Daily Lesson for October 31, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 56 verses 8 and 9:

8 You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.

If there is one deep truth that has sustained and encouraged me more than any other it is the gift of knowing -- of truly experiencing -- the profound truth that God is for me. And if there is one gift I would consider is most imperative in the act of ministry it is the gift of sharing the good news with others that God is for them also.

God has counted our tossing in the night. God has gathered our tears in a bottle. God knows their weight.  God has taken note in His book.

This is a God of intimacy. It is a God pathos.  It is a God who hopes the very best for me.  It is a God who still even after all my failures comes into my room and sits on the bed beside me like a father with his boy. This is a God of deep, deep, and unconditional love.

God is for us; and if God is for us who can be against us?

Daily Lesson for October 28, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 12

13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Ugh, a family dispute over money. The worst!

A knucklehead son wants Jesus to help him get his knucklehead brother to give him a larger claim of their parent's inheritance. Sure, get the preacher involved. I'm sure he sees it God's way -- unless he sees it the other way.

Jesus is having no part of this nonsense. "Do I look like a judge?" he asks. "A mediator, an arbitrator -- a fool?

"No thank you. Never.  Ain't going there. Let me tell you a story instead."

The story goes like this:

A man has a bumper crop one year and decides he'll just store it all up.  Never mind that the Biblical word for storing it all up is hoarding. But heck, this guy doesn't have any friends anyways.  He's pretty much his own world. Check out how he talks. Talk reveals a lot. Nine times he uses the words "I" or "my" and not once "they" or "theirs". It's a first person possessive world for this guy. The best he can do is to talk to his own soul.

The barns are all full. The storehouse piled high. Now it's time to sit back and relax.  "Eat, drink, have some fun."

And then the kicker. Day one of retirement he kicks the bucket.

"And so," Jesus concludes his story, "all that stuff that was piled up, who's will it be now?"

And the answer dawns on us:

Probably his two knucklehead sons.

Sad to say, but I can't think of a truer story.

Daily Lesson for October 27, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 11 verses 53 through 54 and chapter 12 verses 1 through 3:

53 As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things, 54 lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops."

For Christians, what we say that gets us into trouble ought not to be what is secretly recorded in a conversation or Wikileaked from our emails. What ought to bring us trouble is what we state clearly and forthrightly before God and everybody us. What ought to get a Christian in trouble is not our deception or duplicity or hypocrisy but our truth.

There comes a moment when we all need to speak our truth and let the chips fall where they may. This the moment when we feel compelled to take what has thus far only been whispered under the cover of darkness and discretion of marriage bed and to speak it on the floor of congregational meeting or the in-law dinner table. This is the moment of truth.

How to do it?  I've always liked what that great champion of senior citizen rights, "Gray Panther", Maggie Kuhn said:

"Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes."

Our feeble voices may tremble and quiver, but one little word of unalloyed truth has the power to shudder the whole world.

Daily Lesson for October 26, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 11 verses 37 through 41:

37 While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. 38 The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. 39 And the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness.40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you."

Now here is something obvious, yet very easily missed: the cure for greed is giving away.

That is about as simple and as straightforward as it gets. But it is also not the answer we were hoping for.

I, for one, would prefer my greed to be cleansed in some other kind of less demanding way. More money would surely lessen my desire for it!

But no, the cure for the love of money is less, not more. The cure is letting go, giving up.

If I want the inside of the cup to be cleansed then I have to poor out what is within. If I want to be relieved of my fantasies of all that I could do with a little bit more then I've actually got to do with a little bit less.

And as we say in West Texas:

"Well, shoot."

Daily Lesson for October 25, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 11 verses 34 and 35:

34 "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness."

The greatest tragedy which can befall a child of light is to have that light turned to darkness.  We remember it was Lucifer whose name literally means "light-bearer". Yet his light turned to darkness. The same happens to Anakin Skywalker -- his light turning to the darkness of Darth Vader. There is nothing more sad than for one's light to be swallowed by darkness.

