–William Allen Knight (1863-1957), “Come, My Heart, Canst Thou Not Hear It” (1915), quoted in The Pilgrim Hymnal (1931/1935), Hymn #77
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Part of the mystery of the Incarnation is its counterintuitive nature: a vulnerable baby was God incarnate. This truth demonstrates the reality that God operates differently than we frequently define as feasible and effective. Then again, Jesus was, by dominant human expectations, a failure. I would never claim that Jesus was a failure, of course.
If your enemies are hungry, give them bread to eat;
and if they are thirsty, give them water to drink;
for you will heap coals of fire on their heads,
and the LORD will reward you.
–Proverbs 25:22, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
Speaking of counterintuitive ways of God, shall we ponder the advice of St. Paul the Apostle in Romans 12:14-21?
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them, if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
—The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
That old sweet song of angels will not attune to heaven our life if we ignore this sage advice–if we fail to overcome evil with good. How we treat others indicates more about what kind of people we are than about what kind of people they are. If we react against intolerance with intolerance, we are intolerant. We also add fuel to the proverbial fire. Is not a fire extinguisher better?
As the Master said,
You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
–Matthew 5:43-48, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
Perfection, in this case, indicates suitability for one’s purpose, which is, in the language of the Westminster Shorter Catechism,
to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
–Quoted in The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, The Book of Confessions (1967)
As the annual celebration of the birth of Christ approaches again, may we who follow him with our words also follow him with our deeds: may we strive for shalom on a day-to-day basis. Only God can save the world, but we can leave it better than we found it.
to take on our human nature and to illumine the world with your light.
By your grace adopt us as your children and enlighten us with your Spirit,
through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 20
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The Assigned Readings:
Job 42:10-17 (January 3)
Isaiah 6:1-5 (January 4)
Psalm 72 (Both Days)
Luke 8:16-21 (January 3)
Acts 7:44-53 (January 4)
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Give the king your judgments, O God,
and your righteousness to the son of a king.
Then shall he judge your people righteously
and your poor with injustice.
–Psalm 72:1-2, The Book of Common Prayer (2004)
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Solomon built the first Temple. Unfortunately, he used high taxes and forced labor to do so. So much for justice for the poor!
We cannot keep our secrets forever. It is good, therefore, that one’s secrets be either positive or morally neutral. To give to charity anonymously, for example, is a positive secret. To contribute beauty to the world anonymously for the glory of God is also a virtue. I think, for example, of William Arthur Dunkerley (1852-1941), who went to much effort to keep the secret that he was the novelist, poet, and religious writer John Oxenham. Authors and editors of hymnal companion volumes from his lifetime did not know the actual identity of John Oxenham. (I know, for I own such books from that time period.)
Why we keep secrets matters. Sometimes it is simply a matter of privacy. “None of your business” is frequently a legitimate reason. Keeping a secret so that glory will go to God, one oneself, is a good reason, as I have argued. Yet covering up something negative, although perhaps successful for a period of time, will fail, at least in the ultimate court of justice–that of God.
The majesty and mystery of God, in whose presence we are not worthy to stand, is awe-inspiring. That majesty and mystery also becomes an unfortunate excuse to dodge proper questions which warrant real answers. In the Book of Job, for example, God permitted the titular character to suffer as a test of his loyalty. Job insisted correctly on his innocence (to which the text attests). Job deserved a real answer from God. Instead he received the “I’m God and you’re not” reply. Then he recanted. The tacked-on happy ending, in which God restores Job’s riches and gives him more children, does not satisfy me. The God of the Book of Job is a figure to recoil from in terror, not to love.
A faithful, awe-filled response to God, who exceeds human capacity of comprehension, includes loving and glorifying God, enjoying God, and loving one’s neighbor as one loves oneself. Attitudes lead to actions. So, without falling into the heresy of Pietism, I affirm the principle of the Letter of James that works matter. So does being careful regarding what one says and writes about the character of God. Many people have used God as an excuse to justify their bigotry and violence. Some of them wrote parts of scripture. The standard for me is Jesus of Nazareth, God incarnate. Understandings of God have changed and continue to do so, but Christ is constant. And that is no secret.
Holy God, creator of light and giver of goodness, your voice moves over the waters.
