According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
One may use the word “mystery” in at least two ways. One may think of a situation in which gathering more information will eliminate confusion and enable arriving at a firm answer. The Holy Trinity is a mystery, but not in that way. Even if we mere mortals had all the information about the nature of God, we could not understand it. We can barely grasp what we do know, and what we know raises more questions than it resolves. So be it. The second meaning of “mystery” is an ancient definition: One can know something only by living into it. One can know God by faith, for example.
The Feast of the Holy Trinity is the only Christian feast of a doctrine. It is more than that, though. Lutheran minister and liturgist Philip H. Pfatteicher recommends thinking of Trinity Sunday as:
…the celebration of the richness of the being of God and the occasion of a thankful review of the now completed mystery of salvation, which is the work of the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.
—Commentary on theLutheran Book of Worship: Lutheran Liturgy in Its Ecumenical Context (1990), 301
A doctrine–especially the Holy Trinity–can seem abstract. Some people (including moi) like abstractions. However, abstractions leave others cold and spiritually unmoved. Salvation is not abstract, however; it is tangible. And how it works is a mystery in at least the second meaning of the word.
Happy Trinity Sunday!
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 27, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE WASHINGTON DOANE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEW JERSEY; AND HIS SON, WILLIAM CROSWELL DOANE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF ALBANY; HYMN WRITERS
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANTONY AND THEODOSIUS OF KIEV, FOUNDERS OF RUSSIAN ORTHODOX MONASTICISM; SAINT BARLAAM OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT; AND SAINT STEPHEN OF KIEV, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX ABBOT AND BISHOP
THE FEAST OF CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, POET AND RELIGIOUS WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINTS REMACLUS OF MAASTRICHT, THEODORE OF MAASTRICHT, LAMBERT OF MAASTRICHT, HUBERT OF MAASTRICHT AND LIEGE, AND FLORIBERT OF LIEGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT LANDRADA OF MUNSTERBILSEN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS; AND SAINTS OTGER OF UTRECHT, PLECHELM OF GUELDERLAND, AND WIRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES
THE FEAST OF SAINT ZITA OF TUSCANY, WORKER OF CHARITY
According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
I have been composing lectionary-based devotions for more than a decade. I have, therefore, covered the temptation of Jesus already.
I make one comment about it, though: one function of the story is to help Christians know how to resist temptation.
This combination of readings–about temptation, confession of sin, and repentance–works well as a unit. The First Reading provides my main point: we must resist the temptation to misquote God, as Eve did in the myth. Read that text again, O reader, and realize that God did not forbid touching the fruit of the knowledge of good and bad. Misquoting God gave the mythical snake his opening.
The Talmud teaches:
He who adds [to God’s words] subtracts [from them].
–Quoted in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014), 15
The words of God are what God has said and says. Scripture, channeled through human lenses and experiences, provide many of God’s words. The Reformed tradition within Christianity speaks of God’s second book, nature. The mystical tradition within Christianity recognizes another method by which God speaks. I report some experiences I cannot explain rationally. I do know if I I listened to God, a guardian angel, or intuition. Yet I know that I listened and acted, to my benefit in practical, automotive matters.
I am an intellectual. I reject the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture, based on having studied the Bible closely and seriously. And I take the Bible seriously. I try to understand first what a given text says, in original context. Then I extrapolate to today. I try not to misquote or misinterpret any text of scripture. Neither do I shut down the parts of my mind that respect history and science. Good theology, good history, and good science are in harmony. As Galileo Galilei said:
The Bible tells us now to go to Heaven, not how the heavens go.
O reader, what is God saying to you today? Do mis misquote it. No, listen carefully.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
FEBRUARY 2, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
Rev[elation] is widely popular for the wrong reasons, for a great number of people read it as a guide to how the world will end, assuming that the author was given by Christ detailed knowledge of the future he communicated in coded symbols.
Consider the apocalypse in Daniel 7-12, for example, O reader. The author wrote in the first century B.C.E. He mostly wrote history as prophecy. But when the author started writing about the future (relative to him), he got details wrong. This was par for the course, given the genre.
