Daily Lesson for June 29, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 20 verses 2 through 12:

2 Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron. 3The people quarrelled with Moses and said, ‘Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord! 4Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? 5Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink.’ 6Then Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting; they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 8Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.

9 So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had commanded him. 10Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank. 12But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’

Moses crossed a line, acted out of frustration, took things into his own hands, and it cost him.

The LORD told Moses to take his staff, symbol of power and authority, and command the rock to give up its water. But Moses wanted to show the people his force.  They were questioning his leadership, so Moses decided to demonstrate his power. He not only spoke to the rock; he struck it. I’m sure the people were struck also — with fear and with awe and perhaps with increased fury. Water gushed out. But Moses had gone too far. He would now not enter the Promised Land. 

The point: the end doesn’t always justify the means. Desperate acts of frustration and anger can fell even the best of people. The will to hold on to power can lead even the best of leaders to cross a line. 

Today’s Lesson is a warning for us all. It is especially a warning for those in positions of leadership. Watch our tempers. Check our use of power. Do not overreact. Never use force unnecessarily. Never use a staff when words will do. 

Daily Lesson for June 28, 2018

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

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Hope is the prize of those who have come through something. It’s the reward of those who are still coming through something. That means it’s gritty, tough, and tenacious. Hope isn’t just an optimistic outlook or a good feeling about how things are going to go. No; hope is the mettle of someone who’s s had a lot of bad, bad feelings along the way.

That’s why hope endures. It doesn’t give up on God. It doesn’t give up on humanity. Hope can’t quit or give up or give in. It’s just not in hope’s constitution to write off the world.

I once heard Dr. Gardner Taylor speak and he remembered that in the troubled days of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. King used to say, “Hold your hope.”

Today is a day for holding our hope, holding it tight, and letting it hold us also. 

Daily Lesson for June 27, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 through 16:

‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market-place;4and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went.5When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?”7They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” 8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” 9When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.*11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner,12saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” 13But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?14Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’

How and where we read this parable says a lot about us and our situation. 

If we read it in certain parts of America we are apt to read it as a story about heaven and who gets in and how. We do so mostly because we’ve been taught to read it this way.  I was taught to read it this way. The story was about heaven and grace and how with grace those who work faithfully all their lives for the LORD still in the end have to realize that the gates of heaven may be open to those who show up at the last hour also. 

That’s not necessarily a wrong reading; but it’s not the only one. 

People in other parts of America and in the non-developed world are more likely to see it this way than readers in wealthier contexts. They are more likely to see not only the workers working all day, but also the employed, standing on the sidelines, wishing they could be hired to work. They are more likely to see this story, not as a parable about grace, but about justice.

Where do you read this story?  Who do you read it with?  It can make a big difference on how you read it. 

How do you read it?

Daily Lesson for June 26, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson is a prayer given this morning for #LeadershipFW at a breakfast focusing on disaster response in our community.  I share it because I think the theology is important.

Our gracious heavenly and also earthly God,

We praise you for who you are and the goodness of your being. We acknowledge that from you all blessings flow; and we repent of all wrong-headed thinking which pins bad things on your good name. Give us the wisdom to understand that the work of evil is a mystery and often our own doing.  Help us to understand that the true “acts of God” are the help and comfort you and your people bring to those who need aid. 

In the face of the world that we inhabit, we pray as if everything depends upon you,  and we work as if everything depends on us. Somewhere in the midst, you work all things to the good. 

Guide these leaders. Watch over and protect this City.  For we know what the Psalmist says, “Unless the LORD watches over the City, the watchmen stays alert in vain.”  May our work today not be in vain; and may it be of you.

We pray this together in one mind and one Spirit.  Amen. 

Daily Lesson for June 25, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Romans 6 verses 15 through 19:

15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

I am reading this this morning and suddenly Bob Dylan pops into my head:

“But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes

Indeed you're gonna have to serve somebody

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you're gonna have to serve somebody”

Desmond Tutu said it a little differently. He said that in the struggle of South Africa the oppressed needed not only to be set free FROM Pharaoh, they also needed to be set free FOR the making of a more righteous nation.