Immerse us in your grace, and transform us by your Spirit,
that we may follow after your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you 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 3:1-21
Psalm 29
Acts 9:10-19a
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Pay tribute to Yahweh, you sons of God,
tribute to Yahweh of glory and power,
tribute to Yahweh of the glory of his name,
worship Yahweh in his sacred court.
–Psalm 29:1-3, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
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The readings for today tell stories of God calling people to pursue a faithful and risky path. This command to embark upon a new course was for the benefit of others and the glory of God. If any of the three people on whom these lessons focus had refused to obey and not recanted, God could have found someone else willing to obey, but he who would have refused in such a counterfactual situation would have been worse off spiritually.
We begin in 1 Samuel 3, the account of God’s call to the young Samuel. The boy was living at Shiloh, with the priest Eli as his guardian. Paula J. Bowes, author of the Collegeville Bible Commentary volume (1985) on the books of Samuel, noticed the literal and metaphorical levels of meaning in the text:
The picture of Eli as asleep and practically blind describes Israel’s state in relation to the Lord. The lamp of God, that is, God’s word, is almost extinguished through the unworthiness of the officiating priests. The Lord ignores Eli and calls directly to the boy Samuel to receive this divine word….Samuel is the faithful, chosen priest who will soon replace the unfaithful and rejected house of Eli.
–Page 15
Eli had the spiritual maturity to accept the verdict of God. Repeating that judgment was obviously uncomfortable for the boy, who might have been uncertain of how the priest would take the news.
Acts 9 contains an account of the transformation of Saul of Tarsus into St. Paul the Apostle. Saul, unlike young Samuel, understood immediately who was speaking to him. Ananias of Damascus also heard from God and, after a brief protest, obeyed. Thus Ananias abetted the spiritual transformation of Saul into one of the most influential men in Christian history. The summons to do so met with reasonable fear, however, for Saul had been a notorious persecutor of earliest Christianity. How was Ananias supposed to know beforehand that Saul had changed? Ananias had to trust God. And St. Paul suffered greatly for his obedience to God; he became a martyr after a series of imprisonments, beatings, and even a shipwreck.
Gerhard Krodel, author of the Proclamation Commentaries volume (1981) on the Acts of the Apostles, wrote that Chapter 8 ends with an account of the breaking down of a barrier and that Chapter 9 opens with another such story. Acts 8 closes with the story of St. Philip the Deacon (not the Apostle) converting the Ethiopian eunuch, a Gentile. St. Paul had to deal with understandable suspicion of his bona fides after his conversion in Acts 9. Later in the book he inaugurated his mission to the Gentiles–the breaking down of another barrier.
I have never heard the voice of God. On occasion I have noticed a thought I have determined to be of outside origin, however. Usually these messages have been practical, not theological. For example, about fourteen years ago, I knew in an instant that I should put down the mundane task I was completing and move my car. I had parked it under a tree, as I had on many previous days, but something was different that day. So I moved my car to a spot where only open sky covered it. Slightly later that day I looked at the spot where my car had been and noticed a large tree limb on the ground. Last year I knew that I should drive the route from Americus, Georgia, back to Athens, Georgia, without stopping. So I did. I parked the car at my front door and proceeded to unload the vehicle. When I went outside to move the car to the back parking lot, the vehicle would not start, for my ignition switch needed work. But I was home, safe. Yes, God has spoken to me, but not audibly and not to tell me to become a great priest or evangelist.
My experience of God has been subtle most of the time. At some time during my childhood God entered my life. This happened quietly, without any dramatic event or “born again” experience. God has been present, shaping me over time. At traumatic times I have felt grace more strongly than the rest of the time, but light is more noticeable amid darkness than other light. Grace has been present during the good times also. Not everybody who follows God will have a dramatic experience of the divine. So be it. May nobody who has had a dramatic experience of the divine insist that others must have one too.
Yet God does call all the faithful to leave behind much that is comfortable and safe. Breaking down human-created barriers to God is certain to make one unpopular and others uncomfortable, is it not? It contradicts “received wisdom” as well as psychological and theological categories. Anger and fear are predictable reactions which often lead to violence and other unfortunate actions. Frequently people commit these sins in the name of God.
