Scan Source = Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D., New Catholic Picture Bible:  Popular Stories from the Old and New Testaments (New York Publishing Company, 1960), page 14

Waiting Faithfully for the Mysterious God

MARCH 7 and 8, 2024

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The Collect:

O God, rich in mercy, by the humiliation of your Son

you lifted up this fallen world and rescued us from the hopelessness of death.

Lead us into your light, that all our deeds may reflect your love,

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 28

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The Assigned Readings:

Genesis 9:8-17 (Thursday)

Daniel 12:5-13 (Friday)

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 (Both Days)

Ephesians 1:3-6 (Thursday)

Ephesians 1:7-14 (Friday)

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“O give thanks, for the Lord is gracious:

God’s steadfast love endures for ever.”

So let the people say whom the Lord has redeemed:

whom the Lord has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,

and gathered out of the lands,

from the east and from the west:

from the north and from the south.

–Psalm 107:1-3, A New Zealand Prayer Book (1989)

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Sometimes that deliverance–from exile, tyranny, religious persecution, foreign occupation, et cetera–does not come soon enough according to our human expectations.  That is part of the context of the epilogue to the Hebrew version of the Book of Daniel.  That version (distinct from the one with Greek additions) ends:

Many will be purified and purged and refined; the wicked will act wickedly and none of the wicked will understand….But you, go on to the end; you shall rest, and arise to your destiny at the end of days.

–12:10, 13, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures (1985)

A sense of living between the pronouncement of the divine promise and the end of days also pervades the assigned reading from Ephesians 1.  That letter, probably Pauline without being of St. Paul the Apostle, encourages faithful Christians to live for the praise and glory of Christ.  That counsel is as sound today as it was in the late first century C.E.  God will act when God will act.  I refuse to predict when that might be, for

1. I can do nothing to change the divine schedule, into which I have no insight, and
2. the list of failed prophets and prophecies (especially of the Second Coming of Jesus) is long.

But what of the character of this God, whom the author of Psalm 107 described as gracious?  We mere mortals are wise to proceed in theological humility, but we are not entirely lacking in knowledge on this point.  One lens through which to consider this topic is the story of the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark.  It is an oft-told tale with many inconsistencies within the Biblical narrative itself, due to the number of sources cut and pasted together.  The composite Biblical account is also just one variation on a much older story, which probably goes back to a massive flood in the area of the Black Sea.  (The world, as the ancient authors of the Bible understood it, was much smaller than the planet I see represented on globes today.)

A myth is a story which communicates a truth without being literally accurate.  So what does the composite Biblical account of Noah’s Ark tell us about God?  A rival version of the tale, of Zoroastrian origin, says that Ahriman (read:  Satan in post-Exilic Jewish and in Christian theology) started the flood, which Ahura-Mazda (the chief deity) ended.  But there is one actor–God–responsible for starting and ending the flood in Genesis.  In a monotheistic system the deity commits all that people perceive as good or bad; God is always on the hook for the theological problem of good and evil.

This is God for whom we wait and whom many people profess to stand in awe of, to love, and to follow.  This is God, who encompasses judgment and mercy.  This is God, properly a mystery.  This is God, whose schedule is not ours.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 14, 2014 COMMON ERA

THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR B

THE FEAST OF SAINT VENANTIUS HONORIUS CLEMENTIUS FORTUNATUS, ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF POITIERS

THE FEAST OF CARL PHILIPP EMANUEL BACH, COMPOSER

THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS, ROMAN CATHOLIC MYSTIC

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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/waiting-faithfully-for-the-mysterious-god/

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Above:  The New Jerusalem

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And the Sea Was No More

MAY 11-13, 2023

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The Collect:

Almighty and ever-living God,

you hold together all things in heaven and on earth.

