Archive for the ‘Psalm 139’ Tag
Above: The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, by William Blake
Image in the Public Domain
Disobedience to God, Part II
JANUARY 13, 2024
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The Collect:
Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, most merciful redeemer,
for the countless blessings and benefits you give.
May we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day praising you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 22
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The Assigned Readings:
1 Samuel 2:21-21-25
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
Matthew 25:1-13
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Yahweh, you examine me and know me,
you know when I sit, when I rise,
you understand my thoughts from afar.
You watch me when I walk or lie down,
you know every detail of my conduct.
–Psalm 139:1-3, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
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Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom no secrets are hidden:
cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
—Common Worship (2000)
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The roots of the Anglican Collect for Purity, a contemporary version of which I have quoted immediately above, reach back to the 1200s C.E., although the echoes of Psalms, especially Psalm 51, take its history back much further. The theology of the collect fits today’s devotion well. The first question of the Larger (Westminster) Catechism asks:
What is the chief and highest end of man?
The answer is:
Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.
–Quoted in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Book of Confessions (1996), page 201
Fulfilling that high spiritual calling requires grace as well as a positive human response to God. Grace marks that affirmative response possible. Thus we exist in the midst of grace. But what will we do with it? There is, after all, the matter of free will.
The readings for today contain cautionary tales. Eli was the priest prior to Samuel. Eli’s sons were notorious and unrepentant sinners. Their father rebuked them, but not as often and as sternly as he should have done. Even if he had rebuked them properly, he could not have forced them to amend their attitudes and actions, for which they paid the penalty. Eli’s successor became someone outside his family; that was the price he paid. As for the foolish bridesmaids, they did not maintain their supply of lamp oil, as was their responsibility.
Some spiritual tasks we must perform for ourselves. We cannot perform them for others, nor can others perform them for us. Others can encourage us, assist us, and point us in the right direction, but only we can attend to certain tasks in our spiritual garden. Will we do this or not?
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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 19, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN, GERMAN LUTHERAN COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY, PRINCESS
THE FEAST OF F. BLAND TUCKER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST
THE FEAST OF FRANZ SCHUBERT, COMPOSER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/disobedience-to-god-part-ii/
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Above: Ruins of Corinth
Image Source = Library of Congress
Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-matpc-07406
Disobedience to God, Part I
JANUARY 11 and 12, 2024
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The Collect:
Thanks be to you, Lord Jesus Christ, most merciful redeemer,
for the countless blessings and benefits you give.
May we know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day praising you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 22
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The Assigned Readings:
Judges 2:6-15 (Thursday)
Judges 2:16-23 (Friday)
Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 (Both Days)
2 Corinthians 10:1-11 (Thursday)
Acts 13:16-25 (Friday)
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God, examine me and know my heart,
probe me and know my thoughts;
make sure I do not follow pernicious ways,
and guide me in the way that is everlasting.
–Psalm 139:23-24, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
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2 Corinthians is a cut-and-pasted document. There were four letters from St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthian Church:
- The first is lost, as are many other ancient texts.
- 1 Corinthians is the second letter.
- 2 Corinthians 10:1-13:13 is the third letter.
- 2 Corinthians 1-9 (except for 6:14-7:1, the authorship and original placement of which are matters of dispute) is the fourth letter.
[Thanks to Calvin J. Roetzel, The Letters of Paul: Conversations in Context, 2d. Ed. (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1982), pages 52-63.]
The text which is actually 3 Corinthians is a defensive, scolding, sarcastic, and sometimes threatening letter. St. Paul argued against criticisms, such as the claim that he was more effective at a distance than when he was near and the allegation that he could not do what he claimed he could do. He had to contend with fractiousness and rumor mongering. Such problems constituted evidence of spiritual problems in the congregation.
St. Paul was not the only one who had to contend with people who disobeyed God. Of course, God has had to deal with that problem for a long time. Even those who had experienced the Exodus were prone to idolatry and rebellion. Their descendants continued that pattern, unfortunately.
We humans have insufficient attention spans much of the time. We also have selective memories. I read about God’s mighty acts of the past, but many people experienced them. How could any of them forget or ignore such wonders?
