Archive for the ‘Misogyny’ Tag
Above: Astarte Syriaca, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Image in the Public Domain
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
READING HAGGAI-FIRST ZECHARIAH, PART XI
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Zechariah 5:5-11
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The contents of Zechariah 1:7-6:15 date to early February 519 B.C.E. (1:7).
The seventh vision (Zechariah 5:5-11) raises eyebrows. The tub, with a capacity of 23 liters (21 quarts) is too small to hold the woman, but it does, somehow. The woman represents wickedness, soon transported to Babylonia, where she/it will get a shrine. The text names the land of Shinar, the site of the mythical Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
I object to misogyny as much as the next self-respecting liberal. Unfortunately, misogyny is a staple of some parts of the Bible and of much misinterpretation of certain Biblical texts. Other details are more productive to explore in this post, however.
The shipping away of wickedness in a container echoes Leviticus 16, with the driving out of the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement. The woman is not a scapegoat, though. No, she is a goddess–probably Astarte, the alleged wife of YHWH. Putting these two pieces of the puzzle together, we realize that this text is about laying aside both idolatry and guilt for past sins. Populations and individuals cannot move forward into a better future until they have acknowledged their uncomfortable, painful pasts and vowed to do better. Learning and applying the germane lessons of the past are crucial and within human power. The ability to forgive comes from God, who models that behavior. Yet truth must precede forgiveness.
The burden of guilt is heavy. I know the burden of survivor’s guilt. One part of my psyche tells me that I could and should have done more. Another aspect of my psyche tells me that I did as well as I could with what I had and as best I knew. That part of my psyche tells me that I did a good job for a long time. These two aspects of my psyche argue inside my cranium.
Also, forgiving oneself can be more difficult than forgiving others. Forgiving others can also be a hard task, of course.
The population First Zechariah originally addressed needed to forgive themselves and their ancestors. The only way forward was through truth and the acknowledgment of it, followed by forgiveness.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 14, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT JUSTIN DE JACOBIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY BISHOP IN ETHIOPIA; AND SAINT MICHAEL GHEBRE, ETHIOPIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF SAINT CAMILLUS DE LELLIS, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND FOUNDER OF THE MINISTERS OF THE SICK
THE FEAST OF LEON MCKINLEY ADKINS, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER, POET, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF MATTHEW BRIDGES, HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAMSON OCCUM, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY TO NATIVE AMERICANS
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: Icon of Ezekiel
Image in the Public Domain
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
READING EZEKIEL, PART XVI
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ezekiel 36:1-37:28
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ezekiel 36 flows from Ezekiel 35, the second of two divine oracles against Edom in that book. In Ezekiel 35, one of the points of condemnation is Edomite settlement in the former Kingdom of Judah during the Babylonian Exile. That point comes up in 36;5.
The short summary of Ezekiel 36-37 is that God will renew the people of the covenant, restore them to their land, and renew their land. God will do this, not for the sake of the covenant people (36:22), but so that
then they shall know that I am the LORD.
–Ezekiel 36:38b, The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)
The motivation the Book of Ezekiel attributes to God disturbs me. I would elaborate on that point in this post, but (1) I have other fish I am more interested in frying, and (2) I have elaborated on that point already in Part IX of this series.
Another repeated theme is the use of ritual impurity as a metaphor for moral impurity (36:16f).
Ezekiel 37 is about the renewal of the covenant people, in the context of the “new heart” and “new spirit” (36:26). The vision of the valley of dry bones is a vivid reading. The contribution of the spiritual based on it upon the last episode of The Prisoner (1967-1968) is indelibly stamped on mind. This reading is a favorite reading at many Easter Vigils each year. However, that vision has nothing to do with the resurrection of the dead, a doctrine unknown to the prophet Ezekiel. No the vision is a bout the restoration of the nation, unified and free of idolatry (37:15f). The prediction of the restoration of the Davidic Dynasty remains unfulfilled.
When all hope seems lost, trust in God may be extremely difficult to muster. Faith that the future can be better–will be better–may seem foolish. I understand, somewhat. I understand well enough that I refuse to condemn those who think so. Faith in the trenches can be hard to maintain.
