Archive for the ‘Psalm 130’ Tag
Above: Jesus Heals the Man with Palsy, by Alexandre Bida
Image in the Public Domain
Forgiveness
NOT OBSERVED IN 2024
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According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
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Isaiah 43:18-25
Psalm 41 (LBW) or Psalm 130 (LW)
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
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Lord God, we ask you to keep your family, the Church, faithful to you,
that all who lean on the hope of your promises
may gain strength from the power of your love;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 16
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God of compassion, keep before us the love
you have revealed in your Son, who prayed even for his enemies;
in our words and deeds help us to be like him
through whom we pray, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Lutheran Worship (1982), 16
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O Lord, keep your family and Church continually in the true faith
that they who lean on the hope of your heavenly grace
may ever be defended by your mighty power;
through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Lutheran Worship (1982), 28
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The key word this week is forgiveness. A second word–faithfulness–relates to it. As we read in 1 Corinthians 1:18, God is faithful.
I, I wipe away your transgressions for My sake,
and your offenses I do not recall.
–Isaiah 43:15, Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Vol. 2, Prophets (2019), 766
Those are words addressed to Jews at the twilight of the Babylonian Exile. This forgiveness is unconditional and absolute, apparently without any sign of repentance.
Psalm 130 reminds us that nobody could endure if God were to “watch for wrongs” (Robert Alter) and encourages the chosen people of God to wait for God, in whom is steadfast kindness.
Psalm 41 cites the betrayal by the author’s enemies, including a former friend. The author, not forgiving, seeks divine vindication:
But you, LORD, take note of me to raise me up
that I may repay them.
–Psalm 41:11, The New American Bible–Revised Edition
A rejoinder from the Gospels is appropriate:
For if you forgive others, the wrongs they have done, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs that you have done.
–Matthew 6:14-15, The Revised English Bible
Forgiveness, from a human perspective, can be challenging to commit or to accept. Committing forgiveness liberates one, regardless of the effect on the person or persons forgiven. Lugging a grudge around is never spiritually helpful and healthy.
Forgiving someone is a matter separate from seeking justice. Some deeds are inexcusable and indefensible. Sometimes justice requires punishment. Forgiveness precludes revenge, not justice.
Isaiah 43:25 occurs in a particular context. I notice the lack of penitence and repentance between verses 24 and 25. This does not mean that penitence and repentance are irrelevant; they occur in other passages. Yet Isaiah 43:25 tells us that sometimes God forgives for divine purposes.
Divine judgment and mercy exist in balance throughout the Bible. Trust nobody, O reader, who pretends to know what that balance is. I have some guesses. Some may be correct for the same reason for the same reason that a broken clock is correct twice a day. Grace remains a glorious mystery.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 14, 2023 COMMON ERA
THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF LENT
THE FEAST OF FANNIE LOU HAMER, PROPHET OF FREEDOM
THE FEAST OF ALBERT LISTER PEACE, ORGANIST IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
THE FEAST OF HARRIET KING OSGOOD MUNGER, U.S. CONGREGATIONALISTS HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF NEHEMIAH GOREH, INDIAN ANGLICAN PRIEST AND THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF SAINT VINCENZINA CUSMANO, SUPERIOR OF THE SISTERS SERVANTS OF THE POOR; AND HER BROTHER, SAINT GIACOMO CUSMANO, FOUNDER OF THE SISTERS SERVANTS OF THE POOR AND THE MISSIONARY SERVANTS OF THE POOR
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM LEDDRA, BRITISH QUAKER MARTYR IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY, 1661
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Link to the corresponding post at BLOGA THEOLOGICA
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Above: Galileo Galilei
Job and John, Part XIX: Alleged Heresy, Actual Orthodoxy
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019, and THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2019
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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:
Job 30:16-31 (February 27)
Job 31:1-12, 33-40 (February 28)
Psalm 96 (Morning–February 27)
Psalm 116 (Morning–February 28)
Psalms 132 and 134 (Evening–February 27)
Psalms 26 and 130 (Evening–February 28)
John 9:1-23 (February 27)
John 9:24-41 (February 28)
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A Related Post:
Environment and Science:
http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/environment-and-science/
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John 9 consists of one story–that of a blind man whom Jesus heals. The healing occurs at the beginning of the chapter. Then religious politics take over. How dare Jesus heal on the Sabbath? Was the man ever really blind? How could an alleged sinner–a Sabbath breaker–Jesus, perform such a miracle? The works of God clashed with human orthodoxy, and defenders of that orthodoxy preferred not to admit that they were or might be wrong.
