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We have a choice, this weekend, between the readings for All Saints’ Day and those for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost.  I’ve arbitrarily chosen to look at the All Saints’ Day passages, primarily because I really LIKE the All Saints’ worship, and secondarily because it’s my 75th birthday!  So there.  As an Old Geezer, I’ve been pondering Immortality lots, lately; here is to be found more comfort than challenge, more hope than guilt.  As the seasons are beginning their retreat into winter solstice, our Biblical wanderings also mellow into the subdued light of seeking a Star…

Wisdom of Solomon is considered non-canonical (pseudo-pygrapha–I love the word) by many groups, but there’s a lot of God-speak here to be found.  This text (3:1-9) challenges the deception of appearances by inviting readers to “probe the truth and purpose of God in life and in death”. (Gary W. Charles, FEASTING on the WORD, B 4:220)  Souls have eternal life because they’re in God’s hands, thus we live with confidence in a hopeful resolution of our spirit journey.

After the first three chapters of the Revelation to John I go straight to the end (21:1-6a), avoiding all the gnostic seals & symbols.   After all the weird beasts ‘n’ battles, we end up in a fruitful garden, just as at the Genetic start of our encounter with God.  (Or is it God’s encounter with us?)  “The new heaven and the new earth” are representative of God’s renewing and restoration of that which has become scarred and cratered.  A New Jerusalem spills out of heaven, and God pitches a tent with humans to realize the ideal community.

The Story of the Raising of Lazarus, John 11:32-44, has been described by some as the dress rehearsal for Easter.  We need to allow Jesus to be more than a traveling miracle-man; he’s here as a grieving friend to both living and dead.  Desperate and hostile, we also look for a miracle at the graveside–or at least a reason for death’s sudden appearance which stops our clocks and agendas in mid-breath.  Yet here we read about Jesus the life-giver inviting believers to step boldly into death’s presence, affirming that even here God is at work!  “The miracle is just this:  that united in [Jesus’] death by his grace, you may wake from the death that is life without him and live unbound, now and eternally, to god’s glory.” (Cynthia A. Jarvis, ibid. page 240)

“And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,                                                                      steals on the ear the distant triumph song,                                                                               and hearts are brave again, and arms are strong:                                                               Alleluia!  Alleluia!”

God Bless Us, Every One                                Horace Brown King

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

From my comfortable study, serenaded by Bach and blessed by my dozing cat, it’s silly for me to speak of suffering.  Most of those in our church pews this weekend have very little appreciation of suffering:  we have aches and pains, to be sure, but few of us (thankfully!) have experienced the gut-wrenching feeling of complete abandonment.  Are there silver linings for the clouds hovering over the helpless?  Is there any inkling of God, any grace among the ashes?

This will be our final involvement with Job, for now.  His story is extreme to us; yet Job himself kept his relationship with God alive, including God as both instigator and partner in his cry from the bottomless pit.  Job has discovered, on our behalf, that embracing God for better or worse requires a deeper way of speaking.  Our text, Job 42:1-6, 10-17, acknowledges that God IS God, and Job is not.  (“Someone” has put a Hollywood ending, vv.10-17, on this, which somehow waters down the story.  But not everything has a Happy Ending.)   The more useful Grace is NOT to conclude the tale, but to be summoned to a continually unfolding sense of divine presence in whatever circumstances we find ourselves.

I admit to having a poor understanding of the tradition of the High Priest as described in the Letter to the Hebrews (7:23-28).  Liturgically, the High Priest was one selected to go into the Holy of Holies bearing the sins of the People, thus receiving a national absolution for another year.  The Gospel writers presented a much more political role, that of keeping the Faithful complacent in order to not draw attention of the Romans.  At any rate, this author presents Jesus as the once-for-all “High Priest”, bearing the sin of All and thus extending Grace to All.  Just as our Old Testament hero Job discovered, this refined experience radically reorients our daily relationship with God.

