Pietism is an error-ridden system of thought. One of its gravest mistakes is the rejection of ritualism, often due to a misinterpretation of Psalm 50. The sacrificial system, commanded in the Law of Moses, is not the problem in Psalm 50. No, the divorce between sacrifices and morality is the offense. Mistaking sacrifices and other acts of public piety for a talisman is wrong. People need to walk the walk, in other words. Their acts of public piety will be genuine.
Speaking of sacrifices, the context of the Transfiguration in Mark 8-9 is the foretelling of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The prose poetry of the account tells us of Elijah (representing the prophets) and Moses (representing the Law) appearing with the glorified Jesus. This is, in context, an apocalyptic scene, as anyone steeped in the culture of Palestinian Judaism would have known. The attempt to institutionalize such a moment is always misguided, for one should keep on moving with Jesus, toward Jerusalem. Faith is a journey, not a permanent shrine.
My journey will not be identical to yours, O reader, nor should it be. Our journeys will properly contain many of the same landmarks, though. The destination will also be the same–God in Christ.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 19, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JAMES ARTHUR MACKINNON, CANADIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
THE FEAST OF ALFRED RAMSEY, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF CHARITIE LEES SMITH BANCROFT DE CHENEZ, HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM PIERSON MERRILL, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SOCIAL REFORMER, AND HYMN WRITER
At the end of the Season After the Epiphany or the beginning of the Season After Pentecost (depending on the year), we finish hopping and skipping through three books–Job, Deuteronomy, and James. If we pay attention, we notice that Job granted his daughters the right to inherit from his estate–a revolutionary move at that time and place.
Overall, when we add Psalm 48 and Mark 4:1-20 to the mix, we detect a thread of the goodness of God present in all the readings. Related to divine goodness is the mandate to respond positively to grace in various ways, as circumstances dictate. The principle is universal, but the applications are circumstantial.
Consider, O reader the parable in our reading from Mark 4. The customary name is the Parable of the Sower, but the Parable of the Four Soils is a better title. The question is not about the effectiveness of the sower but about the four soils. Are we distracted soil? Are we soil that does not retain faith in the face of tribulation or persecution? Are we soil into which no roots sink? Or are we good soil? Do we respond positively to grace, which is free yet not cheap, or do we not?
Job 42:11 tells that all Job’s “friends of former times” visited him and “showed him every sympathy.” (Job is a literary character, of course, so I do not mistake him for a historical figure.) I imagine Zophar, Bildad, Eliphaz, and even Elihu, who went away as quickly as he arrived, having realized their errors, dining with Job in shalom. That is indeed a scene of grace.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 19, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JAMES ARTHUR MACKINNON, CANADIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
THE FEAST OF ALFRED RAMSEY, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF CHARITIE LEES SMITH BANCROFT DE CHENEZ, HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM PIERSON MERRILL, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SOCIAL REFORMER, AND HYMN WRITER
Few details make this goy‘s eyes glaze over faster than particulars of Hebrew purification offerings from Leviticus. Professor Luke Timothy Johnson, in his Great Courses DVD series Jesus and the Gospels (2004), states plainly that the Book of Leviticus is not among the reasons that the Bible is a bestseller. Besides, the Law of Moses does not apply to me. Nevertheless, I, after having read Leviticus 5:1-13 and Luke 17:1-4 together, along with Psalm 38, detect a timeless, common theme, which is forgiveness. The author of Psalm 38 asks God for forgiveness. Leviticus 5:1-13 prescribes culturally specific rituals for atonement and forgiveness. And Jesus commands in Luke 17:1-4 that a person forgive someone who repents.
Forgiving might not help the forgiven party (or it might do so), but it certainly benefits the one who forgives. Anger is a strangely appealing burden to carry around in life. It might cause no harm to its target (or it might do so), but it definitely damages the one who nurses it. One should forgive even if the other person does not repent, apologize, or request forgiveness, for selfish reasons alone make forgiving sensible. Nevertheless, as I know well, letting go of resentment is frequently difficult. That reality, I think, has more to do with one’s self-image than with anything else.
I am righteous. I am the injured party. That S.O.B. owes me something.
It is little or no consolation, is it?
None of us can become the person God wants us to become by holding on to grudges. Also, forgiving feels better than the alternative.
