Daily Lesson for August 9, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 3 verses 25 through 30:

25 Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

Now here is a man living in an almost egoless state of surrender.  John has completely surrendered his life and mission and reputation to the will of God. Even when others try to induce him to greater ego satisfaction John refuses.  John's purpose was to introduce the Christ. Having been the one chosen to introduce the Christ to the world, John refuses the temptation to be more.  He is content to be what God has given him to be and he is not envious or want to do more. Jesus will now draw the crowds; John will go to prison. John is at peace with this.

How does a person get to such a place of surrender?  A lifetime of prayer and fasting and daily surrender allows now John to make one final and dramatic act of surrender.  John got to this moment of ultimate surrender by a thousand or hundred thousand acts of surrender along the way.

My friend and mentor Ted Dotts prayed John Wesley's Covenant Prayer every morning of his life for many, many years.  In the prayer there is a line which says, "Let me be employed for Thee or laid aside for Thee, exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee." It is a prayer of surrender, and if you pray it daily for 30 or so years you end up being like my friend Ted, who at the end of his life had become the most humble and egoless man I've ever known.

How do we get there?  How do we become like Ted or like John?  How do we get to the point of egoless surrender at the end of our lives?  We get there by taking a step now, by surrendering in some small way today.

Here's Wesley's prayer to help us get started:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

Daily Lesson for August 8, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 3 verses 1-3, and 14-21:

 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God . . .14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

There was a man who came to Jesus. His name was Nicodemus. By all accounts, he was a good and moral man -- a leader in his community and his synagogue.  By all accounts, he was a righteous man.

Yet, Nicodemus has a secret. A hidden discretion. Perhaps a secret past. Or maybe a secret present. In any case, a moral defect. Something which kept him up at night, in terror of guilt.  And so he came to Jesus, by night.  Nick at Night.  Nicodemus, hidden in darkness and in shadow made his way to the one called the "light of all men".

"You must be born again," Jesus told Nicodemus.  In other words, Nicodemus must be born from his hidden world of darkness and come out into the open and exposing light of day.  Nicodemus trembles at the thought. Exposure is his greatest fear; his secret too shameful to come to light. The condemnation would be too great. But then Jesus' words, "Nicodemus, you are already condemned. You have condemned yourself. The Son comes not to condemn you but to save you from your own condemnation. And the way to salvation is for your secret to be told. It must be exposed to the light. Your deepest secret must be lifted up like the snake on Moses' staff -- something so hideous and terrifying, yet when lifted up to the light not so terrible, but in fact healing -- saving even. Nicodemus, if you wish to be healed and to be saved then the secret must be told, the snake in you must come to light."

They say we are only as sick as our secrets. I would like to be able to say that night Nicodemus told Jesus his secret -- that he was healed of his sickness.  But the Bible does not say whether or not it was so. Perhaps Nicodemus did. Or perhaps it was too much for Nicodemus to bear; perhaps he could not bring himself to do it.

In any case, he had come close to the light, and to the Son of light, and he walked away with a since that what is said of the light may indeed be true: that it shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

That no darkness can overcome it.

Daily Lesson for August 5, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 88 verses 13 through 18:

13  But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14  O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15  Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16  Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17  They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18  You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.

In his book "A Cry of Absence" Martin Marty writes of the terminal cancer diagnosis of his wife Elsa in 1981 the days leading up to her death late that her.  In a very touching scene in the memoir Martin tells how each night they would lie together in bed and read the psalms, he reading the even and she the odd. One night, when it came his time to read Psalm 88, he passed over it. "What happened to Psalm 88?" Elsa asked.  "I didn't think you could take Psalm 88.  It's a bleak psalm."  Elsa then said very lovingly to her husband, "Who do you think you are to decide what I can take?  The light ones don't mean anything if you haven't walked through the dark ones."

