Archive for the ‘Epiphany’ Tag
Above: Jesus Healing the Man with a Withered Hand
Image in the Public Domain
Offering Blessings
NOT OBSERVED IN 2020
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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 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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Job 12 or Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 44:1-8
James 4:1-17
Mark 3:1-9
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God has blessed us.
God continues to bless us. One of the appropriate responses to these blessings is, in the context of gratitude to God, to bless others, even strangers in the land. The generosity of God is more than sufficient to provide for everyone; scarcity is of human creation.
Good intentions are good, of course, but they are insufficient. Many of them pave the road to Hell. Good results are the necessary results of good intentions. Job’s sarcasm at the beginning of Chapter 12 is understandable and appropriate, given the circumstances. Interventions can be acts of love, but offering “wisdom” above one’s pay grade when the correct action is to offer a shoulder to cry on is a prime example of paving part of the road to Hell.
May we, with our good intentions, offer blessings, not curses.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 17, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF EDITH BOYLE MACALISTER, ENGLISH NOVELIST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT EMILY DE VIALAR, FOUNDER OF THE SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH OF THE APPARITION
THE FEAST OF JANE CROSS BELL SIMPSON, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN POET AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINTS TERESA AND MAFALDA OF PORTUGAL, PRINCESSES, QUEENS, AND NUNS; AND SAINT SANCHIA OF PORTUGAL, PRINCESS AND NUN
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/06/17/offering-blessings/
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Above: The Calling of St. Matthew, by Hendrick ter Brugghen
Image in the Public Domain
The Power of Words
FEBRUARY 16, 2020
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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 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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Job 11:7-20 or Deuteronomy 15:7-11
Psalm 43
James 3:1-13
Mark 2:13-28
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Words matter. They can inflict pain, even when one imagines oneself to be acting righteously, as in the case of Zophar the Naamathite, who proceeded from a false assumption while lecturing Job on repentance. Words can call others to discipleship. Words can remind one of the divine mandate on individuals and societies to care for the less fortunate. Words can reach the throne of God.
Words can create justice or injustice; they make the future. May we, being mindful of the power of words, trust in God and strive to use these tools for the common good and the glory of God.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 16, 2019 COMMON ERA
TRINITY SUNDAY, YEAR C
THE FEAST OF GEORGE BERKELEY, IRISH ANGLICAN BISHOP AND PHILOSOPHER; AND JOSEPH BUTLER, ANGLICAN BISHOP AND THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF JOHN FRANCIS REGIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
THE FEAST OF NORMAN MACLEOD, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS COUSIN, JOHN MACLEOD, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, LITURGIST, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF RUFUS JONES, U.S. QUAKER THEOLOGIAN AND COFOUNDER OF THE AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/06/16/words-matter-ii/
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Above: Job and His Alleged Friends
Image in the Public Domain
The Idol of Certainty
FEBRUARY 9, 2020
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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 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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Job 8:8-22 or Deuteronomy 11:18-28
Psalm 42
James 2:18-26
Mark 2:1-12
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In the perfect moral universe of Bildad the Shuhite and those who think like him, piety is a shield against misfortune. This is an attitude present in parts of the Book of Psalms. That book also contradicts the attitude, however, for certain psalms acknowledge that innocent people suffer.
Jesus, without ignoring that the suffering of many resulted partially from their sins, did not state that all human suffering resulted from the sins of the suffering. His sinless life testified to a different reality, that sometimes we suffer because of the sins of others, and piety sometimes leads to persecution and/or death.
Certainty can become an idol, as in the cases of Bildad (Job 8) and the accusers of Jesus (Mark 2). Idols abound; certainty is one of the most popular ones. I refer to false, misplaced certainty, not to confirmed knowledge, such as 2 + 2 = 4. No, I refer to certainty that fills voids meant for faith in God. The human psyche craves certainty. Unfortunately, false certainty leads to conspiracy theories, to other denial of reality, and to idolatry. In reality, what we do not know outweighs what we do know, and humility is in order; certainty be damned much of the time.
