Daily Lesson for July 31, 2014

Today's lesson comes from Psalm 71 verse 15:

"My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
of your deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge."

In the fall of 2000 I was contemplating going to seminary and gathering up my transcripts, letters of reference, and application fees for submission. The previous summer I had met some friends from the Midwest who had ministers from a certain Midwest seminary and because of them that seminary was at the top of my list.

As I was planning to make application, my great-aunt Opal suggested I go and visit a minister named Ted Dotts who had been a Methodist minister but was now serving in part-time capacity as an associate at her Baptist church. I called him and we met for lunch in the cafeteria of Covenant Hospital, where he was also on staff as a chaplain and ethicist.

As we talked I mentioned to him the seminary I was planning to go to and asked if he knew anything about it.  He said he had not and as he said it I remember there being  a subtlety in his face which I read to be a slight puzzlement or hesitancy.  More than the fact that he said he did not know of the school, it was that peculiar look in his face that unsettled me and told me to look at some other schools.  If it had not been for that peculiar look I would not have applied to the school I ended up going to, and therefore would not have met my wife Irie, and we would not have the beautiful and life-giving children we have now.  All because of that slight and peculiar look. (That's right kids, you owe your lives to the subtleness of Ted Dotts's eyebrow.)

They say history turns on small hinges; and so too do our lives.  How slight are movements of the Maestro's hands directing us along the path.  And how vast are they also - their numbers are as great and unknown as the stars in the sky.

The ancients had a word for this subtly divine orchestration - Providence. Today I thank the LORD for Providence.

Daily Lesson for July 30, 2014

Today's lesson comes from Matthew 27 verse 45:

"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour."

Some years ago a friend from church named Scott passed away after a lengthy and exhausting battle with cancer.  In the final months of Scott's life, as the suffering grew most agonizing for both Scott and for his family, I thought of this passage from the final act of Jesus' own suffering where it is said that the darkest hours were those just prior and during his death.  After Scott's death I shared with the family this story hoping they might find solace in the fact that the darkest hours had passed along with Scott.

I was wrong.

What I discovered was that there were many darker days and even years to come. The family, for so many years so focused on trying to keep Scott alive, had not even begun to consider what his death might be like.  With Scott's passing light did not once again begin to unfold; and my suggestion that it was a false expectation based on a very limited understanding of the process of grief. In short, I had no idea just how dark the night can get, before there is mourning.

For those who have watched a loved one suffer and die, I no longer make the promise that their own darkest hours have passed.  But I do encourage them to think on the sure and certain hope that their loved ones darkest hours have now passed and, for them, light has come.  And in that I pray they find comfort for whatever darkness they may have before them.

Daily Lesson for July 29, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is a story about something that happened yesterday:

Yesterday I took my daughter Gabrielle to visit a few folks from church in nursing homes.  I knew that she was tired of refereeing her little brothers' at home and knew the people I was going to visit would enjoy her company.  I also thought she might learn something.

One of the people we went to see was Ina Mae Stewart, one of the early members of our church who is now suffering from dementia and is in the memory care unit over at Emeritus Living Center.  As Gabby and I came in I didn't know if Ina Mae would know who I was as her ability to recognize people comes and goes.  But when we walked into the hallway where Ina Mae was sitting in rocking chair, she did know me as her pastor and Gabby as my little girl.  "Oh," she said, "here come two great people."

I pulled up a chair beside Ina Mae and Gabby remained standing as we talked a little while about how she was doing.  It was evident that she was having a hard time recalling recent events but did have memories from years past.  That was when I thought of something that I knew she would remember and that I wanted to know about and I wanted Gabby to know about also.  Yesterday morning I had done a short reflection on a woman from the early church who was a deacon and perhaps writing that and then seeing Ina Mae made me think of her having been ordained as one of our church's first women deacons.  "Ina Mae, tell me and Gabby about how you became one of the first women deacons at our church," I asked.

"Oh, well," she began, "some of the women came to me and they said if I said yes, more would follow.  I went home and thought and prayed about it.  It was important that it was women who came to me so I knew the women approved.  And I knew my mother would approve.  So I said yes.  It was a big deal then - women deacons; but now we don't even think about it," she said with a feint twinkle in her eye.

