Special From Jerusalem

Special from Jerusalem

A tumultuous week in the Judean city of Jerusalem came to an end today when Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish religious leader who many Jews claimed to be the Messiah but who Sanhedrin and some Roman officials saw as a threat to Pax Romana, was crucified on grounds of treason against the Empire.

Tensions mounted on Sunday when Jesus and his disciples marched into the capital and blocked the entryway to the Jewish Temple where thousands of pilgrims came to celebrate the Jewish Passover Festival.  This was the second time in three years Jesus' protest actions put a temporary stop to Temple transactions.  On Sunday it was reported he disrupted religious ritual by turning over the tables of the Temple Court money changers and chasing those selling sacrificial animals out of the courtyard.  Later Jesus purportedly threatened to take his protests even further.  Witnesses say he threatened to destroy the Temple altogether and to then raise it up after three days.

Jesus' actions jeopardized an already tenuous truce existing between Jewish religious and political authorities and Roman peacekeeping forces during the Passover Festival.  As Passover is a holiday celebrating the ancient Hebrews escape from slavery in Egypt, it has in recent years been a week fraught with clashes between Roman soldiers and pro-liberation extremists.  The actions of Jesus and other zealot-minded Jews necessitated Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea, to move the bulk of his force from the Judean capital of Caesarea Maritima to Jerusalem for the festival to ensure order.  There was speculation Pilate might even go so far as to decide to shut the city down altogether if peace could not be assured.

But Jerusalem religious officials moved quickly Monday to keep crowds in order during the festival.  "The Feast of Passover is a religious event - not a political one.  The great masses of Jews are peace-loving people who are glad for the peace and prosperity Rome has brought to the region," Zacharias of Bethany, a member of the Sanhedrin said in a public statement endorsed by the body.  The statement went on to denounce Jesus.  "We reject the kind of opportunism exhibited in people like Jesus of Nazareth.  He is an extremist, an outside agitator whom the prefect is justified in apprehending."

Rival separatist leaders were quick to release their own statement in turn.  "The so-called peace Rome has brought is no peace at all," the separatist statement said.  God's promise for our people and our land is a promise for freedom.  It is a promise given to our Father Abraham and verified in the blood of the Passover lamb.  Moses did not lead our people across the Red Sea only to in turn now be slaves in our own land."

It was notable, however, that the separatist statement did not mention Jesus by name.  Jewish political observers suggest a leader like Jesus is unlikely to garner the support of pro-liberation Jews because of his apparent openness toward Gentiles, including a highly publicized meeting between Jesus and a Roman centurion in the Galilean town of Capernaum.  As one religious expert put it: "Jesus may wear Moses' sandals, but he does not carry his staff."

But it wasn't Moses who came to mind when Jesus made his way into town Sunday.  Instead it was David, the greatest of Israel's past kings.  As Jesus entered the city, sitting proudly astride a small colt - a gesture intended to reenact an ancient Jewish royal tradition - crowds lined the path shouting, "Hosanna," - a Hebrew word meaning "save" - "to the Son of David."  The crowd's message was clear.  They wanted their king - and they did not mean the Emperor Tiberius.

By Friday, however, it was evident to all in Jerusalem that Jesus was not the king they were looking for.  Late Thursday night he was arrested by Temple police and found guilty by the Sanhedrin in a hastily organized emergency trial.  Early Friday morning the Sanhedrin turned Jesus over to Pilate requesting the execution of the man known as "the Nazorean" on grounds of treason.  By 3pm that afternoon Jesus' body hung bloody and lifeless from a tree atop a high ridge just outside of the city.  At Pilate's order a sign was placed over his body written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin: "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews".

The pointedness of the sign was characteristic of Pilate's strong-armed reputation as prefect, but conflicted with what sources close to Pilate say actually happened inside the governor's courtyard.  Those sources reveal the case against Jesus was not as cut and dry as Jesus' accusers, and later the sign, suggested.  The sources said Pilate saw the conflict over Jesus as primarily a struggle for control among the ranks of Jewish leaders; as such, Pilate was inclined to have Jesus simply flogged and released.  In the end, however, political expedience won out, sources say, as Pilate became convinced that Jesus' execution was in the best interest of the Sanhedrin and the region as a whole.  "It is better that one man should die than the whole nation perish," said a Sanhedrin member speaking on condition of anonymity.

