Archive for the ‘Isaiah 50’ Category
Above: Cross Out Slums, by the U.S. Office of War Information, 1943-1945
Image in the Public Domain
National Archives and Record Administration ID 513549
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According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
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Isaiah 50:4-10
Psalm 116:1-8
James 2:1-5, 8-10, 14-18
Mark 8:27-35
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O God, you declare your almighty power
chiefly in showing mercy and pity.
Grant us the fullness of your grace,
that, pursuing what you have promised,
we may share your heavenly glory;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 27
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O God, without whose blessing we are not able to please you,
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit
may in all things direct and govern our hearts;
through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Lutheran Worship (1982), 80
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Deuteronomistic theology–ubiquitous in the Hebrew Bible–teaches that the Babylonian Exile was justified punishment for centuries collective and habitual disregard of the Law of Moses. This is the position of Second Isaiah shortly prior to the promised vindication of the exiles by God. Divine judgment and mercy remain in balance.
Many exiles did not expect the Babylonian Exile to end; they had become accustomed to the status quo and fallen into despair. This was psychologically predictable.
Likewise, St. Simon Peter, immediately following his confession of faith in Jesus, did not expect the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And how many Christians have expected to suffer and perhaps to die for their faith? Yet many have taken up their crosses and followed Jesus to humiliation and/or martyrdom. St. (John) Mark, supposedly the author of the Gospel of Mark, died by dragging through the streets of Alexandria, Egypt.
The messages in the lection from James 2 may shock some people, too. The category of the “deserving poor” is old, even in traditionally Christian cultures. The opposite category, of course, is the “underserving poor.” So, allegedly, we may help the “deserving poor” and ignore the “undeserving poor” with a clear moral conscience, right? Wrong! The categories of the “deserving poor” and the “undeserving poor,” taken together, constitute a morally invalid and false dichotomy. God takes mistreating the poor seriously. All of the poor are the “deserving poor.”
Whoever acts without mercy will be judged without mercy, but mercy triumphs over judgment.
–James 2:13, The Revised New Jerusalem Bible
James 2:13 is consistent with the Sermon on the Mount:
Judge not, that you may not be judged; For by whatever verdict you pass judgment you shall be judged, and in whatever measure you measure it will be meted out to you.
–Matthew 7:1-2, David Bentley Hart, The New Testament: A Translation (2017)
Clarence Jordan‘s Cotton Patch Version of the Gospel of Matthew puts a Southern Low Church Protestant spin on these verses:
Don’t preach just to keep from getting preached to. For the same sermon you preach will be applied to you, and the stuff you dish out will be dished up to you.
Jordan’s rendering of James 2:13 also gets to the point:
For there is merciless judgment on a merciless man, and mercy is much more preferred than judgment.
Divine judgment and mercy remain in balance.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 20, 2023 COMMON ERA
THE TWELFTH DAY OF EASTER
THE FEAST OF JOHANNES BUGENHAGEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN THEOLOGIAN, MINISTER, LITURGIST, AND “PASTOR OF THE REFORMATION”
THE FEAST OF SAINTS AMATOR OF AUXERRE AND SAINTS GERMANUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS; SAINT MAMERTINUS OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT MARCIAN OF AUXERRE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK
THE FEAST OF SAINT CHIARA BOSATTA, CO-FOUNDER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF SAINT MARY OF PROVIDENCE
THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN X, KING OF DENMARK AND ICELAND; AND HIS BROTHER, HAAKON VII, KING OF NORWAY
THE FEAST OF MARION MACDONALD KELLARAN, EPISCOPAL SEMINARY PROFESSOR AND LAY READER
THE FEAST OF ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES, ANGLICAN HYMN WRITER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
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Adapted from this post
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Above: Judas Iscariot, by James Tissot
Image in the Public Domain
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According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
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Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 70:1-2 4-6 (LBW) or Psalm 18:21-30 (LW)
Romans 5:6-11
Matthew 26:14-25
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Almighty God, your Son our Savior suffered at the hands of men
and endured the shame of the cross.
