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.

Daily Lesson for November 30, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 4 verses 2 through 4:

2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
4 Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah

In the Bible there is a Hebrew word which appears 74 times, 71 of them in the Psalms, but whose meaning we do not fully know. The word is "Selah" and it is thought to be either a musical instruction for an accompanied reading or a direction for a public reader to pause and wait or perhaps even verbally instruct the congregation to do so.  When we read Selah, we need not pass right over it; Selah is our cue to pause and reflect and drink in the poignancy of the word.

Selah moments can be find in more than just Bible reading.  There are certain moments in a life when someone says something to us we otherwise run across something which has the potential to change the whole way we see things.  Among these for me include:

-- the moment after I spoke at my grandfather's funeral and my mother asked me if I was sure I shouldn't be a preacher

-- the moment Ted Dotts told me I would sell out and fall short of following Jesus to the cross and then asked me, "So what?"

-- when I first stumbled upon this scene from Wendell Berry's novel "Jayber Crow":

One Saturday evening, while Troy was waiting his turn in the chair, the subject was started and Troy said – it was about the third thing said – “They ought to round up every one of them sons of bitches and put them right in front of the damned communists, and then whoever killed who, it would be all to the good.”

There was a little pause after that. Nobody wanted to try to top it. I thought of Athey’s reply to Hiram Hench.

It was hard to do, but I quit cutting hair and looked at Troy. I said, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.”

Troy jerked his head up and widened his eyes at me. “Where did you get that crap?”

I said, “Jesus Christ.”

And Troy said, “Oh.”

It would have been a great moment in the history of Christianity, except that I did not love Troy.

Selah.

Daily Lesson for November 27, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 18 through 20 and chapter 4 verse 6:

18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

The great Christian thinker and essayist G.K. Chesterton once wrote a story about a man who died and went to hell.  His business agent went down to the gates of hell to try to get his release. He pleaded with the devil, "Let him out!" But to no avail.  Then the man's priest came to the gates of hell and did the same, "Let him out!" But, again, to no avail. The gates of hell remained firmly shut.  Finally, the man's mother came to the gates of hell.  But she did not beg for her son's relapse.  "Quietly," Chesterton wrote, "and with a strange catch in her voice, she said to Satan, 'Let me in.' Immediately the great doors swing open upon their hinges -- For love goes down through the gates of hell and there redeems the damned."

That's not only a good story; it's also a true story.  Today's lesson tells us that Christ went down to hell and preached good news to all those killed by the Great Flood.  Or, as the creed put it, "He descended into hell."  He was willing to go all the way to hell and back that no soul should be lost.

If that's not enough to tell us there's no such thing as a hopeless case, then I don't know what would be. If the very gates of hell can't prevail against Christ, then we dare not write anybody off.  Not the prisoner.  Not the drunk.  Not the "thug".  Not the racist. Nobody's beyond redemption because nobody's beyond Christ's reach.

"For love goes down through the gates of hell and there redeems the damned."
           

Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving To a Syrian-born Imam and Friend

Earlier this week I sent a text with a Thanksgiving message to my friend Samer Altaaba, Lubbock's Syrian-born imam who immigrated to the United States a decade and a half ago. I wanted him to know I was thinking of him and his people during this time.

I first met Samer five years ago.  When the university mosque in Lubbock was defaced with anti-Muslim graffiti some members from the church I pastor who had been meeting weekly with some Muslims in an interfaith dialogue group wanted to do something of goodwill in response. They invited me to come and join them in repainting the mosque, which we agreed just seemed like the right thing to do. As we were  there with buckets and brushes in our hands Imam Samer showed up with baklava pastries in his. That made for a fast friendship as I joked with Samer that I would be willing to work all day for baklava.  Soon he and I were meeting and eating together on a regular basis, mostly talking about the joys and demands of fatherhood, serving as religious leaders, and occasionally world events. (Make the structure parallel)

Samer invited me to speak at the mosque's Eid friendship dinner during Ramadan.  As I shared about Samer's and my friendship and how it was being used to build a bridge I shared a verse from the book of Genesis which I thought was appropriate, "What someone intended for evil, God intended for good."

