Daily Lesson for April 30, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Exodus chapter 16 verse 4:

"Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not.'"

When the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt He had to teach them how to think and live as free people. For 400 years they had lived in a state of absolute dependency upon the provision of Pharaoh.  They had to relearn dependence.  They had to learn to depend upon God, rather than Pharaoh.

God's intention was to not only make them free in body, but also free in mind.  To be free in mind they had to learn to be free from the worries and anxieties that lead to overwork, hoarding, and ultimately the breakup of the family, and the destruction of community.  Pharaoh's apparatus of control rested on fears of scarcity, deprivation and punishment.  That kept people working themselves to death.  God's vision for the Israelites was an economy based trust in God's abundant provision, the dignity of work, the dignity of the worker, and rest.

Here are some principles in God's economy:

1. Work is inherently dignified, good, and necessary for all able families in order to avoid laziness and self-loathing.
2. Enough really is enough, but too much never is.
3. Overwork really is a sin.
4. A day of Sabbath was commanded us so we might not be slaves to our work.  And I presume that means church work also.

In this same chapter in the book of Exodus, Moses tells the Israelites that at evening they would know it was the LORD who provided for them that day and in the morning they would behold His glory in the meat and bread He would put on their table.  

That's pretty much an everyday thing in God's economy.

The Church Must Love the Racist

With the verdict in on Donald Sterling, I thought of Baptist prophet, civil rights icon, and KKK lover Will Campbell's quote:

 "I have seen and known the resentment of the racist, his hostility, his frustration, his need for someone upon whom to lay blame and to punish. With the same love that we are commanded to shower upon the innocent victim, the church must love the racist."

Daily Lesson for April 29, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from John 14 verse 23:

"Jesus answered him, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.'

Not very long ago, I was talking with a friend who is taking the first spiritual steps toward new life. He has been an addict for years and his life has all the wounds to show for it. Using has cost him more than he even knows.

He called wanting help with step 3 in the 12 steps. It is the step where one turns one's self and will completely over to God. My friend called me because he said he was having trouble. He said he just wasn't "feeling it". 

 The "it" my friend wasn't I supposed to be God, or perhaps some perverted sense of God. I spoke honestly with my friend and told him that I really didn't think God was all that interested in him "feeling it" right now. For one thing, I told him his feelings are out of whack. After years of using, how would he know if and what he's feeling? But on an even deeper level, I told my friend that maybe God isn't interested in him "feeling it" because that's exactly what he's been chasing after all his life - a feeling, a high, some ecstatic, spiritual experience.

I told my friend was I didn't think God was going to let him "feel it" - not now anyway. What I think is that right now God is not even there to be felt. God has left my friend's body; God has not left my friend, but God has left my friend's body. And what God is waiting on is for my friend to make a decision to act, not on a feeling or the hope for one, but rather to act out of sheer obedience to God's command. It is then, and only then, that God will come back into my friend's body and perhaps give him something of a spiritual experience.

This is all clear in today's Lesson from Jesus. Jesus teaches that it is only after the act of obedience - after obedience to the Word - that God the Father then comes back to live inside of us. The Temple must be cleansed, before the glory of God comes to dwell. Until then, God may be with us, but God refuses to come inside us so that we can "feel it".

And what does obedience to the Word look like? Well, I told my friend it looks like this for him. "Here is where you will find the spiritual experience you are looking for," I said. "Do what your sponsor says. Period. Don't go where trouble can find you. Stay clean and sober - today. That's it." 

"That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," I said. "That's the spiritual experience you are looking for."

When we hung up the phone he sounded surprised, but not altogether disappointed.

Daily Lesson for April 28, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from John 14 verses 6 and 7:

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.4 From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

There are many ideas about God - who God is, what God is like, and what God has done. There are ideas about God which say He is like a clock maker who wound up the world and then let it go completely on its own. There are other ideas about God which say He is an angry and vengeful God - a God full of rage, wrath, and destruction.

I listen to Jesus. Jesus says if you want to know what God is like then look at Him - Jesus. Jesus said that not in an arrogant way, but rather in the context of the last supper on His last night. He had just washed his friends feet. Get that, the master bent down and washed His disciples' feet. And He had also just taken bread and broken it, saying, "This is my body - broken for you," and taken a cup of wine, saying, "This is my blood - shed for you." It was just after that that Jesus told his disciples that they knew what God was like, for they had seen Him. It was Jesus' way of saying God looks like service and self-sacrifice.

