Daily Lesson for August 31, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 14 verse 22:

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’

What Jesus did with the bread, God also does with us. We are taken into His hands just as we are.  We are blessed there, just as we are also. The blessing is first, original, and free. Grace is said over us before anything else -- good or bad.  But then we are broken. The blessing can never come without brokenness. We are broken and the brokenness is painful -- beyond painful. But it is also necessary. We we must first be broken before we are ready to be given because what we have to give is only made possible through our brokenness. What we have can only be shared through brokenness. Indeed, our brokenness is what is to be shared with others. For our blessed brokenness taken from the hand of God and given into the hands of others is what has the power to nourish the world.  And so there it is: we are taken, blessed, broken, and then given -- the body of Christ shared once more.

Daily Lesson for August 30, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Kings chapter 1 verses 3 through 12:

3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt-offerings on that altar. 5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ 6And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.7And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’ 

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind.'

Last night, I was asked to speak to the incoming pledge class of my college fraternity.  As I was preparing for what to say I remembered sometime back when fraternity members at the University of Oklahoma were captured on video chanting a repugnantly racist video. We were in the midst of a visioning process at our church and talking about what we hoped for from our church. One of the women on our leadership team said, "I hope that if I raise a child in our youth program and they go off to college and are on a bus where racist songs are chanted, they'll be wise enough to know it's wrong and have courage enough to say so."  That statement became the foundation for one of our vision goals: "Deep Wisdom and Courageous Faith".

Wisdom is a gift that comes only to the humble.  Only the wise can know good from evil because only the wise are humble enough to know they themselves cannot know good from evil. The wisdom of discerning right and wrong, good choices from bad, is a grace that can only be received by someone who knows how badly they need it -- and how desperate and morally lost they would be without it. 

Last night, I talked to the pledges about the three cardinal principles the fraternity is founded on: Friendship, Scholarship, and Moral Rectitude. I told them it's a chord of three strands. For having friends may make you popular and one day rich, but perhaps petty and vulgar. And smarts are impressive, but lots of brilliant people have done incredibly immoral things in the name of science or the market. Friendship and scholarship are not enough by themselves. The third strand has to be joined.  For brotherhood alone will end you up a spectacle on video, and education alone will get you science without soul.  But wisdom tells us morally right from wrong. It's a chord of three strands not to be broken. I pray they were listening. 

The Book of Proverbs says, "The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom; whatever you get, get wisdom."

May we humble enough to listen, let us hear. 

Daily Lesson for August 29, 2017

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

When David’s time to die drew near, he charged his son Solomon, saying: 2"I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, be courageous, 3and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn."

One of the most important gifts one generation can give to the next is the gift of speaking about death. 

Death should not go unspoken. For as in the Jewish tradition, the name of God is to go unuttered. But no other name deserves such respect -- not even death. To not speak of death, to allow it to go unnamed and unmentioned is to make it into a god, a most terrifying god of darkness. 

The House of the LORD speaks of death. The people of faith speak of death. My house speaks of death.

And what do we say about it? We speak of its reality. We speak of its sadness and sting. We speak of grief. 

And what else?  We speak of its liberation. We speak of its pathway.  We speak of its gift. We speak of its death also.

In the House of the LORD we learn how to speak of death. And in learning how to speak of death we learn how to think on death. And in learning how to think on death we learn how to die. 

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow 

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 

One short sleep past, we wake eternally 

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."

(John Donne)

Daily Lesson for August 28, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 26 verses 12 through 16:

12 "With this in mind, I was travelling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. 14When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.' 15I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord answered, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.'"

Yesterday, something very unexpected and old happened at the end of the service. After I gave the invitation for people to come and join the church, a very good and dear friend came and walked the aisle to announce that she intends to enter into vocational Gospel ministry. Or, in the language of much former generations, she came to surrender her life to ministry.

It was about time.  I mean that literally; it was and is about time. And the time has come.

My friend's decision reminds me of a letter I just came across a week or so ago while cleaning out some personal effects in preparation for the move. It is a letter I wrote to Jim Somerville, then pastor of First Baptist Church Washington, DC, after a summer I spent there prior to what I thought was going to be my enrollment in law school at American University. The letter is a kind of explanation about why I would not be joining the church.  I would not be joining because I had decided after three years of fighting it all throughout seminary, I needed to admit that I was called to ministry. I was surrendering to the ministry.  And so, I would not be staying in DC, but was moving back to Durham to say yes to ministry. Though I was too shy to say it outright, what I was really saying to Rev. Somerville was that his preaching over that summer had sparked something in me that I had to say yes and could not say no to.  I had said no for too long already. 