A few months into Samer's and my friendship the threat of terror came close to Lubbock.  A Muslim student studying at one of our local universities and unaffiliated with Samer's mosque was arrested for plotting to bomb various public utilities and the Dallas home of former President George W. Bush. A member of my church was the lead federal prosecutor in the case and asked if I could arrange a meeting with the imam.  He wanted the imam and the broader Muslim community in town to know the prosecution was sure the student had acted alone and without connection to any other local Muslims.  He also wanted to make it clear that the law would work to protect the Muslim community if there were any act of retaliation against it.  I called Samer and he welcomed the meeting and soon representatives from the Department of Justice and the FBI were meeting with the imam and his mosque during Friday prayer.

What someone intended for evil, God intended for good.

As the war in Syria began, Samer and I would often meet at a local coffee shop and talk about all that was happening in his homeland. He showed me videos extremists were using to recruit young men to take up arms. In particular, I remember Samer telling me the story of one young man from his hometown who was being recruited to become a suicide bomber against the Assad regime. Though the word ISIS was not yet in my vocabulary, the tactics Samer said the recruiters were using were based on religious ideals we have come to associate with ISIS extremist militancy. Because Samer is an imam and knew the young man when he was a boy, someone asked Samer to talk with him.  Though the young man had no clean, running water, he did have Internet access -- a peculiarity of the 21st century war theatre. Samer told me he was emailing the young man, trying to get him to see that both he and his religion were being manipulated.

Whenever I hear people ask where the moderate Muslim voice is amidst all the violence and terror we see in the world I always think of Samer here in America emailing this young man back at home in Syria, trying to save his life.  The moderate Muslim voice is speaking through Samer and so many others like him, but it's hard to hear over the din of wars and rumored wars.

In 2013, things got so bad in Syria that Samer's family decided to come to America.  They were the first displaced Syrians seeking refuge whom I had heard of. Samer's father would come with Samer to coffee occasionally. Samer would give reports on the war and his hopes that it would end soon so that the family could return their home. His father, who speaks very little English, would shake my hand and then sit quietly, smiling graciously at times. I don't know what Samer told him about me, but I'm sure Samer told him about how our friendship began with the repainting of the mosque.  And because of that, I always got the sense that Samer's father was showing me a kind of deep respect which transcended our language barrier. Goodwill always does that; it serves as its own universal translator.

It's been a while now since Samer and I have met for coffee. We each have multiple children and faith communities which keep us both very busy.  But with all that is going on now in the news about Syrian refugees I wanted to reach out to him to tell him I would be thinking of him during this holiday season, and remind him that the original Thanksgiving was a feast shared between two different peoples, one of which had helped the other to survive an extraordinarily difficult time far, far from their homeland.

Samer texted me back.  He is happy with our friendship he says, and though we are both busy he wants to get together after Thanksgiving. I am happy with our friendship too.  I believe it is a small yet meaningful sign of the good God can do even in the midst of evil -- of what God is doing to connect our peoples together and bring peace even as others are trying to tear us apart through war. I am sure Samer and I will talk about that when we meet next.

I think this time I'll bring the baklava.

UPDATE: The day before Thanksgiving Samer's mosque was again vandalized.

Daily Lesson for November 26, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 18:

"Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

The kids were out of school this week so I took the opportunity this past weekend to go and pay a visit to a couple of people very special to me, each of which have suffered great heartache this year.

On Saturday, I drove to Ft Worth and had dinner with one of these friends who just lost her husband in a matter of months to a glioblastoma brain tumor. Since I had the kids with me, she graciously met me at Chick Filet and through fits of screaming and telling children, I listened to her tell me about the mercies of the final weeks they had together as a family.  "God is good," she said.  Then on Sunday, I went to her church and sat as she led the congregation and me in the prayer of thanksgiving.  I do not know if I have ever been so moved by a prayer in all my life. Though I don't really remember the words, whether they were eloquent or not, I will always remember that she was there in the pulpit praying and preaching and teaching and embodying thanksgiving in its deepest form.

