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
One should serve God, of course. Not trying to do so is mainly unacceptable. Yet trying to do so does not guarantee succeeding in doing so; one can be sincerely wrong. The history of religion is replete with those who have committed evils while laboring under the impression they were serving God. So is the present state of religion.
We are morally responsible for and to each other. Saying and writing that sentence is easy. Understanding how it properly translates into attitudes and actions in various contexts can prove very challenging, though.
Praying is a good start, of course. Yet we must distinguish between a dialogue and an internal monologue if we are to know the difference between God and what we want to hear.
God’s choice of human instruments may surprise us, as may the number of “others” who are among the faithful. We humans tend to prefer neat, orderly categories, such as “insiders” and “outsiders.” But what if we, who think ourselves as insiders, are really outsiders? I tell people sometimes that the lists of people who are in Heaven and who are not there would astound and scandalize us if we could see them.
Grace is astounding, is it not? It is free yet not cheap. Likewise, judgment and mercy exist in context of each other; they are in balance God knows what that balance is. So be it.
May we, by grace, succeed is serving God, in glorifying and enjoying God in the moment and forever.
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
Two of the three readings today include much doom. Psalm 120 is overwhelmingly gloomy, as is the pericope from 2 Kings. The reign of King Zedekiah (born Mattaniah) as the vassal King of Judah (reigned 597-586 B.C.E.) marked the bitter end of that kingdom. Mattaniah (literally “gift of YHWH”) did not even get to keep his name, for his political master was Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 605-562 B.C.E.) of the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire. So Mattaniah became Zedekiah (literally “YHWH is righteousness”). The regnal name indicated the semblance of respect for Jewish traditions while simultaneously reminding the monarch that he was a vassal.
St. Paul the Apostle understood the death and resurrection of Jesus to have been literal events. The Apostle also used them as spiritual metaphors, such as dying to sin and rising to new life in Christ. Jesus will reign, we read, but only until he has conquered all enemies, the last of which is death, which he is in the process of conquering. At the end Jesus will become subject to God the Father (YHWH).
Trinitarian theology developed over centuries, and St. Paul wrote near the beginning of that process. His epistles do not stand up well to strict scrutiny according to the conclusions of the Council of Nicaea (325). Neither do writings of other Ante-Nicene Church Fathers. I refuse to judge them according to an ex post facto standard.
As for St. Paul’s christology, I refer to William F. Orr and James Arthur Walther, authors of The Anchor Bible volume on 1 Corinthians (1976):
Paul has not developed a trinitarian doctrine, but his christology is nonetheless a remarkable achievement. overwhelming as is the work of salvation in the resurrection, it must be seen within the context of the purpose of the creator God. Paul meticulously maintains his Jewish monotheistic tradition: therefore the son himself is finally subjected, a statement that must be read, not from the perspective of a subordinationalist christology, but from Paul’s position, which is determined to set forth God as the all in all.
–Page 334
There were four kings. Zedekiah was subject to Nebuchadnezzar II. Sorting out the question of the subjection of Jesus to YHWH entails cutting through filters such as subsequent Trinitarian theology. St. Paul was correct in asserting the supremacy of God, for, in the original scheme of things, YHWH was supposed to be the only King of Israel anyway.
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”
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:
2 Chronicles 26:1-21 (Monday)
2 Kings 7:3-10 (Tuesday)
Psalm 6 (Both Days)
Acts 3:1-10 (Monday)
1 Corinthians 10:14-11:1 (Tuesday)
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O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger,
or discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
O LORD, heal me, for my bones are shaking with terror.
–Psalm 6:1-2, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
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My comments for the post I wrote prior to this one apply here also, I refer you, O reader, to them and pursue a different line of thought arising from assigned readings.
We ought to glorify God. We cannot do this while committing idolatry, acting to harm another human being (physically or spiritually) other than in self-defense or the defense of another person, or being oblivious to God, who has done much over time and continues to act. Likewise, when we act out of respect for others, we honor the image of God in them.
