As Karl Barth pointed out, God, not human beings, properly occupies the center of Christian theology. The overabundance of human-centered language in hymnals and in lyrics to music in church is never a good sign.
God is at the center in the readings for this Sunday. God occupies the center of Jeremiah 33, with its prophecy of a restored Davidic monarchy and levitical priesthood. God occupies the center in the prediction of redemption while all around looks dire. God guides people spiritually and forgives sins. God helps us empathize and rejoice with each other as we serve God. God offers good news that seems unbelievable.
A Southern Baptist collegiate ministry sends people to stand in the quadrangle at the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia a few times each semester. Sometimes someone stops me to ask me a few questions. One of those questions is,
Do you believe in God?
My answer is always the same:
What do you mean?
I ask because my answer depends on the intent of the questioner. A common understanding of belief in God is intellectual acceptance of the existence of God. In the creeds and in many Biblical passages, though, belief in God indicates trust in God. I always affirm the existence of God, whom I usually trust.
Trust is of the essence of in Luke 1:1-25. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, the lack of trust is a problem for Zechariah. I do not condemn, though, for my response would also be in so many words,
Yeah, right.
We readers, if we know the Bible well, should think immediately of Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah (Genesis 15:1-20 and 17:1f). We ought also to remember Genesis 16, the beginning of the story of Hagar and Ishmael, as well as the faithlessness of Abram and Sarai.
Returning to Luke 1:1-25, if we continue reading that chapter, we find next week’s Gospel reading, which I mention here only in passing. The contrast between Zechariah and Mary is multifaceted. Trust (or lack thereof) in God is one of those facets.
I do not condemn Zechariah caution and skepticism. I also rejoice that God does not asks us to cease to transform into gullible people. Furthermore, divine grace continues to shower upon those who respond to seemingly unbelievable truths with
Yeah, right.
My favorite Biblical character is St. Thomas the Apostle; I affirm honest doubt. It keeps one from falling for scams and joining cults.
Yeah, right
is frequently the correct reply.
When, however, the seemingly unbelievable is true and of God, we can turn to God and admit that our initial skepticism was wrong, even if it was understandable. Sometimes we need hindsight to see more clearly. And grace continues to abound.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 8, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR A
THE FEAST OF EDWARD KING, BISHOP OF LINCOLN
THE FEAST OF FRED B. CRADDOCK, U.S. DISCIPLES OF CHRIST MINISTER, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR, AND RENOWNED PREACHER
THE FEAST OF GEOFFREY STUDDERT KENNEDY, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHN HAMPDEN GURNEY, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD, FOUNDER OF THE BROTHERS HOSPITALLERS OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD
By your merciful protection alert us to the threatening dangers of our sins,
and redeem us for your life of justice,
for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 18
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The Assigned Readings:
2 Samuel 7:18-29
Psalm 90
Revelation 22:12-16
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So teach us to number our days
that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
–Psalm 90:12, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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Earlier in 2 Samuel 7 God had said to David via the prophet Nathan not to build a magnificent temple, contrary to divine wishes. No, God said, God would make David the founder of a great dynasty. David would not build a literal house for the Ark of the Covenant, but God would make a metaphorical house of David. The monarch was overcome with gratitude.
That was all well and good, but the Davidic Dynasty became an instrument of exploitation of the people. The monarchy became the definition of national identity. The former model, in which God was the national sovereign, was no more. One reason for the change of the narrative and its opinion of monarchy was political. The Biblical authors, who were myriad, disagreed with each other frequently. Thus, for example, the prophet Samuel’s warning against monarchy came to coexist with texts affirming monarchy.
Nevertheless, the consistent witness of the Old and New Testaments for social justice–frequently in the economic realm–resounds down the corridors of time and reminds us that we do not live in the fully realized Kingdom of God. Society is not an abstraction. No, it is simply people. We make society what it is, so we can change it. May we improve it, respecting the image of God in others and ourselves. May we love our fellow human beings–especially those who differ from us–as we love ourselves. May noble intentions lead to positive results for the benefit of people, the common good of society, and the glory of God. As I mentioned in the previous post, abundant grace is available to empower us to accomplish the purpose of having a proper, respectful, and awe-filled relationship with God and bearing the related spiritual fruits.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
AUGUST 10, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF WAKEFIELD AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS SISTER, FRANCES JANE DOUGLAS(S), HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF EUNICE SHRIVER KENNEDY, FOUNDER OF THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS
THE FEAST OF SAINT LAURENCE OF ROME, ROMAN CATHOLIC DEACON AND MARTYR
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 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Daily Lectionary from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) skips over Genesis 8:20-22 (over J, the Yahwist, and from P, the Priestly Source) to 9:1-17 (back to P), which covers much of the same ground–plus a rainbow. In that composite narrative many people had died because of their sinfulness. In Hebrews 11:32-40, however, we read of people who have died because of their righteousness, people
of whom the world was not worthy.