May we walk the path of faith in Christ without ignoring that of which we can objectively be certain. May God grant us the wisdom to recognize the difference between matters in which we need faith and those in which we can reasonably have certainty.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 15, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN ELLERTON, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF CARL HEINRICH VON BOGATSKY, HUNGARIAN-GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF DOROTHY FRANCES BLOMFIELD GURNEY, ENGLISH POET AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT LANDELINUS OF VAUX, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; SAINT AUBERT OF CAMBRAI, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; SAINT URSMAR OF LOBBES, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND MISSIONARY BISHOP; AND SAINTS DOMITIAN, HADELIN, AND DODO OF LOBBES, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONKS
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/honest-faith-versus-false-certainty-ii/
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Above: Job and His Alleged Friends, a Fresco
Image in the Public Domain
Being Good Friends
FEBRUARY 2, 2020
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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 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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Job 5:6-23 or Deuteronomy 5:6-21
Psalm 41
James 2:1-17
Mark 1:29-45
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The Law of Moses, unlike the older Code of Hammurabi, to which it bears some similarity, does not bring social class into consideration. No, the Law of Moses is impartial regarding the socio-economic status of both the victim and the perpetrator. In the Code of Hammurabi, for example, the same crime (theft or assault, for example) leads to a harsher penalty when the victim belongs to a higher social class. In the Law of Moses, however, the penalty is the same, regardless of anyone’s socio-economic status. That ethic of socio-economic impartiality carries over into James 2:1-7.
The Hillelian distillation of the Law of Moss comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (the Shema). How we love God, assuming that we do, manifests in how we treat each other. Hypocrisy is as old as human nature. Pious fronts belie both evil intentions and lesser disregard and carelessness. Often those who violate the Golden Rule do so while imagining that they are honoring God. Eliphaz the Temanite and the other so-called friends of Job (who remind me of, “with friends like these, who needs enemies?”) sound like the Book of Psalms much of the time. That fact complicates the interpretation of much of the Book of Job. The best answer I can offer is that what they said applied in certain circumstances, but not that one.
If we were less concerned about who is wright and about insisting that we are right, and if we were more concerned about being good friends to one another, we could fulfill the spirit of most of the assigned texts for today.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 14, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR, AND ALLEGED HERETIC; AND HIS DAUGHTER, EMILIE GRACE BRIGGS, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND “HERETIC’S DAUGHTER”
THE FEAST OF SAINT METHODIUS I OF CONSTANTINOPLE, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE; AND SAINT JOSEPH THE HYMNOGRAPHER, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND “SWEET-VOICED NIGHTINGALE OF THE CHURCH”
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM HIRAM FOULKES, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/06/14/friendship-v/
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Above: Christ in the Synagogue at Capernaum, a Fresco
Image in the Public Domain
Old Teachings
JANUARY 26, 2020
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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 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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Job 3:1-26 (or 1:1-19) or Deuteronomy 5:6-21
Psalm 40
James 1:17-27
Mark 1:21-28
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And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying “What is this? A new teaching! With authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
–Mark 1:28, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)
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One may legitimately question whether Christ’s action in Mark 1:21-28 constituted a teaching. Assuming that it was, was it a new teaching?
Despite traditional Christian attempts to divorce Jesus from Judaism, one would have had a difficult time finding someone more Jewish than Jesus of Nazareth. Judaism was not monolithic two millennia ago. (Neither is it monolithic today.) Jesus was a man of his culture, place, and faith. With ease he quoted Deuteronomy, the various Isaiahs, and Rabbi Hillel. There was continuity from the Hebrew Bible (as in the Ten Commandments, repeated in Deuteronomy 5) to Jesus.
There is much continuity from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament. The teaching to walk, not just talk, the talk, is present in both, as in the context of the Ten Commandments and the Letter of James. The theme of trusting in God, who cares about us (as in Psalm 40), is also present in the New Testament. As one considers the lilies of the field, one may recall that Job had a different opinion in Job 3. If each of us lives long enough, each of us also sometimes thinks that God does not care about us.
