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:  Supper at Emmaus, by Caravaggio

Image in the Public Domain

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Acts 4:8-12

Psalm 139:1-11 (LBW) or Psalm 16 (LW)

1 John 1:1-2:2

Luke 24:36-49

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

O God, by the humiliation of your Son you lifted up this fallen world,

rescuing us from the hopelessness of death. 

Grant your faithful people a share in the joys that are eternal;

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), 21

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

O almighty and eternal God,

now that you have assured us of

the completion of our redemption

through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ,

give us the will to show forth in our lives

what we profess with our lips;

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), 51

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Multiple contexts for correctly interpreting scripture exist.  These include history, science, culture, and other passages of scripture.  Given the range of time and of Biblical authors, some internal contradictions exist.  That is unavoidable.

In the case of our reading from the First Epistle of John, however, we find our context within the Johannine tradition and that document itself.  1 John 3:6 tells us:

Anyone who abides in Jesus does not sin; anyone who sins has not seen him, nor has he known him.

—Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

Yet we read in 1 John 1:8 that those who claim to lack sin deceive themselves.  The truth–in Johannine terms, activated integrity–is not in them.  Recall, O reader, what I wrote in last Sunday’s devotion:  In the Gospel of John, sin is the failure to recognize the divine revelation of God in Jesus.  Elsewhere in the Bible–as in the Gospel of Matthew–sin is a moral failing.

While I am defining words, I add “righteousness” to the list.  Righteousness is right relationship with God, self, others, and all of creation.

A complicating factor in First John is that the text mixes the two definitions of sin.  When we consider all the germane verses from the Gospel of John and the First Epistle of John, we arrive at a synthesis:  We all have moral failings.  If we are penitent, God forgives us and restores us to right relationship with God, self, others, and all of creation.  Jesus eradicates the power of our moral failings over us, both collectively and individually.  And, given that the Johannine understanding of sin is failing to recognize the divine revelation in Christ (John 20:22-23), nobody who is in Christ sins, according to that definition of sin.  Such a person has no theological license to wallow in habitual moral failings, regardless of what certain members of the original audience of First John may have thought.

I hope that is a clear explanation.

A friend (now deceased) interceded for others by praying for “God’s best” for them.  Bill’s prayer has become my petition for others and myself.

God’s best precludes habitual moral failings.  God’s best entails breaking such habits, both collectively and individually.  We all have habitual moral failings, both collectively and individually.  And we are all subject to moral blind spots, both collectively and individually.  Furthermore, moral perfectionism is an impossible standard.  However, we–both collectively and individually–can improve, with divine assistance.  Despite the power of negative habits and habitual moral failings, we can admit that grace is not a license for them.

God is always with us; we are never on our own and alone.

I remember a story about a Nazi guard taunting a Jew in a concentration camp.

The guard had forced the Jew to clean the especially disgusting toilets.  That guard asked the Jew:

Where is your God now?

The Jew replied:

Beside me, in the muck.

God is beside us–collectively and individually–in the muck of the world and our lives.  Do we recognize God in our presence?  If so, how do we respond?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 20, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SEBASTIAN CASTELLIO, PROPHET OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

THE FEAST OF CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH, HYMN WRITER AND ANGLICAN BISHOP OF LINCOLN

THE FEAST OF ELLEN GATES STARR, U.S. EPISCOPAL THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTIVIST AND REFORMER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIA JOSEFA SANCHO DE GUERRA, FOUNDER OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE SERVANTS OF THE POOR

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL RODIGAST, GERMAN LUTHERAN ACADEMIC AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SIMON WILLIAM GABRIEL BRUTÉ DE RÉMUR, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF VINCENNES

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Adapted from this post

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Advertisement

I covered 150 psalms in 82 posts.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART LXXIX

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Psalm 139

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We’re all bastards, but God loves us anyway.

—Will Campbell (1924-2013)

Psalm 139 gives me theological whiplash.  It opens with pious introspection and praise of God.  Then the text expresses hatred for the wicked and those who hate God.  The psalmist wishes that God would “slay the wicked.”  Then Psalm 139 concludes with a pious prayer for divine guidance.

In my adopted tradition, the following prayer occurs early in the Holy Eucharist, Rite II:

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and 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 Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), 355

Wickedness is the rejection of divine generosity.  Therefore, the wicked cannot be generous.  They are greedy.  When the wicked give, they do so in a stingy manner.  They imagine that they mut rely on their own strength, resources, and devices.  These are the people whom the psalmist wishes God would slay.  These are the people the psalmist hates.