Our freedom from the slavery of sin was bought at a price. We belong to God now. And our lives now belong to the building of God’s kingdom among us.

This is the hard part. It is one thing to be free from; it is quite another to be free for. Because to be free for means we have responsibility — responsibility for ourselves and also for others.

We are free.  But freedom never means anarchy, or the absolute freedom of the individual. We were set free from the dominion of death, but we now belong to the community of life. We were once slaves; but we are now citizens. And with our citizenship comes all the rights and also all the responsibilities of creating and living into a more just and righteous nation.

When we were slaves we had no say in what happened in and to us. But now that we have been set free, we do have a say.  We have responsibility; and we must take responsibility also.

Daily Lesson for June 22, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 through 33:

21 Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ 22Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

23 ‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” 27And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” 29Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” 30But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. 31When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?”

Many years ago, I was pastor and friend to a woman who had been abused by relative as a child. She had worked through much of her pain and trauma and had amazingly come to a place of deep forgiveness. She said she felt that she had to forgive, lest the the person who abused her would still have hold of her. But her forgiveness was not a once and for all thing. She said had to forgive and then forgive and then again. And her ongoing process led her to a deeply profound understanding of today’s lesson. “You know the Bible where it says, ‘You must forgive seventy-seven times seven?’  Well, I’ve come to the realization that maybe that’s what I am doing and will have to keep on doing. A woman lives to be about 77 years old; and I have to every day wake up and forgive the man who abused me, seven days a week for the rest of my life.”

Not everyone has come to that same deep place of forgiveness this my friend had come to. Not everyone can come to that place right now.  Forgiveness is a journey — a long road. 

But her extraordinary forgiveness of a great and terrible violation is an inspiration to me, reminding me that though forgiveness hard, it is not impossible.  And, her forgiveness is also a challenge to me, requiring me to examine my own unwillingness to forgive and ask myself why it is when she could be able to forgive so much how it is that I’m able to forgive so very little.

To forgive literally means to “let go”. To let go is to take back control, to refuse to let our offenders still have control over us. 

My friend took back control of her life by learning to let go daily. And what she taught me was that as we go along in life, if we let go just a little each day, one day we will have let go of a whole lot — maybe everything.  

Daily Lesson for June 21, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 17:

15 ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector.

Jesus is laying down the ground rules for his community. This is what is expected in the company of the gathered he is forming. They will be upfront and truthful with each other and will deal with each other face to face. 

This means that when one thinks another has offended him or her then the first step is one-on-one, direct communication. 

That means the first step is not gossip, it is not murmuring, and it is not whispers in the corner, or conversation in the parking lot, or a post on Snapchat. The very first step is direct, face to face, human to human conversation.

Jesus goes on to give a process for handling conflict.  It starts face to face.  Next it’s two or three so as to keep things in proportion and also have witnesses. Finally, the conversation is taken to the community at-large.

And when the person is found to have indeed acted offensively according to the community at-large then Jesus says that person is to be treated as a Gentile — which sounds pretty harsh, until we remember how Jesus treated Gentiles. His point is then to say the community is to treat the offender as an outsider, one perhaps welcome to visit the gathering on safe terms, but who has no right of authority within the community. 

It needs to be said, these are ground rules and not laws. This process is not always appropriate in every situation. That is especially true in the case of abuse or abuse of power or when the offense is so otherwise grievous that exceptions are warranted. In those cases special consideration and process is necessary so as to protect individual members and also the body at-large. 

But in general, this is a good process. Dealing with things one-on-one is a necessary step. It gets us talking and listening to one another. And it also keeps us from sowing seeds of discord unnecessarily or getting a jury to pass judgment unfairly.

Community is hard. Church is hard. The fact that Jesus gave his disciples this instruction shows that he never thought it was going to be easy.

Church is not perfect. Conflict is inevitable.  These are instructions on how to deal with it in a proper, constructive, and hopefully redemptive kind of way. 

