Daily Lesson for February 27, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 3 verses 28 through 30:

28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’ 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

My friend Ted who passed away earlier this month may have been the most selfless man I've ever met -- definitely the most selfless minister I've ever met.  Whereas so many preachers have studied to prove themselves witty and smart, Ted studied hard to be made meek and humble of spirit.  His insights and knowledge were truly profound; yet they came always from a deep font of wisdom inside him and never from a place of conceit or love of the crowd.

At Ted's funeral John Wesley's Covenant Prayer was offered. It is a prayer of complete submission to God; and it is a prayer Ted prayed ever morning. As the congregation joined together in reading it, I realized that it was in praying this prayer morning by morning that Ted became the man he was -- a man humble and selfless, and wholly given to the purposes and glory of God.

Here is the prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

Daily Lesson for February 26, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 1 

“At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and mmake an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’

There is an old Jewish midrashic tradition that says as the Israelites traveled through the wilderness, they carried with them in the ark of the covenant two sets of tablets of the Ten Commandments.  The first set was carved and etched by God, yet broken by Moses in the face of the Israelites' idolatry with the Golden Calf. The second set was that which God instructed Moses to carve out of the mountain rock himself. 

The spiritual meaning of this old midrash tells us that we each have two tablets within us. The first set is pure gift, carved and etched by God -- yet broken by our own selfish rebellion.  We keep its broken pieces as a reminder of what was once pure and undefiled, but now shattered in each of our lives. The second set did not come so easily, it took work -- hard, painstaking work on our part.  This set too is just as fragile as the first set, so we lay them together -- one to remind us of the precious fragility of the other. We treasure both; for we know that without the broken we would not have the whole.  One was first, the other was second, but they are both present; and we carry both into our future.

"First the fall, and then the redemption," Julian of Norwich said, "and both are the grace of God."  May we learn to treasure both the fall and the redemption, the broken and the whole, in the ark of our own souls. 

Daily Lesson for February 25, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 9 verses

13 "Furthermore, the Lord said to me, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'"

What an offer!  On the long road trip through the wilderness and after a colossally mistaken attempt by Aaron to quell the people's anxieties by making a Golden Calf, God pulls Moses aside and whispers in his ear. "Hey, what do you say you and me ditch these guys, head off and start our own company."

A great idea -- leave the people and all their wining and complaining, just get in the car and ride off and not have to hear ever again their complaints about where we are, where we aren't, why not, and how a contemporary worship service or a more reverent and dignified hour of stillness (depending upon the faction) is what God would like.

"Did you say the car is already running?  All I gotta do is get in?"

It's so tempting. I would love to do it; and they could all eat our dust as we burn rubber on the way out. Maybe I would add something colorful in Hebrew as we drove away.  

It would feel so good.

But it would not be good. It would not be good because God called us out of Egypt as a people, and the Promised Land just won't be the Promised Land if it's only reached by one person.

"Sorry God, I just have to say no. While it's tempting to get into the car, I just can't do it. And besides, I'm really not sure you'd be with me anyways."

Daily Lesson for February 24, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 9 verses 4 and 5:

4 "Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. 5 Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

There's a big brouhaha going on today in the media about American exceptionalism -- in fact every day there's a brouhaha going on the media about American exceptionalism.

So here's my thought. We are exceptional in a lot of ways, the most important of which is our commitment to individual human rights and freedom. We haven't always lived up to our ideals, but our creeds speak to who we intend to be: a country with liberty and justice for all.

But I'm not sure getting into fights about how great we are, who thinks we're great, and who ought to be punished because they don't think we're as great as I do scores a lot of points in the exceptional category. 

Perhaps we should take a lesson from today's Scripture, if we're good it's by God's grace; if we're exceptional it's because a lot of other nations and their leaders have fallen from that grace. There's really not a lot to brag about; but there's everything to say thanks for.

And then remember these words: To whom much is given, much is required.