In Paul's vision on the Damascus Road, Jesus said, "It hurts to kick against the goads."  A goad was a rod used to poke oxen and other animals to move forward. To kick against the goad was painful and finally exhausting. Finally, in due time, surrender is learned.  It's either submission or misery.

In the Gospel of Thomas there is a quote:

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

There is something within each of us which when sparked tells us down deep the direction we are to take for our lives. To fight against it means struggle and pain and a deep disturbance in our soul. Such things will ultimately destroy us. And so the only the only real choice is surrender. And when it's about time, somewhere on that Damascus Road of life, we make it.

And that makes all the difference. 

* I am appending a copy of the letter I sent to Rev. Somerville.

Daily Lesson for August 25, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 12 verses 41 through 44:

41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums.42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’

At the little church where I once served as youth and children's minister and was later ordained there was an older woman who the preacher brought to church week by week, after he picked her up from her apartment. She was a widow and lived alone in one of those old, industrial-tiled buildings with drab lighting and walls and not enough air conditioning for those hot and humid North Carolina summer days. Every Sunday morning and Wednesday night Rev. Gayle would stop by to pick her up because she didn't have a car. She didn't have much of anything.

When Irie and I got married we invited the whole church to the shower in the fellowship hall and in with Rev. Gayle walked this woman with a nicely wrapped gift in her hand. I couldn't believe it.

Later during the shower, as we opened the gifts, the attendant handed us that little package.  We read the card, written neatly and with kind and loving words, then opened the package: a pair of good quality, but gently-used towels. Irie and I were both so touched. 

We received a lot of good gifts that day.  But that's the one we remember most. The widow gave what she could. And we were honored by the gesture. 

We're still very honored by the gesture. 

Daily Office for August 24, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 12 verses 28 through 31:

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he answered with two. The first is the call to love God. This is our chief end. All things flow from and to this ultimate love. We love God and God alone for God's own sake. All other loves belong to this first love. 

But that first love cannot be separated from the love of neighbor. The two belong together. To love God is always also to love those around us. We may love God alone for God's own sake; but we cannot love God alone, period. Love of God must always mean love of neighbor. For in loving neighbor we in turn love not only neighbor, but also God.  So when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, he said the love of God and then gave us the example of loving God through the love of our neighbor. 

And not only the love of our neighbor; but the love of our neighbor as ourself. This then necessitates a third love -- the love of our own selves. We cannot love neighbor as ourself without also loving ourselves. So then there are three commandments: to love self, to love our neighbor, and to love each of those for the sake of a third love, the love of God. 

I love that!

Daily Lesson for August 23, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Samuel chapter 18 verses 19-31:

19 Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, ‘Let me run, and carry tidings to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the power of his enemies.’20Joab said to him, ‘You are not to carry tidings today; you may carry tidings another day, but today you shall not do so, because the king’s son is dead.’ 21Then Joab said to a Cushite, ‘Go, tell the king what you have seen.’ The Cushite bowed before Joab, and ran. 22Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said again to Joab, ‘Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite.’ And Joab said, ‘Why will you run, my son, seeing that you have no reward* for the tidings?’ 23‘Come what may,’ he said, ‘I will run.’ So he said to him, ‘Run.’ Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.

24 Now David was sitting between the two gates. The sentinel went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he looked up, he saw a man running alone. 25The sentinel shouted and told the king. The king said, ‘If he is alone, there are tidings in his mouth.’ He kept coming, and drew near. 26Then the sentinel saw another man running; and the sentinel called to the gatekeeper and said, ‘See, another man running alone!’ The king said, ‘He also is bringing tidings.’ 27The sentinel said, ‘I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz son of Zadok.’ The king said, ‘He is a good man, and comes with good tidings.’

28 Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, ‘All is well!’ He prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground, and said, ‘Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.’29The king said, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ Ahimaaz answered, ‘When Joab sent your servant,* I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was.’ 30The king said, ‘Turn aside, and stand here.’ So he turned aside, and stood still.

31 Then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, ‘Good tidings for my lord the king! For the Lord has vindicated you this day, delivering you from the power of all who rose up against you.’ 32The king said to the Cushite, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ The Cushite answered, ‘May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.’

