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When I was in Eighth Grade, the pals I hung out with were derisively called the Wise Guys, especially by male faculty members. We always had a smart answer for our shenanigans. Scriptures to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend remind us that in God’s eyes, we’re not always that smart. Real Wisdom is a gift from God, and often (usually?) runs counter to the wisdom of The System.

PROVERBS 9:1-6 “introduces” Wisdom as the feminine side of Creation; she calls those who will hear to “lay aside immaturity and live, and walk in the way of insight”. Wisdom goes beyond obeying the rules to accepting a divine relationship with a God who has generously created Life. Our ethics have turned upside down, and if we care to wait out the dark times, the Light will eventually win out. Well, THERE’s hope! Do we pursue the path of Wisdom, or do we squander our dreams on that which does not satisfy? Please note that Dame Wisdom freely offers bread and wine, the Nourishment of Eternity.

EPHESIANS 5:15-20 speaks to our need to live as wise people, acknowledging God’s Presence at all times. “The mark of the wise, according to this passage, is using time wisely, and using it to change the world.” (Paul V. Marshall, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 3:350) The Christ-follower is to put themself where the Wisdom is, abstaining from that which dulls the senses, and giving thanks for all that is, certain that God is there.

Many have skipped over the Gospel of JOHN 6:51-58, where Jesus announces that to eat his body and drink his blood is the fulfillment of Godliness. Many cringe when they realize that he means it: consumption is allowing each bit to flow through the circulation into the smallest of capillaries. Luther maintains that the emphasis should be on “MY”, instead of concentrating on “FLESH” and “BLOOD”. All of us “consume” something, sometimes the evils of The System. Real salvation is about attending to God’s Presence by not selling out to the impotent forces that surround us.

So the Wise are those men & women who proclaim that the Word has moved into our backyard and must be acknowledged. They commit to a life never quite in-sync with the common values, to a life on the fringes of The System, and of self-giving to the destitute and loveless.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Every Tuesday we’ll explore the lessons to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend, at horacebrownking.com

Sometimes, not often, I recognize that the commentators I follow have said better things than I can with my limited language. This week, I’ve decided to let them speak for themselves; I’m reading the Common Lectionary from FEASTING on the WORD, Proper 14 in Year B, pages in Volume 3 of 314 through 337.

I KINGS 19:4-8 (Susan E. Vande Kappelle, once pastor of 4th Presbyterian, Washington PA) “Elijah is a faithful servant of the living God. In the prophetic office, Elijah has known the Lord’s provision in drought and famine….Even without blatant personal sin, Elijah sees no good in his life….He assumes that he can be of no further service to the Lord….Feeling the hopelessness of his situation, Elijah flees into the wilderness and seeks an end to his life….In every situation God makes redemption possible….God breaks the power of evil and offers new life….In response to an individual who has lost hope and direction for life and who has a poor sense of self-worth, God acts with compassion….The redemption of Elijah takes time. It requires compassionate nurture and the recovery of Elijah’s sense of his value to God….Elijah’s worth is found in God’s love for him and in the call of God upon his life….Human worth does not depend upon living a sinless life. It is the concrete love of God that provides humans with self-worth and meaning for life.”

EPHESIANS 4:25-5:2 (G. Porter Taylor, Episcopal Bishop of Western North Carolina, Asheville NC) “The new believers are to ‘put off’ or ‘strip away’ the old self so that God can give them the new….Because we are reborn, the habits of the old self have no dominion over us….Therefore, the works described by Paul are not merit badges set out for us to achieve. Rather, they are marks of the new life given to us in baptism….Paul is calling for the new Christians to remember who they now are in Christ and to focus on the way to life, instead of turning back to the ways of death….God gives us the capacity to turn around as well as to refrain from turning back….Paul is calling for these early Christians not merely to worship God in Christ, but through the Holy Spirit to imitate Christ in their own behavior…”

JOHN 6:41-51 (Will Willimon, Bishop of the United Methodist Church and resident scholar at Duke University) “As modern scientific people, we have learned so much about everything we can taste, and touch, and feel. In the process, the world got demystified, explained, unbearably flattened and figured out. We therefore long to peek behind the veil, to penetrate the less obvious….What the Bible names in places as ‘idolatry’ could also be called attempts to seek sustenance in places other than with Jesus, who says he is the bread of life….Whatever we need in order to comprehend Jesus must come as a gift, insight not of our own devising.”