Daily Lesson for February 23, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 2 verses 9 and 10:

 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 

A few weeks back I preached the memorial service for L.E. Anderson, one of the best caterers in town. I chose as my text the story of the wedding feast at Cana -- where the party ran out of wine.  I said the couple had chosen the wrong caterer!  But thank God they invited Jesus, who turned the water into wine, and his mother who put him up to it.  Colossal party foul averted.

But at L.E.'s funeral I asked people not to focus their attention so much on Jesus in the story, but to watch the servants.  It was those guys and/or gals got to play a first hand role in Jesus' first miracle.  They got the privilege of filling the huge stone jars with the water; and then they got to watch him turn that water into wine.

And then a really interesting thing happened -- something I wouldn't have seen had I not been memorializing a caterer; they kept their mouths shut about the whole thing. A full-fledged wedding disaster was averted, and they went on as if things went off without a hitch. And when the water was turned into wine, and it was the really good stuff, I mean the REALLY good stuff, Jesus and the servants just disappeared. Instead, it was the groom who got all the credit. And the servants -- the caterers -- made sure it stayed that way.

I want to be caterer today. Sure, nobody will notice me unless disaster strikes. But I will have the pure joy and privilege of helping Jesus make others look good; and I won't have the need to write a tell-how about how it might have been otherwise had it not been for me and Jesus. I mean, come on.  Me and Jesus?  No, Jesus; and I get the privilege of being asked to take part in what He's doing for somebody else.  And that's more than I could really ever ask for. 

Daily Lesson for February 20, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 12, 13 and 15:

12 “And because you listen to these rules and keep and do them, the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the steadfast love that he swore to your fathers. 13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you . . .15 And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you knew, will he inflict on you, but he will lay them on all who hate you. "

This morning I was disturbed in spirit to read this Old Testament text from the Deuteronomic Law as the daily lesson. This kind of "Do good, get rewarded; do bad, get punished," message has been used for all kinds of abuse.  If you have children and are disease free and have ample food then you must be a good person and so God is blessing you; but if your crops don't grow and so you suffer from lack of nutrition and therefore are more susceptible disease and therefore can't have children, well then it all must be from God because you obviously must be a sinner.

There is a special Latin word for that kind of theology; it's called Bovinus Excrementus.

It needs to stop.  We must put away all wooden, literalistic readings of either Old Testament or the New Testament scriptures which make God out to be abusive, vengeful, violent, cruel, or anything else other than loving and kind. Trusting these scriptures do have something to say to us, we have to be free and imaginative enough to interpret them spiritually rather than literally. For as Paul said, "the letter killeth; but the spirit gives life."

So here's a stab at trying to interpret Deuteronomy 7 by spirit, rather than law:

Those who live in God find God's grace. They live at peace with God and with all the earth.  There is beauty and serenity in themselves and in their families. This is what it means to live a blessed life.  And they live in the blessing even in the midst of hardship and disease. On the other hand, those who live at enmity towards God and the people of God will never find peace.  They are always struggling, and always striving and always at war within themselves and with all the world. They literally make themselves sick; eventually they will destroy themselves, their families, and their whole community.

All Scripture is inspired by God, yes; but not all interpretations are. Whenever Scripture is interpreted in such a way as to make God out be as petty and vindictive as we, then be assured we are getting the full letter of the Law, but no spirit. 

Daily Lesson for February 19, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 37 verses 3, 5 and 6, and 8 and 9:

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
and your justice as the noonday.
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

There is an old saying that the meek shall inherit the earth, but somebody else gets the mineral rights.

That's basically the story one of my friends is living through right now. He's one of the good guys -- loyal, diligent, and there to serve the company, his bosses, and his fellow employees. Just the guy you would want working for you; and just the guy who gets hosed when times get tight.  It seems the nice guy really does finish last.

