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

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:  St. Augustine in His Study, by Vittore Carpaccio

Image in the Public Domain

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Jeremiah 31:31-34

Psalm 51:11-16

Hebrews 5:7-9

John 12:20-33

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Almighty God, our redeemer, in our weakness we have failed

to be your messengers of forgiveness and hope in the world. 

Renew us by your Holy Spirit, that we may follow your commands

and proclaim your reign of love;

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), 19

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Almighty and eternal God, because it was your will that your Son

should bear the pains of the cross for us

and thus remove from us the power of the adversary,

help us so to remember and give thanks for our Lord’s Passion

that we may receive remission of our sins

and redemption from everlasting death;

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), 38

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Lent is a penitential season, and these are readings suited for Lent.  They are especially suitable for the penultimate Sunday of the season.

One theme in the canonical Gospels is the priority of following Jesus.  “Hate” is an unfortunate translation choice in John 12:25.   The meaning is to “love less than,” not to hate, as we first understand “hate.”  Therefore, John 12:25 should read:

Whoever loves his life more than me loses it, and whoever loves me more than his life (or loves his life less than me) in their world will preserve it for eternal life.

Jesus (suitable for his purpose–the meaning of “perfect” in Hebrews 5:9) had the credentials to demand and to command so high a priority.

The covenant written on hearts is possible.  The Pauline tradition affirms this; the Holy Spirit makes such a covenant possible.  This thread continues into the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, who wrote at length and exercised logic.  A terribly simplistic reduction of paragraphs from St. Augustine of Hippo reads:

Love God and do as you please.

When one reads the full, germane text carefully, one sees the logic, lifted from St. Paul the Apostle’s discourses about natural/unspiritual people and spiritual people in 1 Corinthians 2.  In Pauline terms, spiritual people–who share the will of God–can do what they please, for they want what God wants.

That is an advanced spiritual state–one I do not pretend to have reached.  Yet I continue to muddle through each day, trying to live well in God, in whom I trust.  That is something, anyway.  Jesus can use it and multiply it, fortunately.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 16, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE TWENTIETH DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINT ADALBALD OF OSTEVANT, SAINT RICTRUDIS OF MARCHIENNES, AND THEIR RELATIONS

THE FEAST OF SAINT ABRAHAM KIDUNAIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT; AND SAINT MARY OF EDESSA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ANCHORESS

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN CACCIAFRONTE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK, ABBOT, BISHOP, AND MARTYR, 1183

THE FEAST OF SAINT MEGINGAUD OF WURZBURG, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK AND BISHOP

THE FEAST OF THOMAS WYATT TURNER, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC SCIENTIST, EDUCATOR, AND CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST; FOUNDER OF FEDERATED COLORED CATHOLICS

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM HENRY MONK, ANGLICAN ORGANIST, HYMN TUNE COMPOSER, AND MUSIC EDUCATOR

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Adapted from this post

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READING THE BOOK OF PSALMS

PART LXXXI

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Psalm 145

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Psalm 145 teaches a profound thought: God’s faithfulness holds creation together.  God is the glue and the binding force of the universe.  This faithfulness manifests in daily reliability to human beings, we read.  So, the God of Psalm 145 is simultaneously transcendent and imminent.

To repeat Psalm 145 is to confess the insufficiency of self and the sovereignty of God.  It is, in a real sense, to live in a different world–not in an escapist sense, but in the sense that God’s claims, values, and priorities inevitably put us at odds with a prevailing culture that promotes autonomy.  In other words, Psalm 145 invites us to live in the world of God’s reign, the world where the fundamental reality and pervasive power is the gracious, compassionate, and faithful love of God.

–J. Clinton McCann, Jr., in The New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 4 (1996), 1261

St. Augustine of Hippo understood the truth of Psalm 145 well:

…because you made us for yourself, and our hearts find no place until they rest in you.

When we mere mortals engage in delusions of grandeur and self-sufficiency, we miss the truth of our existence.  God is, to borrow a term from Paul Tillich, the Ground of Being.  God loves us.  God defines us.  We are precious to God.  All this should suffice.  Yet, for many people, it does not.

You, O reader, are precious to God.  I am precious to God for the same reason you are.  And we all depend upon God, as well as each other.  Interdependency should be obvious on both the micro- and the macroscales.  Soldiers depend upon each other.  In a global economy, a recession in Country A affects its trading partners.  And people depend upon the labor of others.  We all live in a web of connectedness.

