Daily Lesson for December 31, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from James chapter 4 verses 13 through 15:

13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

"What is your life?"

Now there's a question for us to ponder on the eve of the turning of another year. What are our lives about? Where do our days go? On what do we spend our minutes? On whom?

And what if we had fewer minutes to spend than we might count on?

Here is a secret worth knowing: we do have fewer minutes to spend than we are counting on.

Lines from Mary Oliver's poem "A Summer Day" make the point and ask the essential question: "Doesn't very thing die at last, and too soon?  Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life."

The calendar says this year is fast winding down. A new year will soon be here. The calendar says we will soon have a new year.

But wisdom tells us we still have today. Wisdom says we only have today -- this day; now.

Daily Lesson for December 30, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Kings chapter 17 verses 17 through 22:

17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. 18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” 19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. 20 And he cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?” 21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, “O Lord my God, let this child's life come into him again.” 22 And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.

Many of you have pieced it together now that most of my Daily Lessons are from the prescribed Daily Office readings for each particular day. It's a good practice that keeps me thinking and praying with the wider church.

In today's Daily Lesson readings we are given three references to children. There is the reading I selected above with Elijah healing a woman's son, there is the story of Jesus healing the son of a Roman official in Capernaum, and there is the Apostle John's word about having "no greater joy" than for his children to walk in the truth.

I know many who read these Daily Lessons have children they worry about and even agonize over. These children do not walk in the truth. Some do not believe there is any truth -- at least not a truth worth walking in. Some are lonely; their loneliness has turned them inward where they are even more alone. The light is gone from their eyes. Like the boy in today's lesson, there is a body but no longer any spirit.

It is here that a remarkable thing happens in this story. The mother is so worried over and afraid for her child that she does what most people do: she blames. In this case she blames the preacher. In effect, she is blaming God -- though she probably hasn't given herself permission to do so. As long as there is a focal point, a person to place blame with then she remains under the delusion that though things might not be under control they are still controllable.

But here is where the remarkable thing happens. Elijah tells her to let go, and she does. The man of God tells her to give her boy to him -- in effect saying, "Give your boy up to God." -- and she does it.  She is asked to give up control, or the delusion of control and to release her boy from her clutched grasp into the provident arms of God, and she consents -- she let's go.

I have a friend who was once a terrible alcoholic. He had been not only at death's doorstep but even into it's foyer. "I didn't get better," he told me, "until my family gave me up to the LORD."

Letting go may be the hardest thing we ever do -- especially when it's letting go of a child -- but it may also be the only way we ourselves will walk in the truth of the knowledge that the life of others is never in our hands, but in the LORD's.

Daily Lesson for December 29, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 2 verses 1 through 11:

On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. 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.” 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

Earlier this year I had the honor of officiating the service for L.E. Anderson, proprietor of Honey Child Catering here in Lubbock. As I was thinking on what text to preach from the story from the Wedding Feast at Cana came to mind. "It was a wedding disaster!" I said. "A food fiasco!  -- They hired the wrong caterer. They should have hired Honey Child."

Because I was eulogizing a caterer I was given insight into the Wedding Feast story I had never seen. Just like a good caterer, who has done his job when nobody thinks of him except to wander at the food, so too Jesus is behind the scenes at Cana.  He takes it as his role to make the bride and groom look good -- not his own self. And when the good, I mean the really good stuff, comes out nobody even knows it's Jesus. The bridegroom gets all the credit.  And Jesus doesn't say a word otherwise -- he saves the day but nobody gets thrown under the bus for being unprepared.  All anybody knows is that there was plenty of wine and it was plenty good.

Wedding disaster averted.

Jesus the Good Caterer.

We're coming up on 2016 and here are two of my New Years Resolutions:

1) Fewer meetings and more parties -- because all the interesting things Jesus did happened at parties.

2) Be a good caterer -- be less about who gets the credit (or blame) and more about making others look good.

If I keep both of those it'll be proof that the miraculous wine at Cana is still flowing . . .

