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:  A Vineyard

Image in the Public Domain

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Acts 8:26-40

Psalm 22:24-30 (LBW) or Psalm 22:25-31 (LW)

1 John 3:18-24

John 15:1-8

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O God, form the minds of your faithful people into a single will. 

Make us love what you command and desire what you promise,

that, amid, all the changes of this world,

our hearts may be fixed where true joy is found;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 22

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O God, you make the minds of your faithful to be of one will;

therefore grant to your people that they may love what you command

and desire what you promise,

that among the manifold changes of this age our hearts

may ever be fixed where true joys are to be found;

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), 53

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A common thread running through the readings for this Sunday is asking and receiving.  For example:

Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.  And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

–1 John 3:21-23, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

In other words, if we want what God desires, and if we pray for that, we will receive it.  That makes sense.  This message contradicts Prosperity Theology, an old heresy popular in certain quarters these days.  If I, for example, need reliable transportation, praying for that is morally and spiritually acceptable.  And I may receive a Chevrolet, not a Cadillac.  I will, however, get from Point A to Point B safely and reliably.  On a related note, the good life, in terms of the Book of Psalms, includes having enough for each day, not necessarily being wealthy.

Elsewhere in the New Testament, one can read about having the mind of Christ.  That concept applies to the material for today.  We have Jesus as, among other things, our role model.  We, as Christians, must follow his example.  We must love as he loved.  When we consider that Christ’s love led to his execution, we realize that this mandate is serious business, not a mere slogan.  The Right Reverend Robert C. Wright, the Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta, says to

love like Jesus.

Bishop Wright understands that this is serious business, not a mere slogan.

Think, O reader, what may happen to you if you were to love like Jesus in your context and to pray for causes consistent with the will of God?  How would that change you?  How would it change your community, your nation-state, and the world?  What repercussions might you face for loving like Jesus?  How many professing Christians would oppose you?

During my research for my M.A. thesis, I found a case in point.  J. Robert Harris was the pastor of the Fort Gaines Baptist Church, Fort Gaines, Georgia, in the early and middle 1950s.  He left that position under a cloud between August and November 1955.  The chatty local newspaper never mentioned his departure, which followed either his firing or his forced resignation.  (I read two versions of the story.)  Harris had publicly supported the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and involved an African-American youth in his church’s vacation Bible school.  Harris became the pastor of the Plains Baptist Church, Plains, Georgia, which he served until his resignation in the late 1960s.  Failing health was the official cause of the resignation.  However, the pastor’s recent sermon in favor of civil rights had been unpopular with his congregation.  Harris had once preached a sermon in which he had asked his flock, in so many words:

If being Christian were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

In the case of J. Robert Harris, the answer was affirmative.  He loved like Jesus and ran afoul of other professing Christians entrenched in racist social norms.

Loving like Jesus makes one a radical in a world with upside-down standards.  Loving like Jesus entails living the Golden Rule.  Loving like Jesus entails living both versions of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5 and Luke 6).  Loving like Jesus entails bearing much fruit (John 15:8).

Psalm 22 speaks of God acting.  In Hebrew thought, the actions of God reveal the divine character.  Likewise, my actions reveal my character.  And your actions, O reader, reveal your character.  Is it a godly character?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 22, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTY-FIFTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINT DEOGRATIAS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF CARTHAGE

THE FEAST OF EMMANUEL MOURNIER, FRENCH PERSONALIST PHILOSOPHER

THE FEAST OF JAMES DE KOVEN, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

THE FEAST OF THOMAS HUGHES, BRITISH SOCIAL REFORMER AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM EDWARD HICKSON, ENGLISH MUSIC EDUCATOR AND SOCIAL REFORMER

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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:  Good Shepherd

Image in the Public Domain

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Acts 4:23-33

Psalm 23

1 John 3:1-2

John 10:11-18

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God of all power,

you called from death our Lord Jesus Christ,

the great shepherd of the sheep. 

Send us as shepherds to rescue the lost,

to heal the injured,

and to feed one another with knowledge and understanding;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

OR

Almighty God,

you show the light of your truth to those in darkness,

to lead them into the way of righteousness. 