The call of God is to take risks, break down artificial barriers, and trust God for the glory of God and the benefit of others. Along the way one will reap spiritual benefits, of course. Wherever God leads you, O reader, to proceed, may you go there.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 15, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF REGENSBURG
THE FEAST OF JOHANN GOTTLOBB KLEMM, INSTRUMENT MAKER; DAVID TANNENBERG, SR., GERMAN-AMERICAN MORAVIAN ORGAN BUILDER; JOHANN PHILIP BACHMANN, GERMAN-AMERICAN MORAVIAN INSTRUMENT BUILDER; JOSEPH FERDINAND BULITSCHEK, BOHEMIAN-AMERICAN ORGAN BUILDER; AND TOBIAS FRIEDRICH, GERMAN MORAVINA COMPOSER AND MUSICIAN
THE FEAST OF MARGARET MEAD, ANTHROPOLOGIST
THE FEAST OF PHILIP WILLIAM OTTERBEIN, COFOUNDER OF THE CHURCH OF THE UNITED BRETHREN IN CHRIST
Above: Tobias Saying Good-Bye to His Father, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Image in the Public Domain
Tobit had suffered for acting faithfully and compassionately. His son took great risks to help him in the Book of Tobit.
Divine Commandments, the Image of God, and Spiritual Struggles
JANUARY 3 and 4, 2024
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The Collect:
Almighty and ever-living God, you revealed the incarnation of your Son by the brilliant shining of a star.
Shine the light of your justice always in our hearts and over all lands,
and accept our lives as the treasure we offer in your praise and for your service,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 21
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The Assigned Readings:
Proverbs 1:20-33 (January 3)
Proverbs 3:1-12 (January 4)
Psalm 110 (Both Days)
James 4:1-10 (January 3)
James 4:11-17 (January 4)
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The king at your right hand, O Lord,
shall smite down kings in the day of his wrath.
In all his majesty, he shall judge the nations,
smiting heads over all the wide earth.
–Psalm 110:5-6, Common Worship (2000)
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The assigned readings for these two days include generous amounts of divine judgment and mercy. Obey God’s instructions, they say, and life will be better in the short, medium, and long terms than if one disregards them. Some of the content in Proverbs leans in the direction of Prosperity Theology, unfortunately. Nevertheless, as other passages of scripture indicate, those who suffer for the sake of righteousness do so in the company of God.
James 4, along with the rest of that epistle, focuses on human actions and their spiritual importance. In the Letter of James faith is intellectual, hence the epistle’s theology of justification by works. This does not contradict the Pauline theology of justification by faith, for faith, in Pauline theology, is inherently active. These two parts of the New Testament depart from different places and arrive at the same destination. Recognizing the image of God in others then treating them accordingly is a loving thing to do. It is a faithful thing to do. It is also a frequently dangerous thing to do.
This is a devotion for two days leading up to the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6), the commemoration of the Magi, who put their lives on hold for years and took many risks. The Epiphany is also a feast about the Gospel of Jesus going out to the Gentiles, of which I am one. Part of the significance of the Feast of the Epiphany in my life is the reality that people (especially those different from me) are more than they appear; they are bearers of the divine image. As such, they have inherent dignity and potential. Sometimes I recognize this reality easily in others, but I have a certain difficulty sometimes in recognizing it in those who have wronged me. That is a spiritual issue which James 4:11-12 tells me to address. Grace is available for that, fortunately.
Each of us has spiritual failings to address. May you, O reader, deal with yours successfully, by grace. May you obey God’s commandments and live compassionately, regardless of the costs.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 9, 2014 COMMON ERA
PROPER 27: THE TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR A
THE FEAST OF MARTIN CHEMNITZ, GERMAN LUTHERAN THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF BARTON STONE, COFOUNDER OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (DISCIPLES OF CHRIST)
One of my fellow parishioners observed that a local radio station ceased to play Christmas music early in the afternoon one Christmas Day a few years ago. David remarked sarcastically that Christmas must have ended at that time. I know that he was sarcastic because he observes all twelve days of Christmas–through January 5.