The Book of Ezekiel, despite its excesses–including misogyny and a selfish deity–does have the virtue of proclaiming faith in the trenches. If one cannot hold onto healthy faith in the trenches, all really may be lost.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JULY 4, 2021 COMMON ERA
PROPER 9: THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
INDEPENDENCE DAY (U.S.A.)
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ADALBERO AND ULRIC OF AUGSBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS
THE FEAST OF CHARLES ALBERT DICKINSON, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF SAINT ELIZABETH OF PORTUGAL, QUEEN AND PEACEMAKER
THE FEAST OF SAINT PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC SERVANT OF THE POOR AND OPPONENT OF FASCISM
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: Icon of Ezekiel
Image in the Public Domain
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
READING EZEKIEL, PART IX
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ezekiel 16:1-63
Ezekiel 20:1-44
Ezekiel 23:1-49
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This project of reading the Book of Ezekiel is part of a larger project of reading the Hebrew prophetic books, roughly in chronological order. I know already, based on this larger project alone, that the Hebrew prophetic books are repetitive. For example, idolatry is, metaphorically, sexual–prostitution and/or adultery. This metaphorical prostitution is, functionally, pagan temple prostitution, common in the ancient Near East into New Testament times (from Genesis 38:15 to 1 Corinthians 6:15f). Also, much of the language of this sexual metaphor is Not Safe for Work (NSFW) and replete with shaming.
The Bible is not G-rated.
Ezekiel 16 is not G-rated. It uses the marital metaphor, also present in Isaiah 8:5-8; Isaiah 49-54; Isaiah 66:7-14; Jeremiah 2-3; Hosea 1-3; Zephaniah 3:14-20.
Robert Alter provides perhaps the most memorable synopsis of Ezekiel 16:
Among the themes of Ezekiel’s prophecies, the most striking expression of neurosis is his troubled relation to the female body. Real and symbolic bodies become entangled with each other. In biblical poetry, a nation, and Israel in particular, is quite often represented as a woman. God’s covenant with Israel–see Jeremiah 1–is imagined as a marriage, and so the bride Israel’s dalliance with pagan gods is figured as adultery or whoring. This is a common trope in biblical literature, but the way Ezekiel articulates it is both startling and unsettling.
The most vivid instance of this psychological twist in Ezekiel is the extended allegory of whoring Israel in chapter 16. The allegory here follows the birth of the nation in Canaan–represented with stark physicality in the image of the infant girl naked and wallowing in the blood of afterbirth, then looked after by a solicitous God–to her sexual maturity and her betrayal of God through idolatry. The focus throughout is on Israel as a female sexual body. Thus, the prophet notes (as does no other biblical writer) the ripening of the breasts and the sprouting of pubic hair. The mature personification of the nation is a beautiful woman, her beauty enhanced by the splendid attire God gives her (this is probably a reference to national grandeur and to the Temple). Yet, insatiably lascivious, she uses her charms to entice strangers to her bed: “you spilled out your whoring” (given the verb used and the unusual form of the noun, this could be a reference to vaginal secretions) “upon every passerby.” Israel as a woman is even accused of harboring a special fondness for large phalluses: “you played the whore with the Egyptians, your big-membered neighbors.” She is, the prophet says, a whore who asks for no payment for her services. “You befouled your beauty,” he inveighs, “and spread your legs for every passerby.” All this concern with female promiscuity is correlative with Ezekiel’s general preoccupation with purity and impurity.
It is of course possible to link each of these sexual details with the allegory of an idolatrous nation betraying its faith. But such explicitness and such vehemence about sex are unique in the Bible. The compelling inference is that this was a prophet morbidly fixated on the female body and seething with fervid misogyny. What happens in the prophecy in chapter 16 is that the metaphor of the lubricious woman takes over the foreground, virtually displacing the allegorical referent. Ezekiel clearly was not a stable person.
—The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary, Volume 2, Prophets (2019), 1051
Corinne L. Carvalho comments:
In Israel, spouses were not equal partners; women were legally and socially subservient to their husbands. Betrothal and marriage were contractual arrangements by which a woman became the exclusive “property” of her husband, even before the actual marriage. In practical terms, this meant that her husband was her sole sexual partner from the moment of betrothal. Since men could have more than one wife, adultery occurred only when it involved a married woman; it was a crime, punishable by death, against the sole property rights of a wronged husband (Lev 18:20; 20:10; Deut 22:22).