May we–you, O reader, and I–pay better attention and be more obedient.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 19, 2014 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHANN HERMANN SCHEIN, GERMAN LUTHERAN COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY, PRINCESS
THE FEAST OF F. BLAND TUCKER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST
THE FEAST OF FRANZ SCHUBERT, COMPOSER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/disobedience-to-god-part-i/
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Above: Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, by Gustave Dore
Job and John, Part XXI: Wrestling with Texts
SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2019
SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 2019
MONDAY, MARCH 4, 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 33:19-34:9 (March 2)
Job 34:10-33 (March 3)
Job 36:1-21 (March 4)
Psalm 103 (Morning–March 2)
Psalm 5 (Morning–March 3)
Psalm 43 (Morning–March 4)
Psalms 117 and 139 (Evening–March 2)
Psalms 84 and 29 (Evening–March 3)
Psalms 102 and 133 (Evening–March 4)
John 11:1-16 (March 2)
John 11:17-37 (March 3)
John 11:38-57 (March 4)
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I have difficulty with the Book of Job for several reasons. One is my conviction that the titular character, according to the book itself, was innocent. So his complaints were justified. Yet Elihu–otherwise a redundant idiot–and God both accuse Job of impugning divine justice. (See Job 36:5 forward and 40:7 forward.) The Book of Job provides no satisfactory answer to the causes of suffering of the innocent. That is my second reason for difficulty with the text. And, being a good Episcopalian, I embrace the ambiguity and refuse to surrender my doubts. Jesus took away my sins, not my mind. Dismissing Elihu is impossible for me because of the reasons I have explained. I would like to dismiss him; take my word for that, O reader. So I wrestle with the texts; sometimes that is the most faithful response.
Meanwhile, in John 11, Jesus raises his friend Lazarus from the dead. This sets in motion a plot among Pharisees to scapegoat him for fear of what the Romans will do to the nation otherwise. Authorities did scapegoat Jesus. And, a generation later, the Romans destroyed Jerusalem during a revolt. There is no ambiguity about those facts. The scapegoating of Jesus did not solve any problem. It killed an innocent man, but he did not remain dead for long. And the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem stands as evidence of what the Roman forces did to the Temple in 70 CE.
The desire to eliminate Jesus was a fear reaction, not a reasoned response. Does God frighten me? Sometimes, yes. Do certain depictions of God in the Bible scare and discomfort me? Yes! But I recognize my need to approach God with theological humility. Perhaps my God concept is too small. It almost certainly is. Dismissing or rationalizing away that which brings this reality to my attention will not alter the facts. So I wrestle with the texts faithfully.
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-xxi-wrestling-with-texts/
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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: Historic American Sheet Music, “I’m goin’ to fight my way right back to Carolina”
Music B-633, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library
Image Source = Duke University via the Library of Congress
Discomfort and Holiness
FEBRUARY 3, 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 14:1-21
Psalm 103 (Morning)
Psalms 117 and 139 (Evening)
Titus 2:7-3:15
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A Related Post:
A Franciscan Blessing:
http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/a-franciscan-blessing/
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My discomfort with Zechariah and Titus continues. (See link.) As for the former, God’s reign of holiness arrives only after rapes, battles, and plagues. And, in Titus, instructions for slaves to obey their masters coexist with a beautiful summary of God’s saving love. When one thinks that Christ might return soon, reforming one’s society and emancipating slaves seems unimportant, I suppose. But that was nearly 2,000 years ago. History has rendered its verdict, has it not?
To be holy is to be “called out.” In the name of being holy many people have committed and/or condoned violence. In the name of being holy many people have looked down upon their neighbors. In the name of being holy many people have obsessed over minor details–such as ritually pure pots, long skirts, and short hair–while ignoring social injustice, such as racism and economic exploitation.
The kindness and love of God our Saviour for humanity (Titus 3:4, The New Jerusalem Bible)
requires us to move, by grace, toward thinking of our fellow human beings in those terms. Thus the length of a skirt or one’s hair ought to matter less than whether the courts are corrupt or economic exploitation is a current problem. I think of Philip Yancey’s comments about the Bible college he attended in the 1960s. Civil rights were not on the agenda, but his hair had to be short and women’s skirts had to be long. And, judging from pictures of Jesus, the Lord’s haircut would have kept him out of the college.
Holiness ought to be a high standard, not a petty one.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 12, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF ALFRED LEE, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
THE FEAST OF ALAN PATON, NOVELIST AND WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN SOUTH AFRICA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JULIUS I, BISHOP OF ROME
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM OF OCKHAM, PHILOSOPHER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN, SOCIAL ACTIVIST
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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/discomfort-and-holiness/
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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: The Right Reverend Keith Whitmore, Assistant Bishop of Atlanta, at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, April 25, 2010
Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
The Call of Discipleship
JANUARY 14, 2024
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1 Samuel 3:1-20 (New Revised Standard Version):
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. Then the LORD called,
Samuel! Samuel!
and he said,
Here I am!
and ran to Eli, and said,
Here I am, for you called me.
