Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 30, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 20 verses 19 through 27:

19 The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. 20 So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor. 21 So they asked him, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. 22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” 23 But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, 24 “Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?” They said, “Caesar's.” 25 He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” 26 And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent.

Gotcha Politics has been around a long time.

On the face, the questions Gotcha Politics asks seem to be the important questions. Should we give to Caesar or not appears to be an important question. When it's asked everyone tunes in.  Suddenly the whole crowd wants to know, feels like it needs to know. Should we give our money to Caesar or not?  This is an important question.

But who wants to know?  Or, better, who's asking?  And why are they asking?  And why are they asking in such a public, shall we say politicized, venue?  Who gains from this question being asked and being answered?  Though I probably would have missed it then, from a distance of two-thousand years I can tell. It's Gotcha Politics who wants to know.

Beware. Gotcha Politics is still out there. He's all over the Internet and TV. He's asking all kinds of hardball questions.  I mean he's really cuts to the bone, not afraid to be controversial at all.  And I suppose I would call it good journalism if there weren't so much money and reputation to be made in it.  That makes me suspicion, wondering if the role of journalism has not over the last few decades changed from being the watchdog of the people to the attack dog of the politicians. That's something to think about when the really controversial stuff gets brought up.

"Good teacher, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not? Just a simple yes or no will do. You know, without any equivocation. After all, a man of your position ought to be straightforward about something so black and white."

Inquiring minds want to know.

And so do Grand Inquisitors.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 29, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 1 through

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain. 2 But though we had already suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we had boldness in our God to declare to you the gospel of God in the midst of much conflict. 3 For our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. 5 For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness. 6 Nor did we seek glory from people, whether from you or from others, though we could have made demands as apostles of Christ. 7 But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children. 8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.

What a wonderful picture of a minister. Strong, and unashamed of the Gospel and willing to stand up and speak its truth boldly even amidst much conflict and opposition. Speaking a truth that is Godly, and not predicated on deception or watered down for the sake of moderation. Proclaiming a Gospel that is not predicated on self-interest, whether that self-interest be one of greed or the idolatry of wanting to be accepted and liked. This is stern medicine.

Yet it's also tender medicine. There is gentleness in the minister's way, true affection for the people, and an openness to share not only the Gospel but also the fullness of his or herself and life with the people, in the community, and in the neighborhood.

What a wonderful picture indeed; and a lot to try to live up to today.

Saturday, November 26, 2016

In Memoriam

I want to thank those who have reached out to offer condolences to me and my family in the loss of my uncle Jeff Whillock.  Your kindness to our family is a grace.



For those who may not yet have heard, a memorial service for Jeff will take place Monday at 10am at Second Baptist Church.

Sometimes death comes as a mercy. Jeff struggled with an increasingly debilitating autoimmune disease for two decades. In recent years he had grown very weak and very tired.  This condition, plus the loss of Jeff's daughter Ellory six years ago, left the light of this life only a smoldering wick and the light of life to come a brighter and brighter hope. In the end, Uncle Jeff reached out to that light that was coming and took hold.

In spite of our loss, there is still much for which our family is grateful.  We are grateful for Jeff's generous spirit and concern for the less fortunate -- something he shared in common with both his father Fred and his beloved Aunt Mary and passed down to his daughter Ellory.  We are grateful for Sharon, Jeff's wife and Ellory's mother, who loved and cared for Jeff in so many ways, even unto his last hours. And above all, we are grateful for Jeff's love for Ellory and the hope we have that they are now together again forever.

"And now these three things remain: Faith, Hope, and Love. And the greatest of these is Love."

And Love never ends.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Thessalonians 5 verses 16 through 19:

16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

It is 7:30am Central and the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade will be starting in 30 minutes. Watching the Parade is the first of many Thanksgiving Day rituals I have enjoyed since a boy we still enjoy as a family.

I always cry at the beginning of the Parade. It's another Thanksgiving Day ritual, a little lump in the throat to begin the holiday season. The moment is bittersweet as Thanksgivings past come back. My grandmother B's giblet gravy. The first Thanksgiving she was no longer there to cook it. Trips to Arkansas to see our Aunt Mary. The smell of hotcakes in her kitchen. We only had pancakes in Texas; but hotcakes in Aunt Mary's kitchen was not only another state it was another world. Racing down the hill in front of her house. My great-grandfather driving my great-grandmother down the hill, stepping out of the car, and slowly walking to the trunk to pull out her wheelchair. The Thanksgiving we were still in the high school football playoffs and had practice in the cool, November air that morning. I still remember the Cowboys won that afternoon on their way to a Super Bowl Season. The Thanksgiving after 9/11 when I was in seminary in North Carolina and so far from home and the trees were so dense and the days so short. The next year when I went to the Parade in New York City and watched from the 57th floor balcony of some friend of a friend of a friend's apartment building and got sick to my stomach because I was so high in the air and had drank so much the night before. Our first Thanksgiving with a child of my own. The first Thanksgiving after my cousin was killed and my grasping for words during the prayer as my uncle stood beside me.  The time dad was too sick to be with us at Thanksgiving. This year, when he'll be well.

