Above:  Dawn

Image in the Public Domain

Children of the Light

JUNE 28 and 29, 2022

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The Collect:

Sovereign God, ruler of all hearts,

you call us to obey you, and you favor us with true freedom.

Keep us faithful to the ways of your Son, that,

leaving behind all that hinders us,

we may steadfastly follow your paths,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 41

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The Assigned Readings:

Jeremiah 3:15-18 (Tuesday)

Jeremiah 23:16-22 (Wednesday)

Psalm 140 (Both Days)

Ephesians 5:6-20 (Tuesday)

Matthew 10:16-25 (Wednesday)

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Rescue me, Yahweh, from evil men,

protect me from violent men,

whose heart is bent on malice,

day after day they harbour strife;

their tongues as barbed as a serpent’s,

viper’s venom behind their lips.

–Psalm 140:1-3, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

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The reading from Jeremiah 3 comes from a section of scripture about repentance.  God is calling a rebellious people to holiness.  One day, the passage says,

They shall no longer follow the willfulness of their evil hearts.

–Jeremiah 3:17c, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

That prophecy had not come true by the end of the first century of the Common Era.  It had not come true by the time of Jeremiah 23, which includes references to false prophets.  That prophecy had not come to fruition by the time of Ephesians 5:6-20, during evil days.  It had not become reality by the time of Matthew 10:16-25, which refers to the persecution of followers of Jesus.

That prophecy has yet to come true, for its fulfillment resides in the future.  Until then the best advice to follow is that we find in the readings for these two days:

1. Live as children of the light,
2. Be filled with the Holy Spirit,
3. Give thanks to God for everything and at all times,
4. Trust in God during good times and good times, and
5. Remember that no pupil ranks above his or her master.

God will save the world, but we can leave it better than we found it.  We have a moral obligation to do so.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 8, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHARLOTTE ELLIOTT, JULIA ANNE ELLIOTT, AND EMILY ELLIOTT, ANGLICAN HYMN WRITERS

THE FEAST OF SAINT HUMPHREY OF PRUM, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF THEROUANNE

THE FEAST OF JOHN HAMPDEN GURNEY, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD, FOUNDER OF THE BROTHERS HOSPITALLERS OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2016/03/08/children-of-the-light/

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Above:  An Illustration from Ralph Kirby, The Bible in Pictures (1952), Page 82

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

That Which Defiles

JUNE 28 and 29, 2021

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The Collect:

Almighty and merciful God,

we implore you to hear the prayers of your people.

Be our strong defense against all harm and danger,

that we may live and grow in faith and hope,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 41

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The Assigned Readings:

Leviticus 21:1-15 (Monday)

Leviticus 15:19-31 (Tuesday)

Psalm 88 (Both Days)

2 Corinthians 8:16-24 (Monday)

2 Corinthians 9:1-5 (Tuesday)

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But as for me, O LORD, I cry to you for help;

in the morning my prayer comes before you.

–Psalm 88:14, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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What makes one unclean?  What defiles a person?  To use the germane Greek idiom, what makes a person common?

The Law of Moses lists offenses which make a person common.  Today’s readings from Leviticus provide the following causes for defilement:

1. Menstruation and contact with the discharge;
2. Contact with discharged blood;
3. Priestly contact with corpse, except that of a near relative;
4. Priestly incest;
5. Certain forms of grooming for priests;
6. Priestly cutting of his own flesh;
7. Priestly marriage to a harlot, a divorced woman, or a woman otherwise not a virgin on the day of the wedding to the priest;
8. A priest’s daughter committing harlotry, thereby defiling her father and warranting her death; and
9. Priestly baring of his head or rending of vestments.

The Law of Moses does not like female biology, does it?

The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) includes a priest who refused to violate the third item on that list, for fear that the man lying by the side of the road might be dead.  That priest would have become ritually unclean, therefore not fit to perform sacred rituals for a few days, according to Leviticus 21.  The priest was not the hero of our Lord and Savior’s story.

