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Probably dating myself, but one of my all-time favorite cartoons was “Mighty Mouse”.  Only as my own boys were watching these episodes in re-run did I fully appreciate them as mini-operas –always sung, never spoken– with the Bad Guys sung by basses, the crowd by screechy sopranos, and the Pretty Girl in Distress was an alto.  Just when the plot was at its most fiendiish,  Our Hero (a tenor, natch!) swooped down from the sky to restore Justice and make a Happy Ending!   “Here I come to save the daaay…!

Longing for a super-hero?  Isn’t there ONE who can overthrow our captivity to this broken society and fly a flag of Truth & Equity?  The American Church needs to hear encouragement:  “Your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey….the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations….Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope.” (Zechariah 9:9-12)   Z’s audience were newly-returned from exile in Babylon:  although their homeland was reclaimed, the Holy Dream languished.  Fourth of July speeches will call for a renewal of the Old Patriotic Dream — but is there a new and better dream waiting to be articulated??

St. Paul lived long before Murphy expressed his famous Law, “Whatever can go wrong, will.”   But in Romans 7, he admits to the same phenomenon: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (v.19)  Paul was good at splitting our singleness into pieces, claiming that the Evil Presence waged a cosmic battle against the Righteous inside him.  He too looked for a hero to resolve his ambiguity:  “Who will rescue me from this body of death?”  And then he names his hero, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Sunday’s Gospel reading is long and a bit difficult, yet it cuts the mustard on this “Independence” Day as words we need to hear, patriotic fluff not included.  Throwing up his hands, Jesus exclaims, “But to what will I compare this generation?”, and allows that the hearers like neither fast music nor mournful, that they complained about John the Baptizer’s ascetic life, and also about Jesus’ glad inclusiveness.  (Matthew 11:16-19)   The People yearn for a uniting, prophetic leader; but fail to respond.  Who will hear the invitation, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for l am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”?(vv.28-30)  “Here he comes to save the day!”

Here on the Fourth of July, anno domini 2014, the Old Dream slumbers in its twilight.  Like all human constructions, it has served well but can be retired.  Since 1776, we have moved beyond slavery, beyond conquering the West and subjugating Indians.  Women now vote, and thinking people cringe away from armed militias.  Racial & immigration problems still abound, living-wages pale against corporate salaries, and bullies intimidate in both gangs and individually.   Is there a New Dream which includes Justice, Truth and Righteousness??  Who will speak this Dream into the vaccuum of our boredom?  Come quickly, Lord Jesus…

God Bless Us, Every One                                               Horace Brown King

Is it time for the United States to get an amicable divorce?  Are there irreconcilable differences between the Red States and the Blue States?  As a blue-stater, I’m sick & tired of the carping about the President, Affordable Health Care, and regulations which make our life together safer and more equitable.  Culturally, I believe that the Common Good exceeds individual liberties.  Religiously, I believe that salvation demands justice and righteousness as a result of personal faith.  And so I think that the United States should give the dissenters opportunity to refuse federal regulations about education, relief for the poor, accessibility for the disabled and other human services.  In return, if such states wish smaller government, let them build their own roads and bridges, airports and medical outlets.  The following has little to do with this rant — or does it??

Many of us on Sunday will hear Jeremiah bemoaning God’s call:  “I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me…for the word of the Lord has become  for me a reproach and derision all day long.” (20:7-8)  Those who attempt to speak God’s word against idols often feel as though they’re from Mars:  they just don’t fit in.  Yet if the ones whom God has called do NOT speak up, “then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones;  I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” (v.9)   Those who recognize a disconnect between God’s Righteousness and life as it is cannot hold it in, despite being considered an alien.

Don’t shun the Letter to the Romans because it’s deep and often dark.  Though wordy and seemingly twisted, Paul documents the wrestling of the Divine with the Human — even admitting his own conundrums about living the Holy Life.  Here in the 6th chapter, he says that “we have been buried with [Christ] by baptism into death(!), so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life….So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  (verses 4 and 11)  We’re to read “sin” as a state of brokenness or separation from God, more than our cherished portfolio of  individual evils.  This New Life gives us a heightened awareness of the imperfections all around.  Dare we name them??

“Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.”  (Jesus, according to Matthew 10:26)  This can be pretty rough:  “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (v.34)  Thus there will be a Great Divide:  “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (v.39)  Pretty direct, huh?

This is surely the Sunday to sing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”!   Luther’s poetry can be our pep-song:  “And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us….Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever.”

God Bless Us, Every One                             Horace Brown King

St. Patrick, ’tis said, took a stalk of shamrock to explain the Trinity.  Though of one stem, three leafs present themselves.  (This’ll work with a clover, too.)  Maybe that’s as close as we can get to understand the three persons of God.  Anyway, this Sunday will be Trinity Sunday, the annual observance of this mystery by the Church.  Trinity Sunday doesn’t ask us to DO something; it invites us to be aware of an all-encompassing God who has left no stone unturned in Divine care for our daily well-being.

Readings begin with a brief passage from Genesis, vv.1,2 &4:  “…the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, [yet] a wind from God swept over the face of the waters…”  When there was nothing, there was God.  When our days seem formless and void, even then a wind from God is blowing.

From the Beginnings to the Endings:  we read also from the final words of Paul to the Corinthian congregations.  “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.”  (II Corinthians 13:13)  Here are all the blessings!  Grace, introduced by Christ, is that understanding that we’re loved despite our feet of clay, and that we no longer have to cower in the shadows from a vengeful God.  Love is that steadfast care so well described in an earlier Corinthian passage which is somewhat diminished by its use in weddings (letter I, chapter 13).  Communion with the Holy Spirit, sometimes written as “fellowship”, is a mystic wholeness with Creator and Creation in which we become fully absorbed by holiness.  In the big picture, we need nothing more….

The Gospel reading is a reprise from last week’s Pentecost experience:  Matthew remembers Jesus’ last directions which affirm the Three-in-One.  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (28:19)   Get them involved in Wholeness, let them know and feel all there is.  Our baptism announces what God is already doing within us.

Another Saint, Augustine of Hippo, used a hard-boiled egg to illustrate Trinity.  The shell, the white, and then inside, the yolk —  all comprise an egg, and the egg wouldn’t be an egg without all three.  On this special day, I’m very glad for being included in this enfolding affirmation of an enduring Providence!

God Bless Us, Every One                           Horace Brown King

This Sunday is Pentecost–50 days past Easter/Passover–when the Church celebrates the Holy Spirit.  Some traditions will emphasize Luke’s dramatic account (chapter 2 of Acts), others will remember John’s post-resurrection account of Jesus “breathing” on the Disciples (“ruach”, holy breath, in John 20:22).  The Hebrew Scriptures introduce this Spirit of God immediately in Genesis 1, as it moved across the face of the deep water.  Face it, the Holy Spirit is hard to contain!  But when he/she blows that mighty wind, we’re in for some kind of ride…..!

Let’s begin with Numbers 11:24-30.  Moses had taken seventy elders to meet with The Lord, and the Spirit went out to each of them and “they prophesied.”  Not only that, but two men who had been left back at camp ALSO prophesied!   Some were jealous of them, but Moses said, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets!” (v.29)   To “prophesy” meant to speak for God, and others would add, “in order to combat idolatry (belief in other gods)”.   So Moses’ rebuke is relevant through the centuries and especially today.  Will the Lord’s people speak up against human exploitation, financial elitism, and winning at all cost?

The second chapter of Acts has about a thousand sermons in it:  it recounts the dramatic coming of God’s Spirit in wind, fire and universal understanding.  The verse that sprung out at me is number 17, “and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young [people] shall see visions, and your old [people] shall dream dreams.”   This Spirit is one which arouses our passions and empowers us to BE God’s People.  Not content to be merely a metaphysical experience, God’s Spirit becomes a freight train of righteous activity and a whirlwind of justice!

Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Feast of Tabernacles, a Jewish expression of hope for “a time when God’s life-giving presence would flow out in rivers from the temple, like water from the rock in the wilderness.” (Meda A. A. Stamper)   Part of the ritual included carrying a golden pitcher filled from the Pool of Siloam to the Temple each day.  What a perfect scene for Jesus to shout out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.  As the scripture has said, “Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water’.” (John 7:37-38)   Here the Spirit is likened to an abundant stream which re-awakens our dried-up souls into blossom once again…

“To be human is to be thirsty for something more than we have, thirsty to be someone more than who we are now.” (Thomas G. Long)   The daily introduction of the Holy Spirit into our specific time and place is God’s way of refreshing our journey through this arid land.  Somehow it’s comforting to me to realize that this Creative person of God has folded her wings over even me, and that we the Church are yet included in the visions and dreams of an engaged and loving God.

