READING THE BOOK OF PROVERBS

PART XI

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Proverbs 22:17-23:11

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Proverbs 22:17-24:22 is a distinct collection in three parts.  22:17-23:11 takes the Instruction of Amenemope (from Egypt) as the model, according to all but one commentary I consulted.  The intermediate step between the Egyptian text and the Hebrew text is the Aramaic text.  We may reasonably surmise this because (a) the Hebrew text incorporates Aramaic usages, and (b) Aramaic had become the lingua franca in the region.  Counts of how many of the Egyptian teachings have parallel in the Hebrew text depend where one terminates the section modeled after the Instruction of Amenemope.  The outlier in my collection of commentaries is R. B. Y. Scott‘s 1965 work on the Books of Proverbs  and Ecclesiastes for The Anchor Bible series.  His commentary holds that I should terminate this post at 24:22.  Although I follow the notes in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014), I do not dismiss Scott’s analysis out of hand.  His reputation as a scholar survives him.

Two interesting holdovers from the Instruction of Amenemope occur in 22:20-21.

1. The Hebrew text does contain thirty sayings (v. 20) if one follows the lead of R. B. Y. Scott, not the lead of The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014).  The Egyptian text does, however, contain thirty chapters.
2. Verse 21 refers to replying or responding to him or those “who sent you.”  Replying or responding is a theme in ancient Egyptian wisdom literature, but not in Proverbs 22:17-23:11.  And the Instruction of Amenemope reads in part:

…To reply to one who sends a message.

The Egyptian text instructs a young man who aspires to become a courtier how to succeed in that goal and how to achieve prosperity and to avoid evil.  Proverbs 22:17-23:11 expands on these themes.  God is on the side of the exploited poor, we read.  Cultural context is crucial for understanding certain verses.  Commentaries explain those passages in context.  Yet the principle not to chat people–the poor and the vulnerable, especially–requires no cultural context for explanation.  The principle that God watches us and cares about what we do translates into a variety of settings.  Other timeless principles include the folly of greed, the necessity of controlling appetites, and the importance of avoiding hypocrisy.

God assumes the role of the kinsman-redeemer (22:23; 23:11).  If this principle sounds familiar, one may recall Job 19:25.  The go’el, in Hebrew, was usually a relative who defended one’s rights in court.  Although 23:11 may not, by itself, refer to God as the kinsman-redeemer, reading that text in the context of 22:22-23 tilts the verse toward that interpretation.

The more things change, the more things remain constant.  Many people still cheat others frequently and habitually, without a pang of conscience.  And God still cares deeply about that pattern of behavior.  Greed also builds one up in the short term, but ill-gotten gain (a) may disappear, and (b) exacts its price upon the greedy.  Whatever we do to others, we do also to ourselves.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 24, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THOMAS À KEMPIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, PRIEST, AND SPIRITUAL WRITER

THE FEAST OF AMALIE WILHEIMINE SIEVEKING, FOUNDER OF THE WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION FOR THE CARE OF THE POOR AND INVALIDS

THE FEAST OF FLORA MACDONALD, CANADIAN STATESWOMAN AND HUMANITARIAN

THE FEAST OF JANE HOLMES DIXON, EPISCOPAL SUFFRAGAN BISHOP OF WASHINGTON AND BISHOP OF WASHINGTON PRO TEMPORE

THE FEAST OF JOHN NEWTON, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WALTER RAUSCHENBUSCH, U.S. BAPTIST MINISTER AND THEOLOGIAN OF THE SOCIAL GOSPEL

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART LXI

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Psalms 88 and 89

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The superscriptions of Psalms 88 and 89 name figures obscure to people in 2023.  The superscription of Psalm 88 refers to Heman the Ezrahite.  The superscription of Psalm 89 refers to Ethan the Ezrahite.  The superscriptions are dubious, as evidence indicates.  They also use the term maskil, which is musical.  Psalm 88 is a maskil of Heman, just as Psalm 89 is a maskil of Ethan.  A maskil is:

…a psalm accompanied by some special kind of music, or sung at a special (annual) festival.

—The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible:  An Illustrated Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, K-Q (1962), 295

Who were Heman and Ethan?

1 Chronicles 2:6 lists Heman and Ethan as the sons of Zerah, a son of Judah and Tamar (see Genesis 38:30).

An alternative theory of identifying Heman cites 1 Chronicles 25:5-6, which describes him as a seer and one of the cultic musicians during the reign of King David.  1 Chronicles 25:1-2 mentions that Heman and company

prophesied to the accompaniment of lyres, harps, and cymbals.

—TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

We read that this Heman sired fourteen sons and three daughters, all of whom

were under the charge of their father for the singing in the House of the LORD, to the accompaniment of cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the House of the LORD by order of the king.

–Verse 6, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Whether the Heman of 1 Chronicles 25 is the Heman of Psalm 88 is uncertain.  “Ezrahite” may derive from “Zerah.”  Yet “Ezrahite can also mean “native born.”  And, if the Heman of 1 Chronicles 25 is the Heman of Psalm 88, who is the Ethan of Psalm 89?  If the Heman and Ethan of 1 Chronicles 2 are the Heman and Ethan of Psalms 88 and 89, respectively, centuries separate them from the time of King David, as well as the Babylonian Exile.

Another obscure detail comes from the superscription of Psalm 88:

…on mahalath leannoth.

A note in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014) speculates that mahalath leannoth may be akin to mahalah, which means “illness.”  So, mahalath leannoth may indicate

a sad melody or a melody for the sick.

Or it may derive from halil, which means “flute.”

The interpretation of mahalath leannoth as a sad melody or a melody for the sick fits the text of Psalm 88.  The psalmist, mortally ill, complains to God.  This may simply be the lament or a mortally ill person or it may symbolize national catastrophe–maybe the Babylonian Exile, too.  The psalm concludes without divine rescue.  Psalm 88 indicates a sense of rejection by God:

Your fury overwhelms me;

Your terrors destroy me.

–Verse 17, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Walter Brueggemann, in The Message of the Psalms:  A Theological Commentary (1984), describes Psalm 88 as

an embarrassment to conventional faith

and likens the psalmist’s plight to that of Job.  I prefer the divine silence in Psalm 88 to the two big speeches of God in the Book of Job and to the tacked-on happy ending of that book.  The divine silence feels honest.

Brueggemann continues:

But Israel must also deal with Yahweh in the silence, in God’s blank absence as in the saving presence.  Israel has no choice but to speak to this one, or to cease to be Israel.  In this painful, unresolved speech, Israel is simply engaged in being Israel.  To be Israel means to address God, even in God’s unresponsive absence.

–81

Psalm 89 dates to following the Fall of Jerusalem (587/586 B.C.E.) and prays for the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty.  Given the absence of the Temple in Psalm 89, we have a range–587/586 to 516 B.C.E.–the range between the destruction of the First Temple and the dedication of the Second Temple.  Psalm 89 also concludes in unresolved tension:  Where is the fulfillment of God’s covenant?

O LORD, where is Your steadfast love of old

which You swore to David in your faithfulness?

–Verse 50, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Brueggemann’s commentary on the Book of Psalms does not cover all the entries of the Hebrew Psalter; it contains no analysis of Psalm 89, for example.  Nevertheless, I feel comfortable writing that he would classify Psalm 89 with Psalm 88 as

an embarrassment to conventional faith.

Besides, history tells us that the Davidic Dynasty never returned to power.

I favor unconventional faith that turns to the (seemingly) absent yet definitely silent God and speaks a lament.  This faith refuses to let go of God, even in the depth of despair.  When Israel makes such a lament, it is being Israel.  When a human being makes such a lament, that person acknowledges having nowhere else to turn.  The comparison to the Book of Job is apt, with one exception:  Psalm 89 acknowledges sins and punishment for them.  Nevertheless, Psalms 88 and 89 call to mind a passage from the Book of Job, in which the titular character calls upon God, who has afflicted him, to act as his kinsman-redeemer.  Job understands that he has nobody else to whom to turn for defense:

But I know that my redeemer lives,

and in the end he will stand up on the earth,

and after they flay my skin,

from my flesh I shall behold God.

–Job 19:25-26, Robert Alter

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 4, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT CORNELIUS THE CENTURION

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READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART VII

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Job 18:1-19:29

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As I have already written, I have no interest in analyzing the Book of Job line by line.  One can read books in which others have done that.  I own some volumes of that sort.  No, I choose to focus on the proverbial forest and to examine a few trees along the way.

My lens as I write this series of posts is intensely personal.  I know the feeling when the bottom falls out of one’s life.  I report two such periods.  I know the feeling of wishing that I were dead, for that would be easier than continuing to live.  Fortunately, I also know the presence of consoling people at such times.

