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Since most of you are so very familiar with the Easter morning story, I’ve taken the liberty to look at Biblical texts for the day before, i.e., Holy Saturday. Jesus has been crucified, and his friends are in shock and grief; really paralyzed. How do disciples of all ages respond to the absence of their notable leader? Those daring to worship publicly and those–the majority of you–whov’e opted to be silent at home wait to see what God is gonna do next.

JOB 14:1-14 isn’t a happy passage: the sufferer berates God for human mortality, still kinda hoping that God would renew his life as before. Here, from the Dark Night of the Soul, comes a cry for succor: “O that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!” “Today is a day for dwelling among shadows and death, while not allowing our hope to be destroyed.” (Gregory Ledbetter, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:313) Are we beyond redemption? Are we beyond God?

I PETER 4:1-8 is a call to living humans reminding them to adhere to a more Christlike life. The author lists licentiousness, drunkenness, passions, revels, carousing and lawless idolatry as vices that separate the Gentiles from Christ-followers. Post-Easter, the author exhorts the reader to wait for resurrection even though we may suffer. This suffering can be felt in our adherence to Discipleship despite the urging of our friends. It ain’t easy.

MATTHEW’s Gospel account (27:57-66) speaks of the burial of Jesus in the newly excavated tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Jewish questions concerning the security of Jesus’ body are hereby addressed by citing the Royal Seal closing the rock door. Has God been separated from the world which he loved? The traditions of the Church call for a quiet introspection on this day–a difficult thing to accomplish with our hectic modern lifestyle. Can we be in solidarity with those who suffer?

These are not joyous readings, nor should they be in this interim before Easter. My prayer is that Easter may be delightful in the sharing of Good News with those around you!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Every Tuesday we examine upcoming scriptures in order to align our hearts with the telling of the Holy Story; at horacebrownking.com

Since many of us won’t be “at church” during Holy Week, I’ve deviated from the Sunday readings about the Palms and the Passion. So here are the lessons for MONDAY of Holy Week, reminding us that the Justice of God does indeed prevail, “although the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet”.

ISAIAH of Babylon addressed the community of Exiles there, the last remnants of Judaism. Far away from their Traditions and Temple, many doubted that God would hear them “over here”. In 42:1-9 he speaks of the Suffering Servant, chosen specifically to point out where God is at work. Of whom was YHWH speaking? Some will say that it’s giving the community of exiled Jews a new role; others maintain that this is a pre-announcement of the Christ. At any rate, the Church is the Community that has survived, one that has become “light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon…” The Servant WILL suffer in proclaiming an alternative to the System, offering God’s Love to broken, hopeless humanity. Don’t give up! Celebrate the flowers wherever they bloom…

The Letter to the HEBREWS 9:11-15 calls that community of now-believing Hebrews to steadfastly practice this displayed love. Despite the injustices displayed to the Children of Abraham over the years, they are to affirm a new covenant, a priest forever.

And then in JOHN 12:1-11, comes the familiar story of Jesus being anointed for burial just after (?) the Triumphant Entry of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Jesus & Friends were being feted in Bethany, at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus. John tells the story as one of the transitions between glory and crucifixion: some scholars will aver that Mary was looking both ways, back to the raising of her brother and forward to the cross and beyond. Whichever, it’s a call to acceptance of how things are now and how they will be in the future… Maybe even unfolding in our midst! Will we continue to point to Light to the Nations?

These are challenging texts: those that hear them are encouraged to move beyond mere individualism into a community that practices love and justice. There’s a sign on my desk that reads, “Resist the Doom, Rainbows Bloom!” Then look for the Light to the Nations.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please visit horacebrownking.com every Tuesday to wrestle with Scriptural passages soon to be heard at worship.

The Season of Lent is almost over: many of us are glad for it to end, others would like a few more weeks of personal pangs in not recognizing the Christ. The purpose of Lent is, in the terms of many theologians, an admission that God doesn’t shun going through Death to Life. The persons in the pews this weekend will hear challenges to recognize Christ in both days of old and within contemporary settings.

JEREMIAH 31:31-34 is atypical of the Gloomy Prophet–he announces a New Covenant within a New Age, one written upon the heart and not just the stone or papyrus of the Original Ten. Here is God staying the course faithfully, even though the Creatures of God’s Love have broken away like self-identifying children. The days are coming when the people will know God not as an academic teaching, but as an all-encompassing Person with corresponding intimacy. And this new covenant comes with a promise: “I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.”

