Above:  Chapel of the Beatitudes, Galilee, 1940

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-matpc-20815

Faithful Servants of God, Part IV

JANUARY 29, 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 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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Ecclesiastes 3:1-14, 20-22 or Ezekiel 18:1-9, 25-32

Psalm 5

Galatians 2:14-21

Matthew 5:1-12

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I, as a member of a monthly book group, have been reading Jonathan T. Pennington’s Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew, a volume that overturns more than a century of scholarly consensus.  Pennington rejects the idea, ubiquitous in sermons, Sunday School lessons, commentaries, and study Bibles, that “Kingdom of Heaven” is a reverential circumlocution–a way to avoid saying “God.”  He posits that “Kingdom of Heaven” actually refers to God’s rule on the Earth, that the “Kingdom of Heaven” is essentially the New Jerusalem, still in opposition to the world.  God will, however, take over the world, thereby resolving the tension.

The Kingdom of Heaven, we read in the Beatitudes, belongs to those who know their need for God and who experience persecution for the sake of righteousness.  They would certainly receive the kingdom, I agree.

Justification is a theme in Galatians 2.  There we read an expression of the Pauline theology of justification by faith, not by works or the Law of Moses.  This seems to contradict James 2:24, where we read that justification is by works and not by faith alone.  It is not actually a disagreement, however, given the different definitions of faith in the thought of James and St. Paul the Apostle.  Both of them, one learns from reading their writings and dictations, affirmed the importance of responding to God faithfully.  The theme of getting one’s act together and accepting one’s individual responsibility for one’s actions fits well with Ezekiel 18, which contradicts the theology of intergenerational guilt and merit found in Exodus 20:5.

How we behave matters very much; all of the readings affirm this.  Thus our actions and inactions have moral importance.  Do we comfort those who mourn?  Do we show mercy?  Do we make peace?  Do we seek to be vehicles of divine grace to others?  Hopefully we do.  And we can succeed, by grace.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 20, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SEBASTIAN CASTELLIO, PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

THE FEAST OF CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, HYMN WRITER AND ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA JOSEFA SANCHO DE GUERRA, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SERVANTS OF JESUS

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL RODIGAST, GERMAN LUTHERAN ACADEMIC AND HYMN WRITER

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2018/03/20/faithful-servants-of-god-part-vi/

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Above:  Moses with the Ten Commandments, by Rembrandt van Rijn

The Spirit of the Law

 JANUARY 10, 2024

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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:

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 19-32

Psalm 97 (Morning)

Psalms 16 and 62 (Evening)

Romans 2:17-29

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 Be assured, O House of Israel, I will judge each one of you according to his ways–declares the Lord GOD.  Repent and turn back from your transgressions, let them not be a stumbling block of guilt for you.  Cast away all the transgressions by which you have offended, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, that you may not die, O House of Israel.  For it is not My desire that anyone shall die–declares the Lord GOD.  Repent, therefore, and live!

–Ezekiel 18:29-32, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

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Circumcision was a mark signifying that owed everything–including one’s existence–to God.  Therefore it was supposed to remind one of the necessity and appropriateness of responding favorable to God.  Such a response entailed how one treated one’s fellow human beings.  That was in the Law of Moses.

The Law of Moses is fascinating.  It is simultaneously compassionate (calling for loving one’s neighbor as oneself) and violent (calling for stoning for many offenses).  It treats men and women as well as the rich and the poor equally sometimes yet subordinates women at others.  It also declares all the blends in my wardrobe to be unlawful, prohibits touching the skin of a pig (so much for footballs and some foods!) and permits slavery.  I do not know what to make of the Law of Moses sometimes.

Our Lord, quoting the Law itself, summarized it well overall, channeling Rabbi Hillel (died 10 CE) and saying to love God fully and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.  As Rabbi Hillel continued,

Everything else is commentary.  Go and learn it.

Certain provisions of the Law are specific to geographical, economic, historical, and cultural conditions.  In such instances, I look to the spirit, not the letter, of certain laws.  Yet slavery is always wrong; I stand by that statement.  I do not know what to make of the Law of Moses sometimes.

So be it.

Ezekiel and Paul called people back to the spirit of the Law; love God fully and love one’s neighbor as one loves oneself.  May we human beings inspire each other to do that and to do it better and more often.

And I plan to ask God about the slavery and stoning provisions one day.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 14, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT MATHILDA, QUEEN OF GERMANY

THE FEAST OF KEREOPA AND MANIHERA OF TARANAKI, ANGLICAN MARTYRS

THE FEAST OF PAVEL CHESNOKOV, COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF PETER GRAVES, ACTOR

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/the-spirit-of-the-law/

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