–Verse 38a, The New Revised Standard Version
These saints, the lesson tells us,
…were commended for their faith [yet] did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better, so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.
–Verses 39-40, The New Revised Standard Version
Both readings contain the element of the unworthiness of the world. Although the world might be unworthy God vows never to flood it again. The world might be unworthy yet God does not give up on it, hence the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity as Jesus of Nazareth and all that followed it–especially the death and resurrection of Jesus and their spiritual implications for us. God has not given up on the world yet; unwritten chapters in the story of grace on this planet remain for people to see unfold.
Yes, we are unworthy; I take that as a given. But does that reality constitute a topic upon which we should dwell? No. God knows what we are yet has identified with us by means of the Incarnation. Our worthiness is in God alone. May we respond lovingly to God, who loves us.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 10, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (U.S.A.), 1983
THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA, 1925
THE FEAST OF SAINT EPHREM OF EDESSA, ROMAN CATHOLIC DEACON AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT LANDERICUS OF PARIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
Advent receives inadequate attention. The season is certainly not commercial. Indeed, Christmas receives much commercial attention even before Halloween, for retailers need the money from Christmas-related sales to sustain stores through other times of the year. I admit to being of two minds. On one hand I do my rather limited Christmas shopping at thrift stores, so my deeds reveal my creed. Yet I know that many jobs depend on Christmas-related sales, so I want retailers to do well at the end of the year. Nevertheless, I am not very materialistic at heart; the best part of Christmas is intangible. And nobody needs any more dust catchers.
Observing Advent is a positive way of dropping out of the madness that is pre-December 25 commercialism. The four Sundays and other days (December 2-24 in 2012) preceding Christmas Day are a time of spiritual preparation, not unlike Lent, which precedes Easter. Garrison Keillor used the term “Advent Distress Disorder” (ADD) in a monologue last year. Indeed, finding positive news in the midst of apocalyptic tones of Advent readings can prove difficult. Yet the good news remains and the light shines brightest in the darkness.
So, O reader, I invite you to observe a holy Advent. Embrace the confluence of joy and distress, of darkness and light. And give Advent all the time it warrants through December 24. Christmas will arrive on schedule and last for twelve days. But that is another topic….
Pax vobiscum!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 6, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM TEMPLE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
THE FEAST OF TE WHITI O RONGOMAI, MAORI PROPHET
THE FEAST OF SAINT THEOPHANE VERNARD, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, MISSIONARY, AND MARTYR IN VIETNAM
Rid yourselves, then, of all spite, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and carping criticism….Always behave honourably among gentiles so that they can see for themselves what moral lives you lead, and when the day of reckoning comes, give thanks to God for the things which now make them denounce you as criminals.
–1 Peter 2:1, 11-12, The New Jerusalem Bible
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Put your trust in him [God] always, O people,
pour out your hearts before him, for God is our refuge.
–Psalm 62:9, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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Isaiah 5 speaks in allegorical terms of God as a farmer and Israel as a vineyard. The farmer has done his best, yet the vineyard has yielded wild grapes. In this allegory we read condemnations of wealthy landowners who have expanded their holdings at the expense of people of modest means, in violation of the Law of Moses. The Bible speaks frequently about how much God condemns economic exploitation, a topic which deserves more attention than many Christians, lay or ordained, give it. We also read in this allegory a condemnation of impious partying, such as the kind fueled by alcohol. The common thread is misplaced priorities: greed and dissipation distract one from what matters in Isaiah 5: social justice as lived holiness.
Certainly we cannot work toward social justice as lived holiness if we engage in
spite, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and carping criticism,
can we? Honorable behavior builds up society and the body of Christ. It might also get us into trouble and even cost us as much as our lives. That is not fair, obviously. But, if we are to suffer, may we do so for the sake of righteousness. May we also refrain from causing or permitting anyone to suffer for the sake of righteousness.
And may we check ourselves daily for bad behaviors, such as those 1 Peter 2:1 lists. The New Jerusalem Bible translators for 1 Peter did a wonderful job with 2:1;
carping criticism
stood out in my mind the first time I read that verse in this translation. Alternative renderings include
slander
and
malicious talk
and
unkind words,
but I prefer
carping criticism.
Unfortunately, congregations are frequently hotbeds of
carping criticism.
I grew up in a series of congregations I did not choose. Their characters varied greatly, but I recall some mainly for the
carping criticism
which took place there. I am ashamed that I have engaged in
carping criticism
of others, not that all criticism is out-of-bounds; the canonical gospels record critical words of Jesus. But I have carped. In so doing I have sinned. And I am not alone in that reality.
May both social injustice and
carping criticism
decrease exponentially, by grace and human cooperation with it.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 2, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CHANNING MOORE WILLIAMS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP IN CHINA AND JAPAN
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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