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“Abide” is kinda an old-fashioned word; we don’t use it much.  It makes me think of “abode”, a safe place to live for quite a while, as opposed to transience.  Its Greek root in the Bible is similar to that for “endurance”, or staying the course.  Something that endures is reliable, a value which doesn’t fade over the course of time.  Readings for this Fifth Weekend of Easter serve to reassure the hearers that God’s Steadfast Love (hesed) is very present, and is involved with forming community with God and others.

The story of Phillip and the Ethiopian (Acts 8:26-40) could be a head-trip into Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah–or could be presented as a grand adventure about a post-Easter Christian trying to find out what his discipleship looked like.  I’ll take the latter, please.  What I especially like is that Phillip was in contact with the Spirit/angel of God, and allowed that Presence to instruct him and to “abide” with him.  The Ethiopian started a new life in Christ–God shows no partiality–and the Church grew!   Note that this fella had no previous gospel encounters, that we know of.  Luke wrote Acts to a Gentile audience, in order that they and we would feel included in this enduring love.

The author of the First Letter of John affirms, “By this we know that we [endure] in him and he in us, because [God] has given us of [the] Spirit.” (4:13)  And this is followed by lots of mutual abidings:  those who endure in love are in God, and God endures within them.  This could be important news to the disgruntled pew-sitter who’s convinced that NOTHING lasts forever.  Each cynical generation can take heart with this counter-cultural alternative to roaring Change…

The Gospel is the final “I Am” saying of Jesus, held back until the drama of the Last Supper (John 15:1-8).  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.”  The temptation is to say, “WE’re the fruitful vines, and YOU’re the barren ones (nanny- nanny-na-na).  Don’t go near that one, for the Vinegrower will prune any of us at any time for the good of the Kingdom!  Instead, use this as a healing image:  Wholeness rises from the Ground of our Being through the Son and flows out into every leaf-bud, every scrap of bark…  Endure in Christ as Christ endures in you!  “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides [endures] in the vine, neither can you unless you abide [endure] in me.”

Ray Cosimano grows grapes in his backyard, just as his ancestors did for generations.  He’s the guy who knows about pruning!  Last summer, Marie finally got a grapevine to succeed, since we have no Church Sexton to mow it down.  There were LOTS of branches, and a handful of grape clusters.  Our friend Ray told us which to prune (almost all of ’em!)  in order that this year’s crop might prosper.  The main stem still abides in its trellis in the sun, and we’ll see in a few weeks what of the plant will grow and endure.  Barbara J. Essex reminds us, “When God is doing the maintenance, we are assured that new life and new growth will result….  (FEEDING on the WORD, B 2:475-477)  The community’s challenge is to stay connected to the vine.”

God Bless Us, Every One                              Horace Brown King

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

Why did the chicken cross the road half-way?  She wanted to lay it on the line!  Scripture readings for this coming weekend are all written to specific audiences, having the common thread of the person/name of Jesus, who cared enough that he laid his own life on the line for his people.  They remind our own communities of God’s involvement with our own needs.  They remind each hearer that God cares enough to go though death to emphasize this Steadfast Love.

Before Acts 4:5-12 is read, some sort of prologue is necessary:   Peter & John are in jail for healing a lame man “in the name of Jesus”.  This has annoyed the Sadducees and other Temple leaders, who want Jesus to be not only dead, but forgotten.  The text finds Peter & John on trial, which gives Peter opportunity:  “let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.”  (Remember that the Sadducees don’t believe in life after death. )  The authorities brought death, but God has trumped them by bringing life!  Peter, John and our present saints are enjoined to announce this life-giving involvement.

Study-leaders should be advised that there’s little context in the three letters attributed to John; and that the many pearls therein may easily stand alone, a few verses at a time.  In the First Letter, 3:16-18, we little children are urged to respond to God’s munificence by laying down our own lives for each other.  “How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?”  As God in Jesus has risked, so Believers are called to imitate God by putting our own worldly wealth on the line.

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)  And then in vv. 15, 17 &18 he reiterates this, concluding, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.”  Exegetes should remember that this was recorded early in the recently-formed Church experience, when the concept of  dying/living “Christ” was still wet behind the ears.  Current Believers need to know by this passage that Jesus the Christ is standing up for them even when the wolf comes!

The question always remains:  how do we move from these fairly metaphysical statements to an actual hard-copy?  What of my well-endowed life shall I put on the line?  Shall I vette each charity that sends appeals daily, or the unkept drifter in the PriceChopper parking lot?  Besieged as we are with worthy causes, will I give in to mercy-fatigue and withdraw from all sharing?  “I’ve been poor, and I’ve been rich–and I like rich better!”  Besides, I don’t like pain…  My LIFE, on the line??

