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 First Paragraph of the Shema

Image in the Public Domain

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Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Psalm 119:1-16 (LBW) or Psalm 119:121-128 (LW)

Hebrews 7:23-28

Mark 12:28-34 (35-37)

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Lord, when the day of wrath comes

we have no hope except in your grace.

Make us so to watch for the last days

that the consumation of our hope may be

the joy of the marriage feast of your Son,

Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 29

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O Lord, we pray that the visitation of your grace

may so cleanse our thoughts and minds

that your Son Jesus, when he shall come,

may find us a fit dwelling place;

through Jesus Christ, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 89

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Jesus knew the tradition of Rabbi Hillel, as he proved in Mark 12:29-31.  Christ stood within his Jewish tradition and within the school of Hillel, in particular.  So, the Christian tradition of pitting Jesus against Judaism has always been erroneous.

After Rabbi Hillel quoted the same verses Jesus eventually quoted also, Hillel said:

The rest is commentary.  God and learn it.

That ethos permeates Psalm 119, in which the Torah refers to divine instruction, with the Law incorporated into it.  Traditional Christian disregard for the Law of Moses–a subsequent theological development–contradicts Psalm 119 and Deuteronomy 6:1-9.

Deuteronomy 6:1-9 drips with hindsight, irony, and melancholy. The author, reflecting centuries after the time in the wilderness, understood what had transpired in time and in Jewish folk religion, as opposed to Jewish priestly religion.  This author, consistent with Deuteronomistic theology, affirmed that collective and national disaster was the inevitable result of this pattern.

As Christianity emerged from its Jewish roots, Christian theology developed along divergent paths.  Part of the church, consistent with Judaism, never developed the theology of Original Sin and the Fall of Man, with the ensuing corruption of human nature.  Augustinian theology, which postdates the Epistle to the Hebrews by centuries, could not have informed that document.  The author of Hebrews–perhaps St. Apollos, although Origen wrote that only God knew the author’s identity–affirmed that Christ is the timeless, sinless high priest who covers sins and intercedes for sinners.

So, regardless of one’s opinion of Augustinian theology and the role of the Law of Moses, one can frolic in the good news that God is not chomping on the bit to throw lightning bolts at anyone.  Christ intercedes for us.  Do we even notice, though?

I, without minimizing or denying the importance of works in moral terms, choose not to walk the Pelagian path.  Salvation is a process of grace, and God is in charge of the process.  I also affirm Single Predestination, so some people sit on the chosen list.  How one responds to grace remains an individual decision, with individual responsibility.  Yet grace surrounds even this situation.  The longer I live, the less inclined I am to think of any people as belonging in Hell.  Matters of salvation and damnation are in the purview of God.  I am not God.  Neither are you, O reader.

We–like the author of Deuteronomy 6:1-9, possess hindsight.  We–like the author of Deuteronomy 6:1-9–also live in something called the present.  Therefore, we can have only so much hindsight.  And even the most perceptive human hindsight is…human.  God knows far more than we do.

Yet we can live according to love and mere decency.  This is a certain way to embody divine love, honor God and human dignity, and get into trouble with some conventionally pious people and sometimes with legal authorities.

Nevertheless, this is one standard Jesus upheld in Mark 12:28-34.  The Golden Rule should never be controversial, but it frequently is.

Our works matter morally.  May we, by grace, make them count for as much good as possible.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 11, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE THIRTY-THIRD DAY OF EASTER

THE FEAST OF HENRY KNOX SHERRILL, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

THE FEAST OF BARBARA ANDREWS, FIRST FEMALE MINISTER IN THE AMERICAN LUTHERAN CHURCH, 1970

THE FEAST OF SAINT GJON KODA, ALBANIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1947

THE FEAST OF JOHN JAMES MOMENT, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MATTEO RICCI, ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONARY

THE FEAST OF SAINT MATTHÊÔ LÊ VAN GAM, VIETNAMESE ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 1847

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Adapted from this post

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Advertisement

READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART LXIV

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Psalms 105, 106, 107, 126, and 137

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Psalms 106, 126, and 137 reflect the harrowing experience of the Babylonian Exile.  Psalms 105, 106, and 107 are similar yet different. Hence, I write based on these five psalms in this post.

