Daily Lesson for May 31, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 37 verses 1 through 7:

1 Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; 

do not be jealous of those who do wrong.

2 For they shall soon wither like the grass, 

and like the green grass fade away.

3 Put your trust in the Lord and do good; 

dwell in the land and feed on its riches.

4 Take delight in the Lord, 

and he shall give you your heart's desire.

5 Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him, 

and he will bring it to pass.

6 He will make your righteousness as clear as the light 

and your just dealing as the noonday.

7 Be still before the Lord 

and wait patiently for him.

Desmond Tutu used to say, “This is a moral universe.”

We believe that. As Christians we have to believe it. We have to hope and believe in it and wait for it.

The arrogant prosper for a little while. They get their day in the sun. The vainglorious rule for a time.But in the end the harvest comes; and they wither like old, dead grass. 

Wait on the LORD. There is no need for vengeance. There is no virtue in sin. Wait on the LORD. 

For the day of the LORD shall come like a thief in the night, and in the morning the janitors will take the nameplate from the door.

And the stone the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone; and a century later the regents name a building after the one who was fired. 

Daily Lesson for May 30, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Proverbs chapter 17 verse 10:

“A rebuke strikes deeper into a discerning person

   than a hundred blows into a fool.”

If you’ve ever received the harsh sting of rebuke and took it to heart then you know how deeply it cuts. 

You feel sick at your gut, all tingly and knotted up inside, and you want to go and crawl in a whole and stay there about a billion years. 

A million things go through your mind. First, how dare they?  Then, how could they? Then, how dare and how could YOU?  For a little while you think you might just decide to call in dead to work.

A narcissist wouldn’t be phased by it at all. He doesn’t care what others think. His skin is Teflon. That’s why he’ll probably live to 100 and still be playing golf on the day he dies. He’ll die the same as he lived. 

But for the rest of us it breaks us. It destroys us. It shatters us into 1,000 little pieces.

And when we’re pieced back together again, we realize we’ve been changed for good. 

Daily Lesson for May 29, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 12 verses 33 through 37:

33 ‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.36I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’

Our careless words can tell us a great deal about what is going on inside us. Sharp and hurtful words which come forth in moments of carelessness do not just appear out of vapor. They are symptoms of resentment, anger, and anxieties within us.

Last night we took the kids to the park. I was telling a story to the boys and Gabrielle asked a question. Irie went into an answer which was complicated because the question was complicated. I snapped at her about the length of the answer. The car went quiet.

After reflecting on that moment, I realized that I wanted to be in control. I wanted to be in the driver seat. My snapping was a sign that I wasn’t happy about having my story take a different turn. It was a careless moment and my words were careless; but examining them really did tell me something about myself — even though I didn’t really like what they were saying.

Even our most careless, throw-away words have something to reveal.  They have something to tell us. “For out of the mouth the heart speaks,” (Luke 6:45).

Let those with ears to hear let them dare also to listen.

Daily Lesson for Memorial Day, May 28, 2018

A Lesson in observance of Memorial Day:

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside for remembering those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of our country. 

Memorial Day’s history can be traced to the years following the Civil War, when on particular yet separate days, individual States would set aside a day for families to go and decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Thus, in the early days, the special day was called Decoration Day. As the observance began to be less familial and more civic and the North and South began to bind the wounds of the nation, the day’s name was formally changed and the day standardized to the first Monday in May.

For most Americans today, Memorial Day will not be a day of visiting graves or civic gathering. It will be a day of cookouts and birthdays and working in the yard. 

This may be sad, but a reality is that most Americans are very far from the military and its causalities today. During the Civil War 700,000  lives were lost. Almost every family had or knew of someone fallen. Today less than 1 percent of the total US populace is currently serving in the military and the demographic of those who serve  is increasingly rural and also Hispanic. This means many of us do not even know someone off serving our country today, much less someone who has died for it.

There are still public gatherings of remembrance, often sponsored by the VFW or the American Legion. We usually have to actively seek them in order to find them and they usually occur in the early morning. We may have already missed the opportunity to show up and pay respect. But there is still the opportunity to take a small part of the day and visit a cemetery.  We may not be able to find the grave of a service member killed in action, but it’s still a good time to talk to the children about the meaning of Memorial Day.