The twelve days of Christmas, when one observes them with the assigned biblical readings for the holy days, take one on a tour through joy and abject grief, through love and hatred, through tenderness and violence. The Feasts of St. Stephen (December 26) and the Holy Innocents (December 28) function as counterparts to the joy of December 25. The whole picture tells us that God became incarnate in the form of a helpless infant born into a violent world in which people threatened his life. Young Jesus survived, of course, but others died because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness is menacing indeed. Yet, as we read in John 1:5 (The New Jerusalem Bible),
…and the light shines in darkness,
and darkness could not overpower it.
That is an excellent reason to celebrate. Merry Christmas!
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 collect hymnals and service books. Exploring them and finding treasures is a wonderful hobby, one which brings joy to me. And sharing those gems sheds that joy abroad. That is the rationale for my GATHERED PRAYERS weblog, which links into this one. Some hymns, however, are not prayers, so I seek and fine other venues for sharing them.
William Allen Knight (1863-1957) was a U.S. Congregationalist minister and author. Yesterday, for example, I found some books he wrote available at archive.org:
Knight also wrote the following Christmas hymn in 1915:
Come, my heart, canst thou not hear it,
Mid the tumult of thy days?
Catch the old sweet song of angels,
Join thy voice to swell their praise!
Hast thou never shared the blessing,
Never known kind Heaven’s gift?
Bethlehem thy Saviour cradled!
Heart of mine, a song uplift.
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First to hear were watching shepherds,
Sore afraid that winter’s night;
Soon their Bethlehem’s low manger
Changed the song to wondrous sight!
Ever since, all they who hear it
Find a Saviour where they dwell;
Sing it, heart! Who knows what toilers
Thou the Christward way shalt tell!
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Long ago the angels vanished–
But their song is sounding still!
Millions now with hope are singing,
“Peace on earth, to men good will.”
Sing, my heart! Tho’ peace may tarry,
Sing good will mid human strife!
Till that old sweet song of angels
Shall attune to heav’n our life.
I keep hearing about a war on Christmas. Yet I note that many, if not most, of those who speak and write at length on that subject seem oblivious to the liturgical calendar and many well-documented facts. “Xmas” is not a way to remove “Christ” from Christmas. No, “X” is an abbreviation derived from the Greek alphabet. I have, for example, squeezed “Xian” into a tiny gap when taking notes and meaning “Christian.” And I do not hear many of these self-appointed defenders of Christmas against the great secular hordes speak of Advent or twelve days of Christmas often. Thus many self-appointed defenders of tradition violate the tradition they claim to affirm. I love the irony.
Talk is cheap and frequently annoying. But keeping holy seasons quietly and sincerely is where, as an old saying goes, the rubber meets the road. We can start by dropping out of the rat race or never entering it. And we can live daily in the awareness that time is sacred–something of which the older, more formalistic Christian denominations tend to engender better than the iconoclastic schools of Protestantism.
The angels’ song is sounding still. Thanks be to God! But do we hear it over the din of pointless arguments and of hustle and bustle?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 23, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE TWENTY-THIRD DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OF KANTY, ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHARBEL, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK
THE FEAST OF GERALD R. FORD, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
One of the great virtues of High Churchmanship is having a well-developed sense of sacred time. So, for example, the church calendars, with their cycles, tell us of salvation history. We focus on one part of the narrative at a time. Much of Protestantism, formed in rebellion against Medieval Roman Catholic excesses and errors, has thrown the proverbial baby out with the equally proverbial bath water, rejecting or minimizing improperly the sacred power of rituals and holy days.
Consider, O reader, the case of Christmas–not in the present tense, but through the late 1800s. Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas when they governed England in the 1650s. Their jure divino theology told them that since there was no biblical sanction for keeping Christmas, they ought not to do it–nor should anyone else. On the other hand, the jure divino theology of other Calvinists allowed for keeping Christmas. Jure divino was–and is–a matter of interpretation. Lutherans, Anglicans, and Moravians kept Christmas. Many Methodists on the U.S. frontier tried yet found that drunken revelry disrupted services. Despite this Methodist pro-Christmas opinion, many members of the Free Methodist denomination persisted in anti-Christmas sentiment. The holiday was too Roman Catholic, they said and existed without
the authority of God’s word.
Thus, as the December 19, 1888 issue of Free Methodist concluded,
We attach no holy significance to the day.
