Devotion for Tuesday of Holy Week, Years A, B, C, and D (Humes)

Above:  Christ Pantocrator

Scan by Kenneth Randolph Taylor

A Faithful Response, Part IV

MARCH 26, 2024

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The Collect:

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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The Assigned Readings:

Isaiah 49:1-7

Psalm 71:1-14

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

John 12:20-36

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Psalm 71 is a prayer of an aged pious person afflicted by his enemies.  Many of its sentiments fit neatly into Holy Week, although verse 13 is rather un-Christlike:

Let my accusers be put to shame and consumed;

let those who seek to hurt me be covered with scorn and disgrace.

—The New Revised Standard Version (1989)

That is far removed from

Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.

–Luke 23:34, The Jerusalem Bible (1966)

Divine paradoxes are glorious.  Consider, O reader, 1 Corinthians 1.  The message of Christ’s cross is folly and causes offense, but it is the power of God to those on the way to salvation.  The folly of God is greater than human wisdom in the hyperbolic language of St. Paul the Apostle.  The scapegoating and execution of an innocent man is the way to salvation?  How can that be?  Yet it is.

The people of God have a divine mandate to restore others to God and bring others to God.  Those who would gain eternal life (which begins on this side of Heaven) must love life less than God.  That is possible via grace.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 27, 2018 COMMON ERA

THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, YEAR B:  TRINITY SUNDAY

THE FEAST OF PAUL GERHARDT, GERMAN LUTHERAN MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF ALFRED ROOKER, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST PHILANTHROPIST AND HYMN WRITER; AND HIS SISTER, ELIZABETH ROOKER PARSON, ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALIST HYMN WRITER

THE FEAST OF AMELIA BLOOMER, U.S. SUFFRAGETTE

THE FEAST OF SAINT LOJZE GROZDE, SLOVENIAN ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2018/05/27/a-faithful-response-part-v/

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