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Psychologists say that there can be no healing until you name the pain. Say where it hurts. Readings for the upcoming weekend give us both example and occasion for naming our pain–and then understanding that God is with us even when it hurts.

The prophet Jeremiah mourned over the city of Jerusalem/Zion as he began his LAMENTATIONS, 1:1-6. But the City was an analogy for the People who disregarded their God and thus reaped the rewards of their callousness. And God let it happen. PTSD was rampant among those formerly of Judah, now deported wherever and missing the Old Neighborhood. Can the preacher read between the lines and help those who are struggling to see even this calamity as part of God’s steadfast love?

What were the circumstances that caused Timothy’s mentor to urge him to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you”? We’ll never know. (II TIMOTHY 1:1-14) Maybe he was so busy administering the congregation that he lost sight of the Good News? It happens… “The question is”, says Lewis R. Donelson, “whether Timothy will remain faithful to his calling in spite of the suffering and shameful aspects of the Christian Life.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:135) Will YOU? It may not be easy.

LUKE 17:5-10 doesn’t really stand by itself. Jesus is on his way to the Crucifixion, and his Disciples ask for more faith. Jesus tells them that they can move big trees with the little faith they have. I like the Reformers’ idea that Faith is a response to Grace: it’s not something we DO, it’s something we ARE. The Disciples’ faith was increased as they saw the teachings of Jesus enfleshed in the responses of those around him. “Faith” goes beyond mere knowledge into the land of TRUST. What do you believe? Is God really for us?

“This is the Day that the Lord has made: he calls the hours his own. Let Heaven be glad, let earth rejoice: with Joy (faith?) surround God’s throne!”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join us each Tuesday as we explore and are confronted with Scriptures to be read on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.co

Wouldn’t it be nice to climb into our DeLorean and zoom into the Future? God would still be God; but our toys and shiny objects would’ve tarnished. Scriptures to be heard on this upcoming weekend are to encourage us to have hope: whatever battles may loom, we still claim that God is and will be in charge.

The prophet JEREMIAH was in trouble most of his life–he persisted in calling back the People of God into some sort of observable holiness. Not just mouthing the tradition, but actually holding out for Justice and Loving the Neighbor. Here in 32:1-15, the Babylonian forces were at the gates of Jerusalem and it looked as though Judah would be dissolved. Why in the world would he buy a field, using all the proper rituals, when disaster was so obvious? “Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” Note especially Baruch: he was to keep the story, to remind the new residents, the “new Israel”, that God was still in charge.

Paul’s FIRST LETTER TO TIMOTHY 6:6-19 concludes this epistle of hope in the same way it began: trust in God, don’t worry about (or covet) the toys that will depreciate. But how can I be content when TV ads show me shiny cars & trucks doing wheelies in the desert and beautiful people enjoying life after they dose themselves with snake oil? Wealth is not condemned, but Timothy and I are enjoined not to seek it for itself. Rather, we are to be fully engaged in following the way of Christ.

LUKE has been busy describing the travels of Jesus to Jerusalem, and the stories he tells to folks he met along the way. Here in 16:19-31 Jesus tells the story of a rich guy who never saw or recognized the desperately ill man right in front of him, “at his gate”. You know the story: the rich guy goes to hell (Jesus figured anyone rich much be on the take), while Lazarus (not Mary & Martha’s brother from Bethany) is taken to the bosom of Abraham, where all good Jews aim to go. Looks like Paul was right: the rich man’s money couldn’t buy him Life Eternal.

So how long will our visions of Hope last? HOPEfully some time after we get to the parking lot. The Future begins now! It’s not too late to re-prioritize our quest for The Good Life, and to claim our hope in God alone for the things we really need.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come join us each Tuesday as we explore–and are explored by–readings from the revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com

Now, if I can stop singing that song in my head–“I’ll Get By”, sung when I was a teenager by Brook Benton… But scriptures to be heard on the upcoming weekend bring it back so fluidly, reminding pew-sitters that humans tend to treasure what they have/will get over treasures “in heaven”. Turns out that our race has taken seriously the old maxim “Go Along to Get Along”. I mean, if everyone else is careless about their spiritual ethic, why should I be different from the crowd?

The Hebrew Bible reading comes from the Book of JEREMIAH, 8-18-9:!, where God weeps over the People who have turned away towards false idols: the Baal, Astarte; shiny cars & strong trucks, faster than sound jet fighters. How do we obey the rules yet live in the way of old, pleasing everyone? Even in Gilead, where healing balm is common, there is no health. The Temple has been rebuilt, the Law (Deuteronomy) has been re-discovered; yet the People of Israel Go Along with the crowd… Sharon Peebles Burch writes in FEASTING on the WORD (C 4:78), “Self-interest blinds people to the harm done to others….How does the Church teach people about the way God makes and keeps human life human?”

