Daily Lesson for February 28, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 5and 6:

5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil.6And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away.

Often, the most important things happening are all beneath the surface, hidden from the eyes.

We marvel at something visibly growing, sprouting and really taking off. It is amazing how quickly some things can go from nothing to something everybody’s talking about.

But there’s a deeper question to be asked. The question is, “Will it last?”  And the answer to that question is found in a deeper place — beneath the surface of things, in places hidden from our eyes. 

We may marvel at something sprouting like a weed; but weeds don’t make it through the drought. They spring up and then they’re gone. I’m not interested in being a weed; and I’m really not interested in growing like one either. 

What I’m interested in is growing like something that will be around for 100 years — like an oak.  It’s not fast. It’s mostly hidden. It takes time. But it takes root. And it grows strong. And it grows solid. And when the drought comes it endures.

Daily Lesson for March 27, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 3 verses 28 through 30:

28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— 30for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’

This is probably one of the most misunderstood, mistranslated, and simply altogether missed passages in the Scripture. 

The “eternal sin” is often mistranslated “unforgivable sin” — as if there were a sin that is unpardonable. No, the sin is “eternal”. It is a sin that lasts for ages (the Greek word is “eons”).  From age to age the sin is passed down, and it is not forgiven because it is not known. The literal translation says it is a sin that cannot be let go of. From age to age each generation is guilty and blind to this same sin and from age to age each generation continues to hold on to it. 

And what is the sin?  What is this “blaspheme against the Holy Spirit”? It is calling evil that which is good. It is setting up opposition against the work of God in the very name of God. It is doing what they did to Jesus in this same scene in the Gospels; it is calling the liberating work of God the work of Satan. It is calling the casting out of demonic oppression the work of the devil. 

This is an eternal sin. From age to age, the so-called righteous are guilty of this same sin. It is the sin that is always with us — even now. The irony is incredible. The so-called righteous unknowingly set themselves up against the works of God while at the same time claiming to defend God! So, as Jesus says, we kill the prophets of our own time while at the same time building monuments of atonement to the prophets whom our fathers killed.

You’d think one day we’d wake up to this blasphemous madness. But it’s an eternal sin, one each generation is guilty of — including our very own. 

May those who have eyes to see let them see. 

Daily Lesson for February 26, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 3 verses 13 through16:

13 He went up the mountain and called to him those whom he wanted, and they came to him.14And he appointed twelve, whom he also named apostles, to be with him, and to be sent out to proclaim the message, 15and to have authority to cast out demons. 16So he appointed the twelve.

Now here is something new to me in the text which though I’ve read it many times before, I never really noticed: the twelve apostles were called by Jesus not only to be sent to preach and cast out demons but also, and firstly, to be with Jesus.

That was the first and foremost thing: being with Jesus, spending time watching and learning from him. In being with Jesus the apostles were taught the things they would need once they were sent out. Being with Jesus was not incidental to all they would go out and do; being with Jesus was essential for it. 

Many of us are doers. We are ready to be sent. We are ready to proclaim the message. We’re eager to cast out the world’s demons. We’re the biggest bunch of do gooders anybody’s ever seen. 

But before we can go out and do good, first we must be with Jesus. We must spend time with him. We must listen to him. We must watch and learn from him. We must spend time with him, so that we can learn to pray and be like him.

One day we shall be sent to do mighty things. We shall be given the power to speak truth and cast out demons.  The gates of hell shall not prevail against us. But not yet; first we must be with Jesus. Now, we must be with Jesus. Today we must come and take his yoke upon us so that we may learn from Jesus and be made like him. 

Daily Lesson for February 22, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 10 through 15:

10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. 11For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ. 12Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—13the work of each builder will become visible, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each has done. 14If what has been built on the foundation survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15If the work is burned, the builder will suffer loss; the builder will be saved, but only as through fire.

The work of the builder is judged by the fire.

We look at the building and we delight in its beauty and are awed by its size on the day when the ribbon is cut. It is awe-inspiring. Everyone looks at it thinks it is awesome. 

But it’s one thing to open a building; it’s quite another to keep it open. The building is judged not on the day it opens, but on the day the fire comes. And the one question the judgment is based is this: “Did it last?”

We see many things going up all around. Institutions rise and fall. Businesses come and go. Flash in the pan preachers flash their wares for a little while on the latest YouTube Channel. It’s all very sensational; but it doesn’t last. It’s gone with the wind. 