The Bible says Jesus was "the image of the invisible God." That means that if you want to know what God is like then look to Jesus. Look at His heart, look at His compassion, look at His service and self-sacrifice. If your God does not look like these things then you have taken a false image. 

Elton Trueblood used to say, the really radical thing is not that Jesus was like God, but rather that God is like Jesus. Think about what that means.

Daily Lesson for April 25, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 118 verses 22 and 23:
 

"22 The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

23 This is the Lord's doing;

it is marvelous in our eyes."

In her book The Whisper Test, Mary Ann Bird tells of the day that changed her life. Mary Ann was born with multiple birth defects: deaf in one ear, a cleft palate, a disfigured face, a crooked nose, lopsided feet. As a child, Mary Ann suffered not only from these physical deformities but also from the emotional damage other children inflicted upon her with their cruel insults. “Oh, Mary Ann,” her classmates would say, “what happened to your lip?”

“I cut it on a piece of glass,” she would lie.

One of the most dreaded experiences at school for Mary Ann was the annual hearing test. The teacher would call each child to her desk, and the child would cover their ears one at a time. The teacher then whispered something to the child like “The sky is blue” or “You have new shoes.” Thus, "the whisper test”; if what the teacher said was heard and repeated by the child, the child passed. In order to avoid the humiliation of failure, Mary Ann figured out a way to cheat on the test, cupping her hand over her one good ear so that she was able to make out what the teacher said.

One year Mary Ann was in the class of Miss Leonard, one of the most beloved and popular teachers in the school. All the students, including Mary Ann, wanted to be noticed by Ms. Leonard. That year, on the day of the dreaded hearing test, Mary Ann took her turn at Ms. Leonard's desk. Mary Ann cupped her hand over her good ear and waited for Ms. Leonard's whisper. “I waited for those words,” Mary Ann wrote, “that God must have put into her mouth, those seven words that changed my life.” Ms. Leonard did not say to Mary Ann, “The sky is blue” or “You have new shoes.” What she whispered was, “I wish you were my little girl.”

Psalm 118 says, "The stone the builders rejected had become the cornerstone." It's the Bible's way of saying that the Mary Ann Birds of this world, rejected and ridiculed, have been chosen by God's little girls.

And it is marvelous in our eyes - and ears!

Daily Lesson for April 24, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 28 verses 17 through 19:

"17 And when they saw him they worshipped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . ."

On Easter Sunday we had a full house of people in church, many of whom I did not know. What I did know, however, is that there were some there who doubted. They were there on Easter Sunday, but they did not believe this whole tale about Resurrection. That's how it always is Easter Sunday. People there for whatever reason, but doubting. I knew that. And so I decided to share this story.

After Jesus arose from the tomb that first Easter morning, Jesus came and appeared to the disciples in Galilee. The Bible says they worshiped Him, but some doubted. I read that and chuckle, it was the same mix of people who are always there at Easter.

What's interesting about the story is that Jesus does not scold those who doubt. He doesn't say, "I can't believe you see me face to face here, yet still doubt." He does not shame them for their unbelief. What He says to them instead, is, "Go and make disciples."

We think that seeing is believing. And maybe it was for some of those disciples. But seeing was not believing for all of them. And even if the risen Jesus were to appear to us in flesh and in blood today, there are some of us who would still have doubts also. We would think we saw an apparition or were dreaming or something. But what the story is trying to tell us is that while seeing is not always believing, going is.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once reflected on faith, doubt, and obedience. He said that though we may be full of doubt, it is the act of obedience - saying yes to the summons of the Word of God on our lives - that in fact liberates us to be able to believe. In other words, we come to believe by first going.

The life of faith is not certainty. As the book of Hebrews says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for - yet unseen." For those first doubting disciples, the proof of the resurrection was not in Jesus appearing to them in flesh and in blood. Rather, proof came when they went out and started making disciples. Yes, they doubted at first; yet they went. And in going out and teaching others to follow in the way of Jesus' life - by seeking to live out what He stood for and inviting others to do the same - those doubting disciples discovered, lo and behold, that Jesus was indeed risen and that He had authority in this world - authority to change hearts, and minds and bring down powers and lift up lowly people - and that He had given that authority to them also. Wow.

And that's the same way we doubters still discover that He is indeed risen today also. We hear the summons of God on our lives and we go. And we find that going really is believing. 

That'll preach.

Daily Lesson for April 23, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Paul's first letter to the Corinthians chapter 15:

"32 What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.'"

I want to talk today about the Resurrection. Sometimes we miss out the deep and most profound implications of the Resurrection and settle for only part of its meaning.