Occasionally, at the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia, where I teach, someone from a campus ministry politely asks me if I believe in God. I ask this person what he or she means, for the answer depends on the question. Many people used “believe in God” to mean “affirm the existence of God,” but belief, in the creedal sense, is trust. My answer is that I always affirm the existence of God and usually trust in God.
I (usually) trust in God, incarnate in the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth, whose teachings were mostly old, in continuity with the Hebrew Bible. The Golden Rule and the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) are old, for example.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 13, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MILTON SMITH LITTLEFIELD, JR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN AND CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNAL EDITOR
THE FEAST OF SIGISMUND VON BIRKEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, U.S. POET, JOURNALIST, AND HYMN WRITER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/06/13/old-teachings/
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Above: Chess Pawns
Photographer = Frank-Christian Baum
Complaining Pawns
JANUARY 19, 2020
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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 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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Job 1:1; 2:1-10 or Deuteronomy 4:1-9
Psalm 39:1-8, 11-13
James 1:1-16
Mark 1:14-20
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Many who have walked the path of righteousness have suffered for doing so, as many still so. Most of the twelve Apostles became martyrs. St. John the Evangelist avoided martyrdom yet still suffered. St. James of Jerusalem became a martyr. St. Mark went to martyrdom, also. Yet the theme of the goodness and presence of God has been a theme that has accompanied persecution and martyrdom since the times of the Bible.
How good is God, as the Book of Job, in its final, composite form, depicts the deity? The author of the prose wrap-around explained the cause of Job’s suffering (a wager between God and the Satan, still an employee of God, in the theology of the time). Job was a pawn. The author of the prose wrap-around also thought that Job was correct to complain (42:7-9).
I agree with the author of Job 42:7-17; Job had every right to complain. At least he was being honest with God.
Sometimes we feel like pawns as we move through life. On some occasions we are. When we are, we have every right to complain.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 12, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF EDWIN PAXTON HOOD, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, PHILANTHROPIST, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN DAVID JAESCHKE, GERMAN MORAVIAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER; AND HIS GRANDSON, HENRI MARC HERMANN VOLDEMAR VOULLAIRE, MORAVIAN COMPOSER AND MINISTER
THE FEAST OF ENMAGAHBOWH, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND MISSIONARY TO THE OJIBWA NATION
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH DACRE CARLYLE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/06/12/complaining-pawns/
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Above: Water in Desert
Image in the Public Domain
Water
JANUARY 12 , 2020
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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 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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Jeremiah 31:7-14
Psalm 29
Acts 19:1-7
Mark 1:9-13
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Water is an element in all four readings for today. There is, of course, the water of baptism–the baptism of Jesus and of the unnamed people in Acts 19. Yahweh, “upon the mighty waters,” is like yet unlike Baal Peor, the Canaanite storm god, in Psalm 29. (Yet, of course, the presentation of God is quite different in 1 Kings 19:9-18, set after the killing of the priests of Baal Peor in Chapter 18.) Finally, water is especially precious in the desert, as in Jeremiah 31.
God is tangibly present in each reading. God is present in nature in Psalm 29, leading exiles out of exile through nature in Jeremiah 31, present via the Holy Spirit in Acts 19, and present in the flesh of Jesus in Mark 1. God remains tangibly present with us in many ways, which we notice, if we pay attention.
One usually hears the theme of the Epiphany as being the Gospel of Jesus Christ going out to the gentiles. That is part of the theme. The other part of the theme is gentiles going to God–Jesus, as in the case of the Magi. Today, in Mark 1 and Acts 19, however, we have the first part of the theme of the Epiphany. The unnamed faithful, we read in Acts 19, had their hearts and minds in the right place; they merely needed to learn what they must do.
Acts 19:1-7 is an excellent missionary text for that reason. The unnamed faithful, prior to their baptisms, fit the description of those who belong in the category of Baptism of Desire, in Roman Catholic theology. As good as the Baptism of Desire is, baptism via water and spirit is superior.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 11, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT BARNABAS, COWORKER OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/06/11/water/
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