Daily Lesson for February 28, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verses 3 through 6:

3and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ towards God. 5Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Richard Rohr once said that just as Catholics made the word of the Pope infallibly united with God, we Baptists did the same with the Bible. 

The Bible is not equal to God. We have to come to understand that both to better understand the Bible and also to better understand what its many books and voices have to say about God. 

Paul writes in today’s Lesson of a new covenant, written not with ink or chiseled into tablets, but inscribed into the very hearts of God’s people. This is not to say Paul was simply throwing out the Bible.  On the contrary, he was using the Bible (specifically, one of the Books of Moses) to make his case. But he was making it from a point of view of “less to greater”. The chiseled tablets Moses came down the mountain with had their glory.  Yet they were less than the words God desired to inscribe into the very hearts of God’s people by the spirit. If the old covenant came with glory even while in stone, then how much more would the glory of the new covenant have. 

Indeed, the old words came in glory, Moses said, but they also came with death. This is an amazing statement and also a caution against setting the words of a stone or page up to be the same as God. For indeed, they may have been given in glory, but they can end in death. “The letter killeth,” Paul says, “but the Spirit giveth life.”

We see the glory of Scripture. But we do not worship it. For the Spirit gave the Scripture. And the Spirit gave us the Scripture. And the new covenant is a gift of the Spirit, that words of God Be written in all their glory, not on tablets or paper, but in the hearts and minds of God’s people. 

The letter kills; the Spirit gives life. And the glory of God, as Ireneaus said, is a human being fully alive with the Spirit of God. 

Daily Lesson for February 27, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ruth chapter 2 verses 1 through 10:

Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a prominent rich man, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, ‘Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favour.’ She said to her, ‘Go, my daughter.’ 3So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. 4Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you.’ They answered, ‘The Lord bless you.’ 5Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, ‘To whom does this young woman belong?’ 6The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, ‘She is the Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7She said, “Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.” So she came, and she has been on her feet from early this morning until now, without resting even for a moment.’*

8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. 9Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.’ 10Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, ‘Why have I found favour in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?’

Our second son Bo is named after Boaz in today’s Lesson. I swore I would never have a Bo, partially because the name reminded me of Bo Duke — a good old boy never meaning no harm, but with his General Lee car not necessarily someone Irie and I wanted to name a child after. Nevertheless, in utero it became clear that Boaz would be the baby’s name, and that we would call him Bo.

Boaz means strength. And indeed Bo is strong and so was his namesake. He was strong and we liked that. But more importantly he was good; and we liked that even more. We liked how Boaz treated the vulnerable woman Ruth who worked for him. We liked how he protected and watched over her and did not allow the men he employed to harass her.  We wanted to communicate a message to Bo and his brother and sister that Boaz was an honorable man and that we wanted and expected our boys to grow up to be honorable men. We wanted to tell them how important we thought it was to be strong — not so much in body, but in decency and moral character. We wanted to teach them; and we wanted to begin by teaching them with a name. 

Six years after Bo’s birth, and a year and a half after the beginning of the #metoo movement, we see just how needed morally strong and decent men like Boaz really are.  I am proud of the name Bo. And I’m even more proud of the name Boaz. And I pray our Bo will grow up to be a Boaz. I pray that he will grow up to be strong; and even more I pray that he will grow up to be good. 

And really, I say this in all candor, nothing else really matters. 

Daily Lesson for February 26, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Ruth chapter 1 verses 15 through 18:

15 So [Naomi] said, ‘See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.’ 16But Ruth said,

‘Do not press me to leave you

   or to turn back from following you!

Where you go, I will go;

   where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people,

   and your God my God. 

17 Where you die, I will die—

   there will I be buried.

May the Lord do thus and so to me,

   and more as well,

if even death parts me from you!’ 

18When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

Today’s Lesson is a dissenting opinion. 

Prominent Biblical scholars now agree the book of Ruth was written sometime amidst the Israelites’ return from Babylon to the Promised Land, where in an effort to cleanse the nation from all impurity the Governor Nehemiah with the priestly blessing of Ezra built a wall around the City of Jerusalem and forced all the men of Israel who had intermarried with other nations to dismiss their wives and abandon their children.

