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Sometimes, when I’m gloomy over the insensitivity and selfishness of This Time, I find relief in reading Biblical accounts or oracles addressed to the same old brokenness in People Long Ago.   This weekend’s assigned readings speak of hospitality, of welcoming the stranger and others “not like us”.   These are stories worth retelling, for they’re part of our formative ethic.  How do I live faithfully to God-in-the-Present even though such stories seem now to be less-known and less-respected?

Our veddy British tour director announced that our morning in London would begin at Buckingham Palace to observe the Changing of the Guard.  Because she was veddy British (and because my hearing is poor), I thought she said, “the Changing of the GOD”!  Now THERE’S a thought!  Jeremiah spoke about this (2:4-13)–“Has a nation changed its gods, even though they are no gods?”  The Promised Land has been defiled, the eternal glory of YHWH has been toppled by a quest for fleeting fame and uncertain prosperity.  The springs of Living Water have been abandoned for leaky reservoirs.

The Letter to the Hebrews is chock-full of Household Hints for the Diligent Disciple.  Chapter 13 (vv.1-8) spells these pretty specifically:  extend hospitality to strangers (some may be angels); resonate with prisoners and those being tortured; honor your partner; don’t love money & things; be happy with what you have.  Moreover, remember those who’ve spiritually mentored you, and imitate how they lived out their faith in Jesus.  Finally, “do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” (v.16)

Luke’s narrative in Chapter 14:7-14 gives opportunity for Jesus to address humble politeness.  At a formal dinner, he says, don’t grab the seats nearest the floor show; someone REALLY important may come along and you’ll be displaced to the back row!  But if you modestly hang back, the host may let you cut in the buffet line before some others…  (Besides, the head table is usually boring.)  When it’s your turn to host a  dinner, load up your guest-list with the poor and afflicted.  Look for no return invites, but be glad to share what you have!  Hospitality for the sake of social advancement isn’t really hospitality:  Who Ya Gonna Call?

Sally A. Brown gives eloquent words of conclusion:  “Shaped by  [secular] stories, our lives no longer bear the distinguishing Christian markers of profound trust in God and generosity toward neighbor and stranger in Christ’s name….  Only when we align our choices, individually and corporately, with the concerns of God in the world will our lives make sense and make a difference.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, C 4:5 &7)

God Bless Us, Every One                       Horace Brown King

My thoughts about scripture lections for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

Our television cable presents us with more than 300 channels–all of which have talking heads.  News anchors yield to correspondents; celebrities and wanna-be’s host talk shows; retired athletes sit at a curved desk speculating on which records are about to be broken…  How many hundred experts ARE there?  And which ones should we attend to?  Or none at all?  This weekend’s scriptures claim some aural allegiance for a Holy Revelation to those who can clear the daily cacophany from their souls…

Jeremiah, often an unwilling prophet, introduces us to his Call in chapter 1:4-10.  The story is told not only to express Jeremiah’s felt vulnerability (and our own!), but also to present a God who sustains and mentors those who are drafted.  Here is a “driving passion of God to be engaged with God’s people….and the essential God-given role of human beings…to bear God’s passionate word into the world.”  (Sally A. Brown, in FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:367)

We’re still reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, that anonymous treatise which reminds those steeped in Hebrew holy-history that Jesus, “the mediator of a new covenant” is the legitimate fulfillment of all that has gone before.  In 12:25, we read, “See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking”,  seen here as a voice of warning:  just as your Mother told you that you’d drown if you didn’t wait an hour after a meal to go swimming.  The core message here seems to offer Mt. Zion as a stable alternative to the capricious shaking of Mt. Sinai, with all the imagery in attendance.

On the surface, Luke 13:10-17 looks like another healing story demonstrating Jesus’ deep sympathy for the mishaps and brokenness around him.  And it is. A “daughter of Abraham” who’d been in bondage to evil for a LONG time was set free!   At a deeper level, it also contrasts the Old Law (no healing or other work on the Sabbath) with the New Understanding of meeting need with compassion.  The dialogue between the Old and New is super-important:  it opens “religion” to a sense of God’s interaction in daily affairs.  Again, it was what Jesus SAID that shamed his opponents and set the entire crowd rejoicing!