Apocalyptic literature, written in images and symbols, is politically subversive of tyranny. The genre offers hope during difficult times, encourages the faithful to remain faithful, and contrasts the world order with the divine order. Apocalyptic literature uses the future as away to address the present.
I lay my theological cards on the table at the beginning of this project, O reader.
I am a left-of-center Episcopalian.
I am a student of history.
I am an intellectual.
I know the historical record of failed predictions of Christ’s Second Coming and failed identifications of the Antichrist.
I tell you, O reader, that the rapture is a fiction from the mind of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882).
I know that Darby’s Dispensationalism, popularized further in C. I. Scofield‘s study Bible, the “manual of fundamentalism,” remains a widespread interpretive system.
I affirm that Christ will eventually return, but only once. The rapture requires two Second Comings.
I have no interest in prophecy conferences, but care deeply about loving like Jesus daily.
Apocalyptic literature has much to say about our present. This content remains politically subversive. That is fine. I approve of subverting injustice, tyranny, slavery, economic exploitation, and needless violence. They are antithetical to the Kingdom of God.
Apocalyptic literature is also optimistic. In the darkness, the genre proclaims hope that God and good will triumph in the end. Apocalyptic literature, therefore, stiffens the spines of discouraged, faithful people. Good news of the deliverance of oppressed people doubles as judgment of the oppressors. The genre invites us to ask ourselves:
Whose side am I on?
In summary, apocalyptic literature immediately moves past preaching and gets to meddling.
THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN AND RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY
Certain passages of the Old and New Testaments, in their contexts, support submission to earthly authority. The Apocalypse of John has none of that. Revelation tells us that the Roman Empire was evil, antithetical to the Kingdom of God. This is the message that made the text treasonous long ago and still inspires many people to resist tyranny. One may read, for example, of Christian opponents of Apartheid (in South Africa) drawing inspiration from the Apocalypse of John, even as the national government prosecuted and persecuted them. Today, in dictatorships, certain Christians are reading Revelation as they emerge in their struggles for justice.
REVELATION IN THE BIBLE AND LECTIONARIES
Revelation is a liturgical hot potato. The major lectionaries include little of it. The Eastern Orthodox lectionary excludes the Apocalypse of John. The Orthodox Study Bible (2008) explains:
While seen as canonical and inspired by God, the Revelation is the only New Testament book not publicly read in the services of the Orthodox Church. This is partly because the book was only gradually accepted as canonical in many parts of Christendom. In addition, in the second and third centuries Revelation was widely twisted and sensationally misinterpreted, and the erroneous teachings brought troublesome confusion to Christians–a trend that continues to this day.
Genesis and Revelation constitute fitting bookends of the Christian Bible. Genesis opens with mythology–the creation of an earthly paradise, followed by the end of that paradise–to be precise (Genesis 1-3). Revelation concludes with a vision of God, having finally defeated evil once and for all, restoring that earthly paradise and establishing the fully-realized Kingdom of God (Revelation 21-22).
THE ORIGIN OF THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN
Revelation came from 92 to 96 C.E., at the end of the reign of the Emperor Domitian. Emperor-worship and the worship of the goddess Roma (Rome personified) were parts of conventional Roman patriotism and civic life. The Christian refusal to participate in these cults made Christians seem unpatriotic at best and treasonous at worst. Persecution was generally sporadic and regional at the time, but it was a constant threat. “John of Patmos” (whoever he was) wrote to seven churches in commercial cities in western Asia Minor.
The elaborate symbolism–including numerology–in apocalyptic literature prevented the uninitiated–in this case, Roman censors–from understanding the texts.
SYMBOLISM AND MEANING IN REVELATION 1
The only instance in which to interpret any number in the Apocalypse of John literally pertains to the seven churches in western Asia Minor.