Daily Lesson for June 20, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 11 verses 24 through 30:

24 So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord; and he gathered seventy elders of the people, and placed them all around the tent. 25Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied. But they did not do so again. 26 Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad, and the other named Medad, and the spirit rested on them; they were among those registered, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. 27And a young man ran and told Moses, ‘Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.’ 28And Joshua son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, ‘My lord Moses, stop them!’ 29But Moses said to him, ‘Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!’ 30And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp.

The Spirit of the LORD just refuses to be contained.  It has this way of erupting, arising, breaking out, going beyond. The Spirit simply refuses to be held down by the rules, regulations, and expectations of our conventional thinking (no pun intended).

Unsanctioned and unscripted the wind blows where it will. It traverses boundaries and brings fire to whomever it wills. The wind blows and the Spirit falls upon the sanctioned. 

No church or denomination can stop the Spirit.  Trying to control or deny it is ultimately impossible. It cannot be contained. It will not be contained.

So the best thing the leaders can do, rather than setting up road blocks, is to learn to do what Moses did when he saw the Spirit’s movement and the potency of its power, and surprised everyone by saying, “Would that there were more of this and not less.”

Daily Lesson for June 19, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 17 verses 24 through 27:

24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your teacher not pay the temple tax?’25He said, ‘Yes, he does.’ And when he came home, Jesus spoke of it first, asking, ‘What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tribute? From their children or from others?’ 26When Peter said, ‘From others’, Jesus said to him, ‘Then the children are free.27However, so that we do not give offence to them, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a coin; take that and give it to them for you and me.’

“Does your teacher not pay the Temple tax?”

You can sense the anxiety in Peter surrounding the question. “Surely he does!  Yes, sure, he does. Oh yes; any good teacher would. All good and faithful Jews do. And of course Jesus does . . . I think.”

There is something strange in the negative phrasing of the collectors’ question.  “Does your teacher NOT pay the Temple Tax.” There is also something strange in the writer Matthew’s noting that Peter did not mention the incident with Jesus.  Implied is this idea that maybe Peter suspects what the collectors suspect — that Jesus doesn’t have to pay his tax to support the Temple.

And when Jesus’ finally has to take the initiative to talk with Peter about the incident with the collectors, Jesus says he doesn’t have to pay his tax to the Temple because a king doesn’t make his own children pay for his own house. “The children are free,” Jesus says. 

The children are free. 

That word should have done away with all guilt-based fundraisers in the church once and for all. That should have put an end to all the anxiety-enduring, negatively phrased fundraising tactics. That should have told us right then and there that all God’s children get to enjoy the house of the LORD — whether they give a dime or not. The children are free. They belong. They belong, not by due, but by birthright. 

Yes, Jesus does goes on. “But so we give no offense . . . take this and give it.”  Yet; that is a secondary matter. The first matter is to know that we are children and we belong. And, by extended logic, if we are children and we belong then no offense ought to be taken if we don’t pay our dues because we don’t have dues. We belong by birthright and not by tribute.

You will not hear me using this text, to justify my not giving. I will give and I will give enough to help others who can’t give anything — just as Jesus helped pay Peter’s way. 

But still, no matter how much we give, the children are free. There is no guilting or shaming or anxiety-inducing negative fundraiser campaigns. They belong by grace.

And when they give back — and they always do — they do so by grace and through grace and in grace also.  

And somehow by the miracle of God’s grace two coins are pulled from the fish’s mouth . . . 

Daily Lesson for June 18, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 17 verses 20:

20He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’

Yesterday, the mustard seed showed up in the Lectionary readings and just before the service a woman in church pulled me aside, opened up a little bag filled with mustard seeds, and asked, “Do you want one?”

They were tiny. One to two diameters in size is all. So tiny, in fact, a mustard seed can slip through your hands if you aren’t careful. And if you’re eyesight is bad then you might never be able to find it. 

Yet, bite into one of these little seeds and its potency explodes. Plant it in the ground and under the right conditions a great-sized bush can sprout. The mustard seed is proof that big things can come in small packages. 

“Increase our faith,” the disciples once asked of Jesus. 

“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed,” Jesus told them, “you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.”

Though our faith may be small; it is enough. What God has planted inside us is enough to uproot the causes which lie behind even our most intractable social and political problems. 

