Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 102 verses 16 and 17 and Luke chapter 6 verse20:
16 For the Lord builds up Zion;
he appears in his glory;
17 he regards the prayer of the destitute
and does not despise their prayer.
"Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God."
To be weak or destitute is and always has been regarded as a crime. It is a crime to be too frail or poor or old to care for oneself. Weakness is a shame, vulnerability a disgrace.
And yet, Jesus comes saying, "Blessed are the poor," and the Psalmist speaks of God's regard for them. They are weak, but not too weak for God. No one is too weak for God; though some may perhaps be too strong.
All our native impulses teach us to show strength and shame weakness. Frailty and fatigue and poverty of any kind are rejected. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and tough it out and demand that others do also. And the weak, the disabled, the broken, we despise. But if we want to be like God we must learn to welcome what is broken, poor, handicapped, or disabled into our lives. If we are to be like God we must learn regard -- mercy and compassion -- for the weak around us and also, most importantly, for what is weak within us.
To learn to live with brokenness, to accept weakness and poverty and welcome them in rather than locking them out, to learn to call them beloved also, this is what it means to be like God.
For God's name is mercy; and ours should be also.
Friday, September 30, 2016
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 29, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 6 verses 6 through 11:
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Here is an extraordinary story. Those who are said to be protecting what is holy (the Sabbath) by refusing people to be healed on the Sabbath get so obsessed with doing so that they end up defiling it with their malice. And so Jesus asks, is it lawful to do good (what he is doing) on the Sabbath or to do evil (what they are doing)?
And I remember some of the most angry and virulent things I've ever heard were spoken in defense of a baptistery and sanctuary against their "desecration" by the so-called "wrong" people.
It shows just how unholy our protection of the holy can really be and just how badly we can miss the whole point.
6 On another Sabbath, he entered the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was withered. 7 And the scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, so that they might find a reason to accuse him. 8 But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. 9 And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” 10 And after looking around at them all he said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. 11 But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
Here is an extraordinary story. Those who are said to be protecting what is holy (the Sabbath) by refusing people to be healed on the Sabbath get so obsessed with doing so that they end up defiling it with their malice. And so Jesus asks, is it lawful to do good (what he is doing) on the Sabbath or to do evil (what they are doing)?
And I remember some of the most angry and virulent things I've ever heard were spoken in defense of a baptistery and sanctuary against their "desecration" by the so-called "wrong" people.
It shows just how unholy our protection of the holy can really be and just how badly we can miss the whole point.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 28, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 5 verses 27 through 32:
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
It is impossible to understand the radicality of this story without knowing the degree to which tax collectors were despised in Jesus' day. Though we may joke about IRS agents today, tax collectors in Jesus' day were seen as political opportunists, betrayers, and scalawag collaborators.
Just how dangerous it must have been for Jesus to associate with tax collectors came home to me several years ago at the bedside of a dying Vietnam veteran. Cancer would soon take his life and he wanted to come clean about something which had deeply troubled his conscience since the war.
He told me he had been in a South Vietnam village when he witnessed a Viet Cong collaborator who had been caught by the villagers. With a very serious protection racket, the man had been extracting tolls from his own village in exchange for not letting troops in to attack it. When the villagers caught him unprotected, they drug him into the middle of the village and tortured and then executed him full public view.
In his confession to me, the dying veteran told me that he had always felt guilty for not doing something to intercede. But this was war; and in the villagers' words, this was a "tax collector".
Jesus came to save even tax collectors.
We can hardly imagine how disturbing that really was, and how much it would cost him.
27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” 28 And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
29 And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors and others reclining at table with them. 30 And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” 31 And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
It is impossible to understand the radicality of this story without knowing the degree to which tax collectors were despised in Jesus' day. Though we may joke about IRS agents today, tax collectors in Jesus' day were seen as political opportunists, betrayers, and scalawag collaborators.
Just how dangerous it must have been for Jesus to associate with tax collectors came home to me several years ago at the bedside of a dying Vietnam veteran. Cancer would soon take his life and he wanted to come clean about something which had deeply troubled his conscience since the war.
He told me he had been in a South Vietnam village when he witnessed a Viet Cong collaborator who had been caught by the villagers. With a very serious protection racket, the man had been extracting tolls from his own village in exchange for not letting troops in to attack it. When the villagers caught him unprotected, they drug him into the middle of the village and tortured and then executed him full public view.
In his confession to me, the dying veteran told me that he had always felt guilty for not doing something to intercede. But this was war; and in the villagers' words, this was a "tax collector".
Jesus came to save even tax collectors.
We can hardly imagine how disturbing that really was, and how much it would cost him.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 27, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 5 verses 17 through 20:
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
In the 1950s a one hundred thousand year old skeleton of a Neaderthal was found by archaeologist Ralph Solecki. The skeletal record was shocking in all that had happened to it. The man had a multitude of very serious fractures. A crushing blow to the left side of his head had fractured his eye socket, displacing the eye and probably blinding him. Another blow to his right side had so incapacitated him that his right arm had withered to a point of disuse. The right lower arm and hand were missing altogether, while the right foot and lower right leg were damaged to a point of disability.
It was an astonishing discovery in the sheer brutality of what this person had suffered. But what made the discovery so extraordinary was not the bones' state of fracture, but rather their state of healing. The injuries sustained by this person were all in various states of healing when he died of likely natural causes. And the only conclusion that could be drawn from the evidence was that in spite of the prevailing idea the history of the human community entailed hundreds of thousands of years of advancement preconditioned by the survival of only the fittest, in fact the true history of humanity is a long history of the survival of the weakest supported by the community.
This severely wounded person could never have survived without the care and attention of those around him. In fact, with such debilitating injuries a whole community of people would have had to organize themselves around him. They would have had to devote hours per day to his survival and healing. He would have been the center of their lives.
Though the discovery happened in the 1950s, I just read about the discovery recently. It is truly extraordinary to me. I don't quite know what to do with it. Except this; it is causing me to reflect on the organization of my day. What would it mean, I keep asking myself, to move the weak and the suffering and the vulnerable from the margins to the center? What would it mean to take the hurting and wounded and place them more at the center of my own life?
I know the answer. I feel it already in my heart. In my own bones.
I would become more human.
17 On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. 18 And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, 19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. 20 And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
In the 1950s a one hundred thousand year old skeleton of a Neaderthal was found by archaeologist Ralph Solecki. The skeletal record was shocking in all that had happened to it. The man had a multitude of very serious fractures. A crushing blow to the left side of his head had fractured his eye socket, displacing the eye and probably blinding him. Another blow to his right side had so incapacitated him that his right arm had withered to a point of disuse. The right lower arm and hand were missing altogether, while the right foot and lower right leg were damaged to a point of disability.
It was an astonishing discovery in the sheer brutality of what this person had suffered. But what made the discovery so extraordinary was not the bones' state of fracture, but rather their state of healing. The injuries sustained by this person were all in various states of healing when he died of likely natural causes. And the only conclusion that could be drawn from the evidence was that in spite of the prevailing idea the history of the human community entailed hundreds of thousands of years of advancement preconditioned by the survival of only the fittest, in fact the true history of humanity is a long history of the survival of the weakest supported by the community.
