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The bitter lessons read to us this week remind us that Christmas is more about God than it is about us.  Gary W. Charles reminds me that “congregations hear far too little about the God who cares deeply enough for the world to enter the human fray and to be encountered by the horrors of Herod.” (FEASTING on the WORD, A 1:148)  Now that those nice shepherds have gone, and the friendly beasts returned to their pasture, the surrounding Evil seems much more pressing.  Herod has trained many Apprentices to continue his threat to peace through the intervening centuries.

Even though verses 7-9 are the reading, attention should be given to all of Isaiah 63.  Here is a holy-history of Yahweh’s unilateral redemption of an errant People, ending with a lament that this People is still far from faithful righteousness.  After a welcome breath of fresh air, we go back to our flocks and far countries fatigued and vaguely disappointed with the whole holiday business.  Is God likewise frustrated with holiday-keepers who turn away from a covenant fidelity, detracted by seemingly unconquerable social evil?

Hebrews 2:10-18 give us three insights into the holy mystery which has recently been bestowed upon us:                                                                                                                                *God has become one of us.  Instead of seeing our differences, Jesus dares to see us as        beloved creatures sharing a spark of Divinity.                                                                       *God With Us, Emmanuel, shares in all of our human angers and tears.                            *God has freed us from the fear of death.  As Jesus has pioneered the way through the          valley, so we may travel with confidence.                                                                           “Since, therefore,the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things….Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

Matthew 1:13-13 is a hard reading, and many will omit it as being too gloomy for Christmastide.  But here it is, a reminder that Evil does awful things; and we need to acknowledge this.  Joseph was just like his ancient namesake in that he acted on his dreams, according them heavenly origin.  Their hurried self-exile was just in time, as Herod unleashed his extermination of infants.  But were there no angels to warn THEIR parents?  The narrative is ugly, yet important to the whole flow of God’s actions in the midst of horror.  The Christchild, a speck of light in the desert of careless ignorance, is now preserved to become an alternative to corruption, greed and self-importance.  The Church, the Body of Christ, preserves the light that shines in darkness.

Christmas has invited us to assume a new posture of prayer and a new attitude within a system given to ugliness and severity.  We return to Isaiah’s confession in the midst of a perceived melt-down of God:  “I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us…according to the abundance of his steadfast love.”(63:7)  Greet every morning with this affirmation, and Christmas will last…and last…and last!

God Bless Us, Every One!                        Horace Brown King

My ideas about prescribed scripture for the coming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Christmas!  At last.  Just in time, too, ’cause I really need an attitude adjustment.  The Dark Side seems to have won the universe–and the election.  Despite the bushels of motivational rants that appear in my email, I mostly just want to quit.  “I will fight no more forever.”  Are there others just as discouraged in the pews with me?  We all need to hear the lessons for Christmas Day, which audaciously speak about a Holy Presence amid the swirling chaos.

Isaiah of Babylon must have caught a spark of heavenly audacity when he wrote, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'” (52:7)  The messenger indicates that the battle has been decided, that the Force triumphs!  “Break forth together into singing, you ruins” of all we hold sacred, our hopes, our visions for our children.  Sing, you trash-heaps where once alabaster cities rose, undimmed by human tears!  Sing, you putrid slums of sub-human scrabblings, you wrecked metropoli of days gone by!  Sing, you aging, bald fat-man whose once- clarion voice has grown hoarse, whose virility has been replaced with pipe-stem legs!  Into the Winter of Our Discontent breaks a Living Light which comforts and redeems.

Angel-gazing is one of our favorite seasonal occupations:  there are yet a few feathers in the air after last evening’s extravaganza when all Heaven broke loose.  The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews makes sure to position these angels as subordinates of the ChristChild; again, the messengers.  Messiah is described as “the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.” (1:3)  The day after the incarnation calls believers to look beyond the angels to the unfolding sustenance of all things.

The Prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1-14)  uses the image of Light to announce the function of the ChristChild.  “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (vv.3-5)  I need to hear this message about the Light’s tenacity.  Living as I do in the winter’s solstice of life, I cling to every glimmer.  I’d like to again have the outlook of R L Stevenson: “Then pealed the bells, both loud and deep, God is not dead, nor does he sleep!  The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men!”

