Daily Lesson for May 31, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ezekiel chapter 11 verses 19 and 20:

19I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, 20so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

When the Prophet Ezekiel rose to speak his word from the LORD, he did so at a time when the people were greatly hardened by life's travails. Generations of wars and rumors of wars and an exile that brought disruption and disjuncture and chaos to family and community cohesion. Only the strong survived. And with that strength came a hard-shelled bitterness that no mortal could crack. This was the way of survival. Every man to himself, every child for her herself -- the destruction of community, an end of a people. 

Then the prophet rose to proclaim the good news. "Hear O Israel, hear O children of God; even the hardest of hearts can be softened by the tender mercies of our LORD. Even in the heart of stone can be found a soft place, a place of warmth and of love.  And a people who were not a people can be knitted together again into something beautiful, something called family.

"Thus saith the LORD, "They shall be my people and I will be their God.'"

Thus saith the LORD: "No child of mine is beyond redemption."

Daily Lesson for May 30, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Hebrews chapter 6 verses 13 through 20:

13 When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, ‘I will surely bless you and multiply you.’ 15And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise.16Human beings, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute. 17In the same way, when God desired to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it by an oath, 18so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God would prove false, we who have taken refuge might be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. 19We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul,  a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.

I am still recovering from the events of last week, which saw me making an unexpected trip to the emergency room. Within a matter of hours, I found myself going from a staff meeting at church where we were planning worship to the operating room at UMC Hospital, where the doctors were prepping for a "minor" surgery.

Do you know the definition of a minor surgery?  It's a routine operation performed on someone else!

But no matter how ordinary or extraordinary a surgery might be, that moment when the anesthesiologist turns on the little valve and the drugs start to go drip, drip, drip into your vein, you're never more glad to know you're in good hands -- not only the doctors', but also the LORD's. It's at that moment when your faith becomes real, when peace surpasses understanding, and hope hums its hymn of consolation.

"We have this hope," the Lesson tells us today, "a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul."

Sure, and steadfast, indeed. 

Thanks be to God!

Memorial Day

Last night, Second B hosted our fifth annual Memorial Day Weekend service. Congressman Arrington, Lubbock Mayor Dan Pope, and many from the VFW and American Legion communities were there. Most significantly, several Gold Star families were with us. We gathered for them and for their loved ones. 

One of my parishioners and dearest of friends Bob Howell spoke. He is both a Gold Star son and also a veteran himself. His father died in Vietnam in 1963.  Bob said that means his father's name is on the first panel of names on the wall at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington.  It was early," Bob said, "but not too early for my dad." A half decade later Bob was shipped to Vietnam also. He returned. Some of his brothers-in-arms did not. 

Bob stood and saluted the pair of empty boots, rifle, and helmet at the front of the church then ascended the chancel where he and paused kissed the folded which draped his father's coffin at his funeral 54 years ago. "Thanks, Dad," he said softly.

Bob is the most resilient man I know, a sign of hope and beacon of light for so many others. A trauma counselor for several decades now, Bob has held the candle for countless others as they walked the valley of shadows and darkness. He is the essence of what Henri Nouwen called, "The Wounded Healer".  Bob's wounds are a source of healing for others. 

Bob talked about that moment his mother received the news. Bob was 12. They were living in Hawaii, where his father -- a career Air Force serviceman -- had been stationed.  He was upstairs when the knock came. A military officer and a minister were standing there when his mother opened the door. Bob said that from upstairs he could hear his mother shriek. "I'd never heard my mother's voice like that," Bob said. Speaking of his mother and himself and his two siblings Bob then said, "All of us were haunted from that day forward."

I know Bob's mom and I know something of the tragedy which has befallen them, in part because of Mr. Howell's untimely death. Bob shared of his sister's struggle with mental health and his brother's battle with substance abuse. Each of them died early because of these things. And I know that Bob has had his own struggles, his own yet unhealed wounds. 

We say, "All gave some; and some gave all." But some still give. Day after day, and year after year, they still give. As Whitman phrased it in his elegy for the Civil War dead, "the living remained and suffered".

There is suffering and wound in Bob Howell, but there is also hope. He and his mother - whose deeply joyous spirit I have had the privilege to get to know over these years -- they are survivors.  They are not victors or champions or some other heroically-laurelled God or Goddess, but they are survivors. They endured. Day by day, they still still endure. And they endure with wisdom and with strength. 

