Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 31, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 62 verse 9:

9 Those of low estate are but a breath;
those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up;
they are together lighter than a breath.

The rule of the mighty and the rich and the privileged and the powerful of this world is but a fleeting moment and they too shall be gathered with their ancestors and left to the judgment of the God of history. They too wrinkle and wither and wear out. It is the same for the bold and beautiful as it is for the meek and the mild.

John Donne gave a vivid image in a sermon on mortality:

"When a whirlewind hath blown the dust of a churchyard into the Church, and the man sweeps out the dust of the Church into the Churchyard, who will undertake to sift those dusts again and to pronounce, This is the patrician, this is the noble flowre , and this the yeomanly, this the Plebeian bran? "

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust; in the end there shall be no blue-blooded dust.  All go the same way. All will stand before the same judge. And as Bishop Massilon said after snuffing out the candle at the funeral of "the Great" King Louis XIV, "only God is great."

Monday, January 30, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 30, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 7 verses 24 through 30:

24 And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” 29 And he said to her, “For this statement you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” 30 And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Today's Daily Lesson is a story from Jesus' day and time which mirrors our own.

There is a woman from Syrophoenicia -- modern day Syria -- who is desperate for the well-being of her child.  She begs for help.

And there is in Jesus a response about the needs of his own people being a priority. "Let the children be fed first."  This response has always bothered me coming out of Jesus' mouth.  But today I am glad for it; it shows the honest concern Jesus had for his own people and gives us permission to be honest about our own.

And yet, the woman does not give up. She continues to beg and to plead on her child's behalf. The desperation in her voice and the tears in her eyes cannot be unheard or unseen. And seeing and hearing, Jesus is moved to an act of compassion.

Something about this woman moved Jesus in such a way that changed him not only in that moment but in fact changed his whole life and ministry. Before this encounter all his work was in Jewish territory, in and around the Galilean countryside. But after this encounter he would expand his mission field, he would move out beyond Galilee into the Decapolis in Gentile territory.  As the writer Mark puts it Jesus would now cross over "to the other side".

This means I and the rest of the Gentile world have much to be thankful for in this woman.  For in asking on behalf of her own son she also asked on behalf of ours and our children. And moved with compassion, Jesus grew in wisdom and in the knowledge that He had come not only for deliverance of His own people but for the healing of the whole world.

Thanks be to God!

And thanks be to this Syrophoenician woman!


Artwork:

Limbourg, Herman de, approximately 1385-approximately 1416; Limbourg, Jean de, approximately 1385-approximately 1416; Limbourg, Pol de, approximately 1385-approximately 1416. The Canaanite Woman asks for healing for her daughter, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55920 [retrieved January 31, 2017]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Folio_164r_-_The_Canaanite_Woman.jpg.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 27, 2017



Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 47 through 51:

47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. He meant to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, 50 for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 51 And he got into the boat with them, and the wind ceased.

The Prophet and Teacher, Mystic Man and Messiah moves effortlessly across the water, within Him the Spirit of God which hovered over the face of the waters in Genesis 1. He has the boat in view but the other shoreline in mind. He is going there, to a new place in history, to reach the other side, to reach the Other.

But the boat drags against the current. It struggles at the oars. It fatigues and frightens in the fourth watch of the night. To the boat the Mystic Man is not Messiah or even man but ghost, apparition, phantasm, demon spirit. His passing by frightens them. Where he is going frightens them. They are frightened.

And He, Mystic Man and Messiah, intending first to leave them behind, can now see that they will never get to the other side and to the Other shore, and to the Other peoples, without Him. They will give up. They quit in fatigue. They will turn back in fear. And so, now He pauses, and even stops, and turns around.  "Do not be afraid," He says.  "Take heart; it is I."

And deigning now, the Mystic Man and Messiah climbs into the boat also. In other words, He joins the Church. He joins the Church because while he intends to get to the Other side, to another shore, and another place of expansion and inclusion and reaching out, and altogether another consciousness, He will not go alone. He wants them with Him.  He will arrive in the boat, slower and harder going, but together.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

"For I have many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now."