Light is in jeopardy of being turned to darkness when we allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.

Light is turned to darkness when we equate our own goodness with that of God's.

Light is turned to darkness when negative thinking shades our perception of the world around us and stymies our ability to imagine what is possible.

Light turns to darkness when the bright force of our love and hope fails on first or second or fiftieth try to drive back the dark force hate and despair.

Our light can so easily lost to darkness. Let us be vigilant to guard our light -- to hold and keep it and refuse to let it be taken or turned.

Never ever, let it be turned.

Daily Lesson for October 24, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson:

A couple years ago I picked up Gabrielle from school and as we neared the our home I heard her crying in the backseat.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"Christian is moving away," she said.

Christian was a boy in her class and her first crush.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. "I know that hurts. But it's just one of those things in life."

I remembered back to my first few crushes and how awful it was when they or I moved away or however else it became obvious that we were not going to go together from elementary through junior high and marry after high school. I could still feel the hurt of that moment when I first realized it -- the knot in the stomach and the bulge in the throats and the water rising up in the wells of my eyes.

As we rounded the park in our neighborhood I said, "Do you remember that song you used to sing in pre-school -- 'Going on a Bear Hunt'?  There's that part about coming to the forest, 'Can't go over it.  Can't go under it.  Can't go around it.  Gotta go through it.'

"This is just something you gotta get through in life," I told her.

We traced the park and then turned onto our street. "But how," she asked, "through tears and semi-breathless sobs. How do I get through it?"

"Well," I said, "about like you get through most things. First you cry, and then you cry, and then you cry some more, and then you pray, and then you cry some more, and then you have ice cream. That's how you get through it.

Would you like some ice cream when we get home?"

She grinned wryly and sheepishly and shook her head with a slight but clear beam of in her eye.

We pulled into the garage, walked through the utility, into the kitchen and without passing GO headed directly for the refrigerator.  We pulled out a carton of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream and I began to scoop out salvation. We sat down next to one another at the kitchen table and both began to eat. She had stopped crying and it was silent in the kitchen. I could tell we were both enjoying the ice cream and also the company.

A couple bites in I said, "Well I tell you what; I'm just glad he was a Christian."  She looked at me curiously and I smiled broadly, she rolled her eyes mildly and smiled back again wryly and we both began to laugh loudly.

"I want to amend what I said earlier. First you cry, and then you cry, and then you cry some more, and then you pray, and then you cry some more, and then you have ice cream. And then you laugh. And that's how you get through it."

That's how we we keep on getting through it.

Daily Lesson for October 21, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 10 verses 38 through 42:

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

A while back I preached the memorial service of a very beloved woman who was the older sister in a very fun-loving family. My text was Mary and Martha as she was definitely the Martha in the family.

At the end of the service one of her two sisters came up to speak. "Yes," she said, "my sister was a Martha in the kitchen while I and the other sisters were Marys out in the living.

"But let me tell you," she went on in a very lovingly joking and self-deprecating tone, "if we had been in the kitchen Martha would have sent us out anyways, saying we weren't doing it the right way."

Now here, I thought, is a woman who knows Martha.

Martha has taken it pretty hard over the millennia. Too hard, really. As the sister at the funeral demonstrated, tone is important. I believe the tone in which this story has been preached has been much harsher than the tone Jesus took with Mary that night in her house.  I know I was guilty of that for at least the first two times through the lectionary cycle. I mean, I really let Martha have it.

Then something dawned on me as I was preaching against Martha one Sunday. And what dawned on me was that I sort of kind of really really needed Martha for setting up the reception after the service. And I needed her for the potluck after church the next Sunday. Oh, and I needed her for the anniversary the weekend following.

Maybe Jesus' tone with Martha was a little softer than I'd first heard it. No, not just maybe -- Jesus' tone with Martha was definitely a lot softer than I'd first heard it.