It's my friend this psalm is talking to. It's talking to the meek and disinherited, to the nice guy who doesn't even get a consolation for finishing last. And what's the word for my friend?  The word is: "Befriend faithfulness."

It's tempting to act unfaithfully -- to lash out in a rage of anger at God, and the abusive system, and at the powerlessness of friends to help, or to just die altogether defeated in spirit and wait for the body to follow. It's tempting.  Langston Hughes's words capture the temptations:

What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up
      like a raisin in the sun?
      Or fester like a sore—
      And then run?
      Does it stink like rotten meat?
      Or crust and sugar over—
      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags
      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?

There is another option. It is the option to "befriend faithfulness". To be a friend means to stick it out, to stay beside come hell or high water.  To be a friend of faithfulness means to keep the faith even when life has robbed you of job, benefits, home, and land. Faithfulness's friend holds on -- even when everything around him is trying to pull him apart. 

I write but in fear that I might come off smug. But I write nonetheless for two reasons: 1) The truth is anyone of us could end up where my friend is. Life can deal a series of bad hands to anyone of us or our employers and we could be in a bread line come next year.  None of us are immune to a raw deal.  2) Jesus, our LORD, grew up in a disinherited land amongst disinherited people. He and they knew what it was to be used, abused, oppressed, dried up, and discarded. He and they knew the temptations to either shrivel up or to explode.  But he did not; and he taught others to not. He taught them how to hold on to their dignity, stay in touch with their humanity, and keep their faith.  And when he stood in front of a multitude of the forlorn on the mountainside in Galilee, he looked into their eyes and asked them not to give up on God. He quoted today's daily lesson:

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."

Somebody else may may indeed take the mineral rights; but nobody and nothing can take away our trust in a God who sees and knows and will ultimately make things right.  For we have befriended faithfulness; and we've decided to be friends for life. 

Daily Lesson for February 18, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Jonah chapter 4 verses 1 through 4:

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

"Forty days more, and Ninevah will be destroyed."  

That was the sermon the prophet Jonah preached to the foreign city of Ninevah, leading to its repentance and salvation. And so, ostensibly the take home on this first of the forty days of Lent is to read Jonah as story about some other group's need for repentance. 

But, of course, Jonah himself seems to know the moral of the story doesn't end there. Jonah knows this is a story about his own repentance also; and he doesn't like that a bit.

Ninevah was the capital city of the Jewish people's archenemy; and just to bring that home for many of us today, it was located where modern Mosul is located today.  Really, there was nothing Jonah would have liked more than to have had Ninevah wiped off the face of the planet. It would serve them right. 

That's why Jonah ran away when called to go and preach to the Ninevites. He ran because they didn't deserve to be preached to. He ran because they didn't deserve a second chance.  And he ran because, well, they might just take it.

And sure enough, they did. They repented -- literally meaning they changed their mind.  And so did God about destroying the city.  And by the end of the story, there was a reversal, the Ninevites were reconciled to God, but it Jonah himself was at odds with Him. And so then at the end of the story, God came with a question for Jonah, "Is it good for you to be angry?"

And that question helps us to see that the real prophet in the book of Jonah is not Jonah, but God -- because God knows that its not only the Ninevites who need to change their minds. 

There's an old spiritual that says:

"It's me, It's me, It's me, O Lord,
Standing in the need of prayer.
It ain't my brother, it ain't my sister, It's me O Lord
Standing in the need of prayer."

The 40 days of Lent have begun; it's not a season about someone else. It's a season about me and my conversion.  Because the truth is all that needs to change in the world is not all "out there" in the people I despise and disagree with; it's also in me. 

Daily Lesson for February 17, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 1 verses 19 and 20:

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

Have you ever known someone with a Messianic Complex?  Usually, when we think of someone with a Messianic or Christ Complex, we think of people with dangerously grandiose delusions about themselves and their purpose in the world.  Jim Jones and David Koresh 
immediately come to mind.

