Lent, for those of us in Western Christianity (of which The Episcopal Church is part), will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 13, 2013.
I remember a conversation I had with someone in Valdosta, Georgia, during the 1990s. He was a professing Christian from a less formalistic tradition. I mentioned Lent. He said that he practiced Lent all twelve months.
The problem with such an attitude is that it is not workable. The beauty of the Church Year is that it gives a time for each of a set of worthy emphases. During Advent we prepare for Christmas. During Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior for twelve days. During the Season after Epiphany we focus on the universal purpose of the Gospel. During Lent we prepare for Easter by being penitential and either giving up a bad habit or nurturing a good one. During the fifty days of Easter we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior. And the Season after Pentecost reminds us of our mission from God to improve society. One cannot do all of the above every month.
So I invite you, O reader, to follow the Lenten path which God has established for you during the forty days (plus Sundays) of Lent.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 21, 2013 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS MIROCLES OF MILAN AND EPIPHANUS OF PAVIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS
THE FEAST OF SAINT AGNES, MARTYR AT ROME
THE FEAST OF SAINTS ALBAN ROE AND THOMAS REYNOLDS, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND MARTYRS
THE FEAST OF SAINT GASPAR DEL BUFALO, FOUNDER OF THE MISSIONARIES OF THE PRECIOUS BLOOD
Once I stayed up too late and worked out a ten-year plan for writing lectionary-based devotional blog posts. I had already collected a small yet impressive library of hymnals and books of worship. (When I say “small,” I mean larger that what most or many people have yet smaller than the other categories of books in my collection.) So, for church year 2012-2103, I committed to write from the daily lectionary in the Lutheran Service Book (2006), of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. The lectionary begins on Ash Wednesday, but I started at ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY DEVOTIONS (http://adventchristmasepiphany.wordpress.com/), for the western church year commences with Advent. (The Orthodox, by the way, begin their church year on September 1. I have an Orthodox study Bible with a lectionary in the back.)
One can, of course, read a passage of scripture by itself profitably. But to read passages of scripture together and to to identify connections between or among them is better. I have done this with the LCMS daily lectionary of 2006 (distinct from the one in Lutheran Worship, 1982, another book I have), and the Revised Common Lectionary. I have found that the LCMS lections (Old and New Testaments) have frequently had partners I did not expect. And, when I have thought long enough, I have identified writing themes between them. The ancient practice of using lectionaries is a fine tradition, and the discipline of it appeals to me and fills at least one of my needs.
Preparing this year’s set of posts for this blog has been a spiritually and intellectually rewarding experience for me. I pray that you, O reader, find reading and pondering them likewise rewarding. And may you also find the continuation of church year 2012-2013′s devotions at ORDINARY TIME DEVOTIONS (http://ordinarytimedevotions.wordpress.com/) beneficial.
As I have written new posts and linked them to their older counterparts from previous years, I have noticed improvements in the depth of my writing. The original devotionals I wrote have found a home here, for I have transplanted them from SUNDRY THOUGHTS (http://neatnik2009.wordpress.com/), my original blog. We humans ought to try to improve at many tasks with time and experience; I do. I wonder, God willing, how much better subsequent devotions will be compared to the newest set. I hope to learn that for myself.
May the peace of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be with you and remain with you always. Amen.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 23, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT NICETAS OF REMESIANA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF WIREMU TAMIHANA, MAORI PROPHET AND KINGMAKER
Israelite victories and conquests prior to the arrival in Canaan fill Numbers 21:10-35. The narrative tells us that so long as they obeyed God, they won. I wish that life were always as simple as obedience to God leading to success and prosperity. Yet, as we read in Luke 21:12-19, sometimes it leads to persecution and betrayal. Indeed, the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot opens the next chapter.
I have no easy answers as to why bad things happen to good people. Observation and the study of history have taught me some lessons. Jealousies arise. We see those who are better than ourselves and we seek to tear them down rather than to improve ourselves. Or we misunderstand others, and we learn to hate those we do not understand. Sometimes people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet some people seem to have all the luck while others seem to have none. The fact that I know all this does mean than I understand it very well.
I do know that the world is an unfair place. I have railed against this to God. The world is still horribly unfair, however. But perhaps fairness is not the proper standard. Grace is not fair either, but I try not to complain about that reality. No, the standard I reallyseek is grace–to everybody. And, when I perceive the absence of it, I become disturbed. And I rail about it to God. But to what extent are we–you, O reader, and I–supposed to function as agents of that grace more than we do?
Now that is a hard lesson.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 23, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT NICETAS OF REMESIANA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF WIREMU TAMIHANA, MAORI PROPHET AND KINGMAKER
Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The LENTEN AND EASTER DEVOTIONS blog terminates each church year at the Day of Pentecost. This practice makes sense because Pentecost Sunday is the last day of the Easter season. There is another reason, however. Liturgical renewal and restructuring for most of Western Christianity, beginning with the Roman Catholic Church in Advent 1969, has led to the labeling of the subsequent Sundays in Ordinary Time (beginning two weeks after Pentecost Sunday) as “after Pentecost” in lieu of the prior dominant practice, “after Trinity.” (Disclaimer: U.S. Methodists used to divide the post-Pentecost and pre-Advent time into two seasons: Whitsuntude and Kingdomtide, with the latter beginning on the last Sunday in August. And the Lutheran Service Book and Hymnal (1958) lists Ordinary Time Sundays as both “after Pentecost” and “after Trinity.”) Trinity Sunday, of course, is the Sunday immediately following the Day of Pentecost. Anyhow, those who continue to observe Sundays after Trinity are liturgical outliers. My own denomination, since its 1979 Book of Common Prayer and the process which led up to it, operates on the Sundays after Pentecost pattern. It is what I have known. The 1928 Book of Common Prayer is an artifact from which I have never worshiped. Sundays after Trinity seem quaint to me.
So here we are, on the cusp of changing seasons and Sunday numbering (the Propers through 29 are almost upon us), pondering two opposite and assigned stories. The Tower of Babel myth tells of linguistic differences causing confusion and thwarting human ambitions. (We know from anthropology, history, and science that linguistic diversity is much older than the timeframe of the Tower of Babel story.) The sin in the myth is pride, which God confounds. Yet linguistic variety cannot confound God’s purposes in Acts 2 because God will not permit it to do so. The proverbial living water of Jesus, whose glorification in the Gospel of John was his crucifixion–something humiliating and shameful by human standards–would be available regardless of one’s language.
Thus the Church was born. It is always changing and reforming, adapting to changing circumstances and seeking to look past human prejudices and false preconceptions. I prefer to include as many people as possible while maintaining liturgical reverence and orthodox (Chalcedonian, etc.) Christology. I do, in other words have boundaries, but they are too large according to those on my right and too small according to those on my left. That makes me something of a moderate, I suppose. ”Left of center” might be more accurate. Regardless of who is correct, may the church and its constituent parts follow the crucified and resurrected Lord and Savior, who transmuted shame and humiliation into glory, who ate with notorious sinners, whose grace scandalized respectable and respected religious authorities. Or are we become modern counterparts of the scribes and Pharisees with whom Jesus locked horns?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JUNE 23, 2012 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT NICETAS OF REMESIANA, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
THE FEAST OF WIREMU TAMIHANA, MAORI PROPHET AND KINGMAKER