When we think of the hope of Resurrection we probably usually think of the hope we have to see and be reunited with loved ones who have passed away. Perhaps some of us, more conscious of the injustices of the world, also think of the Resurrection as the time to come when God shall right all wrongs.

These are not incorrect ideas about the Resurrection. They are indeed true and part of our deepest hope. Yet, by deferring all the meaning of the Resurrection into the age to come, we miss out on what it means for us here and now.

When Paul and the other Apostles saw that Jesus had been risen from the dead they did not see it and say, "Great, I can't wait to get to heaven when I can finally be with grandma." In other words, they did not defer the meaning of the resurrection to God's kingdom in some other unforeseen time and place called heaven. No, what they saw in the Resurrection instead gave them the hope, courage, and driving force to begin working toward bringing God's kingdom "on earth just as it is in heaven."

The Resurrection empowered Paul and the other Apostles to change the world as they knew it. The Resurrection fueled their drive to begin leveling distinctions between slaves and free people, Jew and Gentile, male and female. Because of the Resurrection the Apostles sought peace and pursued it. They stood in the market square and demanded justice. They spoke boldly in the marketplace and in the courtroom. And for these things they left comfortable lives, left mothers and fathers and houses and fields, set sail for distant lands, got themselves in hot water with the authorities, were arrested - over and over again - were made to wrestle wild beasts, and were many times martyred. They were accused of "turning the world upside down". What they were doing was turning it right side up.

When Jesus appeared to the Apostles, crucified, dead, buried, but raised up, it was vindication. God had raised Jesus because He really was the way, the truth and the life and His dreams for this world were God's dreams. When the Apostles saw Jesus alive again, it gave them the courage to go out their and start making that dream a reality.

Karl Marx critiqued religion saying it is the "opiate of the masses" - something designed by the bourgeoise to control the lower, oppressed social classes. The idea is that the master essentially invented religion to say to his slave, "You wait till heaven, and everything will be better then."

Let me tell you, that is not the Resurrection of Jesus Christ or His Church. 

Don't let it be yours.

Daily Post for April 22, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 103:

"Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name!

2Bless the Lord, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits,

3 who forgives all your iniquity,

who heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit,

who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,

5 who satisfies you with good."

I love this psalm. It reminds me of the blessed life I have in God - how living in and through God has brought me peace, joy, and deep contentment. And it reminds me not to take these things for granted, but to cherish and thank God for them.

Look at the psalm closely. God forgives where we have come up short (that is what the word "iniquity" means - to fall short). God heals the diseases of our hearts - we might call these our addictive thinking and behaviors. God redeems us from the pit - the Bible says He sent His son all the way into hell to reach the lost. He crowns us with steadfast love and mercy - meaning we are part of His royal family and family is family. And God satisfies us with good - meaning we delight in this life with God and don't need any other to make us happy.

For a lot of years I tried to do life my way. I struggled, was unhappy and always felt alienated from myself and others and also ashamed of my inner shadows. I responded to all this with a pattern of behavior which was selfish, self-destructive, and further isolating. I am grateful that I have found healing from all this in God. In God I have found a harmony, a joy, and deep reconciliation with all things in my soul. All that is within me thanks God for these things.

My favorite of all time was my 5th grade teacher Marilyn Jamison. She was gracious and good and so very kind-hearted. I remember she had a saying if anyone forgot their supplies and needed to borrow a pencil, some paper or a ruler. She would always let us borrow from her supply and when doing so we would always be told, "Count your blessings."

I still count my blessings - every one of them.

Bless the LORD, O my Soul and let all that is within me bless a is holy name.

Daily Lesson for April 21, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Corinthians 15: 3-5:

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Easter is always a great day at church as there is always so much buzz in the air. Yesterday, a ninety-some-odd man stopped me in the hall on our way to worship. "This is the day," he said. "If it wasn't for this day our religion would be deader than a dog in a ditch."

He is right; if it wasn't for the resurrection then the name Jesus of Nazareth would just have been a minor footnote in first century history of the region. His name have been lost in the same way all the other messianic would-bes names have been lost. Gone and soon forgotten.

This is why Paul is so adamant in his telling of what happened. It is of "first importance". Paul says, "he appeared" to Peter and to the twelve, then to 500 some-odd others, and the other apostles, and finally, Paul says, Jesus appeared to Paul himself. Like a skilled trial lawyer, Paul summons all the evidence and eye witness accounts from reliable sources to buttress his case.

