Daily Lesson for June 28, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 9 verses 1 through 5:

There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish son of Abiel son of Zeror son of Becorath son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth. 2He had a son whose name was Saul, a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders above everyone else.

3 Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, had strayed. So Kish said to his son Saul, ‘Take one of the boys with you; go and look for the donkeys.’ 4He passed through the hill country of Ephraim and passed through the land of Shalishah, but they did not find them. And they passed through the land of Shaalim, but they were not there. Then he passed through the land of Benjamin, but they did not find them.

5 When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the boy who was with him, ‘Let us turn back, or my father will stop worrying about the donkeys and worry about us.’ 6But he said to him, ‘There is a man of God in this town; he is a man held in honour. Whatever he says always comes true. Let us go there now; perhaps he will tell us about the journey on which we have set out.’

There is an old Buddhist saying, “When the student is ready the teacher comes.”  It basically means that people and purposes reveal themselves not at the beginning, but as we go along.

Saul was about to be anointed king over Israel by the prophet or “seer” Samuel.  But Saul thought he was chasing a couple of donkeys!  Life is like that. What we are doing now may seem to be one thing, but then the path reveals itself and suddenly we discover we are actually doing quite another. 

So we trust the path.  We look for the donkeys. We remain faithful to where we are and what we are doing right now. Then suddenly a teacher appears to tell us about the journey we are on; and we discover its purpose is far greater than we thought.

When the student is ready the teacher appears; and when we can’t even keep up with a single lost donkey a calling comes to watch over an entire nation. 

O the inscrutable ways of God! And O the surprising places today’s frustrating path might bring us to tomorrow . . .

Daily Lesson for June 27, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 22 verses 24 through 27:

24 A dispute also arose among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25But he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26But not so with you; rather the greatest among you must become like the least, and the leader like one who serves. 27For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”

In the Roman world of Jesus the social order was constructed in such a way as a very small number of wealthy and powerful patriarchs decided almost everything in the community. It was a patronage society and these “patrons” or “benefactors” wielded their social and economic force over the broader community by either yielding or withholding their beneficence. The patron determined the degree to which his (always his) slaves could have freedom and also the extent to which certain projects for the good of community could advance. They were called benefactors; but their regard was always tied to their social and monetary power. They were first in society; but they’re regard always came from whatever power they had over other people’s freedom and possibility. 

It was not altogether different from our own society, though the powers of coercion in our own context are more subtle and not as outrightly visible as in the first century. 

One of the primary reasons the Jesus movement gathered such force was its radical break from the Roman social construct of the time. With the Jesus community slaves were actually often considered first in the community while the most powerful “benefactors” in the broader social convention were asked to participate in the so-called “slave work” of the Jesus community — work like serving the table, washing the dishes, and burning the trash. One could become great in this new community; but one did so not by the power of coercion but rather through service and true self-giving. 

“The greatest among you must become like the least, and the leader like one who serves.”  This was the radical vision of the early Jesus movement. It is just as counter-culturally radical today. 

And the question always is, do we have the guts to put it into practice?

Daily Lesson for June 26, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 6 verses 1 through 7:

Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait at tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.’5What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

7 The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

Just a quick Google search and we find tons of Complaint Department memes that all send basically the same message: complaints are totally unwanted and to be punished. I’m thinking of particularly the meme that shows the Complaint Department help button which is attached to the lethal end of a mouse trap. The message is pretty straightforward.

But in today’s Lesson the early Church took the complaints of a segment of its community very seriously. The Church leaders listened to the complaints with openness and without defense and then set about a plan for addressing the problem. The result was a thriving community which continued to expand and grow numerically. No doubt it also grew more deeply in authentic relationship, as the minority Greeks felt heard and taken seriously. 

When we receive complaints we have to resist defensiveness. We have to allow our anxieties about our own imperfections to not stand in the way of hearing and receiving the truth in what others say. We have to learn to listen with open minds and open hearts and then seek to find solutions — sometimes altogether systemic — to better care for the needs of all in the community.

