Genesis 1 divides the first six days of creation into two groups–the creation of generalities and domains (the first three days’ work) and the creation of the specifics or the inhabitants of those domains (the work of the fourth, fifth, and sixth days). The seventh day is the time of the creation of the sabbath. The sovereignty of God is a theme that pervades this great myth.
God also deserves much love. As the other three readings tell us, that love (or absence thereof) is manifest in how we behave toward other human beings. These other human beings also bear the image of God (Genesis 1:27). I know I am getting ahead of the continuous readings in Genesis. I am staying on topic, though.
Whoever says he is in the light, yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because darkness has blinded his eyes.
–1 John 2:9-11, The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)
That text explains itself.
According to a story that may be apocryphal, the elderly St. John the Evangelist was due to visit a congregation somewhere. The members gathered in great anticipation on the appointed day. They watched as men carried the infirmed apostle into the space and sat him down in front of the congregation. Then St. John said,
My children, love one another.
Immediately, he motioned for the men to carry him out. One member of the congregation ran after St. John and asked, in so many words,
That’s all you came here to say?
The apostle replied,
When you have done that, I will tell you more.
Loving one another can be very difficult. Deciding to love one another can also prove challenging, albeit easier than effectively acting on the goal. We need grace to succeed, of course. Yet grace requires our desire to love one another. Free will and grace are partners.
I write this post during a period of prolonged and intensified political polarization. Even the definition of objective reality, as in X caused Y, and Z happened, is often contentious. More so than in the past, many disagreements start at the point of assuming that those who differ from one are bad, if not evil. The more generous judgment that that those who disagree are probably good yet misinformed and misguided is increasingly rare.
I notice this unfortunate pattern in topics that range far beyond science, religion, and politics. I detect this regarding science fiction (one of my favorite topics), too.
Do you enjoy that series? Do you not enjoy that movie? What kind of person are you? You certainly aren’t a real fan. I’m a real fan!
Many criteria can define tribalism.
Whenever we erect idols, whether tangible or intangible, we set ourselves up for this. We do this to ourselves and each other. We can choose never to do this. We can also choose to cease and desist from doing this. We can opt to repent of our idolatry and tribalism.
May we do so. May we love God. May we love ourselves and each other.
Changing circumstances can alter how one reads texts one has read many times already. The texts remain constant. What one brings to them does not.
I write this post during a pandemic that is becoming worse for a number of reasons. Irresponsible human behavior is the primary reason for the COVID-19 pandemic becoming more severe. I write this post during a time of intensified global liminality. Behaviors that were polite prior to the pandemic have become hazardous to one’s health and the health of others. Hugging and singing can be lethal now. The world is in a liminal state.
The Humes lectionary has us reading Genesis 1:1-2:3 alongside John 1:1-18, with both texts spread across three weeks. This is wonderful scheduling on a lectionary, for the first (second one written) creation myth in Genesis is the model for John 1:1-18. Likewise, adding 1 John to the mix deepens the parallels. 1 John 1:1-3 resembles the beginning of the Gospel of John.
I side with Jewish theology against Roman Catholic theology regarding the beginning of Genesis: this is a mythical account of God creating order from chaos, not something from nothing. The Jewish interpretation fits the text, as I have affirmed for years. This year, in particular, that interpretation resonates with current events. I wait for God to create order from chaos again.
The light still shines in the darkness. The darkness continues to fail to overpower the light. The darkness remains persistent, though. Its repeated attempts wear me down emotionally and spiritually. God is that light, so the darkness will never overpower the light, fortunately.
Psalm 89 is of two moods–grateful and distressed. After reading commentaries, I do not know if the text is a pre-Babylonian Exilic prayer reworked during that Exile or if it is of Exilic origin. Anyhow, the text, as we have it, feels like a prayer from a period of spiritual despair.
Waiting can be difficult. I also know the discomfort of having to endure distress. A prayer I have uttered many times is a variation on,
What is taking you so long, God?
Liminality is an uncomfortable status. Alas, it is our status as a species, O reader. May we trust God and behave responsibly, collectively and individually. Only God can save the world. We have the power, however, to help or charm ourselves and each other.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 23, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF ADVENT
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OF KANTY, ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF ANTONIO CALDARA, ROMAN CATHOLIC COMPOSER AND MUSICIAN
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHARBEL, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK
THE FEAST OF JAMES PRINCE LEE, BISHOP OF MANCHESTER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JOHN BLEW, ENGLISH PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
One should read Deuteronomy 4 in the knowledge that someone wrote it long after the time of Moses then placed it in the great man’s mouth. Thus one will read that text while knowing what the real audience is a later generation of Hebrews. “Learn from the past and refrain from repeating those mistakes,” the text really says. Unfortunately, as we know, that message fell mostly on deaf ears, and the negative consequences of actions ensued.
