Daily Lesson for March 31, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 7:

" 25 But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of [Jesus] and came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.” 28 But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.”

This past weekend our church hosted a family conference and I attended two parenting sessions presented by educators from around the city. In each session the educators talked about what it means for a parent to be a good advocate for their children in the school system. They each said parenting means knowing your child's rights and sticking up for those rights, but also knowing that no one is perfect - neither the teachers not the administrators nor even your kids. 

Today's lesson is a great example of a woman being a good advocate for her child. First off, the child has a demon (imagine being her teacher) and her mother recognizes this. The mother is not in denial about the well being of her child. Nor is she too busy too or lazy to care. She is proactive. She has heard there is a Jewish man who can do something to help has come into her foreign city and so she goes to find him.

And here is where things get interesting. When the mother finds Jesus, Jesus says something I struggle with; it is something racially and ethnically charged. People in Jesus' day would sometimes call people of other races "dogs". It was an ugly and pejorative term and there were many proverbial sayings that included it - just as there are many proverbial sayings today which speak uglily of other races and cultures. "It is not right to take the food that belongs to the children and give it to the dogs," Jesus said.

Why did Jesus say this? It seems so very un-Jesus. Apparently, he was trying to make the point that he had not come to do ministry with foreigners - not yet anyway, not until his ministry was brought to his own Jewish people first. But did he not know how ugly it is to call someone a dog? Was he just kidding? Was he a racist? These questions trouble me.

But apparently they trouble me more than they troubled the mother. Instead of taking offense at Jesus' words, she actually uses them to her advantage. "Yes," she says, "we may be dogs - but even dogs get the scraps which belong to their master's table."

I love that. She is the perfect advocate for her child. Honest about her child's imperfections. Involved. Gracious toward others - even to the point of be willing to suffer a slight indignity. And absolutely aware of her rights as a parent and those of her baby.

We need more parents like her.

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Sight for World Vision

On Monday many of us in the evangelical Christian world were surprised to hear that World Vision had decided to change its policy and allow the hiring of persons in same-sex marriages.  After reading World Vision U.S. president Richard Stearns's explanation of the reason behind the policy change, I was personally gladdened by World Vision's honest acknowledgement that there are faithful Christians on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate.  Stearns said the decision came as a carefully-considered response to the growing number of Christian denominations and churches and individuals now recognizing same-sex marriage.  His reasoning reminded me of the old church maxim, In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas meaning, "In necessary things unity, in doubtful things freedom, and in all things love."  The World Vision decision seemed to me to be an appropriate step toward freedom in what is no-doubt an uneasy, and many would argue, increasingly unsettled, issue.  Needless to say, I was taken aback on Wednesday when I read that World Vision had reversed its decision due to intense pushback from Christian conservatives.

It was obvious from Monday's policy change announcement forward that World Vision would be in a storm.  Facebook lit up with reactions from conservative critics and counter-reactions from liberal Christians alike.  In a strangely ironic twist both sides were using the same points to argue for opposite outcomes.  Presuming many evangelical Christians would begin pulling their sponsorship dollars, conservatives asked why World Vision would risk the lives it serves in the developing world?  Presuming the conservatives were right about the sponsorship dollars being pulled, progressives asked why the conservatives would do the same thing.  Both groups marshalled the authority of Scriptures - one pointing to the Bible's injunctions against homosexuality, and the other to its commandments to feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, and clothe the naked.  In the end, the conservatives won out - speedily.

Even those most committed to the full inclusion of gays in society and in church would have a hard time faulting World Vision for its waffling.  When I first saw that World Vision had backtracked on its policy change I thought of Henlee Barnette, who was professor of Christian ethics at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary during the height of the civil rights movement.  Barnette had a standard reply for those who said his invitation to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak on Southern's campus had cost the seminary hundreds of thousands of dollars.  "Money well spent," he said.  There could be no Henlee Barnette among the World Vision ranks.  No one would have said "money well spent" had the organization gone through with its policy change and large numbers of conservative Christians withdrew their donations.  The real threat of loss of money resulting in the loss of life would be enough to make World Vision reconsider - and the rest of us to understand.

