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Preachers and teachers have a choice, this weekend:  to use the readings for Advent 21, or to belatedly explore the lessons for All Saints’ Day.  I’ve always liked the liturgy for the Communion of Saints, so I’m opting for that.  Besides, November 1st is my birthday, and I get to choose…  Congregations need a bit of good news in the midst of Things that Go Bump in the Night; perhaps worshipers will find some affirmation here, especially after the procession of weird characters that have recently trouped from door to door.

I never know what to do with Daniel.  In today’s story, 7:1-3,15-18, Daniel had a troubling dream about four sea-creatures that thrashed about fiercely and disturbed the status quo.  He asked a friend what he thought about this, and he said that the thrashing beasts were kings who would turn the sedate into chaos.  We also are threatened by sea-beasts and you can fill in the blanks of their current names–I’d include racism, dishonesty, materialism and selfish pride on my own list.  What divine revelation would make them quiet again?

HAGIOI is used often in the New Testament, meaning the “holy ones” or saints.  The term isn’t limited to only those who’ve accomplished miracles, but extends to the entire family of believers in Christ.  The author of these verses prays that those who read them may know “the riches of [God’s] glorious inheritance among the saints”–not only as an intellectual exercise, but especially as an experience of “the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

The Gospel lesson in Luke’s collection of four Blessings and four corresponding Woes, 6:20-31.  Perhaps strange affirmations, yet they reflect Luke’s unique understanding of the complete reversal of the social and economic order (see 1:50ff; 4:18-19).  No cutting corners, here Jesus sets up the bad news with the good, a reminder to the DISCIPLES–and thus the whole church–that blessings come to the needy and that woes come to the complacent.  “To be blessed is to have a special place in God’s heart, not merely to be happy.” (E. Elizabeth Johnson in FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:239)  Knowing that we are blessed requires that we realize that we’re living precariously on the edge.

I’ve heard it said that you can’t really appreciate the Spring unless you’ve come through the Winter.  The most blessed are ones who’ve put themselves in jeopardy for their faith or to help the outcast and the persecuted.

God Bless Us, Every One                               Horace Brown King

My suppositions about scripture for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

“Hope,” says Walter Brueggemann, “is the conviction that this out-of-sync world will not last and cannot finally refuse God’s intent….We belong to the company of those who have not blinked!”  (SOJOURNERS, July 2019, p.36)  I’m weary of headlines and “breaking news”.  Was there really an age where William Wordsworth could wander lonely as a cloud and dance with the daffodils?  Contemporary pew-sitters hunger for encouraging and quieting words which can announce with audacity that despite the perceived chaos God is yet in charge!  Scriptures for the upcoming weekend lift up three crises which were resolved through unmerited Grace.

The prophet Joel, who spoke sometime between 530 & 330 BC, observed that the Children of Zion had gone through a bad spell of locusts and drought, attributed near & far to a God who was angry about lax worship. (2:23-32)  But better days are at hand:  “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God….You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is no other.”  Not only does Joel announce God’s reconciling love, he forsees a day in which ALL people are recipients and channels of the Holy Spirit, and a divine drought will be no more.

The second crisis is that of Paul’s impending trial and execution, as relayed in II Timothy 4:6-8,16-18.  Paul–or someone standing in for him–bravely asserts that his ministry can bear fruit even after his death:  a libation is a drink for thirsty people.  To the anxious he points out three benefits of ministry:  there is joy in perseverance in hardship; God is in the midst of strife; and there’s a legacy in our words and actions which lasts far beyond our meager years of actual service.  In the greater picture, we’re not forsaken, even when the snows are piled high around our door.

The third crisis is one of getting right with God, set forth in Luke’s Gospel, 18:9-14.  Jesus tells of two men, polar opposites, who go to the temple to pray.  The first was a Pharisee, a pride to his community, a rule-keeper and a great man in his own eyes.  “God, I thank you that I’m not like other people: rogues, adulterers,or even like this (eww) tax-collector.”  He fasted and he tithed; he didn’t smoke and he didn’t chew and he didn’t go out with the girls that do…  The other fella was indeed a tax collector; and his neighbors probably crossed the street to avoid meeting him.  HIS prayer was real:  “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”  Thus HE was the one made right with God. The Good News for us who yearn for stability is that “all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