We sat there for a few seconds in silence.  "Ina Mae," I asked, "are you ready for he next journey?"  "The what?" she asked.  "The next journey," I repeated.  "Oh my, yes," she said. "If you aren't ready for that then better get ready."  I reached out and grabbed her hand and my eyes began to well up with tears.  She then reached toward me and began to pat my hand with her other hand.  The patting was purposeful and rhythmic, like a mother burping a small baby.  Then came the words Ina Mae is famous around our church for; "Oh, honey," she said with a comforting smile.

At that time another resident in the memory care unit came walking down the hall and stopped, looked down at Gabby and began to make faces and play games with her as one would with say a niece or a nephew.  The woman reached out and grabbed Gabby's hand.  "Walk with me," she said.  Knowing that we were in a secure and locked facility and that all they could so was walk the hallway I asked Gabby if she would walk with the woman.  She nodded at me silently and got up and began to walk beside the woman down the hallway.  Inae May turned to me.  "She wasn't too sure about that," she said.  "But she went because she trusts her daddy. She has courage, which is unusual in a child."  "Thank you, Ina Mae," I said.  "Thank you."

Gabby returned for her walk down the hall and we said our goodbyes to Ina Mae.  "See you again," I said.  As Gabby and I walked out the building I realized we were right next door to the old Second Baptist building, the one we left behind when the church relocated.  "Hey, do you want to go see the old church?"  Of course she did.  

We walked across the parking lot and I told Gabby we couldn't go inside but then as we got to the building someone came out who recognized me as the pastor of Second Baptist.  They insisted we to in and have a look around.  We walked in and made our way down to the sanctuary.  I opened the sanctuary door and we both stepped in to that old and sacred place.  "This is holy ground," I said to Gabby.  We walked down the aisle and set in the pew where as a boy I sat and listened to Hardy Clemons preach.  Then we walked up the chancel steps and to the baptistry over to our right.  "This is where grandad was baptized," I said. Then we turned back around and stood together in the center of the chancel above the steps.  "And this, right here, is where grandad and CeCe were married.  And it's also where Inae Mae was ordained as a deacon."  "What does ordained mean?" Gabby asked.  "It means she was appointed by God."

We exited the old church and made our way back across the parking lot.  I looked down at Gabby.  "What did Ina Mae say the women told her.  If she said yes then what?" I asked. Gabby remembered.   "She said they said if she said yes then others would follow."  "Remember that," I said. "Always remember this day and remember those words."  "Okay," she said.

We got back across the parking lot and I read the sign out front of the nursing home.  "Emeritus" it said.

Daily Lesson for July 28, 2014

Today's Lesson comes from Romans chapter 16 verse 1:

"I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church . . ."

This seems like such a simple and straightforward verse - Paul commending to the church at Rome a faithful servant member.  But there is actually more to this verse, more in its actual words, than first meets the eye - in English anyway.

Paul is writing his letter to the church at Rome and has apparently sent this woman, Phoebe, as his courier.  He asks the church to greet her and then goes on to tell them how she has aided Paul in his ministry as a "patron" - meaning one who out of their largesse in giving, helps to pay the way for others.  She is wealthy and generous with her wealth and for that Paul calls her a "saint" and also a "servant".

Or, perhaps more.  The word translated above is actually the Greek word "diakonon" which can be translated as servant, but is also often translated as "minister".  And, it is the same Greek word from which we get our church word "deacon".  That is right, the early church had a female deacon.

It is left to your judgement why it is that most versions of the English Bible have oftentimes chosen to translate the word "diakonon" as "minister" or "deacon" when it refers to or is presumed to refer to men while translating it "servant" when it refers to Phoebe.  But let me just say the early church would not have been what it was without Phoebe; and today's church would not be what it is without the women like her.

Thank God for the Phoebes - saints, servants, ministers, and deacons.

Daily Post for July 25, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Joshua chapter 9 verses 22 through 25:

22 Joshua summoned [the Gibeonites] and he said to them, “Why did you deceive us, saying, ‘We are very far from you,’ when you dwell among us? 23 Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.” 24 They answered Joshua, “Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you—so we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing. 25 And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it.” 

I was talking to a pastor friend the other day about a situation at a church we both know.  Things aren't good there and haven't been good there for a long time.  The church has gone through a lot of conflict and turmoil in recent years and several pastors have ended up as casualties. This has all been quite embarrassing for the church because it has a long and proud history.  But that's just the problem. The church is too proud.  "They just aren't desperate enough yet," my pastor friend said.

