Thursday, January 31, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 31, 2019

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

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

My college professor, fraternity chapter advisor, and now dear friend Dr. Bill Dean used to say, “Busy people get things done.”

The disciples have been busy getting things done. They have worked sunrise to sunset, town to town — so much so they didn’t even have time to eat. 

They were tired and worn out and probably still had a thousand things to do and needs to meet.  They would have just kept pressing on. 

And then they would have collapsed. Or self-destructed. Or just one day walked away — too fatigued by compassion. 

So Jesus said, “Come away . . . and rest for awhile.”

The world’s demands are too great. No one can meet them all.  No one can visit all the sick, feed all the hungry, call upon all the dispirited. Protest all the injustice. It’s simply too much. Not even busy, busy people can get everything done. 

We also have to rest.  To reflect. To recharge. To read, and think, and pray, and feed ourselves. We have to sleep. 

And in doing so we exercise our faith which believes that even while we rest God is still working, and even while we sleep the kingdom is still coming. 

Busy people get things done. But nobody has to be busier than God, who rested on the Seventh Day so that we could know we can rest too. 


Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 30, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 14 through 24:

14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ 15But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ 16But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’
17 For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. 18For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ 19And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. 22When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ 23And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ 24She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ 

“Yet he liked to listen to him.”

Is there a more haunting statement in all of Scripture?

Herod arrested and imprisoned John, threw him into the bowels of some fetid jail, and finally had him beheaded. 

Yet, he liked to listen to him.

I suspect Herod liked to listen to John because John had guts.  And he really could preach. And what he said could draw a crowd and really move people. 

But then it got personal. John started talking about the King, and his wife, and the sordid affair of their family. Herodias was her husband’s niece. But that wasn’t the issue. She was also his brother’s former wife, whom he stole perhaps for the sake of sex but more probably politics.  

John spoke out against the marriage and soon was imprisoned. He gone from preachin’ to meddlin’. Religion to politics — the politics not only of the bedroom, but also the nation.

Yet Herod liked to listen to John.  For Herod was a dabbler and dilettante and probably thought John was interesting and perhaps useful. John was entertaining; and he was also a kind of folk hero to the people. While he was still alive and imprisoned (the probably called it house arrest or protective custody) John was a trophy to Herod.

And then the trophy head went on the wall — perhaps next to some exotic animal head from Africa. 

Herod liked to listen to John. He liked oratory. He liked fire. He liked controversy and crowds. He liked to listen to John. 

And then later on, after the fateful events of today’s Lesson, maybe he liked to look at him even more.


Today’s Lesson is not a happy one. It’s a pretty cynical look at the world in fact. And it’s a good reminder of the old, old history between politics and religion, and a warning about the short, short distance between the enthusiast and the executioner. 

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 29, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 1 through 

He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.

We must all learn to hear this word as Gospel: He could do no deed of power among his own kin and his own house. 

It is Gospel because it frees us of all our burdens to convince, change, and set straight those whom we love.

There are some places that won’t change. They are some people who aren’t willing to change. Sometimes — oftentimes — it’s our own place and our own people. 

Jesus was the Savior of the world. Yet, when it came to his own family and neighbors he didn’t have a savior complex. And we shouldn’t either. 

Hear it again. And hear it as Gospel.  Hear and let it free you of the burden to save and set right everyone who is close to you, whom you love:

“He could not do any deed of power there.”

All he could do, the Scripture says, was love, and extend compassion, and reach out his human hand to heal. 

That was all. 

And maybe it was enough. 


Maybe it was everything. 

Monday, January 28, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 28, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 48 verses 6 through 8: 

6 You have heard; now see all this;
   and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I make you hear new things,
   hidden things that you have not known. 
7 They are created now, not long ago;
   before today you have never heard of them,
   so that you could not say, ‘I already knew them.’ 
8 You have never heard, you have never known,
   from of old your ear has not been opened.


And Galatians chapter 1 verses 13 through 16:

13 You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being . . .

There is a mystery to conversion and change that is hidden with God. A man does not see and then he does. An ear cannot hear and then it can. A community is not ready and then it is. 

Dr. King said, “Sometimes it seems like time itself gets ready to change.”  The time is hidden with God. 

And so this means we should never give up on anyone. We should never write any place off as beyond conversion or redemption or change.

There are times when the ground is hard and unreceptive. But we speak our truth and preach our Gospel in season and out.


And after season upon season of rejection, suddenly there is Montgomery.

Friday, January 25, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41:

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

With all the chaos and conflict around him, there is the major miracle Jesus performs in calming the storm. This is incredible, and leaves the disciples awestruck with wonderment about who Jesus is. 

