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:  Jesus and His Disciples

Image in the Public Domain

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Genesis 3:9-15

Psalm 61:2-5, 8 (LBW) or Psalm 28 (LW)

2 Corinthians 4:13-18

Mark 3:20-35

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O God, the strength of those who hope in you: 

Be present and hear our prayers;

and, because in the weakness of our mortal nature

we can do nothing good without you,

give us the help of your grace,

so that in keeping your commandments

we may please you in will and deed,

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 24

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O God, from whom all good proceeds,

grant to us, your humble servants,

that by your holy inspiration we may think the things that are right

and by your merciful guiding accomplish them;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 64

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In the great mythology of Genesis 3, the knowledge of good and evil is not intellectualized and academic.  No, this is lived knowledge.  One can have this knowledge of good and evil only by performing good and evil.  The consequences for humans include the inevitable estrangement from God, who had required only obedience.  This estrangement from God is the opposite of what we read in the selected psalms and in the epistle lection.  In Christian terms, the point of the Incarnation and the Atonement is to reverse that estrangement.  Thus, as one can read in the Epistle to the Ephesians, Christ breaks down the walls of estrangement have from each other.  Nevertheless, O reader, as you may observe, even Christians rebuild these walls of estrangement and separation.  How ironic is that tendency?

The lection from Mark 3 brings us to the topic of the unpardonable sin.  The textual context is invaluable in understanding the unpardonable sin–blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  The context of the inability to discern between good and evil–in this case, manifested in attributing the deeds of Jesus to an alliance with Satan–indicates estrangement from God.  This estrangement is of human origin.  Those who, for any reason, persist in this estrangement from God cut themselves off from God, who reaches out to them.  Many of them may not know of their estrangement from God.

In textual context of the Gospel of Mark, we can read 3:1-6, in which Jesus scandalously healed a man with a withered hand in a synagogue on the sabbath.  That story tells us that some conventionally pious people–other Jews–sought to accuse Jesus of violating the Sabbath for healing that unfortunate man on that day.  In Mark 3:1-6, all the educators are Jewish, so we read of an intra-Jewish dispute.  Verse 5 tells us that Jesus felt anger toward those accusers and grieved their hardness of heart.  Verse 6 informs us that plotting for the death of Jesus ensued immediately.  So, Mark 3:20-35 plays out in the context of a conspiracy to kill Jesus–in the name of God, of course.

Religion–regardless of its label–is what adherents make of it.  If one seeks justification for killing people, one can find it.  One may have to distort that religion to locate that mandate or permission slip, but seeking usually culminates in finding.  And if one is prone to being merciful and compassionate, one can find justification for that in religion, too.  As David Bentley Hart astutely and correctly observes, there is no such thing as generic religion.

In Mark 3, the religion is Second Temple Judaism.  The existence of capital offenses in the Law of Moses is a fact.  Yet so are cultural considerations of antiquity relative to the first century of the Common Era.  Lest we Christians rush to judgment against Judaism, the Law of Moses, or those conspiring Pharisees and Herodians, may we not neglect the logs in our proverbial eyes and the violent sins of our tradition.  We have the blood of victims of crusades, inquisitions, pogroms, and wars of religion on our collective hands.  David Bentley Hart contextualizes this violent past by (a) explaining that the drivers of it were usually political, and (b) that the religious moral vision exposes the sinfulness of such violence.  That is a nuance–one worth considering while never minimizing the devastation of such violence.

