Daily Lesson for June 30, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 106 verses 9 and 10:

9 He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry,
and he led them through the deep as through a desert.
10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe
and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.

Go to just about any black church on any given Sunday and you'll hear the refrain:  "God can make a way out of no way."

It's a simple message that's easy to understand but hard to believe - and especially hard to keep on being believed.  It must be preached Sunday by Sunday because the dark powers of this world are always bearing down.  It must be preached Sunday by Sunday because week by week God's people are caught between Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea ahead and must be reminded that the only course of action is just to keep walking.

The rabbis used to say that when Israelites were escaping slavery and came to the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army bearing down behind, there was a moment of trepidation and panic among the people.  Do they stop, turn around and give up or keep going and surely drown in the Red Sea.  It was when they made their decision, choosing to risk death over slavery that miracle happened.  They waded into the water feet first and kept on walking.  As they walked the waters rose up their ankles to their knees and then their waists and then their shoulders all the way to their necks.  It was not until they were all the way in above their heads and no longer able to touch bottom that the walls of the waters were parted and they were able to walk free.

You may today find yourself up against impossible.  You know there is no hope in turning back, yet going ahead does not appear anymore promising.  You feel trapped, and don't know they way out or the way forward.  The Lesson today is to keep walking.  Keep walking forward and surely you will discover what the Israelites discovered: that God really can make a way out of no way, but we have to be willing to be in over our heads before it happens.

That is today's message; and it's one we need to hear about once a week.

Daily Lesson for June 27, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 102:

25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands.
26 They will perish, but you will remain;
they will all wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.
28 The children of your servants shall dwell secure;
their offspring shall be established before you.

When I was in 7th grade our junior high school gathered in the auditorium to watch a movie about the great Chicago Bears football player Gale Sayers and his teammate and best friend Brian Piccolo, who was stricken with cancer.  I remember what an impression the opening scene made on me with a quote from Hemingway.  "Hemingway said, 'Every true story ends in death.'  Well, this is a true story."

Life is a series of true stories.  There is in every friendship, marriage, enterprise, or institution a Spring which is full of hope and promise, followed by a Fall of when the color wanes and eventually the leaves fall.  Every leaf falls.

Psalm 102 is a psalm written by someone coming to terms with the Fall.  It begins with preface. "A prayer of one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the LORD," it says.  The affliction is the loss of his people's glory.  It is the destruction of the City of Zion.  It is the end of a world.  And there is grief. There is crying out.  There is complaint before the LORD.

The psalmist shows us the way through the grief of life's true stories.  It is the way called lamentation, which is the naming of our losses and the wailing over them.  It is, surprisingly, a God-blessed complaint to God.  All is not well.  There is rupture. There is Fall and a hastening Winter and it just ain't fair.

If we do not lament then we remain stuck in our pain and in our grief. We hold on to a yesterday that is no longer.  Nostalgia for a lost past cripples our future.  We become imprisoned by what was.  As the psalmist says, we hold onto stones which have been knocked down and pity the dust of what has been crushed.  The way of lamentation allows us to come to terms with the loss of yesterday and opens us to the possibility of a new tomorrow.  It is a necessary journey.

Every story is a true story.  Every institution and every relationship will have its end.  Heaven and earth will pass away.  Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.

But out of the ashes of our lamentation comes then our future that is yet to be . . .

Daily Lesson for June 26, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Romans 5 verses 3 and 4:

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope when it is fully born does not disappoint.

When we speak of hope we usually say something like, "There's still hope," as though it were something with which we began and which circumstances - however difficult - could not take from us.  But research from psychologists suggests that we actually have that backwards.  Cognitive psychologist C.R. Snyder, from the University of Kansas, has discovered that hope, rather than being the thing left over after adversity, might better be thought of as a byproduct of having overcome adversity.  Hope, according to this research, is not so much a quantity left over in spite of our struggles, but instead the quality of who we become in and through those struggles.  In other words, hope is born out of struggle.

"Lift Every Voice and Sing", in times past sometimes called the Negro National Anthem, remembers the struggles of African Americans from the Middle Passage to continental slavery.  It speaks of a time when "hope unborn had died".  Those were the dark nights of terror and no doubt hope died unborn in many a sad and defeated soul.  But those who held on, walking the stony road and bearing the bitter rod - even for centuries - discovered that hope could still even yet be born again.  And through 400 years of suffering which led to endurance, and endurance which led to character, and character which led to hope, they became the People of Hope.