Each human being is precious to God.  Yet many people are not precious to themselves.  And many other people are precious to themselves.  And many other people are precious to themselves, yet they seem to think that few others are precious.  Even the most pious and benevolent saint may experience thinking of some people as being precious, even to God.  So, we have a spiritual challenge to confess to God.  May God help us to recognize ourselves and each other for what we are: precious.  Then may we treat each other accordingly.  And may we rest in God, in this life and the next one.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 24, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE THIRD DAY OF LENT

THE FEAST OF SAINT MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE, MARTYR

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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 XXXVII

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Psalm 49

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The aspect of Psalm 49 that grips me is the principle of

You can’t take it with you.

This is always an important message, but especially so in a materialistic, consumer society.

My maternal grandmother died in August 2019.  My girlfriend died two months later, to the day.  I did much to clean out both apartments.  Those two experiences pushed me further away from materialism.  I had already been moving away from it, but I accelerated the pace of my march closer to minimalism.

We accumulate possessions during our lifetimes.  Then, after we died, others must decide what to do with that which we left.  The New Testament is correct; life does not consist of the abundance of possessions.  The greatest aspects of life are intangible.

So, to apply St. Augustine of Hippo’s definition of sin as disordered love to materialism, objects can become idols if we love them more than we should.  At a minimum, if our possessions–many of which we store away and live well without using or visiting, and seldom ponder–make us feel better psychologically, we create and maintain burdens for those who must clean out after us.  This may not constitute a major moral or theological matter, but it is real.  I recall a story about two daughters cleaning out their mother’s house.  One daughter found a box labeled

Strings Too Short to Use.

Money and possessions are common idols, for many people trust in them.  People should trust in God instead.  Having what we need and use is fine but make an idol of it is sinful.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 11, 2023 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT THEODOSIUS THE CENOBIARCH, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF CHARLES WILLIAM EVEREST, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF IGNATIUS SPENCER, ANGLICAN THEN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND APOSTLE OF ECUMENICAL PRAYER; AND HIS PROTÉGÉ, ELIZABETH PROUT, FOUNDER OF THE SISTERS OF THE CROSS AND PASSION

THE FEAST OF MIEP GIES, RIGHTEOUS GENTILE

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAULINUS II OF AQUILEIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRIARCH OF AQUILEIA

THE FEAST OF RICHARD FREDERICK LITTLEDALE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND TRANSLATOR OF HYMNS

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

Above:  Icon of the Ascension of Christ

Image in the Public Domain

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Acts 1:1-11

Psalm 110

Ephesians 1:16-23

Luke 24:44-53

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Almighty God, your only Son was taken up into heaven

and in power intercedes for us. 

May we also come into your presence

and live forever in your glory;

through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), 22

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Grant, we pray, almighty God,

that even as we believe your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

to have ascended into heaven,

so may also in heart and mind ascend and continually

dwell there with him;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Lutheran Worship (1982), 55-56

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Luke-Acts is a composite work.  Given this fact, the discrepancy in the timing of the Ascension confuses me.  Luke 24 places the Ascension on the same day as the Resurrection.  Yet Acts 1 times it forty days after the Resurrection and ten days before Pentecost.  O, well.

By the 300s, the Feast of the Ascension our Lord, set forty days after Easter Day, was commonplace.  St. Augustine of Hippo wrote that churches

all over the world

celebrated the feast.

I understand the Ascension as theological poetry, not theological prose, because of science.  I accept that, one day, Jesus was present with his Apostles until he left.  Given cultural and theological assumptions of the time, we have the metaphor of ascension.  May we–you, O reader, and I–not become lost in technical details.

The Feast of the Ascension is about enthronement–of Jesus, mainly.  It is about the enthronement of humanity itself.  To quote St. John Chrysostom:

Our very nature…is enthroned today high above all cherubim.

Happy Ascension Day!

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

APRIL 23, 2022 COMMON ERA

SATURDAY IN EASTER WEEK

THE FEAST OF TOYOHIKO KAGAWA, RENEWER OF SOCIETY AND PROPHETIC WITNESS IN JAPAN

THE FEAST OF MARTIN RINCKART, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT TERESA MARIA OF THE CROSS, FOUNDER OF THE CARMELITE SISTERS OF SAINT TERESA OF FLORENCE

THE FEAST OF WALTER RUSSELL BOWIE, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, SEMINARY PROFESSOR, AND HYMN WRITER

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Adapted from this post

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READING LUKE-ACTS, PART XX

Above:  The Parable of the Sower

Image in the Public Domain

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Luke 8:4-15

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Christian tradition has assigned names to the parables of Jesus.  Some of these names have proven to be partial, at best.  Consider the Parable of the Prodigal Son, for example, O reader.  It could have as easily been the Parable of the Loving Father or the Parable of the Resentful Brother.  Think also of the Parable of the Sower.  Although Matthew 13:18 uses that label, Christ focused on the soils, not the sower, in the parable.

