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By nature, I’m a peaceful guy.  Except for an adrenalin-laden  period in junior high, when I’d pop anything in sight, I’ve always walked away from a fight.  Sometimes, I run!  I’ve found it easier to live with the delusion of Peace than the reality of confrontation.  The scripture lessons we’ll soon address make me a bit uncomfortable:  not just in their proclamation, but in the realization that my tendency is to chicken-out when it’s my duty to speak out.  It’s important for the Church to hear these things.

The prophet Micah probably lived in the 7th century BC, and his oracle(s) seem directed to the Inner Circle of Judah.  He condemned the “prosperity prophets” who claimed a rosy outlook, while all the time the Assyrians were massing troops at the border (3:5-12).  Not only would the seers “be disgraced, and the diviners put to shame”,  but the prophet himself is now filled with power “to declare to Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin”.  His audience was the rulers and chiefs “who abhor justice and pervert all equity.”  Because of them will occur the ruination of Jerusalem.

Paul (for once) cuts to the chase in I Thessalonians 2:9-13:  “…when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers.”  The image here is not so much of empowered individuals speaking Truth, but an empowered CHURCH offering a spoken presence of God yet at work within a tarnished society.

The Gospel (Matthew 23:1-12) is once again describing Jesus’ confrontation of those folks who preached, but didn’t practice, holiness.  Although these teachings stand very nicely by themselves, when we see them in the context of a persistent challenge to Jerusalem between the Triumphal Entrance and the Crucifixion, they accumulate a great deal of weight.  Since the Pharisees and their scribes represent The Law, Jesus tells the people to follow what they SAY.   But their own style is to lay heavy burdens on others and to expect public honors for who they are.  As one who likes to make my fringes long and sit at the head table,  I confess my sense of entitlement.

One of the reasons that I have difficulty Speaking Truth to Power is the awareness that I AM power.  In some circles, my clerical collar gets me special treatment.  My bank-account embarrasses me by listing the paucity of my charitable giving while I live prosperously.  By accident of birth, I’m a white educated American now trying to establish other world-citizens on an equal footing.  I really need to hear this Godly Presence speaking through Micah, Paul, Jesus and the Church.  God’s prodding is still at work!

God Bless Us, Every One!                         Horace Brown King

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

It’s a word which often makes us uncomfortable.  Earthly understandings of  “holiness” come often in derogatory terms about prissy behavior and putting on airs.  This week’s scriptures explore Holiness as an attribute of God–and, by association, God’s People.  Main-line traditions include Holiness in their descriptions of God’s Presence:  John Wesley often spoke about “going on to perfection (holiness)”;  St. Bonaventure–and later Richard Rohr–have much to say about Benedictine spirituality which includes a sense of a Godly Presence within.  As opaque as the term seems,  worship aims to develop such a sense within each participant.

I’m always averse to the Book of Leviticus, with its dietary restrictions about pork and ostrich, and its instructions to stone your sassy children.  But this week’s reading (19:1-2, 15-18) leads us to a co-behavior with God:  “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy…”  Created in Divine Image, human beings are expected to reflect Godly interactions with all Creation!  Incorrect conduct is injurious to society, therefore the Creator is wounded.  Other ancient law codes emanated from the king, a human; Leviticus claims Divine authority.  “Loving your neighbor” is unique in that it is a Godly expectation.

We continue to explore St. Paul’s Letter to the Thessalonians, in a passage where he lifts himself as an example of Godly living even through tribulation (2:1-8).  “Even so we speak, not to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.”  As we wait to see what the Emerging Church looks like,  human watchers are constrained to keep an allegiance to the Glory of God Alone while various inquisitors hold their feet to the fire to extract confessions of loyalty to the several gods of materialism…

So which of the Rules should we concentrate on before the others?  There’re only TWO, says Jesus (Matthew 22:34-46):  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself”.  All goodness is covered by these, whatever the footnotes may indicate.  ‘Course, we’ve been debating for centuries what “love” implies; and we’re not gonna solve that now!  But how can we imagine Holiness?  What will our congregation, our whole town, look like if everyone who hears this makes a sincere effort to love God AND our neighbors?

