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Sunday is the last Sunday of the Christian Year, known mostly as the Festival of Christ the King, and Americanized into The Reign of Christ (because we don’t do royalty).  It marks the fulfillment of our understanding of the maturation of God’s Kingdom now realized:  we believe that when Jesus said from the cross, “It is finished”, it IS!   Lessons from Scripture include the ancient Hebrew expectation of the Righteous Ruler, and the later Christian awareness that such has appeared in Jesus the Christ.

The prophet Jeremiah looked for the days “when [God] will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” (23:5)   Compared to previous & corruptible shepherd-kings, this will be a holy change, and the scattered flock will be gathered in prosperity and safety.  Ensuing Jewish history reminds us that this didn’t happen quickly, since much dispersion and political instability continued.  Where IS that king?

The Epistle reading comes from the letter to the Colossian churches.  Paul wishes them to be “prepared to endure everything with patience” (1:11), realizing that God has already “rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son…”(v.13)   We could think of refugees, transported to a new place where both geography and style are much different from what we’ve been used to.  Rules and ethics are different, and so is the general understanding about civic responsibility.  God’s Kingdom brings its citizens to have new assumptions about the meaning of life!   Jesus has “first place in everything”. (v.18)

With these upbeat passages, we’re not ready to hear about the Crucifixion. (Luke 23:33-43)   Is this really the fulfillment of God’s Kingdom?  To the humble criminal alongside, “Today you will be with me in Paradise” are welcome words of life in the midst of death!   The soldiers didn’t get it:  “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!”   Pilate didn’t get it:  “This is the King of the Jews”.   And most of us today don’t get it, either.  But here one era ended and another began.

With typhoons, daily shootings and arguments about health care, it’s hard to see those thin places where the Kingdom has drawn near.  Citizens of that Kingdom are entrusted to point through the fogginess of earthly confusions to announce those locations where God has already come to dwell with humanity.  Those who have traveled in Holy Realms are expected to tell the tales of the wonders to be found there, to speak of marvelous wisdom which endures, to prepare the Way of the Lord!  Even now, watch for the Star of Bethlehem….

God Bless Us, Every One                               H   B    King

In this Twenty-First Century of Our Lord, most people have given up on the Final Days.  Hasn’t happened, probably won’t.  A few would-be magi in each generation have ascertained by natural phenomena that the Kingdom of God shall now be fulfilled…but something is always amiss, and the apocalypse is deferred.  As a main-line participant, I believe that the Kingdom is even now in the process of becoming, that it actually is cascading all about us!  We just don’t see it yet.  Sunday’s lessons refer us to the coming Advent, when God’s New Thing will be glimpsed through the “mists of error, clouds of doubt”.

“Third Isaiah” is a collection of oracles given as prophecy after the return from exile in Babylon, around 525 BC.  These messages of Chapters 56 to 66 are ones of hope and assurance that the LORD is actively operating Creation, and looks with favor on the righteous.  “For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.” (Isaiah 65:17)  The oracle goes on to describe Jerusalem as a delight, with health and blessing and peace.  This New Start has been a dream since ancient days:  could it happen today?   We just don’t see it yet.

So is it true, St. Paul asks the Thessalonians, that some of you are just hanging out, waiting for the Day of the Lord? (II,3:6-13)   Don’t forget your duties to your community and your greater family, don’t forget that others are expecting you to pull your share of the load!  Each one has a part of the job-market to accomplish, he says, so don’t be shy about doing the work of the Kingdom, even as it unfolds.   It’s here, we just don’t see it yet.

Luke’s Gospel (21:5-19) could be seen by some as Bad News.  No, what Jesus is saying is that despite the beauty and solidity of the Jerusalem Temple, it too is prone to destruction:  “the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” (v.6)   Divine Renewal moves us from Really Nice to Perfect, often with unsightly processes!  I often mourn the demise of buildings — and ideas — which have been part of my life; yet the new structures which replace them are probably more efficient, more comfortable…better!  Believers are called to move their worship focus from the Jerusalem Temple to the person of Jesus, the Christ.  The Kingdom of God has drawn near, we just don’t see it yet.

Many will extol the virtues of yesterday and regret the excesses perceived in our current culture.  Indeed, there are many ugly evils around us, unfortunately magnified by the abundance of world-wide information.  But I’ll still tell you that the Kingdom of God is already present,with charity and beauty and hope!   We just don’t see it yet.