Rejection of Jesus occupies the readings from John and 1 John. In John 5 Jesus was speaking to a hostile Jewish audience. Nevertheless, as in Deuteronomy 4, the text came from a later time and the actual audience was contemporary to the time of composition. The text still challenges audiences. Do we rest on our spiritual laurels while lacking the love of God in ourselves? If we have the love of God in ourselves, we will act on it with regard to others. We will seek their best and have compassion for them. We will, to cite 1 John 2, keep the commandments of Jesus. If they seem new, we have not been paying (sufficient) attention, for they are old.
Whoever claims to be in light
but hates his brother
is still in darkness.
Anyone who loves his brother remains in light
and there is in him nothing to make him fall away.
But whoever hates his brother is in darkness
and is walking about in darkness
not knowing where he is going,
because darkness has blinded him.
–1 John 2:9-11, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
The Feast of the Epiphany is about the light of Christ shining among Gentiles. May we who bear that light do so as effectively as possible, by grace. May we glorify and enjoy God forever, and thereby inspire others to do the same.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 2, 2016 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT WILLIAM OF ROSKILDE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF DAVID CHARLES, WELSH CALVINISTIC MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
If anyone had a legitimate reason to harbor resentment, Joseph son of Jacob did. Siblings had, out of jealousy of him and annoyance with him (he was an insufferable brat for a while), faked his death and sold him into slavery. Joseph had also spent years in prison for a crime he had not committed. Decades later, when he had a position in the Egyptian government, Joseph had an opportunity to take revenge. As one reads in Genesis 45, he chose to do otherwise.
One theme in the pericope from Romans 8 is liberation by God from the power of sin (yet not the struggle with sin) to serve and obey God, to pursue spiritual purposes. The reading from 1 John, with its warning against loving the world, fits well with that passage. That caution is not a call for serial Christian contrariness. No, St. Augustine of Hippo understood the passage well. He asked,
Why should I not love what God has made?
The great theologian answered his own question this way:
God does not forbid one to love these things but to love them to the point of finding one’s beatitude in them.
–Quoted in Raymond E. Brown, The Epistles of John (1982), pages 324-325
The quest for selfish gain, a theme extant in more than one of the readings for these days, is a journey toward harm of others and of oneself. That which we do to others, we do also to ourselves. There might be a delayed delivery of “what comes around, goes around,” but the proverbial cows will come home. It is better to seek the common god and to forgo vengeance, to retire grudges and to build up one’s society, community, and congregation. One can do that while loving the world, but not to the point of, in the words of St. Augustine of Hippo, finding one’s benediction in it. No, we should find one’s benediction in God alone. As we read in Psalm 27:7-9 (The Book of Common Prayer, 1979):
Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him.
Do not fret yourself over the one who prospers,
the one who succeeds in evil schemes.
Refrain from anger, leave rage alone;
do not fret yourself; it leads only to evil.
Here ends the lesson.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 27, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR CAMPBELL AINGER, ENGLISH EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT AEDESIUS, PRIEST AND MISSIONARY; AND SAINT FRUDENTIUS, FIRST BISHOP OF AXUM AND ABUNA OF THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHEDO CHURCH
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH GRIGG, ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
Obey God’s laws, whether or not one lives among foreigners with different religions and customs.
Love one’s fellow human beings actively and effectively, trusting in the power of God to enable one to do this.
Do not use God and/or religion to to cover up or to attempt to cover up one’s own perfidy.
The latter point requires some explanation. Korban was a custom by which one gave money to the religious establishment for the support of the professional religious people there. Many people used this practice to deprive their relatives of necesssary funds while looking pious. And many Temple officials knew it. Thus religion became a means of circumventing a basic ethic of the Law of Moses:
Honor your father and your mother.
In other words, motives mattered. They still do.
Ethics are concrete, not abstract. Since we human beings live in communities, our actions and inactions affect each other. Our actions and inactions flow from our attitudes. Thus how we think of each other matters greatly. Do we value each other or do we seek ways to exploit and/or deprive each other? Which people do we think of as our neighbors?
May we not use the letter of the law to the cover up or to attempt to cover up violations of its spirit.
The future judgment continues in Isaiah 24:14-25:12. Not only will the wicked face destruction, but the righteous will survive and God will destroy death itself. Amid judgement for some, one who is righteous will find good news.
1 John exists in the context of the expectation of the imminent return of Christ. Most of this day’s reading from 1 John 2 consists of a warning not to follow Antichrists. It is appropriate to read such texts during Advent, the time of preparation for Christmas. ‘Tis the season for apocalyptic lections.
