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I was born a cynic, I guess.  Seven decades of observing and working with the human condition haven’t improved my outlook a bit.  I’d like to trust society to be that perfect place of God’s imagination, but wars & rumors of wars abound.  I fantasize about picket fences and birdhouses, about rainbows day after day.  My poesy drifts toward the “alabaster cities undimmed by human tears”.  Tell that to the grizzled and aged guy who shelters in the doorway of the Post Office and asks for money.  Tell that to the crippled guy who got suckered into military service in Afghanistan to “protect” the investments of oil investors.  ‘Nuf complaining:  what does God expect of ME?

By the time the prophet Micah gets to the day’s text (6:1-8), he’s previously spoken eloquently about God’s indictment of the prevailing culture.  The powerful have coveted fields and houses and have seized them, violence–police dogs & water cannon?–has been sent to control the masses,  and leaders sell allegiance to the highest bidder.  Many worshipers have called for a religious revival:  longer prayers and more expensive sacrifices.  To this, God replies through Micah, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Three demanding expectations which remind us that we need to polish our ethics.

Paul comments to the Corinthian community of believers that all that glitters is not gold (I,1:18-31).  Wisdom and enlightenment don’t cut it, in the long run.  The rewards of the culturally elite look pretty good, but they won’t last.  Again, the alternative to the status quo is presented as valuable to the Church: “God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are.”(v.28)  To me, this is walking humbly with my God.

Charles James Cook asks, “Who can survive in attempting to live into the spirit of the Beatitudes?…we are struck with their poetic beauty and, at the same time, overwhelmed by their perceived impracticality….We admire the instruction, but we fear the implications of putting the words into actual practice…To be pure in spirit, peaceful, merciful, and meek will get you nowhere in a culture grounded in competition and fear.” (FEASTING on the WORD, A 1:308)  Some have translated the word ‘Blessed’ as being happy.  I also like the word ‘content’.  At any rate, the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-12) takes away a lot of pressure to fly faster and higher, to collect trophies and to count scalps.

You won’t be surprised to know that from now until Lent we’ll be examining (and be examined by) the ethics of the God-fearing.  Joan Chittister, the British contemplative, asks, “What needs to be changed in us?  Anything that makes us the sole center of ourselves.  Anything that deludes us into thinking that we are not simply a work in progress….We must begin to do life, to be with people, to accept circumstances, to bring good to evil in ways that speak of the presence of God in every moment.”

God Bless Us, Every One                   Horace Brown King

My commentary on passages assigned by the Revised Standard Lectionary for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

It surely is a period of Change:  many of our long-held cultural and social expectations no longer have the same values as they once did.  The current American political scene demonstrates the crunch between those who cling to the Old (and often imaginary) Ways and want to Make America Great (?) Again; and those who celebrate the process of diversity in race, religion and gender-understanding.  Nostalgia fails to recognize the dark side of injustice and intolerance, as many will soon be disappointed to find out.  During this adjustment of the mythos–the AmericanDream–we cynics are prone to claim that our Land has been abandoned by God.  Our faith-crisis craves hearing these words during worship this weekend:

“But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish,” says Isaiah of Jerusalem (9:1).  “In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea….”  Why were these lands contemptible?  They’d been the buffer between ancient super-powers: their economies and political loyalties seemed always to be on the wrong side.  Maybe this land is cursed!  But “those who lived in a land of deep darkness–on them light has shined.” (v.2)  Finally!  The end of bleakness is foreseeable, for the Light of the World is indeed drawing near!  God is taking action in Creation, if only we could see.

St. Paul continues his remonstrance to the Corinthian believers, who could scarcely believe that this Light included them (1:10-18).  So cut out the quarreling and posturing, already!  “You [are to] be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”  Was God really interested in reclaiming this strange and God-forsaken seaport?  Paul’s prayer was actually for discernment:  that the people who’d gotten used to walking in darkness could make out a Holy Presence there, even there.  Who’da guessed?

