Daily Lesson for November 29, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 

Isaiah chapter 24 verses 21 though 24:

21 On that day the Lord will punish

   the host of heaven in heaven,

   and on earth the kings of the earth. 

22 They will be gathered together

   like prisoners in a pit;

they will be shut up in a prison,

   and after many days they will be punished. 

23 Then the moon will be abashed,

   and the sun ashamed;

for the Lord of hosts will reign

   on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and before his elders he will manifest his glory. 

And Matthew chapter 20 verses 20 through 28:

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. 21And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ 22But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’* They said to him, ‘We are able.’ 23He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’

24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

We come down to the next to last day of the liturgical calendar, and the readings given for the day are about power and its right use.

We all know the saying, “Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This is so often the case in the world and the reason why Jesus says those in power must be willing to give it up. The “great” among us, he says, must be a “servant”.

There are other ways of being great; Jesus admits that. And the rulers of this world are great because of the abuse of their power. It’s what got them where they are. 

“But not so among you,” Jesus says. Not in God’s kingdom. 

The days are coming, Isaiah says, when the rulers of this earth will be held accountable for their use and misuse of power. Did they use it wisely as true public servants of common good; or did they use it for their own personal gain? The day is coming, Isaiah, says when the truth will be told, and “the moon will be abashed and the sun will be ashamed” of all that has been done both under the cloak of darkness and also even in bright of broad daylight. 

In the end, it’s the “Son of Man” who will judge both the host of heaven and also the kings and nations of the earth. He will judge between many nations, and sift between many so-called “great” rulers. And in the end, the kings and queens and presidents and CEOs and countries will be judged not by how much absolute power we amassed for ourselves, but rather by how much power we used for the aid and benefit of others.

So may it be. 

Daily Lesson for Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson for Thanksgiving Day comes from the Book of Common Prayer (slightly altered):

Almighty God, Father and Mother of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages.

Amen.

I love the plea to God for an awareness of mercies. With all that rightfully concerns us about the present we fret and worry over about the future, O what a gift to be made aware of God’s mercies.  This is not to diminish or deny all the challenges, injustices, and just plain wrong doings in this world; but if we had just an inkling of all the mercies we’ve received in the past year then we would know for sure and forever that God is on our side. 

And God is on our side. 

I’m about to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. For some reason — and its a little embarrassing to admit this — it always makes me cry. That’s probably because the Parade is the first official act of Thanksgiving and therefore the whole Holiday season. We’ve made it another year around the sun. And what untold number of graces and mercies we must have received to have made it happen — especially when some of us drive like we do!

Give us an awareness of your mercies, dear LORD. An awareness of life, of love, of second, and third, and fourth, and 77x7 chances, and of the goodness of this day’s daily bread and all our days’ — even the worst ones — daily grace.

Daily Lesson for November 27, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 8:

4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For it stands in scripture:

‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,

   a cornerstone chosen and precious;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ 

7To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

‘The stone that the builders rejected

   has become the very head of the corner’, 

8and

‘A stone that makes them stumble,

   and a rock that makes them fall.’

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

and Matthew chapter 19 verses 27 through 30.

27 Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ 28Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

We are coming down to the final days of the liturgical year and today’s Lessons tell of a time of great reversal, when the first shall be last, the last first, and the stone rejected at the founding becomes the cornerstone for a new foundation. And those who have fallen out with family and friends for God’s sake will receive a hundredfold family members and friends and also eternal life. 

I know so many who have lost so much for the sake of their convictions. People I know have been rejected by communities, churches, denominations, friends, and families because they stood up for what they thought was just, right, and loving. Friendships ended, and families split, and the prophet has no place to lay his or her head.

The Thanksgiving holiday is a reminder to many of these of what has been lost.  There’s division at the table. Or maybe the division is so deep that the table can’t be shared. Family isn’t really family anymore — not like it used to be. 

So the Lessons today comes as words of consolation.  There are things worth standing up for, Jesus is saying — even if it means rejection. But the rejection will not last forever. One day there will be a righting and reckoning.   One day others will see also. 

And then, “the first shall be last, the last shall be first”, and the rejected stone shall one day have the place of honor, and the rejected child shall have the place of honor at the head of the table. 

So then may it be, on earth even as it is in heaven. 

Daily Lesson for November 26, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Nahum chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, and 6-8.

2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,

   the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

   and rages against his enemies. 

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,

   and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. 

6 Who can stand before his indignation?

   Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

   and by him the rocks are broken in pieces. 

7 The Lord is good,

   a stronghold on a day of trouble;

he protects those who take refuge in him, 

8   even in a rushing flood.