Whether that man was innocent or guilty was apparently beside the point for Pilate.  This is Judea - one of the most lawless places in the Roman Empire and insiders within Praetorium say law and order will only be regained if the Jewish people learn not only to avoid treason but also even the appearance of treason.

On Friday afternoon a dark cloud settled over the city as the Nazorean struggled in his final hours of crucifixion.  It was a short time as these things go, but agonizing for those who kept watch.  A commiserate spirit among the onlookers accompanied the man's last gasps.  A woman was heard gently weeping in the distance.  "We had hoped he would be the one to redeem Israel," she said through her tears.  "We had hoped."  That was when Jesus, "King of the Jews" hung his head and died.

Pilate ordered the body be pulled down from the cross and given to some of Jesus' followers.  As the soldiers lowered the cross to its parallel position those around could see the body more clearly in its gruesome and mangled state.  One of the soldiers, who stood guard throughout the execution, looked up from the body and toward Jesus' followers and then spoke.  The language was Aramaic, but the words were spoken with the tongue of someone who grew up in perhaps the Palermo region.  "This," he said, "was a son of God."  

It was not altogether obvious what the soldier meant.

Daily Lesson for March 29, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 27 through 32:

27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. 28Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgement against themselves. 30For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. 31But if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. 32But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

Sometime back I was in worship planning with a group of other pastors as we were preparing for a service with communion. We read this passage about not partaking of the meal unworthily. I talked about the old Latin term “Masticatum Infidelium” and how theologians said it was determined that anyone who ate the bread unworthily brought condemnation upon themselves. 

As we were talking I teasingly asked if anyone had ever taken the meal unworthily?  One of the pastors on staff answered: “Every time.”

I thought that was brilliant. Every time we come to the table we come unworthily.  We come as beggars in search of bread. We come as ne-we-do-wells in search of strong drink. We come hungry. We come thirsty. We come empty. We come broken. We come as scammers. We come as less than totally honest. We come silent and complicit. We come in need of redemption for the things we’ve done and the things we’ve left undone. We come not as saints, but as sinners; we come as chiefs of sinners.

There is a great paradox at the Table. Those who think they are worthy are unworthy; but those who know they come unworthily are made worthy in the great grace of God.

It is Maundy Thursday. In His great love Jesus shares the cup of salvation with us. May we drink it. May we drink unworthily that we might know the mercy yet once more.

“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the water of life as gift.”

Daily Lesson for March 28, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Lamentations chapter 2 verses 5 through:

5 The Lord has become like an enemy;

   he has destroyed Israel.

He has destroyed all its palaces,

   laid in ruins its strongholds,

and multiplied in daughter Judah

   mourning and lamentation. 

6 He has broken down his booth like a garden,

   he has destroyed his tabernacle;

the Lord has abolished in Zion

   festival and sabbath,

and in his fierce indignation has spurned

   king and priest. 

7 The Lord has scorned his altar,

   disowned his sanctuary;

he has delivered into the hand of the enemy

   the walls of her palaces;

a clamour was raised in the house of the Lord

   as on a day of festival. 

8 The Lord determined to lay in ruins

   the wall of daughter Zion;

he stretched the line;

   he did not withhold his hand from destroying;

he caused rampart and wall to lament;

   they languish together. 

9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;

   he has ruined and broken her bars;

her king and princes are among the nations;

   guidance is no more,

and her prophets obtain

   no vision from the Lord.

Today’s Lesson is a sobering one. It is one full of the judgment of the prophets and a warning to all the nations of the world.

Here is a word of caution against all hubris and arrogance and sense of self-importance.

The LORD left the Temple. The spirit went out from the holy place and the the Holy Land was left desolate.

Nothing is too big to fail. Nothing is too cherished or too important or even too sacred to be above judgment. The LORD left His holy Temple. That means no other church or house or nation should think of itself as beyond reproach. No one is beyond reproach. No nation is above God’s moral plumb line.

It is one thing to be great; but we must also be good. We know what the LORD does require of us: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God. 