We are reading the Lucan version of the parable, of course.  Luke 8 does not refer to this parable as the Parable of the Sower.

Biblical scholarly consensus holds that, in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, the explanation of the parable is an addition to the text.  Explanations of parables are rare in the canonical Gospels.

To critique the sower’s technique is to miss the point.  (I have heard priests do this in sermons.)  The sower in the parable follows the standard practice of farmers at the time and place.

The word of God (what God says) is for everybody.  The sower sows these seeds everywhere, therefore.  But not everybody receives or welcomes this word.  Some of the seeds go to waste.  People may be distracted, rootless, or deceived.  Spiritually rootless people have shallow faith; it may die for the obvious reason.  The deceived mean well but follow the wrong master.  The distracted are too busy for God.  Yet the seeds that land in rich soil prosper spiritually.

The parable asks each of us, “What kind of soil are you?”

When God is the sower and we are the ground, we are called to be good ground.

–St. Augustine of Hippo

Some saints spoke and/or wrote of the importance of not only praying, but of becoming prayer.  They described the fourth category of soil in this parable.  They described the state of praying without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

So, I ask you, O reader, what kind of soil are you?  And what kind of soil do you aspire to become or remain, by grace?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 30, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF ALLEN EASTMAN CROSS, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF GEORGE WALLACE BRIGGS, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN MAIN, ANGLO-CANADIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MONK

THE FEAST OF JOSIAH BOOTH, ENGLISH ORGANIST, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TUNE COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF FRANCES JOSEPH-GAUDET, AFRICAN-AMERICAN EDUCATOR, PRISON REFORMER, AND SOCIAL WORKER

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READING JEREMIAH, PART XIX

Above:  Jeremiah

Image in the Public Domain

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Jeremiah 30:1-31:40

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The Book of Jeremiah contains distinct sections.  30:1-31:40 is the Book of Consolation.  After all the recent doom and gloom in Jeremiah, some consolation is welcome.

Layers of authorship exist in the Book of Consolation:

1. A layer dating to the prophet himself,
2. A layer of the editing of statements dating to the prophet himself,
3. A layer dating to the Babylonian Exile, and
4. A layer dating to after the Babylonian Exile.

I acknowledge this and focus on themes.

We read of a divine promise of the end of the Babylonian Exile, with collective spiritual renewal attached the return to the ancestral homeland.

We read of God chastising the covenant community for its sins and devouring those who wanted to devour the covenant community.  Divine judgment and mercy remain in balance.

The image of God as the Good Shepherd, reversing exile, occurs in Jeremiah 31:10-14.  For other occurrences, read Jeremiah 23 and Ezekiel 34:11-16.  The image of the Good Shepherd applies to Jesus in John 10:1-21.

Jeremiah 31:15 is one of the verses dubiously quoted in reference to Jesus (Matthew 2:18).  (The Gospel of Matthew frequently quotes the Hebrew Bible dubiously in reference to Jesus.)  Jeremiah 31:15 uses the name of Rachel, wife of Jacob, and alludes to Genesis 35:16-21 and 1 Samuel 10:2.  In Jeremiah 31:15, “Rachel” (Jerusalem personified) weeps for those who have gone into exile.  Yet these exiles–or their descendants–will return, we read.  Matthew 2:18 interprets Jeremiah 31:15 as a prediction of the Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem, circa 4 B.C.E.

We also read of the remnant of the (northern) Kingdom of Israel reincorporating into Zion.  This element is either historically troublesome or potentially so.

1. It may refer to those people of Israel who retained their faith joining the spiritually renewed community.  This is not historically troublesome.  The historical record mentions people fleeing Israel, as well as their descendants moving to the ancestral homeland.
2. However, if the prophecy in Chapter 30 is a version of the prophecy in Chapter 31, we may have a historical problem, O reader.  The historical record tells us that the descendants of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah never reunited.  The combination of genetics and cultural anthropology tells us that Ten Lost Tribes scattered across the Old World–from South Africa to Afghanistan.  And, with the advent of widespread global travel, we can state with certainty that the descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes have scattered across the world.
3. We do not have a historical problem if the fulfillment of this prophecy has yet to occur.

Whenever God will reunite the remnants of Israel and Judah, we read, God will establish a new covenant–one written on human hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Early Christian interpretation of this passage as referring to Jesus explains why the New Testament bears the label it does.  We can thank Tertullian (in full, Quintus Septimus Florens Tertullian, c. 160-c. 225 B.C.E.) for that.  In the context of Jeremiah 31, though, the prophecy refers to the internalization of the Torah, therefore, to a spiritual state in which disobedience to God will cease to be an option.