The righteous, both lessons tell us, must remain so. And they who obey God will find God faithful to them. These are words of comfort for the upright. May you, O reader, and I be among their number until our ends.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 10, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN ROBERTS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF KARL BARTH, SWISS REFORMED THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF THOMAS MERTON, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK
Isaiah 24 speaks of an undated, future doom people will bring upon themselves by violating the Law of Moses. 1 John places obedience and disobedience in the context of Jesus, who has fulfilled the Law. If we love Jesus, we will keep his commandments. The summary of his teachings and lived example is compassion. We must identify with others as best we can and seek their good. Any economic or legal system which bases one person’s improvement upon the detriment of another or others is inherently sinful. And such systems thrive today.
I know what Jesus would say about them.
Any religious system which teaches hatred instead of compassion as a virtue in inherently sinful. One need not restrict the list of examples to jihads, Crusades, and excuses for racism. Such religious systems thrive today.
I know what Jesus would say about them.
For that matter, I know what St. John the Baptist would say about them:
You brood of vipers!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 10, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN ROBERTS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF KARL BARTH, SWISS REFORMED THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF THOMAS MERTON, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK
if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ?
This is the Antichrist,
who denies both the Father and the Son.
Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either;
whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father, too.
Let what you heard in the beginning remain in you;
as long as what you heard in the beginning remains in you,
you will remain in the Son
and in the Father.
And the promise he made you himself
is eternal life.
So much have I written to you
about those who are trying to lead you astray.
But as for you, the anointing you received from him
remains in you,
and you do not need anyone to teach you;
since the anointing he gave you teaches you everything,
and since it is true, not false,
remain in him just as he has taught you.
Therefore remain in him now, children,
so that when he appears we may be fearless,
and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
If you know that he is upright
you must recognize that everyone whose life is upright
is a child of his.
Psalm 98:1-4 (New Jerusalem Bible):
Sing a new song to Yahweh,
for he has performed wonders,
his saving power is in his right hand and his holy arm.
Yahweh has made known his saving power,
revealed his saving justice for the nations to see,
mindful of his faithful love and his constancy to the House of Israel.
The whole wide world has seen
the saving power of our God.
Acclaim Yahweh, all the earth,
burst into shouts of joy!
John 1:19-28 (New Jerusalem Bible):
This was the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,
Who are you?
He declared, he did not deny, but declared,
I am not the Christ.
So they asked him,
Then are you Elijah?
He replied,
I am not.
They asked him,
Are you the Prophet?
He answered,
No.
So they said to him,
Who are you? We must take back the answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?”
So he said,
I am, as Isaiah prophesied:
“A voice of one that cries in the desert;
Prepare a way for the Lord.
Make his paths straight!”
Now those who had been sent were Pharisees, and they put this question to him,
Why are you baptizing if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the Prophet?
John answered them,
I baptize with water; but standing among you–unknown to you–is the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal.
This happened at Bethany, where John was baptizing.
The Collect:
O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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John the Baptist was a great prophet and servant of God. Jesus, his cousin, said so. Certainly, John’s lifestyle and fiery rhetoric attracted much attention. I suspect that he could have given any answer to the questions in the reading from the Fourth Gospel and some people would have believed him. John the Baptist could have built himself up, and those who listened to him would not have known that he would have been lying.
Yet John the Baptist told the truth, which was that he was the forerunner of the Messiah. John pointed to another, Jesus. So should we. John lived according to humility, or knowing who he was in relation to God. So should we.
if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us.
But this was to prove
that not one of them belonged to us.
But you have been anointed by the Holy One,
and have all received knowledge.
I have written to you
not because you are ignorant of the truth,
but because you are well aware of it,
and because no lie can come from the truth.
Psalm 96:1-3, 11-13 (New Jerusalem Bible):
Sing a new song to Yahweh!
Sing to Yahweh, all the earth!
Sing to Yahweh, bless his name!
Proclaim his salvation day after day,
declare his glory among the nations,
his marvels to every people!
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad!
Let the sea thunder, and all it holds!
Let the countryside exult, and all that is in it,
and all the trees of the forest cry out for joy,
at Yahweh’s approach, for he is coming,
coming to judge the earth;
he will judge the world with saving justice,
and the nations with constancy.
John 1:1-18 (New Jerusalem Bible):
In the beginning was the Word:
the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things came into being,
not one thing came into being except through him.
What has come into being in him was life,
life that was the light of men;
and light shines in the darkness,
and darkness could not overpower it.
A man came, sent by God.
His name was John.
He came as a witness,
to bear witness to the light,
so that everyone might believe through him.
He was not the light,
he was to bear witness to the light.
The Word was the real light
that gives light to everyone;
he was coming into the world.
He was in the world
that had come into being through him,
and the world did not recognize him.
He came into his own
and his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believed in his name
who were born not from human stock
or human desire
or human will
but from God himself.
