Daily Lesson for August 29, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 16 verse 3:

"As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones."

Let me be straight with you -- the church ain't perfect. As has often been said, if you ever find a perfect church then please don't join it as once you become a member it will no longer be perfect.

On her worst days the church can really break our hearts. She  has her people who will make you want to pull out your hair. She has her factions that will make you want to do the same. She can be small-minded, petty, too set in her ways, and guaranteed to painfully disappoint us at some point. And I haven't even mentioned the preaching .  .  .

But on her best days the church is the people who keep the faith, forgive us our trespasses, bear our burdens, heal our broken hearts, show up with a casserole, pay respects at the visitation, and look after the widow and orphan.

No one should go without such a community.

The great Texas cattleman Charles Goodnight was 91 years of age when his 26-year-old wife finally got him to going to church. He joined the church not long before he died at 93. When asked what kind of church it was Goodnight replied characteristically, "I don't know what kind of church it is; but it's a damn good one."

That's right.

Daily Lesson for August 28, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from these words:

"Does God pervert justice?
Or does the Almighty pervert the right?
If your children have sin against him,
he delivers them into the hand of their transgression.
If you will seek God
and plead with the Almighty for mercy,
if you are pure and upright,
surely then he will rouse himself for you
and restore your rightful habitation." *

These are words most of us can agree with.  God is just and upholds the right. Our children must be taught that what they wow they shall reap. God is full of compassion and mercy and will answer when prevailed upon by the pure of heart.  

These are words we can agree on -- except one thing; they were spoken by one of Job's friends.  And after losing home, and health, and children for no known reason, these words we can usually all agree on must have felt like three tons of salt spewing forth from his friend's mouth into Job's wounds.

Sometimes a truth we can usually all agree on isn't so true. Sometimes it's bromide. Sometimes it's acid rain. And sometimes its better just to keep silent presence than it is to say anything at all.

That's especially true when it comes to other people's suffering.

*Scripture is from Job 8:3-6

Daily Lesson for August 27, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 10:

Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour2 to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” 14 But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”

This story marks a seismic shift in the religion that would soon come to be known as Christianity. Before this day, it was assumed that if one were to follow in the way of Jesus of Nazareth one needed to keep the customary Jewish dietary restrictions of the time. This went for Jews as well as for Gentile converts, who up until then had also been required to be circumcised. But in today's story the mold was broken. No longer would these things be required.  What was suitable for the past was no longer suitable for the present; God was doing a new thing.

There is a 19th century hymn called "Once to Every Man and Nation" which extolled the struggle to end slavery in America. Among its noble lines are these words:

"New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth,
They must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth."

Some people always wish for us to hold on to old mores. But truth is out ahead of us -- teaching us new ways of thinking and doing and showing us the ways in which "the good old days" weren't all good. 

During his ministry, Jesus taught saying, "You have heard it said . . . But I say to you." And on the last night of his life he said, "I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." 

God's revelation is progressive -- and there is yet even more truth to be made known.

Daily Lesson for August 26, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 9 verse 39:

39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them.

A woman had died. Her name was dorcas, which means gazelle. She was a woman known throughout the village for her great compassion and care. She had spent her days using her sewing talents to make tunics and other items of clothing for the poor in the village. Who knows where she herself got the money for the materials, but somehow she always made ends meet. And who knows how many she clothed, but she was always ready to dress the next child or adult who showed up naked on her doorstep. When she passed away, the Apostle Peter was taken to the upper room which was full of dresses and tunics ready to be given away when the next one came. She died in the upper room, surrounded by the works she had done for the poor. It was a beautiful thing to behold -- like a gazelle.

On Friday night our church hosted a fundraising banquet for the annual mission trip we take to Haiti in the fall. Helping to decorate the stage were a dozen or so vibrantly patterned dresses a group of women from our church have made which our group will take to the children of Haiti. All in all, this group of small group of women have dressed a thousand children in Haiti and other Central American and African countries.  A small group of women, meeting in the afternoons in a tiny little Sunday school room in our church, where they do their part to dress the world -- and they do it with joy.

The Bible says our deeds follow us. No doubt, when it is these women's time to go to their own Upper Room, they like Dorcas shall also find themselves surrounded by the works they have done. And that shall be a beautiful thing to behold also.

Daily Lesson for August 25, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Philippians 1 verse 6:

"He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it."


