According to the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship (ILCW) Lectionary (1973), as contained in the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and Lutheran Worship (1982)

Above:  La Priére, Eglise Saint-Bonnet, by Léon Augustin Lhermitte

Image in the Public Domain

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Job 7:1-7

Psalm 147:1-13

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

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Almighty God, you sent your only Son

as the Word of life for our eyes to see and our ears to listen. 

Help us to believe with joy what the Scriptures proclaim,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 16

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O God, our loving Father, through the grace of your Holy Spirit,

you plant your gifts of your love

into the hearts of your faithful people. 

Grant to your servants soundness of mind and body,

so that they may love you with their whole strength

and with their whole heart do these things

that are pleasing in your sight;

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), 26

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Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service,

is time no better than hired drudgery?

Like the slave, sighing for the shade,

or the workman with no thought but his wages,

months of delusion I have assigned to me,

nothing for my own sin but nights of grief.

–Job 7:1-3, The Jerusalem Bible

The speaker in that passage is Job.  Therefore, his attitude makes sense, in context.

Yet we find that St. Paul the Apostle, in different circumstances, had a different attitude:

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.

–1 Corinthians 9:19, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition

St. Paul the Apostle emulated Jesus, who came to serve, not to be served.  Jesus and St. Paul understood the importance of prayer and solitude, as well as that of faithful observance.

Those of us who are introverts prefer solitude.  Many of us may find getting away to be alone with God easier than a host of extroverts do.  Those of us who crave silence need to get away from the noise, hustle, and bustle of the world.  Where I live, I cannot get away from noise when I shop in town; music plays in stores.  Sometimes the music is morally objectionable, not merely annoying.  I recall that in a convenience store one night, the selection was a hip-hop “song” celebrating domestic violence and using degrading language regarding women.

The world–kosmos in Greek–is noisy.  The world–kosmos in Greek–encourages consumption and prioritizes productivity.  Yet the spiritual wisdom of Judaism and Christianity mandates rest and contemplation.  Judaism and Christianity teach that productivity is not the highest good and that silence is essential.

Only when we have the silence and the rest we need, can we serve God and benefit each other as much as we should.  Only when we have the silence and the rest we need, can we chant hymns to God as we ought to do.  Only when we listen to God as we should, can we praise God properly.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 11, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTEENTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF JOHN SWERTNER, DUTCH-GERMAN MORAVIAN MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, HYMN TRANSLATOR, AND HYMNAL EDITOR; AND HIS COLLABORATOR, JOHN MUELLER, GERMAN-ENGLISH MORAVIAN MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNAL EDITOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT AENGUS THE CULDEE, HERMIT AND MONK; AND SAINT MAELRUAN, ABBOT

THE FEAST OF SAINT EULOGIUS OF SPAIN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF TOLEDO, CORDOBA; AND SAINT LEOCRITA, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS, 859

THE FEAST OF FRANCIS WAYLAND, U.S. BAPTIST MINISTER, EDUCATOR, AND SOCIAL REFORMER

THE FEAST OF MARY ANN THOMSON, EPISCOPAL HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAL PRENNUSHI, ALBANIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1948

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Adapted from this post

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Advertisement

READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART XIII

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Job 38:1-42:9

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Careful reading of the text reveals many interesting details.  For example, God contradicts Eliphaz the Temanite in 38:26-27.  In Job 5:10, Eliphaz claims that God sends rain where people can use it:

He sends down rain to the earth,

pours down water on the fields.

—The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Yet God, in chapter 38, asks Job:

Who carves a channel for the downpour,

and hacks a way for the rolling thunder,

so that rain may fall on lands where no one lives,

and the deserts void of human dwelling,

giving drink to the lonely wastes

and making grass spring where everything was dry?

–Job 38:28f, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

The more I read God’s two speeches to Job, the more I dislike them.  They, taken together, constitute a non-answer.  They are not an apology.  Neither do they explain the cause of Job’s suffering.  Job deserves both an explanation and an apology.  He also deserves to hear directly from God what God tells Eliphaz the Temanite:

My wrath has flared against you and your two companions because you have not spoken rightly of Me as did My servant Job.

–Job 42:7, Robert Alter

Job may have spoken presumptuously, but he also spoke honestly, based on his observations of reality.  Job, unlike his alleged friends, had maintained his integrity.  So, Job became a priestly figure who interceded, formally, on behalf of his alleged friends.