Lambasting long-dead Pharisees and Herodians is easy.  Condemning long-dead Christians for killing in the name of Jesus (himself executed horribly) requires minimal moral effort, too.  But think, O reader:  Is there someone whose death you would cheer?  Have you ever applauded anyone’s execution, murder, or any other mode of death?  If so, are you any different from those whom you deplore for plotting or committing violence, especially in the name of God?  If so, you may be estranged from God.  This estrangement need not persist, though.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 3, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE THIRTY-FIFTH DAY OF LENT

MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK

THE FEAST OF LUTHER D. REED, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND LITURGIST

THE FEAST OF SAINTS BURGENDOFARA AND SADALBERGA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBESSES, AND THEIR RELATIVES

THE FEAST OF MARC SAGNIER, FOUNDER OF THE SILION MOVEMENT

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARY OF EGYPT, HERMIT AND PENITENT

THE FEAST OF REGINALD HEBER, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF CALCUTTA, AND HYMN WRITER

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

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Adapted from this post

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Advertisement

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:  Judas Iscariot, by James Tissot

Image in the Public Domain

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Isaiah 50:4-9a

Psalm 70:1-2 4-6 (LBW) or Psalm 18:21-30 (LW)

Romans 5:6-11

Matthew 26:14-25

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Almighty God, your Son our Savior suffered at the hands of men

and endured the shame of the cross. 

Grant that we may walk in the way of his cross

and find it the way of life and peace;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 20

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Merciful and everlasting God the Father,

who did not spare your only Son

but delivered him up for us all that he might bear our sins on the cross;

grant that our hearts may be so fixed with steadfast faith in our Savior

that we may not fear the power of any adversaries;

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 43

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In context, Isaiah 50:4-9a is an odd lection to read on this Sunday.  The speaker–the prophet/servant (Second Isaiah)–is pious yet merely human, therefore, sinful.  He believes that the suffering of the exiles during the Babylonian Exile has been justified.  Yet he also anticipates the divine vindication of that exiled population, for the glory of God.  Applying this reading to sinless Jesus (who suffered an unjust execution as an innocent man) requires astounding theological gymnastics.

Judas Iscariot played an essential role in a divine plan.  The writers of the four canonical Gospels portrayed him negatively, for one major obvious reason.  The Gospel of John added that Judas was an embezzler (John 12:6).  Despite all this, Judas was not outside the mercy of God.  And he had not committed the unpardonable sin–blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:28; Luke 12:10).  Judas may have thought that he knew what he was doing, but he did not.  Recall Luke 23:24, O reader:

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

—The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)

I do not pretend to know the ultimate fate of Judas Iscariot.  I am not God.  I do, however, repeat my position that the only people in Hell are those who have condemned themselves.  God sends nobody to Hell.  Divine mercy and judgment exist in a balance I cannot grasp, for I am not God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 12, 2022 COMMON ERA

HOLY TUESDAY

THE FEAST OF HENRY SLOANE COFFIN, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR; AND HIS NEPHEW, WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN, JR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST

THE FEAST OF SAINT DAVID URIBE-VELASCO, MEXICAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1927

THE FEAST OF SAINT JULIUS I, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF SAINT ZENO OF VERONA, BISHOP

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Adapted from this post

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READING LUKE-ACTS, PART XXX

Above:  Woe Unto You, Scribes and Pharisees, by James Tissot

Image in the Public Domain

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Luke 12:1-12

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Leaven usually has a negative connotation in the Bible; leaven frequently symbolizes corruption.  The connotation is negative in Luke 12:1, where leaven represents hypocrisy.

As I feel the need to repeat ad nauseam, due to the pervasive nature of stereotypes, I have no interest in lambasting long-dead Pharisees and feeling morally smug.  Moral hypocrisy is a leaven that corrupts all of us.  Do not beat up on the Pharisees, O reader; look in the mirror instead.  I recall the late Henry Irving Louttit, Jr., when he was the Rector of Christ Episcopal Church, Valdosta, Georgia, describing the Pharisees as the good, churchgoing people of their time.  We conventionally pious people may be more similar to the Pharisees than we like to imagine.

12:2-9 describe fearless confession of faith, different from hypocrisy.  Verses 2 and 1 may seem truer in the age of smartphones and the internet than the recent past, much less antiquity.

I read 12:2-9 and wonder how those verses must have resounded with listeners and readers circa 85 C.E., when the Gospel of Luke was new.  I ponder the context of sporadic, regional persecution, the reality at the time.  This section of the Gospel of Luke resonates differently with me than it does with those who suffer persecution for their faith.  Many people have a persecution complex; I guess it makes them feel especially holy.  Many other people, however, know the experience of persecution.

