February 15, 2005
Nobody's perfect, I guess
Lest anyone suggest that I'm saying that the Anglican tradition is inherently superior to all others, allow me to draw attention to one little flaw I discovered in my lectionary readings this evening. Yesterday, the reading from the Old Testament was Deuteronomy 8:11-20. Today, the reading was from Deut. 9:4-12. What, you might ask, happened to verses 1-3? They are as follows:
"Hear, O Israel: you are to cross over the Jordan today, to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the sons of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you have heard it said, 'Who can stand before the sons of Anak?' Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the LORD your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you. So you shall drive them out and make them perish quickly, as the LORD has promised you.
It seems that's just a bit too... bloodthirsty for the Anglicans' taste. We can't have God killing people, now can we?
In all fairness, I don't know of many traditions that have consistently dealt with passages like this one in a positive way, but I've never seen their ommission enshrined so clearly before either. Oh well. I'll just read the whole thing anyway.
