We Don't Serve Their Kind Here

Go ahead, exercise your right to be narrow-minded and unkind; this is America.  But I'll exercise my right to take my hard-earned money elsewhere.

Daily Lesson for March 31, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 12 verses 20 through 14:

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

After ten years of pastoral ministry I have now walked through into the valley of death's shadow with well over a hundred people. One thing is sure to me, the people who die well -- I mean those who do not fight and struggle against it, but who are ready to die, and die with courage, peace, and hope, and even with beauty -- are those who have practiced dying all along the way of life.

The Buddhist tradition teaches the importance of detachment from persons, places, things, and ideas in order to arrive at a higher plane of consciousness. Improper attachment is actually about the ego and the life it enjoys living. Ultimately, we will be stripped of all the attachments to this world; those who accept this fact with the most grace are those who know come to understand along the way that they are not the whole world and the world is not the whole them.

In the last week of Jesus' life, some Greeks came and asked to see Jesus but Jesus did not see them. The reason?  It would have gone on and on, with foreigners coming to see this miracle man said to be the Christ. But it could not go on and on.  Jesus' time had come; the hour of his departure was at hand.

How could he make such a choice to know when enough was enough and death was finally to be surrendered to?  He could because he was not attached to his own life; for he had been surrendering his life all along. He had died many, many times over; and now he was prepared for the final death.

And the Greeks? Jesus knew he could teach them more in their seeing him die than he could in his dying to see them. There is always one more person to see , thing to do, day to live. But enough is enough; we cannot be attached forever. Jesus had died all along; and he would die yet finally. And he trusted that his death would speak more about the power of life now than even  his living. Or as he put it, the seed planted would produce more fruit on earth in death than even in life.

This is a mystery to behold.

Hymn of Promise for reflection:
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.

There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Daily lesson for March 30, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 51 verses 1 through 3:

51 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and acleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.

I know lots of people who have spent lots and lots of hours with pastors and therapists trying to get rid of a sense of guilt and shame about something they've done. It's heart-wrenching for them because about the time they begin to feel like they're coming out of the wash clean and beautiful in spirit again, some trigger of a memory grabs hold of them and wrestles back down into the mud and the muck of their past. It's like they're condemned to live out the terrible truth of Faulkner's words, that, "The past is never dead.  It's not even past."

Well, here's some bad news which if heard and received in the right spirit may actually turn out to be good news: we are never going to shake our sense of guilt and shame.

We am spend our whole lives dwelling on things we've done and hoping and praying and hoping and praying again and hoping and praying some more that God will deliver us from  the haunting memories of what we've lied, betrayed, taken advantage of, and destroyed, but we're never going to shake loose.  Not here, not now, and I believe not even in heaven.

So here we see the pricetag of God's grace and mercy -- that it is given freely, but it must be received with the cost of never forgetting that it was necessary for our redemption. When we receive this grace and this mercy, we do not return again to the primordial state Adam and Eve were in when they knew no sin and so knew not that they were naked.  No; that's not the Gospel. The Gospel is that we are sinners -- stark butt naked, and ashamed of it all -- and yet God chooses to put a white robe on us anyway. This is the astonishing thing about grace.

And speaking of grace -- I am thinking of a quote from John Newton, the man who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace". Before he found redemption in Christ and became an Anglican clergyman, he was a slaveship captain. The memories of that time haunted him throughout his life and in one memorable letter he reflected back on the time, his sin, and God's great, great mercy:

 "I was ashamed of myself then, I am ashamed of myself now and I expect to most ashamed of myself when he comes to receive me to himself.  But oh!  I rejoice in HIM that HE is not ashamed of me!"

We will never be relieved of all the darkness we know to be within ourselves. There is a curse to that yes; but there is also a gift. And the gift is always knowing just how amazing God's grace really is.

Daily lesson for March 27, 2016

Today's daily lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 4 through 8:

4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

During this Lenten season I've been reading my friend Jerry Campbell's book "Choosing to Live" which is about his journey through the five-states of grief following the sudden death of his wife Veta. At the end of the book Jerry talks about the fifth stage of grief, which is Acceptance. In a powerful image in the book Jerry tells how he closed his wedding band in its original box and the spring-loaded mechanism snapped the box shut. It was then be knew be had to accept Veta's death a reality.  But accepting this new reality was not enough, Jerry says.   Jerry reflects in the book that there ought to be another, sixth stage of grief -- what he calls Growth.