We small and vulnerable creatures fear the dark and all that may go bump in the night.  There’s no doubt that we’re surrounded by terrors and hatred that eat our hearts away.  Julian of Norwich (England) was a 13th-century anchorite saint who was prone to visions.  It seems to me that her visionary teachings can be summed up in three words, “All is Well”.  “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 encounter with lessons assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

Most of us recognize that our hearts are complex muscles which ensure that oxygen-carrying blood circulates throughout our bodies.  Several generations ago, the “heart” was considered to be the residence of the persona, the keeper of valid or invalid decisions and the container for the Essence of Life.  Today’s readers of scripture under-stand “heart” to be a metaphor for the belief and ethical life-style which ensue from our faithful relationship to God.  Readings for the upcoming weekend address God’s persistence in rebuilding that which has been damaged, and the constant flow of life which we too simply call “prayer”.

Jeremiah’s words, 31:27-34, are about as close as the Gloomy Prophet gets to “good” news.  He tells the disenfranchised that God hasn’t yet given up on them, that God is soon going to plant a new ‘n’ improved edition of the Holy People–and since the former covenant seems to be easily forgotten, this NEW covenant will be engraved upon their HEARTS!  To some of his hearers, this will border on blasphemy; ‘course, that’s what they said about Jesus, too.  But we do crave a God who will wipe the slate clean:  “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember  their sin no more.”  “God sees that forgiveness is an act of compassion prompting worth and value in another but forgetting is an act of love that reinforces the desire that the relationship not be broken.”  (Bruce G.Boak, in FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:174)

II Timothy is jam-packed with advice and exhortations from an older mentor (Paul?) to his protege.  This weekend we’ll look at 3:14 to 4:5.  Simply put, it says, “Keep on keeping on, and don’t be influenced by all the ‘wisdom’ going around.”  Despite all the baloney, God is still working and is there for us.  I’ve always been attracted to the Process Theologians, who maintain that Creation isn’t static, but is rather an idea in the mind of God, in the process of unfolding.  Wandering and return are necessary parts of this saga called the Faith Journey–and the defining news is that God rebuilds our hearts!  Every day!

Jesus’ parable of the Unjust Judge, as told in Luke 18-18, can be both confusing and abused.  It pits one at the peak of power and prestige against the culture’s most vulnerable, and seems to provide a happy ending.  The pews are full of those who’re disillusioned, tired and given up to accept the prevailing injustice, whatever they name it.  Will Jesus find those who faithfully believe that there can be a happy ending for them?  To Luke, persistence in prayer and courage to live a holy life are not abstracts, but necessities.

I remember only snippets of this song from my Sunday School days in the last century:     If the dark shadows gather as you go along, there is joy in their coming, sing a cheery              song;                                                                                                                                               In the gloom of your sadness there will soon be light,  Every cloud will wear a rainbow           if your heart keeps right.

If your heart keeps right, If your heart keeps right, there is grace for your journey                     through the darkest night;                                                                                                             If your heart keeps right, If your heart keeps right (pause here for old Mrs. Grissom to                                    hit the high note)                                                                                               Every cloud will wear a rainbow If your heart keeps right!

God Bless Us, Every One                           Horace Brown King

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

When I was a young man, so much younger than today–in days of Flower Power & the Age of Aquarius–I possessed a button which read “Bloom Where You’re Planted”.  I wore that button almost all of the time, pinned securely to my cardigan sweater.  Those were the days!  Filled with hope for the New Age, predicting an immediate end of hunger and war…  If only the Old Guard woulda listened to us Young Turks…  Nostalgia feels so good; but it’s never entirely correct.  According to Gordon Livingston, “Nostalgia is the enemy of hope.”  (quoted by Diana Butler Bass, A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY, p.307)  Scriptures for the upcoming weekend deal with picking up the pieces and keeping on with keeping on.

Jeremiah, left behind in Jerusalem, wrote a letter to those who had been taken without their consent to Babylon (29:4-7).  In it he urged them not to be held captives by The Good Old Days in Jerusalem, rather to build houses & gardens, get married and implanted within the new place!  “But seek the welfare of the city where I [God] have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you shall find your welfare.”  This is also a religious expansion; the God of territorial Judah is evidently the God of Babylon and the rest of the world, too!  Exiles and aliens of all sorts are reminded to live in hope, because God’s still in charge.

