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I suppose that most of us want to “go to Church” for the comfort and stability it may provide, an oasis in our troubled week.  Yet one of the prime duties of the Church and the scripture that feeds it is to stretch the souls of its members.  This week’s readings are no exception:  those who worship are hauled beyond their safety and tradition to look a bit further into the greater scheme of Creation.  We open the Holy Writings with fear and trembling; our understanding will never be the same again!

Jeremiah was still a boy when he recognized God’s call to speak a word of newness to a culture quite content to be self-righteous. (1:4-10)  But his words were to be authored by The Lord: “You shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you….I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”  Notice that Jeremiah’s hesitancy is seen as normal by Yahweh, and the divine response is couched in tender terms of partnership.  Reading about Jeremiah’s call “suggests that God still calls, God’s mission is not yet accomplished, and even the jaded, weary ex-idealist can still be hauled by God into a fresh place, a renewed discipleship.”  (James C. Howell, FEASTING ON THE WORD, C 1:291)  Et tu?

I always shudder when the “Love Chapter”, I Corinthians 13, comes around.  Way too many brides choose this for their wedding, thinking it romantic and controlling.  St. Paul inserts this passage into his lover’s quarrel with the Corinthian Church not as a chintzy hope for what should be, but as a remonstrance to congregations who were NOT particularly patient & kind, who were good at insisting on their own way, being irritable and resentful!  Paul is expecting a more noticeable growth in ethical matters and provoking his hearers to more Christ-like lives.  Such, of course, are products of intentional intimacy with the Savior…

Jesus preached a good sermon in his home synagogue in Nazareth. (Luke 4:21-30) Old neighbors proudly claimed him as their own.  BUT when he recalled that God pushed the envelope of tribal devotion by feeding a SYRIAN widow during the famine, and that Naaman the SYRIAN general was healed of leprosy, this assaulted their complacency so much that they were about to throw Jesus over the cliff!  Ever since, the Church’s expected position is On the Edge, right where tradition meets the frontier of disbelief.

Beyond the Call to Do Something for God is a vocational concept of BEING Something for God.  Adolescent Jeremiah was called to speak, yes; more importantly, to BE God’s Person.  (Read the whole book to see just how he did this!)  The cluster of house- churches in eclectic Corinth were called to BE more and more Christ-like.  The Nazarene synagogue was called to have a more inclusive world-view, to BE what their Law required.

I expect to be showing my advanced years by quoting German pietist Gerhard Tersteegen– “God Calling Yet!  Shall I not hear?  Earth’s pleasures shall I still hold dear?  Shall life’s swift passing years all fly, And still my soul in slumber lie?              God Calling Yet!  Shall I not rise?  Can I [God’s] loving voice despise, And basely [God’s] kind care repay?  {God} calls me still; can I delay?”

God Bless Us, Every One.      Horace Brown King

My thoughts on lectionary passages for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this spot on Facebook; or on HoraceBrownKing

Okay, I know.  It’s not Politically Correct.  But the tune has been an ear-worm all morning; many of us happily sang it in Vacation Bible School.  We’ll be talking diversity, this weekend–and how to claim Community from broken dreams.  The dilemma of history is this:  how can we honor the past without being condemned to live in it?  All generations tend to wax nostalgic about The Good Old Days, which is OK as long as we don’t delude ourselves into trying to go back…  Like it or not, that was Then, this is Now.  Where is the connect?

The ragged remnant of Israelites who straggled back from Exile had been immersed in Babylonian life for 70 years.  Their identity had become unraveled.  They had heard old tales about “the Law”; but few if any knew much about it or the Holy People it defined.  In Nehemiah 8 we hear how Ezra the priest read from the Mosaic Law (probably the Book of Deuteronomy), and how shocked his hearers were that God gave instruction about how to live in a covenant community.   Ezra audaciously told them that they COULD begin again:  “do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (v.10)

The Twelfth Chapter of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthian congregations makes lengthy comparison of the Body of Christ–the Church–with the human body.  Each part has a different function, yet all function together spontaneously.  A body doesn’t work well when even a single cell takes leave.  This isn’t only to make the absent souls feel guilty, but also affirms the worth and divinely planned position of even the smallest.  “I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together!”

St. Luke remembers (4:14ff) when Jesus came to his hometown synagogue at Nazareth, and read from the prophet Isaiah.  Everyone nodded self-righteously at the familiar words about bringing good news to the poor, releasing the captives and letting the  oppressed go free; but then Jesus said, “TODAY this scripture has been fulfilled.”
We’re OK with lofty ideals of yesterday, but don’t make us actually activate them today!  After all, our community is about what  once was…but once out the door, it’s survival at any cost to our ethic.