On the night after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy shared with the grief-stricken crowd his favorite poem, whose meaning had no doubt touched him amidst the tragedies that had befallen his family. President Kennedy and Dr. King had in a real lost their lives for the sake of their country. Bobby would do the same just a few months later. The words of Aeschylus are true for their loved ones, and indeed true for all who have lost a loved one anywhere and for any reason and have to go on living with the wounds.  This is especially true for Gold Star families. It is specially true for Bob and his mother:

Even in our sleep,

Pain, which cannot forget,

Falls drop by drop

Upon the human heart

Until, in our despair, against our will,

comes wisdom through the awful grace 

of God.

Today is Memorial Day.  We owe you and your loved ones so much. We could never repay it.  We would never wish to. You would never wish for us to. So let us then instead settle for saying to you thanks and wishing you peace. 

http://www.kcbd.com/story/35536999/lubbock-remembers-the-fallen-with-memorial-day-service-at-second-baptist-church

Thanks and Gratitude

An unexpected trip to the emergency room yesterday ended in the removal of my appendix early this morning. We had a good 40-year run; but clearly the time had come for us to part. I am now home and recovering well.

Thank you friends and family for all the calls, texts, messages, and visits. You have each made me feel so special and loved. Thanks also to the excellent medical team at UMC Hospital. And thanks to my dad who stayed near and my mom who cared for and calmed our children. 

Finally, thanks to Irie who renews her vows every day as she loves me through richer and poorer, in sickness and in health. 

Over these last hours, I have had words from George Herbert's poem "Gratefulness" on my mind and in my heart. I share them now as my own prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving:

Thou that hast given so much to me,

Give one thing more, a grateful heart.

Not thankful, when it pleaseth me;

As if thy blessings had spare days:

But such a heart, whose pulse may be

Thy praise.

Daily Lesson for May 24, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 12 verses 22 through 31:

22 He said to his disciples, ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? 26If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest? 27Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 28But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29And do not keep striving for what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not keep worrying. 30For it is the nations of the world that strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.31Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

We take our children to the park and we look around at nature and we point into the sky. "God feeds the birds," we say. "And look how pretty the flowers are - God dresses them.  So don't worry; the God will provide for you too."

We say this to our children and we want so badly for them to believe it.  We want them to feel safe and secure and go about without worry.

But our own minds are less settled, our own spirits more troubled. We pay the bills and have to worry about insurance. We know about the real world and all its terrors.  We could well say, "Yes, children, look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field; but don't look too long - for they won't last.  Soon they'll be gone."

Yet perhaps that's just the point.  The lives of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field are but a hair's breadth in length.  Still, they make the most of the time they have. The birds set off in flight, dancing left and right, swooping down towards the earth, ascending towards heaven.  And the flowers dance in the field, blazing with a purple, even a king cannot afford.  The birds soar.  The flowers dazzle.  They live!  And they do not spend all day worrying about tomorrow.  Life for them is short -- one brief season under the sun. They cannot make it longer by worrying. 

Neither can we. 

Last year, I was away from my home and family when yet another terrorist attack hit.  I grieved and worried with the nation. I wanted to hug my children and tell them I love them. I wanted someone to hug me and tell me things were going to be okay. Then I noticed in the room I was sitting a framed poem by Wendell Berry called, "The Peace of Wild Things":

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Daily Lesson for May 23, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 11 through 17:

11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous* snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ 

The idea of a self-made man is a myth.  We all stand on others people's shoulders.  I have what I have because somebody else helped me get it. I am where I am because somebody else guided me.  And I am who I am because somebody else shaped me. First and foremost, that somebody was God.

There's a proverb:

The race is not to the swift,

Nor the battle to the strong,

Not riches to men of understanding,

But time and chance happen to them all.

It's by grace that we've been brought this far; so we should be humble. 

It's by help that we didn't die in the wilderness; so we should be thankful.

And it could have all gone another way; so we should be generous. 

Daily Lesson for May 22, 2017

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

2Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. 3He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

One of my favorite songs is Andrea Crouch's, "Through It All" the lines of which say:

Through it all,
Through it all,
I learned to trust in Jesus,
I learned to trust in God.
I learned to depend upon His word.

We only learn to trust and depend on God in times when we can no longer depend upon ourselves. It's when we are tested that we grow in faith and learn resilience. This is why James the brother of Jesus said,"Consider it nothing but joy when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance," (James 1:3).

The Israelites wandered in the wilderness 40 years. They turned a week-long trip into a life-long journey. Why? Because God had to teach them. God had to form them. They had to learn to trust God. That's what the desert is all about. That's what the long way teaches us. We wouldn't learn it any other way.