Artwork:

Tanner, Henry Ossawa, 1859-1937. Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55904 [retrieved January 27, 2017]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner,_The_Disciples_See_Christ_Walking_on_the_Water,_c._1907.jpg.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 26, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Galatians chapter 3 verses 10 and 11:

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”

The Law cannot save anyone because no one has ever been obedient to the whole Law. We sometimes act as though we have been obedient, using the Law to condemn others' shortcomings, flaws and differentness; but really if the whole weight of the Law were pressed upon us then who could stand?

It dismays me how blind we are sometimes to our own sins and shortcomings. We give ourselves a pass on all manner of things -- divorce, remarriage, enjoying bacon, washing the car on the Sabbath, wearing cotton and synthetic blend clothing.

Some profess to be fundamentalist, literalist people of faith who believe in and follow the whole Bible. But nobody follows the whole Bible. We all pick and choose. That is a condemnation I sometimes hear: "Well, can we just pick and choose what to believe and obey?"  And my answer is that it's not a matter of whether or not we can or can't -- we do. And until we're honest about that then we'll always see the splinter in our neighbor's eye and miss the log in our own.

Jesus said, "In the same way you judge others you also shall be judged."  I take that to mean that if we hold our neighbor up to the full measure of the Law then we subject ourselves to its weight also. "And cursed is he who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them."  On the other hand, if we measure out grace then grace will be measured out for us also.

"And the measure that we give shall be the measure that we get."


Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 25, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 14 through 16:

14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known. Some said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

John the Baptist came preaching, "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand."  And King Herod arrested John, then Jesus took the mantle with the same words, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."  And this shows how God has a way of raising up the next generation of prophets again and again.

In a very powerful sermon from his collected works Dr. Gardner C Taylor had just come back to his church in Brooklyn after attending the funeral for Alberta King, the mother of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  She had been shot and killed while at the organ console during a Sunday service in the King's Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. In the sermon, Dr. Taylor, who was a close friend of and mentor to Dr. King, told of a special moment he had with King's father "Daddy King" during the memorial events. Amidst the grief of the week, Daddy King had shared with Dr. Taylor that he was proud because a grandson, one of Dr. King's young nephews, had just announced his intention to enter into the ministry. Reflecting on the meaning of this, Daddy King then told Dr. Taylor, "They can't kill us all."

Good shall never be completely killed off. God is always raising up another generation of preachers, and prophets, and truth tellers.  They can't all be killed or shut up. No generation is left without any Word from the LORD.

As the old Battle Hymn says, "His truth is marching on."

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 24, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 48 verse 21:

21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
he made water flow for them from the rock;
he split the rock and the water gushed out.

My friend, and Lubbock song-writing legend Andy Wilkinson has a line in one of his poems which describes the Llano Estacado escarpment as a place "where wind is plentiful and rain must be dug up before a crop can grow."

I love that; rain is buried in the rock and so it must be dug up from deep inside the earth.  We say, "Pray for rain."  But most of the rain we need has already fallen. It is down deep within rock.

The Israelites sought their freedom from the Egyptians, and crossing the Red Sea they came into the wilderness where there was no water. They cried and complained to Moses and to God.  "Have you brought us here to die of thirst!"

But there was water. It had rained. For what, millennia?  For eons?  Since the foundation of the earth?  They waited and prayed for it to rain there in the desert. But it had rained; and the rain was waiting on them. But the rain had to be dug up. God had already provided; but the water was deep within.

For those of us who wish for freedom, those of us who seek deliverance from bondage of many kinds, and to those of us who dare to cross the Sea, escape our Egypt, and discover what it means to live no longer as a slave, God has already provided the water. The resources to survive whatever wilderness we will have to walk are already there.  The rain is already there, within the rock -- within us. God already sent it -- from before the foundation of the earth.

And now it's waiting on us to discover it and dig it up.

Monday, January 23, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 23, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Galatians chapter 1 verse 10:

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

To follow Christ means to cut away from the need for acceptance and approval of other people. A life driven by Christ cannot also be determined by the expectations, social conventions, politics, and prejudices of others.

In today's Lesson St. Paul is reflecting on all that he had to cut away from, give up, and go against in order to follow Christ. Following Christ meant rejection for Paul.  Learning to speak his own truth meant risking hostile stares and hostile words.  He learned to speak anyways.

