How well can we understand the judgment and mercy of God? Christianity dwells on divine mercy yet the New Testament contains plenty of judgment. Need I remind anyone of Revelation? Furthermore, anger and fantasies of violence recur throughout the Psalms. We read of the Day of the LORD in Malachi. In that passage we read, according to TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985), that the faithful will
trample the wicked to a pulp.
Who do we say God is? Who do we say Jesus is? We cannot escape all spiritual veils, for we know in part and carry cultural blinders. Yet we can, by grace, recognize Jesus sufficiently to follow him to Jerusalem, so to speak.
God will tend to judgment and mercy.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 22, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR A
THE FEAST OF SAINT DEOGRATIAS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF CARTHAGE
THE FEAST OF EMMANUEL MOURNIER, PERSONALIST PHILOSOPHER
THE FEAST OF JAMES DE KOVEN, EPISCOPAL PRIEST
THE FEAST OF THOMAS HUGHES, BRITISH SOCIAL REFORMER AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM EDWARD HICKSON, ENGLISH MUSIC EDUCATOR AND SOCIAL REFORMER
Melchizedek, a Canaanite priest-king whose name means “Zedek is my king,” appears briefly and mysteriously in Genesis 14. (Zedek was a Canaanite deity.) The name “Melchizedek” recurs in Psalm 110, which identifies the monarch as a priest. The Letter to the Hebrews associates Melchizedek with Jesus.
Jesus is a powerful figure in all of the canonical Gospels. That power is more evident in deeds than in words in the Synoptic Gospels. In the Gospel of John Jesus is considerably more verbose. His plethora of words accompanies mighty signs. Jesus accepts no glory from people (John 5:41), seeking to glorify God the Father instead, just as Abraham gives all glory to YHWH in Genesis 14.
This Sunday is traditionally the Sunday of the Transfiguration. In the chronology of the Synoptic Gospels the Transfiguration occurs en route to Jerusalem the last time; Jesus is going to the city not to seek his own glory, but to obey and glorify God. And, in the Gospel of John, the glorification of Jesus by God is his crucifixion.
Regardless of the ambiguous details of Melchizedek, most of which I have not written about because they are irrelevant to my main point in this post, the principle that we mere mortals should seek to glorify God, not ourselves, remains. It is a counter-cultural message, for quite often we tend to praise those who seek their own glory. That glory is fleeting, but God’s glory is everlasting.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 3, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIE-LEONIE PARADIS, FOUNDER OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAMILY
Elihu’s speeches contain much that sounds pious. Job 36:24-37:24 supports this generalization. We read, among other things, that we should praise God and that divine grandeur exceeds our knowledge of it. Elihu even sounds like God in Job 38-41, the “I am God and you are not” speeches:
Mediate on God’s wonders.
Can you tell how God controls them
or how his clouds make the lightning flash?
Can you tell how he holds the clouds in balance:
a miracle of consummate skill?
When your clothes are hot to your body
and the earth lies still under the south wind,
can you help him to spread the vault of heaven,
Or temper the mirror of cast metal?
–Job 37:14b-18, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
I prefer the God of Job 42:7-8 to the God of Job 38-41, for the former acknowledges that Job was correct. For some reason I have really noticed Job 43:7-8 during the preparation for this series of posts, despite the many times I have read that passage over the years. Part of the wonder of scripture is that one can always find something one has missed.
Among my favorite aspects of Judaism is the practice of arguing faithfully with God. The character of Job exemplifies that well. He is, contrary to an inaccurate cliché, impatient and argumentative–justifiably, I contend. Yes, we can take refuge in God, but this does preclude a good argument now and then.
We should repent of and express remorse for our sins, as grace helps us to recognize them. As we do so, we ought to follow the advice of Hebrews 13:13-15 and follow Jesus, who healed people around whom he was not present, into the world as pilgrims each day. We might suffer reproach, but the servant is not greater than the master. Sometimes we will suffer for reasons neither we nor others understand, or because of the sins of others. That is simply reality.