In fact, we couldn't learn it any other way.

Daily Lesson for May 19, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 106 verses 14 and 15:

14 A craving seized them in the wilderness, 

and they put God to the test in the desert.

15 He gave them what they asked, 

but sent leanness into their soul.

"Be careful what you wish for," we say, "because you might just get it."

When we get what we crave and covet it's never near as satisfying as we thought it would be. It's the moment a child has busted open all her packages on Christmas morning, or the moment the last bit of the cotton candy has dissolved upon the tongue.

Actually, it's worse. It's Adam's and Eve's first and only bit into the apple. What was so pleasing to the eye spoils at the taste of tongue.  It fills the stomach or the bank account or the garage but absolutely empties the soul.

What do you wish you had?  I mean, what do you really wish you could get a taste of?

Careful. Careful whatever it is that you wish for . . .

Daily Lesson for May 18, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Romans chapter 14 verses 1 through 4:

Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions.2Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.3Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgement on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. 4Who are you to pass judgement on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall.

We've all been in that Bible study in which somebody (they could be male or female) is there solely to determine (the say "discern") who is and who is not really living a genuinely Christian faith.  Usually the discussion is over something historically divisive like the authority of the Pope or the meaning of the Lord's Supper, though in recent years now the subject of sex and sexual orientation comes up again and again. Pretty soon the discussion turns to argument and the argument leads to people just wanting to get the heck out of Dodge.  Before long, people just get fed up with petty bickering -- a room full of people ready to give their lifeblood on a one inch cross, but never doing a thing to help carry the real cross of those who struggle or suffer. Twelve Bible studies a week plus Sunday School and all that's ever done in Jesus' name is the bickering.

That's bad religion.

"Who are you to pass judgment?" Paul asks. Or as Pope Francis himself phrased it, "Who am I to judge?"

We will each and all stand before our own Master and Lord. He will be the one to judge the hearts of his servants. And he really doesn't need my help -- especially when it's no help at all. 

Daily Lesson for May 17, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 8 verses 22 through 25:

22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they put out, ²³and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A gale swept down on the lake, and the boat was filling with water, and they were in danger.²⁴They went to him and woke him up, shouting, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging waves; they ceased, and there was a calm. ²⁵He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?’

There is the big miracle in this story, the one which is most visible and most memorable -- the stilling of the storm. Yet behind that is the smaller miracle, which though less visible, is when one really pauses to think about it no less astonishing than Jesus' stilling of the storm.  I am talking about Jesus' stillness in the storm.

Waves crashing, winds whipping, thunder and lightning over head -- everything is out of control. The little boat -- a symbol of the church or the home or the business -- caught up in the storm and completely out of control. This is chaos; everything is spinning, and topsy turvy, and even if they knew which way to go, there is no way now to get there, no way to steer the little dinghy of a boat. Yet Jesus is still, calm, at peace enough to sleep through it all.

That's infuriating to the crew.  They rouse him in terror.  In Mark's version of this story they rouse Jesus with anger and pointed fingers, "Don't you care?" And yet Jesus' calm remains; he absorbs their hostility and does not return it.  I think of Kipling's words:

"If you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs --
And blaming it on you . . .
You shall be a man my son."

The boat is swamped. Curses fly.  The storm rages. Yet, Jesus is calm. He is calm amidst the storm. He is the calm amidst the storm.

I don't believe the big miracle -- the stilling of the storm -- would ever have happened without the smaller miracle -- the stillness in the storm. And so maybe that's what we should pray for first, not the power to rebuke the winds and the waves, but the peace to go ahead and sleep when all is chaos and confusion; for we shall never be able to bring calm to the chaos around us, if we do not first have calm amidst the chaos within us.

And Jesus said, "Peace, be still."

Daily Lesson for May 16, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Romans chapter 12 verses 3 through 8:

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function,5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

We are not to despise our own calling; neither are we to despise another's. 

The spoon does not envy the knife because he gets to cut the meat. If the spoon was envious, I would remind him that at least in our house the knife also has to cut the cheese. The spoon forgets about that!  Every piece of silverware has its honors and its distastes. But we need them all.

A spoon will not be asked how well he filet for the statesman. He will be asked whether or not he was able to carry the rice cereal to the baby's mouth. That was his job; and there was no more important job in the world.

Oftentimes along the way, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached his memorable "Street Sweeper" sermon. In it he reflected on the calling of the street sweeper:

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"

God has called us to do our job -- no one else's. God has called me to be me -- and not somebody else. Let me be the best me I can be. Let me be the Michaelangelo of me.