Yesterday was a great day in the life of our church as we celebrated our 56th anniversary as a congregation. One of our former senior pastors Hardy Clemons, who led our church for 21 years, was our guest proclaimer for the occasion. His text was from the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians, a letter written by a pastor to his former church:

"I thank God for you every time I remember you. In all my prayers for you I always pray with joy, being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to carry it on to completion on the day of Christ Jesus."

After the service, we went outside for a service of groundbreaking for the memorial columbarium our church is building on the south side of our property. The text for that service was from Genesis 23, where Abraham selected a plot of ground to bury his wife Sarah.

I shared with those gathered there that the site Abraham chose to bury Sarah was the only piece of the promised land he ever owned. Promised by God long before that one day the land would be his and his children's children, Abraham had come near the end of his life without it having come to pass. Yet, when Sarah passed he was steadfast in securing that plot in order to bury her in the promised land.

It occurs to me that in making that purchase Abraham must have known that he would not live long enough to see the promise fully realized. And so, Abraham's purchase of the land was a kind of token, a sign of his trust in God's promise, and his trust in future generations' ability to live out the promise. In other words, what Abraham was saying to his children with the purchase of that piece of land was that even though he may not have seen the promise come true in his time, he still believed in it, and was going ahead and staking his claim on it.

In other words, Abraham was saying to his sons the same thing Paul was saying to the church at Philippi and Hardy was saying to us: "He who began a good work . . . will be faithful to carry it on to completion."

That's a good and hopeful word from one generation to the next.

Daily Lesson for August 22, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Job 2:10:

"Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”

A truth we must face in this life is that nothing is guaranteed.  If we go on living life as if the world or God owes us something then one day we are sure to be terribly disappointed. We can live life thinking if we are good boys or good girls then nothing bad will happen to us or our families; but bad things do happen to good people -- then what?

One of my childhood pastors John Claypool showed me how to accept life on its own terms with strength and grace. Before coming to our church John lost his little girl Lara Lou.  Afterward, he wrote a book about his journey in which he told about how one night in the throes of his own grief and unable to sleep he got up from bed and went and pulled down a commentary on Abraham's binding of Isaac by Gerhardt Van Rod. John said up until that night he had always held that story at some distance, as though it were something vestigial from an ancient pagan time and practice where parents sacrificed their children to placate their gods. But reading Van Rod's commentary opened for John a new way of understanding the story that night. John said Van Rod revealed a new meaning to the story, as it asked Abraham whether he remembered "where Isaac came from, that life is gift, that birth is windfall, and that all is finally coming to us from grace? Or had he gotten possessive of something that had first of all belonged to God?" 

That night set John down the path of healing he continued to walk all the days of his life. And as he walked, he showed the rest of us the way.

Life is gift; to accept it we must accept it with its terms and with its conditions and its very limited guarantees. But accept it we must.

Daily Lesson for August 21, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Job chapter 1 verses 4 and 5:

4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

One of the difficult, yet fundamental terms of life we as parents must learn to accept is the fact that we cannot protect our children from all of the dangers in this world - including the danger they are to themselves. Try as we might; at some point we have to realize a lot of life is left to chance and some to choice, but is beyond our ability to control - and that includes our ability to control things with our own religious faith and practices.

Job's children were party types while Job was a classic family member of a problemed drinker. Job fretted and worried about their drinking and what they did while they drank. He then turned to his religion to try to make atonement for them - in other words, he tried to buy God's protection over them with his own religious fidelity.

Here is a tough truth; life just doesn't work that way. We can't pray or pledge or volunteer enough to ever guarantee they will be safe and sound with a hedge of protection surrounding them. There are no quid pro quo guarantees like that in life and those who think there are will eventually be heartbroken.

Here's another alternative. Rather than trying to buy God's favor over our children's lives, we can learn to trust that God already favors them, that God loves them, and that God goes with them - even into that far country Prodigal Children like to go to. And, yes, even into death.

We can trust God with our children, and we can trust our children with God; and if we can learn to trust these things then we shall already have the one thing a parent needs to make it through any circumstance: serenity.

Daily Lesson for August 20, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is a continued reflection on the state of race relations in America as seen in Ferguson, MO.