Daily Lesson for June 15, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Galatians chapter 6 verses 9 and 10:

9So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. 10So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.

An old Spiritual comes to mind:

Don't get weary

'Till your work is done

Don't get weary

'Till your work is done

The road to righteousness ain’t easy. The path to a more perfect union and a more just society is long and hard and requires both grace and grit. We have to keep our hand on the plow and hold on tight. 

Frederick Douglass, “Power conceded nothing without a demand.”  And even with a demand, power wants to only give an inch when there’s a mile to go. So we have to keep at it. And, if we’re going to get anywhere, we have to know we have to keep at it. 

Otherwise, we’ll despair. 

“Let us not grow weary in doing what is right,” the Lesson says. Despair is a real temptation. So is resorting to tactics of hate and demonization. But not to grow weary in doing the right things for the right reasons. 

“We will reap at harvest time,” the Lesson promises. I have to remind us all, harvest is still a long way off. Technically, it’s not even summer yet. That means we got a lot of hoeing to do yet. It’s going to be a long and hot season and we’ve just started. But here’s the good news: the seed has been planted and it’s found it’s way to fertile soil and the roots are starting to grow. 

And so if we keep at it — if we don’t grow weary — then one day our work of Justice will finally be done and the harvest of righteousness will come.

Then it’ll be time to plant again . . .

Hymn of Response:

Daily Lesson for June 13, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 13 through 15:

13 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed important to me. 14There was a little city with few people in it. A great king came against it and besieged it, building great siege-works against it. 15Now there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

I have a friend who retired from the ministry last year after decades of service. He was one of those pastors very involved in the city over his many years. In the eighties he helped organize the city’s first AIDS resource center. In the nineties his church became a refuge for families of gay persons. Also in the nineties, he and a few other clergy persons and religious leaders created an interfaith network in the community. After 9-11 the network organized to bear witness against Islamophobia. In later years, right up to and through retirement, he worked on a new scourge facing the city’s most vulnerable: payday lending. Through it all he gave counsel to mayors and city counsel persons, some of whom were his parishioners but many of whom just knew him to be a man of wisdom and justice.  

My friend’s church was never very big in number.  It was definitely small by the standards of Texas, where everything is big and church is even bigger. But that little church has had an outsized influence on the whole community and will continue to do so for years. 

At his retirement I sent him today’s Lesson, about a man who saved the city but later on no one remembered it. When people look back on the time in the city, they’ll see portraits of mayors sitting on well-upholstered furniture. What it won’t see is my friend holding hands with a man dying of AIDS, or praying with an Imam outside a vandalized mosque, or strategizing with a small group of friends how to convince a councilman that good governance ought to protect the people against usury.

My friend saved the city. Maybe many times over — all in very small ways. Nobody will remember it a generation from now.

But for the time being he fought the good fight and kept the faith. 

That’s enough. That’s everything. 

Daily Lesson for June 12, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 8 verses 14 and 15:

14 There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people who are treated according to the conduct of the wicked, and there are wicked people who are treated according to the conduct of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. 15So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.

There are some things about life that just can’t be figured out. A good man loses his job while a scoundrel is promoted to the top. “Right-sizing” was the official word for the cut.  The PR team came up with that. They still have their jobs. It’s a travesty and everybody who knows the good man knows it’s just about to kill him. Where does he go now — at his age? Meanwhile, the scoundrel is about to get a community leadership award at some big black tie dinner.  I tell you, there are some things about life that just defy all explanation.

“Vanity, vanity,” the Wisdom teacher says. “All is vanity.”  Or, as my people out in West Texas put it, “Sometimes life don’t make a lick of sense.”

There’s an old Garth Brooks song called “Wolves” that’s about life and loss and knowing how lucky some are to have made it through life’s winter season. One of the stanzas goes like this:

Charlie Barton and his family

stopped today to say goodbye

He said the bank was takin' over,

the last few years were just too dry

And I promised that I'd visit,

when they found a place in town

Then I spent a long time thinkin'

'bout the ones the wolves pulled down.