Some words of explanation are vital. One way a visible minority maintains its identity is to behave differently than the majority. As Professor Luke Timothy Johnson has pointed out, arbitrary rules might seem especially worthy of adherence from this perspective. Sabbath laws forbade certain medical treatments on that day. One could perform basic first aid legally. One could save a life and prevent a situation from becoming worse legally. But one was not supposed to heal or cure on the Sabbath. This was ridiculous, of course, and Jesus tried to do the maximum amount of good seven days a week. Each of us should strive to meet the same standard.
At the beginning of John 9 our Lord’s Apostles ask whether the man or his parents sinned. Surely, they thought, somebody’s sin must have caused this blindness. Apparently these men had not absorbed the Book of Job. As Job protests in Chapter 30, he is innocent. And the Book of Job agrees with him. Job’s alleged friends gave voice to a human orthodoxy, one which stated that suffering flowed necessarily from sin. The wicked suffer and the righteous, prosper, they said. (Apparently, adherents of Prosperity Theology have not absorbed the Book of Job either.) Job was, by their standards, a heretic.
Some of my favorite people have been heretics. Galileo Galilei was a heretic for reporting astronomical observations and deriving from them accurate conclusions which challenged centuries of bad doctrine. Both Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders condemned his writings as heretical in the 1600s. Roger Williams argued for the separation of church and state in Puritan New England. He also opposed mandatory prayer; the only valid prayer, he said, is a voluntary one. For his trouble Williams had to leave the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Also forced to leave was Anne Hutchinson, who dared to question her pastor’s theology. I have made Galileo a saint on my Ecumenical Calendar of Saints’ Days and Holy Days. And The Episcopal Church has recognized Williams and Hutchinson as saints. I wonder what two rebellious Puritans would have thought about that.
Orthodoxies build up over time and become accepted, conventional, and received wisdom. The fact that a doctrine is orthodox according to this standard discourages many people from questioning it even when observed evidence contradicts it. Jupiter does have moons. This fact contradicts the former theology of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. Should one accept good science or bad theology? The question answers itself. The man in John 9 was born blind. Attempts in the chapter to question that reality are almost comical. We human beings must be willing to abandon assumptions which prove erroneous if we are to be not only intellectually honest but also to avoid harming others while defending our own egos.
Until the next segment of our journey….
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 27, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEW JERSEY
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANTONY AND THEODOSIUS OF KIEV, FOUNDERS OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX MONASTICISM; SAINT BARLAAM OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT; AND SAINT STEPHEN OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT AND BISHOP
THE FEAST OF THE EARLY ABBOTS OF CLUNY
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH WARRILOW, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/job-and-john-part-xix-alleged-heresy-actual-orthodoxy/
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Above: Job and His Alleged Friends
Job and John, Part IX: Perceptions
FEBRUARY 15, 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:
Job 11:1-20
Psalm 130 (Morning)
Psalms 32 and 139 (Evening)
John 5:19-29
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Zophar the Naamathite opens his address in Job 11:1-20 by insulting Job. A note on page 1519 of The Jewish Study Bible makes a succinct point:
Like Bildad in 8.2, Zophar here, in the house of a man bereft of his children (1.18-19) and infested with maggots (7.5), has the colassal gall to tell Job, the master of the house, that he talks too much!
And Zophar persists in the practice of relying on “received wisdom” as a basis for his theodicy.
The reading from John 5 constitutes part of a discourse attributed to Jesus after he healed the paralyzed man at the Pool at Bethesda on a Sabbath. (The Synoptic Jesus does not talk as much as does the Johannine Jesus, by the way.) The content of the discourse interest me, but the relative newness of it fascinates me today. Zophar’s discourse was stale and insulting. Yet our Lord’s discourse was revolutionary. Consider one verse, O reader:
In all truth I tell you,
whoever listens to my words,
and believes in the one who sent me,
has eternal life;
without being brought to judgement
such a person has passed from death to life.
–John 5:24, The New Jerusalem Bible
If I did not take the truth of that verse as a given, I might think Jesus to have been a madman. Now, of course, my position has become “received wisdom.” (I am aware of the irony of that reality.) Some “received wisdom” is wiser than the rest. And other “received wisdom” is pure drivel.