Grant that we may walk in the way of his cross
and find it the way of life and peace;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 20
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Merciful and everlasting God the Father,
who did not spare your only Son
but delivered him up for us all that he might bear our sins on the cross;
grant that our hearts may be so fixed with steadfast faith in our Savior
that we may not fear the power of any adversaries;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Lutheran Worship (1982), 43
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In context, Isaiah 50:4-9a is an odd lection to read on this Sunday. The speaker–the prophet/servant (Second Isaiah)–is pious yet merely human, therefore, sinful. He believes that the suffering of the exiles during the Babylonian Exile has been justified. Yet he also anticipates the divine vindication of that exiled population, for the glory of God. Applying this reading to sinless Jesus (who suffered an unjust execution as an innocent man) requires astounding theological gymnastics.
Judas Iscariot played an essential role in a divine plan. The writers of the four canonical Gospels portrayed him negatively, for one major obvious reason. The Gospel of John added that Judas was an embezzler (John 12:6). Despite all this, Judas was not outside the mercy of God. And he had not committed the unpardonable sin–blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:28; Luke 12:10). Judas may have thought that he knew what he was doing, but he did not. Recall Luke 23:24, O reader:
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”
—The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)
I do not pretend to know the ultimate fate of Judas Iscariot. I am not God. I do, however, repeat my position that the only people in Hell are those who have condemned themselves. God sends nobody to Hell. Divine mercy and judgment exist in a balance I cannot grasp, for I am not God.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
APRIL 12, 2022 COMMON ERA
HOLY TUESDAY
THE FEAST OF HENRY SLOANE COFFIN, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR; AND HIS NEPHEW, WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN, JR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT DAVID URIBE-VELASCO, MEXICAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1927
THE FEAST OF SAINT JULIUS I, BISHOP OF ROME
THE FEAST OF SAINT ZENO OF VERONA, BISHOP
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Adapted from this post
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Above: The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
Image in the Public Domain
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According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)
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Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:1-5, 9-16 (LBW) or Psalm 92 (LW)
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:1-27:66 or Matthew 27:11-54
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Almighty God, you sent your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ,
to take our flesh upon him and to suffer death on the cross.
Grant that we may share in his obedience to your will
and in the glorious victory of his resurrection;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 19
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Almighty and everlasting God the Father,
who sent your Son to take our nature upon him
and to suffer death on the cross
that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility,
mercifully grant that we may both follow
the example of our Savior Jesus Christ in his patience
and also have our portion in his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
—Lutheran Worship (1982), 39
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In context, Isaiah 50:4-9a is an odd lection to read on this Sunday. The speaker–the prophet/servant (Second Isaiah)–is pious yet merely human, therefore, sinful. He believes that the suffering of the exiles during the Babylonian Exile has been justified. Yet he also anticipates the divine vindication of that exiled population, for the glory of God. Applying this reading to sinless Jesus (who suffered an unjust execution as an innocent man) requires astounding theological gymnastics.
The hymn St. Paul the Apostle quoted back to the Philippian Christians in the 50s C.E. indicates something about the development of Christology by that time. One may wonder how old the human was when St. Paul quoted it. One may keep wondering, for one has no way of knowing. Yet one may know that the time from which it originated was at or near the dawn of Christianity.
Palm Sunday functions as the Reader’s Digest version of Holy Week through Good Friday in many churches. It does on the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship lectionary. So be it. With that in mind, I invite you, O reader, to ponder the injustice of what Jesus suffered during Holy Week. I also encourage you to place yourself inside the narrative and to ask yourself who you would have been in the story. Depending on your honest answer, you may have uncovered a sin (or sins) of which to repent.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 29, 2022 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CHARLES VILLERS SANFORD, COMPOSER, ORGANIST, AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF DORA GREENWELL, POET AND DEVOTIONAL WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHN KEBLE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND POET
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JONAS AND BARACHISIUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS, 327
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Adapted from this post
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Above: Icon of the Crucifixion
Image in the Public Domain
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READING SECOND ISAIAH, PART IX
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Isaiah 52:13-53:12
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The Book of Common Prayer (1979) lists the Fourth Servant Song as one of three options for the reading from the Old Testament on Good Friday. Another option is Genesis 22:1-18. My thoughts on Abraham nearly killing his son, Isaac, are on record at this weblog. The other option is the Wisdom of Solomon 2:1, 12-24, in which the wicked reject justice. That reading fits Good Friday perfectly, for, as the Gospel of Luke emphasizes, the crucifixion of Jesus was a perversion of justice. One may recall that, in the Gospel of Luke, for example, the centurion at the foot of the cross declares Jesus innocent (23:47), not the Son of God (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39). As I will demonstrate in this post, the applicability of the Fourth Servant Song to Good Friday works thematically, too, but interpretive issues that have nothing to do with Jesus also interest me.