Daily Lesson for May 15, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 7 verses 36 through 47:

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.  To not know these things is to not extend them. 

When mercy and compassion are given to others and we find ourselves embittered or angered that somebody is being let off "scott-free", we should consider our own lives.  We too need grace and forgiveness. We too need God's compassion and mercy. When we harbor hostility towards these things given to others it is a sign of our own hostility towards the grace, mercy, and compassion we need in our own lives. 

Jesus said, "He who is forgiven little loves little."  Graceless people do not extend grace; grace can only be given by the graceful.  And love can only be given by those who know that they are loved; for as St. John said, "We love because God first loved us."

Daily Lesson for May 12, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Colossians chapter 3 verses 5 through 10:

5 Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. 7These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. 8But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

Here's the worst thing that's ever been uttered out here underneath the West Texas sun: "Well, sorry; that's just the way I am -- take me or leave me."

God wants to take us somewhere alright.  But it means we have to leave off of where and often who we are. That means if we aren't changing, growing, maturing, and being purified then something is wrong. If we still have all the same old habits and hang ups then we're just stuck -- an old stick in the mud. 

Let me get real specific; if we're still angry as a hornet about "those people", forwarding fake news, and talking ugly at the barber shop or beauty salon or the $7.25 a latte coffee bar then we've still got a lot of growing up to do. 

Let's do it.

Daily Lesson for May 11, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 6 verses 39 through 42:

39 He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. 41Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 42Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Friend, let me take out the speck in your eye”, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.'

Often, our most serious resentments and frustrations with the faults and flaws of others  are actually reflective of the resentments and frustrations we have towards the faults and flaws of our own selves. The things we are most hostile towards in other people actually reveal a deep hostility we have against ourselves. 

This is why we see so many of the most zealous of prosecutors of others turn out being guilty of the very same sins they condemned in others. 

Psychologists call this projection. Our mothers call it pointing the finger at others and having three fingers on the same hand pointing back at you.

Mad about somebody else's splinter?  Maybe it's the log in your own eye.  Angry with the color of the kettle? Maybe your the pot. 

Daily Lesson for May 10, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 6 verses 37 and 38:

37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

I read this Lesson and I imagine a big bushel of cotton. Fill it to the brim boll by boll and you can call the bushel full. But shake the bushel and then it's only half full. Fill it again and shake it another time. Now it's only three quarters full. Fill it to the top one more time and then keep on filling and filling until it looks like frosted muffin and then a small vanilla ice cream cone. Now it's full; only now and not before. 

Jesus says that's how full our bushel of forgiveness ought to be -- heaping full, overflowing full, too full. 

And the measure we gather will also be the measure that we'll get. 

Daily Lesson for May 9, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 6 verses 23 and 23:

22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.

The Southern writer Flannery O'Connor said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you odd."

To know the truth is to live at odds with untruth of the world. To see the truth is to see and believe differently than before -- differently, perhaps, than the textbooks, or the teachers, or the community at-large. To know and seek to live the truth may very well make us oddballs. 

"They're turning the world upside down!" was the charge levied against the disciples in the book of Acts and it's been the charge ever since. For whoever sees an upside down world as rightside up will see those turning the world rightside up and say they're turning it upside down.

We shall know the truth and the truth shall make us odd. 

So get ready. 

Daily Lesson for May 8, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Colossians chapter 1 verses 11 and 12:

11May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

"The LORD is our refuge and our strength," the Psalmist says, "our very present help in times of trouble" (Psalm 46).  So we are not to fear the days that lie ahead of us. God will be our strength and will grant to us a supernatural strength so that we will be able to endure whatever pain or struggles or heartache might be our lot. 

The Daily Lesson is a kind of prayer of blessing. "May you be prepared to endure everything with patience."  We can be assured that we are being prepared; for God is preparing us.  God is readying us for all that is to come.  We need not fear. 

Today is the Feast of St. Julian of Norwich in the Liturgical Calendar. I close with her fitting and encouraging words: "All shall be well; and all manner of things shall be well."

Indeed. 

Daily Lesson for May 5, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 105 verses 1 and 2a:

1 Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name; *

make known his deeds among the peoples.

2 Sing to him, sing praises to him . . .

Ask any group of children in the world ages 7 and under which of them sing or dance and every single one of them will raise their hand. Children love to sing and to dance and to act jubilantly. What child does not delight in waving an invisible candle before them as they sing This Little Light of Mine or rolling their arms left and then right with invisible waves singing I Got a River of Life Flowing Out of Me.

