Above: A Crucifix
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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For Holy Wednesday, Year 1, according to the U.S. Presbyterian lectionary of 1966-1970
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Everlasting God, who delivered the Children of Israel from cruel captivity:
may we be delivered from sin and death by your mighty power,
and celebrate the hope of life eternal within your promised kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
—The Worshipbook–Services and Hymns (1972), 145
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Hebrews 5:5-10
Luke 22:24-34
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The author of the misnamed Epistle to the Hebrews (neither an epistle nor to Hebrews), whoever he was (Origen said that only God knew who wrote it) did not read the Gospel of John. The most probable reason for this was that the “Epistle to the Hebrews” predated the Fourth Gospel.
The reading from Hebrews 5 may mystify a Christian shaped by the Johannine Gospel. What does it mean that Christ learned obedience via his sufferings? And what about Christ being perfected? The divine passive in the latter case indicates that God was the actor, the one who perfected Christ. But was not Jesus already perfect–always perfect? The confusion does not cease even when one realizes the particular meaning of perfection in this case–suitability to be the ultimate sacrifice.
None of this inconsistency constitutes a difficulty for me, for I am not a fundamentalist. I acknowledge the obvious fact–that the New Testament contains mutually exclusive points of view presented and authoritatively. I prefer the Johannine perspective to that of the author of the “Epistle to the Hebrews” when the two contradict each other.
Both readings (Luke 22 and Hebrews 5) agree on the priority of obeying God. The ethic of service (from Luke 22) fits hand-in-glove with the obedience of Jesus (Hebrews 5). One may also ponder John 12:26 (from the previous post‘s readings), about following Jesus, who loved us all the way to an ignominious execution–his execution, in the Gospel of John.
Robert C. Wright, the Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta, likes to say,
Love like Jesus.
When one considers that statement in the full context of Christ’s life, one realizes that this is no feel-good slogan, but a challenge to discipleship, to cross-bearing.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
NOVEMBER 13, 2018 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF HENRY MARTYN DEXTER, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HISTORIAN
THE FEAST OF SAINT ABBO OF FLEURY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF SAINT BRICE OF TOURS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS TAVELIC AND HIS COMPANIONS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS
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