But in the end I don't think it was ultimately money that decided the matter.  It was not so much the threat of economic boycott that resulted in the World Vision retraction, but rather the ongoing theological uncertainty over human sexuality more generally.  Within Christianity itself, there is now a deep ambivalence about how we are to treat gays, lesbians, and transgendered persons.  We as a church have come a long way toward recognizing and respecting the human dignity of sexual minorities and doing so has now created a great divide within Western Christianity - not so much between conservatives and liberals, but within the soul of people in both camps - which is seen to pit necessariis unitas and dubiis libertas against one another.  The policy change and the policy change change (I'm underscoring the double-mindedness of the week) each happened as a result of the tremendous pressures now pulling at the heart of not only World Vision, but also North American Christianity as a whole, and many individual Christians within their very selves.  We have sought to be in all things and ways loving and that has created a tension within us about what is absolutely fundamental about Christian conviction and what is up to individual conscience.

Stearns is a case in point.  On Monday he announced the World Vision decision and couched it in the same context as other issues such as divorce and the ordination of women, which individual churches are divided on.  Stearns said World Vision would approach same-sex marriage as it does these other matters - by allowing its hiring policies to be reflective of the broad constituency of Christians who make up World Vision.  The change was to be "symbolic not of compromise but of [Christian] unity."  This was one theological place - the place of dubiis libertas.  But then on Wednesday when Stearns announced the reversal he spoke from a very different theological place - the place of necessariis unitas.  "What we are affirming today is there are certain beliefs that are so core to our Trinitarian faith that we must take a strong stand on those beliefs," Stearns said.  "We cannot defer to a small minority of churches and denominations that have taken a different position."

Stearns spoke accurately when he said the majority of Christians do not support gay marriage.  Nevertheless, the context of the week's events contradicted his broader point.  World Vision had already deferred to the minority of Christians and did so, as Stearns himself said on Monday, not as an act of compromise on a matter of doctrinal essentiality, but rather as recognition of the good faith of the many (there are are still many in the minority) Christians who have come to see gays in a new and different light.

I use the words "see" and "light "intentionality as this coming Sunday's Gospel lesson in the Revised Common Lectionary is the story of a man born blind in Jerusalem whom Jesus gives new eyes.  Jesus' disciples see his blindness as a condition resulting from his own sins or that of some other person.  But Jesus sees it otherwise.  Jesus sees it as an opportunity for the works of God to be revealed through the man.  Jesus heals the man and for the first time in his life he sees light.  But the Pharisees are not happy when the learn of this.  This healing did not take place according to the dictates of their sanctions and did not conform to their understanding of the world.  They do not believe God could be revealed through the life of such a "sinner" and so they throw the man out of the Temple.  Jesus then defends the man, saying that this is why he - Jesus - came into the world, "For judgement, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."  Indignant, the Pharisees then say, "What?  Are we blind?"  To which Jesus responds, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."

By now anyone reading this will probably expect me to draw a parallel between the blind man and our gay brothers and sisters.  And indeed, one can be made.  Like the blind man, our gay brothers and sisters are born different and have that difference attributed to moral sin and are therefore barred from participation in the religious institutions.  But it is not really gays that I am thinking of as those who are represented in the story of the blind man.  Rather, it is that "small minority of churches and denominations" Stearns spoke of on Wednesday  - those who have come to see things in a new light, and for that have now been told they do not toe the orthodox line well enough - who are best represented by the blind man.  And it is the authoritarian Christians - those who demand that their own understanding of the orthodox line must be toed - who in my understanding are best represented by the Pharisees.  It seems to me, what Jesus said to the Pharisees that day in Jerusalem is a good and cautionary word for all us still 2,000 years later.  It is a word about humility - a reminder that what we know to be true might turn out not be the true at all when greater light is revealed.  And the only real way to escape judgement is to admit that we may be wrong.  "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."

We see through a glass darkly and from different angles.  We need to admit that.  There is probably a much greater need for dubiis libertas within Christianity than we might be comfortable with.  Yet, beyond what we see differently, we still share necessariis unitas in the heart of our faith - more so than some would have us believe.  There are many faithful, Trinitarian Christians on both sides of the gay marriage issue.  And what Lincoln said about the two sides of the debate over slavery and the Civil War in the 19th century, is well said of our own battles today - one side must surely be wrong; and both sides may be wrong.  Because we may both be wrong, the true necessariis unitas of the Christian faith is not to stand on being right, but rather to confess we are blind and in need of God's vision.

May that kind of vision come to World Vision and to each of our own eyes as well.

Daily Lesson for March 28, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 6:

"47 And when evening came, the boat was out on the sea, and he was alone on the land. 48 And he saw that they were making headway painfully, for the wind was against them. And about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea."