Mae Cora Peterson is 101 years old and a member of my church. She’s sharp as a tack and has a saying I like a lot. “Been here will be here when come here has done come and gone.”

Wherever we’re building, let us build to last. Let us build so that what we’re building will be here even when we’ve come and gone. 

RIP, Billy Graham

Three days after 9-11 Billy Graham addressed the nation in a special memorial service at Washington National Cathedral. He spoke of the fallen towers and to the grief and fears of a rattled nation. Then he closed by quoting an old hymn called “How Firm a Foundation”:

"Fear not, I am with thee; O be not dismayed,

for I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand."

There was the pastor, summoned to speak the word of God to the people of God.

Thanks be to God for Billy Graham. May he go on now to the City whose foundation is everlasting. 

Daily Lesson for February 21, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 1 verses 35 through 39:

35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ 38He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’ 39And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Sometimes we have to say no in order to say yes. 

Everyone was searching for Jesus. Everyone in and around the tiny village of Capernaum was clamoring for him. Everyone needed him. There might have been a hundred people knocking at the door. 

But Jesus had slipper away to pray. And when finally found by Peter, Jesus shocked him by saying he wasn’t going back. For there were other places he had to go. 

I can only imagine the response when word got back that Jesus had just walked away. Talk about disappointment — betrayal even. Some had waited at that door for hours only to be told Jesus had long-since left. 

And on Jesus’ end I can only imagine how much courage it took to say no to those people Capernaum. Saying no always takes courage. 

It’s hard for me to say no. I’m sure it wasn’t any easier for Jesus. But he knew he had to say no. He had to say no to where he was, so he could say yes to the whole wide world.

Daily Lesson for February 20, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson is in observance the saint Frederick Douglass who died on this day in 1895.

Frederick Douglass, abolitionist, author, and American statesman, was born a slave in Massachusetts and escaped to freedom in 1838. In 1845 he published his most famous work book under his assumed name “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave”.

As a witness to the crimes committed within the institution of slavery “Narrative” is a seminally incredible book. It is especially incredible given that slaves were prohibited from learning to read or write. Douglass first learned to read the alphabet at age 12 by the secret teaching of his master’s wife. He carried on his learning with exposure to white children and and also observing the writing of the adult men he worked with on ships. Douglass kept his literacy a secret until he escaped to freedom, and Douglass’s secret ability to read enabled him to make the escape. 

Literacy is the primary push here in the Fort Worth Independent School District for grades K-3. As schools superintendent Dr. Kent Scribner has said, third grade is the grade students go from learning to read to reading to learn. Our district needs help getting lower-level students caught up so they can make that jump. They are asking for church and other community organization volunteers. Broadway is partnering with members from our neighbor Baker Chapel AME Church to say yes and send volunteers from our churches into one of our nearby local elementaries, Van Zandt-Guinn, together. 

Several years ago I volunteered with a great organization called Kids Hope, and was partnered with a young, African American second grader who was having difficulty in school. I served as his mentor throughout the rest of his elementary years and later served as his sister’s mentor also. 

When her older brother was in 5th grade, he chose to do something pretty audacious for a 10-year-old. I had been telling him about Fred Douglass and he decided he wanted to read “Narrative”.  We didn’t get through the whole thing before the school year ran out; but we made a very good start. And I remember our most poignant moment together when we read about the day Douglass first ran away from a harsh overseer, got caught, and then beaten cruelly. “What do you think he’s going to do next?” I asked my mentee.  He thought for several moments. He was a quiet child, and he was silent long enough that I didn’t think he was going to answer.  I thought he was just going to shake his head. But then he spoke. “I think he’s going to try and run away again,” he said. I nodded my head and was then dumbfounded by when he had even more to say about what he thought Douglass was going to do. “He’s gonna escape” he said, “then he’s gonna come back and get the other slaves and take them with him.”

Like Douglass, this child too had gone from learning to read to reading to learn. He’s in high school now. He is smart. And he is college bound. And I’ll bet you anything that after he goes off to college and learns even more, he’s going to come back and get others and take them with him. 

Daily Lesson for February 19, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 and 9:

8He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We trust God for strength. 

Through all the trials and tribulations, struggles and sorrows that are to come, we trust God to strengthen and uphold us. As Paul says in the Lesson, “God is faithful”; and God will give us our strength in due measure at due time. 

