Daily Lesson for January 31, 2014

Today's Lesson from Psalm 51:

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!

It is the psalm David prayed after it was found out that he had slept with Bathsheba and then arranged to have her husband killed. It is the prayer of a person who is truly sorrowful and repentant.

A little story about Psalm 51:

In 17th and early 18th century England crime was severely punished. Even theft of a very minor sum was a capital offence warranting execution.

But a person on trial could "plea clergy" - meaning that because there was a separation of church and civil authority, he could plea that as a clergyman he was immune from civil justice. And apparently the way one proved one was clergy was by proving one's ability to read. The charged would be asked to read - you guessed it - Psalm 51. It was known as the "Neck Psalm" because it saved one's neck.

What is most interesting is that historians researching the records have discovered just how inordinately frequent people plead clergy - far more than would be expected. The historians suspect what was happening was that even the unlearned and illiterate knew from memory this Psalm 51 and were able to recite it well enough to save their neck! Even more, these historians surmise that juries in these cases were loathe to meet out death and so willing to suffer through some pretty dismal readings of Psalm 51. Apparently, you could stumble your way through and still be found clergy because even in harsh 17th and 18th century England the people were merciful.

Which brings me to my point: just how loathe to meet out death and how full of mercy our God is. He is a God willing to blought out our transgressions and wash us clean of our sins if we humbly come before him in true repentance.

And that makes this a psalm worth reading so often and interiorizing so deeply that we know it by heart. And when we stand condemned by our own guilty consciences, we bring it forth from memory into prayer to remind ourselves that our God is a God of mercy and steadfast love - willing to forgive even the darkest of our transgressions and to wash clean even the vilest of us sinners.

Psalm 51. Read it. Memorize it. It might just save your neck.

Daily Lesson for January 30, 2014

Today's Lesson is from John 5:

39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. . .42 I know that you do not have the love of God within you.

Some people I know who know their Bibles backwards and forwards also happen to be some of the meanest-spirited people I have ever met. They can quote what the Bible says chapter and verse, but somehow missed the whole point of the Bible in their own lives.

We do not worship the Bible. In other words, the Bible is not an end in itself. It is not to be used as a weapon for abuse nor a litmus test for inclusion and exclusion. Its purpose is to point us toward or "bear witness about" the things of Christ himself - his love, truth, mercy, and compassion.

The Apostle Paul said it himself, "If we have faith to move a mountain, yet have not love we are nothing." And to that Paul might have also added, if we have the Bible, yet somehow missed Christ's love then what we really have is just an old book.

The Scriptures are for finding life; find life in them and not death. Find Christ!

Daily Lesson for January 29, 2014

Today's Lesson from Genesis 16:

8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai." . . . 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” . . . 13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, "Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”

Yikes, this is ugly.

Abraham and Sarah, the chosen couple of promise, are having trouble conceiving. In what must have been a tense and grief-stricken conversation, Sarah offers Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave girl, for Abraham to sleep with. Abraham, old but not yet wise (as the saying goes, "There's no fool like an old fool."), obliges and soon enough Hagar is showing. Her young fertility then becomes the target for Sarah's abusive anger. Next thing we know, Hagar has run away into the desert - probably resigned to take her own life and that of the child in her womb.

Wow, and we thought our families were complicated. How did this get into the Bible?

Here's how. It comes from what happens to Hagar in the desert. An angel of the LORD appears to her and encourages her not to end her life in the desert because the angel says the LORD has listened to her affliction and is watching over her, her unborn child, and all the succeeding generations to come. So, Hagar named that place in the desert, "The place of the God who sees me."

Life can be complicated, ugly, and downright destructive. We are all born into systems of disfunction, manipulation and even abuse. The message of this text is that God is with us all. God sees us each and all and sends his angels to us to encourage us to choose life - however difficult living may be.

