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Our society is addicted to staying within the lines. Remember how your mother told you “Don’t color outside the lines”? No Trespassing. No skateboarding on ramp. Run in your lane. One Way Only. Scriptural texts to be shared this upcoming weekend remind the hearers that they have a unique relationship with Christ–we all do–and that segregating lines are to be overcome by God’s presence.

ACTS 10:44-48 should be read by someone who can share the backstory: Peter was in prayer on the roof of one Simon the Tanner (a TANNER, how low can you go?) when all the animals of Creation were presented to him. Peter, a good Jew, classified them as “clean” & “unclean”. God said, “Wait a minute! How can you call something that I proudly made UNclean??” Just then, two men came to urge Peter to visit Cornelius, an army commander. Softened by this vision, Peter went to see the Gentile Cornelius–a sin to the faithful and segregated Jews, where he presented the gospel of Christ. The Holy Spirit again took over, affirming that God does not red-line God’s World. I guess ALL means ALL. Note well–neither Peter nor Cornelius were able to cross the boundaries without Divine Intervention.

The FIRST LETTER of JOHN includes the word EVERYONE (5:1-6). Twice. And later, “whatever is born of God conquers the world.” We don’t know what conflicts John’s community had, but these are inclusive words. How we elites need to hear them! I suspect that this passage is not only for the ancient peoples of Asia Minor, but includes the street people of Today–you know, the ragged guy begging for food money, the woman who doesn’t smell so good, the kids who look as though they’ve not been washed or dressed… The ones we drive by, and say “Thank God, I’m not like that”.

The Gospel reading continues the long soliloquy of Jesus to his friends at the Last Supper, JOHN 15:9-17. Jesus’ friends were to think of themselves as more than slaves, expected to do the dirty work. We’ve been recruited to form a community, to banish Self and to stick by him through thick and thin. How do we flesh out this relationship with Christ? What borders shall we cross??

At a congregation I served Long Ago, a vacancy came up on a significant committee: the saint who had served there passed on. I suggested a name of a person I thought would be great–but alas! the others hemmed & hawed ’til one brave fella spoke up: “The problem, Reverend, is that ___just isn’t our kind.” Are the pews empty and the committees shackled because we’re fanatic about staying within the lines?

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Every Tuesday I welcome your company as we’re confronted by the Scriptures to be read on the upcoming weekend. Come along at horacebrownking.com–OR share these blogs with your friends.

Interesting how we say who we are. When two or more guys get together, sooner or later they’ll identify themselves by saying what they do: I’ve always said “I’m a United Methodist minister”, and chuckled as the listeners find different excuses to move away… Church pews are “full” of people who depend upon their surroundings for their identities. Scriptures to be read this weekend speak to those whose purpose for life has waned, encouraging one and all to be identified as Christ-bearers.

A professor once remarked to the class I attended that the book of ACTS was like a pebble dropped into a puddle: the resultant ripples spread until they touched the shore. So we can see that this story–one of my favorites–about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26-40) takes the Good News out from Jerusalem to include all the people. (Including me & you) The eunuch could hardly believe that God could love even him! Firstly, he was an official of a foreign power, the Candace of Ethiopia, and an Ethiopian himself; and secondly, he’d been castrated early on to remove any temptation of pilfering royal funds. Cast out from the Jews, who wanted only perfect men; and shunned by the royal court, he had pretty low self-esteem. But here’s a word that Jesus loves him just as he is! “Another man who felt lost and humiliated was found and restored in the wideness of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.” (Thomas G. Long, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:458)

I JOHN 4:7-21 urges each one and the community of Christ itself to “love one another”. It doesn’t say to just love God, but urges us to love all that God has created. Wm. Sloan Coffin reminds us that “it is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved we have value.” (THE COURAGE OF LOVE, p.11) This smacks me a good one because I often look through the street-person asking for cash for food, or the guy in the wheel-scooter who hangs out near the Post Office, or you whose job has been terminated. My prayers for my children and grandchildren are that they may find their value and self-worth through those who are around them…