The last time Mary and Martha came through the lectionary was this past summer. This time I used Gary Chapman's book on the Five Love Languages: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch.

I said I thought Martha's love language was the act of service. She loved to set a table, cook a meal, and have company over, I said. Her mistake, however, was expecting her sister Mary to feel and so the same. Martha invited the company over, the scripture says.  But it was Martha's mistake to assume that Mary would find the same pleasure and meaning in serving that she did. Martha's mistake was expecting Mary to speak her same love language, I said.

I said it. But I said it very softly and lovingly and in a gentle and jocular tone because there was a potluck to follow . . .

Daily Lesson for October 20, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 10 verses 25 through 37:

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

"Who is my neighbor?"

Now here's a question we have all asked many times.  And if I am honest I can tell you that I have asked the question for the same reason that the lawyer asked the question -- to justify myself, which I take to mean to justify my disinclination to love him or her as I love myself.

And so I ask, "Who is my neighbor?"

"Is he worthy?"  "Is she worth it?" "Is he dangerous?"

In the sphere of national security this is called "extreme vetting" which attempts to sufficiently answer the question "Is he a terrorist."  I personally have no problem with the process. I see that it is necessary.  Governments are required to do this.

And yet, the Samaritan in Jesus' story convicts and challenges me. While the priest and allLevite step aside, probably while asking the same self-justifying questions we ask, the Samaritan steps in without question. The Samaritan simply acts. He acts on impulse. On impulse, he follows the gold rule. He does what he would have others do unto him. He loves this beaten neighbor beside the side of the road just as he would wish himself to be beaten.

And so, Jesus changes the question. The parable begins with the lawyer's question,"Who is my neighbor?" But it ends with another question, "Who was the neighbor to the beaten man?"

And so Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer and also on me in changing the whole nature of the question from the self-justifying question about who my neighbor is to the self-convicting one about what kind of neighbor am I.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said:

"On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?"

It makes me think that maybe learning to be a good neighbor has a lot to do with learning to ask the right question.

Daily Lesson for October 19, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 10 verses 17 through 20:

17 The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

"Success" is not guaranteed. This was one of the things Jesus was trying very hard to get his disciples to understand.

He sent 72 of them out, giving explicit instructions.  When rejected, they were to kick the dust off of their feet and then go on. Rejection was going to happen and so they needed to get used to it.

When the 72 returned, they came home rejoicing. The demons had bowed down to them. Jesus, however, warned them not to rejoice.  Why?  Because the demonic were still alive and active. Next time things might not turn out so brilliantly.

They were to rejoice, Jesus said, not in the demons falling, but in the fact that their names were written in heaven. In other words, they were to rejoice not in being on the winning side, but rather on the good one.

A couple years ago, we had the Central American refugee crisis down on the border and all those mothers and children who were fleeing such terrible conditions were greeted with such vitriol by protesters here in America. A group of Christian clergy here in Lubbock got together and decided to make a counter statement. We were all worried about how things were going to be taken as we wanted our work to be as successful as possible.

I will never forget my now-deceased friend, mentor and Methodist pastor Ted Dotts stood up. "Now wait a minute," he said.  "We follow a man who was rejected and arrested by all the authorities, abandoned and betrayed by all his friends, and hung to die between two criminals. Now you tell me, is that success?"

The room was completely quiet. Ted then finished with this sturdy and sobering line:

"We're not called to be successful; we're called to be faithful."

The demons may or may not fall in submission.  That is not what matters. What matters is that for better or for worse, for success or for failure, we went ahead and decided to put our names down on record for which side we're on.

Daily Lesson for October 18, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 10 verses 1 through 12:

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. 2 And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. 7 And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. 8 Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ 12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town."

The other day I was with a group from church and we were thumbing through an old hymnal looking for a song. We don't use hymnals anymore and haven't for 15 years, when we built our new building and the chairs we ordered to replace the old pews showed up without racks for placing either the hymnals or communion cups.