There are people reading this now who are really struggling and in desperate need of hope.  What I want to say to you is hold on.  Hold on today, hold on tomorrow, hold on 400 years if you have to but hold on.  Keep struggling and hold on.  Hold on for endurance sake.  Hold on till character is made. Hold on till hope is born; if it dies hold on till it is conceived and born again.  

Suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and character hope.  And when hope is full born it shall not disappoint.

Daily Lesson for June 25, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is the Parable of the Vineyard Workers found in Matthew chapter 20:

20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 2 After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; 4 and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. 5 When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6 And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ 7 They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ 8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ 9 When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10 Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. 11 And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, 12 saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ 13 But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?14 Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15 Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’. 16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

A few years back I took a summer mission trip from one of my churches to Washington, DC.  We were right in the heart of the city and we soon found out what people meant when they say the city is a concrete jungle.  We staid in he basement of the church we were serving and it was miserably hot and grossly humid and the work was hard and physical, all of which we expected.  There were also rats the size of Volkswagons, which we did not expect.  After an exhausting day of leading Vacation Bible School for the neighborhood kids, stocking items in the church's food pantry, and helping to repair the dry wall in the nursery.  It seemed like every time we were done with one project one of the church members was finding us another without any rest for the weary and not much thanks.  By the end of the day we were wiped out and a little put off and decided to turn in early.  We went down to the basement and were surprised to discover it had somehow flooded during the day.  We spent the whole evening draining the basement of water.  We spent the whole time grumbling to ourselves about how come Sunday all the members of the church we were at would show up to worship upstairs without any consideration of all that we were doing for them.  We probably wouldn't even get a thanks.  It wasn't fair.

The next morning we met for our church group's daily devotion which one of the women on the trip led.  She chose  Jesus' Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, where after a lot of hard work the laborers grumbled because they didn't think they got their due.  "I have been listing to our grumbling," she said. "I have been listening to my grumbling.  And I thought about this parable.  And it occurred to me - we need to remember that it's a privilege to work in the master's vineyard."

That was the right word at the right time.

Daily Lesson for June 24, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 19 verses 

24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

A reinterpretation of this Scripture has done more for my own growth in grace and in love than perhaps anything else in the last year.

A rich man comes to Jesus inquiring how he might enter into eternal life. He says he has obeyed all the commandments; yet Jesus says he still lacks one thing. He must sell everything he has and give it to the poor and come and follow Jesus.  The man turns and walks away sad, for his possessions are many.  Jesus then turns to his disciples and says, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is a rich man to get into the kingdom of God."

I have always read and interpreted that story to be a kind of tsk tsk judgment against this wealthy man.

But a sermon by the late, great Peter Gomes changed the meaning for of this text for me altogether.  Gomes asked one simple question, "Who of us would do it?"  Who of us would have gone and given everything away to the poor and come and followed Jesus?  Reading that question, I had to admit - I would not; for I have not, and right now I will not.

With that question honestly answered, judgement had to be set aside.  Suddenly Gomes opened for me a way way of reading the text anew.  He opened for me the Gospel in this text.  It is impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven; as impossible as it is for Donald Trump's big-headed ego to squeeze through the hole in a donut.  For a man like the Don it's absolutely impossible - but for God?  Well, with God such things are possible. With God anything is possible.

Is there an edge of judgment in this text?  Sure; we all have possessions which end up possessing us.   These are not always monetary possessions, but rather any kind of story we have bought into which possesses the core of who we think we are and what we might not be able to live without.  Our unwillingness to let to of these stories keeps us from making the it through the narrow pass into the kingdom of God, where he story of who we are is replaced by the story of who we might become.

But there is also a word of Gospel in this text - the good news that even though we would not dare to pare ourselves down enough to make the journey into becoming alone, the journey will not be alone.  The stripping away of all things we have put such stock in - our wealth, our righteousness, our preparedness for the journey ahead - such stripping is impossible for human beings; but it is not impossible with God.  For nothing is impossible with God.