God Bless Us, Every One                                    Horace Brown King

The thread running through the prescribed readings for the Sundays after Easter is “recognition”.  These readings remind us that Believers of every age struggled to discern the Risen Christ through the mists of political, cultural & economic concerns which could easily flood their senses and sensibilities.   This week, we hear stories of God’s Presence within a philosophical forum; in the face of government persecution; and as a reassurance that we haven’t been abandoned.

Paul was amazed at the diversity of religious expression in Athens!  Addressing the Forum , he pointed out an altar to an Unknown God, just in case they missed one.  “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:23)  And so he began to speak of the Creator of all the world.  “…he is not far from each one of us.  For ‘In him we live and move and have our being'”. (vv.27-28)  We thus recognize God in Christ, not images of precious metals.

Peter’s Letters were aimed especially at Christians in Asia Minor, but are applicable to all anywhere who suffer discrimination and death for their belief.  Injustice happens because the Elite are afraid:  afraid that the hungry will eat their supplies, afraid that new ideas/music/cuisine/styles will supplant their own tastes, afraid that other languages will taint the Mother Tongue.  Afraid that their hold on the top rung will be eroded.  Peter writes, “Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.”  (I,3:14-15)  It’s hard to cling to Christianity while being crunched by the political surround!  Where, in our despair, can we see the Risen Lord?

“Don’t leave us, we’ll die!”, said the Twelve at the Last Supper.  “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.  This is the Spirit of Truth…” (Jesus, in John14:16-17)  Scared  of change?  Of course we are.  And of leaderless days and lonely nights, rudderless and orphaned.  But “in a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me….On that day you will know that I am in my Father…and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” (through verse 21) 

The church with which I worship grants small scholarships to graduating high school seniors.  I was pleased to be asked to be on the interviewing team:  Just when I felt arid and cynic about the state of the world, I reveled in the positive and faithful vision our kids brought to the table!   There’s hope yet!  Maybe it’s not all in vain…  Thank you, Lord, for appearing once again!

God Bless Us,Every One!                     Horace Brown King

When I was younger (so much younger than today), my mom would tell me that Dad’s bus had just reached the bus-stop.  “Sit here on the porch, and watch for Daddy!”   Thus I watched the bend in the street with great attention, and soon his brown topcoat would appear.  Focusing carefully, I soon made out the man for whom I waited:  I see him!  And I know him!  This Sunday’s scriptures continue the post-Easter story of recognizing the Risen Christ–following Thomas, the road-warriors of Emmaus, and other assorted sheep….

Instead of a reading from the Older Testament, during Eastertide a passage from the Acts of the Apostles is heard.  This week we’ll hear about the martyrdom of St. Stephen, who had the temerity to announce his vision of heavenly glory:  “Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (7:56)   He saw and knew Jesus for what he was, that is the Christ exalted and at God’s right hand.

We turn next to St. Peter, or someone writing for him.  The First Letter is mainly a pep-talk for the Asian believers who were suffering for their allegiance to Christ.  He commends them for their recognition of the Divine, even in adversity, and for their persevering in devotion.  To these, and to all through the ages struggling to find their Christian identity, is written one of the best sentences ever crafted!  “But you–you!–are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light!”  (2:9)

The Apostle John was familiar with the classic teaching of rhetoric, thus his narrative is full of the disciples’ questions, included mainly so that Jesus can give a notable answer.  At the table of the Last Supper, both Thomas & Philip ask about the way to Heaven–to which Jesus replies, “If you know me, you will know my Father also.  From now on you do know him and have seen him.”  (John 14:7)  And later, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (v.9) 

Easter lilies have lost their blooms, and hyacinths have faded away.  How can we remember the Joy of Resurrection?   How can we continue to be Easter People?  Saints through the ages have searched scripture, tradition, experience and reason for a glimpse of the Holy amid the debris of the centuries.  The “theme” of this weekend’s worship is to watch & pray, to keep looking into the faces of God’s Creatures for sacred sparks….   Here’s looking at you!

