If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Above:  Icon of St. John the Baptist

Image in the Public Domain

God With Us

DECEMBER 19, 2021

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,  who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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Zechariah 2:10-13 (Protestant and Anglican)/Zechariah 2:14-17 (Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox)

Psalm 122

1 John 5:1-11

John 1:19-28

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The readings from Zechariah and the Psalms overlap thematically.  First Zechariah (Chapters 1-8) is a section concerned with the rebuilding of of the Jewish community after the return from the Babylonian Exile.  The legitimization of the Second Temple is a major theme in support of that goal.  In the context of the establishment of an ideal Zion, we read that God will dwell in the midst of the people.

First Zechariah also overlaps with First John thematically.  Both agree that love of God entails keeping divine commandments.  One may think also of another verse:

–John 14:15, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

In our scheduled portion of the Gospel of John, we read of St. John the Baptist pointing to Jesus, not himself.  This is a good reading to pair with the verses from Zechariah 2.  God has come to dwell among the people.

God still dwells among us.  The Holy Spirit is present, of course.  God also works through people.  The face of Jesus someone may see today may be your face, O reader.  Likewise, the face of Jesus I see today may be someone in public, as we go about our lives.  God dwells among us.  We will recognize that truth if we know where to look.

May the image of God in you, O reader, greet the image of God in those around you.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 26, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF SAINT STEPHEN, DEACON AND MARTYR

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/12/26/god-with-us-part-vi/

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Above:  Palestinian Barrier

Image Source = Marc Venezia

Of Walls, God, and Men

JANUARY 26, 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 2:1-3:10/2:5-3:10

Psalm 122 (Morning)

Psalms 141 and 90 (Evening)

Romans 15:1-13

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Jerusalem shall be peopled as a city without walls….

–Zechariah 2:8b, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

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TECHNICAL NOTE:

Zechariah 2:1 in Protesteant Bibles equals Zechariah 2:5 in Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox ones.

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A city’s walls were supposed to defend it.  Thus a Jerusalem without walls would seem to be defenseless.  Yet, in Zechariah, God will defend the city.  Walls, as defensive technology, have proven lacking throughout history.  Invaders breached the Great Wall of China.  Constantinople fell in 1453 despite its walls.  The walls of Jericho could not survive an earthquake.  So I am with Zechariah; God is preferable to any wall.

Walls also provide convenient boundaries.  The city is on one side of the wall.  East Berlin was over here and West Berlin was over there, from the East German perspective.  Over here, from the Israeli angle, is the Jewish side of the West Bank; the Palestinian side is over there.  The other is over there, away from here–with a wall to separate them.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That wants it down.

–Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Paul encouraged his readers at Rome to

Accept one another for the sake of God’s glory, as Christ accepted you.

–Romans 15:7, The New Jerusalem Bible

Walls work against that purpose.  God is preferable to any wall.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 9, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF DIETRICH BONHOEFFER, MARTYR AND GERMAN LUTHERAN THEOLOGIAN

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/of-walls-god-and-men/

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