According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
Nathanael said to [Jesus], “How do you know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
–John 1:48, The New American Bible–Revised Edition
I begin with the proverbial low-hanging fruit: What was amazing about Jesus seeing St. Nathanael sitting under a fig tree? Father Raymond E. Brown, in the first volume of his two-volume commentary on the Gospel of John, lists one interpretation after another in a long endnote. Then he concludes:
We are far from exhausting the suggestions, all of which are pure speculation.
I do not presume to know more about the Gospel of John than Father Raymond E. Brown did.
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We all belong to God. We all need to serve God. Some of us may be so fortunate as (a) to know how to do that in circumstances, and (b) to be able to do that. If one continues to read after 1 Samuel 3:10, one finds that God sometimes tells us uncomfortable truths. Speaking these truths–even in love and tact–may be awkward.
The reading from the First Letter to the Corinthians requires context. Pagan temple prostitution did occur in ancient Corinth. And, given Platonic philosophy regarding the body and the soul, some Corinthian Christians may have excused sexual immorality (as with pagan temple prostitutes) as being justifiable. If the body was only a hindrance to the soul, why not?
Yet what if the body is not a hindrance to the soul? In Hebrew thought, continued in Pauline epistles, the Greek philosophical separation of body and soul does not exist. Rather, “soul” means “essential self,” one with the body. Furthermore, in Pauline theology, the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). The body, then, deserves great respect.
Without falling into the trap of fun-damn-mentalism and the excesses of Pietism and Puritanism, I affirm this timeless principle. We, who are in the flesh, serve God with our bodies and how we use them properly. How we treat others, in the flesh, is of great spiritual and moral importance. Whatever good we do to others in the flesh, we do to Jesus. Whatever good we do not to others in the flesh, we do not do to Jesus. Whatever evil we commit to others in the flesh, we do to Jesus.
I do not understand John 1:48, but I grasp this point well. It troubles me, for sins of omission are as real as sins of commission. Pray we me:
God of all mercy,
we confess that we have sinned against you,
opposing your will in our lives.
We have opposed your goodness in each other,
in ourselves, and in the world you have created.
We repent of the evil that enslaves us,
the evil we have done,
and the evil done on our behalf.
Forgive, restore, and strengthen us
through our Savior Jesus Christ;
that we may abide in your love
and serve only your will. Amen.
—Enriching Our Worship (1998), 19
The line about “the evil done on our behalf” indicts me every time. What response does that line elicit from you, O reader?
John 1:51 echoes Genesis 28:12 and reminds us that a better world is possible. Heaven and Earth can be one by divine action. In the meantime, may we, by grace, act both collectively and individually to leave the Earth better and made more just than we found it. The Golden Rule requires that of us.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 9, 2023 COMMON ERA
THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF LENT
THE FEAST OF HARRIET TUBMAN, U.S. ABOLITIONIST
THE FEAST OF EMANUEL CRONENWETT, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCES OF ROME, FOUNDER OF THE COLLATINES
THE FEAST OF JOHANN PACHELBEL, GERMAN LUTHERN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF SAINT PACIAN OF BARCELONA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF BARCELONA
THE FEAST OF SAINT SOPHRONIUS OF JERUSALEM, ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRIARCH OF JERUSALEM
Many who have walked the path of righteousness have suffered for doing so, as many still so. Most of the twelve Apostles became martyrs. St. John the Evangelist avoided martyrdom yet still suffered. St. James of Jerusalem became a martyr. St. Mark went to martyrdom, also. Yet the theme of the goodness and presence of God has been a theme that has accompanied persecution and martyrdom since the times of the Bible.
How good is God, as the Book of Job, in its final, composite form, depicts the deity? The author of the prose wrap-around explained the cause of Job’s suffering (a wager between God and the Satan, still an employee of God, in the theology of the time). Job was a pawn. The author of the prose wrap-around also thought that Job was correct to complain (42:7-9).
I agree with the author of Job 42:7-17; Job had every right to complain. At least he was being honest with God.
Sometimes we feel like pawns as we move through life. On some occasions we are. When we are, we have every right to complain.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 12, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF EDWIN PAXTON HOOD, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, PHILANTHROPIST, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN DAVID JAESCHKE, GERMAN MORAVIAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER; AND HIS GRANDSON, HENRI MARC HERMANN VOLDEMAR VOULLAIRE, MORAVIAN COMPOSER AND MINISTER
THE FEAST OF ENMAGAHBOWH, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND MISSIONARY TO THE OJIBWA NATION
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH DACRE CARLYLE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
Psalm 44 is a national lament, but one might read the text and identify with it. Such is the timeless quality of the Book of Psalms.