That goes for a lot of churches and organizations and people.  Pride gets in the way; and they won't change because they just aren't desperate enough.  In the end they may not be desperate enough to change until its too late.

I love this story from Joshua because it shows how getting desperate can save us.  When the Israelites came into the Promised Land the Gibeonites, who lived on the land, knew they would be killed lest they pretended to be from someplace else and made a covenant of peace with the Israelites.  By the time the Israelites figured it out that they had been deceived they had already made covenant with the Gibeonites to let them live so keeping their word they made the Gibeonites cutters of wood and drawers of water.  When the Gibeonites were asked why they would deign to such a lowly station they responded by pointing to the alternative - certain death.  

In other words, the Gibeonites got desperate enough.

There is an old saying, "Beggars can't be choosers."  When  we get desperate enough we'll get humble.  We'll put away our pride and get ready really work for our salvation - even if it means chopping wood and hauling water, sizing down on the house, loosing the country club membership, taking a second job, cleaning our own bathrooms, closing a store, closing a whole division, or simply accepting responsibility for past failure.  That's when we'll be ready.

Let's just hope it's not too late when we do it.

Daily Lesson for July 24, 2014

Today's lesson is from Romans chapter 15 verse 4:

 "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

These last few weeks I have been studying the work of Brene Brown, best-selling author and professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work.  Brown studies what she calls "whole hearted" people, and their ability to survive and even thrive amidst struggle.  One of the primary things Brown has learned in her research is that whole hearted persons are people of great hope.  And what she discovered about hope - to her surprise and to mine - is that hope is something which is both taught and learned.  In other words, hope is something that can be passed down, one generation showing another how to hold their hopes in spite of whatever circumstances they may find themselves in.

So I'm reading this 21st century researcher Brene Brown, and the open the Bible and see Paul saying the same thing 2,000 years before.  Paul is writing the church in Rome, a church under persecution from both the Roman government and in conflict with certain parts of conservative Judaism.  Paul knows they need hope and he tells them where to find it - in the scriptures, in the stories of those who have gone before, in the lives of those who in spite of great difficulties held on. Through their endurance, Paul says, we too find the courage to hope.

Hope is learned; and it is taught by the passing on of stories of hope-filled people.  This is why for millennia the Scriptures have been such a source of power and inspiration to those forlorn, oppressed, and abused - because the strength of Hagar, or the courage of Esther, or the perseverence of Moses is literally passed down from one generation to another through the pages of the family Bible.

And it all just makes me think, in our current generation's Biblical and historical illiteracy we are in danger of losing more than a few good stories from times past; we're actually in danger of losing hope itself.

Daily Lesson for July 23, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Psalm 49 verses 6 through 9 and 17 through 20:

6 those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
7 Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,
8 for rthe ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,
9 that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.
17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
his glory will not go down after him.
18 For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—
19 his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
who will never again see light.
20 Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

In his funeral oration for King Louis XIV of France, in he presence of some of the world's richest and most powerful, Jean Baptiste Masillon famously began his sermon with these straightforward words which put all of the pomp of so grand an occasion in perspective: "Dieu seul est grand. (Only God is great.)

I have over my years as a pastor been blessed to know many very wealthy people who keep things in perspective.  They know that things could have turned out otherwise.  they know what the writer of Ecclesiastes says is true:

"The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor riches to men of understanding; but time and chance happen to them all."

Those who are rich in things and also rich in soul know keep it all in perspective. They know their riches are a blessing to be used generously for the good of their families and also others.  They know they have been blessed to be a blessing.  And in the end they know that their wealth can never purchase the pearl of great price - which is what Jesus called the kingdom of heaven.  Entry there can never be bought, but must instead be humbly received.  

In that sense, whether rich or poor, in the end we're all beggars because only God is great.

Daily Lesson for July 22, 2014

Today we have two lessons:

Joshua chapter 8 verses 21 and 22:
 21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. 22 And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped.

and Matthew 26 verse 52:
“Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword."

We see the images on television and the Internet. Gaza burning.  Hundreds killed in just a matter of days.  Refugees making their way through streets of rubble and ruin.  We see these images and we know this is not the way to peace.

They say that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again with the expectation of different results.  Yet again and again the results are the same - more death, and more destruction, and another generation of enemies made.

The just peace Palestinians are looking for will not come through bombs and rockets and the mustering of its people into intifada.  Israel will not allow itself to be bowed by war and neither will its backers.  On the other hand, the peace Israel seeks will not be gained by erecting more settlements in the name of security.  Creating more enemies is not an effective means of security.