Then on Monday, I left the kids with a saint at the church and drove down the street to spend time with a friend whose child suffered a terrible accident earlier this year and is now at one of the hospitals in downtown Ft Worth.  To enter the holy ground of that hospital room, and to watch a father loving so tenderly on child was a great gift. Yesterday I texted my friend to wish him Happy Thanksgiving.  I mentioned today's Daily Lesson where Paul says to "Give thanks in all circumstances."  Today my friend will do that, gathering with family and loved ones in the hospital room to celebrate Thanksgiving. It is the small blessings which have revealed themselves in this difficult journey which he and his family will give thanks for. And what I give thanks for is the honor of having entered the holy ground of that hospital room and seen an ever-deepening and special bond of father and child.

It was in November of 1863 that President Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Thanksgiving, calling on all Americans to set and observe the last Thursday as a day of Thanksgiving to the Almighty.  America was in the midst of a Civil War which would ultimately take the lives of 700,000. Hundreds of thousands of Americans were already grieving the losses sons on the battlefield.  Lincoln himself was in the midst of grief after having lost his 11-year-old son Willie to illness just a year in February of 1862. Yet, the harvest of 1863 was plentiful and though the war among brothers within made the United States susceptible to attack from enemies abroad, there was still peace along America's borders. And for these things he thought it "fit and proper" to be "gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people."

2015 has been difficult year for some; but there are still the blessings of a prosperous nation to be acknowledged and the gift of holy ground to be recognized. As my friend said, "God is good."  Indeed.

So, today we give thanks -- in all circumstances.  For we are a thankful people.

Daily Lesson for November 25, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 130 verses 3 and 4:

  If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
 But with you there is forgiveness,
that you may be feared.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once preached a sermon on judgement, describing how terrifying it would be for us to stand before the judgment seat with all our sinful deeds fully made known. The more salacious things would certainly be of deep, deep embarrassment, but in the end the small peccadilloes might be the most revealing.  What an utter shame it would be for our pettiness, betrayal, and sulking envy to be exposed.  The full implication of such a moment of uncloaking would drive us all to despair. As the Psalmist says, "Who could stand?"

No one of course. Not one single person -- no matter how good we might think they are. They too would be seen to be carriers of the disease of sin just as Noah and his family were revealed to have it when they disembarked from the ark.

And this was just Bonhoeffer's point -- that in the end none of us will be able stand on our own righteousness, and the in the end the desire to insist on doing so is the ultimate act of rebellion against God's graceful way.

As Bonhoeffer said in the sermon, "The good is nothing more than that we ask for his grace and take hold of it.  The evil is nothing other than fear and wanting to stand before God on one's own, wanting to be self-righteous."

Mercy is better than justice in my book. And when the day comes I am going to plea for it. That may put me in the same camp with a lot of other people known to be unrighteous sinners; but the alternative will be to be in a camp with the self-righteous and that's one place which for a variety of reasons I just don't think I'd be able to stand.

Daily Lesson for November 24, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 19 verses 16 through 22:

 16 And behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to him, o“All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

In the Apocrypha there is a story about St. Thomas who is said to have brought the Gospel to India.  While there Thomas's great skill as a carpenter was made known, even garnering the attention of King Gundafor.  Impressed, the King gave Thomas a large sum of money and ordered him to build a great temple. After many years passed, the King returned to Thomas expecting to see the temple.  He was incredulous when he saw nothing built at all. Thomas then told the King that he had indeed built a great temple with the King's money and the reason the King could not see the temple was because it was in heaven and had been built by giving money to the poor.

That story makes me uncomfortable too.

Daily Lesson for November 23, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 107 verses 7 and 8:

7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love,
but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Yet he saved them for his name's sake.

Earlier this year Dr. Gardner Taylor, the great "dean of American preaching" and mentor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. passed away at 97 years of age. Many years ago, just after I was first ordained, I drove down to Georgia to hear him speak for several days at a convocation for pastors.  One thing Dr. Taylor spoke of there in Georgia has remained with me, shaping my prayer life very deeply ever since.  It was Dr. Taylor's reflection upon the psalmist's understanding of being saved for God's name's sake.