So, I recoil in disgust at air bags such as Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.  They are also full of something else, which I leave to your imagination, O reader.  This is a family-rated weblog, after all.  Such pneumatic individuals should not only be slow to speak, but silent.  If they cannot say anything helpful, they ought to say nothing.

Instead, such wind bags–in this case, Bildad the Shuhite–torment Job.  They gloat.  They insult him.  They are rude to a suffering, innocent man.  They blame the victim.  And they do so in the name of God.

Job has a relationship with God, whom he correctly blames for the plight.  This complex relationship leads Job to rely on God as his Kinsman-Redeemer/Avenger/Vindicator (19:25).  This is not a prediction of the resurrection of Jesus, despite the Christian tradition of reading Job 19:25 at and near Easter.  No, this is an expectation that God will defend Job’s rights.  God is Job’s only candidate to fulfill this role because the other relatives are dead, and the alleged friends are gas bags.  And, on that day, the alleged friends will, ironically, suffer the judgment they have predicted will befall Job.

False certainty is dangerous.  It harms the falsely certain person, inflicts damage on that person’s victims, and drives people away from God.  In my culture, many people–especially young people–are rejecting organized religion.  They perceive it as an instrument of intolerance and oppression, as well as a mechanism of control.  They are partially correct; antisemitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, nativism, xenophobia and other sins find theological cover in many sectors of organized religion.  These properly morally outraged critics ought not to reject organized religion entirely.  No, they should reject only the segments of organized religion that practice these sins.

An Episcopal priest I know has a wonderful way of speaking to people who claim not to believe in God.  Father Dann asks them to describe the God in whom they do not believe.  Invariably, they describe a version of God in which he does not believe either.

That priest also says that if being a Christian were not an option, he would be a Jobite:  God is.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 28, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT STEPHEN THE YOUNGER, DEFENDER OF ICONS

THE FEAST OF ALBERT GEORGE BUTZER, SR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF KAMEHAMEHA IV AND EMMA ROOKE, KING AND QUEEN OF HAWAI’I

THE FEAST OF JAMES MILLS THOBURN, ISABELLA THOBURN, AND CLARA SWAIN, U.S. METHODIST MISSIONARIES TO INDIA

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH HOFER AND MICHAEL HOFER, U.S. HUTTERITE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS AND MARTYRS, 1918

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READING HAGGAI-FIRST ZECHARIAH, PART II

Above:  Icon of Haggai

Image in the Public Domain

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Haggai 1:1-15

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King Cyrus II of the Persians and the Medes (r. 559-530 B.C.E.) conquered the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C.E.  The following year, he issued a decree permitting Jewish exiles to return to their ancestral homeland (Ezra 1:1-4).  The first wave of exiles to return to the ruined homeland (Ezra 1:5-2:70; 1 Esdras 2:8-30; 1 Esdras 5:1-73).  The old, prophetic predictions of the homeland being a verdant paradise of piety and prosperity did not match reality on the ground.  Grief and disappointment ensued.  The land was not as fertile as in the germane prophecies, and the economy was bad.

As of 520 B.C.E., proper worship, as had occurred before the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.), had not resumed.  People had set up an altar–most likely in 520 B.C.E. (as 1 Esdras 5:47-55 indicates, not in 538 B.C.E. (as Ezra 3:1-8 indicates).

Construction of the Second Temple began (Ezra 3:10-13; 1 Esdras 5:56-65a).  Yet opposition to that effort caused a pause in construction (Ezra 4:1-23; 1 Esdras 5:65b-73).

Haggai 1:1-15 establishes two dates and three names:

1. The first date (1:1), converted to the Gregorian Calendar, is August 9, 520 B.C.E.
2. The first name is Haggai, who prophesied from August 9 to December 18, 520 B.C.E.
3. The second name is Joshua ben Zehozadak, the chief priest.
4. The final name is Zerubbabel ben Shealtiel (of the House of David), the satrap (governor).   Notice the lack of the Davidic monarchy, O reader.
5. The final date (1:15) is September 21, 520 B.C.E.

Haggai offered a simple explanation of why the drought was severe and the economy was poor.  He blamed everything on the lack of a completed Temple in Jerusalem.  The prophet argued that such disrespect for God was the culprit, and that the poverty and drought were punishment.  Work on the construction of the Second Temple resumed.  Surely resuming construction of the Second Temple ended the drought and revived the economy, right?  No, actually, hence Haggai 2:10-10.

