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Several of my acquaintances have become enamored with the TV programs about Small Houses.  It’s an interesting and hopeful commentary on American culture, which until now has been obsessed with BIGGER.  The “Dream” of earlier generations included expansive lawns & high ceilings,  separate bedrooms and walk-in closets.  As I was growing up (?), new cars had to have longer fins and wider hoods.  I’m seriously thinking of buying a SmartCar when my Hyundai no longer runs…

The scripture readings for this weekend reinforce our understanding that God doesn’t ignore the people even in out-of-the way places.  I Kings 17:8-24 tells how Elijah was sent during a severe and widespread drought to Zarephath,  a minor city of the Phoenicians, half-way between Tyre & Sidon in what’s today Lebanon.  Here, among the Gentiles, Elijah miraculously fed a poor widow and her son; and later revived the son from death!  Widows, non-Jews, hapless children and residents of a backwater–all were visited with God’s Presence.    Who says Big is Better?

It’s hard to know what to do with Galatians 1:11-24.  Paul seeths with self- righteousness as he maintains that his call is directly from Jesus, not from the Insiders at Jerusalem!  (He almost sounds like “outside” candidates for office who pride themselves on their ignorance of how politics works.)  Rescue, for me, comes as he refers to his Wilderness Years in “Arabia”, some desolate spot where one doesn’t expect God; especially a non-traditional God for this ultra-Jewish Pharisee.  Wendy Farley writes, “This letter….is good news for those outside systems of power who might see more clearly ways in which Christianity has cut off some of its own limbs in the name of tradition.  It is good news for all those oppressed by the church:  women, slaves, the poor [the LGBT community].  It is good news for all those lovers of Christ whose wisdom about the Divine is distorted or repressed by leaders of the Church.” (FEASTING on the WORD,  C 3:114)

Luke’s Gospel (7:11-17) tells the story of Jesus restoring a widow’s son in the Galilean town of Nain–again, a dusty non-descript one-horse place where you wouldn’t think God would bother.  Again, the miracle is of New Life; but more, New Life even in Nain!  Who’da thunk it?  For Jesus’ contemporaries, this gave him the credentials of a prophet, “just like Elijah”.  But for later Christians, New Life became a guarantee when Jesus passes through!

I know you’d be disappointed if there weren’t a “small” comment from one of my stature (or lack thereof).  Seems like I have an automatic answer for the panhandler downtown:  “Sorry, I’m a bit short today!”  (rim-shot, please) Yet amazing things happen in Small Places, far from the madding crowd!  Perhaps these readings will encourage and lift up some folks who’re feeling kinda insignificant just now.

God Bless Us, Every One              Horace Brown King

My thoughts on lectionary readings for the coming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

A friend was reminiscing about “All In the Family”, where Archie was talking with Mike/Meathead about heavenly matters.  “Edith, get in here!” Archie shouts.  “I’m having to defend God all by myself!”  Scriptures for this coming weekend address the alone feeling some of us have when Everyone Else seems to be running after other gods– gods of the Ego, or gods of the Old Way.  Most prophets, those who dare speak heavenly images in human words, feel that there’s no one else; and that they alone are the surviving remnant of the True Faith.

So there’s danger when we recall the story about Elijah and the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18:20-39).  We’ve all heard it in Sunday School:  the followers of the Baal (the Phoenician gods/goddesses of fertility and good harvest) set up their sacrifice and tried their best to get the gods’ attention–to no avail.  Then Elijah erected the old “True” altar, laid out the wood and meat, even soused it with water…and voila!  A major conflagration ensued, demonstrating that Yahweh WAS there.  It’s best to leave the story with the congregational assent: “The LORD indeed is God.”   DON’T read any further, we have enough ethnic genocide without ascribing it to God!!   The preacher or class leader presenting this saga needs to beware of saying, “Hoorah for Our Side”:  the core message here is of Elijah’s faith in the midst of community apostasy.