God gets to judge. Jesus says in John 8 that he does not judge yet others do. We read of Jacob and Esau reconciling in Genesis 33. If we continue reading, however, we learn that the peace did not survive them. We read in Acts 5 that Gamaliel was slow to judge. I conclude that, had more early Christians and contemporary Jews been more like Gamaliel, the subsequent course of Jewish-Christian relations would have been better.
The wasted potential of what Jacob, Esau, and Gamaliel sought to do haunts me.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 2, 2017 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT SIGISMUND OF BURGUNDY, KING; SAINT CLOTILDA, FRANKISH QUEEN; AND SAINT CLODOALD, FRANKISH PRINCE AND ABBOT
THE FEAST OF SAINT ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF JAMES LEWIS MILLIGAN, HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARCULF OF NANTEUIL, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
Justice, according to Psalm 109 and Isaiah 26, is for God to deliver the faithful and to smite the evildoers. I understand the sentiment well, just as I also grasp the reality that prolonged anger can easily become a spiritual toxin. In small doses and for brief periods of time it might help one make the proper decisions, but its toxicity becomes apparent quickly. One does better to pray for one’s persecutors, that they may repent, and leave the rest to God. Not all will repent, unfortunately, and those who persist in perfidy will bring their fates upon themselves.
Lo, I have it all put away,
Sealed up in My storehouses,
To be My vengeance and recompense,
At the time that their foot falters.
Yea, their day of disaster is near,
And destiny rushes upon them.
For the LORD will vindicate His people
And take revenge for His servants,
When He sees that their might is gone,
And neither bond nor free is left….
O nations, acclaim His people!
For He’ll avenge the blood of His servants,
Wreak vengeance on His foes,
And cleanse the land of His people.
–Deuteronomy 32:34-36, 43, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
In the Lukan account of the healing of the paralyzed man he glorifies God immediately, and witnesses become filled with amazement because of the miracle. It is easy to maintain faith in God during good times, but a different matter during difficult times. That is part of the reason for the existence of the Letter to the Hebrews, with its encouragement of perseverance and warning against committing apostasy, of falling away from God.
I have learned via living that faith in God is essential to getting through dark chapters in life as well as possible. I have also learned that the light of God seems to burn brightest in the darkness and that grace seems most evident during times of distress. The faithful do not walk exclusively in paths of pleasantness. Neither do they walk alone. They trusting in God, can focus on the positive and seek to build communities of shalom.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 4, 2016 COMMON ERA
PROPER 18: THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C
THE FEAST OF ALL CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKERS AND PEACE ACTIVISTS
THE FEAST OF PAUL JONES, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF UTAH AND PEACE ACTIVIST; AND HIS COLLEAGUE, JOHN NEVIN SAYRE, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND PEACE ACTIVIST
That is true, of course, so idolatry is especially galling. Marriage, a literal matter in 1 Corinthians 7, is a metaphor in Jeremiah 3 and 4, where whoring becomes a metaphor for idolatry. A relationship with God is intimate, this language tells us.
One of the themes in the Gospel of Mark, no part of which we read today, is that those who think they are insiders might actually be outsiders. That theme applies to our Lord and Savior’s accusers in Luke 11; he was never in league with evil. The fact that a person who knew Jesus could not recognize that reality speaks badly of that individual. Jesus was no more in league with evil than Simon Magus could purchase the Holy Spirit, the offer to do which led to a quotable rebuke:
May your silver be lost for ever, and you with it, for you think that money could buy what God has given for nothing! You have no share, no part, in this: God can see how your heart is warped. Repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the LORD that this scheme of yours may be forgiven; it is plain to me that you are held in the bitterness of gall and the chains of sin.
–Acts 8:20b-23, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
From that incident came the word “simony.”
Grace is free yet not cheap. We can never purchase or earn it, but we can respond favorably to it. Grace demands concrete evidence of its presence, as measured in deeds, which flow from attitudes. Do we love our neighbors as we love ourselves? I prefer that standard to any Pietistic list of legalistic requirements.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 27, 2015 COMMON ERA
PROPER 21: THE EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF SAINT LEOBA, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND MISSIONARY
THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE CHURCH OF SOUTH INDIA, 1947
The ELCA Daily Lectionary of 2006 pairs two stories of people called to discipleship. First we read of Elisha leaving his family behind to follow Elijah. Then we have an account of Jesus calling his first several Apostles, already acquainted with him. Sts. James and John, sons of Zebedee, were our Lord’s cousins through St. Mary’s sister. And St. Simon (Peter) was their business partner whose mother-in-law Jesus had cured in the previous chapter.
