Archive for the ‘Lent’ Tag
Above: A Crucifix
Photographer = Kenneth Randolph Taylor
Innocence
MARCH 28, 2011
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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:
Liturgy of the Palms:
Luke 19:28-44
Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29
Liturgy of the Word:
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:1-13
Luke 23:1-56
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Some texts are standard for Palm/Passion Sunday on the Humes lectionary. The account of the Triumphal Entry varies from year to year; each of the four versions gets its year. Likewise, the Gospel reading varies each year. It is always the Passion, though. The readings from Psalm 31, Psalm 118, Isaiah 50, and Philippians 2 are evergreen, though.
I focus on Luke 23:1-56 in this post.
The Gospel of Luke hits us over the head with Jesus’s innocence. Christ’s innocence is a theme in 23:4, 14-15, 22, 40-42, and 47. Whenever the Bible keeps repeating a theme, we need to pay attention to that theme.
The execution of Jesus was a travesty and an example of judicial murder.
There is an interesting moral and legal question: Is it better for a court to convict an innocent person or to acquit a guilty person? The answer is obvious: the latter. Innocence should always lead to the absence of a conviction, incarceration, and execution. I gaze with moral horror at those who would ever approve of convicting any innocent person.
The crucifixion of Jesus has more than one meaning. It is, for example, a component of the atonement; the resurrection equals the final act. The crucifixion of Christ should also spur us on to affirm that convicting and punishing the innocent is never acceptable.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 29, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR C
THE FEAST OF CHARLES VILLIERS STANFORD, COMPOSER, ORGANIST, AND CONDUCTOR
THE FEAST OF DORA GREENWELL, POET AND DEVOTIONAL WRITER
THE FEAST OF JOHN KEBLE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND POET
THE FEAST OF SAINTS JONAS AND BARACHISUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS, 327
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/03/29/innocence/
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Above: A Timeless Principle Applicable Both Individually and Collectively
Image Source = Google Earth
Individual and Collective Responsibility
MARCH 21, 2021
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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:
Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 126
Philemon
Luke 22:66-23:25
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He has told you, O man, what is good,
And what does the LORD require of you:
Only to do justice,
And to love goodness,
And to walk modestly with your God.
Then your name will achieve wisdom.
–Micah 6:8-9a, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
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The Letter to Philemon has long been a misunderstood book of the Bible. The text is not, as St. John Chrysostom (349-407) insisted, a mandate to reunite masters and their fugitive slaves. Furthermore, the epistle does not indicate that Onesimus was either a thief or a fugitive. And verse 16 should read, in part,
as if a slave,
not the usual English-language translation,
as a slave.
Whether one thinks Onesimus was a slave may depend on how one interprets a Greek tense in one verse.
The Letter to Philemon and a portion of the Gospel reading pertain to individual responsibility. Act compassionately. Treat the other person, who may or may not have stolen from you, as a sibling in Christ. Do not knowingly send an innocent man to die, and to do so horribly. (The Gospel of Luke emphasizes the innocence of Christ in its Passion narrative.)
The other readings pertain to collective responsibility. How should we-not I, not you–we respond to grace? We should be grateful? We should do justice. We should love goodness. We should walk modestly with our God. Then our name will achieve wisdom.
My Western culture tends to fixate on individual responsibility and p;lace too little emphasis on collective responsibility. This is an error. We need to strike and maintain that balance, for the glory of God and the benefit of all members of our culture, as well as the rest of the world.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 27, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF CHARLES HENRY BRENT, EPISCOPAL MISSIONARY BISHOP OF THE PHILIPPINES, BISHOP OF WESTERN NEW YORK, AND ECUMENIST
THE FEAST OF SAINTS NICHOLAS OWEN, THOMAS GARNET, MARK BARKWORTH, EDWARD OLDCORNE, AND RALPH ASHLEY, ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYRS, 1601-1608
THE FEAST OF ROBERT HALL BAYNES, ANGLICAN BISHOP OF MADAGASCAR
THE FEAST OF SAINT RUPERT OF SALZBURG, APOSTLE OF BAVARIA AND AUSTRIA
THE FEAST OF STANLEY ROTHER, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST, MISSIONARY, AND MARTYR IN GUATEMALA, 1981
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/03/27/individual-and-collective-responsibility/
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Above: The Denial of Saint Peter, by Caravaggio
Image in the Public Domain
Loving Like Jesus
MARCH 14, 2021
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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:
Micah 4:1-7
Psalm 137
Jude
Luke 22:54-65
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I detect two different moods in the set of readings for this Sunday. On one hand, we have judgments, as in Psalm 137 and Jude. On the other hand, we have Jesus almost certainly looking compassionately at St. Simon Peter, who had just denied knowing him. We also read of an ideal future in Micah 4:1-7, in which the nations will seek religious instruction in Jerusalem. That prophecy contradicts Micah 5:14, in which some nations will remain disobedient and suffer the consequences, however.