Surely we would welcome such a mighty miracle now, that the storms around us might be stilled, the wind and waves pushed back, and tranquility be restored. If only the world might hear those words, “Peace! Be still.”

But welcome as the major miracle would be, this morning’s Lesson also has within it a minor miracle, almost unnoticed in such a dramatic story. And the minor miracle is this: that before Jesus miraculously calmed the storm, he was able to miraculously sleep through it first.

And maybe that’s the secret. That the one who can still the storms of the world must first be able to soundly rest through them.  That the one who can summon the world’s chaos to peace must first have peace within his or her own self. That in order to perform a major miracle one must first be able to perform a minor one. 

A full night’s rest in these troubled times may indeed feel like a miracle now. And it is.  Resting in God, trusting in the boat, not being shaken to frenzy and terror amidst all today’s tumult, keeping peace within. These are the miracles we need now.  And so may they happen.


May we have the mighty power to calm the storms around us; but first, may we have the minor power to calm the storms within us as well. 

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 24, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 26 through 29:

26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

We cannot force God and the things of God. 

There’s nothing we can do to make, manufacture, or manipulate the kingdom. For we plant and we water; but “God causes the growth.”

This is meant to free us from the illusion of control. It also frees us to trust the earth, its goodness, and its own timing. For the soil of the earth waits again with pursed lips for the next breath of God. God breathes again and suddenly everything changes.

What does this say to me?  Keep walking. Keep scattering. Keep your hand on the plow. Keep praying.

Stop fretting. Stop striving. Stop staying up all night with anxiety and worry. 

Trust.

For the seed is good. The earth is good. God is good. And beneath the surface of all that can be seen, somewhere hidden in the depths and mystery of life, it is all very, very good.

“And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.”




Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 23, 2019

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

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

Signs of growth can be tricky. We can think they mean good soil and favorable yield, when in fact what we’re really seeing is a result of shallow soil and no depth whatsoever in root. 

Real growth takes time. It’s hidden and invisible beneath the surface. Things that last have to grow down before they grow up. They have to grow down sprout arms and then hands and then grab fists full of soil and hold on tight before they’re ready to raise their head to the sun’s scorch. 

We may not see much, if anything, in our lives now. But the most significant things that are happening are buried. 

And someone is buried in his books. 

And someone else has organized a weekly meeting in their home. 

And somebody else is praying like the dickens on her study. 

Nothing can really be seen with the naked eye. Nobody would know anything is happening. 


But within the earth itself . . . the seeds of the kingdom of God are taking root. 

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 22, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 3 verses 19b through 30:

Then he went home; 20and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, ‘He has gone out of his mind.’ 22And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, ‘How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
28 ‘Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— 30for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’

This Scripture has at times been gravely misinterpreted to mean there is some sin that God cannot forgive. But at verse 28 what Jesus means is that there is a certain sin which every generation holds onto and so is “an eternal sin” — the sin of all ages. 

And the sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is calling what the Spirit of God is doing in the world evil when it is really good. This is an ageless sin — a sin committed by every generation which “scorns its Christ and assails his ways”. 

And caught in the middle, is Jesus’ family, knowing he is good and not Beelzebub, yet nonetheless trying with all their might to hold him back.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and many remembered him with quotations. I add one more at length, the first paragraph from Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail — a letter written to a group of moderate white pastors who were trying to restrain Dr. King and his mass efforts in Birmingham:

"First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."

Some called Dr. King Beelzebub, saying that whites and blacks were by God’s intention made to be separate, and that only the demonic would try to put them back together. And others, the moderates, tried to restrain him, saying he was going too far, too fast.

In other words, they committed the eternal sin, the sin every is guilty of: “killing its prophets and stoning those sent to it”, or trying to silence them, for fear of the trouble they’ll bring. 


These are things to reflect deeply on and pray. We pray for vision and we pray for wisdom and we pray for courage, lest we too find ourselves guilty of the same eternal sins in our own generation. 

Monday, January 21, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 21, 2019, MLK, Jr. Day

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 through 6:

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and we reflect upon his life and legacy as a testimony to the power of nonviolence as an act of redeeming love.

Dr. King believed in and never stopped preaching and living love. Even as many gave up on nonviolence, turning towards more militant tactics because they thought the evils of American inequality and inequity were too strong and nonviolence too weak, Dr. King never wavered in his commitment to nonviolence. He continued to see all people as persons of inherent dignity and possible redemption — even his gravest enemies. And to his dying day he believed love — and love only — had the power to make friends of enemies and brothers of those at enmity. As he famously said, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." 