What has for me been reflected over these last weeks following the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO and the subsequent responses both in Ferguson and social media is the tribalistic reality of America even in the 20th century. Any time an event happens and lines are drawn and they seem always to be along the colorline - signifying our racial tribes. A half century following the end of segregation we are still a tribalistic nation. 

Let me tell you a story to illustrate this.  When my wife Irie and I got married in 2005 in Durham, NC it was a wonderful occasion - a beautiful day with a rainbow diversity of guests in the church where I had been ordained two months before and then right down the road a joyous reception at the bed and breakfast owned by a friend. Since she is black and I am white and our families enjoy very different types of music, we squared on music that would take both sides by surprise - we hired a mariachi band!  It was a beautiful thing.  After the wedding Irie and I drove to the Outer Banks for a brief but happy honeymoon.

And then we came back to reality. On the morning after we got back from the honeymoon we awoke to the almost unbelievable news that large crosses had been burned at three different locations in downtown Durham. At one of the locations yellow flyers were left behind purporting to be from the KKK. The flyers made threats against the black community and alluded to some high-profile and racialized incidents which had been plaguing the city in recent months. The burning of the cross was a tribal act. It was one tribe warning another tribe to police itself lest the two have to go to war yet again. 

I have often reflected on what I felt that morning. Until that day burning cross had never threatened me. It had always been about another people; that cross had been about somebody else. But that morning -- the first morning back in the real world after the honeymoon was over -- the cross was now about me and my family. My tribal affiliation had changed.

But it had not changed altogether.  That night a vigil took place at the downtown library at the site where one of the crosses had been burned. Because Irie and I were still supposed to be honeymooning, we arrived an hour early to see the site and reflect on and pray over what we were experiencing. 

We were sitting on some public benches out front of the library when two black men came and set down adjacent from us. They were carrying backpacks and appeared to be perhaps homeless. Whatever they were it was obvious they were not there for the vigil as they stared angrily at me.  You could have cut the tension with a knife on that late May evening. It was obvious to that I had become the object of their scorn.  I embodied something to them. I was the white man. I had taken something that belonged to them. I belonged on the other side of the line but had somehow come to close and tried to cross over. To them I was poaching. They were protecting their turf and "their woman". They continued to stare hard and silent at me until one of them finally spoke, "The KKK ain't the only ones who can kill," he said.

Others began to arrive for the vigil and the two men got up and walked away. But the point had been made; their tribe had spoken.

We see the same tribalism playing out over and over again in America anytime there is an event with even a tinge of race. The color line is drawn and the dividing walls go up. It is so pervasively sickening that half of America roots for a an actual officer of the law to be found indictable of wrongful death while the other half of America hopes for a positive toxicology report to prove that the young man who was killed was a "thug" and therefore likely to have warranted killing. Blind and impartial justice becomes a secondary victim. And so too does truth.

Where do we to from here?  What we really need is more people willing to cross the color line. Churches, which are notoriously segregated by race at 11:00am on Sunday, must learn to cross over. Individuals must cross over. Educators, and volunteer mentors, and adoptive parents must cross over. And in doing so -- in getting beyond our tribes -- we all will discover what I discovered, that though there is something terrifying about seeing a threatening cross and it suddenly being about you, there is also something very Christian about it also. And then, in having crossed over we begin to see the world differently and come to realize that Jesus himself was wrongly killed by Roman law enforcement. And then we come to realize that though he was being crucified -- a first century lynching -- he did not call for vengeance; he called for love and for forgiveness -- even from his cross.  And then we begin to see full the meaning of the words in Ephesians 2:

"14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility."

The body and blood of Christ is the end of tribalism and the beginning of a new humanity. We as a nation must learn to cross over into this new humanity, lest we miss the whole meaning of the cross.

Daily Lesson for August 19, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Judges chapter 18 verses 1 and 2:

"In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the people of Dan was seeking for itself an inheritance to dwell in, for until then no inheritance among the tribes of Israel had fallen to them."

As I have watched the events unfolding in the streets of Ferguson, MO, one word continues to come to mind as what is necessary for we as a country, fractured and deeply scarred, to begin to come together to find the wholeness and healing we need. That word is lamentation; it is the crying out in deep grief and sorrow over what is lost.