What really makes one unclean, defiled?  Jesus answered that question in Matthew 15:18-19:

But the things that come out of a man’s mouth come from his heart and mind, and it is they that really make a man unclean.  For it is from a man’s mind that evil thoughts arise–murder, adultery, lust, theft, perjury, and slander.

–J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English–Revised Edition (1972)

Mark 7:15 contains a succinct statement:

There is nothing outside a man which can enter him and make him “common.”  It is the things which come out of a man that make him “common”!

–J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English–Revised Edition (1972)

The list from Matthew 15 describes how to harm others and oneself in the process.  Building up others (and therefore oneself in the process), as in the readings from 2 Corinthians, does the opposite of defiling one, therefore.  The priest in the Parable of the Good Samaritan should have thought of that.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 27, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHARLES VILLIERS SANFORD, COMPOSER, ORGANIST, AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF CHARLES HENRY BRENT, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW YORK

THE FEAST OF JOHN MARRIOTT, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT RUPERT OF SALZBURG, APOSTLE OF BAVARIA AND AUSTRIA

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/that-which-defiles/

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Above:  A Question Mark

Image in the Public Domain

More Questions Than Answers

JUNE 27-29, 2024

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The Collect:

Almighty and merciful God,

we implore you to hear the prayers of your people.

Be our strong defense against all harm and danger,

that we may live and grow in faith and hope,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 41

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The Assigned Readings:

Lamentations 1:16-22 (Thursday)

Lamentations 2:1-12 (Friday)

Lamentations 2:18-22 (Saturday)

Psalm 30 (All Days)

2 Corinthians 7:2-16 (Thursday)

2 Corinthians 8:1-7 (Friday)

Luke 4:31-37 (Saturday)

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Weeping may spend the night,

but joy comes in the morning.

While I felt secure I said,

“I shall never be disturbed.

You, LORD, with your favor, made me as strong as the mountains.”

Then You hid your face,

and I was filled with fear.

–Psalm 30:6-8, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition (1996) defines theodicy as

A vindication of God’s goodness and justice in the face of the existence of evil.

Defenses of divine goodness and justice also occur in the context of misfortune attributed to God’s judgment of sinful people.  It is present in the readings from Lamentations and in Psalm 30, for example.  The anonymous authors of Lamentations wept over sins, wrote bitterly that the foe had triumphed, and thought that God had acted as a foe.  Yet the book ends:

Take us back, O LORD, to Yourself,

And let us come back;

Renew our days as of old!

–Lamentations 5:22b, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

The titular character in the Book of Job says of God:

He may well slay me; I may have no hope;

Yet I will argue my case before Him.

In this too is my salvation:

That no impious man can come into His presence.

–Job 13:15-16, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Modern translations of the Bible, with some exceptions, depart from the King James rendering, which is:

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him….,

which comes from a marginal note in the Masoretic Text.  Saying

I may have no hope

differs from uttering

yet I will trust in him,

at least superficially.  The first translation fits Job 13:15 better than does the second rendering, but pressing the lawsuit against God indicates some hope of victory.

But I know that my Vindicator lives;

In the end He will testify on earth–

This, after my skin will have been peeled off.

But I would behold God while still in my flesh.

I myself, not another, would behold Him;

Would see with my own eyes:

My heart pines within me.

–Job 19:25-27, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

Job, in that passage, speaks of a divine hearing within his lifetime.  During that proceeding a defender (presumably not a relative, since his sons had died and his surviving kinsmen had abandoned him) will speak on his behalf.  The translation of this passage from The Jerusalem Bible gets more to the point, for it has an Avenger, not a Vindicator.  These rendering differ from the familiar King James text, which George Frederick Handel set to music in The Messiah (1742) as a reference to Jesus:

For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth….