Today's lesson is a sixth stage lesson. The exiles who were taken into captivity in Babylon have lost everything. They have lost their Temple, their land, and their families. Some have not accepted their fate yet, speaking of God's imminent rescue. But the prophet Jeremiah writes them a letter to tell them this is their reality which must be accepted. Yet, he doesn't stop at acceptance.  He speaks of more than acceptance.  He speaks of building homes, and planting gardens, and having children, and seeking to make the community of exile a better place. In other words, he speaks of growth; he speaks of choosing to live.

Pardon my coarseness, but the reality we have to accept sometimes really sucks.  Some people's reality is worse than that. Like the exiles 2,500 years ago, there are hundreds of thousands today who have been displaced, used, abused, betrayed, and bereaved in what can be a cruel, cruel Babylonian world. It would be so understandable if they were just to give up and die of despair. Yet, they don't; they go on. They accept the things about their life which they simply cannot change and they decide to go ahead and choose to live life and to live it fully. In spite of all circumstances, they somehow cling to the LORD's promise, written to the exiles in Jeremiah's letter: "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you -- plans for hope and a future." They are a marvel to me and an inspiration.

"Bloom where you're planted," the saying goes; and it means to grow right where we are -- even if its in Babylon.

Daily Lesson for March 26, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 142 verses 6 and 7, and Romans chapter 11 verses 2 through 4

6 Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
7 Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.

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.” 

In recent days I have been thinking of two friends, one here in town and another on the West Coast, who have chosen to fight the good fight for justice in their communities. One is a fight for better working conditions and the other is a fight for better environmental protections. Both are uphill battles; and neither of my friends seem to be winning. These women are lone voices in the wilderness and they must at times be tempted to despair.

But what seems to keep them going is the knowledge that change never happens without struggle. This has been true about all the great social movements in our nation's history, whether it be abolition, or suffrage, or civil rights.  And it is true for the causes these friends of mine are working on.  The mountain seems insurmountable and many give up; but one person keeps at it -- keeps struggling.  And because she keeps at it the struggle is kept alive; and someday -- in the mystery of God's timing -- others are found to join in, as if from out of nowhere, and pretty soon that one woman's voice crying in the wilderness is joined by a whole chorus of voices calling for change. And suddenly then now there is what Malcolm Gladwell calls "the tipping point" of a movement. 

Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." I pray for my thoughtful, committed citizen friends, for their struggle, and for them to know that perhaps like Elijah in today's lesson, they may feel totally alone, but God has 7,000 other thoughtful, committed citizens waiting in the wings. 

Daily Lesson for March 25, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 10 verse 16:

 "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice."

It is astounding what kinds of limitations Christian people have come up with to try and determine who is in and who is out of the fold of God. In the early church it was whether or not you were circumcised. Later, the Catholic Church made it's stand on what must be believed about the pope. Not to be outdone, we Baptists did the same thing with what should be believed about Scripture.  In the 20th century, Pentecostals the line between true Christianity and false was whether or not you could speak in tongues.  And today, the dividing line for orthodoxy is whether or not you believe it's okay to be gay.  If you don't you're in; if you do you're out. "We have to draw the line somewhere," it's said.

Please.  When are we going to stop this ignorance? When are we going to wake up and see that God continues to push open our boundaries to include more people?  When are we going to wake up and finally hear what Jesus said -- that he has many sheep that are not of our fold?  When are we going to see that we aren't the ones who get to draw the lines?  When are we going to change our consciousness and understand the Gospel is a gospel of inclusion and not of exclusion.

It was in college that I first heard the Gospel of inclusion preached by my now friend and mentor Charlie Johnson.  He talked about the difference between a bound set and a centered set. A bound is static and all about boundaries.  On the other hand, a centered set's defining locus is not the boundary lines, but rather the center.  A centered set is not static, but dynamic; and what belongs to it is based on movement toward the center.  Christianity is a centered set, Charlie said, and the center is Christ.

Christ has other sheep that are not of our fold. He calls his sheep and they recognize His voice and come.  He called and they came. He still calls and they still come. And He's going to keep on calling and they are going to keep on coming. 

This means we are going to need a lot bigger fence.  Or, better yet, it means we are going to need to do away with the whole fence idea altogether, because the Gospel is really not about good fences but about the Good Shepherd. 

Daily Lesson for March 24, 2015

Today's daily lesson is Psalm 124:

124 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
let Israel now say—
2 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone cover us;
5 then over us would have gone
the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
7 We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

Go to any black church on Sunday morning and you're bound to hear it. If not in the sermon than in the testimony, and if not in the testimony than in the prayer, and if not in the prayer than in the rhythms of the call and response -- somewhere you're going to hear it:

"If it had not been the LORD who was on our side . . ."

