Daily Lesson for August 30, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 8 verses 1 through 7:

Then Bildad the Shuhite answered: 

2 ‘How long will you say these things,

   and the words of your mouth be a great wind? 

3 Does God pervert justice?

   Or does the Almighty pervert the right? 

4 If your children sinned against him,

   he delivered them into the power of their transgression. 

5 If you will seek God

   and make supplication to the Almighty,

6 if you are pure and upright,

   surely then he will rouse himself for you

   and restore to you your rightful place. 

7 Though your beginning was small,

   your latter days will be very great.

When friends suffer we find within ourselves a need to offer words of motivation and counsel and even rebuke against their questioning of God. 

But these really are our needs — not theirs. It’s about our need for control and making sense.  It’s about our need to protect God. 

But God doesn’t need protection. And our friends don’t need pious correction or promise — even if what is being said is in the Bible. 

Ten days his son Alex was killed in a terrible automobile accident, William Sloan Coffin preacher a sermon at his Riverside Church in New York in which he talked about how the truth of Scripture had been rendered “unreal” by the overwhelming sense of grief he was experiencing.  Words — even words of Scripture — fell cold and hollow.  Coffin said a person in grief needs something else other than words of consolation: 

“That's why immediately after such a tragedy people must come to your rescue, people who only want to hold your hand, not to quote anybody or even say anything, people who simply bring food and flowers — the basics of beauty and life — people who sign letters simply, "Your brokenhearted sister." In other words, in my intense grief I felt some of my fellow reverends — not many, and none of you, thank God — were using comforting words of Scripture for self-protection, to pretty up a situation whose bleakness they simply couldn't face. But like God herself, Scripture is not around for anyone's protection, just for everyone's unending support.”

When we set out to protect God, we’re really trying to protect ourselves. We’re trying to explain and make sense of things.  But some things just don’t make sense; and we can’t make them make sense either. 

Food, and flowers, and our own broken hearts. These are the things that we should bring.  And these things shall speak, even more than words. 

Daily Lesson for August 29, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 7 verses 11 through 20:

11 ‘Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;

   I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

   I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 

12 Am I the Sea, or the Dragon,

   that you set a guard over me? 

13 When I say, “My bed will comfort me,

   my couch will ease my complaint”,

14 then you scare me with dreams

   and terrify me with visions, 

15 so that I would choose strangling

   and death rather than this body. 

16 I loathe my life; I would not live for ever.

   Let me alone, for my days are a breath. 

17 What are human beings, that you make so much of them,

   that you set your mind on them, 

18 visit them every morning,

   test them every moment? 

19 Will you not look away from me for a while,

   let me alone until I swallow my spittle? 

20 If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of humanity?

There is an honesty in the book of Job that we just won’t find anywhere else than in those who suffer. 

The writer of Job doesn’t think it’s his job to protect God from hard questions. Job’s suffering is real, it’s vexing, and it calls for questions. “Where is God? Why does God allow this?  Is God doing it Himself? Is God petty? Cruel? Distant and uncaring? Powerless?”

The questions are not necessarily answered. And there is no answer which would satisfy. But though the questions are not answered, they are, perhaps more importantly, nonetheless asked. Job’s questions are our questions. They are humanity’s questions. And the book of Job tells us God’s people should not be too protective of God to ask them. 

A youth leader used to tell us, “God isn’t afraid of your questions.”  I can’t say how many times I’ve quoted that over the years. God isn’t afraid of our questions; nor is God afraid of our anger.

And the church ought not to be so afraid either. 

Daily Lesson for August 28, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 6 verses 1 through 4 and 8 through 13:

Then Job answered: 

2 ‘O that my vexation were weighed,

   and all my calamity laid in the balances! 

3 For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea;

   therefore my words have been rash. 

4 For the arrows of the Almighty* are in me;

   my spirit drinks their poison;

   the terrors of God are arrayed against me. 

8 ‘O that I might have my request,

   and that God would grant my desire; 

9 that it would please God to crush me,

   that he would let loose his hand and cut me off! 