Daily Lesson for December 28, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 2 verses 16 through 18:

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

This year we received a crèche scene for Christmas and just like all our others we see Joseph and Mary and the baby and a few shepherd and, in a couple wise men, but no Herod. Out of all the crèche scenes I've ever had I've never seen Herod in the crèche.

But Herod was there. He was just a few miles away from there anyway -- his dark shadow cast from his palace in Jerusalem toward the little town of Bethlehem 15 miles away.  And when word came to him that another king had been born the shadow lengthened and cast its dark pall over the city of David.

Aside from the Bible, no other historical source from the time remembers the slaughter of the innocents. That is understandable. Violence and war and the massacring of villages was the way the world was; it's the way the world still is in many places. It's easy to overlook the killing of a few dozen or hundred children in a small backwater. It's easy to forget.  But the Bible remembers. In other words, God remembers.

What could possess a person to do such a heinous thing as slaughter innocent children?  Today's lesson says Herod was enraged when he ordered the massacre. And surly he was. But there is something before and something deeper than the rage. And that something we are told was: Fear. Saint Matthew says when the Magi came and told him of another King being born Herod was afraid, "and all Jerusalem with him."

Fear can motivate one to do many cruel and barbaric things.  And it can motivate others to go along with them. This is why fearful leaders who whip up the fears of others are so dangerous. We could see almost anything as reasonable action when we are afraid -- even barbarism.

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It is a day to be mindful that while Christmas was a great day of joy, the shadow of death soon was to fall over Bethlehem. It is a day to remember the sacrifice and loss of those children's lives. We remember those children because God remembers them -- which means their lives were worth remembering.

But we remember something else also; we remember what fear can do to us and our humanity. And we remember then that we have a choice -- to choose to walk in the way of fear, or to walk in another way, the way of love, which "casts out all fear."

May the remembrance of the innocents teach us which path we should choose, and may we walk the path with deep wisdom and courageous faith.

#deepwisdom #courageousfaith

A Bob Cratchit Prayer

"I am a happy man; I am a truly happy man."

Bob Cratchit, after visiting his son Tiny Tim's grave and the reminisciencing on the gift his boy was to him and the world.

This is my prayer for many friends and loved ones.

Daily Lesson for Christmas Day, December 25, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 John chapter 4 verses 7 through 12:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

What changes us?  What warms a cold heart?  I ask because I have been watching and rewatching "A Christmas Carol" over the last weeks and discovered something beautiful that I had not seen for the first time.

When Ebenezer Scrooge is mysteriously transported to Christmas Past, the sights and sounds of his youth take him back and a surprising mirth appears on the old miser's face. Next Scrooge sees a his boyhood school where a lone, solitary child sits alone. A tear then runs down Scrooge's stone-hard face. Scrooge sees himself as a child. And we for the first time see that Scrooge has a heart capable of compassion and love -- even if it is compassion and love for his own self.  It is then that Scrooge remembers something seemingly small and inconsequential, but monumental in its significance. "There was a boy singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night," Scrooge says, "I should like to have given him something."

Today is Christmas Day. It is the day when the gift of Love came down from God in heaven to us on earth. We can accept this love first by showing more love and more compassion for ourselves. Sad and miserable and even Scrooge-like though we may be, we are nonetheless worthy of the gift of love. God has already decided this. We would do well to accept the gift and begin loving ourselves.

And as we accept the gift and begin loving ourselves, it inevitably dawns on us that there are others too out there who need to be loved and shown compassion -- the same kind of love and compassion that God showed us.

The gift has come. Love is born.  And we Scrooges have another chance to give ourselves and others what we should like to have given: love and compassion and kindness and all of what we might imagine a heart full of the Christmas Spirit might bring.

Merry Christmas.

#beLoved      #beLight        #beOne

Daily Lesson for December 24, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 1 verses 18 through 20:

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit."