-- We must lament the death of Michael Brown the individual, as the young and tragic death of one always diminishes us as a whole

-- We must lament the death of Michael Brown as it is representative of an epidemic of young black male deaths caused by violence 

-- We must lament the broader social context in which the Michael Brown's death occurred - a context in which the actions of over zealous police, patrolmen, and citizens have resulted in unjustifiable loss of young, black male life

-- We must lament a culture of suspicion and mistrust which separates us into Us/Them categories and keeps us from hearing the facts before making judgment about any one particular incident

-- We must lament a culture of militarization which fuels, rather than restrains, anger and protest

-- We must lament a segment of the populace that thinks looting and violence are a justifiable response to injustice

-- We must lament many people's apparent impulse to believe that a person's past actions caught on video in photographs sum up the totality of that individual's character

-- We must lament a culture wherein one group demonizes and another group beatifies the same person, dependent upon their own racial, political, and socio-economic predilections

-- Above all, we must lament the pervasive racial tribalism of our society and the church's own stubborn segregation which prevents it from bearing witness to the new creation wrought in the unjustifiably killed Body of Christ

We must lament these things.

*I will bring more reflections on the race and theology and my thoughts on the way forward tomorrow

Daily Lesson for August 18, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Acts chapter 7 verses 59 and 60:

 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

To remain at peace inside when outside there is hostility and accusation;
To absorb the slings and arrows of a mean-spirited world and resist the temptation to fire back;
To forgive trespasses, even while trespassers are trespassing;
To bless and not curse;
To love and not hate;
To pray heaven upon those who are giving you hell - and mean it.
To not be overcome by evil but to overcome evil with good;
This is the substance of what it means to be a Christian.

Daily Lesson for August 15, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is a follow-up to yesterday's lesson on the power of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs:

Martin Luther said, "He who sings prays twice."

Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs are two-tiered. There is the lyrics and then the melody, there is head and then there is the heart, there is the present song being sung and then there is the memory of the song sung hundreds or thousands of times before. There is this moment here and now whenever and wherever we might be, and then there is the eternity we are drawn into where space and time collapse into one and in that moment of singing we join voices with the great cloud of witnesses who have gone before and will come after us.  

We know it in our hearts when in certain moments we have joined that heavenly chorus and the two-tiers of heaven and earth have become one in song.

That happened to me not long ago with a woman, Gaylon Cobb, who I will help bury today. Gaylon suffered from an Alzheimer's-like dementia. In the four years I have been her pastor there was no we could communicate with one another in words. So often when I would go to visit I would try to communicate on another level - through song.  I can't sing well, but I do sing with joy and I sing with a smile. And I would go into Gaylon's room and sit on the edge of her bed and hold her hand and sing.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound . . ."

And though she no longer had the words, so often a twinkle of light could be seen in her eyes and she would hum along the tune.

Emily Dickinson said, "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all."

In spite of her illness, there was a hope in Gaylon Cobb.  And though she did not have the words, she had the tune. In other words, her song was always a pitch higher. It was a prayer twice sung from memory to hope* and on earth as it is in heaven.


*"From memory to hope" is from a title of one of Thomas G Long's books "Preaching from Memory to Hope"

Daily Lesson for August 14, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 105 verse 2:

"Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wondrous works!"

This summer I went to the new National Center for Civil and Human Rights museum in Atlanta. I was reading instructions given at a civil rights training for demonstrators in the early 1960s and was struck by how explicit the organizers were about the power of singing. Instructions for a particular demonstration said the following about singing:

"Singing. Creating unity, easing fear, establishing moral superiority, forcing attackers to deal with demonstrators as a group rather than focus on an individual, communicating political message, setting rhythm (pickets & marches). Performance singing versus protest singing. Everyone sings, no exceptions. If you can't sing, — sing louder."

To sing is to drive away darkness -- to cast out fear and doubt and give hope. As Maya Angelou said, even a caged bird can sing. When we've lost our song, we've lost our hope; but so long as we can sing we can demonstrate, we can protest, and we can witness to another world on it's way.

Some years ago a parishioner in one of my churches had a brother who was dying of Pix disease, an Altzheimer's-like dementia that slowly robs the mind of thought. In the last week of her brother's life, as death was near, the family was called in. They gathered around his bedside when suddenly the man looked up at his family and though he had not been able to speak for months, he began to sing:

"When we all get to heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!"

There is a power in song which words alone cannot capture. Theology literally means "words about God". Theology is in our head; but a song or hymn or spiritual song can take those words and put them into our hearts -- forever. And we can shout our victory no matter the circumstances.

