Above: Men in Boat (1860), by Alfred R. Waud (1828-1891)
Image Source = Library of Congress
Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-ppmsca-20362
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The Collect:
O God of peace, you brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus Christ, the shepherd of the sheep.
By the blood of your eternal covenant, make us complete
in everything good that we may do your will,
and work among us all that is well-pleasing in your sight,
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 33
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The Assigned Readings:
Ezekiel 45:1-9
Psalm 100
Acts 9:32-35
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Acknowledge that the LORD is God;
He made us and we are His,
His people, the flock He tends.
–Psalm 100:3, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
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Acknowledging that the LORD is God entails, among other things, living accordingly. Psalm 14:1a and 53:2a (TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures, 1985) tell us that
The benighted man thinks,
“God does not care.”
The standard English-language translation from the Hebrew text is close to the rendering in The Revised English Bible (1989):
The impious fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
The difference in translation is mostly in the second half of that passage. The issue in Psalms 14 and 53 is practical atheism, not the denial of the existence of God. Belief in God, in the Biblical sense, is trust in God, not mere affirmation of divine existence. Thus the benighted man/impious fool operates under the mistaken idea that God does not care. Actually, God cares deeply, especially about how we mortals treat each other.
Land was a patrimony and therefore a matter of great importance in Biblical times. A member of one generation held it in trust for heirs. Yet monarchs evicted legitimate landowners and seized land some times. This is the matter in Ezekiel 45:8b-9 (TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures, 1985):
My princes shall no more defraud My people, but shall leave the rest of the land to the several tribes of the House of Israel.
Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, princes of Israel! Make an end of lawlessness and rapine, and do what is right and just! Put an end to your evictions of My people–declares the Lord GOD.
References to such evictions occur in 1 Kings 21:1-16; Isaiah 5:8; and Micah 2:2.
The timeless message here is that nobody has any right to improve his or her financial position by victimizing others, especially the powerless and the less powerful. Climbing the ladder of success by kicking others off it is immoral.
St. Simon Peter’s healing of Aeneas, a man bedridden with paralysis for eight years, built up Aeneas, restoring him to health and community.
Whatever we do to each other is what we do to ourselves. If we keep others”in their place,” seemingly to improve our circumstances, we really hurt ourselves, for we doom ourselves to monitor others instead of pursuing proper opportunities. May we build each other up in the name of Jesus Christ, enabling each other to become the people we can become in God, for the glory of God and the benefit of the whole. To use a cliché, we are all in the same boat.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
DECEMBER 31, 2015 COMMON ERA
THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS
THE FEAST OF JOHN WYCLIFFE, BIBLE TRANSLATOR
NEW YEAR’S EVE
THE FEAST OF PHILIPP HEINRICH MOLTHER, GERMAN MORAVIAN MINISTER, BISHOP, COMPOSER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF ROSSITER WORTHINGTON RAYMOND, U.S. NOVELIST, POET, HYMN WRITER, AND MINING ENGINEER
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Adapted from this post:
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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