Above:  Le Songe de St. Joseph, Circa 1880

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-pga-02061

Greatness in Service

DECEMBER 21, 2022

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The Collect:

Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come!

With your abundant grace and might,

free us from the sin that hinders our faith,

that eagerly we may receive your promises,

for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 19

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The Assigned Readings:

Genesis 37:2-11

1 Samuel 2:1-10

Matthew 1:1-17

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The LORD kills and brings to life;

he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

The LORD makes poor and makes rich;

he brings low; he also exalts.

He raises the poor from the dust;

he lifts the needy from the heap,

to make them sit with princes

and inherit a seat of honor.

–1 Samuel 2:6-8a, The New Revised Standard Version

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Joseph son of Jacob was a twit as a young man.  His dreams fueled his out-of-control ego and enraged his (mostly older) brothers.  Their reaction was unjustified, of course.  Young Joseph did not realize that true greatness is located in service.  This was a lesson which old Joseph also failed to learn, for he did reduce the vast majority of Egyptians to serfdom.

In contrast to the story of Joseph son of Jacob we have the genealogy of Jesus, son of St. Mary of Nazareth.  A very different Joseph raised him.  This Joseph did no harm to nobody so far as the Bible indicates.  This Joseph spared the life of his betrothed, embroiled in a scandal, fled to Egypt with his family, and built a family life for the Son of God.  And in this Joseph’s family history, the only named women were:

• Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law by posing as a temple prostitute to become pregnant with the child he owed her according to levirate marriage.  She got twins;
• Rahab, a prostitute who saved the lives of Israelite spies; and
• Ruth, a foreign woman who adopted her mother-in-law’s religion and seduced her mother-in-law’s kinsman, thereby securing her future and that of her mother-in-law.

Unnamed yet referenced was Bathsheba, wife of Uriah then of David.  Their affair became the stuff of a major Bible story and a turning point in the history of the Kingdom of Israel.  These four, though not as great as people measure greatness, were sufficiently notable to received such posthumous notice.

Through these women God worked great deeds despite their questionable sexual activities and reputations.  Rahab was a prostitute, for example, and Tamar posed as one.  At least two were seductresses and two were foreigners.  All of them violated respectable social customs, and three of them receive positive press in the Bible.  And none of them reduced a population to serfdom.  All of them were preferable to Joseph son of Jacob.

May we help others–not harm them–and find the greatness which exists in service.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 4, 2013 COMMON ERA

INDEPENDENCE DAY (U.S.A.)

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/greatness-in-service/

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Above:  Adoration of the Shepherds, by James Tissot

Seeming Paradoxes

DECEMBER 25, 2023

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Isaiah 49:1-18

Psalm 2 (Morning)

Psalms 98 and 96 (Evening)

Matthew 1:1-17

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Some Related Posts:

O Blessed Mother:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/o-blessed-mother/

A Christmas Prayer:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/a-christmas-prayer/

Blessing of a Nativity Scene:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/blessing-of-a-nativity-scene/

A Christmas Prayer:  God of History:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/a-christmas-prayer-god-of-history/

A Christmas Prayer:  Immanuel:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/a-christmas-prayer-immanuel/

Christmas Blessings:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/christmas-blessings/

A Christmas Prayer of Thanksgiving:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/a-christmas-prayer-of-thanksgiving/

The Hail Mary:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/the-hail-mary/

O Little Town of Bethlehem:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/o-little-town-of-bethlehem/

Joy to the World:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/joy-to-the-world/

Christmas Prayers of Praise and Adoration:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/christmas-prayers-of-praise-and-adoration/

Christmas Prayers of Dedication:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/christmas-prayers-of-dedication/

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Christmas:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/a-prayer-of-thanksgiving-for-christmas/

How Can I Fitly Greet Thee:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/how-can-i-fitly-greet-thee/

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Divine agency binds the Isaiah and Matthew readings.  The Servant Song from Isaiah 49, set prior to the opportunity for exiles of Judah to return to their ancestral homeland, makes clear the theme that God is orchestrating events.  Furthermore, God’s love for Judah exceeds that of a mother for a child (verses 15-16).  We know that some mothers, especially drug-addicted ones, are inattentive sometimes.  So yes, a woman can disown the child of her womb; some have.  But God would not disown disobedient and punished Judah.