Egad, what a lot of words! I pray that they’ll direct your life as they do mine.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Join us next Tuesday to explore Scripture passages to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend.

Every so often the texts to be explored on the upcoming weekend don’t really go together. Blame Vicki of Nashville. This week is one of those where the Golden Thread is difficult to find. But it seems to me that God uses these varied experiences of The People to underline the point: that humanity isn’t ordained for suffering and insecurity, but for the fulfillment of a Dream, an idea in the mind of God. We remember many times when we thought we were starving–and God provided! So what we’re looking at is the experience of a Providential God giving us more than we expected.

EXODUS 16:9-15 is part of the story of how the Hebrews, the desert wanderers, gradually became the ethical and spiritual community of God. The Back to Egypt committee had been whining that they needed more sustenance. YHWH told them, “OK, have it your way.” And a multitude of quails came to the Hebrew camp, and the Bread of Heaven appeared with the dew. MANNA means, “What is it?” These gifts became part of the Jewish story-tradition, and reminded hearers through the centuries that a loving God has signed a relief to them.

Paul, or a member of his team, wrote encouraging words to the EPHESIAN Church. Here in 4:11-16, the hearers are urged to tune in to holy gifts as discovered in their members and in the body as a whole, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the Body of Christ…” Part of that ministry is to proclaim the abundant provision of a very present God.

The Gospel of JOHN, 6:24-35, continues the story of the holy intersection between Jesus and his hungry people. Having been fed in the wilderness, they wanted to squirrel away Jesus’ power so they’d ALWAYS be fed. (As you may remember, this didn’t work with the manna, either.) But look!, the provision ascribed to Moses was really from GOD who always appears just at the right time. Thus Jesus walked the earth–and still does. Those who ingest his presence and his being are blessed with a nourishment which goes beyond quail and manna.

In telling these stories, we’re enriched by the remembrance and implicit knowledge of a God who provides. We ‘self-made’ persons would do well to accept our position within the wholeness of Heavenly Culture, to devote our time and energy to the development of our community, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry…” Will there be enough manna to go around? Most assuredly!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

You’re invited!–to join with us each Tuesday to hear the lessons to be read in worship during the upcoming weekend. And bring a friend….

I guess it’s whether we see the glass as half-full or half-empty. I admit that hearing and reading the news makes me very cynic: poverty levels in developing nations; the hopelessness of the homeless; the social isolation of sick elderly… I mean, what can my little bit do in the face of so much need? Lessons to be heard on the upcoming weekend acknowledge that the need is great, BUT that God’s aid is never scarce.

II KINGS 4:42-44 tells the story of an unnamed fellow who was doing OK, although he lived in turbulent times. (Don’t we all?) He brought a significant share of his “first fruits” to the prophet Elisha–whose name translates to “God has granted salvation”–and God had him distribute the food to the people there, collecting many crumbs. The brief reading says 1), that there really is need in the world; and 2), that God surprises us with the realization of many blessings. In the midst of need, God provides. Can you risk thinking outside the box?

EPHESIANS 3:14-21 has lots to talk about–the verse that jumped out at me is the 21st, “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine…” God’s provided bounty isn’t dependent upon where we live or with whom; we are not under the rules of “scarcity”. How many good programs never have seen the light of day because “we just don’t have enough__”? The Church at Ephesus and her descendants is commended for risking, and challenged to risk more.

JOHN 6:1-21 is this apostle’s telling of the Feeding of the Great Crowd. The followers of Jesus thought that this doesn’t make any sense at all, but they trusted him enough to do it. At the end of common sense is Jesus, calling the Crowd to enjoy the abundance. “…in the hands of Jesus, little can become much, the few can become the many, and the weak can become strong.” (Cheryl Bridges Johns, in FEASTING on the WORD,B 3:289)

This is hard for me to remember. I grew up (?) pinching pennies and worrying about whether I had “enough”. But I did, through God’s largesse. Maybe this is you, too?

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please share this with your friends, and join with us every Tuesday to explore scriptural texts which will be presented on the upcoming weekend; at horacebrownking.com

The word PATHOS, from the Greek, is usually meant to convey the feeling of sympathy, or even pity. From this we get our words of “passion” and “compassion”. Texts to be explored on the upcoming weekend address God’s direct encounters with the comings and goings of humankind. Here is a God who’s not an absentee landlord on a cloud somewhere, but has specific concerns with people and joins with them in their perplexities.