On the last night of his life Dr. King said, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead . . .” We live in difficult days now. They play out in the streets of our inner-cities, the halls of our Congress, most recently the steps of our Lincoln Memorial — the very site of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream Speech”.  These are difficult days indeed.

In these difficult days our primary task must be to reclaim the moral legacy of Dr. King. He worked for justice. He worked hard for it.  He gave his life for justice. And he also gave his death; and that he gave love.

Like Christ, for love’s sake Dr. King died his death. We must then live our lives for love’s sake in return. 


This is the only way forward. 

Friday, January 18, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 18, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 2 verses 15 through 17:

15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples—for there were many who followed him.16When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 17When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’

Jesus crossed so many boundaries with his life and ministry. Just when people thought they could size him up and box him in, he was suddenly coloring outside the lines, reaching outside the fence.  Tearing down the fence altogether. 

Jesus was the center and there really was no circumference. None that he made anyways. The boundary was set between those who came and those who didn’t. And the visitors list of those who came could be quite shocking — scandalous even.

Today’s Lesson gives us a picture of Jesus at Levi’s house. Levi was a tax collector, a kind of quasi-mob job that relied on extortion and abuse of power to collect tribute for Caesar and pad personal coffers. 

Not exactly an upstanding profession. 

Yet there he was, at Levi’s house. 

It makes me wonder how Jesus would have been seen today. Would he have been demonized for reaching out to the vile and reviled?  Would he have been castigated for not calling for revolution?  Would the religious have despised him for his lack doctrinal purity and the ideologues have hated for his magnanimity?  Would the world full of conviction again have seen no place for the man of kindness?

This morning’s Lesson for me is a challenge. It requires of me that I consider my boundaries.  That I think on the walls I have built. That I reflect again on those whom I’ve so easily written off, demonized, and decided are the real problem with America today. 


I have to think again on all this today. And I have to consider: Maybe Jesus is going to Levi’s house again tonight; and maybe I should go with him . . .

Thursday, January 17, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 17, 2019

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

When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. 2So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. 3Then some people* came, bringing to him a paralysed man, carried by four of them. 4And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

A while back I listened to an interview with geophysicist and Catholic spiritual thinker Xavier Le Pichon, in which he reflected on some of the anthropological discoveries he has made in digging up thousands of year old human burial sites and what they tell us about human compassion and care. 

One of Le Pichon's discoveries was of a mutilated man who lived several centuries before the Common Era, and whose bones had been crushed in some kind terribly traumatic event. What was most interesting, however, was that the man was over 40 years of age though his bones had actually been injured at a much earlier time. Le Pichon says this indicated that he had lived a long time following his injury and was therefore dependent upon the care of his community for many years, if not decades. For Le Pichon, who spent time in the L'Arch Community, a home for the severely disabled founded by Jean Vanier, this man's bones were proof of a kind of human organizing around suffering, and a refutation of the Darwinian conception of early human life primarily being about solely the survival of the fittest. These people, in a society with only a modicum of technological advancement kept their friend and loved one alive for years by literally carrying him on their back and in their arms. 

Le Pichon reflected ". . . the basic thing is not why man is helping the others, but I think it’s why man has this ability to empathize, to identify himself with the suffering person, which leads him, of course, after that to decide to help him, to share the life with him. This is what’s so unique about man."

I have friends who have ordered their lives around the suffering and survival of others. I have friends whose young children bathe their paralyzed father. I have friends who share rounds each day sitting with a friends struggling to hold on amidst the darkness of depression. I have friends who spend countless hours helping their son fight for just inches of movement in his head, because they know life is a matter of only inches for him. I have a friend who gives over four hours every Sunday morning to dress his grandma and see that she gets to her church. What incredible compassion, re-ordering, and self-surrender. What incredible love. 



"And seeing their faith," Jesus said, your sins are forgiven."

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 16, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 1 verses 40 through 45a:

40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly . . .”

In 2009 Pope Benedict canonized Father Damien, a Belgium-born missionary whose ministry took him to work in a colony of lepers on the island of Molokai, Hawaii, where he himself later contracted leprosy. Father Damien has become a universal symbol of compassion for and identification and solidarity with those who suffer. Living and dying amongst the outcasts of the world, in a twist of irony the State of Hawaii later chose a statute of Father Damien to sit in the center of Statuary Hall in the US Capitol.

