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On this Second Day of Christmas, alas, instead of two turtle-doves many of my neighbors are undecorating:  “Christmas is over.  We’ve been doing Rudolph since Halloween, and we’re sick of tinsel!”  The Church is a bunch of odd folks–John Wesley called us “a peculiar people”, but that’s not what he meant–who see a Divine Promise fulfilled, who still wait for the Wise Men.  Scripture readings for this weekend embellish our thoughts about what to do with The Baby.

Isaiah 61:10 to 62:3 celebrates the re-born NATION, God’s Holy People.  The speaker rejoices that the “garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness” have been bestowed.  So clothed with renewal, the Believer announces the vindication of Israel, and her glory before all other kings.  As is befitting those touched by Yahweh, there will be a new name–Jacob/Israel, Saul/Paul–for that People who have seen the Lord.  “I will not keep silent,…I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.”

Paul reminds the Galatian Christians of the Nativity:  “when the fullness of time had come…” (4:4-7)  This conjures up a watershed of holy relationships:  the Old is past (with all its deserving kudos), the New has come.  The author writes in perspective of having come through the anxieties of Crucifixion, Resurrection and the physical destruction of the stage-work of the Old Covenant.  Jesus’ birth needs to be recalled in order to shape the faith and discipleship of these second-generation followers.  Until the fullness of time is completely realized,  they and we stand with a foot in each Testament.

Simeon & Anna were not the Nice Couple from Baltimore, but they were faithful adherents to the idea that the Messiah was knocking at the door of the Temple (Luke 2:22-40).  What congregation doesn’t have them?  The usually-older folk who hang around the office and supervise the pew-polishing ?  Underfoot, to be sure–yet these are searching & waiting for tidbits of Grace, reassuring signs that life goes on under some sort of Divine Guidance.  Anna spoke about the ChristChild “to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem”.  And old Simeon didn’t see death, but did see Yahweh’s salvation, “A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel”.  He “looked forward to the consolation of Israel” and lived until he had heard its borning cry.

When I actively pastored, I greatly enjoyed the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  None of us wanted to meet about lightbulbs or liturgy, and this was one of the few periods for the parsonage family to travel guilt-free.  But I also knew that a new agenda was waiting in the wings: the rich seasons of Epiphany and Lent were treading on our tails.  Until the next theophany, then…

God Bless Us, Every One                               Horace Brown King

My musings on Scripture passages assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook or at horacebrownking.com

We have both Christmas Eve AND the Fourth Sunday of Advent to occupy our weekend; I’ve chosen to think here about the readings for the Fourth Sunday.  A word from the Old Guy: preachers & worship planners needn’t look high & low for something “new” for Christmas Eve–people are attending this service to hear the traditional story once again, a stable comfort in changing times.  But first we need to finish Advent…

King David felt guilty because his palace was finished and well-furnished, while Yahweh’s Ark of the Covenant had to rest in a tent (II Samuel 7:1-11, 16).  As he developed plans, Yahweh spoke:  “Are you the one to build me a house to live in?….the Lord will make YOU a house!….Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever…”  This is certainly an unexpected twist to normal procedures.  The passage also sets up the connections by which Jesus is called the Son of  [the  House of] David.

Before we get too harsh with Vicki of Nashville for including the postscript to the Letter to the Romans (16:25-27) in the lectionary, the preacher could explore these verses as an expression of praise for the Gift of Anticipation.  Those preparing to peer into the manger have been richly blessed by the journey.  How shall we respond to the astonishing news that God is about to break into the cares, fears and causes of those about whom we care?   Those hearing the Incarnation Story realize that this breaks boundaries and overturns the whole world!  This is an unusual manner of business.

The Gospel (Luke 1: 26ff) is about the strange case of Mary of Nazareth, a single woman, who has just been informed by the angel that she is to bear the ChristChild, truly an unusual manner of business!  “How can this be?” she asked.  And the angel responded, “For nothing will be impossible with God.”  Our whole encounter with Christmas–or it with us–yields wonder that the normal scheme of things is turned upside-down by this holy inbreaking.  Don’t forget to include at least a passing reference to Mary’s Song/the Magnificat (beginning at verse 47) which describes the overturning of Business as Usual.

The Fourth Sunday of Advent is a marvelous Divine Pause in all the cultural trappings, a deep breath for all who wait.  May it remind you that a new order is unfolding.  This new order is a bit unusual, to be sure; but you’re invited to drink it deeply and to immerse all of your senses in its gracious pools.  May you have a Blessed Christmas!