The burden of our freedom has fallen ever greater now on the few and also on the minority. The rest of us can never truly know the price freedom; but we can pause to recognize the fact that its cost is dear.

Daily Lesson for May 25, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson is Matthew 12 verses 1 through 14:

At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’3He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’

9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. 11He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?12How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’13Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. 14But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”

In Jesus’ time the Sabbath commandment was a founding principle. The Bible says the Israelites were given the law of the Sabbath before even entering into the Promised Land. It was a law given from Moses and older than the Temple.  It was a law which was seen by the Pharisees as binding the people and keeping them holy and set apart from all the other nations. As it has often been said, “The Jews didn’t only keep the Sabbath; the Sabbath kept the Jews.”

Yet holy as the Sabbath law was, it was subject to misinterpretation.  It was not intended to be an end in itself. It was a law originally given for the good of the people, yet it had become an idol. What was given to serve the people and help them worship God, had been turned into a god itself. The means had become the end.  Sabbath, which was given to Israelites, had now subjected them.

A law should never be an end in itself. Laws were made to serve the people, not people the law. So when a law is made master of the people it needs to be re-interpreted or changed.

Jesus saw this 2,000 years ago. Every generation has to see it in its own age also. 

Daily Lesson for May 24, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30:

28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

God’s yoke is easy and God’s burden is light.

Without God the demands are crippling and impossible. The load is too heavy, the road too long, and the yoke too harsh. 

But God says, “Come and take my yoke upon you.  My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The yoke of God is not harsh and cutting.  It’s smooth and well fit and expertly planed by the careful craftsmanship of a carpenter and the son of a carpenter.  While an ill-fit yoke will cuts and digs into the hide and makes its wearing impossible, a smooth yoke is easy on the the body. It was made with care and concern for its beast of burden. 

And the load of God is not too heavy. More than one pulls so the weight is split. The force is lessened. The burden bearable. The load is shared. God pulls with us. God pulls for us. 

Is life too much for you?  The distance too far?  The pain of the load you’re trying to carry too great? Well then maybe you’ve saddled yourself with the wrong yoke. Maybe that single yoke isn’t for you. How about trying this double yoke — it looks like it might be a good fit. 

Daily Lesson for May 23, 2018

Today is the Feast Day for Nicholas Copernicus. Copernicus was the first to formulate and write about a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which he wrote of just before his death in 1543.

In 1546 Giovanni Maria Tolosani denounced Copernicus in a work defending the absolute truth of Scripture. In 1616 the Catholic Church placed Copernicus’s work on the Index calling his heliocentric theory “false and altogether opposed to Holy Scripture.”  It was not until two centuries later that the ban on Copernicus’s work was lifted. 

The great error of the Church in censoring Copernicus was not only misguided Biblicism. That was bad, but was in fact only a vehicle for wrongdoing. The Church’s real sin was the pride of power. The Church wished to hold onto its power and was willing to close its eyes to truth which it felt might diminish its authority in the world. The Church said it believed the earth and not the sun was the center of the universe. Actually, the Church believed it was the center of the universe.

The Church’s reputation — both Catholic and also Protestant — has suffered for centuries because of its treatment of Copernicus and others who have dared challenge its power with hard facts. Pride has led to the Church’s ongoing downfall. And until Church learns the way of humility it is bound to continue making the same mistakes and suffering the same consequences.

For in the end facts win out; truth wins out. 

And Copernicus gets a Feast Day. 

Daily Lesson for May 22, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 John chapter 4 verses 7 and 8, 12 and 13, and 16:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love . . . 12No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit . . .16So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

A person struggles with whether or not they have a relationship with God. They doubt that they belong to God. They think they are separated from God.

I say, “Do you love?  Do you love anyone at all? A spouse or a child or friend or a puppy? Do you have even one little ounce of love in you?  Because if so, you have God in you.”

If we have love then we have God. We abide in God’s love and God’s love abides in us. For God is love. And no love exists apart from the abiding presence of God.

Augustine said, “Those things be good which are yet corrupted . . . For if they be deprived of all good, then they cease to be. So long therefore as they are, they are good, and whatsoever is is good.”