Examine me, O God, and know my mind;

probe me and know my thoughts.

See if I have vexatious ways,

and guide me in ways everlasting.

–Psalm 139:23-24, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

One may imagine that God considers such hatred “vexatious.”

Nevertheless, I understand such emotional outbursts and strong feelings.   I recall a painful period of my life more than a decade ago:  A man whom I did not know, by doing his job, as he believed was proper, pushed me to the edge of suicide.  I do not think warm and positive thoughts about him as I write this post.  I even think some profane titles for him.  I spare you those titles and leave them to hour imagination, O reader.  So, yes, I understand this psalm and others like it.  My foe may not have been wicked, but I care about the result more than the intention.

We mere mortals, in our limited knowledge, may inadvertently commit horrible deeds, thereby damaging other people.  Not all abuse is intentional.  So, by grace, may we avoid harming one another as much as possible.  And, when we feel hatred or animosity rising internally, may we take our darker feelings to God.  May we never permit these feelings to define or to overwhelm us.  We can never escape or hide from God, who loves us, knows us better than we know ourselves, and in whom we can become the best possible versions of ourselves.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 22, 2023 COMMON ERA

ASH WEDNESDAY

THE FEAST OF HANS SCHOLL, SOPHIE SCHOLL, AND CHRISTOPH PROBST, ANTI-NAZI MARTYRS AT MUNICH, GERMANY, 1943

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARGARET OF CORTONA, PENTIENT AND FOUNDER OF THE POOR ONES

THE FEAST OF CHARLES JOHN VINCENT, JR., ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF GEORGE CLEMENT MARTIN, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT PRAETEXTATUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF ROUEN

THE FEAST OF THOMAS BINNEY, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, LITURGIST, AND “ARCHBISHOP OF NONCONFORMITY”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Above:  Nero

Image in the Public Domain

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Genesis 16:1-15 or Nehemiah 9:5-38

Psalm 139:1-18, 23-24

Revelation 13:11-18

John 12:1-11

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As I wrote in the previous post in this series, the author (“John,” whoever he was) of the Revelation depicted the Roman Empire as being evil.

When we–you, O reader, and I–turn to Revelation 13:11-18, we read of the Antichrist–perhaps Nero (“666” in Greek), originally.  Anyhow, the reference is to a Roman Emperor.  To make matters especially confusing, some of the Antichrist’s works are legitimate and wondrous.  In other words, appearances can deceive.

The reading from Nehemiah 9 speaks of faithful acts of God and of faithless, oblivious people.  It also mentions penitent people.  Genesis 16 follows up on the covenant in Genesis 15.  Genesis 16 sets up a series of unfortunate events in subsequent chapters.  One may draw the conclusion the text invites one to make:  Wait for God to fulfill divine promises.  Do not act to make them happen.  Have faith.  Trust God.

Yet one may also wonder how to know which works come from God.  Appearances can deceive, after all.  Besides, one may not expect God to act in a certain way (such as the Incarnation or the crucifixion).  Therefore, one may see God act and fail to recognize what God has done and is doing.

I offer no easy answer to this difficult question.  I have only one answer:  pray.  Prayer consists primarily of listening and watching, actually.  The best definition of prayer I can muster is the heightened sense of awareness of being in the presence of God.  As Psalm 139 tells us, we can never leave the presence of God.  We can, however, be oblivious to it or be aware of it.

May God help us to identify correctly all that is of God.  And may we pay attention.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 25, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE CONVERSION OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Adapted from this post:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2021/01/25/devotion-for-proper-21-year-d-humes/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

READING JONAH

Above:  Israeli Stamp of Jonah

Image in the Public Domain

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

PART I

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Jonah 1:1-17 (Protestant and Anglican)

Jonah 1:1-2:1 (Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Where can I go then from your Spirit?

where can I flee from your presence?

If I climb up to heaven, you are there;

if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.

–Psalm 139:6-7, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Book of Jonah is a theologically rich work of pious fiction.  Other works within that category in the Old Testament include Esther, Daniel, Tobit, and Judith.  The story of Jonah, written after the Babylonian Exile, contradicts the combined witness of ancient historical sources and much of the Hebrew Bible.  That is fine.  It is not a problem if one reads the Book of Jonah for what it is.

