Above:  Flevit Super Illam (He Wept Over It), by Enrique Simonet

Image in the Public Domain

The Wrath of God

FEBRUARY 2, 2022

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The Collect:

Almighty and ever-living God,

increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and love;

and that we may obtain what you promise,

make us love what you command,

through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 23

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The Assigned Readings:

Jeremiah 1:11-19

Psalm 56

Luke 19:41-44

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Be kind to me, God, for men are persecuting me,

continually assailants oppress me.

My adversaries persecute me all day long,

indeed those who attack me are many.

Though each day I am afraid of fierce enemies

still I put my trust in you.

–Psalm 56:1-3, The Psalms Introduced and Newly Translated for Today’s Readers (1989), by Harry Mowvley

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The main two readings for today are unhappy.  The prophet Jeremiah, having just accepted God’s call, receives his commission, complete with the following promise:

They will attack you,

But they shall not overcome you;

For I am with you–declares the LORD–to save you.

–Jeremiah 1:19, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Jeremiah spent much time on the run from the law, in custody, and finally, in exile.

Jesus, just a few days away from his death, lamented over Jerusalem.  Then he cleansed the Temple of merchants profiteering from the upcoming Passover.  Certainly the memory of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. informed the telling of that story, but one did not need to be a seer or a genius to predict that, in time, yet another rebellion by Jews would lead to Roman forces destroying the city.  The account is historically plausible.

In both readings the cause of the disaster is the same–prolonged, systematic, and societal failure to recognize God and to act accordingly.  One might interpret the resulting disaster not so much as God being vengeful as the proverbial chickens coming home to roost.  Actions have consequences.  We know that the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah strayed far from the societal vision of mutuality underpinning the Law of Moses, and that idolatry was ubiquitous.  In the case of the reading from Luke, the Temple establishment was in league with the occupying Roman forces.  Perhaps the wrath of God in these cases, if one chooses to interpret the doom as such, was as simple as,

You have made your bed.  Now sleep in it.

I am cautious in addressing this matter, for I seek to avoid committing certain errors.  Within my memory during the last decade and more, certain prominent professing Christian evangelists have brought reproach on Christianity by blaming some natural disasters (frustrated by human shortsightedness in matters such as civil engineering) on God, whom they have portrayed as vengeful.  Was Hurricane Katrina (2005) God’s wrath for toleration and acceptance of homosexuality?  Of course not!  How dare anyone suggest that it was!  Despite my caution, I recognize that there is such a thing as the wrath of God, and that it frequently takes the form of having to deal with the consequences of one’s actions and inactions.  My concept of God differs greatly from that of those who worship the gangster God of whom all people should stand in terror and whom nobody can possibly belove.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 5, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF DAVID NITSCHMANN, SR., “FATHER NITSCHMANN,” MORAVIAN MISSIONARY; MELCHIOR NITSCHMANN, MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND MARTYR; JOHANN NITSCHMANN, JR., MORAVIAN MISSIONARY AND BISHOP; ANNA NITSCHMANN, MORAVIAN ELDRESS; AND DAVID NITSCHMANN, MISSIONARY AND FIRST BISHOP OF THE RENEWED MORAVIAN CHURCH

THE FEAST OF BRADFORD TORREY, U.S. ORNITHOLOGIST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK, NORTHERN BAPTIST PASTOR AND OPPONENT OF FUNDAMENTALISM

THE FEAST OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE UNITED REFORMED CHURCH, 1972

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2015/10/05/the-wrath-of-god/

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Above:  An Exorcism

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Idolatry and the Sovereignty of God

JANUARY 25-27, 2024

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The Collect:

Compassionate God, you gather the whole universe into your radiant presence

and continually reveal your Son as our Savior.

Bring wholeness to all that is broken and speak truth to us in our confusion,

that all creation will see and know your Son,

Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 23

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The Assigned Readings:

Deuteronomy 3:23-29 (Thursday)

Deuteronomy 12:28-32 (Friday)

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 (Saturday)

Psalm 111 (All Days)

Romans 9:6-18 (Thursday)

Revelation 2:12-17 (Friday)

Matthew 8:28-9:1 (Saturday)

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The works of the Lord are great,

sought out by all who delight in them.

His work is full of majesty and honour

and his righteousness endures for ever.

–Psalm 111:2-3, Common Worship (2000)

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We have a batch of overlapping and difficult passages these three days.  Some (such as Moses in Deuteronomy and a herd of swine in Matthew) suffer for the offenses of others.  People also suffer for their own sins in other passages of Scripture.  All of this falls under the heading of the sovereignty of God in Romans 9, in the theological style of God’s speech at the end of the book of Job.