Some people like to tell the good news, but the bad they can never quite get out of their mouths. 

Ahimaaz, a soldier in the army of Judah, wanted to deliver the good news of victory to David. But the unnamed Cushite, a foreigner and perhaps a mercenary fighter, was willing to tell David the whole story: Victory? Yes.  But David's son, Absalom, was dead.

There's lots of people in this world who like to deliver good news. But in the end what we really need is someone to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth -- even if that someone is an outsider. 

Daily Lesson for August 22, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 11 verses 10 and 11:

 10Have you not read this scripture:

“The stone that the builders rejected

   has become the cornerstone;

11 this was the Lord’s doing,

   and it is amazing in our eyes”?’

C.S. Lewis said he became a Christian when he came to understand the archetypal truth buried in all the stories of the world, which echo the great story of the Gospel. 

I am thinking of Cinderella. Here we have the story of the outcast person rejected and despised by her sisters, at the instigation of jealous hatred -- in this case the bitter hatred of her own stepmother. Cinderella is treated as worthless scum, dirt by the villainous stepmother and her minion daughters. Yet, the Prince somehow sees the beauty in Cinderella and brings her with him into the royal castle to live happily ever after.

The archetype tells us again and again that it is the scorned and rejected and abused who is chosen to be the princess. It is what no one else can see within us which God can see and brings forth out of us to be a part of the royal castle. 

This is an archetype of the Gospel; and once we have eyes to look for it we see it everywhere. 

Daily Lesson for August 21, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 23 verses 1 through 5:

While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, ‘Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God.’ ²Then the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth. ³At this Paul said to him, ‘God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law you order me to be struck?’⁴Those standing nearby said, ‘Do you dare to insult God’s high priest?’⁵And Paul said, ‘I did not realize, brothers, that he was high priest; for it is written, “You shall not speak evil of a leader of your people.” ’

We have arrived at what has now become an epidemic of incivility towards our public officials of all parties and at all levels. It is exceedingly common now to go on the internet and watch public officials be maligned and made fun of in the most malicious of ways. Supposed humor about the decapitation of our current president is a recent and glaring example, but insulting and abusive speech abounds. It has become now fashionable to speak cruelly and unkindly of our leaders and people on all sides of the political spectrum seem to feel at liberty to do so. It is, I think, a sign of moral decay in our society that people feel the license to speak uncivilly of public officials, but in fact speaking uncivilly is how one now becomes a public official. Sad. 

There is no instruction against criticism of policies and even persons. It is necessary that we be able to criticize public officials for the sake of a free democracy. Nevertheless, as the Lesson tells us today, we are not to speak evil of a leader of our people. That means we are not to wish them or their families harm or ill -- no matter how vigorously we might disagree with their policies and take exception to their character.

There are two roads. I wish we'd take the high one.  And I wish we'd quit being so entertained by, giving money to, and electing those who take the low. 

I may sound like an old man talking here. But passing 40 means I've earned that right. And I want you to know that what I'm saying matters for the sake of the character of our country. 

Daily Lesson for August 18, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 107 verses 10 through 16:

10 Some sat in darkness and deep gloom, 

bound fast in misery and iron;

11 Because they rebelled against the words of God 

and despised the counsel of the Most High.

12 So he humbled their spirits with hard labor; 

they stumbled, and there was none to help.

13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, 

and he delivered them from their distress.

14 He led them out of darkness and deep gloom 

and broke their bonds asunder.

15 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercy 

and the wonders he does for his children.

16 For he shatters the doors of bronze 

and breaks in two the iron bars.

This coming Sunday's sermon is titled "Gratitude" and I will be giving thanks for so many things Second B has been for me and for my family for four generations. I am so thankful for so many things I neither earned nor deserve.  It's all grace. 

And beyond even the many graces Second B, there is the abounding grace God. Today's Lesson describes who I was a quarter of a lifetime ago. I sat in darkness and deep gloom, bound fast in the iron misery of my own rebellious ways. I despised the counsels of God and fled what I thought was the stifling presence of His saints. I wanted to live life my way. I wanted to be free; but really I ended up enslaved.  

As Richard Rohr says, for years I skated around the edges of my sin -- and then I fell in. It was a fall to grace. 