We who claim to follow God ought to proceed carefully when defending God.  First, God does not require the defenses which mere mortals provide.  Second, many human defenses of God depict God erroneously, as either a warm fuzzy on one hand or a cosmic bully or thug on the other hand.  Often our attempts to justify God to ourselves and others obstruct a healthy relationship with God and dissuade others from following God.  We need to question inadequate God concepts.

The God of Luke 4:31-37, who, through Jesus, delivers people from illnesses allegedly caused by demonic possession is the same God who has blessings and woes just two chapters later (Luke 6:20-26).  This is the same God who encourages repentance–the act of turning around or changing one’s mind.  Apologizing for one’s sins is a fine thing to do, but repentance must follow it if one is to follow God.

I do not pretend to have worked out all or even most of the answers to difficult and uncomfortable questions regarding God and human-divine relationships.  No, I acknowledge that my doubts and unanswered questions in these realms outnumber my answers.  Furthermore, some of my answers are certainly wrong.  I am, however, comfortable with this reality.  I can repent of my errors, by grace, and progress spiritually.  Besides, knowledge is not the path to salvation, as in Gnosticism.  No, grace is the path to salvation.  God has the answers.  That is fine with me.  I remain inquisitive, however, for the journey itself has much merit.

I pray that my conduct of my spiritual journey will encourage others in their pilgrimages with God and prompt others to begin, not have a negative affect on anyone.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 27, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF CHARLES VILLIERS SANFORD, COMPOSER, ORGANIST, AND COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF CHARLES HENRY BRENT, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW YORK

THE FEAST OF JOHN MARRIOTT, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT RUPERT OF SALZBURG, APOSTLE OF BAVARIA AND AUSTRIA

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/more-questions-than-answers/

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Above:  The Roman Empire in 117 C.E.

Image in the Public Domain

Note the location of the Province of Galatia in Asia Minor.

Freedom, Law, and Obedience to God

JUNE 29 and 30, 2023

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The Collect:

O God, you direct our lives by your grace,

and your words of justice and mercy reshape the world.

Mold us into a people who welcome your word and serve one another,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 40

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The Assigned Readings:

Jeremiah 25:1-7 (Thursday)

Jeremiah 25:8-14 (Friday)

Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18 (Both Days)

Galatians 5:2-6 (Thursday)

Galatians 5:7-12 (Friday)

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I will declare that your love is established for ever;

you have set your faithfulness as firm as the heavens.

–Psalm 89:2, Common Worship (2000)

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Law, for St. Paul the Apostle, stood in stark opposition to grace. Law spoke of what humans did, but grace indicated what God did. Thus, via Christ and in grace a Christian had freedom, which nobody ought to surrender. The aspect of the Law in question in Galatians 5:2-12 was circumcision, a matter of identity in Judaism to this day. Christianity, not yet separate from Judaism, was open to Gentile converts. Did they have to become Jewish to become Christians? Paul chose the inclusive position: no, which he hung on the hook of the cross of Christ.

I am not entirely unsympathetic with those who disagreed with the Apostle. They recalled passages, such as Jeremiah 25:1-14, in which not keeping the Law led to negative consequences. Circumcision was a physical mark on a Jewish male and an outward sign of an inward and communal covenant with God. This was foundational. And I know that each of us probably clings to some practice we consider essential to our tradition. Maybe we are correct to do so.

But, for the Apostle, trust in and love of Christ, expressed in a life of love, is where one’s emphasis belongs. Faith, in Pauline theology, is inherently active. And so, as Archibald M. Hunter wrote in The Layman’s Bible Commentary, Volume 22 (Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1959), page 37:

The faith that James denounces in his letter is one that does not issue in deeds of love. The faith that Paul praises is one that cannot help expressing itself in love.