I suppose Paul's case rested to some degree on the reliability of the eye witnesses. Were they trustworthy? Did they have integrity? Was there evidence in the way they lived their lives that this claim was true and worth building a life on? Did this extraordinary claim that Jesus rose from the tomb make a difference in these people's lives and their world?

And I suppose the case still rests on the same things 2,000 years later.

Clarence Jordan used to say that the proof of the resurrection isn't so much a rolled away stone, but a carried away church. If we aren't more than a little bit carried away by all this then our religion is, well, deader than a dog in a ditch.

Daily Post for Good Friday, April 18, 2014

Special from Jerusalem

A tumultuous week in the Judean city of Jerusalem came to an end today when Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish religious leader who many Jews claimed to be the Messiah but who Sanhedrin and some Roman officials saw as a threat to Pax Romana, was crucified on grounds of treason against the Empire.

Tensions mounted on Sunday when Jesus and his disciples marched into the capital and blocked the entryway to the Jewish Temple where thousands of pilgrims came to celebrate the Jewish Passover Festival.  This was the second time in three years Jesus' protest actions put a temporary stop to Temple transactions.  On Sunday it was reported he disrupted religious ritual by turning over the tables of the Temple Court money changers and chasing those selling sacrificial animals out of the courtyard.  Later Jesus purportedly threatened to take his protests even further.  Witnesses say he threatened to destroy the Temple altogether and to then raise it up after three days.

Jesus' actions jeopardized an already tenuous truce existing between Jewish religious and political authorities and Roman peacekeeping forces during the Passover Festival.  As Passover is a holiday celebrating the ancient Hebrews escape from slavery in Egypt, it has in recent years been a week fraught with clashes between Roman soldiers and pro-liberation extremists.  The actions of Jesus and other zealot-minded Jews necessitated Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, to move the bulk of his force from the Judean capital of Caesarea Maritima to Jerusalem for the festival to ensure order.  There was speculation Pilate might even go so far as to decide to shut the city down altogether if peace could not be assured.

But Jerusalem religious officials moved quickly Monday to keep crowds in order during the festival.  "The Feast of Passover is a religious event - not a political one.  The great masses of Jews are peace-loving people who are glad for the peace and prosperity Rome has brought to the region," Zacharias of Bethany, a member of the Sanhedrin said in a public statement endorsed by the body.  The statement went on to denounce Jesus.  "We reject the kind of opportunism exhibited in people like Jesus of Nazareth.  He is an extremist, an outside agitator whom the prefect is justified in apprehending."

Rival separatist leaders were quick to release their own statement in turn.  "The so-called peace Rome has brought is no peace at all," the separatist statement said.  God's promise for our people and our land is a promise for freedom.  It is a promise given to our Father Abraham and verified in the blood of the Passover lamb.  Moses did not lead our people across the Red Sea only to in turn now be slaves in our own land."

It was notable, however, that the separatist statement did not mention Jesus by name.  Jewish political observers suggest a leader like Jesus is unlikely to garner the support of pro-liberation Jews because of his apparent openness toward Gentiles, including a highly publicized meeting between Jesus and a Roman centurion in the Galilean town of Capernaum.  As one religious expert put it: "Jesus may wear Moses' sandals, but he does not carry his staff."

But it wasn't Moses who came to mind when Jesus made his way into town Sunday.  Instead it was David, the greatest of Israel's past kings.  As Jesus entered the city, sitting proudly astride a small colt - a gesture intended to reenact an ancient Jewish royal tradition - crowds lined the path shouting, "Hosanna," - a Hebrew word meaning "save" - "to the Son of David."  The crowd's message was clear.  They wanted their king - and they did not mean the Emperor Tiberius.

By Friday, however, it was evident to all in Jerusalem that Jesus was not the king they were looking for.  Late Thursday night he was arrested by Temple police and found guilty by the Sanhedrin in a hastily organized emergency trial.  Early Friday morning the Sanhedrin turned Jesus over to Pilate requesting the execution of the man known as "the Nazorean" on grounds of treason.  By 3pm that afternoon Jesus' body hung bloody and lifeless from a tree atop a high ridge just outside of the city.  At Pilate's order a sign was placed over his body written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews".

The pointedness of the sign was characteristic of Pilate's strong-armed reputation as prefect, but conflicted with what sources close to Pilate say actually happened inside the governor's courtyard.  Those sources reveal the case against Jesus was not as cut and dry as Jesus' accusers, and later the sign, suggested.  The sources said Pilate saw the conflict over Jesus as primarily a struggle for control among the ranks of Jewish leaders; as such, Pilate was inclined to have Jesus simply flogged and released.  In the end, however, political expedience won out, sources say, as Pilate became convinced that Jesus' execution was in the best interest of the Sanhedrin and the region as a whole.  "It is better that one man should die than the whole nation perish," said a Sanhedrin member speaking on condition of anonymity.