The grace did come easy. It was painful and humbling and if I hadn't been so sure that there was no other way in the world to be saved then through surrender then I would never have given in. So there I was, a prodigal returned, not to robe and ring and fatted calf, but to a single bedroom in the home of my new-octogenarian roommate. This wasn't the glory I imagined, but it was the way of salvation. By the flint-hard grace of God was I saved from my own self.

I am thinking today, I could have missed this all. I could have missed this life with God and the blessing which have come since. My family could have missed it. My children could have missed it. I was so close to missing it.

And when I think on how close I was to missing it all, a line from an old hymn comes to mind: "Count your blessings, name them one by one."

Daily Lesson for August 17, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 21:

27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd. They seized him, 28shouting, ‘Fellow-Israelites, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place; more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.’ 29For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30Then all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut.31While they were trying to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33Then the tribune came, arrested him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he inquired who he was and what he had done. 34Some in the crowd shouted one thing, some another; and as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. 35When Paul came to the steps, the violence of the mob was so great that he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36The crowd that followed kept shouting, ‘Away with him!’

A story with relevance for today, touchstones with current events I will note in a numerical list:

1) Racially/religiously-motivated zealots protecting what they see as "sacred", and willing to resort to violence in order to preserve it.

2) The zealots are mostly outside agitators, not actually from the place where they are fomenting a riot.

3) Zenophobia is a prime motivator for the mob.

4) The Roman officials are either unable or unwilling to determine the moral legitimacy of the parties involved in the crisis, arresting Paul, who is the victim rather than the instigator of the violence.  In fact, later the order is given to have Paul flogged for fomenting disorder in the city.

Karl Barth said, "Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible."

So here then is what the Bible tells us about the news and times we live in: It really doesn't end well for cities or for countries governed by mob rule.  When the wind is allowed to be sown then the whirlwind is reaped. That is why local, state, and federal governments with moral clarity and legitimacy are so necessary to intervene for the protection of life, property, and establishment of order. 

#ThisIsSerious 

#ATimeForMoralClarity 

#DoNotPlayWithFire

Daily Lesson for August 16, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 10 verses 28 through 31:

28 Peter began to say to him, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you.’ 29Jesus said, ‘Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.’ 

I want you to know that I have been on the receiving end a hundred times over among that special fellowship of people we call church. 

I have brothers who are closer than blood, with whom I have shared the deepest of laughter and who have been my support during the most difficult of times. I have sisters -- some I call "sister-friends" because of, well, Oprah and Maya -- who have been my Athenas, offering wisdom sublime. I have "rope holders", male and female, holding me tight lest the storm take me overboard. I have mothers, tender and always, always for me. And I have fathers, patient and proud. I have fields, vacation homes, light-keeper's houses, shared with love by those with gifts of hospitality and generosity.

Persecutions?  Yes.  Hard times and bitter struggles. Some big and important and some small and petty. As we say at Second B, this ain't heaven, it's church.

But at the end of the day, Jesus was right. Following Him has brought me family and blessings a hundredfold over.  With persecutions, struggles, and trials?  Yes. And in the end eternal life. 

In the end, a hundred times a hundredfold, forever. 

And the word that comes to mind is "Gratitude".  

Daily Lesson for August 15, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Samuel chapter 14 verse 14:

"We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up. But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished for ever from his presence."

God is still and always at work, maneuvering to bring the sinner home. Long after we ourselves might have given up on someone, or even closed the door on them, God has His ways. We may lock the door and throw away the key, but God always carries a spare. 

This can be tough for those hurt or wounded or who have done right while others have done wrong. But it is the very heart of the Gospel message. As the Psalmist says, "The LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting."

In a couple of weeks, we'll celebrate Second B's anniversary Sunday and will sing as we always do "To God be the Glory".  There's a line in that hymn which says, "The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives."  The vilest offender.  Who is the vilest offender?  I am thinking about those so-called White Nationalists in Charlottesville.  I can hardly think of anything more vile than white nationalism. And here this word says that God is working on them too, that God hasn't given up on any of them.

I tell you this "everlasting mercy" stuff can be hard to stomach. I'd trade it in if I didn't know that at times I've been just about the vilest offender myself. I'd trade it in, except I wouldn't get anything back in return.

So I guess I'll have to keep it.  Offensive as it is, it really is the Gospel. 

Daily Lesson for August 14, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 20 verse 28:

"Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son."

Some have noted that about 95 percent of the time the Daily Lessons come from the prescribed readings of the Episcopal Daily Office. So I never really know what I'm getting until the morning of. 