This brings us to the gospel of JOHN, which includes a very meaty exhortation to his friends at the Last Supper. Verses 15:1-8 speak of this love which God has in the metaphor of the Vine and its Branches–that nutrients and other goodness come from the Created Earth through the conduit of Jesus into each leaflet of the Greater Vine. The Vine could be decorative, yet the Gardener expects to harvest good grapes. “Abiding” (used here eight times!) means staying the course, enjoying the reliability of God’s steadfast love. Here is the heart’s true home, a sanctuary from the diddly stuff that grinds us down.

It’s not easy to be part of the Vine of Christ. Pruning does happen, but it makes for better growth. And when the grapes yield their goodness, when the foreign hopeful one is accepted, when the community of Christ throws wide its doors for the disenchanted and the welcome to All is extended–THEN we can know who we are and all Creation can sing, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love!”

So now that you’ve met the Risen Lord on Easter–now what? Will your attitude be expanded to include those around you, especially the disenfranchised and the homeless searchers in the night? Scripture lessons to be read and heard on this Fourth Week of Easter call us (the religious establishment!?) to open our hearts even further to greet the unlikely bearers of the image of God.

We begin by hearing the upshot of the story in ACTS 4 about Peter & John, the Do-er and the Be-er, who have just figured in healing a lame man by invoking the Name of Jesus. Enraged that they’ve helped in healing without a Temple license, the authorities imprisoned them and dragged them before a large council in the morning. “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Peter’s rebuttal was filled with the Holy Spirit, breaking down the System of state religion. The Disciples do not stand alone when questioned. Their heirs–we ourselves–don’t either.

We’re then challenged by I JOHN 3:16-24, exhorted to stand up for the unjustly treated and those whose relationships have hit rock bottom. “Let us love, not in word or speech [only], but in truth and action.” Love is a response to the evils ignored by the System in all ages and places. The love commanded by Jesus is knowable, touchable, even inspiring terror in those daring to leave their comfort zone–unless, of course, we stand in the Spirit and in the Name of Jesus. Must Jesus bear the cross alone?

The Gospel continues to examine the poetic work of JOHN:11-18. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” This metaphor my be strange to us urban folks, but look at it as a description of how the Lord identifies with those on the fringes. The words speak of the intimacy developed between the trusted leader and those who will follow. The sheep and the shepherd have lived together and have been rescued often by steadfast love. “There are many voices out there vying for our attention. Many distractions lure us from the path….{but} the sheep feel secure just to hear the voice of the shepherd.” (Nancy R. Blakely, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:452)

So where does that leave us? Hopefully as trusting disciples, nibbling our way through the world, and speaking comfortably to those abused by the System. We don’t travel alone. The presence of the Christ shows itself in our exhortations towards cultural holiness (wholeness?); guided by God’s Holy Spirit, the path is before us.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

We continue to explore texts and lessons to be presented to us during worship on the upcoming weekend. Please join us each Tuesday at horacebrownking.com

“God’s healing and restoring work discloses another world, another reality, another sovereignty shimmering amid the wreckage of a dying culture.” (Thomas G. Long, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:410) Scriptures to be read and heard during worship this upcoming weekend continue to announce such newness of post-Easter Christianity. Our chief sin is Idolatry–in this case of ourselves, for we KNOW! Do we?

ACTS 3:12-19 happens just after God heals a lame man through Peter & John as they invoke the name of Christ. People naturally gathered around, giving Peter an audience for this somewhat blunt address. Peter here lays out his fellow Jews for their reluctance to accept Jesus, still giving them opportunity to turn life around and move into God’s Kingdom. He speaks from an entirely Jewish tradition, wondering why they didn’t recognize the Son of Moses as perceived by scripture. This Christ, long-awaited and eternally present, is the source of our safety.

