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:  Pentecost, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Image in the Public Domain

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Acts 3:13-15, 17-26

Psalm 148

1 John 5:1-6

John 20:19-31

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Almighty God, we have celebrated with joy

the festival of our Lord’s resurrection. 

Graciously help us to show the power of the resurrection

in all that we say and do;

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

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Grant, almighty God,

that we who have celebrated the mystery of the Lord’s resurrection

may by the help of your grace bring forth

the fruits thereof in our life and conduct;

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), 50

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Biblical authors did not always define certain words the same way.  For example, “sin” meant a moral failing in Matthew 18:18 yet a theological failing in John 20:22-23.  In the Johannine theological context, sin was the failure to recognize the revelation of God in Jesus.  Hence, a Christian did not sin, in Johannine theological terms (1 John 3:6).  Also, forgiving sins was a task for the faith community empowered by the Holy Spirit.  This faith community, empowered by the Holy Spirit, continued the work of Jesus.

The First Epistle of John tells us that the love of God entails keeping divine commandments, which are not burdensome.  The Gospel of John has Jesus say that those who love him will keep his commandments (14:23).  The most basic commandment of Jesus is the Golden Rule.  That should not be burdensome, should it?

God forgives sins, whichever definition one uses.  So should the communities of the people of God.  Repentance must precede forgiveness, especially if one defines sins as moral failings.  Forgiveness without prior repentance is cheap grace–something meaningless and not transformative.

Just as repentance must precede forgiveness for forgiveness to mean anything, truth must precede reconciliation, something else Jesus brings and God grants.  In the Johannine lexicon, truth means “activated integrity.”  It is not a philosophical abstraction; no truth is something lived.  The hard work of being honest must precede the graces of reconciliation and forgiveness.  This is a lesson which many people–including certain politicians and many of their supporters–prefer to ignore.  They seek to brush difficulties of the collective and/or individual past under the proverbial rug.  They seek the cheap graces of painless forgiveness and faux reconciliation without prior repentance and the acknowledgment of reality.  And they often do so in the name of Jesus, unfortunately.  They, therefore, mock God, truth, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

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

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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:  Jacob’s Ladder, by William Blake

Image in the Public Domain

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Genesis 28:10-17 (18-22)

Psalm 115:1, 9-18 (LBW) or Psalm 142 (LW)

Romans 5:1-11

Mark 8:31-38

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Heavenly Father, it is your glory always to have mercy. 

Bring back all who have erred and strayed from your ways;

lead them again to embrace in faith

the truth of your Word and hold it fast;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

or

God our Father, your Son welcomed

an outcast woman because of her faith. 

Give us faith like hers,

that we also may trust only in our Love for us

and may accept one another as we have been accepted by 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), 18

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O God, whose glory is always to have mercy,

be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways,

and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith

to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word;

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), 34

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People reach out to God in the assigned psalms.  God, however, reaches out to people in the other readings.  The assigned psalms also acknowledge that God has reached out.  Reaching extends in both directions.

Divine reaching out is grace.  Grace, by definition, is unmerited, free, and not cheap.  It costs God much.  We can read the canonical Passion narratives and learn what it cost Jesus.  And grace imposes demands upon its recipients.  Sometimes the cross one bears may be close to literal, not metaphorical.  The long line of martyrs attests to a variety of crosses those who have died for the faith have carried.

Regardless of what grace demands of one, it transforms its recipients.  Priorities change, for example.  Even just that matter leads to consequences, which may be unpleasant or worse.  This is a truth which many members of the original audiences of the canonical Gospels understood.  One may reasonably imagine such people nodding their heads knowingly at stories of Jesus speaking of suffering for the sake of righteousness and of enduring rejection from relatives.

Those of us fortunate enough not to suffer any of those consequences can still attest that grace has transformed us.  Grace has been transforming me for as long as I can remember–since early childhood.  It has been transforming me since before I can remember, actually.  Grace is a divine initiative; God is the lead actor, so to speak.