Sadly, much mischief has been done when popular Talking Heads announce that “God has said this”.  Who can refute that when God is invoked, serious ears must be receptive?  Jeremiah could scarcely believe his ears, and those encountering Jesus as the Christ were called first to discernment of authority.  These readings answer few solutions, but pose wonderful  questions!

God Bless Us, Every One                            Horace Brown King

My thoughts upon the lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend can be found each Tuesday at this spot on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

Marie & I went to get updated passports, yesterday.  I always shiver, going before Governmental Authority, expecting some glitch from long ago to resurface and derail the project.  I wear a sign which reads, “Expect the Worst”.  Defying my expectations of gloom, the lady behind the desk was both friendly and helpful, handling my dumb questions without sarcasm or pitying snicker!  Despite her green hair, I had a most satisfying experience:  I hope she gets a raise.  My expectations are human; does GOD expect Great Things, as well?  This weekend’s scripture readings address God’s expectations…and how we could live with them.

We begin with Isaiah of Jerusalem’s famous Song of the Vineyard, 5:1-7.  Everything God did for that vineyard–planting, weeding, cultivating, building a hedge–was eager work, an expectation of Something Wonderful!   “God expected it to yield grapes (vv.2,4)…expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry.” (v.7)  The love song pauses with a screech of grief. (Paul Simpson Duke has an excellent commentary on the passage in FEASTING of the WORD, C 3:340)  The post-Isaiah interpreter is urged to remind us that “the good news is that Someone still sings, plows, plants, guards, and looks for good fruit.” (Duke)

Is there a link between this and the Hebrews reading, 11:29-12:2?  This is an All Saints’ list of prophets, judges and kings who expected “the Best”, even though they could also expect a gruesome death and life-long torment.  “Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided SOMETHING BETTER…”  Our TV overflows with coverage of USA contenders at the Rio Olympics.  Each athlete has trained for years, maybe all their lives, for this moment!  They expect the Gold!  “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith…”

The Gospel lesson, Luke 12:49-56, is TOUGH!  Just before this, James & John, feeling disrespected, want to call down Heavenly Fire (Zeus’s lightning bolt?)  Jesus says they can’t, that’s HIS job!  “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”  This fire will divide us from our loved ones and our community.  Not the other nations or races, but our Family.  Look at the seasons, read the sky, Jesus urged.  Don’t you know what’s expected now??  That’s probably enough to say:  let it stand.

If it’s not presumptuous to tread upon Holy Turf, let me sing you about my broccoli.  I weeded, raked, added compost, and chose only the finest plants from AGWAY.  And now my plants are almost 4 feet tall!  Really!!  They’re all leaves–no vegetable heads.  My friend Tim says that I planted tobacco by mistake.  “Expect the Worst”.  We can blow God’s Expectations off by saying, “We’re only human, after all!”  Of course; and were we made in God’s Image?  “We are longing in the easiest of all the world’s religions, leaning back into the entitlements of grace and an arrogance of heritage.”  Duke, ibid.)

God Bless Us, Every One                 Horace Brown King

My musings on scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; and at horacebrownking.com

In seminary–back in the Last Century–I learned that the duty of the preacher is to “comfort the afflicted & afflict the comfortable”.    Evidently this is truly Biblical doctrine:  our lessons for this weekend (and every day) give a good dose of both affliction AND comfort.  The challenge, I suppose, is to enable a balance and an intriguing tension within the hearers’ hearts…and perhaps our corner of the world will be changed.

Isaiah, never one to hold back, jumps right into the fray in the very first “chapter” of his oracles.  “Says the Lord, ‘I have had ENOUGH of burnt offerings…I do NOT delight in the blood of [cattle].” (1:11)  Before we get too smug in our own enlightenment, take note that these sorts of things happen yet today in our “proper” worship, both private and public!  Paul Simpson Duke says, “The present attack is on the bizarre disconnect of people praising God while desecrating God’s command to love….Worship unconcerned with justice is obscene.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:319)  Hearing this passage will cause all of us to squirm…and maybe transform our greater  community.                                                                                                                                                             The Hebrews lesson (11:1-3,8-16) reminds us of how Abraham’s faith popped him from his comfort zone in Chaldea to go where he had no idea.  Banking solely on God’s promises of a land and descendants, he loaded his ox-cart and set off.  His bumper sticker read: “Don’t follow me, I’m lost too!”  Just like in PAINT YOUR WAGON, the con- versation went, “Where we goin’?”  “I don’t know”  “When’ll we get there?”  “I ain’t certain–all that I know is I am on my way.”   The road-sign reads, “Temporary inconvenience, permanent improvement.”  A conviction of things not seen!