Revelation 1 plunges us into the symbolic aspect of apocalyptic literature immediately. Stars (at the end of the chapter) represent angels and lamp-stands represent churches. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus has white hair, indicating holiness. His eyes, like a burning flame, pierce to the heart of all things. Christ’s “feet like burnished bronze” are stable and steadfast. His voice, “like the sound of the ocean,” is the convergence of the truth of God in the Hebrew Bible. Jesus holds the Church–then a vulnerable group of house congregations–in his hand. From Christ’s mouth emerges a two-edged sword (speech). His face shines like the sun. Christ is victorious, resurrected, ascended, and priestly.
The Roman Empire may have seemed to have had all the power and glory. It did not. The Roman Empire had executed Jesus. Yet he had risen; his tomb was empty. The power of the Roman Empire was nothing compared to the power of God in Christ.
That was treasonous, for, according to Roman coinage, the emperor was the “Son of God.”
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
OCTOBER 6, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF GEORGE EDWARD LYNCH COTTON, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF CALCUTTA
THE FEAST OF HEINRICH ALBERT, GERMAN LUTHERAN COMPOSER AND POET
THE FEAST OF HERBERT G. MAY, U.S. BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF JOHN ERNEST BODE, ANGLICAN PRIEST, POET, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM TYNDALE, ENGLISH REFORMER, BIBLE TRANSLATOR, AND MARTYR, 1536; AND MILES COVERDALE, ENGLISH REFORMER, BIBLE TRANSLATOR, AND BISHOP OF EXETER
Harlan Ellison, my favorite curmudgeon, argues against the proposition that each person is entitled to his or her opinion. He said:
No, you are entitled to your informed opinion.
Opinions not rooted in objective reality are unworthy of respect.
The first part of James 3 exists in the context of the second part of James 3. Therefore, the section about controlling the tongue is really about jealousy and infighting, originally. Internal struggles in the Church are as as old as the Church, sadly.
According to mythology, YHWH spoke creation into being. Therefore, whenever one speaks, writes, leaves a message on a social media outlet, or repeats or shares what someone else has said or written, one creates something. I am conscious of the power of my weblogs, which do not attract mass audiences. Nevertheless, I know that some people are reading. I attempt to make a positive contribution. I see that some of my posts have influenced prayers at commencement ceremonies. This makes me feel good.
Words matter. They have power. They can build up or tear down. For good reasons, not all speech has constitutional protection in the United States of America. Unprotected speech includes libel, slander, and incitement to violence. When I read about bullying, I recall James 3. We are all responsible to and for each other as we stand before God. May we take care of each other.
Timeless principles are…timeless, for lack of a better word. We mere mortals always apply them within circumstances; we always have circumstances. Circumstances change and technology develops, but timeless principles remain. In the age of COVID-19, spreading misinformation and damn lies about the virus, vaccines, masks, and horse deworming medicine is deadly. When the definition of objective reality is a controversial matter, public health becomes politicized immediately. And people die needlessly as the pandemic continues longer than necessary and damages economies. Peace is difficult to find.
A grandson of a parishioner at my much died recently. The grandson died of COVID-19, which he contracted from his father, who had refused to get vaccinated.
Misinformation, obliviousness, and damn lies claim lives sometimes. Make your speech count for the good, O reader. And take care of your relatives, friends, and neighbors. By doing so, you will take care of yourself.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF PHILANDER CHASE, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF OHIO, AND OF ILLINOIS; AND PRESIDING BISHOP
THE FEAST OF C. H. DODD, WELSH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
THE FEAST OF CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT, JULIA ANNE ELLIOTT, AND EMILY ELLIOTT, ANGLICAN HYMN WRITERS
THE FEAST OF JUSTUS FALCKNER, LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF STEPHEN G. CARY, U.S. QUAKER HUMANITARIAN AND ANTIWAR ACTIVIST
The Hebrew prophetic books are repetitive. When one reads the genre methodically, one realizes this. Pardon me, therefore, O reader, for not explaining every repeated theme in Jeremiah 17:1-20:18.