If grace should do nothing else, it should make one more gracious.  Perhaps you, O reader, know of or know someone who became more difficult and perhaps intolerable following his or her conversion experience.  If a conversion experience makes a person obnoxious, something has gone wrong.

Grace transformed Jacob from a trickster into a patriarch and confirmed the covenantal promise applied to him.

How might grace transform you, O reader?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 15, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE NINETEENTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINT ZACHARY OF ROME, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF SAINTS JAN ADALBERT BALICKI AND LADISLAUS FINDYSZ, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN POLAND

THE FEAST OF JEAN BAPTISTE CALKIN, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF OZORA STEARNS DAVIS, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, THEOLOGIAN, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF VETHAPPPAN SOLOMON, APOSTLE TO THE SOLOMON ISLANDS

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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:  Elisha Refuses the Gifts of Naaman, by Pieter de Grebber

Image in the Public Domain

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2 Kings 5:1-14

Psalm 32

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Mark 1:40-45

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Lord God, mercifully receive the prayers of your people. 

Help us to see and understand the things we ought to do,

and give us grace and power to do them;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 16

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O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers

of your people who call upon you,

and grant that they may understand the things they ought to do

and also may have grace and strength to accomplish them;

through Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 27

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“Leprosy” is a misleading translation commonplace in renderings of the assigned readings from 2 Kings 5 and Mark 1.  Modern diagnoses would vary, if we had more detailed language in the ancient texts.  The reference is to a range of dermatological conditions, all of which made one ritually unclean and brought social implications with that status.

I may not have to tell you, O reader, that how others think of then treat one may be devastating.  Ostracism can take a toll on a person, for example.

Healing and cleansing from so-called leprosy meant restoration to family and community.  in Mark 1:40-45, the holiness of Jesus overpowered the cause of the man’s ritual impurity.

Ritual impurity is not sin; one may contract it by following the Law of  oses.  For example, burying the dead properly is an obligation in the Law of Moses.  Yet that act creates corpse impurity in the living.  And one may contract social impurity while going about the mundane activities of daily life.  Ritual impurity, a concept ubiquitous in the ancient Mediterranean world, is alien to my North American context.  Yet I cannot properly understand much of the Bible without grasping ritual impurity and purity.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 flows from 9:19-23, outside of which 9:24-27 makes no sense.  We read of the commitment of St. Paul the Apostle to Christ.  Grace is free yet never cheap.  If you have any doubt of that, O reader, ponder what grace required of St. Paul.

I invite you, O reader, to contrast the restoration to family and community that results from the restoration to ritual purity with the alienation from family and community that may result from following Jesus.  Consider St. Paul, who experienced beatings, scorn, and incarcerations for the sake of Christ.  Consider St. Paul, who became a martyr for the sake of Jesus.  Psalm 32 may seem unduly optimistic, but if one understands well-being to flow from God, that text is realistic.  Persecutions cannot interfere with well-being in God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 12, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINTS TRASILLA AND EMILIANA; THEIR SISTER-IN-LAW, SAINT SYLVIA OF ROME; AND HER SON, SAINT GREGORY I “THE GREAT,” BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF HENRY WALFORD DAVIES, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF JOHN H. CALDWELL, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER AND SOCIAL REFORMER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILIAN OF TREVESTE, ROMAN CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR AND MARTYR 295

THE FEAST OF RUTILIO GRANDE, EL SALVADORAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1977

THE FEAST OF SAINT THEOPHANES THE CHRONICLER, DEFENDER OF ICONS

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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:  Oak Tree in the Midlands of England, 1865-1890

Image in the Public Domain

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Isaiah 61:1-3, 10-11

Luke 1:46b-55

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

John 1:6-8, 19-28

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Almighty God, you once called John the Baptist

to give witness to the coming of your Son and to prepare his way. 