Haggai’s heart was in the right place, but he missed an important truth that predated Jesus:

[God] makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

–Matthew 5:45b, The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)

Haggai could have recalled certain laments from Hebrew literature.  He could have remembered Psalm 73, for example.  Why did the wicked flourish and the righteous falter?  Haggai could have recalled the Book of Job, in which the innocent, titular character suffered.

I make no pretense of being a spiritual giant and a great spring of wisdom, O reader.  However, I offer you a principle to consider:  God is not a vending machine.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 11, 2021 COMMON ERA

PROPER 10:  THE SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF NATHAN SODERBLOM, SWEDISH ECUMENIST AND ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSULA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DAVID GONSON, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 1541

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN GUALBERT, FOUNDER OF THE VALLOMBROSAN BENEDICTINES

THE FEAST OF SAINTS THOMAS SPROTT AND THOMAS HUNT, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS, 1600

THE FEAST OF SAINT VALERIU TRAIAN FRENTIU, ROMANIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP AND MARTYR, 1952

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Above:  Icon of the Resurrection

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:

Acts 10:34-43 or Job 19:7-27c

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 Corinthians 15:35-50

John 20:1-18

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I am usually at a loss for many words at Easter.  In this case, the readings are mostly self-explanatory.  For my comments on Job 19:7-17c, however, read the germane posts at this weblog.

Whenever I hear someone go on and on about the crucifixion of Jesus, especially regarding the Atonement, I have a critique.  That critique is to keep going.  Do not stop at the death of Jesus.  Dead Jesus cannot save anyone from anything.  No, the Resurrection completed the Atonement.

Christ is alive!  It’s true!  It’s true!

Happy Easter!  Enjoy all 50 days of the season.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 10, 2021

THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN THE GOOD, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF MILAN

THE FEAST OF ALLEN WILLIAM CHATFIELD, ANGLICAN PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF IGNATIOUS SPENCER, ANGLICAN THE  ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND APOSTLE OF ECUMENICAL PRAYER; AND HIS PROTEGÉE, ELIZABETH PROUT, FOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION

THE FEAST OF MARY LUNDIE DUNCAN, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM GAY BALLANTINE, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

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Adapted from this post:

https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2021/01/10/devotion-for-easter-sunday-year-d-humes/

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I know that my redeemer liveth….

Above:  Icon of the Harrowing of Hell

Image in the Public Domain

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For Holy Saturday, 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 Common Prayer (The Episcopal Church, 1928)

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Grant, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ,

so by continual mortifying our corrupt affectations we may be buried with him;

and that through the grave, and gate of thy death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection;

for his merits, who died, and was buried, and was buried, and rose again for us,

the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1928),161

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Job 19:21-27

Psalm 23

1 Peter 3:14-22

Matthew 27:57-66

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Whenever I read Job 19:21-27, I hear a portion of George Frederick Handel’s Messiah playing in my mind.

The text is not about Jesus, though.

In context, God had allowed the Satan, his loyalty tester, to affect and test the loyalty of Job.  (Satan was not yet a free agent in Jewish theology.)  Job’s afflictions included three frenemies, who blamed the victim.  Job had nobody other than God to whom to turn for defense.  He cited God as his kinsman-redeemer.

But I know that my Vindicator lives….

–Job 19:25a, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Faith in the trenches may seem foolish.  Yet such faith has profound merits.  Only divine goodness and mercy will pursue the author of Psalm 23; his enemies cannot catch up.  And the descent of Christ to the dead/to Hell (1 Peter 3:18-22) was a great expression of divine sovereignty and grace.  It led to what my Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters in faith call the Harrowing of Hell.

The story of the crucifixion of Jesus has a happy ending.  Easter arrives, on schedule, every year.  But why rush into it?  Easter will mean more if we allow Jesus to be dead, liturgically.

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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READING DANIEL

Above:  Susanna and the Elders

Image in the Public Domain

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PART XI

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Daniel 13:1-64

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Daniel and Susanna, according to study Bibles I consulted, hails from either the second or the first centuries B.C.E.  A standard description of Daniel 13 is that it is the oldest surviving detective story.  I prefer to think of it as the oldest surviving Perry Mason story.

The cast of named characters is:

1. Joakim, husband of Susanna;
2. Susanna, daughter of Hilkiah and wife of Joakim;
3. Hilkiah, father of Susanna; and
4. Daniel.

The story does not name the two wicked elders.

This is a story about the miscarriage of justice.  We read that the beautiful and pious Susanna, wife of the wealthy and pious Joakim, refused the sexual advances of the lecherous and homicidal elders, who had hidden in her garden.  The story describes the two elders as predators.  We also read of their perjury and of Susanna’s false conviction, followed by her sentence of death (Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 22:21-22).

