| Today is the feast of Epiphany, when we remember that men from the East — who were not of Isreal — also came to worship the baby Jesus. It is also, by coincidence, Waitangi day. A collect for today is:
O God, Who on this day. through the guidance of a star didst manifest Thine Only-Begotten Son to the Gentiles; mercifully grant that we who know Thee now by faith, may one day be brought to the contemplation of the beauty of Thy majesty. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
Benedictine Monastic Diurnal
At church today we said prayers in Maori and in English. We talked about salt and light. we sung the national anthem. Yet, I fear for my nation. We now have people saying that we should worship on any rock and tree. We have people advocating the death of the unborn child. We reward the feckless and the shiny, and condemn the humble, the faithful and the true.
The bible is not civil when it comes to these issues.
Isaiah 57
1 The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, while no one understands. For the righteous are taken away from calamity,
2 and they enter into peace; those who walk uprightly will rest on their couches.
3 But as for you, come here, you children of a sorceress, you offspring of an adulterer and a whore.
4 Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, the offspring of deceit —
5 you that burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree; you that slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?
6 Among the smooth stones of the valley is your portion; they, they, are your lot; to them you have poured out a drink offering, you have brought a grain offering. Shall I be appeased for these things?
7 Upon a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifice.
via Daily Lectionary Readings — Devotions and Readings — Mission and Ministry — GAMC.
It is quite interesting that infanticide, idolatory and sexual promiscuity (or orgies) are linked together. Our reformed predecessors would have seen the lack of regulation of promiscuity as encouraging the others. Their answer was marriage 1.0 — early, lifelong, with the man having power over the woman. Given the propensity of women in religion to syncreticism, it may be that the 16th century theologians — from the Anabaptists to the Jesuits — were more correct on these issues that the current generation.