Joseph was a just man, a righteous man, a good, good man.  If somebody in the community needed something done there he was. He was the man to call on -- good with his hands and knowledgeable about all manner of things from woodworking to plumbing to agriculture.  He was always willing to help -- quietly, and never asked for more than his cost in materials if that. He was salt of the earth, and as kind and generous and good-hearted of a man as you could find.

So when Mary turned up pregnant Joseph was going to do what we'd expect him to do. While he could run her name from the mud and even demand that she be stoned according to the letter of the Law prohibiting adultery; instead he decided to do what a guy like Joseph would do: dismiss her quietly, without saying a thing. He'd be heartbroken, but he'd also be quiet. It was the right thing to do he thought. And in Ratzinger's words, in deciding to do so Joseph showed that he "lived the Law as Gospel."

That is beautiful. And we love Joseph for it.  But in the end, it also wasn't enough. An angel of the LORD came to him in a dream and told him to do more than simply dismiss her quietly.  "Embrace her."  "Accept her." "Take her as your wife," the angel said.  "The child is of the Holy Spirit."

There are many people like Joseph -- kind and generous and righteous people. Churches are full of them.  We live the Law and seek to follow its dictates as closely as we can. And when someone or something seems to go against the Law we seek to be at once kind and firm about where we stand.  We try to live the Law; but we try to live it as if it were Gospel.

But at some point in our lives -- and this is the moment of radical spiritual transformation -- an act of the Holy Spirit comes along which requires us to go beyond the Law into the stunningly-new summons of Gospel. This is what Kierkegaard called the "leap to faith".  This is the leap that includes Gentiles, gives voice to women in sanctuaries, and welcomes takes expectant mothers to be a bride.

"I have not come to do away with the Law," Jesus said, "but to complete it."  By that he meant that while the Law was good, in the end it too fell short.  The Law -- even if it is lived as Gospel -- always falls short.

But the leap beyond the law requires a letting go -- of certainty, of where we currently are, and of the way we thought things were to be.  The leap demands great courage, and none of us I am sure would ever make it if it were not for the same angel who came to Joseph also coming to us and saying the same thing it said to him, "Be not afraid."


"Deep Wisdom and Courageous Faith"

Daily Lesson for December 23, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 1 verses 39 through 42:

39 In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, 40 and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

In theological terms, Mary is known as the "theotokos" -- the God bearer.  This is a specific and unique designation which applies to her only.  She is the only one who gave fleshly birth to our Lord.

Yet, we are all in another sense pregnant -- filled like Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit and ready to give birth.

Birth to what?  Birth to blessing. "Blessed are you . . . Blessed is the fruit of your womb."  If we did nothing else but walk around blessing people and blessing their children -- calling them good, drawing that goodness out of them, midwifing it so to speak, then we would be saints of the order of Shiprah and Puah (I know, you'll have to Google it).

"Why is it granted to me for the mother of my Lord to come to me?" Elizabeth asks. Why? Why does Mary come? To be blessed. To find acceptance and encouragement. To hear the mystical word first spoken to us in the Garden, and to believe that it is true. "Eulogemene" -- "Blessed." "You are good."

May I receive the blessing of blessing others today in all I think and say..


"He blessed my eyes to see the goodness of God deep within every man.  He blessed my ears to hear the cries -- especially of the poor.  He blessed my mouth to speak no word but God gospel truth."

--- Godric

@FredBuechner #Godric #Blessed2B

Daily Lesson for December 22, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 1 verses 34 through 38:

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36 And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37 For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38 And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Yesterday I was with a friend who just recently got engaged. Five years ago his wife passed away and two years ago he had no sense or notion that he would not spend the rest of his remaining days alone. Then suddenly things changed, Cupid struck, and he's soon to be moving into a Methodist parsonage -- a pastor's spouse-to-be!

I thought of what one of my childhood pastors liked to say, "God's middle name is Surprise."

An old woman said to be barren is suddenly pregnant.  Holy Saint Viagrus!  And a virgin is pregnant with child!  And God will be born of Mary! Surprise!

Auden wrote:
How can the Eternal do a temporal act
The Infinite become a finite fact?
Nothing can save us that is possible.