On this Wednesday of Holy Week, we pray we will hear the words of the Lesson, take it to heart, and let its lamentation change is, that we might be found pleasing in God’s sight and without charge amidst the righteous of the nations. 

Daily Lesson for March 27, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 through 11:

8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. 9Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.10He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, 11as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted to us through the prayers of many.

When we come to a place of complete brokenness, we have nowhere else to turn save God. We cannot depend upon our own strength, assets, connections, or ability.  This is the place of utter dependence. 

Paul says he came to a place of despair. “Despair” literally means to lose spirit or breath. In the beginning, when Adam was created from the dust God took dust in hand and breathed the spirit of life into it. To despair is to become again like dust — completely lifeless and totally dependent upon God’s own breath to raise us up again. 

“Indeed,” Paul says, “we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

It is Holy Week. Jesus will soon be condemned to death. He will surrender to the powers of death. He will surrender, be tried, be crucified, and give up his spirit. He will literally despair of all life. At that point, there will be nothing more he can do. He will be dead, completely lifeless. If he is to be raised, then his resurrection will only come by the hand and the spirit of God. 

Into God’s hands Jesus will commit his spirit — God’s and God’s alone. 

Daily Lesson for March 24, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 and 4:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, 4who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

Frederick Buechner used to speak of our call to be “stewards of our own pain” and that seems exactly what the Lesson is saying this morning. We all have pain. We all have stories of hardship and suffering. To be a steward of these things is allow others to come into our stories and find solace and hope amidst their own pain.

Stewardship of our pain is not easy and we have to be careful with it. It is not bragging about our own pain. It is not comparing scars. It is not dismissing others’ stories by too quickly sharing our own.

It is not bragging. It is vulnerability. Vulnerability comes from the Latin word “Voluntas”, which means “wound”.  As Henry Nouwen said, we are the “wounded healers”. Just as Christ was “wounded for our transgressions . . . And by his stripes we are made healed,” so too can our sacred stories of suffering and survival, pain and consolation, bring hope to others in the place of their woundedness. 

We enter now Holy Week. This is the week Jesus came into the fullness of human suffering. It is a sorrowful and agonizing week and Jesus would have wished to be spared. But this was the way. His own suffering was the way. His own pain was the way. His woundedness was the way; and when it was over he would say, “Come; come and place your finger in the holes of my wounds.”

And all who did found their own healing also. 

Daily Lesson for March 21, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 9 verses 22-30, and 33-34.

22 The Lord said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand towards heaven so that hail may fall on the whole land of Egypt, on humans and animals and all the plants of the field in the land of Egypt.’ 23Then Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire came down on the earth. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt; 24there was hail with fire flashing continually in the midst of it, such heavy hail as had never fallen in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. 25The hail struck down everything that was in the open field throughout all the land of Egypt, both human and animal; the hail also struck down all the plants of the field, and shattered every tree in the field. 26Only in the land of Goshen, where the Israelites were, there was no hail. 27 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron, and said to them, ‘This time I have sinned; the Lord is in the right, and I and my people are in the wrong. 28Pray to the Lord! Enough of God’s thunder and hail! I will let you go; you need stay no longer.’29Moses said to him, ‘As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will stretch out my hands to the Lord; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth is the Lord’s.30But as for you and your officials, I know that you do not yet fear the Lord God.’ . . . 33So Moses left Pharaoh, went out of the city, and stretched out his hands to the Lord; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain no longer poured down on the earth. 34But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned once more and hardened his heart, he and his officials.

Jesus said the sun rises on the good and the evil and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. But —at least in this case — the hail fell only on the hard-hearted Egyptians.

The hearts were softened by the disaster. But then, they were hardened again. 

Which makes hail a perfect metaphor for Pharaoh and his officials. Just as the appearance of H2O can be liquid or solid or vapor and yet still be the same substance, Pharaoh’s hard heart can soften under certain conditions but then harden again once the conditions change.

Moses knows who Pharaoh really is and Moses won’t buy the promises Pharaoh makes in weakness. Pharaoh’s heart is hard and his words are no good. Once the winds change, he’s right back to who he’s always been.

