Daily Lesson for February 28, 2014

Today's Lesson is from the book of Philemon - it's a story about learning to think differently about letting go of whatever recompense you think other people owe you:

"17 So if you consider me your partner, receive [Onesimus] as you would receive me. 18 If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it—to say nothing of your owing me even your own self."

Philemon was a man Paul met and apparently converted in Colossae in his missionary journeys. Later, while in Rome, Paul met a man named Onesimus. As it turned out, Onesimus had run away from Colossae and his master - you guessed it - Philemon. 

Somewhere along the way, Onesimus became a Christian and served as a great resource to Paul while Paul was in prison in Rome. But it troubled Onesimus and Paul both that so long as Onesimus was always a runaway, he would never be quite free either in the eyes of Roman law or in his conscience. Paul and Onesimus agreed that Onesimus would return to Philemon with a letter from Paul asking for Onesimus' freedom.

In the letter, Paul recognizes that Onesimus had broken the law. But then Paul appeals to a higher law. Paul says, the higher law is that Onesimus and Philemon aren't so much slave and master as they are both brothers in Christ. And because they are brothers, Paul says, Onesimus doesn't owe Philemon anything. 

In fact, Paul says, when you think about it Philemon himself is actually indebted. "Ok," Paul says, "I know you feel cheated of Onesimus's monetary value, so go ahead and charge that to my account. And by the way, remember that I introduced you to eternal life in Christ - when you put a monetary value on that it should be enough repayment for Onesimus."

This is a good thing to think on when we feel cheated and want to assert our rights for recompense over someone. Brothers and sisters wrong each other all the time and the wrongs are often significant. But then Jesus says to us, "Charge it to my account." And we do, and then we check the balance and we realize we really aren't owed anything afterward. We're still in debt, because He paid it all. And so we don't really have any reason to demand anything from anybody else. Instead, we learn to forgive our debtors as God has forgiven our debts.

It's a sobering word about all of our place in life - all debtors to God's grace. Not masters lording it over others, but slaves made sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, in the house of God.

Thanks be to God!

Daily Lesson for February 27, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Psalm 131:

"O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;

my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child is my soul within me."

I love this Psalm. It is one of the many "Songs of Ascent" - songs Jews would sing as they made the journey up to Jerusalem for religious festivals. But there is an irony in the song. Even as they are going up to the holy mountain of God, they sing a song whose lyrics tell them not to think they can ascend to too high and lofty a place. It's a song that reminds them that there's a lot they don't know and a lot they have no control over. When these limitations are acknowledged then the song says the soul is calmed and quieted.

Learning to sing this song would put an end to a lot of the fighting I see going on in the media, on Facebook, at work, and in church. There's a lot I don't know about God and human beings and what we should or should not do. I've learned that saying "I don't know" is a remarkably freeing place.

St. Paul said we see through a glass darkly. When you get to the point of confessing that you see through a glass darkly it means you have begun to see yourself and God a little more clearly. We don't know a lot of things. But here's the good news: God knows that we don't know a lot of things. And this is the grace: walking humbly with God, we learn that He really does work all things to the good of those who love Him. In other words, whether our decisions in life are right, wrong, or indifferent, so long as they are made in a right Spirit of humility and love then we can trust that God will bless them. 

And that really is calming and quieting news for the soul.

Daily Lesson for February 26, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Proverbs 6:

"12 A worthless person, a wicked man,

goes about with crooked speech,

13 winks with his eyes, signals with his feet,

points with his finger,

14 with perverted heart devises evil,

continually sowing discord."

Facing issues head on and dealing with people outright are some of the toughest things we can learn to do as adults. Most of us aren't even aware of how much we act otherwise. It would astound us if we watched a film of ourselves from meetings at work or church and saw how much we wink, nudge, roll our eyes, shake our heads, and talk under our breath. It would astound us even more if we watched a film and saw how much we talk about others behind their backs. This kind of behavior always ends in discord.

Make the decision today to stop contributing to the problem and instead start being apart of the solution. The way we go about addressing issues usually a lot more important than the issue itself. Make the decision to address issues as they arise head on. And if you have an issue with a person speak directly to them. Make the decision today not to sow any discord but to seek harmony. Make it again tomorrow.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a rule at his seminary in Finkenwalde that no one could talk about anyone else unless that person was present, in the room and listening. The young seminarians trained at Finkenwalde didn't always follow that rule perfectly, but they did realize how much for the better they and their community were changed in trying.

