What’s the best part of going to Gramma’s house? What do you do almost as soon as you take off your coats? Why, you EAT, of course! Gramma always throws a big dinner, more than anyone could eat–and then asks you if you want ice cream with your mince pie! Here’s where you can tell the family stories in relative safety; and here’s where you can intersect with long lost relatives–your sisters and your cousins (“whom he reckons by the dozens”) and your aunts. Readings to be heard this weekend all deal with consuming food, or what it stands for… Bon appetite!
The short reading from PROVERBS 9:1-6 is in the voice of mature Wisdom, who is inviting those less-experienced in spiritual knowledge to eat at her table. “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity and live, and walk in the way of insight.” Just like Gramma’s table, this banquet is a matter of relationships and family stories. It’s a safe place to be who you are. Do I accept the mentoring of others who care about me–or am I squandering the opportunity for priceless knowledge? As my Mother’s family might say, “We get too soon old, and too late smart.”
The equally brief reading from EPHESIANS 5:15-20 urges the disciples to live in Wisdom and forgo foolishness. Our ethics evolve, from Levitical pronouncements about food & sex through Aunt Sophie’s pronouncements about cards & strong drink into a mirroring of a Christ-like life. Maybe. It’s safer to condemn specific “sins” and ignore greater evils such as racism & military might. Becoming “filled with the Spirit” is seen in a tendency to use time wisely as a gift, and to change the world with any overflow. The hearer is urged to feast on the eternal and to pass up that which is here today and gone tomorrow.
JOHN 6:51-58 talks about consuming Jesus by chomping on his flesh and drinking his blood–an anathema to the Jewish leaders and most of our acquaintances. Yet Jesus here maintains that there’s no eternal life for those who don’t! There seems to be a divide between those who feast on Jesus and the rest of the world: John writes to a world looking for some key, some knowledge about the True Inside. “Wise”men through the ages have studied the night sky; scholars have consulted aged and musty documents; spiritualists have engaged mediums to blink the lights and move tables…but Jesus has, in effect, personalized Wisdom in himself! Throughout the passage, he emphasizes “MY” flesh & blood as gifts given by grace and not by our own cunning or merit. We attain Wisdom only by letting the essence of Christ flow through our veins into every little capillary.
These lections could very well descend into a discussion of our traditions and styles of communion. But they’re not about Church Practice, they’re about exploring Divine Wisdom. The presenter’s task is to call those on the road to one more horizon towards the Land of Completeness.
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
My meeting with lessons assigned to the upcoming weekend can be enjoined every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com
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