The top priority of following Jesus, then en route to die, repeats.

The Lucan version of the unpardonable sin occurs in 12:10, divorced from certain critics accusing him of being in league with Satan (Luke 11:14-22; Matthew 12:25-32; Mark 3:23-30).  In the context of the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, the unpardonable sin–blasphemy against the Holy Spirit–is not being able to distinguish between good and evil.  The unpardonable sin, in the context of the Gospel of Luke, is apostasy and moral corruption.  In these contexts, taken together, the unpardonable sin is not being open to God’s truth.  God does not condemn one for committing the unpardonable sin.  No, one condemns oneself by committing it.

This point brings me back to the beginning of this post.  Grace is free, not cheap; it makes demands of its recipients.  For many Christians, that price has included persecution and/or martyrdom.  Hypocrisy and moral corruption may lead to committing the unpardonable sin.  Grace seeks us.  It pursues us.  May we welcome it and accept its demands.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 6, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

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READING LUKE-ACTS, PART XXI

Above:  Jesus and His Apostles

Image in the Public Domain

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Luke 8:16-21; 11:14-36

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In the Gospel of Luke, the Parable of the Lamp functions as an extension of the Parable of the Sower/the Four Soils.  Love and devotion to God accumulate within someone and draw others to God via that person.  The light shines.  Also, nobody has any secrets from God.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid:  Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), 355

The lamp in the parable had a spout, a cover, and a rounded body.  This was a small oil lamp.  It belonged on a lampstand, not under a bed or in a jar.  Theologically, a lamp stood for the light of God, shining in the darkness, in this parable.

The lamp is Jesus.  In other words, do not hide Jesus.

Luke 8:19-21, adapted from Mark 3:20-22, tones down the critique of Christ’s biological family.  In Mark 3, they think Jesus is out of his mind.  That, explicit in Mark 3, is absent in Luke 8.The Lucan version omits the relatives’ motive for seeking to speak with Jesus.  Therefore, the Lucan version presents them positively.  Nevertheless, the statement of fictive kinship carries over from the Marcan version.  The theme of hearing and doing, present in the Parables of the Sower/the Four Soils and the Lamp, continues here.  The biological family of Jesus functions as exemplars of hearing and doing in the Lucan version.

The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox insistence on the perpetual virginity of St. Mary of Nazareth puzzles me.  Of course, given that I reject the Virgin Birth, perpetual virginity predictably puzzles me.  In the Greek language, brothers and sisters can also be cousins.  Or they can be brothers and sisters.

The Marcan version of the story fits well with that Gospel’s theme that supposed insiders are really outsiders, and vice versa.  The Lucan version of the story is consistent with that Gospel’s toning down of the Marcan theme, given that the Acts of the Apostles follows the Gospel of Luke.  So, the eleven apostles who survived the Gospel of Luke could not be dolts if their transformation in Acts was to be believable.  Furthermore, the depiction of the biological family of Jesus in Luke 8 flows from previous material, in which St. Mary knew who her (firstborn) son was, Luke 2:39-52 notwithstanding.

The challenge to we of today is to be members of Christ’s spiritual family, that is, to hear the word of God (what God says) and to keep it.

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“Master,” said John, “we saw a man who was casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he was not following with us.”

But Jesus said, “Forbid him not, for he who is not with you is for you.”

–Luke 9:49-50, Helen Barrett Montgomery, The Centenary Translation of the New Testament (1924)

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“He who is not for me is against me, and he who is not gathering with me is scattering.”

–Luke 11:23, Helen Barrett Montgomery, The Centenary Translation of the New Testament (1924)

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Critics of Jesus did not understand that God was acting through Jesus.  The healings Jesus performed indicated the presence of the Kingdom of God, not evil. Judgment would come for those who slandered Jesus.