Daily Lesson for February 25, 2014

Today's Lesson is from John 11:43

"When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

Jesus is more than a day's journey away from his friend Lazarus' town Bethany in Judea when he gets word from Lazarus's sisters that Lazarus is ill. Jesus does not seem alarmed. "This sickness is not unto death," he says. Jesus then stays where he is for two more days.

But after two Jesus says to his disciples that they must now go to Judea because Lazarus has died. This is odd. Didn't Jesus say the sickness was not unto death? And couldn't Jesus just say the word and Lazarus would be healed from far off - just as Jesus was able to heal from great distance on other occasions? "This sickness is not unto death," Jesus says, "but rather for God's glory." Did Jesus want Lazarus to do so that he could then later raise him up?

These questions troubled me for many years until a longer course in life began helped me to see what is going on in the story more clearly.

In these years of ministry I have seen many men hiding in deep tombs of guilt and shame. They feel they cannot come out lest the darkness of their lives be exposed. The thought of their deepest secrets coming to light terrifies them. As St. John says elsewhere, "Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." It is a spiritual death - though some I have known have taken their secrets into physical death also. They would rather die in the darkness of their secrets than live with the truth of them coming to light.

These experiences make me think Lazarus is a man in hiding. Lazarus, like Adam before him and like all men (and women), has fallen in darkness and is now hiding from the light. This explains why Jesus says cryptically, "[T]hose who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them." Lazarus has walked in the darkness and stumbled. And it explains why Jesus had to go to Bethany of Judea. Jesus, the light, could not reach and heal Lazarus in his far away darkness. Jesus wanted to; but Lazarus would not allow it. Instead, the light had to come to the darkness because the darkness was afraid to come into the light.

It is significant that Jesus chooses to come to Judea. It signals the beginning of the end for Jesus. He will never again leave Judea, but will be arrested, tried, and executed there. Jesus knows this. He knows what will happen to him. He knows his life will be ransomed for Lazarus. He loved Lazarus that much. 

For those living in the darkness and shame of secrets I want to tell you that Jesus loves us you that much also. He loves you enough to come and enter into your darkness and to die there so that you might come out and live in his light. This is the meaning redemption. Jesus comes to die in our world of secrets and darkness that we might live in his truth and light.

And for those who have lost loved ones to this death of secrets and shame, those who like Lazarus's sisters sit outside weeping at the tombs of their loved ones, I want to tell you that this death is not the final word. It is not the end. God will not allow it to be the end. This is why Jesus comes to tomb - because in love the light enters into the darkness of death and the darkness cannot overcome it. This is the meaning of resurrection. And as Jesus says to one of Lazarus's sisters outside her brother's tomb, "I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me, even though they die, shall live." You have called on Jesus to come and heal your loved one. And though they would not allow themselves to be fully healed in life, now Jesus has come near to heal even in death.

Believe in Jesus. Believe in his life and the way he lived it. Believe in his mercy and his love. Believe in his light. Believe that there is more life in him than there is death in you or your loved one. 

And when the light enters into the darkest and most secreted corners of your own life and calls you by name, come out. Come into the light and find life.

Daily Lesson for February 24, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 John 3 verses 19 and 20:

"19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything."

I have known many people whose inner selves are so seized by the guilt of things they have done and the shame of who they are for having done them that they end up living in a state of spiritual and emotional paralysis. These people often resort to self medication through drugs and alcohol as a way of temporary escape from their feelings. Some are so burdened by the power of self-condemnation that they choose to take their own lives. In every case, these powers of guilt, shame, and self-condemnation imprison a person in the past and rob him or her of the future.

Today's Scripture speaks of that inner place of shame - or what it calls the heart of condemnation. John the Beloved writes to those struggling with condemnation and suggests that the way to escape the heart's condemnation is not to deny it, but rather to accept it. It is true that we are all guilty, and because of our guilt there is shame in all of us. John the Beloved acknowledges that these things are in all of our hearts; but then he speaks to us of a deeper heart - the heart of God's grace. John the Beloved God's heart of grace is deeper and truer or more ultimate than our heart of condemnation. This is what it means to be Beloved - loved and accepted in God's grace in our deepest self.