Moses will strike a deal with Pharaoh for today. But Moses also knows that in spite of whatever gestures Pharaoh might make under current political conditions, the Israelites will need to watch out because it’s still the same old Pharaoh in substance. 

Daily Lesson for March 20, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 7 verses 1 through 4:

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh and say to him, “Thus says the Lord: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. 2If you refuse to let them go, I will plague your whole country with frogs. 3The river shall swarm with frogs; they shall come up into your palace, into your bedchamber and your bed, and into the houses of your officials and of your people, and into your ovens and your kneading bowls. 4The frogs shall come up on you and on your people and on all your officials.” ’

The frog is the ancient symbol for change. A frog starts off in an egg and is then born as a tadpole. Later in its life cycle the tadpole begins the process of transformation, developing into an immature frog with tadpole-like tail, and then into a fully mature frog. 

The LORD is telling Pharaoh he must change. He must change the way he governs. He must change his policies. He must change the way he exerts his authority. His hard heart must change. So too must the hearts of his officials and the rest of Egyptian households. 

But people seldom change without having to. Pharaoh is resistant to change. So too are his government officials. So too are the Egypt people.  They refuse to change willingly. 

The frogs warn Pharaoh he will have no choice. Tadpoles always have to change into frogs — even if they’re really enjoying being tadpoles. Even a stone-hearted man like him will not be able to resist what is happening around him. Change is coming upon the land, whether Pharaoh likes it or not. 

Change is coming upon the land. It will not look the same in the future as it has in the past. The LORD has decided it. 

What the ruler Pharaoh is left to decide then is whether or not he and his government are ready to change also, whether or not they will continue to misuse and abuse their authority. Pharaoh will have to decide just how worth it having a hard heart that doesn’t listen to the people really is.  

Daily Lesson for March 19, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 7 verses 14 through 19:

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water; stand by at the river bank to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake. 16Say to him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you to say, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness.’ But until now you have not listened. 17Thus says the Lord, ‘By this you shall know that I am the Lord.’ See, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall be turned to blood. 18The fish in the river shall die, the river itself shall stink, and the Egyptians shall be unable to drink water from the Nile.”’ 19The Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt—over its rivers, its canals, and its ponds, and all its pools of water—so that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout the whole land of Egypt, even in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.” ’

Pharaoh’s sins have come back to haunt him. 

Pharaoh’s order — begun eighty years before — to have all the male Hebrew babies drowned in the Nile River meets its judgment and ultimate consequence first of the Ten Plagues as the Nile is turned to blood. 

Just as the blood of Abel cried out from the earth after he was killed by his brother Cain, so now the blood of the Hebrew children reveals itself in the Nile River and all the vessels and basins that have ever drawn from it. 

Pharaoh thought he had forever done away with the lives of these children; but the LORD could still hear their cries. For to the LORD, these children were still alive. 

William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”  Now the dark sins of Pharaoh’s and Egypt’s past were surfacing to the light of the present day.

The point: a person or a nation who has never really confessed, or made amends, or sought repentance will again be plagued by the sins of its past. This is the mandate for the processes of truth and of reconciliation. 

The Israelites know the truth and the truth will set them free. What Pharaoh does not understand is that the truth could set him free also. 

Daily Lesson for March 18, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 5 verses 1 through 9:

Afterwards Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.” ’ 2But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.’3Then they said, ‘The God of the Hebrews has revealed himself to us; let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God, or he will fall upon us with pestilence or sword.’ 4But the king of Egypt said to them, ‘Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their work? Get to your labours!’ 5Pharaoh continued, ‘Now they are more numerous than the people of the land and yet you want them to stop working!’ 6That same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, as well as their supervisors, 7‘You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves.8But you shall require of them the same quantity of bricks as they have made previously; do not diminish it, for they are lazy; that is why they cry, “Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.” 9Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labour at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.’

Pharaoh never backs down lightly.

True change is hard-earned because power never concedes power unless it absolutely has to. 

Moses and Aaron begin with a moral appeal: “Thus says the LORD!” But Pharaoh doesn’t know the LORD so a moral appeal will not work. 

Social pressure must instead be applied. Economic pressure will have to be applied. Ultimately, the whole house of Pharaoh will have to be brought to grief before he relents. 