All of these Thanksgivings come back to me that moment the Parade starts.  They are with me when the TV comes on. The highs and the lows. The good times and the bad.  The hard and very hard ones. And the ones which were and will be again purely joyous.

The first Thanksgiving in Plymouth was celebrated in 1621 after 45 of the 102 colonists who set out for America had passed away during the harsh and devastating winter before. Yet the harvest was plentiful and the storehouse was full and there was much to be thankful for.

And then there is the Thanksgiving Proclamation itself, given to the American people by Lincoln in 1863 amidst the terror of war.  Gettysburg passed, with its myriads and myriads of thousands lost, and yet Lincoln calls on the people to recognize the blessings of the Almighty with these fine words:

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

And so, Lincoln said in his memorable way, it was "fit and proper" to set aside a day for observing thanks.

"Give thanks in all circumstances," St. Paul says. We do. And we remember giving thanks in a circumstances also.  It is fit; and it is proper. And it is what Americans will always do.

Thou hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more,—a grateful heart
Not thankful when it pleaseth me,—
As if Thy blessings had spare days,—         
But such a heart, whose pulse may be
Thy praise.    
(George Herbert)

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

When Governor Nikki Haley ordered the Confederate flag to be removed from the South Carolina State Capitol grounds she earned the respect of the whole Price family, including Gabrielle, who wrote the Gov. the letter below. 

We are pleased at the Governor's nomination as Ambassador to the United Nations and hope she will continue to work for the good of all Americans everywhere. 

Daily Lesson for November 23, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 130 verses 5 and 6:


5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
6 my soul waits for the Lord
more than watchman for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.

Today I am thinking of friends and loved ones who are waiting. Some are waiting for a break. Others waiting for a cure. Two waiting to pass because there is no cure. Their families also.

Waiting, waiting, waiting. The soul waiting. The time spent waiting.

The Bible speaks of two different kinds of time.  One is "chronos" from which we get our word "chronology". This is calendar time, sequential time, the time of the clock, the time which is measured and predictable.

But the other time is what the Bible calls "kairos" time.  This is time indeterminate.  It is the fullness of time.  The time of a rose blooming or a baby being born.  It's the moment when someone's time has come. This is the time Jesus says "no one knows".  This is the fullness of time we call mystery.

My friends, my family, we wait on the mystery. We wait on the LORD. More than watchmen wait for the morning. More than watchmen for the morning.

And the gift from God that enables us to bear the long, long wait is the virtue we call "Hope".

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 22, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 10 through 15:

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. 11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—13  one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

The work of the builder is not judged on day one, at grand opening, when the ribbon is cut and all the people cheer.  That's a great day, to be cherished for sure. But it's not the Day.

The Day comes later -- maybe months or years or even decades later. The Day comes when the fire comes. The Day is the day when the building's mettle is put to the test.

The Day is the day when the truly committed are separated from those who just wanted to be a part of the next big thing.

The Day reveals who joined the church and who joined a preacher.

The Day makes known who the Pillars are -- on both sides of the building.

The Day is the day when a people's deepest values are reaffirmed -- in spite of the cost.

The Day is a difficult and painful day; it is not without loss and destruction.

But the Day is the day that the LORD has made; and at the end of what is left is integrity.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 21, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Galatians chapter 6 verses 6 through 10:

6 Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

It's Pledge Season around church and we are asking our folks to make their commitments to the congregation for 2017.

In America nobody is compelled to give anything to the church, which is the way we Baptists believe it ought to be. Though, I do realize it is for this reason that they say, "Money talks, but around the church it only whispers."  Oh well, God has always been sufficient unto the day and I bet always will be.

But there is one group that today's Lesson has me thinking of and wanting to talk to. This is the group that has either dropped out of church or soon will.

Mostly it's not a conscious decision. There are more backsliders in the church than there are people who intentional dive off of the prow. It's mostly a Sunday here and a Sunday there and pretty soon they have joined the C&E denomination -- Christmas and Easter only. Next thing they'll be saying is that they "just aren't being fed" at their current church.  No kidding. It's hard to be fed when you ain't eating!  This has all been true in every church I've ever been in -- from sleepy little family churches to great big Texas-size.

