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The Rev. Lea Harding began her sermon by asking,  “Do you have a pet peeve?”, and then humorously suggesting some which involved grocery check-out lines and traffic foibles.  But then she asked, “Is there an issue that you care about so much that you’ll take action?”  Since I’m a passive grumbler, this caught my attention.  Many of us are timid about wading into a justice or ethical situation.  Readings for the weekend’s worship lift up some community standards and remind the traveler that responsibility leads to real freedom.

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) are “common”, but don’t tune ’em out:  they’re a basic constitution for the Hebrew-Christian experience.  The Desert Wanderers needed some by-laws, and this is what the Lord sent via Moses the Law-Giver.  You probably remember that the first four have to do with our relationship with the Divine; and that the remaining six deal with our relationship with each other.  (Read the Priestly footnotes in the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.)  Many have been enslaved by trying to keep each letter–have you watched “Living Biblically” on CBS?; Jesus freed us up with his statement that everything depends upon “loving the Lord your God…and your neighbor as yourself”.

Paul also goes for simplicity.  To the diverse cultures of the Church in Corinth he offers Christ’s Cross as the final word to the signs/miracles beloved by Jews and the sophistication of rational knowledge as claimed by the Gentiles.  (John Wesley had much to say about Scripture/ Tradition/Experience/Knowledge as being the litmus-test for our holiness issues.)  “Day by day,” says Jeff Paschal, “we are a people being saved from cramped little lives of selfishness and saved for the broad, roomy, loving discipleship of the cross.” (FEEDING on the WORD, B 2:89)  God’s “foolishness” in the cross demands that we respond by naming what we value.  “The cross speaks God’s peculiar power and wisdom.” (ibid.)  In the shadow of the cross, what’s driving you?

Whether it occurs at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry (John’s gospel) or at the end, during Holy Week (the synoptics), the Cleansing of the Temple seems of tremendous importance to each one telling the story.  This year’s version is told by John (2:13-22), and is remembered gleefully (?) in retrospect.  You know how it goes:  a passionate Jesus rids the Court of the Gentiles of both unnecessary sacrificial animals AND those guys who were getting rich by gouging devout worshipers trading Caesar’s image for acceptable Jerusalem money.  My imagination pictures the money-tables not just tipped over but upside-down, a symbol of how the Church has met the rest of the world and left it topsy-turvy!  This is not a polemic against commerce, but a zealous expression of maintaining space for worship.  Even for Gentiles.

Well, how secular can the Church afford to be without losing itself?  When do we stop saying, “boys will be boys” and speak up for justice? The Ten Articles of Holy Living give a basis, and they’re summed up nicely by Jesus.  Paul lifted the Cross of Christ out of the rubble of  holy confusion, and Gospel writers rejoice that Christian enthusiasm defined the boundary again between the Community of God and business as usual.  So today, what’s driving YOU?

God Bless Us, Every One                   Horace Brown King

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

It took me quite a while to discern a common thread in this weekend’s lectionary passages–and your hearers will likewise flounder along unless you spell it out for them.  This thread, to me, is the element of Faith:  an uncompromising trust that God can and will do the impossible for those who’ll risk, for those who don’t hedge their bets.   This could be a lesson of smiling platitudes; or it could be a gut-shaking loss of all that we count valuable in order to see Christ’s possibilities more clearly.

Abraham, you remember, wanted children in the worst way, in order to pass along his revelation of God.  He had already shown his willingness to rely on holy direction when he loaded his ox-cart and set off for WhoKnowsWhere.  (The bumper sticker read, “Don’t follow me, I’m lost too!”)  Having done all this, it still looked as if his genes were about to evaporate.  BUT God steps in again, “As for me, this is my covenant with you:  You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.” (Genesis 17:4)  During Lent we may well take some time for star-gazing and imaging what our own covenant with God may yield.

Most of Paul’s writings invite the non-Jews to step into God’s covenant–but this passage from Romans (4:13-25) is definitely geared toward those familiar with Hebrew holy-history.  Abraham, the ‘father of all of us’ is an example of tenacious trust, for he ‘did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead…’  He was fully convinced!  Abraham, like all the saints, had his moments of despair; his life is lifted up as a reminder that he hung in there despite his frustration with aging.

Jesus told the crowd to risk their comfort in order to get closer to God.  “Let them deny themSELVES and take up their (own) cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake,and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” (Mark 8:34-35)  Despite the good intentions of those who give up chocolate or peanuts for Lent, this is a stronger call to give up our Ego and imitate Jesus.  Within the hard terms is a gentle promise, that our risk of what we think valuable will lead to fulfillment/salvation.