Certainly we who claim to follow God can do so without placing impediments in the way of others whom God has called to God’s self. May we do so.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 23, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DESIDERIUS/DIDIER OF VIENNE, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT GUIBERT OF GORZE, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN BAPTIST ROSSI, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST

THE FEAST OF NICOLAUS COPERNICUS, SCIENTIST

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/05/29/freedom-law-and-obedience-to-god/

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Above:  The Conversion of St. Paul, by Luca Giordano

Joshua and Acts, Part III:  Ideals, Reality, and Influence

JUNE 28 AND 29, 2023

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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 everlasting 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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The Assigned Readings:

Joshua 3:1-7 (June 28)

Joshua 4:1-24 (June 29)

Psalm 130 (Morning–June 28)

Psalm 56 (Morning–June 29)

Psalms 32 and 139 (Evening–June 28)

Psalms 100 and 62 (Evening–June 29)

Acts 9:1-22 (June 28)

Acts 9:23-43 (June 29)

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Some Related Posts:

Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle (January 25):

http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/feast-of-the-conversion-of-st-paul-the-apostle-january-25/

“Lord, What Wilt Thou Have Me to Do?”:

http://taylorfamilypoems.wordpress.com/2011/08/18/lord-what-wilt-thou-have-me-to-do-acts-9-6/

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One of the themes present in the Book of Joshua yet developed more fully elsewhere in the Jewish Bible is the dissonance between the ideal and reality.  The ideal was very much on display at the crossing of the River Jordan.  The journey is a generation had ended yet the hardest work lay ahead.  For the moment, however, the news was happy.

When the ideal and the real differ one can harmonize the two by changing one of them to match the other.  God offered Saul of Tarsus an opportunity to embrace a new reality and sent human helpers, including Ananias and Barnabas.  Peter, once a man rarely capable of choosing the right words, became a great Apostle.  The time and effort which Jesus had invented in him paid off.

Interdependence is human reality, as is total dependence on God.  God is the source of everything.  And we need each other to succeed.  I, as a Gentile, owe much to St. Paul, who relied upon others, including Ananias and Barnabas.  Their reach extends to the present day.  How far will your influence, O reader, reach into the future?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 17, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF BENNETT J. SIMS, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF ATLANTA

THE FEAST OF THE MARTYRS OF COMPIEGNE

THE FEAST OF SAINT NERSES LAMPRONATS, ARMENIAN APOSTOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF TARSUS

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM WHITE, PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/joshua-and-acts-part-iii-ideals-reality-and-influence/

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Above:  An Old Family Bible

Image Source = David Ball

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God of glory,

as we prepare to study the Bible,

may we approach the texts with our minds open,

our intellects engaged,

and our spirits receptive to your leading,

so that we will understand them correctly

and derive from them the appropriate lessons.

Then may we act on those lessons.

For the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Amen.

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KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

OCTOBER 7, 2011 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF HENRY MELCHIOR MUHLENBERG, SHEPHERD OF LUTHERANISM IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES

THE FEAST OF FRED KAAN, HYMNWRITER

THE FEAST OF JOHN WOOLMAN, ABOLITIONIST

Above:  A Soup Kitchen

Image Source = Chief Mass Communication Specialist Steve Johnson

Loving One Another = Righteousness

JUNE 29, 2022

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Amos 5:14-25 (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures):

Seek good and not evil,

That you may live,

And that the LORD, the God of Hosts,

And truly be with you,

As you think.

Hate evil and love good,

And establish justice in the gate;

Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts,

Will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.

Assuredly,

Thus said the LORD,

My Lord, the God of Hosts:

In every square there shall be lamenting,

In every street cries of “Ah, woe!”

And the farm hand shall be

Called to mourn,

And those skilled in wailing

To lament;

For there shall be lamenting

In every vineyard, too,

When I pass through your midst

–said the LORD.

Ah, you who wish

For the day of the LORD!

Why do you want

The day of the LORD?

It shall be darkness, not light!–

And if a man should run from a lion

And be attacked by a bear;

Or if he got indoors,

Should lean his hand on the wall

And be bitten by a snake!