Jesus came in solidarity with the reviled and excluded.  He welcomed the prostitutes, sat with the tax collectors, and as in today’s Lesson reached out and touched the lepers. And like Father Damien’s later, Jesus ministry brought him to a place of exile along with the ostracized. In the story today, the leper came to see Jesus in the center of the village — a bold and daring act for a social outcast to make. Jesus reached out his hand to the man; but not without cost. By the end of the story, Jesus was living amongst the outcast, no longer able to come into the village. His ministry had made like the leper to whom he ministered.

I have so much respect for those who like Jesus and Father Damien have risked their own exile to minister amongst the outcasts. I think of friends I know who in the 1980s minister to AIDS patients, or more recently to those suffering with the frightening disease of Ebola. 

But truly we each have a leper in our lives, someone for whom to minister to or care for or reach out a hand of friendship towards. And we hear them say the same thing the leper said. “You can heal me if you choose.”  And with our lives we say what Jesus said, “I do choose.”

Not all who touch lepers receive a place in Statuary Hall.  But there is an even greater place to which we aspire. And though reaching out may make us exiled and outcast here on earth, Jesus said it would make us welcome into heaven. 

And in the end that’s really the only place where belonging really matters.  


Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 15, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 1 verses 14 and 15:

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

When the time comes we all have to stand up and be counted. 

“John was arrested,” is a simple phrase in this Lesson and we can easily pass it by. But consider the meaning: John had just been arrested and now Jesus came preaching. Jesus picked up John’s mantle and came preaching the very same words John had proclaimed: “The kingdom has come.”

Jesus knew what happened to John. He knew the stakes. Yet, he also knew that now his own time had come. And when our time comes; we too have to stand up say where we stand.

Today is the 90th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday and there’s a powerful story from the week of the funeral of his mother, Alberta King, who like her son, was killed in service to God. Dr. King was of course assassinated in Memphis in 1968 and his mother was later killed by crazed gunman while playing on the organ bench at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta six years later. 

The story goes that on the week of Mrs. King’s funeral her husband, Daddy King, told Dr. Gardner Taylor who had come down from New York to preach the funeral that a young grandson and nephew of Dr. King’s had just announced to the family that he was being called to ministry. Then Dr. Taylor said Daddy King looked at him defiantly and said strongly, “They can’t kill us all.”


When Jesus came preaching, he knew what had happened to John. Yet, he felt called to the ministry. For the time had come and the Kingdom of God was drawing near . . .

Monday, January 14, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 14, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ephesians chapter 1 verses 8b through 10:

With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

“In the fullness of time.”

I love that phrase. It reminds me that things can’t be rushed or hastened too much. They have to be given their own time. 

In the Bible there are two words for time. One is “chronos”. This is chronological or clock time. It’s predicable and routine. Tomorrow follows today. We know when it will happen. 

But the Lesson today uses another word for time - “kairos”.  This is hidden time.  Unknown and unrevealed time. This is the time we know not of. It is “the fullness of time”.  When God gets ready. 

In the fullness of time a rose blossoms, a couple conceives, an adolescent girl discovers her gift for singing, a prodigal Son comes home, a world comes of age, and what God had been orchestrating all along is finally revealed. 

We are not to know the times or the seasons. But what we do is that God is at work. We wait, we watch, we trust, and we pray. 


And in the fullness of God a star appears . . .

Friday, January 11, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 11, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 6 verses 16 through 21:

16 When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, 17got into a boat, and started across the lake to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. 18The lake became rough because a strong wind was blowing. 19When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the lake and coming near the boat, and they were terrified. 20But he said to them, ‘It is I; do not be afraid.’ 21Then they wanted to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land towards which they were going.

It was night and a strong wind was blowing and Jesus had not come. 

Those two conditions well describe the time and season and conditions the church finds itself today. 

The seas are rough and challenging. The winds are against us. The waves threaten to overwhelm us. It is very, very hard rowing. It is very, very dark. And Jesus has not come. 

And the disciples have no other choice or mission or call than to keep going, keep at it, keep putting the oars in even as the whitecaps break heavy upon us. 

For our task is not to know the times or the seasons or the conditions of the sea; our task is to keep this boat going.

And, suddenly, perhaps in the darkest hour when the conditions are most difficult and we’re about to be swamped, Jesus comes to us across the sea and gets us safely to the next landing site.

The times and conditions are tough. The seas roar.  But we stay at it. We don’t quit. We don’t give up. We keep rowing and praying, praying and rowing, rowing and praying, and trusting, and trusting, and trusting that He will come to us again.


So we beat on . . .