The Word became flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John witnesses to him. He proclaims:
This is the one of whom I said:
He who comes after me
has passed ahead of me
because he existed before me.
Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received–
one gift replacing another,
for the Law was given through Moses,
grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
No one has seen God;
it is the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart,
who has made him known.
The Collect:
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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In the middle 1990s, when preparing a homily on the line, “What is truth?” (The Gospel of John quoting Pontius Pilate), I consulted a scholarly, multi-volume Bible dictionary in the library at Valdosta State University. The Greek word translated as “truth” indicated reliability, as distinct from accuracy, I learned. (Indeed, a technically accurate statement can be misleading, so reliability is the greater goal. And a myth, although not historically or scientifically accurate, can teach profound truth. Witness the opening of Genesis, which contains great truths about human nature and divine nature, but is neither history nor science.)
So hopefully my meaning will be clear when I state plainly that Jesus is the truth. This is a devotion for the heart of the Season after Christmas, a time rooted in the incarnation of God in the form of Jesus, fully human and fully divine. The teachings of Jesus are reliable and his life backs them up. Attempts (often in the name of organized religion) to domesticate Jesus have not obscured completely his essence. He was a challenging person. Indeed, someone with his CV would have great difficulty become the pastor of certain congregations. Yet he was–and is–the Master.
By human standards Jesus was a failure. He was often at odds with the religious establishment. The secular authorities executed him as a bandit–a threat to national security, if you will. (The quest to maintain national security entails a variety of sins when it involves stomping on people unjustly.) Yet Jesus was not a failure, obviously. So what does this say about human standards of success?
because your sins have been forgiven through his name.
I am writing to you, fathers,
because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning.
I am writing to you, young people,
because you have overcome the Evil One.
I have written to you, children,
because you have come to know the Father.
I have written to you, parents,
because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning.
I have written to you, young people,
because you are strong,
and God’s word remains in you,
and you have overcome the Evil One.
Do not love the world
or what is in the world.
If anyone does love the world,
the love of the Father finds no peace in him,
because everything there is in the world–
disordered bodily desires,
disordered desires of the eyes,
pride in possession–
is not from the Father
but is from the world.
And the world, with all its disordered desires,
is passing away.
But whoever does the will of God
remains for ever.
Psalm 96:10-13 (New Jerusalem Bible):
Say among the nations,
Yahweh is king.
The world is set firm, it cannot be moved.
He will judge the nations with justice.
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad!
Let the sea thunder, and all it holds!
Let the countryside exult, and all that is in it,
and all the trees of the forest cry out for joy,
at Yahweh’s approach, for he is coming,
coming to judge the earth;
he will judge the world with saving justice,
and the nations with constancy.
Luke 2:36-40 (New Jerusalem Bible):
There was a prophetess, too, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God day and night with fasting and prayer. She came up just at the moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child [Jesus] to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.
When they [Mary and Joseph] had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And as the child grew to maturity, he was filled with wisdom; and God’s favour was with him.
The Collect:
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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John wrote to a congregation split by theological arguments, almost certainly involving proto-Gnosticism, which is inherently not Christian. He encouraged the faithful Church members, making the connection between their struggles and cosmic spiritual strife.
I have grown up in a series of congregations, for I am a recovering “Preacher’s Kid.” Life has taught me that congregations attract dysfunctional personalities with egos either too small or too large. (One needs to look out for and avoid these control freaks who weaken churches!) And I have learned that others (the sincerely wrong) want to maintain their congregation and/or denomination as a kind of memorial society and theological/liturgical museum. So, in the case of my adopted Episcopal Church, Prayer Book revision can lead to great strife because it involves change. The type of change does not matter to some; the fact of change itself is enough to set them off.
Perhaps the most frequent idol is false certainty, whether to the Left or to the Right. Jesus of Nazareth (the historical person) was profoundly disturbing–sufficiently so that he scandalized respectable religious people and attracted the unwelcome attention of the Roman imperial leadership. As I read the Gospels, taking them seriously, I detect teachings of Jesus which unsettle me (a self-respecting liberal) and contradict what I hear from many self-professed Conservative Christians. My spiritual discipline involves humility, especially in the face of the teachings of my Lord and Savior. Jesus was he was and is who he is, not who I want him to have been and to be. If I cannot deal with that, I have a grave spiritual problem.
And I admit that those who disagree with me might be correct, at least partially. I have, in fact, changed my mind more than once. So I have not always agreed with myself. When I attend Church I do so in the presence of people to my Left and to my Right theologically and politically, and I know that they are good Christians, too. We have unity through Jesus.
So, despite my willingness (even eagerness) to defend what I believe, I know the difference between a major disagreement and a minor one. And I prefer not to argue about minor points. I want to focus on unity through Jesus.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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