We don’t know that Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52) was ragged and smelled bad–but the people around him treated him as if such were true.  “He’s blind!  He must have done something bad to deserve that!  Or else his parents did…!”  But he recognized the Source of Grace, the one who would turn the world upside down, when he came near.  The Righteous folk tried to suppress him, but he threw off his old way of life (his cloak)  and came for his healing and community restoration.  Dare we posit that “the Crowd” gained new sight as well?  Cynthia A. Jarvis reminds us that “Miracles are those events that bring people from darkness into light.  Miracles turn our attention to what really matters in life and in death.  Miracles claim no power, but reveal a Power who wills to be known.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, B 4:214)

Compared to Job & Bartimaeus, I’ve got it all!  These stories help remind me and other whiners that our life-cups do overflow indeed.  Will they also remind me to point out God’s Presence to hurting souls?  Will they nudge me to seek out those who’ve given up?  Rich and healthy as I am, may I find an urgency to carry Grace among the ashes??

God Bless Us, Every One                               Horace Brown King

My encounter with lectionary passages of Scripture assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every  Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

As the story goes, the King wanted his official portrait painted to hang in the Great Hall with his ancestors.  He sent out heralds to announce a great competition:  the winning artist would receive many guilders.  Famous artists submitted samples of their work–but the King’s choice ultimately lay with an obscure artist who got the dimensions and the flesh-tones in the best light…  Lessons for this weekend can go many ways, but almost all will center on God’s invitation to the least of us to paint Creation.  There are several variations on this theme…

The reading from the Book of Job (38:1-7, 34-41) is God’s reminder to complaining Job that Job’s not God, an awful thing for contemporary hearers to admit.  This is NOT the world according to Job!  So, if God is God, then we must be fellow Creatures along with Leviathan & Behemoth, walrus & carpenter…  Our human importance is established as we note that the Voice of the Whirlwind spoke personally to one of us.  It could make worship interesting to have one lector sternly read this passage, followed by a contrasting voice reading the Psalter (Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c).  United Methodists are referred to page 826 of the hymnal.

The Epistle is the Letter to the Hebrews 5:1-10, which recalls the ancient tradition of the high priest, chosen to be a go-between ‘twixt God and the People.  The writer maintains that the Christ is our ultimate high priest, who was perfected by his obedience and thus became a source of eternal salvation for US.  We too have been chosen to paint Creation, to remind tourists and historians alike what Goodness looks like!  Works in process, we’re not yet perfect; yet we trust that in our relationship with Christ we’re GOING there…

The Gospel, Mark 10:35-45, is an uncomfortable reminder that we all have Zebedee DNA in our genes (Jana Childers).  Seems that his kids, James & John, looked for special consideration in the Kingdom of God, sitting at Jesus’ right & left hands.  So don’t we all?  Some of it may be insecurity about our future: we live in uncertain times.  But Jesus calls disciples old ‘n’ new to offer an alternative to the nations whose rulers milk them dry:  he sets us free from that system in order to color Creation with bold strokes.

Rich with imagery, these passages remind me to color my preaching and teaching with bold strokes.  There’s nothing drab about our faith or our life in community, and we have opportunity to add drama to the unfolding Creation Story.  To whom will you be a high priest today?

Thanks be to God!                                   Horace Brown King

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

“Please, sir,” said Oliver, “may I have some more?”  “More” is a universal quest:  most of us want Something More, even though we can’t often define it.  People with good marriages, good homes and good vehicles will abandon all they have in order to find Something More.  “Well,” say I, “I deserve it!  I’m kinda moral (when I think about it), and ethical to a fault, especially about YOUR failings.”  The scriptural passages we consider on the weekend will chide us a bit about our materialism.