It's the glad shout of the survivors, a word of witness from those who, against all the odds, are still alive. In it you hear the still-living voices of the generations: 350 years of North American slavery, 70 years of Babylonian captivity, and 300 years of labor under Pharaoh:

"If it had not been the LORD who was on our side . . ."

Yesterday I read a wonderful reflection by Ann Lamott, where she talked about what it's like to be a child growing up in a household with alcoholics and substance abusers:

"You grew up with a clenched fist in your stomach, agreeing not to see what's going on; tip-toe-ing around, not trusting yourself as a reliable narrator, trying to rescue people who were 30 years older and hundred pounds bigger. Scared, alone, small. 

"You grow up waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Her words were a reminder to me of just how many of us are survivors.  We have survived alcohol and substance abuse and all kinds of other craziness. We've survived physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. We've survived the abuse we inflicted upon ourselves in our own sin and shame that followed. Like the psalmist, we recount all that we've been through -- the torrents and floods which should have drowned us -- and still, somehow we made it; we're alive. Not only did we survive, but we are survivors.

So the words of psalmist, and the Israelites, and the black church are our words too.  They're every human being's words and witness, thanksgiving and praise, call and response:

"If it had not been for the LORD who was on our side . . ."

Let the church and everybody else say, "Amen."

Daily Lesson for March 23, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 31 verse 5:

5 Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God.

Last week I held the hand of a man at the moment of his death. In the time prior to his passing on I read to him the Scriptures, prayed the Lord's Prayer, recited the Twenty-third Psalm, and told him and his family what I try always to say to those nearing the end of this life, "We trust his life with God, and we trust God with his life."

Death is the ultimate act of trust.  In dying, we must come to terms that there really is nothing on earth that can save us. Wealth is meaningless, medicine has no answer, all knowledge gives way. Naked and unknowing we came into the world and naked and unknowing we go out. Death strips us of all that we might cling to in hopes of being spared, and finally we are faced with the one essential question confronting all that lives and dies: Are we going to trust that God is - That God is able, That God willing, That God is trustworthy, That God is kind, That God in ultimate control,  That God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- the God of the living and not of the dead?

From His cross, Jesus prayed the Psalm: "Into your hands I commit my Spirit."  When his own hands were useless --nailed to the tree of death -- Jesus entrusted Himself to the hands of God; and for that though He was dying a brutal and ugly death on the outside, on the inside He was at peace. 

When death comes -- as it does in many ways and shall for us all in an ultimate way-- it is not a moment of horror or dread, but a time for peace, and for the living out of our faith in the One who is and was and shall be again. 

We trust our lives with God, and we trust God with our lives. And in the end that is all; and it is everything. 

Daily Lesson for March 20, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 95 verses 4 and 5:

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

God is; and there is nowhere where God is not. This is true of time, place, and circumstance. As Paul so eloquently put it, "God is in above all, and through all, and in all and all," (Ephesians 4:6).

This is easy to know when we stand on the mountains and take in the majesty of where the heavens touch earth. The Celts called these "thin places" and they speak not only of physical location, but also of spiritual experience. Sometimes we just stand on the mountain of life and know God is!

But mostly we are more earthbound.  And sometimes we find ourselves in dark cavernous places -- what the psalmist calls "the depths".  God , the psalmist says, is here in the depths of earth too.  They too belong to God.

And so also the seas, with their white crashing wash, the ancient symbol of the chaos and uncontrollability of life.  And so too dry land, the arid and desiccated landscape known as wilderness where nothing can blossom or grow for the ground is so hard and the soil so parched. These places also belong to God, the psalmist says.

It is sometimes said that a Romantic sees God in the glory and beauty of the heavens, while the Mystic finds God in the dirt.  The Psalmist must have had a little of each inside him -- both eye of the Romantic and also the guts of the Mystic. 

God is in both the guts and the glory. God is not only with us when we feel like we are standing so high that we could reach out and touch God.  But God is also when we are so low or so dry or so submerged that we cannot see or even think on God. God still is; and God is still with us -- over and through and in it all.

Daily Lesson for March 19, 2015

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

19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

All creation is waiting -- longing even -- for the sons and daughters of God to step forth. What an wonderful, breathtaking claim. And it's right there in the Bible!

The long history of human beings' way in the world has been one of exploitation of people and exploitation of land. The two go hand in hand, as individual, cultures, and economies have viewed the land as something to be used and even abused rather than a sacred gift to be stewarded, and people as ends to means rather than holy beings in and of themselves. In Martin Buber's words, we have treated people and places as "I-Its" rather than "I-Thous"; in other words, we have treated the whole world as something to be used rather than something to be treasured. This is what Paul means when he says the creation was "subjected to futility".  In other words, it was taken captive and used as a slave for the rich, powerful, and exploitative.