And how many times have we heard Nehemiah preached as a great hero for such patriotic rule?

But Ruth brings a dissenting opinion. 

Ruth tells the story of Israelite Naomi and her Moabite daughter-in-Law Ruth, who after Naomi’s son and Ruth’s husband die, return from Moab to Israel, where Ruth is protected by and later marries Boaz, Naomi’s distant cousin. Boaz and Ruth then have a Son named Obed who has a son named Jesse who has a son named David — yes, THAT David. 

And because this story was apparently written during the time of Nehemiah’s purging, it’s as if the writer of Ruth is saying, “You say dismissing these people is the patriotic and Godly thing to do; but let us not forget that the greatest king this nation ever had was himself a product of a mixed-marriage. Let us not be too set on building the wall of exclusion, lest the ones we exclude be our very own.”

‘Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you!” the Moabite Naomi says in today’s Lesson. “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

These a words we sometimes hear read at a wedding, and we all nod our heads. But more than a sentimental word, it was actually a subversive one when it was written. And it’s meaning was indeed a dissenting opinion, a minority report, reminding the people that though what the Governor and Priest were doing was very popular, it could also undermine the nation’s own history.

Daily Lesson for February 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 through 11:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

5 ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

6 ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

7 ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

8 ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

10 ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I think today of my friends in the United Methodist Church who are gathering this week in St. Louis in important deliberations about the future of LGBTQ persons in the communion.

I have heard from many of my own LGBTQ friends who tell me how painful it is, not only to be excluded from church, but even to have the merits of their inclusion debated. I pray for the UMC as a whole; and I pray especially for the LGBTQ community within the UMC. 

In today’s Lesson Jesus calls those who are persecuted and reviled “Blessed”.  Another way of saying this might be “Worthy”.  Or even, “Beautiful”.

No matter how this week’s voting turns out, and what the days ahead might look like in the UMC or any other denomination or church, I pray our friends and family in the LGBTQ community might hear these words again and know in their deepest selves that their dignity does not hang in the balance of a ballot or the margins of a majority.

You are already worthy, my friends; you are already blessed. For God has called you blessed. 

And blessed are we too when we finally come to see just how beautiful you truly are. 

Daily February 22, 2019

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 ordain anyone hastily, and do not participate in the sins of others; keep yourself pure.

The Lesson this morning is sobering advice on misconduct in the church, and practical advice for addressing misconduct in other places as well. 

Addressed specifically are the triplet dangers of rushing to judgment, judging with prejudice and partiality, and coverup of patterned behavior. 

I have shared much in the last year on the evil we as a church — most visibly Baptist and Catholic expressions — have tolerated and even abetted. I believe we are under a judgment from God for the things we have done and the things we have left undone in regards to our obligations to protect the most vulnerable. Instead, we so often chose to protect the institution and even the offender.  

In the words of today’s Lesson we have participated in the sins of others. The common word for this is complicity.  And the question we as Baptists might ask is how could a people so supposedly dedicated to the Bible for a guide to faith and practice so grossly fail to follow so important a word as this?

We strain gnats and swallow camels, throw out churches for ordaining women pastors and having gay members while at the same time having no say whatsoever when multiple victims come forward with allegations against prominent denominational leaders and clergy. 

The Lesson calls us to go and read again, study again, study and put this wisdom into practice and also into policy.

Daily Lesson for February 21, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 12 verses 13 through 17:

13 Then they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to trap him in what he said. 14And they came and said to him, ‘Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not? 15Should we pay them, or should we not?’ But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, ‘Why are you putting me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me see it.’ 16And they brought one. Then he said to them, ‘Whose head is this, and whose title?’ They answered, ‘The emperor’s.’ 17Jesus said to them, ‘Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ And they were utterly amazed at him.

