Rituals are part of religion. The Law of Moses specifies elements of ritualism, down to priestly vestments and certain details of sacred spaces. May we human beings shun Puritanical and Pietistic excesses as we focus on the point of Amos 5:18-24. That point is that sacred rituals are not talismans. They do not shield people from the consequences of a lack of righteousness–in this case, manifested in the exploitation of the vulnerable and in corruption.
Divine judgment and mercy exist in balance. We may praise God for having merciful love (as in Psalm 117), but divine justice is catastrophic for the habitually unrighteous (as in Amos 5). Therefore, blessed and happy are those who find wisdom (as in Proverbs 3).
1 Timothy 3, somewhat bound by cultural context, does contain a timeless element, too. Ecclesiastical leaders have a duty to lead by example. They must have fine character. Their deeds must not belie the sacred truth.
Hypocrisy offends, does it not? I recall a news story from years ago. A minister had preached against gambling. Then someone caught him gambling in a casino.
Deeds reveal creeds. Words may deceive, but deeds to not lie. In Jewish theology, God is like what God has done and is doing. The same principle applies to human beings.
In the Gospel of John, Christ’s first miracle was turning water into wine at Cana. This was no mere parlor trick. Yes, Jesus saved his host from embarrassment. Christ also pointed to his glory, that is, God’s presence in him. Jesus pointed to God.
Divine grace is extravagant. It saves us from sins and from ourselves. Sometimes it may save us from embarrassment. Do we accept that grace and point to God? Do we accept that grace and love our neighbors as we love ourselves? Or do we reject that grace?
Our deeds will reveal our creeds.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 30, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF ALLEN EASTMAN CROSS, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHN MAIN, ANGLO-CANADIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK
THE FEAST OF FRANCES JOSEPH-GAUDET, AFRICAN-AMERICAN EDUCATOR, PRISON REFORMER, AND SOCIAL WORKER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM ADAMS BROWN, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND SOCIAL REFORMER
Compassionate God, you gather the whole universe into your radiant presence
and continually reveal your Son as our Savior.
Bring wholeness to all that is broken and speak truth to us in our confusion,
that all creation will see and know your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 23
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The Assigned Readings:
Deuteronomy 3:23-29 (Thursday)
Deuteronomy 12:28-32 (Friday)
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 (Saturday)
Psalm 111 (All Days)
Romans 9:6-18 (Thursday)
Revelation 2:12-17 (Friday)
Matthew 8:28-9:1 (Saturday)
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The works of the Lord are great,
sought out by all who delight in them.
His work is full of majesty and honour
and his righteousness endures for ever.
–Psalm 111:2-3, Common Worship (2000)
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We have a batch of overlapping and difficult passages these three days. Some (such as Moses in Deuteronomy and a herd of swine in Matthew) suffer for the offenses of others. People also suffer for their own sins in other passages of Scripture. All of this falls under the heading of the sovereignty of God in Romans 9, in the theological style of God’s speech at the end of the book of Job.
I recognize the mystery of God and am content to leave many questions unanswered. Comfort with uncertainty is consistent with my Anglican theology. Nevertheless, I understand that the sovereignty of God can become something it is not supposed to be–a copout and a seemingly bottomless pit into which to pour one’s ignorance and prooftexting tendencies. We should never use God to excuse slavery, genocide, sexism, homophobia, racism, and a host of other sins. Whenever God seems to agree with us all of the time, we ought to know that we have created God in our own image. We have forged an idol. And God, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, disapproves of idolatry.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 23, 2014 COMMON ERA
PROPER 29–CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY–THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR A
THE FEAST OF JOHN KENNETH PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN BISHOP; HIS WIFE, HARRIET ELIZABETH “BESSIE” WHITTINGTON PFOHL, U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN; AND THEIR SON, JAMES CHRISTIAN PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN
THE FEAST OF SAINT CLEMENT I OF ROME, BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT COLUMBAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF MIGUEL AUGUSTIN PRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
And sometimes one ought to act faithfully, not just be still faithfully. In the case of the Book of Ruth, for example, people were active, not passive. There was more going on than children’s Sunday School lessons (and even many, if not most, adult Sunday School lessons) admit, for that activity entailed seduction before love became a reality. As Jennifer Wright Knust writes in Unprotected Texts:
To the writer of Ruth, family can consist of an older woman and her beloved immigrant daughter-in-law, women can easily raise children on their own, and men can be seduced if it serves the interests of women.
–page 33
And, as Krust writes on page 35, the emotional bond and subsequent covenant between Ruth and Naomi helped both of them and Israel as a whole. I add that it has helped many subsequent generations all over the world due its role in the genealogy of Jesus.
