Daily Lesson for February 28, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 20 through 25: 20 “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. 25 And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’ 

When the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt and out from under the bond of Pharaoh, the LORD gave the Israelites statutes and commandments which were to govern the people in the new community. Formerly the slaves of Pharaoh, the Israelites were now to belong to the LORD their God. The LORD was to be their new master and governor and they were to live in community with one another in such a way as the LORD was now commanding. Coming now out of Egypt they would come into a new land where they would obey God, honor mother and father, and do right by their neighbors. As Desmond Tutu has said in the context of his own post-apartheid South Africa, the Israelites were not only set free FROM something but they were also set free FOR something -- namely set free for the sake of being God's people. 

We hear much today of freedom -- namely the idea that we are free to do as we please in the pursuit of our own life, liberty and happiness. And it is true; we have been set free. But, ultimately, real freedom is not freedom from something -- whether that something be government or taxes or religion or family, but freedom for something -- the freedom to be the kind of people and nation God would have us to be. 

Augustine said, "True freedom is the freedom to choose the good." We have been bought with a price -- the blood of the Lamb has bought our redemption from sin just as the Passover Lamb bought the Israelites their redemption in Egypt. But our freedom has not been given for its own sake. For we were not set free to live for our own sakes. We were set free to live for God and for others. We were set free that we might choose the good, that we might be good, and that we might seek the common good. 

Freedom from the old, slave nation Egypt is one thing. But freedom for the new, free nation Israel is quite another. Freedom from Pharaoh is one thing; freedom for God and each other is even more. 

God has set us free; let us be free indeed.

Daily Lesson for February 27, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Hebrews 1:10-12:

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like a garment,
12 like a robe you will roll them up,
like a garment they will be changed. [1]
But you are the same,
and your years will have no end.”

Yesterday the Washington Post published a piece by a man named Neil Howe about his 1990s book "The Fourth Turning", which is said to be a major influence on the thought of President Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon. In the Post piece, Howe suggests that we are living in a "fourth turning" -- a time of "crisis", where the old forms of civic, economic, and political, life are no longer applicable and are soon to be (cataclysmicly?) replaced. An at-length quote from the article so you get the picture:

"Get ready for the creative destruction of public institutions, something every society periodically requires to clear out what is obsolete, ossified and dysfunctional — and to tilt the playing field of wealth and power away from the old and back to the young. Forests need periodic fires; rivers need periodic floods. Societies, too. That’s the price we must pay for a new golden age."

This sounds scarily dystopian and indeed the unknown is our greatest fear.  It gets even more unknown when he talks in the article about how fourth turnings usually involve wars. Scary and dystopian indeed. Yet, what he says actually sounds a lot like someone not at all remembered as dystopian thought and talk -- Jesus of Nazareth. Remember, it was Jesus who said there would be "wars and rumors of wars" and that the foundation of the Temple would fall stone by stone. Not exactly optimistic.

Is there any Gospel here?  Just this, and the kernel with what Jesus was trying to teach, that there may be wars and rumors of wars and all our known institutions and jobs and way of organizing may be burned up in John the Baptist's forest fire.  But as Jesus said, "This is not the end."  For in the end this is not where we stake our ultimate security or allegiance or trust. Changes come and go and sometimes cataclysmicly so.  Heaven and earth may fall, but God's words, and promises, and hope will endure.

This is our rock, our cornerstone, our firm foundation.

And as Billy Graham reminded us from the pulpit of Washington National Cathedral in the days following 9-11 and in the calm before our first war in this century, the old hymn says:

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I’ll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

Daily Lesson for February 24, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 5 verses 43 through 48:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

In 9th grade we were getting ready to play our cross-town rivals Hutchinson Junior High. They had upset us for the City title the year before and we were bloodthirsty for revenge.

After school we were practicing on the dirt field which ran east/West because the 7th graders had a flag football game on the main field. Jim McCulley went out for a pass running east and looked back to the west where Bobby Vaughan was tossing the ball. The sun was just beginning to hang off in the horizon a looking back Jim couldn't see a thing. Overwhelmed by the light, the pigskin hit Jim squarely, right in the center of his face mask.