Daily Lesson for August 13, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Acts chapter 6 verse 1:

"Now in those days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of bread."

In the early days of the church there was rapid growth and the needs of the community overwhelmed the disciples' abilities to keep up. Balls got dropped and real human needs got neglected. There were complaints that one group within the church was being passed over for another. The inadequacies of the disciples threatened to undermine the whole community.

We can learn a lot from the disciples response. They didn't make excuses; they didn't try to justify or explain things. They probably apologized first then they tried to figure out a solution. They came up with the ministry of deacons.

Three things to take home from that:

1) Limitations are a reality and have to be acknowledged 

2) Necessity really is the mother of invention

3) The complaint department window ought to be open and staffed with a friendly face and a willing ear

Daily Lesson for August 12, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Acts chapter 5 verses 34 through 39:

34 But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. 35 And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take care what you are about to do with these men. 36 For before these days Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. 37 After him Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him. He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered. 38 So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; 39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”

There is a wisdom which comes from experience which teaches that we do not have to be and in fact should not be an avenger fighting everything we think is heresy. That is because 1) heresies come and go, are born for a certain time and place and then they die and may or may not even be remembered by the next generation, and 2) sometimes what we think are heresies are in fact new movements of the spirit of God.

In the book of Acts a new heresy (heresy comes from the Greek word "heresis" which meant "school of thought" or "sect") sprung up amongst the Jews around 33CE. Followers of this sect believed a man named Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and had been crucified but then raised from the dead by God. The religious elite in Jerusalem rejected this claim and tried to stamp out this new sect or "heresy". But then wisdom spoke brought the age and experience of a great Jewish leader named Gamaliel. He advised the zealous not to persecute these followers of Jesus. He reminded them of how time and time again bold and outlandish movements had risen up claiming yet had failed time and time again. This movement would too fail - if not from God. But, Gamaliel said to the people, "if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!”

Movements and sects come and go on religious stage. Usually it's somebody's fanciful notion and not much worth getting to bent out of shape over. Sometimes, however, what we actually have is a genuine and surprising movement of God - God doing a new thing. And therefore we must be very careful not to find ourselves fighting something we think was dreamed up by man, which we will later discover was actually dreamed by God.

It's a lesson in humility, and a lesson in God's ongoing revelation, and a reminder not to join any Grand Inquisitions today.

Daily Lesson for August 11, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from John chapter 3 verses 17 and 18:

 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already . . .

Read that again not only with your eyes and your brain but also with your heart. Let its good news be heard down in the hidden and dark depths of your soul: "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world."

We live with enough condemnation. We know who we are in the secret recesses of ourselves. We know what we think. What we feel.  What we've done. What we've wanted to do. What we want to do. What we do not want to do but know that we will do. And we know what we've left undone.  To think on these things and be weighed down by them is to live a life of guilt, and judgement, and condemnation. It is a living hell.

God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world. Imprisoned by our own condemnation, we already know what it is to be "damned". God sent his Son not to condemn us to yet more damnation, but to release us from damnation's chains.  He came to unshackle us and set us free. "And if the Son has set you free - you are free indeed," (John 8:36).

"Who then is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who has died for us, who has been raised, and is seated at the right hand of God, and who indeed intercedes for us," (Romans 8:34).

In other words, if Christ -- who suffered the full weight of our sin -- has not condemned us, who are we to condemn ourselves?

The Son has set us free; so let us be free.

Daily Lesson for August 8, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from John 2, the wedding feast at Cana:

6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.”

The last time the story of the wedding feast at Cana came around in the lectionary a friend of mine posted this on face book:

"Jesus turned the water into wine.
180 gallons of water into wine.
180 gallons of purification water into wine.
That's 900 bottles.
And it was the good stuff.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Don't you think this story is telling us something about how life ought to be lived?  Not dour, not dismal, not with that tightly fastened anal retentiveness of Puritanism which H.L. Mencken defined as "the haunting suspicion somebody somewhere is having a good time."

No. Jesus came to bring some life to the party - a little joy, a lot of laughter.  Wine.

And it wasn't really the wine that did it. The wine was just the sign. It was Jesus himself who did it. And he wants to do it in us.

Let Him. Let go. Unwind. Drink it in. Celebrate those around you. Get out on the dance floor and dance like nobody's watching.