Jeremiah 17:1-4 uses powerful imagery to condemn illegitimate worship at cultic sites. Proverbs 3:3 and 7:3 refer to the tablet of the heart, on which the divine commandments are inscribed. Yet in Jeremiah 17:1, those tablets are inscribed with the guilt of Judah instead. Such a heart symbolizes disobedience to God in Ezekiel 2:4 and 3:7. Eventually, God will make a new covenant, one inscribed on the hearts of the people (Jeremiah 31:31-34). For now, however, repentance is not an option. The sins of Judah, not the reparation blood (Leviticus 4:1-7, 13-20), are on the stones of the altar.
2 Kings 22-23 tells of the religious reformation of King Josiah (r. 640-609 B.C.E.). One may read Jeremiah 17:1-4 and surmise that 17:1-4 predates those reforms or that his four successors presided over a rollback of those reforms. Either option is feasible. The second option may be more likely.
God is faithful and forever. Even the most pious and benevolent people, those who keep the covenant, are not forever. The Book of Jeremiah focuses on God and on those who are neither pious nor benevolent, though.
Returning to the imagery of the human heart in 17:9-10, we read that the human heart is crooked and deceitful. The germane Hebrew word, suggestive of deceit, means “crooked.” The human heart is the most crooked thing, we read. This is a spiritual and moral pathology.
Jeremiah 17:11 speaks for itself.
Jeremiah’s desire for vengeance (17:18) was predictable. I have known the same desire under less severe circumstances. Maybe you have, also, O reader.
The Deuteronomic perspective in the Book of Jeremiah and other Hebrew prophetic books teaches that the (northern) Kingdom of Israel and the (southern) Kingdom of Judah declined and fell because of persistent, unrepentant, collective disregard for the moral mandates of the Law of Moses. This is the perspective written into much of the Old Testament, from the perspective of the editors after the Babylonian Exile. Jeremiah 17:19-27 singles out violations of the Sabbath (Deuteronomy 5:14)–especially commercial transactions–as being emblematic of widespread, systemic disregard for the covenant.
Sabbath-keeping has long been a feature of Judaism and Christianity. Keeping the Sabbath–a sign of freedom in the Law of Moses–has been a way of emulating God. On the seventh day, in mythology, God created the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3). Sabbath-keeping has always been challenging, in practical terms. Stopping all work on that day (however one defines it) has always been impossible. Certain work has always been crucial to perform on the Sabbath, and members of the clergy have had to take their Sabbath some other time in the week. The Hasmoneans, zealous keepers of the Law of Moses, bowed to reality and engaged in defensive combat (1 Maccabees 2:31-48; 1 Maccabees 9:23-73; 2 Maccabees 15:1-19). If they had done otherwise, they would have lost battles and lives needlessly.
Sabbath-keeping works to the benefit of people. Everyone needs to take time off to live. One should work to live, not live to work. Structural economic factors may restrict one’s options in keeping the Sabbath as one would prefer to do. Also, the common good requires, for example, that public health and safety continue on the Sabbath. Time off is a mark of freedom. Slavery assumes many forms; one can be a wage slave.
The prophecy of the potter (Jeremiah 18:1-12) is familiar, and popular with lectionary committees. I have written about it while blogging through lectionaries. I bring your attention, O reader, to a key point: God, the Creator, is free to handle His creation as He sees fit. I am a piece of pottery, not the potter.
People kept plotting against Jeremiah. Had I been Jeremiah, I would have complained to God, too. I would have prayed to God to show no mercy on the plotters, also. I, too, may have rued the day of my birth. Jeremiah was only human. God knew that before calling Jeremiah to be a prophet.
Jeremiah made no allies by following God’s instructions in Chapter 19 and symbolically smashing a jug. That act led to a flogging and a brief incarceration. Jeremiah suffered intensely and briefly, but Passhur the priest was going to experience “terror all around.” Judah was failing; nobody could change that.
Many people in authority like to maintain their power. Some of them peacefully resign themselves to the realities of age, health, constitutional term limits, and election results; others do not. Many people in authority are servant leaders; others are tyrants or would-be despots. I suppose that nobody in authority wants to hear that the institution, nation-state, kingdom, empire, et cetera, is doomed. Yet how one handles that news is a test of character. Besides, power reveals a person’s character. And, as Heraclitus said,
A man’s character is his fate.