Jim threw up his hands and shook his head. "The sun was in my eyes," he complained.

And with that Coach Phelps, who was the craziest coach we ever had -- which is saying a lot for Texas football -- went even crazier. Rumor was Coach Phelps had been in Vietnam and that he had lost something there. He would get so worked up in class -- history, because that's what we call history teachers in high school: "Coach" -- that he would step outside for a smoke break on the patio right during the middle of the day just to calm down. He needed a cigarette now. He was ballistic -- yelling and screaming and breaking into a the mock Japanese gibberish he was infamous for.  And then this question to Jim that none of us will ever forget. "Do you think the sun is not shining at Hutchinson Junior High?  Do you think they're practicing in the dark over there on 31st and Canton?"

And there it was -- our first theological lesson on God's general grace from the most unlikeliest of places and people: God sends his sun on the evil and on the good, on us and on the Rangers of Hutchinson Junior High School. A lesson we'll never forget.

Thanks Coach.

Daily Lesson for February 23, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 5 verses 33 through 36:

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil."

"Do you so solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?"

Well, do you?  Why?

Oaths are necessary in a court of law because a courtroom is a place where everybody knows somebody will either be lying or telling a half truth -- which, according to an old Yiddish proverb, is a whole lie.

There are other places where oaths are not supposed to be necessary because everybody is assumed to be telling the truth. Among these places include: our church, our place of business, and our home.  In fact, Jesus was trying to form a community where people were so committed to truth telling that an oath or a promise was simply unnecessary because it would be redundant.  In this community you wouldn't have to swear; because everybody would already know you're telling the truth.

Observe the day ahead. Listen to the talk on the streets, in your office, and on TV. Listen to your own talk. Who is swearing and why?  Why isn't our simple and straightforward word our bond?

"Let your yes be yes and your no be no," Jesus said.

And my grandfather added, "And let your handshake be firm."

Daily Lesson for February 22, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ruth chapter 2 verses 8 through 13:

8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. 12 The Lordrepay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” 13 Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

The Book of Ruth is a dissenting opinion.

In the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and all the Israelites who were returning once more to Israel from their exile in Babylon and seeking to rebuild yet again the walls of the Temple, the people were instructed to drive out all the foreigners from among the people and the land. Using overly-rigid and even xenophobic laws found in the Scriptures, the leaders issued their decree. All the foreigners were to be cast out. And families were to be split apart. Anyone who had mixed marriages or mixed children would be forced to make a decision. Family or nation?  On the day the issue was decreed it rained for hours. Some saw this rain as a holy cleansing of the land and its people; others saw it as God crying.

Whoever wrote the book of Ruth would have been in the latter camp. Scholars tell us the book was written at the same time as were the books of Ezra and Nehemiah -- those which told and apparently approved of the purging.  But whoever wrote Ruth was seeing all that was going on in the nation and did not approve. So he or she set out to tell a different story -- even a differing story.

The author of Ruth remembered from the history how there was a man named Boaz who had once married his cousin's Naomi's daughter-in-law after Naomi's son and the woman's husband had died. The woman's name was Ruth and she was a foreigner -- a Moabite woman. Yet in spite of that and in spite of what the harsh laws of the Scriptures said about it, Boaz married her anyways. And together Boaz and Ruth had a son named Obed who then had a son named Jesse who himself had a son named David who grew up to be King David, the greatest leader in all the history of the nation, and all because Boaz married a foreign woman and did not dismiss her.

So there it is, the book of Ruth -- a dissenting opinion.

May those with ears to hear let them hear.

Artwork:

Poussin, Nicolas, 1594?-1665. Summer, or, Ruth and Boaz, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.  http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54182 [retrieved February 22, 2017]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicolas_Poussin_043.jpg.

Daily Lesson for February 21, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 15 and 16:

15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea.

