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The gas station where I generally fill up has a large display of Red Bull on the counter.  Red Bull is loaded with caffeine, designed to give Something More to your busy day.  Evidently  it sells quickly; I see lots of Red Bull delivery trucks on the streets and highways.  I guess we all crave an extra jolt to handle our endless quest for The Top of the Heap:  if we’re lucky, our senses and sensibilities will be anesthetized and overdosed as we Run for the Roses.   This Sunday is Pentecost–scriptures of the day address our endless quest for Something More.

Holy Moses.  Evidently he was irradiated by Yahweh’s Glory every time they conversed, and he felt overwhelmed by the responsibilities to the Hebrews which it brought.  So on Yahweh’s next visit, He scraped some glory off Moses and spread it on seventy other fellows–plus two more who stayed in the camp!  (Numbers 11:24-30)  Joshua was alarmed at the “prophesying” (speaking for God) that ensued–but Moses welcomed the sharing of Power:  “Would that ALL the Lord’s People were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” (v.29)  Our belief gains strength as God empowers the people through the mentoring of those who realize that they’ve been touched by God’s Spirit.

The established reading for Pentecost is found in Acts 2:1-21.   Luke recounts how holy fire and wind swept through the meeting of the Apostles, causing them to speak the news of Jesus in languages familiar to those who were gathered in Jerusalem for the festival.  We retell this every year because it re-introduces a God who can’t be confined to one culture; we acknowledge a big God who shares a big Presence into a big and welcoming world!  A new understanding for me comes from Herman Waetjen, who says that Roman coins of the First Century picture DIVIDED TONGUES OF FIRE over the head of Caesar.  God has co-opted this well-known image to proclaim the power/divinity which identifies us as messengers of God’s Presence to the nations…

The reading of the Gospel, John 7:37-39, can really mix metaphors.  No fire and wind here:  Jesus calls those who thirst for Something More to experience Living Water.  More than an advertisement for a quick gulp of momentary satisfaction, he reminds those who believe that they have RIVERS of spiritual reservoirs flowing from their hearts!  This has got to be good news for us who’ve burned out on the world’s hollow promises.  “When you’ve explored all the culture’s seductive come-ons, when you’ve found nothing that seems lasting and real, come to me and drink the good water, the in-dwelling of my Holy Spirit.”

These days are discouraging, especially after nightfall.  I’m disappointed in the shallowness of our government.   I’m dismayed at the trashy language and attitude on Facebook and TV.  I’m really sick of hearing about the Good Old Days of racial injustice, an imaginary work-ethic and keeping women barefoot and pregnant.  “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me”…

God Bless Us, Every One                Horace Brown King

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

Someday there’ll be Peace and Justice!  Someday our alabaster cities WILL gleam undimmed by human tears!  Someday I’ll write my great novel.  Someday I’ll start to save my money.  Someday.   As Annie says, “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, Tomorrow!  You’re always a day away!”  A sign in a Cooperstown restaurant advertises, “Free Beer Tomorrow!”

This weekend’s scripture readings confront us pew-sitters with an urgency to procrastinate no longer!  The Acts of the Apostles lesson recaps the Ascension motive:  disciples ask the Risen Christ, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6)  And Jesus replies that they’ll receive the Holy Spirit in due course, and will take it from there.  “Here, at the very beginning of the church, we see a fundamental posture of ANTICIPATION that (a) God will do something, and (b) the church will be empowered for witness when God acts.” (John S. McClure, FEASTING on the WORD, A 2:523)   When, TODAY??  Could I loaf around a few more days/years…?

I’m enjoying the encouraging words of I Peter:  they speak to concerned citizens of all imperfect times.  “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that [God] may exalt you in due time.  Cast all your anxiety on [God], because [God] cares for you.” (5:5-7)   Sounds as if God is present and alert!  The author goes on to urge regularity of holy-habits and to RESIST the power of evil–is this for today, or what?!