It is insanity, this living by the sword.

In the coming days I pray a ceasefire will be declared which will last more than just a few hours.  When a ceasefire is declared there will be a period of mourning. In that mourning I pray leaders from both sides will see the insanity - that in trying to live by the sword they are actually dying.

Until then, Gaza burns; and her children pledge vengeance.

Daily Lesson for July 21, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Joshua chapter 7 verse 13:

“There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

In the book of Joshua, just after the fall of Jericho, there is a little-remembered story about a man named Achan, whose selfishness nearly cost the Israelites their claim in the Promised Land.

The story goes that when Jericho fell to the Israelites the LORD gave a strict command to all the Israelites that they were not to take the city's silver and told for themselves, but instead they were to give all the valuables unto the treasury of the LORD. As it happened, one of the Israelites, Achan, acted selfishly, taking some of Jericho's devoted things for himself. As a result, in the next battle at a place called Ai, where the Israelites should have won handedly, they were instead routed and dozens of their men lost their lives.  The Bible says the Israelites were deeply grieved and their hearts melted and became "like water".  Then the LORD spoke to them and told them why it was that they were so roundly defeated.  “There are devoted things in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.”

We will never know the victory so long as we remain devoted to anything other than the LORD and the LORD's will for our lives.  We cannot serve God and mammon.  We cannot serve God and our ego.  We cannot serve God and also serve what is safe, or politic, or popular.

The LORD requires our complete devotion; and the divided heart of even only one may cost us all. 

Daily a lesson for July 18, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Romans 12 verse 15:

"Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep."

Last year I saw something beautiful.  It was during prayer time on at Wednesday night fellowship.  Everyone was gathered around the tables and we were sharing prayer concerns and thanksgivings as we always do.  Two women were seated at tables next to one another.  One of the women's husbands had been diagnosed with a particular form of cancer which would likely take his life within the next year.  Tests were being run on the second woman's husband but doctors suspected he too had the same virulent form of cancer.  It was a very sad time for both families and also for our church.  

But then the second woman stood up during prayer time and announced that the test results had come back on him and that he was cancer free.  The congregation broke out in spontaneous applause and celebration.  And at just that moment from where I was standing at the lectern, I could see the face of the first woman - the one whose husband really did have cancer.  She too was clapping, and her face was wide with a smile, and her eyes were full of the light of good news.  And then I saw as the second woman, he one whose husband was proclaimed cancer free, looked over at the first woman with a knowing and caring look and reached out her hand in sympathy.  I could see that tears began to fall from both women's eyes.  Tears then welled up in mine also.  

We were rejoicing with those who rejoiced and weeping with those who wept and like I said, it was beautiful.

Daily Lesson for July 17, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 26, a story about one of the last nights of Jesus' life:

6 Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,1 7 a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at table. 8 And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? 9 For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.” 10 But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. 12 In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

Up in Williston, VT there is a place called the Vermont Respite Home where those expected to live only six months or less go to spend there final days.  It is a small house with only a few rooms surrounded by a beautiful garden tended by the University of Vermont Horticultural program.  Every room looked out into the garden where during the summer roses bloom in all colors amidst the lush, green grass fed by winter's snow.  A bird feeder was placed outside each room's window, harkening the robins and finches chickadees and bluejays to come and receive their daily bread.  When you walk inside teams of morning and afternoon volunteers are busy whipping up made-to-order pancakes or baking from-scratch cookies.  Walk through the kitchen turn the corner down one of the hallways and the sound of a harp is heard at the foot of coming from one of the resident's rooms, it's celestial sound bringing peace and healing to one whose body is dying but whose spirit is alive.  Walk further down the hall and a family is gathered together around the room as a priest kneels in quiet prayer before administering the sacrament of communion to his parishioner and friend for the last time.  Soon the parishioner and his family can be heard joining their voices with the priest's as they together recite the familiar words of the Our Father.  A nurse hears and slips into the room to join in the prayer. Somehow the voices of the priest and the family and the nurse flow together perfectly with the soft rhythm of the harp down the hall.  

It is an extraordinary place and an extraordinary moment.  At times and places like this heaven and earth are not far from one another; that is always true when the dying are cared for with beauty and with love.