Luke’s Gospel remembrance (12:32-40) is an extension of that just last week read, about Bigger Barns and Greed.  This reading begins, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”  Sell or give away your baggage, and invest your treasure safely with God.  (Comfort, to be sure!)  But can I give away my old cardigan sweaters, moth-holed and out of date?  13 of these old friends clutter my closet.  7 sport jackets, four of which fit.  At least 50 neckties.  (Ah, now the affliction!)   “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Gulp!

Well, I’ve been afflicted, that’s for sure.  And yet I still have lots of time (I think) to re-prioritize my valuables.  Comfort me, Lord, by telling me yet again about the Land of Promise.  Let me awaken, Scrooge-like, while the bells of God’s Kingdom tell us that it’s not too late…

God Bless Us, Every One                   Horace Brown King

My thoughts about lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, and at horacebrownking.com

Oh No!!  The seat of my good summer weight suit is getting discolored and thin, and a few of the seams look a bit wobbly.  But I’ve had it for only six years, my Egyptian-made, Italian-named gray suit!  I thought it would be the last I’d ever need, and now it’s wearing out!  I’m not really surprised:  LOTS of my stuff over the years has worn out.  My favorite car, a 1968 Malibu 8 cylinder hardtop.  Several cats & dogs.  Cardigans & loafers.  “Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”

Readings for this weekend are about things that become worn AND about those which endure.  Don’t get caught up in trivial nostalgia about The Good Old Days, but help your friends welcome the positive changes which we believe the Creator is providing…  We continue to hear from Hosea (11:1-11), portraying YHWH’s self-musings.  “The more I called them, the more they went from me….[Therefore] the sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes….[Yet] my heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.  I will not execute my fierce anger…”  Israel continued to indulge in idolatry, to their own disaster.  Hosea can be endorsed for presenting a non-vindictive, always-hopeful God, frustrated with the non-essential baggage carried by immature progeny.

The Letter to the Colossians continues to address the ongoing notion that faithful living is dependent upon formulas and propriety more than the knowable intimacy of God through Christ.  “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above (sic), where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” (3:1)  Some things distract us from our holiness:  fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed; anger, wrath, malice, slander and abusive language.   These not only demean Creation, but dissipate our energies:  they may pleasantly release adrenalin, but the good feeling soon passes.  So what ARE the “clothes of the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator…”? (3:10)

“Take care!” Jesus said.  “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed;for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)  What radical talk!  Then he told a parable (vv. 16-21) about a successful fellow whose main worry was in storage of all his stuff.  But he died, and “the things you have prepared, whose will they be?”  Again, the fault wasn’t in investments, but in their accompaning distractions.  David J. Schlafer offers, “Distractions occlude clear discernment and lead to choices and commitments that are often tragically foolish….What does it mean to be ‘rich toward God’?” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:315)

People today can’t hide from the care of their things.  Some have tried to live at Walden Pond, or on a pole in the desert; some hermitages can be safe havens–for a while.  But most of us have to live in a material world, even as we decry it.  How, then, to manage our resources so that God and Creation are lifted up?  How can I redistribute my wealth as a worshipful sacrifice through Jesus?

God Bless Us,Every One                 Horace Brown King

My thoughts on scripture passages prescribed for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

This weekend would be a great time for the with-it preacher or class leader to talk about Zombies!  After all, many of our acquaintances drag their way through the week like The Living Dead; those who multi-task have the opportunity of dying regularly and often!  They walk among us.   There’re lots of movies, comics and sit-coms around to spin and reinforce gripping horror…do the forces of Good/Life always win?  (Will I preach about Zombies?  Not a ghost of a chance.)