So we are not afraid. We need not fear or tremble over the things that are to come. God will see us through. In God we trust. And God is faithful; God is always faithful.

There are many things to worry about when it comes to tomorrow. But there is no sense borrowing trouble. For God’s strength comes like God’s manna — only day by day.

We will be strengthened to the end, Paul says. But it will only come one day at a time. Today’s worries are plenty; so too is today’s strength. It’s all we have, and it’s all that we will need. 

Daily Lesson for February 16, 2018

Today’s Daily Office comes from Psalm 95 verses 23 and 24:

23 Love the Lord, all you who worship him; 

the Lord protects the faithful,

but repays to the full those who act haughtily.

24 Be strong and let your heart take courage, 

all you who wait for the Lord.

“Can we watch the video of Martin Luther King and the white woman who wouldn’t let him play with her son?” one of my own sons — age seven — asks in the kitchen. 

“We can watch Martin Luther King.  But I don’t know which video you are talking about. Was it something you saw in school?”  

There is a nod as I google Dr. King and click on the first video to pop up. It’s an excerpt from the end of the “I Have a Dream” speech, the famous part about the dream. The boys watch while I clean some things in the kitchen. 

“Ugh, why does he keep saying, ‘I Have a Dream’?”  This is the same son asking. He’s on the autism spectrum and doesn’t quite have the art of rhetoric down.

“Oh, he’s just preaching,” I say.

“Yeah, Dr. King was a Baptist preacher — like dad,” my other son, age five, says with a smile. 

“Dr. King was a little better preacher than your dad,” I say with a wink at the boys’ older sister.”  She smiles, knowingly. 

“Was Dr. King dark black?” the seven year old asks, his eyes still attentive to the screen. He’s trying to figure out race.  It’s hard for him because it’s so illogical. How can someone be brown and yet we call them black?

“Well, he was kinda dark, probably a little darker than mom.”

“I’m a little bit white, and a little bit black, and mostly brown,” he says.

“Yes,” I say.  “You are biracial — black and white.”

The video nears its end and Dr. King continues his litany. We all continue to watch, transfixed together. 

“little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today . . .

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing . . .’

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring . . .

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring . . .

“Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

“Free at last, free at last,” my five year old echoes in his deepest little preacher voice and then looks up and smiles. 

“Did the white people not want to play with Dr. King?” his brother asks. “Would they not eat with him?”

“That’s right. A lot of white people didn’t want to play or eat with black people back then.”

“Did God want them to eat with Dr. King?”

“Yes, God wanted them to.”

“Did God want them to play with Dr. King?”

“Yes, God wanted them to play with Dr. King; but there were rules that said they couldn’t.”

“Yeah, but Dr. King changed the rules,” the five year old says shaking his head at me. “Right?”

“Right.”

“Was God okay with Dr. King changing the rules?” the seven year old asks seriously. 

“Yes. God was okay with it. Bad rules are called unjust laws and God knows they need to be changed.”

“Now, y’all need to get ready for bed.”  

I am done with the cleaning and I move from the kitchen to the living room couch. Both they boys follow. 

There is a rare silence. The silence is then broken by a very serious tone in the five year old. “But how did he do it?”

“How did who do what?”

“How did Dr. King change the rules?”

“Well, God was on his side,” I say.

“But there were more people on the other side,” he says.

“Yes,” I say, “that may be true. But God was on Dr. King’s side and one plus God is always a majority. Do you know what a majority is?”

He shakes his head no.

“It’s the winning side. One plus God is always the winning side.

“Now, y’all really got to go to bed. 

Good night boys; and sweet dreams.”

A sweet, sweet dream indeed. 

Daily Lesson for February 15, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Habakkuk chapter 3 verses 17 and 18:

17 Though the fig tree does not blossom,

   and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the olive fails

   and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold

   and there is no herd in the stalls, 

18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

   I will exult in the God of my salvation.

Perhaps the gravest threat to American Christianity now is the so-called “prosperity gospel”.  

The “name it and claim it”, “blab it and grab it” theology of prosperity gospel distorts the Bible, implicitly and explicitly assigns blame to the poor for their own circumstances, and falsely promises comfort, wealth, and ease to those who pray a certain way and especially give to a certain ministry. This, plus a number of prosperity peddlers are also promising an end to all manner of sickness through miracle cures in place of things like, oh, vaccinations.

It’s disturbing how far and how high reaching prosperity gospel preachers have now gained influence in America. Apparently we Americans will buy anything — or at least try.

