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If it ever gets warm again, we’ll soon see the signs of what we’ve been anticipating for so long: garage sales! It’s good to foist off on your neighbors all the junque you’ve collected. (Why not? Your kids don’t want that stuff.) Lent is the season for downsizing, both your miscellany and your spiritual baggage that keeps you from traveling light with Jesus. Scripture passages heard on this upcoming weekend address our proclivity to hoard and our bondage to the Old and Predictable.

ISAIAH 43:16-21 is an exhortation to the Babylonian Exiles to let go of the Old and move toward the New. “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”, says YHWH. The New Thing, of course, was the restoration of Israel–first by making a direct road through the desert to the Promised Land; and second, by restoring the purity and righteousness of “the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise”. Centuries later, this People is STILL trying to escape the pleasurable snares of Babylon…

PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14 is often read as a polemic for the “Christian way” against the stifling laws of Judaism. So what have we done? Created lots of fine print and footnotes to stifle those who really want to believe but can’t find the righteousness (?) to come in from the cold! Anyway, what St. Paul is doing is reminding the Good People of Philippi and the ensuing Christian Church that it’s OK to discard old habits and old rituals on the way to Perfection. Bishop Kenneth Carter said in an old Circuit Rider (July/August 2003!) that “A vital church is always an adventure of sacrifice and grace, a journey into sacrifice, into weakness, that is also a pilgrimage into the grace of God.” Paul continues, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own…”

The Gospel is JOHN’s retelling of a story that appeared in a different setting in the Synoptics (12: 1-8). This narrative is set in the home of Lazarus, Martha & Mary in Bethany, on the eve of Palm Sunday. Lazarus had just recently tasted death & resurrection (chapter 11) and Jesus was about to taste both. At dinner, Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with a very expensive perfume, and wiped them with her hair. A sign of love? Sure! A sign of the New Thing coming? Why not?! Only the best for him who would turn the world upside-down with a demonstrable abundance.

Still the little people hoard their money and stuff. Still violence and treachery masquerade as diplomacy. Still the maxim we’re taught is, “Nice guys finish last”. Walter Brueggeman paints a picture, “We stand there pulled in both directions and sense the enormous ambiguity of our life, wishing to care and be generous but wanting also to be selfish and have it our own way.” (A WAY OTHER THAN OUR OWN, p.86) Lent invites us to identify what’s important–and to throw the rest away! It’s OK! God loves a clean house!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join me every Tuesday to be examined by scripture to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend: at horacebrownking.com

When I’m wearing my musician hat, I’m often handed music that has some passages which are pretty tricky–at least, for me. So I’m always glad when the conductor says, “Let’s try Letter ‘K’ again”; or, if not, then I may raise my hand and ask for another run at the offending passage. Sooner or later, I get it–or at least come close! Lessons to be heard on the upcoming weekend re-assure the hearer that God is a God of Second Chances–that it’s OK to screw up and try again. And again. And again.

JOSHUA 5:9-12 is a short passage, yet a watershed moment. The Israelites have arrived at the land of Canaan, and are desert wanderers no more. From this time on, the daily manna ceased, and they were able to eat locally. God has safely brought them across the Jordan and has instituted another chance for a new people renewed and tempered by the desert. These people are given a new identity, away from the horrors of the wilderness and the hopelessness of being Egyptian slaves. Contemporary arrivals at the Land of Plenty will do well to remember the brokenness of yesterday as they celebrate that which is before them as Children of God…

The words of St. Paul as expressed in II CORINTHIANS 5:16-21 are meaty with renewal and reconciliation. What jumped out at me was the phrase, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” “Passed away” doesn’t mean forgotten: we’re painfully aware of how we’ve missed the mark. BUT there’s hope! Hope for the wretched refuse of our surrounding community. Hope for ourselves, that we may see and be seen “differently”. A realized hope that God-in-Christ has already created a Kingdom of Renewal even within us!