An old, and very wise mentor and minister of the Gospel once asked me, "What is your history with disapproval?"

That was not so much a question about my past as it was my future. 

Friday, January 20, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 20, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson is a prayer for Inauguration Day:

On this the Inaugural Day of our 45th President of the United States of America, we pray now for President Trump, for our country, and for our world.

As President Trump places his hand on the Bible and takes the Oath of Office, we pray your blessings upon him as he vows to serve and protect the people and the rights afforded them by our Constitution.

As President Trump assumes the role of Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces, we pray that he will solemnly consider the weight of this responsibility and  never forget or take for granted the great sacrifices made on the altar of this nation.

We pray now for the character of this our new President.  We pray for his spirit and well being.  Teach him now grace, humility and kindness, that vice might wane, virtue wax, and wisdom prevail.

We pray also for the character of our country.  We are one nation under you our God. May we prove ourselves so by striving always to be that city on a hill, freedom's beacon, a nation where there is truly liberty and justice for all.

And we pray also for this world. May you raise up leaders who dedicate themselves to peace and the protection of human rights in all corners of the globe. And may you level tyrants and despots and all those who would seek to enslave or oppress.  This world is your world and we are all your children. May we learn then to be our brothers' keepers and our sisters' friends.

This is the day that you have made, O LORD. May those who rejoice and are glad in it prove the goodness of this day with charity towards all and malice towards none. And may those who are anxious or dismayed on this day lift up their heads and be not afraid to speak their own truth in love for the sake of this our beloved country and world.

God bless this day.  God bless this President.  God bless the United States of America.  And God bless all these that they might in turn be a blessing unto the nations.

Amen.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 19, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 45 verses 9 and 10:

9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”

What a need there is for all of us to accept, embrace, and love ourselves just as we are and not how we or somebody else wished we would be.

We need to learn to love what we do and how we look when we do it.

We need to learn to accept our size, our shape, and our color.

We need to learn to embrace our place and our purpose -- right there where we are and not where we're not.

We need to learn to bloom right where we've been planted -- for what would the desert be if the cactus withheld her coarse beauty?

We need to remember that he who is faithful in small things shall be given much.

We need to know that just as a gardener judges a lilac bush by its lilacs and not it's roses so we too will be judged by just how beautifully Ryon is Ryon and not somebody else.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a sermon he liked to preach called, "The Street Sweeper".  In it he said if one is just a street sweeper in life let him be the greatest street sweeper in all the world. Let him be "the Michaelangelo of street sweeping".

May I be the Michaelangelo of me today; and may you be the Michaelangelo of you too.  And together, let's create in ourselves a masterpiece.

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 18, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 18 and 19:

18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

In Martin Scorsese's film "The Last Temptation of Christ", Jesus' final and most dramatic struggle with Satan comes in the temptation to come down from the Cross, marry, and live a nice and happy life. This is "the last temptation of Christ", a temptation which if given into would have meant that Jesus would not have in fact been the Christ. For their could be no Christ without self-renunciation, suffering, and Cross.

Today's Daily Lesson is a reminder to us that the ordinary desires and cares of this world are temptations for not only Jesus but also for all who follow him. We too would like to live quietly and peaceably, able to come home to our own homes and children without the burdens of our neighbors and their needs knocking on our doors. But the knocking persists, and those who follow Christ open the door. And the whole world comes in.

The word is sown in each of us. It is a word telling us to volunteer.  To pay a visit. To sing in the choir. To go to a school board meeting. To raise our voice. But the cares of home and the desire for a quiet and calm evening and an ordinary and peaceful life choke out the word.  Who knew just how subtle the temptation is, how shrewd the thorns of this world can be?

And at the end of four score and ten what is lost is the potential one single soul has to truly change the world.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 17, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 3 verses 22 through 30:

22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” 23 And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

28 “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter,29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— 30 for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

Today's Lesson is sometimes called "the Unpardonable Sin".  That is absolutely a very poor and damaging misinterpretation; for there is nothing that cannot be pardoned by God. "For nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ" (Romans 8)!
What Jesus says is that the son does not have "forgiveness" -- forgiveness meaning to be in a state of having given up or let go of one's sin. But the sin is held on to.  As Jesus says it is an "eternal sin", meaning it is a sin that goes on and on and on from one generation to the next throughout history. 

