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:  Ruins of Nineveh

Image Source = Google Earth

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Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Psalm 62:6-14 (LBW) or Psalm 62:5-12 (LW)

1 Corinthians 7:39-31

Mark 1:14-20

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Almighty God, you sent your Son to proclaim your kingdom

and to teach with authority. 

Anoint us with the power of your Spirit, that we, too,

may bring good news to the afflicted,

bind up the brokenhearted,

and proclaim liberty to the captive;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 15

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O Lord God Almighty, because you have always supplied your servants

with the special gifts which come from your Holy Spirit alone,

leave also us not destitute of your manifold gifts nor of grace

to use them always to your honor and glory and the good of others;

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), 24

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For the world in its present form is passing away.

–1 Corinthians 7:31b, The New American Bible–Revised Edition

Yet here I am in March 2023, typing words (in English translation) dictated in Greek in the fifties C.E.  So, we may consider the marital advice in the verses before and after 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 in the context of an inaccurate prediction of the Second Coming of Jesus.

We read in Mark 1 that “the Kingdom of God has drawn near.”  In the canonical Gospels, the Kingdom of God is simultaneously present and future.  The Kingdom of God, partially realized, is present.  The fully-realized Kingdom of God awaits.  Nevertheless, I harbor much sympathy for Alfred Loisy’s lament:

Jesus foretold the kingdom, and what came was the Church.

Now we return to the Gospel of Mark:

The time has arrived; the kingdom of God is upon you. Repent, and believe the gospel.

–Mark 1:15, The Revised English Bible

David Bentley Hart translates a particular Greek verb not as “repent” but as “change your hearts.”  Although “repent” is familiar, many people misunderstand it.  Many think, for example, that repentance is remorse for sins.  No, remorse precedes repentance.

In much of the Bible, repentance can prevent divine judgment.  That is the sense in Mark 1:15.

Yet, in the brilliant and profound work of fiction called the Book of Jonah, the reluctant prophet does not offer repentance to his enemies.  No, he predicts their destruction in the near future.  Jonah seeks his foes’ annihilation.  In the story, however, the population of Nineveh overturns it ways; it repents.  God does not overthrow the city, much to Jonah’s distress.

I have read the Hebrew prophetic genre closely enough to understand that the genre is inconsistent regarding whether collective repentance will suffice to prevent destruction.  Any given Hebrew prophetic book may contain several strata.  So, for example, a layer from before the Babylonian Exile may state that the time for repentance has passed and that God will no longer forgive.  Yet a stratum from during or following the Babylonian Exile may hold that repentance remains possible.  This contradiction would bother me if I were an Evangelical or a fundamentalist.  I have no such problem, fortunately.

I argue that repentance may remain a feasible option longer than many people may think.  When repentance ceases to be a feasible option is for God to decree.  I am not God.

But why wait to repent?  Why wait to respond favorably and faithfully to God?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 10, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF MARIE-JOSEPH LAGRANGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR

THE FEAST OF SAINT AGRIPINNUS OF AUTUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; SAINT GERMANUS OF PARIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; AND SAINT DROCTOVEUS OF AUTUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF ALEXANDER CLARK, U.S. METHODIST PROTESTANT MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMNAL EDITOR

THE FEAST OF FOLLIOT SANDFORD PIERPOINT, ANGLICAN EDUCATOR, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN OGLIVIE, SCOTTISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1615

THE FEAST OF SAINT MACARIUS OF JERUSALEM, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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Adapted from this post

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Advertisement

If we say we have no sin in us,

Above:  Jonah Outside Nineveh

Image in the Public Domain

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For Ash Wednesday, 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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Almighty and Everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made,

and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent;

create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we,

worthily lamenting our sins, and acknowledging our wretchedness,

may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 144

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Jonah 3:1-4:11

Psalm 102

1 John 1:5-10

Matthew 6:16-21

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we are deceiving ourselves

and refusing to admit the truth;

but if we acknowledge our sins,

then God who is faithful and just

will forgive our sins and purify us

from everything that is wrong.

To say we have never sinned

is to call God a liar

and to show that his word is not in us.

–1 John 1:8-10, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

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Remorse for sins must precede repentance for sins.  Remorse is an emotion; repentance is an action.

Also, sin comes in varieties.  Roman Catholic theology divides sins into the venial and the mortal.  One can also categorize sin as being of omission or of commission, as well as being individual or collective.