Today, I get Paul saying goodbye to a people he loves and cares for.  For those who caught yesterday's news about my planned departure from Second B, you can see that this hits close to home. 

Paul is going away, and he will not be coming back. So he calls the elders of the church together to give them instructions on the care for the "flock".  He tells the elders to keep watch over themselves and the sheep and later he tells them to watch for wolves who after he is gone would come to do harm.  "The Holy Spirit has made you overseers of this flock," he tells them. In other words, they've been called and fitted for the task.  They have within them what it will take to watch over these sheep for such a time as this. 

To entrust someone you love into the care of another is the ultimate act of faith. Jesus did it with the disciples, whom he entrusted to the care of the Holy Spirit. Paul did it with the church of Ephesus whom he entrusted to the same. Now, I do so likewise.

These sheep are dearly loved. So dearly loved that the very blood of the Son of God was poured out for them. Take care of them, friends. Take care of yourselves and also them. Take care. 

Daily Lesson for August 11, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark 9:14-29:

14 When they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and some scribes arguing with them. 15 When the whole crowd saw him, they were immediately overcome with awe, and they ran forward to greet him. 16 He asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17 Someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought you my son; he has a spirit that makes him unable to speak; 18 and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, but they could not do so.” 19 He answered them, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.” 20 And they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21 Jesus asked the father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 It has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out,“I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” 26 After crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he was able to stand. 28 When he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29 He said to them, “This kind can come out only through prayer.”

Amidst the chaos that is parenting, and especially parenting a child with special needs, and all the frenzy and fear and full-time worry over keeping the child safe and out of harm's way, and the belief of the mountain where we know all things shall be well and all manner of things shall be well, and then the unbelief of the valley below where we wonder if this child will even make through the day, amidst all these things it turns out that the real problem is not in the child at all. The child is not the problem. The problem is, well, also the answer: it's our prayer.

Now hear me, I have wrestled with this one. As a parent of a child with special needs, I sympathize with the father in this story. I have worried over my son being drawn into the lake by our house or into a busy street. I too have felt the panic of taking my eye off him for a split second and not knowing where or wha he wandered off and into. And no, I don't think prayer is going to take it all away, somehow "cure" autism. But again, maybe autism isn't the problem. My son is not the problem. The chaotic, frenzied, faithless spirit is really not in Daniel. It's in me. 

And so, I hear Jesus' words: "This kind can only come out through prayer."  And what I hear Jesus speaking of is not the spirit of this boy, but the spirit of the man. And it can only come out with prayer. 

Prayers for serenity for times beyond control.

Prayers for acceptance when things don't go as planned. 

Prayers for courage to face challenging situations.

Prayers for strength to get through today. 

Prayers for forgiveness when I am hurting or hurtful.

Prayers for help to get me through today's doubts. 

Prayers of gratitude because all life is gift. 

"This kind can only come out through prayer."' What kind?  Anxiety, anger, impatience, resentment, guilt. Those kinds. Those kinds do come out with prayer. 

They can only come out through prayer. 

Daily Lesson for August 10, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 86 verse 11:

"Teach me your way, O Lord,

and I will walk in your truth; 

knit my heart to you that I may fear your Name."

I have a complicated relationship with the whole notion of fearing God. On the one hand, I grew up in the last days of the revival culture and I remember going to church with friends as a child and being preached at (not just to, but AT) in such a way as the terrors of hell were so plainly explicated that one would have thought the preacher might have been living there. Fear was the sermon. Fear was God. God is Fear. 

I was glad for another message both from the preachers at Second B and also most of the youth ministers that hung around our schools when I was a teenager. They talked a lot more about grace than they did fear. God was not to be feared. God is Love. 

Yet, at one of the most definitive moments in my life, when the path was forking in my late 20s and I was about to go one way rather than the other, it was actually the fear of the LORD that set me on what was without doubt the true and right course. I was afraid, not so much of the flames of hell, but of having to stand before God knowing that I had chosen my own way and not His. 

I think about that fork every time we sing "Amazing Grace" and its line "Twas grace that taught mine heart to fear and grace my fears relieved."  Every time I sing that song I give thanks for the fear and also the grace of God.  For I was saved by one somehow through the other. 

John Donne wrote this wonderful verse:

"The love of God begins in fear;

And the fear of God ends in love."

I thank God for them both.

Daily Lesson for August 9, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 119 verse 105:

"Your word is a lantern to my feet 

and a light upon my path."