Ezekiel 16 plays on these elements of marriage. God is the one who owns Jerusalem, and Jerusalem owes him her exclusive allegiance and fidelity. Anything less gives him the legal right to punish her. Ezekiel 16 uses hyperbole and inflammatory rhetoric to achieve a shocking literary effect. Here, the author utilizes a common metaphor, the city as God’s wife, in ways that border on pornography. (Modern translations tone down the sexually explicit language of the Hebrew texts.) It is an image to provoke a response.
–in Daniel Durken, ed., The New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament (2015), 1431
Ezekiel 16 concludes on a sexually graphic metaphor of future restoration (verses 59-63). After all, to “know” is frequently a euphemism for sexual intimacy.
And I Myself will establish the covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD.
–Ezekiel 16:62, Robert Alter, 2019
Consider the following verse, O reader:
Thus you shall remember and feel shame, and you shall be too abashed to open your mouth again, when I have forgiven you, for all that you did–declares the Lord GOD.
–Ezekiel 16:63, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
I feel too abashed after reading Ezekiel 16.
My library contains a variety of editions and versions of the Bible. The Children’s Living Bible (1972) is one of these. The artwork depicts a smiling Jesus holding lost-and-found sheep, smiling at children wearing attire from 1972, and generally smiling. The volume also includes Ezekiel 16. I imagine a child reading Ezekiel 16 and asking a horrified parent about the contents of that chapter. I also imagine that parent’s horror that the tyke was reading a volume that included the term, “son of a bitch” (1 Samuel 20:30). Just wait for Ezekiel 23!
Ezekiel 20 continues the themes of idolatry and apostasy. The text dwells on the sabbath. This suggests that the sabbath had become important, as a substitute for the Temple, during the Babylonian Exile. The sabbath is foundational in the covenant. The sabbath is also a sign of a free person in the context of liberation from slavery in Egypt. And to keep the sabbath is to emulate God, the creator and original keeper of the sabbath.
God, as depicted in Ezekiel 20, is not worthy of emulation, respect, love, and awe:
- God, according to 20:9, 14, 22, and 44, acts selfishly, to preserve the divine reputation.
- God gave the people “laws that were not good and rules by which they could not live (20:25) then promised to destroy the people as punishment for obeying the bad laws and disobeying the impossible rules (20:26).
Chapter 20 exists in the shadow of Ezekiel 18–about individual moral accountability to God. The verdict on the people of Judah, in the yet-future context of the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.) is damning.
Ezekiel 20 concludes on a note of future restoration, but not for the sake of the covenant people:
Then, O House of Israel, you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for My name’s sake–not in accordance with your evil ways and corrupt acts–declares the Lord GOD.
–Ezekiel 20:44, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
I wonder how many agnostics and atheists grew up devout, with this understanding of God, or one close to it. That theology may explain their current spiritual status as they properly reject that understanding of God yet go too far and remain out of balance.
Ezekiel 23 returns to the imagery of idolatry as harlotry. It also returns to the category of Not Safe for Work. (What was it with Ezekiel and sex?) Break out the plain brown wrappers again, O reader! The text speaks of the Babylonian Exile as punishment for persistent, collective, and unrepentant idolatry.
Some G-rated details (There are some.) require explanation:
- Samaria, the capital of the (northern) Kingdom of Israel, is, metaphorically, Oholeh, “her tent.” One may recall that, in the theology of the Hebrew Bible, the Presence of God dwelt in a text then in the Temple. We read of the fall of the Kingdom of Israel and of the causes of that collapse.
- Jerusalem, the capital of the (southern) Kingdom of Judah, is, metaphorically, Oholibah, “my tent is in her.”
- Ezekiel 23 condemns the kingdoms’ foreign alliances. This is an old Hebrew prophetic theme, albeit one other prophets presented in less graphic terms.
I try to maintain a spiritual and theological equilibrium. The God of Ezekiel 16, 20, and 23 is a self-absorbed, abusive, and misogynistic monster. This is not my God-concept. Neither is the God of my faith anything like a cosmic teddy bear or a warm fuzzy. No, the God of my faith holds judgment and mercy in balance. I do not pretend to know where that balance is or where it should be. The God of my faith also loves all people and models selflessness. Neither is the God of my faith a misogynist or any kind of -phobe or bad -ist. The model for the God of my faith is Jesus of Nazareth, God Incarnate. I read stories of Jesus having harsh words for those who deserved them and compassion for the desperate. I understand Jesus as being stable, unlike Ezekiel, apparently.