Hosea 1:2:10 begins our journey into the Absurd.  Although it’s probably too long to read in entirety,  your hearers should be encouraged to read the whole story , through chapter 3.  This is scripture because it’s an analogy of how God continues to love us to life, despite our death-courting habits.  A great story: Hosea is told to marry a whore.  Three children are born–maybe Hosea is the father, yet maybe not–and are given names which are in themselves messages to the people.  “God sows” comes first, and is quickly followed by “Show no mercy” and “Not My people”.  Bitter days!  God is an offended ruler, a betrayed husband and a disappointed parent.  The People of God have become unfaithful by their worship of idols, their alliances with non-Jewish nations and their involvement in shady materialism.

As we stand with heads hung, embarassed and shuffling, there comes a Holy Word from St. Paul, Colossians 2:6-15.  “When you were buried with [Jesus] in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.  And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.”   The old contract which indicts our failures was nailed to the cross, and a covenant of Life bursts from our death. Richard L. Eslinger says that “the old Egyptians within us lie dead in the sea.  But we Israelites now come up out of the water freed from bondage to sin and death, forgiven and healed.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:285)

Luke’s Gospel (11:1-13) is a three-for-one teaching on prayer.  Each segment could be lifted up by itself, yet together they offer a continuity which courts insight and imagination.  Segment One is The Lord’s Prayer,  a formula which has endured in intimacy through the centuries.  Segment Two is the parable about the persistent friend who beats on the door until his need is met.  Segment Three seems more in continuity with our thread of a Loving Parent who rescues us from a living death:  “if you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask?”

Our society may be dead in the water.  Many individuals drag through their days without claiming the wonder therein.  Senior church-members take a grisly pleasure in the perceived death of their congregation.  The audacious news for today is that God still lives despite and beyond our perverse mortality!  I’ve gotta believe that I’m not on track to being a Zombie!

God Bless Us, Every One                      Horace Brown King

My ramblings on lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

Like it or not, Globalization is very much with us.  A world economy shakes when upsets in China or Britain change their buying and selling.  Immigrants & refugees are an issue ‘way outside of the Middle East.  Instant communication informs us of civil abuse or military bullying, shootings and kidnappings even as they happen.  Some think that walls will help us define ourselves…but that didn’t work for Hadrian, the Chinese or Berlin.  Scriptures read this coming weekend will address diversity and injustice while looking to Christ for mutuality.  Uh Oh–looks like a three-point sermon is coming up…

Amos (8:1-12) begins with a prophetic vision of a basket of summer fruit:  fresh and juicy now, but soon to turn soggy and rotten.  He chastizes merchants for using false balances and selling grain with the “sweepings” in it for added weight.  They “trample on the needy and bring to ruin the poor of the land”; therefore watch out!  For such injustice, the natural world will turn upside down and God’s word of comfort and care will disappear.  It’s not hard to see that the quest for riches, power & prestige hasn’t changed since those days.

BUT…(Point 2 should always feature “But”, and interpose Grace into Hopelessness.)  But God has sent “the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15-28) to restore the brokenness of the people.  “In him all things hold together.”  We can’t sweep ancient divisions under the rug and pretend they’re not there:  they still will be.  BUT we and the Colossians are reminded that even WE can find a restoration of Wholeness by Christ.  This inclusion is one of the most amazing mysteries of the Church’s all-encompassing embrace!

The Gospel reading is brief and to the point (Luke 10:38-42):  Mary & Martha are wired differently, yet are out to serve and please Jesus.  Some will compare their vocational choices, but that’s unfair.  Others will remember that true discipleship involves both charitable work AND contemplation.  Or were Mary & Martha corresponding sides of ONE person trying to multi-task, with accompaning frustration?  Jesus accepted the gifts of  both sisters in the integrity in which they were given…and, of course, invites us to likewise include The Other(s) just as she is.

There are days when I crawl into a corner, overwhelmed with injustice both ancient and new.  But the writer of Colossians keeps coming at me, reminding me that Christ rebuilds our shaky dreams and restores our brokenness.  Holiness is experienced in many ways, some of which I haven’t even heard of…and I’ll try even today to apprehend this Holiness in others who my many prejudices disdain.