Family–not in the sense of marriage or ancestry–unites the readings for these three days. The ethic of mutual responsibility (part of the Law of Moses) runs through the New Testament also. The more fortunate, who ought not to depend on their wealth in lieu of God, have responsibilities to the less fortunate. Philemon had responsibilities to Onesimus, who was not necessarily a slave or even a fugitive. (A very close reading of the text–one passage in particular–in the Greek raises serious questions about the traditional understanding).
This notion of mutual responsibility and the opinion of wealth one finds in Luke and James are profoundly counter-cultural in my North American setting, where rugged individualism and the quest for wealth are accepted values. Yet with mutual responsibility comes inderdependence. And the quest for enough wealth for one’s present and future needs, although laudable, becomes insatiable greed for some people. Such greed is socially destructive, denying others enough. There is always enough for everyone in God’s economy; scarcity is a feature of human, sinful economic systems.
May we, by grace, act faithfully and effectively to reduce such sinfulness where we are. And, if we have not fallen into greed, may we not do so. If we have, may we confess and repent of it.
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)
The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The word of the LORD came to him in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, and throughout the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah son of Judah, when Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month.
The word of the LORD came to me:
Before I created you in the womb, I selected you;
Before you were born, I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations.
I replied:
Ah, Lord GOD!
I don’t know how to speak,
For I am still a boy.
And the LORD said to me:
Do not say, “I am still a boy,”
But go wherever I send you
And speak whatever I command you.
Have no fear of them,
For I am with you to deliver them
–declares the LORD.
The LORD put out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me:
Herewith I put My words into your mouth.
See, I appoint you this day
Over nations and kingdoms:
To uproot and to pull down,
To destroy and to overthrow,
To build and to plant.
Psalm 71:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge;
let me never be ashamed.
2 In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free;
incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe;
you are my crag and my stronghold.
4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.
5 For you are my hope, O Lord GOD,
my confidence since I was young.
6 I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;
from my mother’s womb you have been my strength;
my praise shall be always of you.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (New American Bible):
If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present, I know partially; then I shall know fully as I am known. So faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Luke 4:21-30 (The Jerusalem Bible):
And he [Jesus] won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.
They said,
This is Joseph’s son, surely?
But he replied,
No doubt you will quote the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.”
And he went on,
I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of those; he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.
When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.
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.
The love in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape. There are four types of love in the New Testament, with agape being the highest form. For a description of agape I turn to Volume X (1953), page 167 of The Interpreter’s Bible:
Agape is another kind of love which roots in the undeserved goodness men have received in Christ.
Agape is a type of love which extends to one’s enemies, looks past mutual interests, and is not merely sentimental. It is the love which God has for us. Thus agape is crucial, greater even than faith and hope, which are also commendable and of God.
This was the love which qualified Jeremiah and kept him company on his difficult vocation, one fraught with rejection. And this was the love which Jesus, also rejected, embodied in a unique way. This was the love those who tried to kill him at Nazareth lacked.
Agape is hard for many people to practice, for we are flawed. This statement applies to me. But I like agape; I seek to come nearer to living it. One poetic expression of the essence of agape is the George Herbert poem I have quoted in this post. My choir at St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, has sung the Ralph Vaughan Williams setting of it. The text speaks to me of what I have received and continue to receive from God. I can do better, by grace, and I am. And I have much room for improvement.
Agape is also intolerable for many people. They seek to destroy it. The reason for this, I suppose, is that it reminds them of their shortcomings. And, instead of admitting those failings, some people react defensively and fearfully. Thus violent people have, throughout history and into the present day, persecuted pacifists, from Quakers to Anabaptists to Mohandas Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr. New England Puritans hanged Quakers in colonial times. Anabaptists in Europe and elsewhere have attracted a host of foes. There was, for example, state-sanctioned persecution of Amish and Mennonite conscientious objectors in the United States during World War I. And Gandhi and King became victims of assassins. Before King’s death many of his self-identified conservative coreligionists condemned his stances on civil rights and the Vietnam War. (I have notecards full of citations, quotes, and summaries from back issues of The Presbyterian Journal, which midwifed the Presbyterian Church in America in the early 1970s. The Journal, publishing immediately after King’s death, continued to condemn him.)
Our human intolerance for agape has caused quite a body count to accumulate. May God forgive us.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 11, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY NEYROT, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
THE FEAST OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, ANGLICAN PRIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND
THE FEAST OF SAINT STANISLAUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF KRAKOW
The Book of Zechariah exists in two parts, for time and authorship separate Chapters 1-8 from Chapters 9-14. Chapter 9 is set in an ideal future when the exiles are triumphant and their enemies are defeated–both by the hand of God. The people of God will be like crown jewels. That image speaks of their preciousness to God.
