LORD, let your mercy come upon me,

Above:  Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well of Jacob

Image in the Public Domain

Judgment and Mercy

JUNE 12, 2022

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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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Amos 9:8-15 or Proverbs 22:1-23

Psalm 119:33-48

1 Timothy 6:1-8

John 4:1-42

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First, I condemn all forms of slavery at all times and places.  The acceptance of slavery in 1 Timothy 6:1-2 is false doctrine.

With that matter out of the way, I focus on my main point.  1 Timothy 6:7 is correct; we came into this world with nothing.  We, likewise, can take nothing with us when we die.  Greed is a form of idolatry.

The reading from Proverbs 22 includes harsh words for those who oppress the poor.  To oppress to the poor is to get on God’s bad side.  Oppression of the poor is a topic in the Book of Amos.  That practice is one of the stated causes of the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel.

Judgment and mercy exist in balance in Amos 9.  The destruction, we read, will not be thorough.  Then restoration will follow.  This restoration remains in future tense, given the scattering of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

the salvation you have promised.

–Psalm 119:41, The Revised New Jerusalem Bible (2019)

Jesus knew how to use harsh language.  He used none with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, though.  He had a long conversation with a woman–a Samaritan woman.  Jesus surprised even his closest associates by doing so.  Christ offered grace and no judgment.  Many exegetes, preachers, and Sunday School teachers have judged the woman, though.  They should never have done so.

The woman at the well was different from the condemned people in Amos 9 and the false teachers in 1 Timothy 6.  She was receptive to God speaking to her when she realized what was happening.  That Samaritan woman gained insight.  She also acquired a good name, something more desirable than great riches.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JANUARY 3, 2021 COMMON ERA

THE TENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS

THE FEAST OF EDWARD CASWALL, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF EDWARD PERRONET, BRITISH METHODIST PREACHER

THE FEAST OF GLADYS AYLWARD, MISSIONARY IN CHINA AND TAIWAN

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM ALFRED PASSAVANT, SR., U.S. LUTHERAN MINISTER, HUMANITARIAN, AND EVANGELIST

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https://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/2021/01/03/devotion-for-the-eighth-sunday-after-the-epiphany-year-d-humes/

https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2021/01/03/judgment-and-mercy-part-xx/

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Above:   Absalom Conspires Against David

Image in the Public Domain

Scandal, Christian Liberty, and the Glory of God

AUGUST 20, 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 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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2 Samuel 16:20-17:7, 11-14, 23

Psalm 119:41-48

1 Corinthians 11:2-16

John 7:10-18

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The assigned portion of Psalm 119 contrasts with the sordid deeds of 2 Samuel 16 and 17.  The proverbial chickens of King David (2 Samuel 11) are coming home to roost, the narrative suggests.

A perennial question is how to live as a Christian, with liberty, in the world while avoiding undue scandal, especially when, whatever one does, one will offend somebody.  A related perennial question is to what extent one should value the opinions of non-Christians in society.  Consider, for example, gender roles, O reader.  The practice of women worshiping with their heads uncovered was common in pagan cults.  Not only did St. Paul the Apostle share in a portion of culturally inherited sexism, but he also valued the opinions of outsiders too highly.  I have concluded that, if I were to cease engaging in all the activities that might offend one person or another, I would do nothing.

Besides, I seldom see women in church cover their heads.  In my culture this is not an issue.

The proper standard to pursue is to glorify God.  As Jesus knew well, doing that alone incurs the wrath of even a portion of the religious population.

May we, by grace, glorify God and let the proverbial chips fall where they will.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 18, 2017 COMMON ERA

PROPER 6:   THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF SAINTS DELPHINUS OF BORDEAUX, AMANDUS OF BORDEAUX, SEVERINUS OF BORDEAUX, VENERIUS OF MILAN, AND CHROMATIUS OF AQUILEIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS

THE FEAST OF ADOLPHUS NELSON, SWEDISH-AMERICAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN TRANSLATOR

THE FEAST OF ANSON DODGE, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM BINGHAM TAPPAN, U.S. CONGREGATIONALIST MINISTER, POET, AND HYMN WRITER

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/scandal-christian-liberty-and-the-glory-of-god/

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Above:  Ramparts of Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, Between 1900 and 1920

Image Source = Library of Congress

Reproduction Number = LC-DIG-matpc-15141

Spiritual Barriers

OCTOBER 30 and 31, 2023

NOVEMBER 1, 2023

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The Collect:

O Lord God, you are the holy lawgiver, you are the salvation of your people.