This topic reminds me of an abbreviation of an extended passage from St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430):

Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.

The too-abbreviated version is:

Love God and do whatever you please.

The rest of the quote is essential for proper context and understanding.

Anyhow, the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:31-34 has yet to come true communally.  Some especially holy men and women may have, by grace, achieved the spiritual state St. Augustine described.  I am not one of them.

Jeremiah 31 concludes with the repetition of divine faithfulness to the covenant people.  God may punish them for their sins, but will never destroy them.  The Jews will remain the Chosen People for all time.  Jeremiah 31:38-40 reverses Jeremiah 1:10.

See, I appoint you this day

Over nations and kingdoms:

To uproot and pull down,

To destroy and to overthrow,

To build up and to plant.

–Jeremiah 1:10, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

This is the beginning of one thread.  Then we read Jeremiah 31:38-40:

See, a time is coming–declares the LORD–when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate; and the measuring line shall go straight out to the Gareb Hill, and then turn toward Goah.  And the entire Valley of the Corpses and Ashes, and all the fields as far as the Wadi Kidron, and the corner of the Horse Gate on the east, shall be holy to the LORD.  They shall never again be uprooted or overthrown.

—TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

This description of the rebuilding of Jerusalem speaks of a promising future.  Yet I know of the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E.  We may be reading a yet-unfulfilled prophecy.

Or Jeremiah may have gotten this one wrong.  He also predicted the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian conquest of Egypt (46:1-6).  The Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire never conquered Egypt.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 13, 2021 COMMON ERA

PROPER 6:  THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF SAINT SPYRIDON OF CYPRUS, BISHOP OF TREMITHUS, CYPRUS; AND HIS CONVERT, SAINT TRYPHILLIUS OF LEUCOSIA, CYPRUS; OPPONENTS OF ARIANISM

THE FEAST OF DAVID ABEEL, U.S. DUTCH REFORMED MINISTER AND MISSIONARY TO ASIA

THE FEAST OF ELIAS BENJAMIN SANFORD, U.S. METHODIST THEN CONGREGATIONAL MINISTER AND ECUMENIST

THE FEAST OF SIGISMUND VON BIRKEN, GERMAN LUTHERAN HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, U.S. POET, JOURNALIST, AND HYMN WRITER

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READING HOSEA, PART VIII

Above:  Small Waterfall, Poss Creek, Ben Burton Park, Athens-Clarke County, Georgia, October 29, 2017

Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor

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…Like foam upon water.

–Hosea 10:7, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

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Hosea 10:1-15

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St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) defined sin as disordered love.  The great theologian and Bishop of Hippo Regius explained that God deserves the most love.  Furthermore, people, as well as certain items, ideas, institutions, and activities deserve less love than God.  Furthermore, some some ideas, items, institutions, and activities deserve no love.  The Bishop of Hippo Regius taught that to give God less love than proper and anything or anyone else more love than proper is to have disordered love–sin.  This sin is also idolatry, for it draws love away from God.

Hosea 10:1-15 employs metaphors for the (northern) Kingdom of Israel.  10:1-10 describes Israel as a vine.  The vine’s days of economic prosperity and military security during the reign (788-747 B.C.E.) of Jeroboam II are over in the vision.  Also, we read, the golden calf at Bethel (“House of God”), or as Hosea called the place, Beth-aven (“House of Evil;” see 4:15 also), will become an object of tribute hauled off to the Assyrian Empire.  And

Samaria’s monarchy is vanishing

Like foam upon the water….”

–10:7, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

The New American Bible–Revised Edition (2011) offers an alternative translation:

Samaria and her king will disappear,

like a twig upon the waters.

Israel is like a heifer in 10:11-15.  Israel, trained to sow righteousness and, therefore, to reap the fruits of goodness, instead plows wickedness.  Therefore, Israel reaps iniquity and eats the fruits of treachery.  Israel’s reliance on its way has led to its preventable fate.

I detect what may be evidence of subsequent Judean editing of 10:11:

I will make Ephraim do advance plowing;

Judah shall do [main] plowing!

Jacob shall do final plowing!

—TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Hosea 10:13-14 refers to military threats.  The immediate threat was from either Tiglath-pileser III (r. 745-727 B.C.E.), Shalmaneser V (r. 727-722 B.C.E.), or Sargon II (r. 722-705 B.C.E.) of the Assyrian Empire.  Shalmaneser V began the siege of Samaria; Sargon II finished it.  This detail seems to have been lost on the author of 2 Kings 17:1-6.  Perhaps Hosea 10:13-14, in referring to Shalman having destroyed Betharbel, means Shalmaneser III (r. 858-824 B.C.E.), from the time of King Jehu of Israel (r. 842-814 B.C.E.).  (See 2 Kings 9:1-10:30; 2 Chronicles 22:5-9.)  The reference to the battle at Betharbel is obscure, but the warning is plain.  The collective consequences of collectively forsaking the divine covenant are terrible, we read.

Perhaps James Luther Mays summarized the situation best:

Yahweh will be the one who acts in gruesome devastation against those whose faith makes them secure against his judgment and independent of his power.  Autonomy as a state of violation of their existence as the covenant people is the “evil of their evil.”  The king to whom the army belongs and who therefore incarnates their independence of Yahweh will be the first to fall.  In the dawn’s first light, when the battle has hardly begun, he shall be cut off.

—Hosea:  A Commentary (1969), 150

After all, as R. B. Y. Scott wrote:

If the righteousness of Yahweh could not find realization in a social order, it must destroy the order of life men built in its defiance.

—The Relevance of the Prophets, 2nd. ed. (1968), 188

The prophets Hosea and Amos were contemporaries with different foci.  As Rabbi Abraham J. Heschel wrote, Amos saw episodes yet Hosea saw a drama.  Also, Amos focused on social injustice (especially economic injustice), but Hosea focused on idolatry.  Injustice and idolatry were related to each other.  The people and their kings, by straying from God, strayed also from the divine covenant, of which social justice was an essential part.

That is a timeless message that should cause many people to tremble.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 18, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF MALTBIE DAVENPORT BABCOCK, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER, HUMANITARIAN, AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT FELIX OF CANTALICE, ITALIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC FRIAR

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN I, BISHOP OF ROME

THE FEAST OF MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE, AFRICAN-AMERICAN EDUCATOR AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST

THE FEAST OF SAINT STANISLAW KUBSKI, POLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1945

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THE QUEST FOR FALSE SIGNIFICANCE IS A FORM OF IDOLATRY.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, “Master, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink?  When did we see you a stranger and take you in; or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison, and come to see you?”  “In solemn truth I tell you,” the King will answer them, “that inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you had done it unto me.”

–Matthew 25:37-40, Helen Barrett Montgomery, the Centenary Translation of the New Testament (1924)

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And lo, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.

–Luke 13:30, Helen Barrett Montgomery, the Centenary Translation of the New Testament (1924)

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The ethics and morals of Jesus of Nazareth shape my ethics and morals.  I am a professing Christian, after all.  

The increase in political extremism defined by hatred, xenophobia, nativism, and conspiracy theories concerns me deeply.  This is a global problem.  As one hears in this video clip, the “quest for significance” is one of the “pillars of radicalization.”  

We are dealing with idolatry.  Sin, in Augustinian terms, is disordered love.  God deserves the most love.  Many people, activities, ideas, et cetera, deserve lesser amounts of love.  Others deserve no love.  To love that which one should not love or to love someone or something more than one ought to do is to deny some love to God.  One bears the image of God.  One is, therefore, worthy of much love.  In fact, Judaism and Christianity teach that one has a moral obligation to love others as one loves oneself, assuming that one loves oneself as one should (Leviticus 19:18; Tobit 4:15; Sirach/Ecclesiasticus 31:15; Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31).  After all, the other human beings also bear the image of God.  Judaism and Christianity also teach people to love God fully, and link love of God and love of other people (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Matthew 22:36-40).  Therefore, true significance comes from loving God fully and loving God, as God is present in human beings, especially the “least of these.”

Two stories from 1 Maccabees pertain to my theme.  

In 1 Maccabees 5:55-64, two Hasmonean military commanders named Zechariah and Azariah sought to make a name for themselves.  They succeeded; they caused military defeat and won ignominy to define their names.  However, in 1 Maccabees 6:42-47, Eleazar Avaran acted selflessly, in defense of his oppressed people and the Law of Moses.  He died and won an honored name from his people.  Those who sought honor earned disgrace.  He who sacrificed himself gained honor.

I could quote or mention a plethora of Biblical verses and passages about the folly of seeking false significance.  The Bible has so many of them because of the constancy of human nature.  I could quote or mention more verses and passages, but to do so would be triply redundant.

Simply, true human significance comes from God, compared to whom we are all insignificant.  That significance comes from bearing the image of God.  The sooner more of us accept that truth, the better off the rest of us will be.  The social, societal, economic, and political costs of the quest for false significance to extremely high.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 24, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT MATTHIAS THE APOSTLE, MARTYR

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