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:
Numbers 22:1-21 (Monday)
Numbers 22:22-28 (Tuesday)
Psalm 35:1-10 (Both Days)
Acts 21:17-26 (Monday)
1 Corinthians 7:32-40 (Tuesday)
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My very bones will say, “Lord, who is like you?
You deliver the poor from those who are too strong for them,
the poor and needy from those who rob them.”
–Psalm 35:10, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
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Thus he who marries his betrothed does well,
and he who does not marry does better.
–1 Corinthians 7:38, The Revised English Bible (1989)
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St. Paul the Apostle thought that the Second Coming of Jesus might occur within his lifetime, so he argued that changing one’s social or marital status ought not to constitute major priorities. Most important, he contended, was living faithfully to God. Thus avoiding distractions to a proper spiritual life was crucial, he wrote. The Apostle was correct in his case that certain relationships do function as such distractions on some occasions. He also argued correctly that God should come first in our lives. Nevertheless, he was wrong about the timing of the Second Coming and the low priority of working for social justice.
A recurring theme in recent devotions in this series has been the sovereignty of God. I have written that to use that eternal truth as cover for hatred and related violence is sinful. Now I expand that statement to argue that using the sovereignty of God as cover for erecting and defending barriers between people and God is also sinful. Yahweh is the universal deity, not a tribal god. Divine power extends to Gentiles, from Balaam (in Numbers 22) to people in New Testament times to populations today.
I understand why people erect and defend spiritual barriers to God. Doing so establishes boundaries which comfort and include those who define or defend them. Fortunately, God’s circles are larger than ours. Thus our Lord and Savior ate with notorious sinners, conversed at length with women, and committed many more scandalous deeds. As the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta tells me, we should draw the circle wider.
Drawing the circle wider can threaten an identity founded on a small circle of the pure, but is doing that really such a bad thing? No! We ought to think less about our alleged purity and the supposed impurity of those different from us and focus instead on the vital work of ministry. That work entails both evangelism and social justice efforts, for both aspects are consistent with the Old and New Testaments. If I, for example, have the opportunity to help someone who is hungry eat proper food and choose not to do so, I do not feed Jesus. If I say “be filled” to that person, I do him or her no good. I have not loved my neighbor as myself. And, if I affirm the unjust socio-economic system which keeps many people hungry, I am complicit in a societal evil.
The sovereignty of God is far more than a theological abstraction. May it be a great force for loving others as our neighbors in God and therefore for improving society. May grace, working through us, heal divisions, draw circles wider, and engage in radical hospitality. May we witness what the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., called a moral revolution of values in 1967; may we (as a society) value people more than things and wealth. As St. Laurence of Rome understood well long ago, when he gave his life for his faith in 258, the poor are the treasures of the Church.
DECEMBER 1, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE SECOND DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF NICHOLAS FERRAR, ANGLICAN DEACON
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHARLES DE FOUCAULD, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT
THE FEAST OF SAINT EDMUND CAMPION, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
The assigned readings for these days tell us of Biblical heroes of faith, from Moses to Joshua son of Nun to Rahab the prostitute–quite an assortment! I perceive no need to repeat their stories today, for the Bible does that better than I can. And I have other matters on my mind.
If I were to amend the hall of fame of faith in the Letter to the Hebrews, part of my addition would read as follows:
By faith abolitionists challenged racial chattel slavery in the United States. By faith Harriet Tubman risked life and limb to help her people, who called her “Moses.” By faith Sojourner Truth spoke out for the rights of women and African Americans alike, as did William Lloyd Garrison. By faith Frederick Douglass challenged racism and slavery with his words, deeds, and very existence.
By faith members of subsequent generations challenged racial segregation. These great men and women included A. Philip Randolph, Charles Hamilton Houston, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bayard Rustin, Vernon Johns, and Martin Luther King, Jr. They challenged the United States to confront its hypocrisy, to live up more closely to its stated ideals, and to guarantee civil rights. By faith Thurgood Marshall fought the good fight in courts for decades. By faith brave students, supported by their courageous parents and communities, integrated schools with hostile student bodies and administrators.
By faith Nelson Mandela confronted Apartheid and helped to end it. By faith he encouraged racial and national reconciliation as a man and as a President.
All of these were courageous men and women, boys and girls. There is no room here to tell their stories adequately. And the names of many of them will fade into obscurity with the passage of time. Some of their names have faded from collective memory already. But they were righteous people–giants upon whose shoulders we stand. They were agents of divine grace, which transformed the world, making it a better place.
