These five readings, taken together, remind individuals, communities, and populations to obey God’s laws, keep its ethical mandate of mutuality under God, and not to be arrogant while idling in obliviousness to consequences of disobeying divine ethical standards. The Assyrians were on their way in Amos 6. False teachers were troublesome in 1 Timothy 4. Sacred rituals were not talismans in John 2.
Keeping the ethical mandates from God is not a talisman either. One who reads the Gospel of John should notice that Gospel’s placement of the “Temple Incident” (as scholars of the New Testament call it) at the beginning of Christ’s ministry. Such a reader also notices that, according to the Gospel of John, different groups tried for years to kill Jesus throughout the Fourth Gospel. If righteousness were a shield against negative consequences, Jesus would have been the safest person who ever lived.
Unfortunately, old, false ideas remain persistent. (Old, true ideas persisting is positive, of course.) The idea that one is suffering, therefore must have sinned, is false. So is the proposition that one is prosperous and secure, therefore must have done something right and righteous. How many times must one read the Gospel of John, ponder the life of Christ, and read accounts of martyrs before one understands this?
The rain falls on the just and the unjust. Many of the wicked prosper. Many of the righteous struggle and suffer. It is not fair. Life is not fair. Nevertheless, actions do have consequences in this life and in the afterlife. Sometimes we also suffer because of the actions of others. The problem of suffering is too complex for simple answers.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 31, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF SAINT GIUSEPPINA NICOLI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND MINISTER TO THE POOR
NEW YEAR’S EVE
THE FEAST OF ROSSITER WORTHINGTON RAYMOND, U.S. NOVELIST, POET, HYMN WRITER, AND MINING ENGINEER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ZOTICUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PRIEST AND MARTYR, 351
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
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
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The Assigned Readings:
Isaiah 46:1-13
Psalm 147:1-11, 20
Matthew 12:9-14
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Hallelujah!
How good it is to sing praises to our God!
how pleasant it is to honor him with praise!
–Psalm 147:1, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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An idol is anything (tangible or otherwise) which takes the place of God in one’s life. Thus an idol can be a doctrine, an activity, an object, or a figment of one’s imagination. It need not necessarily be bad; it can be inherently neutral, in fact, for how we think of it makes it an idol. I am convinced that the Bible is frequently an idol, given how many people put it in the place of God. The sacred anthology ought, of course, to function as an icon–something through which one sees God.
We read of two different types of idols in the lessons for today. There are old school false deities and images thereof in Isaiah 46. Monotheism took a long time to take hold among the Hebrews, hence the many condemnations of idolatry in the Old Testament. Our Lord and Savior confronted the idol of legalism in Matthew 12:9-14, for he healed on the Sabbath. Rules said that he should have done that on another day. To save a life and to provide the most minimal first aid on the Sabbath were “legal,” but healing was not. Yet, as Jesus demonstrated every day is a good day to perform a good deed.
I suspect that legalists think of themselves as righteous seekers after God. They are simply following the rules, I think they tell themselves. Yet they mistake the means for the end. And, as a result, they often oppose compassionate deeds on a technicality. As I wrote in the previous post, alleged orthodoxy means far less than sound orthopraxy. And, if God is love, is not compassion sound orthopraxy?
May we reject all idols, including those which seem to be of God.
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
The two main readings for today pertain to the Law of God–a law which is not a burden (unless one treats it as such)–a law written on proverbial human hearts. This is the law which our Lord and Savior summarized in two commandments. Thus loving God and loving our fellow human beings as we love ourselves are part of the same process. We cannot love God, whom we cannot see, if we do not love our fellow human beings, whom we can see.
The late Thomas Merton recalled a profound spiritual experience: one day, in a city, he realized that he loved everybody. This ethic informed his ethical choices. How could it not do so? For as we think, thus we are.
So we have a tangible standard: the example of Jesus, who set a very high bar. The call of Christian discipleship is the invitation to follow him–frequently a risky proposition. Our Lord and Savior’s active compassion caused much difficulty for him with certain people. Indeed, the Bible and the past are replete with stories of others who got into deep trouble due to their active compassion. Many of these people faced persecution and/or death because of it.