Matthew’s Gospel (4:12-23) is mostly about the discernment of those whom Jesus had called to be with him, as he walked nearby.  But don’t ignore v.13, “[Jesus] left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali…”  Matthew’s purpose was to impress his Hebrew audience with the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words examined earlier.  And “from that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.'” (v.17)

It’s a moral tale, isn’t it?  In the bottom of the year, Epiphany brings a light which gradually dawns into an AHA!  The lands of Zebulun and Naphtali are being blessed as Jesus comes to live there.  Why, then, would OUR land (which I cynically consider as God-forsaken)  not also be enlightened as well?  And where can I look, this week, to discern a Holy  Presence, a Divine Intervention?  Come quickly, Lord Jesus…

God Bless Us,Every One                     Horace Brown King

My comments on scripture passages assigned for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Even before I hung up my coat on Sunday, I heard Sean warming up at the piano with CWM RHONDA.  I’m not sure which text he was envisioning, but what sprang to my mind was the verse which prays, “Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore…”  I suppose that this was my subconscious pinching me to remember that it’s not lost yet!  I confess:  I’m tired of speaking about ethics into a me-first culture.  Evidently Isaiah of Babylon, St. Paul & John the Baptizer also felt as if they were pushing string through a keyhole:  this weekend’s lections bear their witness.

“But I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;  yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.'”  (Isaiah 49:4)  And God responds that raising up Jacob & Israel is only the beginning!  “I will give you as a light to the NATIONS, that my salvation may reach TO THE END OF THE EARTH!” (v.6a)  The Servant has been equipped with both authority and state-of-the-art tools–sharp sword and polished arrows–to convince all nations of God’s steadfast and compassionate justice.  The exiles to whom Isaiah spoke are us, who wonder how to be in relationship with a diverse world without losing our own distinctive reality.

The Church in Corinth can be our model:  wide-open, raunchy and unburdened of moral constraint, Corinth could be Mission Impossible for the message of Jesus.  Yet Paul reminds believers there “…for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind…so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 1:5-7)  Here as much as anywhere, Grace has been effective in the strangest of places.  Maybe this is my reminder to Stay Real?  (Read the rest of the Corinthian letters to fully appreciate Paul’s lover’s quarrel with these strange people.)

The Gospel of John recounts how some who sought Reality were pointed to Jesus. (1:29-42)  Philip & Andrew had been following John the Baptizer:  he was a moral and fiery proclaimer of ethical justice.  And as Jesus came near, John told them, “Look!  Here is the Lamb of God!”, knowing that they wanted the very best.  Could this be the Anointed One?  Here?  Even in the backwaters of the Roman Empire, the Real Thing passes nearby…

Harry Emerson Fosdick writes,                                                                                                         Lo! the hosts of evil round us scorn thy Christ, assail his ways!                                         Fears and doubts too long have bound us; free our hearts to work and praise.               Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the living of these days.

God Bless Us, Every One                           Horace Brown King

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

A loose Christian translation of EPIPHANY is “the revealing of Jesus the Christ”.  And such revealing is done by seeing a mystery in a new light.  So we begin a season called Epiphany which carries us to Ash Wednesday and Lent, unfolding further vistas of divinity each week of scriptural reading.  “Light” is rightly celebrated in the darkness here at the bottom of the year; and also in the darkness of careless and insensitive social interaction which clings unmercifully to differences of race, culture and belief.  Those who worship during this season of unveiling will be confronted by an urge to slash the curtains which darken their own space.

Isaiah encourages this with his directive, “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (60:1)  Even though darkness covers the earth and all its people, the Source of Renewal has dawned!  Some will attribute a Messianic prophecy here–yet I’d rather think that Isaiah is speaking for the remnant of God’s Faithful who acknowledge a holy fire even from The Beginning.  He goes on to tell the reader to “look around”:  sons & daughters, kings of the nations of the world will bring their riches, their gold and frankincense.  This holy brightness knifes through the mists of error, clouds of doubt which dull our vision and our spontaneous joy.

St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesian believers includes the phrase, “In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” (3:5)  Paul is trying to include Gentiles within this light, an early Liberation Theology which tells them that they’re just as illuminated as anyone else.  The passage goes on, “…that through the Church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” (3:10)  These are the same who’ve been attracted to the brightness of God’s working, especially as revealed in the ChristChild.

And of course the Gospel is that uniquely in Matthew, the story of the Three Wise Men/Kings.  Matthew, well-trained in Isaiah’s message, includes this to confirm the Ancient Dawning with the peripatetic Star of the East.  They, also, had been drawn by a Holy Light to represent the Nations of Earth with their pilgrimage and their presentation of gold, frankincense and myrrh.  These gifts, opulent as they were, paled beside the Gift of God which always takes precedence…even when the darkness seems especially invincible.

“Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings;                                                    It is the Lord, who rises with healing in his wings.                                                           When comforts are declining, he grants the soul again                                                           A  season of clear shining to cheer it after rain.”  –William Cowper

My wish for each of you in this New Year is for peace, joy…and LIGHT!

God Bless Us, Every One                   Horace Brown King

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