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According to Abraham Heschel (“The Pious Man”, from MAN IS NOT ALONE), piety is living at the point of God’s presence. He says that the pious one is one who recognizes that God is constantly breaking into ordinary human circumstances. Scriptures to be read on the upcoming weekend describe some of these meeting points as a reminder to those in the pew who have lost or mislaid their understanding of life within God’s purview.

ACTS of the Apostles 16:16-34 tells two stories about freedom. The first tells of the slave-girl whom Paul frees from the demon of soothsaying; the second is about Paul & Silas & the Phillippian jailer. We note that neither freedom was the result of special actions, but rather depended upon God’s initiative. By the power of Christ, duty was turned into health and renewal of living as it should be. What duty holds us captive?

The concluding several verses of the REVELATION to St.John of Patmos, 22:12 onward, lift up the Presence of the Son in the Eternal City. The waiting is now done and the Eternal Heaven is here. God has broken into history and “anyone who wishes to take the water of life” is free to do so. The invitation is clearly into Holiness for the enslaved and the pious both. “Washing of the robes” is a command to make clean and sparkling even that which is faded and tawdry.

The Gospel–JOHN 17:20-26–continues the High Priestly prayer of Jesus at table in the Upper Room. He prays for his followers (including us) that they/we may be One with the Father. This One-ness indicates that there is no hierarchy among the Believers, for God continues to break into all of our human circumstances when we least expect it.

The experience of Christ changes our lives: as we look back, we recognize the constant inbreaking of Heavenly Love with situations which would otherwise seem impossible. Our dead-ends yield to a thoroughfare well-travelled by those who’ve gone before. Come quickly, Lord Jesus….

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

A few have come every Tuesday to meet with scripture lessons reserved for the upcoming weekend by the Revised Standard Lectionary; at horacebrownking.com

Readings for this Week before Pentecost are about the coming Kingdom designed by God. They include stories that we’ve known, and bow to the Spiritual Visions which were and are today rampant. Perhaps God’s Spirit is seeking YOU to explore territories which are new but not-so-new! Read on, and find where God’s Spirit is calling each of us…

St. Paul & Co. have been working the mission field in Asia Minor, what’s now Turkii. And Paul has a vision of a “man of Macedonia” (he could tell by the costume?) calling out an invitation. (ACTS 16:9-15) So they went right away, and spent some time in Phillippi, the capital of Macedonia. On the sabbath they found Lydia and some other women (!) ready to hear about Jesus; she found the God who was finding her and opened her home to be the disciples’ base of operations. This is the convergence of Divine Initiative and human obedience: the story reminds us that God sets up such discernment.

REVELATION 21:10 tells of the New Jerusalem spilling out of heaven upon the Earth, a second Incarnation. (“Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him”–Christina Rossetti) And we continue in verses 22 through 22:5 to hear about how this City “looks”. (Notice that there’re no Pearly Gates!) “The revealing light of God illuminates every corner and every closet. There is no longer a place for pretense or deception.” (Paul Johnson, FEASTING on the WORD, C 2:488) The Empire–Rome? Babylon? America?–is but transitory; this City shall last forever. How do you envision it??

Jesus’ Farewell Discourse at the Last Supper detailed so well by JOHN (14:23-29) tells of Jesus’ interpretation of what this final kingdom will look like. Not the Age of Aquarius, it DOES fill with Peace and Love. This vision announces that even if Jesus is “gone” from them, he himself will be there to steer them into a new/lasting community. Here is the crafting of a “home” for this community, now that the Temple is ruined and other capitals lost.

There’re few opportunities for the Visionary in today’s system. Our prophecies seem irrational, and only TV commercials show us what’s necessary for successful living. Yet the challenge is out there: if we but follow the Spirit of God’s leading, others with vision will join us. Dark days for the Church are all about us, but we’re instructed to persevere in our visionary journey.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come every Tuesday with your friends to be confronted by scriptures from the Revised Common Lectionary which will be heard on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com

The quickest way to wreck almost everything is to say who’s In and who’s Out. This is true of the Christian Church, as well: too many wars have been fought (some of them local) over belonging to the movement. The stories to be told on the upcoming weekend give us some idea about how to include those who’re thought to be different than us. I believe that as we’re met by the Risen Christ that we need to pay attention to NOT excluding those not quite like us.

The reading from the Book of ACTS of the Apostles, 11:1-18, retells the story of Peter’s vision on the roof prayer-area in Joppa. He’s been called to account by the Church leaders for visiting with and speaking to those awful Gentiles, and he tells them of God’s encounter with him. Although these men of Cornelius’ home in Caesarea, near Joppa, were not of the Jewish tradition, Peter recognized God’s Spirit working within them. “Who was I, that I could hinder God?” It’s to the credit of the Church leaders that they then acknowledged these Gentiles and included them at the table.

We need to remember that John of Patmos was writing the REVELATION to bolster his faith-community as they cringed from the ongoing persecution. So to ensure that they weren’t guilty of the same kind of exclusion, he wrote in 21:1-6 that the ultimate home of God is with the mortals God created: “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more…” We have yet to find out how God deals with non-followers–but that’s not our problem: God is present at our birth, at our beginnings AND at our “death”, at the fulfillment of time.

The Gospel lesson is provided by JOHN the Evangelist, 13:31-35. Here at the Last Supper Jesus reminds his friends about the “new” commandment to love each other. Not just this inner circle, but ALL who’ve been created! Perhaps this reading is indicative of how the early Church struggled to accept the unlovely and the awkward. Certainly the Church of today wrestles with the same problem: how can we give a place to the late-comer, the unwashed, the ones not like us?

Who’s watching? Will they know we are Christians by our love? Is there something remarkable about our attitudes of inclusion? A poet has written that “home is the place where they’ve gotta take you in.” Will our Church become Home to the wanderer not far away?

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come join us every Tuesday as we’re confronted by the texts the Common Revised Lectionary suggests for worship on the upcoming weekend.