Daily Lesson for June 23, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 19 verses 13 and 14:

13 Then children were brought to him that he might lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples rebuked the people, 14 but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

After having just returned from summer camp with our middle and high school students, I am giving a lot of thought to the place of youth in the life of our church and the life of my own ministry. The week away with our youth and the number of opportunities I had to spend intentional time with made me think back on the youth group leaders who spent intentional time with me 20 or so years ago. They invited me into their lives and their homes, opened the Scriptures to me, and spoke intentional words to me. They modeled Godliness and Christ-like love. They loved on me. And whether they knew it or not - I was paying attention.

It always astounds me just how much time and energy Jesus poured into young people. Over and over again in the Gospel accounts Jesus is healing a sick girl, raising somebody's dead son, or telling his disciples to go and get the children and bring them to him. For Jesus youth ministry was not a specialized, set apart ministry that took place out of sight and out of mind in the synagogue basement but rather part and parcel of the very core of his overall ministry. Youth ministry was ministry ministry; and he did it all the time. He did it because he knew it mattered.

One of my favorite youth ministry stories comes from Sophiatown, the black slum outside of Johannesburg, during the days of Apartheid. Trevor Huddleston, a white Anglican priest who was assigned to Sophiatown and busy making his name known as a great friend of the black people and their cause. Later in life, an old man remembered seeing Huddleston for the first time as a young child and being taken with his humanity. "One day," the old man said, "I was standing in the street with my mother when a white man in a priest's clothing walked past. As he passed us he took off his hat to my mother. I couldn't believe my eyes—a white man who greeted a black working class woman!" Later, the boy contracted tuberculosis and Huddleston, who would go on to make the cover of the popular magazine Saturday Review, took the time to make weekly visits to the boy at the sanitarium where he was convalescing. It all made quite an impression on the child - whose name was and still is Desmond Tutu.

We have no way of knowing who these young people might become; but I am sure they will only be what they can be if someone like us finds the time and the energy to say what Jesus said, "Let the children come unto me."

Daily Lesson for June 20, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson from Matthew 18 verses 23 through 28:

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.  He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

One of the most consistent things Jesus taught over and over was about our need to forgive as we have been forgiven.   

But perhaps it is the second part - the deep acknowledgement that we have been forgiven - that really is the hard part.  It is difficult to forgive others' their debts; but it is even more difficult to accept forgiveness of our own debts.  We don't like the idea that we are indebted so deeply - to God, to our parents, to our neighbors, to our enemies - that there really is nothing we can do to ever pay everything back.

The man in today's lesson still wants to pay everything back.  Jesus says he owes his master a kagillion dollars.  "I will pay it back," he says.  "You're off the hook," the master says (how much is this master worth?).  But the man doesn't hear that.  He's still working trying to strike a deal; he doesn't know what it means to cut his losses - that's how he got himself into a situation of owing a kagillion dollars.  What he hears is that he's actually bought himself some time.  He's just in a slump.  He just needs a little slack to work it all out.  Just a little more rope.  "I'm good for it," he says.

And just to prove how deluded he really is, immediately after being forgiven his kagillion dollar debt by his master he goes out and demands somebody else pay him back what is by comparison chump change.  I think he thought he could use that to turn everything around.  He could use it to hit a lick.  But when the other man didn't have it to pay back he ordered him to be punished.  He had the justice meted out on the other man that subconsciously he felt he still deserved.  This is called scapegoating. 

Let me tell you, none of us are good for it.  Until we come to terms with that we'll keep asking for more and more rope until finally we end up hanging ourselves.  Here's the truth - we gambled and we lost. We bet on the come.  We at the chicken fry before the chickens were hatched.  We're in debt so deeply that there's now way we'll ever pay it back.  

We have to see that and come to terms with it before we'll be ready to either accept our own forgiveness or give it to others.  We are sinners forgiven by the grace of God.  When we receive this grace then we find we have what we need to forgive others.

Daily Lesson for June 19, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Matthew 18 verse 10:

"See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."

This past week I was at youth camp, serving as camp pastor for about 150 kids. During the week a kid from another one of the churches in our association kept coming up and wanting to talk with me. He was 14 and a little awkward, not quite having anything to say to me and yet sort of hovering around me as I spoke with others. When he wasn't with me or one of the other adult sponsors, he was usually alone, set apart from the other teenagers and often playing a video game on his phone.

I confess that something in me kept being a little annoyed or disturbed by this kid. Conversation was cumbersome - not smooth. I could feel that he felt odd and I felt odd around him. Yet, I kept telling myself to be open, to be present, and to receive him. As I felt his hovering around me, I kept telling myself to turn towards him.