In the Hebrew scripture, we struggle along with Job, searching futilely for a court in which to meet God in order to present his bitter complaint about his mistreatment (Job 23:1-9, 16-17).  “There an upright person could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.”  He’s still convinced that Yahweh’s justice will find for him. In faith, Job speaks into the darkness.  There may be more than we know who’re hearing this passage and wrestling with the Person of God.  “Oh, that I knew where I might find him…”

Or does grace find US?  The passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, 4:12-16, continues the Quest by speaking of a High Priest (Jesus) who can empathize with our wrestling with God.  This connection with the Almighty is a sword  “to cut through the illusions we cling to:  trusting in economic and political security instead of God’s abiding presence, hoarding resources as if they were not gifts of God, believing in a cultural gospel that says what we have, whom we know, and how much knowledge, power, and prestige we possess determines who we are.”–Michael G. Hegeman, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 4:163.  It’s awesome enough to approach the throne of grace, without carrying a lot of Stuff with us!

The Gospel remembered by Mark (10:17-31) is the story of the well-meaning fellow who wanted eternal life, but couldn’t bring himself to shed his belongings.  According to the Law, he was quite perfect; but Jesus told him that he had one significant barrier–too much Stuff.  “How hard it will be  for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  This is certainly counter-cultural, and most of us will squirm and say, “Yeah, but…”   The man’s captivity to his possessions has prevented him from joining in the full life of a Disciple.  How much risk can we tolerate?

These are timely lessons.  A lot of the people I hang out with are desperately searching for a route to God/Heaven.  They run from Church to Church, often joining temporarily with a feel-good group which baits them with promises of Nirvana.  Yet they proclaim entitlement to “the American Dream”–whatever that is–and cover their greed with best wishes for their children…  These readings from Holy Writ sock it to us; may those who have ears hear.

God Bless Us, Every One                        Horace Brown King

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

Well, sure.  All too many of us grew up with the injunction to “be good, God will reward you”.  The obverse to this is often unspoken, but it’s there:  “You must’ve done something wrong, or you wouldn’t have _______.”  This weekend’s readings take our simple theology deeper into the labyrinth of living.  As we plod along, are we getting any closer to the Center?

The Story of Job begins, “Once upon a time…” in a galaxy far, far away–or is it?  Job’s account describes our Cosmic Battle (1:1; 2:1-10)  with the vacuum of evil as it sucks even our attempts at Holiness into the Vortex of Nothingness.  Mark A. Thronveit, in FEASTING on the WORD (B 4:127) considers that “heaven is about to unleash a totally inexplicable assault on Job’s theologically proper existence by afflicting him with undeserved pain and suffering….What does one do when one’s theological doctrine, that the universe runs on the principle of reward and punishment, is manifestly at odds with one’s experience?”  Is there grace among the ashes?

We’ll be looking at the Letter to the Hebrews for the next several weeks.  An oddly- constructed piece, it consists of reminders of the Christ-role toward humanity and how we may respond.  One of my colleagues complained that the Letter’s organization was as if it were written on note-cards which then were scattered by the breeze from a fan, then recollected with but a few minutes to publication.  Our reading is 1:1-4 plus 2:5-12.  I especially like verse 3a: “[The Son] is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being.”  This image moves us past our daily attempts to please God into a timeless acceptance of salvation:  the key is Christ.

What in the world do we do with Mark 10:2-16, Jesus’ polemic against divorce?  This has unfortunately been used as a cudgel to guilt the abused, and ultimately to close the doors of the Church to many.  Is marriage a Sacrament from Heaven, or is it a human institution to procreate the tribe?  Did marriage in Jesus’ day include “romance”, or was this an arrangement by the parents?  If one of these arranged matches were dissolved, was that seen as a slap at the parents?  What rights were accorded the slighted spouse and children?  Whose big idea was it to include “for better or for worse”?  Does “worse” include verbal or emotional abuse??  How much integrity should a sad marriage claim?

We could, of course, revert to absolutism, as did the writer of Psalm 26 who boasted of his/her faithfulness.  But the sensitive approach to all of these lections will include the possibilty of Grace even when life isn’t all skittles ‘n’ beer.

God Bless Us, Every One                             Horace Brown King

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