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There’s a grand mythology that those who wish to know God must find a magic key to unlock the Heavenly Door.  This is found in observing “correct” positions for praying, and perhaps uttering words which will flatter or coerce God into granting every wish.  Or in journeying a long way to a mystic mountain to grasp the hem of God’s robe.  Or by identifying places where a polite God couldn’t be found….  This weekend’s scriptures point to a pro-active God who keeps breaking into our fortified memories and walking the street-corners of our guilty fantasies.

“Proverbs” are snippets of worldly advice, whereas “Wisdom” refers to Eternal Truths about knowing deity.  The book should really be known as “Wisdom”, better than “Proverbs”.  Call it what we will, we’ll read from the First Chapter, beginning at verse 20.  Wisdom/Sophia/the Holy Spirit is here seen soliciting in the market-place:  “I will make my words known to you.”   Alas! some have refused this gift:  “[They] would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof…they shall eat the fruit of THEIR way and be sated with THEIR OWN devices….but those who listen to me will be secure.”   We ignore Holy Wisdom at our own peril!

St. James tells us to hold our tongue (3:1-12).  Rich in imagery, the passage bemoans our hypocrisy of language:  “With [our tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.” (v.9)  Our tongue is pictured as a fire, a “world of iniquity”, itself “set on fire by hell”.  For James, disparaging and disrespectful talk is more than a momentary problem, for it indicates the brokenness of a needy and lop-sided Creation.  The one who speaks ill of another denies the Holy Spirit’s ability to extend Grace!

“Who do people say that I am?  Who do YOU say that I am?” are questions of Jesus remembered in Chapter 8 of Mark’s Gospel.  Again we contrast the Voice of the Crowd with the Voice whispering deep in our soul.  And then (vv.31-33) comes a cosmic dialogue, Darkness against Light, profane against sacred, today against forever:  Peter began to rebuke Jesus’ forthcoming passion; but Jesus rebuked Peter for his clinging to “human things”.  Well, somebody had to speak for all of us!

So, is there power in the Spoken Word?  We affirm a heavenly LOGOS, the Word of God now made in human container.  How does this Word resonate as an assertive, foot-in-the-door Wisdom?  And how do our tongues reflect–and too often deny–this inborn Presence of God?  And will we miss the Big Picture of God’s slowly unfolding Kingdom by dwelling upon our own muted and wistful voices of the status quo?

God Bless Us, Every One.           Horace Brown King

As the last throes of Summer flip into the mellowness of Autumn, the weekly scripture readings continue to encourage the developing Christian Community.  Some of us need to hear that we’ll not always be victims of The System; others need to be confronted with the social inequity so rampant in our headlines.  We could hear the coming week’s passages as admonitions to a holier individual life– or we could see them (more usefully, I think) as reminders to the Whole People of God that YHWH has high hopes for the visibility of The Church.

From the Hebrew Wisdom we read selected verses from Chapter 22 of the Book of Proverbs  “The rich and the poor have this in common: the Lord is the Maker of them all.” (v.2); “Those who are generous are blessed, for they share their bread with the poor.” (v.9); “Do not rob the poor because they are poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate;” (v.22).  Stephen C. Johnson says, “Biblical wisdom is concerned not merely with the moral character of the individual, but with the formation of a wise community rooted in the peace and justice of God.” (FEASTING ON THE WORD, B 4, p.27)   How does our theological claim intersect with the world in which we live?

Some very good thinkers have claimed that the Letter of James is counter to the Faith so emphasized by Paul.  The value of this epistle is to remind the Church that holiness must be lived out, that it’s more than an intellectual exercise.  The second chapter holds our feet to the fire as we welcome ALL, not just Our Own Kind, or those who can do us favors.  James seems to tell us that our Faith naturally spawns acts of mercy and kindness…even to THOSE people!