As for Matthew, we have a family tree for Jesus.  Most names are male, but notice the four women mentioned.  Rahab was a prostitute, Ruth was a foreigner, Bathsheba was so scandalous that the texts lists her as “Uriah’s wife” and does not use her name, and there were rumors regarding Mary.  There were, of course, unnamed and unmentioned women involved in all this reproduction, but the text points out only four, one of whom was a Gentile and three of which had justly or unjustly checkered sexual reputations.  If I were fabricating a story designed to make Jesus look as good as possible, I would not write the story this way.

The meaning I draw from the Matthew genealogy of Jesus today is that God works through us, regardless of our socially defined categories and stigmas, to work grace in the world.  Grace overpowers scandal, stigma, and scorn.  The “other” we despise might be an instrument of grace.  This is how God, whose love exceeds that of a mother, works among us; the first will be last and the last will be first.  Redemption arrives as a vulnerable baby.

 It is a great mystery; may we embrace it.  Merry Christmas!

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 15, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THOMAS BRAY, ANGLICAN PRIEST

THE FEAST OF ALEXANDER VIETS GRISWOLD, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

THE FEAST OF MICHAEL PRAETORIUS, COMPOSER

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/seeming-paradoxes/

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Above:  Nathan and King David

Contrition and Consequences

JANUARY 27, 2024

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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2 Samuel 12:1-25 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

And the LORD sent Nathan to David.  He came to him, and said to him,

There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.  The rich man had very man flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought.  And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children; it used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup, and lie in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.  Now there was a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan,

As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

Nathan said to David,

You are the man.  Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul; and I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah; and if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.  Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight?  You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.”  Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives int he sight of this sun.  For you did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”

David said to Nathan,

I have sinned against the LORD.

And Nathan said to David,

The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.  Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child that is born to you shall die.

Then Nathan went to his house.

And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became sick.  David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in lay all night upon the ground.  And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.  On the seventh day the child died.  And the servants of David feared to tel him that the child was dead; for they said,

Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and did not listen to us; how then can we say to him the child is dead?  He may do himself some harm.

But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants,

Is the child dead?

They said,

He is dead.

Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD, and worshiped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.  Then his servants said to him,

What is this thing that you have done?  You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.

He said,

While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, “Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?”  But now he is dead; why should I fast?  Can I bring him back again?  I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.

Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her, and lay with her; and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon.  And the LORD loved him, and sent a message by Nathan the prophet; so he called his name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.

Psalm 51:11-18 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

11 Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and renew a right spirit within me.

12 Cast me not away from your presence

and take not your holy Spirit from me.

13 Give me the joy of your saving help again

and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.

14 I shall teach your ways to the wicked,

and sinners shall return to you.

15 Deliver me from death, O God,

and my tongue shall sing of your righteousness,

O God of my salvation.

16 Open my lips, O Lord,

and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.

17  Had you desired it, I would have offered sacrifice,

but you take no pleasure in burnt-offerings.

18  The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Mark 4:35-41 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them,

Let us go across to the other side.

And leaving the crowd, they took him with them, just as he was, in the boat.  And the other boats were with him.  And a great storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.  But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him and said to him,

Teacher, do you not care if we perish?

And he awoke and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea,

Peace!  Be still!

And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.  He said to them,

Why are you afraid?  Have you no faith?

And they were filled with awe, and said to one another,

Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

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The Collect:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

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A Related Post:

Week of 3 Epiphany:  Saturday, Year 1:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/week-of-3-epiphany-saturday-year-1/

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The prophet Nathan confronted David, and the King, much to his credit, expressed honest contrition.  Yet this did not prevent the chickens from coming home to roost.  For initial details, begin with the next chapter in 2 Samuel.  Read it for yourself; immerse yourself in the narrative.

Now I explore certain aspects of this day’s reading from 2 Samuel 12.  First, David is familiar with the religious laws, some of which he has violated.  For example, Nathan uses a story about the stealing and killing of a sheep to get David’s attention, and the king says that the thief-killer ought to make fourfold restitution.  This is consistent with Exodus 22:1.  I choose to send you to a text (if you choose to read it), rather than reproduce it here.  Besides, the verses following 22:1 are quite interesting, and sometimes disturbing.

As for the child’s death being the result of his parents’ sins…

This reflects an understanding the origin of suffering which Jesus rejected in more than one passage.  The first example which comes to my mind is Luke 13:1-5 (I am so grateful to own an unabridged concordance!).  For more details, follow this link.  I think also of the story of a man who was born blind.  John 9 speaks of him, and of how some people wondered whose sin had caused his blindness.  For more details, follow this link.  As I heard Donald Armentrout, a Lutheran who helps train Episcopal priests for a living, say about a decade ago, the best way to read the Bible is with “Gospel glasses.”  So Jesus overrides some of the theology in 2 Samuel 12.

