The evildoers in Amos 8 were dishonest. They lived to cheat people and to exploit those who were vulnerable and less fortunate. These evildoers were, in terms of Proverbs 9, absent from Lady Wisdom’s banquet. No, they attended Lady Folly’s banquet. These evildoers, in terms of Psalm 119, did not have blameless ways and did not walk in the Law of God.
I seek to be clear, as Amos 8:4f is clear. Some people seek to obey the divinely-imposed ethical mandates vis-à-vis mutuality yet get some details wrong. Amos 8:4f does not condemn such people. No, it condemns those who are not even trying to obey divine law, to respect God in their fellow human beings.
Such dishonest people have always been with us, unfortunately.
A lifestyle of mutuality seeks to bring out the best in others. It strives to build the common good, therefore to respect the image of God each person bears. This effort glorifies God. May we humans love one another. May we love God, too. May we seek to build each other up, not to build ourselves up at the expense of others. May we glorify God, not ourselves.
This is what we should do, after all.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 2, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM LOEHE, BAVARIAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, AND COORDINATOR OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MISSIONS
THE FEAST OF SAINTS NARCISSUS, ARGEUS, AND MARCELLINUS OF TOMI, ROMAN MARTYRS, 320
THE FEAST OF SAINT ODILO OF CLUNY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF SABINE BARING-GOULD, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
Psalm 6, with its references to death, fits well with the reading from 1 Samuel 28, in which King Saul, in violation of Jewish law, consults a necromancer. She is actually a somewhat sympathetic character, for she cares about the monarch’s well-being. Meanwhile, one gets the impression that Saul has neglected his duties. I do not agree, however, that committing genocide is a king’s duty.
With great power comes great responsibility, as an old saying tells us. This is true in both secular and sacred settings. In 2 Peter 2, for example, we read condemnations of certain early Christian leaders who, out of embarrassment, sought to reconcile Christianity with pagan permissiveness. As we read in Matthew 7, good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit.
And committing genocide is definitely bad fruit.
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 is simultaneously correct and incorrect. Indeed, whenever we sin, we harm others, not just ourselves, and whenever we act righteously, we benefit others, not just ourselves. Furthermore, nothing escapes divine notice. One might think of the false teachers in Matthew 7 and 2 Peter 2 and find examples of these principles. One might also imagine Elihu agreeing wholeheartedly with the ideas in Psalm 119:1-16 and be correct. The problem with Elihu’s speech in Job 35 is that he employs truthful statements to support a mostly false conclusion:
Hence when Job opens his mouth,
it is for idle talk:
his spate or words comes out of ignorance.
–Job 35:16, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
In the Book of Job all people who speak do so out of ignorance, but the main character is accurate in his assertion of innocence (Consult Job 1, 2 and most of 42, Chapters 38-41, and the first few verses of Chapter 42 not withstanding). That Job, as an innocent person, is suffering, is the main idea to which Elihu objects. Elihu speaks out of ignorance yet does not know it.
Each of us speaks out of ignorance, partial or total, daily; that is part of the reality of the human condition. Knowing this about ourselves is a fine beginning of the process of addressing the problem via grace. May we be sufficiently humble to recognize the fact that we do not know as much as we might imagine about many topics, especially the nature of God. And may we, even in our ignorance, glorify and draw people to the throne of grace, not blame victims and incur divine anger.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 10, 2016 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT SALVIUS OF ALBI, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF MORDECAI JOHNSON, EDUCATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT NEMESIAN OF SIGUM AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS AND MARTYRS
God had delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. The Book of Exodus, having attempted a natural explanation for the parting of the waters, regarded freedom as the miracle. And freedom was the miracle. Yet the slave mentality persisted, so the next generation (not raised as slaves) entered the Promised Land.
God had revealed Baal to be imaginary. The only real deity, quite different from false gods, spoke in silence, not noise.
God–I AM–had done so much publicly. Why was it not enough for many people? We human beings seem to have a reluctance to change our minds about the major issues much of the time. This is partially an evolutionary adaption–a survival technique in the wilderness. If, for example, gatherers thought that a certain variety of mushroom was poisonous due to passed-down folklore, they were slow to reverse that assumption–probably for a good cause. Yet this evolutionary adaptation, combined with the frailties of ego, leads to
don’t confuse me with the facts
religion, theology, and politics.