This leads us to the mysterious Letter to the HEBREWS 5:5-10. Who in the world is Melchizedek? We’re referred to Genesis 14, which all good Hebrew children should know. He’s the High Priest who goes before God with all our supplications–and returns with messages of forgiveness. Jesus has prayed for forgiveness, and also lives out the covenant established in Jeremiah’s vision of Newly Engraved Hearts. “The chief task of Israel’s high priest: that in the most terribly sacred space, all alone, he bears to God the most crucial human need. The text envisions Christ as being forever in this mode.” (Paul Simpson Duke, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:137)

JOHN’s Gospel is a storybook detailing Jesus’ confrontations with idols/the power of evil. Here in 12:20-33 is the account of how some gentile visitors to Jeusalem’s Passover feast want to see Jesus. Now, thinks Jesus, just before his crucifixion, is the time fulfilled: the entire world is looking for the Man of the Covenant. “Now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world (cosmos) will be driven out.” And indeed it has been–we just don’t know it yet. A New Age foretold by Jeremiah is within us, despite the outbreaks of idolatry, injustice, selfishness and materialism that tend to overcome us! Jesus has now exposed the System, which totters on old beliefs and customs alone.

Many wish to see Jesus, and may be looking in all the wrong places. Suffice it to say that Jesus is more than an historical character, but lives in and through this New Covenant. Disciples today have an assurance that God is near–but we have to keep on course with the Savior in changing the wreckage of the cosmos that its former ruler has left behind.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join in the challenge of being confronted by scriptural texts which will be read during worship this upcoming weekend–every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com

Let’s cut right to the chase: Lent isn’t created to INCREASE our guilt, but to make us AWARE of it. There’s also an announcement here that It’s Never Too Late to regroup, to turn it around, to join in with other struggling saints questing to be right. Fancy theologians can call this “Justification”–but for you and me it’s a matter of going to be with God. Texts to be heard this upcoming weekend include stories which may be puzzling, plus an admonition to let God work in your life.

We begin with a little-read passage from NUMBERS 21:4-9. It seems that on their way to the Promised Land, the Children of Israel have blundered into a hoard of snakes, those old symbols of Evil. What shall they do? Moses was told to make an image of a snake and lift it high on a pole: those bitten would merely look at it, and then recover. This sets up the Crucifixion event, of course; but it also reminds all us pilgrims that there will indeed be gatherings of Evil on the way to the Promised Land. Where shall we look to escape this threat to our lives?

The Epistle is complicated: the Letter to the EPHESIANS 2:1-10. Be careful: this could seem to say that everything that happens is beyond us, that all we can do is live from day to day. It DOES say that everything is beyond us, subject to the forces of Evil and adjusted by the force of Good/Christ. Enslaved as we are by so many external sparkles, God has a better idea for us: “For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” The 4th verse is a transition: “But God, who is rich in mercy…”

What then shall we do with Jesus’ famous words to Nicodemus in JOHN 3:14-21? I’m a bit uncomfortable with reading v.16 as the Gospel in a Nutshell; I need to add v.17, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved [pulled out?] through him.” There follows a polemic of light & darkness, the central theme of John’s stories. He bemoans the fact that the darkness is more satisfactory to many, and calls everyone to embrace the Light. Even you & me.

Lent can be an uncomfortable reminder that the way TO is almost always the way THROUGH. In order to fully live as Easter People, we’ve gotta acknowledge our many detours and move away from them. These are exercises in Trusting in Grace, in looking at the Big Picture. The road to the Promised Land can get really narrow…

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Every Tuesday we confront the Powers of Darkness by wrestling with scripture texts to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com

How worldly can a congregation get without losing its Christian flavor? More to the point, how secular can I get without losing my name as “Christian”? Lent is a season for thinking especially about these things which usually creep in by degrees, as dictated by the surrounding culture. Scriptural texts to be heard on the upcoming weekend address this conundrum of how we’re supposed to proceed without totally giving ourselves over to the gratifying power of Everybody Does It.

We begin by hearing the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, from EXODUS 20:1-17. To begin with, these are not restrictions but rather assurances that if we as a community, as individuals, follow these directions, then we shall live fully and wholly within the affections of those around us. The first four speak of our relationship to God, the second six have to do with our lives within the community. God has called these recently enslaved HABIRU into an arid place of beginning again: will they again flourish and fulfill YHWH’s original purpose of the People of God? Ignoring these commandments is tantamount to falling back into slavery.

We also hear from St. Paul in his First Letter to the CORINTHIANS 1:18-25. Difficult to understand, it is the Apostle’s meeting of the diversity of Corinth–Jews & Greeks–about the significance of the Cross of Christ, already becoming a symbol of the Church. He says that some folks are just too darn wise for their own good and that a “foolish” receptivity to divine mystery is in order. Jeff Paschal tells us, “Day by day, we are a people being saved from cramped little lives of selfishness and saved for the broad, roomy, loving discipleship of the cross.” (FEASTING on the WORD, B 2:89) Again we’re called away from the transitory glitter of the World into a counter-cultural sphere of allegiance to Christ alone.