And do it today - it's Friday, so it's legal!

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Daily Lesson for August 7, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 145 verses 8, 9 and 15-18:

8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
15 The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand;
you satisfy the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.

Whether we are Christian, or Jew, or Muslim, or any other religion, we must be very careful when we speak of ourselves as God's "chosen people".  Without doubt, some are indeed chosen by God for certain tasks or callings. Jews we believe were chosen to be "a light for all the nations." Christians we believe were chosen to help carry that light forward. But to be chosen for the sake of the nations is very different from being chosen over and against them.

We can say, "God is on our side" but we must never forget that in a very profound way God is on the other side also. God is on all sides because God is always on the side of those who are hurt and wounded and grieving and suffering.  We must never lose sight of this and it must chasten us whenever we are in any conflict with any other person or people. God is with them too.

There is a famous commentary in the Jewish Talmud where God chastises the angels as they begin to sing at the drowning of the Egyptians at the Red Sea.   “My handiwork is drowning in the sea," God says, "and you utter songs before me!” (Sanhedrin 39b). 

We are all -- Hebrew and Egyptian, Jew and Gentile -- pieces of God's handiwork, made in God's image; and God cares for us each and all. He hears our prayers -- and He listens to them. He knows our names.  He has numbered the hairs of all our heads. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without him knowing it; nor a single child of any nation. We are all children of our Heavenly Father, and His desire is to save us all -- even our enemies.

Perhaps what I am trying to say is best summed up in a poem German clergyman Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his prison cell before being executed by the Nazis. It was said that before his execution Bonhoeffer was a gentlemen to his guards and treated them with the kindness becoming of a Christian pastor.

All people go to God in need
For help and calm and food they plead
For sickness and fear and death to cease
All people 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 souls' loving grace and their bodies' bread
By the crucified one who for them was slain
Both Christians and pagans God's pardon gain

Daily Lesson for August 6, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from John 1 verses 38 and 39:

38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him . . .

My first semester in seminary I took a class with the then dean of the divinity and he had us read Augustine's Confessions. I remember one day in class he dean asked us when Augustine was converted from his philosophical hedonism to Christianity.  Some said it was in the garden when a voice told him to "take and read" Holy Scripture. Others said the real conversion was obviously after that, when he found a model for Christian life in St. Anthony of the Desert. Still others said the heart change began before all of that - when Augustine began listening to the reasoned argumentation of St. Ambrose's lectures on the Christian faith.  The point of the Sean's question was now evident - conversion to the ways and things of Christ is a process which takes place over time.

In today's Scripture it says the first followers of Jesus "stayed with him." That word "stay" is very important to John the Gospel writer. He uses it over 30 times.  It is translated "stay" or "remain" or "abide" as in "Abide with me." Following Christ means staying with him, remaining with him, and abiding in Him.  It doesn't all happen at once. It mostly unfolds like a flower unfolds - in the beauty of God's timing.

One of my favorite stories comes from Pastor Eugene Peterson's church. A man started coming who was himself an unbeliever but who wanted to raise his kids in a church community.  At first he stood but remained silent when the congregation recited the Apostles' Creed. But then after a while Pastor Peterson noticed the man was saying the first line of the creed: "I believe in God the Father, the maker of heaven and earth."  The man stopped there, but Pastor Peterson kept watching. After a month or so he saw the man's lips add a second line: "I believe in God the Father, the maker of heaven and earth - and in Jesus Christ His only Son."  Pastor Peterson kept watching as over the months the man began to add unto the credo line by line until he was able to recite it all.

Now when exactly did his conversion take place? Somewhere in the staying.

Daily Lesson for August 5, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Acts chapter 3 verses 

 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” 

"You was the onlyest person that looked past my skin and past my meanness and saw that there was somebody on the inside worth savin...We all has more in common than we think. You stood up with courage and faced me when I was dangerous, and it changed my life. You loved me for who I was on the inside, the person God meant for me to be, the one that had just gotten lost for a while on some ugly roads in life." Denver Moore, Same Kind of Different as Me

A hundred faces packed outside the doors, beneath the awning where the sign says "St. Benedict's Chapel - Feeding Body and Soul". Some faces are dirty and sunburnt, looking tired and empty beneath a canopy of matted hair - these are unmistakably the faces of the least of the least of these.  Other faces are young, some still tender and smooth-skinned.  Some children.  Some child-like.  