By your Spirit renew us in your covenant of love,

and train us to care tenderly for all our neighbors,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.  Amen.

–Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), page 51

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The Assigned Readings:

Deuteronomy 6:1-9, 20-25 (Monday)

Deuteronomy 10:10-22 (Tuesday)

Proverbs 119:41-48 (Wednesday)

Psalm 119:41-48 (All Days)

James 2:8-13 (Monday)

James 2:14-26 (Tuesday)

Matthew 19:16-22 (Wednesday)

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I shall continue to keep your law;

I shall keep it for ever and ever.

I will walk at liberty,

because I study your commandments.

–Psalm 119:44-45, The Book of Common Prayer (1979)

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Rabbi Hillel summarized the Law of Moses by quoting the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), the order to love Yahweh with all one’s heart, soul, and might.  Then he said,

The rest is commentary.  Go and learn it.

We humans require “hooks” onto which to “hang” information.  Hillel pointed to an excellent one.  Much of the information, in the Law of Moses, consists of culturally specific examples of timeless principles.  Many interpreters of that code miss this point, hence continued legalism while missing the point.  Some have become lost in the trees and cannot see the forest.

The readings for these three days combine to reinforce a few theological points:

1. How we think of God influences how we think of people;
2. How we think influences how we act;
3. How we treat people matters to God;
4. To have only abstract theology is insufficient;
5. As I heard growing up, “our prayers must have feet;” and
6. We must eliminate spiritual barriers to trusting God.

These six points overlap, for, if we fear scarcity, for example, we might hoard in our self-interest and thereby deprive others of necessities.  God will notice that reality.

All of us have spiritual barriers.  One barrier for the man in Matthew 19:16-22 was wealth, which has functioned in that capacity for many people for a long time.  Fear of vulnerability is among the most common barriers.  This applies to the rich man in Matthew 19 because his wealth insulated him from certain stresses and other problems.  To overcome this fear is a great challenge, especially if one has acculturated in a setting which encourages rugged individualism.  The truth, of course, is that we all rely on each other and depend entirely on God.  Yet the illusion of independence and self-sufficiency remains as a major obstacle to trusting in God.  May we, by grace, find liberation from all barriers which separate us from a deeper relationship with God.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

SEPTEMBER 4, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF ALL CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKERS AND PEACE ACTIVISTS

THE FEAST OF ALBERT SCHWEITZER, MEDICAL MISSIONARY

THE FEAST OF PAUL JONES, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF UTAH AND WITNESS FOR PEACE

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Spiritual Barriers

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Above:  St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, Hamilton, Georgia, June 19, 2011

Image Source = Bill Monk, Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Building Up the Body of Christ (I)

OCTOBER 11, 2022

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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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Lately I have been extending readings and even combining days’ worth of assigned devotional readings to preserve the unity of chapters in Galatians as much as possible.  I learn more from the texts when I type them out word for word.  I have, over time, typed out the Gospel lessons and the psalms, so I can copy and paste them from other blog posts I have produced, with just a few exceptions now and again.  But now, that I am focusing on the First Reading, I have decided to reproduce the full text of the Letter to the Galatians, despite the toll this effort takes on my fingers.  I can compensate for that (by spacing out the times I type out of a Bible and my notes in a composition book), and the cost, a mild one, is worth it.  Pondering, planning, and producing these posts constitute devotional acts themselves, and I hope, O reader, that you derive some benefit from them.–KRT

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Galatians 5:1-25 (Revised English Bible):

It is for freedom that Christ set us free.  Stand firm, therefore, and refuse to submit again to the yoke of slavery.

Mark my words:  I, Paul, say to you that if you get yourself circumcised Christ will benefit you no more.  I will impress on you once again that every man who accepts circumcision is under obligation to keep the entire law.  When you seek to be justified by way of law, you are cut off from Christ:  you have put yourselves outside God’s grace.  For it is by the Spirit and through faith that we hope to attain that righteousness which we eagerly await.  If we are in union with Christ Jesus, circumcision makes no difference at all, nor does the lack of it; the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You were running well; who was it hindered you from following the truth?  Whatever persuasion was used, it did not come from God who called you.