Paul, Timothy’s mentor, writes the Epistle lesson, I TIMOTHY 2:1-7. He urges intercessory prayers for EVERYONE, recognizing that God is interested in us wherever we are. We United Methodists are currently feeling the fallout from recognizing LGBT members as real people. Some congregations have left us because they don’t want to pray for those unlike the majority! But “All means All”, and we and Timothy embrace these brothers and sisters wherever they are…

The Gospel, LUKE 16:1-13 can be puzzling. Does Jesus really commend the cheating manager? I think he’s being sarcastic, for he concludes his story saying that “the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light”. He’s right: to get along with your friends, especially when you’re down and out, you have to cut some ethical corners. Is this “right”? Of course not; but it is the way of the world. Helen Montgomery deBevoise writes, “They had lost their vision of who God had called them to be. They had traded their call to be God’s People to become servant of the treasures of the present day. Controlled by wealth, by money, even complacency, they had blended into society and lost their vision.” (ibid.,96)

A god other than YHWH has claimed the People, then and now. We have the choice of giving In, of Going Along–or embracing the person of Jesus the Christ in thought, word and deed.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Scripture to be read on the upcoming weekend, according to the Revised Common Lectionary, confronts us every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com

The Hebrew/Aramaic word HESED is usually translated “steadfast love”. Scriptures expected to be heard on the upcoming weekend will speak about this steadfast love of God for all Creation. Hearers are reminded that God is still in charge, no matter where our wanderings may take us–and also that God will actually seek the lost and the misplaced, wonderful news! In all of it, we’re reminded that Gods Will prevails, no matter what….

JEREMIAH 4:22-28 bemoans the fallen and tawdry state of the world and its inhabitants: “For my people are foolish….They are skilled in doing evil, but do not know how to do good.” The Prophet pictures God giving up on the world: “Because of this the earth shall mourn…” His message is that God is always present, despite the rejection of The People. Not much has changed, has it, between Jeremiah’s day and our own?

St. Paul writes some letters to TIMOTHY, his lieutenant in the field. They speak of his feelings under house-arrest in Rome, aware that his salvation is not contingent upon his right actions, but due to God’s grace alone. In I, 1:12-17 we read about his awareness of God’s mercy: “Even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. (But) I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief…” We who search for wholeness of body, mind and spirit recognize that only through the presence of Christ can we find this wholeness.

In the Gospel lesson, LUKE 15:1-10, we find Jesus telling two stories–the Lost Sheep, and the Lost Coin. In each, the God-figure spares no time or involvement to find what was lost, and then to restore these to the whole remainder. ( We don’t know how the other sheep who stayed safe felt about their comrade who strayed.) But we come to the understanding that God wants ALL, even those neighborhood folks who never darken the door of the church. Will we make a place for them, welcome them back?

I’ve been reading Francis Thompson’s 1893 poem, “The Hound of Heaven”, which I commend to you. For a while, I was gonna name this blog “Found By the Hound”. But Helen Montgomery deBevoise writes (in FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:72), “When one in our community goes missing, we are all affected. When one is restored, we are all better off for it. That is how it is in the household of God.”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come along on Tuesdays to get a preview of scriptures to be heard on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com

Scripture to be heard on the upcoming weekend has to do with God’s reworking the community ethic–and your own–as the craftsman would continue to improve this work until it’s perfected. There’s a long way to go. But God is persistent; God hangs in to re-perfect our lives (together and individually), hoping that THIS time the humans in God’s image might have fewer flaws… How long, O Lord, will you have patience?

We begin with the famous story by JEREMIAH (18:1-11) about the potter who keeps crafting the clay until it turns out just right. So God’s Creation is in the process? Does our human activity influence God’s immediate plans? I worry (and so do you) that the painful things in life are a consequence of our own imperfection. Where do we see God reshaping who we are into an ethical stance more in tune with the Covenant? The central message of Jeremiah is to change our corporate behavior before we get reworked!

Paul’s pastoral letter to PHILEMON (“Phil” is the prefix for “brotherly love”) is a guilt-heavy intercession for one Onesimus, a scarpered slave. Here Paul asks no more of Philemon than Christ asks of ALL believers: to forgive, to restore, even to go against what the rest of The System follows. E. Elizabeth Johnson says that “Paul is convinced that God is indeed overturning social structures.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:42) This really reworks the prevailing attitude of punishment and perhaps death…

In the Gospel, LUKE 14:25-33, Jesus is exhorting his disciples to rework their traditions of family loyalty in favor of prioritizing his ethic over “Theirs”. (“Hate” is much too strong a translation. What is meant here is giving over to God the traditions which would tie us to earthly responsibilities.) Jesus is telling disciples then and now to get on with it, to give over to God what they value and what might keep them from complete service. Talk about overturning social structures!

When I was in college and considering seminary/the ministry, my parents were non-plussed. They had raised their only son to be a Musician, not a pulpit-pounder! Yet when I actually enrolled in Seminary and took on a student parish, they were among my strongest supporters! I hope that since that far-away day my life has been continuously reworked and that my ethic has gradually moved toward that of Jesus. Yours too….

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Every Tuesday we explore the scriptures assigned to be read on the upcoming weekend; come join us at horacebrownking.com