Give strength to all who are joined in the family of the Church,

so that they will resolutely reject what erodes their faith

and firmly follow what faith requires;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 22

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Almighty God, merciful Father,

since you have wakened from death the Shepherd of your sheep,

grant us your Holy Spirit that we may know the voice of our Shepherd

and follow him that sin and death may never pluck us out of your hand;

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 52

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The Fourth Sunday of Easter is Good Shepherd Sunday on more than one lectionary.

• YHWH is the Good Shepherd in Psalm 23.  In that text, only divine goodness and steadfast love either pursue or accompany the psalmist.  The enemies, not invited to the divine banquet, do not harm the psalmist.
• Jesus is the Good Shepherd in John 10.   He knows his sheep, who, in turn, recognize him.  And the Good Shepherd sacrifices himself for his sheep.
• Yet many in the “the world”–kosmos, in Greek–fail to recognize God and Jesus.  These spiritually blind people live according to the values which the Beatitudes (Matthew 5) and the Beatitudes and Woes (Luke 6) contradict.  Many of these spiritually blind people are conventionally religious, by the standards of their cultures or subcultures.

“Sacred violence” is a value of the kosmos, the morally disordered world.  Notice the absence of “sacred violence” in Psalm 23 and John 10, O reader.  God does not smite the psalmist’s foes.  God does, however, force them to watch a grand banquet to which God did not invite them.  And the perpetrators of the violence in John 10 are not acting out of divine love.  These two readings contradict some disturbing stories of violence committed in the name of God and allegedly in obedience to divine commands.  Elijah’s massacre of the prophets of Baal Peor (1 Kings 18:40-41) comes to my mind immediately.

I, having read the full canon of the Bible–all 73 books–reject the stereotype of God changing character between Testaments.  Divine judgment and mercy exist in balance in both the Old and the New Testaments.  Beautiful passages about divine mercy exist in both Testaments.  Likewise, so do harrowing passages about divine judgment.

I am a Christian.  Therefore, my concept of God hinges on Jesus of Nazareth.  I read stories about Jesus dying violently, not having people killed.  I read about Jesus expressing righteous anger, something everyone should do.  Yet I read no stories about Jesus ordering hatred or violence.  So, God, as I understand God, does not order hatred and violence either.  No, God is love.  God triumphs over hatred and violence with love.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 21, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTY-FOURTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH, AND JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH, COMPOSERS

THE FEAST OF SAINT LUCIA OF VERONA, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC TERTIARY AND MARTYR, 1574

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARK GJANI, ALBANIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1947

THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS OF FLÜE AND HIS GRANDSON, SAINT CONRAD SCHEUBER, SWISS HERMITS

THE FEAST OF SAINT SERAPION OF THMUIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

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Adapted from this post

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART XXVIII

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Psalm 37

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Many wicked people flourish, and a host of righteous people do not prosper.  Psalm 37 acknowledges this reality.  Divine justice will play out, the text tells us.  Our schedule is not God’s schedule, we read.

The Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) and the Beatitudes and Woes (Luke 6:20-26) contain echoes of Psalm 37.  Pay close attention to the references to “the land” or “the earth” (depending on translation) in Psalm 37, O reader.  Those are germane to Matthew 5, also.  The meek will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:6).  Another link to Psalm 37 comes in Luke 6:24, in which we read:

But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.

—Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

The context of Luke 6:24 was a society in which a relative few people were wealthy, and the vast majority of the population was impoverished.  The rich maintained their wealth and status via exploitation.

Walter Brueggemann provides the key to this post.  Human beings are stewards of God’s creation.  In the Bible, we read examples of the link between land possession and the governance and purpose of God.  Psalm 37 affirms the imperative of living

in responsible awareness of the Creator and his intention.

—The Message of the Psalms:  A Theological Commentary (1984), 44

To live to the contrary is to yield the land.  Yet,

The just will inherit the earth

and abide forever upon it.

–Psalm 37:29, Robert Alter

In the meantime, though, the opening injunction not to permit evildoers to vex or incense (depending on translation) remains difficult.  The promise that soon they will “wither like grass” provides little or no comfort.  We human beings exist within linear time; God does not.  And how soon is “soon”?