In the original context, the servant in Isaiah 53:13-53:12 is the covenant people during the Babylonian Exile. The dominant theology in Second Isaiah (chapters 34-35, 40-55) is that the Babylonian Exile was justified yet excessive (40:2; 47:6)–that people had earned that exile. The theology of Second Isaiah also argues that this suffering was vicarious, on behalf of Gentile nations in the (known) world. In other words:
Yet the Israelites are still the focus in that these verses offer them a revolutionary theology that explains the hardships of exile: The people had to endure the exile and the suffering it engendered because that suffering was done in service to God so that God, through their atoning sacrifice, could redeem the nations.
–Susan Ackerman, in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (2003), 1031
Much of the Hebrew Bible, in its final, postexilic form, holds that the Babylonian Exile was divine punishment for persistent, collective, and unrepentant disregard for the moral mandates in the Law of Moses. This attitude is ubiquitous in the Hebrew prophetic tradition. I know, for I am working on a project of reading the Hebrew prophetic books, roughly in historical order (with some exceptions), starting with the Book of Hosea.
Yet Isaiah 53:7-9 contradicts that interpretation. It rejects even 40:1-3 and 47:6, from within Second Isaiah. Isaiah 53:7-9, not about Jesus, argues that the Babylonian Exile and its accompanying suffering was unjust and the people were innocent. The thematic link to the atoning suffering of sinless Jesus is plain to see.
Let us not neglect the theme of the vicarious suffering of the Hebrews in the Babylonian Exile, though. I can read; the text says that, through the suffering of these exiles, Gentile nations would receive divine forgiveness and the Hebrews would receive a reward–renewal. I try to wrap my mind around this theology, yet do not know what to make of it. I wrestle with this theology.
Atonement via vicarious suffering is a topic about which I have written at this weblog. Reading in the history of Christian theology tells me that three theories of the atonement exist in the writings of Church Fathers. These theories are, in no particular order:
- Penal Substitutionary Atonement,
- The Incarnation, and
- The Conquest of Satan (the Classic Theory, or Christus Victor).
I come closest to accepting the Classic Theory. It has the virtue of emphasizing that the resurrection completed the atonement. In other words, dead Jesus cannot atone for anything; do not stop at Good Friday. I like the Eastern Orthodox tradition of telling jokes on Easter because the resurrection of Jesus was the best joke God ever pulled on Satan. The second option strikes me as being part of the atonement, and the first option is barbaric. I stand with those Christian theologians who favor a generalized atonement.
Whether the question is about the atoning, vicarious suffering of Jewish exiles or about the atoning, vicarious suffering of Jesus, perhaps the best strategy is to accept it, thank God, and live faithfully. The Eastern Orthodox are correct; we Western Christians frequently try to explain too much we cannot understand. Atonement is a mystery; we may understand it partially, at best.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 10, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MYLES HORTON, “FATHER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT”
THE FEAST OF SAINTS EUMENIOUS AND PARTHENIOS OF KOUDOUMAS, MONKS AND FOUNDERS OF KOUDOMAS MONASTERY, CRETE
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH OF DAMASCUS, SYRIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1860
THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS SPIRA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF RUED LANGGAARD, DANISH COMPOSER
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Above: Inconsolable Grief, by Ivan Kramskoi
Image in the Public Domain
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READING SECOND ISAIAH, PART VIII
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Isaiah 50:1-52:12
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In Second Isaiah, YHWH is the father and Jerusalem is the mother of the covenant community, metaphorically.