"God is not mocked."  "For whatsoever a man soweth he shall also reap."  In other words, you get out of it what you put into it. Really, you get a lot more. But it takes time. The seed has to be first planted and watered with both the early and the late rains.  The crop has to be waited on -- patiently and with persistence.  In a world where we can get just about anything we have a mind to eat on demand, the spiritual food comes slow and only in its own due time. It's no wonder so many drop out.

"Do not grow weary in doing good."  In other words, don't grow weary in showing up, and putting in. Not much happens after a month or year or maybe even five; but there is a harvest to be had in that little plot of earth we call church.

There is harvest, that is, if we're willing to wait on and work for it.

Friday, November 18, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 18, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 8:

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

A word this morning on not losing heart.

We may now be seriously considering giving up. All our energies have been to little or no avail. We gave of ourselves heart and soul and strength and the world did not budge. Our strength has now faded, our energies flagged, and our spirits crushed.  Justice denied.

And then a word this morning from the Galilean: Even cruel men relent.  Even hard hearts can be broken, not perhaps by the gentle niceties of the art of persuasion but by the loud pounding of a woman who beats on the door like she has nothing to lose -- nothing save the dignity inherent in each knock which demands, and demands, and demands , "Ain't I a woman?"

And it opens. The closed door opens. The hard heart relents.

And if even the hard heart finally cracks the door for justice, how much sooner and wider the heart of God?

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 17, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 17 verses 20 and 21:

20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”

Because both ancient and first-century Judaism and also Christianity are apocalyptic religions there has and remains always a sense of God's appearance to come. God and God's kingdom are perceived always to be offstage, forthcoming in the next Act.  The Kingdom will come when we get the next President or the next job or move on to the next big thing or church or heaven.

But Jesus taught that the Kingdom is not always in big things to come. The Kingdom is also, Jesus taught, in small things right here.

Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed."  In other words, the Kingdom is never something that is stood beside and watched. If we are bystanders waiting for God and God's Kingdom to show up as something to be witnessed in third person then we'll be waiting forever. The Kingdom of God never comes in third person. The Kingdom of God is "in the midst" of us. In other words, the Kingdom of God is now or it's never.

Paula D'Arcy says, "God comes to us disguised as our lives."

God's Kingdom will show up disguised today amidst the ordinary, frustrating, and bewildering ways of the world. It will come amidst wars and rumors of wars, and predictions about end-times, and a broken economy, and melt-downs of four-year-olds, and CD players that don't work when you need them to at the children's program.

God's Kingdom will come right in our midst, disguised as our messy and fearful first-person lives. And the question for us today is will we see it?  Will we have eyes to behold it?  Will we live into it?

Or, will we just let it pass us by, as we're waiting on the Supertrain?

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Shaking Foundations


[A sermon I preached in the late summer which I think proves even more true after an election in which we saw mountains of blue amidst seas of red. Perhaps the sermon points a way forward for us post-election.  Ultimately, that way forward is for me a people I call church.]

"The Shaking of the Foundations:
America, The Church, and the Future"
Hebrews 12:26,26:
At that time his voice shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” 27This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 


"The Shaking of the Foundations: America, The Church, and the Future" -- I hope this sermon title is not too unambitious!  You know what they say, "If you don't have a strong sermon, give them a strong sermon title; they're more likely to remember that anyways."

I don't know that I have a strong sermon for you this morning.  But I do have what I think is something important to say. And I hope you'll listen. 

My choice to talk about America this morning comes after listening Monday to one of my favorite afternoon AM radio shows, featuring two of my favorite AM radio show hosts, Jay Leeson and Cliff Wilkes. Jay and Cliff are -- and I say this with sincere appreciation and respect -- like the Bo and Luke Duke of Lubbock County.  And just like Bo and Luke's show "The Dukes of Hazard" was about a place called Hazard County, Jay and Cliff's show, "The West Texas Drive", is about a particular place -- our place, Lubbock County, and the rest of West Texas.

Jay and Cliff were talking Monday about the 2016 presidential election and one of them -- I think it was Cliff -- said if Hillary Clinton wins in November there will be a large percentage of people here in West Texas and in the rest of what is sometimes called "heartland" and sometimes alternatively called "flyover" America, who will be left to wonder if they still have a place in this country.