This severely wounded person could never have survived without the care and attention of those around him. In fact, with such debilitating injuries a whole community of people would have had to organize themselves around him. They would have had to devote hours per day to his survival and healing. He would have been the center of their lives.
Though the discovery happened in the 1950s, I just read about the discovery recently. It is truly extraordinary to me. I don't quite know what to do with it. Except this; it is causing me to reflect on the organization of my day. What would it mean, I keep asking myself, to move the weak and the suffering and the vulnerable from the margins to the center? What would it mean to take the hurting and wounded and place them more at the center of my own life?
I know the answer. I feel it already in my heart. In my own bones.
I would become more human.
Monday, September 26, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 26, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 5 verses 1 through
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
This is a tough time to be one of Jesus' fishermen. Churches are closing left and right. The so-called "Nones" (meaning those who claim to have no religious affiliation) have doubled in number over the last eight years. And when was the last time a millennial walked into Wednesday night supper?The fish just don't want to bite.
Those who haven't already hung up the tackle and sold the boat have resorted to trolling around the lake's bank, playing it safe, making sure not to rock the boat. The message and music are safe and so too we think are the ministers. We first became fishermen because of the adventure of it all, the lure (pun intended) of being a part of something worth doing. But the times have convinced us it's better to cut bait, wash the nets, and maybe do something a little less risky with this year's budget, something like spend the endowment on new drapes for the fellowship hall. That'd be a safe and necessary thing to do.
And then, Jesus stands again on the seashore and calls for us to get back out there -- to push out into the deep water. To get him back into the boat and let him teach us something, like how to unmoor, push out, cast away, leave home, risk.
A clergy friend ends each service with this benediction:
May the LORD grant you the grace not to sell yourself short -- the grace to risk something bold for something good. Grace to remember that this world is too dangerous for anything but truth, and too small for anything but love.
And suddenly, the fish start biting again.
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
This is a tough time to be one of Jesus' fishermen. Churches are closing left and right. The so-called "Nones" (meaning those who claim to have no religious affiliation) have doubled in number over the last eight years. And when was the last time a millennial walked into Wednesday night supper?The fish just don't want to bite.
Those who haven't already hung up the tackle and sold the boat have resorted to trolling around the lake's bank, playing it safe, making sure not to rock the boat. The message and music are safe and so too we think are the ministers. We first became fishermen because of the adventure of it all, the lure (pun intended) of being a part of something worth doing. But the times have convinced us it's better to cut bait, wash the nets, and maybe do something a little less risky with this year's budget, something like spend the endowment on new drapes for the fellowship hall. That'd be a safe and necessary thing to do.
And then, Jesus stands again on the seashore and calls for us to get back out there -- to push out into the deep water. To get him back into the boat and let him teach us something, like how to unmoor, push out, cast away, leave home, risk.
A clergy friend ends each service with this benediction:
May the LORD grant you the grace not to sell yourself short -- the grace to risk something bold for something good. Grace to remember that this world is too dangerous for anything but truth, and too small for anything but love.
And suddenly, the fish start biting again.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 23, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson is a poem:
God, save the Queen (City),
Now come of age
After her brother Jim and sister Jane
She, the pride of Carolina
The hope of the New South
She, a mixed Cinderella
How about that!
And both sides were proud
Neither could hardly believe it
And maybe there's a reason
Because, now, we see that she has it too
The mark, the stain, the struggle
This burden we call History
God, save the Queen (City)
God, save the Queen (City),
Now come of age
After her brother Jim and sister Jane
She, the pride of Carolina
The hope of the New South
She, a mixed Cinderella
How about that!
And both sides were proud
Neither could hardly believe it
And maybe there's a reason
Because, now, we see that she has it too
The mark, the stain, the struggle
This burden we call History
God, save the Queen (City)
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 22, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Esther chapter 7 verses 1 through 3:
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” 3 Then Queen Esther answered . . .
Esther's story is a great tale demonstrating female agency in a very patriarchal society. Esther, who because of her physical beauty rises to the role of Queen (among an apparent host of other queens/concubines) demonstrates that she has more than good looks. She also has brains, shrewdly navigating the political world of the royal palace, and she has guts. She is the model of a woman of deep wisdom and courageous faith.
The most memorable line in the book of Esther is given not to Esther but to her cousin Mordecai as he pleads with her to act on behalf of their Jewish people by addressing the King. "And who knows," Mordecai says to Esther, "but that you have come to this royal position for just such time as this." The line is Mordecai's; but the venture is Esther's. She rises to the occasion.
Like I said, Esther is a story about agency -- and not just female agency, but really human agency. Agency requires choice. Esther inspires and challenges us to make the hard choice to speak up, to get involved, to risk boldly rather thank slink away into the shadows. We all have our Esther moments when we are presented with a choice of whether to speak up or remain silent, stand up or keep sitting. Esther stood up and she spoke and it saved her people. And the lesson for all of us is the fact that sometimes just one courageous voice can tip the scales of justice.
The Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates Esther's action in saving her people from the evil machinations of Haman. It's often a raucous affair full of comedic reenactments of the Esther story, sometimes (I've heard) even in drag. Ha man's name is always jeered. I went to a Purim festival at our local synagogue a few years back. The script was Esther at a kind of teen melodrama set at the equivalent of Bayside High. Esther's people were "Saved by the Bell". It was hilarious for those of us who grew up in the 90s. Drag was not involved but I did see some 60 year old men squeezed into letter jackets earned at much fewer poundage.
But besides that unforgettable image, the other unforgettable takeaway I had was this question -- what does it do for a people to yearly be reminded of Esther's story, to be reminded that you are a part of a people who were almost wiped out, save for the courage of one? And then this unavoidable question, if I were the one, if I were Esther, what would I have done?
In other words, the Purim play had me to ask, what would I have done in just such a time as that? And, more to the point, what will I do in just such a time a this?
So the king and Haman went in to feast with Queen Esther. 2 And on the second day, as they were drinking wine after the feast, the king again said to Esther, “What is your wish, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you. And what is your request? Even to the half of my kingdom, it shall be fulfilled.” 3 Then Queen Esther answered . . .
Esther's story is a great tale demonstrating female agency in a very patriarchal society. Esther, who because of her physical beauty rises to the role of Queen (among an apparent host of other queens/concubines) demonstrates that she has more than good looks. She also has brains, shrewdly navigating the political world of the royal palace, and she has guts. She is the model of a woman of deep wisdom and courageous faith.
The most memorable line in the book of Esther is given not to Esther but to her cousin Mordecai as he pleads with her to act on behalf of their Jewish people by addressing the King. "And who knows," Mordecai says to Esther, "but that you have come to this royal position for just such time as this." The line is Mordecai's; but the venture is Esther's. She rises to the occasion.