Surely the day of the LORD shall be

Not light, but darkness,

Blackest night without a glimmer.

I loathe, I spurn your festivals,

I am not appeased by your solemn assemblies.

If you offer Me burnt offerings–or your meal offerings–

I will not accept them;

I will pay no heed

To your gifts of fatlings.

Spare Me the sound of your hymns,

And let Me not hear the music of your lutes.

But let justice well up like water,

Righteousness like an unfailing stream.

Did you offer sacrifice and oblation to Me

Those forty years in the wilderness,

O House of Israel?

Psalm 50:7-15 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

7 Hear, O my people, and I will speak:

“O Israel, I will bear witness against you;

for I am God, your God.

8 I do not accuse you because of your sacrifices;

your offerings are always before me.

9 I will take no bull-calf from your stalls,

nor he goats out of your pens;

10 For all the beasts of the forest are mine,

the herds in their thousands upon the hills.

11 I know every bird in the sky,

and the creatures of the fields are in my sight.

12 If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the whole world is mine and all that is in it.

13 Do you think I eat the flesh of bulls,

or drink the blood of goats?

14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving

and make good your vows to the Most High.

15 Call upon me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you shall honor me.

Matthew 8:28-34 (An American Translation):

When he [Jesus] reached the other side, in the region of Gadara, two men possessed by demons came out of the tombs and confronted him; they were so extremely violent that nobody could go along that road.  And they suddenly screamed out,

What so you want of us, you Son of God?  Have you come here before the appointed time to torture us?

Now at some distance from them there was a great drove of pigs feeding.  And the demons entreated him, saying,

If you are going to drive us out, send us into the drove of pigs.

And he said to them,

Begone!

And they came out and went into the pigs.  And suddenly the whole drove rushed over the steep bank into the sea, and perished in the water.  And the men who tended them ran away and went off to the town and told it all, and the news about the men possessed by demons.  And the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to go away from their district.

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The Collect:

Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone:  Grant to us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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A Related Post:

Week of Proper 8:  Wednesday, Year 1:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/week-of-proper-8-wednesday-year-1/

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God cares deeply about how we treat each other.  This theological point recurs throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament.  It is especially prominent in Amos, whee we read condemnations of economic injustice and judicial corruption.  Today we read in Amos to participate in or condone such sin then to appear holy by taking part in religious ceremonies offends God.  Few offenses rankle more than hypocrisy.

For more on our topic, loving one another equals righteousness, shall we turn to the reading from Matthew? The text identifies the two men whom Jesus healed as demoniacs.  The diagnosis of demon possession was commonplace in Hellenistic times.  Today we would say emotional distress or mental illness or epilepsy or multiple personalities, et cetera.  The story tells us that, whatever afflicted these men, Jesus healed them of it, and some pigs died in the process.  Certainly some of the people who asked our Lord to leave had lost wealth in the porcine rush to die.  Others, however, were probably unnerved by the new state of wholeness the two men exhibited.  These villagers knew who they were; they were not those two demoniacs.  But now, with the demoniacs healed, who were the villagers in relation to them?

Often we define ourselves by what or who we are not.  We might think of ourselves as among the pure, but then others must be impure for this definition of purity to work.  It is better to define ourselves as who and what we are–bearers of the divine image–allegedly pure and impure alike–and all of us  are people who need grace.  We are also people who ought to administer this grace to each other, bear one another’s burdens, weep with each other, laugh with each other, help each other, rejoice in each other’s good fortune, and seek the common good.

This is righteousness.

KRT

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/reading-and-pondering-amos-part-three/

Above:  Jeremiah Lamenting Over the Destruction of Jerusalem, by Rembrandt van Rijn

Lamentations

JUNE 29, 2024

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Holy Women, Holy Men:  Celebrating the Saints (2010), of The Episcopal Church, contains an adapted two-years weekday lectionary for the Epiphany and Ordinary Time seasons from the Anglican Church of Canada.  I invite you to follow it with me.