10 This would be my consolation;

   I would even exult* in unrelenting pain;

   for I have not denied the words of the Holy One. 

11 What is my strength, that I should wait?

   And what is my end, that I should be patient? 

12 Is my strength the strength of stones,

   or is my flesh bronze? 

13 In truth I have no help in me,

   and any resource is driven from me.

There is a secret no one ever wanted to tell us when we were children — though some children are unlucky enough to have to find it out on their own. The secret is almost unmentionable, and knowing it makes us at first believe we are unpardonable. This is part of the power the secret has over us, and it is a part of what keeps us feeling isolated and alone.

The secret is that there will be times in life when we will simply wish to die. 

No one wants to tell the secret, because doing so feels like giving permission for the unmentionable.  It feels like blaspheme. It feels like sin.

That’s part of the power of the secret. It keeps us feeling like wretched sinners. It keeps us hiding. We don’t want anyone to know we have the secret.

Job dares to tell the secret. 

This may be the most significant and life-giving thing the book of Job gives us. It opens the door on the secret, lets light into the dark, and allows those hiding in the dark to see that they are not alone. Job makes the hidden secret an open one.

Job doesn’t take what we think or feel away. It is what it is and we still have to keep it.  But because of Job we no longer have to keep it a secret.

And this, too, is a kind of salvation. 

Daily Lesson for August 27, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 4 verse 1 and chapter 5 verses 17 through 27:

Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:

17 ‘How happy is the one whom God reproves;

   therefore do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.* 

18 For he wounds, but he binds up;

   he strikes, but his hands heal. 

19 He will deliver you from six troubles;

   in seven no harm shall touch you. 

20 In famine he will redeem you from death,

   and in war from the power of the sword. 

21 You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue,

   and shall not fear destruction when it comes. 

26 You shall come to your grave in ripe old age,

   as a shock of grain comes up to the threshing-floor in its season. 

27 See, we have searched this out; it is true.

   Hear, and know it for yourself.’

It has been said before and I have found it to be the case that church people are good at offering help in times of immediate and short-term crisis, but find it very difficult to give sustained help in times of long-term, chronic affliction.

I think much of this short-coming is actually theologically based. 

Our church communities are set up to deal with short-term illness because our theology tells us everything is curable — through prayer, medicine, time. So we have our casserole guilds who can come and help sustain a family in crisis for a week or so.

But long-term affliction is another matter. We have no systems to deal with it within the church. And I think there is a deeply theological reason behind our systemic inadequacy. We simply think that God is supposed to fix everything so long as we deserve it to be fixed. 

This was Job’s friends — seen here in Eliphaz’s words. At first they  rush to Job’s side to lend aid. But as time went on and the book of Job goes on and on, these friends begin to sound more like enemies. They wonder why Job isn’t better; they begin to blame him for his suffering. There must be something wrong with someone who suffers so much for so long. 

The church has to change both its theology and also its systemic care. Medicine has advanced to such a point that it can keep people alive longer. That said, it also means medicine can keep people chronically suffering and/or ill alive longer. This means a week or two or even a month of help and care is still not enough. The community must learn to more fully accept illness and disability as a sustained part of life, and to organize itself around suffering’s presence rather than its cure. 

A theology of suffering presence would completely reorganize our life together. It would slow us down. It would demand that we be more attentive.  It would mean that we be more helpful. It would require that the whole community be more organized, present, and also more patient. 

It would totally change our entire theological understanding and also our organizational makeup. For the sick and disabled and chronically depressed would be included in the center of the community, as people to be included and cared for and not just problems to be solved. We 

Daily Lesson for August 24, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 2 verses 11 through 13:

11 Now when Job’s three friends heard of all these troubles that had come upon him, each of them set out from his home—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to go and console and comfort him. 12When they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept aloud; they tore their robes and threw dust in the air upon their heads. 13They sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great.