Like I said, Esther is a story about agency -- and not just female agency, but really human agency. Agency requires choice. Esther inspires and challenges us to make the hard choice to speak up, to get involved, to risk boldly rather thank slink away into the shadows. We all have our Esther moments when we are presented with a choice of whether to speak up or remain silent, stand up or keep sitting. Esther stood up and she spoke and it saved her people. And the lesson for all of us is the fact that sometimes just one courageous voice can tip the scales of justice.
The Jewish holiday of Purim commemorates Esther's action in saving her people from the evil machinations of Haman. It's often a raucous affair full of comedic reenactments of the Esther story, sometimes (I've heard) even in drag. Ha man's name is always jeered. I went to a Purim festival at our local synagogue a few years back. The script was Esther at a kind of teen melodrama set at the equivalent of Bayside High. Esther's people were "Saved by the Bell". It was hilarious for those of us who grew up in the 90s. Drag was not involved but I did see some 60 year old men squeezed into letter jackets earned at much fewer poundage.
But besides that unforgettable image, the other unforgettable takeaway I had was this question -- what does it do for a people to yearly be reminded of Esther's story, to be reminded that you are a part of a people who were almost wiped out, save for the courage of one? And then this unavoidable question, if I were the one, if I were Esther, what would I have done?
In other words, the Purim play had me to ask, what would I have done in just such a time as that? And, more to the point, what will I do in just such a time a this?
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 21, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 4 verses 1 through 4:
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
Yesterday a friend reminded me of the end of Dorothy Day's autobiography "The Long Loneliness", her story of the genesis of the Catholic Worker and its work among the poorest of the poor in New York City. Day's profound insight was her understanding that we are all poor in some deep way and therefore all in need of connection. She closes her book with these words, "We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community."
Jesus was famished after 40 days in the wilderness. The devil came with the idea to turn the stones into bread. It would have filled Jesus' stomach. But Jesus knew it would not have filled his deepest hunger -- the hunger for love and connection which always comes with community. This is the bread which must be kneaded, baked, prayed and fussed over, broken, and finally shared. It is the bread that, in the words of the Communion liturgy, must not only be taken but also given. This is the only bread that sustains. This is the bread of life.
On Saturday at 4pm St Benedict's Chapel will host our grand opening and ribbon cutting on our new building at 1615 28th St. It's a ministry to the homeless and the working poor and our mission is to feed body and soul. And my prayer is that with good music, BBQ, hot dogs and hamburgers for the kids, and so-called rich and poor folks all enjoying the afternoon together, this party might be a sign of good things to come on these new grounds. My prayer is that we'll all realize we have a little something to give and a little something to take away -- in body and also in soul.
We do all know the long loneliness. A full stomach can't cure it. But a full house might.
And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”
Yesterday a friend reminded me of the end of Dorothy Day's autobiography "The Long Loneliness", her story of the genesis of the Catholic Worker and its work among the poorest of the poor in New York City. Day's profound insight was her understanding that we are all poor in some deep way and therefore all in need of connection. She closes her book with these words, "We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community."
Jesus was famished after 40 days in the wilderness. The devil came with the idea to turn the stones into bread. It would have filled Jesus' stomach. But Jesus knew it would not have filled his deepest hunger -- the hunger for love and connection which always comes with community. This is the bread which must be kneaded, baked, prayed and fussed over, broken, and finally shared. It is the bread that, in the words of the Communion liturgy, must not only be taken but also given. This is the only bread that sustains. This is the bread of life.
On Saturday at 4pm St Benedict's Chapel will host our grand opening and ribbon cutting on our new building at 1615 28th St. It's a ministry to the homeless and the working poor and our mission is to feed body and soul. And my prayer is that with good music, BBQ, hot dogs and hamburgers for the kids, and so-called rich and poor folks all enjoying the afternoon together, this party might be a sign of good things to come on these new grounds. My prayer is that we'll all realize we have a little something to give and a little something to take away -- in body and also in soul.
We do all know the long loneliness. A full stomach can't cure it. But a full house might.
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 20, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 3 verses 16 through 17:
16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
A couple of weeks ago I talked about my grandfather Fred in church. He was a real mess. Born in Clinton, Arkansas, he was the son of a moonshiner and went off to play basketball for the Longhorns before being dismissed from the team -- apparently he didn't know there was also a university attached to that basketball program. He met my grandmother with what is perhaps the most unique first line I've ever heard. "You're the prettiest pregnant lady I've ever met." The rest was mostly downhill from there. He drank whisky and played golf daily and at his funeral someone called him a cross between Archie Bunker and Howard Stern. Fred would have taken it as a fine compliment.
Maybe right up until the end.
But just before Fred passed I talked to him on the phone from where I was living in Vermont. He must have known the end was near. He kissed me as always, but then he got sort of serious. "Will you preach me a good sermon?" he asked.
"I'll sure try," I said.
Then he got real serious. "Do you think once saved always saved?"
No matter how hard the exterior is, there is something soft inside us all. It's the kernel inside the shell -- the tender heart hidden beneath all the bluff and bluster.
God has a way of getting at that heart, of touching it.
Believe me, God does have a way.
16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
A couple of weeks ago I talked about my grandfather Fred in church. He was a real mess. Born in Clinton, Arkansas, he was the son of a moonshiner and went off to play basketball for the Longhorns before being dismissed from the team -- apparently he didn't know there was also a university attached to that basketball program. He met my grandmother with what is perhaps the most unique first line I've ever heard. "You're the prettiest pregnant lady I've ever met." The rest was mostly downhill from there. He drank whisky and played golf daily and at his funeral someone called him a cross between Archie Bunker and Howard Stern. Fred would have taken it as a fine compliment.
Maybe right up until the end.
But just before Fred passed I talked to him on the phone from where I was living in Vermont. He must have known the end was near. He kissed me as always, but then he got sort of serious. "Will you preach me a good sermon?" he asked.
"I'll sure try," I said.
Then he got real serious. "Do you think once saved always saved?"
No matter how hard the exterior is, there is something soft inside us all. It's the kernel inside the shell -- the tender heart hidden beneath all the bluff and bluster.
God has a way of getting at that heart, of touching it.
Believe me, God does have a way.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 19, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 3 verses 1 and 2:
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son Zechariah in the wilderness.
Luke's recording of the beginning of Jesus' ministry opens with a reference to all the governmental figures in the region and empire. The reference helps us locate the events to follow in their and context and would have helped the first century reader to understand what kind of characters were sitting in the seats of power at the time. These are the major political players --governors, tetrarchs and emperor. These are the ones who make all the decisions and wield all the authority. These are the ones who sit in the halls of power.
But then Luke says this, "[T]he word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness."
He has just given us an account of all the household names of the time, locating them at center stage of the drama. But then, just at the edge or margins, onto the stage steps this man John who will bring with him another man named Jesus. It is at the edge, in the wilderness, in the most isolated and unexpected of places that the word of God comes. It is there that what Clarence Jordan called "the God Movement" begins, off stage, in the desert, amongst the nobodies.