Do you remember the first time you really heard the good news of God's free gift of grace?  Do you remember how overwhelmed you were by God's mercy and compassion and how willing you were to turn around and extend that same mercy and compassion to others?  The tide of God's love washed over you. You were bathed in his goodness and mercy. Grace abounded in you and grace abounded from you. 

God desires for the high tide of His love to wash over you yet again. God wants to bath you yet once more in the knowledge of all His mercies and blessings. God wants you to have "a second experience of grace".

Consider again God's love, God's provision, God's mercy and forgiveness.  Know again God's grace. Receive it once more.  Receive and give it. 

John Claypool, one of my childhood pastors, used to conclude every service with the same benediction: "By the goodness of God you were born into this world. By the grace of God you have been kept even unto this very hour. And by the love of God, fully revealed in the face of Christ Jesus, you are being redeemed."  It was good for us to be reminded Sunday by Sunday so that we could experience it all again and again. 

Come Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Daily Lesson for February 20, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson is 9.5 Theses in commemoration of Martin Luther's 95 Theses which were nailed to the Wittenberg Door 500 years ago this year. Like Liuther's 95 Theses, these 9.5 are intended for public consideration and discussion.


1. Baptism is our declaration of allegiance to a Kingdom whose borders, values, and ethics are not of this world. It is a world where all are welcome, where to be great is to be least and servant of all, and where love is the fulfillment of the law.

2. The Kingdom's ruler is a 1st-century Palestinian Jew named Jesus of Nazareth who was hung on the cross by a politically-motivated collusion between government and religion. He died by and for the sins of the nations, committed in the name of God and Caesar.  This should make us tremble for fear of what we ourselves might do for the sake of God and country.

3. God raised Jesus up on the third day. Resurrection vindicated Jesus' way, his truth, and his life.

4. It is our way, our truth, and our lives which now vindicate Jesus' Resurrection in the eyes of the world. As Clarence Jordan said, the proof of the Resurrection is, "Not a rolled-away stone, but a carried-away church."

5. Jesus will come again to judge the world. His judgments will be both righteous and merciful, full of grace and truth; for he came not to condemn the world but to save it. Authentic proclamation convicts of sin, drives to penitence, and proclaims forgiveness in Christ.

6. The Holy Spirit is the gift of God's ongoing presence in the world. The Spirit blows where it will. Pharisaic religion cannot recognize where it is from or where it is going.

7. The Word of God is not the Bible but is the Logos which was with God in the beginning at creation. The Logos is still speaking, still revealing, still creating.

8. St Paul's declaration, "In Christ there is neither slave nor free, male nor female, Jew nor Gentile but all are one in Christ," means that in the church there is no distinction based on class, gender, or race. No distinction.

9. Those who are not against us are with us. This includes many Jews and Muslims and "nones". Those who are not with Jesus are against him. Sadly, this includes many Christians.

9.5 Blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is the eternal sin. Every generation calls good evil and evil good.  This is why Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all manner of things against you on my account. For they did the same to the prophets who came before you." This means we should not be surprised by rejection but must rather count the cost of discipleship.
 

Daily Lesson for February 17, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Timothy chapter 5 verses 24 and 25:

24 The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later. 25 So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden.

Jesus taught that there is nothing secret that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not one day be brought out out into the open (Luke 8:17).

What is done in the dark cannot remain in the dark forever. No night's lie can outlast truth's steady-rising sun. No defect of character can outlast eternity. 

Eventually we see a man for who he really is. 

And sometimes the man is greater than we knew. Two weeks ago we said goodbye a dearly beloved man in our church. As we prepared for the funeral, another man who none of us knew came out of nowhere with a story about what our beloved friend had done to save this other man from total ruin many years before. None of us knew a thing about it. Not one to let his left hand know what his right hand was doing, our friend never told anyone about what he had done.  But you can count on it: good works have a way of finding their way to light, whether in this life or the next. 

It is said that our deeds will find us out. And I suppose there's two ways of reading that -- as good news or as bad, as a threat or as promise. 