The Third Servant Song is Isaiah 50:4-9. The audience this time is the covenant community–especially those members thereof who have fallen away. The Third Servant Song occurs in the textual context of divine frustration with Hebrew exiles (50:1-3, 10-11), many of whom remained rebellious. Reading the Third Servant Song on Christian autopilot identifies the servant as Jesus. This is overly simplistic and ahistorical. The servant here speaks the message of God to disheartened Hebrew exiles. The theology of Isaiah 50:4-9 is that the exiles deserved the Babylonian Exile (40:1-3), but that YHWH was about to vindicate them anyway.
Some of the despairing exiles relied on God and accepted this message. Others rejected it and, poetically, laid down in pain. They did not respond favorably and faithfully to God, mighty, strong, and sovereign. They rejected grace. They rejected God, in whom judgment and mercy exist in balance.
In Jeremiah (8:11; 27:8-11; 28:1-17), false hopes and prophets of peace and restoration belied the upcoming Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.) and its aftermath. The truth was hard to hear. Words of comfort were mostly lies. Those words of comfort that were not lies focused on seemingly distant restoration, eventually.
In contrast, in a different time, words of imminent divine deliverance and consolation seemed, to many, ridiculous. After so many years of the Babylonian Exile, that response was predictable.
When populations have been poor, oppressed, discriminated against, et cetera, the hope of a better future may seem ridiculous. Yet there is always a better future with God. How many people want to embrace that hope? How many people think they can embrace that hope? And to what extend is the continued state of poverty, oppression, discrimination, et cetera, a self-fulfilling prophecy?
The answers to the these questions vary according to circumstances, of course. Machinery of oppression, discrimination, and the maintenance of poverty exists. Most people over the course of documented time have lacked the agency that proponents of pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps assume many people have. Telling someone without shoes,
Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,
is cruel and unrealistic. Yet other people are fortunate enough to possess agency. But do they know this? And do they know how to use that agency most effectively?
Second Isaiah addressed a population, of course.
Above: Bonny Thomas (1965-2019), Whose Death Broke My Heart and Shattered My Life
Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor
On the individual level, grief can be as crippling as it is on the collective level. I know this grief. I know the grief over the death of dreams and aspirations. I also know the grief that lingers after someone has died. I know what life-shattering grief is; I deal with it daily. I talk to God about it. I remain broken, and I talk to God about it. Doing that is what I know to do. I am broken and shattered, but I am not alone.
We–collectively and individually–are all broken. The fortunate are less broken that others. Leaning into the strength and faithfulness of God is the way of healing.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 10, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF MYLES HORTON, “FATHER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT”
THE FEAST OF SAINTS EUMENIOUS AND PARTHENIOS OF KOUDOUMAS, MONKS AND FOUNDERS OF KOUDOMAS MONASTERY, CRETE
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOSEPH OF DAMASCUS, SYRIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1860
THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS SPIRA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF RUED LANGGAARD, DANISH COMPOSER
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Above: Map Showing the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire
Image in the Public Domain
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READING SECOND ISAIAH, PART I
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Isaiah 34-35, 40-55
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The division of the Book of Isaiah into Chapters 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66 is neat and tidy yet inaccurate. The Book of Isaiah, in its final form, is obviously the work of more than one person. I suppose that even the most ardent fundamentalist must admit that Isaiah 36:1-39:8 is nearly verbatim from 2 Kings 18:13-20:19. Or maybe I expect too much of some people.
The division of the Book of Isaiah into at least two Isaiahs is standard in Biblical scholarship. The notes in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014), assume two Isaiahs. The Catholic Study Bible, Third Edition (2016), among other sources, assumes three Isaiahs, with the division falling neatly into 1-39, 40-55, and 56-66. I, however, follow the division of the book found in The New Interpreter’s Study Bible (2003).
“Second Isaiah” (whoever he was what his parents called him) prophesied circa 540 B.C.E., in the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire. Ezekiel had retired from prophesying circa 571 B.C.E. The Babylonian Exile had been in progress since 597 B.C.E., with the second wave commencing in 586 B.C.E. But the Babylonian Exile was about to end; the Persians and the Medes were on the march. They conquered the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C.E.