Tucked inside the pages of that old hymnal was the order of worship from our last service in the old church a decade and a half ago. I had never seen the order of service and had not given it any thought before. I was amazed.

We had been in between senior pastors and so Stephanie Nash, another pastor on staff, preached the sermon. "Packing Light" was her sermon title.  And she just happened to be with our little group thumbing through the hymnal, so she could tell us what she had said  on that last Sunday.

Like the 72 in today's lesson, the congregation was being sent out.  And the instructions were to pack light -- as in to pack only what could be taken.  There were movements in the service of recognizing all the liturgical elements that would be packed and taken along for the journey -- the cross, the dove above the sanctuary, etc. The rest would have to be left behind with the old building.  To move forward, much would have to be left behind. The pews with the hymnal and communion racks were just one example.

But there was another meaning to her title "Packing Light".  The church was not only needing to pack light; they were also needing to pack Light -- as in the Light.

We all have to Pack Light at some point in our lives. We are sent out, whether willingly or not, from the safe and secure world we have known and into the unknown. We cannot take everything. We have to leave much behind. There is grief in this. There is trepidation. There is darkness and unknown.

But there is something else. There is Light.  There is the Light of the world.  And it goes with us. And that is enough.

A good word for our church on that last Sunday in the old building. A good for us anytime.

Daily Lesson for October 17, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 9 verses 51 through 56:

51 Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. 53 But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. 54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”

55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.

Just because it's in the Bible doesn't mean it's okay by Jesus.

There's lots of things in the Bible that Jesus did not do and that he explicitly taught his disciples not to do also.

Jesus never stoned anyone for adultery. He never gouged out an eye in return for an eye.  And, as today's Lesson shows, he never burned anyone for heresy.

We can look to the Bible to justify all manner of retribution and punishment.  But we can't drag Jesus' name into it, though history tells us we've sure tried

"What Would Jesus Do?" was a slogan running around our country 20 years ago. Here's another slogan for our consideration: "What Would Jesus Not Do?"

That should tell us something important also.

Daily Lesson for October 14, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 9 verses 28 through 36:

28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

There is a very influential medieval reflection on the meaning of prayer called "The Cloud of Unknowing".  In it, the anonymous author traces the path to knowing God as a way of "unknowing".  To come to truly know God is to "unknow" so much of what we think we think we know about God. This is the way of contemplation -- the path of knowing God beyond and in many ways contrary to what we know about God.  This is the way of prayer.

Peter thinks he knows the way of God. But Peter's way of thinking is his biggest problem. For Peter, the way of God is triumph, greatness, and glory.  It is the way of ascent.  It is the mountaintop experience. It is Mt. Olympus.

But Jesus is speaking now of another way.  It is a way of triumph, greatness, and glory; but it is a different way.  The way must first be suffering and death.  It is not the way of Mt. Olympus. It is the way of Calvary.

A mist descends. What could be seen is now unseen.  What was certain is now uncertain. What was known is now shrouded in mystery.  It is the Cloud of Unknowing.

And now the voice speaks, from the cloud “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”

Daily Lesson for October 13, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson is a TBT and comes from Jonah chapter 4 verses 1 and 2:

1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord . . . I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”

Jonah couldn't stand it that the Ninevites were such a wicked and perverse people. And when they repented of their evil ways -- so remorseful that they even put their livestock in sackcloth and ashes -- well, Jonah couldn't stand that either.

There are some people that just have to have somebody to scorn and condemn to hell. They're always up in arms about somebody doing something. And "sorry" is just never good enough. They want everybody to get what they have coming.

When that doesn't happen then they say, "a bad precedence is being set," or we're "sending a signal that this kind of behavior is okay," or we're "not acting responsibly."

But in the end Jonah doesn't look responsible; he looks small-minded, petty, and mean-spirited.

The Bible says we are to "love mercy". That means that when we hate mercy something just ain't right.