No wonder creation has longed for the revealing of God's children -- people who could see and turn from the error of this exploitative way.

The original vision in the Garden was that Adam serve as a kind of priest for all creation -- acting as a caretaker and steward on its behalf, and always with its best interest in mind. Anything less than this, anything exploitative or merely utilitarian falls short of this original vision and less than what creation itself longs for and needs.

The noted agrarian Wendell Berry has a new book of essays out called "Our Only World".  Even as some are fixating on the idea of sending a colony to Mars, this Earth is our only world -- at least for now; and we humans are to be fruitful and multiply and take care of it -- and for each other.

This is what it means to be truly human; the whole of creation is longing for us to realize it.

A Prayer:

LORD, my personal sins against creation and my complicity in a whole system of sins against creation also. I have viewed both people and place as means to meeting my own ends rather than sacred ends themselves. LORD, forgive my transgressions and help me to turn and learn to live another way. And may your love for all creation come to be revealed through my own life and witness. 

Daily Lesson for March 18, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 18 verses 1 through 4:

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words.” 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.

Rick Warren opened his bestselling book "The Purpose Driven Life" by saying, "It's not about you."

We can thank God our lives are not all about us and what it is that we are to become is not limited by either what we are or what we want to be. God is the potter, and a very imaginative one at that; and the potter is not going to keep at it until all our imperfections and imbalances are worked out -- even if it means starting over. 

First there is the clay -- made from the primordial properties of the earth; but formless and void of any life-giving qualities. Then the potter sets his hands to us; the reshaping is painful insofar as we have become habitually accustomed to the shape of what we were. Then there is the wheel, where we are re-shaped by the constant revolution of the wheel -- symbolizing the passing o the days, seasons, and years -- and the gentle touch of our maker. If what the potter makes of us is misshapen, he patiently starts again --  never, ever giving up. Then, after the shaping; it's into the kiln, where we are tested by fire.  By the gracious hand of the potter, we are what we are now -- created for his purposes.

To be the clay in the potter's hands is to be totally at his pleasure and will.  This is frightening at first; as the author of Hebrews says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."  Fearful, yes; but also thrilling. For as Paul says:

"As it is written: 'What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived' -- the things God has prepared for those who love him."

And I would add, surrender themselves to His gentle hand.

"Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
 While I am waiting, yielded and still."

Daily Lesson for March 17, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 21 and 22:

 21 Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.

Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy.

When we think of Sabbath keeping many of immediately think of Saturday-night baths, Sunday blue laws, and the quintessential Sabbath keepers -- the Puritans, whom H.L. Mencken once defined as those people with "the haunting fear that somebody, somewhere may be happy."  In other words, we think of Legalism and we've all about had it with Legalism. 

Yet, I have the haunting fear that in leaving the Legalism of Sabbath behind, we've also lost something very crucial to our humanity -- namely, holy rest. We threw that baby was thrown out with Saturday night's bath water.

God gave us the Sabbath as a reminder that there is more to life than work.  While bringing home the bread is necessary, man cannot live on bread alone.  Humanity was made for more than work; we were made for worship, family, friendship, play, and prayer also. In fact, Eugene Peterson says that is what Sabbath is for -- to pray and play.  God gave us the Sabbath so that we as individuals and families might enjoy this sacred time of rest and recreation, and so that we as a community might assure that all other individuals and families can share in it too. To never take time off is to be a workaholic; to not be able to take time off is to be a slave. Neither of them honors God with her work. 

There is an old story about some Westerners who were exploring the inner contours of Africa and in doing so hired a group of natives to serve as their porters. The explorers drove the group hard for several days without rest, until finally the natives sat down and refused to go on.  When asked why they would not get up one of the natives replied, "We have to allow time for our souls to catch up with our bodies."

Sabbath is the time God gave us to let our souls catch up with our bodies; and it is absolutely necessary in this hard-driving world. 

Don't worry, honoring the Sabbath and keeping it holy is not going to all of a sudden turn us all into Puritans; but week in and week out it may very well keep us alive -- in our heart, our mind, our body, and our soul.

Daily Lesson for March 16, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John 6 verse 12:

And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.”

God wastes nothing and God leaves nothing behind. 

God is always gathering up the broken, leftover fragments of our lives and repurposing them.  Whether they be broken dreams, broken relationships, or fragments of our lives we would rather leave behind, God's way is to gather it all up, put it into His basket, and see what might be made of it or used from it later on. 

