According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
We can trust God because of what God has done. In Hebrew theology, God is like what God has done. Consider many texts of the Hebrew Bible, O reader; they recount what God has done then they encourage people to trust God.
What has God done in these readings?
God has arranged for the Babylonian Exile to end.
God has protected the people of Israel during that exile.
God has made the people of Israel a light to the nations.
God has healed the author of Psalm 40 from a serious illness.
God has made the author of Psalm 92 happy with His work.
God has enriched the lives of the Corinthian Christians whom St. Paul the Apostle began to criticize in 1 Corinthians 1:10.
God has sent the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth.
What items will you, O reader, add to the list of what God has done?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 19, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SARGENT SHRIVER AND HIS WIFE, EUNICE KENNEDY SHRIVER, HUMANITARIANS
THE FEAST OF SAINT ALESSANDRO VALIGNANO, ITALIAN JESUIT MISSIONARY PRIEST IN THE FAR EAST
THE FEAST OF CHARLES WINFRED DOUGLAS, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, LITURGIST, MUSICOLOGIST, LINGUIST, POET, HYMN TRANSLATOR, AND ARRANGER
THE FEAST OF HENRY TWELLS, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
The theme of fidelity to God unites these readings.
Fools and wise people die. One works hard then dies; others inherit. At least one can be faithful to God and enjoy one’s work during one’s life filled with pain. That description certainly applies to Ezekiel, Jesus, and St. Paul the Apostle. Relying on God while surrounded by faithless people, as well as away from the faithless, maddening crowd, one can resist the temptations to seek the easy way out, to be spectacular, to glorify oneself, not to depend on God, to serve evil, to make peace with injustice, et cetera.
As Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote in 1930,
Save us from weak resignation
To the evils we deplore;
Let the search for Thy salvation
Be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Serving Thee whom we adore,
Serving Thee whom we adore.
Amen.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 19, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH OF NAZARETH, HUSBAND OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
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
Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, most merciful redeemer,
for the countless blessings and benefits you give.
May we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day praising you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 22
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The Assigned Readings:
1 Samuel 9:27-10:8 (Monday)
1 Samuel 15:10-31 (Tuesday)
Psalm 86 (Both Days)
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 (Monday)
Acts 5:1-11 (Tuesday)
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Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;
knit my heart to you that I may fear your name.
–Psalm 86:11, Common Worship (2000)
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The assigned readings for these two days pertain to the theme of commitment to God.
The lessons from 1 Samuel tell us of King Saul of Israel. We read first of God choosing him and Samuel anointing him. In Chapter 15 we find one account of God and Samuel rejecting the monarch for violating the rules of holy war. Saul’s army did not kill enough people and destroy enough property, apparently. (1 Samuel 15 does not reflect my understanding of God.) Two facts attract my attention:
Saul simultaneously seeks forgiveness and shifts the blame.
1 Samuel 13 contains a different account of God and Samuel rejecting Saul. There the monarch’s offense is to usurp the priest’s duty. Making an offering to God properly was a major issue in the Old Testament, for some people died because they made offerings improperly.
When we turn to the New Testament readings we find fatal lack of commitment in Acts 5 and a stern Pauline warning regarding human relationships in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1. The unified message of the pericopes is to commit to God–not to be content with half measures. We should, I propose, feel free to ask questions about people dying because of deception in Acts 5 and why Saul’s offense in 1 Samuel 15 was such a bad thing to have done, for asking intelligent questions is not a faithless act. Nevertheless, I recall the words of Jesus to a man who used an excuse to refuse our Lord and Savior’s call to discipleship. Christ said:
Once the hand is laid on the plow, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
–Luke 9:62, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
At that point in the Lukan narrative Jesus was en route to Jerusalem for the climactic week of Passover. He was neither offering nor accepting excuses. Who dares offer one?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 20, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF RICHARD WATSON GILDER, U.S. POET, JOURNALIST, AND SOCIAL REFORMER
THE FEAST OF HENRY FRANCIS LYTE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF LEO TOLSTOY, NOVELIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT MECHTILD OF MAGDEBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC MYSTIC
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,
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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1 Samuel 15:16-23 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
Then Samuel said to Saul,
Stop! I will tell you what the LORD said to me this night.
And he said to him,
Say on.
And Samuel said,
Though you are little in your own eyes, are yo not the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD sent you on a mission, and said,
“Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.” Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you swoop on the spoil, and do what was evil in the sight of the LORD?
And Saul said to Samuel,
I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, I have gone on the mission on which the LORD sent me, I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal.
And Samuel said,
Has not the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the LORD?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the LORD,
he has also rejected you from being king.
Psalm 50:7-15, 24 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak:
“O Israel, I will bear witness against you;
for I am God, your God.
8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices;
your offerings are always before me.