We're in an election year and everyone knows all the household political names. But the Lesson comes today to take our eyes off of center stage for a time, to get us to look around, to watch the edge, where on stage and off stage meet, and to see if perhaps that isn't where the word of God is coming -- right into our little town, our little church, our little people.
He who has eyes to see let him see.
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son Zechariah in the wilderness.
Luke's recording of the beginning of Jesus' ministry opens with a reference to all the governmental figures in the region and empire. The reference helps us locate the events to follow in their and context and would have helped the first century reader to understand what kind of characters were sitting in the seats of power at the time. These are the major political players --governors, tetrarchs and emperor. These are the ones who make all the decisions and wield all the authority. These are the ones who sit in the halls of power.
But then Luke says this, "[T]he word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness."
He has just given us an account of all the household names of the time, locating them at center stage of the drama. But then, just at the edge or margins, onto the stage steps this man John who will bring with him another man named Jesus. It is at the edge, in the wilderness, in the most isolated and unexpected of places that the word of God comes. It is there that what Clarence Jordan called "the God Movement" begins, off stage, in the desert, amongst the nobodies.
We're in an election year and everyone knows all the household political names. But the Lesson comes today to take our eyes off of center stage for a time, to get us to look around, to watch the edge, where on stage and off stage meet, and to see if perhaps that isn't where the word of God is coming -- right into our little town, our little church, our little people.
He who has eyes to see let him see.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 16, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Esther chapter 1 verses 10 through12:
10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, 11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at. 12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.
Now here's a story that needs to be read and preached more. Most churchgoers are vaguely familiar with the book of Esther and its namesake heroine who as Queen came in boldness before the King to save her people "for just such a time as this". Less familiar, however, is Esther's predecessor Vashti who in her own boldness refused to come before the King and have her beauty exploited for the sake of male entertainment. Here we have the very beginning of women's liberation and Vashti is its Rosa Parks.
Our girls need to here the Esther story more often so that it will be less vaguely remembered and so that the inspiration of strong, bold women can serve as an inspiration. Vashti ought not to be forgotten by our young girls.
And neither should she be forgotten by our young boys. We need to teach her story to them as well so that they might be challenged to think and reflect on the motive and meaning of her act of disobedience towards the king. Why did she refuse to be objectified? What does this story say about how we as a males are to view and treat women?
And, for all of us, what does this story teach us about courage and conviction? Vashti was dismissed by the king and made a pariah in the kingdom. She surely saw that coming. Yet, she was willing to pay the price. This is called agency. And it took strength and guts.
Vashti. Not a household name. But she should be.
10 On the seventh day, when the heart of the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha and Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of King Ahasuerus, 11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king with her royal crown, in order to show the peoples and the princes her beauty, for she was lovely to look at. 12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the eunuchs. At this the king became enraged, and his anger burned within him.
Now here's a story that needs to be read and preached more. Most churchgoers are vaguely familiar with the book of Esther and its namesake heroine who as Queen came in boldness before the King to save her people "for just such a time as this". Less familiar, however, is Esther's predecessor Vashti who in her own boldness refused to come before the King and have her beauty exploited for the sake of male entertainment. Here we have the very beginning of women's liberation and Vashti is its Rosa Parks.
Our girls need to here the Esther story more often so that it will be less vaguely remembered and so that the inspiration of strong, bold women can serve as an inspiration. Vashti ought not to be forgotten by our young girls.
And neither should she be forgotten by our young boys. We need to teach her story to them as well so that they might be challenged to think and reflect on the motive and meaning of her act of disobedience towards the king. Why did she refuse to be objectified? What does this story say about how we as a males are to view and treat women?
And, for all of us, what does this story teach us about courage and conviction? Vashti was dismissed by the king and made a pariah in the kingdom. She surely saw that coming. Yet, she was willing to pay the price. This is called agency. And it took strength and guts.
Vashti. Not a household name. But she should be.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 15, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 16 verses 25 through 39a:
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them.
Paul and Silas were in the city of Philippi preaching the Gospel when they were unlawfully detained, beaten, and imprisoned by the authorities. The charge was a racialized one. "These Jews," the authorities said, "are troublemakers." Once jailed, however, Paul and Silas did not cease their witness. They prayed and sang while the other prisoners listened on in the cells.
Suddenly there was an earthquake, a great shaking which rocked the very foundation of the judicial and penal system there in Philippi. Everyone in the prison had their shackles freed. At that moment there might well have been a jail break, or a riot. The jailer was about to take his own for fear of what would be done to him. But Paul called out to him, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” Why the other prisoners did not harm or kill the jailer can only be explained by the fact of Paul's and Silas's preaching. The other disciples had a heard the message of the Gospel that all lives matter -- even the jailer's. The jailer called for lights. All the prisoners were still there. None attacked him. Trembling with fear, the jailer fell down. "What must I do to be saved?" he asked. Soon he and his whole household had been saved -- in more than one way.
But the disciples were not done. There was still the matter of justice to be addressed. The magistrates, conscious of their unlawful action, asked that Paul and Silas go on and not come back. But release from jail was not enough for Paul and Silas. They had been unjustifiably detained, harassed, abused, and imprisoned. Their civil had been violated and their procedural rights had been denied. To go away without saying anything would only perpetuate the unjust system, whose very foundation needed to be shaken. So Paul and Silas refused to just be dismissed and go on home. They chose instead to demonstrate, to make a public statement, and to demand from the city a formal apology and redress. In other words, they demanded that the system's flaws be acknowledged and that procedural justice be instituted. They did this not for themselves, but for the city and for its people.
And in doing so, they saved yet even more -- prisoners, jailer, jailer's household, and now magistrates. In fact, I guess you could say, they saved the whole city and all it's people.
I wonder if this story has anything to say to us today?
25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were unfastened. 27 When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. 28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” 29 And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. 30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. 34 Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, “Let those men go.” 36 And the jailer reported these words to Paul, saying, “The magistrates have sent to let you go. Therefore come out now and go in peace.” 37 But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly? No! Let them come themselves and take us out.” 38 The police reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Roman citizens. 39 So they came and apologized to them.
Paul and Silas were in the city of Philippi preaching the Gospel when they were unlawfully detained, beaten, and imprisoned by the authorities. The charge was a racialized one. "These Jews," the authorities said, "are troublemakers." Once jailed, however, Paul and Silas did not cease their witness. They prayed and sang while the other prisoners listened on in the cells.
Suddenly there was an earthquake, a great shaking which rocked the very foundation of the judicial and penal system there in Philippi. Everyone in the prison had their shackles freed. At that moment there might well have been a jail break, or a riot. The jailer was about to take his own for fear of what would be done to him. But Paul called out to him, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” Why the other prisoners did not harm or kill the jailer can only be explained by the fact of Paul's and Silas's preaching. The other disciples had a heard the message of the Gospel that all lives matter -- even the jailer's. The jailer called for lights. All the prisoners were still there. None attacked him. Trembling with fear, the jailer fell down. "What must I do to be saved?" he asked. Soon he and his whole household had been saved -- in more than one way.