The power of “received wisdom” holds sway over the intellects and imaginations of people, does it not? When I started my abortive doctoral studies in history at The University of Georgia (UGA), Athens, Georgia, the Graduate Coordinator informed me that I would learn the “received wisdom.” He used that term; I recall that part of the conversation clearly. I wound up questioning much of the “received wisdom,” with the predictable result in the social sciences. But I maintained my intellectual integrity. And I am a terrible liar. Please understand me correctly, O reader; that happened years ago, and the trauma of that experience has washed out of my system. Yet memories remain. And objective reality remains. I have no desire to start an argument with anyone at the UGA Department of History. What would I gain from it? Yet I offer this cautionary tale of the allure received foolishness masquerading as received wisdom. The experience remains with me and makes me a better teacher. I hold my students accountable for getting the facts correct then reasoning their ways to interpretations. I do not grade them according to whether I agree with those interpretations. And some of the kindest comments on course evaluations begin the acknowledgement that the student disagreed with me often in subjective matters.
Reality is objective, of course. But our understandings of it are inherently subjective. Two people can absorb the same stimuli and understand it differently. Culture (defined as social learning), educational attainment, age, cognitive development, intellectual capacity, and other factors shape our perceptions. Sometimes our proverbial tapes are running, so we hear yet do not listen and see yet do not comprehend. So the character of Zophar , who was an insulting idiot, understood himself as standing on the shoulders of theological giants. And our Lord’s words were blasphemous in the ears of some people despite those words’ truth–and therefore lack of blasphemy. Reality is objective and our perceptions are subjective, yet our perceptions can be correct. May they be so, by grace.
Until the next segment of our journey….
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 26, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS REMACLUS OF MAASTRICHT, THEODORE OF MAASTRICHT, LAMBERT OF MAASTRICHT, HUBERT OF MAASTRICHT AND LIEGE, AND FLORIBERT OF LIEGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; LANDRADA OF MUNSTERBILSEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND OTGER OF UTRECHT, PLECHELM OF GUELDERLAND, AND WIRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES
THE FEAST OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, POET
THE FEAST OF SAINT PASCHASIUS RADBERTUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF ROBERT HUNT, FIRST ANGLICAN CHAPLAIN AT JAMESTOWN, VIRGINIA
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/job-and-john-part-ix-perceptions/
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https://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2018/03/20/uga-and-me/
Above: John Calvin
Image Source = Library of Congress
False Prophets, Alleged and Actual
JANUARY 31 and FEBRUARY 1, 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:
Zechariah 10:1-11:3 (January 31)
Zechariah 11:4-17 (February 1)
Psalm 116 (Morning–January 31)
Psalm 85 (Morning–February 1)
Psalms 26 and 130 (Evening–January 31)
Psalms 25 and 40 (Evening–February 1)
2 Timothy 3:1-17 (January 31)
2 Timothy 4:1-18 (February 1)
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The readings for January 31 and February 1 make more sense together then spread across two days. That is my conclusion, at least.
“False prophets” is the unifying theme. In Zechariah the speak lies, console with illusions, and lead members of the flock astray. Thus God, angered, vows to punish these bad shepherds and provide proper leadership for the human flock. To continue the theme, we read that, in the Last Days,
There will be some difficult times. People will be self-centred and avaricious, boastful, arrogant, and rude, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious; heartless and intractable; they will be slanderers, profligates, savages, and enemies of everything that is good; they will be treacherous and reckless and demented by pride, prefering their own pleasure to God. They will keep up the outward appearance of religion but will have rejected the inner power of it.
–2 Timothy 3:1b-5a, The New Jerusalem Bible
(Human nature has at least been constant. The past, present, and future seem identical in this regard.) Anyhow, we read in 2 Timothy to follow the truth, accept sound teaching, and be on guard against harmful people.
We–beginning with the author of this post–must always be careful not to confuse disagreement with one (in my case, myself) as proof positive that the other person is a bad shepherd, a false prophet, a harmful individual. Maybe the other person is all those things, but perhaps he or she just has some different opinions. I am convinced, for example, that early Church leaders were correct to insist that Gnosticism constituted false doctrine. The main problem with Gnosticism is that it denies the Incarnation, without which there is no Christianity. That one was easy. Law and theology are easy at the extremes. But what about opinions regarding certain points of Calvinism, for example? Christians of good will can–and do–disagree strongly. And all follow Jesus.
Speaking of Calvinism, one aspect of it offers a nice and good way out of many disputes. John Calvin spoke and wrote of a category called “Matters Indifferent.” Anything in that category is optional. The Incarnation is vital, but whether one observes Christmas is a Matter Indifferent, for example. So, with Calvin’s category in mind and a well-honed sense of theological humility before us, may we avoid idolizing our own opinions. We might change them one day, after all. And we are imperfect.