Daily Lesson for February 16, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 12 verses 13 through 17:

13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone's opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar's.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.” And they marveled at him.

When Jesus said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's," he was looking at the Roman denarius with the image of Caesar fixed upon it. But when Jesus said, "render . . . to God the things that are God's," he was looking at his interlocutors -- people themselves stamped with the very image of God. 

The point: to Caesar belongs the coin with Caesar's image stamped; but to God belongs the person with God's image stamped.

Caesar may take all our coins -- for the coins were his from at their minting. But to God alone belongs our personhood; for that was God's in the beginning. And we must not allow Caesar to rob it. 

Daily Lesson for February 15, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 64 verses 5b and 6:

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, sweep us away.

Now here is a word of warning to all those involved in any institution, business, or organization of people. The institution may well be full of good and decent people.  But the unrighteousness of the righteous is the ultimate Achilles Heel. We are often blind to our own sin until it is too late. But one day our sin and the sin of others which we ignored, tolerated, and even covered over is made known. And on that day the Prophet's words are fulfilled: the righteous deeds of the institution will be seen as filthy rags.  What was once said to be righteous will in fact later be seen as hypocritical and indicting.

In recent years we have seen this drama play out in myriads of places: world-class athletic programs, campus fraternities, and even the Church. One uncorks the bottle of sin, but once the bottle is spilled everything is ruined. Lives and careers and reputations and otherwise good people get ruined. All can be made to become like one who is unclean and no one spared. Even our righteousness is soiled beyond recovery.

Is there any good news here?  Just this, that for some there is still time to change.

Daily Lesson for February 14, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 8:

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

A Christians we have no choice but to pray for all people, including our own governing officials.  We are compelled to give supplication and even to offer thanksgiving on their behalf. It does not matter their political affiliation, their policies, or even their character. In fact, in today's Lesson Paul seems to infer that supplication and thanksgiving have to be made for them because they themselves are not righteous or Godly enough in their own persons to offer these things on their own behalf.

And if you understand that then you begin to understand the meaning of the death of Christ, who died for the unrighteous and the ungodly, giving himself "as a ransom for ALL."

"All" is a pretty darn inclusive word. It includes prostitutes and tax collectors and drunkards and lots of other sinners including even those in high positions whose policies we may disagree with vehemently and whose personhood we may find repugnant. Jesus died for them and didn't ask our opinion in the matter, only telling us that if we were going to be with HIM then we were going to need to be for THEM.

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  And as Paul said elsewhere, it saves us, "yet so as through fire".

Purify us O Holy One, and burn off all our imperfections so that only love shall remain.

Daily Lesson for February 13, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Timothy chapter 1 verses 15 and 16:

15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

When I was in high school, our youth leader set out an empty chair during Bible study and had us pray that the worst kid in our school might come and occupy it.

Fair warning: if you are going to pray that kind of prayer be ready because it will be answered!

Paul was the worst of worst sinners: A sinner who thought he was a saint. A Pharisaic nationalist. A racial purist and xenophobe. A religious ideologue. A persecutor of the church.  They don't get any worse than that.

Tell me, is there a chair open in your Bible study for a guy like Paul?

Daily Lesson for February 10, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 12 through 17:

12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,17 that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.

I was speaking yesterday with a friend about all the social upheaval we have witnessed over the course of the last three or so years and now the prospect of even more protest, turmoil and division. The time is ripe now for revolutionary, and anarchist revolt and strong man response.

Now then is also time for Christians to stay firmly grounded in our faith and exhorted by our Lord's teachings. Many from all sides would wish to deceive and delude us into thinking that they and their way is the only way to salvation. As Jesus said, "The hearts of many will grow cold." Many will fall away from the way and things of Christ, looking for salvation in violence or strong arm tactics, with evil going from bad to worse. But as Jesus said, "They who endure to the end shall be saved."

So now is the time for serious and rigorous study of the Bible. It is time "for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." It is time to be made "wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus."