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Lamentations 2:2, 10-19 (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures):

The Lord has laid waste without pity

All the inhabitants of Jacob;

He has raised in His anger

Fair Judah’s strongholds.

He has brought low in dishonor

The kingdom and its leaders.

…

Silent sit on the ground

The elders of Fair Zion;

They have strewn dust on their heads

And girded themselves with sackcloth;

The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed

Their heads to the ground.

My eyes are spent with tears,

My heart is in tumult,

My being melts away

Over the ruin of my poor people,

As babes and sucklings languish

In the squares of the city.

They keep asking their mothers,

Where is bread and wine?

As they languish like battle-wounded

In the squares of the town,

As their life runs out

In their mothers’ bosoms.

What can I take as witness or liken

To you, O Fair Jerusalem?

What can I match with you to console you,

O Fair Maiden Zion?

For your ruin is vast as the sea;

Who can heal you?

Your seers prophesied to you

Delusion and folly.

They did not expose your iniquity

So as to restore your fortunes,

But prophesied to you oracles

Of delusion and deception.

All who pass your way

Clap their hands at you;

They hiss and wag their head

At Fair Jerusalem:

Is that the city that was called

Perfect in Beauty,

Joy of All the Earth?

All your enemies

Jeer at you;

They hiss and gnash their teeth,

And cry:

We’ve ruined her!

Ah, this is the day we hoped for;

We have lived to see it!

The LORD has done what He purposed,

Has carried out the decree

That he ordained long ago;

He has torn down without pity.

He has let the foe rejoice over you,

Has exalted the might of your enemies.

Their heart cried out to the Lord.

O wall of Fair Zion,

Shed tears like a torrent

Day and night!

Give yourself no respite,

Your eyes no rest.

Arise, cry out in the night

At the beginning of the watches,

Pour out your heart like water

In the presence of the Lord!

Lift up your hands to Him

For the life of your infants,

Who faint for hunger

At every street corner.

Psalm 74:1-8, 17-20 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

1  O God, why have you utterly cast us off?

why is your wrath so hot against the sheep of your pasture?

2  Remember your congregation that your purchased long ago,

the tribe you redeemed to be your inheritance,

and Mount Zion where you dwell.

3  Turn your steps toward the endless ruins;

the enemy has laid waste everything in your sanctuary.

4  Your adversaries roared in your holy place;

they set up their banners as tokens of victory.

5  They were like men coming up with axes to a grove of trees;

they broke down all your carved work with hatchets and hammers.

6  They set fire to your holy place;

they defiled the dwelling-place of your Name

and razed it to the ground.

7  They said to themselves, “Let us destroy them altogether.”

They burned down all the meeting-places of God in the land.

8  There are no signs for us to see;

there is no prophet left;

there is not one among us who knows how long.

17  Remember, O LORD, how the enemy scoffed,

how a foolish people despised your Name.

18  Do not hand over the life of your dove to wild beasts;

never forget the lives of your poor.

19  Look upon your covenant;

the dark places of the earth are haunts of violence.

20  Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed;

let the poor and needy praise your Name.

Matthew 8:5-17 (An American Translation):

When he [Jesus] got back to Capernaum, a Roman captain came up and appealed to him,

My servant, sir, is lying sick with paralysis at my house, in great distress.

He said to him,

I will come and cure him.

But the captain answered,

I am not a suitable person,sir, to have you come under my roof, but simply say the word, and my servant will be cured.  For I am myself under the orders of others and I have soldiers under me, and I tell one to go, and he comes, and my slave to do something, and he does it.

When Jesus heard this he was astonished, and said to his followers,

I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such faith as this.  And I tell you, many will come from the east and from the west and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of of Heaven, while the heirs to the kingdom will be driven into the darkness outside, there to weep and grind their teeth!