God Bless Us, Every One                      H   B    King

For centuries, artists and dreamers have tried to portray Heaven.   We’ve been brought up on the images of pearly gates and streets paved with gold.   Less known are the pastoral scenes of the perfect Garden of Paradise as described in the other-worldly book of The Revelation to [St.] John [the Divine].   Dante, John Bunyan and all kinds of medieval sculptors  conjured up gruesome demons to scare us into morality.   Today’s reactionary pre-occupation with televised stories of the supernatural indicate a fascination with Whatever’s Beyond.   We attempt to build our own heaven with bricks of earthly terms and the mortar of earthly valuables.

Haggai, perhaps one of  those who remained near Jerusalem during the Babylonian Exile, writes words of encouragement to those who’re building a new (second) Temple:   “Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory?  How does it look to you now?” (2:3)  In 520 BC, would the building stand as merely a shell of the faith, and would  Yahweh in all splendor ever reside there again?   Haggai continues to share the Lord’s promise that silver & gold from all the nations would “fill this house with splendor”, and that prosperity will come again to Israel.   OK, this isn’t exactly Heaven; but to the faithful returning from Babylon’s corruption it does become a renewed City of God.

To the congregations in and around Thessalonica, St. Paul writes, “For this purpose [God] called you through our proclamation of the good news, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (II,2:14)  This “glory” is more inclusive than that of Haggai, radiating not so much from blinding wealth as from the holy “wealth” of Jesus.   Here Paul IS talking about heaven, not as a celestial rest from the slings & arrows of our mortal journey, but a participation in God’s Kingdom which endows us with “comfort and good hope”.   

The passage from Luke’s Gospel begins with frivolity and moves to dead seriousness.   (Sorry!)   The Sadducees came up with this silly illustration of some woman  (“Typhoid Mary”?)  who wed seven brothers, one after another, and managed to outlive them all!  So, in the after-life, whose wife would she be?   “No one’s,”  said Jesus.(20:35)   Marriage is an earthly term and custom, but there’s evidently only one heavenly family.   Again, these folks were trying to impose mortal terms and laws on the hereafter–upon which they didn’t believe anyway.  The question, of course, is of Resurrection:   to Moses, the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac & Jacob are yet alive in God!  “Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.”(v.38)   Henry the Eighth can now relax.

Where’s Grace, in all of this?   It’s implied, in between the lines:  God’s official residence, whether in the Second Temple or the unfolding Kingdom which has now drawn near, is full of glory.   And not so much in our terms, jewel-laden though they be, but in what is considered of divine value…sometimes hard to detect.    “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised”; God’s glory is beyond our understanding.

God Bless Us, every one!                H   B   King

What’s a Saint?   Saints are people who’ve caught  the vision of what God’s doing, and who’ve dared to live against the prevailing culture.   This weekend, many congregations are celebrating All Saints, a time for honoring those who have believed despite what the Crowd says, and who now rest from their journey.   More, it’s a time for encouraging those still living whose sainthood is unfolding daily.   These scriptural passages will guide us:

Daniel is a puzzling book, to me.   Better suited for Hallowe’en, it tells stories about weird beasts and signs, most of which we find difficult.   It’s best seen as an early “gnostic” allegory couched in references better understood  when it was written, about 169 years before Christ.  The book is an encouragement to those attempting to live rightly in the face of (Roman) adversity.  Sunday’s portion, Chapter 7:1-3, 15-18, describes four beastly kingdoms arising from The Deep–Israel is a land-country, remember,  and doesn’t trust the Sea or anything within.  “BUT the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever–forever and ever.” (v.18)

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians is more comfortable to us.   Verse 11 of the first chapter reads, “In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will.”  As human inheritors of divinity, then, we have membership with the saints whom the author describes in following verses:  having wisdom, enlightenment, and a rich knowledge of God’s power in Christ.   Again, the Pilgrim is affirmed by knowing that the Heavenly Kingdom eventually is seen to prevail.

Luke’s Gospel is full of counter-cultural material, beginning with Mary even before Jesus’ birth:  the mighty are pulled down, and the rich are sent away empty (1:51-53).  Later, Jesus is remembered as initiating his ministry with the public reading, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor….” (4:18ff)  So there’s no surprise when he admonishes “those who listen” to love enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.   To go another mile, to give your last shirt, to give to all beggars without analysis, to treat others as you’d like to be treated.  (6:27-31)  There’s nothing here that says this is optional, only expected!   Without ranting –maybe– I hope to deal with “Winning at any Cost” (football), “Nice Guys finish Last”  (bullying & intimidation), “Stand Your Ground” (racial profiling and control), and “I Got Mine” (NY State gambling extension).