I am including a link to one of my favorite songs by Andrae Crouch. Andrae is of the African American people, a people who have known so much of the troubles of Hagar and what it means to go on living and trusting the LORD through it all:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CvIxwc90BEI

Daily Lesson for January 28, 2014

Today's Lesson from John 5:

5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

"Do you want to be made well?" The question is jarring and perhaps a little off putting even. "How insensitive," we think. The man has been waiting beside this pool for someone to put him into the healing, mystical waters for 38 years. "Can't you see? Of course he wants to be made well."

But Jesus looks beyond what most people can see. He looks beyond the physical condition down into the very spiritual heart of the man and sees a truth most would have missed, or ignored, or felt too guilty to speak - that the man on the mat before him is wallowing in his own situation.

This world is full of cruel and terrible tragedies. Whether it be from a congenital defect at birth, an accident, an act of violence, or simply from a family or social situation into which one is born, many people are truly handicapped in this world. Feeling sorry for these people is natural and good; compassion is Godly.

But disabled persons need more than others to feel sorry for them. They need people who will encourage them beyond the paralysis of victimhood, and toward whatever quality of life may still be possible. Jesus does that for this lame man. Jesus gets man to see that he doesn't have to keep waiting for others to come and place him in the water so that he can then be healed. Jesus gets him to see that the truly healing waters are already inside him - already welling up and bubbling over to an abundant life.

I have a friend who was paralyzed from the waist down sometime ago in a freak accident. One day we were talking about his life now in the chair and he said, "My body is in a wheelchair, but my spirit is still soaring."

He not only wants to be made well; he is well.

Daily Lesson for January 27, 2014

Today's Lesson from Hebrews 8:
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.

The author of Hebrews is describing the difference between a former life of trying to do and be good to get to God, and a new life in Christ where our goodness comes out of our already-united oneness with God.

There is an old set of Grimm's Fairy tales about a little tailor who's sewed a jacket with many pockets. In one of the stories the tailor meets a giant who won't let him pass without first a test of strength.

The tailor scratches his beard, nods and then suggests a rock throwing contest. The giant then picks up a huge boulder and sails it into the air as far as the eye can see before finally coming down. The little tailor nods, kneels down and picks up a tiny pebble, and then reaches into one of his outer pockets a brings out a piece of string. Finally he reaches inside his coat, into an inner pocket, and pulls out a dove. The tailor then used the string to tie the tiny pebble to the foot of the dove and with a smile released the dove into the air. The dove never came back. Neither did the stone.

The point: what is set into flight by brute strength will always eventually come down; what flies of itself can fly forever.

The point of real transformation is when we recognize we can't fly of our own - when we see that we simply can't be good enough. We keep falling. That's when we realize the power has to come from somewhere else beside our willpower, and so finally we allow ourselves to be tied in a divine union with the God who invented flight.

How this happens I really don't know. All I can say is it involves the necessary step of admitting that we can't fly by ourselves; we need God's help. That's the first step toward soaring

Daily Lesson for January 24, 2014

Today's Lesson is again from John 4, the Woman at the Well:

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that pyou are qa prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 

No doubt, woman at the well is a woman with a past. She has had five husbands, and the man she is with now is another. Jesus brings this up because he wants her to look honestly on her own life and come to terms with where she been and where she is at now. But that is too much for her - a little too close for comfort. Instead, she wants to talk about worship.

A lot of people who need spiritual help find it in church, but then resist it with questions and concerns cloaked in religion. They want to talk about the worship service. Or what we think about the inerrancy of scripture. Or our policy on gays.

These so-called religious concerns are often just shields which a person uses to hide themselves from true transformation.

Remember, it's a lot easier to debate how many angels can spin on the head of a pin than it is to change.

Daily Lesson for January 23, 2014

Today's Lesson from John 4:

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?" . . . Jesus said, "The water that I will give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

She is a woman of the city. She has come to draw water alone - which is odd since drawing water was often a communal act done by women in groups. This has led many to speculate that she has not really come for water; but for men - that she is a prostitute. 

Whether or not she is a prostitute, we know that her life is empty. She has no joy and she is racked with the guilt of what she has done and the shame of who she is. Her heart is hallow and empty and the pit of her life is deep and dark like the well there on he outskirts of town. In fact, when she speaks of the well, she uses a term for the cavernous pit of hell. It is a metaphor for her own life.