May the light of God, incarnate in each of us, shine brightly in the darkness and leave the world–if only one “corner” of it at a time–a better place. May we cooperate with God, for grace is more about what God does than what we do. We ought to work with God, of course. Doing so maximizes the effects of grace. But grace will win in the end. That is wonderful news!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 24, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THOMAS A KEMPIS, SPIRITUAL WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JOHN BOSTE, GEORGE SWALLOWELL, AND JOHN INGRAM, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
Triumphal highways were symbols of Chaldean/Babylonian imperial power. Thus they were, for exiles, symbols of oppression. But the highway in Isaiah 40:3-5 is one of liberation. It is the highway of Yahweh. It is the road exiles will travel to their ancestral homeland.
John 1:23 draws on this imagery in reference to Jesus. Instead of Chaldeans/Babylonians, with their highways, there are the Romans, with their network of highways. Although Jews live in their homeland, they are not free. No, they live under foreign occupation. Liberation, St. John the Baptist tells people, is nigh.
But it was not a political liberation, as history attests. No, it was a spiritual liberation. The Temple system, in cahoots with the Roman Empire, was corrupt. Purity codes marginalized the vast majority of Palestinian Jews and reassured an elite population of their imagined sanctity. The destruction of that corrupt Temple system, with its purity codes, accomplished violently by Roman forces in 70 CE, was a crucial event in Jewish and Christian history. And the Romans were still in power.
Jesus defined discipleship as following him–taking up one’s cross and following him. The crucifixion and resurrection of Our Lord and Savior placed him beyond any human power. What more could anyone do to him? So, as St. Paul the Apostle wrote, if we die with Christ (literally or metaphorically) we will rise with Christ. In Jesus there is life which no power on the planet can take away from us. We have new life–eternal life–in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
This is not merely for individuals. No, it is a collective liberation. May we refrain from imposing anachronistic worldviews on texts. Holiness was for the community in the Law of Moses. Liberation is for the community in Jesus, for what we do affects others. As Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us prophetically,
Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
Likewise, true holiness and liberation are inherently communal. How can they be otherwise?
The words of Jeremiah, son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The word of the LORD came to him in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign, and throughout the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of King Zedekiah son of Josiah son of Judah, when Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month.
The word of the LORD came to me:
Before I created you in the womb, I selected you;
Before you were born, I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations.
I replied:
Ah, Lord GOD!
I don’t know how to speak,
For I am still a boy.
And the LORD said to me:
Do not say, “I am still a boy,”
But go wherever I send you
And speak whatever I command you.
Have no fear of them,
For I am with you to deliver them
–declares the LORD.
The LORD put out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me:
Herewith I put My words into your mouth.
See, I appoint you this day
Over nations and kingdoms:
To uproot and to pull down,
To destroy and to overthrow,
To build and to plant.
Psalm 71:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 In you, O LORD, have I taken refuge;
let me never be ashamed.
2 In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free;
incline your ear to me and save me.
3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe;
you are my crag and my stronghold.
4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,
from the clutches of the evildoer and the oppressor.
5 For you are my hope, O Lord GOD,
my confidence since I was young.
6 I have been sustained by you ever since I was born;
from my mother’s womb you have been my strength;
my praise shall be always of you.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (New American Bible):
If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present, I know partially; then I shall know fully as I am known. So faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Luke 4:21-30 (The Jerusalem Bible):
And he [Jesus] won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips.
They said,
This is Joseph’s son, surely?
But he replied,
No doubt you will quote the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.”
And he went on,
I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of those; he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.
When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.
The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The love in 1 Corinthians 13 is agape. There are four types of love in the New Testament, with agape being the highest form. For a description of agape I turn to Volume X (1953), page 167 of The Interpreter’s Bible:
Agape is another kind of love which roots in the undeserved goodness men have received in Christ.
Agape is a type of love which extends to one’s enemies, looks past mutual interests, and is not merely sentimental. It is the love which God has for us. Thus agape is crucial, greater even than faith and hope, which are also commendable and of God.
This was the love which qualified Jeremiah and kept him company on his difficult vocation, one fraught with rejection. And this was the love which Jesus, also rejected, embodied in a unique way. This was the love those who tried to kill him at Nazareth lacked.
Agape is hard for many people to practice, for we are flawed. This statement applies to me. But I like agape; I seek to come nearer to living it. One poetic expression of the essence of agape is the George Herbert poem I have quoted in this post. My choir at St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia, has sung the Ralph Vaughan Williams setting of it. The text speaks to me of what I have received and continue to receive from God. I can do better, by grace, and I am. And I have much room for improvement.