Daily Lesson for July 16, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 25 verses 31 through 40:

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Today's Lesson is what is known as the Parable of the Last Judgement and I will confess to you now that Given the turbulent times we are now having about strangers showing up at our border and all the politicization following I was tempted to just skip this.  But I couldn't skip it because there are readers of these lessons who know I draw the texts from the Daily Office and who would note that I chickened out.  So thanks for holding me accountable.  As Will Willimon says, we preachers have to learn our job is not to try to protect the people from the piercing edge of what Jesus said.

Just a few thoughts on this text as it pertains to where we are today:

First of all, it is known as the Parable of the Last Judgement, and because judgement is involved there is indeed an edge to it.  This story is meant to convict us - to summon us to deeper discipleship and a greater living out of our faith.  In the end we might look back and says well Jesus was just speaking in hyperbole; then again we may not.  Our job for today is to hear the word and let it pierce our hearts like a seed pierces the soil.  If we do that - if we have ears to hear it - then the seed will enter in and do its work in us.  In the end we will all be convicted to change our hearts.

Secondly - and this is challenging - in the Son of Man's eyes there really are no borders.  All the nations are gathered before him in the story.  This means the Son of Man does not see the same geographical demarcations we see, whether those be city precincts, the Rio Grande, or even the line between Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.  We have "Doctors Without Borders" and we have a God without borders also.  Though borders are necessary and not in and of themselves bad; God's vision for humanity transcends those borders.

Thirdly - "When I was a stranger, you welcomed me."  Imagine it.  What does welcome look like?  How does it feel to be welcomed?  What happens in the human heart when one knows she has gone out of her way to be welcoming?  It is in my soul the expansive gift of love.  But the pictures I have seen online of people protesting buses of children with angry scowls and signs which say, "Go home illegals" makes me feel the opposite.  Those pictures make me feel small and diminished.

Fourthly - "And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?"  When was it?  Was it not in those pictures?  In those scowling faces?  Pictures of people sick and tired themselves to the point of anger and protest.  People living in the land of the free but they themselves in prisons.  Prisons  of fear that there will not be enough, of economic uncertainty, of national insecurity?  

When was it?  It was when He came to us in the least of these, which I take to mean when He came in every one of these.  And that was the big surprise.  When He came to us - in THAT one.  Did we welcome him? Did we visit her?  Did we dare to approach them?  Or did we just pass them by?  Write them off?  Judge them the way the world judges them?  Judge them the way they judge the world?

When I came to you as the least of these - whoever the least and last you might wish to have show up at your door, or on your border, or on your Facebook scroll.

See, I told you, in the end we will all be convicted to change our hearts.  And I'm glad I didn't try to spare you that.

Daily Lesson for July 15, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 25, the Parable of the Talents:

 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothfulness servant!’ 

I have read this parable on many occasions and have over the years developed a kind of sympathy for the man who was given the one talent.  My sympathy comes not because he was given only one talent - for a single talent was a huge sum, equivalent to tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of today's dollars.  Instead, my sympathy for the man is is because he appears to have such a dim and fearful view of his master.  I mean is there anything in he parable to suggest the master, who goes around rewarding his servants with talents, really is a  "a hard man, gathering where he does not scatter and reaping where he does not sow"?  Not at all.  Yet the servants words suggest he is afraid of his master because he perceives him to be harsh and unkind.  I have a sympathy for him because this is a parable of the kingdom of God and I know many people who are afraid of God because they see him as harsh and demanding just like the servant says he sees his master.  If only he didn't see Him that way, I think, then he would have risked more; his fear of the master paralyzed him.  If only he had known not to be afraid.

But on closer reading, I wonder if the master sees something I don't.  The master calls the servant "slothful" which is sometimes translated "lazy".  And it makes me wonder, maybe it's not so much that the servant's fear has paralyzed him into inaction, but rather that a deformity in his character - sloth - has found a way to draw sympathy from me and probably a lot of others.  But the master sees through this ruse and calls a spade a spade: the servant is just plain old lazy.  In that sense, the parable really isn't about developing a healthy perspective on the master, but rather the master's refusal to listen to excuses designed to play on his own insecurities.  The master is generous, and with that generosity comes the wisdom and security to know when somebody is trying to manipulate him.  The servant wants somebody to feel sorry for him.  I fell for it; the master didn't.

There's an old proverb that says, "The sluggard says, ‘There are lions outside.’"  You can spend ten talents sending a sluggard to therapy to help him get over his irrational fear of lions; but after the money is spent he will still be a sluggard.