After feeding the 5,000 Jesus sent his disciples in the boat ahead of him to a place called the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He stayed behind to dismiss the crowd and then pray alone.

But the disciples had a hard time getting making it across the lake to Bethsaida. An adverse wind rose up and drove their little fishing boat in the wrong direction. The disciples strained at the oars all night but could not regain their coarse.

Then Jesus came to them. The Bible says he had intended to pass them by and meet them on the other side in Bethsaida, but seeing that the disciples would not make it to Bethsaida, he came to them late in the night, walking on the water, saying unto them, "It is I; be not afraid."

Many of us feel like we are constantly struggling against an adverse wind. We set out for one destination but the winds kicked up and blew our career or our business or our church completely off course. Where we are is not where we hoped to be - not by this time in our lives anyway. We have floundered too long and at some point it becomes clear that we will never make it to the other side.

The good news about this story is that this is the exact point where Jesus comes to us. He comes walking to meet us not where we set out for but where we are - floundering and off course and very, very late. He comes to us saying, "It is I. I am here with you. Right here with you. Do not fear."

Suddenly the tension is released. The disciples anxieties are eased and so is the reader's. everyone expects the next verse to say something like, "And then they came ashore at Bethsaida." But it doesn't. Instead it says, "Then they came ashore at a place called Gennesaret."

I love that part. They don't make it to Bethsaida - not now anyway. They don't make it to where they were going. They couldn't make. But in the end it doesn't matter because Jesus has come to them and is with them, right where they are. And coming to Genneseret, the Bible says they moored their boat and stepped ashore - not consumed with where they didn't land, but ready to make the most of where they did.

Daily Lesson for March 27, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 6 verse 38:

"And he said to them, 'How many loaves do you have? Go and see.'"

The Feeding of the 5,000.

On one level this is the story of what Jesus the miracle chef can cook up with next to nothing. But to read it that way, to make it all about what Jesus can do with nothing is to miss the deeper and more piercing point the story is trying to make - that Jesus can do a little with a little, but it has to be our little that he does it with.

There is a multitude of people - 5,000 according to the scriptures, and that wasn't even counting women and children some traditions say. They are hungry and the hour is late and the disciples fear the crowd will become agitated and perhaps even riot. So the disciples ask Jesus to dismiss the crowd so the people can go and buy food before its too late. But Jesus says to them, "You give them something to eat.” The disciples are incredulous. Twelve guys foot the bill for 5,000 people? "Where are we to get the money to buy food for a crowd this large?" they ask. And then Jesus asks the question of them he also asks of us, “How many loaves do you have? Go and see.”

Do you see what is going on? The disciples see scarcity while Jesus sees abundance. The disciples are asking about buying and Jesus is asking about giving. The disciples are thinking about the people's need to fend for themselves, but Jesus is thinking of the disciples need to share with others. In other words, the disciples think about what should be hoarded for personal consumption in a world of scarcity, but Jesus sees what can be taken and blessed and broken and given in order to turn that world of scarcity into a world of abundance.

It's a miracle story indeed. But it's a miracle story with a sharp and piercing edge. It's not just about the 5,000, it's also about the 12. And it's also about you and me and what God can do through us when we have the courage to think of the common good and not just our own.

So, how many loaves do you have? Go and see.

Daily Lesson for March 25, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 81:

"11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;

Israel would not submit to me.

12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,

to follow their own counsels."

I have a friend who is the father of a teenage boy. The other day we were talking about parenting and to what degree we need to give our kids freedom to make their own choices - even the wrong choices. Then he used a metaphor that I thought was pretty good. He said that at this point in life, "I am no longer a manager. I am now primarily a consultant."

Psalm 81 tells us basically the same thing about God. It starts off by talking about how God intervened in Egypt to rescue the Israelites from the yoke of Pharaoh, and how God brought them into the wilderness to be tested by hunger and by thirst so they would learn obedience. Then God brought them into the Promised Land.

But then God got out of the management business. He let go; and He let the people make their own choices and go their own way - even though the choices were not always good and more often than not the way was wrong. Nevertheless, God was not interested in micro managing. It was for the sake of freedom that God set the Israelites free; and once they were free God decided that they and He would have to live with the consequences of that freedom.