Pain and suffering are wounding not only in the physical toll they take on a person, but also the social. A sick or grieving person often ends up a very isolated person. The world is for the young and healthy and happy; it does not know what to do with the old and frail and sorrowful. It seems the whole world does its very best to avoid those who suffer

In today’s Lesson, Job’s friends give a beautiful picture of coming near, of being present to suffering. They enter the space of Job’s pain. They do not absorb it themselves. They do not take it away. They do not fix it. They can do none of these. But they enter into it, recognize it, honor it. They weep and lament and dawn ashes over it. They come near.

I remember reading some time ago about how when the Quaker writer Parker Palmer fell into a very severe depression, a friend would come over daily, say nothing, but simply take Parker’s shoes off, and massage his feet. This was his friend’s way of coming to be present, of entering into the space of pain, of touching the suffering. 

We cannot always take one another’s pain away.  But we can enter into its space.  We can step into the house, walk the dark corridor, and enter the room. 

Daily Lesson for August 23, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Job chapter 1 verses 6 through 12:

6 One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’8The Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.’9Then Satan* answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?10Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’12The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!’ So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

We look at the book of Job and see a deeply religious and also human question, asked since the dawn of consciousness: “Why is there suffering in this world?” And indeed, we get some sense of the reason for Job’s suffering in this prologue to the book, where Satan and God set about a “divine wager” over the likelihood of Job’s faithfulness under extreme duress and loss. The scene may in some ways feel distasteful, as the writer’s style is rather perfunctory and gives the sense that God just casually engages in this sort of betting on human life.

But we should not let style keep us from wrestling with the questions Job has to teach us and the lessons it has to offer. At its heart, this Prologue to the book forces us to see that faithfulness without hardship is meaningless. For what does it mean to be faithful to and believe and trust in God in only times of plenty and not times of want?

We as Christians do not believe God just stands in the heavens looking down, betting on who will believe in Him in times of disease or famine or earthquake. We do not believe in a distant God. We believe in the God who came down to be with His people in their suffering in the form of Jesus, who suffered with them, and who remained faithful even unto death.

Job’s question is Jesus’ question, and it is also our question. Not so much, “Why is there suffering?”  For we can never really answer such a thing. But rather what will we do with suffering? Who will we become out of it? Will we be the same in sickness as in health, in poverty as in riches?

Daily Lesson for August 22, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Judges chapter 18 verses 16 through 31:

16While the six hundred men of the Danites, armed with their weapons of war, stood by the entrance of the gate, 17the five men who had gone to spy out the land proceeded to enter and take the idol of cast metal, the ephod, and the teraphim.* The priest was standing by the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.18When the men went into Micah’s house and took the idol of cast metal, the ephod, and the teraphim, the priest said to them, ‘What are you doing?’ 19They said to him, ‘Keep quiet! Put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one person, or to be priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?’ 20Then the priest accepted the offer. He took the ephod, the teraphim, and the idol, and went along with the people.

21 So they resumed their journey, putting the little ones, the livestock, and the goods in front of them.22When they were some distance from the home of Micah, the men who were in the houses near Micah’s house were called out, and they overtook the Danites. 23They shouted to the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, ‘What is the matter that you come with such a company?’ 24He replied, ‘You take my gods that I made, and the priest, and go away, and what have I left? How then can you ask me, “What is the matter?” ’ 25And the Danites said to him, ‘You had better not let your voice be heard among us or else hot-tempered fellows will attack you, and you will lose your life and the lives of your household.’ 26Then the Danites went on their way. When Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his home.

27 The Danites, having taken what Micah had made, and the priest who belonged to him, came to Laish, to a people quiet and unsuspecting, put them to the sword, and burned down the city. 28There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon and they had no dealings with Aram.* It was in the valley that belongs to Beth-rehob. They rebuilt the city, and lived in it. 29They named the city Dan, after their ancestor Dan, who was born to Israel; but the name of the city was formerly Laish. 30Then the Danites set up the idol for themselves. Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Moses,* and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the time the land went into captivity.31So they maintained as their own Micah’s idol that he had made, as long as the house of God was at Shiloh.

A lengthy read, and the culmination of an even lengthier narrative which I have been exploring the past two days. (Find these on the August 20 and 21st, 2018 posts on ryonprice.blogspot.com.