Somewhere or other commenting on this verse, Augustine said we need both light on the path to show the way ahead and also a lamp in our hand to help us to take the next step. 

Yeah, that's pretty good. 

The light ahead is a kind of promise -- an assurance that someone has been here before, that they planned and carved out the path and set its stone steps in expectation of another walking them. This is the God of all time at work in the past to guide us in our future. This is the Light of very light which established his light for us literally light years before we would ever see it.

But then there is the lamp in our hand, the light which goes with us and is in us. This is the light which allows us to see not much in the way of distance but enough to simply take the next step, which it turns out is all we really need to make it all the way down the path.

There is light in the long distance, the promise of light past, present, and future and the assurance that as Julian said, "All things shall be well and all manner of things shall be well."  Then there is light at which we carry, the light which illuminates the near and now. 

And in between the two lights there is darkness which can only be driven back back by going ahead and taking the next step . . .

Daily Lesson for August 8, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 78 verse 14:

"He led them with a cloud by day, 

and all the night through with a glow of fire."

God knows just what we need for the time that we are in. 

Sometimes it is dark and the nights are long and cold and what we most need is the glow of firelight to keep us warm and keep us moving. The firelight is strong and draws all eyes to itself amidst the blackness of the night.

At other times, the light is entirely too much for us to bear. The sun is too strong, dayblinding us with its rays which bear down upon our bodies and bounce up into our eyes. God said, "Let there be light," but there is a such thing as too much light, too much exposure.  For such a time as this, there is cloud and mist and obfuscation. God is present, but not obvious as with fire.  For here in the daylight to see God fully in all God's glory would be too much; we would surely die. So God's presence is opaque and obscure, overcast with limited visibility.  There is just enough visibility to keep us walking. 

God is in both the cloud and also the pillar of fire. One draws us with the primordial power of brightness and we come like moths to the flame. And the other canopies us, lest like Icarus we come too near the sun. 

Daily Lesson for August 7, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 8 verses 11 through 15:

11 The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, asking him for a sign from heaven, to test him. 12And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation.’13And he left them, and getting into the boat again, he went across to the other side. 14 Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.15And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out—beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’

My wise man Ted once asked me to consider my history with disapproval.  He was trying to get me to come to terms with the fact that creativity and faithfulness and being true to oneself often and inevitably lead to disapproval from others. 

I think Jesus is doing the same here with his disciples. The Pharisees have come to ask for a sign to prove that Jesus has the approval of God in Heaven. But Jesus knows no such sign will be adequate. For no such imprimatur from Heaven exists. 

"Beware the yeast of the Pharisees," Jesus tells his disciples. In other words, "Beware their seeds of doubt.  Trust me. Trust yourselves. Trust the Spirit within you."

The other day my good friend and West Texas music legend sent me a new book of his -- part song, party poetry, a tiny bit of prose. It's a piece on poetry and the creative process which he used to keynote the National Cowboy Poets Gathering in Elko, Nevada. 

Not having time to read the book immediately, I flipped to page 30 -- my old high school football number. (Some judge a book by its cover; I judge one by page 30.) And there on the page was this incredible piece of verse:

"Forget savants and theologians,

All that they say, all that they know --

Oh, my tribesmen and tribeswomen --

Trust yourselves, YOUR intuition 

For everything from nothing grows --

Creatio ex nihilo--"

Beware the yeast of the savants and theologians; for it is both arrogant and destructive to think the imprimatur they carry is God's very own. 

Daily Lesson for August 4, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 7 verses 31 through 35:

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ 35And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

As I look back on my life and these past 12 years of ordained ministry, one thing I know is that is sheer grace in my life is the gift of preaching. It is impossible to describe how poor a public speaker I was growing up, and how bad preacher I was in the early years of ministry. I had good ideas, but I was ten tons of nerves and a tongue as thick as bacon. After a minor (for me major) public speaking disaster before the whole student body of Irons Jr. High School, I swore I would never speak in public again. And the one preaching class I took in seminary was a mortifying repeat. As Yogi Berra said, "It was deja vu all over again."

As I think on all this perhaps a great part of my initial reluctance to go into ministry had to do with my fear of having to stand up and say something with all eyes on me. I just never felt comfortable in that situation. The thought of speaking made me tremble because I knew I would feel so odd and out of body -- like I was still in the 8th Grade. The thought of it was terrifying and something to run from.