I am cautious to avoid being excessively certain about divine attributes out of a desire to avoid heresy as God defines it. Yet I make the following statement confidently: God, in the Bible, has a track record of doing unexpected (from a human perspective) things. Thus we move in Scripture from the mysterious encounters of Moses with God to the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity as Jesus of Nazareth, whereby many people saw the face of God. And I wonder what God is doing that I see without recognition because I do not expect it or I do not want facts to upset my conclusions. It is a question worth applying to self, is it not, O reader?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 22, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK PRATT GREEN, BRITISH METHODIST MINISTER, POET, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF BARTHOLOMEW ZOUBERBUHLER, ANGLICAN PRIEST
Certain themes repeat in the Bible. Among these is the one which states that we have a mandate to seek reconciliation with each other, not vengeance against each other. A perhaps apocryphal story comes to mind:
A congregation gathered on the day that the aged St. John the Evangelist visited it. He entered (with assistance) and sat down at the front of the assembly. The Apostle said, “My children, love one another.” Then he motioned to his helpers to assist him in leaving. Someone, disappointed with the brevity of John’s words, followed him and asked why he had said just to love one another. The Apostle answered, “When you have done that, I will tell you more.”
Loving one another is that basic. And often it proves difficult, for we might feel righteous while pondering how another has wronged us. Maybe another has behaved perfidiously toward us. But nursing a grudge hurts the person who encourages it and does no harm to its intended target.
The readings for these days range from maxims to stories about how we ought to behave toward others. Sometimes all parties are both the wronged and the perpetrators. (Life is frequently complicated in that way.) The seeming outlier among these readings is Luke 18:18-30. The wealthy man in that passage kept many of the truly timeless provisions of the Law of Moses–honoring his parents, not murdering or stealing, etc. But his attitude toward his wealth prevented him from treating others as properly as he should have been doing all along.
His health was morally neutral; his attitude was not. Your “wealth,” O reader, might not be funds or property, but your attitude toward it is a vital issue. The same applies to all of us.
So may we seek peace with each other, knowing that perhaps nobody is fully innocent in a particular situation. Thus nobody is in a good position to judge anyway. And may we not let our attitude(s) regarding anything obstruct such reconciliation.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 19, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF HENRY MARTYN, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY
THE FEAST OF SAINT PAUL OF THE CROSS, FOUNDER OF THE PASSIONIST CONGREGATION
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)
There is a certain redundancy to the speeches of Job’s alleged friends. Chapter 15, an address by Eliphaz the Temanite, exemplifies this rule. The main feature of it which I notice is its certainty–of a set of false propositions, according to the resolution of the Book of Job.
Without trying to explain everything–while affirming the reality that I do not know most things and never will–I hold that Jesus is the soundest basis of proper certainty.
Lord, to whom shall we go?
–Simon Peter in verse 68, The New Jerusalem Bible
It is in the example, life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus that I find the personification of goodness and grace. The art of proper Christian living is to approach more nearly that role model, to become a means by which the love of God is incarnate in one. This level of dedication moves beyond intellectual assent to a certain definition of orthodoxy and makes orthodoxy and orthodoxy more similar to one another. The ultimate goal is for them to be identical, but more similar than before is perhaps the best a flawed being can accomplish by grace. (I reject moral perfectionism as unrealistic.)
As Job’s alleged friends lectured and insulted him they spoke piously about the goodness of God. Yet they did not embody it. That was a grave error, one many people repeat today.
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
Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out,
Send everyone away from me.
So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers,
I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?
But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
Then Joseph said to his brothers,
Come closer to me.
And they came closer. He said,
I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, “Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there– since there are five more years of famine to come– so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.” And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.
Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.
Psalm 37:1-12 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Do not fret yourself because of evildoers;
do not be jealous of those who do no wrong.
2 For they shall soon whither like the grass,
and like the green grass they fade away.
3 Put your trust in the LORD and do good,
dwell in the land and feed on its riches.
4 Take delight in the LORD,
and he shall give you your heart’s desire.
5 Commit your way to the LORD and put your trust in him,
and he will bring it to pass.
6 He will make your righteousness as clear as the light
and your just dealing as the noonday.
7 Be still and wait for the LORD
and wait patiently for him.
8 Do not fret yourselves over the one who prospers,
the one who succeeds in evil schemes.
9 Refrain from anger, leave rage alone;
do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.
10 For evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait upon the LORD shall possess the land.
11 In a little while the wicked shall be no more;
you shall search out their place, but they will not be there.
12 But the lowly shall possess the land;
they will delight in abundance of peace.
