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.