The oracles of Second Isaiah addressed issues that vexed the Jewish exilic communities. Were they the Chosen People? Was God sovereign? Would the Babylonian Exile end? The answers to those three questions was affirmative. Second Isaiah also understood exile as punishment for collective, persistent sins (except in 52:13-53:12) and exile as vicarious suffering on behalf of the nations, to bring those nations to shalom with God. This second point was revolutionary theology. Universalism was not unique in Hebrew prophetic literature. The idea that YHWH was the God of all the nations, not a tribal deity, was already in the proverbial blood stream of Hebrew thought. Yet ideas have not needed to be unique and original to prove revolutionary, have they?
I propose, O reader that this idea remains revolutionary in certain minds and faith communities in 2021.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 6, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF JOHN WYCLIFFE AND JAN HUS, REFORMERS OF THE CHURCH
THE FEAST OF GEORGE DUFFIELD, JR., AND HIS SON, SAMUEL DUFFIELD, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTERS AND HYMN WRITERS
THE FEAST OF HENRY THOMAS SMART, ENGLISH ORGANIST AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF JOSIAH CONDER, ENGLISH JOURNALIST AND CONGREGATIONALIST HYMN WRITER; AND HIS SON, EUSTACE CONDER, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF OLUF HANSON SMEBY, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
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Above: Icon of Ezekiel
Image in the Public Domain
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READING EZEKIEL, PART IX
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Ezekiel 16:1-63
Ezekiel 20:1-44
Ezekiel 23:1-49
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This project of reading the Book of Ezekiel is part of a larger project of reading the Hebrew prophetic books, roughly in chronological order. I know already, based on this larger project alone, that the Hebrew prophetic books are repetitive. For example, idolatry is, metaphorically, sexual–prostitution and/or adultery. This metaphorical prostitution is, functionally, pagan temple prostitution, common in the ancient Near East into New Testament times (from Genesis 38:15 to 1 Corinthians 6:15f). Also, much of the language of this sexual metaphor is Not Safe for Work (NSFW) and replete with shaming.
The Bible is not G-rated.
Ezekiel 16 is not G-rated. It uses the marital metaphor, also present in Isaiah 8:5-8; Isaiah 49-54; Isaiah 66:7-14; Jeremiah 2-3; Hosea 1-3; Zephaniah 3:14-20.
Robert Alter provides perhaps the most memorable synopsis of Ezekiel 16:
Among the themes of Ezekiel’s prophecies, the most striking expression of neurosis is his troubled relation to the female body. Real and symbolic bodies become entangled with each other. In biblical poetry, a nation, and Israel in particular, is quite often represented as a woman. God’s covenant with Israel–see Jeremiah 1–is imagined as a marriage, and so the bride Israel’s dalliance with pagan gods is figured as adultery or whoring. This is a common trope in biblical literature, but the way Ezekiel articulates it is both startling and unsettling.
The most vivid instance of this psychological twist in Ezekiel is the extended allegory of whoring Israel in chapter 16. The allegory here follows the birth of the nation in Canaan–represented with stark physicality in the image of the infant girl naked and wallowing in the blood of afterbirth, then looked after by a solicitous God–to her sexual maturity and her betrayal of God through idolatry. The focus throughout is on Israel as a female sexual body. Thus, the prophet notes (as does no other biblical writer) the ripening of the breasts and the sprouting of pubic hair. The mature personification of the nation is a beautiful woman, her beauty enhanced by the splendid attire God gives her (this is probably a reference to national grandeur and to the Temple). Yet, insatiably lascivious, she uses her charms to entice strangers to her bed: “you spilled out your whoring” (given the verb used and the unusual form of the noun, this could be a reference to vaginal secretions) “upon every passerby.” Israel as a woman is even accused of harboring a special fondness for large phalluses: “you played the whore with the Egyptians, your big-membered neighbors.” She is, the prophet says, a whore who asks for no payment for her services. “You befouled your beauty,” he inveighs, “and spread your legs for every passerby.” All this concern with female promiscuity is correlative with Ezekiel’s general preoccupation with purity and impurity.