With which side of that divide do we identify? Do we really want to bash our enemies’ babies’ heads against rocks? Or do we really seek to be like Jesus? My bishop, Robert C. Wright, says to “love like Jesus.” I affirm that standard. I also know how Jesus loved–so much that he died. Loving like Jesus is a difficult challenge.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 26, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT MARGARET CLITHEROW, ENGLISH ROMAN CATHOLIC MARTYR, 1586
THE FEAST OF FLANNERY O’CONNOR, U.S. ROMAN CATHOLIC WRITER
THE FEAST OF GEORGE RUNDLE PRYNNE, ANGLICAN PRIEST, POET, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF JAMES RENDEL HARRIS, ANGLO-AMERICAN CONGREGATIONALIST THEN QUAKER BIBLICAL SCHOLAR AND ORIENTALIST; ROBERT LUCCOCK BENSLY, ENGLISH BIBLICAL TRANSLATOR AND ORIENTALIST; AGNES SMITH LEWIS AND MARGARET DUNLOP SMITH GIBSON, ENGLISH BIBLICAL SCHOLARS AND LINGUISTS; SAMUEL SAVAGE LEWIS, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND LIBRARIAN OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE; AND JAMES YOUNG, SCOTTISH UNITED PRESBYTERIAN MINISTER AND LITERARY TRANSLATOR
THE FEAST OF SAINT LUDGER, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF MUNSTER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/03/26/loving-like-jesus-part-ii/
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Above: Icon of Micah
Image in the Public Domain
Opposing Corruption
MARCH 7, 2021
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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:
Micah 3:5-12
Psalm 63:1-8
Titus 3:1-15
Luke 22:1-6, 39-53
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Psalm 63 is a royal text. Titus 3:1 instructs Christians to obey civil authorities. Yet in Luke 22 and Micah 3, the authorities (civil and religious) are corrupt. The stance of faith is to confront corruption, not to support it or accept its bribes.
In full disclosure, the founders of my country rebelled against the British Empire. I think of a line from Man of the Year (2006):
If dissent were unpatriotic, we would still be British.
Furthermore, nuances regarding obedience to the civil magistrate exist in Christian theology. For obvious reasons, when to resist and when to obey civil authority has been a question in segments of German theology since 1933. One may think, for example, of the great Karl Barth (1886-1968) and the Theological Declaration of Barmen (1934), anti-Nazi. Nevertheless, extreme law-and-order-affirming Christian theology exists. One historical prime example of this attitude I found during research into conservative Presbyterianism (the Presbyterian Church in America, or PCA, to be precise) comes from The Presbyterian Journal, the magazine that midwifed the birth of the PCA in 1973. In the October 30, 1974, issue, the editor agreed with a letter-writer, one Joan B. Finneran, “an elect lady of Simpsonville, Maryland.” Finneran wrote that God establishes governments and commands people to obey earthly authority, therefore
When a Herod or a Hitler comes into power, we must thereby assume this is the LORD’s plan; He will use even such as these to put His total plan into effect for the good of His people here on earth.
Finneran needed to read the Theological Declaration of Barmen.
What should we do in good conscience when systems are corrupt and inhumane? Corruption leads to collective ruin, after all. Timeless principles are useful, but they are also vague. Proper applications of them varies according to circumstances. If I say,
Oppose corruption and work against the exploitation of the poor and the powerless,
I sound like the Law of Moses, various Hebrew prophets, and Jesus. I also provide no guidance about how best to follow that counsel. Proper application of timeless principles depends upon circumstances–who, when, and where one is.