This is also a story about justice.  We read of Susanna’s prayer (verses 42-43) and of God’s reply:  sending Daniel to rescue her.  We read of Daniel’s Perry Mason routine, by which he exposed the two elders’ lies with an arborial question:  

Now, if you really saw this woman, then tell us, under what tree did you see them together?”

–Verse 54, The Revised English Bible with the Apocrypha (1989)

We also read of the elders’ execution, in accordance with the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 19:16-21).  In the Law of Moses, the punishment for committing perjury to convict someone falsely is to suffer the fate one intended for the accused.

The suffering of the innocent and the pious is a major theme in the Book of Daniel.  We also read of God delivering such victims in Daniel 2 and 3.  Yet Daniel 10-12 wrestles with the realities of martyrdoms.

God delivers the innocent and the pious some of the time.  This tension is evident in the Book of Psalms.  Some of those texts sound like Elihu, as well as Job’s alleged friends:  Suffering results from sins, and God delivers the righteous.  Yet other Psalms come from the perspective of the suffering righteous.  The former position fills Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus/Sirach/the Wisdom of Ben Sira, too.  Ecclesiastes functions as a counter-argument to that excessive optimism.

Why does God deliver some of the righteous and not all of them?  I have no pat answer for such a challenging question.  In Revelation 6:9-11, even the martyrs in Heaven are not always happy.

We who struggle with this vexing question belong to an ancient tradition.  We are the current generation in a long train.  We have reasons to rejoice, at least; God delivers some of the innocent and the pious.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 23, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHN KENNETH PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN BISHOP; HIS WIFE, HARRIET ELIZABETH “BESSIE” WHITTINGTON PFOHL, U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN; AND THEIR SON, JAMES CHRISTIAN PFOHL, SR., U.S. MORAVIAN MUSICIAN

THE FEAST OF CASPAR FRIEDRICH NACHTENHOFER, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, LITURGIST, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT CLEMENT I, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF SAINT COLUMBAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, ABBOT, AND MISSIONARY

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Above:  The Miraculous Catch of 153 Fish

Image in the Public Domain

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For the First Sunday after Easter, Year 1

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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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Almighty God, who hast brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ,

the glorious Prince of Salvation, with everlasting power over hell and the grave;

grant unto us power, we beseech thee, to rise with him to newness of life,

that we may overcome the world with the victory of faith,

and have part at last in the resurrection of the just;

through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 165-166

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Job 19:25-27

Psalm 103

Romans 6:1-14

John 21:1-14

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For my analysis of Job 19:25-27, O reader, follow the “Job 19” tag.

Psalm 103 speaks of the balance of divine judgment and mercy.  God has realistic standards for us.  God knows that we are, proverbially, clay and dust, and that our days are, poetically, likes those of grass and flowers.  Moral perfectionism is an impossible and spiritually toxic standard, as well as a heresy.  We still need to be dead to sin, though, as we read in Romans 6.  We have access to divine grace, fortunately.

The main idea I gleaned from the New Testament readings is “no turning back.”  After Jesus, nothing is the same.  Even if we try to to, in the words of Tom Wolfe, “go home again,” we cannot.  If home still exists, it has changed since we left it.  There is no going back; we must go forward.

I cannot tell you, O reader, what going forward with Christ means, with regard to details, for you.  The principle is timeless, but circumstances are variable.  Regardless of the circumstances, may you go forward with Christ, by grace.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 5, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE SUNDAY OF THE PASSION:  PALM SUNDAY, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF ANDRÉ, MAGDA, AND DANIEL TROCMÉ, RIGHTEOUS GENTILES

THE FEAST OF EMILY AYCKBOWM, FOUNDRESS OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE SISTERS OF THE CHURCH

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIANO DE LA MATA APARICIO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY AND EDUCATOR IN BRAZIL

THE FEAST OF PAULINE SPERRY, MATHETMATICIAN, PHILANTHROPIST, AND ACTIVIST; AND HER BROTHER, WILLARD LEAROYD SPERRY, CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, ETHICIST, THEOLOGIAN, AND DEAN OF HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM DERHAM, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND SCIENTIST

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If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.