This conversation coincided with the recent publication of a book by Robert P Jones procoactively titled The End of White Christian America.  In the book, Jones takes white Christianity to be a symbol of the kind of cultural and political world white Protestantism built over the first 175 years of our country's existence. That world is in decline, Jones says and he points to some important recent statistics to make his case. At the time of the 2008 general election, a solid majority of 54% of Americans were both white and Christian, but in the course of only seven years that number has now dropped precipitously to only 46% of Americans.

The reasons for this are primarily two-fold:

First is of course immigration and the rise of the non-white Hispanic demographic in America. Our country is getting browner, and just in case anyone has been pulling a Rip Van Winkle over the last two decades, Lubbock is getting browner also. In fact, this part of Lubbock is getting browner also. Our public schools start back tomorrow and two of mine will go back to Whiteside Elementary, here in southwest Lubbock. Last year, I was intrigued to see just how many Latinos were dropping their kids off and picking them up and so I looked up the school's demographics. Thirty-three percent of the students enrolled at Whiteside last year were non-white Hispanic.  Let me repeat that . . . Thirty-three percent are brown at WHITEside.

But there is something else that is driving down the percentage of white Christians and that is the incipient rise of the number of young people now no longer self-identifying as Christians. A 2014 survey of 35,000 U.S. Americans revealed that the religiously unaffiliated (also called "nones" -- as in "none of the above" now accounts for 23% of the adult population, up from 16% in 2007.  The community around our church is growing increasingly less and less Christian, and with that has come an increasingly  more and more secular social order. 

How long has it been now since teachers wouldn't assign homework and coaches wouldn't schedule practice on Wednesdays because Wednesday was church night? (I for one did not attend Wednesday night church as a kid, but I sure appreciated the kids in my class who did. But how long has that been?)

Just how different everything is now became clear to me when I read an article from our next Adult Retreat Leader, Dr. Bill Leonard wrote about a visit he made to Mayberry, USA.  He had been invited to preach on a Sunday morning in one of the churches in downtown Mt Airy, North Carolina, inspiration for the "Andy Griffith Show" set. But Andy, and Opie and Aunt Bee would not have recognized the town Bill Leonard drove into that Sunday morning. Rather than the quiet, quaint town he imagined, Main Street was bustling with droves of people who had all come to participate in and cheer on the "Tri-Mayberry Sprint Triathlon", a Rotary-sponsored charity scheduled to start right there in downtown Mayberry, USA on Sunday morning . . . Palm Sunday morning, no less.

And if Toto were still alive he would say not only are we not in Kansas anymore, we're not in Mayberry anymore either.

But if Mayberry's changed, twenty minutes down the road, in a town neighboring Mt Airy, things have changed for the much worse. Mt Airy has been able to survive on a niche and kitsch market for Mayberry memorbelia, but writing in this week's edition of "The American Conservative" Michael Cooper describes what is happening in his hometown, the real Mayberry c.a. 2016, the one not able to still draw on the benefits of a bygone era of film. I quote him at length:

My town is twenty minutes from where Andy Griffith grew up.  The real life Mayberry.  It's the next county over. Last month there was a national reporter going around town doing interviews like we're a war zone.  Mayberry is ground zero of society's fall. Who saw that coming?

Last Thursday I go into the gas station, and this young girl comes in, probably mid-20s, in a very nice dress, desperately in need of cigarettes.  Obviously on meth.  Otherwise she'd be very pretty.

She's so frantic and anxious that the line lets her cut.  As she walks out we all just stand there. Silent.  Not even shocked. Just sad. 

Humanity has always had problems, Slavery, etc. . . . But this is something new. Man is not made to act like that. 

"Mayberry is ground zero of society's fall. Who saw that coming?"

You know who saw that coming?  Jay Leeson and Cliff Wilkes saw it coming.  The good Ol' boys saw it coming a long time ago.  And really no matter if your in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, or the dry, dusty plains of West Texas or the steel towns of the great Northeast, it's all the same. What we are seeing all across "flyover" America is the shaking of the foundations. A societal fracturing and social disruption.  It is the loss of community.  What sociologists call dislocation. 

And the toll is tremendous. The article mentioned methamphetamine use -- a scourge in our rural communities. In fact, the crisis of drug use is so great now that in New Hampshire the governor dedicated the entirety of last year's State of the State address to the epidemic. Drug addiction is a personal problem; but it is also a social problem. Young whites in the country use drugs for the same reasons young blacks commit crimes in the city -- because there is not a compelling enough reason to keep them from doing so.  This is a war zone.  Ground zero. And the demons causing all the carnage names are isolation, dislocation, and despair.

