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What’s a Saint?   Saints are people who’ve caught  the vision of what God’s doing, and who’ve dared to live against the prevailing culture.   This weekend, many congregations are celebrating All Saints, a time for honoring those who have believed despite what the Crowd says, and who now rest from their journey.   More, it’s a time for encouraging those still living whose sainthood is unfolding daily.   These scriptural passages will guide us:

Daniel is a puzzling book, to me.   Better suited for Hallowe’en, it tells stories about weird beasts and signs, most of which we find difficult.   It’s best seen as an early “gnostic” allegory couched in references better understood  when it was written, about 169 years before Christ.  The book is an encouragement to those attempting to live rightly in the face of (Roman) adversity.  Sunday’s portion, Chapter 7:1-3, 15-18, describes four beastly kingdoms arising from The Deep–Israel is a land-country, remember,  and doesn’t trust the Sea or anything within.  “BUT the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever–forever and ever.” (v.18)

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is more comfortable to us.   Verse 11 of the first chapter reads, “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.”  As human inheritors of divinity, then, we have membership with the saints whom the author describes in following verses:  having wisdom, enlightenment, and a rich knowledge of God’s power in Christ.   Again, the Pilgrim is affirmed by knowing that the Heavenly Kingdom eventually is seen to prevail.

Luke’s Gospel is full of counter-cultural material, beginning with Mary even before Jesus’ birth:  the mighty are pulled down, and the rich are sent away empty (1:51-53).  Later, Jesus is remembered as initiating his ministry with the public reading, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor….” (4:18ff)  So there’s no surprise when he admonishes “those who listen” to love enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.   To go another mile, to give your last shirt, to give to all beggars without analysis, to treat others as you’d like to be treated.  (6:27-31)  There’s nothing here that says this is optional, only expected!   Without ranting –maybe– I hope to deal with “Winning at any Cost” (football), “Nice Guys finish Last”  (bullying & intimidation), “Stand Your Ground” (racial profiling and control), and “I Got Mine” (NY State gambling extension).

All Saints liturgy and preaching  should “reflect this radical prophetic challenge to holy living that is grounded in the real suffering and struggle of real people, and the ultimate overthrow of all societies and patterns and relationships that depend on the suffering of many to support the few.”  (Marjorie Proctor-Smith)    May you be so bold!

God Bless Us, Every One                                H   B   King

Well, we got trouble (trouble, trouble), Right here in River City (trouble, trouble).  Monsanto has managed to poison thousands of children in Argentina.  The Affordable Health Care system overloaded on its first day.  And now the Capitol Building has developed cracks around its cornices:  will it collapse??  And what about that tower in Siloam?   Is this the Apocalypse?  How shall we read the Lessons for this coming Sunday in Beautiful October?

Some will say that the prophet Joel is a gloomy guy, yet all in all this small book points out the stars in the gathering dark.  This week we’ll be urged to “be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God….(for) the threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.” (2:24)    Despite the earlier agonies, God’s children will find fulfillment and restoration, visions and dreams, and an abundance of Spirit to all, even slaves.   Will there be signs, blood and fire and columns of smoke?   Even there, those who call on the Lord will find safety!    The “happy apocalypse” of Joel uncovers the true nature of what’s going on.

What can St. Paul say?  His life has been a long experience of confrontations, stonings, banishment & imprisonment.  And at the last, he writes from house-arrest, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (II Timothy 4:7)   As I myself enter an age of life when whining about what might have been would seem the norm, Paul pulls out of it by saying, “So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.  The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom.” (17c-18a)   Back of the clouds, the stars shine brightly.

None of this is to say, “Be Happy, don’ Worry!”    Each day brings new evils, and viscious reminders of the imperfections in and around us.   Luke remembers (18:9-14)  Jesus’ story about the Tax Collector and the Pharisee:   the Tax Collector (an outcast) can acknowledge his many faults and be made right with God, while the Pharisee (an insider) can’t see much beyond his own self-righteousness.   Basically, the story is about the Cosmic Battle between Good & Evil–but like these other apocalyptical tales, the surprise ending is that “God is about to do something good and we miss it because we are too scared to look.”  (Donna Schaper)

A fella named Henry Bester wrote an essay (1928) about living for a full year in the outermost house on Cape Cod.   He marveled at the travels of the shorebirds and the regularity of the crashing tides.  But what he enjoyed most was watching the cosmos above on dark nights:  to “learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it.”    The holy message of all our tomorrows is about receiving the gift of stars that shine in the dark.

“Once someone has become the prisoner of darkness, even ice cream looks bad.”   (Schaper)

God Bless Us, Every One

The Bride’s grandma was trying to put on a game face, after she slipped and fell at the reception.  But several of us saw the pain, and we called 911.  I went out front to direct the paramedics — when would they ever get here? — and strained my ears in hope.  Finally, finally, there came a faint siren noise above the rest of the traffic.   I returned to the party, announcing that “help is on the way!”  Scripture expressions for this Sunday are faint noises of hope above the traffic and drunken carelessness of our clueless world.

“The days are surely coming….”  writes Jeremiah to the topsy-turvy shell which was once Israel. (31:27-34) You may think that the old stories are lost forever, that  traditional values are discarded, that the familiar homestead has been developed past recognition.  You may even want to hole up in your memories and reject today’s life.   But…says God through Jeremiah, ” I will watch over them to build and to plant.”   We can’t go back (nor should we, McFly), but we can keep listening for music of a New Covenant which God will make, writing it upon our hearts…

Paul writes to Timothy “in view of [Jesus] appearing and his kingdom.” (II Timothy 4:1)  You can really see that, Paul, from your house-arrest at Rome?   With the desperation of Empire enacted so brutally around you?   On the door-step of the Dark Ages when life is so cheap?  How audacious can it be to tell your friends to “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.”?  Timothy is to wait in hope, with “the utmost patience”.