The Hebrew Bible has a small collection of repeated “God is…” statements.  The more common manner of explaining divine attributes is to recall what God has done and to state what God does.  By extension, we humans–both collectively and individually–are like what we do and have done.  Judaism, having neither invented nor accepted Augustinian Original Sin, teaches that we can keep the covenant if only we will; doing so is neither beyond our reach nor too difficult for us (Deuteronomy 30:11-14).  Sirach 15:15, a Jewish text from the Hellenistic period, agrees:

If you wish, you can keep the commandments,

and to behave faithfully is within your power.

—The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Psalms 105, 106, and 107, taken together, present a stark contrast between divine faithfulness and human infidelity, with its terrible consequences.

Although Robert Alter dates the composition of Psalm 137 to the early part of the Babylonian Exile, The Jewish Study Bible, Second Edition (2014) places composition after the Babylonian Exile.  Either way, the anger and resentment of exiles is palpable in the text.  Why should it not be so?  The treacherous Edomites bear the brunt of particularly potent venom.  Without attempting a justification of

Happy who seizes and smashes your infants against the rock,

(to quote Robert Alter’s translation), I ask one question:

What else did you expect?

Treating a population harshly frequently and predictably leads to such resentment, complete with revenge fantasies.

Etymology tells us that the English word “anger” derives from the Old Norse angr, meaning “grief.”  We mourn that which we have lost.  So, we become angry.  If all we do with that anger is to take it to God, we do well.  However, if we permit that anger to consume us, we harm ourselves.

Whether Psalm 126 anticipates the end of the Babylonian Exile or reflects upon it, having happened, is a matter of scholarly debate.  Either way, the juxtaposition of Psalm 126 to Psalms 106 and 137 works well and continues the story.  That God ended the Babylonian Exile pays off Psalm 106:47:

Deliver us, O LORD our God,

and gather us from among the nations.

—TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah detail a portion of the troubles returned exiles endured.  Beside those books one may properly read the conclusion of Psalm 126:

Restore our fortunes, O LORD,

like watercourses in the Negeb.

Those who sow in tears

shall reap with songs of joy.

Though he goes along weeping,

carrying the seed-bag,

he shall come back with songs of joy,

carrying his sheaves.

—TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 7, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF HELDER CAMARA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF OLINDA AND RECIFE

THE FEAST OF SAINT ADALBERT NIERYCHLEWSKI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1942

THE FEAST OF DANIEL J. HARRINGTON, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR

THE FEAST OF GREGORIO ALLEGRI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, COMPOSER, AND SINGER; AND HIS BROTHER, DOMENICO ALLEGRI, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC COMPOSER AND SINGER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MOSES, APOSTLE TO THE SARACENS

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM BOYCE AND JOHN ALCOCK, ANGLICAN COMPOSERS

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART LV

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Psalm 81

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Walter Brueggemann classifies Psalm 81 as a psalm of disorientation–a text of hurt, alienation, and suffering.  This psalm–a liturgical text–recalls the faithfulness of God in freeing the Hebrew slaves from Egypt.  Then the text mentions the testing at Meribah (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13).  (More on that will follow in the next paragraph.) Psalm 81 laments that the people whom God had liberated refused to listen to and to obey Him.  The text states, however, that they can still listen to and obey God, if only they will.  (Judaism lacks Original Sin, a doctrine which postdates Psalm 81).

Much of the Hebrew Bible, as it exists, is a cut-and-paste job.  So, doublets exist.  Exodus 17:1-7 and Numbers 20:1-13, from different sources, illustrate this point.  In Exodus 17:1-7, mostly from E, God commands Moses to strike the rock.  Yet in Numbers 20:1-13, mostly from P, God commands Moses to speak to the rock.  Moses strikes the rock anyway.  In both versions of the story, though, people are faithless to God.  Psalm 81 regards the incident as a test the people failed.

The faithlessness in Psalm 81 is communal, with individual faithlessness contained within.  This may seem obvious, but the reminder may prove helpful in a society obsessed with individualism.

We–as congregations, cultures, societies, et cetera–may have short-term memories and lack properly cultivated long-term memories.  This motif occurs in the Torah, as in the aftermath of the Exodus.  My culture has rampant ADHD; we can barely remember what happened last month.  We, affected by overstimulation, do not focus well.  Therefore, we doom ourselves.  Those of us with temporal perspective and long-term memories suffer because of those with painfully short attention spans.

A people distracted by this, that, and the other cannot listen to and focus on God or anything else for long.  A people focused on talking cannot listen well.  A people focused on being active cannot be still for long.  A people focused on consumerism and materialism cannot focus on that which is intangible and everlasting.