What this man Micah learns in today’s story is just how fickle and self-serving and ultimately abandoning for-hire religion can be. When there was nothing more to be gained from Micah, his personal priest dropped him to go and serve the tribe of the marauding Danites. It was into their camp that he brought his idols — recorded as a foreshadowed indictment in the Biblical narrative of the book of Judges. 

So, the decadence of one man’s hyper-individualist and narcissistic prosperity religion, shows itself to be both a symptom and also a cause of a much larger social calamity threatening all the tribes of Israel. The whole federation is in jeopardy at the end of this narrative.  And there is no one to lead the fractured people towards a more united and moral vision of themselves.

And so we hear the book’s continuous and lamentable refrain once more:

“In those days, there was no king in Israel; and everyone did as he saw fit.”

Daily Lesson for August 21, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Judges chapter 18 verses 1 through 7:

In those days there was no king in Israel. And in those days the tribe of the Danites was seeking for itself a territory to live in; for until then no territory among the tribes of Israel had been allotted to them. 2So the Danites sent five valiant men from the whole number of their clan, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to explore it; and they said to them, ‘Go, explore the land.’ When they came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they stayed there. 3While they were at Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite; so they went over and asked him, ‘Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?’4He said to them, ‘Micah did such and such for me, and he hired me, and I have become his priest.’ 5Then they said to him, ‘Inquire of God that we may know whether the mission we are undertaking will succeed.’ 6The priest replied, ‘Go in peace. The mission you are on is under the eye of the Lord.’

7 The five men went on, and when they came to Laish, they observed the people who were there living securely, after the manner of the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting, lacking nothing on earth, and possessing wealth.

Those following this story from yesterday’s Lesson already know how shamelessly for-hire the priest in today’s story is (to catch up on the series go here: http://ryonprice.blogspot.com/2018/08/daily-lesson-for-august-18-2018.html?m=1).  Now the priest gives a favorable report to five scouts from the Danites who had been sent to spy out land to be taken from the quiet and peaceful people of Laish. “Go in peace,” the priest tells the spies. “The mission you are on is under the eye of the Lord.”

Yet such an oracle is not without irony and perhaps even duplicity. They do go in peace to rob and pillage at war.  Yet they do not necessarily go with God’s blessing. They go, according to the priest’s words, “under the eye of the LORD”.

They are under the eye of the LORD, under the watch of God. The Danites are meant to receive their part in the Promised Land. But the oracle does not say they have the LORD’s blessing to take it from a peaceful people. And the LORD is now watching. 

This is going to get worse, before it gets better. And so we’ll see just where a people who hire on priests for profit actually end up. 

And we’ll hear the refrain again:

“There was no king in those days; and everyone did as they saw fit in their own eyes.” 

Daily Lesson for August 18, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Judges chapter 17 verses 1 through 13:

There was a man in the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. 2He said to his mother, ‘The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and even spoke it in my hearing—that silver is in my possession; I took it; but now I will return it to you.’* And his mother said, ‘May my son be blessed by the Lord!’ 3Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, ‘I consecrate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make an idol of cast metal.’ 4So when he returned the money to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah.5This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons, who became his priest. 6In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.

7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah. He was a Levite residing there. 8This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah, to live wherever he could find a place. He came to the house of Micah in the hill country of Ephraim to carry on his work.* 9Micah said to him, ‘From where do you come?’ He replied, ‘I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to live wherever I can find a place.’ 10Then Micah said to him, ‘Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your living.’* 11The Levite agreed to stay with the man; and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12So Micah installed the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because the Levite has become my priest.’

Here we have a grave picture of the state of religion in a time of broader communal degeneration and corruption, summed up again and again in the book of Judges with a refrain which foreshadows an end and also a beginning:

“In those days there was no king; and everyone did as they saw fit in their own eyes.”

In other words, everyone just helped themselves.  And this man Micah reached hold of an unscrupulous priest to help him help himself. And then he had the gall to say it was the LORD who had prospered him. It wasn’t the LORD. It was larceny, and the lust for money and power. These were his real gods. 