The God of the Bible does not promise us health or wealth or prosperity of any kind. That is not a part of the deal. In fact, faithfulness sometimes makes life more difficult and demanding. There is a cost of discipleship and financial peace is not guaranteed in the end. 

This is Lent. Lent is our reminder that Jesus himself did not go without difficulty. He was faithful, yet his faithfulness took him not to the bank but into the wilderness. For the true test of faithful discipleship is not ones willingness to follow in and towards times of prosperity, but rather in and times of adversity.

Today the Prophet Habakkuk comes with a word of admonishment to those who would peddle prosperity to the people. The Prophet’s words are counter witness:

 Though the fig tree does not blossom,

   and no fruit is on the vines;

though the produce of the olive fails

   and the fields yield no food;

though the flock is cut off from the fold

   and there is no herd in the stalls, 

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

   I will exult in the God of my salvation.

We worship and we follow and we yield our lives to God right where we are today, even in times of want and without the promise of gaining anything else in the world — save our souls. 

Daily Lesson for February 14, 2018

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  Today’s Lesson comes from Isaiah 58 verses 1 through 10:

58:1 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.

58:2 Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.

58:3 "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?" Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.

58:4 Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.

58:5 Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

58:6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

58:7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

58:8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

58:9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and the beginning of the 40 days set aside for reflection, penitence, and prayer leading up to Easter.  This is the time for personal and communal examination and change.

The Prophet Isaiah is given to us today because he’s serious about change. Ash Wednesday is a day for public acts of contrition. Many of us wear ashes on our foreheads as signs of repentance. But Isaiah won’t let us stop there. He’s interested in what’s going on behind the ashes — how we think about one another in our heads and also our hearts.

“See . . . notice,” he says. 

In other words, look around at your neighbors. Talk with them. Cross the tracks. Cross the aisle. Get to know somebody with a very different opinion from yours. Get to know somebody with a very different lifestyle, of a different race or class. Invite a poor person and their family into your life. See if you think what we’re paying them is enough to make ends meet.

Ash Wednesday is a fast day. That’s fine; ashes are fine. But the true fast goes beyond a single day and is more than skin deep. 

The true fast is one of transformation — ours, and that of our community. And that can’t happen without us first looking, and noticing , and getting involved.

Daily Lesson for February 13, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Proverbs chapter 30 verses 7 through 9:

7 Two things I ask of you;

   do not deny them to me before I die: 

8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

   give me neither poverty nor riches;

   feed me with the food that I need,

9 or I shall be full, and deny you,

   and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’

or I shall be poor, and steal,

   and profane the name of my God.

As we near now the threshold of Lent, we arrive at Shrove Tuesday which is also called Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Today is a day set aside in many cultures for celebration and feasting before the fasting of Lent begins tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. Today we’ll celebrate with staff-cooked pancakes at church. It’s BYOB — bring your own butter. 

In the Lesson today there is link between food and the spiritual life. Food is a stand in for all the things we need, but are also tempted to consume too much of. Pancakes this evening would definitely qualify. So too would clothes, and houses, electronics, money, and probably all manner of other things. 

The wisdom of Proverbs dares to pray for no more and no less of those things which are needed. Wisdom knows there is such a thing as enough and that it really is enough. And wisdom knows that when there is too much more than enough the grace of having to depend on God is gets lost. As the words to the hymn say, we become “rich in things, but poor in soul,” — full in body but impoverished in spirit. 

I’m going to enjoy my pancakes tonight. But I’m going to try not to enjoy them too much. For I do want to be fed, and I want to be full, but I do not want to be so full that I forget the taste and grace of my daily bread. 

Daily Lesson for February 12, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Proverbs 27 verse 5:

“Better is open rebuke

   than hidden love.”

There comes a time when we all have to stand up and be counted, to stand next to and be quiet no more. This is the time when, as Jesus said, what has been whispered in the ear is to be shouted from the rooftop.

I read an article this weekend on how the anti-LGBTQ movement has apparently grown more emboldened to publicly condemn LGBTQ persons. This is of course true on the internet, but also in public meetings, state legislatures, and the church. In many places it grows more difficult to speak up for our gay friends and relatives, even while so many of us do feel a deep love for and acceptance of them. It’s just hard to speak for them.  It’s hard to speak in a church meeting, or at the beauty shop, or in a town hall.  It really is hard to speak; our lips quiver. 