Above:  The Angel in the Tomb

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:

Acts 3:12-26 or Job 19:7-27c

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 Corinthians 15:19-28

Luke 24:1-12

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There is a tradition of reading Hebrew Bible texts not about the Messiah as if they were about Jesus.  Consider the reading from Job 19, O reader.  Job, who has lost most of his family, claims God as his kinsman-redeemer, who will defend him against enemies.  Ironically, in Job 1 and 2, we read that God has allowed Job to suffer.  The Book of Job is a composite work, and what we call Job 19 predates what we call Job 1 and Job 2.  Interpreting the Book of Job can be a complicated matter.

The reading from 1 Corinthians 15 should back up by a few verses.  In context, the resurrection of the dead is linked to the resurrection of Jesus.  One must be true for the other one to be true.  Without the resurrection of Jesus, Christian faith is in vain, Christians are still in their sins, and those who have died have perished.  Therefore,

–1 Corinthians 15:19, The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)

Death packs a powerful punch.  One can, at best, imagine how those closest to Jesus felt after he died.  Perhaps only a mother can begin to guess with some degree of accuracy how St. Mary of Nazareth felt.  Consider, then, O reader, the fortitude required for the women to go to the tomb.  Grief can sad one’s energy level and cause inaction.  Yet we read of women walking to the tomb.

We can also only imagine how the three women felt when they learned of the resurrection.

Their hope was not in vain.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 4, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT THE AFRICAN, FRANCISCAN FRIAR AND HERMIT

THE FEAST OF ALFRED C. MARBLE, JR., EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF MISSISSIPPI THEN ASSISTING BISHOP OF NORTH CAROLINA

THE FEAST OF ERNEST W. SHURTLEFF, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., U.S. CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER, AND MARTYR, 1968

THE FEAST OF SIDNEY LOVETT, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND CHAPLAIN OF YALE UNIVERSITY

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Adapted from this post:

https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2020/04/04/devotion-for-easter-sunday-year-c-humes/

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Ah, that these words of mine were written down,

Above:  The Angel in the Empty Tomb

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:

Acts 2:42-47 or Job 19:7-27c

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Mark 16:1-8

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inscribed on some monument

with iron chisel and engraving tool,

cut into the rock for ever.

This I know:  that my Avenger lives,

and he, the Last, will take his stand on earth.

After my awaking, he will set me close to him,

and from my flesh I shall look upon God.

He, whom I shall see will take my part:

these eyes will gaze on him and find him not aloof.

My heart within me sinks…

You, then, that mutter, “How shall we track him down,

what pretext shall we find against him?”

may well fear the sword on your own account.

There is an anger stirred to flame by evil deeds;

you will learn that there is indeed a judgment.

–Job 19:23-29, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

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In the context of the Book of Job in its final form, the continued faith of Job, afflicted with divine consent by the loyalty tester (the Satan) then rejected by surviving relatives and insulted repeatedly by so-called friends, makes little sense.  The Avenger/Vindicator/Redeemer, or kinsman-redeemer who was to avenge innocent blood, had to be God, for whom the alleged friends presumed to speak.  One irony in the Book of Job, in its final form, is that we who read Chapters 1, 2, and 42 know that Elihu, Zophar, Bildad, and Eliphaz were wrong when claiming that God protects the innocent, in Job’s case.  Yet Job still trusts in God.

The reading of this passage on Easter Sunday makes sense.  Did not the resurrection of Jesus vindicate him?  And does it not vindicate we who, in faith, accept his resurrection?

Job’s attitude, in contrast to the forgiving spirit of Jesus on the cross, is understandable.  Job’s attitude also vindicates the human need for justice.  God will judge and show mercy as God deems appropriate.

The Gospel of Mark originally ended with,

…and they were terrified

at the empty tomb.  Such fear was understandable; the women at the tomb had no hindsight regarding the resurrection of Jesus.  Hindsight was impossible at the time.

I try to minimize how much I anthropomorphize God.  Some of it is unavoidable, given human perspective.  To a great extent, God is, for lack of a better word, other–not quite unknowable, but still other.  The somewhat unknowable other terrifies us sometimes, even in showing extreme mercy, for we do not understand.  With hindsight, however, we can find reasons to rejoice, not fear.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 26, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ISABEL FLORENCE HAPGOOD, U.S. JOURNALIST, TRANSLATOR, AND ECUMENIST

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANDRA GIACINTO LONGHIN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF TREVISO

THE FEAST OF PHILIP DODDRIDGE, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF VIRGIL MICHEL, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, ACADEMIC, AND PIONEER OF LITURGICAL RENEWAL

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Adapted from this post:

https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2019/06/26/devotion-for-easter-sunday-year-b-humes/

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