A rod shoots forth from the barren bough. A branch grows up from the hidden roots. The rose blossoms pink and beautiful in December chill. Nothing is impossible with God.

For God's middle name really is Surprise.

And ours is Delight.

Daily a lesson for December 21, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 1 verses

8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” 18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.”

Christmas is now a crazy and chaotic scene around the Price household with three children out of school for 3 straight weeks with nothing to do but try to find hidden Christmas presents, fight, and terrorize grandma. It is now very doubtful that Santa will be coming to the home of these naughty children.  Either way, it's still a lot of fun.

But I remember Christmases past which were less chaotic and less joyful. I remember the days when my grandparents were sick and aging and there were no children to delight and take wonder in.  There was a deep sadness in those years.

Yet as much as we think of Christmas as a time of promise for children with all the world before them, it is also and was first a time for promise for the elderly whose best and brightest days they were sure were behind them.

That's the first story of Christmas anyway -- the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  They were an aged couple without children and without the prospect of ever being terrorized by either a child or a grandchild.  They were barren. And it is to them in their barrenness closing of womb and sadness of aging that the first promise of Christmas comes: "You will have joy and gladness."

Now it is of course doubtful that any aged and barren couple I know is going to suddenly get pregnant in old age and have a child like Zechariah and Elizabeth had John. As one wheelchair-bound woman quipped to a pastor friend who was preaching this story at the local nursing home, "Pregnant? Now?  Try telling that to Medicaid."

So maybe a baby isn't on the way. But the promise of Christmas can still come -- even into the nursing home.

And here is the promise: joy and gladness and the knowledge that no one is too old or barren to be remembered by God.

Daily Lesson for December 18, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 25 verses 14 through 30:

14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. yYou have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Tom Long, Biblical scholar and former Second B adult retreat leader, says the key to understanding this text is to remember another saying Jesus spoke in the book of Matthew: "The eye is lamp of the body.  If the eye is full of light, your whole body is full of light; if the eye is full of darkness the whole body is full of darkness.

"What you see is what you get," we say.  And it may be that how we see things determines exactly what we get.

This is probably especially true for God.   If, like the first two men in Jesus' parable, we take note of all that we've been given and therefore see God as a Master of generosity and magnanimity, then we will serve God diligently and with joy. On the other hand, if like the third man in the parable, we see God as a hard and demanding taskmaster then that'll be the God we either serve -- backbreaking my and without joy -- or reject callously.

Way back in the 1960s a boy in Sunday School at Second B told his teacher Chester Marston that he didn't believe in God. "Oh," said Chester, "well tell me about this God you don't believe in."  The boy then described a god of trifle, vengeance and wrath. "Well," Chester said after listening to the boy, "I don't believe in a god like that either."

The eye is the lamp of the body and the light of the soul.

#BeLight

DailyLesson for December 17, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 25 verses 1 through 13:

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. 3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. 5 As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. 6 But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ 7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. 11 Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’12 But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ 13 Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

‪#‎ThrowbackThursday‬ Post:

My grandfather used to say, "You can go just as far on a full tank of gas as you can on a half." 

His point: Don't drive around half empty.

Today's Gospel reading is from Matthew 25 where five foolish virgins wait up for the bridegroom but run out of oil for their lamps and so miss him when he comes.

We're all burning our lamps at both ends in order to do all we need to do before the 25th. That means we're using all our fuel going from place to place. We're bound to run out.

Jesus' parable today is a reminder to not be so low on gas over these next few days that we end up missing the whole reason for the season because we're just flat too exhausted to welcome and enjoy it when it comes. If we're in danger of running out of gas we need to stop now and refuel.

We'll go just as far on a full tank as we will on a half . . . or a quarter, or an eighth.

‪#‎dontBfoolish‬

Christmas Whining

While whining about all the things I have left to do before Christmas, I was reminded by a friend that Mary just began Braxton Hicks contractions and still has a 5-day donkey ride to Bethlehem to get through.