I really have no right to claim my own deliverance. I'm a wretch like any man.  God owes me nothing, and what I do deserve I surely don't want!

Nevertheless, I do pray for my own deliverance; but ask for it for God's name's sake and not for my own. As Dr. Taylor put it in his lecture we who were following behind, "For God's name's sake I pray I never do anything to defile or humiliate myself, my family, or my ministry."

I know I really don't deserve to be spared the wilderness or rescued from its trials and temptations. Yet I do pray that I be led not into temptation and delivered from evil. For His is the kingdom and the power and the glory; and for His name's sake we are saved.

Daily Lesson for November 20, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 10 through 14:

10 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

When I was in youth ministry, my colleagues and I would often talk about the challenge and the commission of loving the hard to love kid.  This was the kid who just would or could not sit still, be quiet, listen, respect authority, be where they were told to be, stop ridiculing others, or grow up.

I had several talks with Jesus about the hard to love kid.  I expressed my concerns, told him my frustrations, presented some very solid examples, and asked Him to do something about it.

Jesus kept nodding his head while I talked and when I finished he said, "Boy, I hear what you're saying and, like you, I too am really concerned that I could have appointed a shepherd who doesn't have a heart for all the sheep.  I promise I will have a talk with my Father about you."

"Never mind," I said, "I'm sure I can work through it."

"I bet you can," he said.  "But please let me know if you can't."

That was the first and last time I complained to Jesus about a hard to love kid.

Daily Lesson for November 19, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Revelation chapter 22 verse 5:

 "And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever."

Jacques Lusseyran was a typical 1930sParis schoolboy who was blinded in an accident at age eight.  In his autobiography, "And There Was Light", Jacques wrote of a discovery of an inner light of vision which allowed him to experience the aura of things unseen. To his amazement he was able to negotiate spaces, skirting chairs and avoiding walls because he could "see" them with a kind of inner light:

"Inside me there was everything I had believed was outside. There was, in particular, the sun, light, and all colors. There were even the shapes of objects and the distance between objects. Everything was there and movement as well… Light is an element that we carry inside us and which can grow there with as much abundance, variety, and intensity as it can outside of us…I could light myself…that is, I could create a light inside of me so alive, so large, and so near that my eyes, my physical eyes, or what remained of them, vibrated, almost to the point of hurting… God is there under a form that has the good luck to be neither religious, not intellectual, nor sentimental, but quite simply alive."

When the Nazis invaded France Lusseyran in 1940 Lusseyran was 17.  He joined the French Resistance and was subsequently arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Buchenwald concentration camp.  While in prisoner, Lusseyran lost his inner light. His hatred for the Nazis and frustration with his own circumstances took over. He began bumping into walls and tripping over chairs. But that is where something deeply important dawned on him about himself and the world: that there was a light within him that only he could put out, and no one else.  In due time he regained his inner vision.

Reflecting on Lusseyran's life, Barbara Brown Taylor wrote that there is a light which shines in the darkness and can therefore only be seen in the darkness. This is the place where as the Scripture says, "Night will be no more," -- when even into the darkness the light shines, and the light is more than sun shining, or moon beaming, or stars twinkling outside, but is altogether the Very Light of Very Light glowing from within.

Daily Lesson for November 18, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 17 verses 24 through 27:

24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free.27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

The irascible Southern Baptist pastor/provocateur Carlyle Marney once said that if he ever left the ministry it would probably be because he could no longer in good conscience tell people they needed to give to the church. That was his way of asking people to give to the church while at the same time confessing his own ambivalence about the whole church fundraising enterprise.

Here's something Jesus said that is worth sitting with for a while to let the implications hit home: "The sons are free."

That should have pretty much ended all stewardship sermons based on coercion, manipulation, and guilt forever.  The sons are free.