“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Now here is a famous Scripture which has been made much of in relation to the principle of Church and State — too much, in fact. For Jesus did not live in a time where religion and state were at all separate and he was not interested enough in political theory and framework to be setting down some kind of principle for governance. 

What Mark’s having included this passage in his account of Jesus’ life was meant to do was to show how sick and colluding a system it was that attempted to use the contentious question of taxation to discredit Jesus. Taxes to the Empire — this was the original wedge issue in 1st century Judea.  And the question was put to Jesus, not because his interlocutors wanted the problem solved, but because they wanted to impugn him with his answer to it. 

Jesus showed his brilliance with his creative and also evasively street smart answer. 

“What do you think about our support of Israel?”

“What about the flag in the sanctuary?”

“What about kneeling at the National Anthem?”

I wonder if we really want the answers — often nuanced and not altogether “Yes” or “No” — or if we just want the soundbites as ammunition in a larger game of gotcha politics and gotcha religion. 

Jesus refused to play the game — and very brilliantly so.

All money belongs to Caesar because it has Caesar’s image; and so too for the same reason do all people belong to God.

All patriotism is about Caesar.  Be very careful when you hear it being made out about God.

Daily Lesson for February 20, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 64 verses 6 through 9:

6 We have all become like one who is unclean,

   and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf,

   and our iniquities, like the wind, sweep us away. 

7 There is no one who calls on your name,

   or attempts to take hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us,

   and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity. 

8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father;

   we are the clay, and you are our potter;

   we are all the work of your hand. 

9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,

   and do not remember iniquity for ever.

   Now consider, we are all your people.

We are living now in a time of great institutional church indictment. 

As we see story after story of survivors of abuse coming forward, the church can no longer turn a blind eye to its own coverups and its profound failure to protect the young and vulnerable.

For this I believe we live in a time of severe and necessary judgment by God.

As the Prophet Isaiah says from exile in today’s Lesson:

 “We have all become like one who is unclean,

   and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf,

   and our iniquities, like the wind, sweep us away.”

We have all become like one who is unclean —whether or not we ourselves were directly involved. We as a church have become unclean.  We have become unclean by our commission and omission, complicity and silence, by failing to be our brother’s keeper and our sister’s protector. And regardless of how fair or unfair it might seem to us, we have all become unclean.

The Prophet speaks for his people. He does not make excuses. He does not pass off responsibility. He does not refuse accountability. 

No. He laments. He confesses.  He shows contrition and repentance and the active plea for mercy and commitment to profound change.

He laments.

And perhaps that is what we most need now in the church — people who dare to lament, to wail, and grieve, and sorrow, and dare to look down deep into the darkness that change might truly come to pass and our iniquity not imprison us forever. 

God is the potter and we are the clay. And should the potter decide we need to be broken first before we can be remade then so let it be. For brokenness is path to wholeness and exile the only way home. 

Invocation for the Mayor’s State of the City Address

It was an honor to give the invocation at the Mayor’s State of the City Address today. I thank Mayor Price for this invitation. I am grateful to live in this wonderful city and to be working alongside so many others to make it an even better place for all. 

Below is the text of my prayer:

Gracious God of all people everywhere,

We give you thanks and praise for all your goodness to us and to this our beloved city of Fort Worth. We are grateful for our prosperity and growth and the vision you have set before us to be a City that is — in the words of the Race and Culture Task Force — indeed “inclusive, equitable, respectful, communal, and compassionate” towards all its residents. 

We know what it is required: “to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly”, and to always “do unto to others as we would have them do unto us”.  Strengthen us as we work hard in these endeavors; and exhort us to strive even harder when we fall short. 

We pray for our leaders, for Mayor Price and the City Council, City employees, Civic Board Members, Law Enforcement Officers, First Responders, Educators, community servants, and all persons of civic goodwill. Help us to work together, to hold each other accountable, and — both as individual members and also as one unified body — to aspire always to make the City of Fort not only a great place for ourselves, but also even more, a good and decent one for our neighbors as well.

We ask these things together,

as one United Fort Worth family.

Amen. And Amen. 

