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Always a topic for spiritual debate, we argue with ourselves (in the dark hours of the morning) how present God Is.  Humanists will declare that God is on a cloud far away, chortling at the antics and tragedies within His ant-farm, Planet Earth.  Evangelicals will claim an ever-present God who meddles in our squabbles and affairs with a great deal of interest in the outcome.  This weekend’s scriptures explore these dynamics, and provide a mat upon which to wrestle with our souls…

Jeremiah 18:1-11 recalls an object-lesson trip to a potter’s workshop, where the potter tweaked the clay on his wheel.  Doggone!  This just isn’t looking right:  let’s wreck it and begin again.  And another vessel began to take shape.  SO…is the Master Potter gonna start from scratch with an unruly Creation?  (That approach didn’t work particulary well with Noah.)  Jonathan Edwards and the Puritan Fathers scared our ancestors umoral by saying we were “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  But note this:  the Potter didn’t discard the work in progress, he re-worked the same clay!  Amid the Hebrew  scripture’s despair over the Nation, is there an inkling of Grace?

Paul’s letter to Philemon is almost tongue-in-cheek!   “Remember who YOU were, as you’re dealing with this escaped (but reformed?) slave.”  The reading by itself leaves many loose ends:  it needs to be unpacked as to how God has been tweaking both Master and Slave, refining a would-be perfect Kingdom.   Some have used this brief passage to either support or vilify slavery.  Some have attempted to formulize when situation is more applicable than Law.  And this is fine; but the bottom line is how Grace develops, spin by spin, whirrled without end.

The Gospel, Luke 14:25-33, doesn’t recognize Gentle Jesus, Meek & Mild.  THIS Jesus announces that his Presence will cause division–not with other cultures & races, but within our own house!  He says that there’s a cost to following his Lordship, so we’d better check our resources before we begin!  The preacher may well be sorely tempted to tweak this hard message to make it more palatable.  Don’t.  Pew-sitters need to hear that the Journey is tough…and as this is accepted, perhaps they’ll find strength in knowing that other holy travelers also must deal with How Close and How Often God appears.

Hearing all this, what shall we be?  There seems to be an encouragement across the board to divest the things which separate us from the Holy; and not to throw them completely away, but to recast them in a form which fits more neatly into Kingdom-plans.  At my point of life, I’m frustrated by trying to DO.  Perhaps I’m calmer when I accept what God is tweaking in me and all around me.  Bring on the Change!

God Bless Us, Every One.       Horace Brown King

My musing on scripture readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Sometimes, when I’m gloomy over the insensitivity and selfishness of This Time, I find relief in reading Biblical accounts or oracles addressed to the same old brokenness in People Long Ago.   This weekend’s assigned readings speak of hospitality, of welcoming the stranger and others “not like us”.   These are stories worth retelling, for they’re part of our formative ethic.  How do I live faithfully to God-in-the-Present even though such stories seem now to be less-known and less-respected?

Our veddy British tour director announced that our morning in London would begin at Buckingham Palace to observe the Changing of the Guard.  Because she was veddy British (and because my hearing is poor), I thought she said, “the Changing of the GOD”!  Now THERE’S a thought!  Jeremiah spoke about this (2:4-13)–“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?”  The Promised Land has been defiled, the eternal glory of YHWH has been toppled by a quest for fleeting fame and uncertain prosperity.  The springs of Living Water have been abandoned for leaky reservoirs.

The Letter to the Hebrews is chock-full of Household Hints for the Diligent Disciple.  Chapter 13 (vv.1-8) spells these pretty specifically:  extend hospitality to strangers (some may be angels); resonate with prisoners and those being tortured; honor your partner; don’t love money & things; be happy with what you have.  Moreover, remember those who’ve spiritually mentored you, and imitate how they lived out their faith in Jesus.  Finally, “do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (v.16)

Luke’s narrative in Chapter 14:7-14 gives opportunity for Jesus to address humble politeness.  At a formal dinner, he says, don’t grab the seats nearest the floor show; someone REALLY important may come along and you’ll be displaced to the back row!  But if you modestly hang back, the host may let you cut in the buffet line before some others…  (Besides, the head table is usually boring.)  When it’s your turn to host a  dinner, load up your guest-list with the poor and afflicted.  Look for no return invites, but be glad to share what you have!  Hospitality for the sake of social advancement isn’t really hospitality:  Who Ya Gonna Call?