It is of course possible to link each of these sexual details with the allegory of an idolatrous nation betraying its faith. But such explicitness and such vehemence about sex are unique in the Bible. The compelling inference is that this was a prophet morbidly fixated on the female body and seething with fervid misogyny. What happens in the prophecy in chapter 16 is that the metaphor of the lubricious woman takes over the foreground, virtually displacing the allegorical referent. Ezekiel clearly was not a stable person.
—The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Volume 2, Prophets (2019), 1051
Corinne L. Carvalho comments:
In Israel, spouses were not equal partners; women were legally and socially subservient to their husbands. Betrothal and marriage were contractual arrangements by which a woman became the exclusive “property” of her husband, even before the actual marriage. In practical terms, this meant that her husband was her sole sexual partner from the moment of betrothal. Since men could have more than one wife, adultery occurred only when it involved a married woman; it was a crime, punishable by death, against the sole property rights of a wronged husband (Lev 18:20; 20:10; Deut 22:22).
Ezekiel 16 plays on these elements of marriage. God is the one who owns Jerusalem, and Jerusalem owes him her exclusive allegiance and fidelity. Anything less gives him the legal right to punish her. Ezekiel 16 uses hyperbole and inflammatory rhetoric to achieve a shocking literary effect. Here, the author utilizes a common metaphor, the city as God’s wife, in ways that border on pornography. (Modern translations tone down the sexually explicit language of the Hebrew texts.) It is an image to provoke a response.
–in Daniel Durken, ed., The New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament (2015), 1431
Ezekiel 16 concludes on a sexually graphic metaphor of future restoration (verses 59-63). After all, to “know” is frequently a euphemism for sexual intimacy.
And I Myself will establish the covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
–Ezekiel 16:62, Robert Alter, 2019
Consider the following verse, O reader:
Thus you shall remember and feel shame, and you shall be too abashed to open your mouth again, when I have forgiven you, for all that you did–declares the Lord GOD.
–Ezekiel 16:63, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
I feel too abashed after reading Ezekiel 16.
My library contains a variety of editions and versions of the Bible. The Children’s Living Bible (1972) is one of these. The artwork depicts a smiling Jesus holding lost-and-found sheep, smiling at children wearing attire from 1972, and generally smiling. The volume also includes Ezekiel 16. I imagine a child reading Ezekiel 16 and asking a horrified parent about the contents of that chapter. I also imagine that parent’s horror that the tyke was reading a volume that included the term, “son of a bitch” (1 Samuel 20:30). Just wait for Ezekiel 23!
Ezekiel 20 continues the themes of idolatry and apostasy. The text dwells on the sabbath. This suggests that the sabbath had become important, as a substitute for the Temple, during the Babylonian Exile. The sabbath is foundational in the covenant. The sabbath is also a sign of a free person in the context of liberation from slavery in Egypt. And to keep the sabbath is to emulate God, the creator and original keeper of the sabbath.
God, as depicted in Ezekiel 20, is not worthy of emulation, respect, love, and awe:
- God, according to 20:9, 14, 22, and 44, acts selfishly, to preserve the divine reputation.
- God gave the people “laws that were not good and rules by which they could not live (20:25) then promised to destroy the people as punishment for obeying the bad laws and disobeying the impossible rules (20:26).
Chapter 20 exists in the shadow of Ezekiel 18–about individual moral accountability to God. The verdict on the people of Judah, in the yet-future context of the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.) is damning.
Ezekiel 20 concludes on a note of future restoration, but not for the sake of the covenant people:
Then, O House of Israel, you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for My name’s sake–not in accordance with your evil ways and corrupt acts–declares the Lord GOD.
–Ezekiel 20:44, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
I wonder how many agnostics and atheists grew up devout, with this understanding of God, or one close to it. That theology may explain their current spiritual status as they properly reject that understanding of God yet go too far and remain out of balance.
Ezekiel 23 returns to the imagery of idolatry as harlotry. It also returns to the category of Not Safe for Work. (What was it with Ezekiel and sex?) Break out the plain brown wrappers again, O reader! The text speaks of the Babylonian Exile as punishment for persistent, collective, and unrepentant idolatry.