Yet active compassion is our call. And, even when we face persecution and/or death for following Christ in it, we may trust in God’s faithfulness, even if some of the promises (such as wealth) of Psalm 112 do not come true. Sometimes the result of faithfulness in this world is ruin and reproach; the good news awaits us on the other side.
So, O reader, what do those around you need? This not necessarily the same as what they want. And whose needs is God calling you to meet, at least partially?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 8, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WILFRED THOMASON GRENFELL, MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT BRIDGET OF SWEDEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN
THE FEAST OF ERIK ROUTLEY, HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM DWIGHT PORTER BLISS, EPISCOPAL PRIEST; AND RICHARD THEODORE ELY, ECONOMIST
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)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I beheld my Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; and the skirts of His robe filled the Temple. Seraphs stood in attendance on Him. Each of them had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his legs, and with two he would fly.
And one would call to the other,
Holy, holy, holy!
The LORD of Hosts!
His presence fills all the earth!
The doorposts would shake at the sound of the one who called, and the House kept filling with smoke. I cried,
Woe is me; I am lost!
For I am a man of unclean lips
And I live among a people
Of unclean lips;
Yet my own eyes have beheld
The King LORD of Hosts.
Then one of the seraphs flew over to me with a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched it to my lips and declared,
Now that this has touched your lips,
Your guilt shall depart
And your sin be purged away.
Then I heard the voice of my Lord saying,
Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?
And I said,
Here am I; send me.
And He said,
Go, say to that people:
“Hear, indeed, but do not understand;
See, indeed, but do not grasp.”
Dull that people’s mind,
Stop its ears,
And seal its eyes–
Lest, seeing with its eyes
And hearing with its ears,
It also grasp with its mind,
And repent and save itself.
I asked,
How long, my Lord?
And He replied:
Till towns lie waste without inhabitants
And houses without people,
And the ground lies waste and desolate–
For the LORD will banish the population–
And deserted sites are many
In the midst of the land.
But while a tenth part yet remains in it, it shall repent. It shall be ravaged like the terebinth and the oak, of which stumps are left even when they are felled; its stump shall be a holy seed.
Psalm 138 (Revised English Bible):
I shall give praise to you, LORD, with my whole heart;
in the presence of the gods I shall sing psalms to you.
I shall bow down towards your holy temple;
for your love and faithfulness I shall praise your name,
for you have exalted your promise above the heavens.
When I called, you answered me
and made me bold and strong.
Let all the kings of the earth praise you, LORD,
when they hear the words you have spoken;
let them sing of the LORD’s ways,
for great is the glory of the LORD.
The LORD is exalted, yet he cares for the lowly
and from afar he takes note of the proud.
Though I am compassed about by trouble,
you preserve my life,
putting forth your power against the rage of my enemies,
and with your right hand you save me.
The LORD will accomplish his purpose for me.
Your love endures for ever, LORD;
do not abandon what you have made.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11 (The Jerusalem Bible):
Brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, the gospel that you received and in which you are firmly established; because the gospel will save you only if you keep believing exactly what I preached to you–believing anything else will not lead to anything.
Well then, in the first place, I taught you what I had been taught myself, namely that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures; that he was buried; and that he was raised to life on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures; that he appeared first to Cephas and secondly to the Twelve. Next he appeared to more than five thousand of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died; then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles; and last of all he appeared to me too; it was as though I was born when no one expected it.
I am the least of the apostles; in fact, since I persecuted the Church of God, I hardly deserve the name apostle; but by God’s grace that is what I am, and the grace that he gave me has not been fruitless. On the contrary, I, or rather the grace of God that is with me, have worked harder than any of the others; but what matters is that I preach what they preach, and this is what you all believed.
Luke 5:1-11 (The Jerusalem Bible):
Now he was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God, when he caught sight of two boats close to the bank. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats–it was Simon’s–and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon,
Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.
Simon replied,
Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.
And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.
When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying,
Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.
For he and all his companions were completely overcome by the catch they had made; so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners; But Jesus said to Simon,
Do not be afraid; from now on it is men you will catch.
