Above: Chapel of the Beatitudes, Galilee, 1940
Image Source = Library of Congress
Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-matpc-20815
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ecclesiastes 3:1-14, 20-22 or Ezekiel 18:1-9, 25-32
Psalm 5
Galatians 2:14-21
Matthew 5:1-12
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I, as a member of a monthly book group, have been reading Jonathan T. Pennington’s Heaven and Earth in the Gospel of Matthew, a volume that overturns more than a century of scholarly consensus. Pennington rejects the idea, ubiquitous in sermons, Sunday School lessons, commentaries, and study Bibles, that “Kingdom of Heaven” is a reverential circumlocution–a way to avoid saying “God.” He posits that “Kingdom of Heaven” actually refers to God’s rule on the Earth, that the “Kingdom of Heaven” is essentially the New Jerusalem, still in opposition to the world. God will, however, take over the world, thereby resolving the tension.
The Kingdom of Heaven, we read in the Beatitudes, belongs to those who know their need for God and who experience persecution for the sake of righteousness. They would certainly receive the kingdom, I agree.
Justification is a theme in Galatians 2. There we read an expression of the Pauline theology of justification by faith, not by works or the Law of Moses. This seems to contradict James 2:24, where we read that justification is by works and not by faith alone. It is not actually a disagreement, however, given the different definitions of faith in the thought of James and St. Paul the Apostle. Both of them, one learns from reading their writings and dictations, affirmed the importance of responding to God faithfully. The theme of getting one’s act together and accepting one’s individual responsibility for one’s actions fits well with Ezekiel 18, which contradicts the theology of intergenerational guilt and merit found in Exodus 20:5.
How we behave matters very much; all of the readings affirm this. Thus our actions and inactions have moral importance. Do we comfort those who mourn? Do we show mercy? Do we make peace? Do we seek to be vehicles of divine grace to others? Hopefully we do. And we can succeed, by grace.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 20, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SEBASTIAN CASTELLIO, PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
THE FEAST OF CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, HYMN WRITER AND ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA JOSEFA SANCHO DE GUERRA, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SERVANTS OF JESUS
THE FEAST OF SAMUEL RODIGAST, GERMAN LUTHERAN ACADEMIC AND HYMN WRITER
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Adapted from this post:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
Pingback: Devotion for the Fourth Sunday After the Epiphany, Year A (Humes) | ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS