The great myth of the Tower of Babel is a cautionary tale. It is certainly neither history nor cultural anthropology. So be it. The great myth in Genesis 11:1-9 condemns human hubris, that which
goeth before the fall.
“Look at me! Look at us!” is terrible theology. It is not humility before God either. Besides, such large-scale construction projects (as in the mythical Tower of Babel) entailed forced labor in antiquity. They required the exploitation of many people, in violation of the ethical mandates of the Law of Moses.
Galatians 6 is consistent with the ethical mandates of the Law of Moses. Bear one another’s burdens, we read. Act out of mutuality, we read. Never tire of doing good, we read.
Reaching to Heaven in pride is an element of Genesis 11. In the accounts of the Transfiguration, we read that God has reached down to people in sacrificial love. One proper response to such love is to love one another sacrificially. We cannot love as God loves, even by grace. However, we can, by grace, love each other better than we can on our own power.
May the sacrificial love of God manifest in the life of Jesus of Nazareth transfigure our lives. May it transfigure your life, O reader. May it transfigure my life. May hubris recede far into the background and disappear. May we seek to glorify God, not ourselves. May we succeed, by grace.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 4, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON, FOUNDRESS OF THE AMERICAN SISTERS OF CHARITY
THE FEAST OF FELIX MANZ, FIRST ANABAPTIST MARTYR, 1527
THE FEAST OF SAINTS GREGORY OF LANGRES, TERTICUS OF LANGRES, GALLUS OF CLERMONT, GREGORY OF TOURS, AVITUS I OF CLERMONT, MAGNERICUS OF TRIER, AND GAUGERICUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS
THE FEAST OF JOHANN LUDWIG FREYDT, GERMAN MORAVIAN COMPOSER AND EDUCATOR
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
–Galatians 5:14-15, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
As I write repeatedly, the Law of Moses contains both timeless principles and culturally specific examples thereof. One of these timeless principles is the Golden Rule. It is short, sweet, and to the point. One might, with verbosity, attempt to work around it, but the Golden Rule remains golden and wonderfully succinct. It is also difficult to live up to much of the time.
Another timeless principle of the Law of Moses is that all of us depend entirely on God and partially on each other. We are therefore interdependent and responsible both to and for each other, as well as to God. These points underpin much of the content of scripture assigned for this Sunday.
Often we violate the Golden Rule in the name of looking out for ourselves. We imagine vainly that we must and can rely on our own resources. That attitude is the origin of much evil. But, in Christ, we are free, by grace, to become people who uphold a high standard of radical love–even sacrificial love. The servant is not greater than the master, after all.
May we, while seeking to follow God, care more about being loving and compassionate than about confirming our biases. May we seek to love, not to be right in our own eyes, with their frequently defective moral vision.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 22, 2018 COMMON ERA
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
In Psalm 7 the author seeks divine protection from enemies. In Genesis 4 Cain kill Abel. God exiles the murderer yet protects him.
Genesis 4, unlike a host of exegetes dating from antiquity to the present day, does not explain why God favored one sacrifice over the other. The story does, however, make clear the defective character of Cain, who acted out of, among other motivations, jealousy. Genesis 4:7 offers a vivid image of sin as, in the words of the Everett Fox translation, “a crouching demon” by an entrance. One has the option of not giving into temptation, of course, as the text tells us.
Jealousy leads to many sins, especially of one passion or another. Out of jealousy one might accuse an agent of God (Jesus, for example) of being in league with evil (as in Matthew 9:32-34). Jealousy can also lead to spiritual blindness, consciously or otherwise. Either way, one commits serious error.
May we, by grace, rule over the metaphorical demon of sin crouching by the door, waiting to ambush us.
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” means “He is my God.” Elihu mounts a full-throated theodicy; he seeks to prove that God is just. (God needs no human defense, of course.) In the process Elihu accuses Job falsely of having been an agent of economic injustice and states that this alleged sin of Job is the reason for the main character’s sufferings. All of this contradicts Job 1 and 2, as a reader of the text is supposed to know. Elihu, who is falsely confident that he is correct, is blaming the victim.
Later in the Book of Job, a text with layers of authorship, we read two very different answers from God. In Chapters 38-41 God gives Job the “I am God and you are not” speeches. In the prose epilogue, in Chapter 42, however, God speaks briefly to Eliphaz the Temanite, saying:
I burn with anger against you and your two friends for not speaking truthfully about me as my servant Job has done….