And so here is the minor (and for me again major) miracle: the gift of simply speaking plainly. This is my little gift, given only by the goodness of God to remind me where my words come from. 

There is an old saying, "God does not call the qualified, qualifies the called."  May that be your little hope for whatever God might be calling you to do or to say. God made the mouth and the tongue, and if God has put something inside us that needs to be said then it shall be said one way or another.

And the word we have for that is called Grace.

Daily Lesson for August 3, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 74 verses 15 and 16:

15 Yours is the day, yours also the night; 

you established the moon and the sun.

16 You fixed all the boundaries of the earth;

you made both summer and winter.

The LORD is God over our days and also our nights, the lushness of summer's vegetation and also the stiff and bitter cold of winter. There is no time or season that is not also God's time and God's season. For God is with us for all time.

The day is rich and teeming with light and with life. The sun provides its warmth and its energy and all the earth is alive with zest and with vigor.  But then the evening comes, the sun bows its head and the sky changes from a blue suit to then one of charcoal and finally into black.  It would all be dark. But then stars appear and the moon gives off its light.  The moon reflects its yesterday's light, which is always the promise of some new rise of dawn tomorrow. And when summer finishes its course and falls into winter, then all the earth becomes metaphor for the the great mystery which is life, and death, and then Resurrection.

The times are in God's hands. God has set their boundaries, their beginnings and their endings, and their beginnings again. The LORD is God of all these times. None is forsaken. None is without its gift. For God's is the day, and also the night, our summer of endless hours and also our winter when our hour has come.

"Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love."

Daily Lesson for August 2, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verse 53:

"When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the boat."

After all the adverse wind and rough sailing and that long, and constant feeling of fear that the little ship would never make it across the water, finally it did make it to a place called Gennesaret. 

Gennesaret was not necessarily the place where the disciples had set out for. But it was the place they reached; it was the reachable place. And after the dark night at sea, and the adverse wind, and all the choppy waters, those in the boat were glad to make it to Gennesaret. To be truthful, they were glad to make it anywhere, alive and together. The little boat had made it. It had survived the storm.  It had crossed the water and the mast had stood strong and the hull had not taken on too much water.  They had not drowned. They made it -- to Gennesaret, at least. 

And then a great verse whose substance and meaning might be lost on some but whose words are heard as great Gospel for those who've ever been terrified on the sea: 

"When they crossed over they came to land and moored the boat."

Daily Lesson for August 1, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 34 through 46:

34As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things. 35When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late;36send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.’ 37But he answered them, ‘You give them something to eat.’ They said to him, ‘Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?’ 38And he said to them, ‘How many loaves have you? Go and see.’ When they had found out, they said, ‘Five, and two fish.’39Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass. 40So they sat down in groups of hundreds and of fifties.41Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all. 42And all ate and were filled; 43and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. 44Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men. 45 Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.

Now here is the pastor par excellence.  

There are people and there are needs and the needs of the people are both spiritual and physical. The pastor senses the needs so deeply that they mysteriously become a part of his own heart and being. He has "compassion" upon them; literally, he feels with them. 

There is teaching -- which I am sure is different from "preaching at" -- and there is the long stretch of the hot summer's sun, and then the coming of evening, and the shadows beginning to make their slow march across the land. 

And then, there is the surprising, and perhaps even disturbing word to the disciples. "You give them something to eat," he says. And here, we have the mark of the true teacher -- the ability to summon and charge others to find their own resources and take part in the care of the people. 

Then there is the miracle. Bread is broken. Meat somehow multiplied. The people sitting down upon the green grass waiting for the like the meek sheep in the pasture Twenty-third Psalm, waiting for the shepherd to restore their soul.

The table is set.  A desolate place becomes a green hall of banquet. Five thousand are fed and satisfied, with remainder, twelve baskets full -- enough to feed a whole people. 

And then, then comes the hard part.  There is then the putting back into the boat, the sending off to another place, and the dismissal of the people. They would have wanted the day to last forever. But it was not to be. For the Shepherd gives only the day's bread at a day's time. And here is the mystery of the miracle -- it can only happen one day at a time and this day of miracle must end before the next can begin. 

And receiving the benediction from the pastor then the people turn and go. And they leave not completely gorged, but still very full. For while they would always want more of what they have had together, still they know what they have been given is enough. 

Then the sun begins to set, and the dark surrounds the light, and there is evening, and there is quiet, and then, finally, the call to prayer.