I dunno about you, but I hate change. I’d like things to be just like they were when we were growing up: clocks had hands, phones had dials, and we had to restore the oil every 1000 miles. Who’m I kidding? I enjoy current medicines, indoor plumbing and the instant knowledge of Artificial Intelligence. Scripture passages heard on the upcoming weekend serve to acknowledge that nothing is permanent, and that God is continually refining and tweaking that which God daily calls Good.
I SAMUEL 1:4-20 tells of Hannah, Samuel’s mother, who wanted a child so badly that she pledged him to the Lord. One commentator, Malcolm Sinclair, suggests that the unseen player in the story is the Sanctuary at Shiloh. Shiloh’s gone, now. Even in Biblical times it vanished, yielding to other Holy Places. But for one brief shining moment , Shiloh was a place to sit quietly with God, to engage God in conversation, to face “the great gap of mystery”. Even though Shiloh is a ruin, we remember it as the territory of Eli & Samuel, and celebrate what God has done there.
The Author of HEBREWS 10:11-25 reminds us that even though places perish, Jesus Christ remains the same. The community can put behind it the adherence to Tradition–with all the guilt it brings–and joyfully take on the promises of a Living God. The Old has passed away, and the Unfinished has opened new days. Who will celebrate God’s Living Presence? Who will cling to the Old Fashioned, even if that means tethering ourself to stone blocks which will ensure that we drown without claiming the Future? Jesus has “perfected for all time those who are sanctified”.
The Gospel is that of St. MARK, 13:1-8. Jesus & Co. have entered Jerusalem and are gawking at the fine buildings. Jesus told them that “not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down”. And so it has been. Nothing is permanent. Change happens. Our old perceptions have been proven wrong: only God is trustworthy. BUT even as the Old way begins to fade with calamities, the New way waits at the door! Some of us will establish weird calendars to calculate the Day of Jesus’ reappearance; but God tells us to celebrate each day as if it were the Ultimate…
To what, then, shall we look forward? Is there New Life after the birth pangs of calamity and warfare? Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow waits to dawn. Change can be scary (to me, it is) yet we can affirm that the world systems are unfolding with us…What will this day bring??
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
Please join with us every Tuesday to unpack biblical lessons which are to be read on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com
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