But the disciples were not done. There was still the matter of justice to be addressed. The magistrates, conscious of their unlawful action, asked that Paul and Silas go on and not come back. But release from jail was not enough for Paul and Silas. They had been unjustifiably detained, harassed, abused, and imprisoned. Their civil had been violated and their procedural rights had been denied. To go away without saying anything would only perpetuate the unjust system, whose very foundation needed to be shaken. So Paul and Silas refused to just be dismissed and go on home. They chose instead to demonstrate, to make a public statement, and to demand from the city a formal apology and redress. In other words, they demanded that the system's flaws be acknowledged and that procedural justice be instituted. They did this not for themselves, but for the city and for its people.
And in doing so, they saved yet even more -- prisoners, jailer, jailer's household, and now magistrates. In fact, I guess you could say, they saved the whole city and all it's people.
I wonder if this story has anything to say to us today?
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 14, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson is in Memoriam:
Yesterday I had the honor of officiating a celebration of life service for a woman named Jan Caffey. Jan was a woman with a personality (and hair) as big as life, and someone who always took up the cause of the underdog.
At the service Jan's daughter Liz shared a story from a baseball season in Liz's childhood. As a 2nd or 3rd grader Liz was on a team whose coach had directed all the kids who couldn't hit the ball to simply never swing when they came up to bat. His philosophy was that they had a greater chance of being walked to first base than they did making it there on their own.
Well, Jan couldn't believe it. To her, this seemed antithetical to the whole idea of youth sports and sportsmanship in general.
So, being who she was she decided to do something about it. Still decked out in her big hair and big makeup and big flair jewelry (she did exchange her big high heels for some more sensible sneakers), Jan took all the kids who supposedly couldn't hit and she went to coaching batting practice. In fact, she and her husband Richard coached them through the offseason and then put them back together for the next year. And that next season all the kids who the year before had been told to keep their bats on their shoulders came out swinging and ended up actually winning the league.
At the end of the service yesterday, Grace Rogers, a woman in the congregation who had taught with Jan came forward carried on an old memorial tradition introduced to us by one of Second B's former pastors, Ted Dotts. She renamed Jan. And the name Grace gave her was "Champion".
That was fitting and true in many, many ways.
Yesterday I had the honor of officiating a celebration of life service for a woman named Jan Caffey. Jan was a woman with a personality (and hair) as big as life, and someone who always took up the cause of the underdog.
At the service Jan's daughter Liz shared a story from a baseball season in Liz's childhood. As a 2nd or 3rd grader Liz was on a team whose coach had directed all the kids who couldn't hit the ball to simply never swing when they came up to bat. His philosophy was that they had a greater chance of being walked to first base than they did making it there on their own.
Well, Jan couldn't believe it. To her, this seemed antithetical to the whole idea of youth sports and sportsmanship in general.
So, being who she was she decided to do something about it. Still decked out in her big hair and big makeup and big flair jewelry (she did exchange her big high heels for some more sensible sneakers), Jan took all the kids who supposedly couldn't hit and she went to coaching batting practice. In fact, she and her husband Richard coached them through the offseason and then put them back together for the next year. And that next season all the kids who the year before had been told to keep their bats on their shoulders came out swinging and ended up actually winning the league.
At the end of the service yesterday, Grace Rogers, a woman in the congregation who had taught with Jan came forward carried on an old memorial tradition introduced to us by one of Second B's former pastors, Ted Dotts. She renamed Jan. And the name Grace gave her was "Champion".
That was fitting and true in many, many ways.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 13, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 61 verses 1 through 3:
1 Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
3 for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.
The psalmist says he cries out from the end of the earth. This is the place from which there is no other place to go. There is no chance of further working it out. This is the end of the road and it's a dead end. It is sometimes called rock bottom.
Then the psalmist looks toward another rock, higher and stronger. This is what some call the higher power, the rock of salvation. It is not "out there", though we could not live without places of actual physical refuge and security. But the psalmist says the one who saves is the one who leads us to the rock. This is the rock we discover within. The source of of strength and resilience. This is the ground where we learn to stand on our own two feet and refuse to be pushed over. This is the place where God is discovered within.
A couple years back we did a play called "Seven" which was about women's empowerment across the globe. We partnered with Women's Protective Services here in town to bring women they had helped escape abusive situations to come and see the play. I spent many hours getting to know some of the women there and learning about the classes they were taking. Beyond the physical protection WPS offered, there was something else equally if not more important: that was the work they were doing to help these women discover their own inner strength and see their own resilience.
This is our rock of salvation, out strong tower against the enemy. And the one who leads us to discover this tower of refuge is the God of our understanding, or what Christians call the Christ within.
1 Hear my cry, O God,
listen to my prayer;
2 from the end of the earth I call to you
when my heart is faint.
Lead me to the rock
that is higher than I,
3 for you have been my refuge,
a strong tower against the enemy.
The psalmist says he cries out from the end of the earth. This is the place from which there is no other place to go. There is no chance of further working it out. This is the end of the road and it's a dead end. It is sometimes called rock bottom.
Then the psalmist looks toward another rock, higher and stronger. This is what some call the higher power, the rock of salvation. It is not "out there", though we could not live without places of actual physical refuge and security. But the psalmist says the one who saves is the one who leads us to the rock. This is the rock we discover within. The source of of strength and resilience. This is the ground where we learn to stand on our own two feet and refuse to be pushed over. This is the place where God is discovered within.
A couple years back we did a play called "Seven" which was about women's empowerment across the globe. We partnered with Women's Protective Services here in town to bring women they had helped escape abusive situations to come and see the play. I spent many hours getting to know some of the women there and learning about the classes they were taking. Beyond the physical protection WPS offered, there was something else equally if not more important: that was the work they were doing to help these women discover their own inner strength and see their own resilience.
This is our rock of salvation, out strong tower against the enemy. And the one who leads us to discover this tower of refuge is the God of our understanding, or what Christians call the Christ within.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 12, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 12 verses 1 through 8:
12 Six days before ithe Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
One of the most difficult times a family often has is in the days immediately following the death of a loved one. Especially when the passing was sudden or not well planned for, there is 36 to 48 hours of gut-wrenching and stressful decisions to make. Oftentimes, the decisions involve the balance between wanting to appropriately honor their loved one and the limitations of a fixed budget. Sometimes I have found certain funeral homes' practices to be exploitative of families' grief and considerably harmful to their bottom line. I have seen families fall deeper and deeper into debt because they were trying to honor mom or dad with a casket they couldn't afford. This is not only sad, it's also unconscionable.
In today's Lesson we are given another way. Mary comes to anoint Jesus' body, but she does so before and not after his death. She takes the time to show her love and devotion to Jesus now, before his death, rather than waiting until after he is gone. She takes the time to come and honor her beloved while she knows she still has the time. She honors him in life rather than waiting for death.
I wonder if as a culture we would all be a lot healthier and less grief stricken if we learned from Mary how to honor and be present to the living rather than waiting and trying to make it up to the dead.