We are "the salt of the earth", Jesus said. "But if salt loses its saltiness then it is good for nothing."  We are "the light of the world".  So we must study, and train, and pray for transformation so as the light within would not be turned to darkness, nor love turned to hate, nor good turned to evil.

Daily Lesson for February 9, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Timothy chapter 2 verses 20 though 25:

20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. 22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.24 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

The faithful servant of the LORD is so desperately needed now. He has purified himself for the purposes of righteousness. She is not given to rash action or knee-jerk reaction. Being constantly appalled or disgusted or righteously indignant is not seen as the same thing as godliness. The servant knows there is much money to be made by keeping us all at arms. Wisdom has been her teacher and he has committed to peace being his way.

The faithful servant of the LORD knows that nothing good can come of unkindness, mean-spiritedness, or cruelty.  The faithful servant knows that he or she could do many mighty and good things, but that without love these things would be nothing -- these good things would in fact be evil.

The faithful servant of the LORD seeks not to win but to win over. The redemption of one's opponent is the greatest victory.  To endure evil is therefore necessary; and to try to win over with sacrificial love a mandate.

The servant of the LORD knows that if in fighting the beast one becomes a beast then Beastliness has won. The servant knows that his master has chosen not a Beast but a Lamb to redeem and judge the world.

Daily Lesson for February 8, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah 59 verse 15:

"Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey."

In our time when everything is doubted or at least doubtable and "facts" and "alternative facts" compete and what the media reports is disputed by the government and vice versa, everyone on every side now wonders with Pontius Pilate, "What is the truth?"

And the one who does not automatically accept the party line, the one who keeps questioning the presented facts, asking for and weighing the evidence, and refuses to deny it simply because it is either inconvenient or discomforting or departs from the party line, this is the one who separates himself or herself from the group and therefore subjects himself or herself to the wolves.

Pray then now for those with the courage on every side who will dare to risk their own positions, and careers, and acceptance, and even livelihoods for the sake of the Truth. They will be rare; and they will be necessary.

Daily Lesson for February 7, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 3 through 7:

3 I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-discipline.

I have been working on a class I am teaching called "Profiles in Courageous Christianity", where I'm looking at Christians who have acted with courage throughout the centuries. Profiles include Justin Martyr, Martin Luther Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the most interesting things I discovered in my studies had to do with Lutheran Pastor and Nazi resister Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- or, actually, his grandmother. On April 1, 1933, just after the Nazis had come to power in Germany, they carried out their first nationwide act against the Jews, boycotting Jewish businesses and directing Nazi Brownshirts to stand guard outside Jewish shops. It was then that Dietrich Bonhoeffer's grandmother decided it was time to go shopping.  Disregarding the boycott, and in defiance of the Nazi Brownshirt posted at the door, Bonhoeffer's grandmother stepped inside the Jewish shop near her and made her stubborn purchase.

Twelve years later Dietrich Bonhoeffer was of course executed by the Germans for his part in a conspiracy against Hitler. And my thesis in the class is that the courage to be not afraid but rather to stand up in dissent is something learned and passed down, something that grandmothers have the power to teach to their grandchildren.

So, with the knowledge of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's grandmother now with us, hear again this morning's Daily Lesson from Paul and see if he is not saying something about how Courageous Christianity is passed down generation to generation, from grandmother to mother to child.

"5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

To love as Christian people requires us to live not in fear but in love. For perfect love casts out all fear. Let us live then not in a spirit of fear, but a spirit of empowered love and disciplined courage.

Our children are and grandchildren are watching.

Daily Lesson for February 6, 2017

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 80 verses 8 through 14:

8  You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
9  You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
10  The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
11  It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
12  Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
13  The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
14  Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine.

In many pastoral conversations I have heard people say again and again, "I know I'm not supposed to question God."  When that comes out of someone's mouth I always stop them. "Really?" I ask, "You're not supposed to question God?  Is that a law?  Is it a rule? A commandment in the Bible?"

