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Most days I say with the helpless, “The Ocean is wide, and my boat is so small…!” It’s a daunting challenge to be prophetic: to speak truth to power, to address the idols. Scripture to be read this weekend is meant to assure the timid and to demonstrate God’s undying hopefulness in even the smallest and self-admitted little ones rising to a point of speaking the Kingdom of Righteousness.

This call of JEREMIAH ( 1:4-10) gives us some insight as to how God’s Word grabs us, ready or not. Young Jeremiah danced around a lot, giving reason (“Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy”) for avoiding this call. “Nonsense,” says God, “don’t be afraid.” But calls from God ARE scary: “You want me to WHAT?” We do not choose God, rather God chooses us, usually involuntary and beyond our skill-level. The phrase, “nations and kingdoms” goes beyond the tribal worship of the Hebrews–which may have been uncomfortable. George H. Martin reminds us that “no matter how far we may go from the call of God, no matter how many reasonable excuses we may offer, God is there watching out for us and even giving us words to say.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:294)

I CORINTHIANS 13 is a cute text for weddings, but it really doesn’t have anything to do with eros! The Hebrews have a word for it, HESED; this steadfast love of God is always in effect despite our proclivity to run after the imperfect and the perishable. Paul is asking this diverse congregation, “Is this how you live? Do you value your neighbor as loved by God?” We don’t create love, we can only receive it… Old and young together are called to announce a more perfect way.

LUKE 4:22-30 continues what we began last week, where Jesus visits his hometown synagogue and all the folks marvel at his wisdom and grace. He shoulda stopped there; but God never lets things rest. When we say, “Don’t go there!”, God always does! Jesus reminded the self-righteous that there were others outside the tribe that God helps. They didn’t like that, and were going to throw him off the cliff; but God wasn’t done with him/them yet. Jesus had challenged the pre-conceived idol of “We’re In, They’re Out.” Moreover, he had announced a God for everyone, no matter how negligible they feel.

So don’t be afraid! God doesn’t care whether the Prophet is too young, too old, too tired, too unlike those around her. “Beyond the box” is where vaccines, symphonies and computer chips come from. “Beyond the Box” is where God is leading. You’ll be sustained and comforted: don’t be afraid!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

I invite you to be struck by God’s presence as we look at scriptures to be read on the upcoming weekend. Join me every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com

Is it just me, or are all the folks around me feeling despair? We’re in the midst of this tiresome pandemic that seems to have no end. Lawmakers are jousting over voting rights, an issue that I thought was resolved long ago. There are hungry people and homeless. Our tax-money is spent on “defense”, which means intimidating other nations. Worshipers this weekend will join their forebears in yearning for a word of hope…and receiving biblical words to sustain and encourage, across the generations.

The Exiles in Babylon remembered their homeland and the grandeur of the Temple. Now they were given a chance to go home and luxuriate in its glories again! Not. Fortunately King Artaxerxes of Persia sent two good leaders, Ezra the priest and NEHEMIAH the governor, to oversee what turned into a reclamation project. We read from NEHEMIAH 8:1-10 about how Ezra gathered all the people into Watergate Square and read to them The Law, probably the Book of Deuteronomy. He hoped to re-gather the people into a community surrounding and nurtured by the Law of God; and it seems to have worked. Remorseful, these people wept and despaired of ever getting right with YHWH–but Ezra & Company told them that “this day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” The Law didn’t condemn them, rather it freed them in hope to be God’s chosen! No matter how unraveled their lives and land had become, here was a spot for a new beginning. A holy hope includes enjoying God’s extravagant gifts…

The reading from I CORINTHIANS is a long one: Paul is assuring a diverse congregation (12:12-31a) that each member has a special gift, which may differ from that of others but is just as important. Some had evidently been wounded by others who bragged about their “specialness”. Paul exhorts them to see that each has a unique place in the Church and that here can be found an authentic community formed around the ministries assigned by Jesus the Christ.

In LUKE 4:14-21, we read about Jesus’ homecoming at Nazareth, where he had grown up. He read from Isaiah about the Messiah being anointed to heal the broken–all well and good–but then he told them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled…” He HAD heard God’s voice affirming Jesus’ mission; he HAD come through a desert-experience of introspection and vocational understanding–so why wouldn’t he announce his role in “the acceptable year of the Lord.”? But do we walk in his footsteps, maintaining our own roles? Can we also speak good news to the poor and new beginnings for the wounded?

All of these words of life remind us that the time is now–today–to reject the selfishness and scramble which tears society apart, and remember that God’s Holy Spirit gives us the means and presence to change the world. Take up the challenge?