Mark’s Gospel remembrance continues to puzzle us (7:24-37).  Jesus was “out of the office” (he thought) on the Syrian seashore.  But one of the local women, not Jewish, recognized that here could be a healing for her demon-possessed daughter.  Jesus seems reluctant to share God’s power with an “infidel”: “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” !!!(v.27)  Yet the woman begged even crumbs–and the daughter was healed!  Don’t spend too much time trying to establish Jesus’  motives or make excuses for him:  the bottom line is that one of Those People were touched by Grace and included within the Family!

So the readings are prophetic:  they confront the idolized shortcomings of the prevailing social order, and they offer hope and inclusion to “the huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.  God is envisioned as the redeemer, the advocate for those who cannot secure their own defense.  Followers of Jesus, bolstered by the presence of the Holy Spirit, are emboldened to shelter the storm-tossed by including them as equals in this unfolding Kingdom.

God Bless Us, Every One                       Horace Brown King

My favorite music & art is from the Medieval period.  But my theological side doesn’t buy the super-stition of that era:  I don’t envision demons with pointed ears, nor do I welcome local imps who resemble naughty first-graders in red underwear.  I see “Satan” as a concept of unGodliness more than a goat-footed sneak with a pitchfork.  But that doesn’t preclude our awareness of Evil, an empty power as devoid of God as “darkness” is the absence of Light.  Even today’s post-modern Church must deal with The Dark Side.  Lessons to be read this weekend include admittedly human terms as Believers attempt to live with integrity in the face of corporately condoned Sin.

After the wandering People of Israel had negotiated the Jordan and began to vanquish the inhabitants of Canaan, Joshua called them together for a locker-room pep-talk.  (Joshua 24:14-18)  “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness….If you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you WILL serve…”  We visit this passage to remind ourselves of the necessity to discern the promise of God amidst  the competing allegiances of our daily world.  The ancient People remembered God’s mighty works, their release, the Law which made them a nation, and God’s protection through a devilish wilderness trek.

The Epistle is Paul’s famous analogy of The Armor of God, Ephesians 6:10ff.  Disdaining both militarism & football, I’d like to skip over it.  Don’t!  “For,” says the Apostle, “our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness….”  Peter Rhea Jones has some poetic language:  “When the biblical image of the powers and principalities is recovered from the dustbin, it shines a revealing light on the modern landscape.  We discover the frequent fallenness of money, sex, fashion, sports and religion in our culture.  We are told that new fortunes are to be made while the military spending boom lasts.  We learn that investing in the stocks of companies that market to human vices can earn us higher returns.”  (FEASTING ON THE WORD, B 3, p.377)

And the Gospel of John yet again brings up the hungry consuming of Jesus’ body & blood. (6:56-69)  “Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him.” (v.66)  The demonic on our shoulder will whisper into our ear, diluting Jesus’ radical message to make it more genteel.  Evil’s alternative urges each one to merely nibble what seems polite, ‘stead of chowing down on God-With-Us!

Remember how the Evil King intimidated his innocent bride by making her spin gold thread out of straw?  An imp suddenly appeared to her, saying, “You can’t do it; but I can!”  In despair, the queen promised him anything–and this little bad one demanded her first-born baby when he came back in a year.  The year passed, the baby was born–and the imp showed up!  “I’ll give you three days to guess my name, or you’ll never see your child again!”  The queen’s spies, the CIA of the time, learned that the evil name was “Rumpelstiltzkin”.  (Who woulda guessed?)  To make a long story shorter, knowing the name of the demon caused the demon to disappear in a puff of smoke!  So name the demonic in your world, and the fearful hold of the power of evil will lessen…thanks be to God!

God Bless Us,Every One!              Horace Brown KIng

My parents thought that they were doing something great when they bought me a record of “Jack & the Beanstalk” by The Great Gildersleeve.  I was terrified when the Giant boomed, “Fee, Fie, Foe, Fum:  I smell the BLOOD of an ENGLISHMAN; and be he live, or be he dead, I’ll GRIND his bones to make my bread!!”   I also had a great-aunt who would say to me, “Oh, I could just EAT YOU UP!”  I avoided her as much as I could…  Readings for this weekend deal with the consumption of God, an ultimate feasting on the Holy.