This weekend’s preacher will probably announce to her daydreaming flock that there really is a connection between our holy-history and how we’re expected to function with our peers, both within and without the sanctuary walls.  Twenty-first Century America loves to pledge allegiance, even though “liberty and justice for all” are empty words.  We lustily wish God to bless America, although many do not know the real blessings of a divine Presence.  Our coins proclaim, “In God We Trust”, knowing full well that loud talk, bullying and fences are our projected security…  “And who is my neighbor?” asked the scribe of Jesus. God still forms community beyond broken dreams.

God Bless Us, Every One                 Horace Brown King

My thoughts on the lessons for the coming weekend can be found at this spot on Facebook or at horacebrownking

The snows and bluster of January make a wonderful backdrop to our tribal tendencies to hunker down around a jolly fire with friends and family!   It may not show signs of stopping, but I’ve brought some corn for popping…and if we merrily love one another, we can let it snow (let it snow, let it snow).  Parties in the Dark of the Year invite us to hear family stories, old and new, and to toast the mellow friendship of those who travel with us on this strange planet…

Readings for the upcoming weekend involve family stories, important for the community of faith to re-explore as we try to find our way together.  We begin with an oracle of  “Third Isaiah”, that collection of spiritual wisdom gathered as the People of Israel trudged back from their Exile in Babylon.  “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,”  says the Lord, “and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.” (62:1)  Look, world!  An Important People is being recast, despite the perils and frustrations of rebuilding.  As in days of old, is a People of Faith being built up again…and again?

The spiritual gifts so often referred to by St. Paul are not necessarily for our individual perfection as much as to develop the Body of Christ into a vital group!  “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit FOR THE COMMON GOOD.” (I Corinthians 12: 7)  There are varieties of gifts and services, and all who confess that “Jesus is Lord” inherit an infilling of this sustaining and imaginative Spirit.  Raewynne J. Whitely avers that “because the gifts have a single source, they are meant to be things that unite the community of faith.”  (FEASTING ON THE WORD, C 1:259)

The Gospel story is found only in John’s narrative, that of “The Wedding in Cana”. (2:1 ff)  Early in Jesus’ public career, he turned water into wine to keep the party going.  Nice of him–or is there more?  We’ve often preached that life before Jesus was, well, watery:  and after his miraculous transformation, sparkling with flavor and richness!   Far from subtle, the transformation was typical Johanine hyperbole:  not one, but SIX jars!  Each holding 20-30 gallons!  Not a mere trickle of water, but filled TO THE BRIM!  And the whole gathering had some, because there’s always plenty with God…

Despite our sentimental and often blasphemous hymns, the Spirit of God seems to prefer a good party!   Jesus spoke of the mutuality of “two or three gathered together”, and Pentecost happened in a crowd during a great festival.   Just as the Lord appeared after the resurrection to the Mary’s, the couple from Emmaus, and the Upper Room club, so the Movement continues as Believers cling together for strength, courage and the warmth of kindred souls.   Hunker down together against the Dark Night, and claim the mutual experiences of the Body of Christ.  Keep the party going!

God Bless Us, Every One                            Horace Brown King

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

For those of us in the Northeastern United States,  Winter has arrived!  Big time.  Gusty blasts from the North Wind bend us double and take our breath…and that’s just in the parking lot.  Lucy the Infamous Cat is thoroughly dis-gusted, and pouts at her confinement.  It’s a time to hunker down in our tribal groups and tell the Old Stories about a remembered warm wind of God…

Isaiah of Babylon spoke a holy word to the disgusted remnant of Captive Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine…I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you.” (43:1-5)  In their bleak place, Exiled Israel yearned for a word of community development: if Yahweh really cares, how then are we in this strange land?  How do we remember the Wind of God?

Such a wind must have blown over those Samaritans when they heard the fullness of the Gospel.  Country cousins of the “proper” Jews, they also dwelt in a land where God wasn’t expected.  How welcome would they be within the ranks of the new Church?  Then came Peter and John from Jerusalem itself (Acts 8:14-17) , and a new community was included by the gift of the Spirit.  Here is a turning point:  followers of Jesus were now seeing themselves as more than a Jewish self-help group.  A breath of fresh air validates our experiential faith.