God Bless Us, Every One               Horace Brown King

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

There’s probably a Greek word for it; and if not, there should be.  I mean that humans have a tendency to live in a creative tension between rational solution and the inexplicable.  That is, scientific knowledge balances with a dreamland of visions and events for which we have no words.  Carl Sagan, spokesperson for the measurable and the knowable, nevertheless conceded that we humans are “bathed in mystery”.  The entirety of the Easter event calls the Believer to put aside rationality and to embrace the concept that God’s greatest works are those which are beyond our daily reason.

Acts 3:12-19 needs a synopsis:  Peter & John have been accosted by a cripple looking for alms.  But instead of money, they give him a knowledge of Jesus which makes his legs and feet dance again!  Those standing around were dumbstruck, asking how this happened.  Which introduces our assigned text, “When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this…?'”  Why indeed have otherwise devout persons through the centuries tried to rationalize healing and similar sacraments of God’s breaking into our measurable comforts?  That God’s People of Old are astonished at this healing is incredible to Peter.  How can they have failed to recognize the One for whom they’ve prepared for so long?

I find that I have to cherry-pick for nuggets of wisdom in the Letters attributed to John.  In today’s reading (I 3:1-7) we again view the Holy Mystery:  “Beloved, we are God’s children NOW; what we WILL BE has not yet been revealed.”  As a good Wesleyan, I’m delighted that this writer is also Going On to Perfection!  The controversy, both then and now, is over Christology:  is Jesus a man with vital signs and other recordable dimensions–or is there More, a heavenly being from the Beginning?   Evidently those who’re having trouble accepting this Mystery are finding less to value in their Church-community.

Luke’s agenda is to present Jesus to the non-Jews, the “Greeks”.  The Hellenic tradition prided itself on rationality and facts; so this account (Luke 24:36b-48) is pretty radical.  Here we see Jesus appearing to the wide-eyed Disciples–a spirit?–AND eating/retaining some broiled fish–nope, a real guy!  Those affected by the Age of Reason are still trying to figure this one out.  Yet the incident does serve to remind them and us that God’s work is joyfully beyond the explainable powers of the cosmos!

As years go by, we learn more ‘n’ more about our physical surroundings, which is a good thing.  And yet there’s a worldly temptation to ignore those burning bushes which we can’t explain, shuffling our sheep on past to the comfort of a water-hole where we can see the bottom.  Don’t!  Or you may miss the growing awareness of the towers of God’s Kingdom, there in the mist…

God Bless Us Every One                       Horace BrownKing

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

Only a few lilies remain.  Some may discern an echo of brass, a linger of handbells.  And is that a sigh of relief from the Church  Office??  Some of us are delving the depths of the famous sermon barrel, while a privileged few have already departed for a week in sunnier climes…  What shall we say to the faithful remnant, the week after Easter?  As the original disciples waited for further instruction, today’s Church needs these reflective days to develop Faith.  Scriptures for these worship times allow the hearers to sift their own experiences, hopes  and fears in the light of the Risen Christ.

The Acts of the Apostles is intended to be Volume 2 of Luke’s Gospel.  In this reading, 4:32-35, the post-Easter crowd is caring for one another as they explore their mission.  Verse 33 is central:  “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”  Here is the powerful Source in which ministry through the centuries has been rooted. Here is that “great grace”  which sustains our abiding and unfolding vision.

The First Letter attributed to John can be daunting, especially to us who crave form and logic.  The assigned reading is Chapter 1 to Chapter 2:2.  I’m gonna focus on the first four verses, which seem to me as a working Confession of Faith:  “we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us…”  Supposed to be written late in the First Century, this passage is far enough removed from the historical Jesus that various concepts have emerged about his presence.  Some have already left the “official” Church, rejecting the bodily resurrection and claiming that Jesus was pure spirit.  Despite Luke’s Incarnation tradition, to them Jesus transcends normal human anxieties.  John’s Letter affirms the revelation of a physical Jesus, and urges his readers to so believe.

The Gospel reading is familiar: the story of “doubting” Thomas (John 20:19-31).  To me, Thomas’ validation is in his honesty!  He was John’s anointed foil to ask the hard question the rest of us wanted to ask–“is it really you?”  The answer demonstrates who JESUS is, not Thomas.  “It is here…that we find the real point of the Gospel narrative–a tale about God’s coming to us, wherever we might be.”  (Serene Jones, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:402)  Two preaching points present themselves: first, that it’s really OK to ask honest questions without castigation; and second, that Jesus continues to trivialize locked doors of all kinds in order to invite us to believe.

“Low” Sunday is supposedly named because it shouldn’t compare with the glories of Easter–but most of us think that it refers to the sudden drop in worship attendance.  Even so, there may well be some there whose souls were illumined on Easter, and who seek to know more.  It’s these who can be our target-audience, for these especially will receive that “great grace” and “great power”.  May we all be so blessed!

God Bless Us, Every One                          Horace Brown King

My thoughts on Scripture lessons assigned to the upcoming weekend may be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com