One of my favorite clergy persons of all time is John Newton, who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace". Newton was a British slave-ship captain in the 1700s before having a conversion experience and later becoming and Anglican priest. He later became a strong voice in British abolitionist movement.

Newton's ministry was marked by a deeply pastoral care for the souls of his parishioners and friends, who themselves struggled with guilt and shame. He could speak to them as John the Beloved spoke - as a wise friend deeply in touch with the power of God's redeeming love.

Not long ago I ran across a letter from Newton to a person struggling with self-condemnation. Newton wrote from his own experience, no doubt remembering the horrors he had inflicted on Africans aboard ship, but also remembering God's redeeming love. Here are his words:

"I was ashamed when I began to seek him; I am more ashamed now; and I expect to be most ashamed when he shall appear to destroy my last enemy [death]. But, oh! I may rejoice in him, to think that He will not be ashamed of me."

Our hearts may be guilty and ashamed, but in God there is a deeper heart of eternal, and redeeming love. It is a heart that knows all, accepts all, embraces all. It is the heart of God's eternal grace. And as Newton said, it is Amazing Grace indeed - though we may be guilty and ashamed of ourselves; God is not ashamed of us.

Daily Lesson for February 21, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Genesis 32:

"23 [Jacob] took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 24 And Jacob was left alone. And man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day."

Cormac McCarthy's book "All the Pretty Horses" is a novel about the journey two young cowboys make from their native West Texas into Mexico. The journey corresponds with the boys' interior journey from adolescence into manhood. In a poignant scene, the boys come to the Rio Grande and pause. "Maybe we ought to spend one more night on this side," one of them says.

Jacob is on the similar journey to adulthood. It's been over a decade since he left home, scared of his brother Esau's retribution after what Jacob cheated him out of their father's blessing. Jacob is good at cheating - a swindler from birth. That's even what his name means - "swindler" or "huckster" or "cheater". But Jacob is tired of being these things. And he knows the only way to stop being them is to go back face the music - to cross the Jabbock River and go back home.

But like the cowboys in "All the Pretty Horses", when he comes to the river and pauses. He too stays one more night on the safe side of the river. In other words, he too is not quite ready to grow up.

But then on the banks of the river the angel shows up - or is it the LORD himself? A mysterious stranger in shadow sent to wrestle Jacob in the middle of the night. It is a tooth and nail struggle, a fight to hold on and not give in. Each attempts to squeeze the lifeblood out of the other. But neither can prevail. Finally the sun begins to come up. The angel resorts to a final, desperate move. "Let me go," the man in shadows says, but Jacob will not let him go - not until he blesses him.

Jacob is wrestling with the shadow side of himself. He is coming to terms with his own trickery and deception. He knows that in his youth he stole his father's blessing in an act of deception. Now he holds out for a true blessing - a blessing gained not through manipulation but through the struggle of wrestling with self and with God. And that is what he gets, the blessing of a new name - no longer Jacob the swindler, he is now Israel, the one who wrestles with God.

The sun then rises and Israel crosses over the Jabok, ready now to face whatever is ahead.

Crossing over into adulthood is a frightening thing. Growing up is painful as it means facing dark truths about ourselves. We would prefer not to cross the river - to stay another night where we are. 

But the story of Jacob tells us God just isn't going to let us stay where we are. If he has to, God will come and wrestle us over to the other side. That's how committed He is to seeing us grow up.

Daily Lesson for February 20, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 105:

"7 He is the Lord our God;

his judgments are in all the earth.

8 He remembers his covenant forever,

the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations."

Last week I helped a family to bury their father and grandfather who died after having suffered with dementia for most of the last ten years. Before his illness he had been an attorney and JAG officer in the military. Everyone said he was a brilliant mind. 

It was painful to walk into the family's home and see all the man's books, knowing that all the man had read and learned over all those years had been forgotten. And that was of course just the surface. Depths of knowledge, and names, and memories, and accomplishments, and friendships, and family had also been forgotten. By the end, all was forgotten - the past, the present, and the future.

But God remembers. 

That is what I tried to tell the family at the memorial service - that God is the great rememberer. God remembered Noah and and the animals in the Ark. God remembered Abraham in his journey, God remembered Rachel in her barrenness. When we forget, I said, God remembers.