God Bless Us, Every One                        Horace Brown King

In my 48th year of Christian Ministry, I still can’t figure why “Sheep Sunday” should come so quickly after Easter! I’d be glad for your explanation.   Is it to reprise the Lamb of God theme of the Pascal Season?  Is it to remind us that all we like sheep have indeed gone astray, every one to her own way?  A reading in Matthew’s Gospel has Jesus favoring sheep over goats, who are much more intelligent and nicer….  Whatever there lies, we’ll hear about it in this weekend’s lessons.

During Eastertide, we rightly explore the Acts of the Apostles, Luke’s second volume in the handbook for Christian Living.  This passage (Acts 2:42-47) describes the clustering of Believers in those euphoric days after they recognized that the Resurrection really happened:  they ate together, prayed together, even pooled their earthly goods!  Wonders and signs were being done, and the air is full of justice and well-being.  However brief the moment, for now the Church was Flocking Together.

St. Peter (or someone writing in his name) wrote to the congregations in Asia Minor, which were being persecuted for their alternative life-style.  He called them to bond with Christ’s sufferings, to take his wounds as their own–for character and for healing.  “For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have (been?) returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.” (I Peter 2:25)  Is it the sufferings of Christ which cause us to be Flocking Together?  Or our own perceived deprivations….?

It’s true.  Sheep won’t go with someone they don’t know.  Suspicious of strangers and trusting of friends, they become immobile and often easy prey when confused.  St. John remembers Jesus calling himself the gate to the sheepfold (10:1-10): both to protect from external harm AND to set the “prisoners” free into the freshness of a new day.  The shepherd is more than a manager: he’s a companion and guide, promising green pastures and cool streams.  With such an arrangement,  we’ll be just fine as long as we Flock Together!

May your worship be a good gathering!  May the prelude be “Sheep May Safely Graze”, and your final hymn , “There’ll Never Be Another Ewe”…   Cling together as a flock.  Try not to wool-gather during the sermon.  Beware the wolves.

God Bless Us, Every One                             Horace Brown King

Some folks can’t wait to get to the end of a novel to see how it comes out.   There are even those, I’m told, who will skip ahead to the last chapter to make sure the story ends well, and that the main characters live happily ever after!  But what of the fine prose between the introduction and The End?  As the travelogue says, “Getting there is half of the fun!”   Sunday’s scriptures are delivered with Jesus’ resurrection in mind, yet still wrestle with understanding the full implication of traveling with the Risen Christ.

The passage from the Acts of the Apostles continues Peter’s Pentecostal sermon.   The faithful of Jerusalem and those come to the festival realized all too late that they had crucified God’s Anointed, and now stood guilty.   “Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (2:36)  But Peter announces a Second Chance:  “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (v.38)   Turn around, change your minds, and sign on–God’s Glory and righteousness are still being revealed….

The Epistle is again from the words of St. Peter, traditionally sent to to the persecuted Believers in Asia Minor.  God’s presence in Christ is nothing new, even though the recent Easter Event announces it firmly.  “He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.”  (I Peter 1:20)   A potent sentence, it speaks of Christ as the Creative Force of the universe, set aside for just this time!  Revelation, becoming known, unfolds for each generation in a different manner, yet builds on this hope of God’s constant care.

This Gospel lesson is read every year, two Sunday’s past Easter.  Don’t let its familiarity lull you to sleep, because there’s always something “new” that you may not have seen before.  It seems that two of Jesus’ disappointed and tired followers were heading home to Emmaus (near Jerusalem, not Allentown), and didn’t apprehend that their companion was Jesus himself.  They didn’t catch on even when he told them all about Messiah-hood , not until they observed how he broke the bread at supper.  “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to upon the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)  These two, of course, were You and I, often dense and unwise to all the possibilities of God.  Yet it wasn’t too late to recognize and honor Jesus as the Risen Savior.

Eastertide is a challenge: first to believe, and then to act as if we really do!  Today’s message tells of a Lord who doesn’t say, “Well, you had your chance”, but one who keeps showing up again and again and again until we finally get it.  I used to tell those I just married, “Now your troubles are at an end: don’t ask me WHICH end!”  Please don’t think of Easter as the End of the Journey; there’s a lot more.   “As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.”