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
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/false-prophets-alleged-and-actual/
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Above: Christmas Gifts
Image Source = Kelvin Kay
The Presence of God
JANUARY 18, 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 40:1-4; 43:1-12
Psalm 130 (Morning)
Psalms 32 and 139 (Evening)
Romans 8:18-39
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For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nothing in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
–Romans 8:38-39, The New Jerusalem Bible
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I recall that, when I was very young, I heard my father speak of the presence of God. At the time my age had only one digit and my Piagetan stage of cognitive development reflected literal, concrete thinking. So I wondered where the presents of God were. They might come in boxes wrapped in shiny paper, I thought.
The “Presence of God” figures prominently in the readings from Ezekiel. The people have sinned yet the divine Presence will return to the site of the Temple at Jerusalem, the text says. And we read in Romans 8:18-39 that God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, intercedes for us. Furthermore, nothing can separate us from the love of God.
We are always in the presence of God, who is everywhere. Yet many of us do not live accordingly. And others of us need to live accordingly more often than we do. (I count myself among the latter.) Being aware of being in the presence of God and responding to it positively is the best definition of prayer I can muster. Such a response is far better than any number of gifts in boxes wrapped in shiny paper.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 25, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD
THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR B
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-presence-of-god-2/
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Above: Locusts on a Car Wheel, 1930
Image Source = Library of Congress
Vindication by God
DECEMBER 21, 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 42:1-25
Psalm 102 (Morning)
Psalms 130 and 16 (Evening)
Revelation 9:1-12
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The LORD desires His [servant’s] vindication,
That he may magnify and glorify [His] Teaching….
–Isaiah 42:21, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures
Isaiah 42 opens with a familiar Servant Song, a text many Christian interpreters have applied to Jesus. But read the rest of the chapter. The servant is the exiled nation of Judah. It is blind and deaf to God. It deserves punishment, which it has received. And God is preparing to vindicate the servant. This was good news for the exiles yet bad news for the Babylonian leadership.
Empire is of the essence in this day’s readings. The empire is Babylon in Isaiah 42 and Rome in Revelation 9. John of Patmos personifies the Roman Empire as a swarm of satanic destructive locusts. God would vindicate his servants, the sealed ones, according to Revelation 8. But as for the rest….
The victory will be God’s, not ours. The vindication will be ours. May we trust God and leave the battles in divine hands.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 3, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF EDWARD CASWALL, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF EDWARD PERRONET, BRITISH METHODIST PREACHER
THE FEAST OF SAINT GENEVIEVE, PROPHET
THE FEAST OF GLADYS AYLWARD, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY TO CHINA
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/vindication-by-god/
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Above: A Trappist Monk at Prayer
Image Source = Daniel Tibi
“But You Refused.”
DECEMBER 14, 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 30:15-26
Psalm 102 (Morning)
Psalms 130 and 16 (Evening)
Revelation 2:1-29
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Some Related Posts:
In the Stillness of Night:
http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/in-the-stillness-of-night/
Prayers of Forgiveness, Mercy, and Trust:
http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/18/prayers-for-forgiveness-mercy-and-trust/
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For thus said my Lord GOD,
The Holy One of Israel,
“You shall triumph by stillness and quiet;
Your victory shall come about
Through calm and confidence.”
But you refused.
–Isaiah 30:15, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures
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The reading from Isaiah flows immediately from the verses which precede it. So correct understanding a firm grasp of the context of them. Judah, the southern kingdom, was engaged in idolatry. The leaders sought national security through Egypt, with which the Hebrews had a difficult history, including centuries of slavery. In times contemporary to Isaiah, however, the threat was different; the Pharaoh deposed a king (after the time of Isaiah 30) and named the next one. Such a nation was hardly a reliable treaty partner. And economic and legal exploitation were commonplace.
Seek security in me,
Yahweh said via Isaiah.
Be still and quiet, calm and confident.
And, in various places, we read the commandment not to exploit people. That runs throughout both Testaments and is prominent in the writings of the Prophets.
In Revelation 2 we read messages for four churches, each in a different city with its own circumstances. I have read about all four; that information is hardly obscure. My synthesis of the lessons from the messages follows: Be both orthodox and loving, refrain from participating from the idolatry rampant in society (no easy task in some cases), hold firmly to the Christian faith despite difficulties and ordeals, and repent of errors. There is judgment and there is mercy.