Ezekiel clearly was not a stable person.
–Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary (2019), 1051
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 27, 2021 COMMON ERA
PROPER 8: THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF CORNELIUS HILL, ONEIDA CHIEF AND EPISCOPAL PRIEST
THE FEAST OF SAINT ARIALDUS OF MILAN, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC DEACON AND MARTYR, 1066
THE FEAST OF HUGH THOMSON KERR, SR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND LITURGIST; AND HIS SON, HUGH THOMSON KERR, JR., U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SCHOLAR, AND THEOLOGIAN
THE FEAST OF JAMES MOFFATT, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, SCHOLAR, AND BIBLE TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN THE GEORGIAN, ABBOT; AND SAINTS EUTHYMIUS OF ATHOS AND GEORGE OF THE BLACK MOUNTAIN, ABBOTS AND TRANSLATORS
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: Icon of Ezekiel
Image in the Public Domain
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
READING EZEKIEL, PART I
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ezekiel 1:1-3
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In 597 B.C.E., Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian forces invaded Judah. King Jehoiachin‘s brief reign ended. His uncle Mattaniah came to the throne as King Zedekiah. Jehoiachin and many others–members of the Judean elite–became exiles in the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire. The first wave of the Babylonian Exile had begun.
Ezekiel ben Buzi was one of these captives and exiles. Ezekiel, a priest in the community beside the Chebar Canal (next to the city of Nippur, southeast of the city of Babylon), received his commission as a prophet on the fifth day of Tammuz (on the Gregorian Calendar, in June), 593 B.C.E. He prophesied until 571 B.C.E.
Robert Alter describes Ezekiel as
surely the strangest of all the prophets
and as
an extreme case.
—The Hebrew Bible, Volume 2, Prophets (2019), 1049
The prophet, whose name meant, “God strengthens,” was, by modern standards, misogynistic, as in Chapters 16 and 23. He was not unique–certainly not in the company of Biblical authors. According to Alter, especially in the context of Chapter 16:
Ezekiel clearly was not a stable person. The states of disturbance exhibited in his writing led him to a series of remarkable visionary experiences, at least several of which would be deeply inscribed in the Western imagination, engendering profound experiences in later poetry and in mystical literature. At the same time, there is much in these visions that reminds us of the dangerous dark side of prophecy. To announce authoritatively that the words one speaks are the words of God is an audacious act. Inevitably, what is reported as divine speech reaches us through the refracting prism of the prophet’s sensibility and psychology, and the words and images represented as God’s urgent message may be sometimes distorted in eerie ways.
–1051-1052
Biblical scholars from a variety of times, theological orientations, and geographical origins have commented on Ezekiel’s pathological psychology. The prophet may not have been well-adjusted. “Touched by the gods” has been an expression for a long time, and for a good reason.
However much one accepts that much or most of the Book of Ezekiel comes from the prophet, a textual difficulty remains. The book includes evidence of subsequent editing after the Babylonian Exile. Any given passage, in its final form, may have more to do with Ezra or some other editor than with Ezekiel. Or that passage may be entirely from Ezeki8el. Or the editorial touch may be light.
I acknowledge these matters as I commit to my primary purpose in this Hebrew prophetic reading project: to read these passages in context and to ponder what they say to the world today. The ancient message, grounded in particular circumstances, continues to speak.
“The hand of the Lord” (Ezekiel 1:3) symbolizes divine power.
The Book of Ezekiel breaks down into three sections:
- Chapters 1-24, in their original form, date to between the Fall of Jerusalem (586 B.C.E.). This section divides into two subsections. Chapters 1-11 contain visions of divine presence and departure. Chapters 12-24 offer a rationale for and anticipate the destruction of Jerusalem.
- Chapters 25-32 contain oracles against the nations. The arrangement of these oracles is not chronological. Such a collection of oracles is also a feature of other prophetic writings, as in Amos 1:3-2:3; Isaiah 13:1-23:19; Jeremiah 46:1-51:64.
