Above:  Peter’s Vision of the Sheet with Animals

Image in the Public Domain

Purity, Inclusion, and Exclusion

DECEMBER 12, 2023

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The Collect:

Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son.

By his coming strengthen us to serve you with purified lives;

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 19

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The Assigned Readings:

Isaiah 4:2-6

Psalm 27

Acts 11:1-18

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One thing have I asked of the LORD;

one thing I seek;

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life;

To behold the fair beauty of the LORD

and to seek him in his temple.

–Psalm 27:5-6, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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For the love of God is broader

than the measure of man’s minds

and the heart of the Eternal

is most wonderfully kind.

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But we make his love too narrow

by false limits of our own;

and we magnify his strictness

with a zeal he will not own.

–Frederick William Faber, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (1854)

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The vision of Jerusalem in Isaiah 4 is that of a city purified from moral corruption, such as economic exploitation (3:13-15).   The purified city, which the text describes in imagery reminiscent of the Exodus, will be a glorious place.

That is all very nice, but I become nervous when mere mortals become judges of purity.  Then, in the worst cases, people undertake inquisitions, Donatism, and allegedly holy wars in the name of God.  Less extreme cases also offend me greatly, for they violate the inclusive spirit of Acts 11:1-18.  Besides, I fail the purity tests which other people design.  I recall something which Philip Yancey wrote in a book.  He attended a Bible college in the 1960s.  That institution’s grooming standards for men would have excluded Jesus, as artists have depicted him traditionally.  And there was no emphasis on social justice, such as civil rights.

So may we strive, by grace, to love our neighbors as ourselves and to respect the dignity of every human being.  May we not be too afraid to act compassionately toward each other.  May mere human decency be a hallmark of our behavior.  And may we leave matters of purity to God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 26, 2014 COMMON ERA

PROPER 25:  THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

THE FEAST OF SAINT ALFRED THE GREAT, KING OF THE WEST SAXONS

THE FEAST OF SAINT CEDD, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF LONDON

THE FEAST OF DMITRY BORTNIANSKY, COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF PHILLIP NICOLAI, JOHANN HEERMANN, AND PAUL GERHARDT, HYMN WRITERS

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/purity-inclusion-and-exclusion/

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Above:  Remains of the Hippodrome at Antioch, Turkey, Between 1934 and 1939

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-matpc-16684

Jeremiah and Barnabas

DECEMBER 8, 2023

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The Collect:

Stir up our hearts, Lord God, to prepare the way of your only Son.

By his coming strengthen us to serve you with purified lives;

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 19

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The Assigned Readings:

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 85:8-13

Acts 11:19-26

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Show us your mercy, O LORD,

and grand us your salvation.

I will listen to what the LORD God is saying,

for he is speaking peace to his faithful people

and to those who turn their hears to him.

–Psalm 85:7-8, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Jeremiah had a difficult vocation:  to prophesy to people who ignored his message at best and tried to kill him at worst.  The prophets’ youth was a serious problem, from his initial perspective.  Yet the power of God proved sufficient, as it always does.  Those whom God calls, God qualifies.  And why should youth function as a handicap when many foolish elders walk the earth?

Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, played a pivotal role in the early Christian Church.  He accompanied St. Paul of Tarsus to a meeting with the Apostles at Jerusalem and spoke on behalf of the former persecutor.  Joseph settled at Antioch, where people called him “Barnabas,” or “son of encouragement” or “son of consolation.”  There he encouraged and consoled Jewish and Gentile Christians alike.  He also traveled to Tarsus to retrieve St. Paul, with whom he traveled later.  St. Paul would not have become the great figure he became without St. (Joseph) Barnabas, properly an Apostle also.

Sometimes I read of allegedly self-made people.  The truth, however, is that we depend on God and each other.  Everything comes from God, of course.  And we rely on each other from the womb to the tomb.  St. Paul needed St. (Joseph) Barnabas, with whom he argued sometimes.  And we modern Christians owe a great debt of gratitude to both of these great men.  The prophet Jeremiah came to understand that he depended on God for his life.  He argued with God frequently, but theirs was an honest relationship.  (I have no problem with arguing faithfully with God.  In fact, I think that Jeremiah made some valid points.)

Jeremiah was the weeping prophet and St. (Joseph) Barnabas was the son of encouragement or consolation.  Jeremiah preached a harsh yet necessary message, but St. (Joseph) Barnabas declared an inclusive and positive Gospel.  Both men suffered for their faithful actions.  Jeremiah died in exile;  St. (Joseph) Barnabas became a martyr.  Yet the book of Jeremiah survives in Bibles, as do accounts of St. (Joseph) Barnabas, encourager of St. Paul and many other Christians.  Both men bequeathed living legacies to the human race.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 20, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MARY A. LATHBURY, U.S. METHODIST HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT BERTILLA BOSCARDIN, ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND NURSE

THE FEAST OF JOHN HARRIS BURT, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

THE FEAST OF TARORE OF WAHAORA, ANGLICAN MARTYR

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/jeremiah-and-barnabas/

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