Psalm 105 is about God's remembrance. It tells the whole story of the Hebrew people and how time and time again when all seems lost God remembers His covenant - His promises to His people - and in the mystery of His own timing He acts to rescue them. 

In times of death the word we have for God's rescue is Resurrection. And we wait for it. We wait for God to remember and come and rescue us from the forgotten oblivion of death.

As the family recessed from the memorial service Great Is Thy Faithfulness was played. We were waiting. We were waiting in sure and certain hope that though we might forget all, God will be faithful to remember.

And He will be.

Daily Lesson for February 19, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 John 2:

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Not long ago I was sitting in a men's group as we were studying this passage together. Our leader asked each of us to share from the perspective of our careers what things demonstrate our success.  It was amazing how many of us in that group are evaluated, not so much on the quality of our work, but rather on the quantity of the things we sell, the people we manage, and the money we bring in.  I shared with the group that in my business we call it the Three B's - buildings, budgets, and baptisms.  After we had all shared, our leader said, "These things - the things we just talked about - are the things of this world.  They want to be loved."

Today's Scripture talks about not loving the things of this world. I doubt any of us in the group would outright say we "love" the Three B's or their equivalents.  But when I pause to think of my own life, I see how attached I am to finding myself - my worth as a person -  in these things.  That attachment does become a kind of love - demanding my fidelity and constant attention.  Finally it becomes a god which claims my very soul. 

The Scripture says, "If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."  What is meant here, is that in our ever-constant pursuit of the things which make for success in this world, we end up drowning out the things which make for eternal life in God.

I will resolve to put first things first today.  For as Jesus said elsewhere, "What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his soul?"  Or, as a contemporary interpretation might have it, what good is it to win the rat race and become a rat?

Daily Lesson for February 18, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 John 2:

"10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him2 there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."

There are people who go through life stumbling from church to church, job to job, clique to clique, always breaking with the past in acrimony and derision and with the very telling language of "those people".  What they don't understand is that the problem isn't in "those people"; the problem is really in them.  By calling everyone else blind, they make it plain that they themselves can't see the reality of their own lives.  Though they think they have all the answers, they are in fact the ones who are in the dark.

Socrates sat upon the hill in Athens when a traveler came by.  "Excuse me, sir," the man said, "but I have just left Sparta and am looking for a new city to call home.  Can you tell me what the Athenians are like?"  "Yes," Socrates said, "but first tell me how you found the people of Sparta to be."  "Oh, vile and uncouth," the man said.  "Sparta is full of the most malicious, mean-spirited, and uncivilized people in one could know."  "Keep walking," Socrates said, "you will find he people of Athens to be the exact same as you found the people in Sparta."

Not too long after that another traveler came upon Socrates on the hill.  "Excuse me, sir," the man said, "but I have just left Sparta and am looking for a new city to call home.  Can you tell me what the Athenians are like?"  "Yes," Socrates said, "but first tell me how you found the people of Sparta to be."  "Oh kind and gracious," the man said.  "I hated to leave.  Sparta is full of some of the finest people in the world."  With that Socrates put his arm around the man's neck.  "Come with me," he said.  "You will find he people of Athens to be the exact same as you found the people of Sparta."

That's a true story. 

Daily Lesson for February 17, 2014

Today's Lesson is from John 9:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him."

Yesterday I spent time with a Sunday School class talking about suffering and pain and why these things exist. There was a young woman in the class whose son has significantly debilitating health problems. She teared up as she shared her journey with her son and the frustration of having no answers for how to treat him. Her tears took the philosophical problem of suffering and put a face on it - the face of her little boy. This was a constant reminder to me of how feeble words can be when it comes to asking the deepest and most personal questions. They were a reminder that there are no easy answers.

When asked why a man suffered from birth, Jesus didn't give an easy answer. Most people assumed either the man or his parents did something to deserve his being born blind. This was the standard theology of the day. But Jesus refused that theology. Jesus also refused all the other easy, glib answers about why God might have made the man blind. Neither here, nor anywhere else, did Jesus ever say, "God never gives us more than we can handle." In fact, Jesus outright rejected the idea that God is the one who causes suffering and pain. 