Agape is also intolerable for many people. They seek to destroy it. The reason for this, I suppose, is that it reminds them of their shortcomings. And, instead of admitting those failings, some people react defensively and fearfully. Thus violent people have, throughout history and into the present day, persecuted pacifists, from Quakers to Anabaptists to Mohandas Gandhi to Martin Luther King, Jr. New England Puritans hanged Quakers in colonial times. Anabaptists in Europe and elsewhere have attracted a host of foes. There was, for example, state-sanctioned persecution of Amish and Mennonite conscientious objectors in the United States during World War I. And Gandhi and King became victims of assassins. Before King’s death many of his self-identified conservative coreligionists condemned his stances on civil rights and the Vietnam War. (I have notecards full of citations, quotes, and summaries from back issues of The Presbyterian Journal, which midwifed the Presbyterian Church in America in the early 1970s. The Journal, publishing immediately after King’s death, continued to condemn him.)
Our human intolerance for agape has caused quite a body count to accumulate. May God forgive us.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 11, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DIONYSIUS OF CORINTH, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT ANTHONY NEYROT, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR
THE FEAST OF GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN, ANGLICAN PRIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND
THE FEAST OF SAINT STANISLAUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF KRAKOW
Humility towards one another must be the garment you all wear constantly, because God opposes the proud but accords his favour to the humble. Bow down, then, before the power of God now, so that he may raise you up in due time; unload all your burdens on him, since he is concerned about you.
–1 Peter 5:5b-7, The New Jerusalem Bible
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The reading from Isaiah spells out doom for Israel (the northern kingdom), Judah (the southern kingdom), and the Assyrian Empire. Embedded among that gloomy news is yet another condemnation of economic injustice. If I seem to beat this drum often in my devotional posts, I do; so do the texts from which I write many devotions. The repetition of this theme ought to tell us to pay attention, correct our ways, and reform our legal, economic, and political systems accordingly.
Each of us bears the image of God. This, I am convinced, constitutes the best basis of equality and mutual respect and humility. God cares for all of us, so we ought to care for each other, not to use each other for selfish goals. As the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us,
…injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
What happens to my brother or sister affects me, for my brother or sister and I, although physically distinct, are not as separate as we might seem. We are all connected to others, so what affects one person has consequences for others.
May we, by grace, make them positive effects.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 3, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN OWEN SMITH, UNITED METHODIST BISHOP IN GEORGIA
THE FEAST OF SAINT FRANCIS XAVIER, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY IN ASIA
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 18:9-15, 24-19:3 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
And Absalom chanced to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. And a certain man saw it, and told Joab,
Behold, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.
Joab said to the man who told him,
What, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt.
But the man said to Joab,
Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not put forth my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, “For my sake protect the young man Absalom.” On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life (and there is nothing hidden from the king), then you yourself would have stood aloof.
Joab said,
I will not waste time like this with you.
And he took three darts in his hand, and thrust them into the heart of Absalom, while he was still alive in the oak. And ten young men, Joab’s armor-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him and killed him.
…(Joab orders Ahimaaz not to tell David what has happened. Then Joab sends a Cushite to update David and decides after all to let Ahimaaz run after the Cushite. Ahimaaz then passes the Cushite.)…
Now David was sitting between the two gates; and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he lifted up his eyes and looked, he saw a man running alone. And the watchman called out and told the king. And the king said,
If he is alone, there are tidings in his mouth.
And he came apace, and drew near. And the watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the gate and said,
See, another man running alone!
The king said,
He also brings tidings.
And the watchman said,
I think the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok.
And the king said,
He is a good man, and comes with good tidings.
Then Ahimaaz cried out out to the king,
All is well.
And he bowed before the king with his face to the earth, and said,
Blessed be the LORD your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.
And the king said,
Is it well with the young man Absalom?
Ahimaaz answered,
When Joab sent your servant I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was.
And the king said,
Turn aside, and stand here.
So he turned aside, and stood still.
And behold, the Cushite came; and the Cushite said,
Good tidings for my lord the king! For the LORD has delivered you this day from the power of all who rose up against you.
The king said to the Cushite,
Is it well with the young man Absalom?
And the Cushite answered,
May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you for evil, be like that young man.
And the king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said,
O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”
It was told Joab,
Behold, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.
So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people; for the people heard that day,
The king is grieving for his son.
And the people stole into the city that day as people steal in who are ashamed when they flee in battle.
Psalm 86:1-6 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 Bow down your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and in misery.