But there are questions I have. Who are the sons; are we all sons (and daughters) of the king or is there only one child? And who paid for whom and why?  Did Jesus pay for himself and for Peter because to not pay is offensive in itself, or simply because Peter had said they would pay and not paying what you say you'll pay is offensive?  Or did Peter pay for Jesus -- after all, Peter's the one who had to work?  And in the end didn't Jesus pay it all? And, importantly, where do I get one of those fish?

Well, the answer to that I know; except for me it's not a fish.

Daily Lesson for November 17, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson come from Psalm 95 verses 8 and 9:

Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the test
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

Every new day, season, and stage on the journey brings to us its own crisis of faith. No matter how faithful God has been to us and our ancestors in the past, there is always the fear and uncertainty of the present.

The Israelites were led across the Red Sea in the most miraculous act of deliverance the world had ever known.  Turn the page and suddenly they are in a place where desperate for water and quarreling with one another out of fear and anxiety. That desert place they called "Massah".

Through many dangers toils and snares we have already come; but I'm willing to bet that today we'll find ourselves in Massah -- and if not sometime today then definitely tomorrow. No matter how many Red Seas we cross; there's always a Massah right behind it.

But here's a question to keep in mind while in Massah: Has God really brought us this far just to let us die of weariness and thirst in this desert?

And suddenly a stirring from deep within the Rock is heard . . .

Daily Lesson for November 16, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson for November 16, 2015 comes from Revelation chapter 20 verses 7 through 12:

7 And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9 And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, 10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. 11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

In the wake of all the terror this world has seen in the last days in Paris and in Beirut today's lesson is a reminder that no matter how numerous or powerful the forces of darkness and evil may grow, the one who sits on the great white throne will be the final judge and ruler of this world. And though the text tells us there are many books which may tell us many things -- some deceptively so -- in the end the final book by which we will be judged is the book of life and its eternal question: did we give life or did we take it?

In recent days the Scripture has been fulfilled, Satan's forces have gathered strength, marched over the broad plain of the earth to attack the saints in the City of Love. In Yeats's words, "The blood-dimmed tide is loosed."

For now.  But in the end there is the throne -- and the one who sits upon it.

Daily Lesson for November 13, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 88 verses 13 through 18:

13 But I, O Lord, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
darkness is my only companion.

Sometimes there just isn't a happy ending.

Most Psalms and indeed most Bible stories and definitely the Christian Bible itself end with resolution. Evil is defeated.  Good prevails. The Lamb wins.

Not so with Psalm 88. It is a full 18 verses of struggle, crying out, wrestling and asking God, "Why?".  And at the end there's no resolution. In fact, at the end the psalmist is left feeling abandoned and close to death in a kind of pit where darkness is his sole companion.

Now why, I wonder, in the thousand years of putting together the canon didn't somebody come along and bring resolution?  Why not end it more positively?  Why not tie it up with a bow? It would only have taken one verse. I could have done it in three words: "Then you answered."

But they didn't. And why not?  Because sometimes God doesn't answer -- or perhaps more accurately, sometimes God hasn't answered yet.  Therefore, sometimes, some people just feel left alone, abandoned even --there in the pit without any prospect of resolution or escape.

Psalm 88 is for them. It's for those who are still in the darkness.  It's for those for whom a pretty bow just wouldn't be right. It's for those times when another word beyond the pain just won't fix things.

In its wisdom the Psalter did well to let darkness have the last word on this occasion. I pray I will know when to do the same.

Daily Lesson for November 12, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 85 verses 10 and 11:

10 Steadfast love and faithfulness meet;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
11 Faithfulness springs up from the ground,
and righteousness looks down from the sky.

Sometime ago some clergy friends and I were working on a project together directed at righting a wrong.  We were strategizing and talking about how most to be successful. That's when the oldest member of our group stood up and said, "Wait a minute. We follow a Lord and Savior who was betrayed and abandoned by friends, ridiculed by the public, and ultimately hung from a cross. If we start out with success in mind we're on the wrong track. We aren't called to be successful; we're called to be faithful."

"Faithfulness springs from the ground . . . And righteousness looks down from the sky."

