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“Whadja get fer Christmas?” we asked our friend who came to the door. “C’mon in and see my tree”, was the nine-year-old’s response. So we’d all troop into the family room to admire holiday decorations and check out the trophies of our pal. This happened around the neighborhood until all the guys’ homes were covered–and we may have codged some hot chocolate from their mothers…. Some of this was done out of genuine affection, and some of it called forth our honest curiosity. But really the annual exercise was done to affirm once again that Santa loved me best. Scriptures for almost-Epiphany speak of gift giving and receiving, and will hopefully remind each hearer that God’s abundance generously pours Good Things on the “meek souls who receive him still”.

We begin with an exciting oracle of Third Isaiah, 60:1-6. This should be read BIG: “your light has come!!” Even though there may be darkness over the lands, God’s glory has appeared over YOU! This glory draws the nations as a streetlight draws moths, and the abundance of the sea and the wealth of the peoples will be brought, even gold and frankincense… What a reversal! Instead of the usual tribute being exploited from Israel, now the powers and principalities will be bringing treasures back! How will they be received, as tribute or homage? And will the Nations of Darkness today notice the glory and stream to it?

The fairly long Epistle reading is “Paul”‘s reminder to the Ephesus Church–a bunch of Gentiles–that he saw his mission as bringing the gifts of grace which had long been celebrated by Israel to these fellow heirs of Christ. It becomes a lesson for Epiphany because the author is celebrating the showing forth of the Christ Child to the world. (Even, and especially, to the waiting believers in Asia Minor.) Paul sees the Church as the means of telling a darkened society that there really IS Light–and that God wants to illumine them as well.

And so come the Magi. Their symbolic message is important enough to give them their own Day, removing them from their role as extras in the Christmas Pageant. Matthew (2:1-12) works diligently to relate them to the Isaiah passage; and tradition has cooperated by giving them camels and star-glory. Whatever, it’s still a good story! And their gifts represented earthly honor, heavenly dedication and life-ending embalming, indicating that they had visions of just who this Baby is. A good part of the lesson for the Church is that these Magi were looking for and anticipating a holy signal; how then does the Church respond to current stars? And will the way home be different?

Shelley D. B. Copeland writes, “The magi did not come to study Jesus. They came to worship a newborn king by following a special star. Sacrificing time and comfort, they brought gifts to a baby who demonstrated no outward signs of prophetic confirmation. They held no assurance of how the story would end. All they had was prophetic knowledge of a star and a coming messiah.” (FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:207) Our childhood question could be answered (with a little maturity) with the addition of a hope of starlight…

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

My ruminations on Scripture assigned to the upcoming weekend can be observed every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Marie’s cousin Bonnie says that she’s gonna stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve just to make sure that 2020 really goes! Most of us will be glad to turn our calendar to a blank page, appreciating the chance to make a new start. Perhaps THIS year… Scriptures of this coming weekend will affirm that God’s intent is to constantly change things for the better–“see, I am making all things new”–even though we fuss about the long time this takes. Somehow the greeting of “Happy New Year” seems more real, this time around…

We begin with words from Third Isaiah (62:1-3) addressed to a “renewed” faith-community only recently returned to Israel from exile in Babylon. Be of Hope, he advises, for hope is holy even in depressing situations. “You shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.” Separation is painful, whether it be an exile from the homeland or a lingering death unattended by family except through a window. Yet inside each heart a vision speaks! Isaiah reminds his disgruntled hearers that new life is symbolized by a renewed, rebuilt Jerusalem. From the debris of what was once considered stable is raised a NEW stability, a ‘city’ of hope. Can we who stand on the doorstep of a New Year be cheered by this holy action?

Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, 4:4-7, is an affirmation that these Gentiles from mid-Asia Minor are children of God, heirs to the renewal of salvation. By transfer, then, WE dwellers in mid-Earth have this hope of a spiritual second birth as well. “In the fulness of time…” is when we say goodbye to the Old and welcome the New, when we can move on to new resolutions and put off the political paralysis, when we can affirm that a new normal is really possible. The New Year finds us not only wealthy, but free.

The Gospel, Luke 2:22-40, needs to be heard because usually the reading thereof is drowned in tinsel. Simeon and Anna need to be included in the Christmas narrative in order to complete this story of who the Baby Jesus was: “My eyes have seen your salvation….” I like to picture Old Simeon in the robes of Father Time, the Old ready to toddle off now that the New has arrived. Here at last is seen the light for the Gentiles and for the glory of the people of Israel. Simeon and Anna had stayed faithfully at their posts, sustained by God’s Spirit, until their shift was over–that is, until they had seen that God’s Eighth Day of Creation was well underway in the shape of the ChristChild.