Some G-rated details (There are some.) require explanation:
- Samaria, the capital of the (northern) Kingdom of Israel, is, metaphorically, Oholeh, “her tent.” One may recall that, in the theology of the Hebrew Bible, the Presence of God dwelt in a text then in the Temple. We read of the fall of the Kingdom of Israel and of the causes of that collapse.
- Jerusalem, the capital of the (southern) Kingdom of Judah, is, metaphorically, Oholibah, “my tent is in her.”
- Ezekiel 23 condemns the kingdoms’ foreign alliances. This is an old Hebrew prophetic theme, albeit one other prophets presented in less graphic terms.
I try to maintain a spiritual and theological equilibrium. The God of Ezekiel 16, 20, and 23 is a self-absorbed, abusive, and misogynistic monster. This is not my God-concept. Neither is the God of my faith anything like a cosmic teddy bear or a warm fuzzy. No, the God of my faith holds judgment and mercy in balance. I do not pretend to know where that balance is or where it should be. The God of my faith also loves all people and models selflessness. Neither is the God of my faith a misogynist or any kind of -phobe or bad -ist. The model for the God of my faith is Jesus of Nazareth, God Incarnate. I read stories of Jesus having harsh words for those who deserved them and compassion for the desperate. I understand Jesus as being stable, unlike Ezekiel, apparently.
Ezekiel clearly was not a stable person.
–Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (2019), 1051
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 27, 2021 COMMON ERA
PROPER 8: THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF CORNELIUS HILL, ONEIDA CHIEF AND EPISCOPAL PRIEST
THE FEAST OF SAINT ARIALDUS OF MILAN, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC DEACON AND MARTYR, 1066
THE FEAST OF HUGH THOMSON KERR, SR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND LITURGIST; AND HIS SON, HUGH THOMSON KERR, JR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SCHOLAR, AND THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF JAMES MOFFATT, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SCHOLAR, AND BIBLE TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN THE GEORGIAN, ABBOT; AND SAINTS EUTHYMIUS OF ATHOS AND GEORGE OF THE BLACK MOUNTAIN, ABBOTS AND TRANSLATORS
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Above: Holy Eucharist
Image in the Public Domain
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For Maundy/Holy Thursday, Year 2
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Lectionary from A Book of Worship for Free Churches (The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches in the United States, 1948)
Collect from The Book of Worship (Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1947)
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O Lord God, who hast left unto us in a wonderful Sacrament a memorial of thy passion:
grant, we beseech thee, that we may so use this Sacrament of thy Body and Blood that,
the fruits of thy redemption may continually be manifest in us;
who livest and reignest with the Father, and the Holy Spirit,
ever One God, world without end. Amen.
—The Book of Worship (1947),161
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Isaiah 50:4-11
Psalm 56
1 Corinthians 11:17-34
John 13:1-15
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The choice of Isaiah 50:4-11 as a reading for Maundy Thursday is interesting and ironic. The figure there is the personification of those deported during the Babylonian Exile. The theology of the text holds that their suffering was justifiable, that they suffered the consequences of their sins. Yet, in Christian theology, Jesus was sinless.
The choice of Psalm 56 today is also ironic.
Repay them, O God, for their crimes;
in your wrath, bring down the peoples,
is a far cry from,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
The readings from the New Testament remind us in concrete terms to care for one another. Love is active. Love does not care if it looks unseemly or beneath one’s preferred social status. Love does practice mutuality. Love also hopes for the repentance of enemies and stubborn sinners.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 9, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT PEPIN OF LANDEN, SAINT ITTA OF METZ, THEIR RELATIONS, SAINTS AMAND, AUSTREGISILUS, AND SULPICIUS II BOURGES, FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS ACROSS GENERATIONAL LINES
THE FEAST OF EMILY GREENE BALCH, U.S. QUAKER SOCIOLOGIST, ECONOMIST, AND PEACE ACTIVIST
THE FEAST OF JULIA CHESTER EMERY, UPHOLDER OF MISSIONS
THE FEAST OF SAINT PHILIP II OF MOSCOW, METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA, AND MARTYR, 1569
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JONES, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND MUSICIAN
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Above: Ecce Homo, by Luca Giordano
Image in the Public Domain
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The Collect:
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
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The Assigned Readings:
Procession of the Palms
John 12:12-16
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Liturgy of the Word
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:1-13
John 19:1-42
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I offer, O reader, a few thoughts I hope will prove useful to you. They, nevertheless, can never match the power of the assigned portions of scripture.