But we can all fall prey to the temptation of Christ Complex -- seeing ourselves on a heroic journey to save of some person or group.

Most of us, especially we males, grew up thinking we would be a part of saving the world. We were all going to go over to Russia and fight that guy Dolph Lundgren and protect the honor of mom and apple pie. It was cute and good - at about age 10.

But it's not so cute or good at age 30.  At some point, usually in our late 20s, we start seeing that we are not the messiah. We begin to realize there are people and institutions we just aren't going to be able to save. Those who don't see this only end up frustrating themselves and disappointing others. 

John came preaching at about age 30.  He was charismatically gifted, morally convicted, and also courageous. People were mesmerized by John; and it would have been so easy for him to accept their expectations of him as the Messiah.  But he refused to do that.  "I am not the Christ," he kept saying.

To know there is a Christ -- that is one thing; to know that I am not Him -- that is another.  Both are necessary.

Daily Lesson for February 16, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John 1 verses 4 and 5:

"In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it."

Last week a good friend and wise counselor of mine and so many others passed away. At the memorial service there was a time for bearing witness, as one by one friends and loved ones stood up to speak and say what he meant to us. What was said again again was that this man was for us, and that he taught us that there was something good and holy, something of God, inside us which was waiting to be believed and then discovered. 

Rufus Jones and others from the Quaker tradition teach that there is something divine in every human soul.  They call this the "Inner Light".

The Inner Light cannot always be seen; and without it being seen, it is even harder to be believed. This is why God sends us holy people like my friend into our lives, people who walk in and see others through the light of their own lives.  By their own Inner Light they see the Inner Light in us, and help us to believe in it. 

And believing, we discover, is seeing.

In Memoriam to my friend and wise counselor, Ted Dotts

Below are the prepared remarks I made for the time of shared remembrances. It was a joy to celebrate such a life before God.

"We knew we could never get enough of him."

Those were the words first spoken by a friend upon hearing that Ted Dotts -- Methodist minister, wise counselor, friend of the earth, and Christian -- passed away Sunday morning.

I tell my children they owe their lives to Ted Dotts. I first met Ted in 2000 when I was considering seminary and my great-aunt Opal suggested I visit with him. I contacted Ted and he invited me to lunch at Covenant Hospital where he was then serving as chaplain. I came into that lunch with my heart set on applying to one seminary; I went out open to others -- including Duke Divinity School, where I eventually enrolled and met my wife, Irie. That is why my children owe their lives to Ted -- literally.

What I remember most about that initial conversation with Ted was just how peculiar he was as a person. First, he didn't eat any meat! But even more interesting was the way he responded when I told him the name of my initially intended school. There was the raising of his eyebrows, and then questions -- a series of questions which led me down a new path of my own discovering. I thank God for that moment and the way Ted refused to patronize me by telling me what I wanted to hear -- namely, that my school selection was just fine. In that Ted gave me the first great gift I was to receive from him. He gave me the gift of what psychologists call self-differentiation, but what can also be called freedom. Ted was the freest man I have ever known.

There is an old proverb that says, "When the student is ready, the teacher comes." Ted came again into my life just when I was ready to begin trying to live freely myself. I had the privilege of meeting with Ted and a few other friends once a week for the past year and a half. It was in the group that Ted's incisive questions and insights led me to a new place of freedom from my need of approval and my fear of disappointing others. In other words, he helped me begin the journey of self-differentiation.

Ironically, however, it was a stumble down that path that brought me the second of Ted's great gifts to my life. I had gotten myself into a little hot water on some hot button issue and was telling our group that I decided I had come on too strong and was arriving at a place of deeper compassion for those who disagreed with me. "What I need to do is learn to love more deeply," I said. Another member of the group asked me how I knew I wasn't betraying my convictions for the sake of equanimity. No, I didn't think so, I said; I wasn't going to sell myself out. That's when Ted spoke. "Ryon," he said, "you will sell out. You will betray your convictions. You will compromise your values. So what?"