The reading of Galatians 1:1-12 reflects an indignant Paul who is “astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ”!  Seems that the congregations of what’s now central Turkey were adopting paths & practices utterly at odds with Paul’s earlier teachings.  We don’t know the exact details of these; which allows backsliders from every generation to name their own heresies and blasphemies against the Good News of God’s Steadfast Love.  Gregory H. Ledbetter writes, “There is little ‘good news’ in a system of belief that reverses the freedom of Christ, saps the strength of the Spirit, and re-locks the shackles of the law.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:89)  From a distance, Paul worries that he’s the only one who can heal these wanderers.

The lesson from Luke’s Gospel (7:1-10) doesn’t immediately uncover lonliness.  Here a centurion–a Gentile, but he’s OK  ’cause he built the synagogue–asks Jesus for a proxy healing of a beloved slave (!)…and it happens.  Jesus tells the bystanders that this Gentile has more faith than any of the Jews he knows!   If there’s a common thread with the Old Testament and the Epistle, it’s that this episode has worth in its comparison with the surrounding culture.  Like the Elijah story, some believed Jesus could, most believed that he couldn’t.  (And a slave? a Gentile??)   It’s fierce to wade against the current…

There are some days when, like Tigger, I selfishly think that I’m the Only One: as an alien, I have answers for this puny humanity into which I was sent; and no one listens a bit.  Thank goodness for scriptures like these which remind me that I’m merely one of the crowd, and that we’re surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

God Bless Us, Every One                               Horace Brown King

My thoughts on lectionary scriptures for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

This coming Sunday is Trinity Sunday, a day to explore the mystery of God who can be understood and experienced in three, though united, ways.  Mysteries are impossible to explain in words, so we turn to analogies.  St. Patrick used a three-leaved shamrock.  St. Augustine used a hard-boiled egg.  Are there some images you know which might trigger an appreciation of our three-in-one God?

An image from Proverbs 8 portrays Wisdom (a pre-Christian form of the Holy Spirit?) popping up on the hilltop, next to the highway, at the intersections, greeting the traveler.  “She” keeps beckoning us to Something Better, that is, the Love of the Creator.  Wisdom is the playful, dancing side of God–an entity who paints large scenes of How Sweet It Is!  Wisdom is that lavish and constant source of providence that pours over Creation “morning by morning”.

We also turn to Paul’s letter to the house-churches in Rome (5:1-5).  Made right with both Creator and Creation through faith in Jesus the Christ, “we have peace with God.”  This frees us from worrying about our public image, for we are not disgraced.  (Once we know we’re  Graced, we cannot be dis-Graced!)   “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”  “We are washed, cleansed, in fire water, and henceforth we drip the holy stuff wherever we go.  We track it into every room of our lives and out into the world.”  (Michael Jinkins, FEASTING ON THE WORD, C3:42)

John’s Gospel (16:12-15) acknowledges a bit of Jesus’ frustration, as he remarks that “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”  However, the coming Holy Spirit-Counselor-Advocate will guide us into ALL the Truth.  Relying on this Spirit, the community then & now will be lead where it needs to go.  (Even at General Conference)  This Spirit of Truth is the agent of transformation which molds us daily into a more holy shape.  This, I believe, is what Wesley meant by “going on to perfection”.

My own image, then, for Trinity Sunday?  I like to picture the visit of an itinerant potter, who sets up her wheel in my study.  Whirling me around dizzily, she tweaks and shaves and mends…until God says, “That’s enough for today!”  And Jesus, peering over the potter’s shoulder, says, “Yes, that’s a LITTLE closer…”  Come, Holy Spirit, shape your Church in Heaven’s blueprint!

God Bless Us, Every One                  Horace Brown King

My thoughts on lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

“Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?” fumes Henry Higgins in MY FAIR LADY.  “Little Swedes speak Swedish, little Greeks speak Greek…In France, it doesn’t matter much what you DO, as long as you pronounce it correctly!”  This coming Sunday is the annual observance of Pentecost, when Christians of all cultures and lingos recognize a Holy language which is a central common denominator.