So how about you? What are you doing with your freedom? Is your life working the way you are living it? If it's not working and you're hoping management might step in and change a bunch of things to make it better don't count on it. If your looking for a manager so you can complain then you're pretty much out of luck also. The life you are living now really can't be blamed on anyone beside you; and if changes are going to be made then you have to decide to make them. God is not going to do anything for you that you can't do for yourself - that's just part of the whole freedom deal. As we have often heard, with freedom comes responsibility.

This is a hard truth, but one we must all come to terms with. Most of us grew up with a juvenile image of a slot machine God - a God of whom you asked and He delivered. We have to grow out of that image, we have to learn that God is not the great slot machine, fixer, or rescuer. God is not even a great miracle worker - at least not when anything less than a miracle will do and should be done. What God is is a faithful friend, companion, and voice of wisdom, and encourager, and empowerer, who gently calls us back into the right way when we go astray and gives us the courage and ability to come back under our own power. But He will not, He cannot, force us not to go astray, nor will He force us to come back if without our consent. That would defeat the whole purpose of our freedom.

God stopped being a manager in our lives a long time ago; but He is still available for consultation whenever we might need Him, which is pretty much every day - and He doesn't charge a thing.

Daily Lesson for March 25, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 78:

"9 The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,

turned back on the day of battle."

Is it any wonder why in the Bible when the angels showed up they were always saying, "Do not fear."?

When I think of my own life, I think of how often the fear of disapproval and rejection has paralyzed me. I have been unable to speak or decide or decide what is best. Sometimes fear has meant I've been unable to say no. And, sometimes, fear has meant I've been unable to say yes. But most times fear has meant I've been unable to say what's on my mind or in my heart and to speak it with clarity, conviction, and passion.

Like the Ephraimites before us, we all allow fear to paralyze us. We allow it to stop us in our tracks, to overestimate the forces against, and to underestimate the forces within us. When we listen to and act out of our fears it is a guarantee that we will always pause, and stammer, wring our hands, and ultimately back down. Fear will always back us down.

So today I offer to you advice given to me not long ago from an old preacher who heard me preach and heard fear in my voice. "God has equipped you for this work, he said. "God has given you a voice. Trust it. Trust the Gospel you preach. Trust God."

In other words, he said to me what the angels said so many times before in the Bible and I now say to you, "Do not fear."

Daily Lesson for March 24, 2014

Today's Day Lesson is from Mark 5:

22 Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet 23 and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.” 24 And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.

Misfortune does not discriminate.

There is a woman in the village who for 12 years has suffered from a terrible hemorrhaging which made her a unclean according to religious custom and therefore a social pariah. The religious system had pronounced its verdict: she was not welcome in the synagogue and she could not touch or be touched in the village. She went bankrupt trying find medical care, but nothing worked. So for 12 long years she remained outcast - a penniless, powerless untouchable.

There is another person in the village - powerful and likely wealthy. Jairus is not only welcomed in the synagogue, he is president. In that office, it was he who likely pronounced the excommunication of the bleeding woman 12 years ago - the same year, the Bible tells us, that his daughter was born. Now that same daughter has fallen gravely ill and is at the point of death. In desperation Jairus tries everything but nothing seems to work as his daughter's life begins to slip away.

And so in desperation, Jairus comes to Jesus to beg for help for his 12 year old daughter where he is met by the woman he deemed unclean 12 years ago. And Jesus, characteristically heals them both, healing Jairus's daughter and the bleeding woman, who Jesus calls daughter also.

At some point in life every family is struck with some misfortune. Pain and suffering are the great equalizers. No one can escape these things. And the point of this story is to say that when these things strike God is there - for all. Rich and poor, powerful and powerless, in and out - at some point we will all lose control of our lives and go begging to God and God is there to reach out and touch and care for each of us as His own daughters and sons.

On Faith Matters at 5pm Sunday hear our interview with these Amigos. KTTZ 89.1FM

Jesus Turns the Water into Wine Once Again

Daily Lesson for March 21, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 4:

37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But [Jesus] was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

The storm has hit. The sky has darkened and the winds are blowing and the waves are crashing, crashing, crashing into the boat and at some point the disciples realize the boat is in jeopardy of being broken apart or capsizing and they are all scared and at each others' throats - and then they realize Jesus is sound asleep, in the stern of the boat with his head on a pillow, for comfort. And they burn with righteous indignation. "Jesus, don't you care that we are dying?"

Jesus awakens. He speaks to the winds and calms the seas and the tempest is driven back and peace restored. And then he turns to the disciples, embraces them with a gracious and loving smile and asks, "Why are you so afraid?"