In Mother (now Saint) Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize reception speech she spoke of working in a nursing home for wealthy people. She said that though the people there were well to do and had all manner of amenities in each of their respective rooms, she also said that as she passed by in the halls she noticed something common about all the residents. They all had there heads turned to Theodore and their eyes looking out into the hallway. They were looking for someone to come and visit them. No matter how much in material things they had, what they really needed was human company, presence, and touch.
It can be costly to give up the time and go and visit the dying. Anointing Jesus with her perfume cost Mary three hundred denarii -- a year's worth of pay for a common laborer. But what she bought with it would last the rest of hers and Jesus' life. For she had prepared Jesus for his death; and she had also prepared herself.
And the whole house was filled with fragrance from the perfume.
12 Six days before ithe Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” 6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. 8 For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”
One of the most difficult times a family often has is in the days immediately following the death of a loved one. Especially when the passing was sudden or not well planned for, there is 36 to 48 hours of gut-wrenching and stressful decisions to make. Oftentimes, the decisions involve the balance between wanting to appropriately honor their loved one and the limitations of a fixed budget. Sometimes I have found certain funeral homes' practices to be exploitative of families' grief and considerably harmful to their bottom line. I have seen families fall deeper and deeper into debt because they were trying to honor mom or dad with a casket they couldn't afford. This is not only sad, it's also unconscionable.
In today's Lesson we are given another way. Mary comes to anoint Jesus' body, but she does so before and not after his death. She takes the time to show her love and devotion to Jesus now, before his death, rather than waiting until after he is gone. She takes the time to come and honor her beloved while she knows she still has the time. She honors him in life rather than waiting for death.
I wonder if as a culture we would all be a lot healthier and less grief stricken if we learned from Mary how to honor and be present to the living rather than waiting and trying to make it up to the dead.
In Mother (now Saint) Teresa's Nobel Peace Prize reception speech she spoke of working in a nursing home for wealthy people. She said that though the people there were well to do and had all manner of amenities in each of their respective rooms, she also said that as she passed by in the halls she noticed something common about all the residents. They all had there heads turned to Theodore and their eyes looking out into the hallway. They were looking for someone to come and visit them. No matter how much in material things they had, what they really needed was human company, presence, and touch.
It can be costly to give up the time and go and visit the dying. Anointing Jesus with her perfume cost Mary three hundred denarii -- a year's worth of pay for a common laborer. But what she bought with it would last the rest of hers and Jesus' life. For she had prepared Jesus for his death; and she had also prepared herself.
And the whole house was filled with fragrance from the perfume.
Friday, September 9, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 9, 2016 Part 2
A Part 2 on today's Daily Lesson:
Today's Daily a lesson comes from John chapter 11 verses 43 and 44:
43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
As I said in my earlier post, a person came to see me who though a Christian is still bound with problems of addiction and substance abuse and is, quite frankly, wondering if their Christian experience of salvation was meaningful or real or somehow inadequate.
What the Lazarus story teaches us is that salvation -- the act of being saved from the existential death we call sin -- is very often a process. It does not always happen all at once and we must not impress upon people the demand that it do so.
The Christian understanding is that the death that is in humanity has been swallowed up in the life that is Christ. There is more life in Christ than there is dean in us. As Jesus says in today's Lesson, he is "the resurrection and the life". Wherever Christ is there is resurrection and life -- even in death. This is he meaning of true life. Death has lost its sting -- which is to say it's terror over our lives.
And yet though the disease of sin and death may be healed in and of itself, their consequences are seldom undone all at once. It takes time -- sometimes years, sometimes a lifetime -- to be made well. What the Bible refers to as our grave clothes -- the burdens of shame, guilt, anxiety, subconscious disease -- we still wear. The process of living into the fullness of life involves our stripping away and being unbound by these garments of death.
For those still somewhere in between, like my visitor, the word for you is to keep hope. God is not done yet. You still have things to take off and put. But the good news is that the disease itself has been cured. Your sins are forgiven. Death has been swallowed up by life. Accept these things and accept where yourself. For God has accepted you.
"Unbind him, let him go," Jesus said. And it happened. My encouragement is to wait for it to happen.
Or, as they say in AA, "it works if you work it."
Today's Daily a lesson comes from John chapter 11 verses 43 and 44:
43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
As I said in my earlier post, a person came to see me who though a Christian is still bound with problems of addiction and substance abuse and is, quite frankly, wondering if their Christian experience of salvation was meaningful or real or somehow inadequate.
What the Lazarus story teaches us is that salvation -- the act of being saved from the existential death we call sin -- is very often a process. It does not always happen all at once and we must not impress upon people the demand that it do so.
The Christian understanding is that the death that is in humanity has been swallowed up in the life that is Christ. There is more life in Christ than there is dean in us. As Jesus says in today's Lesson, he is "the resurrection and the life". Wherever Christ is there is resurrection and life -- even in death. This is he meaning of true life. Death has lost its sting -- which is to say it's terror over our lives.
And yet though the disease of sin and death may be healed in and of itself, their consequences are seldom undone all at once. It takes time -- sometimes years, sometimes a lifetime -- to be made well. What the Bible refers to as our grave clothes -- the burdens of shame, guilt, anxiety, subconscious disease -- we still wear. The process of living into the fullness of life involves our stripping away and being unbound by these garments of death.
For those still somewhere in between, like my visitor, the word for you is to keep hope. God is not done yet. You still have things to take off and put. But the good news is that the disease itself has been cured. Your sins are forgiven. Death has been swallowed up by life. Accept these things and accept where yourself. For God has accepted you.
"Unbind him, let him go," Jesus said. And it happened. My encouragement is to wait for it to happen.
Or, as they say in AA, "it works if you work it."
Daily Lesson for September 9, 2016
Today's Daily a lesson comes from John chapter 11 verses 43 and 44:
43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Not long ago a person came to visit me who is a Christian and has been for many, many years but who still nevertheless deals with the problems of substance abuse and addiction. In our conversation, it was obvious that the standard Sunday morning church message was of no help because most of the sermons this person was hearing were about the need to get saved and go to heaven. This person was already saved and going to heaven. But this person was also still in a world of hell.
Today's Lesson is the raising of Lazarus. Standing at the tomb, Jesus says, "Lazarus come out." But it is not Lazarus who comes out. The Bible says that it is "the man who died" who came out of the tomb. Lazarus was still buried underneath the garments of death. He was no longer in the grave, but he was still dead.
"Unbind him," Jesus says, "and let him go."
We can be saved from here until when the cows come home. But as long as we are still trapped in the garments of death, we are not yet alive and not yet the people Christ is calling us to become.
During the Baptismal Rite, just as the candidate is lowered beneath the waters, the minister proclaims that we have been "buried in sin and raised to new life in Christ." That new life is available here and now in this world. It is the power of God to raise us to this new life and the power of God to set us free.
And we can be free indeed.
Thursday, September 8, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 8, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 11 verses 17 through 27:
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Mary is like so many overwhelmed by grief. In reliving what has happened to her brother she betrays her own frustration and perhaps anger with Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here . . ." This is Mary looking for reason, looking for control, trying to make sense.
"Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died."
Mary's conception of a Messiah is one who would never let a loved one die. If Jesus had been there this would not have happened.
Jesus answers in a gentle reframing, "Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." There is pastoral subtlety here. Jesus' words are soft, yet corrective. Mary is not quite right. There will still be death; but there will also be life. For there shall be a life that will be found even in the dying and a hope in the dead.
"I am the resurrection and the life," Jesus says to Mary. And so, wherever Jesus is there is also resurrection and life -- even in the very midst of death and dying.
If you've ever been present when someone of great faith has died then you will know what this is like. There is a peace in the room, a peaceful and still awe. Death is there; yes. But even more life. No one says, "Lord, if you had only been here." For everyone knows, can feel, that the Lord is there. The one who is resurrection and life is right there."
There is a hush. And a holy silence. And then someone sings a hymn:
"There's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place
And I know that it's the presence of the Lord."
17 Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20 So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”
Mary is like so many overwhelmed by grief. In reliving what has happened to her brother she betrays her own frustration and perhaps anger with Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here . . ." This is Mary looking for reason, looking for control, trying to make sense.
"Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died."
Mary's conception of a Messiah is one who would never let a loved one die. If Jesus had been there this would not have happened.
Jesus answers in a gentle reframing, "Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live." There is pastoral subtlety here. Jesus' words are soft, yet corrective. Mary is not quite right. There will still be death; but there will also be life. For there shall be a life that will be found even in the dying and a hope in the dead.
"I am the resurrection and the life," Jesus says to Mary. And so, wherever Jesus is there is also resurrection and life -- even in the very midst of death and dying.
If you've ever been present when someone of great faith has died then you will know what this is like. There is a peace in the room, a peaceful and still awe. Death is there; yes. But even more life. No one says, "Lord, if you had only been here." For everyone knows, can feel, that the Lord is there. The one who is resurrection and life is right there."
There is a hush. And a holy silence. And then someone sings a hymn:
"There's a sweet, sweet spirit in this place
And I know that it's the presence of the Lord."
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 7, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 11 verses 8 through 10:
8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, [they] were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Jacques Lusseryan was a blind French resistance fighter imprisoned by the Nazi's in Buchenwald. In his memoir Lusseryan tells how though blinded at age eight, he later discovered within himself an ability to sense where objects were and at what distance around him. It was a new power to see the world in a new way. He called this power the light within. Yet when Lusseryan was arrested by the Nazis, his fear and anger diminished the power of the light within. Lusseryan found himself no longer able to navigate the interior of Buchenwald as he had the outside world. He had lost his light. Part of his memoir is about Lusseryan's learning to recover the light within.
The Quakers teach that we are all born with an inner light. The light is fueled by a sense of peace and connection to the people and world around us. There is a oneness in the source of this light. This is the inner light which allows us to walk in even the darkest of places and not stumble or fall.
Anger, frustration, fear, and hatred diminish the light. These things darken our spirit and blind us to the light within ourselves and within others. Blind rage is the ultimate diminishment of the inner light.
Pause. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply and try to get in touch with the source of the light within. Stay in touch with it. Welcome it. As you breathe, imagine the light waxing the energy of oxygen from your own spirit. Stay in that place of light for a few moments.
And now, ask the light to go with you throughout your day and welcome it as your guide wherever you go -- even into anxious, stressful, and dark places.
The light of the world is within you; believe in it.
8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, [they] were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.10 But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
Jacques Lusseryan was a blind French resistance fighter imprisoned by the Nazi's in Buchenwald. In his memoir Lusseryan tells how though blinded at age eight, he later discovered within himself an ability to sense where objects were and at what distance around him. It was a new power to see the world in a new way. He called this power the light within. Yet when Lusseryan was arrested by the Nazis, his fear and anger diminished the power of the light within. Lusseryan found himself no longer able to navigate the interior of Buchenwald as he had the outside world. He had lost his light. Part of his memoir is about Lusseryan's learning to recover the light within.
The Quakers teach that we are all born with an inner light. The light is fueled by a sense of peace and connection to the people and world around us. There is a oneness in the source of this light. This is the inner light which allows us to walk in even the darkest of places and not stumble or fall.
Anger, frustration, fear, and hatred diminish the light. These things darken our spirit and blind us to the light within ourselves and within others. Blind rage is the ultimate diminishment of the inner light.
Pause. Close your eyes. Breathe deeply and try to get in touch with the source of the light within. Stay in touch with it. Welcome it. As you breathe, imagine the light waxing the energy of oxygen from your own spirit. Stay in that place of light for a few moments.
And now, ask the light to go with you throughout your day and welcome it as your guide wherever you go -- even into anxious, stressful, and dark places.
The light of the world is within you; believe in it.
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 6, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 48 verses 1 through 3
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
3 Within her citadels God
has made himself known as a fortress.
On Saturday night I listened to a Garrison Keillor show broadcast live from the Minnesota Fair. He joked about how in the age of revival the church pulled in the masses with threats of Jesus' imminent return only to then ask that the people contribute to the building fund.
We can never quite make up our minds. Are we living in the temporal or the eternal? The interim or the long term? Are we pilgrims on a journey or is a mighty fortress our God?
Richard Rohr would say the answer is both/and. The nondual mind and heart can embrace opposites and hold space for both extremes.
I come mostly from the pilgrim side of faith. My Baptist spirituality draws a strong line from Roger Williams, who was kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded Providence Rhode Island, the first colony to build a city without first building a church house. It's in our bloodline not to confuse a building with the trueCity of God; and we can point to John the Baptist as our model -- he who left the walled city of Jerusalem to go out and Baptize in the wilderness.
So, let me cross to the other side of the non-dual stream and say what is beautiful and good about a church building or walled city:
These are places of refuge. A place for the weary to rest. A secure space for the victim to feel safe. A covered house of protection from the elements of nature and also from evil.
These are good things. These are Godly things. And they belong within the Baptist theological imagination just as "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" belongs in our hymnal.
A mighty fortress is our God -- a bulwark never failing.
Sometimes we just need to sing and hear that.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
3 Within her citadels God
has made himself known as a fortress.
On Saturday night I listened to a Garrison Keillor show broadcast live from the Minnesota Fair. He joked about how in the age of revival the church pulled in the masses with threats of Jesus' imminent return only to then ask that the people contribute to the building fund.
We can never quite make up our minds. Are we living in the temporal or the eternal? The interim or the long term? Are we pilgrims on a journey or is a mighty fortress our God?
Richard Rohr would say the answer is both/and. The nondual mind and heart can embrace opposites and hold space for both extremes.
I come mostly from the pilgrim side of faith. My Baptist spirituality draws a strong line from Roger Williams, who was kicked out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and founded Providence Rhode Island, the first colony to build a city without first building a church house. It's in our bloodline not to confuse a building with the trueCity of God; and we can point to John the Baptist as our model -- he who left the walled city of Jerusalem to go out and Baptize in the wilderness.