God Bless Us, Every One                 Horace Brown King

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

In the gloom of the year’s end, three candles in the dark!  The Church may have the only words of Joy that people will hear:  who will attend our worship that may be overwhelmed by grief of dreams unmet, by the cynicism of getting and guilt-gifts?  Scriptures for this weekend exhort the hearer to expect a specific Presence who will change the world-system into closer alignment with the original design of One who craves universal justice, peace and righteousness.

We begin with a powerful oracle found in the eclectic writing of Third Isaiah (61: 1-4, 8-11).  “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me…to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted…to proclaim liberty to the captives…to comfort all who mourn…”  Recalled by Jesus as his mission-statement, we can be likewise touched by a nurturing vision, this Advent as we wait, as we expect a heavenly inbreaking.   To a people who are living among ruins, these words are a reminder that God has not forgotten them.   The coming of a Stranger proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor.

To the Thessalonian Christians, Paul writes exhortations to a holy life, as they’ve been touched by the ChristChild  (I 5:16-24).  “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks….abstain from every form of evil”.  Central to all of these reactions is the admonition to “not quench the Spirit”.  Paul evidently expected  the Ultimate Advent to soon appear, looking for our entire sanctification at the hand of God.  “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.”  Who is this Stranger?

What more can we say about John the Baptizer, as met in John 1:6-8, 19-28?  He successfully evades those who try to put him in a box:  “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness…”  One phrase leaps out at me:  “AMONG YOU stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me…”  What?  AMONG US?  This is scandalous to think that God walks, eats & breathes with US!  They kept looking for this Stranger–and this Advent, so do we.

The days around me are filled with folks Doing Things, desperately trying to drag a nostalgic Christmas Spirit in with the Yule Log.  Outside of a few necessary family traditions, I’m trying to be in a more passive stance.  The ChristChild continues to break in when & where we least expect it, despite our frantic busyness.  Open the eyes of my heart, Lord, that I may recognize your face on my crowded street!

God Bless Us Everyone!                 Horace Brown King

My sermonic preparations can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

I’m sitting in my warm study in upstate New York, listening to Rachmaninoff.  Outside weather is bleak: rain taps on the window, clouds are dark; all but the hardiest birds have long gone to brighter climes, remaining leaves are brown & soggy.  The operative word for this Season is DARK.  Overrun with guilt for the sad state of the world, I’m having a hard time summoning Hope.  On Sunday we lit the First Candle of Advent, which brought some light to my gloom–but children in the Kid’s Time were more starry- eyed about Santa than the ChristChild.

In counterpoint we hear a Word in the Wilderness:  the Prophet cries  out, “Prepare in the desert a highway for our God!” (Isaiah 40:1-11)  Preposterous!  Can we really clear the decks of materialism and selfishness?  The latest tax-scam is no Christmas present for the needy!  “All people are grass…the grass withers, the flower fades…. BUT the word of our God will stand forever!”  So we have not only permission, but directive, to lift up our voice with strength, to shout in the Darkness, “Here is your God!”  Those who read this portion aloud in worship must declaim it with great drama–for it is.

The message of II Peter comes to those who’re anxiously waiting out civic harassment and persecution:  “…with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.  The Lord is not slow about his promise…” (3:8ff)  Evidently “waiting” is  a familiar stance among Believers, and in some ways marks them off from the rest of impatient humanity.  So Advent can be a yearly focus on waiting “for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.”  In the meantime, until the ChristChild is once more physically among us, we try to prepare the way by cleaning up our own act, “without spot or blemish”.

Mark begins his gospel account (1:1-8) with a segue from Isaiah’s bold announcement:  John the Baptizer fulfills this role as the Messenger, appearing in the wilderness (naturally) to light some Candles of Hope.  His message is simple: turn it around, get rid of your selfish baggage and pick up the free cookies God is providing in the perceived Messiah.  Bonhoeffer reminds us that “repentance means turning away from one’s own work to the mercy of God.”  (sermon on November 19, 1933)  Watching and waiting involves looking for and recognizing these Messengers who point out the New Things that the Creator is already about!

The book study group at our church is currently reading Bonhoeffer’s “God is In the Manger”–a series of Advent devotional musings written  while he was held by the Nazis in Tegel Prison.  From that dark and cheerless place come words of light for every age:  “And then, just when everything is bearing down on us to such an extent that we can scarcely withstand it, the Christmas message comes to tell us that all our ideas are wrong, and that what we take to be evil and dark is really good and light because it comes from God.”  May your sojourn in the wilderness be seen to come from God…

God Bless Us, Everyone                       Horace Brown King

My encounters with Biblical passages assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com