I would later discover that "So what?" is in essence the first part of the last words in "Diary of a Country Priest", Ted's favorite novel which he read over a dozen times. Lying on his death bed, soon to succumb to cancer, the dying country priest thinks of all his perceived failures in ministry, but then manages to mutter touchingly, "What does it matter? Grace is everywhere."

And there it is, another lesson Ted taught me and so many others: that grace abounds; and that God's power is made perfect in our weakness.

But Ted saved the greatest lesson he had to teach us for the last. When his own time came, Ted taught us to die -- even as he taught us to live.

I will forever remember that holy night in the Grand Hall at Second B as his serenity of spirit as he spoke of death as being nothing to God. And who could forget when he described his idea of heaven as the joy of chasing Betty around for an eternity! That night's conversation was titled: "A Conversation About Death and Dying with a Dying Man"; but have we ever seen a man so fully alive? Will we ever again?

My friend was partly right; we knew we could never get enough of Ted -- not enough of what we wanted of him anyway. There could always be one more visit, on more session, one more group, one more word of wisdom. But on the other hand, we also know he gave us all he had. And in the end that will be all that we need.

For grace is everywhere.

Ted was such a humble man, always deflecting adoration and turning the spotlight on to someone else. I know this essay would embarrass Ted and likely would not approve.

And to that I say, well, so what?

Daily Lesson for February 13, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Mark 10 verse 41:

 "And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John."

Often what we despise in the character and behavior of others is a reflection of something we have yet to see or come to terms with in ourselves. Someone screams about how intolerant others are, yet they themselves display very little toleration and no compassion toward those who think or believe differently. A person rants about Godless atheists, but the qualities of Godly love and kindness are nowhere to be found in his own life. An older brother self-righteously scorns his younger brother because the younger left their home and father and squandered everything in Vegas-baby living; yet secretly the older too wanted to shuck responsibility, leave home, see the Bellagio, play the slots, and maybe even drink enough to work up the nerve to see a strip club.

In today's lesson two of Jesus' disciples, the brothers James and John, have asked Jesus to let them be on his right and left when he comes into his kingdom. The other 10 disciples are incensed. "How dare they be so vilely arrogant and hungry for power!" Soon, a fight breaks out. Only Jesus keeps his cool, "Whoever would be great among you must be last;" he says, "and whoever would be first must be the slave. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve."

Only he with a true servant's heart can harbor no jealousy or anger toward those who would wish to be masters of the universe. Only he who stays at home with the father in his heart can keep from despising his brother who ran off to Vegas.

Somebody's going to do something to draw out my indignation today; that'll be a good opportunity for me to check my own heart.

Daily Lesson for February 12, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 14 and 23 through 25:

14 Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers . . . 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness.

Archaeologists just found an ancient Biblical manuscript which includes a never-before command from Jesus:

"Thou shalt not think thou honor me by dying on every two- inch cross that comes along."

Doctrinal debates.  Theological quibbles. Arguments over constitutions and covenants of community.  Words, words, words. Manufactured controversies on Facebook, and manufactured controversies in the church. Words, words, words -- mostly spoken in anger, resentment, and without an ounce of loving kindness.

We can win an argument on principle and lose a thousand souls to Christ in the process. And we call that standing up for God?

Today I will refuse to get involved in 9 out of the 10 conflict I encounter. I will be criticized for irresponsibility; but I know I'm actually saving my own soul.

And the one conflict I enter into will be about something that really matters; and that one I will enter into with kindness and charity toward all.

And I'll do this because it's what a follower of Christ should do.

Daily Lesson for February 11, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Mark 10 verses 14 and 15:

“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask first, "When did you stop dancing?"