Life in the 21st century is a sea of constant storms. Old institutions are crumbling, the ties that have bound our social communities are unraveling, values are shifting, addictions are raging, the education system is faltering, the family system is disintegrating, the church is dying.

So what do we do? Left with a sense of absolute powerlessness, we do the one thing we can do - we lash out. We lash out at the teacher or the principal or the superintendent or the mayor or the president or the doctor or the preacher. "Don't you care?" which, if we are honest really means, "You don't care. Because if you cared you would do something. You would at least do more."

Something is done. Maybe somebody quits or is fired or voted out or dies or perhaps even takes their own life. And then the electricity is taken from the sky and there is peace and calm - at least for a little while.

But the storm will come back. Storms always come back. And we will find ourselves again angry and lashing out, blaming and accusing, ready to offer some Jonah to the storm gods, lest we pause now and listen to what Jesus has asked and seek to find its answer. "What are you so afraid of?"

Really, what is it that we are so afraid of? Find that answer and next time we'll find peace - not after - but during the storm.

Downton fans - from my friend and colleague Jerrod Hugenot

Preaching and Pondering: Lenten Reflections: The travails of change, or Tr...: During the Lenten season, I find looking at popular culture helps me connect with the pondersome questions of what it means to be human.  ...

Daily Lesson for March 20, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 4:

26 And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear."

Yesterday we read about the parable of the seed and how most of the seed fell into poor or unkempt soil and was lost but how some seed landed into rich soil and produced a huge harvest. In today's teaching Jesus continues with the agrarian theme - only this time he focuses on how growth happens.

But first, note how growth doesn't happen. It does not happen through force of will or manipulation or by worrying. The farmer in the story plants and that is it. He plants and then he sleeps and then he wakes and then he sleeps. In other words, the farmer knows it's a waiting game and that he must be patient for the growth to happen. He waits and he trusts that there is something going on beneath the surface of the ground which he cannot see, but which in due time will reveal itself - first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

Many people worry themselves sick over the growth and development of their children, or their business, or their church. They are the very opposite of the farmer. While he is at peace, they fret. While he sleeps soundly, they are up all night wringing their hands. While he waits patiently for nature to take its course, they are out there forcing, coercing, and conniving. While the farmer trusts the ground, they curse it.

This story says to me to give up the delusion of my being in complete control. It's a reminder that I can only do what I can do, then I need to relax, wait, and trust in the LORD.

Another Scripture says, we plant, we water but God causes the increase. That's how growth happens - it's a God thing. I can only do my part in casting the seed - write my little sermon, visit the poor and shut-in, train my kids in the way they should go - the rest is really up to God, and the seed, and the ground.

And you know, I'm good with that.

Daily Lesson for March 19, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 4, the Parable of the Seed

" 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain."

This morning Jesus gives us three vivid pictures of crop failure. They are, of course, intended as metaphors for the spiritual life. And the images of birds, sun, and thorns correspond to the various threats we face at different stages of personal and spiritual development.

The seed taken by the birds simply never gets started. It is symbolic of a person whose life never takes root into anything more significant than what remains on the surface level of life. Mass consumption of sports and other entertainment are enough to keep this person occupied for life. That and work. But there is no true bonding, friendship, or meaning in this person's life. 

The second seed does take root and it begins to grow. They went to youth camp as a kid and had an initial encounter with God. Or in college they attended a Bible study or went on a mission trip and they began to think on spiritual things, eternal things - things other than themselves. But they didn't go any further. They never developed any depth to their personhood and during the scorching heat of life's noon-day demon, when life got difficult with the job and the marriage and the kids, they wilted as persons altogether.

Then there are those whose spiritual selves do germinate and take root, but in the course of life the spiritual also grows up with the material - the kids up and off to school, then to work, then errands at the lunch break, then back to work, then pickup the kids with a quick bite to eat in the car before soccer or baseball or ballet or piano or a thousand other things, then back home to get them to bed before falling exhausted into bed themselves only to wake up tomorrow and so it all over again. And Saturday is an early game followed by yard work and then a birthday party and then an adult party for somebody from the gym. All this, and your husband's business isn't going that great and grandma has just been diagnosed with cancer. And Sunday morning is the only day to sleep in. And what happened to that seed? It got choked out.