That said, expressing regret for one’s sins and changing one’s ways does not negate the consequences of one’s sins.  In other words, one cannot unscramble an egg.  This rule applies beyond sin, applying, for example, to merely bad judgment.  I can think of examples of this in my life, and maybe you, O reader, can identify with this statement.

While we condemn the sin of David recorded in 2 Samuel 11, may we applaud the king for accepting Nathan’s justified and harsh words.  A lesser man would have had Nathan killed.  There was still hope for David.

Some stories haunt me; this is one of them.  I find that sometimes, when trying to make good decisions, I do the opposite, and so I pay for my mistake for years.  It is maddening.  And that speaks of blowback from good intentions, which David did not have in 2 Samuel 11.  I have learned, however, that grace does not erase all consequences of sin, but it does enable one to survive the storm one has stirred up, whether out of ignorance or foolishness or perfidy.

A wise person does learn the correct lessons from the mistakes of others, so may we, as often as possible, avoid duplicating the errors others have committed and stirring up needless whirlwinds.

KRT

Above:  David and Uriah the Hittite

Perfidy

JANUARY 26, 2024

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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2 Samuel 11:1-17 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

(In Chapters 8-10, David fights wars and shows kindness to Jonathan’s son.)

In the spring of the year, the time when the kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they ravaged the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah.  But David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking upon the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.  And David sent and inquired about the woman.  And one said,

Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her.  (Now she was purifying herself form her uncleanness.)  Then she returned to her house.  And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David,

I am with child.

So David sent word to Joab.

Send me Uriah the Hittite.

When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.  Then David said to Uriah,

Go down to your house, and wash your feet.

And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king.  But Uriah slept  at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.  When they told David,

Uriah did not go down to his house,

David said to Uriah,

Have you not come from a journey?  Why did you not go down to your house?

Uriah said to David,

The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife?  As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.

Then David said to Uriah,

Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day, and the next.  And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord, but did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.  In the letter he wrote,

Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.  And men of the city came out and fought with Joab; and some of the servants of David among the people fell.  Uriah the Hittite was slain also.

Psalm 51:1-10 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness;

in your great compassion blot out my offenses.

2 Wash me through and through from my wickedness

and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against you only have I sinned

and done what is evil in your sight.

5 And so you are justified when you speak

and upright in your judgment.

6 Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth,

a sinner from my mother’s womb.

7 For behold, you look for truth deep within me,

and will make me understand wisdom secretly.

8 Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure;

wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.

9 Make me hear of joy and gladness,

that the body you have broken may rejoice.

10 Hide your face from my sins

and blot out all my iniquities.

Mark 4:26-34 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):

And he said,

The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how.  The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.

And he said,

With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?  It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

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The Collect:

Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

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A Related Post:

Week of 3 Epiphany:  Friday, Year 1:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/week-of-3-epiphany-friday-year-1/

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The text from 2 Samuel 11 contains a euphemism.  To “wash one’s feet” was to have sexual relations.  In fact, there are other Old Testament euphemisms which speak outwardly of feet but refer really to genitals.  This information proves useful in understanding the story.

Quite simply, King David lusted after another man’s wife, Bathsheba, and got her pregnant.  The other man was Uriah the Hittite, a soldier deployed to the front lines of the current war.  David tried to cover up his sin by recalling Uriah and ordering him to have sexual relations with Bathsheba.  That way the birth of a baby would not create suspicion.  But Uriah obeyed a convention by which a soldier at war abstained from sexual intercourse.  The combination of Uriah’s nobility and David’s perfidy led to a battlefield murder of the soldier.

My mind casts back to 1 Samuel 8, when Samuel tells people that they really do not want a king to govern them.  Beginning in verse 11, he said:

These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you:  he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.  He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.  He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants.  He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants.  He will take your menservants and maid servants, and the best of your cattle, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.  He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves.  And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the LORD will not answer you in that day.

And that king will have the power to seduce a married woman, impregnate her, and order the killing of her husband, who, out of a sense of military nobility and loyalty to his fellow soldiers, does not play his part in the attempted royal cover-up.

Let that sink in.

This, however, is only part of the story.  For the next portion, read the post for Week of 3 Epiphany:  Saturday, Year 2.

For now, however, mourn Uriah the Hittite and all other innocent victims of violence, those who have died because they were inconvenient.  And, as opportunities present themselves to you, act nonviolently to aid such people, as you are able.

KRT