I wonder how Passhur the priest felt in 586 B.C.E., after the Fall of Jerusalem. I wonder if he remembered the words of Jeremiah and wept bitterly.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 10, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES OF NISIBIS, BISHOP; AND SAINT EPHREM OF EDESSA, “THE HARP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT”
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK C. GRANT, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR; AND HIS SON, ROBERT M. GRANT, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND PATRISTICS SCHOLAR
THE FEAST OF SAINTS OF GETULIUS, AMANTIUS, CAERAELIS, AND PRIMITIVUS, MARTYRS AT TIVOLI, 120; AND SAINT SYMPHROSA OF TIVOLI, MARTYR, 120
THE FEAST OF SAINT LANDERICUS OF PARIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF THOR MARTIN JOHNSON, U.S. MORAVIAN CONDUCTOR AND MUSIC DIRECTOR
The prophecies against King Jeroboam II (reigned 788-747 B.C.E.; 2 Kings 14:23-29) of Israel, his dynasty (842-747 B.C.E.), and the (northern) Kingdom of Israel were unpopular at Bethel, predictably.
One scholarly hypothesis holds that the original draft of the Book of Amos came into existence after the prophet (who humbly denied being a prophet in 7:14) had to return to the (southern) Kingdom of Judah. If so, the existence of the Book of Amos constitutes an example of irony. In 2021, many people can hear and/or read an expanded, amended version of what Amaziah, the priest at Bethel in the middle-to-late 700s B.C.E., tried to quash.
The first vision of judgment (7:1-3) was that of a swarm of locusts consuming late-sown crops after the royal reaping. (King Jeroboam II had claimed a portion of the earlier harvest for his herds and horses to consume.) God was not in a forgiving mood.
The second vision of judgment (7:4-6) was that of a rain of fire that, having devoured “the great abyss,” consumed these locust-devastated fields. In the germane ancient cosmology, that of the creation myth in Genesis 1:1-2:4a, the Earth was flat, with waters below and a dome above. (Do Creationists think that the planet is like this? Do they belong to the Flat Earth Society?) In this apocalyptic scene, God was really not in a forgiving mood.
The third vision of judgment (7:7-9) was that of a plumb line, or a plummet (depending on translation). One used this tool to determine how far out of line a wall or building had become, if repair was possible, and if demolition was necessary. The verdict on the kingdom of Jeroboam II was that the realm was beyond salvage.
The fourth vision of judgment (8:1-14) was that of a basket of fruit (or figs) from the end of summer. (The Hebrew word for “summer” puns on the Hebrew word for “end.”) God declared doom on the kingdom that had forsaken the covenant. Rife, systemic social injustice, especially of the economic variety, was evidence of this abandonment of the covenant. God was indeed distant from the (northern) Kingdom of Israel. The people had spurned God, anyway.
The language of the fifth vision (9:1-10), the vision of the destruction of the sanctuary, is bleak, evocative, and apocalyptic. The (northern) Kingdom of Israel had, in laymen’s terms, “torn it.” The proverbial gig was up. The fulfillment of this prophecy was simply a matter of time–about a quarter of a century.
Given that commentaries inform me of subsequent editing of the original version of the Book of Amos, I wonder how well some religious figures in the (southern) Kingdom of Judah handled these prophesies as that kingdom went into decline and vassalage, and as the threat of the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire loomed. I also wonder how much of the content in the texts in Amos 7-9 dates to after 722 B.C.E. and before 586 B.C.E.
Anyhow, a timeless lesson applies. Divine judgment and mercy exist in balance. Divine patience is not infinite. Neither is divine judgment.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MAY 23, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE DAY OF PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF SAINT IVO OF CHARTRES, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF BENJAMIN CARR, ANGLO-AMERICAN COMPOSER AND ORGANIST
THE FEAST OF FREDERICK AUGUSTUS BENNETT, FIRST MAORI ANGLICAN BISHOP IN AOTEAROA/NEW ZEALAND
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JÓZEF KURGAWA AND WINCENTY MATSUZEWSKI, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS, 1940
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM OF PERTH, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC BAKER AND MARTYR, 1201
Words have power. Libel and slander are threats. Some words build up. Other words tear down. Some words make truths plain. Other words confuse. Some words heal, but other words harm. And misquoting God is always a bad idea.