Then, bringing their boats back to land, they left everything and followed him.
The Collect:
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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\My most basic prayer for anyone–including myself–is that God’s best for that person will be that person’s reality. This petition speaks of an awareness that God has a set of purposes for each person and that one’s set is not another’s. There are certain broad generalizations which apply across the board, of course. Glorifying and enjoying God forever is one of them. Loving one’s neighbors is another. But circumstances and grace dictate the specifics.
We human beings have demonstrated the unfortunate tendency to work toward keeping people different from us and therefore allegedly inferior to us “in their place.” Thus Antebellum slaves in the Southern U.S. were supposed, by law in several states, to be illiterate. And, after emancipation, powerful white people did not always provide schools for African Americans. The schools which did exist were woefully inferior in many places. Thus a large proportion of the population lacked equality of opportunity. The society suffered, for keeping another “in his place” requires someone to make sure he stays there. That monitor is therefore not far removed from his victim. Thus perpetrators victimize themselves.
But what is God’s designated place for each of us? Isaiah became a prophet. Simon Peter, James, and John became great Apostles. And so did Paul. Human sinfulness was no obstacle to grace. What is God’s designated place for you? If you, O reader, are fortunate, you are there already. If not, may you get there. Getting there requires human assistance, so may you help others arrive at God’s destination and may others help you in your sacred vocation(s).
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
Job, early in his suffering, lamented that he had not only been born but survived the day of his birth. This was understandable, given the circumstances. (I grasp that the Book of Job is a drama and a work of fiction, yet I write of the scenes in their context.)
In John 1:35-51 Jesus calls his first disciples: Andrew and Simon Peter, brothers; Philip; and Nathanael/Bartholomew. All of them died as martyrs. The moment they began to follow Jesus was the moment they started their journeys toward suffering and death.
I think of a hymn:
They cast their nets in Galilee,
just of the hills of brown;
such happy, simple fisherfolk,
before the Lord came down.
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Contented, peaceful fishermen,
before they ever knew
the peace of God that filled their hearts
brimful, and broke them too.
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Young John who trimmed the flapping sail,
homeless in Patmos died.
Peter, who hauled the teeming net,
headdown was crucified.
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The peace of God, it is no peace,
but strife closed in the sod.
Yet let us pray for but one thing–
the marvelous peace of God.
—The Hymnal 1982, of The Episcopal Church, Hymn #661
I do not pretend to have answers I lack. Yet I do know that I prefer to keep Gods’ company in times of suffering and during times without it.
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.
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Hebrews 13:9-25 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
Do not be led astray by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing abuse for him. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account. Let them do this joyfully, and not sadly, for what would be of no advantage to you.
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
I appeal to you, brethren, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should understand that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. Grace be with all of you. Amen.
Psalm 23 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie in green pastures
and leads me beside still waters.
3 He revives my soul
and guides me along right pathways for his Name’s sake.
4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me;
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.
6 Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
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.
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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.
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A shepherd is a shepherd only if there are sheep to guard and lead.
The imagery of sheep and shepherds runs throughout the Old and New Testaments. Various groups of people–royal subjects, people in front of Jesus, et cetera–filled the role of sheep, depending on the text in question. Depending on the passage of Scripture one considers, the shepherd was God, a king, or Jesus. And some shepherds neglected their flocks. Jesus, we read, is the Good Shepherd. And he is, indeed.
We, as sheep, need a shepherd to protect us from ourselves, for we want to wander off to dangerous places. Despite what we like to think about ourselves, we are not always the brightest crayons in the box. Dealing with this issue effectively begins with recognizing the truth about ourselves and how much we need God, specifically in the form of Jesus. May we acknowledge our shepherd and follow his lead.
Yet Jesus is also the victorious and worthy sacrificial lamb. Members of the Church Triumphant wash their robes in his blood, and their robes become white. This poetic image communicates a great truth regarding atonement. So, as the logo of the Moravian Church encourages us, may we follow the lamb. Considering what he sacrificed and why he did it, we should reciprocate in love, devotion, and gratitude.