A toothless, black man edges his face close to the window and rattles the door.  "When you gonna pray for us preacher?  I'm hungry."  Another face rides in on his bike, his pantleg tied up with a rubber band so as not to get caught in the chain.  His hair is silver and course.  He cannot hear; but there is life in his eyes.   Is he 80?  85?  How far has he ridden?  A mile?  Five miles?  An eternity?  In the corner is the face of one who makes me uneasy.  Shaded in glasses and talking gibberish to himself - a schizophrenic?  Then there is the face of the prostitute. And the pimp. And the pusher. And the four Saliz girls - all eight and under - living in the shelter not far from here. Their father is at work. Their mother is going back for her GED. They will get extra dessert tonight - along with a secret prayer.  

These are the faces waiting at the door. Waiting to be seen. Waiting to be known. Waiting to be welcomed and served as the sign behind the counter says, "As Jesus."

We serve the meal. My daughter serves along with me plus a dozen others from our church. It's Thursday - meatloaf night.  Everyone loves meatloaf night.

Well, almost everyone. Words break out between a man and a woman. I walk toward my daughter. De Stotts steps in between the man and woman. They each outweigh her by 150lbs.  But she is bigger than life. "Do ya'll not like the meatloaf?" she asks.  "Do you want more dessert?" 

After breaking up the fight De says, "Let's sing," and she hops onto the piano and plays "I've Gotta River of Life".  Everyone sings - including the two who had almost come to blows. A man gets up with a mandolin and joins De at the piano.  I stand near he door and look back. Everyone keeps singing and now laughing - except the schizophrenic man who does not smile behind his glasses but does thank me as he leaves. A pleasant surprise. I look back again. De is still at the piano. A prostitute has now joined her and the man with the mandolin.  She claps her hands and knees and smiles down at the Saliz girls.  They smile back. Jesus' words come to mind, "The kingdom of God is among us."

The night is over.  My daughter and I drive home toward a very different place.  I look back in the rearview mirror and see her face and behind that the Saint Benedict's sign. "What did you notice tonight," I ask. 

 "Well," she says, "I noticed we didn't get any money for waiting tables."

Not what I expected.

"But we were working for smiles. Everyone left with a smile on their face."

And everyone did - including me.

Daily Lesson for August 4, 2014

Today's daily lesson is from Joshua 6 verse 31:

31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? Whoever contends for him shall be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because his altar has been broken down.”

In the early days of the nation of Israel, when it was being decided which God they would worship, a man called to be a prophet of the LORD God, was told by the LORD to cut down his father's altar to the false god Baal along with the Asherah pole beside it.  Afraid of the people, he felled the altar and the pole under the cloak of darkness.  But the people of the town knew who had done the deed and the men came for him at his father's house.

Then a surprising thing happened.  His father went outside the house and met the men, and told them that no man would be coming for his son.  "If Baal is really a god," he said, "let him come for my son himself."

My takeaway: when one generation begins to challenge the idolatries of another - whether they be racial or ethnic supremacy, or mammon, or some other false god - there will be fathers from the former generation who will stand up in defense of their sons and daughters. They stand up because in their own heart of hearts they know their gods are false but that the ways of the LORD are true.

Daily Lesson for August 1, 2014

Today's Lesson is from Matthew 28 verses 8 and 9:

8 So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!”

Yesterday I was leading a Bible study with some guys and was trying to get the idea across that our hope in the Resurrection of Jesus is not so much something to be explained as it is to be experienced.  I was telling them that neither I nor anyone else can "prove" the resurrection.  In fact, I don't think God wanted to "prove" the resurrection or He would have raised Jesus in our age of ubiquitous cell phone cameras.  There would have been no doubting Thomas because the other disciples would have had selfies to prove Jesus had been with them.  But instead of pictures we have faith.

In the story when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to the garden a great earthquake rolled away the stone covering the tomb.  Then the angel appeared.  He told them that Jesus had been raised and that they would see Him if they went and told the other disciples that He had been raised and would meet them in Galilee.  The Bible says they were afraid, not knowing quite what's was happening; and yet it also says they went.  And as they were going Jesus met them on the way.

We do not see the risen Christ upon first hearing that the tomb is now empty; but He comes to us as we make our fearful, yet faith-filled way on the road.  

And He does come.