41 But the deliverance of the righteous comes from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
42 The LORD will help them and rescue them;
he will rescue them from the wicked and deliver them,
because they seek refuge in him.
1 Corinthians 15:35-49 (The Jerusalem Bible):
Someone may ask,
How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come back?
These are stupid questions. Whatever you sow in the ground has to die before it is given new life and the thing that you sow is not what is going to come; you sow a bare grain, say of wheat or something like that, and then God gives it the sort of body that he has chosen: each sort of seed gets its own sort of body.
Everything that is flesh is not the same flesh: there is human flesh, animals’ flesh, the flesh of birds and the flesh of fish. Then there are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the heavenly bodies have a beauty of their own and the earthly bodies a different one. The sun has its brightness, the moon a different brightness, and the stars a different brightness, and the stars differ from each other in brightness. It is the same with the resurrection of the dead: the thing that is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable; the thing that is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; the thing that is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful; when it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit.
If the soul has its own embodiment, so dies the spirit have its own embodiment. The first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul; but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit. That is, first the one with the soul, not the spirit, and after that, the one with the spirit. The first man, being from the earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven. As this earthly man was, so are we on earth; and as the heavenly man is, so are we in heaven. And we, who have been modelled on the earthly man, will be modelled on the heavenly man.
Luke 6:27-38 (The Jerusalem Bible):
[Jesus continued,]
But I say this to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly. To the man who slaps you on one cheek, present the other cheek too; to the man who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from the man who robs you. Treat others as you would like them to treat you. If you love those who love you, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks can you expect? For even sinners do that much. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what thanks can you expect? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. Instead, love your enemies and do good, and lend without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned yourselves; grant pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.
The Collect:
O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Joseph forgave his brothers who sold him into slavery. God, he said, used that dastardly deed to help many others years after the fact. Nevertheless, forgiving those who had sold him into slavery seems like a spiritual feat under my circumstance. It is possible only by grace. Being better than others might expect–doing more than one must–being as merciful as possible by grace–is the unifying core of this Sunday’s readings. Dong this consists of nothing less than applying to others the same love one has received from God. Thus grace is supposed to beget more grace.
We have a model–Jesus–to follow. We have his ethical teachings and his life. And he have his resurrection. People murdered him. He forgave them. He even interceded for them. Peter denied Jesus, who forgave him. Jesus is the “man of heaven” whose image each of us can bear. Bearing our Lord’s image, forgiving our enemies, refraining from baseless judgments–these are possible by grace and free will, the latter of which exists because of grace. So these are possible ultimately by grace. These can be very difficult tasks, and I have not mastered them. But I have learned them better than before. And I look forward to becoming more proficient at them. Moral perfectionism is quite unrealistic, for flawed beings can never achieve that goal. But we can do better. And God–in Christ–offers to help us do so.
I have known this help many times. During one particular season of my life I detected much sudden grace. It was an extremely difficult time, so the grace was that much more obvious. My spiritual life improved greatly without much effort on my part. I found that my internal reality had changed for the better overnight. I did not object; I cooperated instead. And my willingness to extend mercy to my enemies came in time–not immediately, to be sure; it is still coming. God, I perceive, meets us where we are and carries us as far as we need to go. Our task is to cooperate.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 14, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT FULBERT OF CHARTRES, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF EDWARD THOMAS DEMBY, EPISCOPAL SUFFRAGAN BISHOP OF ARKANSAS, AND HENRY BEARD DELANY, EPISCOPAL SUFFRAGAN BISHOP OF NORTH CAROLINA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL, COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF SAINT WANDREGISILUS OF NORMANDY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT, AND SAINT LAMBERT OF LYONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND BISHOP
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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Tobit 1:1-2 and 2:1-8 (Revised English Bible):
This is the story of Tobit son of Tobiel, son of Hananiel, son of Aduel, son of Gaguel, of the family of Asiel, of the tribe of Naphtali. In the time of King Shalmaneser of Assyria he was taken captive from Thisbe which is south of Kedesh-naphtali in Upper Galilee above Hazor, beyond the road to the west, north of Peor.
During the reign of Esarhaddon, I retuned to my house, and my wife Anna and my son Tobias were restored to me. At our festival of Pentecost, that is the feast of Weeks, a fine meal was prepared for me and I took my place. The table being laid and food in plenty put before me, I said to Tobias,
My son, go out and, if you find among our people captive here in Nineveh some poor man who is wholeheartedly mindful of God, bring him back to share my meal. I shall wait for you, son, till you return.