The one the wolves pulled down is no worse than anyone else. He didn’t deserve to be taken down anymore than anybody else. The others caught a break; he didn’t. It could have gone the other way. 

The Wisdom writer also said this: “The Race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor riches to men of understanding; but time and chance happen to them all.”

Sometimes life doesn’t make a lick of sense. And the best thing we can — the only decent and human thing we can do — is make good on our promise to go and visit Charlie Barton when he gets settled.

Daily Lesson for June 11, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 14:

“On the day of prosperity be joyful, and on the day of adversity consider; God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that will come after them.”

Brene Brown says we miss out on a great deal of life as we “forebode joy” for fear of loosing what we have. In other words, we do not give ourselves permission to experience the delight of our job or our children or our marriage or a special honor because we are always being ruled by fear of losing these things. We try to protect ourselves from the pain of loss by refusing to allow ourselves to enter into the joy of a moment. Of course, Brown says, in the end we lose all these things anyways, and what we did to forebode joy does not in the end protect us from the pain of these losses.

Of course, not all days are joy. Some are toil and trouble and opposition. We spend a deal of time barricading ourselves from these things also — sometimes decades — numbing ourselves with alcohol and drugs and running away again and again from conflict and the facing of our demons. 

The task of life is learning to be present to our day. If the day is prosperity, there is joy to be experienced in it. If the is adversity, there is wisdom to be learned by it. All these things are from God.

“This is the day that the LORD has made,” the psalmist says, “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  Or, it’s the day the LORD has made, where learn and grow from it. Either way, this day is the LORD’s making and we ought to live very present to it. 

Daily Lesson for June 8, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 14 verses 25 through 33:

 25And early in the morning he came walking towards them on the lake. 26But when the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out in fear. 27But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, ‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ 28 Peter answered him, ‘Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.’ 29He said, ‘Come.’ So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came towards Jesus. 30But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ 31Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’32When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33And those in the boat worshipped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’

In Jim Collins’s book “How the Mighty Fall” he writes about companies which were formerly known as great, but who later took a hard fall. The downward spirals of these companies all followed a similar pattern, what Collins identified as:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

That was pretty much Peter. At the height of the story, he looked invincible. He was literally riding the waves. And he must have looked proud doing it. But his undisciplined pursuit took him too far out, and at the very moment when he was walking on water, he was also beginning to sink. 

But there’s also some good news in this story. Peter was not too proud to cry for help. He avoided Collins’s Stage 5.  He didn’t want to die. He wanted to live. And he wanted to live bad enough that he was willing to yell for help.  In other words, he confessed that couldn’t do it alone. And that’s the opposite of pride and the beginning of the journey back into the boat. 

I quote her all the time, Julian of Norwich: “First the fall, then the redemption; and both the grace of God.”

And that’s the miracle in the story, not the walking on water, but the sinking and the saving and the grace of being welcomed back into the boat just like everybody else. 

Daily Lesson for June 7, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 14 verses 13 through 21:

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.’ 16Jesus said to them, ‘They need not go away; you give them something to eat.’ 17They replied, ‘We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.’ 18And he said, ‘Bring them here to me.’19Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. 21And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

We never see the miracle so long as the loaves remain in our own hands. 

So long as we are clutching and clinging and hoarding and living in fear of scarcity then all that we know will tell us there is not enough to go around. The mentality of scarcity will keep us convinced that in this world there are too little resources and too great a need. And that will be absolutely true so long as we refuse to open our hands and share.

And what we miss out on is the incredible abundance of God, who alone made something from absolutely nothing, and with us can make much from very little. 

St. Augustine once said that in God’s economy there is always enough of that which is meant to be shared. That kind of thinking has the power to change everything.

But before it can change everything, it first has to change something. 

May it change something for us today.

Daily Lesson for June 6, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 3 verses 1 through 8:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 

3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up; 

4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 

5 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 

6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away; 

7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 

8 a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

The words of this meditation are so beautiful and so true even our Baptist forebears memorized it — in spite of its favorable commentary on the “sin” of dancing. 

As one Baptist preacher put it, “I never saw a praying knee attached to a dancing foot.”