This story comes as a warning. We live in a time when many are keen to do whatever they want in their own eyes.  And those with money enough can and surely do find priests who will bless anything for the right price. There’s always an Elmer Gantry just waiting to be ordained and ready to preach the Gospel of prosperity.

This story is indeed a warning. Religion for hire is willing to sell its own soul. Don’t buy it. And when you see it bought all throughout the country, from K Street to Main Street, and everyone is getting help from religion to simply help themselves, then know some kind of end is near.

That will be a good thing, scary and unsettling for us all, and also good — just like reform always is. 

May they who have ears let them hear. 

Daily Lesson for August 17, 2018

1 Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord;

Lord, hear my voice; *

let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.

2 If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, *

O Lord, who could stand?

3 For there is forgiveness with you; *

therefore you shall be feared. 

4 I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; *

in his word is my hope.

5 My soul waits for the Lord,

more than watchmen for the morning, *

more than watchmen for the morning.

6 O Israel, wait for the Lord, *

for with the Lord there is mercy;

7 With him there is plenteous redemption, *

and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.

The first words of this psalm in Latin are “De profundis” — meaning “from the depths”.

From profound depths the Psalmist sees his people’s sins.  Sin is its own punishment; and the nation now lives in sin. It sowed the wind and now reaps the whirlwind.

And the Psalmist knows he is not without charge. He too is fallen. He too is guilty.

“For if you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, 

O Lord, who could stand?”

It is into this state of utter and profound culpability that he comes as a beggar for mercy, a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips, longing and pleading and waiting for God’s grace.

It is a spiritual axiom that only those who have come to the knowledge of their need for grace ever find. It is hard for a single person to come to this point. It is perhaps even harder for a nation as a whole. For we absorb a myth of righteous valor, making it almost impossible to see the truth about ourselves before it is too late. 

And so, a people are brought into the depths, where they wait, and call, and watch for first light. 

Daily Lesson for August 16, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 105 verses 1 through 7:

1 Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name; 

make known his deeds among the peoples.

2 Sing to him, sing praises to him, 

and speak of all his marvelous works.

3 Glory in his holy Name; 

let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

4 Search for the Lord and his strength; 

continually seek his face.

5 Remember the marvels he has done, 

his wonders and the judgments of his mouth,

6 O offspring of Abraham his servant, 

O children of Jacob his chosen.

7 He is the Lord our God; 

his judgments prevail in all the world.

Today’s Psalm is a psalm of hope, a word of encouragement to those who are weary.

“Remember,” the Psalmist says; then he goes on to recount the whole story of Abraham’s call, Joseph sojourn into Egypt, and the deliverance of the Israelites out from under Pharaoh’s yoke. The psalm goes on for 45 verses — too long to share here — and ends with these words about God’s provision in the wilderness during the Exodus:

“He opened the rock, and water flowed, 

so the river ran in the dry places.

For God remembered his holy word

and Abraham his servant.”

The people of God are the people who remember. We tell stories during hard times, recounting God’s faithfulness in times of famine, drought, slavery, and sojourn. We draw those stories from the past and “re-member” them in the present. All the wilderness experiences of all those who went before us in the past are brought forth and re-membered in the present. They live and dwell with us and bear their own witness. 

And not only do we remember; God remembers also. God remembers God’s promises, God’s covenant with our Father Abraham and all the patriarchs and matriarchs who suffered and struggled and barely survived under oppression, but endured and lived to walk across the Sea or endured and lived so their children or children’s children might walk across it. 

“Remember,” the Psalmist says.

“Remember the marvels the LORD has done, 

his wonders and the judgments of his mouth,

O offspring of Abraham his servant, 

O children of Jacob his chosen.

He is the Lord our God; 

his judgments prevail in all the world.”

Remember; for God will never forget. 