Back in Isaiah, after the pronouncement of judgment in 30:15-17, we arrive at verse 18:
Truly, the LORD is waiting to show you grace,
Truly He will arise to pardon you.
For the LORD is a God of justice;
Happy are all who wait for Him.
—TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures
The cautions in Isaiah 30 and Revelation 2 existed because of a hope that the people for whom they were intended would heed them. Thus the fact that these pronouncements went forth indicated mercy. We can read them today and learn from them. And we can begin by being still and quiet, calm and confident in God.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 31, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF JOHN WYCLIFFE, BIBLE TRANSLATOR
NEW YEAR’S EVE
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/but-you-refused/
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Above: Christ Pantocrator, Looking Unhappy
The Imperative of Acting Compassionately
DECEMBER 7, 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 24:1-13
Psalm 102 (Morning)
Psalms 130 and 16 (Evening)
1 John 1:-2:14
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A Related Post:
A Prayer for Compassion:
http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/a-prayer-for-compassion/
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In this way we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
–1 John 2:3, The New Jerusalem Bible
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What is the test of holiness?
Isaiah 24 speaks of an undated, future doom people will bring upon themselves by violating the Law of Moses. 1 John places obedience and disobedience in the context of Jesus, who has fulfilled the Law. If we love Jesus, we will keep his commandments. The summary of his teachings and lived example is compassion. We must identify with others as best we can and seek their good. Any economic or legal system which bases one person’s improvement upon the detriment of another or others is inherently sinful. And such systems thrive today.
I know what Jesus would say about them.
Any religious system which teaches hatred instead of compassion as a virtue in inherently sinful. One need not restrict the list of examples to jihads, Crusades, and excuses for racism. Such religious systems thrive today.
I know what Jesus would say about them.
For that matter, I know what St. John the Baptist would say about them:
You brood of vipers!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 10, 2011 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN ROBERTS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF KARL BARTH, SWISS REFORMED THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF THOMAS MERTON, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/08/05/the-imperative-of-acting-compassionately/
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Above: Christ with Beard
Subversive Compassion
NOVEMBER 30, 2022
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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 6:1-7:9
Psalm 102 (Morning)
Psalms 130 and 16 (Evening)
1 Peter 2:13-25
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Some Related Posts:
Isaiah 6-7:
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/week-of-proper-9-saturday-year-2/
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/week-of-proper-10-tuesday-year-2/
A Prayer for Compassion:
http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/a-prayer-for-compassion/
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I have covered the reading from Isaiah already, so I refer you, O reader, to the labeled links for them. At this time and place I choose to say the following: A pressing question for many Christians in the latter portion of the first century C.E. was whether one could be both a good Christian and a good Roman. Also, the author of 1 Peter assumed that Jesus would be back quite soon to sort out the world order. As I write these words, our Lord has not returned. The world order is what we have made it; may we exercise our agency responsibly to improve it. This does involve resisting authority sometimes, as in the case of tyrannical governments. Dietrich Bonhoeffer plotted to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Many faithful Christians–Protestants and Roman Catholics–sheltered Jews and resisted the Third Reich. And, throughout church history, bishops have called monarchs to account.
We who read and interpret the Bible must be careful to read it as a whole, not to fixate so much on certain passages that we ignore inconvenient ones and distort the composite meaning of the texts. There is something called confirmation bias, which means that we tend to pay attention to evidence which supports our opinions and ignore or dismiss that which does not. I look for this in myself and try to safeguard against prooftexting, the confirmation bias method of misreading the Bible.
I keep returning to the example Jesus set. (I am a professing Christian, literally a “partisan of Christ.”) He violated many religious customs, some of them from the Law of Moses itself. He seems to have favored compassion over any other factor when they came into conflict. And he taught this ethic with his words. So we have in our Lord the union of words and deeds favoring compassion above all else in guiding our actions toward others. Compassion trumps all else.
As much as I disagree with those aspects of Christian traditions which deal favorably with tyrants and dictators, justify servitude, and smile upon gender inequality, I find Jesus to be the strong counterpoint to them. Somewhere–very soon after our Lord’s time on the planet ended–the church began to accommodate itself–frequently in ways inconsistent with Christ–to the Roman Empire. Jesus was a subversive. I mean this as a compliment. I follow the subversive, or at least I try to do so. If I am to be an honest Christian, this is what I must do.
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
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/subversive-compassion/
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ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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