He sticks with the metaphor but changes the imagery. He does not speak of a well but rather a spring - a spring bubbling and alive. Jesus is describing a whole new way of life - a life full and not empty, overflowing and not dried out. It is an image Jesus is giving this woman of her still possible future - no longer stuck in the pit of hell, but alive with the spring of abundant life.

No matter how dark, empty, and alone you may feel, God wants to change the metaphor. God wants to turn your hallow pit into a bubbling spring. And God can do it, if you let Him. All you really have to do is say what this woman at the well said, “Sir, give me this water . . ."

Daily Lesson for January 22, 2014

31 He who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony . . . 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life . . .

Socrates told a story in which a group of men were chained backward facing to the wall of a cave. Whenever light would come into the cave the men could see shadows from things outside as they were cast upon the back of the wall. Socrates said the shadows were as close to seeing as the prisoners ever got. But one day one of the prisoners was set free. He escaped the cave and he saw the world outside the cave as it really was - no longer in shadow form. He returned to the cave to tell his fellow prisoners of the world outside, but they were afraid of what he tells them; they are content with the shadows.

In John's Gospel Jesus is the man born from heaven - someone who is free from the partial blindness of this world's shadows. He sees life for what it really is - or at least what it could be. This is what the scripture means when it says he "comes from heaven" and "bears witness to what he has seen and heard." He comes not so much to tell us what heaven will be like once we die and go there; instead he comes to tell us that we too can share in a heavenly way of life today if we would allow him to unshackle us from the wall.

Trust the man from heaven. He has seen a way of life that is far more than we could ask for or even imagine while still changed to the wall. It is a life full of peace which surpasses all understanding, and love for our neighbors, and absent of all bitterness toward our enemies. If you do not have these things, then you're still in chains, settling for a shadow of what life could be. If you will allow yourself to be unchained from the wall and find the courage to step out of the cave, then you will discover a light and life that no one should miss.

Daily Lesson for January 21, 2014

Today's Lesson is from John 3:19,20:

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.

A man comes to Jesus by night. His name is Nicodemus, so ancient tradition mandates that we call him "Nick at Night".

Why night? Because he is part of the ruling inner religious circle, yet he knows the religious institution is corrupt to its core. It has cheated and oppressed and murdered. It is plotting murder again. Nicodemus comes to Jesus by for fear of these things coming to light. He is afraid of being exposed.

Exposure can be terrifying. The thought of someone knowing who we are and what we've done causes panic in the heart. It leads to all sorts of denial, and coverup, and perhaps, if we are desperate enough, even murder - whether that be homicide or suicide. The light is that threatening. We would rather murder the light than be exposed by it.

If someone reading this is in this position, hiding themselves in the cloak of darkness, I ask that you would consider doing the most terrifying thing imaginable - walk toward the light. Take a step.

What you find is that your fear of the light is far worse than the light itself; your guilt and your shame are worse now in hiding than when things come to light. The self-judgement you are meeting out upon yourself in the dark is far worse than anything you will face in the light.

There's really no other way out. As the Scriptures say, "Your deeds will find you out." Whether in this life or the one to come we will all have to come before the light. But when we do, we will discover, not so much the judgment we feared, but a freedom and grace we didn't even know was possible. And we will say, "I should have done this sooner."

Daily Lesson for January 20, 2014

Today's Lesson from Hebrews 4:14,16

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession . . . Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Yesterday somebody at church asked me if Christians would have to stand before the judgement seat. I immediately thought of this image from Hebrews and what it says about the throne of judgement. 

The author is speaking of Jesus as our high priest. In ancient Judaism the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and offer a sacrifice of atonement on behalf of the people. Yet, because of the high priest's own sins, this sacrifice was always less than perfect. Because of this, there was always something left I reconciled between the people and God. But no more, the author says. In Christ, he says, the ultimate high priest has entered into the very Holy of Holies of heaven itself to make atonement for the people.

