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I especially admire the DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS.  These folks go all over the world with their medicine and skill, even to places where unrest and tribal bickering make life dangerous.  They seem to have caught the message that “borders” are strictly human measurements created to separate “them” from “us”.  Readings that you may hear this weekend deal with borders and tribal boundaries, both geographic and cultural.  We who live in the shadow of The Wall may take some solace from the message of God who basically ignores our limits and borders.

Jeremiah was just a kid, “too young to be a prophet” (1:4-10).  I mean, who’s gonna listen to or believe the admonitions of a child?  Culture has drawn lines of separation between those who are too young to vote, too young to drink, too young to drive…  “But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say I am only a boy; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.  Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you…”   Experience?  “Often just a code word for initiation into the [cynical and grasping] values of an unjust order.”  (Martin L. Smith, in SOJOURNERS, February 2019: page 44)

Note this:  I Corinthians 13 is NOT about lace & bouquets and drunken uncles!  The love which is expressed here is the mutual affection called forth by knowing that God is involved with ALL Creation.  This, Paul claims, is the antidote for all the jealousies bothering the Church at Corinth.  He’s provoking them to graph their lives against this model of Perfection.  If you can follow this ideal, then you’ll grow in appreciation of others touched by Grace.  Pretty radical stuff, especially for those who fence off their virtue from being contaminated by Those Outside.

Luke’s Gospel is a continuation of the story about Jesus’ rejection as a HomeBoy (4:21-30).  Let the Reader begin with a brief synopsis of Part 1.  The congregation’s ire was sparked when he recalled God’s grace to the gentile widow of Zarephath and to the (awwk!)  Syrian general Naaman.  Do we former playmates of Jesus get special attention; I mean, we SHOULD!  Can we share our specialness with THEM?  Has the Messiah inaugurated a new age ending oppression and injustice for even those others?  Is Yahweh only a tribal deity??

James C. Howell writes, “No good life from God can grow without our dying to our old self, as old bogus priorities are tossed aside, the house of cards cast down.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:295)  Evidently the Creator of the Universe is going for the whole nine yards, trampling our lines in the sand.  Andrew Greely reminds us that God draws straight with crooked lines…

God Bless Us, Every One                         Horace Brown King

My encounter with Scripture readings assigned to the upcoming weekend can be sampled every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

“GOOD MORNING!”, chirps the breezy radio guy.  “IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY!”  Don’t shout at me, especially before Eleven.  Besides, what’s there to be happy about in the morning?  My Dad was one of those who could sing in the bathroom while getting ready for work…  I  guess there’re those who can greet each new day with optimism, which has always been my short-suit.  So, for me and my fellow grouches, this weekend’s readings from scripture challenge us to sit up and take notice:  is this the first day of the rest of our lives?  Yawn…

Nehemiah’s passage (8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10) calls for a bit of back-story.  The reader needs to explain that those exiled to Babylon have finally come home, due to the munificence of Cyrus the Persian ruler.  But nothing was the same:  cities were ruined; and worse, the Temple of Solomon was a shambles.  Nehemiah, the new governor, and Ezra, the chief priest instigated a program of renovation and renewal.  Could the Jewish state and People reclaim their identity?  When they had gathered into the largest place available, Ezra read to them from the previously lost book of Deuteronomy.  Many were ashamed of their ignorance:  they realized that the Commandments and footnotes had been passed over in the daily turmoil.  But Ezra & Nehemiah called them beyond their grief to see this occasion as a New Start:  “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.”  Reclaim the Community, the heart of the deuteronomic message!  Take responsibility for “those for whom nothing is prepared”.

Paul is desperately trying to unite the fragmented Corinthians into a community.  Their diversity is legend, a more cosmopolitan group didn’t exist in the Roman Empire.  Ethnic background, philosophical difference and moral/ethical customs worked against these new Christians as they struggled with a bottom-line of belief.  In his Letter (I, 12:-12-31), Paul uses the image of a human body–one unit with many parts and functions.  This is not a Vision of Heaven, or Pie In the Sky; “NOW you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”  Freedom TODAY?