Sally A. Brown gives eloquent words of conclusion:  “Shaped by  [secular] stories, our lives no longer bear the distinguishing Christian markers of profound trust in God and generosity toward neighbor and stranger in Christ’s name….  Only when we align our choices, individually and corporately, with the concerns of God in the world will our lives make sense and make a difference.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:5 &7)

God Bless Us, Every One                       Horace Brown King

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

Our television cable presents us with more than 300 channels–all of which have talking heads.  News anchors yield to correspondents; celebrities and wanna-be’s host talk shows; retired athletes sit at a curved desk speculating on which records are about to be broken…  How many hundred experts ARE there?  And which ones should we attend to?  Or none at all?  This weekend’s scriptures claim some aural allegiance for a Holy Revelation to those who can clear the daily cacophany from their souls…

Jeremiah, often an unwilling prophet, introduces us to his Call in chapter 1:4-10.  The story is told not only to express Jeremiah’s felt vulnerability (and our own!), but also to present a God who sustains and mentors those who are drafted.  Here is a “driving passion of God to be engaged with God’s people….and the essential God-given role of human beings…to bear God’s passionate word into the world.”  (Sally A. Brown, in FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:367)

We’re still reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, that anonymous treatise which reminds those steeped in Hebrew holy-history that Jesus, “the mediator of a new covenant” is the legitimate fulfillment of all that has gone before.  In 12:25, we read, “See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking”,  seen here as a voice of warning:  just as your Mother told you that you’d drown if you didn’t wait an hour after a meal to go swimming.  The core message here seems to offer Mt. Zion as a stable alternative to the capricious shaking of Mt. Sinai, with all the imagery in attendance.

On the surface, Luke 13:10-17 looks like another healing story demonstrating Jesus’ deep sympathy for the mishaps and brokenness around him.  And it is. A “daughter of Abraham” who’d been in bondage to evil for a LONG time was set free!   At a deeper level, it also contrasts the Old Law (no healing or other work on the Sabbath) with the New Understanding of meeting need with compassion.  The dialogue between the Old and New is super-important:  it opens “religion” to a sense of God’s interaction in daily affairs.  Again, it was what Jesus SAID that shamed his opponents and set the entire crowd rejoicing!

Sadly, much mischief has been done when popular Talking Heads announce that “God has said this”.  Who can refute that when God is invoked, serious ears must be receptive?  Jeremiah could scarcely believe his ears, and those encountering Jesus as the Christ were called first to discernment of authority.  These readings answer few solutions, but pose wonderful  questions!

God Bless Us, Every One                            Horace Brown King

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

Marie & I went to get updated passports, yesterday.  I always shiver, going before Governmental Authority, expecting some glitch from long ago to resurface and derail the project.  I wear a sign which reads, “Expect the Worst”.  Defying my expectations of gloom, the lady behind the desk was both friendly and helpful, handling my dumb questions without sarcasm or pitying snicker!  Despite her green hair, I had a most satisfying experience:  I hope she gets a raise.  My expectations are human; does GOD expect Great Things, as well?  This weekend’s scripture readings address God’s expectations…and how we could live with them.