Shall we begin, O reader?

Nineveh was the capital of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.  Empires rose and fell in Mesopotamia and beyond.  The Neo-Assyrian Empire was notoriously violent.  The Neo-Assyrian Empire absorbed the Kingdom of Aram in 732 B.C.E. and the Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.E..  Then the Neo-Assyrian Empire menaced the Kingdom of Judah and reduced it to vassalage.  Finally, the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 609 B.C.E.

The story of Jonah played out before the fall of Samaria.  The titular character was a subject of the Kingdom of Israel.  His name comes from that of a prophet (2 Kings 14:25) who prophesied during the reign (788-747 B.C.E.) of King Jeroboam II of Israel.

Jonah received and immediately rejected the call of God.  He went not to Nineveh but in the opposite direction–to the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea.  He paid his fare for a journey to Tarshish, perhaps in Asia Minor or Spain.  During a severe storm, Jonah’s faithlessness became obvious.  The pagan sailors had more faith in YHWH than Jonah did.  Jonah probably hoped for death; it would spare him having to go to Nineveh.

God had other plans, though.

The author, writing in the Persian Period, knew well that Nineveh lay in ruins.  He also had a relatively generous attitude toward many Gentiles.  Persian kings sponsored the building of the Second Temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s walls.  King Cyrus II of the Persians and the Medes had conquered the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire and permitted Jewish exiles to return to their ancestral homeland.

Another theme present in these verses is the balance of divine judgment and mercy.  Repentance can avert judgment, or delay it, at least.  We tend to approve of divine mercy on ourselves and on those similar to us, do we not?  And do we not also prefer divine judgment on those we find objectionable.  Perhaps they are objectionable.  They are also human beings who bear the image of God.  They need to repent as much as we do.

I have learned much about the churched and the unchurched via conversations.  I have learned that the minds of many of the unchurched are more open to deep theological discussions than those of many of the churched.  I have chosen a denomination (The Episcopal Church) renowned for its embrace of questions.  I have, however, long known that many other denominations have cultures hostile to questions.  Some of their members have told me to my face and via email that I will go to Hell because I ask too many questions and think too much.  I did not make the mistake afterward of mistaking them for people who ask a sufficient number of questions and think enough.  I have also found that many of the unchurched, often refugees from churches, are often open to engaging in serious theological discussions.

The point that the pagan sailors had more faith in YHWH than Jonah did resonates with me, therefore.  To borrow a theme from the New Testament, especially the Gospel of Mark, those who think they are insiders may actually be outsiders, and visa versa.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

NOVEMBER 9, 2020 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MARTIN CHEMNITZ, GERMAN LUTHERAN THEOLOGIAN, AND “SECOND MARTIN”

THE FEAST OF JOHANN(ES) MATTHAUS MEYFART, GERMAN LUTHERAN EDUCATOR AND DEVOTIONAL WRITER

THE FEAST OF MARGERY KEMPE, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MYSTIC AND PILGRIM

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CROSWELL, EPISCOPAL PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Look! those who hate you, Yahweh, have I hated,

Above:  Abraham

Image in the Public Domain

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For the Second Sunday Before Lent, Year 1

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

O Lord God, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do;

mercifully grant that by thy power,

we may be defended against all adversity;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 139

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Genesis 18:16-33

Psalm 139:1-16, 23, 24

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Luke 6:27-49

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Character matters.  It is also destiny, as a wise saying reminds us.

This set of readings presents us with challenges.  We may prefer to say with the author of Psalm 139, in verses omitted from the lectionary,

and your challengers held in loathing.

With perfect hatred have I hated them,

they have been my foes.

–Translated by Mitchell J. Dahood (1970), verses 21 and 22

Praying for our enemies–loving them, praying for them, not about them–is truly challenging.  I do not pretend to have mastered it.

Even our enemies have the potential to repent and become agents of righteousness.  They possess spiritual gifts that, applied, can work for the common good.  Repentance remains an option.

I need, at least as much as anyone else, to remember not to write off people who work for iniquity and spew hatred.  After all, if I also spew hatred, how different and morally superior am I?