All Saints liturgy and preaching  should “reflect this radical prophetic challenge to holy living that is grounded in the real suffering and struggle of real people, and the ultimate overthrow of all societies and patterns and relationships that depend on the suffering of many to support the few.”  (Marjorie Proctor-Smith)    May you be so bold!

God Bless Us, Every One                                H   B   King

Well, we got trouble (trouble, trouble), Right here in River City (trouble, trouble).  Monsanto has managed to poison thousands of children in Argentina.  The Affordable Health Care system overloaded on its first day.  And now the Capitol Building has developed cracks around its cornices:  will it collapse??  And what about that tower in Siloam?   Is this the Apocalypse?  How shall we read the Lessons for this coming Sunday in Beautiful October?

Some will say that the prophet Joel is a gloomy guy, yet all in all this small book points out the stars in the gathering dark.  This week we’ll be urged to “be glad and rejoice in the Lord your God….(for) the threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.” (2:24)    Despite the earlier agonies, God’s children will find fulfillment and restoration, visions and dreams, and an abundance of Spirit to all, even slaves.   Will there be signs, blood and fire and columns of smoke?   Even there, those who call on the Lord will find safety!    The “happy apocalypse” of Joel uncovers the true nature of what’s going on.

What can St. Paul say?  His life has been a long experience of confrontations, stonings, banishment & imprisonment.  And at the last, he writes from house-arrest, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (II Timothy 4:7)   As I myself enter an age of life when whining about what might have been would seem the norm, Paul pulls out of it by saying, “So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.  The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom.” (17c-18a)   Back of the clouds, the stars shine brightly.

None of this is to say, “Be Happy, don’ Worry!”    Each day brings new evils, and viscious reminders of the imperfections in and around us.   Luke remembers (18:9-14)  Jesus’ story about the Tax Collector and the Pharisee:   the Tax Collector (an outcast) can acknowledge his many faults and be made right with God, while the Pharisee (an insider) can’t see much beyond his own self-righteousness.   Basically, the story is about the Cosmic Battle between Good & Evil–but like these other apocalyptical tales, the surprise ending is that “God is about to do something good and we miss it because we are too scared to look.”  (Donna Schaper)

A fella named Henry Bester wrote an essay (1928) about living for a full year in the outermost house on Cape Cod.   He marveled at the travels of the shorebirds and the regularity of the crashing tides.  But what he enjoyed most was watching the cosmos above on dark nights:  to “learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it.”    The holy message of all our tomorrows is about receiving the gift of stars that shine in the dark.

“Once someone has become the prisoner of darkness, even ice cream looks bad.”   (Schaper)

God Bless Us, Every One

The Bride’s grandma was trying to put on a game face, after she slipped and fell at the reception.  But several of us saw the pain, and we called 911.  I went out front to direct the paramedics — when would they ever get here? — and strained my ears in hope.  Finally, finally, there came a faint siren noise above the rest of the traffic.   I returned to the party, announcing that “help is on the way!”  Scripture expressions for this Sunday are faint noises of hope above the traffic and drunken carelessness of our clueless world.

“The days are surely coming….”  writes Jeremiah to the topsy-turvy shell which was once Israel. (31:27-34) You may think that the old stories are lost forever, that  traditional values are discarded, that the familiar homestead has been developed past recognition.  You may even want to hole up in your memories and reject today’s life.   But…says God through Jeremiah, ” I will watch over them to build and to plant.”   We can’t go back (nor should we, McFly), but we can keep listening for music of a New Covenant which God will make, writing it upon our hearts…

Paul writes to Timothy “in view of [Jesus] appearing and his kingdom.” (II Timothy 4:1)  You can really see that, Paul, from your house-arrest at Rome?   With the desperation of Empire enacted so brutally around you?   On the door-step of the Dark Ages when life is so cheap?  How audacious can it be to tell your friends to “proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable.”?  Timothy is to wait in hope, with “the utmost patience”.

Luke says that Jesus’ parable is about our need to pray without losing heart.   We call it the “parable of the Unjust Judge” (Luke 18:1-8), but it should be known as the Parable of the Hopeful Widow.  This isn’t really an analogy, ‘cept for comparing God’s goodness with the disregard of the evil judge.   If there’s any identification of the characters, it’s for us to emulate the widow, one of the “little people” whose only power is in her hope that righteousness will prevail , even within the oppressing dark.  And she won!   For one brief, shining moment….Jeremiah was right!   O frabjous day!  Calloo!   Callay!

The moments don’t come often, do they?  But we gather for worship, for study, for pot-luck yearning to hear the stories again!  There may be no others in the entire universe except us who can stand on the lawn away from the din and hear the far-off notes of hope!  Sometimes even I can hear the sweetness, away from the cursing and the enmity and the sneering,  Have we not seen?  Have we not heard?  Help is on the way!