That guidance must come from the Holy Spirit.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 25, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
THE FEAST OF SAINT DISMAS, PENITENT BANDIT
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/opposing-corruption/
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Above: Icon of Habakkuk
Image in the Public Domain
Maintaining Faith During Difficult Times
FEBRUARY 28, 2021
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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:
Habakkuk 3:1-19
Psalm 27
Titus 2:1-15
Luke 19:45-20:8
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For the record, I drafted this post in longhand on December 22, 2019, before Coronavirus/COVID-19 spread across the planet. Certain statements are always true, but especially cogent at particular times.
The Letter to Titus is a mixed bag. On one hand, it insults all inhabitants of Crete (1:13) and does not oppose slavery (2:9-10). I cringe when I read those verses. On the other hand, the epistle offers sound advice about how to live: live in such a matter that opponents and enemies will put themselves to shame when making negative statements “about us.”
There is never a shortage of people willing to lie and distort, to cherry-pick and to blow out of proportion, to repeat unsubstantiated rumors, or to start them, thereby shaming themselves. assuming that they have the capacity to feel shame. They do, however, show their bad character while attacking those of good character. These people of bad character are the ones whose skulls cracks open, as in Habakkuk 3:13. (Who says the Book of Habakkuk uses no violent imagery?)
In the meantime, the righteous remain vulnerable to the dastardly, the unjust, and the wicked. Wait for God, Psalm 27 tells us. In the midst of rampant injustice, do we share the attitude of Habakkuk?
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
Exult in the God who delivers me.
The Lord GOD is my strength:
He makes my feet like the deer’s
and lets me stride upon the heights.
–Habakkuk 3:18-19, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
This can be a difficult attitude to maintain. It is faith.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 24, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT OSCAR ROMERO, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP OF SAN SALVADOR; AND THE MARTYRS OF EL SALVADOR, 1980-1992
THE FEAST OF SAINT DIDACUS JOSEPH OF CADIZ, CAPUCHIN FRIAR
THE FEAST OF PAUL COUTURIER, APOSTLE OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
THE FEAST OF THOMAS ATTWOOD, “FATHER OF MODERN CHRISTIAN MUSIC”
THE FEAST OF WILLIAM LEDDRA, BRITISH QUAKER MARTYR IN BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY, 1661
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/03/24/maintaining-faith-during-difficult-times/
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Above: Icon of Habakkuk
Image in the Public Domain
Private and Public Morality
FEBRUARY 21, 2021
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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:
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:2-14
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Titus 1:1-16
Luke 18:31-43
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Three ideas intertwine to the point of becoming inseparable in these assigned readings: trusting God, having good public morality, and having good private morality. Responsibility is both individual and collective. Leaders receive particular attention in the readings from Habakkuk and Titus. Injustice–social, economic injustice, to be precise–is rife while corrupt rulers pile up what is not properly theirs. Furthermore, for a bishop (in the case of the reading from Titus) to teach properly, the home life cannot contradict spoken orthodoxy.
The Law of Moses forbids exploitation. This teaching informs Judeo-Christian orthodox morality all the way from both Testaments to current times. Yet many professing, conventionally devout Jews and Christians somehow justify exploitation. Fortunately, many other Jews and Christians condemn exploitation in words and deeds. Their witness is consistent with the Law, the prophets, and Jesus.
Jesus died at the hands of an unjust system of a violent empire. It dominated with fear and intimidation. Jesus, however, exposed that empire for what it was by being better than it was.
Can we see that? Can we also see the link between public and private morality, as well as the connection between them and trusting in God?
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 23, 2020 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINTS GREGORY THE ILLUMINATOR AND ISAAC THE GREAT, PATRIARCHS OF ARMENIA
THE FEAST OF MEISTER ECKHART, ROMAN CATHOLIC THEOLOGIAN AND MYSTIC
THE FEAST OF SAINT METODEJ DOMINICK TRCKA, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR, 1959
THE FEAST OF SAINT VICTORIAN OF HADRUMETUM, MARTYR AT CARTHAGE, 484
THE FEAST OF SAINT WALTER OF PONTOISE, FRENCH ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT AND ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMER
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/private-and-public-morality/
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Above: The Temptations of Jesus
Image in the Public Domain
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For St. Gregory the Great Episcopal Church, Athens, Georgia
Lent 2019
Texts: Mark 1:12-13; Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13
Reading the Bible for spiritual formation is an ancient Benedictine practice. My primary purpose in writing this short piece is to ask, how do the accounts (mainly the Lukan and Matthean ones) of the temptations of Jesus challenge us, both as individuals and a parish, to follow Jesus better than we do.