Those with the economic means get out,while the middle class struggles like it has not struggled in years -- wondering about our schools, and worrying if there will be enough to set aide for college this year now that the insurance premiums are ours to pay.  Those left even further behind fall into one of two categories: one brown the other white; one urban the other rural; or, in some places, one nouveau urban and the other, I am thinking of Ferguson now) ghetto suburban. One category is increasingly fixated on what America was, while the other is still held captive by what it was not.  One flyover the other speed past. 

These are two separate categories and fundamentally two separate American experiences. And the two, both beautiful and also both tragic, both culpable and also both victims, both children of God, are being pitted against one another in the grand theatre we call politics. Pulled apart. 

And I remember Yeats's words:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

And we wonder, shall it be isolation, dislocation and despair and everyone hunkering down in their own encampment or is there another way?  Is there another vision?  Is there any word from the LORD, for just such a time as this?

And at this moment the Lectionary gives us the Book of Hebrews. A great preacher, unnamed and unknown, writing in the context of another time when the primary social organizing institution -- the Temple -- had either been destroyed or was in the process of being destroyed. It was, in the preacher's words a time of great "shaking".  The very foundation of the nation's life was being rocked and things -- great and mighty things, things once thought to be eternal -- were falling apart. 

And for just such a time as that, the preacher took up his pen and said that he was not surprised that it was so. He was not surprised, he said, because he had already been told that the earth and the heavens would all pass away.  That all human things would perish.  That they would all wear out like a garment. Only God alone would remain, and God, the preacher said, is the same yesterday and forever.

And that is when he began to speak of God's people -- what he called that great cloud of witnesses.  People like Abraham and Isaac and Sarah and Moses and Rahab.  "They were not seeking what was behind," the preacher said. "But they were seeking a better country."  That litany of names, that great cloud of witnesses, is found in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. It's sometimes called the roll call of faith. Each of them was by faith still holding on, still looking, still waking. Each of them had faith that they would find the better country, one that was not behind, but still lay on up ahead.

Faith, hope, and love. These are the things Dallas's Mayor Mike Rawlings said we need to have to go on. Faith that our institutions are here to serve us and will do so with legitimacy. Hope that things will get better -- that the better country really is up ahead. And love -- for ourselves and also for our neighbors. A love that looks after not only our own interests but also the interests of others. 

I don't know where else the world is going to find these things if it's not in us -- the church. And maybe that's why the preacher in Hebrews implores the people not to give up meeting together as so many others have. We need to keep meeting -- browns and whites and good ol boys and good ol girls that we are.  And we need to keep bearing our witness, showing to the world that it is possible to -- as we say in our mission -- to be love, light, and one.

Mayberry is mostly a myth now. It's the town my mother gre up in that is no more. But my word, I do love what it was all about. That's the reason I still have my kids watching "The Andy Griffith Show" on something called Netflix. "Why is it in black and white?" Gabrielle asked." "That's how the world used to be," I said. The other day we were watching an episode and Opie wanted to run away from home.  He had had it with Aunt Bee and was ready to get out of town but he wanted to take Andy with him.  

There's something deeply profound in that. It'll preach. That'll preach because that's where the hope is: that though we can leave the town behind, the promise is our Heavenly Father will never leave nor forsake us. He goes with us.  Even if we lose all semblance of our home as the preacher in Hebrews and his people did, God remains with us.

In 1906, a great 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the foundation of San Francisco, killing 3,000 people and destroying 80% of the city. Jack London wrote of looking down upon San Francisco as it burned in fires beyond control, describing it as the crater of a giant volcano, ablaze with red flowing lava. In the city, the Episcopal Church had a great cathedral, Grace Cathedral, which fell victim to the tremors and the subsequent fire.  Just before the Cathedral fell, the priests were able to escape carrying two very important things with them: the church archives and the communion, powerful symbols of God's able and steadfast provision in times past and and the promise of God's presence in times future. 

And though nations rise and fall, and everything wears out lie a garment, and the mountains be shaken and the hills removed the eternal remains. 

Faith, hope, and love remain.

God remains.

As Sheriff Taylor used to say, "I declare . . ."

God does remain. 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.



Daily Lesson for November 16, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19:

11 On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. 12 And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance 13 and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” 14 When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

The community of the exiled is humble and desperate enough that all of the traditional boundaries that separate its people from one another. Jesus is on the border between the Samaritan and Jewish communities. Yet the line between Samaritan and Jew has no meaning for those living in the land of exile. Here there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, rich nor poor.  All there is is clean and unclean; sick and well.  Amongst the unclean and sick we find the community of the banished -- the fellowship of suffering exiles.