God Bless Us, Every One                       H   B   King

It’s probably not good grammar.   And I don’t know if Kenny Rogers sang about it,  yet it’s good advice.   It divides our reaction to Chance into two categories:  we can either whine about “what if…”, and long for greener pastures; or we can take what comes and make something good of it.  Very few of us get everything we want when we want it–so we’re advised to mine the gold out of each situation…and often to be surprised at the pile of gleam it DOES yield!

Jeremiah warned Jerusalem that the Babylonians were coming, and they did.   From the ruins of their hopes and dreams, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles now bemoaning their fate in Babylon.  (29:1-7)   “Build houses…plant gardens…have a lot of Jewish children….Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”   Not only is this good advice for spiritual and mental stability, but it’s God’s assurance that the Lord of Hosts also functions in Babylon!  (Who’da guessed?)

Paul was imprisoned, “chained like a criminal”, for his tenacious appeal to Caesar about his faith and works.  But he wrote to Timothy, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” (II Timothy 2:10)    He certainly hadn’t an easy life, and must have anticipated his eventual martyrdom.  A lesser man might have chucked it all in, given in to Them and abandoned the fight.  “But the word of God is not chained.” (v.9)  Sometimes being a stubborn old man is not a bad thing!

Luke’s story about the ten lepers (17:11-19) is full of possibility:  the clustering of dis-similar people into a crisis-group; the healing strength of Jesus; a discussion of social laws and priestly customs toward the ill; the gratitude factor of “only” one-tenth…  But I’d like to lift up the group’s approach to Jesus, recognizing that even here in the no-man’s land between Samaria & Galilee comes God’s Grace.  We know nothing of their earlier attitude, but here at least they’re Playing their Hand–with some success.  “As they went, they were made clean,”

These three anecdotes bring a sense of reality to Exiles in Babylon, Paul’s Roman prison and a support-group for the diseased.  None of them are in very happy times or circumstances, yet they somehow manage to bloom where they’re planted.   Americans of today are overflowing with angst and distrust.  Residents of Developing Countries live with plagues, drought and terror.  Europeans and Asians alike are caught with pollution of air & water.  Will Believers offer Godly advice about Playing the Hand You’ve been Dealt?   And trying to bloom where they’re planted??

God Bless Us, Every One                          H   B   King

She said, as the hum of the Emergency Room air conditioner became white noise to soften the incessant bleeps of the monitors as his life slowly ebbed away.   How Could this Happen? he thought, leaving the personal care home where the mother who had held the family together sat gazing into space, unaware that she even had a son.   How Could this Happen? when the biopsy comes back, when the fire trucks scream to a halt at your curb, when she writes “This is the most difficult letter I’ve ever written, but…”   How could this happen when the invincible is wrecked around your shoulders?   My God!   My God!

Although the 22nd Psalm would well fit into our readings today, we’ll actually look at the Lamentations often ascribed to Jeremiah, first six verses.   The Holy City has fallen, the Babylonians have displaced the populace, and the sacred spots are in ruins.  Has God forsaken her?  “All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.”   The Prophets, living and dead, gather as a cloud of witnesses to wail, “We tried to tell you….”    How does this interpolate into a time of social carelessness, of global climate change, of mistrust of those unlike our own race and culture?  We think of “The Planet of the Apes” and so many of its progeny doom-flicks…..   My God!  How Could this Happen?    (And blessed are those who utter this as a prayer and not as a blasphemy.)

In spite of it all, says St. Paul from prison, keep the Faith.  (II Timothy 1:1-14)   One of my favorite instructions is v.7, “for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.”   Workers in God’s Kingdom can get depressed pretty easily, for the Babylonians are always at the gates.   For every quiet voice of adoration and affirmation, there are hundreds of others shouting that our ethic is foolish and that “nice guys finish last”.  But Paul hangs in there, trusting in God.  “Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.  Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit LIVING IN US.”  (caps mine)

Luke’s Gospel (17:5-10) reminds the Lamenter that even a smidgen of faith is enough!   It doesn’t need to be “increased”, for even now the Believer can do much more that is probable, like throwing a huge tree into the sea.   But look, Jesus says, you’re gonna have to empty yourselves as would a slave, thinking first of the complete attention to the Master.  Are there good things we haven’t even tried, thinking we’re not faithful enough?  