That pretty much put an end to my Christmas whining right there.

#BraxtonHicks #MotherofGod #NotWorthy

Daily Lesson for December 16, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Zechariah chapter 3 verses 1 and 2:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”

Sometime ago I was talking with someone about raising children when they said that sometimes they've wondered and even doubted whether one of their children will ever mature enough emotionally to live independently. This friend then shook his head, "I know, that's terrible. The Devil's getting to me."

I disagreed. What I saw was a track being played where this friend was truthful about his thoughts and his feelings and his legitimate worries and then shamed his own self for being so. Now that I told him was what sounded really sounded like the work of the devil -- accusing and shaming him for being open and honest.

Take this to heart, Satan has no other authority over us then what we let him. And if what Satan says is based on fact and we did whatever he says we did that doesn't mean his words are truthful or Godly.  For I remember some other words from a very Godly person named St. Paul: "Who is to condemn? For it is Christ Jesus who died, who was raised, and is now seated at the right hand of God."

Tell that to the devil.

Daily Lesson for December 15, 2015

Today's Daily a lesson comes from Matthew chapter 24 verses 36 through 44:

36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

We are full now into the midst of the Season of Advent.  The word "Advent" comes from the Latin word adventus, which means "coming".  So Advent means "coming".

But we know what it really means is waiting.

And I hate waiting -- which makes Advent a very difficult time because 'tis the season for waiting. I am waiting longer for a haircut, for a checkout aisle, for a parking spot, and for a table. I'm waiting three-fold longer for the light by my house because I live near that horrid den of iniquity known simply as the Mall.

Now I'm there -- in a store right by there anyways.  And I'm waiting. And I'm tired of waiting. And now I'm even mad about waiting.  And standing in the checkout aisle, I am wondering why in the world I didn't do my Christmas shopping earlier, or online, or even better -- earlier online.  I'm mad about that also; which means I'm mad at myself. But I'm not really willing to accept being mad at myself so instead I'm mad at the man at the register for being so friendly with the customers and so slow in checking them out. This just isn't the time and place to be so full of Christmas cheer.

And in my seething, when I'm finally second in line, I look up and I see something right in front of me that I almost missed.  A child in the shopping basket, with his mother counting the money in her wallet and then politely asking the friendly checkout man to please remove one of the items from the purchase because she's a little short.

A child and his mother, a little short on cash, and a little embarrassed, in front of me while I'm waiting in the checkout line at the store just by the Mall.

And the Son of Man and the chance to serve Him come at a time and in a place when we least expect.

Daily Lesson for December 14, 2015

Today's Daily lesson comes from Matthew chapter 24 verses:

15 "So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak . . . 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it . . . 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather."

These words were first recorded on the threshold of the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. Soon the emperor would lose his patience with Jewish rebellion and the Peace of Rome would turn to all-out war.  In the late winter and early spring of 70AD Roman soldiers led by the future Emperor Titus began their great siege of the city. As a part of his strategy, he allowed thousands of pilgrims to enter Jerusalem for the Passover Festival and then barred their exit, putting stress upon the food supply.  After months of starving the Jews Titus then sacked and pillaged the city, reducing its great Temple to ash and rubble, and enslaving thousands of its citizens. The Jewish historian Josephus estimated that a million Jews died in the city.

In the days and years leading up to the siege, many false-messiahs arose promising to deliver the people from the Roman onslaught.  Jesus did not promise such a thing. Jesus' word was flea; he told his followers that when they Roman legions marching towards Jerusalem then they should know the die had been cast.  They should head for the hills.

One thing we have to know is that there are just some circumstances and events that God isn't going to save us from -- even vile and calamitous ones. False messiahs and their public relations team will tell us that what we need to do is pray this prayer or pay this money and just stay right where we are and wait for God to change things. But the real Messiah is telling us to get the heck out of Dodge while we still can.

Here's a word to the wise: when things are south, and you can see the legions marching in, don't wait for the siege and the calamity to make your decision. Don't be foolish and don't trust in deliverance from on high. You have Jesus' permission -- no, even more you have his advice: flee now while you still can.  Otherwise, you may not survive; and even if you do you'll be a slave.