JEREMIAH has some pretty tough words for the rulers of Judah in 23:1-6. He accuses them of being careless with the sheep, even to the point of scattering them to other pastures. God expects more. There is a divine pathos/compassion expressed here to restore the holy fields and to fill them with justice. “I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.” And there’s always a promise involved: we are to look for and welcome the Great Shepherd, emulating God’s protection and justice.

EPHESIANS 2:11-22 speaks about the human barricades we’ve constructed to separate “our own” sheep from “those others”. “The peace of Christ is a shocking new reality in which former enemies who would not touch or eat with one another now reach out to one another in recognition of their common humanity.” (Edwin Searcy, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 3:257) “Our reunion in Christ reunites us not only to one another. It is the path to our reunion with God.” (op.cit.) The Holy One continues to seek us out, to be involved with our human wanderings.

The Gospel, MARK 6:30-34, 53-56, tells us many things surrounding the Feeding of the Multitudes, the “missing” passage. “(Jesus) saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd…” This compassion could be said to be the center of Creation, and the life force of holy humanity. Cheryl Bridges Johns indicts us all by claiming that Holy Compassion is to “people who are weak, overwhelmed by evil forces, and unable to sustain a viable existence.” (ibid.,261) Who, me?? Here Jesus is more than a dispenser of Grace, he actually joins this crowd of directionless and desperate people.

Our God is an empathic God, one who will stoop down to the dust from which we were Created and get God’s hands dirty along with the people. We also are supposed to go to the wandering and bring them home to safety.

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please join us each Tuesday to explore scriptures to be presented on the upcoming weekend–and pass this on to your friends!

Norman Podhoretz has described prophetic action as two-pronged: speaking God’s Word as it’s perceived; and confronting the prevalent idols. (THE PROPHETS, Simon & Schuster, 2002) Scriptural passages heard on the upcoming weekend lift up this tradition of continuing God’s Presence and speaking out against rival gods. Contemporary followers of God are twisted & turned by forces seeking allegiance. We the People often find it more convenient to go along, get along.

AMOS, a herdsman from Tekoa near Jerusalem, was sent by YHWH to the Northern Kingdom of Israel– out of bounds–to illustrate with a plumb line how far out the people were. King Jeroboam was the leader of this spiritual defection, thus he would be killed and Israel overthrown (7:7-15). (see the 10 Lost Tribes) The entire Book of this prophet has to do with the abuse of the poor and the aggrandizement of the rich. You may well say, “That’s no longer OUR position: we’ve fooled God with our empty words and shallow justice!” Michael Jinkins reminds us that “Amos’ integrity lies in his ability, in his willingness, and ultimately in his courage to bear testimony to this word.” (FEASTING on the WORD, B 3:220)

“The best solution” to the authorship of the Letter to the EPHESIANS “is to posit a follower of Paul who wrote a general letter, and, in accord with ancient custom, attributed it to the one whose ideas he was expounding.” (ibid., Paul Achtemeier, page 231) Here in the very beginning, 1:3-14, we encounter the gracious intent of God to heal, redeem and forgive our brokenness. We who are marked by the Holy Spirit–ALL of us!–are to share in these blessings by announcing (again) what God is doing in the midst of our troubled world.

Many of us are familiar with the beheading of John the Baptizer: today it is presented in MARK 6:14-29. It seems that John had been speaking out about King Herod Antipas’ lecherous involvement with his sister-in-law, Herodias. For this he was thrown in jail, and martyred for his faithfulness. Herod gave a dinner-party to impress the local toadies, and rashly promised his step-daughter, Salome, that he would give her whatever she wished. Coached by her mother, who was smarting about the inferences of John, she asked for his head on a platter. Was John a prophet, speaking Truth to Power? Are you?? To what lengths will you risk your head?

Note well: none of these occasions did much to change the world’s systems of power, greed and injustice. Nor should you expect to make an immediate difference, should you pick up the prophet’s mantle. BUT these heroes of days gone by are still enshrined for their boldness, as are the innumerable victims of the intervening years. How will you deal with the world God loved?

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

We’re challenged every Tuesday to plunge into the texts being presented during worship on the upcoming weekend. Tell your friends to join in at horacebrownking.com

Human society is torn between being “Godly” or the prevailing system of prestige/ownership/wealth. This is nothing new: lessons being heard on the upcoming weekend tell of prophets who have tried to speak God’s Word only to be met with the Beatles’ response, “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah”. These texts tell again the stories of those on the brink of giving up, tired and burnt out with the constant rejection.

