According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
In various contexts, from different times, the Bible proclaims a consistent message: God cares deeply how people treat each other. God commands care for the vulnerable and weak. This message is not merely for individuals. Rather, it is usually collective.
The context of Isaiah 58:5-9a is instructive. That context was Jerusalem, circa 538 B.C.E. The first wave of Jewish exiles had returned to their ancestral homeland and found it a troubled, drought-ridden place, not the verdant utopia some prophets had promised. Second Isaiah reminded people who were feeling vulnerable to care for those who were more vulnerable. Second Isaiah reminded people of mutuality and complete dependence on God, principles from the Law of Moses.
Jesus upheld the Law of Moses. He criticized people who taught it badly and wrongly.
When we–collectively and individually–feel vulnerable and do not acknowledge our complete dependence on God, we may victimize or ignore the more vulnerable and the less fortunate. When we–collectively and individually–do not feel vulnerable and do not acknowledge our complete dependence on God, we may victimize the more vulnerable and the less fortunate. Either way, we–collectively and individually–may safeguard “me and mine” and endanger or ignore people God does notice. There is another way, though. We–collectively and individually–can notice those God notices. And we–collectively and individually–can practice mutuality and the recognition of universal human dependence on God.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 22, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN JULIAN, ANGLICAN PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNOLOGIST
THE FEAST OF ALEXANDER MEN, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1990
THE FEAST OF BENJAMIN LAY, AMERICAN QUAKER ABOLITIONIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT LADISLAO BATTHÁNY-STRATTMAN, AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PHYSICIAN AND PHILANTHROPIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT VINCENT PALLOTTI, FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLATE, THE UNION OF CATHOLIC APOSTOLATE, AND THE SISTERS OF THE CATHOLIC APOSTOLATE
Peeking behind the Law of Moses is a spiritually helpful practice. Some commandments in the Law of Moses are timeless principles. Others, however, are culturally specific examples. Failure to recognize between an example bound by time and space and a timeless principle leads to legalism.
Reading Galatians 3:1-11 and Matthew 5:13-20 together is quite helpful. We read that Jesus never objected to the Law of Moses, but to the misinterpretation, bad teaching, and flawed execution of it. That also seems to have been an objection of St. Paul the Apostle.
The other readings pertain to oppression. We read of violations of one timeless principle in the Law of Moses–do not exploit anyone. We read of religious figures and royal officials who were predators of the weak and vulnerable. Alas, this problem is as current in 2018 as it was in antiquity. So is the sin of certain religious figures supporting those predatory potentates and officials.
The timeless principles of the Law of Moses continue to condemn those who sin thusly. Indeed, apart from variations on themes, there is nothing new under the sun.
Do we condemn or condone such perfidy?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 21, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH, AND JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH, COMPOSERS
THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS OF FLÜE AND HIS GRANDSON, SAINT CONRAD SCHEUBER, SWISS HERMITS
THE FEAST OF SAINT SERAPION OF THMUIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM EDWARD HICKSON, ENGLISH MUSIC EDUCATOR AND SOCIAL REFORMER
The themes of light and of the liberation of Gentile people, present in the post for the previous Sunday, are obvious her also. Rahab and her family find deliverance. Also, St. Cornelius the Centurion and his household join the Christian fold formally. In the same story St. Simon Peter learns the difference between separatism and holiness.
The reading from Luke 11 requires some explanation. The erroneous physiological assumption at work is one common at the time. That assumption is that the eyes allow the light of the body to go out, hence
Your eyes are the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness.
–Luke 11:34, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
(Jesus was the Savior of the world. He was not an optometrist.)
Nevertheless, the issue of inner spiritual light and darkness is a true and timeless one. Gentiles can have light within them, just as Jews can have darkness within them. (Read Luke 11:37-54.) Indeed, each of us has both inner light and darkness. The question is, which one is dominant? Just as good people commit bad deeds, bad people commit good deeds too.
May God liberate us from our inner darkness and our inability and unwillingness to recognize the light in others, especially those different from ourselves.
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 seems like a rather annoying person. He is eager to defend God against Job’s complaints and to offer a more vigorous theodicy than that of Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. Elihu argues, in part:
So far is God removed from wickedness,
and Shaddai from injustice,
that he requites a man for what he does,
treating each one as his way of life deserves.
God is never wrong, do not doubt that!
Shaddai does not deflect the course of right.
–Job 34:10b-12, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
Translation: Job sinned, and these sufferings of his are divine punishment for those sins. If he repents, God will forgive Job and end his sufferings. This conclusion contradicts Job 1 and 2, which offer a truly disturbing answer: God has permitted an innocent man to suffer as part of a wager.