The Hebrew scriptures come from the mystic Book of Proverbs, 9:1-6.  Madam Wisdom has set a table for the nourishment of those unobstructed by worldly affairs: “Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.  Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight.”   Am I living before God with integrity?   Are we, the Church–those unobstructed by worldly affairs–embodying a mature faith, or have we settled for less than that for which we were Created?  Here, too, is a Sacrament.

The passage from Ephesians (5:15-20) is sort of template to give our daily experience a pattern:  “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.”  (They’re “evil” because they erode our best intentions and sap away our vision.)  The opposite of foolishness is the understanding (participating in?) the will of the Lord.  Paul, also, is inviting those unobstructed with worldly affairs to be filled with the Spirit.

The words of Jesus as remembered by John in the 6th chapter of his Gospel are tough!  “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (v.53)  No wonder that many who had followed now turned away: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  This is a serious claim about life & death, about taking big bites of God or merely nibbling about the edge. When  Immanuel, God With Us, pitched his tent in our backyard, we shoulda known that our lives were going to be, well, different!  For me, one of the mysteries of the Sacrament is to envision the holy presence of the  Bread & Wine coursing through my arteries, out to even the tiniest cappilary.  An intimate banquest indeed!

I don’t think I’ll include it in my Sunday’s sermon, but all this reminds me of the early missionary to the cannibals of the South Sea Islands:  the natives got their first taste of Christianity…  If we are what we eat, then we can be transformed into the Image of God by ingesting Christ.  Taste and see that the Lord is good!

God Bless Us, Every One                  Horace Brown King

The Sunday School class was discussing “Anger”, and naturally, Road Rage came up:  we all made our rueful confessions.  One lady spoke of naming a dog FIDO: “forget it, drive on”.  A nice saying, but I’m gonna have to practice a whole lot more!  The lessons from scripture to be read this weekend acknowledge that we’re all on a Sacred Journey — we’ll tell you when we get there– and that there are some rules which sustain us as we travel.

In the First Book of the Kings of Israel, chapter 19, we meet the Prophet Elijah surprisingly sad after his stunning “victory” over the Prophets of the Baal.  For one thing, Queen Jezebel has put a price on his head; and now we find him huddling under some oasis shrubbery muttering, “I’ve had it , God, now let me die.”   But while he dozed there, an angel brought him food & drink, and urged him to eat:  “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for you.” (v.7)  So he did–and thus traveled to Mt. Horeb/Sinai where he was refreshed by the Still, Small Voice.

There’s always a Holy Trip for us; but how do we get There safely,  unscathed by annoyances of others and with a minimum of remorse at our own bad behavior?  Ephesians 4:25-5:2 is a code of ethics for those hoping to live Gracefully.  “Let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.”  When the writer says, “speak”, we’re thinking less of verbalization than of Being Real within the Greater Community.  Anger, dishonesty and profanity are decried, as are bitterness…wrangling and slander and malice.  Those marked with the Holy Spirit are reminded to be kind, forgiving, and tenderhearted; in short, imitating God (through Christ’s help!).  Ah, what would the world look like!  What’s the name of that dog, again?

John’s Gospel reminds us yet again that most who encountered Jesus were confused, sometimes angry, with his Bread of Life claims.  They remembered the Good Ole Days of receiving manna when they were starving in the desert:  what more could God be up to NOW? (6:41-51)  To this, Jesus replied, “Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness and they died [eventually].  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.”  This, also, is strength for the journey.

Elijah’s despair was transformed into power; holy conversation aimed the Early Church to revolutionary alternatives to self-righteous snobbishness,  and the Bread of Heaven filled even the traditionalists with endurance.  Dean McDonald–“Post-Communion prayers voice thanksgiving for the strength contained in the sacrament, but then the liturgy urges us to ‘go and serve the Lord’ using the energy received for ministry in the world.”