We can find this fellowship of suffering exiles even today. It is found in cancer centers, and senior living centers, and group homes, and memory care units, and AA meetings, divorce care communities and other little places all over where the sick and aged and socially unacceptable gather.  Here all other distinctions fall away. All past accomplishments are forgotten.  Here titles are stripped and the former things pass away. Here all that the suffering have left is their fellowship with one another.

And still to this day into that fellowship of exiles comes mercy and compassion.

And still to this day comes Jesus.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Superb Election (and Socio-economic) Analysis

A very insightful and incisive distillation of so many of the issues -- from childcare and healthcare costs to policing to the demasculation of the working class male -- which determined the election.  I have found the issues written of here to be true in blue collar North Carolina, rural Vermont, and now West Texas (again).

https://hbr.org/2016/11/what-so-many-people-dont-get-about-the-u-s-working-class

Daily Lesson for November 15, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 17 and 18:

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

And Psalm 100 verses 1 through 4:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Last year, on the Sunday prior to Thanksgiving, I had the privilege of worshiping with colleagues at Broadway Baptist Church in Ft. Worth.  Among these colleagues was my friend Fran, who was leading worship that morning and offered the pastoral prayer during our worship. I do not remember Fran's specific words that morning. I know they were resonant and well crafted.  But it was not near so much the beauty of Fran's words that moved me so much that morning. It was her presence in the pulpit. It was the fact of her speaking. It was act of her praying a Prayer of Thanksgiving and calling us to pray with her.

And what about this act of prayer that moved me so deeply?

Fran had just in the past months prior lost her husband. She, a recent widow still struggling in her own grief and worried for the grief of the rest of the family, was still nonetheless praying the Prayer of Thanksgiving and summoning us to pray with her.

We enter now the Season of Thanksgiving. No doubt, many come to this time this year in our own grief and apprehension.  Yet, we come to give our thanks nonetheless.  We come to rejoice in the LORD. We come into His presence with singing.

And so as the old Hymn of Harvest says, I echo my friend and pastor Fran in saying also:

"Come ye thankful people come."

Monday, November 14, 2016

"Father Forgive"

Today is November 14, 2016, the 76th anniversary of the German Luftwaffe's bombing of Coventry, England. Coventry Cathedral has subsequently become an international symbol of forgiveness and reconciliation.


Given the struggles we are in today, I thought I would share reflections from my pilgrimage to Coventry.


These reflections were first published on August 6, 2015, the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan.


http://ryonprice.blogspot.com/2015/08/british-evasion-9-august-6-2015.html?m=1




Friday, November 11, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 11, 2016

Today is Veterans Day and we set it aside to remember and honor all those who have served our country in military duty. We are grateful to live in the country we do and give thanks for the sacrifice of those who have stood guard in defense of our beloved country.
Last night I spent the evening with several Marines and Marine Families from my congregation as we celebrated the birthday of the US Marine Corps on November 10, 1775. We heard stories from Col. Rance Nymeyer from his days as the co-pilot of Marine 1 and Capt. Dick Baker told us about his ongoing struggle to get assistance for so many of the veterans struggling with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Sgt. Lee Pennington regaled is with stories from Boot Camp -- a slightly revised, cleaner version of reality, and of his combat in the Korean War. For me it was an evening full of some tears, a great deal of laughter, and most of all a swelling heart for having the honor to know and pastor these fine veterans. Their hearts swelled when I told them that the first person I ever baptized was a Marine set for deployment in Iraq in 2006.
At the conclusion of the evening another friend was asked to read a poem by LCDR Jeff Giles, about a male-believe conversation between a civilian and a soldier, "perhaps a Marine" standing guard outside in the cold on Christmas Eve. The civilian welcomes the soldier in, but the soldier explains that it is his duty to stand outside and "at the front of the line" that separates the civilian and his home and family "from the darkest of times. The poem concludes with these lines:
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.

I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
I can stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."

"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.

To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled."
Veterans have fought and bled for us and our posterity on far away beachheads. May we today remember and honor their service and sacrifice and dedicate ourselves always to fighting the good fight for them and their posterity here at home.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 10, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Romans chapter 12 verses 9 through 16a:

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another . . .

Last night Second B hosted a prayer service called "For the Healing of the Nation".  We scheduled this several months ago, long before the outcome of the election would be determined. We simply felt that what we would need after a bitter and protracted election season would be to simply be together as a community.

I selected the Romans reading above as a preface to our time together in the sanctuary, acknowledging that many came weeping and others came rejoicing.