9 I will take no bull-calf from your stalls,
nor he-goats out of your pens;
10 For all the beasts of the forest are mine,
the herds in their thousands upon the hills.
11 I know every bird in the sky,
and the creatures of the fields are in my sight.
12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,
for the whole world is mine and all that are in it.
13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls,
or drink the blood of goats?
14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving
and make good your vows to the Most High.
15 Call upon me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you shall honor me.”
24 Whoever offers me the sacrifice of thanksgiving honors me;
but to those who keep in my way will I show the salvation of God.”
Mark 2:18-22 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting; and people came and said to him,
Why do John’s disciples and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?
And Jesus said to them,
Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but new wine is for fresh skins.
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The Collect:
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.Amen.
The Amalekites were traditional enemies of the Hebrews. Saul led his military forces against them and captured the king and spared his life, but killed civilians, including women and young children. This did not offend Samuel. No, the fact that Saul’s forces kept the best livestock for themselves, and therefore did not consecrate these first fruits of victory to God, annoyed Samuel.
The Old Testament contains bloody stories of what I can describe only as genocide and wholesale slaughter. The authors of these narratives think that God condoned this killing. But I have just one question:
Above: A Map of the Known World, According to Posidonius, dated 150-130 B.C.E.
“That salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6c, NRSV)
JANUARY 15, 2023
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Isaiah 49:1-7 (New Revised Standard Version):
Listen to me, O coastlands,
pay attention, you peoples from far away!
The LORD called me before I was born,
while I was still in my mother’s womb he named me.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword,
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me,
You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
But I said,
I have labored in vain,
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my cause is with the LORD,
and my reward is with my God.
And now the LORD says,
who formed me in the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him,
and that Israel might be gathered to him,
for I am honored in the sight of the LORD,
and my God has become my strength–
he says,
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore the survivors of Israel;
I will give you as a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
Thus says the LORD,
the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One,
to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers.
Kings shall see and stand up,
princes, and they shall prostrate themselves,
because of the LORD, who is faithful,
the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.
Psalm 40:1-12 (New Revised Standard Version):
I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined his ear tome and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the desolate pit,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.
Happy are those who make
the LORD their trust,
who do no turn to the proud,
to those who go astray after false gods.
You have multipied, O LORD my God,
your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
none can compare with you.
Were I to proclaim and tell of them,
they would be more than can be counted.
Sacrifice and offering you do not desire,
but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required.
Then I said,
Here I am;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.
I have told the glad news of deliverance
int he great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know, O LORD.
I have not hidden your saving help within my heart,
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.
Do not, O LORD, withhold
your mercy from me;
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness
keep me safe forever.
For evils have encompassed me without number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
until I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails me.
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 (New Revised Standard Version):
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind– just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you– so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
John 1:29-42 (New Revised Standard Version):
John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared,
Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.
And John testified,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed,
Look, here is the Lamb of God!
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them,
What are you looking for?
They said to him,
Rabbi
(which translated means Teacher),
where are you staying?
He said to them,
Come and see.
They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him,
We have found the Messiah
(which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said,
You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas
(which is translated Peter).
The Collect:
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The reading from Deutero-Isaiah is the Second Servant Song. Here the servant is the Jewish nation, still in exile, yet about to go home, albeit as part of the Persian Empire. The soon-to-return Jews’ mission was to be a spiritual light to the nations. Religious history records that Jewish monotheism (practiced, not merely preached) did not flower fully until after the return from Babylonian Exile, and that this flowering did not occur immediately. But it did happen. Monotheism is a great advance in religious thought. (I make this statement while taking the risk of seeming like a theological chauvinist to some, but so be it.)
Just as God delivered a seemingly insignificant population and bestowed upon them the great responsibility of being a light to the nations, Jesus recognized much potential in an impetuous fisherman we know as St. Peter, or literally “rock.” The Bible is honest about the heroes within its pages, portraying these individuals as flawed human beings. So it is with St. Peter, who misunderstood and misspoke often, and even denied Jesus three times shortly before our Lord’s crucifixion. Yet St. Peter became the leader of the Apostles. Through efforts such as those of this transformed fisherman the Christian message, which began with a few people, has become the largest faith system on the planet.
I remember the pianist at a church my father pastored when I was in high school. Angela (not her real name) was deeply insecure, partially due to guilt over an indiscretion of a few years past. I have no doubt that God had forgiven her, but she had not forgiven herself for her own weakness. Angela said to me one Sunday morning that she had nothing to offer. She was wrong, of course; she had much to offer that was beautiful and necessary. She was no more or less flawed than any of us, than St. Peter or any of the exiled Jews awaiting return to a homeland in which they had never lived.
Maybe you, O reader, are not called to be a light to the nations. Perhaps God has called you to be a light merely to your community. But God has given you the great responsibility of being a positive influence and a light. Do not hide it under a bushel.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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