Whether that man was innocent or guilty was apparently beside the point for Pilate.  This is Judea - one of the most lawless places in the Roman Empire and insiders within Praetorium say law and order will only be regained if the Jewish people learn not only to avoid treason but also even the appearance of treason.

On Friday afternoon a dark cloud settled over the city as the Nazorean struggled in his final hours of crucifixion.  It was a short time as these things go, but agonizing for those who kept watch.  A commiserate spirit among the onlookers accompanied the man's last gasps.  A woman was heard gently weeping in the distance.  "We had hoped he would be the one to redeem Israel," she said through her tears.  "We had hoped."  That was when Jesus, "King of the Jews" hung his head and died.

Pilate ordered the body be pulled down from the cross and given to some of Jesus' followers.  As the soldiers lowered the cross to its parallel position those around could see the body more clearly in its gruesome and mangled state.  One of the soldiers, who stood guard throughout the execution, looked up from the body and toward Jesus' followers and then spoke.  The language was Aramaic, but the words were spoken with the tongue of someone who grew up in perhaps the Palermo region.  "This," he said, "was a son of God."  

It was not altogether obvious what the soldier meant.

Daily Lesson for April 17, 2014

We continue in our Daily Lessons to reflect on the last week of Jesus' life. Today we reflect on Mark chapter 14, remembering the Passover meal Jesus shared with his disciples and what he did while at table with them:

22 And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them, and said, “Take; this is my body.” 23 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, and they all drank of it. 24 And he said to them, "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many."

On that last night, Jesus and his disciples sat for the Passover meal, a meal commemorating the deliverance of God's people from bondage in Egypt. During dinner, Jesus stood for what the disciples would have expected to be a traditional reflection on the meaning of the Passover lamb, whose blood had been offered as a sacrifice in the Temple and whose meat was now before them. Instead Jesus did something quite different. He stood and gave the disciples two powerful images: bread, which he broke with an intent, tearing manner saying, "This is my body." And a cup of wine which he brought to the lips of each of his disciples whispering softly and intimately into their ears, "This is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for the forgiveness of your sins."

We do not know if it was clear to the disciples on that night what was happening, or if it dawned on them afterward - perhaps during the long, grievous hours when Jesus hung upon the cross. He was reinterpreting the Passover story through his own story. Like the Passover lamb, whose blood had been shed and body flayed for the sake of the Israelites, now Jesus' blood would be shed and body broken for the sake of salvation of all. Blood, a symbol of uncleanness, and a broken body which would never have been allowed to enter into the Temple in Jerusalem, would join together to become a new, holy Temple in the person of Jesus. It is the Temple which was soon to be destroyed, yet would be raised up in three days, and would be open to all people to come and find forgiveness and deliverance from sin. Like the Passover lamb, his blood too would be shed for the deliverance of Israel - and for the rest of the world also.

We do not know that the disciples put all of this together at the table that night. I suspect they didn't. But later, when they thought of the bread and the cup and what Jesus said, they realized why out in the wilderness three years before John the Baptist first introduced Jesus to them with these words, "Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world."

Daily Lesson for April 16, 2014

We continue in our Daily Lessons from the last week of Jesus' life. Today's lesson comes from Mark 12 verse 7:

7 But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’

As Jesus taught in the Temple in that last week of his life, he told a parable to those around the courtyard, including the chief priests and Pharisees in charge of the Temple. It was a thinly disguised story designed to highlight the greed of the ruling class in Jerusalem, and God's patience in sending the prophets to try get them to change, culminating, finally, in the sending of His own Son.

There was a rich man, Jesus began, who planted a vineyard and built a fence around it to protect it. He leased the vineyard out to tenants and then went away to a distant land. When the time was right he sent back a servant to collect some of the fruits from he vineyard. But they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. So the owner of the vineyard sent another servant whom the tenants struck and abused. Then the owner sent another whom they killed. He sent many others, whom the tenants either beat or killed. Finally the vineyard owner decided to send his own son. "They will respect him," he thought. When the tenants saw that the master was sending his own son they decided to kill him also saying, "Come, let's kill the son so the inheritance will be ours." And so they did. They killed him, Jesus said.

"Now," Jesus asked his listeners, "when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" "He will put those wretches to a miserable death," they said.