–Verse 7b, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
There is no mention of Elihu after Chapter 37. I suppose that this is because the composition of Chapters 32-37 postdates that of the epilogue, but, given that the Elihu material is similar in content to the speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, he would have met with divine disapproval also, had the Elihu cycle existed at the time of the composition of the epilogue.
In contrast to the arrogance of Elihu (Job 36:4) one finds humility before God in Psalm 61 and 2 Peter 3:14. Divine patience is, in the words of 2 Peter 3:15, an
opportunity for salvation,
but divine judgment and mercy exist in a balance which only God understands fully. May we accept this opportunity for salvation, not imagine that we are enlightened and that our words contain no fallacies. And may we avoid committing the error of people of Nazareth in Matthew 13:53-58, that is, permitting familiarity to blind us to the fact that we do not know as much as we think we do. This is an especially helpful caution regarding passages of scripture with which we are familiar; they retain the ability to contradict our false assumptions and surprise–even scandalize–us.
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
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)
John 9 consists of one story–that of a blind man whom Jesus heals. The healing occurs at the beginning of the chapter. Then religious politics take over. How dare Jesus heal on the Sabbath? Was the man ever really blind? How could an alleged sinner–a Sabbath breaker–Jesus, perform such a miracle? The works of God clashed with human orthodoxy, and defenders of that orthodoxy preferred not to admit that they were or might be wrong.
Some words of explanation are vital. One way a visible minority maintains its identity is to behave differently than the majority. As Professor Luke Timothy Johnson has pointed out, arbitrary rules might seem especially worthy of adherence from this perspective. Sabbath laws forbade certain medical treatments on that day. One could perform basic first aid legally. One could save a life and prevent a situation from becoming worse legally. But one was not supposed to heal or cure on the Sabbath. This was ridiculous, of course, and Jesus tried to do the maximum amount of good seven days a week. Each of us should strive to meet the same standard.
At the beginning of John 9 our Lord’s Apostles ask whether the man or his parents sinned. Surely, they thought, somebody’s sin must have caused this blindness. Apparently these men had not absorbed the Book of Job. As Job protests in Chapter 30, he is innocent. And the Book of Job agrees with him. Job’s alleged friends gave voice to a human orthodoxy, one which stated that suffering flowed necessarily from sin. The wicked suffer and the righteous, prosper, they said. (Apparently, adherents of Prosperity Theology have not absorbed the Book of Job either.) Job was, by their standards, a heretic.
Some of my favorite people have been heretics. Galileo Galilei was a heretic for reporting astronomical observations and deriving from them accurate conclusions which challenged centuries of bad doctrine. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders condemned his writings as heretical in the 1600s. Roger Williams argued for the separation of church and state in Puritan New England. He also opposed mandatory prayer; the only valid prayer, he said, is a voluntary one. For his trouble Williams had to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Also forced to leave was Anne Hutchinson, who dared to question her pastor’s theology. I have made Galileo a saint on my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days. And The Episcopal Church has recognized Williams and Hutchinson as saints. I wonder what two rebellious Puritans would have thought about that.
Orthodoxies build up over time and become accepted, conventional, and received wisdom. The fact that a doctrine is orthodox according to this standard discourages many people from questioning it even when observed evidence contradicts it. Jupiter does have moons. This fact contradicts the former theology of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Should one accept good science or bad theology? The question answers itself. The man in John 9 was born blind. Attempts in the chapter to question that reality are almost comical. We human beings must be willing to abandon assumptions which prove erroneous if we are to be not only intellectually honest but also to avoid harming others while defending our own egos.
Until the next segment of our journey….
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 27, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEW JERSEY
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANTONY AND THEODOSIUS OF KIEV, FOUNDERS OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX MONASTICISM; SAINT BARLAAM OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT; AND SAINT STEPHEN OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT AND BISHOP
THE FEAST OF THE EARLY ABBOTS OF CLUNY
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH WARRILOW, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
And it was when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai, and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’s hand when he was coming down from the mountain. And Moses had not known that the skin of his face was transformed when He was speaking with him. And Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses; and, here, the skin of his face was transformed, and they were afraid of going over to him. And Moses called to them. And Aaron and all the chiefs in the congregation came back to him, and he spoke to them. And after that all the children of Israel went over. And he commanded them everything that YHWH had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And Moses finished speaking with them, and he put a veil on his face. And when Moses would come in front of YHWH to speak with Him, he would turn away the veil until he would go out; and he would go out and speak to the children of Israel what had been commanded. And the children of Israel would see Moses’ face, that the skin of Moses’ face was transformed, and Moses would put back the veil on his face until he would come to speak with Him.
