 (TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures)
Rehoboam obeyed that advice, to the detriment of his kingdom, which sundered during a predictable and predicted rebellion. The leader of that uprising was Jeroboam, a former underling (in charge of forced labor in the House of Joseph–1 Kings 11:28) of Solomon who had been living in exile in Egypt. There was popular support for Jeroboam, soon to become King Jeroboam I, but there might also have been Pharonic support, for Egypt attacked Rehoboam’s Judah but not Jeroboam’s Israel. And, during the dueling reigns of Rehoboam and Jeroboam I, the two Jewish kingdoms were openly hostile to each other, fighting a war.
The text lays much of the responsibility for this state of affairs upon Solomon, but does not let Rehoboam off the hook either. The new monarch of the House of David could have done as his people asked of him, but he chose not to do so. For the best explanation of what happened immediately after the death of Solomon I turn to Voltaire:
Injustice in the end produces independence.
And, with two Jewish kingdoms, where there used to be one, fighting among themselves off and on, it became easier for foreign and more powerful powers to play them off each other and subdue and conquer them.
None of this had to happen. It occurred because people in positions of power made certain decisions, which had consequences. As the Gospel of Mark quotes Jesus in a different context,
…If a kingdom is divided against itself, then that kingdom cannot last…. (Mark 3:24, J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition, 1972)
There is an obvious lesson here for leaders of nations, regardless of geography, timeframe, or political persuasion. But what ought the rest of us learn from it? What can we take away from it and apply in our public lives?
I am a student of ecclesiastical history. In ancient Church history I point to the Donatist controversy, which divided northern African Christianity from the time following the Diocletian persecution to the spread of Islam. Beginning in the early 300s, there was a raging and divisive question: Should the Church have forgiven and readmitted to its fellowship those who had repented of buckling under the harsh Diocletian persecution? They had managed to avoid suffering by renouncing their faith. The Roman Church, being in the forgiveness business, accepted heartfelt confessions. This did not satisfy the holier-than-thou Donatists, however, so they broke away. The Donatist schism persisted long after the original cause, weakening Christianity in that part of the world.
Modern-day Donatists of various types are with us today. Every time some group breaks away to the ideological right (Church schisms are usually to the right.), there is Donatism of a sort. Every time an exclusionary message leads to a denominational or congregational split, one sees evidence of Donatism of a sort. Donatism in any age is that message which says, “Those people are not pure enough to be part of my church, for they are too lax.” In the context of the Civil Rights Era U.S. South, some white congregations chose to exclude African Americans from membership. That was also Donatism. “Those people are not pure enough to be part of my church, for they are not white.” There should be standards in the church, of course, but there is no way for loving Christian discipline to coexist with a holier-than-thou attitude. And there should never be room for racism in the Church.
The Church is stronger when it is relatively unified, maintaining a balanced discipline while remaining in the forgiveness business. We Christians have much work to do: people to visit, feed, clothe, convert, and disciple. This work is more than sufficient to keep us busy. So I must conclude that, when we find the time to argue about issues Jesus never addressed, we are falling down on our jobs. When we become so concerned about being theologically correct that we choose not to accept sincere confessions of sin and to forgive others, we have gone wrong. Did not Jesus associate in public with disreputable and repentant people?
Here are the probing questions with which I leave you, and which only you, O reader, can answer: Are you a Donatist? If yes, what will you do about that?
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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Genesis 2:18-25 (Richard Elliott Friedman, 2001):
And YHWH God said,
It’s not good for the human to be by himself. I’ll make for him a strength corresponding to him.
And YHWH God fashioned from the ground every animal of the field and every bird of the skies and brought it to the human to see what he would call it. And whatever the human would call call it, each living being, that would be its name. And the human gave names to every domestic animal and bird of the skies and every animal of the field. But He did not find for the human a strength corresponding to him.
And YHWH God caused a slumber to descend on the human, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs and closed flesh in its place. And YHWH God built the rib that He had taken from the human into a woman and brought her to the human. And the human said,
This time is it: bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. This will be called ‘woman,’ for this one was taken from ‘man.’
On account of this a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his woman, and they become one flesh.
And the two of them were naked, the human and his woman, and they were not embarrassed.