Love doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be good. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be present. It doesn’t have to forgive all things or hope all things. It may be struggling to forgive even something very petty. It may be struggling to hope even against hope. But if love is still alive, if it has endured all things, even with just feint breath, then love is alive; and if it is alive then it is good; and if it is good then it is from God. It is from God alive and loving inside of us.

Do you love?  Do you love anything or anyone?  Do you love one tiny little thing in this world? Do you love even one single somebody?  Then love is inside you. And if love is inside of you, even one little ounce of love, then so is God.

And on that you can start to build the Temple. 

Daily Lesson for May 21, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Proverbs chapter 3 verses 13 through 18:

13 Happy are those who find wisdom,

   and those who get understanding, 

14 for her income is better than silver,

   and her revenue better than gold. 

15 She is more precious than jewels,

   and nothing you desire can compare with her. 

16 Long life is in her right hand;

   in her left hand are riches and honour. 

17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness,

   and all her paths are peace. 

18 She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her;

   those who hold her fast are called happy.

Mother of Wisdom, you are like a tree planted by streams of water. Your roots are old and strong and have sustained through many times of trouble. The scars and wrinkles on your trunk prove you know how to endure. The fruit from your hands has fed three generations.

We need you, Mother of Wisdom. We come to you again when the world is dark and times are uncertain. We come to you when we need a home-cooked meal or a place to stay or maybe just a cup of sagacity. We come to you when something deep inside our soul tells us we need a story.  We come to you when the ancestors summon. We come to you to listen to the voice of God. 

Mother of Wisdom, we know your roots will not live forever. You’ve had your three score and ten plus twenty more. Yet even should your leaves fall but once more, they fall on a field full of your seedlings, already growing in their own wisdom and stature. 

Thank you. 

Daily Lesson for May 18, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 9 verses 16 and 17:

16No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. 17Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.

The old forms of are giving way.

We live in a moment of tremendous change.  Old forms of religion are giving way to new discoveries in the sciences, new voices previously silenced and marginalized, and new forms communication and collaboration which make old forms of organization and authority irrelevant and obsolete.  In the last 100 years we have shifted from who are we are as individuals in the local village to who we are in the global village. Our primary identities as persons have shifted from that of biological, familial, and geographical to now universal, ideological, and ethereal.  In other words, in the last century we have gone from a people of the earth to a people in the Cloud. 

The times they are a changin’.

Religion which does not adapt, reform, and repent (literally “think again”) will not make this transition. It will be an old wineskin in a world of new wine, an old and worn coat in a brave, new world. 

Daily Lesson for May 17, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 25 through 27:

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. 26Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not make room for the devil.

We cannot deny or repress our anger. There are things in the world which make us angry, things which indeed should make us angry. Repressing feelings of anger in the end only results in bitterness and displaced or passive or aggression. No matter how much we might wish to hide it or to hide ourselves from it, eventually anger finds its way to the surface of our lives. 

“Be angry but do not sin,” the Scripture says. We have to deal honestly and another falsely with ourselves and with others. We have to speak the truth about what we think and how things make us feel. We have to allow ourselves the freedom to name our anger and when possible name it publicly.

Dr. King called riots “the language of the unheard”.  A riot is pent up anger released in the form of destructive aggression. It is latent anger finding its way to the surface. We all have a riotous spirit within us, when grievances are left too long addressed. This is the source of much of our blow ups in the home and at work. It’s anger left with no option but to come out as sin. 

A practice: take time today to make a list of grievances — things about which you are angry or frustrated. It may take some time to sit and find these things.  That’s because we’ve been taught to hide them and we do a great job of it up to a point. After taking the time to identify the things that make us angry see if there is anything which might be done today to address one of them. Could we write a letter? Schedule a meeting?  Contact an attorney? Join a movement?

It does no good just to play nice outwardly while we’re seething inside. We are to put away falsehood — that includes the falsehood or pretending that everything is hunky dory. We have to be honest with our neighbors and with ourselves. We have to be honest about our anger and find constructive things to do with it, lest in the end it consume us. 

Daily Lesson for May 16, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 13:

11The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.

We give thanks this morning for all our pastors and teachers in our lives who gave us God’s Word, inspired and challenged us to grow in Christ’s way, and built us up in the way of faith.