Psalm 99 (New Revised Standard Version):
The LORD is king; let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
The LORD is great in Zion;
he is exalted over all the peoples.
Let them praise your great and awesome name.
Holy is he!
Mighty King, lover of justice,
you have established equity;
you have executed justice
and righteousness in Jacob.
Extol the LORD our God;
worship at his footstool.
Holy is he!
Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
They cried to the LORD, and he answered them.
He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
they kept his decrees,
and the statutes that he gave them.
O LORD our God, you answered them;
you were a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
Extol the LORD our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;
for the LORD our God is holy.
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:6 (An American Translation):
So since I have such a hope, I speak with great frankness, not like Moses, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the fading of the splendor from it. Their minds were dulled. For to this day, the same veil remains unlifted, when the read the old agreement, for only through union with Christ is it removed. Why, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their minds, but
whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Now the Lord here means the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, reflecting the splendor of the Lord in our unveiled faces, aer being changed into likeness of him, from one degree of splendor to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
So since by the mercy of God I am engaged in this service, I never lose heart. I disown disgraceful, underhanded ways. I refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s message. It is by the open statement of truth that I would commend myself to every human conscience in the sight of God. If the meaning of my preaching of the good news is veiled at all, it is so only in the case of those who are on the way to destruction. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep the light of the good news of the glorious Christ, the likeness of God, from dawning upon them. For it is not myself but Christ Jesus that I am proclaiming as Lord; I am only a slave of yours for Jesus’ sake. For the God who said,
Let light shine out of darkness,
has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God’s glory, that is on the face of Christ.
Luke 9:28-42a (New Revised Standard Version):
About eight days after Peter had acknowledged Jesus as the Christ of God, Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus,
Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah
–not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said,
This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!
When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted,
Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.
Jesus answered,
You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.
While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.
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.
I like this Sunday, for its readings match up nicely. Exodus and 2 Corinthians refer to Moses wearing a veil after communing with God, a counterpart to the never veiled Jesus during the Transfiguration. This is a prime example of why lectionaries are useful.
The presentation of Yahweh in the Torah is awe-inspiring. One ought not look too closely, for to do so would be dangerous. And Moses had an incredibly shiny face from communing with God. (All Charlton Heston got was streaked hair!) But, for most people, there was a certain distance, and Moses found a veil necessary in public.
The Transfiguration revealed our Lord’s true nature. But notice that there was no veil in the area. Part of the meaning of the Incarnation is God’s approachability, indeed God’s approaching. There is always a mystery there, but it is one which seeks us out.
I suspect that there is much poetry–perhaps more than literal truth–in the Exodus and Luke accounts. This does not trouble me, for poetry and metaphor are frequently better at conveying deep truth than are any straight-forward reports. As we moderns read the Bible, may we not abandon religious imagination, often the most memorable and profound aspect of certain texts. In religious imagination we encounter God in beauty, something mere facts cannot convey. How will our encounters with God in such beauty change us and be obvious to others?
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
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down,
for he who has pity on them will lead them,
and by springs of water will guide them.
And I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
Lo, these shall come from far away,
and lo, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Syene.
Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
For the LORD has comforted his people,
and will have compassion on all his suffering ones.
But Zion said,
The LORD has forsaken me,
my LORD has forgotten me.
Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these may forget,
yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.
Psalm 131 (New Revised Standard Version):
O LORD, my heart is not lifted up,
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.
O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time on and forevermore.
1 Corinthians 4:1-5 (New Revised Standard Version):
Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself. I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.
Matthew 6:24-34 (New Revised Standard Version):
Jesus said,
No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you– you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
The Collect:
Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Did you notice the incongruity between the collect and the first reading? The dominant gender image for God in the first reading is feminine, but the collect addresses God the Father. These are just metaphors, so let us not become distracted by them, reifiying them and transforming them into idols. Instead, may we look through them to the substance behind them.
