That is the theme uniting the assigned readings. The call is both individual and collective, and always in the context of community.
The righteous and the unjust suffer. Does God afflict faithless people with physical ailments. My theology answers, “no.” Much of the Hebrew Bible disagrees with me, of course. My disgust with bigoted televangelists who have have attributed diseases and natural disasters (such as Hurricane Katrina, 2005) to the wrath of God informs my opinion. Sometimes people are merely unfortunate. On other occasions. some people suffer the consequences of their actions. I do not that interpret that as God smiting people. No, I understand that as people smiting themselves.
We will suffer as surely as we breathe. May we, by grace, not suffer because of our sins, individually. Given that we live in community, each of us will suffer because of the actions and inaction of others. Not one of us can change that reality. Each one of us can, however, trust God and follow Jesus. Each of us can use our spiritual gifts properly, for the glory of God and for the common good. Each of us can be a conduit of divine love. If we do not think doing so will prompt certain others to target us, we deceive ourselves, unfortunately.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 18, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT LEONIDES OF ALEXANDRIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 202; ORIGEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN; SAINT DEMETRIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; AND SAINT ALEXANDER OF JERUSALEM, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, BISHOP, THEOLOGIAN, AND LITURGIST
THE FEAST OF ELIZA SIBBALD ALDERSON, POET AND HYMN WRITER; AND JOHN BACCHUS DYKES, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT PAUL OF CYPRUS, EASTERN ORTHODOX MARTYR, 760
THE FEAST OF ROBERT WALMSLEY, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST HYMN WRITER
The pericope from 1 Corinthians 14 contains a troubling passage which might be a later addition to it. In the context of cautions against seeking glory for oneself and thereby causing disruption in the church we read that women (actually, wives, in Greek) should be silent and subordinate in church. The meaning is probably that a wife who disagrees with or contradicts her husband in church will cause discord in the congregation, maybe by embarrassing him. Furthermore, some women in the Corinthian congregation were questioning speakers during worship. On the other hand, St. Paul the Apostle worked well with other women (such as St. Prisca/Priscilla, wife of St. Aquila), who taught, and many of the troublemakers in the Corinthian congregation were men. (For details regarding St. Prisca/Priscilla, read Acts 18:1-28; Romans 16:3; 1 Corinthians 16:19; and 2 Timothy 4:19.) One might also refer to Pauline assertions of equality in Christ, as in Galatians 3:27-29. And, with respect to the pericope from Judges 5, Deborah was a chieftain of the Israelites.
One of the contexts in which to interpret a passage of scripture is the entirety of the Bible. Another is the immediate environs (textual, historical, and geographical) of the passage. Nevertheless, sexist attitudes consistent with patriarchy permeate the Bible. I refuse to validation. Each of us learns from culture. This curriculum is of mixed quality. May we recognize the bad, reject it, and refuse to call it holy.
Meanwhile, may we refrain from causing disruptions in church.
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
Ritualism, in and of itself, is positive. It, paired with lived faith in God–the kind of faith which finds expression in, among other things, an active concern for what James 3:18 (The New Jerusalem Bible) calls
a harvest of justice,
is consistent with the witness of Hebrew prophets who decried judicial and political corruption and economic exploitation. In fact, the instructions for the house of worship in the Law of Moses indicate a space designed for ritualism. But the Law of Moses (when it does not call for stoning people or reflect a negative view of female biology) speaks of lived holiness for the community.
Many activities are positive. Among these is washing one’s hands before eating–certainly a sanitary action. Yet sanitation was not the concern Jesus addressed in Mark 7. No, our Lord and Savior discussed tradition for its own sake and the sake of making some people appear holier than others. He knew that washing hands could not purify one’s self-righteous attitude. So rituals ought not to function as totems, which people imagine vainly will protect them from the wrath of God or merely from the consequences of their bad deeds and sins of omission.
May each of us engage in good deeds and rituals.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 10, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN LEONARDI, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF THE MOTHER OF GOD; AND SAINT JOSEPH CALASANCTIUS, FOUNDER OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS
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)
I have combined the readings for February 7 and 8 to keep Eliphaz the Temanite material together. Doing this has another effect: keeping miracle at Cana and the Johannine account of the cleansing of the Temple together. Shall we proceed?