Psalm 88 is, in Martin Marty's words, "a wintry landscape of unrelieved bleakness."  It does not end all neat and pretty, with a bow on top. It does not end in the light of hope. It ends in darkness. It ends in verse 18, with darkness as the psalmist's only companion.

We might wonder, why is this psalm there in the Bible?  What place does so bleak a word have in the canon?  It is there because sometimes some of us are there, because at sometime we'll all be there -- with a diagnosis that is terminal, with a loved one who is dying, in a bleak and wintry place from which there is simply no escape.

It's times like these that darkness is our only companion. Reading Psalm 88 teaches us to befriend the darkness and not to fear it, to accept it as part of the journey -- an unavoidable part.

Sometimes in pastoral counseling, when someone is deeply sad or depressed or hopeless, I will read to them Psalm 88, with its pain and loss and at end sense of abandonment.  "Now why," I ask, "would the Biblical writers include this in the Bible?  Why would they allow this to remain without any sense of resolution?"  The person across from me usually shakes his or her head in an expression of not knowing or understanding. A long silence follows. And then I lean in, "Because, I think, the Bible knows that a person like you needs this word, this voice, this word of irresolution. Because this voice belongs."

Who am I to say anybody can't take reading Psalm 88? This dark psalm belongs. The darkness belongs.  The darkness belongs because people in the darkness belong, and because God's companionship can be found even in the darkness.

Daily Lesson for August 4, 2016

Today's TBT Lesson is from John 1:47-48:

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.

When I was a boy I had a big, two-story fort in my back yard. It was my hideout. Whenever I was lonely, or wounded, or afraid, and especially when I was in trouble, I always climbed the ladder to my fort. It was my place of hiding and shame.

Whenever I read the Scripture for today I wonder if Nathanael's tree wasn't a lot like my fort - his place of hiding. The thing that made me think of that was when I realized that it is not just any old generic tree. It is a fig tree - the same kind of tree from which Adam and Eve plucked leaves to hide their nakedness after eating from the forbidden fruit. It was among the fig trees that Adam and Eve hid themselves from God as He came walking toward them in the cool of the evening.

The Lesson for today is one for those in hiding from God and the world. It is for those who are living (or dying) in the guilt of what they have done and the shame of who they are. It is for those beneath fig trees or in forts or wherever else it is that they can hide. And the message is this: Jesus sees us already. He already knows us. He knows what we have done. And he knows where we are hiding.

He sees us and he knows us and he accepts us - unconditionally. He calls us to step out of the darkness of our guilt and our shame and into the light of his embrace. He sees us and he knows us and he loves us and he wants us to come out of hiding.

Daily Lesson for August 3, 2016

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

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

Not long ago I spent an evening with a couple of friends, each of which is what I would call a "seeker".  The time spent together was great. We drank a little wine, enjoyed a deliciously-prepared meal, and talked about everything from the policies and politics of Uber to the meaning of America.  We also talked about God, if there is one -- the qualifier being that not everyone at the table was sure that there is.

On nights like these, I see my role as that of trying to create community, to engage questions and ideas, but not to set out to refute or "prove" anything -- if God felt the need to prove something I'm not sure I would have been His first choice as a messenger.  I made a C in college philosophy, after all.  No; my role is presence, engaging, laughing, being with.

The seekers came to Jesus and he asked them, "What are you looking for?" They did not know what they were looking for.  They could not answer.

"Where are you staying?" they asked back.

"Come and see," he said.

So they went with him.  They stayed the night.  Well, they were supposed to stay just a night. But they ended up staying three years.

And somewhere along the way they must have realized something profound, yet hidden. Somewhere along the way they realized that when Jesus said, "Come and see," he was answering not only their question to him -- "Where are you staying?" -- but also his question to them -- "What are you looking for?"