The reading from Jonah 3 and 4 includes both individual and collective sin.  The titular character remains impenitent at the end of Chapter 4.  The sudden ending of the Book of Jonah invites we who read and heart that story to repent of our desires to see our enemies destroyed.  We need to feel remorse for then repent of our resentments that the repentance of our foes would ruin or does ruin.

Based on reading the Bible, I conclude that God would be thrilled if everyone were to repent.  Unfortunately, many people refuse to do so.  Love and repentance have to be voluntary.  “Yes” has meaning only if “no” is a feasible option, even if a bad one.

One advantage of following a church year is that one has reasons to focus on different priorities.  Lent is a time to emphasize remorse and repentance.  We can say “Alleluia” after Lent has ended.  Lent is a season to work on storing up treasures in Heaven.  Besides, as anyone who has cleaned out the residence of a deceased person knows, what we leave behind often becomes someone else’s burdens.

I draft this post during the COVID-19 pandemic.  That medical and economic catastrophe informs my thinking about collective and individual repentance this time around.  May we-as societies, nation-states, communities, institutions, et cetera–repent of thinking that what harms others has no effect on us.  And may we–as individuals–repent of all delusions that work against mutuality.  Excessive individualism, especially during a pandemic, harms others.  It violates the Golden Rule.

The counterbalance is to remember that the common good does not equal conformity.  Variety is the spice of life.  The common good embraces diversity and welcomes the eccentrics, the oddballs, and the stubbornly different.  God created me to be the best version of myself possible.  God created you, O reader, to be the best possible version of yourself.  So, feel free to be your glorious, even odd or eccentric self without endangering anyone.  Add spice to the world while loving your neighbors as you love yourself.  Do not permit anyone to persuade you that you must feel remorse for and repent of being the person God made you to be.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 5, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE TWELFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF ANTONIO LOTTI, ROMAN CATHOLIC MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT GENOVEVA TORRES MORALES, FOUNDRESS OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS AND THE HOLY ANGELS

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN NEPOMUCENE NEUMANN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF PHILADELPHIA

THE FEAST OF MARGARET MACKAY, SCOTTISH HYMN WRITER

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READING JONAH

Above:  Jonah, by George Fredric Watts

Image in the Public Domain

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PART III

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Jonah 3:1-10

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Jonah 3 includes the humorous element of exaggeration.

1. No ancient city was a three-days’ walk across.  Sorry, Jonah 3:3.
2. Even the livestock repented.  (Jonah 3:7-8)

Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh deserves attention.

1. The call to repent is absent.
2. The message is brief:  “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”  The message does not explain why Nineveh will be “overthrown” or what the Hebrew word translated “overthrown” means.
3. The Hebrew word we read as “overthrown” or “overturned” is its own antonym.  (Think, O reader, about “oversight” in English.  “Oversight” means both supervising and seeing, on one hand, and not seeing, on the other hand.) The germane Hebrew word indicates destruction in some texts, including Genesis 19:21, 25, and 29; Deuteronomy 29:22; Jeremiah 20:16; and 4:6.  Nevertheless, the same word indicates deliverance in other passages, including Deuteronomy 23:5; Psalm 66:6; and Jeremiah 31:13. 
4. The scene, then, is one of Jonah preaching the destruction of Nineveh and of repentance causing the city’s deliverance.  The scene is one of Jonah undercutting his own message.  The scene is one of Jonah’s prediction mocking him.  The scene is one of penitent Ninevites undermining Jonah’s message.

Divine persistence can wear down human resistance  And God can work through us, despite ourselves.  So be it.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 11, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ANNE STEELE, FIRST IMPORTANT ENGLISH FEMALE HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF EDWIN HATCH, ANGLICAN PRIEST, SCHOLAR, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF MARTHA COFFIN PELHAM WRIGHT; HER SISTER, LUCRETIA COFFIN MOTT; HER HUSBAND, JAMES MOTT; HIS SISTER, ABIGAIL LYDIA MOTT MOORE; AND HER HUSBAND, LINDLEY MURRAY MOORE; U.S. QUAKER ABOLITIONISTS AND FEMINISTS

THE FEAST OF PETER TAYLOR FORSYTH, SCOTTISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND THEOLOGIAN

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READING JONAH

Above:  Israeli Stamp of Jonah

Image in the Public Domain

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PART II

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Jonah 2:1-10 (Protestant and Anglican)

Jonah 2:2-11 (Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox)

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The Book of Jonah tells us that a “big fish,” not a whale, swallowed Jonah.  Avoid fixating on the species of aquatic life, O reader.  The essence of these verses pertains to other issues.

I begin with two Hebrew words.