John the Baptizer called people to turn around and re-think who they were with God.  When folks wondered if he were Messiah,  John pointed to Jesus:  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary…” (Luke 3:16-17)   God’s RUACH (breath) is the agent of cleansing, separating out the trite, the tired and the tawdry.   Robert M. Brearley  reminds, “When the line of downtrodden and sin-sick people formed in hopes of new beginnings through a return to God, Jesus joined them.  At his baptism, he identified with the damaged and broken [ones] who needed God.”  (FEASTING on the WORD, C1, page 236)

Epiphany is the season for receiving signs of Emmanuel, and the Holy Wind is one of them.  Set your sails, and see where it takes you!  It may take your breath away….

God Bless Us, Every One.          Horace Brown King

My thoughts on scripture lessons for the coming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space on Facebook, or by linking to horacebrownking.

In an attempt to thoroughly fill the Twelve Days of Christmas, I’ve chosen to comment on readings for the Second Sunday after Christmas–the Ninth Day of this holy tide.  Others may well turn to the Epiphany lessons, for that day is also fast approaching.   A Holy  Mystery is lined out in the Eucharistic liturgy:  “Christ has died; Christ has risen; Christ will come again”.  Is this too much of a leap from the manger??

Many of us will not have the Old Testament reading in their regular Bibles: it’s from Sirach, often called Ecclesiasticus, written “between” the Testaments to quell the Hellenic concept of Wisdom coming from within a person.  The poet–ben Sirach?–affirmed that True Wisdom was an external gift bestowed in Creation, beginning in Jerusalem and extending throughout all the world.  “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and covered the earth like a mist….Before the ages, in the beginning, {God} created me, and for all the ages I shall not cease to be.” (24:3, 9)  This Word/Wisdom/Spirit is what connects the  Creation and its Creator.  Pretty metaphysical…but it begins to shed more light on the Incarnation.

The Epistle (Ephesians 1:3-14) goes on and on.  All good stuff, yet I’d rather examine one or two parts.  F’r instance, “With all wisdom and insight {God} has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (vv.8a-10)  Post-manger Christians begin to glimpse the magnitude of this revelation:  not as a corrective intervention, but as a bow on the gift which “gathers up” what has always been!

The Prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1-18) recalls how the Wisdom-Word was Godly from beginning, although the English translation has some gender anxieties.  For Christmastide, the central verse seems to be the 14th:  “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  Barbara Brown Taylor speaks about “God putting skin on these attributes, this glory”.  In the ChristChild, the Mystery is fully revealed; those who seek Truth are invited by Christmas to draw closer, to stand on tip-toe to peer at The Holy One.

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to not tell so many stupid jokes.  Well…it’s not January yet, so bear with me…   Back when LIFE magazine was functioning, the editors sent their best photo-journalist, Sandra Terry, to do an extensive feature on the South Pacific Islands.  She wasn’t heard from for weeks…then months.  After a year had passed, the magazine hired a detective to find out what was going on.  The poor fella searched through jungle & swamp–and one fateful day stumbled into an idyllic clearing where a native gathering was paying homage to a beautiful princess.  But wait!  Was something familiar about this goddess in tropical trimming?  Our Hero knelt down and said (here it comes!), “Ah, sweet Miss Terry of LIFE, at last I’ve found you!”

Otherwise, God has blessed us.                                                                              Every One.                                                Horace Brown King

My dear wife gave me a Christmas Gift of the last three years of my weekly blog transcribed and printed out in hard copy!  I’m amazed!

My weekly thoughts on Scripture Lections for the coming weekend can be found at this space on Facebook, AND by entering “Horace Brown King” on the WordPress.com site.

Winter Solstice.  The Bottom of the Year.  Where, o where, is there anything Holy growing on this dreary day?  Neighbors have strung lights, and a few have inflatable “Christmas” characters rising up from their lawns–I even saw an inflatable Darth Vader (“The Force Be With You: and also with you”).  Lots of reindeer.  And one of my friends has an electrified outdoor creche, complete with Lucy, Linus…and Woodstock in the manger…  Where is anything Holy growing on this dreary day??

Scriptures which the faithful remnant will hear on this
First Sunday of Christmas tend to announce that seeds of the Kingdom not only  have been planted, but are germinating into Trees of Life.  We begin by hearing about little boy Samuel assisting in the holy sanctuary with priestly Eli. (I Samuel 2:18ff)  “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with the people.” (v.26)

But St. Paul won’t be discouraged by wet blankets!   He lists ways in which believers are becoming the Beloved (see Henri Nouwen).  “…clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.  Bear with one another….And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:12 ff)  If you’re making New Year’s resolutions which are intended to last beyond when the Kings go home, here’s a good beginning!  Can we grow new deeds for a new year?