The early Church did just that. They put down their defenses, listened to one another — especially to the minority members, and made adjustments to help better care for the needs of the whole community. And they flourished. They absolutely flourished. 

But that could never have happened if the complaint button had been on the mousetrap. 

Daily Lesson for June 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 6 verses 1 through 5:

The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines for seven months. 2Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, ‘What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us what we should send with it to its place.’3They said, ‘If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt-offering. Then you will be healed and will be ransomed; will not his hand then turn from you?’4And they said, ‘What is the guilt-offering that we should return to him?’ They answered, ‘Five gold tumours and five gold mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines; for the same plague was upon all of you and upon your lords. 5So you must make images of your tumours and images of your mice that ravage the land, and give glory to the God of Israel; perhaps he will lighten his hand on you and your gods and your land.’

In the 12 steps of recovery there is an important step called making amends, which requires a wrongdoer to go beyond a simple apology and truly take concrete action to amend for his or her actions which brought harm upon another person or community. Feeling or even saying, “I’m sorry,” is not good enough. Something tangible must be done to amend for the harm brought upon another. 

In today’s Lesson we see amends taking place. The Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites. It plagued them mightily, just as it always plagues us when we take from someone else what is not ours. They decided to return the Ark.  And they did so with amends — with gold offerings, cast in images of the tumors which had afflicted them since they had stolen the Ark, given to the LORD, the God of the Israelites. 

It is not enough to simply be sorry. True repentance requires that we make concrete amends to undo the harm we have done to others. It is a necessary step in recovery for individuals, and also groups, and even nations. And it is a necessary part in the path to restored relationship and even reconciliation with others. 

Daily Lesson in observance of the feast day of St John the Baptist

Today’s Daily Lesson is in observance of the feast day of the Nativity of St John the Baptist and comes from Malachi chapter 3 verses 1 through 5:

See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. 2But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; 3he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. 4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.

5 Then I will draw near to you for judgement; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow, and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

It’s midsummer, the half-way point after Christmas and the traditional day for observing the birth of John the Baptist, who was born six months prior to his younger cousin Jesus. 

With the coming of John the Baptist we see a thoroughly moral reformation at work. John shows up with his wild-eyed social vision and suddenly all the cruel, malicious, and ungodly things the larger society had grown to tolerate and even accept were suddenly seen for what were. With John no more would liars, adulterers, those who exploit the poor and oppress the alien, and the religion which gave blessing to it all be stomached. With John the fullers’ soap would cleanse the moral conscience of the nation and a new code of ethics would be demanded. 

We are living now in an age of John the Baptist. In recent years our conscience been awakened to and deeply troubled by the economic disparities in our nation and world. We have been awakened to the sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse which have for so long been pervasive in the church and society. And we are now beginning to see how lies and false accusation in the public square have grown cancerous to the integrity of our most important social institutions. 

It is the age of John in which we are living; and John comes to us yet again with his refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap to cleanse and reform us once more. This is a sign which will be opposed by a strong minority — especially by the Herods of the world.  But it also be a sign which will be welcomed by the vast majority, and will eventually inaugurate a fundamental shift in the moral and ethical consciousness of the entire society. 

Like always, this current age of John will unsettle many things, leaving no person or institution untouched. This will terrify and exhilarate at the same time. And we will all ask with today’s Lesson from Malachi, “Who can endure the day of [John’s] coming, and who can stand when he appears?”  And the answer to that will be the ones who hear the prophet’s words at his coming and take them to heart: “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.”  Or, as another translation might have them, “Change your consciousness, for the kin-dom of God’s vision for our world is knocking at the door.”

A Prayer in Observance of Juneteenth

A Prayer in observance of Juneteenth, written for the 2019 Juneteenth Breakfast of Prayer at Meadowbrook United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas:

Dear Gracious God of all people, all times, all places, and all faithfulness,

We give you thanks for this day and for the gift of freedom we all enjoy to come and dwell together in unity as brothers and sisters, family and friends, fellow children and co-heirs in your beautiful and righteous House.

