Above:  Christ Healing a Bleeding Woman

Image in the Public Domain

Empathy, Sympathy, and Community

JUNE 8, 2022

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The Collect:

Compassionate God, you have assured the human family of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Deliver us from the death of sin, and raise us to new life,

in your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 39

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The Assigned Readings:

Jeremiah 8:14-22

Psalm 68:1-10, 19-20

Luke 8:40-56

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God, you rained down a shower of blessings,

when your heritage was weary you gave it strength.

Your family found a home, which you

in your generosity provided for the humble.

–Psalm 68:9-10, The New Jerusalem Bible (1985)

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The lection from Jeremiah 8 is grim.  It comes from a section of prophecies of judgment against Jerusalem.  (Nevertheless, Hebrew puns are present.)  In some portions of the reading the identity of the speaker is unclear, but the tone is never vague–doom will arrive, and mourning will be abundant.

In Luke 8 grief and anguish give way to joy.  Jesus heals a ritually unclean woman with a gynecological condition.  He restores her to her community and ends her mental and emotional anguish.  Then he raises the daughter of Jairus, a leader of a synagogue, from the dead.  Our Lord and Savior restores the family of Jairus to wholeness and the daughter to life and community.

We mere mortals share our lives with each other when we live in community.  We might guard our privacy, but even those matters we choose not to disclose influence our lives in community.  Whenever we grieve and mourn, that affects others.  Likewise, whenever we rejoice and laugh, that affects others also.  May we support each other in positive living for the glory of God and the benefit of others, remembering that, as John Donne wrote so well,

No man is an island.

I think of the woman from Luke 8:42b-48.  The text informs us that she had endured her medical condition and the related stigma and stresses for twelve years.  How many people had tried to help her in any way?  And how many, guarding their ritual purity, had shunned her?  No woman is an island, even if she is ritually impure.

Sometimes politicians and pundits sneer at empathy, but it is a great virtue in short supply much of the time.  So is its cousin, sympathy.  Can we empathize or sympathize with a desperate father, a shunned woman, and a member of a doomed community?  How will we express that empathy or sympathy?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 4, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF PAUL CUFFEE, U.S. PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARY TO THE SHINNECOCK NATION

THE FEAST OF SAINT CASIMIR OF POLAND, PRINCE

THE FEAST OF EMANUEL CRONENWETT, U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, HYMN WRITER, AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF SAINTS MARINUS OF CAESAREA, ROMAN SOLDIER AND CHRISTIAN MARTYR, AND ASTERIUS, ROMAN SENATOR AND CHRISTIAN MARTYR

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2016/03/04/empathy-sympathy-and-community/

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Above:  The Annunciation, by El Greco

Image in the Public Domain

The Servants of the LORD

JUNE 8, 2022

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The Collect:

God our creator, the resurrection of your Son offers life to all peoples of the earth.

By your Holy Spirit, kindle in us the fire of your love,

empowering our lives for service and our tongues for praise,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 36

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The Assigned Readings:

Numbers 24:1-14

Psalm 48

Luke 1:26-38

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What we had heard we saw for ourselves

in the city of our God,

in the city of Yahweh Sabaoth,

which God has established for ever.

–Psalm 48:8, The New Revised Standard Version (1985)

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The appropriate response to the call of God is obedience.

The cultural assumption in the background of the story of Balaam the prophet in the Book of Numbers is that words have power.  In the story, when Balak hired Balaam to curse his (Balak’s) enemies, he (Balak) thought that those curses from the mouth of Balaam would bring misfortune upon those foes.  Instead, Balaam, despite earlier intentions, uttered what God, not Balak, instructed, much to Balak’s anger.

At the Annunciation the Blessed Mother said, after learning that she was to be the Mother of God, the Theotokos,

Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

–Luke 1:38, The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

May each of us, in our individual circumstances, say that with Mother Mary.  And may we say, as Balaam did to the angered Balak,

What the LORD says, that I must say.