God Bless Us, Every One!    Horace Brown King

Having recently explored several miracles of Jesus’ providing in abundance, even though the Old Vision saw only scarcity, we turn to a few weeks of knowing Jesus as the Bread of Life.  We could see Jesus as a quick fix for today’s hunger–or take a broader path of seeing the Christ as life-bearer through the generations.

In Exodus 16, we hear about the newly-escaped Hebrews suddenly realizing they were in the desert without much resource.  Used to city life, the former slaves remembered the Good Old Days when they were guaranteed at least meager rations.  So they formed a Back to Egypt committee, accusing Moses of trying to starve them all.   OK then, sez  The Lord, “in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” (v.12)  This manna is a gift of grace, not a minimum-wage pittance for forced labor.  How much shall we needy wanderers trust God’s daily provision?

The beginning of the 4th Chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians seems far from those clinging to God’s mercy in the desert.  Yet the common thread is of a loosely connected group without much history developing into a tight community.  A diverse group of travelers with dissimilar baggage has now been blessed with the ultimate heavenly gift, the crucified Christ.  St. Paul exhorts the new church to be nourished by this Bread of Life, “until all of us come…to maturity, to the full stature of Christ.” (v.13)

After Jesus fed the great crowd, as remembered in John’s Gospel. he and his disciples went back home to Capernaum. (chapter 6:24ff)  Looking for another free lunch, the crowd crossed over the lake to find him.  “Look here,” said the Savior, “don’t worry about the food which may soon spoil, rather seek ‘the food which endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.’….The bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  The Crowd understood that this Bread is a gift, not earned, but freely given.  Will 21st Century hearers understand this?

Most of the services I lead involve putting a piece of “bread” in a supplicant’s hand–whether or not they are “worthy” or tainted by the world’s cares.  (For that matter, I’m very aware of my own unworthiness: yet it doesn’t lessen the validity of the Sacrament.)   “This, then, is the Body of Christ!”  “Thanks be to God!”

God Bless Us, Every One!           Horace Brown King

Will there be enough to go ’round?  Members of a large family, we fear scarcity of the essence of what gives us life.  Does the last one in line at the buffet have to settle for crumbs?  Have Mom & Dad spent all their love on the older siblings?  When the farm is sold, will there be anything left but the woods and rocks of the back forty?  Without ranting about greed, I still remember the cemetery sign which advised, “Get Lots While You’re Young!”  Readings for this coming weekend involve being miraculously satisfied!

From the Old Testament come three verses, II Kings 4:42-44: the name of the town, Baal-shalishah, is important because it lay in the heart of fertility-worship.  In a time of scarcity, this unnamed fellow came to the Man of God instead of sucking up to the Baal!  His gift, 20 loaves and some grain, wouldn’t go far in feeding Elisha’s entourage–but “they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.”  “The prophet looks at the same small offering and at the large crowd and sees not scarcity but an opportunity to bear witness to the reality and power of God’s presence among them.  God is present with God’s people in ways not immediately obvious from a human perspective.” (Karen C. Sapio, in FEASTING ON THE WORD, B,3:271)

Paul gives the Ephesian congregation (and us, their successors) words to testify that God is already at work forming and filling the community of faith.  (Ephesians 3:14-21)  His prayer and expectation involve an outpouring of spiritual power, plus the presence of Christ which roots the believers in love.  This involves an accentuated perception which allows for an expanded dimension of God’s Work:  “so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (v.19)  This extreme power is present despite our faltering attempts!

St. John’s Gospel always finds a foil to ask the silly questions on our behalf.  So it is in this remembrance of the feeding of the multitudes, 6:1-15:  Philip, paragon of practicality, opines, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”  Well, yeah, that’s my guess too.  But you know the story: Jesus manages to give them enough–with twelve baskets (one for each tribe of Israel) to distribute to the World!  DON’T dilute the miracle by suggesting that others shared their own secreted lunches:  what this occasion teaches is that with God, there is no scarcity!