On the third night of camp, after I preached about Nicodemus finding the courage to walk out of the darkness of his shadows and into the light, this kid came up to me and asked if he could talk with me because he wanted to ask me a question. At lunch the next day we set together and he asked me his question. "How do you come out of your shadow and make friends?" he asked. I knew there was a lot of pain and a lot of rejection behind that question and we spent the lunch talking about what he feels when he is in groups - the awkwardness and the oddity. I told him that I felt that same awkwardness when I was a kid and in college, and all the way through seminary, and and that, well frankly, I still sometimes still feel it now. I told him its why a lot of people turn to drugs or alcohol - because it eases the odd feeling. And it works - for a little while. But, I shared, the key I have found that is a whole lot better is to keep showing up. "I am trying to be present," I said, "I am trying to learn to embrace the awkwardness and live into it, to inhabit it - rather than trying to escape it through booze or pills or a video game." He shook his head and smiled sheepishly when I said video game. It was a good conversation and I hugged him after. "Just show up," I said.

On the last night of camp there was - like there always is - a dance. The awkward kid walked in and I was more than a little surprised to see him actually on the dance floor and not out on one of the couches in the hallway. He was out there; and he was dancing - in the circle. And he looked like he was having a hell of a time. At breakfast on our last day I saw him. "Hey, I saw you out there last night," I said. "You did it man; you showed up." He smiled that same sheepish smile. "Yeah," he said, "I showed up."

"Do not despise the little ones," Jesus said. For, as Atticus Finch put it, "It is a sin to kill a mockingbird." Do not despise them, do not reject them, do not add to the wounds the world has already inflicted upon their soul. Do not kill them. Let them in; let them show up. Let them come out. You'll be glad you did.  

I sure am.

Daily Lesson for June 18, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 11 verses 31 through 33:

31 Then a wind from the Lord sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about 18 inches above the ground. 32 And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten barrels. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp. 33 While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people.

It today's lesson the Israelites have grown tired of God's provision of the Manna as they travel through the Wilderness. Though troubled by their dissatisfaction, God relents and rains down quail on the people 18 inches thick and as far as the eye could see. The people then went into a ravenous frenzy, gathering as much quail as they could make off with in one day. They were like looters in a shopping market - selfish, greedy, insatiable, out of their loving minds. All they could think of was more, more, more.

The Bible is clear and consistent in its teaching that more is not necessarily better. More has a diminishing value; the more we have the more we want. And we will go out of our minds to get it. It's the same whether we are talking about food or sports or entertainment or religion or health care. We get a little something that is good, but then lose ourselves in trying to get - or provide - more.

We need to see this insanity for what it is and learn to resist it. It's killing our bodies, and our communities, and even our planet. It also kills our soul. 

When Jesus fed the 5,000 in the Wilderness all the people came rushing back the next day for more. But Jesus didn't feed them again. He said no. A little something to get them through the day was a good thing. But something in their eyes said they wanted more and more. Jesus had the courage to resist the demand; he had the courage to say enough is enough.

And it is.

Daily Lesson for June 17, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 17 verses 24 through 27:

24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel.  Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

This Scripture has me rethinking giving to the church.  It has me thinking especially about all the high-pressure sermons which basically guilt people into ponying up. I've heard a lot of those sermons; and I've preached a few too.  But I am done with those sermons.  This Scripture has freed me.

Suspicious of Jesus and perhaps trying to catch him in the wrong, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter's home of Capernaum and asked him whether or not Jesus paid the two-drachma tax.  Nervous, Peter immediately says yes.  Peter then went back to his house where Jesus was staying.  Jesus, mysteriously aware of Peter's conversation with the tax collectors, asked Peter a question.  "Who do the kings of the earth take their toll - their own sons or others?"  Peter answered that kings take their tolls from others.  "So then," Jesus said, "the sons are free."

Jesus' point was to say that as God's children we are indeed free from the burdens of pressured demands for giving. There are no dues for belonging to God's household.  We are free because we belong as sons and daughter of God.

But then Jesus went on.  He told Peter to go and throw a hook out into the Sea of Galilee.  The first fish he pulled up would have a shekel - worth four drachmas - inside its mouth Jesus said.  "Take that and pay it to the temple for you and for me, Jesus told Peter, "so that we give no offense."