This seems like an excellent place at which to add the analysis of John Job, author of Job Speaks to Us Today (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1977), pages 102-103. The author asks, “Why are Job’s friends not truly wise?” He concludes, in part:
The friends, first of all, are shameless utilitarians. Repentance, in the estimation of Eliphaz, is a kind of insurance policy. Making petition to God is advocated, not for the intrinsic value of a relationship with him, but simply for the pay-off in material terms–as when he says, “Come to terms with God and you will prosper; that is the way to mend your fortune” (22:21). The interesting point here is that the friends adopt precisely the position which Satan regards as universally occupied by those who make a show of being god-fearing. “Does Job fear God for nothing?” he had asked. Eliphaz makes no secret of the grounds on which he is advising Job to fear God. It is all too shallow. Faith is depersonalized: it becomes self-centered instead of God-centered. Its character as faith is destroyed. Fear of God is simply not the right way to describe it.
If one replaces “Eliphaz” with “Elihu” and changes the citation from Job 22 to one from Chapter 34, this analysis remains valid.
The Book of Job defies the desire for easy answers that fundamentalism typifies. God is just, correct? Then how does one explain the wager in Job 1 and 2? And does not Job deserve better than the “I am God and you are not” speeches in Job 38-41? In Job 42, however, God expresses his displeasure with Eliphaz and company for speaking falsely about him and praises Job for speaking honestly about him (God). Those two responses seem incompatible, do they not? Of course, one came from one source and the other came from another. Elihu, who states correctly that God does not meet human measures (Job 33:12b), also spouts foolishness. The Book of Job provides no easy answers and offers a false, Hollywood ending, at least in its final, composite form. The original version ends with Job’s repentance for overreaching a few verses into Chapter 42.
Job needed good friends, not Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. He needed people who came to comfort him, to listen to him, and to let him cry on their shoulders. He needed friends who followed advice from Hebrews 13:16:
Never neglect to show kindness and to share what you have with others; for such are the sacrifices which God approves.
—The Revised English Bible (1989)
The standard we apply to others will be the standard God applies to us; we read this in Matthew 7:1-5. Forgiveness is something we are to extend to others, and divine forgiveness of our sins depends on our forgiveness of the sins of others. This is a lesson the author of Psalm 28 had not yet learned. This is a lesson with which I have struggled mightily and with which I continue to struggle. Success in the struggle does not depend on my own power, fortunately; grace is abundant. The desire to do something one knows one ought to do is something with which God can work. It is, metaphorically, a few loaves and fishes, which God can multiply.
In Job 42 God burned with anger toward Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. (The text does not mention Elihu, most likely because the text of the Book of Job did not yet contain the Elihu cycle.) The alleged friends had not spoken truthfully of God, but Job had. Job interceded on their behalf, however, and God excused their folly and forgave their sins. Job, who had complained bitterly to his alleged friends, who had taunted him and sometimes even enjoyed his sufferings, all while imagining that they were pious and that he had done something to deserve his plight, prayed for their forgiveness.
That is a fine lesson to draw from the Book of Job.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CONSTANCE AND HER COMPANIONS, MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF ANNE HOULDITCH SHEPHERD, ANGLICAN NOVELIST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ISAAC THE GREAT, PATRIARCH OF ARMENIA
That verse from Psalm 138 works well in a lectionary with his pericope from Judges 3, the story of chieftain Othniel of Kerizzite. Living among and intermarrying with polytheistic Gentiles had led to idolatry and other offenses, the text tells us, and King Cushan-rishathaim (literally “Dark double-wickedness”) of Aram-naharaim (in upper Mesopotamia) oppressed the Israelites. The people cried out to God, who selected Othniel to liberate them, and peace and holiness reigned for a few decades, until people repeated the cycle.
Repentance is turning around spiritually–something which proved to be a temporary turn for many people in the Book of Judges. Is that not an accurate description for many of we mere mortals? We turn away from sin and toward God then turn away from God again. Repentance was among the components of our Lord and Savior’s teaching. Repentance remains a germane topic, for human nature, with all of its virtues and vices, is constant over time.
May we, by grace, turn 180 degrees toward God and remain there, not turn 180 degrees again, thereby returning to where we had been before we repented.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 9, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DENIS, BISHOP OF PARIS, AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF SAINT LUIS BERTRAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY PRIEST
THE FEAST OF ROBERT GROSSETESTE, SCHOLAR
THE FEAST OF WILHELM WEXELS, NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR; HIS NIECE, MARIE WEXELSEN, NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN NOVELIST AND HYMN WRITER; LUDWIG LINDEMAN, NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN ORGANIST AND MUSICOLOGIST; AND MAGNUS LANDSTAD, NORWEGIAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, FOLKLORIST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNAL EDITOR
Everlasting God, you give strength to the weak and power to the faint.
Make us agents of your healing and wholeness,
that your good may be made known to the ends your creation,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 24
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings:
Proverbs 12:10-21 (Thursday)
Job 36:1-23 (Friday)
Psalm 147:1-11, 20 (Both Days)
Galatians 5:2-15 (Thursday)
1 Corinthians 9:1-16 (Friday)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
–Psalm 147:3, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One important task to perform while reading and inwardly digesting the Book of Job is to remember who is speaking at a given point. Consider, O reader, Elihu. He was an original part of the poem, and he rehashed arguments of the three main alleged friends, who also blamed the victim. These four characters could not accept that the titular character had done nothing to deserve his circumstances of suffering. They were correct some of the time regarding aspects of their cases, but they proceeded from a false assumption.