LUKE’s Gospel remembrance (15:1-3, 11-32) is the familiar story of the Prodigal Son–or is it the Prodigious Father? All of us have in some way emulated the second son, wasting our resources on stuff that evaporates with tomorrow’s dawn. Can we ever go home again? YES, says the story! The Father has left the light on and the door unlocked, realizing that his wayward offspring will someday “come to himself” and shuffle brokenly home… As the song says, “There’s an empty chair at home sweet home when the world goes back on you…” God dreams of the wholeness of ALL the family, that we can function together in kindness and acceptance.

The task, then, for the Church is to tell the hurting and the hesitant that they’re important to God’s wholeness; to invite them in to the feast; to make sure that the absent know that they have a good robe waiting and the signet-ring of God. The visible kingdom isn’t perfect yet–but the Great Conductor pauses the music for a bit in order that the passage may be refined: “Once more, then, from the top!”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come join me at horacebrownking.com every Tuesday as we unpack the scripture to be read on the upcoming weekend.

There’s a lot of conversation lately about meaningful work. Many who were furloughed by the pandemic have found that their work schedules have been radically changed, often for the better. Some have found a new identity beyond What They Do. “What am I working for? Is this really important?” Scripture to be read during worship on the coming weekend expands our conversation about the value of Work–and the incomplete idea that our personal worth depends upon what we “do”.

ISAIAH of Babylon wrote to remind the returning “exiles” of both the nearness of YHWH and their need to prioritize God in their daily lives (55:1-9). “Why do you spend your money on that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” Many of these exiles have sold out to the comforts of Babylon and have glossed over the divine life set out for them long ago. The prophet says that we no longer need to shop at other markets: this one has all we need–and it’s FREE! The wicked ways spoken of are those which siphon our strength and our resources and claim our devotion to the singleness of YHWH.

Our foray into I CORINTHIANS 10:1-13 can be off-putting; but remember that Paul was trying to form a community from members of many different cultures and values. So he tells some of the Exodus story, dangling it as a common bond of ethics and belief. He’s calling these folks to center on a radical life-style, rather than co-existing with old-time tradition and superstitions. These are not so much obvious evils as they are creeping temptations. In a way this is idolatry: running after bling at the expense of justice and righteousness. Casey Thompson asks, “Can the church stand against such idolatry without lapsing into it?” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 2:88)

LUKE 13:1-9 portrays a very serious Jesus, on his way to Truth & Power in Jerusalem. His rhetorical observation, “unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did”, is addressed to those who are trying to have it all, those living the Good Life while giving only a portion to God. “Repent” means to turn life/ behavior around, to rethink a plan, to go another (better) way. Some of us fast for Lent by not eating cookies or candy bars. But Jesus is telling us that our goals and self-reliance are too shallow for the Kingdom of God.

Walter Brueggemann, in his fine book of Lenten devotions, “A Way Other Than Our Own”, opines that “the crisis in the U.S. church has almost nothing to do with being liberal or conservative; it has everything to do with giving up on the faith and discipline of our Christian baptism and settling for a common, generic U.S. identity that is part patriotism, part consumerism, part violence, and part affluence.”(p.3) Since it’s the Ides of March, I can justly add, “And you??”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Meet me at horacebrownking.com every Tuesday and together we’ll greet the Scripture Lessons assigned to be heard on the upcoming weekend…

Lent: a season between the bitterness of the Old Winter King and the balmy hope of Spring. A time to journey with Jesus toward the ultimate confrontation of power with truth. A time to understand the partial validity of the prevailing culture and to compare it with the eternal values of an alternative direction. Wesley is reported to have said that we are “a peculiar people.” Scriptures read this weekend will acknowledge our humanity even as we have been met by God.

We begin with an excursion into GENESIS 15:1-12, 17-18: Abram–no saint–is bemoaning to God his lack of descendants or family. “You have given me no offspring…” But God showed him the night-time sky, and assured him that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars! Impatient Abram is bogged down in the gloom of impossibility, yet YHWH calls him to hope in the completely unforeseen gift of ancestry. Sure. Right. But he DID have children. This text holds humanity and hope as part of who we are; we join Abram & Sarai in our own doubts and dependence.