So, we become vexed, incensed, and impatient.  Of course, we do!  Even the most devout of us need reminders to trust in God and to act justly.  Notice the link between trust in God and positive actions, O reader.  Affirming the efficacy of prayer does not improve a situation.  In other words, the stereotypical offering of “thoughts and prayers” can be a copout and a poor excuse for doing nothing when one can do something.  To quote the title of an editorial I read in a Roman Catholic magazine in the 1990s,

Get Off Your Values and Get to Work.

So, O reader, we have work to do.  May we trust God to empower us to perform it capably.  May our work bring the world closer to the ideal of Psalm 37.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 2, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF SAINT GASPAR DEL BUFALO, FOUNDER OF THE MISSIONARIES OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD

THE FEAST OF JOHANN KONRAD WILHELM LOEHE, BAVARIAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, AND COORDINATOR OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MISSIONS

THE FEAST OF SAINTS NARCISSUS OF TOMI, ARGEUS OF TOMI, AND MARCELLINUS OF TOMI, ROMAN MARTYRS, 320

THE FEAST OF SAINT ODILO OF CLUNY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

THE FEAST OF SABINE BARING-GOULD, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART XXIV

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Psalm 31

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People steeped in scripture speak and, if they are literate, write in scriptural terms.  I know this from experience.  Perhaps you, O reader, do, too.  And, not surprisingly, the Bible contains texts from people steeped in scripture.  Therefore, some parts of the Bible echo other portions of the Bible.  Psalm 31 is a fine text for a study of this pattern.  Psalm 31 quotes the prophet Jeremiah, alludes to Jonah, and echoes other psalms.

The psalmist had been seriously ill for a long time.  He, feeling abandoned by friends and besieged by enemies, turned to God.  The psalmist also acknowledged his sinfulness and confessed his sins.  He was also honest about his anger:

Let the wicked be humiliated, 

hurled into Sheol!

–Verse 18b, Mitchell J. Dahood

I understand that resentment-fueled anger.  I recall easily praying along similar lines, minus Sheol.

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

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), 355

God knows us better than we know ourselves.  So, misguided piety which tells us not to tell God x, y, and z does not conceal x, y, and z from God.  May we be honest with God and ourselves.  If that honesty leads to seemingly impious prayers, so be it.  We can take everything to God, who already knows everything about us.  Those parts of our spiritual lives that are not all sunshine and kittens can transform, by grace.  But we need to be honest.  We cannot move forward in the right direction until we (a) admit where we are, and(b) trust God and lead us along the proper path forever.

The paths of God may not be identical for any two people.  The paths will vary according to circumstances.  Yet the paths of God terminate at the same destination and have the same moral-spiritual definition.  They are paths of love for God, other people, ourselves, and all of creation.  They are paths of mutuality and the Golden Rule.  They are paths of honesty with God and ourselves.  Many of these paths intersect, and overlap, so some of us may walk together for a while.  May we support each other as we do so.

One of the most difficult conditions about which to be honest is brokenness.  Admitting that one is spiritually and/or emotionally broken may violate a cultural norm or a social more.  Doing so may also threaten one’s ego.  Admitting one’s brokenness to God leads to accepting one’s complete dependence upon God.  So much for rugged individualism!

I admit frankly and readily that I am not spiritually and emotionally whole.  I carry a heavy load of grief from which, I expect, I will never recover fully.  Trauma persists.  I tell you nothing that I have not admitted to God.  I know that spiritual self-sufficiency is a delusion.

“How happy those who know their need for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs!  

“How happy are those who know what sorrow means, for they will be given courage and comfort.”

–Matthew 5:3-4, J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English–Revised Edition (1972)

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 29, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FIFTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF ANTONIO CALDARA, ROMAN CATHOLIC COMPOSER AND MUSICIAN

THE FEAST OF JOHN BURNETT MORRIS, SR., EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

THE FEAST OF PHILIPP HEINRICH MOLTHER, GERMAN MORAVIAN MINISTER, BISHOP, COMPOSER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINT THOMAS BECKET, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, AND MARTYR, 1170

THE FEAST OF THOMAS COTTERILL, ENGLISH PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND LITURGIST

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART I

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Psalm 1

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I have studied the Book of Psalms for decades.  I started by keeping notebooks nobody else saw.  I have been blogging through lectionaries since 2010.  I have also taught some iteration of a class on the Revised Common Lectionary since August 2015.

