If anyone had a legitimate reason to harbor resentment, Joseph son of Jacob did. Siblings had, out of jealousy of him and annoyance with him (he was an insufferable brat for a while), faked his death and sold him into slavery. Joseph had also spent years in prison for a crime he had not committed. Decades later, when he had a position in the Egyptian government, Joseph had an opportunity to take revenge. As one reads in Genesis 45, he chose to do otherwise.
One theme in the pericope from Romans 8 is liberation by God from the power of sin (yet not the struggle with sin) to serve and obey God, to pursue spiritual purposes. The reading from 1 John, with its warning against loving the world, fits well with that passage. That caution is not a call for serial Christian contrariness. No, St. Augustine of Hippo understood the passage well. He asked,
Why should I not love what God has made?
The great theologian answered his own question this way:
God does not forbid one to love these things but to love them to the point of finding one’s beatitude in them.
–Quoted in Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John (1982), pages 324-325
The quest for selfish gain, a theme extant in more than one of the readings for these days, is a journey toward harm of others and of oneself. That which we do to others, we do also to ourselves. There might be a delayed delivery of “what comes around, goes around,” but the proverbial cows will come home. It is better to seek the common god and to forgo vengeance, to retire grudges and to build up one’s society, community, and congregation. One can do that while loving the world, but not to the point of, in the words of St. Augustine of Hippo, finding one’s benediction in it. No, we should find one’s benediction in God alone. As we read in Psalm 27:7-9 (The Book of Common Prayer, 1979):
Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him.
Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers,
the one who succeeds in evil schemes.
Refrain from anger, leave rage alone;
do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.
Here ends the lesson.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 27, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CAMPBELL AINGER, ENGLISH EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT AEDESIUS, PRIEST AND MISSIONARY; AND SAINT FRUDENTIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF AXUM AND ABUNA OF THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHEDO CHURCH
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH GRIGG, ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
But when Moses repeated those words to the Israelites, they would not listen to him, because of their cruel slavery, they had reached the depths of despair.
Active faith by which we follow God has changed the world for the better. In the United States of America, for example, it fueled the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Such active faith overturned Apartheid in the Republic of South Africa. This continues to compel people to work for social justice all over the planet.
Yet passiveness born of resignation stymies progress. Giving up on improving conditions in this world and seeking a better lot only in the afterlife does nothing to work for a just society on this plane of reality. The Hebrew prophets condemned social injustice. Our Lord and Savior did likewise. Indeed, seeking to improve this reality is part and parcel of loving one’s neighbor and pursuing the great Jewish ethic of healing the world.
So may each of us never make peace with oppression. May all of us take to heart and act on the following prayer:
O God, your Son came among us to serve and not to be served, and to give his life for the life of the world. Lead us by his love to serve all those to whom the world offers no comfort and little help. Through us give hope to the hopeless, love to the unloved, peace to the troubled, and rest to the weary, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 60
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)
Job 16 and 17 consist of Job’s reply to the second speech of Eliphaz the Temanite. The speaker has no patience with anything he has heard so far, nor should he. Whoever speaks of “the patience of Job” as if Job were patient, does not understand the Book of Job.
Jesus, in John 7, is living under death threats. He is trying not to die just yet because
for me the time is not ripe yet (verse 8, The New Jerusalem Bible).
The words of our Lord’s adversaries afflicted him.
Words have power. According to Hebrew mythology God spoke the universe into being. What realities do we create with our words? What realities do we create with our silences? There is a time to speak. And there is a time to remain silent. There is also a time to say a certain amount and nothing more. May we know the difference and act accordingly.
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
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
James 2:14-26 (Revised English Bible):
What good is it, my friends, for someone to say he has faith when his actions do nothing to show it? Suppose a fellow-Christian, whether man or woman, is in rags with not enough food for the day, and one of you says,
Goodbye, keep warm, and have a good meal,
but does nothing to supply their bodily needs, what good is that? So with faith; if it does not lead by action, it is by itself a lifeless thing.
But someone may say:
One chooses faith, another action.
To which I reply:
Show me this faith you speak of with no actions to prove it, while I by my actions will prove to you my faith.
You have faith and believe that there is one God. Excellent! Even demons have faith like that, and it makes them tremble. Do you have to be told, you fool, that faith divorced from action is futile? Was it not by his action, in offering his son Isaac upon the altar, that our father Abraham was justified? Surely you can see faith was at work in his actions, and by these actions his faith was perfected? Here was the fulfillment of the words of scripture:
Abraham put his faith in God, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness,
and he was called
God’s friend.
You can see then it was by action and not by faith alone that a man is justified. The same is also true of the prostitute Rahab. Was she not justified by her action in welcoming the messengers into her house and sending them away by a different route? As the body is dead when there is no breath in it, so faith divorced from action is dead.
Psalm 112 (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.
7 They will not be afraid of any evil rumors;
their heart is right;
they put their trust in the Lord.
8 Their heart is established and will not shrink,
until they see their desire upon their enemies.
9 They have given freely to the poor,
and their righteousness stands fast for ever;
they will hold up their head with honor.
10 The wicked will see it and be angry;
they will gnash their teeth and pine away;
the desires of the wicked will perish.
Mark 8:34-9:1 (Revised English Bible):
Then he called the people to him, as well as his disciples, and said to them,
Anyone who wants to be a follower of mine must renounce self; he must take up his cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel’s will save it. What does anyone gain by winning the whole world at the cost of his life? What can he give to buy his life back? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this wicked and godless age, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
He said to them,
Truly I tell you: there are some of those standing here who will not taste death before they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
Today’s devotional consists of a story, one which actually might be accurate, but which does communicate a truth. I heard this story in a sermon over a decade ago.
Once, at a seminary attached to a historic U.S. university, a professor of homiletics, that is, preaching, assigned his students to preach about the importance of helping the less fortunate, a major theme in the Bible. He did not tell them that their words inside the classroom were irrelevant. Rather, each seminarian’s grade depended on his action or inaction on the day he was supposed to deliver this sermon. The seminary professor, you see, O reader, had contacted a drama professor, who had arranged for acting students to play beggars and to intercept the seminarians. Most of the seminarians failed.
Here ends the lesson. All other comments I might have made here are accessible by following the links embedded in this post.