My interpretation: Their conclusion to the story showed just how little they knew about the heart of God.

Daily Lesson for April 15, 2014

We continue our Daily Lessons from the last week of Jesus' life. Yesterday Jesus disrupted the marketplace in the Temple courtyard. Now the following:

27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, "By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.”

Here is the first of two stories which demonstrate Jesus' political smarts.

After disrupting the Temple, Jesus is confronted by the religious authorities. At least some of these men were already considering having Jesus killed. "With what kind of authority are you doing these things?" they ask. Jesus says he'll answer where he gets his authority so long as they answer where they think John the Baptist got his authority.

John was the last and greatest prophet of ancient Judaism. Born into the priestly line, John would by birthright also have been a priest. But in adulthood he rejected the religious system in Jerusalem and formed an anti-establishment Judaism in the wilderness where he taught against ethnic pride, economic exploitation and military oppression. The community he founded was an ascetic one, dedicated to simplicity of life, the sharing of possessions and the study of Torah.  It was open to anyone who would chose to come and live in its way. John's community was an obvious rejection of the lavishly set apart lifestyle of the religious elites in Jerusalem.  Thousands came to be baptized by John there. After his execution, John's popularity rose to a kind of folk hero status among the masses. 

The religious elites in Jerusalem, though often the objects of John's contempt while he was alive, knew John was too popular to speak against in his death.

"Where did John the Baptist get the authority to do the things he did? Was it a human thing or God thing?"

We do not know," those confronting Jesus said.

"Well then," Jesus said, "neither will I tell you where I get my authority."

Jesus' point was clear: if you can't recognize the things John did as God things, then you won't be able to recognize the things Jesus was doing either.

And that was another reason to go ahead and have him killed.

Daily Lesson for April 14, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 11:

15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 

It is Holy Week and I want to take this week's lessons to reflect on the last week of Jesus' life and the events which led up to his death.

When Jesus came into Jerusalem that last week he engaged in what was clearly a very intentional protest against the cultic system set up in and around the Temple. The system was set up so that the faithful who came to offer their religious sacrifices in Jerusalem were taken advantage of with exorbitant rates of exchange for temple coins and outrageous costs for "pure" animals to be sacrificed. Thus Jesus called the money changers and those selling pigeons "robbers" and interrupted their business by not allowing anyone to carry animals through the Temple.

It was a drastic measure - but a necessary one. The religious elite in Jerusalem and all the others who profited from the religious trade had set up a pervasive system of religious exploitation which they made them a ton of money through the sale of purification, forgiveness, and atonement with God. Jesus disapproved of the exploitative prices; that is why he labeled the place a den of robbers. But even more to the heart of things, Jesus disapproved of the whole idea that atonement with God is something that can be bought, sold, or gained through the sacrifice of an animal. For Jesus, the Temple cult did not simply need reform - it needed to end altogether.

Psalm 51 says, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart . . ." Jesus taught that these are things that one either has or does not have within him or herself. They cannot be sold by or purchased from a religious institution.

And it is for that teaching that the religious institution decided this Jesus of Nazareth had to be killed - because he was bad for business.

Daily Lesson for April 11, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 22 verse 1:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Sometimes someone will come to me struggling with something, some loss or disappointment or perhaps abuse, and because they are good and want to remain faithful they will say, "I know I'm not supposed to question God." When they say that I say back, "Why not? Jesus did."

The truth is we can not not question God. There are too many losses, hurts, injustices, miseries, and mysteries in life not to have questions. The task of faith is not so much not asking God, "Why?", but rather seeking to ask God, "Why?" in trust and in hope.

That's what Jesus did. When on the cross, in the midst of unimaginable physical and emotional torment, he asked, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The Gentiles who heard this probably thought he was giving up all faith, but the Jews would have recognized he was actually quoting a psalm - Psalm 22, which is about a man who being tortured to death and asks God, "Why?", yet nevertheless speaks his hope that though he will die, nevertheless he will one day worship God alive. In asking, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus was not renouncing His faith; He was actually clinging to it.

Remaining faithful does not mean never questioning God. Rather, it means going ahead and coming to God with the deep, burdening questions which trouble our souls and test our faith. And it means learning to do so in a spirit of open relationship with God and trust in His goodness and ultimate vindication.

Such trust was beautifully illustrated in the life of the great preacher William Sloane Coffin. In 1983, Coffin's son Alex was killed in an automobile accident. After The accident, Coffin returned to his iconic Riverside Church and preached a sermon titled "Alex's Death". In the sermon he too quoted Psalm 22. Yes, Coffin asked, "My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken me?" But then he spoke again, emphatically and with deep conviction, "But . . . My God, My God."