–Quoted in Leigh Eric Schmidt, Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), page 180. (The previous quote also comes from that magazine, quoted in the same book.)
Many Baptists also rejected the religious celebration of Christmas. An 1875 issue of Baptist Teacher, a publication for Sunday School educators, contained the following editorial:
We believe in Christmas–not as a holy day but as a holiday and so we join with our juveniles with utmost heartiness of festal celebration….Stripped as it ought to be, of all pretensions of religious sanctity and simply regarded as a social and domestic institution–an occasion of housewarming, and heart-warming and innocent festivity–we welcome its coming with a hearty “All Hail.”
–Quoted in Schmidt, Consumer Rites, pages 179 and 180
Presbyterians, with their Puritan heritage, resisted celebrating Christmas for a long time. In fact, some very strict Presbyterians still refuse to keep Christmas, citing their interpretation of jure divino theology. (I have found some of their writings online.) That attitude was more commonplace in the 1800s. The Presbyterian Church in the United States, the old Southern Presbyterian Church, passed the following resolution at its 1899 General Assembly:
There is no warrant for the observance of Christmas and Easter as holy days, but rather contrary (see Galatians iv.9-11; Colossians ii.16-21), and such observance is contrary to the principles of the Reformed faith, conducive to will-worship, and not in harmony with the simplicity of the gospel in Jesus Christ.
–Page 430 of the Journal of the General Assembly, 1899 (I copied the text of the resolution verbatim from an original copy of the Journal.)
I agree with Leigh Eric Schmidt:
It is not hard to see in this radical Protestant perspective a religious source for the very secularization of the holiday that would eventually be so widely decried. With the often jostling secularism of the Christmas bazaar, Protestant rigorists simply got what they had long wished for–Christmas as one more market day, a profane time or work and trade.
–Consumer Rites, page 180
I affirm the power of rituals and church calendars. And I have no fear of keeping a Roman Catholic holy day and season. Thus I keep Advent (December 1-24) and Christmas (December 25-January 5). I hold off on wishing people
Merry Christmas
often until close to Christmas Eve, for I value the time of preparation. And I have no hostility or mere opposition to wishing anyone
Happy Holidays,
due to the concentrated holiday season in December. This is about succinctness and respect in my mind; I am not a culture warrior.
Yet I cannot help but notice with dismay the increasingly early start of the end-of-year shopping season. More retailers will open earlier on Thanksgiving Day this year. Many stores display Christmas decorations before Halloween. These are examples of worshiping at the high altar of the Almighty Dollar.
I refuse to participate in this. In fact, I have completed my Christmas shopping–such as it was–mostly at thrift stores. One problem with materialism is that it ignores a basic fact: If I acquire an item, I must put it somewhere. But what if I enjoy open space?
I encourage a different approach to the end of the year: drop out quietly (or never opt in) and keep nearly four weeks of Advent and all twelve days of Christmas. I invite you, O reader, to observe these holy seasons and to discover riches and treasures better than anything on sale on Black Friday.
Pax vobiscum!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 25, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SQUANTO, COMPASSIONATE HUMAN BEING
THE FEAST OF JAMES OTIS SARGENT HUNTINGTON, FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS
–Martin Luther; translated by William James Kirkpatrick
Yesterday I sang in my parish choir’s performance of the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah. We dropped “His yoke is easy and his burden is light,” culminating instead in the Hallelujah Chorus. The concert was glorious and spiritually edifying for many people.
There are still a few days of Advent left. So I encourage you, O reader, to observe them. Then, beginning sometime during the second half of December 24, begin to say
Merry Christmas!
and continue that practice through January 5, the twelfth and last day of Christmas. And I encourage you to remember that our Lord and Savior was born into a violent world, one in which men–some mentally disturbed, others just mean, and still others both mean and mentally disturbed–threatened and took the lives of innocents. Names, circumstances, empires, nation-states, and technology have changed, but the essential reality has remained constant, unfortunately.
The Hallelujah Chorus, quoting the Apocalypse of John, includes these words:
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
That is not true yet, obviously. But that fact does not relieve any of us of our responsibilities to respect the Image of God in others and to treat them accordingly. We must not try to evade the duty to be the face and appendages of Christ to those to whom God sends us and those whom God sends to us. We cannot save the world, but we can improve it. May we do so for the glory of God and the benefit of others.