–Numbers 24:13b, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

A faithful response to God requires nothing less.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

FEBRUARY 25, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINTS GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS THE ELDER, NONNA, AND THEIR CHILDREN:  SAINTS GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS THE YOUNGER, CAESARIUS OF NAZIANZUS, AND GORGONIA OF NAZIANZUS

THE FEAST OF ELIZABETH FEDDE, LUTHERAN DEACONESS

THE FEAST OF JOHN ROBERTS, EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY TO THE SHOSHONE AND ARAPAHOE

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/servants-of-the-lord/

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Above:  Landscape with the Parable of the Sower, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

Image in the Public Domain

Being Good Soil

JUNE 8, 2024

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The Collect:

All-powerful God, in Jesus Christ you turned death into life and defeat into victory.

Increase our faith and trust in him,

that we may triumph over all evil in the strength

of the same Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 39

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The Assigned Readings:

Genesis 2:4b-14

Psalm 130

Luke 8:4-15

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O Israel, wait for the LORD,

for with the LORD there is mercy;

there is plenteous redemption with the LORD,

who shall redeem Israel from all their sins.

–Psalm 130:7-8, Book of Common Worship (1993)

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If one focuses on the sower in the Parable of the Sower, one misses the point.  Yes, God is a better gardener in Genesis 2:4b-14 than a sower in Luke 8:4-5, but broadcast sowing, which the parable describes, was commonplace, therefore useful for our Lord and Savior’s parable.  After all, parables did use details from daily life.  And, as Bishop N. T. Wright wrote,

…what Jesus was doing was not commenting on farming problems but explaining the strange way in which the kingdom of God was arriving.

—Luke for Everyone (2004), page 93

The emphasis on the parable is on the soils, not the sower.  Donald G. Miller, author of the volume on Luke (1959) in The Layman’s Bible Commentary, was correct to refer to the story as the Parable of the Four Soils.  The parable challenges us to ask ourselves what kind of soil we are, not to question the agricultural method the story mentions.

Yes, I know that the explanation of the parable (verses 11-15) postdates the material preceding and succeeding it and represents a subsequent level of interpretation, but it is a useful level of interpretation.  It tells us that we, to pursue deep spiritual lives in Christ, must not only welcome him but have an excellent attention span for him in a range of circumstances.

What kind of soil are you, O reader?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 17, 2015 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT PATRICK, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF ARMAGH

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/being-good-soil/

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Above:  Jesus Heals Two Blind Men, by Julius Schnorr

Image in the Public Domain

Divine Judgment and Mercy

JUNE 8-10, 2023

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The Collect:

O God, you are the source of life and the ground of our being.

By the power of your Spirit bring healing to this wounded world,

and raise us to the new life of your Son, Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. Amen.

—Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 38

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The Assigned Readings:

Lamentations 1:7-11 (Thursday)

Lamentations 3:40-58 (Friday)

Exodus 34:1-9 (Saturday)

Psalm 50:7-15 (All Days)

2 Peter 2:17-22 (Thursday)

Acts 28:1-10 (Friday)

Matthew 9:27-34 (Saturday)

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Hear, O my people, and I will speak:

“I will testify against you, O Israel;

for I am God, your God….”

–Psalm 50:7, Common Worship (2000)

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The assigned readings for these three days juxtapose divine judgment and mercy. The metaphors for the consequences of sin are quite graphic. They do not make for good mealtime conversation, but at least they convey the point well.

There is also extravagant mercy with God. In Matthew 9:27-34, for example, Jesus healed two blind men and a mute whom others in his culture considered a demoniac. I, being a product of the Scientific Revolution and the subsequent Enlightenment, reject the Hellenistic notion that demonic possession causes muteness. No, I seek psychological explanations. None of that changes the reality of restoration to community. Those three men were marginal prior to their healing. The blind men might have even accepted the commonplace assumption that someone’s sin had caused their lack of vision. The lifting of that spiritual burden must have been wonderful also.