In your great mercy, receive the prayers of all your children,

and give to all the world the Spirit of your truth and peace,

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 34

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The Assigned Readings:

Genesis 6:5-22 (33rd Day)

Genesis 7:1-24 (34th Day)

Genesis 8:13-19 (35th Day)

Psalm 66:8-20 (All Days)

Acts 27:1-12 (33rd Day)

Acts 27:13-38 (34th Day)

John 14:27-29 (35th Day)

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You let enemies ride over our heads;

we went through fire and water;

but you brought us into a place of refreshment.

–Psalm 66:12, Book of Common Worship (1993)

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Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

–Revelation 21:1, Revised Standard Version–Second Catholic Edition (2002)

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Water can be scary, for it has the potential to destroy much property and end lives.  In much of the Bible water signifies chaos.  The first creation myth (Genesis 1:1-2:4a), actually not as old as the one which follows it, depicts a watery chaos as the foundation of an ordered, flat earth with a dome over it.  The lections from Genesis 6-8, being the union of of various texts (as evident in late Chapter 6 and early Chapter 7 with regard to the number of animals to take aboard the Ark), is a composite myth in which water is a force of divine destruction and recreation.  And the water is something to fear in Acts 27.  It is no accident that, in Revelation 21, the New Jerusalem has no sea; the city is free of chaos.

Professor Amy-Jill Levine, in her Teaching Company course, The Old Testament (2001), says that she does not like Noah.  He, in the story, could have tried to save lives if he had argued with God, as Abraham did, she says.  Maybe she has a valid point.  It is certainly one nobody broached in my juvenile or adult Sunday School classes, for my first encounter with the idea came via DVD recently.  Yet the story which the Biblical editor wanted us to hear was one of God’s covenant with Noah.

That theme of covenant fits well with the calm and confidence of St. Paul the Apostle en route to Rome.  He had a legal case arising from preaching (Acts 21:27 forward).  The Apostle had exercised his right as a Roman citizen to appeal directly to the Emperor (Acts 25:11).  Yet Herod Agrippa II (reigned 50-100), a client ruler of the Roman Empire, had stated that the Apostle could have gone free if he had not appealed to the Emperor (Acts 26:32), who, unfortunately, was Nero.  Anyhow, Paul’s calm and confidence during the storm on the Mediterranean Sea, with the danger on board the ship, came from a positive spiritual place.

That peace is the kind which Jesus bequeaths to us and which the world cannot give.  That peace is the sort which enables one to remain properly–seemingly foolishly, to some–confident during daunting times.  That peace carries one through the chaotic waters and the spiritual wilderness until one arrives at the New Jerusalem.  That peace is available via grace.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

DECEMBER 18, 2013 COMMON ERA

THE EIGHTEENTH DAY OF ADVENT, YEAR A

THE FEAST OF MARC BOEGNER, ECUMENIST

THE FEAST OF DOROTHY SAYERS, NOVELIST

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/and-the-sea-was-no-more/

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Above:  Noah’s Thank Offering, by Joseph Anton Koch

Genesis and Mark, Part VIII:  Societal Immorality

FEBRUARY 21, 2024

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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:

Genesis 8:13-9:17

Psalm 5 (Morning)

Psalms 27 and 51 (Evening)

Mark 4:1-20

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A Related Post:

Prayer:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/prayer-for-wednesday-of-the-first-week-of-lent/

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The sower’s seed needed good soil in which to flourish.  And, as I return to the beginning of the composite Noah’s Ark story, I read that

The earth became corrupt before God;

the earth was filled with lawlessness.

–Genesis 6:11, TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures

Thus the Great Flood followed in the narratives.  And, as today’s Genesis reading begins, so does renewed life on the planet.  But keep reading; the corruption returned almost immediately.

Corruption–societal immorality–is endemic among we human beings.  As a student of history, I point to examples of this.  Slavery was part of the socio-economic and political fabric of the nation from the 1600s, before this was the United States.   The blood Civil War destroyed the damnable Peculiar Institution in the 1860s.  Yet the racism which supported slavery persisted without apology, and many self-professing Christians quoted the Bible to support both slavery and Jim Crow.  The civil rights movement erased much de jure discrimination against African Americans, changing the attitudes of many people yet leaving de facto discrimination in place.  Many of my fellow human beings seek to discriminate against somebody.  These days homophobia is masquerading shamelessly as societal righteousness, but it is still a form of bigotry.