Last week I had the chance to say thank you to one of my former pastors Charlie Johnson, who showed me how the Church and its proclamation can make a difference in the public square. He also set me on a different path, encouraging me to take a different road to seminary — a choice that has made all the difference.

I thank God for other pastors like the one who in 1971 was willing to welcome a beer distributor have a place in his pews. That pastor was Hardy Clemons. The beer man was my great-grandfather.

I thank God for Pastor Forest Gale who when I was discouraged and depressed and planning on quitting ministry came in to my life at just the right time and encouraged me to stay.

I thank God for Pastor Mel Williams who in a time when I was near despair came down from the pulpit one Sunday morning, set next to me during the postlude and quietly held my hand.

I thank God for countless teachers from elementary through seminary and beyond who taught me the love of God and a desire for learning, the greatest of whom was my Fifth Grade teacher Marilyn Jamison who always taught us to count our blessings.

And I thank God for my youth leader Scott Travis who was the first one to tell me that Jesus came for sinners just as a doctor comes for sick people. That too made all the difference — all the difference in the world.

God gives gifts to people who then in turn give those gifts to us, at just the right time and just the right place, just when and where we need them most.

Thanks be to God.

Thanks be to God for all the people and gifts that we’ve been given.

And thanks be to God for all the gifts we also in turn have a chance to give to others.

Daily Lesson for May 15, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 3 verses 18 and 19:

 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Do you know that God loves you?

I know you know it, but do you really KNOW it?  Do you know it not only cognitively, but do you know it in the very ground of your being?  Do you know it in your bones?  Do you know it enough for it not to matter what somebody else says or thinks or whether or not they like what you are saying or doing or where it is that you are stepping?  In other words, do you know it know it?  Do you know from the crown of your head to the soul of your feet and everywhere in between, especially in that great well of God’s love called the heart?

Paul says there is a way of knowing love which surpasses all knowledge. It’s not just something intellectual or rational or factual. It’s a knowledge that is intimate and personal.  It’s the way of “knowing” something and someone Biblically — if you know what I mean. It’s a way of knowing we are loved in the most secret and beautiful and life-giving kind of way. It’s the way of knowing that embraces, and holds, and caresses, and has the power to conceive a whole new life.

O Love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in thee;

I give thee back the life I owe,

That in thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

Daily Lesson for May 14, 2018

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

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying, 2‘My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the Israelites. 3Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. 4From the wilderness and the Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. 5No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. 6Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. 7Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. 9I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’

The times call for strength and courage. 

Moses has departed and the whole exodus generation with him. Now the times belong to Joshua and his generation. The future belongs to the Joshua generation. It must be strong and courageous and not frightened or dismayed.

Not frightened because the enemies are strong and entrenched.

Not dismayed because there will be setbacks and losses and times when the problems of this world seem intractable and the powers unbreakable.

Courageous because this new land to which they are going was never touched by the feet of Moses and so there is no map. 

Strong because the stones of righteousness and justice are heavy yet necessary for the laying of the foundation of the City of God.

The times now belong to the Joshua and his generation.  They must cross Jordan now. But they do not cross alone.  For just as the LORD was with Moses and his generation in days past so too will the LORD be this generation in the days that are to come. 

Daily Lesson for May 11, 2018

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

2 ‘There is no Holy One like the Lord,

   no one besides you;

   there is no Rock like our God. 

3 Talk no more so very proudly,

   let not arrogance come from your mouth;

for the Lord is a God of knowledge,

   and by him actions are weighed.

“No one is good but God alone,” Jesus said. 

So here is a call for greater humility and for greater honesty about all the mixed motives and impurities found in even the best of our actions. This means no one person or nation or race truly wears a white hat. 

The moment we see this about ourselves and own people groups is the moment of wisdom. It is not altogether a moment of freedom, but it is a dawning of consciousness: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  So we have a shadow side.  

Reinhold Niebuhr wrote: “The final enigma of history is therefore not how the righteous will gain victory over the unrighteous, but how the evil in every good and the unrighteousness of the righteous is to be overcome.”

It is an enigma because most of the time we are not even aware of it. We do not see it. In all our justifying, and separating of good and bad and right and wrong, we fail to be conscious of the fact that what Augustine said is true: the line dividing good and evil runs straight down the human heart.