Likewise, when Jesus had removed evil from someone, that person needed to become filled with the word of God (what God said), or else evil would return in greater quantity than it had been when Christ had expelled it.

Luke 11:27 calls back to 8:19-21.  Regardless of how blessed and pious Christ’s biological family was, those who listened to and heard the word of God were blessed, too.  Loyalty to God, present in Jesus, takes precedence over family ties–no disrespect to relatives intended.  This is good news for the vast majority of us not of the family tree of Jesus.

Cutting through the symbolism and Biblical allusions in Luke 11:29-36, the message of these verses is:

1. Repentance is crucial,
2. The faith of many Gentiles contrasts with the faithlessness of many Jews,
3. God seeks to attract all people, and
4. The Christian life involves the whole body and all human action.

Seeking signs indicates a lack of trust in God.  Receiving a sign and not understanding it indicates obliviousness, at least.  Recall the Johannine version of the Feeding of the Five Thousand (John 6:1-14), O reader.  You and I may agree that it was an astounding sign.  Yet, recall the events of the next day, too.

Then they said to him:

“What sign, then, are you performing, so that we may see it and come to believe in you?  What work are you doing?  Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness, as it is written, ‘He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.'”  

–John 6:30-21, Helen Barrett Montgomery, The Centenary Translation of the New Testament (1924)

Those who asked that question had fined at the Feeding of the Five Thousand.

We need not seek signs; they are plentiful.  We need merely to pay proper attention, understand plainly, and behave and think accordingly, whoever we are.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 30, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF ALLEN EASTMAN CROSS, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF GEORGE WALLACE BRIGGS, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN MAIN, ANGLO-CANADIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK

THE FEAST OF JOSIAH BOOTH, ENGLISH ORGANIST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TUNE COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF FRANCES JOSEPH-GAUDET, AFRICAN-AMERICAN EDUCATOR, PRISON REFORMER, AND SOCIAL WORKER

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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:  Jesus and His Apostles

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 38:1-41 (portions) or Deuteronomy 30:5-6, 11-20

Psalm 46

James 5:1-11

Mark 3:20-34

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The law of God may be on our hearts and lips, if we are in a healthy spiritual state, but we should not assume healthy spirituality where none exists.  Besides, even if one is spiritually healthy at one moment, one still has weaknesses lurking in the shadows.  As Bernhard Anderson wrote in various editions of his Introduction to the Old Testament, Job and his alleged friends committed the same sin–presumption regarding God.  That is what the poem indicates.  However, God agrees with Job in the prose portion of Job 42.

Presumption is one of the sins on display in Mark 3:20-34.  I hope that none of us will go so far into presumption as to mistake the work of God for evil, but some will, of course.

Presumption rooted in high socio-economic status is a theme in James 4 and 5.  The epistle makes clear that God disapproves of the exploitation and other bad treatment of the poor.  The Letter of James, in so doing, continues a thread from the Hebrew Bible.  The Bible contains more content about wealth and poverty, the rich and the poor, than about sex, but one does know that if one’s Biblical knowledge comes from reactionary ministers dependent on large donations.  Presumption rooted in high socio-economic status remains current, unfortunately.  Human nature is a constant factor.

There is also the presumption that we know someone better than we do, as in Mark 3:31-34.  This is a theme in the Gospel of Mark, in which those who were closest to Jesus–his family, the disciples, and the villagers who saw him grow up–did not know him as well as they thought they did.  On the other hand, the the Gospel Mark depicts strangers and demons as recognizing Jesus for who he really was.  People we think we know will surprise us, for good or ill, sometimes.

May God deliver us from the sin of presumption present in ourselves and in others.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 18, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ADOLPHUS NELSON, SWEDISH-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINSTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHANN FRANCK, HEINRICH HELD, AND SIMON DACH, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITERS

THE FEAST OF RICHARD MASSIE, HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM BINGHAM TAPPAN, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2019/06/18/devotion-for-the-eighth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-humes/

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Above:  Jesus Healing the Man with a Withered Hand

Image in the Public Domain

Offering Blessings

NOT OBSERVED IN 2020

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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 12 or Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Psalm 44:1-8

James 4:1-17

Mark 3:1-9

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God has blessed us.