“So we need a little Christmas, right this very minute:  candles in the windows, carols         on the spinnet…”  May you be blessed with Tidings of Comfort and Joy! And may you have some personal moments to bask in The Light…

God Bless Us, Every One!                       Horace Brown King

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

“Won’t you ever grow up?” she asked.  “No, ma’m.  I’m having too much fun as a child!”  And I do, ‘speshully at Christmas:  I’ve written my letter to Santa and got some Macy’s Bucks; I’ve sampled cheese & sausage at Hickory Farms; I’ve set all the alarm clocks in Mapes’ auction to go off five minutes apart; and I’ve squeezed the “try me” buttons on seven talking santas at CVS… Simultaneously.   And the readings for this Fourth Sunday in Advent announce the Presence of the Holy One who became a newborn–vulnerable, dependent and full of potential.

King Ahaz of Jerusalem was scared beyond reason.  Syria and Israel had allied themselves to destroy Judah.  So in what we now call 743 BC, the prophet Isaiah went to assure Ahaz that God is still in charge.  Ahaz didn’t pay much attention, nor would he seek a “sign” –so Isaiah told him of a young woman’s pregnancy; “…and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. [God With Us]” (Isaiah 7:14)  “The sign is frustratingly ambiguous.  Perhaps this very ambiguity can serve a purpose:  to summon us to trust in …the promise that God is with us.”  (Patrick W. T. Johnson, FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:77)   What signs of faithfulness is God giving today?  And, Ahaz-like, we probably dismiss them…

St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans begins with a long and heavy sentence (1:1-7) which prepares us for the solid dogmatics which this important book contains.  This is a greeting with news of a Holy Child, one who is special & unique within the religious scene where most power has so far been ascribed to gray-bearded elders and world-molded sages.  This greeting is a prologue to seriously consider a vocation of involvement with the ChristChild and all he is to be on earth and in the Ultimate Kingdom of God.

Matthew’s Gospel begins with a dry geneology by which he attempts to prove that Jesus can really be the Messiah–and then continues with a more interesting passage (vv.18-25) which is today’s reading.  Joseph knew the ways of the world, and couldn’t think that Mary’s pregnancy was of Holy Origin.  Fortunately, he believed in his dreams (childlike, again!)  and received the angelic affirmation of Divine Parenthood.  He married her despite the cat-calls of his friends, and nurtured the ChristChild as his own.

The sense of these lessons is to remind the hearer again that Divine Presence usually shows up when more sophisticated reason has branded the situation as impossible.  Will these “call forth faith in God’s presence with us even when all the details are not clear[?]  What is it like to trust in God’s living presence in murky and sometimes frightening situations?”  (Johnson, ibid.)

God Bless Us, Every One                   Horace Brown King

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

It’s beginning to look a lot like Advent, everywhere you go…  Everywhere you go, people are eagerly waiting for the ChristChild!  Not really?  Our dreams are of a White Christmas, of other-worldly visions of peace and good will, of bucolic Bethlehem and alien star-gazers.  Scriptures for this Third Sunday in Advent help span the tinseled canyon between nostalgic dreams and a solid promise of God’s New Age.

Whoever reads Isaiah 35:1-10 needs to be your most dramatic dream-spinner.  No monotone can do justice to “Say to those who are of a fearful heart, ‘Be strong, do not fear!  Here is your God….'”  For THEN the blind, the deaf, the lame and the stammerer will be made whole!  Arid lands will be abundantly watered, and no wilderness will restrain the pilgrim.  The approach of God’s ultimate plan will be visible and audible.

James’ message speaks to our cultural need for immediate gratification:  “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord.  The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.” (5:7)  It takes a whole long summer for my tomatoes to finally ripen; but that’s never stopped me from telling all ‘n’ sundry about how the vines are stretching up, and the burgeoning number of flowers.  Tenders of God’s garden can and should talk about what’s growing, about promises of harvest!

John the Baptizer was pretty sure; but he just had to know!  “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  (Matthew 11:2ff)  Jesus sent his crowd, saying, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.”  Glad you asked, John!  We were all wondering, even though few of us are still looking.  Mark E. Yurs muses, “It is easy to believe in God in the bright sunlight when all is joyful and free, but let the iron doors of difficulty slam shut, and doubt is there in the darkness.” (FEASTING on the WORD, A 1:71)  What’s to be seen today?  Pastor Michelle always begins our formal time of prayer by asking the congregation, “Where have you seen God at work this week?”

I’m challenged, this Advent, to keep my eyes open.  I find this very hard:  born a cynic, I forget to bleed when Santa Claws.  Lord, help me to see and marvel at what’s growing in your garden!   “My gracious master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name.”

God Bless Us, Every One                Horace Brown King

My thoughts about lessons assigned for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday  at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com