O Lord, did you get yourself in hot water when you jolted the homefolks out of the past and into God’s immediacy!  First you read about the  Believers’ duty to bring good news, recovery of sight and freedom for the prisoners (Isaiah 61, as remembered by Luke’s Gospel, chapter 4:14-21).  Then you told ’em, “TODAY this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!”  Next week we’ll talk more about their sourpuss reaction to this challenge–for today, let’s just say that most didn’t take kindly to the urgency of the Holy Call…

I suppose many, no, most of us have an altruistic component which intellectually affirms that doing God’s Work is to nurture the poor and reconcile those who’ve been excluded from the community.  The church I attend is a Reconciling Congregation, which means that we welcome LGBTQ persons and treat them as equals.  But Lord, it’s hard to live Today being present to your embrace…  What?  Morning already?

God Bless Us, Every One                  Horace Brown King

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

It’s Winter in New York state, and the dreary days of January creep on through the cold and the snow.  Most of the Christmas trimmings have been put away for another year; the Magi have traveled back home by a different way.  We’ve all–mostly–peered into the Manger, and some have been changed by the view of the ChristChild.  Lessons for the upcoming weekend try to keep the Hope spinning, reminding us that the Light keeps growing.

Isaiah 62:1-5 is a post-Exilic paen shining with good news of an undeserved Grace:  God is delighting in restoring the lost exiles to their place among the nations, who “shall see your vindication”.  Present-day hearers are reminded here that they too have great worth in the eyes of God, that a whole new relationship of intimacy is made public.  Have we expected that God would change things?

There’s great wealth in I Corinthians 12:1-11–every verse yields a treasure of spiritual gifts to ponder as we tackle the Dark Days of January.  One that popped out at me is verse 7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit [of God] for the common good”.  These gifts of grace are evidently for the Light of the Nations, not just to make us feel good.  In all of our diversity, these gifts of the Spirit each have their source in a single-purposed God as revealed in Jesus Christ.  Given freely and without dependence upon our merit, they aim at uniting the community of faith.

The Gospel lesson is the story of Jesus first public miracle, turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11).  It’s most fitting that this display of lavish excess begins the instances where God breaks into business-as-usual.  Why do we read this only in John’s Gospel?  Martin L. Smith comments, “Imagery of excess, of divine surplus and overflow, is essential for the proclamation of God’s reign.”  (SOJOURNERS, Jan.2019:45)  An abundance of good wine has been a prophetic symbol of a restoration of God’s new age (Amos  9:13, Joel 3:18).  This age is again a beacon to the community of faith, as the wine is shared with everyone!

The comforting message for me is that there are graciously given gems which sparkle in God’s Light, especially in these leaden days after Christmas.  January in these parts calls us to hunker down around the hearth and tell again the events of holy-history, especially of how God has broken into our ennui to change things.

God Bless Us, Every One              Horace Brown King

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

The Sacrament of Baptism is observed differently across the Church.  Some consider the application of water–sometimes by total immersion–as a cleansing from sin.  Others see Baptism as a sign of what Jesus is doing/ has already done in the life of an infant.  The unanswerable question remains:  is participation in this rite done by human choice for repentance?  or is this an occasion of God’s inbreaking, a confirmation of prevenient Grace already doing marvelous things?  We don’t presume to offer extensive studies of Baptism here; we do acknowledge that Baptism carries different freight, albeit central to discipleship.  The upcoming weekend is our remembrance of the Baptism of Jesus.