Turning to the Epistle, we join Paul in his Letter to the PHILIPPIANS, 3:17-4:1. He contrasts the destructive life of the “enemies of the Cross of Christ”–their minds are set on earthly things–with those who live “according to the example you have in us”. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we are transformed into the body of Christ’s glory. (Does that mean that we don’t hafta pay taxes? Or are we refugees en route…) Paul acknowledges this spiritual battle, and volunteers himself to be a mentor to all we who struggle.

This leads us to LUKE 13:31-35, the story of “The Fox and the Lamb”. Herod Antipas was a sly sort of guy: he was allowed by the Romans to be “King” just as long as there was no trouble. Jesus WAS “trouble” for the nation and the Empire–so Herod plotted how to do him in. Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem was not merely a blind fatalism, but his trust in the ultimate goodness of God. There’s an immediacy to the Gospel which cannot be interrupted by fear of civil censure. The holiness of Jesus wished to demonstrate the desire of God to embrace and shelter all humans (even the reluctant ones) from the storms of misplaced authority.

Lent is an analogy, isn’t it? We recognize our imperfect behavior, yet resolve to become more Christ-like. Our uncomfortable stance is between hope and humanity: we know who we are, and we affirm who we can be. An analogy happened out my front window just this morning: a bleak and chilly wind blew dry leaves in all directions…and the First Robin of the year came bob-bob-bobbin’ around my neighbor’s hedge! And so, my beloved, stand firm in the Lord…

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please join me every Tuesday as we are met by Scriptures to be read on the upcoming weekend–at horacebrownking.com

Lent is upon us. It’s a holy season for looking again at our excess baggage. Yours may be different than mine, which would include pride, success in material things, arrogance, anger…. This is an especially designated time for housecleaning: we should be doing this all year, of course, but we need a holy nudge to examine our values–and to discard those things which are not of God! Readings for this First Sunday in Lent call us to confront our bad habits and to claim that which is Godly within us.

DEUTERONOMY 26:1-11 is the proscribed annual remembrance of how the ancestors were wandering in the wilderness, yet YHWH eventually led them to a fertile land. The enumeration of the First Fruit of harvest is an acknowledgment of human need for a Divine Presence, and also a confession that we can’t design our own Promised Land. “Then you…shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.”

The Letter to the ROMANS is Paul’s encouragement to the Citizens of the Empire to accept the Gospel–and also his laments about their slowness to do so. In 10:8b-13 we read that this Gospel is available to all the world when its people affirm it by 1) confessing that Jesus is Lord; and 2) believing in Jesus’ eternal life. Simple? NOT! To confess Jesus as Lord means to pledge full allegiance to his Kingdom by relinquishing other gods and values; f’rinstance vengeance, money or fame… I guess I’m meddlin’.

Jesus knew where to turn when he was tempted in the desert, according to LUKE 4:1-13. He had heard the Voice at his recent baptism and went to Where the Wild Things Are to work this through. Please notice that the tempting devil was internal, not Old Horns & Pitchfork of evil! Jesus was tempted to be Relevant by turning stones into bread and feeding the world’s hungry. (Nah, not enough) He was tempted to be an Enlightened Despot by showering beneficient rule to the world. (Who needs it?) And he was tempted to be Spectacular by jumping safely off the highest point in town. (But there are no supermarket tabloids yet…) [Thanks, Henri Nouwen] All of these partial successes were turned down because they would’ve stood between Jesus and God.

And us?? Are there values that sound pretty good but would inhibit a holy relationship? The really evil vices can be seen for what they are; but the powerful ones are the inner habits that indicate that we’ve sold our souls to the surrounding culture. Lord Jesus, give me strength to name you as the only God!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join me every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com as together we can examine the scripture to be read on the upcoming weekend.