I am a Gentile Christian.  Psalm 81 speaks to Jews, of course; it is a Jewish text.  The psalm also addresses Gentile Christians in community, influenced by distracted cultures.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 29, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINTS LYDIA, DORCAS, AND PHOEBE, CO-WORKERS OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE

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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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Above:  Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones

Image in the Public Domain

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For Easter Sunday, Year 2

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Lectionary from A Book of Worship for Free Churches (The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches in the United States, 1948)

Collect from The Book of Worship (Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1947)

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Almighty God, who through the resurrection of thine only begotten Son Jesus Christ,

hast overcome death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life;

assist and support us, we beseech thee, the aspirations of thy heavenly grace,

that dying unto sin always, and living unto righteousness,

we may at last triumph over death and the grave, in the full image of our risen Lord:

to whom, with thee and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, world without end.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 163

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Ezekiel 37:9-14

Psalm 115

1 Corinthians 15:12-20

Luke 24:13-35

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There is always hope in God.  In the case of Ezekiel 37, an allegory of the restoration of Judah from the Babylonian Exile, the hope was legitimate.  God was faithful.  Jesus was dead.  Then he was alive again.  The resurrection of the dead will occur.  Without the resurrection of Jesus being real, we Christians are the most pitiable people.

The resurrection of Christ is a mandatory doctrine in Christianity.  Some doctrines are optional.  One can be a Christian while refuting the Virgin Birth, for example.  About one quarter of Christianity rejects Original Sin.  (The Eastern Orthodox did not have St. Augustine of Hippo.)  But the resurrection of Jesus is mandatory.  Without it we have a dead Jesus.  Dead Jesus cannot save anybody from anything.

Know, O reader, that I am not an especially doctrinaire person.  At least one member of my family is concerned about my salvation because she thinks I am wrong on too many points of doctrine.  So be it.  Therefore, when I write that the resurrection of Christ is a mandatory doctrine, that statement carries greater weight than if a more doctrinaire Christian had written it.

I accept the resurrection of Jesus on faith.  I also accept the resurrection of the dead on faith.  I have no evidence for or against those propositions.  I must, therefore, accept them on faith, or reject them.

My spiritual struggles regard the resurrection of myself in this life, not the resurrection of Jesus nearly 2000 years ago and the resurrection of the dead in the next life.  Since the sudden, violent death of Bonny, my beloved, on October 14, 2019, I have been less alive than I used to be.  Part of me died with her.

I await a particular resurrection in this life.  Depending on the day or time thereof, I either affirm or reject that resurrection of that part of me that died on October 14, 2019, will occur.  Those dry bones may yet live.  They remain dead today.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 10, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN THE GOOD, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF MILAN

THE FEAST OF ALLEN WILLIAM CHATFIELD, ANGLICAN PRIEST, HYMN WRITER, AND TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF IGNATIOUS SPENCER, ANGLICAN THE  ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND APOSTLE OF ECUMENICAL PRAYER; AND HIS PROTEGÉE, ELIZABETH PROUT, FOUNDRESS OF THE SISTERS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION

THE FEAST OF MARY LUNDIE DUNCAN, SCOTTISH PRESBYTERIAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM GAY BALLANTINE, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

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He has told you, O man, what is good

Above:  Icon of the Crucifixion, by Andrei Rublev

Image in the Public Domain

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For Good Friday, Year 2

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Lectionary from A Book of Worship for Free Churches (The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches in the United States, 1948)

Collect from The Book of Worship (Evangelical and Reformed Church, 1947)

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Almighty God, we beseech thee graciously to behold this thy family,

for which our Lord Jesus Christ was contented to be betrayed,

and given up into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer death upon the cross;

who now liveth and reigneth wtih thee and the Holy Spirit,

ever One God, world without end.  Amen.

—The Book of Worship (1947), 161-162

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Micah 6:1-8

Psalm 69:1-21

2 Corinthians 5:14-21

Matthew 27:33-50

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And for what the LORD requires of you:

Only to love goodness,

And to walk modestly with your God.

–Micah 6:8-9a, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

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The Book of Micah dates to the reigns of Kings Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah of Judah (759-698/687 B.C.E.).  The final version, however, comes from a time after the Fall of Jerusalem (587/586 B.C.E.).  Therefore, hindsight informs the text as much as the then-present tense does.  The Book of Micah proclaims divine judgment and mercy (in balance), as well as the moral imperative of mutuality in society.  To violate mutuality is to trample the vulnerable, which is to offend God.