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please join me every Tuesday in exploring the scriptural lessons to be read on the upcoming weekend: at horacebrownking.com

My wife, the farmer’s daughter, tells us not to name anything we’re later gonna eat. Quite right; when a name is bestowed on an animal, human or even an antique car, these things acquire a personality all of their own. Were tropical storms as capricious before they got names? Did your grade-school friends develop feelings once we discovered their names? All world-cultures seem to have important rituals when a name is given. Newborn infants and pets quickly learn to respond when their name is called. Scripture read on the upcoming weekend deals with how we see ourselves and how we are seen when we trade our watery existence for a name that defines us and affirms our deep-down identity.

ISAIAH 62:1-5 is from a collection of oracles (“Third Isaiah”) given to bolster the returned exiles from Babylon who were dolefully starting from Square One. Things hadn’t been going well, yet “the nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory; And you shall be called by a NEW NAME that the mouth of the Lord will give.” No longer would the land be desolate, but prosper in an ongoing commitment wedded to YHWH. Someone knows how we feel: hopeful, yet forsaken. The news for today is that God still acts this way, calling us “saints” instead of the “sinners” we once were… “For the Lord delights in you.”

Paul’s First Letter to the CORINTHIANS reminds that diverse congregation that God has named them all together. And even though they’re culturally diverse, so are their spiritual gifts–all to be used for the uplifting of the entire community. Here, not only is each believer endowed/named with a viable role in God’s Kingdom, but Jesus HIMSELF manifests a holy name–the Lord–as cemented by the Holy Spirit. This list of talents completes the work of the Church as it is named the pivot-point of the locale in which it is found.

The Wedding in Cana (JOHN 2:1-11) is a story told both inside and outside the church. Bottom line: the allegory is that those who hang out with Jesus will have their lives revealed as sparkly wine rather than just tap-water. In this “sign”, God names Jesus as the one who will make good things happen. The volume is important: as elsewhere in John, God works in hyperbole; that is, God’s extravagance provides for not only momentary needs, but has enough “left over” to address the ongoing thirst of the nations… Our news-outlets name the thirst–pollution, violence, injustice–but GOD names the agents of relief. “Life in this world, with its painful limitations, has been unpredictably invaded by grace.” (Ernest Hess, FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:265)

As returned Exiles, as thirsty party guests, as a rag-tag collection of disciples in the early church, we’re urged to trust that God’s (still) in charge. Our names have been changed to reflect who we are/have become in God’s land: we have been called “important” and “necessary” in the development of the Righteous Kingdom.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

My meeting with Biblical lessons heard in congregations on the upcoming weekend may be enjoined every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com

Watermarks are included on a document to confirm its viability: on checks, for instance, or better stationery. Postage stamps often have watermarks that can be seen on their backs. Collectors use these to help identify the stamps they have before them. A watermark assures that the stamp is genuine and has accomplished that job for which it was created. Worshipers this weekend will be reminded of the time and occasion of their own watermarking, and will hear yet again how each person has been lovingly marked by God no matter what!

ISAIAH 43:1-7 was probably addressed to the recent exiles from Jerusalem to Babylon, mourning the loss of their homeland and their Temple, the supposedly indestructible symbol of their indestructible faith. God is telling them not to be afraid, not to give up, for God has called their names: even “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you…” Israel/Judah is a rocky & arid land, with little contact with the sea. The Hebrew people were desert wanderers, and distrusted bodies of water–they rejoiced when Moses got them through the sea which speedily drowned their pursuers; Jonah began his adventure with a turbulent and threatening sea; and of course, Noah was lifted above the destroying flood in a divinely-designed ark. The remembrance of these formative stories gave the exiles strength when they were drowned in trouble…

A small reading, ACTS 8:14-17 is yet important as a watershed between Christianity as a Jewish sect and the world-religion which Jesus evidently intended. Those awful Samaritans had responded to the preaching of Philip and had been baptized! So Peter and John, bulwarks of the jealous Jerusalem congregation, went to check ’em out. Peter & John continued the work in Samaria because the Samaritans appeared more palatable, once watermarked by the Sign of God.

The Gospel account is read from the writings of LUKE, 3:15-17,21-22–the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptizer in the Jordan. This is significant for us, as it reminds us that the Lord was content to stand in line with the other sinners, a place he continues to hold through the ages. God spoke words of assurance to him through the descent of the Spirit like a dove…did everyone baptized hear such a claim, to be a child of God in God’s good pleasure?

We understand Baptism to be a sacrament, a Means of God’s Grace. In our baptism, we are marked as a Child of God, which gives God much pleasure. At the conclusion of a public baptism, the officiant often splashes the congregation with the baptismal water, saying “Remember that YOU are baptized–Rejoice”!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

My blog comes to you every Tuesday in hopes that you’ll be prepared to hear the scriptural journey taken each weekend. Read about it at horacebrownking.com