Daily Lesson for August 15, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Judges chapter 13 verses 15 through 18:

15 Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ‘Allow us to detain you, and prepare a kid for you.’ 16The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘If you detain me, I will not eat your food; but if you want to prepare a burnt-offering, then offer it to the Lord.’ (For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.) 17Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, ‘What is your name, so that we may honour you when your words come true?’ 18But the angel of the Lord said to him, ‘Why do you ask my name? It is too wonderful.’

To know something’s or someone’s name is an attempt to gain some kind of control over it.  When Jesus met the man with the demons on the shore of Gerasa Jesus asked, “What is your name.”  And when Adam set out to tame the world, the first thing he did was name all its inhabitants.

But there are some things too wonderful to be named. There are some encounters too mysterious and awe-filled to reduce to words. This is the numinous, the ineffable, the indescribable.

In theology there are two terms which may help us here. One is “cataphatic”.  This is the theological undertaking of seeking to say what God is. God is love. But the other theological concept is “apophatic”. Apophatic theology is the branch of theological thinking which speaks of God only in forms of negation — what God is NOT like. 

In modern times the cataphatic has overtaken the apophatic. We have reduced God and the things of God to something or someone who works for us. The message of God becomes one of self-help, or better business principle, or marriage tip.  The modern world — built on our scientific need to objectively prove everything — demanded that the Church prove its need for existence by making its message functional and utilitarian. The Protestant in America readily consented. 

But there is void in this we all know. They are some things about God which cannot be reduced to power point principles (all alliterating).  There are some things still mysterious. Still unknown. Still beyond all human domination. There are indeed some things too wonderful for us — things which even in these days refuse to be used, but avail themselves simply to be enjoyed, wondered at, and amazed by.

Daily Lesson for August 14, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 3 verses 26 through 30:

26They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.’ 27John answered, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. 28You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, “I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.” 29He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. 30He must increase, but I must decrease.’

Now here is a great lesson in humility.

John teaches us the way of self-emptying — the way of acceptance of one’s own path and calling. For John, that means decrease even as it means increase for his younger cousin and proteges, Jesus.

John is not caught up with popularity or with numbers or with who or who is not baptizing more people. “I am not the messiah,” he says. “No one can receive anything except for what has been given from heaven.”

In other words, mass following is a not a goal, but a gift. Our job is to be faithful, not necessarily wildly successful. As Paul put it, “One plants. Another waters.  God causes the increase.”  The increase is in God’s hands. The gift is heaven’s to give.

John Wesley used to pray, “Let me be exalted for Thee or brought low for Thee . . . Let me have everything; let me have nothing.”

This is the way of surrender. The way of self-emptying. 

Take my life and let it be.  

Thy will be done. 

Daily Lesson for August 13, 2018

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

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.2He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ 3Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.’4Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?

5Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. 6What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” 8The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’

Entry into the kingdom of God is not a strictly biological event. Life in God is a birthright for all people, but not all people do enter into the fullness of that life in God. For the process of being “reborn” is often costly and painful and requires a kind of separation from the former life we have lived.  Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in today’s Lesson show that he understands Nicodemus’s difficult dilemma. Jesus knows that as a leader amongst the Pharisees, Nicodemus will have to leave much to come and follow Jesus. He will have to start all over again.  It will be like a death and then a rebirth. 

My Baptist forbears attempted to dramatize this all with their practice of believers baptism. Predicated on John the Baptist — another man who left his birthright as a Jewish religious leader — who baptized his followers as a symbolic ritual representing the death of a former life and the rebirth of a new one. 

Though oftentimes these Baptist forbears may have confused the sign (Baptism) with the signified (new life in God’s way), what they were trying to say was something about the end of one way of life and the beginning of another. Many of them left prominent households and government and clerical positions to follow their conscience and be rebaptized as adult believers. They were rejecting a kind of burgeois religious outlook which equates being religious as being compliant and embraced a religious experience which imagined the spirit of Christ alive and transformative — both of the person individually and also the society at-large.

We must be born again. Or, as Jesus said elsewhere, we must lose ourselves to find ourselves. This is the meaning of our baptism — we are birthed from the womb of the water, bursting its protective seal, and entering into a whole new life. 

It’s quite the journey. 