Jesus died for more than one reason, including scapegoating by authority figures.  His unjust execution (a major point in the Gospel of Luke) constituted a violation of Micah 6:8-9a.  Societies, governments, and institutions00even relatively benign ones–have continued to victimize people.  Every time a court has convicted someone wrongly, an innocent person has died via capital punishment, a government has turned a blind eye to lynching, et cetera, has been an occasion of violating Micah 6:8-9a.

Our (however one defines “our”) name has yet to achieve wisdom.  We are guilty collectively.  Each of us is guilty individually, for each person belongs to the whole.  The Book of Common Prayer (1979) contains a prayer for forgiveness for

sins committed on our behalf.

Original sin taints human societies and institutions.  Even the best intentioned of us cannot avoid contributing to the furtherance of evil from which we benefit.

A note in The Jewish Study Bible offers some useful information about one line:

And to walk modestly with your God.

No English translation properly conveys the meaning of the Hebrew word usually rendered as “humbly” or “modestly.”  Other translations include “wisely,” “completely,” and “carefully.”  I gravitate toward “completely.”  Walking completely with God as a high calling, both individually and collectively.  It is also realistic, by grace.  Do we want to respond faithfully via our free will, itself a result of grace?

On Good Friday and all other days, may we ask ourselves how many more people will die because we–individually and collectively–refuse to respond faithfully.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 9, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT PEPIN OF LANDEN, SAINT ITTA OF METZ, THEIR RELATIONS, SAINTS AMAND, AUSTREGISILUS, AND SULPICIUS II BOURGES, FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS ACROSS GENERATIONAL LINES

THE FEAST OF EMILY GREENE BALCH, U.S. QUAKER SOCIOLOGIST, ECONOMIST, AND PEACE ACTIVIST

THE FEAST OF JULIA CHESTER EMERY, UPHOLDER OF MISSIONS

THE FEAST OF SAINT PHILIP II OF MOSCOW, METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA, AND MARTYR, 1569

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM JONES, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND MUSICIAN

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And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die.

Above:  The Garden of Eden, by Thomas Cole

Image in the Public Domain

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For the Third Sunday of the Season of God the Father, Year 1, according to the U.S. Presbyterian lectionary of 1966-1970

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Almighty God, who hast given us authority to rule the earth according to thy will:

enable us to manage things with reason and love,

that the whole creation may give thee praise;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Worship–Provisional Services (1966), 127

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Genesis 3:1-15

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Matthew 8:5-13

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–Genesis 2:16-17, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

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The woman replied to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the other trees of the garden.  It is only about fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said:  “You shall not eat of it or touch it, lest you die.”

–Genesis 3:2-3, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

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Misquoting God is a bad idea.  Notice, O reader, that

or touch it

is absent from Genesis 2:16-17.

“Passing the buck” is another bad idea.  Notice, O reader, the absence of any force feeding of Adam in Genesis 3.

The mythology in Genesis 2 and 3 is what it is.  Interpretations of it vary, however.  Judaism and Eastern Orthodoxy, for example, have no concept of Original Sin.  Western Christianity does, however.  Whether one accepts or rejects Original Sin may inform how one reads 1 Timothy 2:1-7, especially verse 6.

…to win freedom for all mankind….

—The Revised English Bible (1989)

Is that freedom from Original Sin?

That freedom, anyway, extends to Gentiles.  This is especially good news to those of us who are Gentiles.

Questions of Original Sin (my concept of which owes more to Reinhold Niebuhr than to St. Augustine of Hippo) aside, God loves everybody.  It follows, then, that everybody should properly love God–not in a transactional relationship, but in a manner of faithful response.  A transactional relationship with God can never really work anyway; we can never repay God.  Yet we can, by grace, respond faithfully.  We can begin by not misquoting God and by not “passing the buck.”

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 13, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE TWELFTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL JOHNSON, “THE GREAT MORALIST”

THE FEAST OF CHRISTIAN FURCHTEGOTT GELLERT, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER, EDUCATOR, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ELLA J. BAKER, WITNESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

THE FEAST OF PAUL SPERATUS, GERMAN LUTHERAN BISHOP, LITURGIST, AND HYMN WRITER

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