In this chaotic world, it is often easier to think that God causes suffering than it is to think that there is some other unknown and uncontrollable reason or unreason. But Jesus tells us not to be troubled by allowing the unknown remain unknown. What he did know was this - that in the midst of the difficult lives of those who suffer God is at work. He reframed the whole conversation - refocusing it from one about the origin of suffering to one about God's presence in and through suffering. Jesus was saying, if you want to see the work of God, don't look at suffering itself, look instead at the remarkable lives that are lived in spite of suffering.

As we shared in the classroom yesterday, this mother began to speak of the character of her son which has come out - his kindness and compassion. "He doesn't complain," she said. "And he thinks so much of others. He still prays for the victims of the Boston marathon bombings and for the family who lost their house in a fire last year. He is so Godly."

Philosophies, and theologies, and glib answers all fail. Why this boy suffers remains unknown; but the works of God in and through his life are clearly seen.

Daily Lesson for February 14, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Genesis 28, the story of Jacob's ladder:

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 

Jacob is on the run. His brother Esau is looking for an opportunity to kill him because Jacob has stolen Esau's blessing. So the boys' mother comes up with a plan to send Jacob off - purportedly to find a wife, but really to save his hide.

For all Jacob knows, this is the end. In his mind he will never be able to return home. He is afraid of his brother and ashamed of himself. His father he cannot bear to look at again. It is hard to say which is a worse burden to carry - the sting of his father's rejection or the guilt of what he did in response to that rejection. Jacob's only ally is his mother, who is cunning and manipulative in a Victoria from Revenge kind of way. 

This is the end; Jacob has left home and will never be able to go back. And just to underscore the point the scripture says, the sun went down. Yesterday was no more and tomorrow was totally dark.

And that's where it happened. As Jacob slept, with his head upon a rock, he dreamed of a ladder stretching up into heaven with angels ascending and descending. And then the voice of the LORD, "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go."

Jacob awoke from the dream and made an altar, saying "Surely the LORD is in this place and I did not know it."

There are people reading this who are on the run. Your yesterday, with its deception and lies and terrible relational consequences, has run out and tomorrow is unknown and uncertain. This Lesson comes to you today to say, "Build an altar." 

Right where you are, stop and pray on this revelation: if God can be in a place without our knowing, then God can be any place without our realizing it. God can be in this place. Not only can God be in this place, God is in this place. The Psalms say there is no place we can run to where God is not. God is with us on the journey today, and God stays with us into whatever places we might go tomorrow. 

Surely, God is in this place right here today. And surely He is sending His angels descending the ladder from heaven to go with us and watch over and protect us in our tomorrow. Surely these things are true, because this is the story not only of Jacob's ladder, but also of ours.

So let us build the altar.

Daily Lesson for Feb 13, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson from Romans 12:

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 

Here is something we all have to come to terms with if we are going to grow up: in this world we're going to be wronged - a lot.

I used to think if I could just be nice and friendly enough and explain things well enough then I could inoculate myself against enmity from other people. But over the years I have been surprised again and again how mean-spirited and vindictive people can sometimes be. I was especially surprised when the mean-spiritedness came from church people - people who are supposed to be models of brotherly love.

Well, the church is supposed to be a model of brotherly love; but brotherly love does not mean love without conflict and strife. I mean, have you ever been around brothers? We will be hurt and wronged in the church, just as we will in any family, or community, or institution. The question is, when we are hurt or wronged how are we going to respond?

The lesson today reminds us never to act with spite or vengeance in our hearts. While I have to confess there is something pleasurable in acting spitefully, ultimately that pleasure is fleeting and unbecoming. We wouldn't want our grandmothers to see us acting that way - nor would we want God.

The Apostle Paul says never to return wrongdoing with wrongdoing. Vengeance belongs in the hands of God. God will take care of who is to get what's coming. God knows a lot better how to handle that sort of thing with appropriate measure. 

For our part, instead of vengeance Paul reminds us of the Proverb which tells us to feed our enemy if he is hungry and to give him water if he is thirsty. "By this," the Proverb says, "[we] heap burning coals on his head." In other words, we kill him with kindness. Or better, we burn off what needs to be burned off so that what is pure might come out.