Inserting oneself into a Biblical story can be helpful. Ask yourself, O reader,
Who would I have been in this story? What would I have said or done?
The answer may be either pleasant or distressing.
We know from psychology and sociology, as well as from experience, that people will commit some actions and utter some words in a crowd they will not do alone. The group dynamic and the pressure to conform are powerful. Satirists, such as the Yes Men and Sacha Baron Cohen, know this. They use it to peal back the masks concealing the ugly, dark side of human nature, often to the displeasure of their subjects.
Ask yourself, O reader, how easily you, in a world, would have joined in the cry,
Crucify him!
Then ask yourself if you would, a few days earlier, in a different crowd, just as easily have shouted,
Hosanna!
What do your honest answers reveal about you?
Peer pressure has a relatively weak pull on me. I have spent my life resisting peer pressure. Some of my fellow students (my “peers”) bullied me for this reason when I was a youth in public schools in southern Georgia, U.S.A. Some people still criticize me for being rebellious in this way. That is their failing, not mine. “Conformity” is the most profane word in the English language.
Despite my rebellious ways regarding peer pressure, I am not immune to it. I cannot honestly tell you, O reader, that I know I would have resisted the peer pressure to shout,
Crucify him!
That disturbs me.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 8, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT THORFINN OF HAMAR, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF A. J. MUSTE, DUTCH-AMERICAN MINISTER, LABOR ACTIVIST, AND PACIFIST
THE FEAST OF ARCHANGELO CORELLI, ROMAN CATHOLIC MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER
THE FEAST OF NICOLAUS COPERNICUS AND GALILEO GALILEI, SCIENTISTS
THE FEAST OF HARRIET BEDELL, EPISCOPAL DEACONESS AND MISSIONARY
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Adapted from this post:
https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2021/01/08/devotion-for-palm-passion-sunday-year-d-humes/
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Above: A Crucifix
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
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The Collect:
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
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The Assigned Readings:
Liturgy of the Palms:
Luke 19:28-44
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Liturgy of the Word:
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:1-13
Luke 23:1-56
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Some texts are standard for Palm/Passion Sunday on the Humes lectionary. The account of the Triumphal Entry varies from year to year; each of the four versions gets its year. Likewise, the Gospel reading varies each year. It is always the Passion, though. The readings from Psalm 31, Psalm 118, Isaiah 50, and Philippians 2 are evergreen, though.
I focus on Luke 23:1-56 in this post.
The Gospel of Luke hits us over the head with Jesus’s innocence. Christ’s innocence is a theme in 23:4, 14-15, 22, 40-42, and 47. Whenever the Bible keeps repeating a theme, we need to pay attention to that theme.
The execution of Jesus was a travesty and an example of judicial murder.
There is an interesting moral and legal question: Is it better for a court to convict an innocent person or to acquit a guilty person? The answer is obvious: the latter. Innocence should always lead to the absence of a conviction, incarceration, and execution. I gaze with moral horror at those who would ever approve of convicting any innocent person.
The crucifixion of Jesus has more than one meaning. It is, for example, a component of the atonement; the resurrection equals the final act. The crucifixion of Christ should also spur us on to affirm that convicting and punishing the innocent is never acceptable.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 29, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR C
THE FEAST OF CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD, COMPOSER, ORGANIST, AND CONDUCTOR
THE FEAST OF DORA GREENWELL, POET AND DEVOTIONAL WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHN KEBLE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND POET
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JONAS AND BARACHISUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS, 327
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Adapted from this post:
https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/devotion-for-palm-passion-sunday-year-c-humes/
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BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
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