Daily Lesson for February 19, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 97 verse 5:

“The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, 

at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.”

Reflecting upon the Scripture that says God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, St Augustine said that the same sun which hardens clay also melts wax. For it is the same sun’s rays; yet the properties within its object which determine the response.  So too it is with persons and their response to God.

This morning speaks of a mighty mountain melting like wax before the presence of the LORD. A mountain looks strong and impregnable and absolutely unmoveable.  Yet we cannot see the properties within — what is happening beneath the surface of the rock, how soft and how vulnerable and how ready to fall it all may really be.

Jesus said the faith of a tiny mustard seed can move a mountain. It doesn’t take much to move a mountain when on the inside God has been melting it for about a million years.

And then someone comes along and says, “Move,” and it moves. “Melt,” and it melts. “Repent, and change, and fall in love, and surrender, and humble thyself by crumbling into pieces if you have to,” and lo and behold it actually happens. 

At the presence of the LORD it actually happens. 

Daily Lesson for February 18, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Timothy chapter 1 verses 12 through 15:

12 I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, 13even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 

We cannot lose forgiveness. 

In a world consumed with reprisal and vengeance, public condemnation and shaming, forgiveness is risky business. It always has been. For forgiveness opens us always to being accused of being cheap with grace.

Yet I wonder if a lot of people didn’t say the same thing about Paul.  Should such a one as even he be forgiven?  Is that what Christianity calls for — even the vilest offender?

And Jesus’ words from the cross make it clear.  “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

C.S. Lewis once said something to the effect that forgiveness is not only what Christians do but in fact what Christianity is. To be a Christian is to forgive even as we’ve been forgiven. And the measure we give will be the measure we get.

But hard questions remain. Should a person just get off scot-free?  What about public accountability? What about when there are victims?

The grace Paul received did not come cheap. He spent three years in the desert repenting — learning and unlearning, being transformed. And when he came back he came back a changed man. The “Hebrew of Hebrews” came back humbled and far gentler. He came back dedicated to dismantling the system he had once fought so hard to protect. It was “grace” by which he was saved he said, and he prayed that his life’s work was a testimony to the fact that the grace given him was “not in vain”.

I say we give someone some grace today. Someone who challenges us. Perhaps “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence”.  That may very well be our neighbor across the street now. Perhaps it was once us. 

For it is by grace we are saved. 

And it’s only by grace — not cheap grace, but hard, sobering, demanding, redeeming grace — that this nation will be saved also. 

Daily Lesson for February 15, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 10 through 15:

10 Now you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11my persecutions, and my suffering the things that happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13But wicked people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Paul is writing at a time of real darkness in the Roman Empire, as madmen are rulers and the world seems given over to arrogance and cruelty.  “You must understand this,” Paul wrote, “in the last days distressing times will come.”

In the last days.  That is a provocative phrase, and unfortunately one too often misunderstood.  We have misinterpreted it to solely mean the final days of the earth.

But there are last days of all kinds. And the one we experience over and over again is the end of an era, the last days of an age now passing away. 

We live in such a time. What we see in the world are the death rattles of an older, crueler age and the birth pangs a new.  Some have called this the birth pangs of a third age of Reconstruction or a third Great Awakening — an even Greater Awakening.

Paul tells us that in the last days it shall not be easy. Trials and persecution are bound to come for those who live for truth. And wickedness goes from bad to worse. This is the old age clutching to hold on.

But Paul counsels courage. He models patience. He embodies hope. He pleads for love. 

“As for you,” he says, “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed.”

What we have learned is endurance. And what we believe in is a kingdom come.  We wait for it. We wait and we hope and we hold on until finally we hear the words of promise come to pass:

“The old things have passed away; behold, the new has come into being.”

Daily Lesson for February 14, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 10 verses 17 through 22:

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, ‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 18Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19You know the commandments: “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honour your father and mother.” ’ 20He said to him, ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.’ 21Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, ‘You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

The rich man had many things which most of us would say were admirable and also enviable. He had religion. He had wealth. He had morality. And he even had earnestness. 