Then Jesus said to the captain,

Go!  You shall find it just as you believe!

And the servant was immediately cured.

Jesus went into Peter’s house, and there he found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed with fever.  And he touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and waited on him.

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The Collect:

O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

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A Related Post:

Week of Proper 7:  Saturday, Year 1:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/week-of-proper-7-saturday-year-1/

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At this point I have been exploring much of 2 Kings.  Recently I have written of so many aspects of that text that I recognize many of them in Lamentations 2.  I have nothing new to say or write about them.  So I choose to be quite brief in my remarks for this post.  If you, O reader, are of such a mind, reread the preceding Monday-Saturday posts, beginning with “Week of Proper 5:  Monday, Year 2” (https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/week-of-proper-5-monday-year-2/).  Pay very close attention to the recurring sin of idolatry.

Other than that, read Lamentations (preferably all of it) aloud.  Most people who have experienced the Bible over time have done so orally; either they have read it aloud or someone has read it to them.  One approaches a text differently when one hears it than when one reads it silently off a page.  So read Lamentations aloud.  Let it wash over you and through you.  Listen to God speaking to you through it.

I also recommend listening to the Thomas Tallis settings of Lamentations.  In fact, I have been listening to YouTube recordings of those settings while typing this post.  Listen–really listen–to the music.  The words are Latin, but the English words are not hard to find; begin with Chapter 1, verse 1.  The music, from the 1500s, captures the essence of the biblical author’s grief.  You, O reader, might even choose to read the text aloud while playing the Tallis music.

May the peace of the Lord be with you today and always.

KRT

Above:  The Missal (1902), by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917)

Image in the Public Domain

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Here I share with everyone a proposed form of the Prayers of the People, for congregational use, for the Season After Pentecost.  Anyone may modify this form to fit local needs and update it as people leave or enter office.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

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The congregational response to “We pray to you, O God” is “Hear our prayer.”

As God’s people, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, we ask that our lives may become prayer pleasing to you, and that all people and institutions which profess to follow our Lord, may express God’s love and grace to others.

We pray to you, O God,

Hear our prayer.

That

• Barack, our President;
• Nathan, our Governor;
• Nancy, our Mayor;
• And all other government officials and all influential persons

may exercise their power and authority wisely and for the common good, so that all people everywhere may be treated with dignity and respect, dwell in safety, and have everything they need,

we pray to you, O God,

Hear our prayer.

That we may love you with our whole heart and life and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves,

we pray to you, O God,

Hear our prayer.

That we may be good stewards of Mother Earth,

we pray to you, O God,

Hear our prayer.

We intercede for

• (first names here);
• And our men and women in the armed forces, especially (names here);
• And all people struggling with vocational and career issues.

I invite your prayers, silent or aloud.

(Pause)

We pray to you, O God,

Hear our prayer.

We thank you for

• (names here), who celebrate their birthdays this week;
• And (names here), who celebrate their wedding anniversaries this week.

I invite your thanksgivings, silent or aloud.

(Pause)

We pray to you, O God,

Hear our prayer.

That all who have passed from this life to the next will know the boundless joy and peace of eternal rest,

we pray to you, O God,

Hear our prayer.

The celebrant concludes with a collect.

Above:  Everything is In the Past, by Vassily Maximov

Image in the Public Domain

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Sovereign Lord of life,

may we not imprison ourselves in the past,

dwelling on disappointments and plotting revenge

or resting on our laurels.

Instead, may we learn the appropriate lessons from the past,

live in the present faithfully, and

look to the future faithfully.

May we be and remain open to

all the possibilities you present for us to fulfill our vocations.

And, in so doing, may we become the persons we need to become

–for your glory and the sake others.

In the name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity.  Amen.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 11, 2010

THE FEAST OF ALEXANDER FLEMING

Published originally at GATHERED PRAYERS COLLECTED BY KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR on July 17, 2010