So, let me cross to the other side of the non-dual stream and say what is beautiful and good about a church building or walled city:
These are places of refuge. A place for the weary to rest. A secure space for the victim to feel safe. A covered house of protection from the elements of nature and also from evil.
These are good things. These are Godly things. And they belong within the Baptist theological imagination just as "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" belongs in our hymnal.
A mighty fortress is our God -- a bulwark never failing.
Sometimes we just need to sing and hear that.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 5, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 1 verses 11 and 14:
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh . . . 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
Today is Labor Day, a fitting day to remember that protest and organization in the cause against exploitation in the workplace has a seminal place in the Biblical story.
Today most of us are likely to celebrate Labor Day with an end of summer cookout. But in the late-19th century when the federal holiday was first established, in the North the day was filled with union parades, beer drinking, and sermons and addresses on the moral and spiritual meaning of labor and the laborer. I don't know if all the beer drinking made the sermons better or worse; but if you had been there you would likely have heard a reflection on Pharaoh and the harshness of his taskmasters towards the Israelite working/slave class.
Labor conditions have changed much for the better since the 1890s. But an honest day's wage for an honest day's work can never be taken for granted and must be guarded with vigilance from generation to generation. The conditions of what constitutes a fair and livable wage and standard of living are different in 2016 from what they were in 1896. So there are still serious questions to be asked about what is fair and what is decent.
Labor Day is intended as a reminder to us all that these are questions we all ought to consider.
And today's Lesson reminds us that these questions matter to God because the livelihood of the laborer and his or her family matters to God; and God cares enough to see that they are done right.
That's my sermon for today; sorry it came before the beer.
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh . . . 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
Today is Labor Day, a fitting day to remember that protest and organization in the cause against exploitation in the workplace has a seminal place in the Biblical story.
Today most of us are likely to celebrate Labor Day with an end of summer cookout. But in the late-19th century when the federal holiday was first established, in the North the day was filled with union parades, beer drinking, and sermons and addresses on the moral and spiritual meaning of labor and the laborer. I don't know if all the beer drinking made the sermons better or worse; but if you had been there you would likely have heard a reflection on Pharaoh and the harshness of his taskmasters towards the Israelite working/slave class.
Labor conditions have changed much for the better since the 1890s. But an honest day's wage for an honest day's work can never be taken for granted and must be guarded with vigilance from generation to generation. The conditions of what constitutes a fair and livable wage and standard of living are different in 2016 from what they were in 1896. So there are still serious questions to be asked about what is fair and what is decent.
Labor Day is intended as a reminder to us all that these are questions we all ought to consider.
And today's Lesson reminds us that these questions matter to God because the livelihood of the laborer and his or her family matters to God; and God cares enough to see that they are done right.
That's my sermon for today; sorry it came before the beer.
Friday, September 2, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 2, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 9 verses 35 through 41:
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”
Certainty is so blessed. He knows everything.
Certainty knows who's a sinner and who's a saint. He knows who's going to heaven and who's going to hell. He knows why tragedy strikes a particular family or a particular community at a particular time and why somebody was born the way they were. Certainty really does know everything. He's a real know-it-all.
Certainty asked me the other day if I would like him to teach me a few thing -- enlighten me to God's own truth. I wanted to let Certainty teach me everything he knew. I wanted him to teach me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But then, something random popped into my mind. Jack Nicholson of all people. "You want the truth?" Jack screamed in his angry, gravely voice, "You can't handle the truth!"
I don't know, I thought. Maybe I can't handle the truth and maybe I can. Maybe I can handle a little truth. But the whole truth? Jack's probably right.
So I made a deal with Certainty. I told him he could make me certain of one thing and one thing only. What he told me was good. He told me I could be absolutely certain that I do not know everything.
That was good to know.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 36 He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 37 Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” 38 He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.”
Certainty is so blessed. He knows everything.
Certainty knows who's a sinner and who's a saint. He knows who's going to heaven and who's going to hell. He knows why tragedy strikes a particular family or a particular community at a particular time and why somebody was born the way they were. Certainty really does know everything. He's a real know-it-all.
Certainty asked me the other day if I would like him to teach me a few thing -- enlighten me to God's own truth. I wanted to let Certainty teach me everything he knew. I wanted him to teach me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. But then, something random popped into my mind. Jack Nicholson of all people. "You want the truth?" Jack screamed in his angry, gravely voice, "You can't handle the truth!"
I don't know, I thought. Maybe I can't handle the truth and maybe I can. Maybe I can handle a little truth. But the whole truth? Jack's probably right.
So I made a deal with Certainty. I told him he could make me certain of one thing and one thing only. What he told me was good. He told me I could be absolutely certain that I do not know everything.
That was good to know.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Daily Lesson for September 1, 2016
Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 13 verses 7 through 12:
7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
In every age the charge is always the same: those opposed to the movement of God demonize it and call it crooked. This is the "eternal sin" (often misinterpreted as the "unforgivable sin"); it is the sin that has been taking place and will take place in every age for all eternity. The sin is calling crooked what God has called straight and unclean what God has called clean. We see it in another of the official charges leveled at the disciples in the book of Acts: "These men are turning the world upside down." In fact, they were turning it right side up. But those who are accustomed to an upside down world will always see a rightside world as wrong. It takes new eyes to see.
Thus enters Paul and his curse, which in fact actually had the prospect for blessing. For Paul himself had been just like the others, cursing and persecuting and charging this new movement of God with being crooked. And then a flash fell from the sky to make him blind for a short while. And in the frailty of his blindness he now saw what he could not see in the strength of his sight.
"He will be a sign that will be opposed," the old man Simeon said of the infant Jesus on the day of his dedication. And he has. He has always been a wrong way sign opposed by those who claim to see rightly.
And so we pray for blindness, that the eyes of hearts may be opened to see what cannot be perceived by the eyes of our head.
7 He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence, who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) opposed them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. 9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 10 and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time.” Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
In every age the charge is always the same: those opposed to the movement of God demonize it and call it crooked. This is the "eternal sin" (often misinterpreted as the "unforgivable sin"); it is the sin that has been taking place and will take place in every age for all eternity. The sin is calling crooked what God has called straight and unclean what God has called clean. We see it in another of the official charges leveled at the disciples in the book of Acts: "These men are turning the world upside down." In fact, they were turning it right side up. But those who are accustomed to an upside down world will always see a rightside world as wrong. It takes new eyes to see.
Thus enters Paul and his curse, which in fact actually had the prospect for blessing. For Paul himself had been just like the others, cursing and persecuting and charging this new movement of God with being crooked. And then a flash fell from the sky to make him blind for a short while. And in the frailty of his blindness he now saw what he could not see in the strength of his sight.
"He will be a sign that will be opposed," the old man Simeon said of the infant Jesus on the day of his dedication. And he has. He has always been a wrong way sign opposed by those who claim to see rightly.
And so we pray for blindness, that the eyes of hearts may be opened to see what cannot be perceived by the eyes of our head.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)