We can’t erase 2020, nor should we; times of crisis are important to the Story of the People. Like the Panic of ’73, or the Great Depression, or the horrific wars we’ve endured, the narrative must include How Bad It Was just so we can compare the Bad Old Days with what we now have… Rejoice! Enjoy a Blessed (and thus Happy) New Year!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

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

So many of our Christmas songs talk about Home during the Holiday Season. When the daylight grows short and the rude wind’s wild lament groans around the corners of our lives, we remember with some nostalgia how we think Home used to be… Our Christmas cards picture trees being brought Home to a well-lit house, often by horse-drawn sleigh. Flannel-robed children, dogs & cats by the blazing hearth, all speak to our wishes of Home. “Home,” (said who, Robert Frost?) “is where they have to take you in.” So welcome to the never-land of how we wish things were. Scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend may speak to the jaded and disappointed, even to those whose noses are pressed to the window-pane.

King David sat back in his padded throne, kicked his sandals off, and breathed a sigh of belonging (I Samuel 7:1-11). “y’know”, said David to his right-hand prophet Nathan, “I live in a better house than YHWH does. I think I’ll build God a house.” But that night God said to Nathan that He’s doing fine–but don’t forget that I the Lord took you (David) from a shepherd to a warrior to a king, “and I have been with you wherever you went”. And there’s a verse added: “YOUR HOUSE and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” David’s House is his dynasty, his heritage. Is that what we hope for when we “go home for Christmas”?

The Epistle seems to be full of benedictions, lately. Romans 16:25-37 is another one–“to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever.” Its purpose on this Fourth Sunday of Advent, is to notice the transcendent presence of God even in the middle of holiday stress, political despair and economic insecurity. It is a response to the startling interventions of the Holy within our vale of secularity. The coming of Christ is news that breaks human-made boundaries and barriers, and sets the world back to innocence and the Voice of God calling in the Garden.

The Gospel, Luke 1:26-38, is the Story of the Annunciation: the angel Gabri-el comes to teen-aged Mary and makes amazing promises about the baby she shall have. “How can this be?” said she. And the answer comes to all of us, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” But don’t forget Joseph, the guy played by the tall kid in the oversize bathrobe in the Christmas pageant! Joseph is in the story for credentials: after all, he IS of the House of David. Even though the turning of the years has blunted the history of that House, we still remember with nostalgia the perfectness of those wondrous days. And now this House is to rise again! O, do we hope for relief from occupation, from taxes, from the secularity we bemoan all around us… Will God break into our lives again?

“Advent is a season of hopeful anticipation, but it begins with the acknowledgement of human despair….We prepare again to welcome the Prince of Peace amid a world filled with war, terrorism, poverty, disease and natural disasters.”–Cathy F. Young writes in FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:90. Even so, I and my house wish you a blessed Christmas!

In the process of unfolding, 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

And brother, do we need it! W. C. Turner, writing in FEASTING on the WORD, say that “Advent is a time for the tongue to be loosed and the mercies of God proclaimed”. (B 1:67) We feel more ‘n’ more like the Voice in the Wilderness speaking Truth to Power and pointing out a need to turn it around amid the commercial and bluster of “the Season”. Scripture passages this Third Sunday of New Beginning remind the pew-sitters and the COVID-struck that God is acting to renew Creation despite the craziness. “Joy is based in God–not in what’s happening around you.” (Valerie Bridgeman’s mother, page 49 of December’s SOJOURNERS)

Isaiah has written wonderful words of comfort to the Faith-Community (61:1-4,8-11). But more than comfort for the afflicted, they proclaim mercy for all and serve as reminders that God has not forgotten them. They fell on ears which were used to the power of money and the shiftiness of Those In Charge. “Along the backdrop off war, injustice, poverty and greed, the word of the prophet taunts a nation that has grown rich in things but poor in soul.” (Cynthia A. Jarvis, FEASTING…op.cit. 52) “The Year of the Lord’s Favor” hearkens back to the supposed Jubilee year when the slaves are freed, and each part of the economy returns to base-line. God is One who can build up ancient ruins–even your life–and repair the thoroughly devastated cities. “So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”

Even though the Epistle reading is brief–I Thessalonians 5:16-24–don’t overlook it. This benediction sums up the Christian stance in and against the prevailing ethic: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…” Paul attributes being made holy to the workings of God: “the one who calls you is faithful, and [God] will do this.” Advent challenges us to recognize the Spirit as it moves through the surrounding culture.

The Gospel, John 1:6-8, 19-28, is the account of one John who was called to prepare the way of the Lord: not the Messiah, not Elijah, not a prophet, his only stated credentials are as the Voice shouting out in the wilderness. Is this not the role of the Church in Advent? To shout out that the Lord is at hand even in the bright lights of rockin’ Christmas trees, even above the ching-ching of registers at Walmart? The question of the year, each year, is how much we can demonstrate a radical trust that God IS at hand despite our quest to do it ourselves…

Tired of COVID masks, tired of quarantine, I admit to a great deal of personal revelry in the brightness of the hoped-for Christmas, this year. So I’m glad for these words which call me beyond the glitter to again pick up the Voice of justice and holy living! I pray that each of us might tell the Stranger, the Homeless and the Hungry that God continues to love them…and back up our message by prayerfully welcoming and feeding those who’ve fallen through the cracks. AND I pray for courage to confront The System with a reminder that God needs its affluence to pave the wilderness road.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

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