God continues to bless us.  One of the appropriate responses to these blessings is, in the context of gratitude to God, to bless others, even strangers in the land.  The generosity of God is more than sufficient to provide for everyone; scarcity is of human creation.

Good intentions are good, of course, but they are insufficient.  Many of them pave the road to Hell.  Good results are the necessary results of good intentions.  Job’s sarcasm at the beginning of Chapter 12 is understandable and appropriate, given the circumstances.  Interventions can be acts of love, but offering “wisdom” above one’s pay grade when the correct action is to offer a shoulder to cry on is a prime example of paving part of the road to Hell.

May we, with our good intentions, offer blessings, not curses.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 17, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF EDITH BOYLE MACALISTER, ENGLISH NOVELIST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT EMILY DE VIALAR, FOUNDER OF THE SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH OF THE APPARITION

THE FEAST OF JANE CROSS BELL SIMPSON, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN POET AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINTS TERESA AND MAFALDA OF PORTUGAL, PRINCESSES, QUEENS, AND NUNS; AND SAINT SANCHIA OF PORTUGAL, PRINCESS AND NUN

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2019/06/17/devotion-for-the-seventh-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-humes/

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Above:  The Wrath of Elihu, by William Blake

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 33:1-33

Psalm 34:11-18

Matthew 12:1-21 or Mark 3:7-19 or Luke 6:1-16

Hebrews 12:(1-3) 4-17

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When the righteous cry for help,

the LORD hears,

and rescues them from all their troubles.

–Psalm 34:17, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

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The speeches of Job in most of the Book of Job say otherwise.

Elihu, sounding pious and spouting a mix of truth and bad theology, blames the victim in Job 33.  Job must be suffering because of a sin, Elihu is certain.  Elihu is correct that

God does not fit man’s measure.

–Verse 12b, The Jerusalem Bible (1966).

Nevertheless, Elihu fails to recognize that God does not fit his measure.  Spiritual discipline by God is a reality, of course, but it does not explain all suffering.

One can quite easily become fixated on a set of rules and fail to recognize that they do not describe how God works.  For example, keeping the Sabbath is a healthy spiritual exercise.  It is properly an indication of freedom.  It is properly a gift.  It is properly a form of recognition of the necessity of rest.  It is improperly an occasion of legalism, such as in the cases of Jesus healing on the Sabbath and of he and his Apostles picking corn and grain on that day.  They did have to eat, did they not?  And did the man with the withered hand deserve to wait another day to receive his healing?

That healing on the Sabbath, according to all three accounts of it, prompted some of our Lord and Savior’s critics to plot his death.  Luke 6:11 (The New Revised Standard Version, 1989) reports that they were “filled with fury.”

Compassion is a timeless spiritual virtue, one frequently sacrificed on the altars of legalism and psychological defensiveness.  To be compassionate is better than to seek to sin an argument or to destroy one’s adversary.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SHEPHERD KNAPP, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF GOTTFRIED WILHELM SACER, GERMAN LUTHERAN ATTORNEY AND HYMN WRITER; AND FRANCES ELIZABETH COX, ENGLISH HYMN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINTS JOHN DUCKETT AND RALPH CORBY, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS IN ENGLAND

THE FEAST OF NIKOLAI GRUDTVIG, HYMN WRITER

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2016/09/08/devotion-for-the-fourth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-d/

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Above:  One of My Crucifixes, July 15, 2014

Image Source = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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The Collect:

Everlasting God, you give strength to the weak and power to the faint.

Make us agents of your healing and wholeness,

that your good may be made known to the ends your creation,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 24

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The Assigned Readings:

Job 6:1-13

Psalm 102:12-28

Mark 3:7-12

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The days of my life are like a lengthening shadow:

though I am withering away like grass

You remain, LORD, for ever:

succeeding generations will be reminded of you.