But no matter how difficult it may be, it’s time to speak. The world will not change by itself. The wheels of justice do not turn without human force. Condemnation will keep on happening without a strong, faithful defense. Neighbors and loved ones have to learn how to stand up and speak. 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

In this country we have the right to remain silent. But we also have the right to speak up; it’s time more of us do.

Our friends are counting on it. 

A Response to the Recent CBF Governing Board Action on LGBTQ staff

Yesterday the Governing Board of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship accepted the Illumination Project’s recommendation that the CBF revoke its blanket policy prohibiting the hiring of LGBTQ employees but continue to disallow the employment of LGBTQ persons for key field, supervisory, and leadership positions. Many of us who believe the full and unqualified inclusion of LGBTQ is a justice matter whose time has come see this partial step as deeply inadequate and even dismaying. Though given the significantly divided makeup of CBF, it is not altogether surprising.

This was a moment many of us hoped might be a watershed. Instead, what we were given is gradualism. I am sorry for all my LGBTQ friends and I am sorry for the future generations of the CBF who will see this decision as a compromise which falls short of the good news so many need to hear and which the CBF had the chance to proclaim.

When I heard about the decision I thought of a quote from that great Baptist and civil rights leader, the late Clarence Jordan: 

“I know of no one more miserable today than Moderates in the South. They’re trying to hold a position that is absolutely untenable — the middle-of-the-road position. When you straddle the fence you are respected by neither side. As the writer of Hebrews says, ‘The word of God is as sharp as a two-edged sword, cutting down to the dividing of the joints, even to the marrow of the bone.’  Now, that means that the Word of God is razor sharp, and when you straddle it, you get cut.”

The Word of God given to us says that, “In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female.”  We have been set free from all these things. Christ has set us free. When will we finally be free to say so?

Daily Lesson for February 9, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 28 verses 11 through 19:

Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; 14and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. 15Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’16Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ 17And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ 18 So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. 19He called that place Bethel.

“Beth-el” means “House of God”.  It’s the LORD’s house, the place where God and God’s people dwell. It’s the place of the soul’s rest, the place of spiritual awakening. Only, it is none of these things save to the one who is awakened. To others it is just a place of old stones piled oddly together along the roadside. 

Jacob’s grandfather Abraham laid these stones. He was the one who first passed this way and built an altar to the LORD. He gave the place its name.

But when Jacob came this way two generations later he did not see it as the House of God. He saw not the Sacred in this old place. He saw only lifeless rocks, not living stones. A sacred stone was not sacred to Jacob. It was better used as a pillow. 

Then Jacob’s eyes closed. And somewhere in the mystery of night even with his eyes closed, Jacob saw. And then he saw. A ladder with angels ascending and descending. A doorway into heaven. And a voice: “I am the LORD, the God of your father and grandfather.”  And then Jacob’s eyes opened. He awoke. Now he could see it all. “Surely this is the house of the LORD,” he said, “and I did not know it.”

Every generation must find its own sacred place in its own right. The House of the LORD — the church, the synagogue — these places are sacred. But one must have eyes to see. One must have ones eyes opened. For until we are awakened, an old church is just an empty bunch of rocks and stone pieces held together by decaying mortar. Oh but to the one who in the mystery of the night is made to see, that old pile of rocks is the place where angels descend and ascend. It is more than a relic of stone and mortar from generations past, it is Bethel — the very House of God. 

I’m still in love with my wife Irie’s poem about the old 1830 meeting house which housed my first church at the center of the village in Colchester, Vermont.  Poems do things; and the words give the old bones of the house spirit and life. And a pile of rocks is now for another generation seen for what it really is, Bethel:

This Church is rickety

Lives and bodies

halting speech and movement

Stained glass -- and carpets

Centuries of prayers

Slipping out of whitewashed pews

and crumbling bricks

I am this Church, somehow

Prayers and incantations

Sliding through a weathered Temple

He who has eyes to see let him see. 

Daily Lesson for February 8, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Romans chapter 12 verses 9 through 21:

9 Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good;10love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. 11Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.13Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.15Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. 18If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.19Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’20No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now is a time for holding fast to what is good. 

There is now so much strife and uncertainty within our country and so much discord amongst our people. It is very easy now to give up on good. But Paul, writing in very tense times himself with his people persecuted and scattered and living in a time of grave uncertainty, reminds us this morning to hold on tight to the good.

