Daily Lesson for October 9, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from Luke chapter 7 verse 

“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 

The way to know how deeply someone has accepted grace in their lives is to watch the way they love.

Those who are always blaming, belittling, and shaming others, or distancing and protecting themselves from the failure and shame of others are really protecting themselves from their own sense of failure and shame.

People who point fingers at co-workers, or throw their spouses under the bus, hide from their children's failures are really covering up their own sense of and inadequacy and shame.

Here's an interesting assignment. Go to a junior high talent show. Listen to the very worst singer to sing. Watch everybody cringe when her voice cracks. And after its done watch and see if her daddy stands up and cheers. If so $100 says he himself is living in the fullness of his own Father's grace, love, and unconditional acceptance.

Daily Lesson for October 8, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from Luke chapter 7 verses 33 through 35:

33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

The guy who shines my shoes is also preacher of the hot Gospel variety. To sit down in the seat of his shine stand is to enter the pews of one of the most fervent and fiery preachers in America.  It's 3 to 5 minutes of full-force and furnace-fueled frontal attack on everything worldly, including greed, backbiting, Sabbath-breaking, smoking, fornication, the Devil, and the dangers of calling our children "kids" -- I'm still trying to figure that one out. His name is John; and yes, he's Baptist.

I have another preacher friend who is, well, a bit less morally stringent. His dad owns a liquor store; sometimes he shops there. He watches the Comedy Channel, the Cowboys (on the Sabbath), and is ok with gay folks. His church ordains women as deacons and pastors too and have auctioned off libation from his dad's store to support their missions program.  His name is Ryon; and yes, he's Baptist also.

And I figure God in His wisdom is using both of these Baptists for the Kingdom.

Daily Lesson for October 7, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from Luke chapter 7 verses 12 and 15:

12 As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow, and a considerable crowd from the town was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” 15 And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. 

There is a guy at my church who five or so years was as good as dead. His life had finally caught up with him and if you asked anybody who knew him or even knew of him they would have told you that the funeral procession was marching at full speed and the guy was already about three-quarters to the grave. Death had swallowed him up and both he and those who loved him were powerless to do anything about it.

Then there was an intervention. Someone -- you could say it was Jesus, or at least someone like him -- stepped onto the path and stopped the procession. They reached out their hand and touched the coffin, blocking it from its forward motion, and then they spoke words of life from a power even greater than death. "Arise," they said. 

And he got up. And he was given back to his loved ones. In other words, he was brought back to life.

There are parents reading this this morning whose children are being marched by death unto the grave. They and you are powerless to do anything about it. What I want to say to you is I know that guy at my church. I know his story. His funeral procession was interrupted.  He was brought back to life. He was given again to his mother. He is at my church; in fact there are about a dozen of him there. And so know that as close as your child is to the grave, they're not there yet. There is still time for intervention. There is still time for touch. There is still time to hear the words of life. There is still hope. 

Daily Lesson for October 6, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from Luke chapter 6 verses 47 and 48:

47 Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

I saw in the news that the new One World Trade, also known as Freedom Tower, will open on October 27th. Now complete, the building is the fourth-tallest sky-scraper in the world, with a spire that reaches a symbolic 1776 feet.

How do such buildings ascend to such heights?

When I was just out of college I moved to New York and got a job as a gopher with a tour guide company. Hanging around some excellent New York City tour guides I learned a lot about the city. One of the things I learned is that the bedrock of the island is a special, and extremely strong rock called Manhattan Schist. (The tour guides loved to have student groups repeat the word "schist" - and the students loved it to.) Geologists say Manhattan Schist was formed under extremely high pressure beneath a Himalayan-tall mountain range which New York was a part of over 300 million years ago. Forged under great heat and pressure long ago, it is the strength of the rock beneath the surface that makes reaching to the skies possible.

And if we can't see the spiritual message in that then we're dumber than a rock.

Let's say it altogether now, "Schist."

Daily Lesson for October 3, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 102 verses 25 through 27:

25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Last night we had a party at the house for one of the Sunday School classes. The living room was full of the joy and laughter of children. Then one of the kids broke our antique clock.

So it wasn't the first time it's been broken. My kids have broken it like six times in the same way. I am grateful that in all the times a glass panel has been knocked back into the body of the clock no glass has shattered yet.

But it will. It's inevitable. Seven times broken. That means we're coming up on eight,which isn't far from nine, which means we're running out of lives. I'm grieving already. 

And it's all just a little reminder that things fall apart. That everything wears out. That nothing -- nothing -- lasts forever. Even the heavens will pass away, and how much more so the things of this earth. 

All the clocks will eventually stop their ticking. All relationships, jobs, industries, churches, and antique anythings are temporal; only God is eternal. 

They who cannot accept impermanence will always have the sense that the clock is running out. 

They who can accept impermanence will be free to discover and enjoy what is eternal in the time being.

Daily lesson for October 2, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke 6 verses 6 through 9:

6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?”

For some folks there is nothing more holy and hallowed than sacred space and time. They will do anything to make sure the Sabbath is set apart and the sanctuary is kept clean and in good order. Most of the time I thank God for their conscientious observance; but, then again, sometimes I wonder.

Some churches back we were having Vacation Bible School in the church starting Monday and the VBS director asked the Youth Education committee if she could go ahead and start decorating the on the Saturday beforehand.  Sure, they said, not knowing she meant it in the sanctuary. The VBS theme that week was going to be "Treasure Island Adventure", and right there at the focal point of the sanctuary on Sunday morning, covering over the baptistery, was a giant and not very well done picture of an island, a toucan, and big open treasure box with lots of bling inside.

Another lady, the head of the worship commission, was incensed. She couldn't believe it. She said that it was absolutely inappropriate, the wrong message for Sunday morning, and absolutely an overstep on the part of the other woman. She was right, except one thing; she seemed just a little too right. Her words were sharp and her tone was belittling, and even though we all offered to take the decoration down she refused. "My Sunday has already been ruined," she said. It was to me as if she sort of enjoyed being indignant.

And you know, looking back, that defiled our sanctuary a heck of a lot more than the toucan. 

Daily lesson for October 1, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 5 verses 36 through 39:

36 He also told them a parable: “No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old. 37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. 38 But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. 39 And no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

"Give me that Old-time Religion,
Give me that Old-time Religion,
Give me that Old-time Religion,
Well, it's good enough for me"

A great tune, but I'm not so sure about the message. If it means, "Give me what is constant, universal, and essential throughout all ages," then yes. But if it means, "Don't tell me anything I don't already believe or introduce anything to me that I'm not already familiar with," then absolutely not.

Old-time religious ways can be very comforting, but they can also be fatally confining.

One day Jesus was confronted by Pharisees who were concerned that he was not conforming to their religious customs. Jesus answered with an analogy about wine and wineskins (you gotta love this guy). New wine, he said, must be put into fresh wineskins lest the new wine's unaged properties be too strong for the old wineskin. New wine in an old wine skin bursts the wineskin and the wineskin is lost and, even worse, so is the wine (like I said, you gotta love this guy). So, Jesus said, in order to keep using the old wineskin people close themselves to new wine. "The old will do," they say.

If our Old-time Religion leaves us closed to science in the classroom, music and video in worship, dance in the living room or even in the aisles, or anything else that is new and unfamiliar, then the wine we are drinking probably isn't very good -- it's just old.