In retrospect, we read I JOHN 3:1-7. The author is calling his community to actually believe that there is God’s righteousness; and that we can together be righteous in Christ! “We are God’s children now…” Thus we’re to affirm greater family relationships, treating all–even the downtrodden and the hopeless–as brothers and sisters. Not driving by the street-person asking for food money; not avoiding certain neighborhoods because the folks there have different skin than we do… “Made like Christ, in him we rise…”

The Gospel–LUKE 24:36b-49–is similar to last week’s: Jesus suddenly is perceived among his Disciples. There was an age in which the physical corpus of Jesus was probably more important than in 2024; yet it’s good to observe that our savior is more than a ghost. We note that Jesus was there “opening their minds” to understanding, just as he did with Clopas & companion at Emmaus. What could they/we believe? We remember that Original Man was molded from the “dust of the ground”, and that the Second Adam also did the whole nine yards of human experience. “Why are you frightened? Touch me and see that is really me!” Why then should we fear when Jesus appears?

We are children of the Enlightenment, we KNOW what is possible and probable. But here we’re called to “a rejection of totalistic systems of thought…that limit the vision of the future to the shape of what seems probable according to current conceptions”. (Steven A. Cooper, ibid., p 428) My vision needs to exceed the narrowness of my academic life and the wisdom of the streets.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come along every Tuesday to explore the lessons to be read & heard on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com

Alas, my chocolate bunny’s been eaten, beginning with the ears, of course. And the fake grass and old pysanki have been put away until next year. Did it matter? What Now, says the Church. Readings for this coming Sunday of Easter deal with how things have changed with the unfolding Kingdom of God, with the renewed power found among disciples both early and contemporary. Is there life after the re-discovery of God’s Christ? Have there been any changes in attitude or hope?

The first reading is not from the Old Testament, but from the Book of the ACTS of the Apostles, 4:32-35. George Bryant Wirth has identified two post-Easter themes: Unity in the midst of diversity; and generosity in the midst of poverty. How can these things be possible except by the visitation of the Holy Spirit? Do we now identify with all others, ALL others? Wirth quotes Solzhenitsyn, “The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.” While Christians should be exempt from sin, we continue to do so. BUT “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” Message for today: bring on the grace and revel in it!

The Epistle is read from I JOHN 1:1-10: the resurrection urges us to walk in the light. This author once published a workbook called “Light from Darkness: Preaching the Gospel of John.” In it we tried to lift up the active love displayed by God to all the world, recognizing the blackness of separation/sin, but affirming that Jesus keeps bringing Light strong enough to overcome such Dark. The world keeps stumbling on, and many will despair of the Easter message ever breaking through. George W. Stroup reminds us that good intentions often fall flat–and yet “Christians who live in communion with God need not deny that they are sinners, or pretend that shadows do not continue to fall across their journey to the light.” (FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:398) So “we declare to you the eternal life [beginning now] that was with the Father…”

The Gospel is that of JOHN 20:19-31, immediately following the Easter narrative. You probably know well the honest questions of Thomas, unfairly called “Doubting”. But this isn’t really HIS story, as much as it is of the remaining Disciples–and us today. You see, God comes to us where we are, locked doors and all! “It isn’t easy to live into the reality of Easter”, says Gail O’Day (ibid., 403) “Jesus comes again and again to those scared and confused disciples….The point is Jesus’ offer of himself, over and over again…” People empowered by this breathed Holy Spirit are equipped, even today, to bear news of God’s interaction to those still enjoying Darkness.

Many congregations within this benighted Church still hide behind locked doors, away from politics and poverty, away from militarism and racism. But the Christ appears among us, not allowing doors to hide us from Grace. His message for the world is that the Kingdom has come near us, even if we don’t see it; and that God continues to love us, wherever we are on the Journey.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please join us every Tuesday to be challenged by the lessons to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com