Therefore, the author of Hebrews tells us we ourselves can now walk confidently (not fearfully) into the holy of holies in heaven, toward God's throne with the knowledge that Jesus himself has atoned for our sins and reconciled us with God. 

In other words, and this gets at the question I was asked yesterday, we no longer think of God's throne as a seat of judgement. For we know that what we once thought of as the throne of judgement has now become the throne of grace.

Let us then walk confidently toward that throne - not only in heaven, but here on earth. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. We are at peace with God and ought to be at peace in our spirits as well.

Daily Lesson for January 17, 2014

Today's Lesson is from John 2:3,4:

3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come."

This may sound strange, but this story makes me think Jesus might have needed a little nudge into ministry.

Jesus, His disciples and His mother Mary have all come to Cana for the wedding. At some point the wine runs dry. Mary pulls her Son aside. “They have run out of wine,” she says.

Jesus’ eyes dart back and forth over His mother’s head. “Woman,” He whispers, “what business of our is that? My hour has not yet come.”

What Jesus means by His “hour” is important. In one respect He means the hour of his revelation—when the world shall know that He is the Messiah. But that hour of revelation is inextricably bound up with the hour of His death. Jesus knows that by turning the water into wine He will also be turning Himself down the path that will ultimately lead to His crucifixion.

I love Mary’s response. She doesn’t even bat an eye at Jesus’ rebuff. She simply turns and instructs the stewards to do whatever Jesus tells them. We get a sense that Mary is more than just a woman unwilling to take no for an answer. In a much more profound sense she is a mother unwilling to allow her Son to say no to the needs of the world.

Mary’s resolve has an effect on Jesus. He chooses to answer the call and step into His role as the one who provides—not only the wine, but also the salvation of the world.

When it came to ministry I was - in the immortal words of Bob Dylan - "a slow train coming". In fact, I didn't really want to become a preacher, but had my mind set on becoming a lawyer instead.

Just as I was preparing to go off to law school, my grandfather passed away. I delivered the eulogy at his memorial service and after the service my mom came up to me with tears in her eyes. After hugging me she pulled back and looked me squarely in the face. “Are you sure you’re not supposed to be a preacher?” she asked.

“No,” I said sheepishly. “I’m not sure.”

It is those closest to us—our mothers, and fathers, and spouses and friends—who know us well enough to question the assumptions we make about our lives. They help us to see where the world most needs us. In the end they, like Mary, help us to see that though our hour may not yet have come, it is coming.

If you know somebody who has a gift to give that the world could use go ahead and give them a nudge. You can help them to see that though their time has not yet come, it's coming.

Daily Lesson for January 16, 2014

Today's 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 January 15, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Genesis 4:3-7

3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

This was the first battle in the worship wars.

Two brothers being their offerings before God. One brings of the fruit of the ground; the other brings an animal.  One gift is acceptable to God; the other is rejected.

Obvious question: Why was Cain's offering rejected?  I believe Cain's offering was rejected, not because there was something wrong with the gift, but because there was something wrong with Cain.  

Worship is a matter of the heart.  No matter what style you worship in, if your heart is right God will accept your offering. If your heart is wrong, you'll leave church just like Cain - angry and bitter and ready to go to war with your brother.

That's sickening.

Daily Lesson for January 14, 2014

Today's Lesson from Genesis 3:22-24:

22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Sometimes someone will come to me frustrated and disillusioned by the world and I will say to them, "We are west of Ft. Worth. We are west of Abilene. But we are still east of Eden."

It's a hard lesson but one we have to come to terms with. East of Eden things do not grow by themselves. We have to earn everything by the sweat of our brow and even then sometimes the crop fails.

Part of the task of life is coming to terms with the way life is. It's playing the cards we've been dealt. In my heart I will always long for Eden, but we have to learn to live in Lubbock.

The good news is that God goes with us. 

This is the end of chapter 3 - the story of Adam and Eve and the Fall. But if you keep reading into chapter 4, you see that God is there too, still with the first family. He decided to go with them.