Job had bad excuses for friends. Exhibit A is Eliphaz the Temanite, who defended his concept of God by insisting that Job must have done something to warrant suffering. After all, in Eliphaz’s view, the good prospered and the bad suffered. This was demonstrably false theology. Just look around: Truly bad people prosper and morally sound people suffer. The Gospel of John, like all canonical Gospels, written from a post-Resurrection perspective, places a prediction of our Lord’s suffering at the beginning of our Lord’s suffering at the beginning of the text. If Eliphaz was correct, Jesus should not have suffered. But he did. So Eliphaz was incorrect.
There is more to John 2:1-25. The story of the miracle at Cana speaks of extravagance. In Jesus, it tells us, was something new–well, old really–but new relative to the perspective of the people at the time–and unstinting. This was not a rejection of Judaism; rather it emerged from Judaism. Jesus was, after all, a practicing Jew. Yet the cleansing of the Temple–placed at the beginning of our Lord’s ministry in John, in contrast to the Synoptic chronology–did indicate a rejection of the Temple system, which placed undue burdens on those who could least afford them. Money changers profited from the religious imperative to exchange idolatrous Roman currency before buying a sacrificial animal. But Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice in time.
The character of Eliphaz the Temanite experienced cognitive dissonance over Job’s sufferings. Eliphaz resolved that dissonance by doubling down on his ideology, even though evidence contradicted it. The emergence of Jesus pointed to a new (to humans) approach to God. In each case predictable conservatism clung to the old ways of thinking. But the dogmas of the past were inadequate to the demands of the then-current reality. Conservatism is not inherently bad; it is just not appropriate at all times and in all places. The question concerns what one seeks to conserve. Sometimes a revolutionary is just what God ordered.
May our assumptions–especially those so deeply embedded that we do not think of them as assumptions–not prevent us from recognizing God’s ways of working. And may these assumptions not blind us to our own errors.
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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Once again I have changed translations, something I do from time to time. It is good to read biblical texts, especially ones with which one is familiar in one version, in a different one. The act of translating a biblical text out of its original language is also one of interpreting it, for there are shades of meaning in ancient Hebrew and Greek. Which shade of meaning does one emphasize? So a very helpful way of reading the texts, which I like to type out, is to have at least one other translation available and to compare and contrast the renderings.
The versions I use for this week are:
TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985), of the Jewish Publication Society,
and
The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition (1972), by J. B. Phillips.
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1 Kings 8:1-13 (TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures):
Then Solomon convoked the elders of Israel–all the heads of the tribes and the ancestral chieftains of the Israelites–before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD from the City of David, that is, Zion.
All the men of Israel gathered before King Solomon at the Feast, in the month of Ethanim–that is, the seventh month. When all the elders of Israel had come, the priests lifted the Ark and carried up the Ark of the LORD. Then the priests and the Levites brought the Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent. Meanwhile, King Solomon and and the whole community of Israel, who were assembled with him before the Ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen in such abundance that they could not be numbered or counted.
The priests brought the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant to its place underneath the wings of the cherubim, in the Shrine of the House, in the Holy of Holies; for the cherubim had their wings spread out over the place of the Ark, so that the Cherubim shielded the Ark and its poles from above. The poles projected so that the ends of the poles were visible in the sanctuary in front of the Shrine, bu they could not be seen outside; and there they remain to this day. There was nothing inside the Ark but the two tablets of stone which Moses placed there at Horeb, when the LORD made [a covenant] with the Israelites after the departure from the land of Egypt.
When the priests came out of the sanctuary–for the cloud had filled the House of the LORD and the priests were not able to remain and perform the service because of the cloud, for the Presence of the LORD filled the House of the LORD–then Solomon declared:
The LORD has chosen
To abide in a thick cloud:
I have now built for You
A stately House,
A place where You
May dwell forever.
Psalm 132:6-10 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
6 “The ark!” We heard it was in Ephratah;
we found it in the fields of Jearim.
7 Let us go to God’s dwelling place;
let us fall upon our knees before his footstool.”
8 Arise, O LORD, into your resting-place,
you and the ark of your strength.
9 Let your priests be clothed with righteousness;
let your faithful people sing with joy.
10 For your servant David’s sake,
do not turn away the face of your Anointed.