We begin with Isaiah of Jerusalem’s famous Song of the Vineyard, 5:1-7.  Everything God did for that vineyard–planting, weeding, cultivating, building a hedge–was eager work, an expectation of Something Wonderful!   “God expected it to yield grapes (vv.2,4)…expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry.” (v.7)  The love song pauses with a screech of grief. (Paul Simpson Duke has an excellent commentary on the passage in FEASTING of the WORD, C 3:340)  The post-Isaiah interpreter is urged to remind us that “the good news is that Someone still sings, plows, plants, guards, and looks for good fruit.” (Duke)

Is there a link between this and the Hebrews reading, 11:29-12:2?  This is an All Saints’ list of prophets, judges and kings who expected “the Best”, even though they could also expect a gruesome death and life-long torment.  “Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided SOMETHING BETTER…”  Our TV overflows with coverage of USA contenders at the Rio Olympics.  Each athlete has trained for years, maybe all their lives, for this moment!  They expect the Gold!  “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…”

The Gospel lesson, Luke 12:49-56, is TOUGH!  Just before this, James & John, feeling disrespected, want to call down Heavenly Fire (Zeus’s lightning bolt?)  Jesus says they can’t, that’s HIS job!  “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  This fire will divide us from our loved ones and our community.  Not the other nations or races, but our Family.  Look at the seasons, read the sky, Jesus urged.  Don’t you know what’s expected now??  That’s probably enough to say:  let it stand.

If it’s not presumptuous to tread upon Holy Turf, let me sing you about my broccoli.  I weeded, raked, added compost, and chose only the finest plants from AGWAY.  And now my plants are almost 4 feet tall!  Really!!  They’re all leaves–no vegetable heads.  My friend Tim says that I planted tobacco by mistake.  “Expect the Worst”.  We can blow God’s Expectations off by saying, “We’re only human, after all!”  Of course; and were we made in God’s Image?  “We are longing in the easiest of all the world’s religions, leaning back into the entitlements of grace and an arrogance of heritage.”  Duke, ibid.)

God Bless Us, Every One                 Horace Brown King

My musings on scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; and at horacebrownking.com

In seminary–back in the Last Century–I learned that the duty of the preacher is to “comfort the afflicted & afflict the comfortable”.    Evidently this is truly Biblical doctrine:  our lessons for this weekend (and every day) give a good dose of both affliction AND comfort.  The challenge, I suppose, is to enable a balance and an intriguing tension within the hearers’ hearts…and perhaps our corner of the world will be changed.

Isaiah, never one to hold back, jumps right into the fray in the very first “chapter” of his oracles.  “Says the Lord, ‘I have had ENOUGH of burnt offerings…I do NOT delight in the blood of [cattle].” (1:11)  Before we get too smug in our own enlightenment, take note that these sorts of things happen yet today in our “proper” worship, both private and public!  Paul Simpson Duke says, “The present attack is on the bizarre disconnect of people praising God while desecrating God’s command to love….Worship unconcerned with justice is obscene.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:319)  Hearing this passage will cause all of us to squirm…and maybe transform our greater  community.                                                                                                                                                             The Hebrews lesson (11:1-3,8-16) reminds us of how Abraham’s faith popped him from his comfort zone in Chaldea to go where he had no idea.  Banking solely on God’s promises of a land and descendants, he loaded his ox-cart and set off.  His bumper sticker read: “Don’t follow me, I’m lost too!”  Just like in PAINT YOUR WAGON, the con- versation went, “Where we goin’?”  “I don’t know”  “When’ll we get there?”  “I ain’t certain–all that I know is I am on my way.”   The road-sign reads, “Temporary inconvenience, permanent improvement.”  A conviction of things not seen!

Luke’s Gospel remembrance (12:32-40) is an extension of that just last week read, about Bigger Barns and Greed.  This reading begins, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Sell or give away your baggage, and invest your treasure safely with God.  (Comfort, to be sure!)  But can I give away my old cardigan sweaters, moth-holed and out of date?  13 of these old friends clutter my closet.  7 sport jackets, four of which fit.  At least 50 neckties.  (Ah, now the affliction!)   “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Gulp!

Well, I’ve been afflicted, that’s for sure.  And yet I still have lots of time (I think) to re-prioritize my valuables.  Comfort me, Lord, by telling me yet again about the Land of Promise.  Let me awaken, Scrooge-like, while the bells of God’s Kingdom tell us that it’s not too late…

God Bless Us, Every One                   Horace Brown King

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