Life is no paradise. It is a struggle full of hardship and disappointment. We are east of Eden; but God is too.

Daily Lesson for January 13, 2014

Today's Lesson from Genesis 2:5-7

5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

The Greek philosophers called God the Unmoved Mover. But Genesis 2 describes Him in a far more intimate way - as a gardener. 

He is working the land, tilling the soil, watering the ground - but not too much. He is readying it for its purpose. 

And when the time is just right He bends down on his knees into the soil and takes a fist-full of dirt. And like a child with PlayDough He takes the dirt and shapes it into the form of a man - nostrils and all.

And then - He breathes. 

God is not a far-off creator who keeps His distance. He was intimately involved in each of our lives from the beginning, and He is still tilling the soil to help us become what we were created to be.

He's the good gardener!

Daily Lesson for January 10, 2014

Today's Lesson from John 10 verses 11 thru 13:

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep."

Good help is hard to find. That is so because most folks are working for a wage but their hearts aren't in what they are doing. Most fast food joints are a case in point. I always double check my order before leaving because I'm just a number there and the person at the counter was thinking about quitting when they were bagging my fries. 

But then I think about my grand daddy's western wear store. He took pride in what he did. People came and shopped with him because they knew they would get the very best - quality and service. And if something was wrong, he would make it right. Why? Because his name was on the sign out front. His heart was in it and his good name was at stake and because of that he gave his life to that work. 

How bout your work? Are you acting like just a hired hand - in it for the paycheck - or do you act like your good name is at stake in what you do?

By the way, your good name is at stake.

Daily Lesson for January 9, 2014

Today's Lesson from Colossians 1 verse 24:

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church."

What an extraordinary statement. Paul - shipwrecked, beaten with rods, pelted with stones, lost at sea, constantly in danger from rivers and robbers - rejoices in all his sufferings because he says they help complete whatever was lacking in Christ's own sufferings.

Christ's sufferings lacking? This would be heresy if it wasn't in the Bible; but here it is. We don't just accept Christ's sufferings on our behalf. For whatever reason, God has so ordained things that Christ's followers must share in Christ's sufferings also. This is a necessary condition for taking part in His body.

Perhaps Augustine put it clearly when he said, "Without God we cannot; but without us God will not." To belong to Christ's body, the church, is to share in His afflictions. We can't be under any delusions about this. Suffering, struggle, sacrifice - it comes with the territory. We must learn to embrace these things and even rejoice in them, just as Paul did. If we don't we're in for a long and bitter journey.

Daily Lesson: January 8, 2013

Today's Lesson from Exodus 17 verse 6:

"Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink."

The people are in a panic. Traveling through a dry and barren wilderness where there is no water, they begin to panic. They wonder, "Has God led us all this way just to bring us to die in the desert?" Then they turn on each other, and they especially turn on their leader Moses. They want to kill the pastor who got them into this mess!

Then God reveals His plan. Moses is to strike a rock with his staff to find water. 

The wilderness is a place of testing. We thirst; and seeing no water we panic. We point fingers, blame God, and second guess everything. Finally we settle for doing the only thing we can think of. We round up a committee to get rid of the pastor. Maybe that'll fix things. 

But the water we are looking for is always deeper. It is beneath the surface. It is hidden from our eyes. It is a reservoire of inner strength we have to dig deep to find. And finding it, we realize why we had to thirst so deeply - because if we had not been desperate we never would have struck the rock.

The author of Hebrews said that rock had a name - it was Christ hisself. If we strike that Rock, if we dig deep, we are sure to find the aquifer we need to sustain us through life's wildernesses.

January 7, 2013

Today's Lesson from Deuteronomy 8 verse 3:

"He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don’t live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from God’s mouth."

During the height of apartheid Desmond Tutu joked that he was like a man who had fallen off a cliff and was hanging by the limb of a tree. "Help," he yelled, "is there anybody up there?"

There was silence, then the sound of a deep, resonant voice - obviously God's - answered from above. "Yes, my son?"

"Help me," The man yelled up. "I am hanging by a limb."