Lent is always an enigma, and often causes us some discomfort as the Gospel tweaks our complacency.  Jeff Paschal reminds us that “God is calling forth a courageous church that rakes risks and trusts, rather than living the spiritually immobile life of simply trying not to make any mistakes.” (FEEDING on the WORD, B 2:67)   It’s tough to risk all my toys!  May we all be encouraged to puncture our Egos…

God Bless Us, Every One                         Horace Brown King

My wrestling with scripture assigned to the upcoming weekend can be observed every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Water, especially as snow & ice, seems to be on everyone’s mind and in everyone’s driveway.  We’d miss it if it suddenly dried up.  Water flows through the Scriptures for the upcoming weekend, mostly as a symbol of Grace offered abundantly to pilgrims through a barren land.  Some of you may wish to re-explore The Baptism of Christ, if you opted as I did for an Epiphany visit from the Wise on the first Sunday of the year.

Genesis 9:8-17 expounds on the theology of Noah’s Flood, a story found in many cultures of antiquity.  What’s unique is that God here makes a covenant surrendering God’s prerogative to destroy through water, and seals it with the Sign of the Rainbow.  New to this story is the concept of God’s nature to save, and to re-create.  God is no longer a far-off manipulator, but has revealed holiness as bound up in humanity–ah, an introduction to Lent!  Portrayed here is a God now subject to the hopes and dreams, griefs and disappointments of those made in Divine Image!  Can we have a God big enough to be self-limited by the profanities of the children of dust?

The Epistle, I Peter 3:18-22, can be pretty complicated at first reading.  The author suggests that The Ark was sacramental, that it was the salvation which God provided during the cleansing flood.  The floodwaters themselves, then, can be claimed as means of Grace, for this over-abundance separated the Righteous from the Children of Chaos (v.20).   In the next verse, he/she says that this prefigured Baptism;  the Church now announces regularly that in the newly-baptized the Holy Spirit has yet again flown over the waters.

The Gospel lesson is Mark’s amplified remembrance of Jesus’ own baptism, 1:9-15.  The core of these few verses is the Voice from Heaven which supports Jesus by saying, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  Compare this with other Gospel accounts which indicate that the Voice was to the CROWD, directing them to the Otherness of Jesus.  Here again we see God getting involved with Creation–God just can’t stay away, thank you Lord!

Some preachers/teachers will want to segue immediately to the 40 days in the wilderness (vv.12-13), which is OK…but somehow seems to diminish the intimacy of the covenant and baptism.  Whichever road is taken, Lent is introduced as a season of God’s embrace to the wanderer and the profligate alike.

God Bless Us, Every One                               Horace Brown King

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

I don’t watch much TV, but I do enjoy MIDSOMER MURDERS and FATHER BROWN.  Evidently there are many who like a good mystery!  We root for the detective to solve the case–and always try to figure out Whodunit.  And the best ones are those which have no solutions:  we can mull over “the facts” for a long time, postulating possibilities.  No reason (!) that lots of Biblical stories can’t be in this category of ongoing mystery; our very lives (and deaths) are open-ended to our need to know.  Lessons for this weekend tell some good mysteries that should remain unfathomable and will remind the hearer of The Otherness of God.

We open with II Kings 2:1-12, the tale of Elisha walking with his mentor Elijah, who’s preparing to die.  After the mandatory offer and rejection to part has been made three times, Elijah is taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire, passing his mantle on to Elisha.  This is a demonstration of God’s Otherness–a theophany–and doesn’t depend whatsoever on either prophet’s faith or witness.  It’s told as holy-history to remind Children of God that there’s a power beyond their own control which breaks into daily life and surprises us.

St. Paul nicely wraps up Epiphany,  the Season of Light,  by reminding the Corinthian Churches “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (II Corinthians 4:6)  And John Wesley famously spoke of his heart “being strangely warmed”.  It’s these theophanies, great and small, which become mile markers on our spiritual journey; they acknowledge that God is God, and that we aren’t.

Every year at the end of Epiphany, just before Lent, we tell the story of the Transfiguration:  Jesus and Peter, James & John went up “a high mountain” where Jesus appeared as unearthly and dazzling.  As they watched wide-eyed, Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the Prophets) conversed with him, symbolizing Jesus’ role as perfecter of that which God was already doing.  The story is repeated annually (this year in Mark 9:2-9) to make the hidden (?) identity of Jesus knowable and public.  Again, the revelation occurs in God’s own schedule, not ours or theirs.  We rejoice that God is Other, and not dependent on our own myopia.

I was gonna call this, “Ready; Set…GLOW!”–but I scrapped the idea, ’cause it sounds too human-driven.  And I was gonna include the doggerel which begins, “Little Willy, full of glee, poured radium in Grandma’s tea..” but that also is on the cutting room floor.  However, we’re glad for the holy fire which fills our hearts and enlivens even our faces:  we could sing, “May your days be merry and bright, and may all your theophanies be Light…”

God Bless Us, Every One             Horace Brown King

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