Daily Lesson for August 10, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Judges chapter 9 verses 1 through 16:

Now Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s kinsfolk and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family,2‘Say in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem, “Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?” Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.’ 3So his mother’s kinsfolk spoke all these words on his behalf in the hearing of all the lords of Shechem; and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, ‘He is our brother.’4They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the temple of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5He went to his father’s house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone; but Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, survived, for he hid himself. 6Then all the lords of Shechem and all Beth-millo came together, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar* at Shechem.

7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and cried aloud and said to them, ‘Listen to me, you lords of Shechem, so that God may listen to you. 

8 The trees once went out

   to anoint a king over themselves.

So they said to the olive tree,

   “Reign over us.” 

9 The olive tree answered them,

   “Shall I stop producing my rich oil

     by which gods and mortals are honoured,

     and go to sway over the trees?” 

10 Then the trees said to the fig tree,

   “You come and reign over us.” 

11 But the fig tree answered them,

   “Shall I stop producing my sweetness

     and my delicious fruit,

     and go to sway over the trees?” 

12 Then the trees said to the vine,

   “You come and reign over us.” 

13 But the vine said to them,

   “Shall I stop producing my wine

     that cheers gods and mortals,

     and go to sway over the trees?” 

14 So all the trees said to the bramble,

   “You come and reign over us.” 

15 And the bramble said to the trees,

   “If in good faith you are anointing me king over you,

     then come and take refuge in my shade;

   but if not, let fire come out of the bramble

     and devour the cedars of Lebanon.”

Yesterday a high ranking Dallas city councilman confessed to taking bribes in exchange for votes.  The day before a New York congressman was indicted on insider trading. 

Though the guilt of the congressman has not been proven, the allegations against him along with the councilman’s confession are deeply troubling and call into question the good faith and trust our citizenry has placed in its public servants in the highest spheres of federal government on down to the local. 

Who is leading us?  What is their character? What is their motivation?  What lines are they willing to cross to serve themselves rather than the public good?

Today’s Lesson tells of all the great trees of the forest who refuse to be anointed king. Left only is the worthless bramble bush — a tangled, prickly shrub with nettles which sucks life from the ground and adds quick-burning fuel to a forest fire. The bramble bush eagerly says yes to the anointing. The forest knows it’s in trouble. 

Pray for our leaders. Pray also for the future of our country. Without quality leaders we will slip further into democratic crisis and cleptocracy. We need honorable public servants, people willing to serve others and not just themselves. We need to encourage and even plead with the olive and fig and even the mighty oak trees to consider running for office. For if we keep getting bramble bushes, not only will the public be in greater danger of being pilfered, but the whole 242-year-old American forest will be at risk of being lost.

Daily Lesson for August 9, 2018

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

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them,2much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead. 3So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand.

Brian McLaren many who believe in the afterlife view resurrection as a kind of “spiritual evacuation plan” of escape from this world. What that kind of thinking ends us us with is an utter disregard for this world and a carelessness towards and perhaps even embrace of major threats to the wellbeing of this world, including nuclear holocaust and mass environmental destruction. Those who hold to that understanding of the resurrection think this world is not their home and so take no responsibility in its care. 

But that’s not Biblical resurrection. Biblical resurrection is, in the word’s of Job a belief, “that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.” Biblical resurrection is not a rejection of earth, but rather a love for and value of it, and a hope in its ultimate redemption.

Spiritual evacuation plans do not get people arrested as the disciples were arrested in today’s Lesson. Promises of pie in the sky in the sweet by and by are not a threat to the powers of the earth today. Biblical belief in the resurrection loves and values the earth, its people, and believes in the power of God to restore and redeem them all — whether in this age or in the age to come. 

Believers in the Biblical view of resurrection are not careless about the things of this earth. They are not, as the saying goes, “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good”.  No; they are present and they work for peace and for justice “on earth as it is it is in heaven”.  And, they do this boldly and without fear because of their believe in the power of God to raise them up again.

The Sadducees had the disciples arrested for proclaiming resurrection because the Sadducees thought a people who believed in resurrection could not be controlled. They were right about that.