Consider Genesis 2:16-17, O reader:
The LORD God gave the man this order: You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From it you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die.
—The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)
Then, O reader, consider Genesis 3:2-3:
The woman answered the snake: “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, “You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die!”
—The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)
God said nothing about touching the fruit in Genesis 2:16-17.
Misquoting God opens a door that should remain closed.
Nevertheless, I have this complaint to make; you have less love than you used to.
–Revelation 2:4, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)
Concern for resisting heresy can come at a high cost, if a congregation, person, et cetera, goes about affirming orthodoxy the wrong way. That cost is too little love. This is also a moral in Morris West’s novel Lazarus (1990), about the fictional Pope Leo XIV, a harsh yet extremely orthodox man.
The late Presbyterian minister Ernest Lee Stoffel offered useful analysis of the message to the church at Ephesus:
This is to say that a church can lose its effectiveness if it has no love. As I think about the mission of the church, as I hear calls for “more evangelism” and a stronger application of the Gospel to the social issues of the day, I wonder if we can do either unless we can love first–love each other and love the world, for Christ’s sake.
—The Dragon Bound: The Revelation Speaks to Our Time (1981), 27
To quote St. Paul the Apostle:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
–1 Corinthians 13:1-3, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)
Orthodoxy without love is devoid of value. May we who say we follow Jesus really follow him. May we love as he did–unconditionally and selflessly. May we–collectively and individually–love like Jesus. May our orthodoxy and our orthopraxy be like sides of one coin. May our deeds reveal our creeds and not belie our professions of faith.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 15, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AND MARTYR, 1968
THE FEAST OF ABBY KELLEY FOSTER AND HER HUSBAND, STEPHEN SYMONDS FOSTER, U.S. QUAKER ABOLITIONISTS AND FEMINISTS
THE FEAST OF BERTHA PAULSSEN, GERMAN-AMERICAN SEMINARY PROFESSOR, PSYCHOLOGIST, AND SOCIOLOGIST
THE FEAST OF GENE M. TUCKER, UNITED METHODIST MINISTER AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
Genesis 2:15-25 presents, in the format of a myth, a portrait of life in harmony and innocence in the Garden of Eden. That is not the kind of life known during any documented epoch of the human past, or the of the present. Therefore, an encounter with God may seem frightening. Or it may seem intimate and comfortable. Or it may astound. Given the variety of encounters with God, both direct and indirect, as well as the range of people and circumstances, one cannot legitimately say that an encounter with God will definitely proceed in a given manner.
To ask that we have more than a very short-term memory of the encounter is reasonable, though. We read of the Feeding of the Five Thousand in John 6:1-15. If we keep reading, we reach the events of the next day, in the immediate area. We read in John 6:30-31:
So they said, “What sign will you yourself do, the sight of which will make us believe in you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as scriptures says, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
—The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)
Jesus must have rolled his eyes and muttered an ancient equivalent of,
Oy vey!
The author of the Gospel of John did not record that reaction, of course.
Not being oblivious to God is one step toward living in harmony with God.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 15, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER AND MARTYR, 1968
THE FEAST OF ABBY KELLEY FOSTER AND HER HUSBAND, STEPHEN SYMONDS FOSTER, U.S. QUAKER ABOLITIONISTS AND FEMINISTS
THE FEAST OF BERTHA PAULSSEN, GERMAN-AMERICAN SEMINARY PROFESSOR, PSYCHOLOGIST, AND SOCIOLOGIST
THE FEAST OF GENE M. TUCKER, UNITED METHODIST MINISTER AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
God has breathed life into we human beings and spoken to us. God has spoken to us frequently and in different ways. God has never ceased to speak to us. God has even become incarnate.