Daily Lesson for May 10, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 28 verses 16 through 20:

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

Today is the Day of Ascension in the life of the church and we remember that final moment Jesus spent with his disciples before being taken up into heaven. 

I love this seen because it is so honest. Jesus stands before the disciples as they all apparently worshiped him. Yet, the Bible says, some doubted. It does not so who doubted — though apparently it was more than one and probably many. What truth and honesty here; we can worship and still doubt. We can see and still not fully believe.

There is no chastisement of doubters here.  Jesus does not rebuke the doubters for their unbelief. For rebuke and chastisement no more make a doubter believe than they do a blind man see.

What Jesus does instead is give them a job: 

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”

The disciples are to go out and live this Way Jesus has taught them. They are to live and teach and walk and live the Jesus Way. They are to do what He did and say what He said. And in going out there into the world and living out the faith with courage and conviction, then they would discover that he really was standing before them and really would be with them — even unto the end of the age.

I quote Clarence Jordan all the time: “The proof of the Resurrection is not a rolled away stone but a carried away church.”  If Jesus is alive today He’s alive in the living witness of His Church. 

It’s by the disciples’ witness that the world comes to believe; and it’s by that same witness that the disciples believe also. 

An additional thought:

Seeing is not believing; being is believing. 

Daily Lesson for May 9, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 119 verse 103:

“How sweet are your words to my taste! 

they are sweeter than honey to my mouth.”

There is nothing more satisfying than God’s word on our tongue. It is a word of comfort. It is a word of direction and guidance. It is a word of bold exhortation. 

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16). Scripture is given unto us for our upbuilding and training in Godliness. 

And when just the right word of God leaps forth from our tongue at just the right moment it is indeed sweeter than honey. 

But before it can leap forth from our tongue it must first be taken in by the ear and by the eye and buried within the heart. For the word given must first be received and treasured and kept until such a time as it is summoned. 

Daily Lesson for May 8, 2017

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 1 through 5a:

“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings should be made for everyone, 2for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, 4who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For

there is one God . . .”

Last week on the National Day of Prayer I spent a long time praying for our city, state, and national leaders. Some were easier to pray for than others. I wrote my prayers and mailed them to the various elected leaders. It was a good thing to do because doing so disciplined my words. It made me pray respectfully and with genuine hope of well being. It allowed me to pray with both grace and truth. 

The grace is this: that God loves and desires the best every politician and person in high office regardless of what I think about them or their policies. The truth is this: that there remains a day of accountability when the one who sits upon the throne of heaven will judge the private lives and public policies of all nations and leaders.

My prayers gave thanks for some, made intercession for others, and begged serious supplication from a few.  I don’t know if those prayers will be answered. But what I do know is that it was good for them to be prayed; and it was good for me to pray them. 

Daily Lesson for May 7, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Joshua chapter 1 verses 6 through 9:

6Be strong and courageous; for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. 7Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. 8This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. 9I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lordyour God is with you wherever you go.’

“Be strong and courageous.”

Three times Joshua tells this to his people.

Moses has departed. Now they must go one without him. They must cross over the Jordan and go on towards the Promised Land. They will need strength and courage for the days ahead.

Every generation comes to this moment. Our Moses’ depart. Our heroes and parents and parents’ friends grow old and pass away. Suddenly we are the generation now left to wear the mantle. Suddenly it is our task to lead the people towards the Promised Land. 

“Be strong and courageous.”  The words echo down to us through the millennia. We are not to shrink from the days ahead. We are not to shudder or collapse for fear of the world and its evil. We are to take heart and not be afraid. For though Moses may no longer be with us, Moses’ God is. 

Alpha and Omega, “I Am,” is with us. 

So we shall be strong and courageous and not fear for the LORD is with us and our generation also. 

Daily Lesson for May 4, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Leviticus chapter 23 verse 3:

“For six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a sabbath to the Lord throughout your settlements.”

There is an old story about a Westerner who hired an African guide to take him to Kilimanjaro. After walking for several days, the guide refused to come out of the lean-to the next morning. The Westerner was frustrated and asked why they were not up and moving. “Because,” the guide said, “I have to give time for my soul to catch up with my body.”