Don't set yourself up for disappointment because of false expectations.. In this world we will have troubles and be wronged - even in church. So be ready. Decide now never to return wrong with wrong. What good is there in allowing ourselves to be pulled into the mud? That's no way to live for us, and offers no redemption for those who are stuck there themselves.

There is a better way. And Paul nails it. "Do not be overcome with evil, he says, "but overcome evil with good." 

Now let's remind each other of that this week when . . .

Daily Lesson for February 12, 2014

Today's Lesson from Genesis 27:

22 So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” 23 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. 24 He said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He answered, “I am."

The use of performance enhancing drugs has been the major headline in professional sports over the last decade. Some of the world's greatest and most celebrated athletes have fallen from the pedestals we put them on when it came out that they cheated their way to the top.

As sad as it is to think about these athletes' fall from the pedestal, it's even more sad to think about what it must have been like for them to stand on it in the first place. It must be the loneliest feeling in the world to stand up there knowing you don't really belong. You have to have a sick and very empty feeling way down in the pit of your gut when you know all the accomplishments the crowd lauds you for really aren't yours at all. How do you live with yourself? It must be terrifying to think your secret might be found out. It might be even more terrifying to think you will take your secret will go with you into the grave.

Jacob knew that terror. He too cheated to win. He stood before his blind father Isaac wearing his brother Esau's clothes and lied right through his teeth to get his blessing. Like the athlete who wants the approval of he crowd so much she will cheat for it, Jacob wanted his father's blessing so much he was willing to be someone he wasn't to get it. "Are you Esau?" his father asked. "I am," he said. And so he was given the blessing, but the blessing wasn't his to receive. The next decade of his life was spent running from the consequences of his deception. He ran until finally it caught up with him.

Here is the truth. All our cheating will one day be revealed. Our lies and our manipulation will be exposed. 

And here is the Gospel. When we fall from the pedestal, we will be caught by a gracious God whose love, unlike the love of the crowd, is absolutely unconditional - win, lose, draw, or cheat - and unlike Isaac's blessing is for all the children.

Daily Lesson for February 11, 2014

Today's Lesson is from John 8:

4 [T]hey said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

She is a pawn in their scheme against Jesus and what he represents - for a man who claims that God does not condemn is a threat to system built on he fear of condemnation. So they hatch the plan; they catch an easy target and bring her before Jesus to test him (Exhibit A demonstrating this is only a test is the fact that there is no man here to be judged; Jesus is the man they intend to judge). They assume that Jesus will tell them to let her go and thus incriminate himself by calling for disobedience to the Law.

Instead, Jesus does something surprising. He bends down and begins to write with his finger in the dirt. The men, who cannot see what Jesus is writing because of the angle of his body, continue to demand his answer. "What should be done with this woman? Should she be stoned as Moses called for?"

Finally Jesus stands up straight. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," he says. One by one the men turn and walk away.

What made the men give up their attack? There is an old tradition that says what he wrote down was what turned them back - that he wrote down their own sins.

Jesus did not incriminate himself by calling for disobedience to the Law. But he did say, "The measure you give shall be the measure you get." In other words, we must all be ready to face the same judgement we meet out on others. That means that before we go off casting stones at others for their more obvious shortcomings, we should ask ourselves if we would really wish Jesus to stand up straight and reveal our most secret sins also?

God didnt make rocks to fly through the air but to lie at rest flat on the ground. This story should ensure they stay on the ground.

Daily Lesson for February 10, 2014

Today's Lesson comes from Genesis 25:

"27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob."

Favoritism in the household is a lot easier to see from the outside than it is from the inside. Our children are all different. Some have interests and avocations which are near and dear to our own hearts while their brother's or sister's passions may be a bit more far afield from our own. Let's be honest; some of our kids' interests are light years from our own.

Henri Nouwen said hospitality is opening a space for the other to be himself or herself. Parenthood is an act of hospitality. In the act of parenting we invite our our children into our lives and give them the freedom to be who they are - and not just who we wish they would be. We reach out in loving relationship toward them and seek to be present to them where they are - and not just where we wish they would be.

Perhaps the saddest thing I've heard a father day is, "I just don't relate." On the other hand, one of the most hopeful things I've heard a father say is, "What's your Barbie's name?"