For God, nothing in our lives is of no use; and that includes all the many disappointments, rejections, and  failures we endure along the way. As Richard Rohr says, with God, "everything belongs" -- that includes both the beautiful and also the broken. 

One of my boyhood pastors, John Claypool, used to tell a story about another little kindergarten boy who with his teacher's help made an ashtray for his father one Christmas. They molded and shaped the clay, fired it in the kiln, painted it his father's favorite color, then wrapped it. The present was to be given to his father following the kindergarten's Christmas program.  After the program, the boy ran to get the gift-wrapped ashtray, but in his hurry to give it to his father tripped running down the hall and dropped the gift. The ashtray hit the floor and shattered within the wrapping paper. The boy began sobbing unconsolably. Trying to calm his son, the father told him not to cry.  "It doesn't make any difference," he told his son.  But the boy's mother knew better. She bent down on the hallway floor and began to cry with her boy. Then she said, "Let’s pick up the pieces and take them home and see what we can make with them."

God intends to do something with the broken pieces of our lives, and that is why He asks us to gather them all up and carry them with us. 

Daily Lesson for March 13, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter8 verse 33:

They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

One of the greatest obstacles to our own personal transformation is the pride we have in our racial, ethnic, and socio-economic groups. It is very difficult -- even impossible -- to see our need for grace, redemption, and restoration because we have done such a superior job of convincing ourselves we are better than everyone else.  This pride must "goeth before the fall" and the fall must come before the redemption can take place.

The interlocutors Jesus was speaking to in today's lesson were part of the socio-religious establishment in Jerusalem and understood themselves to be God's "chosen people"; but their sense of chosenness was based on superiority and exclusion.  They took great pride in seeing themselves as the "sons of Abraham".  But Jesus reminded them that Abraham had two sons -- one born freely to Sarah and the other born to the slave-girl Hagar; they were living as the children of Hagar, Jesus implied, and the only way to freedom would be to come to terms with their own enslavement.

We saw it again this week with this University of Oklahoma SAE racist bus chant. As they sang with glee at about the exclusionary nature of their fraternity, we watched and could see their own enslavement to the sin of ego and pride of race.  That pride has now been stripped, and made a public spectacle of, and as painful as these days must be for those young men and their families, this is the moment of transformation --  when two sons who thought they were born in freedom to Sarah but were actually born in slavery to Hagar, can now see that by the grace of God we are all born sons and daughters of Abraham.

I pray it happens. 

Daily Lesson for March 12, 2015

Today's daily lesson is a break from the lectionary in response to last night's police shooting in Ferguson, MO:

I awoke this morning horrified to learn that two police officers were shot last night in protests outside the Ferguson, MO police headquarters. I pray for these two officers, their families, and also all of the police officers in Ferguson and the greater St. Louis region. I also pray the perpetrator of this act is brought to justice. 

I pray too for our country. 

Pictures from last night's protests are chilling to me. Police are lined up in protective riot gear outside the police headquarters while protesters appear to scowl and taunt them. By the looks on the protesters' faces, it seems to me almost inevitable that someone would resort to violence and that a police officer would be shot. It is the very antithesis of the 1965 peaceful protest march across the Edward Pettis, Jr. in Selma, Alabama which our country commemorated this past week. 

The protesters' anger is understandable. Last week's scathing Justice Department report underlined the serious racial and class fault lines which existed prior to last summer's shooting death of Mike Brown and the protests that ensued. The report underscores how there was on the police force and within the city municipality of Ferguson -- as there is in a many places in America -- a kind of culture which criminalized blackness insofar as it disproportionately targeted and unfairly penalized the black community, even as the city padded its coffers with fines and fees from the largely black community.  In addition, the Justice Department report disclosed a number of racist emails amongst city employees, which underscored the general lack of respect blacks were afforded in Ferguson and the degree to which overt racism was tolerated within the city's leadership.  This is sad and sickening; and righteous anger in the form of protest is justified. 

But the protests we have seen in the wake of Officer Darren Wilson's shooting of Brown, has been the wrong kind of protest. What we have seen has been broadly escalatory in nature, predicated on the threat of violence, and an insult to the tradition of creative, nonviolent engagement which was the redemptive force behind the civil rights movement of the 1960s. What seems to be happening now -- from individual contacts between citizens and police officers to the larger mass demonstrations like last night -- is not creative protest, but violence and mayhem. What these protest lack altogether is the creative force of love, which seeks to win over one's enemy and not demonize him.