It really is a freeing word.  The children of God are free of charge; but somehow God makes provision that we are able to give freely - above and beyond what anyone might say we're obligated to give.

So, no more guilt trips. No more condemning stewardship sermons.  No more clobbering over the head.  As a child of God you're free - free to give less, or nothing, or a whole lot more.

There's a word for what I'm trying to say here - it's called grace.

Daily Lesson for June 16, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Numbers chapter 9 verses 22 and 23:

22 Whether it was two days, or a month, or a longer time, that the cloud continued over the tabernacle, abiding there, the people of Israel remained in camp and did not set out, but when it lifted they set out. 23 At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out.

At some point in life most of us get anxious to move on to the next thing: the next town,  the next job, the next project, the next vision, the next big thing.  We're ready to go on and try to get there - to the Promised Land.

But a lot of times God isn't ready for us to get there. A lot of times God wants us to wait right where we are.  And the mystery of why that is usually isn't very clear until later.

The Israelites were journeying through the Wilderness.  A cloud overhead covered the Tabernacle the Israelites were traveling with.  When the cloud moved the Israelites picked up camp and moved.  But so long as the cloud remained the Israelites remained where they were.  Sometimes this was a day, sometimes a month, sometimes even longer.

For the Israelites who were eager to move on it must have seemed interminable.  They were ready to get going - to get there.  But the LORD wasn't ready; and a little while later we see at least one reason why.  One of the non-Israelites, Moses' brother-in-law Hobab, was contemplating leaving the Israelites and going back to his homeland in Midian.  Hobab was a bedouin shepherd; he knew his way across the desert.  And though they didn't realize it at the time because they had so little idea how difficult and dangerous the journey ahead was going to be, the Israelites needed a man like Hobab to help get them through.  Hobab needed the time to make his decision to stay with the Israelites; for the Israelites would not have made it without him.

You may be eager to move on in life - ready to get on to that Promised Land.  But you may not be as ready as you think. You may need the time to form relationships and learn lessons your going to need later on.  So don't pull up camp too quickly; wait on the cloud.  Wait on the LORD.

Daily Lesson for June 13, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 69:

4 More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies.
What I did not steal must I now restore?
14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire;
let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.
15 Let not the flood sweep over me,
or the deep swallow me up,
or the pit close its mouth over me.

The other night at the dinner table and without any provocation our seven-year-old daughter Gabby cast her head down and began to tear up.  Without saying a word she got up from her chair and ran to her room.  Irie and I both looked at each other; neither of us had a clue as to what happened.  

When we finally got Gabby to talk she told us that she was crying because some kids at school had been mean to her.  I asked if she was thinking of anything in particular.  She said one day when school was still in, some of the kids told on her and said she took some candy from another kid.  Gabby said she didn't take anything, but that the teacher believed her friends and not her.

As a parent, one of the most difficult things  is watching your kid get hurt by the sheer meanness of other kids.  But it is not just their meanness that I see hurting my daughter so deeply; it is also the deep and painful knowledge that life itself is cruel and unjust and often leaves us without a witness to speak on our behalf.  It's not just that others are mean that hurts so much; it is the dawning awareness that life itself can be unfair.  This is the moment of disillusion.

I think my challenge as a parent is to teach my kid to find, amidst the shifting grounds of her world, her own grounding in her own inner self.  My hope is that she can learn not to be swallowed up by despair or overcome with anger; my hope is that she can overcome evil with good.  My hope is that she can learn to bless and not curse, love and not hate, and pray and not lose heart.  The world is shifting on my little girl; she must find the firm foundation within.

Awhile back I was talking with a friend who told me about a time when she was a little girl and she had been asked by a friend who was disabled to go and get her a cookie from the lunchroom. Children were only allowed one cookie and the woman in the lunchroom spotted my friend getting two and chastised her.  She froze and could not find the voice to speak.  She the told me she still struggles to find her voice amidst the world's injustice.

The world isn't just and certainly isn't fair.  Now disillusioned of the idea that it ever was, we either shrink like violets or grow deep and mighty as oaks.

Daily Lesson for June 12, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Ecclesiastes 11:

5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.  6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

Here is a secret to life: A lot of things just don't work.