EZEKIEL’s book jumps right in with the vision of the Chariot of God. And here in 2:1-5 he is summoned by the Almighty to go to “a nation of rebels….impudent and stubborn”. Is this Israel in the Babylonian Captivity? or is it us?? Many will say that they’re waiting for a Special Person to peel back the clouds, but here God addresses Ezekiel as “Mortal”–an everyday sort of guy. The Church–Zeke’s descendants–is called to say “Thus says the Lord”, whether or not the surrounding culture hears. Even in a strange and alien “land”, God finds us and encourages us to keep on fighting the dragon.

The collection of messages we call II CORINTHIANS is actually a chain letter probably written by Paul’s team on his behalf. 12:1-10 describes Paul’s vision(s) of heaven and thus his tenacious handling of his own “thorn in the flesh.” How do we respond to Rachel Maddow and the Supreme Court? How can we find the words to address this corrupt society and be heard? Or does anyone really care…? I guess that we’re to be the presence of Christ to others despite our personal weaknesses, daring the opportunity of rejection.

MARK 6:1-13 tells the story of Jesus preaching in his hometown, Nazareth-not-Pennsylvania. The Old Timers there remember him as Mary & Joseph’s kid, and won’t let him grow up. The second part tells about Jesus sending out his Disciples, always with the risk of not being heard. Even still, they cast out many demons and cured the sick. In the midst of rejection, a few will respond–to Ezekiel, to Paul, to Jesus and his followers. These tales encourage us to take a deep breath and plunge in again. And again.

Maybe this weekend I’ll want to pound the pulpit as we read the Psalm for the day, Number 123: “Have mercy on us, for WE HAVE HAD MORE THAN ENOUGH OF CONTEMPT. Our soul has had MORE THAN ITS FILL of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please forward this on to some of your enraged friends; and be sure to join us every Tuesday as we unpack scripture texts which will be engaged on the upcoming weekend.

We continue on with our speculative questions of “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Nice People?” You’ve asked, I’ve asked, convinced of our virtue. Scripture portions to be heard this upcoming weekend claim God’s desire of Perfection: God has given us Wholeness in Creation, but human nature has been seen in the way we’ve deviated from accepting this exalted state. These occasions are rich in naming Wholeness as a given.

Many of us do not recognize the WISDOM of SOLOMON AS “real” scripture, because it’s a part of the Apocryphal writings of the Old Testament. Yet here it is, 1:13-15, 2:23-24. The author–probably a Greek-speaking Jew from Egypt–is lifting up the permanence between God and humanity as opposed to the escapism of the transient worshiper. (“Eat, drink, and be merry: gather rosebuds while you still can.”) The book insists that life didn’t come as a matter of chance, and that death isn’t the last word. “…God did not make death, and [God] does not delight in the death of the living.” If we take a long view of human life, then the surrounding injustice becomes more terrible, more personal. More than being saved from death, we are enriched by claiming our immortality.

St. Paul, or someone on his team, is speaking in II CORINTHIANS 8:7-15 about money…or is he? We’ve understood that these verses refer to the charitable gifts by the Churches to aid the work in Jerusalem; yet between the lines is a concern for the unity of the People of Christ, an acknowledgment that we’re all in the same boat. The Corinthian’s “…deepest need is to share their abundance with brothers and sisters who are less materially blessed.” (John T. McFadden, FEASTING on the WORD, B 3:186) What does this have to do with healing? Everything, for it is affirmation that the entire body is connected by Divine design.

MARK 5:25-34 tells about Jesus’ encounter with a seriously hemmorhaging woman–she had spent all her money for the last twelve years trying to get this to stop, and was now desperate. She may have been a Gentile, and an unclean woman–but she touched Jesus’ cloak and the bleeding ceased! Fearing rebuke, she confessed everything; but Jesus spoke to her of faith in the God of Health. She understood that bodily functions were not an affliction, but that as a daughter of God she had the right to perfection! Do we still believe even when physical healing is slow? Do we still recognize that God’s Plan includes our prayers?

Over the years, I’ve offered many services of Sacramental Healing. In all of these, there were many who were disappointed that crutches were not immediately discarded, or that skin rashes didn’t immediately disappear. Yet as one who was personally cured of a mysterious swelling of the pancreas, I can affirm that Wholeness/Healing is a process, and that Divine Intervention is really a proclamation of our own created perfection. Genesis 1:31 tells us that “God saw everything that {God} had made, and behold, it was very good.”