But he said,
I did not call, my son; lie down again.
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said,
Here I am, for you called me.
Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel,
Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”
So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before,
Samuel, Samuel!
And Samuel said,
Speak, for your servant is listening.
Then the LORD said to Samuel,
See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears it tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.
Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said,
Samuel, my son.
He said,
Here I am.
Eli said,
What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.
So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said,
It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to him.
As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):
1 LORD, you have searched me out and known me;
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
2 You trace my journeys and my resting-places
and are acquainted with all my ways.
3 Indeed, there is not a word on my lips,
but you, O LORD, know it altogether.
4 You press upon me behind and before
and lay your hand upon me.
5 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
12 For you yourself created my inmost parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
13 I will thank you because I am marvelously made;
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
14 My body was not hidden from you,
while I was being made in secret
and woven in the depths of the earth.
15 Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
all of them were written in your book;
they were fashioned day by day,
when as yet there was none of them.
16 How deep I find your thoughts, O God!
how great is the sum of them!
17 If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (New Revised Standard Version):
All things are lawful for me,
but not all things are beneficial.
All things are lawful for me,
but I will not be dominated by anything.
Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food,
and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I therefore take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that whoever is united to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it is said,
The two shall be one flesh.
But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.
John 1:43-51 (New Revised Standard Version):
The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said tohim,
Follow me.
Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him,
We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.
Nathanael said to him,
Can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Philip said to him,
Come and see.
When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him,
Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!
Nathanael asked him,
Where did you get to know me?
Jesus answered,
I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.
Nathanael replied,
Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!
Jesus answered,
Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.
And he told him,
Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
The Collect:
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever.Amen.
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Some Related Posts:
Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A:
https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/second-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-a/
1 Samuel 3:
https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/week-of-1-epiphany-wednesday-year-2/
John 1:
https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/twelfth-day-of-christmas/
Feast of St. Bartholomew/Nathanael (August 24):
http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/feast-of-st-bartholomew-apostle-and-martyr-august-24/
Feast of St. Philip and St. James, Son of Alphaeus (May 1):
http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/feast-of-st-philip-and-st-james-son-of-alpheus-apostles-and-martyrs-may-1/
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The readings for this Sunday relate to the demands of discipleship.
Young Samuel had to tell unpleasant news immediately to his mentor, the elderly Eli. The fact that Eli responded as well as he did has stood him in good stead. In the long term, of course, Samuel became a priest and a judge of pre-monarchical Israel and the man who anointed two kings.
Paul reminds us through the ages that our bodies are temples of God, so we ought not to fornicate with them. But with what else ought one to involve his or her temple? I think immediately of excessive consumption of junk food. There is nothing wrong with eating an occasional hamburger or cheeseburger or doughnut, for example. Yet I have found that want fewer of these as time passes. No, I would rather eat home-boiled and mashed potatoes, for example. And the combination of a sedentary lifestyle with too much high-calorie food is physically dangerous. This is a medical fact, one which affects society as a whole by driving up insurance and health care costs. Beyond food and physical activity, there is the question of drugs, some of which are legitimately medicinal. Yet many others are not. If there were less demand for illegal drugs, there would be less violence involving street gangs and drug cartels. Bodies are temples; may we treat them respectfully.
We read in John 1 of Jesus calling Philip, who invites Nathanael/Bartholomew to follow Jesus too. The process of Nathanael/Bartholomew agreeing to do this is the theme of that text. I have consulted commentaries, including some written by major league, heavy-hitting New Testament scholars, in search of an answer to the question of what was so impressive about Jesus seeing Philip under a tree. Even Father Raymond Brown, in the first volume of his commentary on the Gospel of John for the Anchor Bible, could do nothing more than offer several possible answers without settling on one. I have concluded that why Nathanael/Bartholomew was impressed was irrelevant, but that the fact he was impressed did matter. More than that, the facts that he followed Jesus as an Apostle, became a great missionary, and died as a martyr matter a great deal.
Perhaps the most important aspect of the call of discipleship is the realization that one’s actions affect others. Samuel told people uncomfortable truths out of reverence for God. Eli listened in 1 Samuel 3, but the masses chose to act contrary to Samuel’s warning in 1 Samuel 8 (https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2011/06/06/week-of-1-epiphany-friday-year-2/). Whether we manage our physical and psychological appetites or they manage us can determine whether we wreck our lives and those of others. And would Nathanael/Bartholomew have followed Jesus and brought others to him had Philip not spoken to him?
What will discipleship demand of you, and what will your legacy be over time?
KRT
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/proper-4-year-b/
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS 
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