There was more silence and then the voice again from above, "Let go of the tree my son."

There was yet even more silence now and then the voice of the man below, "Help, is there anyone ELSE up there?"

Nobody likes to fall - especially on hard times. But when we do fall, we discover a supernatural resource we otherwise never would have known.

January 6, 2013

Today is Epiphany in the Church calendar.  Our Lesson is from Isaiah 49:

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

The LORD is speaking to His Anointed. Though God's people are in exile, He has been chosen to bring them back into saving relationship with God. No, that is too small. God has chosen Him to bring the whole world back into saving relationship.

When God looks at our world He doesn't see the same borders and boundaries we do. God's vision is bigger than my own personal salvation, or my family's, or even my nation's.  Maybe that's why the world is round - so no one person or group can be said to be its center.

It's a good lesson for Epiphany - the day in the life of the Church when we remember that God's light came to draw all people.

Today's Lesson is John 6:26: Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."

Jesus meets the needs of the crowd by serving up a great miracle meal in the wilderness. The next thing we know they want to make him king. Then Jesus does pretty much the last thing we'd expect: he walks away. Finally the people track him down, but Jesus isn't flattered. "Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves."

If your faith is based on religious consumption, one of these days Jesus is going to walk away - leaving your desires completely unmet. That will be either the beginning or the end of true discipleship.

Today's Lesson from 1 Kings 19: 
4 But Elijah himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” 5 And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise and eat, for the journey is too great for you.” 8 And he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mount of God.

Rollo May said depression is the inability to construct a future. That is Elijah. Emotionally spent and afraid, Elijah is now at the point of emotional paralysis. Though he was a great instrument of God in the past, he can no longer see a meaningful future for himself. Then the angel appears with a cake and water. "Arise and eat," he says and Elijah does.

In this text the word "angel" could be simply translated "messenger". I am thinking, maybe you know somebody who can no longer imagine the future. How bout dropping off a cake or a card or perhaps calling? You could be the messenger from the future they don't even know exists.

With the New Year comes the opportunity for a fresh start. All our transgressions are behind us; everything we have done and left undone is in the past. 

In the abundance of God's mercy we don't have to dwell on things past. We are not stuck in the past - this is 2014! A good New Years resolution would be to let go of "If only . . ." thinking and embrace "Next time . . ." thinking.

Do that and we will be sure to discover that our God is very capable of making up for lost time.

Psalm 103:11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Isaiah 62:4: You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her.

Today's Lesson from James 4:13-15:

Come now you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that."

Yesterday an 83-year-old lady from church asked me if I thought I would live into my 80s. "Yeah, probably," I said, "with the way science and medicine are going."

Well, here's the truth; I have no idea if I'll make it to 80 or die tomorrow. No matter how much science and medicine advance they can never change the fact that I am mortal and therefore only one breath away from death.

So, many of us are making plans for 2014 and beyond. That's good; we have to plan ahead and doing so gives us something to look forward to. But let us not neglect to live for the LORD today - it's all we've got.

Today's Scripture is from 1 Kings 17: So she said to Elijah, “What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death!” He said to her, “Give me your son.” Then he took him from her bosom . . .

A mother is terrified. A woman of great faith, she invited Elijah, the prophet of the LORD, into her home. But now her son is gravely ill. In the maddening thought of losing her son she begins to second guess having received the prophet and even goes so far as to blame him.

The prophet's response: "Give me your son."

There are many today who are desperately worried about their children. Their sons and daughters are living in a kind of spiritual death which may in fact lead to physical death. The message from our story says this: Stop blaming, manipulating, fixing, running after, ennabling and making excuses. Instead, give them over to the LORD.

Trust God with your children; for God is trustworthy; and whether YOUR children live or die, the LORD is good, and true, and just and will do right by them.

Trust the LORD!

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Today is the Feast of St. John the Beloved. He is the one who recorded Jesus' command to the disciples on the last night of His life. We are to love each other just as Christ has loved us. 