The Gospel of JOHN is a compendium of stories about Jesus’ meeting with those who just don’t get it yet. This week in 2:13-22 is the familiar tale of Jesus driving the money-changers and the sacrifice salesmen from the Temple precinct. The Synoptic writers–Matthew, Mark & Luke–place this story at the very end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, during Holy Week. But here John tells it at the start-up of his ministry, probably to tell the surrounding culture, “Hey, here I am!” Don’t be too hard on the Temple leaders and merchants: they probably thought that they were making worship more convenient. Sacrifices needed to be bought, Roman coins exchanged for Jewish ones. Like most secularities in congregations, these folks wandered in a step at a time until the tail wagged the dog. What tables does Jesus turn over in our mutual lives? Or does he just turn a blind eye with a wink at humanity?

Truth to tell, we all could do with a good dose of Temple Cleansing. My own idols are legion. How many of them can I accept without becoming a total hermit? The roller-coaster of Lent sometimes thwacks me with how far I’ve drifted from God’s creative word into my oh-so-human practices.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come along every Tuesday as we wrestle with scripture to be read on the upcoming weekend–at horacebrownking.com

It’s Lent, a Season for thinking about sin and brokenness, about turning life around and healing. Sometimes this can be especially painful as we contemplate how far we’ve been from the Holiness to which we were created. Lessons to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend deal with how far the average pew-sitter has strayed; and of the Great Expectations of God.

We begin with a reading of Beginnings, GENESIS 17:1-7. Here is Abram, an old man yet willing to learn. God tells him, “I am God almighty; walk before me and be blameless”. Blameless! What does God expect, a miracle? So far Abram & Sarai have done a pretty good job of trusting YHWH, moving to and putting down roots in an unknown land. And this ultimate promise of descendants and Doing Right by neighbor and sojourner has influenced the Jewish/Islamic/Christian people to this day. Hasn’t it? Do we trust this covenant as the source of our lives?

Paul’s Letter to the ROMANS takes a while to digest, especially vv. 4:13-25. After recognizing Abraham’s faith, the Apostle says, “No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God…” As disciples, we’re encouraged to believe that God can perfect us–and that God WILL perfect us! Our brokenness–sinfulness–can be and will be healed as we remember this covenant given to our trusting ancestor. Our faith can be more than trying not to make mistakes…

MARK 8:31-38 pictures Jesus instructing his disciples that his death and suffering are to be expected in order for the Resurrection to take place. Peter tries to dissuade him–and here we get a definition of sin: “You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things”. We regularly find ourselves broken by “human things” which have become our idols–arrogance and self-centeredness are mine, what about you? Is this Lenten Season one in which we acknowledge and then try to overcome those human things which would keep us from the divine?

Lent can and should be a roller-coaster. Wooed by human things, we give only lip-service to divine matters. But whose side are we on? At times, holiness seems just around the corner; but then our actions of acquiring and hoarding Stuff bring our full idolatry into view… My prayer is that we all will put aside the human things which distract us in order to fully bask in a loving covenant.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Come join us every Tuesday in unpacking scriptural passages which will be read during worship on the upcoming weekend–at horacebrownking.com

The congregation with which I usually worship knows itself as a “Reconciling Church” because we accept the LGBTQ members–and other marginalized persons–more openly than other denominational groups. Scriptures read today for this First Sunday within Lent have to do with the relationship of God with The People, and God’s persistent attempts to make a holy presence known.

GENESIS 9:8-17 continues the story of Noah’s Ark, when the flood waters have receded and the doors are blessedly open for the chosen animals inside. Here is the covenant of YHWH, that the waters will never again flood Creation; and here is the inverted bow of the Warrior, presented to all humanity and fauna, which reminds Creator and Creatures with its sign. As the People of Israel moved from crisis to crisis, they were reminded of the holy presence that embraces Red & Yellow, Black & White, all precious in God’s sight. 

I PETER 3:18-22 can be a challenge. It’s here to remind us that our relationship with God is intensified through the person of Jesus. The passage, according to scholars, was written to Christians in Asia Minor (the community of John of Revelation?) who were undergoing their own flood of persecution. It’s included in Scripture because it may speak to ALL who “suffer”, to give these pains a theological basis. Jesus “was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” So then we in chaos of various kinds are to consider the Old Selves dead and the New Selves alive.

The Gospel is a quick three paragraphs by MARK, 1:9-15, which rushes us through the Baptism, Temptations and early ministry of Jesus. Jesus picks up the mantle of his imprisoned cousin, John the Baptizer, to announce throughout Galilee that “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” God continues to chase us down, to pursue us with the vigor of a swooping dove, even to the barren parts of our lives where the wild things are.