The Israelites of Babylon to whom Isaiah 43:1-7 is addressed felt not only the loss of their paternal homeland but the quickly eroding Community of the Faithful as new generations became Babylon-ized.  Isaiah urged the remnant not to give up hope for physical AND spiritual restoration:  “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…”  Deep water recalled the terrors of both the Ark and the Exodus, when water stood between the People and the Land of Promise.  These stories turned out well, they also remembered, when God sent a dove to announce familiar land once more; and when the enemies were drowned after God has made a path through the water…  And Psalm 29 exults, “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders…”

There are probably better Baptismal texts than Acts 8:14-17.  But here’s the unnamed Dove of the Spirit, again, plummeting not on Noah or Jesus, but on new Christians in (aaack!) Samaria.  This was one more instance of the restoration of the Lost Community mourned by the Exiles and envisioned by Isaiah.  It also marks a realization among the Jewish disciples that the message of Jesus is for all who will hear, beyond the old boundaries.  Thunder indeed!

The Baptism of Jesus is seen as important to the Gospel, since all four (!) Evangelists lift it up.  It’s questionable that Jesus saw this as a cleansing from Sin; but his participation solidified his humanity AND (according to our reading, Luke 3:15-17, 21-22) reinforced his self-understanding of his Christhood.  As the Dove descended, God spoke: “YOU are my Son…”  Jesus was born into a system of broken faith, and now he knew his mission of reconciliation.  So it is that our traditional rite of Baptism includes a naming of the recipient of such Grace, now with an important identity.

In most of these services, a lay leader or the pastor presents the baptized to the congregation–and the congregation is introduced to the special blessedness of this new Brother or Sister in Christ.  Then the pastor sprinkles (or sometimes splashes!) the congregation and says, “Remember YOUR baptism–and be glad!”  Remember that YOU are baptized as God’s Beloved!  Was that thunder?

God Bless Us, Every One                                  Horace Brown King

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

We’ve been to Christmas, and have stood on tip-toe to peer into the manger.  And then back to the darkness of the sheepfold, with only memories of angelic light…with a few shiny feathers as tokens of Divine Visitation.  As people of conscience, we often despair at the darkness which we see in daily headlines and local social imbalances.  But we’ve been to Christmas!  That should count for SOMEthing…?  So, in this brand-new year, we yearn for the brightness of re-creation–and are yet a bit bashful to claim that we ourselves are now bearers of the Light, reflectors of the Face of God.

Scripture lessons for Epiphany–the Season of AHA!–open with words from post-Exilic Isaiah, vv. 1-6 of Chapter 60.  The speaker announces a renewal of the People of God, with a great homecoming which includes the abundance of the sea and the wealth of nations, camels bringing gold & frankincense!  “The [leader’s] goal is to get the people to notice God’s rising glory and join in the throng that is streaming toward it….to keep reminding the people that what we do in worship has cosmic significance.”  (Stephens G. Lytch, in SOJOURNERS c 1:195)   The pathos is done:  Arise, shine, for your light has come.

The Epistle reading is Ephesians 3:1-12.  This speaks heavily of “mystery”, which could be translated as “sacrament”.  The writer emphasizes the unexpected (?) breaking-in of God, not as Plan B but just at the right time in the unfolding order of Creation.  An interesting note for Epiphany:  the Gentile magi come to seek Jesus, bringing the world’s riches, while this author lifts up God in Christ who seeks out the Gentiles, partnering with the Church to bring them the riches of Christ.  “Through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

Even though it’s familiar, don’t neglect the Gospel story of the Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-12).  These seekers of the Light are set up as role-models for witnesses everywhere:  whoever/how many they were, their story has been incorporated to illustrate the world-wide magnetism of the ChristChild.  Attracted by a heavenly light which sliced through darkness, the magi are an analogy of following holiness through dark deserts of ugliness to the Source of Goodness, Wholeness and Hope.  By what light do you travel toward God?

An old story tells of King Herod, old and sick, who believed that he had eliminated any rivalry to his dark-sided kingdom by the Slaughter of the Innocents.  Taking to his bed, he asked that the curtains be opened–“I want see the Star go out”.  It hasn’t!  Carry the news to all the world…

God Bless Us, Every One                          Horace Brown King

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