Human reconciliation remained possible.

Bernhard Anderson argued that both Job and his alleged friends had committed the same error; they had presumed to know how God does or should work.  That analysis fits 38:2 (“speaking without knowledge”).  It does not fit 42:7-9, however.  Thus, we encounter an interpretive difficulty born of multiple authors.

I still stand with Job.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 4, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINTS JOHN OF DAMASCUS AND COSMAS OF MAIUMA, THEOLOGIANS AND HYMNODISTS

THE FEAST OF SAINT ALEXANDER HOTOVITZKY, RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1937

THE FEAST OF SAINT BERNARD OF PARMA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF PARMA

THE FEAST OF JOSEPH MOHR, AUSTRIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST; AND FRANZ GRUBER, AUSTRIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHER, MUSICIAN, AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARUTHAS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF MAYPHERKAT, AND MISSIONARY TO PERSIA

THE FEAST OF SAINT OSMUND OF SALISBURY, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF SALISBURY

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READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART III

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Job 4:1-11 and 5:1-7:21

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Eliphaz the Temanite does not understand why Job was suffering grievously.  We–you, O reader, and I–do.  We can consult the beginning of the Book of Job easily.

As I read Eliphaz the Temanite’s first speech aloud from The Jerusalem Bible (1966), I wanted to smack him.  The speech, full of platitudes and based on an assumption the Book of Job nullifies, was a patronizing paragon of blaming the victim.

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

One complicating factor in interpreting Eliphaz the Temanite’s first speech is that parts of it agree with other passages in the Hebrew Bible–Psalms and Proverbs, in particular.  Yet, in this context, Eliphaz the Temanite is a bad friend desperately affirming his orthodoxy–his received wisdom–in the face of a man whose plight contradicts it.

Do you think mere words deserve censure,

desperate speech, that the wind blows away?

Soon you will be casting lots for an orphan,

and selling your friend at bargain prices.”

–Job 6:26-27, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Job’s complaint about his supposed friends’ attitude is justifiable.

I detect a practical application from these chapters.  It is relevant to the other speeches of supposed friends, also.  That lesson is to comfort the afflicted, not to lecture them.  It is to function as an agent of grace and compassion, not to shore up one’s received wisdom.  That application, boiled down, is this:  Do love.  Be love.  And refrain from being a jerk.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 24, 2022 COMMON ERA

THANKSGIVING DAY (U.S.A.)

THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANDREW DUNG-LAC AND PETER THI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS IN VIETNAM, 1839

THE FEAST OF LUCY MENZIES, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN THEN ANGLICAN SCHOLAR AND MYSTIC

THE FEAST OF SAINT THEOPHANE VENARD, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, MISSIONARY, AND MARTYR IN VIETNAM, 1861

THE FEAST OF SAINT VINCENT LIEM, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR IN VIETNAM, 1861

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READING THE BOOK OF JOB

PART II

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Job 3:1-26 and 4:12-21

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The complexity of the Book of Job extends to the arrangement of the material.  For example, 4:12-21, despite seeming to be in the mouth of Eliphaz the Temanite, fits better in the mouth of Job instead.  These verses depict YHWH as an excessive finder of faults.  This perspective contradicts chapters 1 and 2, in which Satan, YHWH’s overzealous loyalty tester, excessively seeks faults.  Recall, O reader, that one definition of irony is that the audience knows information a character lacks.

Annul the day that I was born

and the night that said, “A man is conceived.”

–Job 3:3, Robert Alter

The Hebrew verb Alter translates as “annul” literally means to die or to be lost.  Hence, “perish” is the standard translation in English.  Alter writes that “perish,” although accurate semantically, lacks the directness of the Hebrew verb.  And “annul” is consistent with the rest of chapter 3.

I have known valleys of spiritual darkness so deep that I have prayed for death.  Then I have sworn profanely upon waking up.

Perhaps you, O reader, remember occasions when you have felt the same way.  If we live long enough, such times may be par for the course.  But so is grace; we are never alone in such times.  God is with us, even when God seems remote.  And God is not an excessive fault-finder, despite how one may feel or what one may have learned.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 23, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT CLEMENT I, BISHOP OF ROME

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

THE FEAST OF SAINT ENRICHETTA ALFIERI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN AND “ANGEL OF SAN VITTORE”

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

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READING LAMENTATIONS, PART IV

Above:  Lamentations 3:10

Image in the Public Domain

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Lamentation 3:1-66

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Different voices fill Lamentations 3.  A new voice–that of Israel personified as the Man–speaks in verses 1-24, and perhaps through verse 39, as well.  An alternative view holds that the Poet speaks in verses 25-39.  Another new voice–that of the Community–speaks in verses 48-51.  Either Fair Zion or the Man speaks in verses 52-66.