Daily Lesson for December 11, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 23 verses 29 through 31:

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

Earlier this summer as I made my way into the city centre of Oxford, England for the very first time, I was taken by a monument which has defined the downtown square since its erection in 1843.  It is the Martyrs' Memorial, dedicated to three 16th-century martyrs burned at the stake outside the old city wall, just a few hundred feet from where the monument now stands.

It is a perpetual human condition that one generation murders the prophets and the next builds their monuments. We see this not only in the Oxford City Centre but also on the National Mall in Washington, DC with its monuments to President Lincoln and Dr. King, and in thousands of other places around the world.

One generation sees the prophets as a threat to civil order and as corrupters of the morals of the youth and their murder is a sanctioned event, if not by the explicit law of the state then surely by the implicit mores of its time and culture. The prophets are seen as a threat to the current generation's sense of common decency and sacred values.

The next generation apologizes for the murders and dedicates a monument to the victims.

Knowing this history should give us all pause.  It's a call to wisdom -- which is oftentimes at best a self-conscious understanding that we as human beings have historically had and still have a really difficult time knowing good from evil.

Which brings me to the last words of one of Wisdom's great prophets killed by his own generation, Socrates: "All I know is that I know nothing." If only we could all be so less sure.

Monuments like the one in Oxford remind us of what courage and cost it can take to swim against the tide; and they're a reminder also that the tides can change.

#martyrsmemorial #MallonWashington #DeepWisdomCourageousFaith

Daily Lesson for December 10, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 23 verse 13:

13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

Last night Second B hosted our annual Christmas party for Parent Life, a local Youth for Christ ministry working to serve pregnant and parenting teens. We had sixty-plus parents and children and volunteer mentors with us for dinner in the fellowship hall and then moved into the Grand Hall to sing carols and take pictures with Santa around the Christmas tree. Members of our church also acted as hosts for the Parent Life families, providing age-appropriate gifts for their children and sharing the meal with them around the fellowship tables. It's always the wildest Wednesday night of the year, with babies crying and toddlers wandering and diapers changing -- all during the prayer time.  For me, it's just the way that Jesus would want us spending Christmas.

Last night Parent Life's executive director Renee Morales spoke briefly to our church and said what she says each Christmas, thanking us for welcoming these parents and their children into our church community. She reminded us that each of the mothers in the room had a choice about the lives of these children and chose to bring these children into the world, though most of their pregnancies were unplanned. It was a reminder that while we were welcoming these children among us for a night, their parents had welcomed them for the rest of their lives.  I thought of Mary and of Joseph and the great choice they each made -- perhaps as teenagers -- to welcome the baby Jesus into their lives.

As Renee's speech suggested, Parent Life would not be welcome to celebrate Christmas in any and all churches. The idea of throwing unwed parents a party seems for some a reward for bad decisions.

That's one way to see it. But I think seeing it that way misses the most important decision these teen parents made -- the decision to choose life.

And it also misses out on a really good party.

Daily Lesson for December 9, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 38 verse 9:

"and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me."

I have a good friend who just celebrated 40 years of sobriety.  He is very active in the recovery community and is in many ways, by nature of his call, a public face for Alcoholics Anonymous within the city.  Last spring he led a series of discussions at Second B on addiction and recovery. When he told his own story and spoke of his first year of sobriety after 20 years of drinking, he said his mother looked at him and said, "Your eyes are looking out again, son."

The eyes are a window into the soul. When we see someone looking out with a twinkle of light beaming from their eyes then we know they are alive. The radiance of the eyes tell us so. But when the eye gives out no light, but rather absorbs it all like a black hole then it is plain to any mother who can see that something in the soul of her son or her daughter has dimmed and grown dark.

"Your eye is a lamp that provides for your body," Jesus said. "When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be filled with darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness."

Look in the mirror. Are your eyes looking out or in? Do they give off light or do they absorb it all?