Something tells me he saw a lot more than he would admit. 

There is a time to dance; and there is also a time to mourn. 

There is a time for all manner of things under the sun, and knowing this is a matter of wisdom. 

There is a time for dancing; for the joy of our hearts gets pumped throughout our bodies. 

There is a time for mourning; for the angel not only said, “He is risen,” but also said, “He’s not here.”

There is a time to be silent; for when our mouths are open our ears are shut. 

And there is a time to speak; for to say nothing is also to say something.

Richard Rohr calls what I am getting at “non-dualism”. The dualistic mind sees things only as “either/or”. The non-dualistic mind sees things as “both/and”.  Mourning and dancing both belong.  Right and left belong. Male and female belong. Embracing and refraining from embracing both belong. 

All things belong. All things in their own due measure and moment. There is a time for everything.  

And wisdom tells us what time it is. 

Daily Lesson for June 5, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 2 verses 24 through 26:

24 There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God;25for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy; but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

To set ourselves to work for material things is to ultimately end in frustration, vexation, and loss.  There is no amount of money or possessions or even recognitions that can in the end keep us from feeling secure or bona fide enough. In the end everything will be lost or stolen or liquidated or handed down to either the wise or the foolish. And the recognition plaques will be boxed up and left in the garage by the next generation and then thrown out by the third. I know this sounds cynical, but it’s what the writer of Ecclesiastes calls “vanity” and it’s as true as the setting sun. 

To find real joy we work not for things, but for something deeper and more life-giving.  This something is sometimes called passion, but might also be called spirituality. To find real joy we work not for material goods, but we work because it pleases us in and of itself. It to pass on knowledge as a teacher, or keep the LORD’s house as a janitor, or to solve problems as an engineer, or serve people as city employee. This is not just work; it is vocation — “calling”.

Jesus told a parable about a man who worked for possessions.  Finally, he worked and saved enough so his storehouse was full and he could “sit back, relax, and be merry.”  That very night he died in his sleep. Who knows who he left everything to — they’re probably still fighting over it today. 

It’s one thing to be merry after you retire; it’s quite another to be joyful even while still working. And something tells me it’s impossible to be the former without having first been the latter. 

Daily Lesson for June 4, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 13 verse 44:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

If anywhere on this planet you’ve found one little plot of earth where the kingdom of heaven has come then buy that plot. 

No matter it’s cost — in hours of your life, in midnight meetings, on hard bunk beds at camp with kids, in hours upon hours of planning for Vacation Bible School, in driving past six other Baptist churches to get there — no matter what it costs. 

If you’ve found a plot where casseroles are made for the bereaved, where a pastor and laypeople will come and visit your dad, where your brother would be welcome, where your children will be safe and nurtured, where your sister will be respected — then buy that field. 

Whatever the cost, pay the price.  Pay the price to have a stake in that little plot of land where the kingdom has come on earth as it is in heaven.

Daily Lesson for June 1, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Timothy chapter 5 verses 19 through 22:

19Never accept any accusation against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 20As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest also may stand in fear. 21In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels, I warn you to keep these instructions without prejudice, doing nothing on the basis of partiality. 22Do not lay hands upon anyone hastily, and do not participate in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.

Since the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, we as a nation have been engaged in a very discussion of black lives, policing, and prejudice.  In recent days, we have seen very public examples of the ways bias can lead to unwarranted suspicion against persons of color.

The writers of the New Testament took bias and prejudice and false accusation seriously. As a followers of the falsely-accused and wrongfully-condemned Jesus, they knew how easily injustice can be visited upon the innocent. Having been complicit in the wrongful condemnation of the early martyr Stephen, Paul was especially aware of how easy it is to be caught up in the railroading of an innocent person. The Church therefore worked actively within both its own community and also the broader society to combat wrongful condemnation. Acts chapter 16 verses 16 through 40 is an especially vivid account.

Bias is real and we all have it. Today’s Lesson reminds us to be aware of our bias, be slow to judgment, and refrain from being carried away by our own and others’ prejudices. Awareness is key; and Paul is telling us to beware lest we too have innocent blood on our hands.