Verses 1-20 depict deportation into exile.  They also depict God as a bad shepherd, in contrast to Psalm 23, Psalm 78, and Ezekiel 34.  Yet, starting with verse 25, we read an expression of hope in God.  Divine loyalty has not ended and divine mercies are not spent, we read.

For the Lord does not

Reject forever,

But first afflicts, then pardons

In His abundant kindness.

–Lamentations 3:31-32, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Comparing translations reveals shades of meaning in the original Hebrew text.  The Revised English Bible (1989) reads:

For rejection by the Lord

does not last forever.

He may punish, yet he will have compassion

in the fullness of his unfailing love….

When we turn to The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011), we read:

For the Lord does not reject forever;

Though he brings grief, he takes pity,

according to the abundance of his mercy….

Much of the material in verses 25-39 sounds like speeches by Job’s alleged friends (Job 4, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 22, 25, 32-37):  Suffering is divine punishment for sin, and people should accept this punishment.  In the context of the Book of Job, this is a misplaced theology, not applicable to the titular character’s situation (Job 1:1-2:10; 42:7-9).  Also, the speeches of Job’s alleged friends read like the useless yet conventionally pious babblings they are, in narrative context.

The rest of the Book of Lamentations confesses sins, repents of those sins, begs for divine deliverance, expresses hope in God, and prays for divine judgment on the wicked nations.

I get theological whiplash from Lamentations 3.  The contrast between Lamentations 3 and the rage against God in Lamentations 2 is stark.  And who says that God does not willingly bring grief or affliction?  I recall many passages from Hebrew prophetic books in which God speaks and claims credit for causing grief and affliction.  I do not recall anyone forcing God to do that.  In some passages, however, God speaks of these divine actions as the consequences of human sins.

I approach theodicy cautiously.  I am also an intellectually honest monotheist.  I have no evil god to blame for anything, thereby letting the good god off the hook.  There is simply and solely God, who is ever in the dock, so to speak.   The major problem with human theodicy is that it easily degenerates into idiocy at best and heresy at worst.

Whenever someone professes not to believe in God, one way to handle the situation is to ask that individual to describe the God in whom he or she does not believe.  One may also want to ask how the other person defines belief in God.  In the creedal sense, to believe in God is to trust in God.  Yet many–or most–people probably understand belief in God to mean affirmation of the existence of God.

Idiotic theodicy produces a range of God-concepts abhorrent to me.  I suspect that many–or most–of those professed agnostics and atheists reject at least one of these God-concepts, too.  Many professed agnostics and atheists–a host of them refugees from conventional piety and abusive faith–may be closer to a healthy relationship with the God of the Universe than many conventionally devout Jews and Christians.  This matter lies far outside my purview; it resides in the purview of God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 19, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHN DALBERG ACTON, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC HISTORIAN, PHILOSOPHER, AND SOCIAL CRITIC

THE FEAST OF ADELAIDE TEAGUE CASE, EPISCOPAL PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION, AND ADVOCATE FOR PEACE

THE FEAST OF MICHEL-RICHARD DELALANDE, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF VERNARD ELLER, U.S. CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN MINISTER AND THEOLOGIAN

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM PIERSON MERRILL, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SOCIAL REFORMER, AND HYMN WRITER

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READING TOBIT

Above:  Tobit and Anna with the Kid Goat, by Rembrandt Van Rijn

Image in the Public Domain

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PART III

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Tobit 2:9-3:6

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Dystrus 7 was in late winter, in February.  Dystrus, a Hellenistic month, was also a literary anachromism.

In the story, Tobit was ritually impure after having buried a human corpse (Numbers 19:11-14).  So, he slept outside after washing himself ritually.  In the story, sleeping outdoors led to his blindness.  After two years, nephew Ahikar ceased to support Tobit then moved away.  The titular character, reduced to depending financially on his wife, wrongly accused her of having stolen an kid.  She justifiably objected to his attitude.  Anna, angry with her husband (not God, as was Job’s wife in Job 2:8), questioned Tobit’s virtue.  Then Tobit, like Jonah (Jonah 4:3, 8), Moses (Numbers 11:15), Elijah (1 Kings 19:4), and Job (Job 7:15), prayed for death.

