Devotion for Proper 11, Year B (Humes)

Above:  The Plague of Flies, by James Tissot

Image in the Public Domain

The Individual and the Collective, Part II

JULY 19, 2020

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ,  who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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Exodus 8:1-15 or 2 Samuel 11:1-17

Psalm 50:16-23

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Mark 5:21-43

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Judgment and Mercy are both individual and collective.  They are individual in Psalm 50:16-23, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10, and Mark 5:21-43.  They are, however, collective in Exodus 8:1-15 and 2 Samuel 11:1-17, in which innocent people pay the stiff penalty for the sins of others or another person–a monarch, in particular.

Collective punishment that affects the innocent is not fair, at least from one perspective.  I subscribe to that point of view.  I also acknowledge that life is not fair.  This is a truth with which more than one Psalmist wrestled and that the authors of layers of the Book of Job addressed in sometimes contradictory ways.  We mere mortals have the right to complain–to kvetch, even–about it to God.  In the Judeo-Christian tradition, with its richness, arguing with God has become an art form.

All that anyone of us does affects others, for good and for ill.  Of course, reward and punishment have collective components; we cannot segregate ourselves entirely in any given society.  This is objective reality.

May God deliver us from ourselves and each other.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 23, 2019 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT BRIDGET OF SWEDEN, FOUNDRESS OF THE ORDER OF THE MOST HIGH SAVIOR; AND HER DAUGHTER, SAINT CATHERINE OF SWEDEN, SUPERIOR OF THE ORDER OF THE MOST HIGH SAVIOR

THE FEAST OF ADELAIDE TEAGUE CASE, PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

THE FEAST OF SAINTS PHILIP EVANS AND JOHN LLOYD, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS

THE FEAST OF THEODOR LILEY CLEMENS, ENGLISH MORAVIAN MINISTER, MISSIONARY, AND COMPOSER

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/07/23/the-individual-and-the-collective-iii/

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