- Chapters 33-48 contain oracles from after the Fall of Jerusalem. This section breaks down into two subsections. Chapters 33-39 offer a rationale for and anticipate the transformation of the LORD’s people. Chapters 40-48 contain visions of the LORD’s return to the Second Temple (not yet built; dedicated in 516 B.C.E.) in a transformed land.
Tova Ganzel wrote, in the introduction to the Book of Ezekiel, in The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014):
Because of the central themes of the Temple, acts of leadership, sins of the people, and divine theophanies appear in both the predestruction and postdestruction oracles (1.3, 13-15, 22-24; 8.2-3; 10.11, 22-23; 40.1-2; 43.1-5), Ezekiel’s oracles merit both sequential and topical study.
–1034
I will study the Book of Ezekiel in a combination of sequential and topical organization of posts.
Major lectionaries ignore most of the Book of Ezekiel. The Roman Catholic lectionaries for weekdays, Sundays, and major feast days omit Chapters 3-8, 11, 13-15, 19-23, 25-27, 29-42, 44-46, and 48 entirely. The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) lists the Book of Ezekiel only five times:
- 34:11-16, 20-24 for Christ the King Sunday, Year A;
- 36:24-27 for the Easter Vigil, Years A, B, and C;
- 37:1-14 for the Easter Vigil, Years A, B, and C; the Fifth Sunday in Lent, Year A; and (as an alternative reading), for the Day of Pentecost, Year B.
I understand the benefits and limitations of lectionaries. Any lectionary–even a narrow, one-year cycle with two readings and a Psalm each Sunday–is superior to ministers focusing on their favorite passages of scripture Sunday after Sunday. The orderly reading of scripture in communal worship has virtues. Lectionaries also help people to read the Bible in conversation with itself. Nevertheless, the parts of the Book of Ezekiel that even three-year cycles overlook are worth hearing and reading, in private, alone, in a study group, and in the context of worship.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 20, 2021 COMMON ERA
PROPER 7: THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B
THE FEAST OF JOSEPH AUGUSTUS SEISS, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, LITURGIST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF ALFRED RAMSEY, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF CHARLES COFFIN, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF HANS ADOLF BRORSON, DANISH LUTHERAN BISHOP, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JOHN SPARROW-SIMPSON, ANGLICAN PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND PATRISTICS SCHOLAR
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: Nahum
Image in the Public Domain
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
READING NAHUM, PART IV
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Nahum 3:1-19
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I recommend reading the Book of Nahum aloud. Choose a translation or translations with fine literary quality, O reader. Why should the Bible not function as high literature, as well as scripture?
The vivid imagery of Nahum 3:1-19 is disturbing.
- It describes the massacre of civilians in Nineveh. The targeting of civilians in warfare should disturb anyone.
- The cultural lens of mysogyny in verse 13 (“Truly, the troops within you are women….”) would do more than raise eyebrows in more churches if the Revised Common Lectionary included Nahum 3:13. Without being a cultural reactionary and a mysogynist, I read such passages through the lens of historical analysis. A given text includes the words it includes, in a particular set of contexts. I interpret within those contexts. Ancient texts may not reflect contemporary sensibilities. I cannot change this reality.
I can and do read through ancient mysogyny and the explicit metaphors of sexual shaming. They exist throughout the Bible. I argue with those cultural assumptions, but I do not alter the texts to suit my sensibilities. I take greater umbrage to the slaughter of civilians. Nahum 1-3 tell us that God approved of the slaughter of civilians in Nineveh in 612 B.C.E. I accept that the texts tell me this, but I disagree with the texts.
Jennifer Wright Knust, a theology professor, a minister in the American Baptist Churches USA, and the author of Unprotected Texts: The Bible’s Surprising Contradictions about Sex and Desire (2011), made a cogent point during an interview with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Radio years ago. Knust spoke of perceiving an unfortunate tendency in some of her students. They affirmed ideas they would otherwise consider repugnant if they did not believe that the Bible supported these ideas.
High regard for scripture is fine, abstractly. It can be fine in application. High regard for scripture can, however, easily turn into a slippery slope toward disobeying the Golden Rule. Consider the long and shameful historical record of parts of the Church quoting the Bible to bolster slavery, racism, racial segregation, economic exploitation, mysogyny, nativism, xenophobia, and homophobia, O reader. Sadly, much of this remains in the present tense. Many devout Christians justify the unjustifiable partially out of high regard for scripture.
