Stronger Than Human Strength

Many years ago, a newlywed couple went shopping for Christmas decorations. In a big-box store they found an angel for the tree. She was the only one left, and the price was greatly reduced. Shop-worn, her rubber face was grimy & stained. Her green hair was an absolute mess. Did we buy her? You bet! For years & years she sat on our annual Yule tree, reminding all & sundry that there’s a place even for the Angel With a Dirty Face. Scriptures to be read this weekend bear out this allegory: we who are hopeful yet tarnished hear yet again a holy message of redemption, inviting us to God’s Kingdom even though we may have a dirty face…

We turn to MICAH 6:1-8 for a word from the Older Testament: the prophet contrasts the opulent gifts by which we try to buy God’s Presence to the real requirements–“to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.” The preacher could spend time exploring the brokenness of a failed rebuilding of the Promised Land; or talk about the current racial & economic injustice, the lack of compassion in neighborhoods and the unkindness of not trying to understand the pain behind mass shootings. Although this text springs from an ancient disappointment in a redeemed people, the contemporary need to hear is just as great. Is God still disappointed?

The Apostle Paul seems very concerned about the congregation(s?) he planted in Corinth. (I CORINTHIANS 1:18-31) These diverse people were reluctant to claim the cross of Christ as “foolishness”; yet “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength”. This passage calls folks from all backgrounds into a redeemed community. Here we can permit persons to express their faith despite phony barriers of money, birth or previous ills. “God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are.”

The Beatitudes of MATTHEW 5:1-12 are the beginnings of the Sermon on the Mount, a heavenly claim that there ARE alternatives to the business-as-usual of “me first”. We need to say loudly–again–that these blessings are NOT a laundry list of how to get to heaven, but they acknowledge that the bumper-sticker is right: “Stuff Happens”. And even when we’ve messed up again, God is there to pick us up, to dry our tears, and, yes, Bless Us! These Blessings remind us poor in spirit that God loves us anyway; what a gift to angels with dirt on their faces.

I’ve always liked Wm. Cowper’s hymn, which concludes, “”Though vine nor fig tree neither Their wonted fruit should bear, Though all the field should wither, nor flocks nor herds be there; Yet God the same abiding, [God’s] praise shall tune my voice, For while in [God] confiding, I cannot but rejoice.” !!

In the Process of Unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please join me each Tuesday as we explore scriptural lessons which are to be read during the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com