But how many of us are listening to God?
The words from God can be extremely inconvenient sometimes. Human nature is a constant factor. Any perceived threat to the economy (as at Ephesus, in Acts 19:23-41) can become a cause of outrage. This outrage may lead to a riot, therefore to possible peril for some, such as St. Paul the Apostle and his traveling companions.
Some of the politics of 85 C.E. or so (the time of the composition of Luke-Acts) probably informed the telling of Acts 19:23-41. We human beings always filter the past through the lens of our present day, even when we recount the details accurately. The depiction of Roman officials in Ephesus as protectors of St. Paul the Apostle and his traveling companions seems, in the present day of 85 C.E. or so, a political message: Christians are not enemies of the Roman Empire.
Above: Site of the Temple of Artemis, Ephesus
Image Source = Google Earth
Nevertheless, Christianity may be a foe of certain forms of commerce–the silver shrines of Artemis, in the case of Acts 19:23-41. One consequence of living in such a way that one follows Jesus may be that one no longer purchases X. And one consequence of the growth of Christianity may be that the market for X diminishes. Some people, whose livelihoods depend upon a healthy market for X, may become fearful. Then what might they do?
Nevertheless, one needs to continue to follow Jesus. One needs to keep listening to God. We need to persist in following Jesus and listening to God.
By the way, the great Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, once one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is a ruin.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 14, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT MACRINA THE ELDER, HER FAMILY, AND SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS THE ELDER
THE FEAST OF SAINT CAESARIUS OF ARLES, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; AND SAINT CAESARIA OF ARLES, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESS
THE FEAST OF EIVIND JOSEF BERGGRAV, LUTHERAN BISHOP OF OSLO, TRANSLATOR, AND LEADER OF THE NORWEGIAN RESISTANCE DURING WORLD WAR II
THE FEAST OF KRISTEN KVAMME, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HYMN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT SAVA I, FOUNDER OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF THE SERBS
Genesis 1:26f tells us that human beings bear the image of God. This is not a physical description. No, the meaning of of “image of God” is profound.
Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, a Jewish scholar of the Bible, tells us:
Whatever it means, though, it implies that humans are understood here to share in the divine in a way that a lion or cow does not….The paradox, inherent in the divine-human relationship, is that only humans have some element of the divine, and only humans would, by their very nature, aspier to the divine, yet God regularly communicates with them means of commands. Although made in the image of God, they remain subordinates. In biblical terms, that would not bother a camel or a dove. It would bother humans a great deal.
—Commentary on the Torah, with a New English Translation and the Hebrew Text (2001), 12
The commandment to do love to each other, especially the vulnerable and the marginalized, has long been a controversial order. That this has been and remains so speaks ill of people.
Dr. Robert D. Miller, II, a professor at The Catholic University of America, and a translator of The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011), adds more to a consideration to the image of God. The Hebrew word of “image” is tselem. It literally means “idol.”
When Genesis 1 says that humanity is the tselem of God, it’s saying if you want to relate to God, relate to your fellow man?
—Understanding the Old Testament–Course Guidebook (Chantilly, VA: The Great Courses, 2019), 9
Biblical authors from a wide span of time hit us over the head, so to speak, with this message. If we do not understand it yet, we must be either dense or willfully ignorant.
John 1 offers us the flip side of Genesis 1: The Second Person of the Trinity outwardly resembles us. Moreover, as one adds other parts of the New Testament, one gets into how Jesus, tempted yet without sin, can identify with us and help us better because of experiences as Jesus of Nazareth, in the flesh. The theology of the Incarnation, with Jesus being fully human and fully divine, is profound and mysterious. I know the history of Christian theology well enough to understand that Trinitarian heresies originated with attempts to explain the Trinity rationally. I prefer to relish the mystery of the Trinity.
We bear the intangible image of God. Jesus bore the physical image of human beings. We reach out for God, who reaches out to us. These are thoughts worthy of every day of the year, but especially during Advent and Christmas.
BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
You must be logged in to post a comment.