Ask any group of three year olds if they dance and every child does. But ask the same group of kids 10 years later and maybe only one comes up.  Why?  Because somewhere along the way in our growing up, the absolute joy of life gets stolen by comparison, put down, and a need to protect ourselves from a sense of inadequacy.

I can remember when I stopped dancing. In 6th grade my home room teacher asked me to jitterbug with her as part of a school wide program. It was all a surprise, as we both came out of the crowd. So kids kept asking me beforehand why I was dressed like James Dean, with a white t-shirt and blue jeans rolled up. As I entered into the gym and set in the crowd waiting for my moment to be called on stage, I suddenly hated the fact that I'd said yes. I wanted to run away and climb in a hole. When our time to dance came, I felt a thousand eyes on me -- all in judgment.  I couldn't dance. And I wouldn't dance. Never again.

The kingdom of God is about learning to dance again.  It is about entering into the great hall called Pure Joy, and in spite of whatever sense of judgement might be in others or inadequacy might be in us, going ahead and getting out there on the stage and jitterbugging -- and loving it.

And  whether we're any good or not really doesn't matter because we've became a child again; and every child dances. 

Daily Lesson for February 10, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 78 verses 2 through 4 and 2 Timothy 1 verses 5 and 6:

Psalm 78
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.

1 Timothy 1
 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you.

Of all that we might leave to our children, the greatest thing we can pass on to the next generation is the story of our faith.

This past weekend a man named Len Sweet led our church in a retreat (he called it an "advance") at which he talked about the central place where faith is passed down from one generation to the next: at the table.  Len said we have got to bring back the table into our homes and lives as a place of fellowship, connection, and telling the story. In a world that is doing its best to pull one generation from another and teach our kids to value whatever is new and hot over whatever is old and not, the table is a radically counter-cultural place of resistance and faith keeping.

There are so many other stories being told to our children -- stories like "buy this car", "drink this drink", "wear these jeans", "make sure they're this size", we have got to take the time and make the place to tell them our story.

Today's psalm says we are not to hide the story from our children. What does that mean?  To me it means being intentional about reading and telling them Bible stories, it means making Sunday School and worship a priority for the family, and it means doing my very best to not only tell the story, but live it.

Do you know who the best youth minister our children could ever have is?  It's us; when we're telling the story with our mouths and our lives, it's definitely us. 

Daily Lesson for February 9, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 80 verses 8 through 14:

8 You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
12 Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13 The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
14 Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine.

In many pastoral conversations I have heard people say again and again, "I know I'm not supposed to question God."  When that comes out of someone's mouth I always stop them. "Really?" I ask, "You're not supposed to question God?  Is that a law?  Is it a rule? A commandment in the Bible?"

 If not questioning God is indeed a commandment in the Bible then the Bible itself broke that commandment.  And Jesus himself broke it also. Through his last dying gasps for air he broke it with these words, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus was quoting a psalm. I love the psalms because they are real and honest and don't put belief in God into some pretty box with a near ribbon tied on top. There's an authenticity to the psalmist's words which reveal what a struggle faith is sometimes.

Today's psalm is a great example. The psalmist is almost beside himself. God delivered the Israelites from Egypt and planted them like a vine in the desert. It grew big and strong.  But now the vine seems to be left to itself. It has been run over by the wilderness, it's fruit ravaged. Where is the vine dresser?  Nowhere to be found. Why? Why, O why?

A God who won't be asked, "Why?" is the God of another world -- a perfect world.  But we don't live in a perfect world; we live in a world of war and suffering and brokenness and untended vines. We can't help it; we have to ask, "Why?"  

We not only can question God; we must question God. For questioning God is not so much the opposite as it is the essence of our faith. And the psalmist shows us how -- how to wrestle with God, how to ask our whys, and how to do it faith-fully.  

As William Sloan Coffin said in speaking about the loss of his son, "My God, my God why? - but still , my God, my God.