But then there was a fourth picture Jesus gives us - the image of a seed that took root, deepened into a ground source of good nutrients and plentiful water, and grew up free from all that would set out to choke it. And that one, Jesus said, produced fruit that lasted generations. This is the image of a life well lived - and that's the one I want to be like.

Daily Lesson for March 18, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 3:

"28Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin."

"The Unpardonable Sin" - that is the title above this section in my Bible. All sins can be forgiven, but never this. To what is Jesus referring? And why is it so?

When Jesus spoke these words a delegation of lawyers and scribes had just been sent from the religious elite in Jerusalem to inquire into Jesus' ministry and see if it was orthodox. Their judgement was quick and condemning. "This man Jesus is from Beelzebul," they said. "He is an agent of Satan."

So Jesus, who has been proclaiming the forgiveness to all who came to him, says that these cannot receive forgiveness. For they are guilty of an eternal sin - meaning a sin that goes on generation after generation and will not be let go of, but is clung to tooth and nail. And that sin is the sin of blasphemy - the sin of calling something good evil.

In the early days of the church they called the inclusion of Gentiles evil. In the 19th century they called emancipation of Negro slaves evil. During the early part of the 20th century they called suffrage for women evil. Under Apartheid they called the mixing of races evil. These were all evils to be fought, they said - so they fought them with righteous indignation.

But it turned out these things weren't evil - they were good. They were all movements of the Holy Spirit toward greater inclusion.

And it makes me wonder, what other movements of the Holy Spirit are we calling evil which are in fact really good? 

I want to know, because to find out all along I was fighting on the wrong side against such a movement from the Holy Spirit really would be, well, unpardonable to me.

Daily Lesson for March 17, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Corinthians chapter 4:

"10 We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things."

This morning as I read Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, I think of church leaders struggling against the gaping maw of empire in Eastern Europe. I think of the pictures we saw in recent months of Orthodox priests standing in the breach between the soldiers and police of Viktor Yanukovych and demonstrators protesting his abusive government in Ukraine. I think also of Malkhaz Songulashvili, archbishop of the Evangelical Baptist Church in the country of Georgia, who has been a courageous voice speaking out against Russian imperialism throughout the region, while his Orthodox counterparts have been reticent to speak out against and at times even blessed the Kremlin's muscle flexing.

Paul's words today are a reminder that the church grew in turbulent times, under the heels of an empire bent on world domination. It grew, Paul says, because it witnessed to a different world from that of empire - a world where the weak are strong, where those who are cursed bless, and where those deemed the scum of the earth turn out to be its salvation.

The church in Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe is under terrible pressure to yield. Pray for its courage to remain steadfast in its witness to another world.

Link to a powerful interview with Archbishop Malkhaz Songulashvili during the Russian invasion of Georgia:

http://www.thestory.org/stories/2013-10/corner?keys=&date%5Bmin%5D=2006-01-01&date%5Bmax%5D=2013-11-01&more-topic=All&more-series=All&more-location=All&page=256Link to Songulashvili's reflection on the church in Russia and Ukraine:

http://danutm.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/malkhaz-songulashvili-ukraine-in-europe-6-hope-for-post-soviet-countries/

Daily Lesson for March 14, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 2 verse 17:

[Jesus] said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This is the verse that made me a Christian.

On the first night of youth camp when I was 16, I heard this story of Jesus going to a party at the house of a tax collector named Levi. Tax collectors were despised people in that day and when Jesus showed up there was a house full of them, along with other "sinners". Soon the Pharisees, the very religious folks, were grumbling about the company Jesus was keeping. Jesus' answer: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have come not to call the righteous but the unrighteous." I was 16 and, well, let's just say somewhat acquainted with unrighteousness; and Jesus was calling me.

Years later, when I got out of seminary and into my first church as a pastor, I decided the church I was at needed to be a Levi's house kind of church - a church where everybody, including the most unrighteous, was welcome. So I set out to welcome as many sinners into the church as I could. 

What I didn't know was that the sinners were already there! About three months in I realized the church was already full of adulterers, racists, drunks, tax evaders, back biters, gossips - you name it. And I found myself looking around wondering how in the world a bunch of unrighteous folks like these could wind up in church. In other words, I had started out thinking I was going to be like Jesus, but come to find out I was really a lot more like the Pharisees in the story.

You have heard it said, "If you ever find a perfect church don't join it because you'll ruin it." Well the truth is you won't get that chance - because if there ever was a church that was perfect Jesus himself already ruined it with the folks he invited.