Isaac couldn't relate with his son Jacob. Isaac was an outdoorsman - a man's man. His first-born son Esau was the same. Isaac's second son Jacob was more interior - he liked to stay indoors and help around the house. When it came time for Isaac to give his blessing, Jacob had to steal it. This was of course the source of terrible conflict among the boys and great heartache for the family.

I wonder if all that heartache might not have been spared if Isaac had thought to offer two blessings - one to Esau and another to Jacob. One to the son he was more naturally close to and the second to the son who was more distant. Both blessings would have required reaching out; but the second would have required reaching a little further.

Daily Lesson for February 7, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 69 verse 6:

"Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me,
O Lord God of hosts;
let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me,
O God of Israel."

This is the prayer of a person caught up in a storm of scorn and reproach.  It is the prayer of one who has been lied on and falsely accused.  It is the prayer of the Godly who fear dishonor might come upon the LORD as a result of the mischaracterization.  It is a prayer for rescue - for ultimate vindication.

This is a prayer of David, we are told. It is also a prayer of Jesus.  And perhaps it is your prayer also.

Unfortunately, it is not a prayer that is always answered.  Yes, of course, in the age to come all truth will be revealed and the righteous will be made known; but that's not what I'm talking about. I am saying, right here and right now on his earth there is a lot of spurious accusation based on jeolousy, insecurity, assumption, prejudice, and partial fact that never gets put to rest.

But perhaps real vindication doesn't so much mean having the true facts come to light.  Rather, true vindication happens when the substance of a person's character comes out even as a result of the maelstrom of condemnation.  True Godliness is revealed not so much in proving one's innocence, but rather in the way one keeps one's dignity and honor in the face of false accusation and even perhaps - like Jesus - false conviction.

I think of St. Stephen, the Church's first martyr.  He is saint, not because he was falsely charged and then wrongly executed.  He is a saint because in the face of the stones being thrown at him, he nevertheless had the Godly character to pray for his assailants.

"Blessed are those who are persecuted and have all manner of things spoken against them," Jesus said.  Blessed, indeed - if they remain blessed.

Daily Lesson for February 6, 2014

Today's Lesson from Hebrews 12 verse one:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us . . ."

I've never run a marathon, but I've been told that there is now technology which allows friends and family to give personal messages of encouragement to runners along the way.  Loved ones can send along messages ahead of the race to be posted on marquees at certain points in the race. A barcode attached to each runner's shoe  signals the marquee as the runner goes by.

That's what I think of when I read Hebrews chapter 12.  The author of Hebrews compares the life of faith to a race.  We are running, following Jesus toward our ultimate destination, which is life with God.  And, the author says, on the way we are surrounded by "a great cloud witnesses" - living and dead, the people of faith who we read of in the Bible or know of from from our own lives.

Here's something to think on.  What messages would that great cloud of witnesses have for you at this stage in the race?

What would Abraham and Sarah have to say to you about keeping the faith for the long distance?

What would Mary tell you about being not afraid?

What would Peter have to say to you about your many stumbles?

What would Paul say to you about the possibility of having your mind changed?

What would John say to you about your need to know you are beloved?

What would your grandmother want to say to you right now?

I hope you'll let these people send their messages as you keep running.

Daily Lesson for February 5, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson from Hebrews 11:30

"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days."

When the Israelites finally made it out of the Wilderness and into the land of freedom the first place they came to was the City of Jericho. Inside the city was the prostitute Rahab, who harbored the Israelite spies when they came to scout out the city. When the Israelite army returned to Jericho they marched around the city seven times and, as the song says, "the walls came tumbling down." Rahab was rescued.

The story makes clear that God's redeeming work did not end with Israel's deliverance from the slavery of Egypt. In fact, the story of the Exodus was just the beginning. God's freedom movement would go on bringing deliverance to people trapped in systems of oppression, coercion, and slavery - people like Rahab.

God is of course interested in our personal deliverance from the bondage of sin; but God's vision of freedom doesn't end there. God's dream is for all people to be rescued from the dark powers of sin - whether personal or systemic. 

Here is the lead from one of today's USA Today top stories:

"High school students, teens as young as 13 and other children reported missing by their families were among 16 juveniles rescued from forced prostitution during Super Bowl festivities in and around New Jersey, the FBI said Tuesday."

When you read a story like that about girls being trafficked for prostitution think Rahab.