We are very busy bodies. For most of us it’s go, go, go and run, run, run. But with all that going, our souls get left behind. 

God gave us Sabbath in order for our souls to catch up with our bodies. Sabbath is not only a good idea; it’s a command. It’s a commandment. We have to take time to rest, to rejuvenate, to breathe, and pray, and play.  We have to take time to be still and know that God is God and we are not. Sabbath is God’s gift to us, given to remind us that God is at work even when we are not and God’s kingdom is growing even while we are at rest.

Will we ever get to Kilimanjaro? Who knows. But this is for sure: it would be no good for our bodies to reach the mountain and only then discover we left our souls somewhere on the path behind. 

Daily Lesson for May 3, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson is a prayer for our country on this National Day of Prayer:

Loving God of all nations and peoples,

On this National Day of prayer we thank you for your manifold gifts to us, including the gift of a nation which knows the value of the gifts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all persons everywhere. We are grateful for this country, and we remember its Founders —both known and unknown, male and female, free and slave — and recall the stony road we’ve trod to arrive at where we are today. 

Yet we know we haven’t arrived quite yet. We haven’t reached our Promised Land. We know our own sins and the sins of our fathers and mothers have kept us as a nation from being what we ought to have been. We were meant to be as a light on a hill, but our light hasn’t shown as clearly or brightly as it ought. It has been diminished by our lack of love for neighbor, participation in machinations of evil, and exploitation of the earth and its people.  Help us to see our own wicked ways, O LORD, and learn to turn and repent of them.

Rekindle the flame that is within us, dear LORD.  May your lamplight lead us on our way, as we continue on the journey towards the making of a more perfect union.  Guide our feet and guard our path and protect us from all evil — foreign and domestic, from outside of and also and within ourselves. 

Help us to reach forth towards that original vision of being a City set upon a hill — a City whose foundations cannot be shaken. Let justice prevail in our courts and upon our streets. Let temperance guide our interactions with all people. Let prudence show us the right judgments. And let courage rise up to the level of our noblest convictions. Help us to remember, dear LORD, that if as a nation we wish to be great we must first be good. We know what is required of us in order to be judged good — so let us do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you on the ways ahead. 

As for our leaders, may vice wane and virtue wax, and may the decisions they make be worthy of a government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.

We the people, called by your Name and sealed by the crest of your Spirit, seek now to humble ourselves, pray, and plead your countenance. Be with us, dear LORD, and do not forsake us in our hours of need nor leave us to our own devices. We know we need your grace, your vision, your help, and your. Give us your heart, O LORD, for your people; and help us, gracious God, as we seek to live up out the meaning of our creed: one nation out of many — indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.

So help us, God. 

Amen. 

Daily Lesson for May 2, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 6 verses 19 through 24:

19 ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; 20but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 ‘The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; 23but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

24 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

My grandfather used to say a very simple prayer, characteristically terse and right on point, even at the expense of grammatical formality:

“LORD, fix my Wanter.”

My Wanter always needs fixing. It needs somebody to remind it money can’t buy happiness. It needs somebody to tell it the truth — 10 percent more income ain’t gonna solve everything. My Wanter needs somebody to teach it the blessedness of giving. It needs somebody to show it the human and ecological cost of more and more cheap stuff. It needs somebody to tell it enough really is enough. And, my Wanter needs somebody to warn it again and again that in the end it’s all sand.

I know the LORD really is somebody who could fix me up. LORD, fix my Wanter — or else I’ll have to. 

Daily Lesson for May 1, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 6:11:

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

Today God’s portion will be enough. It will not be too little or too much. It will be enough for today; and we shall receive it in its own due measure. We trust God shall send it at just the right time.

We don’t have now all that we will need later today. We don’t have all the bread or water, grace, or love, or courage that we’re going to need. But what we do have now is enough. What we will need later God will give us at God’s appointed time — just in time. This is how we live by faith. It keeps us humble. It keeps us grateful. It keeps us reliant upon God and not upon ourselves. 

There’s an old saying: “God is seldom early, but never late.”  A farmer appreciates the early rains. They are what makes the seed take root. But the late rains are really what make the crop mature. And those the farmer has to wait on. 

Wait and pray.