Speaking of precious people….
We read in 2 Timothy 2 that pointless quarrels and misleading discussions weaken the faith of people and give rise to confusion. Yes, some people sow the seeds of mischief willingly. Yet many others–perhaps most–do not think of their activities as destructive, even though they are. Perhaps this is why we read advice to correct people gently and with the intention of changing their minds. Such an attitude recognizes the potential for repentance.
Some who are like crown jewels just need a little cleaning. May we give them the benefit of that opportunity. And may we remember that we might like crown jewels in need of cleaning.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 11, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY NEYROT, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
THE FEAST OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, ANGLICAN PRIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND
THE FEAST OF SAINT STANISLAUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF KRAKOW
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 11:32-40 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets–who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. Other suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated–of whom the world was not worthy–wandering over deserts, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And all these, though well attested by their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had foreseen something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
Psalm 31:19-24 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
19 How great is your goodness, O LORD!
which you have laid up for those who fear you;
which you have done in the sight of all
for those who put their trust in you.
20 You hide them in the covert of your presence from those who slander them;
you keep them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the LORD!
for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a besieged city.
22 Yet I said in my alarm,
“I have been cut off from the sight of your eyes.”
Nevertheless, you heard the sound of my entreaty when I cried to you.
23 Love the LORD, all you who worship him;
the LORD protects the faithful,
but repays to the full those who act haughtily.
24 Be strong and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD.
Mark 5:1-20 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had come out of the boat, there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who lived among the tombs; and no one could bind him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out, and bruising himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him; and crying out with a loud voice, he said,
What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.
For he had said to him,
Come out of him, you unclean spirit!
And Jesus asked him,
What is your name?
He replied,
My name is Legion; for we are many.
And he begged him eagerly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged him,
Send us to the swine, let us enter them.
So he gave them leave. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.
The herdsmen fled, and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus, and saw the demoniac sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told what had happened to the demoniac and to the swine. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their neighborhood. And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. But he refused, and said to him,
Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.
And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and all men marveled.
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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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To date in this series of Monday-Saturday devotionals we have been following Hebrews and (except for one day) Mark. Sometimes the link between the two readings has been difficult to locate, but that is an easy task today.
This day’s reading from Hebrews makes a connection between the faith of our forebears and ourselves, and by extension, between us and those who will follow us. Great and brave men and women of faith have preceded us; many of them have been heartier than you or I. They kept faith in God alive in their lifetimes, so we who practice this faith in our times are their legacy. And we will have faith legacies, too. The forebears the author of Hebrews mentioned lived and died before the time of Jesus, the fulfillment of promises in which they trusted. They looked forward; we look backward. Jesus is the focal point.
But does Jesus disturb us or encourage us in faith? This is a question of how we approach him, not what he seeks to do. The Gerasene demoniac was most likely a man with severe psychiatric problems, that is, until Jesus cured them. The man’s neighbors feared him for good reasons when he was ill. So one might think that they would take comfort when he was well. At least they might be glad for him. No! The neighbors feared him after his recovery, too. Their basis for self-definition (“I’m not like that guy.”) was gone. So who were they now? Jesus had disturbed them. Instead of using this disturbance as an opportunity for spiritual self-examination and repentance, they asked Jesus to leave, and the former demoniac had to go away, too. Often we humans prefer not to look closely upon our sins.
And all this is beside the economic costs to the owner(s) of the swine herd.
Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the promise of God. If Jesus disturbs us, we need for him to disturb us. The proper response is to recognize the fault(s) Jesus highlights and to repent. May we do this. Unfortunately, we tend to ask Jesus to leave, as if he were a scapegoat.
What will you do? What will your legacy be?
J. B. Phillips translated the end of this Markan passage accordingly:
So the man went off and began to spread throughout the Ten Towns the story of what Jesus had done for him. And they were all simply amazed.
The former demoniac’s legacy was one of more believers. Belief was born of simple amazement, which was an appropriate response. Yet what of the townspeople? They were not amazed; they were scared. They had been oddly comfortable with the unpleasant and dangerous status quo, and now they were uncomfortable. Their legacy was not one of faith. May your legacy be one of faith–faith that encourages others and brings people closer to the God who loves them. And, long after you are dead and your name is forgotten by all except God and genealogy enthusiasts, may your legacy of positive, Christian faith thrive.
In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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