Grant us, your people, the wisdom to see your purpose today

and the openness to hear your will,

that we may witness to Christ’s coming and so prepare his way;

through 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), 13

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Almighty God, through John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ,

you once proclaimed salvation;

now grant that we may know this salvation and serve you

in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 13

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The emphasis in three of the four readings this week is on comfort.

• The context in (Third) Isaiah 61:1-3, 10-11 is the disappointment of many Jewish former exiles regarding the condition of their ancestral homeland.
• The readings from the New Testament share the context of the first century of the Common Era.  The Magnificat blends comfort and castigation–comfort for those who need it and castigation for those who deserve it.  Divine judgment and mercy remain in balance.  As I have read, the purpose of the Gospel is to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.  That saying is consistent with the Gospel of Luke, with its theme of reversal of fortune.  Indeed, comfort for the afflicted is frequently an affliction for those afflicting them.

Given that the emphasis this week is divine comfort, may we dwell there, too.  May we frolic in it and thank God for it.  And may we ponder how God is calling us to function as agents of divine comfort.  How much better would the world be if more people went out of their way to comfort others instead of ignoring or afflicting them?  Receiving grace imposes the obligation to extend it to others.  Grace is free, not cheap.

So, O reader, pay attention and look around.  How is God calling you to extend comfort?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 1, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE EIGHTH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINTS ANNA OF OXENHALL AND HER FAITHFUL DESCENDANTS, SAINT WENNA THE QUEEN, SAINT NON, SAINT SAMSON OF DOL, SAINT CYBI, AND SAINT DAVID OF WALES

THE FEAST OF EDWARD DEARLE, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF GEORGE WISHART, SCOTTISH CALVINIST REFORMER AND MARTYR, 1546; AND WALTER MILNE, SCOTTISH PROTESTANT MARTYR

THE FEAST OF RICHARD REDHEAD, ANGLICAN COMPOSER, ORGANIST, AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT ROGER LEFORT, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF BOURGES

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Adapted from this post

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART XXXIX

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Psalm 51

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Psalm 51, attributed to David after the events of 2 Samuel 11 and 12, most probably dates to centuries later.  The reference to rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in verse 20 (Jewish versification) is a major clue.  Alternatively, the final two verses constitute an addition.  Regardless, an elaborate confession of sins is typical in later psalms, not earlier ones.  So, Davidic authorship is highly unlikely.

My associations with Psalm 51 are musical and liturgical.  I recall Miserere Mei, Deus, the masterpiece by Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652).  The alternating pattern between Gregorian Chant and glorious Renaissance polyphony is astounding.  I also pray Psalm 51 as a member of my Episcopal congregation every Ash Wednesday.

Look, in transgression was I conceived,

and in offenses my mother spawned me.

–Psalm 51:7, Robert Alter

Original sin is a Western Christian–not a Jewish or Eastern Christian–doctrine.  Given that Psalm 51 is a Jewish text, Psalm 51:7 cannot be, in Jewish terms, a proof text for original sin.  The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014) suggests that the psalmist’s words were expressions of extreme guilt that caused him to think of himself as inherently sinful.  Robert Alter notes that yaham, the verb attached to the mother, indicates lust and usually refers to animals in heat.  Verse 7 refers to an individual case, not all of humanity.

The psalmist, aware of the severity of his sins, feels the weight of them.  He understands that he deserves harsh punishment from God.  Yet the psalmist perceives correctly that truth must precede reconciliation.  So, he, remorseful, confesses his sinful state and repents.

I seek to be clear.  Remorse precedes confession and repentance.  To repent is to change one’s mind and to turn one’s back to sins.  Repentance is a change of attitudes and a matter of actions.  As we think, we are.

One timeless pattern playing out yet again as I write this blog post is that a politician, caught being a scuzbucket, a confidence man, and a shameless, serial liar, seeks forgiveness without expressing genuine remorse.  We all do stupid things, he says.  Yes, we do, but we all do not lie to use the Holocaust for our political gain.  To seek forgiveness without expressing genuine remorse is to seek cheap grace, which costs nothing and is worth as much.  Grace is free yet not cheap; it requires faithful response from the recipient.