God Bless Us, Every One!                    Horace Brown King

My musings concerning lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com

Okay, boys & girls, our new word for today is MAKROTHUMIA, a term I remember only dimly from long ago.  Wm. Barclay translates it “patience with people”; my own poor Greek sees it as “the greatest possibility”.  “It is the quality of mind and heart which enables us to cope with people in such a way that their unpleasantness and malice and cruelty will never drive us to bitterness, that their unwillingness to learn will never drive us to despair, that their folly will never drive us to irritation, and that their unloveliness will never alter our love.  Makrothumia is the spirit which never loses patience with, belief in and hope for others.”  (The New Daily Study Bible, Colossians, page 127)  Boy, do I need to practice seeing the greatest possibility!!

Readings for Sunday begin with a remembrance of Amos (7:7-17), who traveled from his farm in the South Kingdom (Judah) to confront the Northern Establishment (Israel) with YHWH’s displeasure at rampant injustice.  His vision was of God with a plumb line, seeing whether the foundations were straight.  Builders will know that if the foundation is out of plumb, subsequent stories will become more ‘n’ more crooked.  A plumb line points directly to the center of the earth.  Amos called the northern king & prophet to discover this center, to aim for the greatest possibility.  And we should listen, too.

We’re never told exactly what the great Colossian heresy is, which Paul or his team addressed (1:1-14).  But it seems to have had something to do with Needing More than Jesus:  perhaps special rituals & liturgies, proper attire and food laws.  Probably bans playing cards, drinking & dancing…  The passage asserts that hope in Jesus leads to a transformed and holy life:  “Just as it is bearing fruit and growing in the whole world, so it has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it…”  May we Colossians  reflect the beloved community by acknowledging the greatest possibility in all.

The Gospel is Luke’s grand telling of the Good Samaritan parable, 10:25ff.  Having a dialogue with an honest seeker about “Just who IS my neighbor?”,  Jesus lifts up the unexpected hyperbole of a Samaritan (UGGH!) who becomes the instrument of mercy for the wounded.  Neither of these actors were judged better or worse:  we know nothing about their worthiness or background.  Yet the merciful neighbor was the Samaritan, who saw the greatest possibility in the beaten one.  And, of course, Jesus pointed out the greatest possibility in that awful Samaritan…

O yeah, from the depth of my cynicism I need to pray for makrothumia.  Overwhelmed by headlines and conversations with dweebs who Just Don’t Get It…how can I learn to see the greatest possibility??  Bishop Woodie White, in a recent issue of THE INTERPRETER, quoted William Sloan Coffin:  “Hope is a state of mind independent of the state of the world.  So, if your heart’s full of hope, you can be persistent when you can’t be optimistic.  You can keep the faith despite the evidence, knowing that only in so doing has the evidence any chance of changing.  So while I am not optimistic, I am always hopeful.”  Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.

God Bless Us, Every One                              Horace Brown King

My thoughts about scripture readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

Now that I’m Old, I feel more than ever that the Community of YHWH is about offering alternatives.  We’ve been steeped in, yea, overrun by the concepts of winning, being strong and Number One.  Political campaigns are driven by the idea of being better than Those Others, our business and economy thrives on beating down the competition, and our “entertainment” features gunfights and car crashes, often enhanced by super-powers and heroic toughness.  Readings which will be heard in many congregations this weekend offer a totally different–and alien–value structure.

I love the story of Naaman, the Syrian general!  (II Kings 5:1-14)  Despite all his rank and machismo, the guy had leprosy.  His wife’s Jewish maid suggested that he go to Elisha, the prophet of Israel, who could heal him.  So here comes Naaman with chariots and a caravan of wealth, to  King Jehoram, who also is lost in his own successes.  Wrong place, Naaman!  Look to the backwater, if you want to find the Holy!  Elisha isn’t impressed a bit with the huge retinue, but sends him a messenger…which makes Naaman angry.   “Don’t you know that I’m a nabob of Syria?  Come out here and do your thing!  I’ve got better rivers at home than this mudhole of the Jordan!”  Faithful heads prevail, Naaman dunks seven times, and is perfect (at least in body) again.  Bigger isn’t better.