God Bless Us, Every One!      Horace Brown King

Rats!  Frank said he’d be here, and now it’s late.  I knew it.  Well, what can I expect?  “This year, Charlie Brown, I won’t pull the football away; I promise!”   Well, what did he expect?  The Nevada cattle-baron abuses his grazing-rights, and the state government backs him!  Well, what did we expect?  The regressive Supreme Court kills Affirmative Action and interracial rights, pandering to once-sleeping Jim Crow….Yeah, what could we expect?

So this Second Sunday of Easter is an in-your-face to our meager expectations by affirming the world-changing news that God continues to defeat the tarnished and the tawdry!   Eastertide is a 50-day campaign to pull the skeptic back into active belief:  Peter rallied those on the doorstep of faith by saying of Jesus, “But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power.” (Acts 2:24)   Our jaded expectations may be prevalent, but not permanent!

We continue to explore Peter’s understanding, as he writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ!  By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (I Peter 1:3)  Just in time: most of us had almost given up.  Roland McGregor opines, “What God did in the resurrection of Jesus is change the expectations of everyone who hopes and believes…. The resurrection is not a manifestation of wishful thinking on the part of first-century Mediterranean people but rather a new hope that was created by the creator.”

Sunday’s Gospel is the famous story of “Doubting” Thomas, my hero who asked the silly questions that everyone else wanted to…  He appears in John’s Gospel as the foil, the one who HAD to feed our questions to Jesus in order to elicit a teaching response.  None of the disciples really expected Jesus to show, on that first Easter: the doors were locked.  Thomas, speaking for me, didn’t expect a physical presence.  Then as now, John’s readers themselves had low expectations of a God and Risen Savior who had to break in…  We enlightened ones through the years have limited our hopes to “reasonable” expectations.  We grieve over society’s abuses, yet won’t expect anything to change…

And so, on this Sunday just after the brass and majesty of the announced Resurrection, we expect a horde of newly -revived Believers to pour through our sanctuary doors!   As Easter People, we expect our brothers and sisters in Christ to be in the halls of government and the corridors of commerce, busily changing the prevalent ethic!  Touched by the Resurrection, I expect to be kinder, more forgiving, less prejudiced than I have been!   So what do YOU expect??

God Bless Us, Every One…..                             Horace Brown King

So many people know the Easter story…or maybe not.  It often seems to this jaded preacher that 95.7% of the population lives as though the cemetery is the end of the line:  gratification NOW, win at any cost, sell your soul for Fame ‘n’ Fortune.   Has it made any difference over 20 centuries that my colleagues and I have brought an audacious message of Life overcoming Death, and that subsequently Believers may live in an ethic of Love and Justice and Humility??

There are several Easter accounts; the one that many will hear this Sunday is from John’s Gospel, 20th chapter.  Here is faithful Mary of Magdala, come to the tomb of Jesus to weep and remember…and the stone covering has been removed!  What’s more, two angels were sitting inside the empty tomb!  Turning in puzzlement, she met Jesus himself, who called her by name since she was crying too hard to recognize him…  Well, she saw him die:  why then should she expect to see him alive?  What do you expect after Good Friday?  Is there life beyond the tomb??

The prophet Jeremiah caught an early glimpse of this undergirding life when he assured his hearers, “Again you shall take your tambourines, and go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.” (31:4)  Funeral memories don’t have to rule our lives!  We can live as though there’s something more beyond the graveyard!

“So’, say St. Paul, “if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:1-3)

The new pastor was traveling about his rural parish, trying to meet as many of his flock as possible.  He was delighted to find elderly Farmer Wright at home, and asked for his wife.  “She’s over in the cemetery ‘cross the road,” the old man said.  The eager preacher said that he’d sit on the porch until she returned; and so he stayed conversing with the venerable gentleman.  The hour grew late, and finally he asked, “How long ago did your wife go over to the cemetery?”   Farmer Wright took only a second to reckon, “Well, it’s been almost four years, now!”   Well, what do you expect?  Is there life beyond the graveyard??

A Blessed Resurrection to All!                        Horace Brown King