Character matters.  It is also destiny.  Others may doom themselves.  That is unfortunate, but I cannot make up their minds for them.  I can, however, make up my mind.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 21, 2020 COMMON ERA

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

THE FEAST OF JOHN S. STAMM, BISHOP OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH THEN THE EVANGELICAL UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH

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

THE FEAST OF UMPHREY LEE, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER AND MINISTER OF SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Book One: Psalms 1-41

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The psalter of the Septuagint contains 151 psalms.

I have written based on all of them, in numerical order.  I have retained the Hebrew numbering system, not that of the Septuagint.

Although I have no theological reticence to venture into textual territory that, according the United Methodism of my youth, is apocryphal, I do have limits.  They reside in the realm of Orthodoxy, with its range of scriptural canons.  Beyond that one finds the Pseudipigrapha.  Psalm 151 concludes the Book of Psalms in The Orthodox Study Bible (2008); so be it.

The Hebrew psalter concludes with Psalm 150.  In other psalters, however, the count is higher.  In certain editions of the Septuagint, for example, Psalm 151 is an appendix to the Book of Psalms.  In other editions of the Septuagint, however, Psalm 151 is an integrated part of the psalter.  There is also the matter of the Syraic psalter, which goes as high as Psalm 155.  I have no immediate plans to ponder Psalms 152-155, however.  Neither do I plan to read and write about Psalms 156-160 any time soon, if ever.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 23, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MARTIN DE PORRES AND JUAN MACIAS, HUMANITARIANS AND DOMINICAN LAY BROTHERS; SAINT ROSE OF LIMA, HUMANITARIAN AND DOMINICAN SISTER; AND SAINT TURIBIUS OF MOGROVEJO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF LIMA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JOHN COPELAND, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

Book Two:  Psalms 42-72

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

Book Three:  Psalms 73-89

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

Book Four:  Psalms 90-106

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

Book Five:  Psalms 107-150

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119:1-32

119:33-72

119:73-104

119:105-144

119:145-176

120

121

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146

147

148

149

150

Also in the Greek:  Psalm 151

151

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

POST LVII OF LX

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Book of Common Prayer (1979) includes a plan for reading the Book of Psalms in morning and evening installments for 30 days.  I am therefore blogging through the Psalms in 60 posts.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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 everlasting 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 226

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Psalm 139 opens and concludes piously.  The author also asks God to examine him spiritually and writes of God’s omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience.  Unfortunately, the psalmist’s piety includes the understanding that solidarity with God entails hatred for God’s enemies.  The author of Psalm 139 seeks their destruction, not their repentance.  This is a perspective one also finds in Psalm 140, in which the author is under siege from evil, lawless men whose words are like weapons.

I do not defend evil, lawless people who engage in slander and/or violence.  Neither do I stand up for enemies of God.  I do not, however, seek their destruction and damnation.  No, I seek their repentance; I want them to amend their lives.

Hatred, after all, is a vice, not a virtue.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

AUGUST 22, 2017 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JACK LAYTON, CANADIAN ACTIVIST AND FEDERAL LEADER OF THE NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY

THE FEAST OF JOHN DRYDEN, ENGLISH PURITAN THEN ANGLICAN THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC POET, PLAYWRIGHT, AND TRANSLATOR

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Above:   Sky with Clouds

Image in the Public Domain

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Collect:

God among us, we gather in the name of your Son

to learn love for one another.  Keep our feet from evil paths.

Turn our minds to your wisdom and our hearts to the grace

revealed in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 48

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Assigned Readings:

Ezekiel 22:17-31

Psalm 113

Romans 8:31-39

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Who is like the LORD our God, who sits enthroned on high,

but stoops to behold the heavens and the earth?

He takes up the weak out of the dust and lifts up the poor from the ashes.

He sets them with the princes, with the princes of his people.

–Psalm 113:5-7, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The reading from Ezekiel 22 is full of divine judgment on the unrighteous, notably false prophets who have stolen from people, destroyed lives, and taken lives, among other offenses.

I will repay them for their conduct–declares the Lord GOD.

–Ezekiel 22:31b, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Good news for the oppressed is frequently bad news for their unrepentant oppressors.

St. Paul the Apostle made a wonderful point about the love of God in Christ:

For I am certain of this:  neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing, can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.

–Romans 8:38-39, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

That passage reminds me of Psalm 139, in which the author praises God for being omnipresent:

Where could I go to escape your spirit?

Where could I flee from your presence?