Yahweh/God the Father is far removed from traditional concepts of the Mother Goddess, but the Judeo-Christian Bible contains images of God as mother. And let us not forget the personification of divine wisdom as feminine. Deity exists beyond gendered bounds, containing characteristics we humans associate with both males and females, with fathers and mothers. So God is our parental figure, and we are as helpless as infants. (This is not how many of us like to think of ourselves.)
And the truly excellent news is that God is better than any human mother or father, as the reading from Isaiah reminds us. God is love, and love seeks reciprocation. Love gives of itself to the point of self-sacrifice. This describes the God I see in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Today has enough worries of its own. I did not ponder this statement until early 2007, when the floor of my life fell out from under me. I learned then that worrying was truly worthless, especially when life was more difficult than usual. Instead, I crawled to God, acknowledged the obvious (my helplessness), and did not pretend to be any more than I was. God, my mother, comforted me with maternal love and rocked me to sleep. God, my father, extended paternal care. Jesus, my brother, put his arm around me and supported me emotionally. All the metaphors came into play. And I survived another day, at which point the process started over again.
KRT
Written for SUNDRY THOUGHTS OF KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR on June 16, 2010
Above: Wisdom, by Robert Lewis Reed (1896), at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Misguided Possessiveness and Factionalism are Unwise
FEBRUARY 27, 2019
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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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Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 4:11-19 (Revised English Bible):
Wisdom raises her sons to greatness
and gives help to those who seek her.
To love her is to love life;
those who rise early to greet her will be filled with joy.
He who holds fast to her will gain honour;
the Lord’s blessing rests on the house she enters.
To serve her is to serve the Holy One,
and the Lord loves those who love her.
He who is obedient to her will give true judgement,
and, because he listens to her, his home will be secure.
If he trusts her, he will possess her
and bequeath her to his descendants.
At first she will lead him by torturous ways,
filling him with craven fears.
Her discipline will be a torment to him,
and her decrees a hard test,
until he trusts her with all his heart;
then she will come straight back to him,
bringing gladness and revealing to him her secrets.
But if he strays, she will abandon him
and leave him to his fate.
Psalm 119:161-168 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
161 Rulers have persecuted me without a cause,
but my heart stands in awe of your word.
162 I am as glad because of your promise
as one who finds great spoils.
163 As for lies, I hate and abhor them,
but your law is my love.
164 Seven times a day do I praise you,
because of your righteous judgments.
165 Great peace have they who love your law;
for them there is no stumbling block.
166 I have hoped for your salvation, O LORD,
and I have fulfilled your commandments.
167 I have kept your decrees
and I have loved them deeply.
168 I have kept your commandments and decrees,
for all my ways are before you.
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.
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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.
–Jesus in Mark 8:38 (Revised English Bible)
and this:
I now understand how true it is that God has no favourites, but that in every nation those who are god-fearing and do what is right are acceptable to him.
–Simon Peter in Acts 10:34-35 (Revised English Bible)
God works through and speaks to and through a wide variety of people. Many of them are unlike you, O reader, or me. Yet they are of God, too. So, how will we respond to them. I know how we should respond; we should welcome them and give thanks for them. We might even be able to collaborate with some of them now and again. But will we exhibit a positive response or attempt to shut them down, as the Apostles did?
Ben Sira explains that divine wisdom, personified as female, is both comforting and challenging, delightful and capable of tough love. (The psalmist agrees.) This writing comes from a place of lived and mature spirituality; it recognizes that discipline is part of God’s love for us. If we persist faithfully, however, we will learn the lessons God has in mind for us.
The Apostles needed to learn such lessons. They reported discouraging a successful exorcist who was not of their religious opinion in Mark 9:38. Yet, in Mark 9:18, they failed in their attempts at exorcism. Were they protecting their turf and criticizing unjustly one who could do what they could not? This other fellow’s success did not trouble Jesus, though” “He who is not against us is on our side.” Our Lord and Savior did not pay undue attention to divisive labels and artificial categories. Neither should we.
Human thoughts do not limit divine wisdom. This is a challenging realization, one that acting upon can lead to scorn, if not persecution. But, as Jesus said,
Blessed are you when people hate you and ostracize you, when they insult you and slander your very name, because of the Son of Man. On that day exult and dance for joy, for you have a rich reward in heaven; that is how their fathers treated the prophets.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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