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
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)
Bildad the Shuhite, in Job 18, implies that Job must be wicked. Why else would Job suffer so much? This is repetitive content. It was just as bogus this time as it was the previous occasions. The Lutheran lectionary, in its beauty, pairs Bildad’s speech with part of John 7, where people are plotting to do to Jesus things which Bildad describes as the fate of the wicked. This is the most powerful argument I can muster against Bildad’s words.
I will be brief, today, for most of what I might write here I have stated in previous posts in this Job and John series. Yet I do choose to make the following point here and now: In the canonical Gospels suffering is part of the destiny of the Messiah. Suffering indicates that one has been faithful to God. Thus those who follow Jesus must be prepared to suffer. And, in the Book of Tobit, the titular character suffers because he obeys God. For nearly two thousand years Christian martyrs have suffered because of their obedience. The darkness takes offense at the light shining in its midst yet can never extinguish all the candles and lamps.
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 4:13-17 (Revised English Bible):
Now a word with all who say,
Today or the next day we will go off to such and such a town and spend a year there trading and making money.
Yet you have no idea what tomorrow will bring. What is your life after all? You are no more than a mist, seen for a little while and then disappearing. What you ought to say is:
If it be the Lord’s will, we shall live to do so and so.
But instead, you boast and brag, and all such boasting is wrong. What it comes to is that anyone who knows the right thing to do and does not do it is a sinner.
Psalm 49:1-9, 16-20 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Hear this, all you peoples;
hearken, all you who dwell in the world,
you of high degree and low, rich and poor together.
2 My mouth shall speak of wisdom,
and my heart shall meditate on understanding.
3 I will incline my ear to a proverb
and set forth my riddle upon the harp.
4 Why should I be afraid in evil days,
when the wickedness of those at my heels surrounds me,
5 The wickedness of those who put their trust in their goods,
and boast of their great riches?
6 We can never ransom ourselves,
or deliver to God the price of our life;
7 For the ransom of our life is so great,
that we should never have enough to pay it,
8 In order to live for ever and ever,
and never to see the grave.
9 For we see that the wise die also;
like the dull and the stupid they perish
and leave their wealth to those who come after them.
16 Do not be envious when some become rich,
or when the grandeur of their house increases;
17 For they will carry nothing away at their death,
nor will their grandeur follow them.
18 Though they thought highly of themselves while they lived,
and were praised for their success,
19 They shall join the company of their forebears,
who will never see the light again.
20 Those who are honored, but have no understanding,
are like the beasts that perish.
Mark 9:38-41 (Revised English Bible):
John said to him,
Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and as he was not one of us, we tried to stop him.
Jesus said,
Do not stop him, for no one who performs a miracle in my name will be able the next moment to speak evil of me. He is not against us is on our side. Truly I tell you: whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you are followers of the Messiah will certainly not go unrewarded.
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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.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
–Matthew 6:19-21, Revised Standard Version
Once, in Alapaha, Georgia, there lived a kindly elderly woman named Emily. Her house was an unofficial museum of local history. There one could find old maps and photographs, an antique telephone, et cetera. Most impressive of all was her memory of the local past, though. One day she told me a story about a doctor, a general practitioner who made house calls. He kept track of who owed him how much. The doctor died with people still owing him money, but they never had pay up because he destroyed those records. His wife, he knew, would try to collect the money, and the patients probably could not pay. The man had a good heart, and he acted accordingly.
He knew, as did St. Laurence of Rome, that people matter more than money. The doctor also knew that, as Psalm 49 reminds us in eloquent words, we cannot take our earthly wealth with us when we die.
The biblical ethic concerning money is not anti-wealth. It is, rather, opposed to the arrogance and presumption many wealthy people have. We all depend on God for everything, but some people do not realize this because of their attitude toward their money and possessions. Some people have dealt with this spiritual matter by shedding their wealth. This an appropriate corrective action for many people. Yet others can remain wealthy and have a proper attitude, with their philanthropy demonstrating their sincerity. Proper attitude is essential in this spiritual matter, regardless of the action God calls one to take.
That proper attitude is recognition and acceptance of one’s total dependence on God for everything. May this guide our actions toward ourselves, each other, and God.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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