The Genesis reading (11:1-9) is from pre-history, an attempt to explain why people speak so strangely.  It appears that “the whole earth had one language and the same words.”  So the people tried to “make a name for themselves” by building  a tower into the heavens.  (Pyramids can be found all over the ancient world, human mountains to meet the gods of High Places.)  God saw that this was a work of the Ego (original sin), and confused their language so that they couldn’t communicate.  “God’s promise is that our ultimate value does not depend upon our building gleaming cities and towers of achievement but upon God’s dazzling and soaring love.”  (Jeff Paschal, in FEASTING ON THE WORD, C3:7)

A traditional reading for Pentecost is Acts 2:1-21, the mystical account of the Apostles, at sea and confused after Jesus’ departure.  “Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind…..All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”  Grace has crossed out the difference between ethnic cultures (and generations?), and has united the Christian movement into a singleness of understanding!  Finally the original sin of Babel has been answered with a Divine Intercession.  Fiery and ecstatic words met even “those foreigners” (refugees? immigrants?) with a Good News message of challenge and release…  No need to build a Tower to Heaven:  Heaven has met us where we are.

Where is this Golden Thread to be found in John’s LONG narrative of the Last Supper?  Our reading is from 14:8-17, and Jesus is assuring his folks that his impending death won’t end their mission–rather, says he, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate [the Spirit of Truth], to be with you forever.”  Language and translations shouldn’t be a problem:  “The words that I say to you…” become much clearer as we think back on the forgoing stories.

How does the 21st Century Church make connection between the old familiar words and the vocabulary of new reality?  Those of us with grandchildren experience this when we ask about a computer app and are given an eye-roll which asks if we’re from an alien planet.  Yet there’s a central message of mercy and piety which calls our spirit-community to congeal around its core, whether expressed in mod or archaic terms.  Help teach your children how to speak!

God Bless Us, Every One                 Horace Brown King

My thoughts about lectionary scriptures for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

Some good folks, alas, spend ‘way too much time and psychic energy trying to decide who’s In and who’s Out.  Humans’ limited imaginations are afraid that if everyone gets God’s Love, there won’t be enough to go around!  Scriptures for this Last Sunday before Pentecost try to spread the affirmation that the Risen Christ of Easter is the plenteous Savior who passionately loves every iota of Creation…

The Acts of the Apostles is Luke’s presentation of the people who were changed as the Christ intersected with them.  Today’s reading comes from Chapter 16:16-34, which tells of Paul & Silas being imprisoned in Philippi after exorcising a soothsayer.  An earthquake hit in the middle of the night, springing the cell doors and yanking fetters from the wall.  The jail-keeper thought that his charges would escape, but Paul shouts out, “We are all here”.  For a shaky moment, community had formed; they were all in it together.  Not some, not a few selected ones, but All.  Even those criminals!

The second reading is selected verses from the very end, the Revelation to St. John.  At first, these seem but random; but there is a thread of inclusion here.  Part of verse 17 seemed to jump out at me:  “And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come’.  And let everyone who is thirsty  come.  Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift…”  Anyone!  The final word of recorded scripture is one of grace.

The gathering for the Last Supper in the Upper Room must have been terribly central to John, for so much of his Gospel is filled with it.  Here Jesus is acknowledged as the enduring High Priest, bearing our intentions before the High God.  Chapter 17 intensifies again and again the premise that Jesus and his Father are One.  He prays that all may be one, “as we are one”.   See if you can get your musicians to sing, “All God’s Children have a Place in the Choir:  Some Sing Low, others Sing Higher.”

The congregation in which Marie and I usually worship, Central United Methodist of Endicott NY, just formally passed a resolution affirming that all are welcome to become involved, whatever their race, gender, economic status OR sexual preference.  I joyfully back this–although I’m a bit disappointed that any group that reads the Bible should need to make this clear.  John earlier told us that “God loves the world so much…”  The whole world!  Bit by bit, we’re getting the message.

God Bless Us,Every One                         Horace Brown King

My thoughts on the lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend are found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com