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 10, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 6 verses 1 through 14:

After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. 2A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming towards him, Jesus said to Philip, ‘Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?’ 6He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7Philip answered him, ‘Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.’ 8One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, 9‘There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?’ 10Jesus said, ‘Make the people sit down.’ Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.’ 13So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, ‘This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.’

“When he had given thanks . . .”

What a subtle, yet truly wonderful phrase, and the key to taking part in God’s greatest miracles.

For when I give thanks . . . I know that all good gifts come from above. 

When I give thanks . . . I see rightly that what’s mine is not only mine but God’s also. 

When I give thanks . . . I recognize that what’s solely in my hands alone and kept whole is intended to be in all our hands together, broken and shared.

When I give thanks . . . I see that others have shared with me.

When I give thanks . . . I confess that I’ve been blessed and not earned all that’s in my control. 

When I give thanks . . . I see that it is more blessed to give than to receive. 

St Augustine said that in the mystery of God’s economy there is always enough of that which was meant to be shared.  


For this, we do give thanks . . . and we realize that there’s enough in our hands to feed the whole world. 

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 9, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson is Psalm 123:

1 To you I lift up my eyes, 
to you enthroned in the heavens.

2 As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, 
and the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,

3 So our eyes look to the Lord our God, 
until he show us his mercy.

4 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy, 
for we have had more than enough of contempt,

5 Too much of the scorn of the indolent rich, 
and of the derision of the proud.

This morning’s Psalm is a prayer from all the poor and haggard of the earth to the LORD of compassion and mercy.

They speak with the voice of working poor. They use metaphor they know quite well. They are servants; they look to the hand of their master. 

Yet what they hope for is not the contempt of the masters of this world they have known so well. They have felt the scorn and the contempt of those whose houses they build, lawns they mow, hotels they clean, yet who on the other hand treat them as dirty criminals. Where is the decent merciful LORD?  Where are the decent people?  They look.

“To you I lift up my eyes, 
to you enthroned in the heavens.”

They look to their LORD God in heaven.  This is the one who knows all, who sees all.  This is the one upon the throne, the LORD and judge of all. This is the one whom the poor can mistreated speak to directly using the Usted:

“To you I lift up my eyes, 
to you enthroned in the heavens.”

They look up and speak; and the LORD looks down and hears.


Surely, the LORD hears . . .

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 8, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Revelation chapter 8 verses 8 through 11:

8 ‘And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life:
9 ‘I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.

This morning’s Lesson comes from a letter written to a church which is wealthy, but whose wealth in fact creates challenges in the way of faithfulness. 

A great crisis is about to grip Rome. The Church will be tested. It will struggle because it has so much to lose. It’s riches will become a burden and hindrance to faithfulness. This is part of the “poverty” of the church; for just as it is difficult for a rich man to enter into heaven so too is it well-nigh impossible for a rich church. 

But with God all things are possible. John the Seer calls the church to impossibility made possible with God. “[Y]ou will have affliction,” he says, “Be faithful until death,” and God “will give you the crown of life.”

Just as a person must lose his or her life to gain it, so also the church must be willing to die in order to live. In other words, it must be willing to risk, to lose, to get smaller, to renounce all its measurements of success, and empty itself that it might remain faithful. 

For there is only one thing that is necessary now; and John says the church must chose the better part. It must choose the hard way. It must chose the eye of the needle. It must chose faithfulness.


And by its faithfulness it shall save its soul. 

Monday, January 7, 2019

Daily Lesson for January 7, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Revelation chapter 2 verses 1 through 4:

‘To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2 “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. 3I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. 4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

We hold on now, seeking to remain faithful in these difficult times. We actively resist all evildoers, committing ourselves to the things that Jesus taught and did. This is a mighty struggle, and one not for the front of heart. 

And yet in all our struggle, we know our greatest challenge is to hold on to love. For we can and shall do many good and strong things in the name of God and Christ, but if we have not love they are for not.

Jesus said, “In those days many will turn from the faith and will betray and hate one another . . . And because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”

These are those days. Vileness and evil are strong and so many are tempted to fall into hatred and despair amidst all the increase of wickedness. And our love for one another has grown cold. 

The Lesson today comes to us to tell us we must renew the love we had at first. We must find it again.  In this new year we must find the love we once had for each other, for our neighbors, for the strangers and aliens, and even for our enemies. 

We must find that love again in 2019. And when we find it, we must hold it very, very tight . . .


Wednesday, January 2, 2019

New Years Reflection

I forgot to post this New Year’s reflection I wrote for the Center for Congregational Health yesterday.

 https://www.facebook.com/800469666787297/posts/1115149348652659/

I’m going to take a few days away now.

Be well in 2019.