What are your eyes saying about your soul?

Daily Lesson for December 8, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 36 verse 9:

"In your light do we see light."

The days are now growing much shorter and the darkness setting in.  These are the darkest days as we move more quickly towards the solstice, which comes from the Latin words sol meaning "sun", and sistere meaning "to stand still".  The sun is now coming to a stand still.

And amidst the sun's decline and darkness's rise we light our lights.  Christmas lights glow, trees sparkle, and the dim flickering flames of hope, peace, joy, and love hang on. The smoldering wick holds out against the darkness.  It is all a protest against the dying of the light, small acts of defiance against suffocating darkness.

Mourners in San Bernardino gathered last night in vigil. As a part of the solemn time together, they lit candles.  A thousand lights going up, driving back the darkness.

"And in the dark streets shineth; an everlasting light."

Even in the darkest season along the darkest streets, there is still light to be found amongst those who see by "the Light of very Light" -- even when the sun stands still.

And so now our task as the people of Light is to keep it, protect it, and mark our protest with it -- and hold out stubbornly with it until the dark night of Solstice is passed.

"For the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it."

Daily Lesson for December 7, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 9 verses 15 and 16, and Revelation chapter 1 verses 7 and 8:


15 The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
16 The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.

 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Today is December 7, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, killing 2,500 U.S. military personnel.  Roosevelt said it was, "a date that shall live in infamy."

But now the infamy is more upon the attackers than the attacked. December 7 is now remembered as a day for which reckoning would come.  As Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve."

"The nations sink in their own pits," the psalm says today, and "the wicked are ensnared in the work of their own hands."  There is a providence to this -- a promise that in Dr. King's words, "the moral arc of the universe may be long, but it bends towards Justice."

There is a Judge of history.  He was pierced and slain.  But He rose again. And He is the Alpha and the Omega -- the one who is and was and is to come. As we sing this time of year, He is "King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. And the government shall be upon His shoulders."

And days of infamy and war shall be replaced by days of Justice and Peace.

This is the Advent promise.

Daily Lesson for December 4, 2015

Today's Daily lesson comes from Matthew chapter 22 verses  1 through 13:

And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests.11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Now here is a parable that is tough to preach on. So tough, in fact, that when this text comes up in the lectionary cycle my first thought is usually that this would be a good Sunday to let our youth pastor have a turn in the pulpit!

Deal with it we must.

Note some things that Jesus does not say. Jesus does not say that this is exactly the kingdom of Heaven. He says the kingdom of heaven may be compared to this. Likewise, Jesus does not say that God is this angry king destroying a city; though surely there is a sense of judgement upon the city which we are to take seriously. And, Jesus does not say the man who shows up at the wedding feast, but then gets kicked out is thrown into eternal hell; though we do get the sense that the man is in a kind of miserable hell, standing alone in the dark of isolation.

The last time this parable came around I did preach on it, and I used an historical event to capture what I believe Jesus was trying to say.  I thought about the life of Joseph Ratzinger, born into a strong Catholic family in the Bavarian part of Germany in 1927 and caught up in the tumult of his country's rise and fall under the Nazis.  And whether out of a sense of duty or solely by conscription or a mixture of both, Ratzinger and thousands of other young boys put on the Nazi uniform in order to serve the German fatherland.  In the bitter end, when Berlin and Dresden and so many other German cities, had been left in rubble just like in today's parable, it was teenage boys like Ratzinger who were left defending home; and it was teenage boys who decided either to surrender or to fight to the death. Ratzinger surrendered, was interned in a prison of war camp though the Spring of 1945, and upon release entered seminary to study for the priesthood later that year.  Now as I said, there were many thousands like Ratzinger, but I know him and his story because he later became Pope Benedict XVI.

In that story we find two striking parallels to Jesus' story. First, a whole nation destroyed -- not necessarily by the wrath of God -- but by the judgment which ultimately befalls all evil and unrepentant nations and the cities they build. And also this, a resident of a nation destroyed, who being willing to take off one uniform takes up another and is welcome into a gathering likened unto the kingdom of heaven.