 If not questioning God is indeed a commandment in the Bible then the Bible itself broke that commandment.  And Jesus himself broke it also. Through his last dying gasps for air he broke it with these words, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus was quoting a psalm. I love the psalms because they are real and honest and don't put belief in God into some pretty box with a near ribbon tied on top. There's an authenticity to the psalmist's words which reveal what a struggle faith is sometimes.

Today's psalm is a great example. The psalmist is almost beside himself. God delivered the Israelites from Egypt and planted them like a vine in the desert. It grew big and strong.  But now the vine seems to be left to itself. It has been run over by the wilderness, it's fruit ravaged. Where is the vine dresser?  Nowhere to be found. Why? Why, O why?

A God who won't be asked, "Why?" is the God of another world -- a perfect world.  But we don't live in a perfect world; we live in a world of war and suffering and brokenness and untended vines. We can't help it; we have to ask, "Why?"

We not only can question God; we must question God. For questioning God is not so much the opposite as it is the essence of our faith. And the psalmist shows us how -- how to wrestle with God, how to ask our whys, and how to do it faith-fully.

As William Sloan Coffin said in speaking about the loss of his son, "My God, my God why? - but still , my God, my God."

Daily Lesson for February 3, 2017

Daily Lesson for February 2, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 8 verses 34 through37:

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? 37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?"

There is hymn called "The Summons" by John Bell, great Scottish musicologist and serious connoisseur of fine single malt Scotch (message me to find out how I know this -- I am Baptist so can't say in public). "The Summons" is about Christ's call on our lives and one of the stanza's includes these words:

"Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?"

The summons of Christ beckons us to leave an old self behind, come and follow, and never be the same person with the same values again.  What is left behind is our whole notion of what we thought our lives might be like before Christ's call. What is left behind is all pretense towards greatness, all assurance of security, all guarantee of control. The old has passed and the new has come and the new does not carry with it all the same values and presumptions of the old.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." But the dying is hard. The "old man" still wants to live. He still wants control. He still wants his say. He wants to love God and mammon, salvation and security.  The old man will not go gently into that good night.  The dying is a daily process.

We cannot be a part of Christ's "new creation" and still also be the same as we were. There is a dying, a letting go, a saying goodbye.  There is grief here -- real, substantial grief. For what we are to be demands a goodbye to what we once were. The reaching out to take hold of the soul necessitates a letting go of the world. And a coming and following His way insists upon a denial of our own.

Here is the hard road of what Bonhoeffer called "The Cost of Discipleship".  He who would find his life must lose it; she who would gain salvation must be willing to let go of everything else. This is the way of faithful following. And it is the reason why Jesus said the road is narrow and difficult to find.

Daily Lesson for February 1, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 8 verses 22 through 26:

22 And they came to Bethsaida. And some people brought to him a blind man and begged him to touch him. 23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?” 24 And he looked up and said, “I see men, but they look like trees, walking.” 25 Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. 26 And he sent him to his home, saying, “Do not even enter the village.”

Jesus would have us to see. 

Like the blind man in the story our spiritual eyes are closed and Jesus comes to open them and allow us to see anew.

Just as in the story, the first necessary step in the receiving of new eyes is often the necessity of a change in location. We must be taken out of our own village before we can be made to see. Our village (geographic, ideological, political, religious) makes us blind to perspectives beyond our native and parochial experiences. This is why travel and study away and/or abroad is so important. This is how our eyes are first opened to the world around us.

But full sight seldom comes all at once. Like the man given sight in the story, once the sightedness is begun there is much we still do not see or we miss interpret. As Paul said, "We see through a glass darkly."  There is the wisdom of humility here. 

And in the story too there is foreshadowing of rejection. The blind man left his village and the. returned home. But Jesus warned him to go to his house and not into the village.  Why?  Because those who are stuck spiritually blind hate those who now see new things. Or as John's Gospel puts it, "The darkness hates the light."

Jesus would have us to see and then see again. But once we have seen we cannot unsee.  Nor can we make others to see until they are ready, which means we cannot make others to see until they too know they are blind.