Daily Lesson for July 14, 2014

Today's Lesson comes from Romans chapter 11 verses 2 through 4:

2 Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

The dog days of summer can be trying for a pastor. The pews are half empty, giving is down, and you are just hoping to eek out the July mortgage payment on the building.  You wonder if by the time August comes there will be anybody or any money left.  You begin to question your call to the church, and to the city, and even your call to ministry.  Secretly, and we're just being honest here, you even begin browsing the classifieds to see if when everything goes south there is some truck driving school you could enroll in in a hurry.

And then suddenly, and pretty much with no warning, and no connection to each other, seven people walk the aisle at the invitation at the end of the service.

Seven people - okay, so it's not the seven thousand God sent Elijah.  But it might as well be; because that seven does the same for you that the seven thousand did for Elijah.  It lifts your drooping head and your sagging spirit, and reminds you that God is doing a lot more than you think or know about in other people's hearts.  In other words, it helps you remember that despair is presumptuous so long as you serve the Living God.

Daily Lesson for July 11, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Matthew chapter 24 verses 15 and 16:

15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains."

There is a prayer that we must all learn to pray, whether in word or in spirit, if we are to get through this world without losing our minds.  It is the Serenity Prayer:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference."

What I love about that prayer is that it is honest about there being circumstances in life that just aren't going to change. There's nothing we can do about them; and to try to do something would take our spiritual peace, our sanity, and perhaps even our lives.

In the last days of his life Jesus prophesied that the city of Jerusalem would fall.  Surprisingly, what he told his followers to do when they saw the signs of the city's end was to run. You read that right; Jesus told them to run - he literally told them to head for the hills.

Sometimes discretion really is the better part of valor.  There are some things we cannot do anything about and to try to do something is to risk destruction - whether of the soul or the body.  And to simply stay is to risk being the victim of abuse.  What we must learn to do in these circumstances is accept them - see and acknowledge there's nothing we can do; and then get the heck out.

We not only have Jesus' permission - we have his instruction.

Daily Lesson for July 10, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Matthew chapter 24 verses 12 through 14:

12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations . . .

We live in an anxious age.  There are wars and rumors of wars throughout the Middle East, which since 9-11 is now nearer to us than it has ever been before.  And there is violence in South and Central America, prompting thousands of parents to send their children north across our border.  All of this, plus Russia seems ready to reassert its cold war power.  And here at home we read that over 80 people were shot in one U.S. city alone over the long July 4th weekend. It is indeed an anxious time as the world seems on edge of cataclysmic convulsion and lawlessness.

It is in times like these Jesus said that our love can grow cold.  When nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and refugees flood in in search of safety and trials and tribulations of many kinds shake the world that we have known then love grows cold.  Generosity dries up.  People turn inward.  Friends turn on one another.  Hate has its day.  

Today's lesson is a reminder that it is for a time such as this that we are Christians.  It is a reminder not to let our love grow cold.  It is a reminder to bear witness.  To "endure".

Love is our enduring characteristic and witness as Christian people.  And, Jesus says, our willingness to chose to love - even in such an anxious time as this - will be our testimony unto all the nations.

Daily Lesson for July 9, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Matthew chapter 23 verses 29 through 32:

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.

In Robert Penn Warren's novel "All the Kings Men" the narrator of the story is a kind of shadow or alter-ego to the main character. His name is Jack Burden, and the burden he bears is the terrible, shadowed history of his Southern family with its infidelity and cruel complicity in the terror of the American slave economy. It is the burden of shame.

One of the most difficult journeys is the journey toward coming to terms with the sins of our ancestors. It is fraught with such shame and dis-ease that most of us cannot face it. We cannot bear the burden long. For soon we discover the weight of our own mothers' and fathers' sins drags us down also as we realize we have coursing through our own veins the blood of the cruel, the unfaithful and even the murderous. And then we discover the burdensome truth that in so many ways we are beneficiaries of their duplicity and evil. 

I see this now throughout the South as in the last 25 years so many monuments and museums have been built to remember Slavery, Jim Crow, and the struggle for civil and human rights. It is fitting to build these, and has even become economically beneficial for a city to do so. But what Jesus said is so true in all of this - one generation kills the prophets and the next builds their monuments. But what is generally left unsaid or undone at these monuments to the past is the ways in which our past continues to give shape to our future. The past is left in the past with little attention to the ways in which that past also continues to order, capitalize, privilege, and segregate our present. We think it was all over in 1865 or 1965. To think otherwise is almost too much to bear.