That’s how tight-fisted Pharaohs are when it comes to power. 

In the abolition speech Frederick Douglass famously traveled the North the most oft-quoted paragraph began with the following words about the reality of the hard struggle ahead:

“Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress.”

Pharaoh will not simply give up without a fight. So if Moses, Aaron, and the rest of the Israelites really want to be free then they will have to fight. They will have to fight the good fight. And they will have to keep on fighting . . .

Daily Lesson for March 17, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 4 verses 10 through 13:

10 But Moses said to the Lord, ‘O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’ 11Then the Lord said to him, ‘Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12Now go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to speak.’ 13But he said, ‘O my Lord, please send someone else.’

And Moses said, “Here I am LORD; send Aaron.”

The LORD would indeed send Aaron to speak to Pharaoh, but not with Moses. Moses was going because Moses was called to go. He was flat out told he had to go. 

He was scared. “My lips and tongue don’t work right,” he said. He was probably remembering all those times growing up in Pharaoh’s house where he wanted to say something and instead quivered. Instead he resulted to violence. As Dr. King said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

But forty years later, Moses has done his penance. He he’s done his hard time.  He’s penitent now; and he’s seasoned now also. He’s ready now — more ready than he knows. He would not go back to Pharaoh if he didn’t have to; but something inside compels him. Some burning bush inside him tells him he must. He’s eighty years old; and now he’s going to go and speak to Pharaoh.

Which makes me think of a group of women at our church. They call themselves Grandmothers Against Violence. Grandmothers who are sick and tired of hearing about gun violence and mass shooting have decided they are going to go down with the youth to the March For Our Lives this weekend and lend their voices to the call for change to our nation’s gun laws. Some of them are nearing seventh and eighty years old. And they are going to speak to Pharaoh.  I don’t know if they’ve ever done anything like this or not; they seem pretty mild-mannered. But they are going to have a word with Pharaoh.

Sometimes the LORD just puts something inside of us that cannot be resisted. Pharaoh may scare us to death. We may have spent forty years running and hiding from him. But suddenly there’s a burning bush. Suddenly, now we have something to say and we know we’re the ones to say it. 

And so we say, “Here I am — a person of unclean lips, a person of quivering lips.  But here I am LORD anyways, send me.”

Daily Lesson for March 16, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 2 verses 5 through 10:

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ 8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother.9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

It is a fact of salvation history that there is always someone in the house of Pharaoh with a heart, who in their own ways subvert the cruel interests of the Master. 

There is always the mistress of the house who secretly teaches a slave like Frederick Douglass the basics of reading or, in the case of today’s Lesson, a daughter in the house who cannot bear the crying of one single Hebrew child — named Moses.  There is suffering and cruelty all around, but in each case one small act of compassion undermines the whole cruel slave apparatus.

It is impossible to keep all goodness at bay. Somewhere there is always enough good in someone to make a dent in evil. There is always some sliver of hope, some ray of light, some single act of love.

And even only single act of love wins. 

Daily Lesson for March 15, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 8 verses 34 through 37:

34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”

The most alive will be are times when we are stepping out of our comfort zones, speaking up on things that matter, risking danger and loss for something good, and going beyond the boundaries of what is safe and known in order to follow Jesus into the unknown.

For some, this is the call to go across the tracks in order to volunteer at a school where the students don’t look like their children or grandchildren. For some, this is the call to go half way around the world to be witness to what God is doing amongst a religious minority community. For some this is deciding that even though they have nothing themselves to gain, fighting City Hall is still the right thing to do. 

Well, actually there is something to be gained — their lives. 

“And what will it profit them to keep the whole world and forfeit their lives.”

Our real lives are out there today. They will not be found by playing it safe, or staying within our own zip code. They are to be found by taking up a cross and following across the street, across the city, across the world.

And in losing our lives we find them, and in giving our lives as we know them away, we save them in ways we could never have imagined. 

Daily Lesson for March 14, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 4 through 11:

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

We are to be content with who we are and what our gifts are. These things are enough. These things are adequate.  In fact, they are beyond adequate; they are marvelous. I —just as I am — am a marvelous creation. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

To doubt myself is to doubt my creator. To doubt my inadequacy is to disagree with God. God thinks I have what I need to really make a contribution in this world.