So, O reader, what does grace require of you?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 13, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT HILARY OF POITIERS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF POITIERS, “ATHANASIUS OF THE WEST,” AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS PROTÉGÉ, SAINT MARTIN OF TOURS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF TOURS

THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN KEIMANN, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF EDGAR J. GOODSPEED, U.S. BAPTIST BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF GEORGE FOX, FOUNDER OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS

THE FEAST OF MARY SLESSOR, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY IN WEST AFRICA

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL PREISWERK, SWISS REFORMED MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

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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:  The Parable of the Net

Image in the Public Domain

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1 Kings 3:5-12

Psalm 119:129-136

Romans 8:28-30

Matthew 13:44-52

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O God, your ears are always open to the prayers of your servants. 

Open our hearts and minds to you,

that we may live in harmony with your will

and receive the gifts of your Spirit;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 26

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O God, the Protector of all who trust in you,

without whom nothing is strong and nothing is holy,

increase and multiply your mercy on us,

that with you as our Ruler and Guide,

we may so pass through things temporal,

that we lose not the things eternal;

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), 71

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Redeem me from human oppression….

–Psalm 119:134a, The Revised New Jerusalem Bible (2019)

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Good news and bad news come together.

1. The reading from 1 Kings 3 marinates in hindsight and the wasted potential of King Solomon, who had come to power like Michael Corleone, settling disputes with murder.  One may reasonably speculate that King Solomon had already cast his die before 1 Kings 3.  Nevertheless, hope springs eternal, to quote a cliché.
2. We read a portion of Psalm 119, in which the author extols God’s commandments in the context of human oppression.
3. Single Predestination (Romans 8:28-30) is to Heaven.  Those not so predestined have the witness of the Holy Spirit available to them.
4. We read that, at the end of the age, the angels will separate the wicked from the righteous.  This is good news for the righteous and bad news for the wicked.  Divine judgment and mercy exist in balance.

I paid little attention to predestination when I was a Methodist.  My theology has shifted, however, into Anglican-Lutheranism, which includes Single Predestination.  After growing up ignoring passages such as Romans 8:28-30, I have embraced them.

The good news of Single Predestination, paired with the witness of the Holy Spirit, is grace.  Those predestined receive one form of grace.  Those not predestined receive another form of grace.  Their free will to accept or reject the witness of the Holy Spirit exists because of grace.  Everything boils down to grace.

We human beings do not have to earn everything.  We cannot earn grace.  If we accept it, we also accept its demands on our lives.  Grace is free, not cheap.

Good news and bad news come together.  We mere mortals make our bad news and some of our good news.  God brings us good news.  Are we receptive to it?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYL0R

JUNE 18, 2022 COMMON ERA

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

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

THE FEAST OF BERNARD MIZEKI, ANGLICAN CATECHIST AND CONVERT IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA, 1896

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

THE FEAST OF RICHARD MASSIE, HYMN TRANSLATOR

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

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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:  Sheep

Image in the Public Domain

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Exodus 19:2-8a

Psalm 100

Romans 5:6-11

Matthew 9:35-10:8

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God, our maker and redeemer,

you have made us a new company of priests

to bear witness to the Gospel. 

Enable us to be faithful to our calling

to make known your promises to all the world;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 24

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Almighty and everlasting God,

give us an increase of faith, hope, and love;

and that we may obtain what you have promised,

make us love what you have commanded;

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), 65

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The mandate of the people of God–Jews and Gentiles alike–is to be, in the language of Exodus 19:6,

…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

—TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985, 1999)

Individually and collectively agreeing to that is relatively easy.  Following through on that commitment is relatively difficult, though.  It is impossible without grace.  We are sheep–prone to go astray with little or no prompting.  We need reconciliation to God and one another, as well as to ourselves.