In Jesus’ long Upper Room discourse he prayed, “Father, the hour has come…” (John 17:1)  No longer is redemption in the sweet bye ‘n’ bye.  This open prayer continues with a request for holy unity, which John and we call the Church.  There is no Church of the Future, only one of Today.  Our spiritual investment in our civil community isn’t something we do just for our grandchildren, rather it acquires a friction-induced  heat as it cuts through the social inequity and idolatry of each day!

I confess that I don’t know what to do; though I attempt to be a faithful messenger.  My personal fear is that I’ll be waiting for Something Else while the revolution surges on!  Harry Emerson Fosdick had it right even back in 1930 when he prayed, “God of grace and God of glory, on thy people pour thy power; Crown thine ancient church’s story, bring her bud to glorious flower–Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of THIS hour.”

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

No wonder my psyche is scattered:  there are too many things out there clamoring to claim my allegiance.  Down-sizing one’s heart is a tricky business.   At this stage of my life, there’s increasing pressure to get ’em all in before it’s too late.  As the bumper sticker reads, “So many pedestrians, so little time”.  My intuition is that most church-goers this weekend will be carrying a backpack of household gods, griping a bit about the weight, yet reluctant to dispose of any.  Scripture readings of the day acknowledge the dilemma, which is evidently nothing new…

St. Paul, strolling around Athens, marveled that its citizenry had erected an altar to An Unknown God–just in case they’d missed any. (Acts 17:22-31)  Paul was listening to the culture, how folks were arranging their spirit-lives, and here he found an opening for the Gospel.   John S. McClure opines, “It is one thing simply to lambaste all idolatry, and another to think carefully about what a particular form of idolatry represents in terms of human aspiration.” (FEASTING on the WORD,  A 2:475)  Our idols embody our hopes and our fears; Paul’s point is that these may be discarded as we learn more about the “unknown” God.

Those congregations to whom the First Letter ascribed to Peter was written were evidently caught in the Culture War; namely, how to practice Christianity while overshadowed by The Empire.  Same old same old, isn’t it? The writer exhorts, “But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.  Do not fear what THEY fear, and do not be intimidated…” (3:14)  What do y’suppose “they” feared?  I’m guessing the usual suspects: civic insecurity,  job loss,  changing  values, persons from other cultures…  Easy to SAY “don’t be intimidated”, yet of course we are:  in any crisis, Ethics usually takes the back seat.

John’s long account of Jesus’ final message to his peeps includes this:  “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate [paraclete], to be with you forever.” (14:15-16)  Over against the Imperial control by intimidation, this demonstration of love re-orders our lives and relationships.  Not an idle dream (groan),  the “hopes and fears of all the years” are met in Jesus!   And thanks be for the Advocate (paracletus: one who stands beside) on which I heavily lean!

Idols seem to grow more complex, as society “advances” and the world shrinks.  Alarming events across the globe pour over us by Information Technology, and we begin to feel waterboarded as we gasp for peace.  Although it sounds good, once in a while, I’d not make a good hermit.  I need the world, even though it often annoys me.  These readings offer an alternative to despair as the Believer is immersed in daily choices.

God Bless Us, Every One                 Horace Brown King

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

Some years ago, we were to meet our granddaughter Samantha at the Binghamton airport.  Since we hadn’t seen Sam for quite a while, we were expecting an adolescent and somewhat gangly youngster.  As the passengers came through the gate, a very attractive and self-possessed young woman greeted us and handed us her baggage, causing me to ask, “Who are you?  And what have you done with my granddaughter?”  Each of us wears a bunch of hats: as a citizen of  the USA and the world, as a member of organization/club, as employee/manager…and yes, as a Believer in Christ.  No wonder I’m confused!