Mark 6:53-56 (J. B. Phillips, 1972):
And when they had crossed over to the other side of the lake they landed at Gennesaret and tied up there. As soon as they came ashore, the people recognised Jesus and rushed all over the countryside and began to carry the sick around on their beds to wherever he was. Wherever he went, in villages or towns or hamlets, they laid down their sick right in the marketplaces and begged him that they might “just touch the edge of this cloak”. And all those who touched him were healed.
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.
From June 1982 to June 1985 my father served as pastor of the Hopewell United Methodist Church, outside Baxley, Georgia, on Red Oak Road, in Appling County. I was in the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Grades at the time. Being young and generally well-trained, I deferred to my elders much of the time, even when I knew they were factually mistaken. Some of my Sunday School teachers were poorly informed, yet I stayed quiet when I heard them make a basic mistake, such as what the “ninth hour” was in relation to Christ’s crucifixion. One Sunday School teacher did not know that this was 3:00 P.M., for example. And at least one Sunday School teacher misinterpreted “to this day” references in the Bible to apply to the early 1980s.
1 Kings 8:8 uses “to this day” to refer to the position of the Ark of the Covenant’s position (and the position of its poles) in the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple. Yet Solomon’s Temple has not stood since 587/586 B.C.E., and the Ark of the Covenant had ceased to be at the Temple before then. So “to this day” helps one date the writing of that verse. The statement was accurate when the author wrote that line. As a history buff, I find such markers quite helpful.
The reading from 1 Kings 8 is part of the description of Solomon’s dedication of the First Temple. The lesson conveys a sense of great mystery and reverence, down to the cloud, an indication of the divine presence, filling the House of the LORD. I do not know what actually happened, for the prose poet in me suspects that words were inadequate to describe well what really occurred. But it was, simply put, mystical. That satisfies me.
Yet God seems both close and distant in 1 Kings 8. “God is here, so we cannot perform our service,” the priests seemed to have said to themselves in Hebrew. As a Christian, I believe in approaching God with reverence, but consider God approachable nonetheless. God has come to us as a baby who grew up and became a craftsman who worked with stone and wood. This craftsman also healed many people (as in the reading from Mark), uttered many wise sayings and great moral truths, suffered, died, rose from the dead, and atoned for human sins.
By the act of the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity as Jesus of Nazareth, God approached us, so I feel free to approach God–reverently, of course, but quite personally. In fact, my preferred way of addressing God is “You.” I mean the second person singular and informal pronoun; if I were speaking in French, I would call God Tu, a practice consistent with every French translation of the Bible I have seen.
God has approached us. That is true to this day, Monday, June, 20, 2011, when I write these words, and afterward. A reciprocal response is appropriate and respectful. That is also true to this day.
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to live in;
who brings princes to naught,
and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.
Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me?
or who is my equal? says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes on high and see:
Who created these?
He who brings out their host and numbers them,
calling them all by name;
because he is great in strength,
mighty in power,
not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
Psalm 147:1-12, 21c (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Hallelujah!
How good it is to sing praises to our God!
how pleasant it is to honor him with praise!
2 The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He counts the number of the stars
and call s them all by their names.
5 Great is our LORD and mighty in power;
there is no limit to his wisdom.
6 The LORD lifts up the lowly,
but casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
make music to our God upon the harp.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds
and prepares the rain for the earth;
9 He makes grass to grow upon the mountains
and green plants to serve mankind.
10 He provides food for flocks and herds
and for the young ravens when they cry.
11 He is not impressed by the might of a horse;
he has no pleasure in the strength of a man;
12 But the LORD has pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who await his gracious favor.
21c Hallelujah!
1 Corinthians 9:16-23 (New Revised Standard Version):
If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this on my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. When then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free if charge, as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
Mark 1:29-39 (New Revised Standard Version):
As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him,
Everyone is searching for you.
He answered,
Let us go on to the neighboring towns , so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.
And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
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.
In the Autumn of 1991, during my first quarter at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton, Georgia, my father was the newly appointed pastor the Sumner United Methodist Church, Sumner, Georgia. I did not know it yet, but I was on the cusp of converting to The Episcopal Church, which I did at St. Anne’s Church, Tifton, on December 22, 1991. In the meantime, however, I was still a United Methodist. One Sunday morning, while teaching adult Sunday School, I offended someone by accident.