Although Christmas was but two days previous, Luke’s Gospel account for today presents a twelve-year-old Jesus giving his parents and family fits because he disappeared during the Passover festival in Jerusalem. (2:41ff)  When they finally found him in the Temple, he precociously shrugged, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  (eye-roll here: duh!)   Nevertheless, he went home with them, and “increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.” (v.52)

The din of Presidential candidates and the blare of talk-shows have pretty well numbed me from hope.  Morning rain seems to remain in my soul all day.  So I welcome this Third Day of Christmas message:  perhaps I can yet again point to places where the Word grows nearby.

God Bless Us, Every One!            Horace Brown King

My thoughts about readings for the coming weekend can be found every Tuesday in this place on Facebook.

This weekend will recognize the Bottom of the Year, those days when the sun seems strangely absent and when the Powers of Darkness seem to have won.  It also features the Last Sunday of Advent, the doorstep of Christ’s Incarnation.  The Church is pulled between contrived jollity and more serious involvement with shepherds and magi.  What words can we speak to those who watch the horizon?

The prophet Micah looks forward to those days (?) when a Davidic ruler will step forth and take back the Judean territory lost in the Assyrian wars. (5:2-5a)  “But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little [the smallest!] clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for [God] one who is to rule in Israel.”  Notice, please, the reference to David, the youngest and smallest of Jesse’s boys; and the metaphor of little Bethlehem.  Seems as though God is changing the world through that which appears insignificant.

The Hebrews passage (10:5-10) lifts up the idea that the old attempts to be Godly really haven’t worked.  We’ve tried to Be Good.  We’ve denied, rationalized and hidden behind our mortality. The incarnation of Christ is the tipping-point for humanity: “He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.”  Steven P. Eason reminds us, “God has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves.” (FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:86)

Luke’s Gospel is The Magnificat (1:46-55), where we encounter God’s threatening and embarrassing flip of the Order of Status Quo.  The hungry love this, for they will be filled with good things.  The rich hate it, for they will be sent away empty.  Even before birth, Jesus brings an in-your-face notice to the powerful that things’re gonna be different!  As a more recent song tells us, “There’ll Be Some Changes Made”…  “This Sunday is an occasion for bold, daring, speech…which proclaims the upside-down world inaugurated by Jesus’ incarnation.”  (Charles L. Campbell, op.cit.)

Many of us will hear these readings with tolerant humor, for the Old Order has prospered us.  We  run the risk of slipping away into tinsel and tissue, as we hear the rich imagery of these writers.  Maybe, just maybe, this Christmas will be the one where our own world will turn upside down?

God Bless Us, Every One              Horace Brown King

My thoughts about the upcoming scripture readings are found every Tuesday in this space on Facebook.

The world is afraid.  The “wars and rumors of war” have moved from far lands to the late-night terrors of our imaginations.  Men and women of Good Will despair that the enemies of God are winning, ashamed of our insignificance and frustrated by our limited energy.  Yet this is not only a condition of Our Times; Rudyard Kipling wrote a century and more ago, “If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”  Readings for the Third Sunday in Advent, Gaudete Sunday, help us to keep our heads as we expect Divine Intervention.

Zephaniah begins his oracle by calling out Jerusalem and environs for their hardness of heart and lack of faith during crisis.  Then comes a dramatic & audacious switch (3:14-20):  “The Lord has taken away the judgments against you, he has turned away your enemies.  The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst…”(v.15b) Can there be light at the end of the tunnel?  Is there a rose asleep under the snows of winter?  Dare I see God where nobody else would guess that God is present? (Deborah A. Block, in FEASTING on the WORD, C 1:54)

Paul brings the Advent of Christ to the Philippians rather simply, for him:  “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.  Let your gentleness be known to everyone.  THE LORD IS NEAR!” (4:4-7, emphasis mine)  Most agree that Paul was looking for an immediate Second Coming–is Jesus making the scene disguised as a hungry man at Shepherds’ Supper…or the mother of three kids at the Clothing Center…or the faithful saint now crippled and short of breath, a shut-in waiting to Go Home?

Luke’s Gospel introduces John the Baptizer, who prophet-like begins his message with a tirade:  “You brood of vipers!” (3:7ff)  The One Who Is To Come isn’t coming to trim the hedge, but is even now bringing an axe to get to the root of the barren culture!  And “the people were filled with expectation” (v.15)   Why did they go out where the wild things are, leaving their safe comfort?  What drew them to expect Something More?  What restless spirit is within humans that occasionally drives us to test the borders of our comfort zones?