Paul’s concluding words to the Galatian churches (6:1-16) lead off by saying, “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.”  I’ve experienced such grace, coming off my mid-life crisis:  I was lovingly coddled and appreciated; and I hope that my ministry through the ensuing years has somehow reflected this healing.  Quick to point out weaknesses and slips, our greater community is lacking in forgiveness and restoration.  “Second-chances” are roundly decried by most of the world:  “shoot-the-wounded” is the rule of the day.  Are today’s Galatians the only ones who dare risk gentle rehabilitation?

Jesus sent out seventy messengers to announce that the Kingdom of God has come near. (Luke 10)  They were to be dependent on their hosts for food and shelter.  No Boy Scouts, they weren’t to take an extra pair of socks “just in case”.  No Glock 9mms, no swords, no pepper spray…  “How foolish!”, chides the world.  No fire from heaven, either; just dust your feet and Move On.  (This Sunday will be the first Sunday at the new appointment for United Methodists.  How much dust will fly??)  “Lambs in the midst of wolves” bear a message of Divine Gentleness.

People who Know How Things Are Done will either scoff or squirm at these lessons.  “That was then, this is now, preacher!”  But I think that systems of intimidation, fear and self-righteousness have been as old as the hills…and current as Faux News.  Some will never get it, yet that shouldn’t stop an alternative to violence and bullying from being projected from the pulpit. On our way to Perfection–being all that we’ve been designed to be–we do well to live in gentleness.

God Bless Us Every One                   Horace Brown King

My musings upon lectionary readings for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, or at horacebrownking.com

Sometimes it’s hard to get off the porch.  No matter how well we’ve prepared for a trip, whether to Europe or to the grocery, one or both of us have to go back in the house.  I’ve forgotten my hat.  She needs a sweater.  Who HAS the car keys?  I’m always relieved as we roll down the driveway:  at last, we’re on our way!  Scriptures that many of us will hear this weekend address our spirit-journeys, from false starts to setting our face to the goal.

The story from Kings (II,2:1-14)  remembers the Fiery Chariot that swung low to carry Elijah home.  We read that “Elijah & Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.”  And there follows a good bit of narrative about Elisha’s constancy, even though they both knew that Elijah was going past the holy border of the Jordan to die.  But they plodded on, faithful friends to the end.  Elisha had earlier been summoned  from his field by Elijah to serve Yahweh–and he sacrificed his oxen to seal the break from his old routine.  Now, despite the death of his mentor, he picked up the mantle of Life and carried on.  Back into the “territory of God” to continue the confrontation with idolatry.

Paul writes to the churches of Galatia about staying free.  Organizational arguments about circumcision, forms of baptism, celibacy and eating rules threatened to enslave them again.  “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” (5:1)  Most Christians agree together about central doctrines; it’s the diddly stuff that keeps us on the porch, unable to embark successfully.  After listing the “works of the flesh”,  he encourages us to travel with the “fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control….If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.” (5:22ff)

Richard J. Shaffer, Jr., commenting on Luke 9:51-62, says,  “There comes a time in each one’s journey when it is necessary clearly and unequivocally to declare the depth of that commitment….In order to have true meaning and integrity, it must be our identity; we must recognize and live it in every part of our being.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, C 3:190-192)  “When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”  He knew.  He went with a singleness of purpose.  And we read about three conversations–remember the temptations in the Wilderness?–with folks who were “ready”,  yet had excuses.  The Road had few creature comforts and no home base.  Duties to aging parents keeps us local.  Family has priority.  Some say Jesus was too rough in his answers…or was he merely insisting that we choose?  Say, this is hard!

In the last century I read Tom Oden’s fine book, “On the Way to the Future”.  One of the recurrent lessons he put forth is that “Choice Demands Negation”.  You can’t be in Boston if you’ve chosen to go to Denver.  You can’t have your cake and eat it, too.  Our commitment to one person necessarily excludes other lovers.  Most of us don’t want to talk about our Final Scene:  Bryant Hudson lifted up the obituary which said that the person “died unexpectedly”…really??    On our way there, how shall we live?

God Bless Us, Every One                            Horace Brown King

My thoughts about lectionary passages for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com