Love mercy. Delight in it's giving. Learn to celebrate with the angels that a sinner has walked back through the church house door.

And for heaven's sake, don't cut off your nose just to spite your face.

Daily Lesson for October 12, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 27 verses 21 through 26. The Apostle Paul is a prisoner on a ship engulfed by a storm:

21 Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me and not have set sail from Crete and incurred this injury and loss. 22 Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. 23 For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, 24 and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ 25 So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. 26 But we must run aground on some island.”

In his book "Good to Great", Jim Collins writes about what he calls "the Stockdale Paradox".  Admiral James Stockdale was a Navy pilot shot down and taken prisoner in North Vietnam. He was beaten and tortured and subjected to all manner psychological abuse, before finally being released after 8 years of imprisonment.

Stockdale said that while he was captive, enduring months of solitary confinement and separated from his wife and loved ones for almost a full decade, he yet never doubted that he would survive.

But there was something surprising about the ones that did not survive, Stockdale said.  They were the optimists.  In Stockdale's words:

“They were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

And so here we have what Collins called the Stockdale Paradox, that you "must retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties. AND at the same time . . .You must confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

The ship is engulfed in the storm.  The ship itself will sink and all the cargo will be lost with it. These are the "brutal facts" of their reality which Paul helps them to confront.  These facts are sobering and hard to hear. They're not for optimists. They're absolutely terrifying in fact.

Apparently the "Stockdale Paradox" is the very same as the "Paul Paradox":

Salvation is not near at hand. All will be lost. And yet, there is still good news. The people will be spared.

And here is the difference between optimism and hope.

Daily Lessn for October 11, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson:

"Do I have to love everybody?"

My 4-year-old Bo has come into my bathroom and has met me as I'm getting out of the shower. He is wearing a pair of my cowboy boots from when I was a child and cowboy hat that is about 5 sizes too large.  The lasso I tied for him with a large piece of string yesterday hangs from one front pocket along with a long blow horn in the other. I'm sure he's pretending the blow horn is his gun.

I step out of the shower, grab my towel and wrap it around me. "Yes," I say, "we're supposed to love everybody."

I walk out of the bathroom and towards the utility room to grab some clothes. Bo trails me.  Halfway across the living room Bo asks another question, which it becomes obvious was in fact his real question.  "What about bad guys? Do I have to love them?"

"Yes, I think we've got to love bad guys too."

Bo stops behind me as I keep going into the utility room, grab a shirt, and walk back out. He's lying now flat on the floor, his cowboy hat propped next to his shoulder and the scuffed toes of his boots pointing straight into the air.

He grimaces and then in a 4-year-old whine says, "I don't want to love bad guys.  Why do I have to love bad guys?"

I stand over him, my shirt on now but still in my towel. "Well, we want to be like God and God loves everybody," I say.

"Does God love bad guys?" Bo asks.

"Yes, God loves everybody -- even bad guys," I say, and then borrow a line from Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount. "God brought the sun up on the bad guys' houses this morning just like God brought the sun up on the houses of the good guys.

Bo thinks about that a moment. I remain standing over him. "Well, what about police officers," he asks, "do they have to love bad guys?"

I shift on my feet and my lips purse. This is getting serious. "Well," I say, "they're supposed to."

"But don't police officers kill bad guys?" Bo asks.

"Well, sometimes they do have to take the lives bad guys when they feel it is necessary.  But that's not ever what we want to happen.  Do you know what we want to happen?"

I don't wait for his response but keep talking. "What we really want to see happen is for the police officers and all the other good guys to love the bad guys -- and to love them so much that they actually become good guys also. It doesn't always work like that; but that's our hope."

Bo is quiet now. He's still flat on his back with his toes in the air.  He spins his cowboy hat around his wrist.

"What do you think about that?" I ask, "Do you think you could love a bad guy so much that he turns good?"

There's a thoughtful look on Bo's face as turns his hat a time or two more.

"Maybe," he says "-- when I'm a teenager."

