David was in mortal danger from King Saul, yet spared his life. The founder of an influential dynasty could have dispatched his would-be killer, but one man was a better person than the other.
Reconciling and seeking the common good tie most of these days’ readings together. Certain past deeds were indeed wrong, but how can people move forward without forgiveness? This is not a call to dodge justice, for justice and forgiveness can coexist. My point relative to justice is that it is separate from revenge. Seeking the common good unites the material in 1 Corinthians, an odd mixture of sexism and egalitarianism. The advice regarding women’s head coverings has a cultural component, for he condemns the unveiled, loose, flowing hairstyle associated with promiscuous women. As for abuses of the Eucharist, that was the only or one of the few good meals certain church members got each week, so stinginess with regard to the potluck supper placed the poorest Christians at Corinth at a nutritional disadvantage. Also, other members took the occasion to become drunk. All of the above negative behaviors were disrespectful of the ritual.
Overcoming factionalism and acting in conjunction with others for the common good is inherently just. Doing so facilitates service to God also, for how can we love God, whom we cannot see, if we despise our fellow human beings, whom we can see? We are free in God to love God and each other; may we strive to do so.
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
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.
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James 4:1-12 (Revised English Bible):
What causes fighting and quarrels among you? Is not their origin the appetites that war in your bodies? You want what you cannot have, so you murder; you are envious, and cannot attain your ambition, so you quarrel and fight. You do not get what you want, because you pray from the wrong motives, in order to squander what you get on your pleasures. Unfaithful creatures! Surely you know that love of the world means enmity to God? Whoever chooses to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy. Or do you suppose that scripture has not point when it says that the spirit which God implanted in us is filled with envious longings? But the grace he gives is stronger; thus scriptures says,
God opposes the arrogant and gives grace to the humble.
Submit then to God. Stand up to the devil, and he will turn and run. Come close to God, and he will draw close to you. Sinners, make your hands clean; you whose motives are mixed, see that your hearts are pure. Be sorrowful, mourn, and weep. Turn your laughter into mourning and your gaiety into gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
Friends, you must never speak ill of one another. He who speaks ill of a brother or passes judgement on him speaks ill of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not keeping it but sitting in judgment upon it. There is only one lawgiver and judge: he who is able to save life or destroy it. So who are you to judge your neighbour?
Psalm 51:1-18 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
11 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
12 Cast me not away from your presence
and take not your holy Spirit from me.
13 Give me the joy of your saving help again
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
14 I shall teach your ways to the wicked,
and sinners shall return to you.
15 Deliver me from death, O God,
and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness,
O God of my salvation.
16 Open my lips, O Lord,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
17 Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice,
but you take no pleasure in burnt-offerings.
18 The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Mark 9:30-37 (Revised English Bible):
They left that district and made their way through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know, because he was teaching his disciples, and telling them,
The Son of Man is now to be handed over into the power of men, and they will kill him; and three days after being killed he will rise again.
But they did not understand what he said, and were afraid to ask.
So they came to Capernaum; and when he had gone indoors, he asked them,
What were you arguing about on the way?
They were silent, because on the way they had been discussing which one of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself the last of all and servant of all.
Then he took a child, set him in front of them, and put his arm round him.
Whoever receives a child like this in my name,
he said,
receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me.
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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.
Humility is a topic I have covered in other devotional posts, for many passages of scripture address it. So most of what I write here duplicates the essence of what I have written elsewhere.
True greatness comes in service to others. Jesus modeled this behavior, and some of the Apostles did not learn the lesson immediately. But the life of Mother Teresa of Calcutta exemplified the principle of service which our Lord taught by his words and deeds. Not everyone has a vocation to help the poor of Calcutta, but every person does have a calling to help others as able. Given the variety of needs, there is a wide range of ways to help others.
Sometimes we judge others, claiming that they do not do enough. But we have limited knowledge of the circumstances they must face and the resources they have at their disposal. And maybe they are doing certain good works anonymously. Furthermore, God knows better than we do how others ought to help.
Mother Teresa said at least once that God calls us to be faithful, not successful. Of all the messages contained in these readings and this devotional, that might be the most counter-cultural, the one we need to hear the most. In faithfulness we will find true greatness, that is, greatness as God defines it. May we succeed in that, by grace.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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