This question arose (again) in our adult Sunday School discussion–and a fella wiser than I said that this can be done only with prayer and example.  He’s right:  our attempts at ethics & morality can bear fruit only by an infilling by God.  Please pray with me that God’s Love may yet help me re-value the unsavory around me and include Holiness within my imagination…

God Bless Us, Every One                         Horace Brown King

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

I was about 9 years old when I learned that it’s dangerous to stand with one foot in the rowboat and the other on the dock.  The water at that point wasn’t deep, and I waded out–but there was much merriment in my family, and the occasion was recalled often with gales of laughter.  Talk about making a splash!  Scriptures to be heard this weekend may well resonate among those who’re trying to balance their Christian life & ethic with daily life in an ever-shrinking world.

Isaiah of Babylon begins us with a tribute to CYRUS of Persia (of all people!), considered to be more enlightened and progressive than other despots.  (45:1-7)  Isaiah says that the Lord and Cyrus are partners, and that Yahweh will show Cyrus “riches hidden in secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name….I am the Lord, and there is no other….I the Lord do all these things.”  So to whom do we pledge our allegiance?  Can’t carp about pagan Cyrus, ’cause he’s the guy that Yahweh has called to free the People.  Awkward, to be sure.

Paul conveys a similar idea to the new Christians in Thessalonia (1:1-10).  God has chosen them, the first outpost of Christianity in Europe, to be an example in Macedonia (to the north) and Achaia (to the south-west).  Evidently they’re learning to stand with one foot in the rowboat:  an awkward position, but one which the Church of that time is beginning to adopt.  As un-empowered as they are,  the Thessalonians are commended for their hospitality, charity and faithfulness in a pagan world.

“Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?”, ask the Pharisees and Herodians of  Jesus on our behalf  (Matthew 22:15-22).  We’ve struggled with this down the ages, and it certainly plays well in our immediate American scene.  The amazing answer is to “return to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s”!  Implied here is the concept that we have nothing except what the emperor has loaned us (schools, roads) and what God has loaned us (meaning, beauty & life itself).  Taxes, even when we disagree with the government?  How much shall we bend our morality to pledge allegiance to the flag?  Will we take a knee to God when the national anthem is played?

Ulrich Zwingli, a contemporary of Luther, felt so strongly that Scripture weighed more than secular patriotism in our behavioral stance that he created a theocracy in the city government of Zurich.  It didn’t work well:  citizens grew intolerant of any other thoughts or factions, and it eventually withered (a holy lesson, here).  Perhaps it’s good that we DO have an ongoing conflict about allegiance!  These readings should provoke serious conversation.

God Bless Us, Every One                      Horace Brown King

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

Getting together for dinner is a tradition old as dirt!  No surprise, then, that Heaven/ the Kingdom of God is imaged often as a Great Banquet to which the spiritually-led are invited.  Teachers and preachers need to be extremely careful to avoid excluding  those still struggling with the God-life:  texts for this weekend could well be unfortunately divisive, especially in those traditions which gleefully proclaim that God loves them better than the rest of us imperfect sinners.

We begin with Isaiah’s psalm of God’s Justice (25:1-9).  As Jerusalem is being assailed by alien forces, the prophet dares speak of the feast which the Lord of Hosts prepares for all peoples, the finest food and wine.  As Yahweh has been in the past– a refuge to the poor and needy, a shelter from the storm and shade from burning heat –so shall the Lord destroy the shroud of the peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations, and will swallow up death forever.  “It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for [God], so that [God] might save us.”  Looks as though JOY is on the menu!