And so the Rainbow prevails, in flags, in lanyards, and especially in a new awareness of how special we are as opposed to the rest of Creation. Are “we” really special, or is it that most of Creation has yet to discover/be discovered by an awareness of the breadth of God’s Love? Our ministry, our mission, is to keep pointing to the rainbow in the clouds.

In the process of unfolding,   Horace Brown King

Join us every Tuesday as we consider the texts to be presented during the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com

Scripture passages to be read on the upcoming weekend seem unrelated–yet there’s a golden thread connecting them all. These are written to communities under some duress: being exiled in a strange land with unknown deities; or searching for a central point upon which to base their faith; or trying to remember the story which enchanted and claimed them before their Lord was crucified. We who hear are encouraged to own these communities as our own, ruefully admitting to an ongoing brokenness that threatens to un-focus our hope.

ISAIAH of Babylon exhorts his fellow exiles to retain their faith (40-21-31): ”Have you not known? Have you not heard?” Despite our human limitations–and they are many–the prophet reminds them that God is still greater than all their distress: ”…who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing”. Are you powerless? Does even the vigor of your youths grow weary and exhausted? ”Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

St. Paul recognizes the diversity of the people of CORINTH (vv.9:16-23): their customs, their particular demons, their dreams. Upon what, then, can faith be centered? Can there be a common law of Christ? Even the “freedom” the Apostle claims is subject to this gospel of renewal in Christ, a command to freely enlighten the despairing and hopeless with visions of ultimate glory beyond the grim horizons of cloudy distress. 

Our exploration of MARK’s Gospel (1:29-39) continues Jesus’ encounter with the first Disciples. The story opens with five guys, dirty from work, coming into the house expecting to hear, “Wipe your feet! If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times!” Yet all was strangely subdued: the matriarch was a-bed with a fever. Jesus helped her get up, and the fever left her–and she resumed her matriarchal duties of providing hospitality. The story continues with all of Capernaum crowding around to be healed/saved, and then with Jesus & Co. travelling around Galilee to point out that the Kingdom of God has drawn near. What are the demons (and fevers) that stand in the way of our intimacy with God?

We can gather from these accounts that God wants to be–and IS–attentive to the concerns of the People. Most of us have experienced these moments of abandonment, when the familiarity of God seems but an empty promise. YET STILL the Holy Team walks with us, to cast out the demonic and to restore the youthful strength and optimism, to point out where God is seen to be at work.

In the process of unfolding,  Horace Brown King

You’re invited to prepare your hearts and minds for the hearing of biblical readings for the upcoming weekend, every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com

I’m 80 years old, fer cryin’ out loud. Haven’t I done enough for the Kingdom? More than 40 years a pastor of United Methodist congregations. Baptized, married & buried hundreds of people (hatched, matched, and dispatched). Been on countless committees. Is there more for me to do? Scriptures to be presented on the upcoming weekend remind us that time is of the essence, that we have limited moments to point out the Good News through Christ…

The book of JONAH tells about God’s perseverance, though we be reluctant prophets. Vv. 3:1-5, 10 pick up the tale after the Fish has regurgitated Jonah: God may be saying, “OK–now let’s try it again!” The time period appears in the message, “40 days more, and Ninevah will be overthrown”. We Ninevites need to get on with our turning around, not to be distracted by other things on our agenda. According to this story, the People of Ninevah DID center their lives on YHWH, causing YHWH to change [God’s] mind about the ensuing calamity.

St. Paul expected the Second Coming of Christ, the Parousia, to happen very soon. So he told the CORINTHIANS (I, 7:29-31) that “the appointed time has grown short”. Here was an urgency to get rid of the temporal–even the good parts–in order to fully embrace the Christian lifestyle. Our days have been numbered, and we can no longer count on Tomorrow to point out the inbreaking Presence of God to those nearby. Our choices are difficult ones: either order our relationships and possessions to correspond with this mission; or to eliminate them completely! ”For the present form of this world is passing away.”

MARK 1:14-20 presents this sort of Jesus, going about his neighborhood with the message that God will have an incredible state of affairs breaking into the present time. Mark’s sense of urgency appears several times in his writing as “immediately”. Gathering Simon & Andrew, James & John to assist him with this proclamation, Jesus announces that “the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has drawn near”. Ted Smith likens this to an alarm clock: something has to happen, and you need to take care of it! (FEASTING on the WORD, B 1:285) 

So I’m compelled to tell the Story and BE IT, also. I recognize more than ever that my days are limited, and that I’d better get on with it. Many things distract me, and my life is cluttered with Stuff. Like the Wiffenpoofs, I expect to “pass and be forgotten with the rest”. In the meantime perhaps I can point to what God is doing in the world.

In the process of unfolding,   Horace Brown King

Please join me every Tuesday as we explore the lectionary assignments for the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com