I recognize the mystery of God and am content to leave many questions unanswered.  Comfort with uncertainty is consistent with my Anglican theology.  Nevertheless, I understand that the sovereignty of God can become something it is not supposed to be–a copout and a seemingly bottomless pit into which to pour one’s ignorance and prooftexting tendencies.  We should never use God to excuse slavery, genocide, sexism, homophobia, racism, and a host of other sins.  Whenever God seems to agree with us all of the time, we ought to know that we have created God in our own image.  We have forged an idol.  And God, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, disapproves of idolatry.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 23, 2014 COMMON ERA

PROPER 29–CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY–THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF JOHN KENNETH PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN BISHOP; HIS WIFE, HARRIET ELIZABETH “BESSIE” WHITTINGTON PFOHL, U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN; AND THEIR SON, JAMES CHRISTIAN PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN

THE FEAST OF SAINT CLEMENT I OF ROME, BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT COLUMBAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF MIGUEL AUGUSTIN PRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/idolatry-and-the-sovereignty-of-god/

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Above:  Shoppers at Walmart, Klamath Falls, Oregon, Gray Thursday (Thanksgiving Day), 2013

Image Source = bobjgalindo

This Corrupt Generation

DECEMBER 11, 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 26:7-15

Psalm 27

Acts 2:37-42

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When evildoers came upon me to eat up my flesh,

it was they, my foes and my adversaries, who stumbled and fell.

–Psalm 27:2, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

–Acts 2:40b, New Revised Standard Version (1989)

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We read of evildoers.  They receive grace yet continue to deal unjustly and to fail to recognize the majesty of God.  They practice and/or condone unnecessary violence.  They exploit the poor and act without compassion.  They are corrupt.

Human nature is, for better and for worse, constant.  Thus every generation is “this corrupt generation.”  I survey my North American dominant culture and find reasons for both optimism and pessimism.  On one hand, for example, women can vote, Jim Crow laws are dead, and homosexuals have more rights than they once did.  On the other hand, racism continues to permeate sections of society, homophobia survives, income inequality is becoming worse, and certain big-box retailers with dodgy ethical reputations as public citizens begin to display Christmas items before Halloween.  I have, without resorting to perpetual grumpiness, escaped to a man cave with many books, compact discs, and DVDs.  I subscribe to no television, satellite, or similar service, so I am functionally popular culturally illiterate.  Yet I know much about history, theology, liturgy, and classical music.  Mine is the better lot, complete with Christmas shopping at thrift stores.  In some ways I never dropped in,  In other ways I have dropped out.  So be it.

One challenge of being a Christian is to transform the world for the better.  God will save it, but we mere mortals can at least leave it better than we found it.  We cannot transform the world either  by condemning it from afar or by becoming indistinguishable from it.  Those who retreat from the world can also play a vital role, for convents and monasteries have preserved knowledge, sheltered orphans and abandoned children, provided medical care, et cetera.  So may nobody criticize monastics unjustly.  We need more of them, in fact.

How is God calling you, O reader, to make this corrupt generation better?  May you fulfill that vocation well.

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/this-corrupt-generation/

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Above:  Christ Pantocrator

An Advent Challenge

DECEMBER 15-17, 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:

2 Samuel 7:1-17 (Thursday)

2 Samuel 7:18-22 (Friday)

2 Samuel 7:23-29 (Saturday)

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 (all days)

Galatians 3:23-29 (Thursday)

Galatians 4:1-7 (Friday)

John 3:31-36 (Saturday)

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Hear, O Shepherd of Israel,

you that led Joseph like a flock;

Shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the Cherubim,

before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.

Stir up your mighty strength

and come to our salvation.

Turn us again, O God;

show the light of your countenance,

and we shall be saved.

–Psalm 80:1-4, The Book of Common Prayer (2004)

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The following content is appropriate all year yet especially in Advent.

We read in 2 Samuel that David, by God’s request, will not build a Temple (house) for God.  No, God will make David the founder of a dynasty (house) instead:

Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.

–Verse 16, The New Revised Standard Version

Such extravagant grace came with a great responsibility, which many members of the dynasty disregarded, unfortunately.

The New Testament readings for these days speak of Jesus of Nazareth, a descendant of David and a very different sort of king.  In Jesus, we read, eternal life–in this life and in the next one–and the gateway to eternal life exist.  In Jesus the Law of Moses is fulfilled and a new covenant of grace and adoption is ours if we accept and follow him.  In Jesus all human categories which divide us from each other cease to exist.

Yet many of us who have called ourselves Christians have maintained many or all of these categories–such as

Jew or Greek…slave or free…male and female

–Galatians 3:28, The New Revised Standard Version

(a partial list, I admit).  Other such divisions include native-born and foreign-born, heterosexual and homosexual, rich and poor, and lighter-skinned and darker-skinned.  In so doing we have sinned–missed the mark.  We have re-erected barriers which God destroyed.  And we feel righteous for all our unrighteousness, oddly enough.  We like barriers and categories, for they help us label others and therefore label ourselves.  In fact, however, if we are in Christ, that is the only label which really matters.  Why have so many of us been so oblivious for so long?  What does God have to do–send us a giant, flashing neon sign, a pillar of fire, a burning bush, or something else?  Why was the Incarnation insufficient to attract our attention to this spiritual truth?

My Advent challenge to all who read this post is the same I pose to myself:  To leave torn down that which our Lord and Savior tore down.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 4, 2013 COMMON ERA

INDEPENDENCE DAY (U.S.A.)

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/07/06/an-advent-challenge/

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