May the peace of Christ, born as a vulnerable baby and executed as a criminal by a brutal imperial government, be with you now and always. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 17, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARIA STEWART, EDUCATOR
THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB, FOUNDER OF SAVE THE CHILDREN
THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER
The assigned readings for these days tell us of Biblical heroes of faith, from Moses to Joshua son of Nun to Rahab the prostitute–quite an assortment! I perceive no need to repeat their stories today, for the Bible does that better than I can. And I have other matters on my mind.
If I were to amend the hall of fame of faith in the Letter to the Hebrews, part of my addition would read as follows:
By faith abolitionists challenged racial chattel slavery in the United States. By faith Harriet Tubman risked life and limb to help her people, who called her “Moses.” By faith Sojourner Truth spoke out for the rights of women and African Americans alike, as did William Lloyd Garrison. By faith Frederick Douglass challenged racism and slavery with his words, deeds, and very existence.
By faith members of subsequent generations challenged racial segregation. These great men and women included A. Philip Randolph, Charles Hamilton Houston, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bayard Rustin, Vernon Johns, and Martin Luther King, Jr. They challenged the United States to confront its hypocrisy, to live up more closely to its stated ideals, and to guarantee civil rights. By faith Thurgood Marshall fought the good fight in courts for decades. By faith brave students, supported by their courageous parents and communities, integrated schools with hostile student bodies and administrators.
By faith Nelson Mandela confronted Apartheid and helped to end it. By faith he encouraged racial and national reconciliation as a man and as a President.
All of these were courageous men and women, boys and girls. There is no room here to tell their stories adequately. And the names of many of them will fade into obscurity with the passage of time. Some of their names have faded from collective memory already. But they were righteous people–giants upon whose shoulders we stand. They were agents of divine grace, which transformed the world, making it a better place.
May the light of God, incarnate in each of us, shine brightly in the darkness and leave the world–if only one “corner” of it at a time–a better place. May we cooperate with God, for grace is more about what God does than what we do. We ought to work with God, of course. Doing so maximizes the effects of grace. But grace will win in the end. That is wonderful news!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 24, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THOMAS A KEMPIS, SPIRITUAL WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JOHN BOSTE, GEORGE SWALLOWELL, AND JOHN INGRAM, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple….
–Luke 2:46a, The New Jerusalem Bible
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The Temple–each in its own time–was the center of early Judaism. Solomon had ordered the construction of the First Temple, the one which Chaldeans/Neo-Babylonians destroyed. The Second Temple dated to 516 BCE. This–in its expanded state–was the Temple which Jesus knew. The Second Temple was, in the time of Jesus, the center of a religious system which separated the wealthy from the poor and the Gentiles from the Jews. Those who converted currency at the Temple so that devout people could purchase their sacrificial animals with non-idolatrous money did so in such a way as to exploit those devout individuals. And the Second Temple–with a Roman fortress next door–was the seat of collaboration. This was the Temple which the Romans destroyed in 70 CE.
The Gospel of Luke dates to after that religiously cataclysmic event. I wonder how the original audience responded to the story of Jesus conversing with the teachers there. How we humans understand an account has much to do with our current reality. We read our present circumstances into stories of past events. Certainly this happened many times during the composition of the canonical Gospels. And it has occurred many times subsequently as people have encountered those accounts.
Our holy Temple, our pride,
Where our fathers praised You,
Has been consumed by fire:
And all that was dear to us is ruined.
–Isaiah 64:10, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures
What is your destroyed holy Temple? Explore the metaphor. Let it sink in. And know that after the First Temple came the Second Temple. And Judaism has survived without a Temple. Perhaps your metaphorical Temple is not necessary after all.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
FEBRUARY 22, 2012 COMMON ERA
ASH WEDNESDAY
THE FEAST OF ERIC LIDDELL, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY TO CHINA
THE FEAST OF SAINT PRAETEXTATUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF ROUEN
THE FEAST OF RASMUS JENSEN, LUTHERAN MISSIONARY TO CANADA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS THALASSIUS, LIMNAEUS, AND MARON, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONKS
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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