Sometimes the faithful response is to argue against a text. Does this passage violate the Golden Rule? If so, how should one, the Church, whatever–interpret this passage?
The Book of Nahum concludes on an ironic note. “Nahum” means “comfort” or “consolation.” Yet there is nobody to console Nineveh (3:7). 3:19 offers no pity:
There is no healing for your hurt,
and your wound is fatal.
All who hear this news of you
clap their hands over you;
For who has not suffered
under your endless malice?”
—The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011)
Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.
Thank you, O reader, for joining me on this journey through the Book of Nahum. I invite you to continue with me as I move along to my next destination, the Book of Habakkuk.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 5, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT DOROTHEUS OF TYRE, BISHOP OF TYRE, AND MARTYR, CIRCA 362
THE FEAST OF BLISS WIANT, U.S. METHODIST MINISTER, MISSIONARY, MUSICIAN, MUSIC EDUCATOR, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR, ARRANGER, AND HARMONIZER; AND HIS WIFE, MILDRED ARTZ WIANT, U.S. METHODIST MISSIONARY, MUSICIAN, MUSIC EDUCATOR, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF INI KOPURIA, FOUNDER OF THE MELANESIAN BROTHERHOOD
THE FEAST OF MAURICE BLONDEL, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHER AND FORERUNNER OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
THE FEAST OF ORLANDO GIBBONS, ANGLICAN ORGANIST AND COMPOSER; THE “ENGLISH PALESTRINA”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Above: A Candle
Image Source = Martin Geisler
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Collect:
O God of justice and love,
you illumine our way through life with the words of your Son.
Give us the light we need, and awaken us to the needs of others,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 52
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Assigned Readings:
Amos 8:7-14 (Monday)
Joel 1:1-14 (Tuesday)
Joel 3:9-21 (Wednesday)
Psalm 63 (All Days)
1 Corinthians 14:20-25 (Monday)
1 Thessalonians 3:6-13 (Tuesday)
Matthew 24:29-35 (Wednesday)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The hit parade of judgment comes in these days’ readings. Among the themes therein is the final judgment, which a glorious future for God’s people will follow. First, however, one must survive the judgment, if one can.
A theme from the New Testament informs the Old Testament lessons nicely. Faith–by which I mean active faith, in the Pauline sense of the word, not in sense of purely intellectual faith one reads about in the Letter of James–is not just for one’s benefit and that of one’s faith community. No, faith is for the good of those whom one draws to God and otherwise encourages spiritually. The people of God have the assignment to function as a light to the nations. That was the mission in which many Hebrews failed in the days of the Old Testament. They became so similar to other nations that they could not serve as a light to those nations. The same holds true for much of Christianity, whether liberal, moderate, or conservative, for organized religion has a knack for affirming certain prejudices while confronting others. Some denominations, especially in then U.S. South, formed in defense of race-based slavery. Others, especially in the U.S. North, formed in opposition to that Peculiar Institution of the South. Many nineteenth-century and twentieth-century U.S. Protestants recycled pro-slavery arguments to defend Jim Crow laws, and one can still identify bastions of unrepentant racism in churches. Also, mysogyny and homophobia remain entrenched in much of organized Christianity.
To separate divine commandments from learned attitudes and behaviors can prove difficult. It is, however, essential if one is to follow God faithfully and to function as a light to others. May those others join us in praying, in the words of Psalm 63:8:
My soul clings to you;
your right hand holds me fast.
–The Book of Common Prayer (1979)
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
SEPTEMBER 7, 2014 COMMON ERA
PROPER 18: THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR A
THE FEAST OF THE SAINTS AND MARTYRS OF THE PACIFIC
THE FEAST OF ELIE NAUD, HUGUENOT WITNESS TO THE FAITH
THE FEAST OF JANE LAURIE BORTHWICK, TRANSLATOR OF HYMNS
THE FEAST OF JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, POET
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Adapted from this post:
http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/devotion-for-monday-tuesday-and-wednesday-after-proper-27-year-a-elca-daily-lectionary/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
BLOGA THEOLOGICA 
You must be logged in to post a comment.