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The fella next to me at chorus rehearsal let go with a humongous sneeze.  After the laughter,  I politely said, “God Bless You!”   To which he replied, “Name Dropper!”  In our post-Christian age, many folks omit the “God”-part; yet I have a suspicion that lots of  people still crave the notion of being blessed by God.  Scriptures for the upcoming weekend address this desire for “pleasing” God and courting–and accepting–God’s blessing.

Micah 6:1-8 is a familiar passage, especially to us social-action types.  God lists the saving acts of  Hebrew holy-history, and wonders what more can be done to attract the people’s loyalty.  God is disappointed that the faith-community hasn’t yet established a society which reflects liberty and justice for all.  Well, what can I do about it?  Appease an angry tribal deity with mountains of burnt offerings, with rivers of oil?  NO!  “[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; what does the Lord require of you but (all together, now)  to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”  Well??  Can we claim this blessing or not?

I Corinthians 1:18-31 is as most Pauline passages, a gold mine of preachable/liveable  nuggets, blessings in themselves.  The line that jumped out at me is v.30, “[God] is the source of your life…”  Paul then maintains that Christ Jesus himself is holy wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.  A study of these could coalesce into a weekend retreat or a series of mid-week messages.  The challenge may well be to bring these blessings into current time as well as in antiquity.  This is in the season after Epiphany because today’s recipient could well spring to her feet and shout “AHA!”

Look, when reading the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:1-12, we’ve gotta come up with something deeper than “Happy”!  These Blessings are not blandly saying, “Oh, well; things will be OK, bye-and -bye; buck up.”  No, Jesus is calling us to acknowledge a Godly presence which even now is sparking divinity within us, even in the midst of mourning for righteousness and mercy, even though we know ourselves to be poor in spirit.  This beatific presence allows us to live in the world calmly offering an alternative to despair and cynicism.

During the recent gift-giving season, we emulated the Magi in our better moments by bestowing on others some token of affirmation and worth.  We read these lessons to publicly note that God has given and continues to give rich slabs of holiness with an echo of Peace on Earth, Good Will to All.

God Bless Us, Every One                                Horace Brown King

My diary of being challenged by scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Richard F. Ward gives us some questions to guide our exploration of this weekend’s lessons–“How does rhetoric measure up to an arms race?  How can a God whose people are held captive or victims of violence dare to promise the restoration of an order of justice?  How can the community of faith we call the church hear the Servant’s message when the secular culture that holds it captive considers its witness banal or a ‘waste of time’? These are questions that the church takes up during Epiphany.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, A 1:247)

In Isaiah 49:1-7 we’re told that God has polished a wonderful arrow and hidden it in his quiver until just the right time.  Some will see the birth of Jesus as “the right time”; but IMHO the Servant is the greater community of faith–the Jewish People of the Exile AND the unfolding entity which we call the Church today.  The Servant is being prepared (“polished”) to point out the Light “to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”  There is nowhere God’s salvation doesn’t reach!

Paul tells the Corinthians (I 1:1-9) that they’re perfectly prepared for any eventuality:  “for in every way you have been enriched in [Jesus], in speech and knowledge of every kind….so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift…”  This is an important understanding through the ages–we become enriched by Grace, not our own spiritual acrobatics.  Paul fills most of this First Corinthian letter with instances of how this treasure sparkles, especially as contrasted to the fool’s gold of materialism, ambition and pride of place.  The message is to celebrate what has already been received and to be empowered by the ongoing revelation of divine justice and mercy.

“What are you looking for?”, Jesus asked the seekers (John 1:38).  But they had already been set up by John the Baptizer who had publicly pointed out Jesus, “Here is the Lamb of God”.  And the story should include John as a major character who has perceived the Savior as embodying “the polished arrow” tucked away in God’s arsenal.  Yet if the Servant of Isaiah is the Whole People of God, the early disciples and later apologists and still later bearers of light to those who can’t even tell that they’re afflicted must take heart and receive the Good Gifts in order to carry them to the next stop.

I commend to you the movie of some years back, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.  You may remember that having survived many dangers through an appreciation of the Holy, Indiana & entourage arrived at the repository of the Sacred Chalice, guarded by an ancient knight who was all too ready to pass on the opportunity.  The Holy Grail was an unadorned wooden cup, remarkably plain when next to the glitter of its competitors.  Many powers and principalities do not recognize treasure, even when they trip over it.  The Servant Community has the mandate to reveal the hidden…or rather to believe that God continues to dig up the treasure even in the strangest places.

God Bless Us, Every One

My reception of scripture lessons assigned to the upcoming weekend can be found every “Tuesday” at this spot on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com