“Reading the Book of Psalms” is a companion project to the Septuagint Psalter Project (2017), all posts of which exist here at BLOGA THEOLOGICA.  The main organizing principle at the Septuagint Psalter Project is the pattern for reading through the Book of Psalms in thirty-one days (morning and evening) in The Book of Common Prayer (1979).  The plan for this new project follows a combination of factors, though.  Two texts may have originally been one text, may have a similar theme, may be nearly identical, et cetera.  A spreadsheet I have created guides this project.

I invite you, O reader, to join me on this guided tour of the Book of Psalms.

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The placement of the text labeled Psalm 1 is logical and intentional.  Psalm 1 is the summary of the Book of Psalms.

The first verse opens with a beatitude.  The man who studies the torah and keeps its ethical obligations is, depending on the translation, blessed, happy, or fortunate.  He is a man in the narrow definition of “man,” in the original context.  Psalm 1 comes from a time before women studied the torah.  The blessed man is stable while the wicked are unstable and in motion.  When they do find a stable posture and a place to dwell, they are in the wrong place.

The definition of torah matters.  Narrowly, it refers to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.  But, in the Book of Psalms, the definition is broad.  The definition of torah is divine instruction, with law built in.  So, to return to content from the previous paragraph, the blessed man stands in contrast to the wicked, who pursue dubious moral choices in life.  Their dubious moral choices exist outside divine instruction.

One may do well to ponder the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes and Woes in Luke 6.  Those beatitudes (and woes) are countercultural.  They are not upside-down.  No, they reveal that the world’s conventional wisdom is upside-down.  Likewise, the beatitude in Psalm 1:1 performs the same function.  The pious may not seem to be blessed, but they are blessed.  And the wicked may appear to be fortunate or happy, but they are, in words of Luke 6, receiving their consolation.

Psalm 1 also likens the blessed man to a tree planted by streams of water in a desert.  Water is precious.  It is especially precious in a desert.  In that setting, a tree planted by streams of water has the source of sustenance it needs to thrive.

For the sake of context, I tell you, O reader, that I have just completed a study of the Book of Job.  So, that work of wisdom literature is fresh in my mind.  The wind bags who posed as friend of Job sound like many verses in Psalms and Proverbs.  All four of them sound like Psalm 1, with its message that the righteous flourish and the wicked perish.

Given that scripture is one context in which to interpret scripture, how ought we to interpret Psalm 1, then?  I propose that we start with the particulars of Biblical blessedness.  Such blessedness has outward manifestations.  Such blessedness does not preclude unjust suffering, as many psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Tobit, the example of Jesus, the example of St. Paul the Apostle, the examples of a great cloud of martyrs, and the examples of other witnesses attest.  The water of divine instruction enables the blessed man, woman, or child to bear much spiritual fruit.  The prosperity in Psalm 1 is not evidence of selfish ambition.  No, this prosperity affirms that the righteous and the blessed have tapped into God, on whom they rely.  Their life is in God.  That is their prosperity.

“Righteousness” is another word that requires definition.  Biblically, a righteous person has right relationships with God, others, and self.  Righteousness is synonymous with justice.  Righteousness is tangible.  To return to my immediately prior Bible study project, the four pneumatic pains in every part of the human anatomy are not righteous.  They lack right relationship with God and Job, at least.