Luke says that Jesus’ parable is about our need to pray without losing heart.   We call it the “parable of the Unjust Judge” (Luke 18:1-8), but it should be known as the Parable of the Hopeful Widow.  This isn’t really an analogy, ‘cept for comparing God’s goodness with the disregard of the evil judge.   If there’s any identification of the characters, it’s for us to emulate the widow, one of the “little people” whose only power is in her hope that righteousness will prevail , even within the oppressing dark.  And she won!   For one brief, shining moment….Jeremiah was right!   O frabjous day!  Calloo!   Callay!

The moments don’t come often, do they?  But we gather for worship, for study, for pot-luck yearning to hear the stories again!  There may be no others in the entire universe except us who can stand on the lawn away from the din and hear the far-off notes of hope!  Sometimes even I can hear the sweetness, away from the cursing and the enmity and the sneering,  Have we not seen?  Have we not heard?  Help is on the way!

God Bless Us, Every One                       H   B   King

It’s probably not good grammar.   And I don’t know if Kenny Rogers sang about it,  yet it’s good advice.   It divides our reaction to Chance into two categories:  we can either whine about “what if…”, and long for greener pastures; or we can take what comes and make something good of it.  Very few of us get everything we want when we want it–so we’re advised to mine the gold out of each situation…and often to be surprised at the pile of gleam it DOES yield!

Jeremiah warned Jerusalem that the Babylonians were coming, and they did.   From the ruins of their hopes and dreams, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles now bemoaning their fate in Babylon.  (29:1-7)   “Build houses…plant gardens…have a lot of Jewish children….Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”   Not only is this good advice for spiritual and mental stability, but it’s God’s assurance that the Lord of Hosts also functions in Babylon!  (Who’da guessed?)

Paul was imprisoned, “chained like a criminal”, for his tenacious appeal to Caesar about his faith and works.  But he wrote to Timothy, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” (II Timothy 2:10)    He certainly hadn’t an easy life, and must have anticipated his eventual martyrdom.  A lesser man might have chucked it all in, given in to Them and abandoned the fight.  “But the word of God is not chained.” (v.9)  Sometimes being a stubborn old man is not a bad thing!

Luke’s story about the ten lepers (17:11-19) is full of possibility:  the clustering of dis-similar people into a crisis-group; the healing strength of Jesus; a discussion of social laws and priestly customs toward the ill; the gratitude factor of “only” one-tenth…  But I’d like to lift up the group’s approach to Jesus, recognizing that even here in the no-man’s land between Samaria & Galilee comes God’s Grace.  We know nothing of their earlier attitude, but here at least they’re Playing their Hand–with some success.  “As they went, they were made clean,”

These three anecdotes bring a sense of reality to Exiles in Babylon, Paul’s Roman prison and a support-group for the diseased.  None of them are in very happy times or circumstances, yet they somehow manage to bloom where they’re planted.   Americans of today are overflowing with angst and distrust.  Residents of Developing Countries live with plagues, drought and terror.  Europeans and Asians alike are caught with pollution of air & water.  Will Believers offer Godly advice about Playing the Hand You’ve been Dealt?   And trying to bloom where they’re planted??

God Bless Us, Every One                          H   B   King

She said, as the hum of the Emergency Room air conditioner became white noise to soften the incessant bleeps of the monitors as his life slowly ebbed away.   How Could this Happen? he thought, leaving the personal care home where the mother who had held the family together sat gazing into space, unaware that she even had a son.   How Could this Happen? when the biopsy comes back, when the fire trucks scream to a halt at your curb, when she writes “This is the most difficult letter I’ve ever written, but…”   How could this happen when the invincible is wrecked around your shoulders?   My God!   My God!

Although the 22nd Psalm would well fit into our readings today, we’ll actually look at the Lamentations often ascribed to Jeremiah, first six verses.   The Holy City has fallen, the Babylonians have displaced the populace, and the sacred spots are in ruins.  Has God forsaken her?  “All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.”   The Prophets, living and dead, gather as a cloud of witnesses to wail, “We tried to tell you….”    How does this interpolate into a time of social carelessness, of global climate change, of mistrust of those unlike our own race and culture?  We think of “The Planet of the Apes” and so many of its progeny doom-flicks…..   My God!  How Could this Happen?    (And blessed are those who utter this as a prayer and not as a blasphemy.)

In spite of it all, says St. Paul from prison, keep the Faith.  (II Timothy 1:1-14)   One of my favorite instructions is v.7, “for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”   Workers in God’s Kingdom can get depressed pretty easily, for the Babylonians are always at the gates.   For every quiet voice of adoration and affirmation, there are hundreds of others shouting that our ethic is foolish and that “nice guys finish last”.  But Paul hangs in there, trusting in God.  “Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit LIVING IN US.”  (caps mine)

Luke’s Gospel (17:5-10) reminds the Lamenter that even a smidgen of faith is enough!   It doesn’t need to be “increased”, for even now the Believer can do much more that is probable, like throwing a huge tree into the sea.   But look, Jesus says, you’re gonna have to empty yourselves as would a slave, thinking first of the complete attention to the Master.  Are there good things we haven’t even tried, thinking we’re not faithful enough?  

Wordsworth wasn’t lamenting over what once was, yet he wrote, “And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things….” (Lines Above Tinturn Abbey)    The abbey itself had fallen to ruins:  dust on the high altar, moss on chancel rail…a sorrowful echo of evensong chanted by monks long gone….  And was God yet to be found there?   Evidently.

God Bless Us:  Every One                                         H    B    King