Yet there was still one thing he lacked.

Some years ago I would have said this one thing he lacked was giving. And, indeed, Jesus asks him to give much.

But I think now the one thing Jesus knew this man truly lacked was a sense of adventure. He had not yet come to a place of risk, of untying safety lines, of giving up something to fall back on. He had not ever known how to be anything other than prudent. 

And maybe, maybe because of that, he was bored. 

Jesus said, “Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

This following Jesus is not safe. It is not secure. It is not for those who wish to venture little. It is daring. It is risky. It is adventurous and unnerving and never, ever predictable or boring. 

And it is the way that leads to real life. 

Daily Lesson for February 13, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 59 verses 20 and 21:

20 And he will come to Zion as Redeemer,

   to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord. 

21And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from now on and for ever.

I was talking the other day with a friend about the crisis the American church is now in, and how few young people are coming to church or entering the ministry, and how many churches and even seminaries are closing, and I wondered if we might not be in a time of judgment. With all the glut and abuse that has been revealed about the church — Catholic and Protestant, perhaps this is a time of judgment, and of pruning, of exile. 

The Prophet Isaiah lived in a time of exile, a time when his nation suffered the consequences of its sins. It was 60 years in Babylon — a whole generation.

Yet even while still in captivity, the Prophet speaks in today’s Lesson of God’s everlasting promise to God’s people:

“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children,” says the Lord, “from now on and for ever.”

The time we live in is kind of exile. It is not just that people suddenly got less interested in religion.  It is not just that young people started deciding Ministry doesn’t make enough money. The deeper truth is that we live in a time of judgment — a time which forces us to reflect and be humbled and change.

And it is here that the words of promise come. “The Word shall not depart,” neither from our lips, nor our children’s, nor our children’s children. For God is still alive, and still redeeming, and so the hope of Israel still remains. 

Daily Lesson for February 12, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 2 Timothy chapter 1 verses 1 through 9:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, 

2 To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. 5I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. 6For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.

8 Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, 9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace.

Paul is writing his young protege a pastoral letter. It is an heartening letter of encouragement and encouragement. The faith which lived in Timothy’s mother and also grandmother — both of Paul knew intimately — also lives in Timothy, Paul says. Paul is sure that same gift of faith also lives in Timothy and so he is therefore to “rekindle the gift” and go on and live in boldness, without fear, “relying on the power of God.”

That phrase deserves a repeat: “Relying on the power of God”.  For it is God who strengthens and empowers us, Paul is saying, to face the days ahead. 

In a letter to his co-conspirators against Hitler, German theologian and resistance member Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote of faith and the fears which threatened always to overwhelm them. He said it was no use wondering if they have the faith to face the trials which might (and later did) come for them. He said they did not. Rather, faith he said is given like manna.  We are only given what we need for the day at hand. If we had more, then we would trust in ourselves and cease to trust in the power and provision of God.

The same faith which lived in our parents and grandparents now lives in us. They faced their struggles; and we face and shall face ours too. But “relying on the power of God” we trust that we have enough of what is needed to endure today. And as for tomorrow, we trust God will raise the sun and send a mighty angel for that day too. 

Daily Lesson for February 11, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 9 verses 33 through 35:

33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’

When I read this I have to wonder if we too might not also be shamed along with the disciples should Jesus come and ask us about all the times we had it in our minds or on our lips that we were the greatest, or the best, or the most superior. The urge to be great is so deeply engrained in us as humans that it is almost inescapable. 

The crafty prey upon this urge, just as the Serpent did in the garden. That’s an old, old story; and there are always contemporary versions. 

Jesus did not try to negate the urge to greatness altogether.  But he did turn it on it’s head. He said if we wish to be greatest we must be great in service to one another. That is the greatest one, he said — not the one who rules, but the one who serves. 

Paul said, “Outdo one another in love.”  There are certain things in which we are to try to outdo one another. But we are not to try to outdo others in the way the world does. We are to try to outdo one another in genuine love and in humble service and in the showing of mercy. 