We human beings have a vocation to act toward each other according to the Golden Rule.  We ought to seek the best for each other, not look for ways to oppress each other.  This proposition undergirds my sense of morality, my ethics.  Thus I conclude  that anything else is corruption and immorality.  Here I stand; I can and will do no other.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 12, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF DUNCAN MONTGOMERY GRAY, SR., EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF MISSISSIPPI

THE FEAST OF SAINT GREGORY OF OSTIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC ABBOT, CARDINAL, AND LEGATE; AND SAINT DOMINIC OF THE CAUSEWAY, ROMAN CATHOLIC HERMIT

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL MARSDEN, ANGLICAN MISSIONARY IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/genesis-and-mark-part-viii-societal-immorality/

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Above:  The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge, by Thomas Cole

Genesis and Mark, Part VII:  God and Crises

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

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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:

Genesis 7:11-8:12

Psalm 34 (Morning)

Psalms 25 and 91 (Evening)

Mark 3:20-35

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A Related Post:

Prayer:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/prayer-for-tuesday-of-the-first-week-of-lent/

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The world of early Genesis mythology was a flat with a dome on top.  There were waters beneath the land and there were waters above the dome.  Thus, in 7:11b (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures), we read:

And the fountains of the great deep burst apart,

And the floodgates of the sky broke open.

As Richard Elliott Friedman wrote of the flood on page 38 of his Commentary on the Torah (2001),

It is more than ordinary rain.  It is a cosmic crisis, in which the very structure of the universe is endangered.

Meanwhile,  in Mark 3, some of our Lord’s relatives think that he might be out of his mind.  Parts I and II of this story bracket an allegation by some scribes that Jesus is in league with Satan. This is how the author the the Gospel of Mark presents the material.  So, in Mark, Jesus has to contend with disbelief by scribes and

his mother and his brothers (verse 31, The New Jerusalem Bible)

In the Gospel of Mark our Lord’s true identity is apparent to demons, God, and himself–yet not to his family members and to his Apostles–that is, until his death.  Wilhelm Wrede, in Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien (1901), called this the Messianic Secret.  (There was much more to his hypothesis, of course, but I will not chase that rabbit here and now.)  In contrast, in the Gospel of John, there is no secret.  In Mark, Jesus tells people he has healed to say nothing.  (They disobey, of course.)  Yet, in John, he never tries to conceal anything.  The Markan premise makes sense to me, for it fits well with human relationships.  We have blind spots regarding people who are very close to us, do we not?  Often a stranger has more insight than does a friend, a relative, or an associate.

Anyhow, on to my main point..

In Genesis the world itself was in danger.  The only protection for the intended survivors came from God.  Certainly the boxy boat was not much compared to the water.  And, in Mark our Lord’s personal world was in turmoil.  Even worse, his life had been at risk since 3:6.

The Pharisees went out and began at once to plot with the Herodians against him, discussing how to destroy him.  (The New Jerusalem Bible)

Even the life of the incarnate Son of God was endangered.

Such passages and themes of scripture cause me to wonder how anyone can, with a straight face, defend Prosperity Theology.   Not only does the Book of Job raise questions regarding it, but the life of Christ and those of he Apostles (including Paul) disprove it.  Furthermore, what about almost two thousand years of Christian martyrs?  And there is the matter of the suffering prophets of God.  But Jesus, Paul, and others knew that God was in charge.  So, when one’s world is falling apart, God is still in charge.