What happens to us as we grow old? Why do we lose the song? Why do we let others tell us we can’t dance or sing? Where goes our light? Who dammed our river?

I look out on the congregation on Sunday morning. Some – especially men – sing not a word of psalm or hymn or spiritual song. I wonder if a closed mouth is not a sign of a closed heart – a heart still afraid of being wounded, broken, teased, or taunted.

I look out and I think of Pharaoh with his heart of cold stone – a man who could hear the Hebrews’ songs of sorrow and hope and hope in sorrow but never himself even hum a bar.

“Sing to him,” the psalmist says. “Sing praises to him.”

For He loves the songs of His children and we are all his children – even when we’ve grown old.

Daily Lesson for May 4, 2017

Today is the Feast of Monnica in the Anglican Communion tradition. Monnica was the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo, who as an adolescent was anything but a saint.

In his Confessions Augustine tells of his mother's love and worry for him and in a very moving depiction describes one occasion when Monnica went to see Bishop Ambrose in Milan, where Augustine was studying. Distraught over the prodigality of her son's life, Monnica tearfully begged Ambrose to go and talk some sense into her wayward boy. Ambrose was unwilling to go, perhaps wisely intuiting that young Augustine was not quite ready to receive a lecture from the Bishop. Ambrose instead consoled Monnica with these very tender and powerful words, "Surely it is impossible that the son of these tears should perish."

Many worry for sons and for daughters. The Feast of Monnica reminds us that God hears your prayers and counts your tears. Even should they should make their beds in the depths God knows and God loves and God is still working that they might not perish but live.

Daily Lesson for May 3, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Daniel chapter 5 verses 2 through 9:

2 Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar commanded that they bring in the vessels of gold and silver that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.3So they brought in the vessels of gold and silver that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. 4They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 5 Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall of the royal palace, next to the lampstand. The king was watching the hand as it wrote. 6Then the king’s face turned pale, and his thoughts terrified him. His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together. 7The king cried aloud to bring in the enchanters, the Chaldeans, and the diviners; and the king said to the wise men of Babylon, ‘Whoever can read this writing and tell me its interpretation shall be clothed in purple, have a chain of gold around his neck, and rank third in the kingdom.’ 8Then all the king’s wise men came in, but they could not read the writing or tell the king the interpretation.9Then King Belshazzar became greatly terrified and his face turned pale, and his lords were perplexed.

It was impossible for King Belshazzar of Babylon to read the  handwriting on the wall because he was so drunk on the wine inside the vessels. Wealth and power had so blinded him that he could not understand the dire straights to which he had brought himself and his kingdom. And "all the king's men" were just as blind as Belshazzar himself.

Thus, the entry of the Prophet, Daniel, who can read the handwriting on the wall AND dare to speak the truth of its oracle. "Mene, mene, tekel, and parsin" -- Babylon would fall.

We need truth tellers in our lives and in our nation and world -- prophets who have not gorged themselves on the wine of the treasury's vessels and are therefore not too drunk to read the handwriting on the wall.

Daily Lesson for May 2, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 John chapter 4 verses 16 through 19:

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. 17Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgement, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. 19We love because he first loved us.

At Second Baptist our motto is "2B: Loved, Light, & One." People are always trying to correct "Loved" to "Love", but it's "Loved".  It's 2B Loved because you can't be love without first being loved. 

The most loving people I know are people who themselves know that they are deeply loved. They have been loved by God and by God with skin on (other people) and they have accepted this love. They have been loved and allowed themselves to accept that love.  They have embraced and been embraced by that love.  As today's Lesson says, they "abide" in love. This means they live and breath and have their being in love.

We ask one another: "Are you in love?" And the answer for some is, "Yes. I am always, always in love."

Daily Lesson for May 1, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 John chapter       3 verses 19 through 22:

19And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him 20whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; 22and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.

We should learn to be bold in asking God for our heart's desires. Prayer is not for the timid or guilt stricken.  To be prayerful is to be daring!

We may be self-conscious about what we hope for. "Who am I to ask such a thing?" we say.  But God knows us, and our hearts, and the desires of our hearts. And it is God's good pleasure to give those things to us when we ask.

So, we are bold to ask for what has been laid upon our hearts. There is no shame in asking that mountains be moved. There is no disgrace in asking that stones be rolled away.

God is in heaven and we are on earth; so let our prayers be something.