The Theory of Retribution, which I have already mentioned and explained in this series, holds that God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous.  This perspective pervades the Old and New Testaments.  Without rejecting the Theory of Retribution, I propose that life is more complicated than that.  Many of the wicked flourish and many of the righteous suffer in this life.  One way out of this conundrum is to relocate the ultimate reward or punishment to the afterlife.  Yet the Book of Tobit does not indicate belief in postmortem reward or punishment.

However, I remind you, O reader, of the meaning of the title of this book.  “Tobit” means “YHWH is good.”  The Book of Tobit, in its entirety, depicts YHWH as being very good.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 27, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT JAMES INTERCISUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 421

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

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM COOKE AND BENJAMIN WEBB, ANGLICAN PRIESTS AND TRANSLATORS OF HYMNS

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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:  Christ Walking on the Waters, by Julius Sergius von Klever

Image in the Public Domain

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For the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, 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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O God, whose never-failing Providence ordereth all things in heaven and earth;

we humbly beseech thee to put away from us all hurtful things,

and to give us those things which may be profitable for us;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 196

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Jeremiah 31:23-25

Psalm 31:15-24

Romans 6:19-23

Mark 6:45-56

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Deliverance–both individual and collective–is a theme in the readings.  Deliverance may be from sins and their consequences.  It may be from illness or another form of distress.  Deliverance is of God in all cases.

The reading from Mark 6 contains echoes of the Hebrew Bible.  Jesus, walking on water, seems like YHWH, appearing on the waters (Job 9:8 and 38:16).  Jesus, meaning to pass by the  boat, seems like YHWH in Exodus 33:19, 22.  Our Lord and Savior’s self-identification echoes “I AM” (Exodus 3:13f).

Translations vary, of course, but the critique of the Apostles in the boat (6:52) in that they were hard-hearted or had closed minds.  This is the same critique Jesus had of the people who condemned him for healing on the Sabbath in Mark 6:3:5.

Mark 6:52

• “…but their hearts were hardened.” (New Revised Standard Version, 1989)
• “…their minds were still in the dark.” (J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition, 1972)
• “…their minds were closed.”  (The New Jerusalem Bible, 1985; The Revised English Bible, 1989)
• …they were being obstinate.”  (Annotated Scholars Version, 1992)

Mark 3:5

• “…he was grieved at their hardness of heart…” (New Revised Standard Version, 1989)
• “…looking at them with anger and sorrow at their obstinate stupidity…” (The Revised English Bible, 1989)
• “Then he looked angrily around at them, grieved to find them so obstinate….” (The New Jerusalem Bible, 1985)
• “Then Jesus, deeply hurt as he sensed their inhumanity, looked around in anger…” (J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition, 1972)
• “…And looking right at them with anger, exasperated at their obstinacy…” (Annotated Scholars Version, 1992)

Simply, hard-heartedness = dark-mindedness = closed-mindedness = obstinacy = obstinate stupidity = inhumanity, in the original Greek texts.

The Apostles receive much negative press in the Gospel of Mark.  The application of that pattern for we readers is a caution:  we, who think we are insiders, may be outsiders, actually.  We may be terribly oblivious.  We, who should know better, do not, while alleged outsiders are more perceptive than we are.  We need for God to deliver us from our hardness of heart, one of our sins, and itself a gateway to other sins, from which we also need deliverance.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 18, 2020 COMMON ERA

SATURDAY IN EASTER WEEK

THE FEAST OF ROGER WILLIAMS, FOUNDER OF RHODE ISLAND; AND ANNE HUTCHINSON, REBELLIOUS PURITAN

THE FEAST OF SAINT CORNELIA CONNELLY, FOUNDRESS OF THE SOCIETY OF THE HOLY CHILD JESUS

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA ANNA BLONDIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SISTERS OF SAINT ANNE

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MURIN OF FAHAN, LASERIAN OF LEIGHLIN, GOBAN OF PICARDIE, FOILLAN OF FOSSES, AND ULTAN OF PERONNE, ABBOTS; AND SAINTS FURSEY OF PERONNE AND BLITHARIUS OF SEGANNE, MONKS