God’s will for us is to have Abundance.  Sometimes, we don’t recognize our blessings, and we’re tempted to worship in the Palace of Mammon whose priests are Grab and Exploit.  What we celebrate today is a gracious Providence in all generations, especially our own.

God Bless Us, Every One.      Horace Brown King

Centering.  The term for finding and naming what’s important down deep inside.
Contemplatives have long been focusing on the kernel of Truth which sustains the human pilgrimage.  To this observer, much of what’s askew in contemporary culture is a reluctance to be A People; that is, to name and identify what’s important in our ideal history.  Several magazines are popular for their nostalgic look back at what we think we remember.  Could we dare honor The Greatest Generation and then move forward?  Why shouldn’t each generation claim its moments of greatness?

The Scriptures heard this weekend will lift up this centering–and the need for it.  We begin with a rather abrasive oracle of Jeremiah, “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, ” says the Lord.  (23:1)  This is both a comment of sadness about clueless Israel, and a cry of fury against The Establishment (Kings?) which lives only for itself.  But there is a Promise: “Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them… The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch.” (vv. 3, 5)  Around this Branch (Messiah?) the People will gather and be saved.

The Letter to the Ephesians is warm and inclusive:  Paul’s writing was as controversial in those days as current conversation about LGBT participation in church-life is today!  “Remember that you [Gentiles by birth] were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (2:12)  But Christ has become the Center of Faith for both those who were “far off” and those who were “near”!  “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.” (v.19)  (I fear that many of you misread my sarcasm in last week’s blog, when I described the perceived American adaptation of “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” as being Not In My Back Yard.  Society’s fears, but not mine!)

Mark’s Gospel recounts two narratives of Jesus & Co. who were literally chased from place to place by crowds desperate for a Center.  “He had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd;…” (6:34)   After they were fed loaves & fish & the Holy  Presence, they followed Jesus to yet another lakeshore venue, bringing their sick for healing.(vv.55,56)  People then & now are more needy than they care to admit; yet throng around someone who (at least for one bright, shining moment) can point to the spot of hunger in their Center.

We veteran preachers get tired, even cynical (Marie says I was born that way) about our lack of audience.  Like G. Washington in 1776, we cry, “Is anybody there?  Does anybody care?”  But once in a while a prophetic spark gleams my eye, and I want to help The World do some centering.  Praise God for the Christ, the ultimate Center!

God Bless Us, Every One!             Horace Brown King

Independence  Day has come and gone, with attendant flag-waving and a championship by the ladies in World Cup Soccer. (“We’re Number One!”)  Some whack-os celebrated by shooting or intimidating people who seemed different than themselves; like Superman, protecting “the American way of Life”.  What shall we speak to a Nation whose freedom-rhetoric has been bruised by grasping and fearful demons?  There are two grace-filled options in the lectionary for this weekend:  celebrating the boldness of Amos and John the Baptizer who stood up to the religious status-quo and Herod the Lesser; or the vision of the True Jerusalem, as morally measured with Amos’ plumb-line and Paul’s reminder of God’s blueprint for the fullness of time.

Amos was one of the earlier prophets, circa.760 BCE.  Not a professional sooth-sayer, but a shepherd and tree-trimmer, he was called for a one-time foray against the prosperity of Israel which had neglected her God-nourished roots.  “He denounced Israel, as well as her neighbors, for reliance upon military might, and for grave injustice in social dealings, abhorrent immorality, and shallow, meaningless piety.  Amos’ forceful, uncompromising preaching brought him into conflict with the religious authorities of his day.”  (Oxford Annotated Bible)  “Then the Lord said, ‘See, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel.'”  (7:8)  God stood by a wall really in plumb, as if to say, “This is what I have in mind!”