A farmer goes out to sow and winds out of control cast his seed on rocky ground or blow a tree through the middle of a productive field.  Rain comes and ruins the party or drowns out the alfalfa.  Life happens.

Wise people know this.  They have contingencies.  They've diversified their stocks and their crops.  They never have all their eggs in one basket.  And they don't stop casting seeds.  They don't stop because they know life is a mystery; some things grow and some things don't and only God knows why.

Smart people, on the other hand, know a sure thing when they see it.  They have a friend who has a friend who shared with them a secret - and them only.  They can't fail; they go for broke.  A half a day's work is good enough because the seed is good and the land is good and the almanac says conditions are favorable.  It really is a sure thing, a piece of cake, a slam dunk, and it's going to get them out of this mess their in.  In other words, it's the next big thing.

I think I'd rather be wise than smart.

Daily Lesson for June 11, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 16 verse 6:

 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 

This summer marks 20 years since I first gave my life to Christ and this past spring I celebrated 9 years of ordained ministry.  You would think that by now I would pretty much get the Gospel.

But even after all these years voices still come into my head that are contrary to the Gospel Christ came to bring.  These voices tell me my worth is something to be earned.  They tell me I should receive more because I have worked more. They tell me I really am a good boy because I tithe, or give up vacations to go do missions, or because I wake up early and go to church every Sunday, or woke up and am writing this devotional today, and a little more recognition would be nice - and a lot of recognition would even be nicer.  These voices tell me my religion is better than yours and that ours is better than theirs.  They tell me mine is mine and yours is yours.  They tell me there are clearly good people and bad people in this world and I'm one of the good - unless I've been bad.  They tell me people get what they deserve in life - or should anyway; and that reward system is something I have built my life on, am counting on, but am also angry about and truth be known secretly dread.  The voices tell me God only loves the holy - and the holy includes me, and my family, and about half our country. They tell me security is priority one - whether it be job security, home security, national security, or financial security.  And they tell me the failure to prevent breaches in security is something to be shamed over.  They tell me winning isn't everything - it's the only thing and that I need to win whatever the costs.  In other words, they tell me there is nothing worse than failure - whether it be the failure of a business or marriage or the failure to raise a good child or at least a successful one.  And, of course, they tell me that after failure there is no Resurrection.

These voices are what Jesus meant when he warned his disciples to beware the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.   A little leaven spoils the whole loaf. So beware, because just one or two of these thoughts can make us forget that all is grace.

Daily Leason for June 10, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Ecclesiastes 8 verses 14 and 15:

14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15 And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

There is a mystery to life that is perplexing and sometimes even infuriating. Yet it is a mystery we must come to terms with.  The mystery is this: Life ain't fair.

There is a primordial memory in all of us of a time and place called Eden when things worked like they should. The ground produced of itself, good things happened to good people and no child or enterprise was ever still-born.  We remember that time and that place and we long for it.  But we do not live there; life is about coming to terms with the fact that we do not live there. 

The time and place we live will inevitably break both our backs and also our hearts.  In this time and this place bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, and trees just don't grow like they used to.  We have to accept these things as our reality, lest we end up being crushed by disappointment and loss.  It is not so much that we have to cease longing for Eden - we will never cease longing; but while longing for that Edenic time and place we had, we must also learn to live in the time and place that we had.

The word I am looking for here is Joy.  Joy is the art of living in the with the mystery and burdens of our own time, place and heartbreaks - and really living.  Joy is a sun that still shines by day and a moon that governs the night.  It is food on the plate and a bottle of Malbec on the table.  It is friendship and laughter and a wholehearted man who after a long and frustratingly disappointing day falls down on the floor - not to keel over and die, but to wrestle with his boys.  Joy is as Joy does.  Joy is the life of the divine living in us here and now - yes, even here and even now.  And as Jesus said even though facing the mystery of his own disappointment and death, "Nothing can take away our joy."

Not if we don't let it anyway . . .

Daily Lesson for June 9, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Ecclesiastes 7 verse 14:

"In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him."

So you're having a good day, maybe even a great day - wonderful.  Rejoice in it.  Delight in it.  Enjoy it while it lasts.  And whatever you do, don't ruin all that is good about today by worrying about losing it tomorrow. That's a greyhound chasing a fake rabbit around the check - he'll never catch it.