Daily Lesson for March 13, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 2:

"5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Throughout the centuries people have used religion as a means of control and domination. Brian McLaren says religion has often acted like a spiritual protection racket where religious systems in effect say something like,"You are bad and must present sacrifices and offerings to God in the Temple. We are the only authorized dealers in sacrifices and offerings to God."

Jesus was not an authorized dealer - at least not in the eyes of those who were purported themselves to be authorized dealers. So when Jesus came proclaiming forgiveness without the approval of the Temple cult system he was charged with blasphemy by members of the system. He was seen as a threat to their whole religious system - a threat who in their eyes ultimately needed to be eliminated. This just proves how desperate a religious system can be when it comes to retaining control.

When a religion professes to speak on behalf of God and tells you you have to be circumcised or baptized just like they say, or read the Bible just like they do, or tithe, or give alms, or pilgrimage, or volunteer in the nursery, or do anything else through its system in order to receive forgiveness then that religion really isn't speaking on God's behalf - it's speaking on it's own behalf.

The paralytic in the story did nothing to have his sins forgiven. Forgiveness was there for the taking. And it still is today - it's free of charge. And if we receive God's forgiveness then we are free of charge also.

"If the Son of Man says you are free, you are free indeed." Believe that; and don't let yourself be caught up in any racket that says otherwise.

Daily Lesson for March 12, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 1:

Jesus said to the leper, "44See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them."

"Say nothing to anyone." What an odd thing to tell someone who has just been cleansed of a debilitating, socially isolating disease. A leper cleansed, made new in the flesh, given a new lease on life. But tell no one?

What is interesting is that it is usually the demons whom Jesus tells not to say anything. The demons who see and recognize him as the Son of God so he silences them. He silences them because he knows their testimony does more damage than it does good. He will not accept testimony from demons. So it begs the question, does the leper now cleansed on the surface of his skin, still have deeper demons which must be addressed?

I have many friends in all stages of recovery, some of which are actually my spiritual role models and teachers and others of which are just starting out. One of the things I notice about the ones who have made it a good ways down the road to recovery is that they all went through a stage - years sometimes - of learning to listen and not talk. They learned to be disciples first before they became my or anyone else's teachers. They learned to speak wisely into my life and others, but they learned it through the silence of listening. Before they went out and started sharing their story, they first learned to tell no one. They had to finding freedom from their inner demons before they became apostles.

Not very long ago I am driving in the car with a friend - I'll call him Mike- who is in the first weeks of sobriety from drugs and alcohol. His recovery has been rocky starting out and there's no way to know if he will stay on the path. I wish he were quieter, like my friends further along; but he is sober today I think and, as Jesus says, today is sufficient enough. 

"The other night," Mike says as I am about to drop him off out front of his house, "I went out on to my back porch to smoke a cigarette and looked up into the sky and asked Jesus what he wants me to do for him and he told me loud and clear in his own voice."

I hear this and though I am driving nevertheless I feel my eyes roll deep back into the cerebral cortex of my brain. I have heard this before. Another kid two-weeks sober who in his continued narcism thinks God has called him to be the next Billy Graham. And like the Apostle Paul, Jesus thinks Mike is so special and his assignment so important that he actually speaks to him in an audible voice. Spare me.

"Oh, what did Jesus tell you be wants you to do for him?" I ask groaningly.

"Jesus told me all he wants me to do for him is to just stay clean."

I look over at my friend, stunned and for the first time hopeful for him. "Mike, I say, "that really was Jesus' voice talking."

Mike looks back at me.  "I know, he says.

Daily Lesson for March 11, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Genesis 37:

"23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it."

Joseph was the favorite of Jacob's 12 sons and Jacob singled Joseph out with a special ornamental robe of many colors. Joseph was glad to wear the robe and be the favored son. He had dreams of his own preeminence among his brothers, and was so cocksure of himself that he had no shame in telling his brothers that he had dreamed one day they would all bow down to him.

Disgusted and envious they to each other, "Come, let us kill this dreamer," and then stripped him of his robe and threw him into a pit where they left him for dead. 

At some point in life everyone must be stripped of their robe. We must come to terms with the fact that the world does not fawn over us in the same way our parents did. We must learn that our own dreams of success oftentimes threaten those around us. We must learn that the robe is both a blessing and also a curse - that the potentiality others dress us in is and is not good for our soul. We must be stripped of the robe. Life must bring us to the bottom of a pit from which we ourselves under our own power and persuasion cannot climb out.