Paul tells the Ephesian congregations that the People of God were formed “before the foundation of the world.” (1:4)  The Masonic orders portray God as a builder, and we often sing, “How Firm a Foundation”.  Paul continues, “he 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…”   Just as we have been given a model for our persons in Jesus, we can appreciate a Godly model for our city-states in the New Jerusalem.  “This is what I have in mind.”

Mark’s Gospel (6:14-29)  tells how Herod’s daughter–traditionally  named Salome–danced at a royal banquet, and pleased Herod so much that he promised her anything!  Her mother, Herodias, had a long vendetta against John the Baptizer, since he spoke out about her leaving Herod’s brother Philip to marry (?) Herod and be queen.  (“The Days of Our Lives”, series 1)  ANYway, Salome asked for the head of John the Baptizer on a platter!  Exit John…but his ghost of guilt lived on. (v.16)  John, like Amos, went up against Power; maybe even with a plumb-line.

Marie & I joined several thousand others over the July 4th weekend to visit the Statue of Liberty.  There were lots of international tourists there, although it’s fashionable today for Americans to sneer at Emma Lazarus:  don’t send ME your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free–because I’m scared that they’ll take my job, my home, my language…   To me, the most impressive part of Lady Liberty was the pedestal upon which she stood: originally Ft. Wood, it was a redoubt protecting the harbor AGAINST  “those people”.  There was truly a moment of grace when someone reclaimed the stonework of fear to support the emblem of welcome!  “This is what I have in mind!”

God Bless Us, Every One!             Horace Brown King

From time to time there comes a high-holy moment when a noble concept bursts upon us, and we are compelled to follow where it leads.  These moments are rarely comfortable, often pushing the envelope of our normal activity and dragging us through the thistles of change.  Naturally timid, I usually fear these divine encounters:  I don’t color outside the lines very well.  Readings for the upcoming weekend point to three Heroes of the Faith who must act out their holy compulsion.

The first of these is Ezekiel, who was called by God even as a boy.  One of the most mystic of the prophets, visions seem to tumble around him in a whirlpool of divine encounters.  Here we read, “And when [God] spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; and I heard [God] speaking to me.” (2:2)  And this is followed by a thankless assignment:  to speak at home (!) to Israel, “a nation of rebels”, impudent and stubborn.  And “they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.”  Ezekiel couldn’t help it, he was in the grip of a Power not his own…

Second on our roll of heroes is the Apostle Paul, another obsessive/compulsive  whose earlier life was that of a radical Pharisee, and who was met by a holy moment on the road to Damascus.  (read about it in Acts 9)    To the Corinthian congregations he wrote of spiritual highs, being “caught up into Paradise” and “heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.” (II, 12:4)  But he based what he taught on what COULD be repeated, inviting “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ.” (v.10)  Peter S. Hawkins comments that “it gives insight into what it means to be in grace, in the grip of a power not one’s own, in a process of perfection that brings the sufferer into the life of Christ.”  (FEASTING ON THE WORD, Year B vol.3: 211)

The Ultimate Hero, of course, is Jesus–and the reading from Mark remembers how Jesus went to the synagogue in Nazareth, where he grew up.  We haven’t the record of his message; but it went over like a lead balloon.  “Where did this man get all this?  …Is  not this the carpenter…?”  And they took offense at him! (Mark 6:1-3)   Having performed great miracles and healings, Jesus’ reputation as a Man of God certainly must have touched even rustic Nazareth!  Yet familiarity breeds contempt, and his zeal brought neither honor nor welcome.  Note Well:  this rebuff may have disappointed Jesus, but it didn’t stop him…for he was in the grip of a Greater Power.

It’s an exercise in audacity to be a prophet, to announce “Thus says the Lord”.  My own occasions of burn-out and despair have been painful.  The practicing Believer well knows the tears resulting from speaking Alien into a society which loves money and things more than integrity.  These vignettes are offered not as a shallow “grin & bear it” band-aid, but rather as acknowledgement that bearing Gods’ Word is a harsh journey through the Valley of the Shadow of Death!  And yet my cup overflows…

God Bless Us, Every One