So, now is the time for inviting the friends over for dinner.  It is the time for picking up the paper for elderly neighbors. It is the time for getting coffee with DREAMERS, and a fried chicken with the homeless. It is the time to write notes for the purpose of sympathy. It is the time to write notes for the purpose of congratulations. It is the time to take off for the funeral. It is the time to dance in the kitchen. It is the time to show up for the community meeting. It is the time to laugh. It is the time to pray. It is the time organize. It is the time to speak the truth in love.  It is the time to listen to the other person’s truth in love. It is the time to change and be changed.

Now is the time for resisting hate. And the hatred that we most have to resist is the hatred which is inside us — the hatred that would rob us of our love and lead us into the temptation of despair.

“Do not be overcome by evil,” Paul says, “but overcome evil with good.”  We were made for goodness. We must hold tight to it now and be sure that nobody takes it. Goodness is ours to keep; we must keep it very, very close. 

Daily Lesson for February 7, 2018

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.

Today, I am called to play my part. 

My part is not the whole, though it belongs and is vital to the whole. My part matters. Though I ought not to think too much of it; I also dare not think too little. My part matters. Every part matters. “He who is faithful in little shall be given much,” Jesus says. For he who is faithful in little has already been given much. To the smallest part, belongs the health and well being of the whole body.

I heard somewhere recently that if in the sixties you you went to Houston and asked the workers at NASA what their jobs were they would all tell you the same thing. The head guy in Mission Control would say, “My job is to put a man on the moon.”  And then, if you went down the hall and asked the janitor, he would say the same thing, “My job is to put a man on the moon.”  How about that — a man doesn’t fly through the clouds without somebody mopping the floor first.

What’s your job? What’s your part? Play it today. It matters. Every little part matters. My little part matters. 

Daily Lesson for February 6, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 8 verses 1 through 8:

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them. 3The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, 4they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.5Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ 6They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ 8And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.

I have sometimes wondered what it was that Jesus was writing on the ground. A friend says Jesus wrote: “Where is the man?”  I like that interpretation.  Older commentaries suggested he was writing down all the sins of the men who were making a spectacle of her. Maybe he was writing the names of the women and men some of them had carried on affairs with. I like that interpretation too. 

Whatever it was he was writing, it worked. They each dropped their rocks. None of them was without sin, so none was willing to cast the first stone.

A pastor mentor of mine has heard his fair share of confessions of adultery. Upon hearing of it, he always does the same thing. The first thing he says is, “Well, this should keep you from ever, ever again casting a stone at somebody else’s sin.” Then he reaches out to hold their hand.

When Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin be the one to cast the first stone,” he kept everyone else from executing the full law on the woman but still allowed provision for himself to do so. For he was in fact without sin. But then he also refused. The one who was in fact without sin refused to cast his stone also, and so the woman who still might have gotten justice instead got grace.

In fact, if it was indeed the sins of all those men which Jesus was writing down then that means they all got grace also.

And that’s why I don’t think there’s going to be any rocks in heaven. 

Daily Lesson for February 5, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Hebrews chapter 13 verses 10 through 14:

10We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. 11For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.12Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.13Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. 14For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

In the last year of his life, even as the Civil Rights movement had made some progress on the racial front, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood that there would never be true equality in America lest there be a movement which went beyond the initial aim of desegregation and began to address some of the economic inequities in our country. To criticism that Dr. King and other blacks would not be satisfied, Dr. King answered by saying he shared with the prophets of many centuries a “holy dissatisfaction” with the status quo.

To be a Christian is to live with a kind of perpetual but also holy dissatisfaction.  We just cannot be satisfied with the way things are, because we know things could always be better. We cannot be assuaged with “progress” because our standard is perfection. “Be ye perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect,” Jesus said. So we are always striving to make that “more perfect Union” our Founding Fathers spoke of.

Today’s Lesson says, “For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.” Yes, we are always looking for this city. We are always working towards us. And no, we can never be satisfied until we attain it. For when you have phrases like “liberty and justice for all” and “All men are created equal” as cornerstones then anything less will never satisfy. We’re looking for the city that is to come; and we won’t stop looking until we find it. 

There is an old saying, “One who is content in his little village is parochial, while one who is content amidst the whole world is a cosmopolitan.  But one who is content nowhere is a saint. 

Here’s to those who just cannot be content with the way things are. Here’s to the holy dissatisfied.  For they’re the ones with the vision to see what things need to be changed and the gall to change them.