Above: Candle Flame and Reflection
Image in the Public Domain
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The Collect:
Eternal God, your kingdom has broken into our troubled world
through the life, death, and resurrection of your Son.
Help us to hear your word and obey it,
and bring your saving love to fruition in our lives,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 28
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The Assigned Readings:
Daniel 3:19-30
Psalm 63:1-8
Revelation 2:8-11
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O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.
–Psalm 63:1-8, The Book of Worship of the Church of North India (1995)
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Psalm 63:1-8 is the happy pericope for this day. The author praises God for divine, steadfast love and provisions. The other readings encourage readers and listeners to trust in God during extremely trying times. That is a positive and timeless message, but each of the other pericopes presents its own difficulties.
The story from Daniel 3 is ahistorical. That fact presents no problem for me, for I am neither a fundamentalist nor an evangelical. No, my difficulty with the account is that the monarch threatens anyone who blasphemes YHWH with death by dismemberment. I oppose blasphemy, but temporal punishment for it is something I refuse to support. Besides, one person’s religious expression is another person’s idea of blasphemy. I know of cases of (Christian) religious expression in foreign (majority Muslim) countries leading to charges of blasphemy and sometimes even executions (martyrdoms). Religious toleration is a virtue–one much of the Bible frowns upon severely.
The pericope from Revelation 2 comes from an intra-Jewish dispute. Non-Christian Jews were making life very difficult for Christian Jews at Smyrna. The Christian invective of “synagogue of Satan” (verse 9) is still difficult to digest, even with knowledge of the historical contexts. Passages such as these have become fodder for nearly two millennia of Christian Anti-Semitism, one of the great sins of the Church.
As we who call ourselves follow Jesus, may we cling to him during all times–the good, the bad, and the in-between. And may we eschew hatred, resentment, and violence toward those who oppose us. Christ taught us to bless our persecutors, to fight hatred with love and darkness with light. This is difficult, of course, but it is possible by grace.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 18, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAMUEL JOHN STONE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF ARTHUR TOZER RUSSELL, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT HILDA OF WHITBY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS
THE FEAST OF JANE ELIZA(BETH) LEESON, ENGLISH HYMN WRITER
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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