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Silver! Gold! Sparkly stuff! People enjoy adorning themselves with finery, and identifying with the specialness to which it points. Sports stars wear fancy necklaces, and their fans try to duplicate them. The “beautiful people” on TV all seem to wear a lot of bling. It’s a common feature to get dressed up when something special is happening. Not to be bested, scriptural passages to be read on the upcoming weekend call believers to affirm this specialness.

Third ISAIAH offers a “psalm” of praise in behalf of the returned Exiles, vv.61:10-62:3. Their robes and garlands and jewels are those of righteousness and salvation, “the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.” Christmas has reminded us that God really does care about us; we shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. This “new name” indicates a change, a growth pattern. Even the Grinch has discovered the spirit of Christmas!

GALATIANS 4:4-7 retells the Nativity story in a nutshell: God sent his Son, familiar with the Jewish law, that we would receive adoption as God’s own children. Thomas R. Steagald contends that “this filial devotion, an act of radical freedom, exalts strangers and orphans and slaves to the status of family members.” (FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:161) Thus all have put on the royal robes of the Crown Prince, with all the duties and privileges thereunto pertaining.

And so there come to us Simeon and Anna, pillars of the Jerusalem Temple, found only in LUKE 2:22-40. These two somehow “got it” that Jesus was a special baby, the perceived Messiah and the source of salvation. It says nothing here about putting on gold & silver or sparkly stuff; but their lives were fulfilled and they glittered with continued awareness. Not only did Anna glow with the Spirit, but she “began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem”. 

From Germany, we receive the invitation to “Deck Thyself, My Soul with Gladness, Leave the Gloomy Haunts of Sadness.” As you don your gay apparel, sing lustily the ancient news that God has given the Very Best in order that Eternity may be seen and entered.

In the process of unfolding,   Horace Brown King

Note Well–I’ll still continue to write my blog about upcoming scriptural lessons every Tuesday; but you will have to access these only at my website, horacebrownking.com

On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, readings emphasize the power of God to take the unknown and make it last forever. Here are two stories about God’s taking the “meek and lowly” to change the world and redeem Creation. The Reformers would say, “Man Proposes, God Disposes”. Amidst all the tinsel and glitter has come a next-to-impossible opportunity to think about the task at hand, namely proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor through our attitudes of equality and charity. When Santa Claws, it’s Time to Pause!

II SAMUEL 7:1-11 tells about David’s proposal to build God a fancy house–and about how YHWH zilched the plan. Was David trying to curry favor with God and the People? Was he trying to tell God what to do? At any rate, YHWH told David through Nathan that there was no need for that, that God was perfectly happy in his tent. But look! God reminded David that he was taken from the youngest son/sheep tender to the throne of Israel! ”I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you.” What have we assumed about pleasing God? And have our earthly desires stood in the way of God’s going ahead of the People? Have we confused our mortal dreams with God’s purposes?

ROMANS 16:25-27 is Paul’s benediction to those congregations. After all the deep theology, after all the advice and encouragement, he speaks of exaltation to the distrusted Gentiles. ”…the Gospel news of the God of the Jews offering salvation to all was boundary breaking, world shattering, and world renewing.” (Sally A. Brown, FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:89) The coming of God announces God’s care for the least of the poor and disabled.

This brings us to the Annunciation of Jesus’ conception, LUKE 1:26-38. Mary, a young peasant girl, was sitting there minding her own business when suddenly this angel appeared next to her! ”Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you!” !?!? Out of nowhere, Mary’s told that she’s gonna be pregnant with the One to Redeem Creation–despite her youth and rustic background, despite the fact that she hasn’t copulated. Her life was gonna be changed, no matter what our human intentions could be. ”Nothing will be impossible with God.” 

Advent, then, is a season when we can affirm that God is on the move. Dare we proclaim that God cares enough to break into our maelstrom? Knowing that David and Mary and many others have been set in important places reinforces our belief that we also have been singled out for a job provisioning the Kingdom.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King   –who wishes you a Christmas of joy and peace

Join us every Tuesday to be confronted by scriptures to be read on the upcoming weekend: at horacebrownking.com

This week’s readings take us from the individual preparation for the Christ Child into the promised community of believers who are entrusted to Change the World. Most of us are sitting here enduring the fusty sermon while thinking of the best places to get window candles and candy canes. We bemoan current events but don’t think about how we can change things. By ourselves, we can’t. But when we see ourselves as members of a Great Movement, the Church of Jesus, we have nothing to restrain us but restraint itself.

Please remember that the Third ISAIAH is aimed at just such a community, that of the returned Exiles from Babylon who yearned for the Good Old Days. In Chapter 61:1-4, 8-11 he speaks often of “they”, meaning the People of the Vision: “They shall build up the ancient ruins…they shall repair the ruined cities…all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.” One by one, they have no real strength to accomplish these things; but with their neighbors…!

The final words of St. Paul in the FIRST LETTER to the THESSALONIANS are sent to the congregation(s) there working as a minority to influence the system. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…” Not words for individuals who go into their private quarters for meditation, but instructions as to the public perception of the collected Believers. Advent is a time to know who we are as a congregation. “Advent is a time for the tongue to be loosed and the mercies of God proclaimed.” (W.C.Turner, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:67)

The prologue to the Gospel of JOHN includes references to John the Baptizer, whose strangeness attracted large crowds, many of whom were baptized in the River Jordan. “He came as a witness to testify to the light”, although he himself was not that light. And when the Holy Ones asked him who he was, he humbly acknowledged his own humanity by rejecting their myth and affirming only that he was the Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness. I suppose that had he admitted to these things, he coulda claimed his fifteen minutes of fame–but he didn’t. John the Baptizer points to the One who WAS Messiah and prophet–and calls the Church to do likewise.

So Advent is the season when the story is shouted out in the wilderness of me-first, fraud and posturing. The message of the failed world cultures is that we can do little good by ourselves; there’s always another devil waiting in the wings. These words tear into our benign assumptions, and the tinsel-covered wish they would go away. But God doesn’t, and these are our reminders to know and accept God’s work.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

My thoughts about the scripture to be heard on the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com