God made me who I am. Wishing to be somebody else, with their gifts and their assignments, means missing out on the extraordinary human being who greets me every morning in the mirror. 

In the old Hasidic story, when Rabbi Zusya was not too far from death he said to his disciples, “In the age to come they will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?” They will ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusya?”

I’m planning to be Ryon today. He’s got gifts. He’s got an assignment. God has something important for him to do. 

How about you? Who are you going to be today?

Daily Lesson for March 13, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 50 verses 1 through 7:

Then Joseph threw himself on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2Joseph commanded the physicians in his service to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel; 3they spent forty days in doing this, for that is the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days. 4 When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph addressed the household of Pharaoh, ‘If now I have found favour with you, please speak to Pharaoh as follows: 5My father made me swear an oath; he said, “I am about to die. In the tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore let me go up, so that I may bury my father; then I will return.’ 6Pharaoh answered, ‘Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.’ 7 So Joseph went up to bury his father.

Grief is a long journey. And grieving the passing of a loved one can be especially long. 

After all the dizzying decisions related to funeral and burial and the public service of memorial, the long journey of grief really just begins. It’s a long walk mostly in quiet, hidden from public eye — oftentimes forgotten by all but the closest of friends. 

You’re out for lunch and you see a friend. “Hey, how are you?” they ask casually. You feel like saying, “My husband just died of cancer a month ago and you were at the funeral but now you seem to have forgotten all about it — probably because you still have your husband. How do you think I am?”

Of course, you only feel like saying that. But you don’t; the Journey is mostly in silence. 

The first Christmas is in silence. The first anniversary is in silence. The first anniversary of your beloved’s passing is also in silence, except the company of those who walk the path with you — your children, your closest friend, maybe a Sunday School class. 

The rest of the world goes on. Pharaoh and all of Egypt go on. You go on in a way — but no longer as you were. You are making the journey out of Egypt. You are going to the land of Canaan. You are going to bury your father. 

The journey is long. The journey is not straightforward. You wonder in the wilderness for a time. Others wonder what’s taking so long. You wonder too. You feel stuck. You feel angry. You feel sad and angry and stuck and wonder why nobody calls for dinner. 

Be gentle with them. Be gentle with yourself. Be gentle with yourself when you aren’t gentle with the them or with yourself. 

It’s a long journey. The Land of Canaan is far. The road is long and difficult and everyone will wonder if you got lost. You’ll wonder too. But keep walking. Just put one foot in front of the other. Write one thank you after another. Change the name of one bill after another. Turn the day on one month after another. And you’ll get there. 

God knows when; you’ll get there. 

Daily Lesson for March 12, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson is from Mark chapter 7 verses 24 through 30:

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, 25but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. 26Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ 28But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ 29Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ 30So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

This week the youth are on their Spring Break mission trip down in Beaumont doing Hurricane Harvey relief. They could be home — sleeping in every day. It’s wonderful that they have chosen to go and to help others in need.

Jesus’ own life’s work took a dramatic turn on a trip much like the one our youth are on. Jesus had gone to a place called Tyre — a gentile place by the coast. He wasn’t looking to do work there; but was instead hoping for rest. But the work fame and found him. A gentile woman with a sick child cake and found him. 

Jesus wasn’t inclined to help at first. He was tired and here was a Gentile woman coming and interrupting his time away. He was not inclined to help. He saw his own mission as one to his own people only. They should be taken care of first. “Let the children be fed first,” he said.

And then side of Jesus we are mostly unfamiliar because of all the whitewashing is seen — a side that could be derogatory towards people of other races. “Let the children be fed first; for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ To refer to people as dogs was as much an insult then as it is now. It was cold and calloused statement which I can only interpret as lacking empathy. 

But then the mother answered, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” This mother was desperate and in dire straits; and she was willing to be a dog if it would mean this child of hers would live.

Jesus healed the child. And he came back from the trip changed. He had a new vision of the world and a new consciousness about himself. His mission would turn now on that moment in Tyre, with that woman and her need. 