Daily Lesson for April 10, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Exodus 8 verse 15:

"But when Pharaoh saw that there was a respite, he hardened his heart and would not listen to [Moses and Aaron], as the Lord had said."

The desire to escape pain is a real motivator in getting people to stop self-destructive habits temporarily, but it does not in and of itself lead to deep and lasting life transformation unless accompanied by an absolute surrender of the will to God.

Pharaoh is Exhibit A in this. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and asked that the Israelites be given permission to go and worship in the wilderness. Pharaoh refused and so brought forth a plague of blood on the river and a plague of frogs on the land. Pharaoh relented, but as soon as the blood and frogs ceased, his heart was hardened again. He would go through the same ritual of half-conversion and then relapse ten times, until finally his family, his army, and his country had all been decimated. All because he would not allow his heart to be truly changed.

Real change does not happen without total surrender of the will and life to God. This means a radical reorientation of life. For me it meant dropping out of school, changing cities, and moving in with an eighty-some-odd year-old Baptist deacon who I knew wasn't going to get me into trouble. Your transformation may call for something even more radical. If so, do what is necessary; your life and the life of your family depend on it. 

Do not end up like Pharaoh.

In the Battle of Fort Donelson in 1862, Ulysses S. Grant received a request for terms of surrender from the fort's commanding Confederate officer, Simon Bolivar Buckner. Grant wrote back saying, "no terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted."

That's pretty much the same thing God says to everyone of us.

Daily Lesson for April 9, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verses 4-6:

"4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient . . ."

When it comes to doing what we do confidence really does make all the difference. In whatever we do, if we doubt we have what it takes to be successful, it is a guarantee that we will not be successful. If we have a CD tracking in our minds saying, "Not good enough, not smart enough, not gifted enough, not fit enough for the task at hand," then soon enough we'll stumble and fall. Psychologists call it a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is the way the ego-self, told from a young age that it is inadequate and even worthless, finally takes its own life.

The only way to break free all this is to get outside the ego-self and to begin living into the Christ-self. When the Apostle Paul says he has "confidence", his confidence does not come from anything within his self. His confidence - his steeled sense of readiness for whatever life throws his way, his ability to speak truth to power, his courage to walk aboard ships heading for rough seas, his calm demeanor even in the face of almost-certain death - all come from a power greater than Paul. It comes from the Christ.

Many of us struggle with inadequacies. And it's true; alone we are inadequate for the tasks at hand. But we are not alone. God is with us. And with God on our side - better yet, with God inside - we have all we need to rise to to today's challenges.

Somebody wise once said, "God plus one is a majority." That's pretty incredible news, so long as the one believes it.

Daily Lesson for April 8, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 9 verse 42:

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea."

One day the disciples of Jesus saw a man casting out demons in Jesus' name but tried to stop him because, as they said, "he wasn't following us."

Pardon me, but it's baloney like that that gives Christianity a bad name.

So much is being done to alleviate suffering in the world in the name of Christ. The hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, the enslaved are freed. In other words, the Kingdom of God is being built. Yet some of us sit around and argue and criticize saying, "They aren't with us. They are fundamentalists. They aren't doing this for the right reasons.". Or we say, "Those are liberals and their good works are the works of the devil in disguise." And the world watches as we argue and try to put a stop to one another and those who were young in their faith - those Jesus calls "these little ones" who believe in Him, are totally turned off. 

When we do that - when because of our own tribal theological preoccupations, we turn people off to Christ - one sad day we'll wake up and see what a disservice to Him we've done and we'll wish a great millstone had been tied around our necks and we had been thrown into the sea.

Here's another option. I get it from Habitat for Humanity. It's called "the Theology of the Hammer" and it basically says this: If you can swing a hammer then you are theologically qualified to come and help build God's Kingdom. 

And it has been my experience that even if you can't swing a hammer, you are welcome to come and learn.

Daily Lesson for April 7, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Exodus 4:

10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

When I was in eighth grade I ran for Vice President of the 9th grade student council. Things were going well at first. I was already one of the popular kids, my platform was good, and I had a great campaign slogan - "Price for Vice". There was just one problem; I had still to do the one thing that terrified me most - give a speech.

I was so terrified I didn't know what to say. I was too ashamed to ask for help from anyone, and so out of fear I put off writing the speech until the night before. Out of sheer humiliation I did not practice it before anyone - not a friend, not a parent, and not even myself before a mirror.