–Psalm 102:12-13, The Psalms Introduced and Newly Translated for Today’s Readers, Harry Mowvley (1989)

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Today we have readings about two men–one fictional, the other real–who suffered, but not for any sin they had committed.

The titular character of the Book of Job was righteous.  He suffered because God permitted it as a test of loyalty.  Job’s alleged friends defended their orthodoxy, which held that Job must be suffering for a sin or sins he had committed, for God, being just, would never let an innocent person suffer.  They blamed a victim and even gloated as he suffered.  After Eliphaz the Temanite stated that a righteous person’s merit can shield him or her from harm, Job said:

…What strength have I, that I should endure?

How long have I to live, that I should be patient?

–6:11, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Jesus had made deadly enemies as early as Mark 3:6.  (His offense had been to heal on the Sabbath.)  Throngs of people seeking healing pursued him, pressed upon him, and caused him great physical stress.  At least Jesus had Apostles to prepare a getaway boat.  But he still died at the hands of powerful political enemies.  Fortunately, there was also the Resurrection.

A few weeks ago I heard a new (to me, anyway) take on the statement that God will never give us more to bear than we can handle.  An individualistic understanding of that statement is erroneous, for we exist in spiritual community.  Thus God will not impose a burden too heavy for the community to bear.  This is about “we,” not “me.”  May we support each other and not be like Job’s alleged friends.  And there is more:  we have the merits of Christ.  That merit is sufficient, although it has not protected martyrs from harm.  The message I take away from that fact is that safety is not necessarily part of God’s promise to the faithful.  God will, however, be present with them.  How is that for burden-sharing community?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 2, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE THIRD DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF SAINT BRIOC, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT; AND SAINT TUDWAL, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND BISHOP

THE FEAST OF CHANNING MOORE WILLIAMS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP IN CHINA AND JAPAN

THE FEAST OF JOHN BROWN, ABOLITIONIST

THE FEAST OF SAINT OSMUND OF SALISBURY, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/devotion-for-wednesday-after-the-fifth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-elca-daily-lectionary/

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Above:  Jesus and His Apostles

Image in the Public Domain

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The Collect:

Almighty God, by grace alone you call us and accept us in your service.

Strengthen us by your Spirit, and make us worthy of your call,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 23

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The Assigned Readings:

Proverbs 8:1-21

Psalm 46

Mark 3:13-19a

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The Lord of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

–Psalm 46:7, Common Worship (2000)

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One understanding of divine wisdom in the Bible is that it became part and parcel of Jesus, the incarnated Logos of God, per John 1.  That thought fills my mind as I read from Proverbs 8.  The cry to all humankind filled the preaching of Christ’s Apostles.  It echoes down the corridors of time.

I wonder how many of those men would have followed Jesus had they known what awaited them.  One became disappointed in Jesus, whom he betrayed before committing suicide.  Ten became martyrs.  The twelfth lived to a ripe old age and died in exile.  Will we also follow Jesus?  Will we become disappointed in him then betray him somehow also?  Might we face danger and perhaps die for the faith we profess?  If we knew what awaited us from the beginning of our walk with Christ, would we have accepted the invitation?

Sometimes wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible promises prosperity as a reward for faithfulness to God.  Such passages lead to Prosperity Theology, a heresy.  Often, actually, fidelity to God leads to hardship.  As Proverbs 8, verse 19 states that the fruits of wisdom are superior to fine gold and verse 21 says that any financial reward for faithfulness will be honest wealth.  There is an offset to Prosperity Theology in that pericope.

May we follow God in Christ wherever the path leads.  If we become disappointed, may we realize that the fault resides within us, not God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 23, 2014 COMMON ERA

PROPER 29–CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY–THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR A

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 SAINT CLEMENT I OF ROME, BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT COLUMBAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF MIGUEL AUGUSTIN PRO, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR

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Adapted from this post:

https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/devotion-for-wednesday-after-the-third-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-b-elca-daily-lectionary/

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