Psalm 1 is theocentric; God is the core.  God is the source of a blessed person’s identity and strength.  The blessed man, woman, or child is like a flourishing, well-watered tree in a desert.  God does not promise an easy life and material riches.  Yet God does promise never to abandon anyone.  Whether one wants to heed God is an individual matter.  Nevertheless, even those who reject God are not outside the scope of divine love.  Yet, as Psalm 1 attests, the wicked–those who go their own way–choose their path.  To cite a cliché, they lie down in the bed they have made.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 6, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE TENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINT NICHOLAS OF MYRA, BISHOP OF MYRA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ABRAHAM OF KRATIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, ABBOT, BISHOP OF KRATIA, AND HERMIT

THE FEAST OF ALICE FREEMAN PALMER, U.S. EDUCATOR AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ANNE ROSS COUSIN, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF HENRY USTICK ONDERDONK, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF NEW YORK, LITURGIST, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF PHILIP BERRIGAN AND HIS BROTHER, DANIEL BERRIGAN, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND SOCIAL ACTIVISTS

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

Above:  All Saints

Image in the Public Domain

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Isaiah 26:1-4, 8-9, 12-13, 19-21

Psalm 34:1-10

Revelation 21:9-11, 22-27 (22:1-5) (LBW) or Revelation 7:2-17 (LW)

Matthew 5:1-12

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Almighty God, whose people are knit together

in one holy Church, the body of Christ our Lord: 

Grant us grace to follow your blessed saints

in lives of faith and commitment,

and to know the inexpressible joys

you have prepared for those who love you;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 36

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O almighty God, by whom we are graciously knit together

as one communion and fellowship

in the mystical body of Jesus Christ, our Lord,

grant us to follow your blessed saints

in all virtuous and godly living

that we may come to those unspeakable joys

which you have prepared for those who unfeignedly love you;

through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 116

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The communion of saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by sacrament, prayer, and praise.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), 862

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Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

—The Westminster Larger Catechism (1647)

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I am a ritualistic Episcopalian and a student of history.  Therefore, ecclesiastical history appeals to me.  The study of lives of the sains–glorified, canonized, beatified, declared venerable, or none of these–is a spiritually profitable venture.  Reading about how members of the family of Christ have lived their baptismal vows in a variety of cultures, places, and centuries can help one live one’s baptismal vows.  I find that my ongoing study of lives of the saints frequently makes me feel spiritually inadequate.

Notice the quote from the Episcopal catechism, O reader.  The communion of saints includes

those whom we love and whose whom we hurt.

Our spiritual kinfolk include those whom we do not recognize as being so.  Therefore, we hurt them.  We may even feel justified in doing this to them.

Who are your “secret” (to you) kinfolk in Christ, O reader?  Who are mine?

May we all, by grace, grow into our spiritual vocations of glorifying God, and fully enjoying God forever.  May we do this together.  And may we cease to hurt one another.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 21, 2022 COMMON ERA

PROPER 16:  THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF SAINT BRUNO ZEMBOL, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIAR AND MARTYR, 1942

THE FEAST OF SAINTS CAMERIUS, CISELLUS, AND LUXURIUS OF SARDINIA, MARTYRS, 303

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILLIAN OF ANTIOCH, MARTYR, CIRCA 353; AND SAINTS BONOSUS AND MAXIMIANUS THE SOLDIER, MARTYRS, 362

THE FEAST OF SAINT VICTOIRE RASOAMANARIVO, MALAGASY ROMAN CATHOLIC LAYWOMAN

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Adapted from this post

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

Above:  Jeremiah, from the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, by Michelangelo Buonaroti

Image in the Public Domain

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Jeremiah 15:15-21

Psalm 26 (LBW) or Psalm 119:105-112 (LW)

Romans 12:1-8

Matthew 16:21-26

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O God, we thank you for your Son,

who chose the path of suffering for the sake of the world. 

Humble us by his example,

point us to the path of obedience,

and give us strength to follow his commands;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 27

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Lord of all power and might, Author and Giver of all good things,

graft in our hearts the love of your name,

increase in us true religion,

nourish us with all goodness,

and bring forth in us the fruit of good works;

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), 78

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The assigned readings for this Sunday speak of obeying God and suffering for doing so.  Recall, O reader, the fate of the prophet Jeremiah–involuntary exile in Egypt.  Consider, too, the crucifixion of Jesus.  And, given that I publish this post on the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, consider the execution of that saint.

Persecution of the Church was usually intermittent in Roman times.  Empire-wide persecutions were rare.  Regional persecutions came and went.  Yet the pall of persecution–actual or possible–hung over the writing of the New Testament.  The Church was young, small, and growing.  Pulling together in mutuality was good advice.