So your day isn't going so great, maybe it's even a bad one; well rejoice in it.  Learn what you can from it.  Find the gift it has to offer to you.  Receive the gift.  Know that adversity and failure often have more to teach us than does success.  Grow.

Every day is a gift.  A good day is given to us to delight in.  A bad day is given to us to persevere.  High tide and low tide each have their place; and we can't do much to change them.

Through all this - high tide and low - we learn to take nothing for granted.

"This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  We're alive today - tomorrow who knows; so let's make the most of it.

Daily Lesson for June 6, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 9 verse 17:

" 17 Neither is new wine put into old swineskins. If it is, the skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

You gotta love a savior who knows something about wine and how to preserve it.

Some Pharisees asked Jesus why he and his disciples did not fast while they and the disciples of John the Baptist were required to fast.  Jesus answered with a parable about new wine and old wineskins, to make the point that he was doing something new - something which wasn't going to easily conform to old patterns.  In fact, what Jesus was doing was going to be disruptive to old religious ways.  Jesus' point was clear -the joyous wine the old religious ways were meant to carry had run dry; a new religious way of living was needed.

Throughout the centuries too many religious leaders (including John the Baptist) have viewed a Godly life to be one of profound seriousness, sober-mindedness and ascetic discipline.  But the life Jesus so often lived with his disciples could be likened unto what a couple of glasses of wine with friends might bring us - joy, laughter, ebullience, and celebration.  If your religion has all of the former of these with none of the latter, then it may be time to take a sip or two from a new wineskin.

Daily Lesson for June 5, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Ephesians 4 verse 26:

"Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger."

"Be angry" - wow what a surprising word.  And what a liberating one.

Anger is a natural human response to disappointment, injustice and abuse. There is no way to go through life without getting angry, and we ought not be ashamed of ourselves when we do.  Anger happens; and clearly today's lesson encourages us to go ahead and recognize our anger rather than trying to suppress or deny it.

At the same time, today's lesson also tells us to go ahead and do something with our anger - to acknowledge and express it in a positive and constructive way, rather than allowing it to build up inside of us.  When we are angry, we need to speak it;  we especially need to speak it to those whom we are angry with.  If we do not then the anger inside of us only boils more until finally we explode.  Usually, this explosion ends up hurting whoever happens to be present at the time and may or may not be directed at those who we are most angry at.  That's when we come home from work and kick the dog because we won't tell our boss we think we've been mistreated. 

Sometimes, however, we simply aren't in a position to do much to address the wrongs which are the source of our anger.  This is when learning to pray the Serenity Prayer is of immense aid as it helps us to remember that there are some things we simply cannot change; we have to accept that about this world.  At the same time, however, the Serenity Prayer also opens us to thinking creatively about how things could be changed if we had the courage to address them. Prayer and meditation allow us to be honest about our feelings with God and open us to new possibilities for righting wrongs - even when doing so may take years or even decades.

Jesus said, "You have heard it said, 'Do not murder.' But I say to you do not even be angry."  My interpretation of that is not that Jesus meant we should never feel an ounce of anger.  For anger is natural and surely it was anger at an abusive religious system that provoked him to cleanse the Temple.  Rather, I think what Jesus meant is for us not to become anger itself - not to let it seep into the pours of our own being. And the only way I know to keep it from doing that is to let it come out. 

Daily Lesson for June 4, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 8 verse 28:

"And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs . . ."

In Matthew's version of this story it is two demon-possessed men living amidst the tombs whom Jesus meets as he comes ashore out of the boat to the country of the Gadarenes. In the book of Mark it is only one man. In the book of Luke it is only one man, but when asked his name the man says his name is "Legion" - a Roman military word which is a singular word for a large and plural force. This simplest answer is to say one or more of the Gospel writers was being creative when he wrote this story. But that misses the larger and more important point being made by all these stories; this man is not able to distinguish himself from the demons that are inside him. For as he says in one of the versions, "My (singular) name is Legion (singular word for a plural body) for we (plural) are many."

It is my experience that those who struggle with demons must find a way to separate themselves from the demons inside. They have to find their own personhood separate and distinct from the person the demons have turned them into. They have to again find their own name, which is not "Legion" but is complete and whole in its singular being. They have to find themselves.