Daily Lesson for February 6, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 69 verses 30 through 33:

30 I will praise the name of God with a song;
I will magnify him with thanksgiving.
31 This will please the Lord more than an ox
or a bull with horns and hoofs.
32 When the humble see it they will be glad;
you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
33 For the Lord hears the needy
and does not despise his own people who are prisoners.

Years ago Irie and I went to see Maya Angelou speak at the campus of Wake Forest. Maya spoke of her grandmother, 'Mama', who raised her in Stamps, Arkansas.  Mama ran a store there which was the center of black life in the small town. No rich white people ever traded in Mama's store, but sometimes poor whites would. Mrs. Angelou told the story of how a group of poor white children would sometimes come to the store and treat Mama with contempt, calling her by her first name -- a show of disrespect in the South at that time -- and then making obscene gestures at Mama.  Because of the racial dynamics at the time Mama could of course not rebuke the children or ask them to leave. Instead, she stood in silence, only replying with the requisite courtesies of, "Yes , ma'am," and, "No, ma'am."  After the children left Mama went behind the counter, disguising her tears at the shame of what had just taken place, and she began to sing:

"Glory, glory, Hallelujah,
Since I laid my burden down
I feel better, so much better,
Since I laid my burden down . . ."

Sometimes when I am feeling low or defeated, I will go online and listen again to Maya give that speech. When she comes to that part about Mama and the store and the song it always brings me to tears -- good, cleansing, healing tears. It is as if 300 years of shame and scorn, pain and pathos are all captured in that spiritual, and the silence of generations of Mamas is given voice with a song that all who hear know must be heard by God. 

I hear the voice, and I feel better.

If you are discouraged or dispirited today, I want you to know there is consolation in song. Go online and find Maya singing Mama's song. Or better yet, sing it yourself. The good LORD will hear it; and so too will your own soul.

Daily Lesson for February 5, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah 55 verses 10 and 11:

10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

Sometime ago, I was speaking with a friend from church whose mother had passed away.  My friend was uncertain about whether or not her mother had been a Christian.  Her mother had suffered from a long bout of dementia, which precluded them from talking about God, death, and afterlife at the end of life; before that they just never spoke of spiritual things. I could tell it was a grief in my friend's life not to have share these things which are so important to her with her mother. 

Yet at the same time, there was also a deep peace within my friend's spirit about her mom -- a deep, abiding trust in the goodness and trustworthiness of God.  She quoted words from today's lesson. "At the end of the day, now that all is said and done," my friend told me, "I am holding on to the promises of Isaiah 55:11:

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."

Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a man who goes out and plants seed and then comes home and sleeps.  Only the who who trusts in the goodness of the seed can be at peace enough to sleep and not fret. Only the one who trusts in the goodness of the word can be at peace enough to trust someone they love with God and trust God with that loved one.

In the end, the seed will blossom and the unseen harvest will come. Ultimately, The Lord of the harvest brings things to life -- even from a long, long sleep in the very depths of the earth.

This is God's promise; and it shall not return empty.

"In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."

Daily Lesson for February 4, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Mark chapter 8 verses 19 through 21:

19  “When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” 20 “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” 21 And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

Most people know about Jesus feeding the 5,000, but we are less familiar with the story of him feeding the 4,000. This is probably because we are obsessed with numbers and growth and since the feeding of the 4,000 followed the 5,000 it is a letdown psychologically.  A lot of Biblical scholars assume the two feelings are basically the same story coming from different oral traditions, and that the writer Mark had heard both the 4,000 and 5,000 numbers and so included them both, though actually only one mass feeding of some kind took place.

But in not understanding about the two separate feedings and what they represent we miss something very important about the Gospel -- something that needs to be understood.