A prayer by Donna Schaper reads in part, “O God, we know that salvation is at hand, and yet we walk as a people in danger, a people unconvinced that your time is nearly here, that it has in some ways already arrived….Help us understand what it is that we worry about, and then place us back on your path.  Send us straight to Bethlehem: through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

God Bless Us, Every One             Horace Brown King

My blog presenting scriptural thoughts for the upcoming weekend can be found every Tuesday at this space.

Is there a point to all of this?  Does Life really mean anything beyond Thursday night football, Dr. Who, and the new Mazda that’ll stop on a dime?  As we come to the dark bottom of the year, it’s only natural to fill the uncertainty with tinsel and glitz.  By the way, I love tinsel & glitz–yet there must be something else.  Readings for the upcoming Second Sunday in Advent offer some respite from the Same Old Same Old.

The only thing we know for sure about the prophet Malachi is that his name means “messenger”.  His oracle, sort of tacked on to the end of the Old Covenant, carps about the insincere worship and the neglectful ethics of Israel.  Malachi looks for better days to come:  “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple….Indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of Hosts.” (3:1)  There’s disagreement about whether this messenger is the prophet himself; or John the Baptizer; or Jesus.  Whatever we read, the news is that God is doing Something to purify Creation.

St. Paul doesn’t spend much time or energy in nostalgia; he sees each of his adventures as the first day of a new life!  My own Christmas card selection shows me to be mired in homey villages, little white churches and horse-drawn sleighs.  But Paul sees Advent as a time for progressive thinking:  “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)  Dare we affirm that we’re being gradually made more and more complete?

John, son of Zechariah, called “the Baptizer”, was an enigma:  Luke gives us some remembrance of his birth, yet we lose track of him until he appears near the mouth of the Jordan baptizing and calling for repentance and renewal. (Luke 3:1-3)  As biting as his words were, John preached Grace and Second Chances:  there’s still time to turn your life around, he said.  All-at-once or bit-by-bit, God is bringing this Good Work in you to completion!

John Wesley spoke a lot about “Going on to Perfection”.  This journey to completeness is the soul of Advent, and those who come to worship during these weeks need to hear that God’s Not Done Yet!  Most of us whimper in the dark.  Our comfort is in hearing that day is almost here.

God Bless Us, Every One                  Horace Brown King

My thoughts on upcoming Scripture readings can be found every Tuesday on Facebook.

Happy New Year!   Here we go again:  the waiting, the anticipating.  The longing for One who will banish war and calm our fears about welcoming the sojourner.  Gary W. Charles reminds us, “The stories of Advent are dug from the harsh soil of human struggle and the littered landscape of dashed dreams.  They are told from the vista where sin still reigns supreme and hope has gone on vacation.”  (FEASTING ON THE WORD, C 1:3)

Jeremiah writes to the remnant of Israel in exile in Babylon, those who still mourn for the glory days and who have forgotten how to hope.  “The days are surely coming, says the Lord….I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” (33:14-15)  More than HolyHistory, the passage reminds waiters of every age that they still have a Story to finish.  Jeremiah pushes us to see God’s future, even drowning as we are in Today.

The Thessalonian Christians thought it was almost too good to be true!  St. Paul warmly thanks God for their discipleship, and prays for their perfection.  (I,3:9-13)  He looked for the sudden coming of Christ–the second Advent–in the midst of Greek and Roman politics and posturing.  Paul’s agenda is to encourage a community in process, and to “restore whatever is lacking” as the Church waits.  What will Jesus bring?

Luke’s Gospel remembers how Jesus confirmed that Time marches toward a Future. (21:25-36)  As Monty Python said, “And now, for something completely different!”.  We’ll be confused by the chaos of the roaring sea and the shaking of the “heavenly powers”.  But look!  “…stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”  (A colleague who knows more Greek than I do says that “to stand up” means “to unfold yourself”.)  “When you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.” (v.31)

Most of society will scoff at Proclaimers who dare speak of a coming alternative to exploitation, selfishness and fear.  Many Christmas fans would prefer to skip over Advent and its acknowledgement that Perfection has not yet arrived!  Yet this is an important Season, as we lift up a living hope that God’s dream will be soon realized…  What signs of the Kingdom do you recognize?  Are you one??

God Bless Us, Every One.             Horace Brown King

My thoughts on Scripture lessons for the upcoming weekend can be found here on Facebook every Tuesday.