It remains good advice.  No bad context for mutuality exists.  Reading past Romans 12:8, every day is a good day to avoid evil, to practice brotherly love, to regard others as more important than oneself, to work conscientiously with an eager spirit, to be joyful in hope, to persevere in hardship, to pray regularly, to share with those in need, and to seek opportunities, to be hospitable.

The results of taking up one’s cross and following Jesus are predictable, in general terms.  Details vary according to circumstances.  To take up one’s cross and follow Jesus is to reorder one’s priorities so that they become Jesus’s priorities.  Doing so invites an adverse reaction from agents of the morally upside-down world order, constrained by conventional wisdom.

Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.

–Matthew 5:11-12, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

Who can make the point better than that?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 24, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST

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Adapted from this post

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

Above:  Icon of Hosea

Image in the Public Domain

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Hosea 5:15-6:6

Psalm 50:1-15 (LBW) or Psalm 119:65-72 (LW)

Romans 4:18-25

Matthew 9:9-13

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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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For I desire goodness, not sacrifice;

Obedience to God, rather than burnt offerings.

–Hosea 6:6, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985, 1999)

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Yet the Law of Moses commands sacrifices and burst offerings.

Hebrew prophets did not always express themselves as clearly as some of us may wish they had.  In context, Hosea 6:6 referred to God rejecting the opportunistic appearance of repentance or a habitually errant population.  Divinely-ordained rituals were not properly talismans; they did not protect one from one’s proverbial chickens coming home to roost.  Hosea 6:6 asserted the primacy of morality over rituals.

I am neither a puritan nor a pietist.  I favor polishing God’s altar and eschew condemning “externals.”

God, metaphorically, is a consuming fire.  Before God, therefore, false repentance does not impress.  The attitude in Psalm 119 is preferable:

Before I was humbled, I strayed,

but now I keep your word.

You are good, and you do what is good;

teach me your statutes.

–Psalm 119:67-68, The Revised New Jerusalem Bible (2019)

Sometimes recognizing one’s need to repent may be a challenge.  How can one repent if one does not think one needs to do so?  How can one turn one’s back on one’s sins (some of them, anyway) unless one knows what those sins are?  Self-righteousness creates spiritual obstacles.

How happy are they who know their need for God, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

–Matthew 5:3, J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English–Revised Edition (1972)

The test, O reader, for whether you need God is simple.  Check for your pulse.  If you have one, you need God.  We all stand in the need of grace; may we admit this then think and act accordingly.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 2, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ALEXANDER OF ALEXANDRIA, PATRIARCH; AND SAINT ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, PATRIARCH AND “FATHER OF ORTHODOXY”

THE FEAST OF CHARLES SILVESTER HORNE, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH HASSE, GERMAN-BRITISH MORAVIAN COMPOSER AND EDUCATOR

THE FEAST OF ELIAS BOUDINOT, IV, U.S. STATESMAN, PHILANTHROPIST, AND WITNESS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

THE FEAST OF JULIA BULKLEY CADY CORY, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT SIGISMUND OF BURGUNDY, KING; CLOTILDA, FRANKISH QUEEN; AND CLODOALD, FRANKISH PRINCE AND ABBOT

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Adapted from this post

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READING LUKE-ACTS, PART XLV

Above:  Avenge Me of Mine Adversary

Image in the Public Domain

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Luke 18:1-14

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Luke 18 is a well-composed and arranged study in contrasts.  The first contrasts play out in the two parables that open the chapter.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow and the Corrupt/Unjust Judge (vs. 1-8) exists within a cultural context in which widows were vulnerable.  The widow in the parable has to defend her own rights because nobody else will.  She threatens the judge with a black eye, thereby convincing him to grant her justice.  God is the opposite of that judge.  God readily secures the rights of who petition for them.  Therefore, pray persistently and faithfully.

Certain scholars of the New Testament debate whether some texts refer to tax collectors or to toll collectors.  For my purposes in this post, that is a distinction without a difference, though.  So, as I turn to Luke 17:9-14, the collector of taxes or tolls (It matters not which one.) is a social pariah because of his collection duties.