As I was reading the Epistle, II Timothy 2:8-15, verse 9 jumped out at me.  Paul is saying that even though HE is chained, “the Word of God is NOT chained”.  This is certainly good news to the prisoners and all those feeling chained by contemporary crises.  Evidently bad experiences of derision and being ignored could have tempted Timothy and the rest of us to dismiss the Christian story as a dream, to lose confidence in the Kingdom.  “The sense of failure and loss of social status that haunts the Christian life finds future redemption in sharing Jesus’ victories.”  (Lewis R. Donelson, FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:163)

Luke’s Gospel, 17:11-19, tells the story of Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, but first he has to pass through a no-man’s land of conflicting traditions, those of Judah and Samaria.  (What a wonderful analogy!)  Here he meets and touches ten lepers (eww) and sends them off whole/affirms that they’re ok.  The story could be about gratitude, for only one returns to give thanks.  Being grateful acknowledges that God IS good even in Samaria, and thus completes the journey from outcast to valuation.

The flood brought on by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 was extremely destructive to Northern Pennsylvania and Southern New York.  Jim Baker, one of my colleague pastors of a congregation near Wilkes-Barre told of the desolation when the water finally went down:  there was mud drying over everything, and piles of debris created by those trying to clean up.  And, Jim says, one morning there was a tiny flower growing from a crack in the driveway, bravely shouting that there was still Life despite the surrounding wreckage!  I often think of that flower when my world seems overly dark and fetid–I guess I need to live it up wherever I am…

God Bless Us, Every One                    Horace Brown King

My journey with scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend can be joined every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Early literature from almost all civilizations includes stories of some hero who vanquished the Guardian in order to claim the Treasure.  We know of Jason & the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece, and of Parsifal the Pure and the Holy Grail.  We’ve also heard stories about the fierce or wise creature/person who guards this Treasure:  a fearsome dragon, the Fisher King, Prester John–or even a killer rabbit.  More recent episodes of this adventure bring us Dirk the Daring, The DaVinci Code or Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade.  Scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend tell of God’s Treasure lost and newly appreciated.  Will this increase our faith?

The Old Testament reading, Lamentations 1:1-6, needs to be set in the context of national disaster, conquest and the ruination of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC.  The speaker–Jeremiah?–calls up the pathos of utter loss of the Treasure:  national pride, economic strength and personal freedom.  No hope of glory by’n’by can assuage this anguish of defeat and Divine rejection.  Israel has reaped the natural result of her brokenness from God, and God has “let nature take its course”.  In the midst of the pain, then and now, we proclaim in the Eucharist, “In life, in death, in life beyond death, we are not alone!  Thanks be to God!”

Whoever wrote II Timothy has occasional flashes of brilliance.  In 1:3-14, he (?) mentions hurts and shame with the admonition to move beyond them to a positive relationship with God, sharing in the grace accorded to Christ.  “The mentor encouraged his faith-child on the journey of faith by focusing on the gifts of God in a spirit of gratitude.”  (J. Peter Holmes, FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:137)  Timothy is encouraged to see Grace as the greatest of God’s Treasures:  “Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”

Thus to Luke’s Gospel, 17:5-10, which seems to hang on the Disciples’ request to “increase our faith”.  In a somewhat cranky manner, Jesus tells them that a little faith goes a long way; and that we servants of God are rarely commended for doing only what was expected.  You may have to do some verbal acrobatics to join these two!  Maybe this is a reassurance after all, in that we already have the resources to be good servants?  The Reformed tradition reminds us that Faith is a human response to God’s Grace, and that faith cannot be measured, only enacted.  Our faith, then, can only be “increased” as we’re touched by grace and develop in the holy life.

David M. Griebner brings us a delightful tale of “God’s Gold” in The CARPENTER and The UNBUILDER (Upper Room books, 1996): a certain man was in his great-aunt’s will, and when he received his legacy it was a pitcher and a note!  “In this pitcher is the Gold of God.  You may empty it once a day, and it will always be full the next.  But take care, for only one vessel will hold this gold long enough for it to be of any use to you.”  At home, he poured it into a glass–and a golden stream filled the glass…but immediately evaporated.  The next day, and EVERY day, he tried a different cup with the same result.  He even tried a church chalice–but still had the familiar evaporation. Finally, with desperation, he poured it down his own throat, drinking it into himself!  Many years later, when the man died, friends remarked at his great change after this aunt’s death:  he had filled their lives with a glowing joy and had made their lives sunnier.  And his great-niece puzzled over the gift his will left her–a pitcher and a note…

God Bless Us, Every One                               Horace Brown King

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