I'm not really sure how easy it sits with me either.  Like I said, it's a story I would prefer to pass off on others. But in the end, it's a story of judgment and of grace, the former of which I want for others and the latter of which I desire for myself.

But that's not how Jesus told stories about the kingdom of heaven. He told stories of judgment for all who will not come to he banquet and grace for all who do -- so long as they are willing to change their clothes and abide the company they find themselves with.

Even, I suppose, if the company is former Nazi German soldiers.

And the kingdom of heaven may be compared to that.

Daily Lesson for December 3, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Amos chapter 4 verses 6 through 8:

6 “I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities,
and lack of bread in all your places,
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.
7 “I also withheld the rain from you
when there were yet three months to the harvest;
I would send rain on one city,
and send no rain on another city;
one field would have rain,
and the field on which it did not rain would wither;
8 so two or three cities would wander to another city
to drink water, and would not be satisfied;
yet you did not return to me,”
declares the Lord.

"What's the gift in it?"

This is a question a wise man now departed used to ask when counseling with those for whom life was painful, disappointing, despairing, and absolutely beyond control.

The gift in it all, again and again, is always the recognition that life is often beyond our control and in the end neither we, nor our money, nor our career, nor our health plan, can save us. This is the gift. It's the gift of hard times when nothing seems to grow or to satisfy or to turn out quite right. It's the gift of losing, going bankrupt, getting foreclosed on, and hitting rock bottom. Ultimately, it's the gift of death.  The gift is the gift of being driven back again to the only one who can save us in the end -- God, and God alone.

Amos says it twice in today's Daily Lesson: "Yet you did not return to me."  In other words, you kept fighting, searching, wandering from place to place, job to job, city to city, church to church, and blaming others.  And your hunger was never satisfied. You did not return to me.  You did not receive the gift.

No rain, no harvest, no bread to satisfy the hungry heart?

What's the gift in it?

Daily Lesson for December 2, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 8 and 9:

8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Last week Einstein's General Theory of Relativity turned 100 years old.  One thing the theory tells us is that time is relative to circumstance and place. Einstein used to explain his theory with a real life illustration: "If you touch a stove for five seconds, it feels like an hour; but if you sit with a pretty girl for an hour it feels like five minutes. That's relativity."

From our earthly perspective we have been waiting too long for righteousness to bud from the branch and for things wrong in this world to be made right. We don't know if we can hang on as a world much longer -- especially as evil and the forces of destruction gain more speed and power. We wonder if the dam can hold. With the psalmist we say, "How long?" but what we really mean is, "How much longer?"

This is the time for trusting in the timing of God. Time is relative to circumstance and place, we have to remember that "His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts."  If there is delay then we must trust that the delay is of good reason. And it is indeed. In fact, we are told the reason for delay in today's Lesson: "that all should reach repentance."

If there is judgment and reckoning then it is for goodness sake; if there is delay then it is for goodness sake. And if there is even greater delay, then it is for the sake of the whole world.

"The times are in His hands," the Scripture says.  That means they're in good and trustworthy hands.

And so are we.

May we believe that; and may we believe it especially this time, and season, and year.

Daily Lesson for December 1, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 1 verse 14:

"Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled . . ."

This year our Advent theme is "In the Fullness of Time," and some women from our church made a beautiful banner with a full moon hanging over those words.

The theme comes from Paul's letter to the church at Philippi where he wrote, "In the fullness of time God sent his son, born of a woman."

In today's Daily Lesson Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom saying, "The time is fulfilled."

The things of the kingdom take place in their own time and in their own season. This means they cannot be hastened by our taking things into our own hands, like one of my sons did with one of his Christmas packages at grandma's house this weekend.  As I said in the children's time Sunday, "Good things come to those who wait; but good things will definitely not come to those who cannot wait."

Everything happens in its own season. This is the season of waiting.  But the good news is God is always worth waiting for.