When Jesus fed the 5,000 there were 12 baskets full of bread left over. Our Sunday School teachers taught us the story and told us the number 12 represented the number of the tribes of Israel; they were right. But our Sunday School teachers didn't tell us about the feeding of the 4,000 and the seven baskets full left over afterward. What is that about?  Well, what would you think if I told you that there were 7 Gentile nations driven out by the Israelites when they came to inherit the Promised Land?  And what if I told you that the feeding of the 5,000 with 12 baskets left over was in Jewish territory, but the feeding of the 4,000 with 7 baskets was actually across the Sea of Galilee amongst the Gentiles?  Suddenly they don't seem so much like the same story, but rather two stories coming together to tell a bigger story.

And what is the bigger story?  The secret is the number nine. Nine is the number of completion and fulfillment. Five plus four equals nine.  5,000 plus 4,000 equals 9,000 -- 9,000 representing the complete fulfillment and satiation of all people -- Jew and Gentiles alike.

The first war in the Bible is in Genesis 14, when four kings went out to do battle with five others. It was a war for territory, boundaries, and goods in a world of scarcity.  That is the history of war human destruction. But Jesus comes to reverse this history.  He comes to bring five and four together, making a world of scarcity, hunger, and tribal warfare into a world of boundary crossing, sharing, feeding, and abundance.  He fed 5,000 and there were 12 baskets full left over.  He fed 4,000 and there were 7 baskets full. In other words, he fed the multitudes -- both Jews and Gentiles, his own and others -- and there was more than enough. 

Do we now understand?

Daily Lesson for February 3, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Galatians chapter 4 verse 17b:

"They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. "

When I was just out of college I worked in the tour industry in New York City.  It didn't take very long to learn that one of the tricks to the industry was to take good care of the gatekeepers who controlled access to all the tour destinations. A miracle could happen and the line your tour group was in could really get moving after just a little TLC with the gatekeepers.

But what happens to the gatekeepers when the gates are actually removed?  They doubled down, collude, and come up with some kind of extortion racket -- at least that's what they do in New York City. 

And that's what they did in the first century also. Jesus came with a message of inclusion for all people. In a dramatic symbol at Jesus' death, the curtain of the Temple was torn opening the Holy of Holies to all who might come in. In Fanny Crosby's words, He "opened the life gates that all may go in."

But that didn't set well with the gatekeepers -- also known as the set apart, the professionally religious, the ethnically pure, and the racially superior, and anyone else who believed they were God's VIPs.  So they set up an extortion racket: "Want to get in?  You gotta get circumcised."

But the Apostle Paul saw it for what it all was: "They shut you out, because they want to be made much of."

The gates to the kingdom of God are open and everyone is welcome: Jews and Gentiles, and sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes, and blacks and whites and Latinos, and straights and gays, and really whoever shows up is welcome to come in. And anybody who says you have to change or do something or confirm to some kind of law or custom or human standard is running a racket. They're gatekeepers to a city where the gates are commanded to remain wide open. 

Daily lesson for February 2, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Mark 7 verses 33 and 34:

33 And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and after spitting touched his tongue. 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”

There is an old saying that some of us are so narrow minded that we can look through a key hole with both eyes. Spiritual awakenings always draw us out of our narrowly drawn boxes and open us to broader understanding, compassion and willingness to encounter the Other.

Jesus is traveling on the borderlands in the territory of the Other - amongst Gentile peoples, when he encounters a man who is deaf and mute. The man is representative of one who is insular and closed off. Yet his suffering brings him to a place of openness -- perhaps this Jewish healer can do something!  Jesus takes the man outside the village and puts his fingers into his ears.  "Be opened," he says.

Suffering has a way of exposing the limitations of our own experiences and perspectives.  It can take us beyond the borders of what is familiar and known and into the foreign world of what is mysterious and Other. And it is there on the border that we can find that the narrowness of our minds can be expanded and hardness of hearts softened.

Suffering can lead us to places of brokenness. And in that brokenness we cross the border and enter into something shared with all humanity - familiar and strange. And there in that brokenness the Gospel comes with words which open our minds and heal our hearts: 

"Be open."