–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:
Jeremiah 31:7-14
Psalm 72
John 1:[1-9] 10-18
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Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
who alone does wonderful things.
And blessed be his glorious name for ever.
May all the earth be filled with his glory.
Amen. Amen.
–Psalm 72:18-19, The Book of Common Prayer (2004)
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The reading from Jeremiah 31 comes from articles of consolation focusing on national reunification. The exiles from Israel, the northern kingdom, will reunite with Judah, the southern kingdom, the text says. God will turn mourning into joy.
The ten “lost” tribes are not lost, at least not in the sense that their locations are unknown. The tribes scattered across Africa and Asia. Most of them have not reunited with the main body of Judaism, although Jewish organizations have been working with some of these groups for the purpose of working toward that goal. Then there is the case of the Ethiopian Jews, many of whom have relocated to the State of Israel, where they have to contend with racism, a high rate of poverty, and allegations of being insufficiently Jewish. The prediction of Jeremiah 31 has yet to come true. The continued passage of time will render its verdict on that prophecy.
The prologue to the Gospel of John is a glorious and profound text. It, like Jeremiah 31:7-14 and Psalm 72, speaks of acts of God. Some of these acts have yet to occur. Yes, the tense in the prologue is past, but consider, O reader, the following passage, the following passage:
But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God.
–Verses 12-13, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)
This continues, does it not? But to all who receive him…. This will continue, will it not? But to all who will receive him….
God has acted. God is acting. God will continue to act. As the United Church of Christ says,
God is still speaking.
God has not finished speaking or acting, so who among the ranks of mere mortals knows or can know how God will surprise people next or behave in a non-surprising way? The passage of time will reveal the answers.
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 16:1-13 (Friday)
1 Kings 2:1-4, 10-12 (Saturday)
Psalm 29 (Both Days)
1 Timothy 4:11-16 (Friday)
Luke 5:1-11 (Saturday)
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The LORD shall give strength to his people;
the LORD shall give his people the blessing of peace.
–Psalm 29:11, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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The LORD shall give his strength and his bless of peace to his people to equip them to do that which he has called them to do. What people do with that call and that blessing is not always with a faithful response to God, however. Let us, O reader, consider King David, formerly a shepherd. The work of a shepherd was crucial, so may nobody dismiss it. Yet David had a greater destiny, to which God called him via Samuel. Nevertheless, David had a dark side, which remained evident until his final advice to Solomon. (The lectionary pericope from 1 Kings 2 omits the verses in which David gives advice to kill people.) And the reigns of David and Solomon contained abuses of power. Solomon existence because of an abuse of David’s power, in fact. If David was truly a man after God’s own heart, I harbor reservations about the proverbial divine heart.
In the New Testament we read of Apostles and St. Timothy. Sts. James and John (sons of Zebedee and first cousins of Jesus) and St. Simon Peter were fishermen. That was an honest and necessary profession, but it was not their destiny. They were, of course, flawed men (as all people have flaws), but they did much via the power of God. The advice (in the name of St. Paul the Apostle) to St. Timothy not to let anyone dismiss him because of his youth applies to many people today. God calls the young, the middle-aged, and the elderly. God commissions and empowers people from a variety of backgrounds. God is full of surprises.
Sometimes God surprises us in ways we dislike. I think of a story which, if it is not true, ought to be. In the late 1800s, in the United States, a lady on the lecture circuit of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) spoke in a certain town. She completed her speech about how God wants people to avoid alcohol at all times. Then entered the Q & A part of her presentation. One man asked,
If what you say is true, how do you explain Jesus turning water into wine?
The speaker replied,
I would like him better if he had not done that.
Sometimes the call of God in our lives is to deal properly with ways in which God makes us uncomfortable. (This presupposes the ability to discern from the reality of God and our inaccurate perceptions thereof, of course.) If Jesus seems to agree with us all of the time, we are relating not to the real Jesus but to an imagined Christ we constructed for our convenience. The genuine article is a challenging figure who should make us uncomfortable. And we should seize the opportunity to grow spiritually regardless of any factor, such as age, experience, inexperience, or background.
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: Mohandas Gandhi Leading the Salt March in India, 1930
Image in the Public Domain
Loving Our Enemies
JANUARY 5, 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 22:1-9
Psalm 110
Luke 6:27-31
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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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Luke 6:27-31 uses hyperbole to make crucial ethical points:
God’s love extends to our enemies and oppressors (Psalm 110 not withstanding), and
We ought to have a benevolent attitude toward them. Whatever we do, it must be in the best interest of our oppressors and enemies. Since whatever we do to others we do to ourselves, what could be better for oppressors than to cease oppressing?
Gandhian nonviolence serves an excellent example of Luke 6:27-31 in action. I think especially of those bold African-American men and women who chose not to fight racist violence with their own violence during the Civil Rights Movement. Their nonviolence denied their attackers any pretense of moral justification and troubled the consciences of many of those who committed violence against them. Hopefully such nonviolence detracted many from committing more violence.
Proverbs 22:8-9 tells us:
He who sows injustice shall reap misfortune;
His rod of wrath shall fail.
The generous man is blessed,
For he gives of his bread to the poor.
—TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
We reap what we sow. Our fruits will reveal what kind of tree we are. May we sow righteousness and compassion. May we be healthy trees.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 10, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF EDWIN HATCH, ANGLICAN PRIEST, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER
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 daily lectionary from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) pairs two stories of God calling people in extraordinary ways. Most followers of God never hear a divine voice, much less get knocked to the ground by God. But Samuel and Saul/St. Paul the Apostle had unusual experiences. And both of them did great things for God. Their legacies survive them long after they died. Those last two facts regarding those men impress me the most.
My experience of God has been the opposite of dramatic. I have never even had so much as a “born again” experience. No, God, has dealt with me (and continues to do so) in a quiet, gradual manner punctuated with occasional periods of more noticeable activity. In 2007, when the bottom fell out of my life, In felt God’s presence and activity more acutely, for I needed that different form of presence and activity then, for example.
My points are these:
We all need God.
God relates to people in a variety of ways.
God relates to the same people differently over time.
So nobody ought to assume that his or her experience of God is mandatory for everyone.
Yet it is mandatory that we respond favorably to God and do great things for God.
The variety of these great things is part of the spice of Godly life. What are the flavors you, O reader, God is calling you to contribute to the stew?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 3, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CARL LICHTENBERGER, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
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
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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