Getting By

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