2 Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful;
save your servant who puts his trust in you.
3 Be merciful to me, O LORD, for you are my God;
I call upon you all the day long.
4 Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
5 For you, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
and great is your love toward all who call upon you.
6 Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer,
and attend to the voice of my supplications.
Mark 5:21-43 (Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition):
And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him; and he was beside the sea. Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at this feet, and begged him, saying,
My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.
And he went with him.
And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said,
If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.
And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said,
Who touched my garments?
And his disciples said to him,
You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?”
And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had been done to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. And he said to her,
Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.
While he was still speaking, there came fro the ruler’s house some who said,
Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?
But ignoring what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue,
Do not fear, only believe.
And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. When they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, he saw a tumult, and people weeping and wailing loudly. And when he had entered, he said to them,
Why do you make a tumult and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.
And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. Taking her by the hand he said to her,
Talitha cumi;
which means,
Little girl, I say to you, arise.
And immediately the girl got up and walked; for she was twelve years old. And immediately they were overcome with amazement. And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
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The Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
He who lives by the sword will die by the sword. I refer to Joab, not Absalom. This is what the 1968 Encyclopaedia Britannica says about Joab:
JOAB (fl. 1000 B.C.), Jewish military commander under King David, his mother’s brother, figures chiefly in the biblical second Book of Samuel. He led the commando party which captured Jerusalem for David, and as a reward was appointed commander in chief of the army. He played a leading part in many of David’s victories (e.g., against the Ammonites and Edomites) and led the loyal force which crushed the rebellion of David’s son Absalom. Utterly devoted to David, Joab thought he knew David’s interests better than David himself did; hence his killing of Absalom when David had commanded that his life be spared. Joab showed characteristic ruthlessness in the treacherous murder of two of his potential rivals: Abner, Saul’s former commander in chief, who had killed Joab’s brother Asahel, and Amasa, who mustered the men of Judah for David against the revel leader Sheba. Joab obeyed under protest when ordered by David to carry out a national census. During David’s last words he supported his son Adonijah’s abortive bid for the throne, and was executed by the successful Solomon.
This entry comes from Volume 13, page 2, by the way.
The 1962 Encyclopedia Americana (Volume 16, page 148) says this about him:
JOAB, King David’s nephew and commander in chief of his armies. He helped put David on the throne by defeating Abner, military leader of Saul’s forces. Later he killed Abner to avenge the earlier slaying of his own brother Asahel, and possibly to remove a dangerous rival to his power. He conducted David’s foreign wars and put down Absalom’s revolt, slaying Absalom with his own hands. David then attempted to supercede him with Amasa, Absalom’s general, whom Joab also assassinated to retain his position. He assisted David in putting to death Uriah the Hittite, the first husband of Bath-sheba. Finally, he supported Adonijah, David’s rightful heir, against Bath-sheba’s son Solomon. For this Solomon had put him to death, allegedly at the behest of dying David (I Kings 2:28-34).
Sometimes Joab obeyed his uncle and king; other times he did not. Joab killed others who threatened his position, until Solomon had him killed. The pattern of Joab’s life led to the manner of his death.
Of course, bad things do happen to good people, and sometimes nonviolent people die violently. For example, Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., advocated nonviolent social and political change but each man died because somebody shot him. And Jesus, was not violent, but agents of the Roman Empire put him to death via execution. Often people who seek to appeal to the best elements of human nature die because they anger people interested in nurturing the worst elements of human nature.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that those who live by the sword have set themselves on a course which will end badly. This rule applies to nations as well as people; those nation-states, kingdoms, and empires which seek enemies more often than friends succeed in that goal, but fail in the long term to establish stability and peaceful relations with neighbors. They might gain short-term military glory, but, in the long term, it is better to have more allies and friends than enemies.
God, as I understand God via Jesus, is the deity of shalom, a word with many meanings. Translated as peace, hello, and goodbye, shalom means far more. The Oxford Companion to the Bible explains (on page 578) that shalom can refer to all of the following:
Health
Restoration to health
General well-being (including sound sleep, length of life, a tranquil death, and physical safety)
Good relations between peoples and nations
Tranquility and contentment
Wholeness
Soundness
Completeness
Peace in God
Joab was not on the path of shalom.
May you, O reader, and I be on and stay on that path, however. Shalom to you. Shalom to your relatives, friends, and neighbors. Shalom to your enemies. Shalom to people you will never know. Shalom to the United States. Shalom to all nations. Shalom to the State of Israel. Shalom to the Palestinian Authority. Shalom to everybody.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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