We must exercise caution to avoid becoming trapped in a simplistic and false concept of God. Such a false concept is an idol, for it occupies the place God should fill. With God there are great depths of mercy yet also the reality of potential judgment. As a prayer for Good Friday from The Book of Common Prayer (1979) reads:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, we pray you to set your passion, cross, and death between your judgment and our souls, now and in the hour of our death. Give mercy and grace to the living; pardon and rest to the dead; to your holy Church peace and concord; and to us sinners everlasting life and glory; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

–Page 282

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 14, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF FRANCIS MAKEMIE, FATHER OF U.S. PRESBYTERIANISM

THE FEAST OF EDWARD HENRY BICKERSTETH, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF EXETER

THE FEAST OF JOHN ROBERTS/IEUAN GWYLLT, FOUNDER OF WELSH SINGING FESTIVALS

THE FEAST OF NGAKUKU, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/divine-judgment-and-mercy/

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Above:  Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

Proverbs and John, Part II:  Spiritual Obliviousness and Self-Deception

JUNE 7 AND 8, 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:

Proverbs 4:1-27 (June 7)

Proverbs 5:1-23 (June 8)

Psalm 86 (Morning–June 7)

Psalm 122 (Morning–June 8)

Psalms 6 and 19 (Evening–June 7)

Psalms 141 and 90 (Evening–June 8)

John 12:1-19 (June 7)

John 12:20-36a (June 8)

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The readings from Proverbs pertain to how to glorify God.  Love wisdom, hate evil, pursue the path of righteousness, and choose one’s lover well, they say.  Indeed, to do the opposite of any of these does not glorify God.

Those who plotted to kill Jesus (since John 11) and Lazarus (in Chapter 12) did not love wisdom, hate evil, and pursue the path of righteousness.  Yet their violent perfidy did not thwart the glorification of God.  In fact, in the Gospel of John, the crucifixion of Jesus is our Lord’s glorification.  And his resurrection from the dead was most glorious.

I derive great comfort from the knowledge that, despite human efforts, much of the time, God wins.  And I think it better to function as one of God’s willing partners on the path or righteousness rather than as one through whom God works in spite of one’s wishes and actual purposes.

I suspect that none of those who plotted to kill Jesus and Lazarus woke up on any day and asked themselves,

What can I do today to thwart God’s will?  Let me count the ways.

We humans justify ourselves to ourselves quite often, do we not?  So I wonder how often I do not function as one of God’s wiling partners on the path of righteousness while thinking that I am.  This is a question of spiritual obliviousness and self-deception.  To point it out among the long-dead is easier than to diagnose it in the person one sees in the mirror.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 8, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF BETTY FORD, U.S. FIRST LADY AND ADVOCATE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

THE FEAST OF ALBERT RHETT STUART, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF GEORGIA

THE FEAST OF BROOKE FOSS WESTCOTT, ANGLICAN BISHOP

THE FEAST OF SAINT GRIMWALD, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT

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Other Devotions for Today:

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/proverbs-and-john-part-ii-spiritual-obliviousness-and-self-deception/

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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:  The Apostle Paul, by Rembrandt van Rijn

Sacrifices

JUNE 8, 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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2 Timothy 4:1-8 (Revised English Bible):

Before God, and before Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, I charge you solemnly by his coming appearance and his reign, proclaim the message, press it home in season and out of season, use argument, reproof, and appeal, with all the patience that teaching requires.  For the time will come when people will not stand sound teaching, but each will follow his own whim and gather a crowd of teachers to tickle his fancy.  They will stop their ears to the truth and turn to fables.  But you must keep your head whatever happens; put up with hardship, work to spread the gospel, discharge all the duties of your calling.

As for me, my life is already being poured out on the altar, and the hour for my departure is upon me.  I have run the great race, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.  And now there awaits me the garland of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on the great day, and not to me alone, but to all who have set their hearts on his coming appearance.

Psalm 71:8-17 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

8  Let my mouth be full of your praise

and your glory all the day long.

9  Do not cast me off in my old age;

forsake me not when my strength fails.