But with God's help it is not too much. While there are no painless ways of coming to terms with the injustices of the past, today's Lesson reminds us that the alternative is even worse.

Santana famously said that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. But in order to remember it rightly, we must risk bearing its pain and the truth of its consequence.

Daily Lesson for July 8, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson are the hard and bitter words from Psalm 137 verses 7 through 9:

7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites

the day of Jerusalem,

how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,

down to its foundations!”

8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,

blessed shall he be who repays you

with what you have done to us!

9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones

and dashes them against the rock!

The headline in yesterday's New York Times read "Hamas Vows to Avenge Militants’ Deaths in Israeli Strikes". And such it is that we see the thirst for vengeance fueling one act of barbarity upon another in a revolving spiral of violence in the Middle East. Three Israeli schoolboys kidnapped and executed, followed by a Palestinian teenager apparently burned alive in retaliation, followed by the pledge of yet more violence to come. 

It is the children who die. And the world yearns for this senseless infanticide of its own sons and daughters to end; God yearns likewise.

I know that I write here without the experience of having been victimized first hand by terror nor by a response to terror. So my words come from a place of humility necessitated by distance. But they do come, because as Donne said "no man is an island" and "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind."

Humankind continues to be diminished so long as we demand that our thirst for vengeance must be slaked. So long as we demand eye for an eye and tooth for tooth then the prospect for true and lasting peace will never come in the Middle East nor anywhere else. One side must have the courage to say, "Our desire for vengeance will go unmet. We will not mete out justice; instead we will choose to mete out mercy."

Today's Lesson speaks of the will for revenge. "Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" the psalm says. It is rare that I disagree with the psalmist; but today I do. Today I disagree, even emphatically. No one is blessed by the killing of these Israeli and Palestinian children. No one has ever been blessed by the killing of a child. They are cursed for. The region is cursed. The whole world is cursed. So long as we continue to think the killing of our children is justifiable then we are cursed.

The world awaits a leader or leaders who will find the strength to resist the will toward vengeance and end the curse with mercy.

Maranatha. Lord come.

Daily Lesson for July 7, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Romans 8 verses 26 and 27:

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints.

What a great word of comfort and consolation for our prayer - knowing we really don't have to get it right in order to get it right.

Let me be honest, three years of seminary plus another nine years of ministry and I still really don't know how to pray or what to pray for.  I bet you don' either.

We face a decision - should we go left or should we go right?  We have a preference, a desire - but is it God's desire for is?  Do we dare pray for it to come to pass?  Would it be selfish?  We carry a burden - it weighs us down.  We wish to lay it aside altogether, to run free of it.  But is it God's will that we carry this burden?  Is it God's will for us that this burden be our thorn in the flesh?  We desire liberation, resolution, an end to our struggles; we want to be set free from many troubles, predicaments, relationships, stages.  Yet we wonder if this is the way for us - what God has planned for us, and what is necessary.

The Lesson today frees us from fretting too much about all this.  It reminds us that we really can overthink things.  We can be too logical.  We can be so worried about getting everything in right sequence and order and so afraid to make a mistake when talking to God that we end up saying nothing.   Today's Lesson basically says to quite worrying about all that and start trusting.   Trust that we have a Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, who will intercede for us not only when our words fumble but also even when what we desire is not what God desires for us.

If we don't believe that then we need to remember Jesus, who poured out His heart, made His request to God, petitioned for help, and then said, "Not my will but thine be done."

God's will will be done in our lives when we start trusting Him enough to ask anything of Him and begin to discover that even in His "No" there is a great and liberating "Yes".

Daily Lesson for July 4

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew 22 verses 16 and 17:

16 And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone's opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances.  17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 

These words from Jesus are often remembered on the Fourth of July and other civic occasions.  What is not always remembered is that they spoken after some men came to test him - trying to pit Jesus' commitment to his religious convictions against his obligations to the ruling government.  "Is it lawful (meaning does it keep with Jewish religious law) to pay taxes to Caesar?"  They put Jesus between a rock and a hard place, trying to get dirt on him by either making him out to be treacherous to the religion or treasonous against the government.