Paul’s final words to the Philippians (4:1-9) elaborate upon this Joy:  “do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  This from a guy in prison, probably under a sentence of death, to a congregation where at least two of the women are sniping at each other…  So what side dishes can we pick from this menu?  Things that are true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing to God; “whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise…”  Nathan Eddy opines that “Joy is a discipline of perception, not an emotion dependent on circumstances….By per-ceiving and rejoicing in a living, unexpected presence in the world even in difficult situations, one let go of being one’s own savior.” (FEEDING on the WORD, A 4:161)

Matthew’s Gospel remembers Jesus’ parable of the Wedding Banquet, yet another of his final warnings to the Temple officers and rulers (22:1-14).  Walk gently here:  I think it’s about God’s invitation to the lowly-born as substitutes for those who shoulda known better but still diluted the faith.  Yet some will lift up a capricious king who willingly destroys those who won’t fit in; still others will crow that “I’m OK, bad as I am–and you’re not!”  The bottom line is that the banquet hall was filled with guests of a prodigiously generous king.  Is Joy on the menu?

One thread that runs through all these readings is that they all stemmed from crisis mode of the authors:  Isaiah of Jerusalem wrote of hopeful joy even as the enemy was at the gates; St. Paul wrote from imprisonment; and Jesus spoke realizing that he’d be dead within a few days.  I pray that in your own daily troubles that you also will have a Banquet to look forward to!  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice!”

God Bless Us, Every One               Horace Brown King

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

OK, now that we’re all back from our trip to the dictionary to look up the word “vintage”, we’ve found there a couple of definitions.  One involves classic Old Things, such as clothing and photos, restored cars and me.  But this week we’ll turn to the meaning of vintage as grapes, and their byproduct wine.  Vineyards and wine production were important parts of the ancient economy, especially in what’s now Israel.  Prophets made an analogy of vineyards representing the whole of Yahweh’s benevolence.  But does God expect results of God’s good planting?

Isaiah 5:1-7 is the famous Song of the Vineyard:  the “beloved” made a vineyard by clearing rubble and planting vines in the best growing conditions.  He fenced it against marauders and dug a wine vat.  BUT when harvest came, it yielded “wild” grapes:  “These grapes are good for nothing.  They are a grotesque mimicry of the fruit that the beloved expected: this crop mocks the efforts of God to bring forth fruit.”  (Carolyn J. Sharp, in FEASTING on the WORD,  A 4:125)  This is an internal problem: the hedge represents divine protection from the “rest of the World”.  Early proponents of Judaism’s “purity”  were said to build a fence around the Torah, in order to keep it from becoming infiltrated by rabbinic interpretations in the mishna and talmud.  God here swears to rip down the whole enterprise–“he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry.”

Paul’s introspective letter to the Philippians continues his musings (3:4b-14).  He considers himself to have done everything right, from a Hebrew standpoint; but these virtues all become as rubbish contaminating and standing in the way of God’s expected harvest.  Paul regarded his life–and all Creation–as illuminated through Christ, and not because of his former correctness.  Here is a widening, a refinement of his understandings of God’s expectations.  He’s not arrived, yet, but he and Wesley are going on to Perfection, “forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead”.   We won’t even allude to that bad joke that Paul’s “pressing on” has something to do with wine making!

Matthew reports (21:22-46) that Jesus recalled the Isaiah story of the Vineyard, but added in the human caretakers who became greedy:  they abused some servants and killed others, finally killing the Owner’s Son.  Not only did this speak of his own approaching crucifixion, it warned the Temple powers that they would be replaced for their carelessness and bad stewardship of the Torah/Vineyard.  Jesus is drawing his line within Judaism and not against the outsiders…and he similarly draws his line within the Church.  This brings it right home to my 2 a.m. insomnia–What does God expect of me?   of the Church of which I have some leadership??

For many years, Marie has wanted to grow grapes–but her vines have all met with some calamity.  But our current house now has places more hospitable to grapes, a warm corner of the high fence and the neighbor’s garage wall.  This year her three-year-old vine produced!  Smallish clusters, to be sure; but next year has the promise of even bigger, even more!  After long expectations, fruit at last!  Pray that these learning vintners may acquire knowledge and patience to treat them right…

God Bless Us, Every One                                   Horace Brown King

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