That is a lesson worth taking to heart.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 8, 2012 COMMON ERA

 THE FEAST OF SAINT BENEDICT II, BISHOP OF ROME

 THE FEAST OF DAME JULIAN OF NORWICH, SPIRITUAL WRITER

THE FEAST OF SAINT MAGDALENA OF CANOSSA, FOUNDER OF THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY AND THE SONS OF CHARITY

THE FEAST OF SAINT PETER OF TARENTAISE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/genesis-and-mark-part-vii-god-and-crises/

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Above:  Noah’s Ark, by Edward Hicks

Genesis and Mark, Part VI:  Survival in God

FEBRUARY 19, 2024

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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:

Genesis 6:1-7:5

Psalm 119:73-80 (Morning)

Psalms 121 and 6 (Evening)

Mark 3:1-19

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A Related Post:

Prayer:

http://gatheredprayers.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/prayer-for-monday-of-the-first-week-of-lent/

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Before I got to my main point I choose to geek out regarding the Hebrew text.  We have part of the familiar tale of Noah’ Ark.  It is a composite from various sources; I checked Richard Elliott Friedman’s The Bible with Sources Revealed:  A New View Into the Five Books of Moses (2003) to see his color-coding scheme.  But one does not need that book to notice two sets of instructions regarding how many animals to take into the Art:  in 6:9-22 and 7:2-4.

I needed commentaries to explain that “Noah” in Hebrew is “favor” spelled backwards.  Thus 6:8, which reads

But Noah found favor with the LORD  (TANAKH:  The Holy Scriptures)

contains a wordplay.  And, as Professor Friedman explains in his Commentary on the Torah (2001), it is one of six wordplays on “Noah.”  The others are found in 5:29, 6:6, 6:7, 8:4, and 8:21.

 A further piece of information comes from The Jewish Study Bible (page 21).  The Hebrew word translated “ark” appears in this story and in one other place:  Exodus 2.  There the mother of Moses places her son in an ark (there translated as “basket.”  The Jewish Study Bible note on pages 21-22 tells me that

Noah foreshadows Moses, even as Moses, removed from the water, foreshadows the people Israel, whom he leads to safety through the death-dealing sea that drowns their oppressors (Exodus 14-15).  The great biblical tale of redemption occurs first in a shorter, universal form, then in a longer, particularistic one.

Everett Fox, in a note on page 33 of Genesis and Exodus:  A New English Rendition, explains further:

God, not human engineering, is the source of survival in the story.

I have no interest in engaging in pointless argument at the moment.  We are reading mythology of the highest order.  Mythology of such variety teaches transcendent truth while not being literally true.  There it is.  Accept it.  Deal with it.  Accept science for all its great value.  And accept mythology for its worth.  But do not try to turn a myth into a scientific historical account.

No, I do not want to quarrel.  Rather, I seek to pursue a line of reasoning based on the essence of the flood myth, in the words of Everett Fox:

God, not human engineering, is the source of survival in the story.

God has always been the source of survival.  The man with the withered hand found God via Jesus to be the source of his future means of survival.  May we, unlike the Pharisees and Herodians of Mark 3, not quarrel with God’s methods and timing.

This is a difficult task for many people.  (I count myself among them.)  Although I seldom argue with divine tactics in my life, timing is a different matter.  The methods by which God has provided survival have surprised me often, but I tend to accept them as such.  But could they not occur sooner?  I am not alone in this spiritual state, am I?  Of course not!

 So I have a spiritual problem to which I seek resolution.  It is an opportunity for growth and learning, not a reason for condemnation.  And you, O reader, have your own spiritual problems, just as I have mine.  May you seek and find resolution via God.  And may the journey to that resolution be an occasion for spiritual joy.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MAY 7, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAINT DOMITION OF HUY, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP

THE FEAST OF HARRIET STARR CANNON, COFOUNDER OF THE COMMUNITY OF SAINT MARY

THE FEAST OF SAINT ROSE VENERINI, FOUNDER OF THE VENERINI SISTERS

THE FEAST OF SAINT THEODARD OF NARBONNE, ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP, AND SAINTS JUSTUS AND PASTOR, MARTYRS

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/genesis-and-mark-part-vi-survival-in-god/

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