The Temptation to Turn Stones into Bread
Bread was especially precious in ancient Palestine, with relatively little arable land.
We are blessed to be able to purchase our bread inexpensively at stores. Bread is abundant in our context, so we probably take it for granted more often than not. We can, however, think of some tangible needs related to scarcity.
One challenge is not to permit tangible needs to overtake intangible necessities. We all depend entirely on God and dwell within a web of mutual responsibility and dependence. According to the late Henri Nouwen, this temptation is the temptation to be relevant. Relevance is not necessarily bad; in fact, it is frequently positive. However, maintaining the proper balance of tangible and intangible needs is essential. Furthermore, Christ’s refusal to cave into the temptation to use his power to make bread—to cease to depend on God—ought to remind us never to imagine that we do not depend entirely on God.
Questions
- Do we permit tangible needs to distract us from intangible necessities? If so, how?
- Do we manifest the vain idea that we do not depend entirely on God? If so, how?
The Temptation to Jump from the Pinnacle of the Temple
Many scholars of the New Testament have proposed what the pinnacle of the Temple was.
That matter aside, this temptation is, according to Nouwen, the temptation to be spectacular. It is also the temptation to attempt to manipulate God by trying to force God to intervene in a miraculous way. That effort, like turning stones into bread, would indicate a lack of faith.
We humans frequently like the spectacular, do we not? We tell ourselves and others that, if only God would do something spectacular, we will believe. We are like those who, in the Gospels, only wanted Jesus to do something for them, and not to learn from him.
Questions
- Does our attraction to the spectacular distract us from the still, small voice of God? If so, how?
- Does our attraction to the spectacular reveal our lack of faith? If so, how?
- Does our attraction to the spectacular unmask our selfishness? If so, how?
The Temptation to Worship Satan in Exchange for Earthly Authority
Many Palestinian Jews at the time of Christ thought of Satan as the power behind the Roman Empire and of the Roman pantheon as a collection of demons. Jesus affirmed God the Father as the only source of his identity.
This temptation is about idolatry, power, and morally untenable compromises.
Many well-intentioned people—ministers, politicians, and appointed office holders, for example—have, in the name of doing good, become corrupt and sacrificed their suitability to do good. They have sacrificed their moral integrity on the altar of amoral realism.
Some compromises are necessary, of course. As Reinhold Niebuhr reminded us, we cannot help but commit some evil while trying to do good, for human depravity has corrupted social systems and institutions.
Questions
- Have we established our identity apart from God? If so, how?
- How have we, with good intentions, committed or condoned evil?
- Have we made morally untenable compromises? If so, how?
The Good News
The good news is both collective and individual.
I discover the principle, then: that when I want to do right, only wrong is within my reach. In my inmost self I delight in the law of God, but I perceive in my outward actions a different law, fighting against the law that my mind approves, and making me a prisoner under the law of sin which controls my conduct. Wretched creature that I am, who is there to rescue me from this state of death? Who but God? Thanks be to him through Jesus Christ our Lord! To sum up then: left to myself I serve God’s law with my mind, but with my unspiritual nature I serve the law of sin.
–Romans 7:21-25, The Revised English Bible (1989)
Jesus has modeled the way to resist temptation—to trust God and to understand scripture.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
MARCH 10, 2019 COMMON ERA
THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR C
THE FEAST OF MARIE-JOSEPH LAGRANGE, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND BIBLICAL SCHOLAR
THE FEAST OF SAINT AGRIPINNUS OF AUTUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; SAINT GERMANUS OF PARIS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP; AND SAINT DROCTOVEUS OF AUTUN, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT
THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OGLIVIE, ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST AND MARTYR
THE FEAST OF SAINT MACARIUS OF JERUSALEM, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP
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Adapted from this post:
https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2019/03/10/thoughts-and-questions-about-the-temptations-of-jesus/
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