If I climb the heavens, you are there,

there too, if I lie in Sheol.

If I flew to the point of sunrise,

or westward across the sea,

your hand would still be guiding me,

your right hand holding me.

If I asked darkness to cover me,

and light to become night around me,

that darkness would not be dark to you,

night would be as light as day.

–Psalm 139:7-12, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

On the other hand, the author of Psalm 139 prays that God will kill the wicked and announces his hatred of those who hate God in verses 19-22.  Does not the love of God extend to them?  Does not God desire that they confess their sins and repent?  Does not God prefer that oppressors cease their oppression and become godly?  In Psalm 23 God prepares a banquet for the author in the presence of the author’s enemies, who are powerless to prevent the banquet.  Furthermore, only divine goodness and kindness pursue the author; his enemies fall away, unable to keep up with divine love and might.

God does not separate us from divine love, grace, kindness, and mercy.  No, we choose to acknowledge it and to act accordingly or to do the opposite.  Love comes with the possibility of rejection and the duty of acceptance.  Grace is free yet definitely not cheap, for it changes its recipients; it comes with obligations.  God liberates us to love, glorify, and enjoy Him forever.  Will we accept that grace and its accompanying duties, especially those regarding how we treat our fellow human beings?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 19, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT ANDREW BOBOLA, JESUIT MARTYR

THE FEAST OF SAINT DUNSTAN OF CANTERBURY, ABBOT OF GLASTONBURY AND ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

THE FEAST OF SAINT IVO OF CHARTRES, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT IVO OF KERMARTIN, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND ADVOCATE OF THE POOR

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Adapted from this post:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2016/05/19/devotion-for-friday-before-proper-20-year-c-elca-daily-lectionary/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Above:  Jeremiah, from the Sistine Chapel

Image in the Public Domain

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Collect:

O God, our teacher and guide,

you draw us to yourself and welcome us as beloved children.

Help us to lay aside all envy and selfish ambition,

that we may walk in your ways of wisdom and understanding

as servants of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 48

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Assigned Readings:

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Psalm 139:1-18

John 8:21-38

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

How deep I find your thoughts, O God!

how great is the sum of them!

If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand;

to count them all, my lifespan would need to be like yours.

–Psalm 139:16-17, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Many people (especially those who opposed Jeremiah and Jesus) had a different opinion.  Both men had to contend with violence and threats thereof because of their faithful witness to God.  One died in exile; the other endured crucifixion, died, rose again, and returned to Heaven.  Their messages have endured, fortunately.

I have thought deeply about why so many people resort to violence in opposition to nonviolent adversaries.  Jeremiah, who lived in a theocratic puppet state of a foreign power, challenged the legitimate authorities of his realm.  He called them what they were.  Those authorities were politically legitimate, but they were proving ruinous to the kingdom, such as it was.  Jesus challenged a theocratic Temple system which exploited the poor, collaborated with the Roman Empire, and peddled a piety dependent upon prosperity.  He, by words, deeds, and mere existence, made clear that the Temple system was wrong.  In both cases authority figures depended upon their privileges.  To the extent that they excused their violence as righteous they belied their claims of righteousness.

President Abraham Lincoln cautioned against claiming that God was on one’s side.  A good question, he said, is whether one is on God’s side.  Determining the definition of God’s side is often easier after the fact than in the moment, however.  Many professing American Christians with orthodox Christology defended chattel slavery by quoting the Bible in the 1800s.  At the time many others quoted the same sacred anthology to make the opposite argument.  I know which group was on God’s side.  However, I also have the benefit of 150 years of hindsight since the end of the Civil War.

Arguments in which impassioned people who differ strongly with each other and invoke God continue.  Not all sides can be correct, of course.  May the invocation of God to justify bigotry cease.  May the use of allegedly sacred violence follow suit.  Such violence flows from heated rhetoric, which flows from hostile thoughts.  Peace (or at least a decrease of violence) begins between one’s ears.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 30, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF JOHANN OLAF WALLIN, ARCHBISHOP OF UPPSALA AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ARTHUR JAMES MOORE, UNITED METHODIST BISHOP IN GEORGIA

THE FEAST OF HEINRICH LONAS, GERMAN MORAVIAN ORGANIST, COMPOSER, AND LITURGIST

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Adapted from this post:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/devotion-for-wednesday-after-proper-20-year-b-elca-daily-lectionary/

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++