As we gather here to commemorate Juneteenth we are grateful for its important significance and principal reminder: That the war did not end until everyone heard the good news — that slavery was indeed the end cause of so much bloodshed and devastation in our land, that it had been abolished by the virtue of a “government of the people and by the people and for the people”, and that all people in these United States are now and are to ever hence be free.

We invoke your presence here today. We know, LORD, it is true what has often been said, “none of us are free until all are free.”  So stir us with your holy provocation that we might continue to seek liberty and justice for all in this nation, dedicating ourselves to the ongoing work of undoing slavery’s horrific legacy and the legacy of its ugly scions Jim Crow, segregation, mass incarceration, racism, and Sunday morning separation. Give us the strength, the courage, and the burden of spirit to continue the efforts of those who came and suffered before us, that we might truly be a land where all our family members may delight in the crystal fountain of freedom. Give us a spirit of justice, and equity and simple fairness that we, your children, might be free not only in part but in whole.  Not only in word but in fact. May we, all your beloved children, one day — soon — be free; and may we be free indeed. 

We ask these things in the name of the one who “loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword,” and whose “truth is still marching on”, Christ Jesus our Lord himself, our great emancipator. Amen.

Daily Lesson for June 14, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 19 verses 41 and 42:

41 As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

Last night I received a text from a former member of my youth group from 20 years ago. He told me that yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the death of another member of the the group named Tony, who died at age 19 by gunshot wound in a front yard fight. Yesterday some friends from the group all went out to the gravesite to pay their respects. 

I still remember the moment I heard about Tony’s death. A deep lament came over me and I cried like a baby. It was the first young person in the group whose life was lost to senseless gun violence. Unfortunately, it would not be the last. I remember Tony’s grandmother being quoted in the newspaper, “He wasn’t afraid to die; he was afraid to live.”

So many in this world are so afraid to live. They’re so scared to live vulnerably, to show even the slightest sign of weakness, to walk away. I was told the other kid — also 19 — had a gun pointed at Tony’s chest and Tony dared him to pull the trigger. Neither of them could back down. One life was ended. Another ruined. Tony was buried by the county a few days later. His killer was locked up by the state for the next decade.

And somebody made money off the gun, the bullet, the burial, and the lock up.

In today’s Lesson there is great lament. Jesus weeps over his city. He weeps over a city which knows not the things of peace, the way of vulnerability. He weeps over a city which is not afraid to die but afraid to live. He weeps over a city whose leaders are bent on repeating the same mistakes, drawing the same wrong conclusions, refusing to think about an end to violence and a beginning to the way of peace-making. We can still hear his sobbing today. 

Tony’s death was a sobering moment in my life. It was a moment of transformation.  Until his death, I had mostly thought about trying to get kids souls saved for heaven. But my tears told me I wasn’t really ready for Tony to go heaven. They told me heaven wasn’t ready either. I began to think differently about ministry that summer. I began to think hard about race and about poverty and about guns. It set me on a whole different course, one that would inevitably lead me to seminary, and to Irie, and to a whole new understanding of what it means to “present the Gospel”. 

I’m still so sorry about Tony. I’m so sorry his life was cut short — before he had a chance to grow up.  I’m so sorry his assailant’s was also. Mostly I’m sorry for those who read about the murder in the paper and just wrote them both off as thugs without ever knowing anything more. 

Why are kids afraid to live in these United States of America? Why are there so many guns on our streets and inmates in our prisons?  Why don’t we care enough to get involved? Why do we still think the Gospel is just about the kingdom in heaven rather than the kingdom on earth?

These are hard questions. They have no easy answers. I live in a city in the midst of racial turmoil this week.  There are no easy answers. 

But maybe what we need is a deep lament, sobbing and a wailing and a profound kind of knowledge of and encounter with the pain and fear so many in our country live with and die with day by day. In a word, it is what we call compassion, the place of feeling and sensing and even suffering with, and also the place of transformation, and of seeing. 

 “If you,” Jesus said, “even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

No; the answers are not easy. But, “Even you,” Jesus said. Even us. If only we could see again through the eyes of compassion then maybe we could know the way to peace.