And what is the sin?  It is blasphemy agains the Holy Spirit -- naming good evil; calling what is holy unholy.

We can look back throughout history and see this is indeed an eternal and ageless sin. The work of the Holy Spirit moves to bring freedom and agency and deliverance from all manner of oppression and abuse and again and again what is good and holy is called evil and unholy and even demonic. 

Fair warning for those intent on seeing good done in this world: if they did this to Jesus they will do it to us also.  And this is why Jesus began his ministry by saying, "Blessed are you when  people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  For they did the same to the prophets who came before you."

Monday, January 16, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 16, 2016

In lieu of today's Daily Lesson from the Scritpures I have instead elected to share the prayer I was honored to give yesterday at Lubbock's City-wide Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration and Worship Service:

Dear LORD,

We gather here this evening in your name and with Thanksgiving for the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are grateful for his light and life and the courage with which he lived out his convictions. He was the messenger of a dream -- a dream which changed not only the South, and not only America, but indeed the whole world, inspiring people in places far and wide to discover our own dignity within and empowering us to rise up and be the change we wish to see in this world. What a star he was under. We do thank you for him.

Forgive us, O God, when we cheapen the work and witness of your servant, Dr. King.  Chastise us for our complacency in celebrating his ministry while shrinking from our own. Rebuke us whenever we and our leaders build monuments to prophets past while disregarding their message for times present.

There is still work to be done, we know. The dream has not yet been realized. Mercy and truth have not yet met together. Justice has not yet run down like waters nor righteousness like a mighty stream. And so, provoke yet again. Stir up your people once more.  Unsettle us with the holy dissatisfaction of the prophets, and Dr. King, and Jesus of Nazareth that we ourselves might no longer be content with the way the world is but anxious and agitating for the way the world ought to be.

This is the meaning of MLK Day, and the meaning of this service in his prophetic name.  May it prove as much, and even more. Amen.

Friday, January 13, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 13, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 42 verses 1 through 3:

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.

All of us are vulnerable.  All of us are fragile. We are, as the Scripture says, bruised reeds and faintly burning wicks. Most of us, however, try to deny our vulnerability.  And we protect ourselves from the reminders of our own vulnerability weakness by separating ourselves from the vulnerability and weakness of others. This is why so many people are so cold and even cruel to the weak; for the weakness in others reminds us of the weakness in ourselves.

The servant of God does not abhor or abuse weakness, but acts always with mercy and compassion towards those who are fragile, poor, and poor of spirit.  The servant of God is gentle with the weakness in others and gentle also with the weakness in their own spirit.

Weakness, fragility, and vulnerability are part of what it means to be human. We must learn to embrace and not deny the humanity in others and also the humanity in our own selves.

The faintly burning wick is not strong, it is not mighty or powerful. But it is courageous.  And it is alive.

And the servant of God holds it gently in the palm of their hand.

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 12, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 2 verses 11 through 16:

11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

There is an old hymn, "In Christ There Is No East or West".  We should also say in Christ there is no black or white or brown.  Neither is there Jew nor Gentile. Instead, as Christians we have been given a fundamentally radical claim: that in our Christ a new humanity has been created on the cross.  The cross destroyed all alienation and separation and made peace amongst the people with God and with each other. 

This is why the talk which has apparently regained traction both here in the United States and in Europe about a "white nation" is so heretical. Christians do not believe in white nationalism or black nationalism or any other nationalism built upon race. For Christ has made of us all a new nation, and a new humanity.  The Scriptures are so bold as to say that Christ has "killed[ed] the hostility" between the races. Race and the hostility between races has been destroyed by Christ on the Cross. So, wherever there is yet again hostility or division or separation and segregation Christ is there again crucified. Anyone therefore who plays and preys upon and seeks to increase this hostility or dividing wall is, in fact, literally "anti-Christ".

There is an anti-Christ spirit on the rise now. It's intent is to steal, kill, and destroy. Do not fall prey.


Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 11, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 1 verses 35 through 39:

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Now here is a story of what it means to be one's own person.