In other words, we're called to be faithful down here, and to trust that God will be faithful to make things right from up there.

Daily Lesson for November 11, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Nehemiah chapter 8 verses 14 through 17:

14 And they found it written in the Law that the Lord had commanded by Moses that the people of Israel should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month, 15 and that they should proclaim it and publish it in all their towns and in Jerusalem, “Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.” 16 So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17 And all the assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in the booths.

In the hallway in our house where all our family photos hang, there's a black and white picture of nine young black women sitting in and leaning on an old 1930s-looking convertible.  Some are seated inside the cars while others sit or stand on the running boards. They are each smartly and respectably clothed with dress and heals on. In the background of the photo tall pines rise over the women and a stately brick building with a vaulted gate can just be seen. These are college women -- black college women from the late 30s or 40s.  One is Irie's great aunt. And the picture is there to remind our family of the day when a college education for a black woman was really something rare and struggled after.  It's there to remind our family where and who it comes from and who it owes.

The Jews were given something similar in today's Lesson. The Book of the Law directed them to set aside a special festival called the Festival of Booth, and all during the festival they were to make little huts and tents and sleep in them. They began this tradition as they began building their Second Temple; but the festival was to remind them of a time when their people had no Temple, but were nomads wandering in the wilderness living in tents and booths.  The Festival of Booths kept them in touch with where their people had been and just how far they'd come.

There's a great black church hymn sung with the words of James Weldon Johnson's poem "Lift Every Voice and Sing":

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We are where we are today because of the struggles of those who came before us and we need to hold on to something -- a photo or a booth or something -- to remind us where and who we come from.

Daily Lesson for November 10, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 78 verses 15 and 16:

15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
16 He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.


There is a line in one of my friend Andy Wilkinson's poems which describes the Llano Estacado as a place "where wind is plentiful and rain must be dug up before a crop can grow."

There is something deeply resonate in the image of rains which we are not looking forward to, but which rather already happened and whose waters are now buried deep in the earth, waiting to be discovered.

What if what is most essential to sustain our lives in this barren land called living will not be found by looking upward to heaven for some act of God that is yet to happen, but rather by looking within -- deeply within -- to the reservoirs God has already buried inside us.

There is enough rain to make it through life's wilderness; but to drink from it we may have to look down and not up, in and not out.

"Rain must be dug up before a crop can grow."

Daily Lesson for November 9, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 77 verse 19:

 Your way was through the sea,
your path through the great waters;
yet your footprints were unseen.

God's way was through the Sea.

There is an old Jewish Midrash which says that when the Israelites came to the Red Sea they had first to wade deep -- first ankle, then waist, then nose deep -- into the Sea before the waters parted.  They had to come to the place where the great waters were high and swift and another step meant drowning was absolutely certain without divine intervention.  And they came to that place, and that step, and they took it.

Most things in life worth doing necessitate us coming to that place where the waters are up to our noses. We have to be so far in that just another step from us or drop from the sea will mean death.  This is the moment of panic -- when we realize we're now in over our heads and want very much to turn back and not to have begun at all. It's only at this moment of panic -- at the very threshold of our drowning that the waters get parted.

God's way was through the Sea.  It's still through the Sea.  But we won't see God's footprints until we're beyond neck deep.

Daily Lesson for November 6, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 14 verses 15 through 20:

15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

It was simply a matter of mathematics.

It was a mathematical given that there would not be enough. Five loaves and two fish.  5,000 people. Even the morsels would have to be divided and then sub-divided and then sub-sub-divided.

This is probably why when polled 3 out of 2 persons there said they hated math.

But math wasn't the only discipline present that day. There was another discipline: the discipline of giving. "You give them something to eat," Jesus said.

And given up, released from one group of hands to another's there was blessing and math turned to mystery and dinner for 12 to 5,000.

It's a mathematical given. In our hands it's just five loaves of bread plus two fish.  But given over and blessed by His hands it's enough for everyone with 12 basketfuls leftover.

There's math and then there's mystery; and in between there's the giving and the blessing.