God has acted to effect reconciliation.  That, then, leaves the human side of the relationship.  Grace is free, not cheap; it imposes the obligation of faithful response to God.  How we treat our fellow human beings is bound up with our response to God.

Do not imagine, O reader, that I have worked out all these details in my life.  Do not think that I have achieved an advanced stage of spiritual development.  I know myself too well to assert that I have done what I described in the first two sentences of this paragraph.  No, I muddle through, accumulating a mixed record daily.  Therefore, I write this post to myself as much as I write it to you.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 3, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CAROLINE CHISHOLM, ENGLISH HUMANITARIAN AND SOCIAL REFORMER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MARIE-LÉONIE PARADIS, FOUNDER OF THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAMILY

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MAURA AND TIMOTHY OF ANTINOE, MARTYRS, 286

THE FEAST OF SAINT TOMASSO ACERBIS, CAPUCHIN FRIAR

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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:  Figs

Image in the Public Domain

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Deuteronomy 11:18-21, 26-28

Psalm 31:1-5 (6-18), 19-24 (LBW) or Psalm 4 (LW)

Romans 3:21-25a, 27-28

Matthew 7:(15-20) 21-29

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Lord God of all nations,

you have revealed your will to your people

and promised your help to us all. 

Help us to hear and to do what you command,

that the darkness may be overcome by the power of your light;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 24

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O God,

whose never-failing providence sets in order all things

both in heaven and on earth,

put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things;

and give us those things that are profitable for us;

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 62

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Jewish Covenantal Nomism, present in Deuteronomy 11 and in the background of Romans 3, establishes the tone for this post.  Salvation for Jews comes by grace; they are the Chosen People.  Keeping the moral mandates of the Law of Moses habitually is essential to retaining that salvation.

Love, therefore, the LORD your God, and always keep His charge.  His laws, His rules, and His commandments.

–Deuteronomy 11:1, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985,1999)

Perfection in these matters is impossible, of course.  Therefore, repentance is crucial daily.  In broader Biblical context, God knows that we mere mortals are “but dust.”  Do we?

Grace is free, not cheap.  Nobody can earn or purchase it, but grace does require much of its recipients.  Thin, too, O reader, how much it cost Jesus.

Both options for the Psalm this Sunday contain the combination of trust in God and pleading with God.  I know this feeling.  Maybe you do, too, O reader.

St. Paul the Apostle’s critique of Judaism was simply that it was not Christianity.  As E. P. Sanders wrote:

In short, this is what Paul finds wrong in Judaism:  it is not Christianity.

—Paul and Palestinian Judaism:  A Comparison of Patterns of Religion (1977), 552

For St. Paul, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus changed everything.

I, as a Christian, agree.  However, I also affirm the continuation of the Jewish covenant.  I trust that God is faithful to all Jews and Gentiles who fulfill their ends of the covenant and mourns those who drop out.  Many of those who have dropped out may not know that they have done so.

The good fruit of God, boiled down to its essence and one word, is love.  Recall the First Letter of John, O reader:  Be in Christ.  Walk in the way Jesus walked.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

–1 John 5:2-3a, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002), 203

And how could we forget 1 John 4:7-8?

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God; God is love.

—Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

This point brings me back to Psalm 31.  In verse 6 or 7 (depending on versification), either God or the Psalmist hates or detests idolators.  Translations disagree on who hates or detests the idolators.  In context, the voice of Psalm 31 is that of a devout Jews falsely accused of idolatry; he protests against this charge and defends his piety and innocence.  Human beings are capable of hating and detesting, of course.  I reject the argument that God hates or detests anyone, though.

Salvation comes via grace.  Damnation comes via works, however.  God sends nobody to Hell.  As C. S. Lewis wrote, the doors to Hell are locked from the inside.