Do you see the link?: Love just as we have been loved. Too many people are out there trying to love but they haven't allowed themselves to be loved first. It ends in anger, frustration, bitterness, and cynicism. Sadly, that's the story of a lot of people's Christmas with the family. Having felt rejected and hurt, it will take a year to try to love again.

To love with the love of Christ is to love unconditionally. Is it any wonder Jesus said these things just as Judas was leaving to go and betray Jesus? Yet Jesus loved Judas anyway. I am sure of that.

Love is a risk. Only those who know that they themselves are loved and accept that love can then in turn truly and joyfully love others.

Today is the Feast Day of St. Stephen the Martyr. Stephen was one of the first deacons of the church, a righteous and devout man. He was martyred by people full of hatred and intolerance. As he was being stoned, he fell to his knees and prayed that God would have mercy on his killers. 

Today's reading is from the book of Wisdom 4:

"For old age is not honored for length of time, or measured by number of years; but understanding is gray hair for anyone, and a blameless life is ripe old."

We have all known people who died at an early age, yet were full of a Wisdom well beyond their years. That Wisdom is not the wisdom of this age but rather the very Wisdom of the LORD. It is the Wisdom of holiness and devotion. It is the Wisdom that gives one grace and peace even in the face of death.

I pray to get it before I die.

By now the Scriptures say the angels had already departed and gone back to heaven. In the dim morning light the barn would not look like heaven on earth - coarse straw, a sorely cow, a cat angered at having lost one of its favorite places to sleep. And the Baby? He would have looked like just another child born into hopeless circumstances - a teenage mother, crushing poverty, a country always at war.

Yet for those with eyes to see this Baby is the Hope of the world - Hope Himself wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. This is the way God chose to come to us. 

That ought to tell us something.

Today's Gospel Lesson from Matthew 1: 
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."

Joseph was a righteous man we are told. That means he can be counted on to do the right thing. But what if knowing what the right thing is isn't clear. The Law says put her out. But Joseph is unwilling to subject her to public disGRACE. Get that, Joseph is already a man of grace. As Ratzinger said, "Joseph lives the Law as Gospel." He will dismiss her quietly.

But then the angel appears with a new revelation. And now Joseph faces another decision. Will he believe the revelation - that the impossible is possible? He will. He is a "son of Abraham", who believed the angel when the angel said he and his wife would conceive though they were in their 90s (try explaining that to Medicare). "Abraham believed," the Scripture says, "and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness."

Joseph believed and in doing so showed us what true righteousness is - not wooden adherence to an old law, but dynamic faith in Emmanuel, "God with us."

Today's reflection from Psalm 61 verse 2:

For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from him comes my salvation.

Over the weekend the mother of a friend from my church passed away. When I called him to express my consolation he talked about his mother's debilitating stroke which had left her in a state of partial paralysis for years. He was sorry to lose her, but thankful her suffering had ended. Then he quoted Bonhoeffer (every pastor needs parishioners who can quote Bonhoeffer). It is something Bonhoeffer wrote during Advent from his Nazi prison cell as he awaited execution:

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes - and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent."

My friend's mother waited patiently for her Advent freedom; it has now come.

Today's Gospel is the Parable of Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). A master gives three men large sums of money. Two go off and make even more with it. The third buries it and when the master returns this is what he says: "Master, I knew you are a harsh man, reaping where you did not scatter and gathering where you did not plant. I was afraid so I went and hid your talent. Here, have it back."

Make no mistake, what you do with your talents has a lot to do with how you think about the Master.

My grandfather used to say, "You can go just as far on a full tank of gas as you can on a half." His point: Don't drive around half empty.

Today's Gospel reading is from Matthew 25 where five foolish virgins wait up for the bridegroom but run out of oil for their lamps and so miss him when he comes.

Don't be so low on gas over these next few days that you miss the whole reason for the season. If you're in danger of that stop and refuel.

This morning's Old Testament reading from Zechariah is about a man standing before Satan the accuser and God the judge. Hear what God says: 
The LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?"

God is not only our judge; He is also our deliverer. There is no condemnation for those in Christ. We have been rescued from the fire.