If you love me, keep my commandments,
Jesus said. He ordered people to love one another and honor God. He also provided an example to emulate. That example points out how dangerous loving one’s neighbors can be. Yet if we are truly to be Christians, we will follow him.
Often we humans designate some of our neighbors as people to look down upon, shun, discriminate against, murder, destroy culturally, et cetera. This is wrong, for all people bear the image of God and therefore possess inherent dignity. We might not get along with many of them, but we ought never to question their humanity or equality with us. The Golden Rule stands.
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, 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!
Enron, of course, has ceased to exist, but here is where I found the image: link
Trust in God; All Else is Transitory
FEBRUARY 14, 2022
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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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James 1:1-11 (Revised English Bible):
From James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes dispersed throughout the world.
My friends, whenever you have to face all sorts of trials, count yourselves supremely happy in the knowledge that such testing of your faith makes for strength to endure. Let endurance perfect its work in you that you may become perfected, sound throughout, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God and it will be given him, for God is a generous giver who neither grudges nor reproaches anyone. But he who asks must ask in faith, with never a doubt in his mind; for the doubter is like a wave of the sea tossed hither and thither by the wind. A man like that should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. He is always in two minds and unstable in all he does.
The church member in humble circumstances does well to take pride in being exalted; the wealthy member must find his pride in being brought low, for the rich man will disappear like a wild flower; once the sun is up with its scorching heat, it parches the plant, its flower withers, and what was lovely to look at is lost for ever. So shall the rich man fade away as he goes about his business.
Psalm 119:65-72 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
65 O LORD, you have dealt graciously with your servant,
according to your word.
66 Teach me discernment and knowledge,
for I have believed in your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I keep your word.
68 You are good and you bring forth good;
instruct me in your statutes.
69 The proud have smeared me with lies,
but I will keep your commandments with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is gross and fat,
but my delight is in your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
that I might learn your statutes.
72 The law of your mouth is dearer to me
than thousands in gold and silver.
Mark 8:11-13 (Revised English Bible):
Then the Pharisees came out and began to argue with him. To test him they asked for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said,
Why does generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you: no sign shall be given to this generation.
With that he left them, re-embarked, and made for the other shore.
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The Collect:
O God, the strength of all who put their trust in you: Mercifully accept our prayers; and because in our weakness we can do nothing good without you, give us the help of your grace, that in keeping your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; 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 the Bible is the imperative of trusting in God first and foremost. This does not preclude making good decisions; indeed, it leads to doing this. Hebrew prophets counseled leaders to trust in God, not international alliances with double-dealing empires, and not to become overly confident in military strength. Such things, they said, were idols. And, like all other idols, they come and they go.
Jesus, in Mark 8, complained about yet another demand for a dramatic sign. We humans like signs and wonders, for they are easy to identify. Yet Elijah, in 1 Kings 19:12, found God in “a faint murmuring sound,” not an earthquake, a strong wind, or a fire. That was not very dramatic, was it? We ought to trust God because God is God, not because of signs and wonders.
In James 1 we read about becoming “perfected.” The original Greek word maturity. And completeness refers to a blemishless state, as in that present in a sacrificial animal. So, in context, endurance produces spiritual maturity, suitability in service to God, and a continuing state of spiritual growth. Other factors, such as wealth and prestige (or lack thereof) are transient, so we ought not become attached to them and define ourselves according to them.
Maybe Douglas Adams said it best on page 1 of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979):
Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
The planet has–or rather had–a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.
Many were increasingly of the opinion that they’d all made a big mistake in coming down from the trees in the first place. And some said that even the trees had been a bad move, and that no one should ever have left the oceans.
And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small cafe in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.
Sadly, however, before she could get to a phone to tell anyone about it, a terrible, stupid catastrophe occurred, and the idea was lost for ever.
This is not her story.
Our identity, my theology tells me, ought to have its root in God alone. Each human being bears the image of God, who loves, who woos, and who has sacrificed for everyone. This is God, whom we can trust. Money, when it is physical, is pieces of paper and metal, used properly for paying our bills, purchasing our necessities, and helping others–but not functioning as a barrier between us and God.
