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
Obey God’s laws, whether or not one lives among foreigners with different religions and customs.
Love one’s fellow human beings actively and effectively, trusting in the power of God to enable one to do this.
Do not use God and/or religion to to cover up or to attempt to cover up one’s own perfidy.
The latter point requires some explanation. Korban was a custom by which one gave money to the religious establishment for the support of the professional religious people there. Many people used this practice to deprive their relatives of necesssary funds while looking pious. And many Temple officials knew it. Thus religion became a means of circumventing a basic ethic of the Law of Moses:
Honor your father and your mother.
In other words, motives mattered. They still do.
Ethics are concrete, not abstract. Since we human beings live in communities, our actions and inactions affect each other. Our actions and inactions flow from our attitudes. Thus how we think of each other matters greatly. Do we value each other or do we seek ways to exploit and/or deprive each other? Which people do we think of as our neighbors?
May we not use the letter of the law to the cover up or to attempt to cover up violations of its spirit.
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 3:9-24 (Richard Elliott Friedman, 2001):
And YHWH God called the human and said to him,
Where are you?
And he said,
I heard the sound of you in the garden and was afraid because I was naked, and I hid?
And He said,
Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?
And the human said,
The woman, whom you placed with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.
And YHWH God said to the woman,
What is this that you’ve done?
And the woman said,
The snake tricked me, and I ate.
And YHWH God said to the snake,
Because you did this, you are cursed out of every domestic animal and every animal of the field, you’ll go on your belly, and you’ll eat dust all the days of your life. And I’ll put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He’ll strike you at the head, and you’ll strike him at the heel.
To the woman He said,
I’ll make your suffering and your labor pain great. You’ll have children in pain. And your desire will be for your man, and he’ll dominate you.
And to the human He said,
Because you listened to your woman’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you saying, ‘You shall not eat from it,” the ground is cursed on your account. You’ll eat from it with suffering all the days of your life. And it will grow thorn and thistle at you, and you’ll eat the field’s vegetation. By the sweat of your nostrils you’ll eat bread until you go back to the ground, because you were taken from it; because you are dust and you’ll go back to dust.
And the human called his woman “Eve,” because she was the mother of all living.
And YHWH God made skin garments for the human and his woman and dressed them.
And YHWH God said,
Here, the human has become like one of us, to know good and bad. And now, in case he’ll put out his hand and take from the tree of life as well, and eat and live forever from the tree of life as well, and eat and live forever.
And YHWH God put him out of the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken. And He expelled the human, and He had the cherubs and the flame of a revolving sword reside at the east of the garden of Eden to watch over the way to the tree of life.
Psalm 90:1-12 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Lord, you have been our refuge
from one generation to another.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or the land and the earth were born,
from age to age you are God.
3 You turn us back to the dust and say,
“Go back, O child of earth.”
4 For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past
and like a watch in the night.
5 You sweep us away like a dream;
we fade away suddenly like the grass.
6 In the morning it is green and flourishes;
in the evening it is dried up and withered.
7 For we consume away in your displeasure;
we are afraid because of your wrathful indignation.
8 Our iniquities you have set before you,
and our secret sins in the sight of your countenance.
9 When you are angry, all our days are gone;
we bring our years to an end like a sigh.
10 The span of our life is seventy years,
perhaps in strength even eighty;
yet the sum of them is but labor and sorrow,
for they pass away quickly and we are gone.
11 Who regards the power of your wrath?
who rightly fears your indignation?
12 So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
Mark 8:1-10 (J. B. Phillips, 1972):
About this time it happened again that a large crowd collected and had nothing to eat. Jesus called the disciples over to him and said,
My heart goes out to this crowd; they have been with me three days now and they have no food left. If I send them off home without anything, they will collapse on the way–and some of them have come from a distance.
His disciples replied,
Where could anyone find the food to feed them here in this deserted spot?
Jesus asked them,
How many loaves have you got?
They replied,
Seven.
So Jesus told the crowd to settle themselves on the ground. Then he took the seven loaves into his hands, and with a prayer of thanksgiving broke them, and gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people; and this they did. They had a few small fish as well, and after blessing them, Jesus told his disciples to give these also to the people. They ate and they were satisfied. Moreover, they picked up seven baskets of full pieces left over. The people numbered about four thousand. Jesus sent them home, and then he boarded the boat at once with the disciples and went on to the district of Dalmanutha.
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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This seems like a good time to quote Calvinist theology. There are three covenants in Calvinism. The first is the Covenant of Redemption, in which the members of the Holy Trinity agreed to redeem human beings. Then there is the Covenant of Works, which is of pre-Fall origin. The formulation is simple: obey God and live (spiritually and physically); disobey God and die (spiritually and physically). Grace did mitigate the penalty, as in today’s reading from Genesis. Sin being universal after the Fall, a third covenant, one of grace, became necessary. Since we are incapable of fulfilling the terms of the Covenant of Works, life and death are spiritual, not physical. Jesus fulfills the terms of the Covenant of Works. (Thanks to R. C. Sproul for his summary of the covenants in What is Reformed Theology? Understanding the Basics, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997)
That aspect of Calvinism provides a useful prism for interpreting the readings for today. Grace was present simultaneously with judgment; God expelled the mythical Adam and Eve from paradise and denied them immortality, yet protected them from immediate death. The myth communicates a profound truth: Although we cannot evade all consequences of our actions, often we do not receive all that we deserve. This is grace.
Speaking of grace, we arrive next at the Feeding of the Four Thousand. I do not care about engaging in the argument about whether this is a retelling of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (men) plus an uncertain number of women and children. No, I have a different priority. Read with me: Jesus had compassion on the people, some of whom had a long trek back home. Literally, as J. B. Phillips translated the text, his heart went out to them. So he fed them. His grace was abundant, to overflowing: seven large baskets (hampers, really) full of leftovers.
This story is a foretaste of the Holy Eucharist, one of my favorite activities. I am so attached to it that I seek to partake of it at least once a week, usually more often. Jesus is the bread of life–spiritual life. He is present (really present) in this sacrament. So, each week, as I pray the Hail Mary silently and partake of bread (and often wine, too), I take my Lord into myself. If I am what I eat (an apt expression in this context), I become holier for this simple act. And my spiritual life deepens. The body will die, but something of myself will continue. May it do so in the presence of God. That is called eternity in the afterlife. May you do likewise.
That will be grace, for all of us.
KRT
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I AM THE BREAD OF LIFE
Words by Sister Suzanne Toolan, R.S.M.
As published in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), hymnal and worship book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
1. “I am the bread of life.
You who come to me shall not hunger,
and who believe in me shall not thirst.
No one can come to me unless the Father beckons.”
“And I will raise you up,
and I will raise you up,
and I will raise you up on the last day.”
2. “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world,
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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