When Election Day came I wanted to throw up all morning. Just before the candidates walked onto the stage I actually prayed to God that I could be beamed somewhere else - anywhere else; I prayed I could be anyone else. We walked out onto the platform and I stood before the whole student body and I just wilted. During my speech I shook and I stammered and and my right leg took on a life of its own with a nervous twitch that was half Elvis and the other half mechanical paint mixer. I sweated. I turned red. I misread. And I never once looked up from my paper - not once.

Of course, I lost the election; and when I did I vowed that I would never ever again speak in public.

As you know, I am a preacher now; by God's grace I am a preacher. And while there are still times, even now, when I revert back to that scared, shaking, adolescent boy, afraid to walk out on stage, I remember that it is the LORD who made man's mouth. And it is the LORD who gives speech. And it is the LORD who puts the words He would have me to say on my tongue.

And not my words on my tongue only, but your words on your tongue also.

Daily Lesson for April 4, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 107:

10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,

prisoners in affliction and in irons,

11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,

and spurned the counsel of the Most High.

12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;

they fell down, with none to help.

13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,

and he delivered them from their distress.

14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and burst their bonds apart.

Saint Augustine once said that sin was its own punishment. He spoke of what he knew; for Saint Augustine was not always a saint.

Though Augustine had been raised by his very devout mother, he chose to live a reckless and rebellious youth. It was a life characterized by both intellectual and sexual hedonism which he would later describe as a "hell of lust." His choices led him to a place of great emotional and spiritual misery. In a slight twist on an old saying, Augustine unmade his bed, and his punishment was that he had to lay chained in the misery of it. Sin was indeed its own punishment; for his choices had brought him to a place the psalmist describes as one of "darkness and the shadow of death."

It is living - or should I say dying - in that place that drives so many of us back to God. We make choices that are destructive and ruinous, and yet it is the fallout of our choices that finally gets us to the point of surrender. Like the prodigal son, it is the pain of our own lives that gets us to wake up to the mess we've made and decide to turn back home.

We get to that Dr. Phil moment when something inside or someone outside asks us, "And how's that working for you?" and we realize it's not working very well at all. We realize that we are prisoners of our own sin and in need of redemption. That's the moment when we cry out to God for help and rescue - when we realize the way we're working it doesn't work.

Julian of Norwich had a wonderful way of describing all this. "First the fall, then the redemption - and both are the grace of God," she said. That is so true. Without the fall - hard and painful and humiliating as it is - we would never have even realized we were living in darkness and death, and never have cried out for light and life.

Daily Lesson for April 3, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Corinthians chapter 12:

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

One of the greatest challenges in being church is learning to live together. It is also one of the greatest rewards.

I remember at my first church there was a man I had a really hard time with. He was a handyman and on the day I first arrived he was working in my office. We were talking about the usual things you talk about with the new preacher when you're trying to feel him out and he you - where to get a good burger, the schools in town, kids these days, the state of the world. "You know, he said, "sometimes I think we really ought to go back to them Leviticus days." Oh dear, I thought. That was of course just the first of many things that we didn't see quite eye to eye on. When it came to the war in Iraq I was ambivalent, he believed in his country right or wrong. I was good with women being called to pastoral ministry, he said if they had not called me to be their pastor but had instead called a woman - any woman - he would have walked. "Just isn't Biblical." Trying to open him up, I pointed out that a man like him - divorced and serving as a deacon - wasn't quite Biblical either. That of course backfired on me because he told me I was right and that he was thinking of resigning.

We were complete opposites. Only church could have brought us together. And only church could keep us together - long enough to grow together. I grew to respect him for his commitment to the church and see his skills as a handyman as absolutely essential. He grew to respect my counsel and sought it when his son was in trouble with the law. He came to me in tears when the economy went to pot and nobody was hiring handymen. I prayed for him on my knees with both of us in tears and then stood up and hired him to repaint my house. I helped him write his application to become a substitute teacher in the school district. He helped me keep my car running in the Vermont winters. I blessed his grand baby when she came into the world. He blessed me by having the snow cleared when I came into church each morning.

During my sermon where I was announcing my intentions to leave, he got up from his seat in the pews and came and hugged me and told me I was the greatest pastor he ever had. I consider him one of the greatest parishioners I've ever had.

Paul compares the church to a body. Every body part belongs. Every part is necessary. No part can say another part shouldn't be there. And when the parts come together, different as they are, they join to make a blessed and beautiful whole.

I love that.