You, O reader, might wonder what terrible thing I said, what utterly offensive comment I made. I will tell you. I was discussing grace, especially the prevenient variety, by which God brings us into the Christian fold. God does beckon us, after all. I offered a scenario: God is beckoning a non-Christian man, who responds favorably and obediently to God’s prevenient grace yet dies before making a profession of faith. Does the man go to Heaven or to Hell? In other words, will God be faithful to this man, who had responded favorably to him? Most people said that the man would go to Heaven. But two visitors, a daughter and son-in-law of a member, said that he would go to Hell, for he had not made a profession of faith and been baptized yet. I made clear in a polite and civilized way, in a pleasant and conversational tone, and free of any insult or hint thereof, that I disagreed.
That was my offense. I disagreed. I learned after the fact that the visitors had taken offense. I was unapologetic then, as I remain, for another person’s thin theological skin is not my responsibility.
And I remain convinced that we human beings ought to admit that the only limits on grace and divine forgiveness are those God imposes on them, and that only God knows what those limits are. Or, as David said in 2 Samuel 24:14,
…let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man. (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition)
Grace is of the essence. With that summary, let us work through the readings for this Sunday.
The lesson from Isaiah 40 predicts the liberation of Jews from the Babylonian Exile. This is a chapter of comfort, as it begins with these words:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the LORD’s hand
double for all her sins.
(Isaiah 40:1-2, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition)
The God of Isaiah 40 and Psalm 147 is the Creator, the judge who also shows mercy, looks favorably upon the faithful, and is infinitely wise. The chapter, which begins with “…comfort my people,” ends with the promise that God will grant “power to the faint.”
That power enabled Paul the Apostle to persist faithfully through death threats, beatings, imprisonments, and a shipwreck, all the way until an employee of the Roman Empire cut his head off. Grace moved Paul from the “right side of the law” and placed him in risky situations. This was not cheap grace, that which demands nothing of one and is therefore useless. No, it was costly grace–free in so far as Paul received it freely–but costly in terms of what it demanded of him. The restrictions of Torah law no longer applied to him, but the law of the love of Christ demanded his all.
Jesus, of course, was perfect as well as fully human and fully divine. Yet even he needed to get away, find quiet time, and pray. A day full of healing will take a great deal out of a Messiah, I suppose. He was grace incarnate. It was Christ whom Paul preached and followed from his conversion to his execution. It is Jesus whom we ought to follow, if we are not doing so already, and to whom God beckons people.
And if even Jesus needed to be quiet and to pray, how much more do we need to do these? I live in a technology-soaked society, where many people are never really “away from it all” (except when sleeping) because somebody can contact them the rest of the time. This is not healthy. We need to nourish ourselves with peace, quiet, and God. Otherwise, we will nothing constructive to offer anyone else.
Paul had a vocation as an evangelist and ultimately a martyr. I have my vocation, and you, O reader, have yours. The details of our vocations will vary according to various factors, but the principle is the same: to glorify God, to be a light of God to others, to encourage our fellow Christians in their discipleship, to attract others to our Lord and Savior, to understand that there is no distinction between evangelism and positive social action. As Shirwood Eliot Wirt, a close associate of Billy Graham wrote in the final chapter of The Social Conscience of the Evangelical (1968):
James was not wrong when he demanded that Christians show their faith by their works. Jesus Christ was not wrong when he told his listeners in effect to stop sitting on their hands and to get to work doing God’s will. He did not come to earth to split theological hairs, but to minister to a world in need and to save men out of it for eternity. It is time the air is cleared. To pit social action against evangelism is to raise a phony issue, one that Jesus would have spiked in a sentence. He commanded his disciples to spread the Good News, and to let their social concern be made manifest through the changed lives of persons of ultimate worth. (Page 154)
If I love my neighbor as I love myself, I cannot say honestly that I do not care about the injustice he or she endures, that he or she does not earn a living wage, that a flawed justice system convicted and sent him or her to prison unjustly, that he or she suffers under the weight of undue stigma, et cetera. Grace demands me to care about all this and to act accordingly as well as whether my neighbor has a positive, growing relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. These are some of my responsibilities. They are also yours.
God’s hands are my hands–and yours. God’s voice is my voice–and yours. May they be useful and eloquent, respectively.
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