1. Jonah 2:1/2:2 (depending on versification) tells us that the big fish “swallowed” Jonah.  The Hebrew verb for “to swallow” has only negative connotations in the Bible.  It occurs, in the context of death, in Exodus 15:12 and in Numbers 16:30, 32, and 34.  In Jonah 2:1/2:2, however, swallowing prevents death.
2. Jonah 2:10/2:11 (depending on versification) tells us that the big fish “vomited” Jonah onto terra firma.  The story tells us that the big fish could not stomach Jonah.  The Hebrew verb for “to vomit” also occurs in Jeremiah 51:44.  The Chaldeans/Neo-Babylonians had consumed/swallowed various nations in 51:34.  They were about to consume/swallow Judah in Chapter 52.  Jeremiah 51:44 tells us that God would force the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire to “vomit” what it had “swallowed.”  One may assume reasonably that the author of the Book of Jonah may have been familiar with the Book of Jeremiah.

The prayer of Jonah derives from various Psalms.  This part of the text is of different authorship than the rest of the Book of Jonah.  Certain details of the composite prayer contradict details of Jonah 1.  The Book of Jonah is pious fiction, after all.  I quote Phyllis Trible, writing in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume VII (1996):

Appearing between the genuine worship of the sailors and the Ninevites, the psalm offers counterfeit piety from loquacious Jonah.

(The Ninevites repented in Jonah 3.)

Counterfeit piety is ubiquitous, unfortunately.  It is the stock and trade of many people from a host of professions and a range of ideas.  Perhaps one needs to look no farther than into a mirror to see a practitioner of counterfeit piety.  The Biblical standard in this matter is to know a tree by its fruits.  Fruits do not lie.  The proof is in the pudding.  And actions speak louder than words.

In Christian terms, I think of a bumper sticker.  It reads,

JESUS, SAVE ME FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS.

The supreme irony of that plea is that one does not need saving from Christ’s actual followers.  One needs no deliverance from people who obey the Golden Rule.  The list of atrocities and other sins many people have committed and/or continue to continue to commit in the name of God is long and disturbing.  It is a record of counterfeit piety.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 10, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT LEO THE GREAT, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY, U.S. JOURNALIST, ABOLITIONIST, PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, AND MARTYR, 1837; HIS BROTHER, OWEN LOVEJOY, U.S. ABOLITIONIST, LAWMAKER, AND CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER; AND WILLIAM WELLS BROWN, AFRICAN-AMERICAN ABOLITIONIST, NOVELIST, HISTORIAN, AND PHYSICIAN

THE FEAST OF LOTT CARY, AFRICAN-AMERICAN BAPTIST MINISTER AND MISSIONARY TO LIBERIA; AND MELVILLE B. COX, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER AND MISSIONARY TO LIBERIA

THE FEAST OF ODETTE PRÉVOST, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC NUN, AND MARTYR IN ALGERIA, 1995

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…let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners….

Above:  An Israeli Stamp of Jonah

Image in the Public Domain

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For the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year 2, according to the U.S. Presbyterian lectionary of 1966-1970

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O Lord, Heavenly Father, in whom is the fullness of light and wisdom:

enlighten our minds by thy Holy Spirit, and give us grace to receive thy Word

with reverence and humility, without which no man can understand thy truth.

Grant this for the sake of Jesus Christ.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Worship–Provisional Services (1966), 126

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Jonah 3:1-4:11

Ephesians 4:25-32

Matthew 9:1-13

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–Ephesians 4:29b, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

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Jonah (a fool and a fictitious prophet, the story of whom continues to indict individuals and groups) and the critics of Jesus in Matthew 9:1-13 were unlike the ideal person in Ephesians 4:25-32.  Jonah, a reluctant prophet who learned the hard way that he could not flee from God, became bitterly disappointed when he successfully helped to effect the repentance of enemies.  Divine mercy has long been scandalous and objectionable to many people.

If God loved only people similar to ourselves, would we feel better?  Would our egos be more secure?  Perhaps.  We do well, that not withstanding, to know that, if we do not desire the destruction of, not the repentance of a population, some people, somewhere, wish the destruction of the population to which we belong.  The story of Jonah always indicts some individuals and populations.  Mutual animosity cannot work toward the common good.  Besides, we should, logically, be glad when an enemy ceases to be a foe.  It is better for us, is it not?  But do we know that?