What was so beautiful was that the space was held for all to be present. There was weeping --some visible. There was rejoicing -- discreet.  There was respect and a place for all. We began with passing the peace and together "America the Beautiful".  Deacons and pastors then led us in prayer for our elected leaders, for our nation, for our world, and for the healing of all wounds. I then prayed for our own beloved community. We then broke bread together, shared the communion, and sang the hymn: "Blest Be the Tie that Binds".

Yesterday, I saw many on Facebook saying one thing we need to do now as a nation is to get out of our bubbles. Half the country voted for Mr. Trump, the other half voted for Mrs. Clinton. The two halves live in different places -- geographically and ideologically.  We live in different states, different zip codes, and on different channels. We do not know and hardly even recognize one another. As I said in a sermon earlier this summer, we are two Americas:

"[O]ne brown the other white; one urban the other rural; or, in some places, one nouveau urban and the other, I am thinking of Ferguson now) ghetto suburban. One category is increasingly fixated on what America was, while the other is still held captive by what it was not.  One flyover the other speed past."

In times like these we say things like, "America needs to come together".  This I believe is literally true but also physically impossible. I mean, how?  How do two Americans separated by such distance come together?

Perhaps it is impossible. With the neighborhoods now so Balkanized, the schools so re-segregated, and no "Life" or "Cosby" or Great reat War to bind us altogether perhaps coming together is just too great a challenge in an age of identity politics, class warfare, and what sociologist Robert Putnam called "Bowling Alone".

But then there's what happened last night. Weeping, and rejoicing, and the passing of peace, and the breaking of bread, and the final two stanzas to "Blest Be the Tie":
"We share our mutual woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.
When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again."

And the name of the place where it happened is Church.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

What We as Christian People Must Now Do

In the wake of the election of Donald Trump as our new president-elect, we as Christian people must commit ourselves to doing what we have always been called to do:

To give honor to whom honor is do, including our recognition of Mr. Trump as the democratically-elected president of all of us.

To pray for Mr. Trump and all other elected officials, asking that vice may wane, virtue wax, and wisdom prevail.

To bless and not curse.

To, in the words of the ancient Prophet, "Seek the peace of the city."

And where there is injustice or iniquity, to be a voice for the voiceless and a light in the darkness, speaking our spiritual truth to worldly powers.

As people of faith it is our solemn duty to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's. May we observe both ordinances with the character and conviction worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And may it begin with me.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 4, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 13 verses 18 through 21:

18 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” 20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”

When we read this teaching we get it that Jesus is telling us the kingdom is always small in the beginning -- like a tiny mustard seed or a small pinch of leaven. But, what we might miss about what he is saying is that the kingdom is also pesky and unwanted.

The mustard plant is a weed -- notoriously difficult to contain. For you Southerners, the mustard plant is the kudzu of the Middle East. Then there's the leaven. Leaven in the Bible is always seen as bad, even a metaphor for evil.  Leaven is always to be gotten rid of. "For just a little leaven spoils the whole [unleavened] loaf."  Mustard bushes and leaven -- these are things to be fought against by the whole community.

But for Jesus, these are signs of the coming of the kingdom of God -- undesired and unwelcome and vehemently opposed, yet also tougher than a boot and impossible to get rid of.

When that great colonial gadfly Roger Williams was kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony for questioning authority, the General Court ruled that he must be expelled [or executed] in order to prevent the "spreading of his Leaven to sundry."  And what nefarious "Leaven" was that exactly?  It was his dangerous ideas about human rights for native peoples, and religious tolerance of all persuasions and that very, very dangerous idea that the Church and State ought to be separate.

These were the dangerous ideas the General Court tried mightily to stamp out. But eventually, the little pinch of yeast leavened the whole loaf.

It always does.

(PS -- I'll be taking a few days off from Daily Lessons. See you soon.)

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 3, 2016



Today's Daily Lesson comes from the teacher's bathroom at Anderson Elementary:

Yesterday I stopped off in the faculty unisex bathroom while on my weekly mentoring visit at Alderson Elementary School and discovered something surprising and wonderful, at least as far as elementary bathrooms go anyways.  

I have volunteered at Alderson and it's predecessor Parkway Elementary for six years.  Over the years I've had three children as mentees, a brother and a sister and a new mentee whom I'm just getting to know. These kids come from hard neighborhoods with challenging and stressed home lives. The families of everyone of my kids has loved their child dearly.  Still, the opportunities these kids have a minimal, the home life is often stressful.  And the classroom is filled with 20 other kids walking to school from the same difficult circumstances of home. 

After six years of showing up I know the names and stories of many of the other kids besides mine. I know the ones whose fathers are in prison. I know the ones whose cousins were murdered. I know who just got back from burying their mother. I pray for them.