The Right Reverend Robert C. Wright, the Episcopal Bishop of Atlanta, says to love like Jesus.  Consider, O reader, that Christ’s love is self-sacrificial and unconditional.  It beckons people to love in the same way.  This divine love, flowing through mere mortals, can turn upside-down societies, systems, and institutions right side up.

However, anger, grudges, and hatred are alluring idols.  Much of social media feeds off a steady diet of outrage.  To be fair, some outrage is morally justifiable.  If, for example, human trafficking does not outrage you, O reader, I do not want to know you.  But too much outrage is spiritually and socially toxic.  To borrow a line from Network (1976):

I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!

That kind of rage is a key ingredient in a recipe for a dysfunctional society.

We human beings all belong to God and each other.  We are responsible to and for each other.  May we think and act accordingly, by grace and for the common good.  God commands it.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 1, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF SAINTS PHILIP AND JAMES, APOSTLES AND MARTYRS

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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:  The Return from Egypt, by James Tissot

Image in the Public Domain

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Isaiah 63:7-9

Psalm 111

Galatians 4:4-7

Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23

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Almighty God, you wonderfully created

and yet more wonderfully restored the dignity of human nature. 

In your mercy, let us share the divine life of Jesus Christ

who came to share our humanity,

and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 14

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Direct us, O Lord, in all our actions by your gracious favor,

and further us with your continual help that in all our works,

begun, continued, and ended in your name,

we may glorify your holy name and

finally by your mercy receive eternal life;

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), 18

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Isaiah 63:7-64:11 is a psalm of lament.  For this week, we read the first three verses.  For more context, O reader, keep reading.  The theme of human (collective) faithlessness, in contrast to divine faithfulness, is prominent.  That theme runs through the other readings, too.

Yet some people are faithful.  They may be Jews or Zoroastrians (Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23).  Either way, they do what God commands.  They may be Jews or Gentiles (Galatians 4:4-7).  They are heirs–literally, sons of God.  (Sons inherited in St. Paul the Apostle’s cultural context.  Daughters did not.)

Grace is free, not cheap.  Just ask God–Jesus, in particular, O reader.  Grace also requires much of its recipients.  Grace transforms its recipients and the world, by extension.  Grace requires faithful response to God, whom nobody should mistake for a divine vending machine.  Yet certain results are predictable.  As logicians remind us:

If x, then y.

In personal matters, I speak and write only for myself, and aspire to do only that.  In my experience, God and grace have seemed closest during dark times.  I have grown the most, spiritually, when the proverbial bottom has fallen out of my life.  God and grace may have been as close during better times, but I have perceived them as being closer during worse times.  Maybe the light merely seemed brighter in contrast to the darkness.

I acknowledge my dependence on grace.  Daily I establish the goal to be the best possible version of myself.  I, being a mere mortal, fail, of course.  But striving for that goal is worthwhile.  It is something.  God can work with something.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 14, 2022 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT MACRINA THE ELDER, HER FAMILY, AND SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS THE YOUNGER

THE FEAST OF ABBY KELLEY FOSTER AND HER HUSBAND, STEPHEN SYMONDS FOSTER, U.S. QUAKER ABOLITIONISTS AND FEMINISTS

THE FEAST OF EIVIND JOSEF BERGGRAV, LUTHERAN BISHOP OF OSLO, HYMN TRANSLATOR, AND LEADER OF THE NORWEGIAN RESISTANCE DURING WORLD WAR II

THE FEAST OF KRISTEN KVAMME, NORWEGIAN-AMERICAN HYMN WRITER AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF RICHARD MEUX BENSON, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND CO-FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST; CHARLES CHAPMAN GRAFTON, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, CO-FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST, AND BISHOP OF FOND DU LAC; AND CHARLES GORE, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF WORCESTER, BIRMINGHAM, AND OXFORD; FOUNDER OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE RESURRECTION; THEOLOGIAN; AND ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND WORLD PEACE

THE FEAST OF SAVA I, FOUNDER OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH AND FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF SERBS

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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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