May the love of God define our egos and our attitudes toward other people, especially those different from us.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 24, 2019 COMMON ERA

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

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

THE FEAST OF SAINTS VINCENTIA GEROSA AND BARTHOLOMEA CAPITANIO, COFOUNDERS OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF LOVERE

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Above:  Jonah Preaching to the Ninevites

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:

Jonah 3

Psalm 143

Philippians 3:7-21

Matthew 26:57-68

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The reading from Matthew 26 depicts a scene of perfidy.  Religious leaders, in violation of the Law of Moses, seek false testimony (a capital offense, at least theoretically) to send Jesus to his execution, we read.  Their charge against him is blasphemy, a capital offense, according to Leviticus 24:16.

These men were really defending their power base as they committed a great sin.  Yet God used their actions to work abundant grace, culminated, in a few days, in the resurrection.  Those religious leaders must have had some interesting private discussions about that.

Divine grace is so abundant that it falls upon individuals as well as groups, and believers as well as heathens.  Grace calls us to repentance.  We all need to repent–to turn our backs to sin–daily.

Each of us has an inner Jonah.  We rejoice when God extends mercy to us and people similar to ourselves, but we, like some of the psalmists, want God to smite our enemies.  God loves them too, however.  God rejoices when they repent; so should we.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 24, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF NICOLAUS SELNECKER, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JACKSON KEMPER, EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT EDITH MARY MELLISH (A.K.A. MOTHER EDITH), FOUNDRESS OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE SACRED NAME

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Adapted from this post:

https://lenteaster.wordpress.com/2018/05/24/devotion-for-the-fourth-sunday-in-lent-year-a-humes/

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human anger, hot temper, malice, abusive language, and dirty talk.

Above:  The (United) Kingdom of Israel and the Divided Monarchy

Scanned from Hammond’s World Atlas–Classics Edition (1957)

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FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF KINGDOMTIDE, ACCORDING TO A LECTIONARY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP IN THE BOOK OF WORSHIP FOR CHURCH AND HOME (1965)

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Lord, we ask you to keep your household the Church in continual godliness,

that through your protection it may be free from all adversities,

and devoutly given to serve you in good works, to the glory of your name;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

–Modernized from The Book of Worship for Church and Home (1965), page 154

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Obadiah 1-4, 15-17a, 21

Psalm 35

Colossians 3:1-15

Matthew 7:15-23

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The readings for this week remind us of the importance of words and deeds.  The perfidy of the Moabites as well as the faithless Israelites dooms them in Obadiah.  The author of Psalm 35 asks God to destroy his (the author’s enemies).  The counterpoint that comes to my mind immediately is the Book of Jonah, in which God grants enemies of the Israelites an opportunity to repent, and therefore to avert destruction, but Jonah objects.  No, he has the attitude of the author of Psalm 35.  We read in Colossians 3 that we have an obligation to put away, among other things,

–Verse 8, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

Our grand tour of scripture ends in Matthew 7, where we read that (1) one will know a tree by its fruits and (2) not all who think they do the will of God actually do so.  Words and deeds cannot save us, but they can condemn us.

Should we not be better than our foes?  Should we not rejoice when they repent?  Should we not want them to be peaceable, godly people?  The issue is not them but us.  What kind of people are we?  And what kind of people are we becoming?  After all, divine judgment and mercy are even-handed.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 6, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

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Above:  Isaiah

Image in the Public Domain

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FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF KINGDOMTIDE, ACCORDING TO A LECTIONARY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP IN THE BOOK OF WORSHIP FOR CHURCH AND HOME (1965)

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O almighty and most merciful God, of your bountiful goodness keep us,

we pray, from all things that may hurt us;

that we, being ready both in body and soul,

may cheerfully accomplish those things which you command;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

–Modernized from The Book of Worship of Church and Home (1965), page 153

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Isaiah 6:1-8

Psalm 33

2 Corinthians 5:17-6:2

Mark 10:28-31

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In Genesis 11:1-9, the story of the Tower of Babel, people are impressed with themselves and their collective accomplishment.  That accomplishment is a tower that God, looking down from Heaven, can barely see because of its relative smallness.  Our accomplishments and might are puny compared to God, as Psalm 33 reminds us.  May we have proper perspective, that is, humility before God.

Humility before God would certainly be easy for one to have if one were in the position of Isaiah, eyewitness to a glorious vision.  Accepting the call of God, as continued in subsequent verses in Isaiah 6, is perhaps a greater challenge.  The consequences can be dire, even to the point of death.  Certainly obeying that call will make one a new creation.  Change–even of the positive variety–frequently scares many people, for it endangers their comfort zones.  God calls us away from complacency and into the unknown.  Sometimes, as in the cases of some Hebrew prophets, God calls us to enter the realm of the scandalous.  Ultimately, though, the result should be the reconciliation of people separated from God with God.