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please join us every Tuesday to unpack the scriptural texts to be heard on the upcoming weekend; and please share this with a friend! horacebrownking.com

Theologians call it the question of Theodicy. But most of us ask it anyway: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Scriptures to be heard on the upcoming weekend begin to address this, or at least acknowledge that it’s a human/God sort of misunderstanding about “reward”. Those who sit in the pews need to know that they’re not the only ones asking this question, but God-fearing people from ancient times join them in questioning morals & ethics.

Our friend JOB, not a patient man, spends most of his story in complaining to God. His flocks and belongings have been taken, and his family are non-supportive. Complain, complain, complain! “Why me, Lord? I’ve been good!” And finally YHWH breaks the silence: “So where were YOU when I called up substance from Chaos? And locked up the sea and its monsters?” (38:1-11) Job cannot see beyond his nose, focusing on perceived injustice instead of God’s dazzling glory. “The chaos is still there, but so is God. And that is enough.”(Leane Pearce Reed, FEASTING on the WORD, B 3:151)

The author of II CORINTHIANS 6:1-13 lists the persecutions of Paul as his own: “Afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labor, sleepless nights, hunger…” But he’s still alive! And God’s in charge! “The former things have passed away.” “True joy grows not from the absence of hardships but from knowing God’s grace even within that hardship.” (John T. McFadden, ibid., 162)

MARK 4:25-41 tells (another) story about Jesus asleep in the storm-tossed boat while his friends try valiantly to sail on. “Hey, wake up and help us bail!” But God-in-Christ does better than that, he restores Peace to the elements and the chaos. There will be stormy winds, yet they do not have the final say; our lives are often tossed by one calamity after another, but God sees us through. “I’ve been good!”, we shout–nonetheless, injustice raises its ugly head to sock us whether or not we deserve it. And some of this passage can be realized as we join the disciples in asking, “Who is this?”

“(God) commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven, they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their calamity… Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress…. Let them extoll him in the congregation of the people, and praise him in the assembly of the elders. –from Psalm 107

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Please share this with your friends, and come join us every Tuesday to contemplate scriptural passages to be read on the upcoming weekend during worship; at horacebrownking.com

Scriptures you will hear on the upcoming weekend serve to remind us that God is full of surprises, and that just when we think all is lost, a God who thinks & plans outside the box becomes vital even during seasons of change and despair. The prophets who have spoken these words are using our inbuilt hope to point out how God marvelously makes things grow into symbols of the Kingdom.

EZEKIEL 17:22-24 propounds a riddle: how can a tender twig take root and turn into a magnificent tree? “It does proclaim the prophetic Word that God’s sovereignty is comprehensive, transcendent, and inclusive of all other sovereignties.” (John Rollefson, in FEASTING on the WORD, B 3:124) Despite the political intrigues of Judah/the US, God will introduce a righteous branch which will spread so that all the birds will find their place there. Every kind; All are Welcome; all means all. God is in the process each day of overthrowing old expectations in favor of renewed signs of the Kingdom. Is Mary’s Canticle (Luke 1) coming yet to pass?

The Apostle Paul dares to speak about this understanding in his collection of letters bundled under the rubric of II CORINTHIANS. In 5:6-17 he submits that “the love of Christ urges us on” as he marvels at the unexpected workings of the Holy in our hearts. There’s a new way of seeing the Other as a kindred Child of God. “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” Outside the box…

In MARK 4:26-34, Jesus tells two parables about How God Works, even in minute seeds. He speaks of the dryness of a seed, apparently dead; yet this seed contains Life and miraculously transmits the power of the fertile earth to a mighty plant–even the tiniest seed known will turn into a great tree. (My mother had earrings and a choker holding a “mustard seed”–c’mon, didn’t yours?) I suppose that it’s easier to keep and display a mustard seed than consign it to the risky growth that’s enclosed. Don E. Saliers contends that “These are hope-filled parables. God will not fail to fulfill the promise of salvation.” (ibid., B 3:142) The stories are not about judgment, or getting their just deserts; they’re about the ongoing steadfast love of the Creator who pronounced everything Good.

I often leave the room during the nightly news: it’s weird and sickening. Yet the responsive reading for the day is Psalm 92: The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; They flourish in the courts of our God… Keep on gardening, let your neighbors marvel and be glad!

In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King

Bring your friends, if you have any, to our discussion of Lectionary Scripture to be read during worship on the upcoming weekend. (It’s OK to share my grasping thoughts with others!) Every Tuesday at horacebrownking.com.