Many years ago I knew a woman who had struggled with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other ailments. These cost her her multiple jobs, her first marriage, and custody of her children. One day she was ready to end it all and decided to take her own life. She told me that that day she kept hearing voices in her head. She said they kept saying, "Her, her, her," as if they were pointing their fingers at her and laying charges condemnation. The voices were shaming her. Then, just as she was about to take a bunch of pills to stop the voices she picked up the phone and called her mother. "I don't want to die," she said. "I want to live."

She found her own voice - her singular "I" apart from the chorus of demons inside her. And finding "I" was the beginning of the process towards casting the demons out altogether. It still is - it is the beginning of turning away from the tomb and walking back towards life.

"I don't want to die; I want to live."

Daily Lesson for June 3, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Samuel chapter 16 verses 10 and 11:

10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?”

When the LORD sent Samuel to Bethlehem to anoint one of the sons of Jesse the father brought seven of his sons before the prophet.  First there was the oldest boy Eliab, who had all the outward appearances - tall, handsome, and strong of stature.  But the LORD told Samuel not to look upon the physical appearance, but to look upon the heart.  The LORD had not chosen Eliab because Eliab did not have the heart necessary to be king.  Next Jesse presented Abinidab, and then Shammah, and then each of his other sons - totaling seven altogether. But the LORD had chosen none of these.  No doubt discouraged, Samuel asked if there were any more sons to choose from. Jesse said there was one more, an eighth son out tending sheep, but that he was young and small and unlikely fit to be king.  Samuel told Jesse to send for the boy, and when he was presented Samuel knew in his heart that this was the one chosen to be king - King David.

There is an eighth son (or daughter) in us all.  It is the child with the purest heart - a heart that believes all things and hopes all things and is capable of enduring all things.  This is the child that can kill giants because he or she still believes in him or herself and, more importantly, believes in the power of God.  This is the heart that has not yet let the world tell it either that the giants are too big, or that it is too small, or that others should have been chosen because they are bigger, or stronger, or smarter, or better looking, or better talking.

Really, this is the child who doesn't yet know enough to know it shouldn't be true.  And when we find that child - the eighth child within us - then we will find our anointing also.

Daily Lesson for June 2, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 8 verses 11 and 12:

11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness.

So I have to confess, if I had been there when Jesus said this I would have been at least a little put off.  

First of all, a Roman soldier had come to him asking that his servant be healed and Jesus healed him.  I'm sure that didn't sit well with most of Jesus' Jewish neighbors who were living under Roman occupation.  So that's one thing.  But then Jesus went further; he extolled the soldier's faith, saying foreigners from all over the world are going to eat with Abraham at the heavenly banquet, while sons of Abraham will be thrown out.  

If I had been there,  hearing Jesus extoll a pagan's faith and saying the children of Abraham would be thrown out, I gotta say it wouldn't have sat very well.

Because what Jesus was saying was so disturbing to traditional thinking, Christians for centuries misinterpreted it to be about Gentile Christians being saved and Jews being rejected.  That is a gross misinterpretation and it is an attempt by Christians to avoid what Jesus is saying by thinking it is about someone else.

What Jesus is really saying is that God's heavenly table is open to all who would come - Jew and Gentile alike.  The invitation is an open gift - a grace.  Those who will be thrown out are those who cannot accept the fact that they might well have a seat at the table next to someone of a different race, or nationality, or even religion.  Many will come from east and west; and if they come they will be welcome, and we will have to be apart of the welcoming party.  This is what the heavenly banquet looks like.  It's God's party, and it's God's intention to include all - even when including all will make us uncomfortable, seem unfair, and bless people we think ought to be cursed.

If I had been there to hear Jesus say this I know it wouldn't have sat altogether well with me.  I know this, because it still doesn't sit altogether well with me. 

There is a Dietrich Bonhoeffer poem I love that says what I think today's lesson is all about:

"All people go to God in need
For help and calm and food they plead
That sickness, guilt and death may cease
All, Christians and pagans, pray for peace.

"But some turn to God in God's need and dread
A God poor, despised, without roof or bread
By sin's harm weakened and by death distressed,
Christians stand steadfast by their God oppressed.

"But God - God goes to all in their need and dread
Their soul's loving grace and their bodies' bread
By the Crucified Lord who for them was slain
Both Christians and pagans God's pardon gain."

Jesus was once talking about grace and asked, "Is your eye evil because I am good?"  Two thousand years later that's still a relevant question . . .