"Maybe when you're a teenager," I echo back. "When you're ready. You've still got time."

I turn and walk away, back towards my bedroom. And along the way I think to myself that I hope I've still got some time also.

Daily Lesson for October 10, 2016

Daily Lesson for October 10, 2016:

Yesterday evening our church hosted an "Ole Time Religion" Potluck and Hymn Sing. Our promotion for the service said, "We'll bring the hymns; you bring the pot."  I don't know if that was a mistake, but I did note that there was a very good crowd and brownies did show up.

We sang all the old favorites: "Amazing Grace", "How Great Thou Art", "Blessed Assurance" and even had a four hand special selection of "Ole Time Religion".  Those old hymns warm the heart and we were having such a good time that halfway through my crazy friend Vicki turns to me and says, "I may get saved tonight."  LORD knows she needs to be saved at least one more time.

At the end I was asked to say a prayer and because I am a preacher I couldn't help but say something about God before I said something to God. What I said was that it is amazing how God has equipped the saints with musicians who could write songs with such lyric and melody. These are the songs that are truly God-inspired.

I told the congregation that I go around to nursing homes all over town and visit many of our members and other residents. And I see that though they may be literally losing their minds, with all sense of  memory being eroded away with each passing wave of a disease like dementia, yet someone sits down at a piano bench and starts playing "Blessed Assurance" and old people who haven't spoken in months or maybe even years suddenly start moving their lips and patting their feet. They grew up on these hymns, on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights and probably Wednesday night also. The hymns got inside them and they are still inside them.  They're deeper than the synapses of the brain or the cognition of the mind.  Those old hymns are in their bones.

I said I don't know what it's going to be like for me if I'm still alive in 45 or 50 years.  What will people be playing for my generation?  Beyoncé? Taylor Swift? Will I still be able to "Shake It off"?

I don't know, I said, but my hope is that in 45 or 50 years someone will still know the old hymns well enough to wheel me up beside a piano and let me move my lips, and pat my feet, and experience again that "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine."

I pray it happens that way. And if it does, well, then I may very well get saved again also.

Daily Lesson for October 6, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 141 verses 5 and 7:

5 Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness;
let him rebuke me—it is oil for my head;
let my head not refuse it.
Yet my prayer is continually against their evil deeds.
7 As when one plows and breaks up the earth,
so shall our bones be scattered at the mouth of Sheol.

Life requires our having the soil of our lives broken up again and again, one season after another.

What was fertile ground in one season gets hard and compacted over time. Stagnancy sets in. The natural organic process slows almost to a point of ceasing.

So the Farmer brings the hoe. He breaks into the ground, turns it over, unsettles and moves it around. The tilling and plowing disrupts everything and awakens what thought to be dead. The Farmer knows there is life in the earth; the tilling brings it back to life.

Being plowed over by life unsettles us. What was settled gets unsettled. What was terra firma suddenly gets turned over topsy turvy.  We probably don't like it very much. We wouldn't choose it.  But this is how the Farmer works on us.

This is how God gets us ready.

Daily Lesson for October 5, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 7 verses 36 through

36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”
41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he canceled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.”44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”

To know forgiveness is to extend forgiveness. To know mercy and compassion is to be merciful and compassionate.

When mercy and compassion are extended to others and we ourselves find ourselves embittered or angered or feeling that they are being let off "scott-free", we need to check ourselves, consider our own lives, and open our own hearts to receive the grace.  For graceless people do not extend grace; grace must be given by the graceful.

As children we were told not to point our finger at others, because we get three other fingers point back at us. The principle remains. When we condemn others, we point to our own sense of condemnation.  Judgment and condemnation keep pointing fingers, but grace opens and frees our hands to love and also to be loved.

Daily Lesson for October 5, 2016

Today's daily lesson is from Luke chapter 7 verses 33 through 35.  It is an expanded version of an earlier lesson about my friend Pastor John Barnes.  He passed away earlier this year.  This is a reprisal and expansion in his memory.  May you rest in peace, Man of God.