One is repaid in kind for one’s sinful deeds.
–Proverbs 12:14b, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
Yet the Book of Job tells us that Job did not suffer because of any sin. No, the narrative tells us, God permitted the suffering as a test of loyalty.
Sometimes circumstances challenge our preconceptions and theological soundbites. May we recall that we are free in God to love God and to care for each other, not to win theological arguments. Alleged orthodoxy means far less than sound orthopraxy.
Here ends the lesson, O reader. Go forth to love your neighbor as yourself, bearing his or her burdens, weeping with those who weep, and rejoicing with those who rejoice. Be agents of divine grace to those to whom God sends you and whom God sends to you.
DECEMBER 1, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE SECOND DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF NICHOLAS FERRAR, ANGLICAN DEACON
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHARLES DE FOUCAULD, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT
THE FEAST OF SAINT EDMUND CAMPION, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
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 could have cursed God, with some justification. The Book of Job does tell us that God sanctioned Job’s sufferings. Yet Job cursed the day of his birth. And John the Baptist could have identified himself as the Chosen One of God. Many people would not have known the difference between such a claim and the truth. Yet each figure acted according to an internalized sense of integrity.
How we behave when few others would know truth from fiction or nobody is watching indicates much about our integrity. This principle extends far beyond individualistic issues; it applies to questions such as how our actions affect the environment. (Environmental stewardship is a biblical mandate.) And the problems of others are also ours, as ours are theirs. We human beings are social creatures, thus what one person does affects others. Simply striving to treat others as people who bear the image of God (which they are) can lead one to violate social conventions and cause trouble for one. As a student of civil rights history, I know that segregation was the social order in the South. Thus resisting it could be risky, to state the case mildly.
The highest state of morality is following internalized morality instead of the consensus. May you, O reader, demonstrate integrity and morality of the highest order.
Until the next segment of our journey….
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 13, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT HERMENEGILD, VISIGOTHIC PRINCE AND ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
THE FEAST OF SAINT HUGH OF ROUEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP, ABBOT, AND MONK
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARTIN I, BISHOP OF ROME
THE FEAST OF MIKAEL AGRICOLA, FINNISH LUTHERAN BISHOP OF TALLINN
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.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 Kings 3:3-15 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father; only he sacrificed and burnt incense at the high places. And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings upon that altar. At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said,
Ask what I shall give you.
And Solomon said,
You have shown great and merciful love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart before you; and you have kept for him this great and merciful love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to govern this great people of yours?
It pleased the LORD that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him,
Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.
And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
Psalm 119:9-16 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
9 How shall a young man cleanse his way?
By keeping to your words.
10 With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not stray from your commandments.
11 I treasure your promise in my heart,
that I may not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O LORD;
instruct me in your statutes.
13 With my lips will I recite
all the judgments of your mouth.
14 I have taken greater delight in the way of your decrees
than in all manner of riches.
15 I will meditate on your commandments
and give attention to your ways.
16 My delight is in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
Mark 6:30-34 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
The apostles returned to Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them,
Come away by yourselves to a quiet place, and rest a while.
For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a lonely place by themselves. Now many saw them going, and knew them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns, and got there ahead of them. As he landed he saw a great throng, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
This famous account, actually a dream sequence, occurs at the beginning of Solomon’s nearly forty-year reign. It is a significant dream, unlike the few which I have and recall afterward. Those dreams I do remember usually fall into the category of “My brain was blowing off steam and conflating events, occasionally with science fiction.” I seem to do my best thinking while conscious.
Solomon, however, seemed to do better while unconscious. Already, in 1 Kings 2, he has killed a half-brother, a rival for the throne. And, later in 1 Kings, Solomon will have severe lapses in judgment, usually involving the intersection of women and foreign relations. Solomon, the son, stood in the shadow of his father, whom he surpassed in some ways. And, after Solomon, the kingdom went downhill, largely due to his policies regarding building projects, labor, and taxation to fund these.
Solomon should have stayed on the path of wisdom. His father, David, was tending sheep when the prophet Samuel arrived under the cover story of coming to sacrifice to the LORD–with Jesse and the sons. King David, when he did his job well, was a good national shepherd. This was Solomon’s vocation, one at which he failed on a large scale. He could have said what King Louis XV of France did: “After me, the deluge.” Rehoboam fared better than did Louis XVI, but the kingdom of Saul, David, and Solomon did come apart.
I cannot help but think about all of this when reading 1 Kings 3. Solomon had an opportunity to do well, but he squandered it. The fact of his existence indicated that his father had really strayed from the laws of God at times, but none of that mattered in 1 Kings 3. Solomon had a golden opportunity, and meant well at the time, but….
May we recognize opportunities God grants us, seek to use them for the common good, and, by grace, succeed. Mindful of human weaknesses and the corresponding need for support and encouragement, may we uphold each other in these vocations. And may we, who are not in positions of power, pray for those who are, that they may know good from evil, wise from foolish, and choose the the good and the wise, and act accordingly, for the common good.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
You must be logged in to post a comment.