Scripture this coming weekend helps us to clarify who we are, especially in light of the recent Easter.  The story from Acts is about the stoning of Stephen (7:55-60), and is meant to empower the Resurrection People.  Stephen’s death launched a wave of persecution (see Saul/Paul, Acts 9) and dispersed the Friends of Jesus to tell about him all over the Roman world.  If we can see ourselves as part of this ongoing dispersion, we may begin to identify our own personae in the face of draconian budget-cuts and other current attitudes of abandoning the poor…

Peter or his amanuensis writes to faith communities in Asia Minor who are feeling crunched because they’re running counter to the prevailing culture.  “But YOU are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, GOD’S OWN PEOPLE, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into [God’s] marvelous light!   Once you were not a people, but now you are GOD’S people!  Once you had not received mercy, but now you HAVE received mercy.” (I 2:9-10)  We all need a pep rally now ‘n’ then to remind ourselves Who We Are.  Can this be written over the exit doors of each church building?

Scattered post-Easter People are recalled to the Person of Jesus as the Christ in the Gospel lesson, John 14:1-14.  In retrospect, the Last Supper was an occasion for self- identity:  John’s readers were supposed to say, “Aha!  NOW I get it!”  Jesus speaks of preparing Eternity for those gathered around the bread & cup; he reminds Thomas and the rest of us, “From now on you DO know [my Father] and HAVE seen him.”  And later, an audacious promise, “Amen, amen, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.”   Although discouragingly feeble, we their heirs are urged to claim our ancestry especially though disappointed with the prevailing culture.

People expect certain functions from those who wear ID credentials:  this is a doctor, she’ll fix my nausea; this is a computer techie, he’ll fix my laptop; this is a server, he’ll bring my dinner…  Our badges hopefully identify us as People who have seen the Resurrected Christ:  we’ll speak of peace and justice, faith and affirmation!  Dare I understand that even I have a place in the choir?

God Bless Us, Every One                              Horace Brown King

My musings on Bible passages assigned for the coming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

A 21st-Century challenge is to describe a sheep to a generation far removed from herding and pasturing.  Both testaments of the Bible are FULL of sheep–and so is our cultural repository of simile:  “pulling the wool over my eyes”, ” black sheep of the family”, “a nation of sheep”–not to mention assorted nursery-rhymes and Baad jokes. (Where do we get virgin wool?)…  So the futile preacher/teacher has her hands full of lanolin trying to talk about Sheep Sunday.  (“Daddy, what’s a sheep?”)

This Sunday will conclude for now our exploration of the Pentecost event as remembered by St. Luke in Acts 2.  Vv. 42-47 speak of the outcome of this visitation by the Holy Spirit:  “All who believed were together and had all things in common…”  But this was more than a commune, it was a public community centered  upon an active interaction with God!  Hearers of this, then & now, are enabled to envision salvation as a flock- event more than an individual revelation.  The acts of Acts are almost entirely done through the Believing Community, in response to a Divine In-breaking.

When I was quite little, my sweet Gramma used to call me “Lambie-Pie”.  (Yeccch)  The First Letter attributed to Peter coulda been her model: written to persecuted congregations south of the Black Sea, this epistle urges them to consider the sufferings of Jesus, the Lamb of God.  As good sheep, therefore, they have been called, “because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.” (2:21)   This can give some solace, I suppose; it also was stretched into masochism for many ensuing generations of wannabe sheep.

John’s picture of Jesus as the Good Shepherd endures throughout Christian iconography:  how many church buildings do you know that don’t have at least one picture of Jesus with sheep?  Jesus’ occasion for this metaphor (John 10:1-10) is to assure the Flock that he’s the Real One, the shepherd they can trust for “green pastures and still waters”.  Our lectionary group got a bit bogged down with Jesus being the GATE.  Just before this he spoke of ENTERING the gate, opened for him by a trusted guard.  So who’s this Gatekeeper?  You?  Me?  St. Peter?  It may be better to let this alone and focus on the Shepherd…

Being called Sheep is not really complimentary:  they’re not at all bright, they tend to wander, and they’ve been known not to come in from the rain.  Come to think of it, maybe God’s writers have a point!

God Bless Us, Every One                            Horace Brown King

My musings about scriptural passages for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com