Jesus' followers were largely masses of people under the boot (sandal) of a dehumanizing, and highly militarized force of occupation. Yet Jesus surprised his followers with his charity toward these Romans, teaching his disciples that when asked by a Roman soldier to take his pack and carry it a mile to go ahead and go a second mile. It was a creative and humane response and it offered the chance to win over the one who had previously considered you worthy of no respect. This kind of creativity rooted in love of one's enemy was the bedrock for the social transformation of the 1960s which truly changed America. It was the same force which changed South Africa. And it not only changes nations; it changes people.  It is a force that has the potential to change every encounter between a police officer and a young black person into something transformatively redemptive and heart changing. 

But what we see now is anything but redemptive; it has devolved into what T.S Eliot called, "mere anarchy". These protestors have become Moses killing the Egyptian soldier; and it may take 40 years of wandering in the wilderness before we can move forward again as a people. That is so disheartening; but a real possibility. Only a change of consciousness can redirect us. 

At the end of his life, Dr. King reflected on the riots which began erupting in the later 1960s. He asked about where our country was headed -- "chaos or community?" There is much work to be done in the way of changing individual hearts and minds and dismantling inherently racist systems which isolate poor people and poor communities. It is work which must be done.  A new community must be built; but it can never be built on chaos. It can never be built on violence or ill-will. It must be built on love. 

And love, as Dr. King said and I believe, is "an irresistible force".

Daily Lesson for March 11, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from the book of Romans chapter 5 verses 3 through 5:

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint. 

When we say the word "hope" most people think of something like optimism -- the notion that if we were to set out to do something then we could do it. But hope, according to Paul, is not what we have at the beginning of some difficult journey or undertaking but is rather the substance of what we have within us as a result of the difficult way. In other words, hope is not what we start out with but rather what we end up with as we endure the suffering and sorrows, heartaches and disappointments of life.

Brene Brown, a sociologist at the University of Houston, has studied hopeful people and learned that hope is really a way of thinking -- not a mere feeling that something might be possible, but rather a choice and way of thinking. Even more, Brown's work shows that hope can be learned. We can learn to be hope-full by watching and emulating other hopeful people. 

There are so many in my life whose lives have taught me how to hope. Maya Angelou, Desmond Tutu, and my own mother are people I continually read, listen to, and watch and learn hope from. Hymns like "It is Well with My Soul" and some of the deep African-American spirituals like "There is a Balm in Gilead" teach me hope. The life of John Newton, who wrote "Amazing Grace" reminds me there is hope for even the vilest wretch to be redeemed. A woman at my church fighting cancer has showed us all how to hope for years.

"Hold your hopes," Dr. King used to say; and in hearing him say it the people knew they were listing to a man whose own hope did not come from itself, but rested on the shoulders of many, many generations' of suffering, endurance, and character. 

Open Rush

2,000 years ago Jesus started a fraternity where blacks, Mexicans, deushbags, interracial daters (my personal favorites), gays, lesbians, privileged white guys, college presidents, free-speech defenders, and everybody against any and all of those can come and join. It's official name is the Kingdom of God, but we sometimes just call it church. It's a really interesting frat. If you want to know more, there's an open rush meeting on Sunday at 11am; the only requirement is that we all have to stoop to the same level to come in.

Daily Lesson for March 10, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 78 verses 2 through 4:

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 othe wonders that he has done.

Last night we had a deacons meeting and our youth pastor Jakob talked to the deacons about the importance of the whole church taking on responsibility for passing on the faith to our youth. 

Jakob said that for the last 50 years youth ministry has followed a model that takes the youth out of worship and out of the rest of the overall life of the church and sits them in youth rooms with special youth services, messages, skits, and games. Jakob said what this has ended up doing is making  youth group kids into really good Christian teenagers, but poor Christian adults.  Once they graduate from high school and their youth group they leave the church altogether; and few ever make it back. What is missing in this model is meaningful interaction with more mature Christian adults who can show these young people what it means to be a Christian beyond gags and giggles of youth lockins and pizza parties. The most determinate factor in whether or not a young person will keep and practice his or her faith beyond high school is a significant relationship with an adult role model, Jakob told us.

We then had a guy who grew up in our church named Chris stand up and tell about an adult who served as a significant role model in his life as a teenager. Chris is still in the church and is Exhibit A of someone who learned to be a mature Christian by way of relationship with an older, more mature Christian.

Finally, we then read a reflection a guy named David did after one of his role models Stony, a deacon in our church, passed away.  David lives in Austin, but drove up to Lubbock to pay his respect at Stony's funeral because when David was growing up in our church Stony had served as a father-figure to him. After the funeral, David sent along his reflection on Stony, which basically described all the things that Jakob talked about earlier in the evening. And sure enough, David is still in the church -- one of our sister churches in Austin.