Let us be honest–brutally so, if necessary.  Spiritual pride may be a sin with which you, O reader, are familiar, even if only by knowing someone who has it.  Clarence Jordan, in his Cotton Patch Version of the Gospel of Luke (Jesus’ Doings), changes the Pharisee to a church member and the tax/toll collector to an unsaved man.  That updating of the parable hits home, does it not?  Those who know their need for God are open to God.

Recall Luke 17:7-10, O reader; humility before God is the proper attitude.  One may also remember Matthew 5:3:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

—The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

“Poor in spirit” is a translation that may be so familiar as to seem trite.  Other options exist, however.

Clarence Jordan has “spiritually humble.”

David Bentley Hart translates this Beatitude as:

How blissful the destitute, abject in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of the heavens….

A note in Hart’s The New Testament:  A Translation (2017) indicates that the connotation is that of a cowering or cringing poor man or beggar.

La Bible en Français Courant (1997) reads:

Heureux ceux qui se savent pauvres en eux-mêmes, ….

In English, it reads:

Blessed are those who know they are poor in themselves….

That is a fine translation, too.

Perhaps the best rendering in English comes from J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English–Revised Edition (1972):

How happy are they who know their need for God….

We are all poor in ourselves.  We all need God.  How many of us know it, though?

May we humbly and persistently walk before God and with God, trusting in God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 27, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS JEROME, PAULA OF ROME, EUSTOCHIUM, BLAESILLA, MARCELLA, AND LEA OF ROME

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANGELA MERICI, FOUNDER OF THE COMPANY OF SAINT URSULA

THE FEAST OF SAINT CAROLINA SANTOCANALE, FOUNDER OF THE CAPUCHIN SISTERS OF THE IMMACULATE OF LOURDES

THE FEAST OF CASPAR NEUMANN, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF MARY EVELYN “MEV” PULEO, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC PHOTOJOURNALIST AND ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

THE FEAST OF PIERRE BATIFFOL, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, HISTORIAN, AND THEOLOGIAN

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

Above:  Angry Talk

Image in the Public Domain

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Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18

Psalm 103:1-13

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Matthew 5:38-48

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Lord God, we ask you to keep your family, the Church, faithful to you,

that all who lean on the hope of your promises

may gain strength from the power of your love;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 16

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God of compassion, keep before us the love

you have revealed in your Son, who prayed even for his enemies;

in our words and deeds help us to be like him

through whom we pray, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 16

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O Lord, keep your family and Church continually in the true faith

that they who lean on the hope of your heavenly grace

may ever be defended by your mighty power;

through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.  

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 28

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Whenever I hear someone refer to the God of the Hebrew Bible as mainly judgmental and the God of the New Testament as primarily merciful, I wonder how closely that person has read the Old and New Testaments.  Judgment and mercy remain in balance throughout the Old and New Testaments.  Consider the readings from the Old Testament for today, O reader.  Recall, also, that

an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth 

(Exodus 21:24)

curtails violence.  Furthermore, nowhere does the Law of Moses say to hate one’s enemies.

St. Paul the Apostle, writing to the argumentative and self-destructive church in Corinth, told them that they were God’s temple in that city.  That was good news.  A warning preceded it:

God will destroy anyone who defiles his temple, for his temple is holy…..

–1 Corinthians 3:17a, J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition (1972)

Agents of destruction frequently come from within, as in the case of the Corinthian church.

I wonder what the world would be like if the socially expected and normative behavior was to love people, or at least to be civil toward them.  I wonder what the world would be like if this extended to everyone.  I do not live in that world, of course.  I live in the world in which social media are mostly agents and conduits of anger, misinformation, half-baked conspiracy theories, and damn lies.  I live in the world in which sound advice includes not to read the comments section of a webpage.

Divine judgment and mercy exist in a balance.  I do not pretend to understand what that balance is.  I do not know where judgment gives way to mercy, and mercy to judgment.  I do trust that God gets the balance right.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 26, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS TIMOTHY, TITUS, AND SILAS, C0-WORKERS OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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Adapted from this post

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