There's a lot of debate right now about church and state.  The issues are complex and difficult with sincere people of faith and goodwill on both sides.  So be weary of taking part in pitting one side too strongly over another.  That's just what they tried to do to Jesus.

Daily Lesson for July 3, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is Psalm 133:

133 Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
2 It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
3 It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

We head today into the long July 4th weekend when we pause as a nation to think on what America is what it means to be an American.  As we shoot off our fireworks on Friday, the rockets' red glare will remind us that the flag was still there; and in that moment we will do well to pause and to remember that for which the flag stands - "one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Much consideration has been given to those words "under God" and those ideals of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness".  What is often left unconsidered is the hidden word, tucked between: "indivisible".  I drive around my town and I see on the backs of bumpers another word "Secede" and I walk through my neighborhood and see another flag altogether: the "Stars and Bars" of the Confederate flag, and I think how unforgotten and how meaningful that word "indivisible" would have been when our Pledge of Allegiance was first penned six score and one ago.  On the heels of that fateful war when the cost of winning our nation's soul was the red blood of 600,000 men, that word "indivisible" would not have been so blithely lost.

I see another war brewing.  They call it a "culture war" - for now.  It is in many ways still a war for the soul of our nation; it is again a war about the meaning of freedom and to whom it is extended, and again a war about the meaning of the word republic, and how free any man is or is not in a democracy. It is only a culture war - for now.  But make no mistake, it is a war which is already exacting its toll on our people in blood and in spirit.

We would do well this weekend to remember the word "indivisible", to think on its meaning, and to pledge ourselves again to its cause - which means, we must pledge ourselves again to one another as brothers and sisters.  For as Dr. King once said, "We must learn to live together as brothers or we shall perish together as fools."

At the end of Ken Burns's documentary Civil War, it is said by someone that that war could still be lost.  That is true.  But if it can still be lost, it can also still be won.  Let us on this 4th of July pledge ourselves to ensuring that it will be one and that this one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all might long endure.

Daily Lesson for July 2, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 129 verses 1 through 4:

Let Israel now say—
2 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back;
they made long their furrows.”
4 The Lord is righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.

I want you to know something. I want you to know something about who you are.  I want you to consider for a moment all the things you have endured - the scornful looks, the bitter words, the shaming, the belittling, the ridicule, the disgraces, the things they did, the words they said - words which cut deeper than flesh and cut you like a knife, all the way into your heart.  "And a sword shall pierce your soul as well."

I want you to consider these things for a moment - painful though they be.  I want you to consider them, and I want you to know that you are a survivor.  You are a strong, strong, blood made of iron, survivor.

And God has come to heal your wounds.  The LORD has come to clear the field plowed deep with 14 or 40 or 400 years of indignity and dehumanization.  He has come to lift up valleys and make rough spaces smooth.  He has come to cut the cords that you might no longer be a beast of burden, enslaved to who you were or who somebody said you were.  The LORD has come to redeem you, to set you free, to make you whole.

You are indeed already a survivor; and you can be even more.

Daily Post for July 1, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 21 verses 31b and 32:

31b Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds . . ."

On Sunday I had the honor of being asked to present a friend his five year sobriety chip.  Five years ago my friend may well have been the drunkest drunk in America - or at least he was working on it. He was what the AA book calls a "real alcoholic".

In presenting with his chip, I spoke about my appreciation for AA's way making people small enough to enter through the kingdom door.  I talked about how Jesus said a lot of religious people stand outside the door, keeping others from entering in and themselves end up getting locked out. They get locked out because they think they and everyone else has to rise up to some entry bar, when in fact the threshold is much lower.

After I presented my friend his chip, he can up and spoke and talked about how he got sober.  He said, "I went to the best residential treatment center in the country".  You might have thought he meant somewhere where the rich and famous go.  But then he went on, "I went to Managed Care - a rehab place for poor folks where I had to scrub the commodes and a glass of Kool-aid was considered a perk.

"And," he said, "that was exactly what I needed.  It was what I needed because it humbled me.  And I needed to be humbled."

Scrubbing the toilets saved my friend.  It saved him because it bowed him - both physically and spiritually.   And in bending over, cleaning his and others' human excrement, he found the threshold.

God's bar is actually lower than ours.  It's so low that even tax collectors, and prostitutes, and real alcoholics can get in.  They can get in because the bar is actually a bar to go under rather than over.  

And that means only those willing to bend over and be humbled will find the way.