Bloom Where You’re Planted

Last night Marie dropped me off at Barnes & Noble while she went grocery shopping. (Believe me, it’s better that way.) While I strolled around looking at things, I ran across the “Fantasy” section–shelf after shelf after shelf of stories about dragons, witches and voices from the Past. Maybe it’s because Hallowe’en is soon upon us… Or maybe it’s a general phenomenon of bored Americans looking for less-explored lands? Lots of us would like to be Somewhere Else. Lessons to be read on the upcoming weekend urge hearers to be alive where they are.

The backstory to JEREMIAH 29: 1, 4-7 is that the citadel of Jerusalem has fallen to the Babylonians, and almost all of the people have been deported. So Jeremiah wrote them a letter in which he told the Exiles not to waste time & energy bemoaning their fate, but rather “build houses, plant gardens…take wives and have sons & daughters….But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in ITS welfare you will find YOUR welfare.” The Psalmist wrote (137:4), “How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” Jeremiah’s rebuttal, “Just DO it!” Stop moping around and get on with it!

St. Paul (??) also told his associate TIMOTHY to get on with it (2:8-15). The younger fellow showed some honest anxiety about his Christian ministry and evidently had mentioned that he felt uncertain about getting involved for the whole nine yards. Paul speaks of his own imprisonment for standing up against the current, but reminds Timothy/us that “the word of God is not chained”. Timothy has been chosen to bear the gospel to others, “a worker who has no need to be ashamed”.

LUKE alone has the story of the 10 Lepers 17:11-19). This group of outcasts approached Jesus in the no-man’s land “between Samaria and Israel” seeking healing. (How did they know about him?) Says here that they were healed “as they went”. Went to be pronounced Whole, to resume their daily lives, to rejoin their families. One not steeped in Judaism returned to thank Jesus: “Where are the other nine?” (Old seminary joke says that “those ingrates moved to my parish, and their descendants live there to this day!”) Evidently God’s power and mercy extend to ALL, whatever their tribe calls themselves…

No one said that life is fair. Sometimes life gives us lemons. So while we’re searching for the juicer to make lemonade, we stay alive in God’s Wholeness/Holiness, aware that “There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me”. Hey, I’m not dead yet!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please join me every Tuesday as we’re confronted by Scripture texts to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend: at horacebrownking.com