A little leaven,

remember,

leavens all the dough.

The Lord gives me confidence that you will not adopt the wrong view; but whoever is unsettling your minds must bear God’s judgement.  As for me, my friends, if I am still advocating circumcision, then why am I still being persecuted?  To do that would be to strip the cross of all offence.  Those agitators had better go the whole way and make eunuchs of themselves!

You, my friends, were called to be free; only beware of turning your freedom into licence for you unspiritual nature.  Instead, serve one another in love; for the whole law is summed up in a single commandment:

Love your neighbor as yourself.

But if you go on fighting one another, tooth and nail, all you can expect is mutual destruction.

What I mean is this:  be guided by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of your unspiritual nature.  That nature sets its desires against the Spirit, while the Spirit fights against it.  They are in conflict with one another so that you cannot do what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to law.

Anyone can see the behaviour that belongs to the unspiritual nature:  fornication, indecency, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; quarrels, a contentious temper, envy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, party intrigues, and jealousies; drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.  I warn you, as I warned you before, that no one who behaves like that will ever inherit the kingdom of God.

But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the old nature with its passions and desires.  If the Spirit is the source of our life, let the Spirit also direct its course.

Psalm 119:41-48 (1979 Book of Common Prayer):

41  Let your loving kindness come to me, O LORD,

and your salvation, according to your promise.

42  Then shall I have a word for those who taunt me,

because I trust in your words.

43  Do not take the word of truth out of my mouth,

for my hope is in your judgments.

44  I shall continue to keep your aw;

I shall keep it for ever and ever.

45  I will walk at liberty,

because I study your commandments.

46  I will tell of your decrees before kings

and will not be ashamed.

47  I delight in your commandments,

which I have always loved.

48  I will lift up my hands to your commandments,

and I will meditate on your statutes.

Luke 11:37-41 (Revised English Bible):

When he [Jesus] had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to a meal, and he came in and sat down.  The Pharisee noticed that he had not begun by washing before the meal.  But the Lord said to him,

You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and plate; but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.  You fools!  Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?  But let what is inside be given to charity, and all is clean.

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The Collect:

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Some Related Posts:

Week of Proper 23:  Tuesday, Year 1:

https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/05/04/week-of-proper-23-tuesday-year-1/

In Remembrance of Me:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/in-remembrance-of-me/

Hostility Fractures the Body:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/hostility-fractures-the-body/

A Prayer to Embrace Love, Empathy, and Compassion, and to Eschew Hatred, Invective, and Willful Ignorance:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/a-prayer-to-embrace-love-empathy-and-compassion-and-to-eschew-hatred-invective-and-willful-ignorance/

I Come with Joy to Meet My Lord:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/i-come-with-joy-to-meet-my-lord/

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I belong to a Historical Jesus reading group.  Thus I am almost finished with The Founder of Christianity, by C. H. Dodd, in which Dodd makes the following point:  For many Palestinian Jews at the time of Christ, keeping the minutae of the Law of Moses formed the basis of their identity.  The keeping of the minutae of the Law defined them as not being Gentiles (especially Romans).  So, when Jesus said and did much of what he said and did, he questioned the basis of their identity.  This helps to explain why our Lord stirred up so much animosity in religious circles.  Religion had become mixed up in identity politics so much that simple calls to act compassionately–even on the Sabbath–became occasions for controversy.

This helps to explain much opposition to Paul, as well as Paul’s opposition to Judaizers.  Dodd’s analysis provides a useful societal backdrop to the Pauline epistles, not just the Gospels.  Keep that in mind as I proceed.

Love of one’s neighbor, we read, fulfills the Law of Moses.  (I have covered this idea in a previous post:  https://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/week-of-proper-22-wednesday-year-2/.  If we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we will act toward them properly, avoiding deeds which exploit them and tear them down.  And we will exhibit actions which help them and build them up.  Trademarks of these deeds are

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control. –5:23, Revised English Bible

Here I must reiterate the theme of Christian liberty to fulfill one’s spiritual potential.  This potential is not individual and separate from others.  We rise and fall together, for what one person does affects others.  To borrow an analogy from elsewhere in the Pauline epistles, we are individually body parts, and the building up of the body is crucial.

May we show

love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and self-control

to each other for the common good, our own good, and (most importantly) for the glory of God.

KRT

http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2011/11/05/building-up-the-body-of-christ-i/