This goal offends many people, including some of the professing faithful.  One might think of the great satire that is the Book of Jonah, a criticism of post-Babylonian Exile excesses.  One lesson from the text is that God loves everyone and wants all people to repent.  God sends the reluctant Jonah on a mission.  The prophet succeeds, much to his dismay.  We have enemies, by whom we define our identities.  If they cease to be enemies, who are we?  The possibility of such drastic change frightens us, does it not?

Will we stand humbly before God and serve as willing agents of reconciliation?  Or will we remain in our comfort zones and function as agents of obstruction?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 6, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

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Above:  Jacob’s Ladder, by William Blake

Image in the Public Domain

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FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, ACCORDING TO A LECTIONARY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP IN THE BOOK OF WORSHIP FOR CHURCH AND HOME (1965)

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O Lord, we ask you mercifully to hear us;

and grant that we, to whom you have given a hearty desire to pray,

may by your mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

–Modernized from The Book of Worship for Church and Home (1965), page 138

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Genesis 28:10-22

Psalm 3

Acts 9:22, 26-31

John 3:4-17

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One might have enemies for various reasons.  If one is like Jacob, a schemer and a trickster, one antagonizes others easily.  However, if one is like St. Paul the Apostle, one might antagonize via one’s occasional brusqueness as well as one’s obedience to God.

The scandal of grace is also evident.  Why else would Jacob become an agent of the divine covenant?  Why else would God choose Saul of Tarsus?  And why else would the Second Person of the Trinity incarnate, live, die, and resurrect, for the benefit of the human race?

We humans seem to like the scandal of grace when it benefits us and those similar to us yet to resent it when it works to the benefit of those we do not like.  That is sinful.  Should we not rejoice that God is so generous?  One might think of the satirical character of Jonah, from the book that bears his name.  One of the points of the Book of Jonah is not to be like Jonah, after all.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

THE ELEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF FELIX MANZ, FIRST ANABAPTIST MARTYR

THE FEAST OF SAINT ELIZABETH ANN SETON, FOUNDRESS OF THE AMERICAN SISTERS OF CHARITY

THE FEAST OF SAINTS GREGORY OF LANGRES, TERTICUS OF LANGRES, GALLUS OF CLERMONT, GREGORY OF TOURS, AVITUS I OF CLERMONT, MAGNERICUS OF TRIER, AND GAUGERICUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS

THE FEAST OF JOHANN LUDWIG FREYDT, GERMAN MORAVIAN COMPOSER AND EDUCATOR

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Above:  Icon of Jonah

Image in the Public Domain

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FOR ASH WEDNESDAY, ACCORDING TO A LECTIONARY FOR PUBLIC WORSHIP IN THE BOOK OF WORSHIP FOR CHURCH AND HOME (1965)

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Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made,

and you forgive the sins of those who are penitent:

Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we,

truly lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wickedness,

may obtain from you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

–Modernized from The Book of Worship for Church and Home (1965), page 90

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Joel 2:12, 15-17

Psalm 11

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Matthew 6:16-21

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The reading from Joel occurs in the context of a military campaign against Judah.  “Yet even now,” God says, return and repent–turn around, literally.  In the rest of the book of Joel God forgives Judah and judges the enemies of Judah.  Judgment on one’s enemies is, incidentally, one of the requests in Psalm 11.

Spiritual discipline is the unifying theme of all the readings.  Taken together, they teach us that, the evidence of our discipline will be obvious without us being showy, and we must not brag.  We are supposed to glorify God, not ourselves, after all.

Without ignoring the reality that unrepentant evildoers exist and will, without our involvement, suffer the negative consequences of their actions, is it not better to pray for our enemies, that they might turn to God also?  Would that not be Christ-like?  Would not that not require much spiritual discipline?

Whenever you, O reader, are reading this post, may you strive, by grace, to become more Christ-like, capable of doing the difficult spiritual tasks, such as forgiving your enemies and seeking their repentance, not their destruction.  It is better to be Christ-like than Jonah-like, is it not?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 17, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT:  THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON, ABOLITIONIST AND FEMINIST; AND MARIA STEWART, ABOLITIONIST, FEMINIST, AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF EGLANTYNE JEBB AND DOROTHY BUXTON, FOUNDERS OF SAVE THE CHILDREN

THE FEAST OF FRANK MASON NORTH, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER

THE FEAST OF MARY CORNELIA BISHOP GATES, U.S. DUTCH REFORMED HYMN WRITER

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