Sometimes we have to get out of our own place in order to gain a fuller depth of vision, to get beyond our own prejudice, to see people — poor people, black people, brown people, white people, undocumented people — as people, and to find deeper place of compassion and mercy within. 

And that’s my prayer for our youth this Spring  Break.

Daily Lesson for March 9, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 1 through 3:

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

There is much anger now in our country. There is bitterness and frustration and a deep sense of alienation for many who feel like the country they have known and hoped in is slipping away. There is indeed anger, much of which is understandable and often justifiable.

But while anger can lead us to demand change for good, it can also lead us to demand change in the wrong way. It can lead to hatred and enmity and the kind of demonization which refuses to see the other side as human.  This is the kind of anger many in various forms of social media love to stoke and foment.  And it is why the Apostle Paul cautioned, “Be angry; but do not sin in your anger.” It is also why in today’s Lesson he reminds us that if we have not love everything else is for naught.

Love is sine qua non. We can do many things in the name of God, and country, and liberty, and justice for all, but if we have not love we fall into grave and even mortal danger. Love is absolutely necessary lest in fighting the beast we become a beast.

Love is not separate from justice. Love and justice belong together. As someone has said, Justice is Love in action. And love for oneself and for one’s neighbor as oneself is the heartbeat of justice. Love without justice is selfish and disordered; Justice without love is totalitarian and without mercy.

Dr. King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Hate can do many things. It can move voters, and armies, and even mountains. But it cannot make us good; only love can do that.

Daily Lesson for March 8, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 30 and 31:

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ 

Last week I was talking with someone out in the narthex. “It’s been a long week,” they said, “and it’s only Wednesday.”

“Actually, it’s only Tuesday,” I said. 

We have been busy doing the Lord’s work. It’s good work. But it is also hard and tiring work. It can make two days in the week feel like five. 

“Come away . . . and rest awhile,” Jesus said. Those are just the words we need to hear round about Spring Break time. We need a break because the pace we are keeping is unsustainable.

It is time for us all to take a break. Even those who don’t get Spring Break need to take one. We all need to take time to rest, to pray, to be quiet and think. We need time for our brains to go fallow for awhile. 

My guide and friend Tom likes to quote an African proverb:  “We have to sit down and rest in order to give time for our souls to catch up with our bodies.”

Church work is hard work. Activism is always demanding. There’s always somebody else who needs a human touch. There’s always another good fight to be taken up. We aren’t there yet. 

But God is still working — even when we are not. God is still holding the world up. The seeds we have already planted are growing of themselves under the earth and will burst forth from the ground in their due time.

Let’s trust the earth.  Let’s trust the seed. Let’s learn to trust God for the increase — for the change. 

Let’s come away and rest awhile. 

Daily Lesson for March 7, 2018

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 March 6, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 78 verses 1 through 7:

1 Hear my teaching, O my people; 

incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable; 

I will declare the mysteries of ancient times.

3 That which we have heard and known,

and what our forefathers have told us, 

we will not hide from their children.

4 We will recount to generations to come

the praiseworthy deeds and the power of the Lord,  and the wonderful works he has done.

5 He gave his decrees to Jacob

and established a law for Israel, 

which he commanded them to teach their children;

6 That the generations to come might know,

and the children yet unborn; 

that they in their turn might tell it to their children;

7 So that they might put their trust in God, 

and not forget the deeds of God,

but keep his commandments.

I just finished reading Rosa Parks’s autobiography “Quiet Strength”. She begins the book by quoting a Psalm about being not afraid and then speaking of her grandfather’s own courageous and determined strength. Mrs. Parks’s grandfather died long before his granddaughter would change the country. He had no idea what strength he was inspiring nor what strength it in turn would inspire.

Life is like that; one generation inspires the next — handing down a faith and a substance long hoped for yet unrevealed. As the hymn so eloquently says:

There's a song in every silence,

seeking word and melody;

there's a dawn in every darkness,

bringing hope to you and me.

From the past will come the future;

what it holds, a mystery,

unrevealed until its season,

something God alone can see.

God alone could see little Rosa’s future in the eyes of her grandfather’s presence.

Only God can know what future we hold in our arms today as we lift a child above our shoulders in the classroom, the gym floor, or the nursery. 

Only God can know and it must bring Her great delight.