I've said it before; read the gospels and its amazing how often Jesus is doing youth ministry. It's like he's always healing somebody's son or raising somebody's daughter; and one of the things he had to chastise the disciples for was their trying to keep kids away from him.  "Let the children come unto me," he said. It's like for Jesus ministry with youth wasn't just youth ministry, but was ministry ministry; and he was willing to do it.

Let the children come; do not stop them with shallow youth group experiences which will only result in them becoming adults. Let them come to us; and let us model for them the high and sacrificial call of following Jesus. Because contrary to what we might think, some of these kids are actually paying attention, and some are even finding it inspiring when they see an adult who takes the story of his or her faith seriously enough to really live it out, and even pass it on.

Daily Lesson for March 9, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 77 verses 16 through 19:

16 When the waters saw you, O God,
when the waters saw you, they were afraid;
indeed, the deep trembled.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies gave forth thunder;
your arrows flashed on every side.
18 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
cyour lightnings lighted up the world;
the earth dtrembled and shook.
19 Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.

God's way is through the sea.

Whenever there is to be an act of deliverance and salvation by God, He always requires that we first pass through some sea -- some ordeal of testing and trial which requires great trust and determination in the face of what appears to be impossibility and impassibility.  God's path is through the sea; yet His footprints are unseen and therefore there is no certainty of survival. This is what faith is all about!

There is an old midrashic story about the Israelites escape from Egypt. The midrash says that when the Israelites came to the Red Sea, they entered into the waters not knowing what was to happen; and it was not until each of the Israelites was up to his or her nose that the waters then parted.

St. Paul said, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, yet unseen." We usually have to be up to our noses, and sometimes in over our heads, before things really happen. That means we have to keep walking it we are to see deliverance, and the footprints of the one who delivers us.

Daily Lesson for March 6, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 73 verses 21 through 23:

21 When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22 I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.

In the darkest part of my life, when my heart had turned bitter as sour wine and my soul turned in on itself in first narcissism and then depression, I found myself one Sunday morning against my will sitting in church.  I hated myself and I hated God and I hated myself even more for hating God and for bringing my hatred into a holy place.  The unsaintliness of my own spirit felt exposed and threatened in the company of the saints. I couldn't wait to get out -- to run back off into the safety of my own isolation. I had become my own shame.

And then the Postlude began, and the pastor came down from the chancel and stepped into pew I was on and set down beside me; and before I could protest or even think about it, my hand was being held.

I can never fully articulate the importance of that Sunday in my life. The whole grace of God was bound up in that simple gesture of coming down and holding my hand. It was all that was necessary for someone to do to keep me alive.

And it is all I hope to do for someone else today. 

Daily Lesson for March 5, 2015

Today's daily lesson is 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."

and Psalm 74 verse 12:

"Yet God my King is from of old,
working salvation in the midst of the earth."

There is an old Saturday Night Live skit where after a man dies and goes to heaven he meets his guardian angel, which he thinks is really, really cool. The man begs the angel to tell him the most astounding thing he never knew about his own life, but the angel refuses because he says it would blow the man's mind too much. So then the man asks for the third most astounding thing he never knew, but the angels says, uh-huh -- still too much. So then the man asks for like the 187th most astounding thing he never knew about his own life, the angel agrees and whispers it to the man, and the man can almost not believe it, it is so astonishing.

Today God is working to do astonishing things in our lives. Even in the midst of trial, tribulation, and turmoil, God has his angels busy -- working all things in our lives for the purposes of good. We may not be able to see it now, but salvation is being worked today in the midst of our lives, healing is coming in spirit, evil is being cast out, the enslaved are being set free, and enemies are being made friends -- even right now.

Let her hear who has ears to hear, and faith to believe.

Daily Lesson for March 4, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 5 verses 5 through 8:

5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

Yesterday, a man came by the church asking to speak to somebody about God. The pastors were all in meetings, but but was threatening to harm himself; our front-office secretary called for help.  When I came out he was obviously imbalanced, inebriated, manic, beating on the desk, and had a large pocket knife protruding from his pants.

To make a long story short, by the time the ordeal was all over about three hours later we ended up with a crisis intervention specialist, two police officers, and not one but two EMS trucks on site. Everyone acted responsibly and with compassion. A situation which could have escalated was deescalated with a lot of patience and willingness to let the man talk. He was on a binger and had been in and out of the hospital for the last several days in between using. When the police arrived, he backed off on the self-harm talk; and all agreed he had probably said he was going to hurt himself as an act of manipulation. He was obviously an experienced manipulator; he is also a child of God. 