Psalm 128 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Happy are they all who fear the LORD,
and who follow in his ways!
2 You shall eat the fruit of your labor;
happiness and prosperity shall be yours.
3 Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine from within your house,
your children like olive shoots round about your table.
4 The man who fears the LORD
shall thus indeed be blessed.
5 The LORD bless you out of Zion,
and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
6 May you live to see your children’s children;
may peace be upon Israel.
Mark 7:24-30 (J. B. Phillips, 1972):
Then he got up and left that place and went off to the neighbourhood of Tyre. There we went into a house and wanted no one to know where he was. But it proved impossible to remain hidden. For no sooner had he got there, than a woman who had heard about him, and who had a daughter possessed by an evil spirit, arrived and prostrated herself before him. She was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she asked him to drive the evil spirit out of her daughter. Jesus said to her,
You must let the children have all they want first. It is not right, you know, to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.
But she replied,
Yes, Lord, I know, but even the dogs under the table eat the scraps that the children leave.
Jesus said to her,
If you can answer like that, you can go home! The evil spirit has left your daughter.
And she went back to her home and found the child lying quietly on her bed, and the evil spirit gone.
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Tyre was a splendid city in the time of Jesus. Today the ruins from that time are treasures of archaeology. The city, located today in southern Lebanon, was also a Gentile domain. Jesus seems not to have had qualms about being surrounded by Gentiles, who were “the other,” according to many of his co-religionists. Jews were the Chosen People; Gentiles were not. There were parts of the Jerusalem Temple complex Jews could enter but Gentiles could not. And Gentile “God fearers,” who believed in the Jewish deity, were marginal because religious authorities decided they were.
Based on the internal evidence of the story and its placement within the Markan Gospel (immediately after a discourse on ritual cleanliness and uncleanliness), I conclude that the comments about feeding dogs were not sincere. Rather, they constituted a test; they were a prompt for the Syrophoenecian woman to provide the desired rebuttal. And Justa (as tradition calls her) secured deliverance for he daughter (known to tradition as Bernice) and became emblematic of the fact that Gentiles, too, may partake of grace. Grace is inclusive, not exclusive.
Today we read this story and this analysis. I, as a Gentile, agree that grace extends to me, as well as to the Jews. But I should not stop there, and neither should you. Part of the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that it continues to challenge our comfort zones. Are we listening to these challenges, though? So I ask you, as I ask myself the same question: Who are our (my) Gentiles?
The psalm and the reading from Genesis speak of men and women. The beautiful creation mythology from Genesis (so far) speaks of primordial innocence and gender equality. This is apparent in the Hebrew, in which “helper” can also mean “strength;” thus the woman is the man’s “corresponding strength.” And, in the Hebrew, as Richard Elliott Friedman writes in his commentary, Genesis 2:23 can also read in English as, “…This will be called ‘woman,” for this one was taken from ‘her man.” This is parallel to “his woman” just one verse later. The possessive pronoun does not indicate domination of one over the other.
Much of the narrative of the Christian Bible consists of the consequences of the end of primordial paradise and the divine efforts to restore humans to that state. The human story in the Bible begins with paradise and ends with the New Jerusalem. So we ought not to internalize socially defined concepts of inequality (with regard to race, gender, et cetera) and think that they are God’s will. We should treasure and delight in each other, for everyone bears the image of God. This is hard, and all fall short of the mark.
I am a history buff. As such I recall a speech Sandra Day O’Connor, now retired from the United States Supreme Court, gave years ago. She was working as an attorney in Arizona in the 1960s. By state law, her husband received her paycheck. Many people today like to criticize feminism, but feminists (literally those who believe in the equality of men and women) got such unjust laws overturned. As a feminist and a heterosexual, I affirm that women are wonderful, many are beautiful, and all are equal to men. Any individual or institution which does not affirm this equality in practice is in error. Thus I affirm the ordination of women, for example.
Which prejudices do I affirm, consciously or unconsciously? I need grace to make these and the error of them obvious to me, as well as to purge them. Which prejudices do you affirm, consciously or unconsciously? You, too, need grace to make these and the error of them obvious to you, as well as to purge them. May the purging commence, or continue.