10  For my enemies are talking against me,

and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.

11  They say, “God has forsaken him;

go after him and seize him;

because there is none who will save.”

12  O God, be not far from me;

come quickly to help me, O my God.

13  Let those who set themselves against me to put to shame and be disgraced;

let those who seek to do me evil be covered with scorn and reproach.

14  But I shall always wait in patience,

and shall praise you more and more.

15  My mouth shall recount your mighty acts

and saving deeds all the day long;

though I cannot know the number of them.

16  I will begin with the mighty works of the Lord GOD;

I will recall your righteousness, yours alone.

17  O God, you have taught me since I was young,

and to this day I tell of your wonderful works.

Mark 12:38-44 (Revised English Bible):

There was a large crowd listening eagerly.  As he taught them, he said,

Beware of the scribes, who love to walk up and down in long robes and be greeted respectfully in the street, and to have the chief seats  in synagogues and places of honour at feasts.  Those who eat up the property of widows, while for appearance’s sake they say long prayers, will receive a sentence all the more severe.

As he was sitting opposite the temple treasury, he watched the people dropping their money into the chest.  Many rich people were putting in large amounts.  Presently there came a poor widow who dropped in two tiny coins, together worth a penny.  He called his disciples to him and said,

Truly I tell you:  this poor widow has given more than all those giving to the treasury; for the others who have given had more than enough, but she, with less than enough, has given all that she had to live on.

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The Collect:

O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and earth:  Put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; 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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Some Related Posts:

Week of Proper 4:  Saturday, Year 1:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/week-of-proper-4-saturday-year-1/

 Luke 21 (Parallel to Mark 12): 

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/week-of-proper-29-monday-year-1/

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/when-i-survey-the-wondrous-cross/

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Paul could have had a comfortable life until the end.  He had that kind of life when he persecuted the nascent Jesus movement.  But, when he changed the direction of his life after God intervened, he embarked on a path which entailed spending time in and out of various jails and prisons.   The end came via beheading.

The widow made a great sacrifice of a different sort.  Was her sacrifice necessary?  No.  Did Jesus praise or lament her offering?  As I discuss in the post on the Lukan parallel, I think that he lamented it.  But at least the widow was faithful.

Out of faithfulness people make sacrifices.  So those who tell them to do so have the obligation not to exploit the less fortunate and the the less educated.  Yet the piety of those who make these sacrifices is at least honest, which is more than I can say about the motivation of those who tell them that these sacrifices are necessary and proper.

As for martyrdom, this is the logical result of the combination of certain circumstances and faithful people.  Given the Roman imperial politics of the 60s C.E., Paul’s life could not have ended any other way.  Nero was seeking scapegoats, which he found in the form of Christians.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Father (now Saint) Maximilian Kolbe, by virtue of their active faith , were bound to run afoul of the Nazis in the 1940s.  Jonathan Myrick Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian taking a break from his studies to work for civil rights in Alabama in 1965, took a bullet and gave his life for an African-American young woman he did not know.  His love of God and his neighbors dictated nothing less in that circumstance.

Then there is the example of Jesus, who died on a cross.  “Take up your cross and follow me,” he said.  That was what Paul, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Father (Saint) Maximilian Kolbe, and Jonathan Myrick Daniels did.  It is what God calls us to do, each in the way(s) appropriate to our circumstances, to do.  Grace is free to us, but not cheap.

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

Allegory of Faith, by Luis Salvador Carmona

Image Source = Luis Garcia

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Sovereign God,

I confess that I have sought control in matters small, medium, and large.

This has been a recurring, unfortunate, and sinful pattern.

Why have I not learned better that human control is purely illusory?

Why am I stubborn in this sin?

Deliver me–deliver all of us–I pray you–from this sin,

so that trust in you may replace the idolatrous quest for control,

that love for you and all your children may abound,

and that Shalom may result.

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

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 10, 2010 (THE FEAST OF GEOFFREY STUDDERT KENNEDY)

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