And I pray also for the faculty and staff. I am amazed at the beginning of every school year to see their faces once again. They could be somewhere else -- another school.  But they are here, at this school with these kids and their stories. I wonder how they do it.  How do they keep showing up?  How do they remain?  How do they keep from just losing it when the kids bring all the chaos from home into the classroom?

And that's what was so wonderful about what I discovered on the wall in the bathroom. Taped next to the light switch was a quote by someone named Haim Ginott:

"I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather . . . I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized."

I do not who Haim Ginott is. I do not know if he is a Democrat or a Republican, socialist, capitalist, communist, animal, vegetable, or mineral. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter because I already know the one truly important thing. And the really important thing is this: That somewhere in that school there is at least one person who is self-aware, whose eyes are open, who is not afraid to look at and reflect upon his or her own beautiful and/or frightening truth. There is at least one person who believes in what Plato said, that "the unexamined life is not worth living." I know there is one person over there off Parkway Drive in East Lubbock, Texas who believes these kids deserve someone standing before them in their classroom who is striving to be and do his or her very best -- striving to be good. And in reading the little sign posted there with Haim Ginott's words I know this one person believes it all so much that she or he is is willing to do something seemingly small yet very significant to try to get all the others to believe it and see it all too.

And the word for that person in the English language is called "teacher".

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 2, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 13 verses 10 through 17:

10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. 12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” 13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. 14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? 16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

There is no greater gift than the gift of empowerment.

To reach out one's hand, lift up one's own voice, or raise up one's own back tall and straight.  The bent down and broken stand up like pines and wave their branches in glory to God. The lame rise and walk and suddenly a hymn bursts forth from deep within their soul:

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

God's gift is empowerment. God desire is for those in bondage to find freedom.  God wants to release the captive inside of everyone of us.

And I see her standing. In the middle of the synagogue on the evening of the Sabbath. She's standing. She didn't know her own stature. Eighteen long years. She'd forgotten just how tall she was. She'd forgotten what it felt like to look a man in the eye.

I’m pressing on the upward way,
New heights I’m gaining every day;
Still praying as I onward bound,
“Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.”

Then there are the naysayers. "You're not ready." "The community is not ready." "Not now." "Not yet." "There are six days on which to be healed; come back tomorrow."  "Why, after all this time, do you want your freedom now?"  "Maybe we should study it a little more."  "Wait."

But Jesus says there's been enough waiting. "Woman," he says, "you are freed.  Walk where you want to go.  Walk and talk. Walk and sing. And teach others to walk and to sing with you.  Walk tall and proud. Walk real proud."

And all the people said, "Amen."

(In honor of Susan B. Anthony and all the other suffragettes who rose up to demand the right of women to go to the polls this week.)

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Daily Lesson for November 1, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Martin Niemoller:

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

Something in me today thought of Martin Niemoller, the German pastor whose struggle to speak out against the Nazis was so tragically expressed in his poem which is prominently featured inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

I think, of course, about our own struggles to speak in our own times and in our own nation.  I think of a Muslim friend.  I think of a gay parishioner. I think of an unborn baby. I think of an old woman lying in the cold corner of her room in a cinder block nursing home, unable to raise the blanket to warm the bony top of her shoulder and unable to raise her voice to ask anyone else to help.

Who will speak for these, so wonder, if not me?

And then I think of something else -- another word from Niemoller, haunting in its own way. It is the recurring dream he had at the end of his life, before he died at 92 years of age in 1984.

In the dream, Jesus was there and he was with the other one -- Der Fuhrer.  Hitler. It was the great day of judgment. And Hitler stood there before Jesus, who asked him why.  "What drove you to kill so many?  Why were you so cruel?"

The answer, Niemoller said, was what woke him in a cold sweat:

Hitler wept and hung his head. "I didn't know about you," he said. "No one ever told me how much you loved me."

It is a struggle now to speak -- to be a voice for the voiceless.  I know it is imperative that I speak.

Yet the dream haunts me just as it must have Niemoller. And I wonder if the dream might not be for us now?  Has anyone dared to speak a word of love?  Has any one person dared to love someone they are supposed to hate, someone their world or their nation or their political affiliation has given them permission to hate?  Has any one person on the past year of election politics decided not to forward some snide or ugly meme but instead chosen to pray for the other party?  Has anyone ever chosen not to speak lest the truth be spoken in love?

I wonder if we have ever tried. I wonder what what it would be like if we did. I wonder if it might not heal this land.

I wonder if it would heal me.