He will make a full end of his adversaries,*

   and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 

Yesterday we visited Montgomery, Alabama and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice which acknowledges America’s history of racial terrorism against blacks and other minorities. Among the thousands of victim names at the Memorial, we found the name of Porter Turner, Irie’s great-uncle who was lynched by the KKK in Dekalb County, Georgia in 1945.

The specter of that lynching and the thousands of other murders at the hands of white terrorism in America have hung over black families like Irie’s for generations. The Memorial is a significant step in remembering the horror of lynching, and hopefully beginning to come to terms with its legacy of brutality, terror, and social control. 

This, too, was America.  Even in 1945 — just days after the end of WWII, a war fought and won in the name of liberty and justice against totalitarian brutality and dehumanization. 

This week is Thanksgiving week. And I am drawn to recall yet again a line from Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation issued amidst the horrors of the Civil War in 1863.  Lincoln summoned the nation to give thanks.  We almost all remember that. But he also summoned it to repentance — something we too often forget.  The nation was to give thanks “with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience”.

Slavery was our national perverseness and disobedience, and Lynching her ugly daughter. Lynching was born because what in his sermon upon Lincoln’s assassination Philips Brooks called “the Spirit of Slavery” refused to die. That Spirit of perversity and disobedience disobedience outlived the Civil War. It outlived WWII and the Southern Freedom Movement. And it still lives today. It lives anywhere and everywhere we refuse “humble penitence” for the sins of our nation. 

It’s Thanksgiving week. There is much for which to be thankful. Yet gratitude is only one part of the summons. The other is penitence, it’s acknowledgment, and remembrance, and reparation for the perverseness and disobedience of the past, and the foresworn end of the Spirit of Slavery even in the present that we might, in the words of Lincoln’s Proclamation:

“implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

So may it be.

Daily Lesson for November 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 19.

“Why do you ask?”

That’s the question a preacher friend of mine asks when someone seems to be asking a Gotcha Question — a question designed not really to get at sincere truth but only to make somebody look bad or get them in trouble. 

Make no mistake, the question in the Lesson this morning is a Gotcha Question. It’s not intended to get at the truth about marriage and divorce; it’s meant to entrap Jesus. That’s why they ask. They ask because they know in answering he’ll either have to side with the Law of Moses and therefore be publicly opposed to Herod, who married his wife Herodias after she divorced her husband Philip, Herod’s brother.  

So which one is it, Jesus, the Law or King?  It was a question the Pharisees designed to frame him — just like their question about paying taxes to Caesar. They didn’t care what his answer was. They didn’t want truth or instruction or a way forward. They wanted ammunition. 

There’s much to be said about marriage and divorce and Caesar — and a whole lot that can be said about all three together.

But why do you ask?

Daily Lesson on the Feast Day of C.S. Lewis

Today is the Feast Day for C.S. Lewis. In observance, I am reposting a link to a dispatch from my 2015 British Evasion and trip to Lewis’s old stomping ground, Oxford.

https://ryonprice.blogspot.com/2015/08/british-evasion-10-august-8-2015.html?m=1

Daily Lesson for November 21, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 1 through 7:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

6 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!

Earlier this in preparation for Sunday’s sermon I went back and re-read President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued on the third day of October 1863 in anticipation of a National Day of Thanksgiving set aside for the fourth Thursday of the following month. I have read this many times over the years; and I am always touched by the pastoral nature of Lincoln’s words as he called our nation to give thanks even amidst our terrible Civil War.

But what I had forgotten is in this Proclamation is another pastoral task — the call of the people to a greater humility and repentance from what he called the Nation’s “national perverseness and disobedience” which ended in the scourge of widow and orphan hood afflicting both North and South. By the time of the Proclamation, Lincoln had decided the War was a judgment upon the Union for its sin of slavery, and the Proclamation was a pastoral call to prayer of thanksgiving for God’s mercies even amidst the sword of judgment, and also a call to humility and contrition, that the victims of the Nation’s hubris be spared even greater suffering. 

One hundred fifty-eight years after Lincoln’s Proclamation, our nation is again caught up in a time of deep division. The closing words in Lincoln’s Proclamation speak to us in our own time that we might “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

“Peace”, “harmony”, “tranquility”, and “Union” are wonderful words of hope for us now. But they come not without another important word Lincoln used in the Proclamation: “penitence”. We will not have the former without first having the latter.  And the wounds of the nation will not be healed, lest we see and admit what sad suffering our hubris has caused, especially for the young and vulnerable. 

This is the season for giving thanks, and also the season for making contrition.  Let us prepare ourselves for both as we make our towards the fourth Thursday of November yet again.