What are my seeker friends looking for?  The answer cannot be summed up in a single sentence or discovered in a single night. What they are looking for is deeper and more wonderful than a slogan or a tweet or a night of philosophizing.  What they are looking for is a a place to stay awhile and a generous host to stay with, someone who will welcome their stay and perhaps even over welcome their stay.  Someone who will welcome them until they come to discover that it is not so much a "what" that they are looking for, but rather a "who".

Now, after 2,000 years the Galilean still has his arms open in a generous, beckoning wave, and his words fall hospitably on the ears of a pair of seekers once more, "Come; come and see."

Daily Lesson for August 2, 2016

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

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, swhom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple. 3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 and recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, asking for alms. And they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Exciting news!  With the generous help of an almost $150,000 grant from a fantastic foundation St Benedict's Chapel was able to purchase a new building yesterday and will soon be moving to its new location on 28th and Q.  The new building more than doubles our space and will allow us to do more creative social ministry with the homeless and working poor.

As we take our next steps into this new future, my prayer is that this ministry can continue to live out its calling to "Feed Body and Soul".  It's the "and Soul" part where this new location affords us greater opportunity for growth as a mission.  We provide a meal to about 120 people each day.  But the space we have been in (an old Subway Sandwich shop) has been too small and cramped and we have had to hustle people in and out. The new space will allow us to grow into our vision for truly being a center of social interaction -- a place where the most important thing, community, happens.

Two weeks ago a couple of ministers from St Benedict's went to visit a homeless ministry in Hollywood that they identified as a model for what we would like to become on day ourselves. When they came back they reported on what they saw and learned.  They said what they discovered is that even more than the tangible needs the Hollywood ministry was meeting what impressed them most was the intangible needs it was meeting.  "Isolation is the disease," one of them said, "what our friends on the streets need most is connection."

In today's lesson there is community and connection. The disciples do more then toss alms the lonely beggar's way. They look at him; they talk with him. They reach out and physically touch him. They empower him to stand on his own two legs.  "Rise and walk," they say.  And he does even more; he leaps.

Isolation is the disease. You can't throw alms at that. Gold and silver won't solve it.  The only thing that can cure it is human connection.

May this new location be a place where human touch and talk happen. May it be a place of human connection and community.  May all be fed there -- in body and in soul.

For more information on St Benedict's or to make a donation to our ministry see our website (and new building) at http://stbenedictslubbock.com.

Daily Lesson for August 1, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Joshua chapter 6 verses 25 through 27:

25 That night the Lord said to him, “Take your father's bull, and the second bull seven years old, and pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is beside it 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on the top of the stronghold here, with stones laid in due order. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah that you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.

This is a deeply archetypal story, outlining one generation's struggle to live out from under another generation's destructive religious practices and social mores.  The struggle is always with the cultural gods of the community -- oftentimes spoken of in terms of custom, heritage, or "way of life".  The antipathy towards these "false gods" is always at first held only in secret and the protest is at first subversive, non-direct, and oftentimes passive-aggressive. In short, this is how we rebel against our parents -- if we do.

But the rebellion usually does not last long. Social pressure is brought to fore to keep the community in order and its conventions intact. Those who step out of line are punished -- usually socially in myriads of ways and sometimes even physically.  The rebellion which takes place under cloak is found out; social punishment is swift and often harsh.  What is seen to be open rebellion is punished with even greater social force. What happened to Jesus in his own town among his own people is a case in point.

In today's story about Gideon's rebellion against his father's gods, the archetypal journey is demonstrated. He is suspected of being the culprit and found out by the community. "It was Gideon the son of Joash who has done this," they say.  They then go to Joash's house to demand his son.

But then, beautifully, the father refuses to give up his son.  He tells the villagers demanding Gideon that if the gods are upset then they can come themselves and get his son.

Here the social convention is overturned.  When confronted with the possibility of losing his own son Joash is made to admit the inadequacy and even falsehood of his own gods and customs.  He stands up with his son in defiance of the community's expectation and custom and against its hostility.

This is a 3,000 year old story; but it also just happened yesterday.