Yesterday, a friend gave me a Richard Rohr quote I had never heard. "In the second half of life success has nothing more to teach us." Joseph, though still young, has entered into the second half of life. It is the half of life where the robe of favored sonship is replaced with rags of slavery, where visions of grandeur are replaced with the slim hope for survival, and where the only way out of the pit is from on high.

If you are in that place, then do not despair. It must be so; for our defeat is necessary for our salvation.

Daily Lesson for March 10, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2:

"To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together . . ."

Saints. If you were in the First Church of Corinth when they read Paul's letter then you probably either rolled your eyes, chuckled, groaned, or downright seethed with anger. "This place and these people," you might have that, "are anything but saintly."

And you would have been right. If you looked to the right and left of you in the pews at First Corinth it would have been hard to see saintly. As Paul describes in the letter you could look around and see cliques, factions, drunks, folks suing one another in court, the immoral, the inconsiderate, some known for visiting prostitutes, and one who was sleeping with his father's concubine. Saints? Did he say saints?

I am sorry, but Paul's letter to the Corinthians takes away the excuse of not going to or not liking the church because it is so full of hypocrites and sinners. It is full of hypocrites and sinners of the first degree. But that's why we are in church in the first place - because, as Jesus said, "It's the sick who need a doctor and not the healthy." 

So, yes, Paul did say saints. Paul named a bunch of sick sinners and then reminded them that by God's grace they are called to be saints.

The local church is not always nice and pretty and the folks there aren't always what they should be. But it's still the best place I know of to go and learn to love, serve, forgive, and grow in holiness. In other words, it's the best place I know of to become like Jesus. And that's what saintliness really is - learning to live a life like Jesus lived with and for others.

It has often been said that the church is much like Noah's ark during the flood - we could not stand the smell inside were it not for the storm outside.  I'd be lying if I said we have gotten used to the smell; but we know it's a part of the journey, and a small price we pay for being saved together.

Daily Lesson for March 7, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is taken from Philippians 4 verse 2:

"I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord."

2,000 years later and we're still talking about these two women, Euodia and Syntyche, and how they just couldn't get along. Nobody remembers what the fuss was all about. Nobody recalls what the issues were. We can't say who wronged who. But what sticks in our mind, all these many years later, is that they were always at each other. Two God-fearing, Jesus-loving, church-serving ladies, yes; but what we really remember is that they just couldn't get along.

You would think in a book as holy as the Bible we would have this thing straightened out - who was in the right and who was in the wrong. But no, all we've got is Paul's plea for Euodia and Syntyche to work it out. I hear their protests. Euodia says, "Yes, but Paul you don't know the while story." And Syntyche says, "Paul, when I explain to you what really happened you'll be sorry you mentioned my name so carelessly." Paul is wrong - that's the only thing Euodia and Syntyche can agree with each other on.

Paul says what they really need to agree with each other in is the Lord. What does he mean? He means it's time for for putting away self-righteousness and putting on humility. It's time for forgiving each other and for accepting forgiveness from each other - which also means accepting responsibility for part of the break in relationship. In other words, it's time for Euodia and Syntyche to admit they share the one same Lord and savior and that neither one of them are He.

The Bible only remembers Euodia and Syntyche as two women so at odds with each other that Paul had to call them out in a letter. But God remembers them for what they did after they received that letter. I wonder what it was . . .

Daily Lesson for March 6, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 37 verses 1 and 2:

"1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

2 For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb."

Here is a truth we have to live with: this world is not always fair and a lot of times nice guys finish last while mean people finish first.

Here is another truth: a nice guy's character is tested when mean people finish first and he finishes behind. 

Psalm 37 has something to say to the nice guy who finishes behind mean people. Three times the Psalmist says, "Fret not." Fret not, because obsessing or fixating on having been cheated or done dirty will lead to anger and anger will ultimately lead to spite, vengeance and cheating. And before you know it the nice guy looks just like the mean one. 

The Psalmist says there is another way: the way of trust. This is a longer and more difficult way and may not ever get you across the finish line first. But it does guarantee that while many ahead of you are disqualified, you will finish the race and when you cross the line the judge will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have fought the good fight and finished the race."

Jesus knew Psalm 37. He quoted it in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." Note the tense: "they shall". It's a promise. That promise may not yet be true for you. But there's really only one way to find out if it will ever become true, and that's to wait and see.

I hope you do.