Tobias went to look for a poor man of our people, but came straight back and cried,
Father!
I replied,
Yes, my son.
He answered,
Father, one of our nation has been murdered! His body is lying in the market-place; he has just been strangled.
I jumped up and left my meal untasted. I took the body from the square and put it in one of the outbuildings until sunset when I could bury it; then I went indoors, duly bathed myself, and ate my food in sorrow. I recalled the words of the prophet Amos in the passage about Bethel:
Your festivals shall be turned into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation,
and I wept. When the sun had gone down, I went and dug a grave and buried the body. My neighbours jeered.
Is he no longer afraid?
they said.
He ran away last time, when they were hunting him to put him to death for this very offence; and here he is again burying the dead!
Psalm 112:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Hallelujah!
Happy are they who fear the Lord
and have great delight in his commandments!
2 Their descendants will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches will be in their house,
and their righteousness will last for ever.
4 Light shines in the darkness for the upright;
the righteous are merciful and full of compassion.
5 It is good for them to be generous in lending
and to manage their affairs with justice.
6 For they will never be shaken;
the righteous will be kept in everlasting remembrance.
Mark 12:1-12 (Revised English Bible):
He went on to speak to them in parables:
A man planted a vineyard and put a wall round it, hewed out a winepress, and built a watch-tower; then he let it out to the wine-growers and went abroad. When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce. But they seized him, thrashed him, and sent him away empty-handed. Again, he sent them another servant, whom they beat about the head and treated outrageously, and then another, whom they killed. He sent many others and they thrashed and killed the rest. He had now no one left to send except his beloved son, and in the end he sent him. “They will respect my son,” he said; but the tenants said to one another, “This is the heir; come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” So they seized him and killed him, and flung his body out of the vineyard. What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and put the tenants to death and give the vineyard to others.
Have you never read this text: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the main corner-stone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes”?
They saw that the parable was aimed at them and wanted to arrest him; but they were afraid of the people, so they left him alone and went away.
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The Collect:
O God, who before the passion of your onlybegotten 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.
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The Book of Tobit, part of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons of scripture, is, like Jonah, religious fiction. Tobit is a pious Jew living in exile in the Assyrian Empire. He loves God, his wife, Anna, and his son, Tobias. And Tobit observes the Jewish faith as much as possible, given the circumstances. He cannot, for example, observe the harvest festival of Pentecost in Jerusalem, but he does seek to share his Pentecost meal with a less fortunate Jew. One year Tobit’s son informs his father that the body of a recently murdered Jew is on public display, not buried. So, in violation of civic law but in accordance with Jewish law, Tobit takes and buries the body. And he bathes himself ritually afterward, for touching a corpse made one unclean.
Thus Tobit sets in motion the action of the book bearing his name. I will get to that in subsequent posts, but it is sufficed to say here that Tobit is a model of sincere Jewish piety, and that this holiness brings about both suffering and rewards. Real life is like that, and the Book of Tobit, although a work of fiction, teaches this lesson.
Now, for the other side…..
Let us ground ourselves in the narrative within the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is in Holy Week. He is also engaged in a series of confrontations with Jewish religious leaders headquartered at the Temple at Jerusalem. The “them” in Mark 12:1 consists of chief priests, scribes, and elders. Jesus tells them a parable about an absentee landlord (YHWH), a vineyard (the Jewish people), murdered servants (prophets), wicked, selfish tenants (chief priests, scribes and elders) who hope to become heirs by killing the son, and the son (Jesus) of the absentee landlord. The son will die, but he will become the chief cornerstone, and the God will win despite the best efforts of the wicked tenants, who will lose their position in the vineyard.
Brendan Byrne, S.J., in A Costly Freedom: A Theological Reading of Mark’s Gospel (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008), describes this parable as an encapsulation of the Gospel of Mark. This makes sense: Jesus lives, suffers, dies, and still triumphs.
The piety of these religious leaders served to build them up and set them apart from the “great unwashed,” who lacked the financial resources to achieve the standards of holiness the religious elite held up as the goal. This was self-serving religion, not true seeking after God and identifying with the poor. The fictional Tobit personified true holiness, and, by grace, so can we. The religious elite Jesus stared down in the telling of the parable could have repented and come to personify true holiness, but they entrenched themselves in defensive positions.
May God reckon us as being more like Tobit than these chief priests, scribes, and elders, who lost their stake in the vineyard when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 C.E., during the First Jewish War.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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