33 For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.”

The guy who shines my shoes is also preacher of the hot Gospel variety. To sit down in the seat of his shine stand is to enter the pews of one of the most fervent and fiery preachers in America.  It's 3 to 5 minutes of full-force and furnace-fueled frontal attack on everything worldly, including greed, backbiting, Sabbath-breaking, smoking, fornication, the Devil, and the dangers of calling our children "kids" -- I'm still trying to figure that one out. His name is John; and yes, he's Baptist.

I have another preacher friend who is, well, a bit less morally stringent. His dad owns a liquor store; sometimes he shops there. He watches the Comedy Channel, the Cowboys (on the Sabbath), and is ok with gay folks. His church ordains women as deacons and pastors too and has even auctioned off libation from his dad's store to support their missions program.  His name is Ryon; and yes, he's Baptist also.

I figure somehow God in His wisdom is using both of these Baptists for His own purposes.  They each have their own call and their own message. They both belong.

A decade ago Brian McLaren wrote a book: "A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/calvinist, anabaptist/anglican, methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian."  Okay, so the subtitle was a bit long; but in fact it was really not long enough to include all that is the Kingdom of God.

This should make us far more at peace with others, and also far more at peace with ourselves also.

And wisdom justified by all her children . . .

Daily Lesson for October 4, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 126 verses 4 through 6:
4 Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
5 Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.

On this coming Sunday I will be talking about exile. Exile is the Biblical language for a place of deep loss, for social and personal displacement, for no longer being at home.

Today's Lesson is a promise to the exiled. It is a promise for all of those who have lost their whole world and had to start it anew. Though we go out weeping, we bear with us the seed for sowing, and shall come home with shouts of joy.

And what is this seed we take with us?  It is anything really. A story from our grandmother. The Twenty-third Psalm.  A line from Amazing Grace.  The memory of where to find help.

Elie Weisel told an old Hasidic story I have always liked. A wisened rabbi and his assistant were exiled to an island of isolation. The assistant implored the rabbi to begin drawing upon his spiritual strength to help them. But the rabbi was in personal exile also. He could remember no prayers, and no stories. In fact, could remember nothing but the Alef-bet -- the Hebrew alphabet. His assistant then told him to begin reciting it. And in reciting from memory the alphabet the stories and parables and even songs began to come back also, and with them the fullness of his spiritual strength.  And this was enough to see the rabbi and his assistant through.

We hold on to what we can -- anything we can, any seed we might take with us.

And inside the seed is the thing we call hope.

Daily Lesson for October 3, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 6 verses 47 through 49:

47 "Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.49 But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great."

The flood hits every house in town. That's the first thing we've all got to realize. We really cannot protect ourselves from the storm and rising waters.  Floods are a given and they hit the good and bad, just and unjust alike.  In other words, just because we love God and follow Jesus doesn't make us immune to life's storms.  We should all be prepared for the river's crest.

How?  Jesus tells us how: by digging deep. I take that to mean by digging deep into our own personhood.

Last year, sociologist and favorite author Brene Brown put out a book titled "Rising Strong".  In it she described her findings when researching what she called people of resilient strength.  That's people who have been hit by the tidewaters of life -- divorce, losing a job, losing a spouse, surviving an accident.  What her research discovered was that the people who were most apt to have survived and even "risen strong" after these storms were those who had a deep sense of themselves and their own emotional life. They were people had explored their own emotional life and had reflected on their own emotional and cognitive responses.

"Resilience is more available to people curious about their own line of thinking and behaving," she said.

 In other words, resilience is more available to people who know themselves.  They have not only acted and reacted. They have also reflected. They are aware of themselves, their emotions, and therefore a lot calmer and more in control of themselves -- even as the surge waters rise.

The house that is left standing is the one whose foundation is built deep into the rock.  And the person who rises up after the storm is the one who dug down before it.