One lesson to learn from the Book of Job is the difference between speaking the truth in love and blaming the victim. Unfortunately, recognizing that distinction can prove difficult in the moment. May we, by grace, prove innocent of being like Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, Zophar the Naamathite, and Elihu, who were sincerely wrong and not helpful.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 COMMON ERA
PROPER 19: THE SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C
THE FEAST OF SAINT PAPHNUTIUS THE GREAT, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF UPPER THEBAID
THE FEAST OF NARAYAN SESHADRI OF JALNA, INDIAN PRESBYTERIAN EVANGELIST AND “APOSTLE TO THE MANGS”
THE FEAST OF SAINT PATIENS OF LYONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP
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”
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, in the speech which encompasses Chapters 9 and 10, feels powerless before God, whom he understands as being omnipotent. The speaker demands to know why God has done what God has done and is doing what God is doing relative to himself (Job):
I say to God, “Do not condemn me;
Let me know what you are charging me with….”
–Job 10:2, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures
This is, in the context of the narrative, understandable and justifiable. The Book of Job does open with God permitting Job’s sufferings. The text offers no easy answers to the question of the causes of the suffering of the innocent.
John 4:46-5:18 offers us happier material. Jesus heals a royal official’s son long-distance then a poor man paralyzed for thirty-eight years up close and in person. Unfortunately for our Lord, he performs the second miracle on the Sabbath and speaks of himself as equal to God, prompting some opponents (labeled invectively as “the Jews”) to plot to kill him. I said that the material was happier, not entirely joyful.
The paralyzed man and the observers probably understood his disability to have resulted from somebody’s sin. The Book of Job, of course, repudiated that point of view.
It occurs to me that Job’s alleged friends and our Lord’s accusers had something in common: Both sets of people were defending their God concept, one which could not stand up to observed reality. J. B. Phillips wrote a classic book, Your God is Too Small (1961), which I most recently too long ago. In this slim volume he pointed out that inadequate God concepts and attachments to them cause dissatisfaction with God and blind us to what God is. Our Lord’s critics in the Gospel of John were blind to what God is and found Jesus unsatisfactory. And, in the Book of Job, as we will discover as we keep reading, all of the mortals who speak have inadequate God concepts. Yet Job’s is the least inadequate.
Until the next segment of our journey….
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 26, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS REMACLUS OF MAASTRICHT, THEODORE OF MAASTRICHT, LAMBERT OF MAASTRICHT, HUBERT OF MAASTRICHT AND LIEGE, AND FLORIBERT OF LIEGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; LANDRADA OF MUNSTERBILSEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND OTGER OF UTRECHT, PLECHELM OF GUELDERLAND, AND WIRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES
THE FEAST OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, POET
THE FEAST OF SAINT PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF ROBERT HUNT, FIRST ANGLICAN CHAPLAIN AT JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA
Now when the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha,
Stay here; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel.
But Elisha said,
As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.
So they went down to Bethel. The company of prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him,
Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?
And he said,
Yes, I know; keep silent.
Elijah said to him,
Elisha, stay here; for the LORD has sent me to Jericho.
But he said,
As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.
So they came to Jericho. The company of prophets who were at Jericho drew near to Elisha, and said to him,
Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?
And he answered,
Yes, I know; be silent.
Then Elijah said to him,
Stay here; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.
But he said,
As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.
So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha,
Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you.
Elisha said,
Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.
He responded,
You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not.
As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out,
Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!
But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
Psalm 50:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 The LORD, the God of gods, has spoken;
he has called the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
2 Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty,
God reveals himself in glory.
3 Our God will come and will not keep silence;
before him there is a consuming flame,
and round about him a raging storm.
4 He calls the heavens and the earth from above
to witness the judgment of his people.
5 “Gather before me my loyal followers,
those who have made a covenant with me
and sealed it with sacrifice.”
6 Let the heavens declare the rightness of his cause;
for God himself is judge.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6 (New Revised Standard Version):
Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who said,
Let light shine out of darkness,
who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Mark 9:2-9 (New Revised Standard Version):
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus,
Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice,
This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!
Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
The Collect:
O God, who before the passion of your only begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
One of the recurring themes in Mark 9 is that Jesus was quite powerful. That theme is evident in Mark’s account of the Transfiguration. Isolating this passage and lifting it out of its textual context hides what occurs around it. Namely, Jesus has just said to take up one’s cross. And, a few verses later, he predicts his own passion again.
Jesus is on the way to his death and resurrection, the latter of which reaffirms a major point of the Transfiguration: Jesus, regardless of any appearances to the contrary, is far more powerful than any persecutor or empire.
I feel succinct today, so leave you, O reader, with that thought, as well as with this one: Jesus remains more powerful than any persecutor. Thanks be to God!
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?