Wordsworth wasn’t lamenting over what once was, yet he wrote, “And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things….” (Lines Above Tinturn Abbey)    The abbey itself had fallen to ruins:  dust on the high altar, moss on chancel rail…a sorrowful echo of evensong chanted by monks long gone….  And was God yet to be found there?   Evidently.

God Bless Us:  Every One                                         H    B    King

Yesterday Jesus asked me for five dollars;  I gave him forty cents.   He was disguised as an older fellow dressed in shabby clothes, sitting on the steps of the downtown post office.   He was pretty disappointed,  so I offered a cold “God Bless You” over my shoulder as I passed.   Reaching my car, it occurred to me that my devotional reading earlier in the day was about Compassion.   I could still go back!  Did I?  Nope.  It’ll probably be too late tomorrow, too.   This Sunday’s readings address –again– the have-nots and the Kingdom of God.

Jeremiah had prophesied that Jerusalem would be overrun by the Babylonians.   Since the spin-doctors didn’t want to hear that, he was under house arrest in the Court of the Guard within the royal compound. (Jeremiah 32)   There he was visited by his cousin Hanamel, who offered to sell Jeremiah a field which had been in their family for many generations.   Even though it was war-time, and Jeremiah didn’t expect to win, he bought it as a sign that God’s People would someday return and claim their heritage.  “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:  Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”  In the long run, expecting God’s ultimate triumph, what will be valuable?

The two letters to Timothy, ascribed to Paul, are warm encouragement from a revered mentor to one trying to find his way, often in over his head.   How to engage those who have money?   “Command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share….” (I Timothy 6:17-18)   We poor folks agree with this, but we rich people tend to see it as idealism.    I never thought myself wealthy until I met those living in real poverty.  Where are my good works and generosity?

Then of course, there’s Lazarus. (Luke 16:19-31)  The “rich man” is anonymous ,but God knows Lazarus by name.   The rich guy didn’t get sent to eternal torment because he was wealthy, but because of his lousy attitude, judgmental and selfish.   We can’t improve a bit on this parable, so we won’t go into explanations:   the message hits us squarely!   But it scares me:  how many hungry beggars have I stepped over every day without helping?   “When did we see you, Lord…..?”

Appointed to my student parish while in Seminary at age 23, I was in awe of life-time Christians much older than I.  During my first week, my lay-leader told me, “Whatever you do, don’t preach about MONEY!”   Timothy-like, I replied, “Hmmmm.:”   The same fellow took me aside a year or so later with the same admonition.   With graduate-school brashness, I this time replied, “I’ll preach about money only as much as Jesus did!”    May you be prosperous, and may your generosity exceed your wealth!

God Bless Us, Every One                            H   B    King

In New Orleans, last week, the day-time temperatures were in the 90s, a trauma for this NorthEast guy.   A few minutes out of our air conditioned hotel, we could have been in a sauna.  We looked carefully at each street, in order to walk on the shady side.  Evening in the French Quarter brought LOTS of “shady side” opportunities…   All of which is to say that it’s nice to go places, even nicer to come home to daily routine and chilly nights!   I guess Summer is now officially over.

Why not listen to what Jeremiah the Prophet says:  “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved”? (8:20)   Perhaps he was listening to the 6 o’clock news when he wrote, “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick….For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.” (8:18-21)   Yet another shooting, this time in Washington…and more unreported in LA, Chicago, the Bronx.   Pre-teen boys skateboarding on N’awlins sidewalks at 11 PM.  Hurting young adults hiding behind head-bangin’  “music” and drunken yelling…  Is there no balm in Gilead?

Paul has the right idea about intervening in this wasteland:  “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.” (I Timothy 2:1)   He goes on to focus on “kings and all who are in high positions so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”    Prayer is good.  It quiets me down, when I pray, and gives a feeling that I’m not alone.   Telling someone else that you’re praying for them  can melt the hardest of exteriors — and bend the hearts as well.   Change the World! twenty minutes each day.

Jesus told a rather puzzling parable which you can read in Luke 16:1-9, “the dishonest manager”.   He seems to condone shady practices, so that when we go to Hell we’ll have company!  Read farther.  Please.   Down to verse 13, “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.”   Or selfishness.  Or hedonism, alcohol, drugs or sex.  

Knowing that I’m not a mover & shaker causes me to cower in my cozy study and despair.   Alas, what can I do to ease this wide-spread bedlam?   An impish voice says, “Nothing!  Hide!”    Yet Paul’s encouragement to pray for individuals and The System gives some substance to my soul!   Help me, Lord, not to abandon the Kingdom, even though the summer has ended and many of us know not that we HAVE been saved.

God Bless Us, Every One.                              H   B   King