None of these men (except Jesus) were perfect. St. Simon Peter was quick to speak before he thought sufficiently. The brothers jostled for positions of privilege in the Kingdom of God. And Elisha, as Walter Harrelson wrote n the 1962 Encyclopedia Americana,
offered no word of protest against Jehu’s bloody purge of Ahab’s 70 sons and others of his kin, of Ahaziah’s 42 brethren, and of the worshipers of Baal (II Kings 10).
And he
cursed playful children for mocking him, whereupon bears devoured them (II Kings 2:23-24).
–Volume 10, page 214
Yet, as Harrelson notes, Elisha also showed mercy on Syrian captives, healed Naaman, and cared about the common people of the kingdom. The good came mixed with the bad.
Elisha and the Apostles did much that was great in the name of God. They changed the world the better. And so can I. So can you, O reader. The same power which flowed through them is available to us. We can be effective instruments of God by divine grace.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN
THE FEAST OF GREGORIO AGLIPAY, PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT BISHOP
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)
The Ezekiel and Romans readings function best when one reads them continuously. Lectionaries are useful, but sometimes they are too choppy.
We begin with the lessons from Ezekiel. Exiles will return to their ancestral homeland; that is one meaning of the Valley of Dry Bones. Another traditional interpretation infers the resurrection of the dead before the last judgment. I see no reason that is flawed. But, as a narrative matter, the former reading of the text takes me my next point, which is that, in the homeland, God and the people will commune:
I will make a covenant of friendship with them–it shall be an everlasting covenant with them–I will establish them, and I will place My Sanctuary among them forever. My Presence shall rest over them; I will be their God and they shall be My People. And when My Sanctuary abides among them forever, the nations shall now that I the LORD do sanctify Israel.
–Ezekiel 37:26-28, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures
What Ezekiel understood as the Second Temple applies nicely to Jesus, in whom we have reconciliation with God, in whom our offenses are lifted from us and through whom we have justification. It is in Jesus that we are free from slavery to sin. Voltaire said that we human beings are free as we choose to be. If we choose to give ourselves over to someone’s authority, we lose a measure of freedom. And even coercion cannot deprive a person of inner freedom if he or she opts to retain it. Mohandas Gandhi was a free man in some prison cells, for example. Likewise, if we choose to enslave ourselves to sin and shame, we have ourselves to blame. But, if we seek liberty in Christ, we have grace and enough free will to choose to follow him to thank.
One of the most difficult forms of slavery to break is that of honor and shame. What others think of us does affect us, so we have to care about that somewhat. What other people say about influences whether we obtain certain employment (or keep it), for example. Yet the most important assessment comes from God. May the divine assessment be,
The portrayal of God in Ezekiel 36:13-28 is interesting. There we read, the prophet tells us, in God’s own words, that God had punished the rebellious Hebrews according to their deeds, even permitting foreigners to conquer them and to take many of them into exile. All of this was in exchange for violations of the Law of Moses. Yet many foreigners used the defeat of the Hebrews to consider Yahweh weak, unable to prevent the stages of the Babylonian Exile.
The previous sentence requires a brief explanation. A common assumption in the ancient Middle East was that each nation had its own deities. So the defeat of Nation A by Nation B indicated, in the minds of many, the greater power of Nation B’s deities. In this case, it indicated, in the minds of many, the weakness of Yahweh.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming….
So, according to Ezekiel, many people interpreted God’s power as weakness. Yet they were wrong. Paul’s comments about the Law in Romans fit well here; where there is Law, there is retribution. Anyhow, as the prophet explained, God (Yahweh) was about to act to restore the Hebrews geographically and spiritually. And this would boost not only them but God’s reputation among foreigners.
I consider that my judgments are subject to human flaws and that understandings of God in the Bible exist according to time and authors, but I do offer a thought: God comes across as selfish in Ezekiel 36:13-28 and as more generous in Romans 4. Yet I do not pretend to have perfect knowledge, so consider the source. Our understandings of God are partial at best; may we approach God with all due theological humility.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 24, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF OSCAR ROMERO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SAN SALVADOR, AND THE MARTYRS OF EL SALVADOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT DIDACUS OF CADIZ, CAPUCHIN FRIAR
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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