We let him tell us his story.  He's 39 with a long, hard history of drug abuse and all the pain that comes with it.  He said he's been in and out of rehab, sometimes with long periods of staying clean.  We prayed together with the police praying with heads bowed but eyes wide open.  They were innocent as doves and shrewd as snakes and extraordinarily helpful.

At the end of the ordeal the man got into the second EMS truck and it began to drive slowly through our parking lot. "Is he going for treatment?" one of the other pastors asked.  "He says he is," I said, as the truck stopped, the back doors opened, and he stepped out.  He wasn't ready.

To the invalid who had been stuck beside the pool for 38 hears Jesus asked, "Do you want to be made well?"  It was not a condemning question. It was not a judgmental question. In fact, I believe it was asked with love and with compassion. But was a necessary question; for there was no way for the man to be made well unless he wanted it. And finally, after 38 years, the man said, "Yes, yes, I wan to be made well."

As the man walked off yesterday, some folks from the Alanon group were walking into our church, and a man from our congregation with his own story stood at the door.  We all watched the man walk away.  Then someone spoke, "With God, there's no such thing as a hopeless drunk or a hopeless addict; but you gotta be ready."

After 39 years, the man wasn't ready yesterday. But maybe he will be today. I pray so; but it's got to be his decision. 

Daily Lesson for March 3, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 4 verses 47 through 50:

47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.

If you have ever worried yourself sick over the wellbeing of a child, then you understand the father in this story. If in the middle of the night you have pleaded with God for the miracle of your child's healing or salvation then you know this father.

The man's son is gravely ill, near even to the point of death.  And hearing that this Jesus with the power to work miracles is up in the mountain village of Cana, the father makes the desperate decision to leave his son in his town of Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee and make the day-long journey up to Cana.

Arriving and finding Jesus there in Cana, the father begs him to come down to Capernaum and perform a miracle. But disappointingly Jesus refuses to come, and even speaks suspiciously about miracles.  “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Again, the father begs Jesus to come down before the child dies.  But again Jesus says no; instead Jesus tells the man to go back down himself and trust that his son will live. 

At some point every parent begs for Jesus to come down, out of heaven to do something miraculous to heal or save our child. We travel up the mountain in desperate prayer to Him to come back down with us. But for whatever reason -- and this is a mystery hidden with Him in God -- Jesus cannot or will not come down to do the miraculous. Instead, He tells us to go back down, to be with the child, and to trust Him that though no sign or miraculous wonder is to be done our child will indeed live.

Jesus asks us to go back down the mountain without miracle in hand. It is an act of faith to trust Him at His word, that though we don't get what we would wanted going up the mountain, we got what we needed -- his promise to us that our children will be will, in life or in death they shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

Daily Lesson for March 2, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John 4 verses 28 and 29:

28 So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man jwho told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”

It's a small detail in John's story of the woman at the well; but that's what grabs us because John really doesn't give a lot of details -- and he gives no insignificant ones. Everything means something; and this means everything.

But first the story:

She had come back to the same old well for the umpteenth time. She had five husbands we are told; and a sixth man she was living with was not her husband.  And she was back at the well in the middle of the day when no one went to the well looking for -- water.

A new man is there a the old well. "Give me a drink," he asks.

"You, a Jew ask of me a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" She acts surprised, but my hunch is there have been other Jews here at this well before.

"If you had known who it is that asks, he would give you living water," the stranger says.

"You give me water? But you have no bucket and the well is deep." It's an interesting word -- "well".  Its only used a few times in the Bible, and usually not for a water well but rather for a pit -- specifically, the very pit of hell. What well is she speaking of?  The water well or the well of her own life?  Is she saying her life is a living hell?

The stranger answers, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

"Sir," she says, "give me this water."

They talk longer and intimately. She probably can't believe it herself, but she trusts this stranger -- more than she has ever trusted any man before. In fact, the John says she trusts him so much that she tells him everything about herself -- the good, the bad, and the ugly; she tells him stories from the very dark bottom of her well.

And by the end of the story, when the stranger's disciples show up at the well, the woman goes off back into the city to tell all its people about this man at the well -- this man who is no longer a stranger. And then comes John's detail:

"She left her water jar behind."

It's John's little way of telling us that whatever it was she was looking for out there at the well, she had found it and so much more. She didn't need the jar to draw water from the old well anymore. She had the water inside her now.  The woman at the well had become a well herself, and the font inside her was flowing up and out from the deepest her story and bringing water to whomever else might drink.