Jesus has healed and taught and all the town now clamors for him to come and do this or do that. But in the midst clamor and with much still left undone and many yet still to be healed, Jesus quietly slips away to a solitary place to pray. And when he is finally found he has already determined not to go back but to instead go on.

I read this story and I am almost shocked that he did this. How could he say, "No,"?  How could he refuse to go back?

And the answer is, of course, because in the time of deep prayer something inside him told him he needed to be elsewhere and with other people doing other things. He needed to "go on to the next towns".

And of all the miracles Jesus performed in that town that he was in, perhaps this was the greatest: he did the miraculous thing of saying, "No," to the demands of others and, "Yes," to the demand of his own spirit.

When I first arrived here in Lubbock a very wise and thoughtful couple gave me a wall plaque with a quote by e.e. cummings titled "Be":

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting."

I'm still fighting. We all are.

And we realize this tremendously difficult truth: that if we are ever going to truly be ourselves, then we have to say, "No," to being anybody else.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 10, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah 40 verses 28 and 31:

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30 Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

Now here is such a beautiful and uplifting Scripture and a promise of the LORD's abiding strength in times of struggle.

Yet, even in all it's beauty, John Claypool, one of my boyhood pastors and a prolific writer, first called my attention to the peculiar way this beloved Scripture ends.

We would expect a rising crescendo -- a word of encouragement which ascends always, empowering our feeble legs to walk, and then run and then, finally, fly -- soar like eagles.

But in fact the opposite order is given.  There is soaring, and then running, and then finally there is walking.

And that may be the greatest miracle -- at the end and by God's strength to simply put one foot in front of another.

For all those struggling just to take small steps today, may you wait on the LORD and may He renew and increase your strength and help you to walk and not faint.

It may not seem like much; but for those who are weary it is everything.

Monday, January 9, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 9, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11:

" In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will."

There is, I believe, a distinction between God's eternal will and what has sometimes been called God's proximate or contingent will.

God's eternal will is what God hopes for us in the end.  It is what God has willed and purposes for us since from before the beginning of all things.  God's proximate will is what God hopes for given all the contingencies of evil and sin and brokenness in the world. It is God's will in the face of human foible and worldly imperfection.

And here is the great, good news: God is always at work through proximate means to accomplish His ultimate and eternal will in purpose.That is to say God is always rebuilding from the shipwreck of humanity, putting the flotsam back together, restoring the vessel, and setting sail again and again towards the ultimate destination.

All manner of things are intended for evil; but God uses all things for good. Things get broken and shattered; but God is always picking up the pieces.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 6, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Revelation 21 verses 22 through 23:

22 I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.

When the Magi left the City of Jerusalem and made their way to the little town of Bethlehem, and arrived finally at an old, dirt-floor barn, and a trough where a child's very poor peasant parent's had laid who on earth could believe or understand that they had just entered the holy Temple of the LORD?  Yet here they were, Three Kings, lying down in prostrate worship before this trough, the knees of their fine garments now soiled with earth and hay and their noses filled with the manure of oxen and sheep.  Here was the Holy Temple. Here was the Mother Church.

The Temple is the place where God can be found. The Church is where two or three are gathered in His name. And evidently, this can be anywhere -- absolutely anywhere. Jesus was born in a dirty, old Bethlehem barn; and it became the Holy Temple of God, the New Jerusalem.

Now do we get the meaning of Incarnation?

Now do we see that surely the presence of the LORD is in THIS place and we did not know it?

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 5, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 15 verses 1 through 6:

 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.

Last week while visiting the small, high-desert town of Marfa, Texas I was literally stopped in my tracks by the beauty of one of the downtown homes and it's landscaping. I came to a standstill on my down the main street and made an excursion to see this work of beauty more closely.

Marfa is the capital of the minimalist movement in the Southwest so the home and its landscaping were simple and spare but also very elegant and perfectly placed. A perfectly-shaped mesquite stood sentry before a cute red door adorning the 1930s stucco home. A natural stone path led from the front porch to a tall well-kempt fence hid what I knew to be a beautiful garden behind the house. And out in front of the home, just next to the west front window there was a large, very tall rose bush, pruned neatly for the winter.

"So," I thought to myself, "that must be what's wrong with my roses -- they need pruning."