THE FEAST OF SAINT ROMAN ARCHUTOWSKI, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1943

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Above:  Job and His Alleged Friends, a Fresco

Image in the Public Domain

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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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Job 5:6-23 or Deuteronomy 5:6-21

Psalm 41

James 2:1-17

Mark 1:29-45

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The Law of Moses, unlike the older Code of Hammurabi, to which it bears some similarity, does not bring social class into consideration.  No, the Law of Moses is impartial regarding the socio-economic status of both the victim and the perpetrator.  In the Code of Hammurabi, for example, the same crime (theft or assault, for example) leads to a harsher penalty when the victim belongs to a higher social class.  In the Law of Moses, however, the penalty is the same, regardless of anyone’s socio-economic status.  That ethic of socio-economic impartiality carries over into James 2:1-7.

The Hillelian distillation of the Law of Moss comes from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (the Shema).  How we love God, assuming that we do, manifests in how we treat each other.  Hypocrisy is as old as human nature.  Pious fronts belie both evil intentions and lesser disregard and carelessness.  Often those who violate the Golden Rule do so while imagining that they are honoring God.  Eliphaz the Temanite and the other so-called friends of Job (who remind me of, “with friends like these, who needs enemies?”) sound like the Book of Psalms much of the time.  That fact complicates the interpretation of much of the Book of Job.  The best answer I can offer is that what they said applied in certain circumstances, but not that one.

If we were less concerned about who is wright and about insisting that we are right, and if we were more concerned about being good friends to one another, we could fulfill the spirit of most of the assigned texts for today.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 14, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHARLES AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR, AND ALLEGED HERETIC; AND HIS DAUGHTER, EMILIE GRACE BRIGGS, BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND “HERETIC’S DAUGHTER”

THE FEAST OF SAINT METHODIUS I OF CONSTANTINOPLE, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE; AND SAINT JOSEPH THE HYMNOGRAPHER, DEFENDER OF ICONS AND “SWEET-VOICED NIGHTINGALE OF THE CHURCH”

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM HIRAM FOULKES, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2019/06/14/devotion-for-the-fourth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-humes/

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And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying “What is this? A new teaching! With authority he commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

Above:  Christ in the Synagogue at Capernaum, a Fresco

Image in the Public Domain

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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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Job 3:1-26 (or 1:1-19) or Deuteronomy 5:6-21

Psalm 40

James 1:17-27

Mark 1:21-28

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–Mark 1:28, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

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One may legitimately question whether Christ’s action in Mark 1:21-28 constituted a teaching.  Assuming that it was, was it a new teaching?

Despite traditional Christian attempts to divorce Jesus from Judaism, one would have had a difficult time finding someone more Jewish than Jesus of Nazareth.  Judaism was not monolithic two millennia ago.  (Neither is it monolithic today.)  Jesus was a man of his culture, place, and faith.  With ease he quoted Deuteronomy, the various Isaiahs, and Rabbi Hillel.  There was continuity from the Hebrew Bible (as in the Ten Commandments, repeated in Deuteronomy 5) to Jesus.

There is much continuity from the Hebrew Bible to the New Testament.  The teaching to walk, not just talk, the talk, is present in both, as in the context of the Ten Commandments and the Letter of James.  The theme of trusting in God, who cares about us (as in Psalm 40), is also present in the New Testament.  As one considers the lilies of the field, one may recall that Job had a different opinion in Job 3.  If each of us lives long enough, each of us also sometimes thinks that God does not care about us.

Occasionally, at the Oconee Campus of the University of North Georgia, where I teach, someone from a campus ministry politely asks me if I believe in God.  I ask this person what he or she means, for the answer depends on the question.  Many people used “believe in God” to mean “affirm the existence of God,” but belief, in the creedal sense, is trust.  My answer is that I always affirm the existence of God and usually trust in God.

I (usually) trust in God, incarnate in the historical figure of Jesus of Nazareth, whose teachings were mostly old, in continuity with the Hebrew Bible.  The Golden Rule and the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) are old, for example.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 13, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MILTON SMITH LITTLEFIELD, JR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN AND CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNAL EDITOR

THE FEAST OF SIGISMUND VON BIRKEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, U.S. POET, JOURNALIST, AND HYMN WRITER

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2019/06/13/devotion-for-the-third-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-humes/

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