Those who know landscaping and gardening know things sometimes -- perhaps frequently -- need pruning. It is a part of the the hard work of making things grow and, ultimately, making things more beautiful.

The New Year is a good time to reflect on what in our lives needs pruning. What needs to be cut back, trimmed, or altogether lopped off?  What needs to be paired back because it inhibits growth, fullness, and beauty in our lives?  To put things a bit less delicately, what needs a good bushwhacking?

I was stopped in my by what I saw that was growing out front of that beautiful home. But whoever the owners are know that I was also stopped by what was not growing as well.

Think about that.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 4, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 3 verse 1:

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

We all know the story of Moses and the Burning Bush and we've been told a thousand times how while Moses was keeping the flock the LORD suddenly appeared to him in the bush which was aflame but could not be consumed.

But were you ever told or did you ever notice where it was that Moses was keeping the flock?  Scripture says, he was on the west side of the wilderness.  That would be on the side nearest Egypt which is a very curious place for a guy who is wanted in and on the lam from Egypt.  Why would Moses be there, so near to the place and people he was said to be running away from. Shouldn't he have been keeping that flock as far east could rather than the west?

It makes me wonder whether or not that sudden burning bush appearance might not have been so sudden after all. Moses was in the wilderness 40 years after escaping Egypt the first time. What if there was something in Moses leading him back towards Egypt long before the LORD appeared to him in the burning bush telling him to go back to Egypt and lead His people out.  What if then the burning bush was a sign of something already aflame in Moses but not consumed -- not put out. What if Moses himself was in some way the burning bush?

We all have our burning bushes within.  Little sparks of desires that will not go away. These are the promptings, the nudges, the nagging itches of the Holy Spirit. This is calling. Listen to it.  Listen to the flame within. Pay attention to the promptings which just won't go away. As the Scripture says Moses did at the LORD's appearance in the burning bush, turn and see what this thing might be.

In other words, if you for some reason keep leading the flock to the west then by all means go west, young man!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 3, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 28 verses 10 through 17:

10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Poet-farmer and conservationist Wendell Berry says, "Things take place."

Scriptures says Jakob had come to "a certain place" that night of his mysterious dream. He was in a certain place when and where the LORD visited him.  That place Jakob named "Bethel" -- meaning the "House of God".

It is fashionable to laugh and scoff today at the idea of a "House of God".  For what house or building can hold God?  Can the mortal hold immortality?  The temporal, the eternal? Wood and stone, spirit? We shake our heads and grin mockingly, "Of course not. How presumptuous. How pre-modern.  How ancient."

And yet it is true; things do take place.

An old Vermont meeting house with creaking floor and sagging plaster houses a Spirit beyond the spirit of the age. The 700-year-old glass of a medieval church gives glimpse to a faith that weathers the current storm, administration, or war -- the original pillars of the place still standing over a thousand years, the foundation still firm, and prayers still being uttered. A grandmother's house, the smell of her hotcakes wafting from out of the kitchen the sure fragrance of God's love and God's house.

"Surely the LORD is in this place and I did not know it," Jakob said.

And if in this certain place, then perhaps any place. Perhaps every place.

Perhaps even in our place now.

Monday, January 2, 2017

Daily Lesson for January 2, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 through 3:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

On the election stump, President-elect Trump promised to "Make America Great Again".  Today's Daily Lesson reminds us of what being a great nation means in the eyes of God.

To be a great nation is to be a nation which blesses the whole earth.  A great nation is blessed to be a blessing. That is the reason the nation is called great by God -- "great, SO THAT YOU WILL BE A BLESSING".  This is the reason God brings a nation to greatness.

Soon President-elect Trump will be President Trump. This week a new Congress convenes. These leaders are all intent on making America great again, however they might see greatness. Let us pledge to pray they might see greatness as God sees greatness.

The opening words of the Constitution speak of "the blessings of Liberty".  Enumerated in our founding documents, these blessings include, "the pursuit of happiness", "domestic tranquility", "the general welfare", and "justice for all".

These are the blessings we've been given to preserve and enjoy.  These are the virtues which make our nation great.

May we be great so that we will be a blessing to others.

May we be blessed to be a blessing for all.