We wish to be great. That’s a genuine human urge and not to be fought against. And the greatest among us is the one who lives to serve and better others. 

Daily Lesson for February 8, 2019

Rather than a Daily Lesson this morning, I am instead posting this very important piece from William Barber.

When we lived in Durham, Irie and I drove two hours to attend Barber’s inauguration as NAACP of North Carolina President.  He is a preeminent moral voice on racial justice in America and an inspiring Christian thinker, preacher, organizer, and leader.

Please read this.

I plan to quote from this article during Sunday’s sermon.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-ralph-northam-and-others-can-repent-of-americas-original-sin/2019/02/07/9aef18ec-2b0f-11e9-b011-d8500644dc98_story.html

Daily Lesson for February 7, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 55 verses 10 through 12:

10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

   and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

   giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

   it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

   and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 

12 For you shall go out in joy,

   and be led back in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you

   shall burst into song,

   and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah is speaking the word of God to a nation dejected and displaced. They are a weary and defeated people, a long way from home. They are a people just barely holding on where they are. But Isaiah promises that the LORD has spoken and they shall not forever live in exile; they shall come home again. For the LORD is already at work, in ways not yet visible.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth . . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.”

Just as the rain and snow of heaven have gone forth and buried themselves in the soil of the earth in order to make ready the promised birth of the coming Spring, so too has God’s word of gone forth into the earth to make ready the promise of Israel’s deliverance. 

God’s work may be hidden now, buried in the earth, off the grid in some small Bible study, or training, or buried in the hidden, yet very necessary work of organizing and coalition building, or within the heart of just the person who will say just the right thing to set a prodigal son on the path home. This is where the work of God happens — somewhere around beyond notice, somewhere around Galilee. 

The rains have come and the snows fallen; they all do not return to the heavens. Some remains hidden in the earth.  Enough does. Enough to amaze us with wonder once again with the first sign of Spring. 

Daily Lesson for February 6, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 8 verses 22 and 23:

22 They came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him. 23He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village . . .

In order to see the world rightly, we must be taken out of our little village. 

So long as we are stuck having only one field of vision and one limited place of perspective we remain blind to the world and all its complexity, need, beauty, and opportunity. We cannot see beyond the walls of our own experience. 

Jesus took the blind man out of his village; and it was there, beyond the constraints of the place and people that knew him only as a blind man that his eyes were open and he was made to see. 

Daily Lesson for February 5, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Galatians chapter 4 verse 17:

“They make much of you, but for no good purpose; they want to exclude you, so that you may make much of them.”

Today is the Feast Day of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, those two colonial troublemakers who caused such a ruckus in the Massachusetts Bay Colony with their ideas  about freedom. It is ironic that the Episcopal Church should dedicate a day to these two Puritans reformers who left the Church of England, and it is a sign of the broad influence their ideas of religious eventually had. 

Hutchinson was a strong-spirited woman, a mother of eventually 15 children, and apparently a profound Biblical exegete and teacher.  She began hosting gatherings of women at her home, where they studied the Bible and where she apparently called into question the male preachers in the Colony whom she said were preaching a “a covenant of works” rather than “a covenant of grace”.  Even more, some men were said also to have set in on her home studies.

Hutchinson was put on trial for what Colony leaders basically saw as rebellious anarchism. By calling into question the leaders of the Colony, they said she was calling into question the whole God-ordained idea of authority. Hutchinson was eventually found guilty and exiled from the Colony. She and several members of her family killed by Indians in the wilderness trying to make their way to New Amsterdam for refuge.

If you go back and read the excerpts of Hutchinson’s trail you get a sense of her mighty Spirit. They accused her of teaching “antinomiansim” — the idea that Christians are released from the dictates of the law by virtue of grace. This was sheer anarchy to the leaders. But Hutchinson asked if the law was most in-transgressible then why was Abraham willing to break it when he went to sacrifice Isaac?  

Read that and you get a sense of what her home studies must have been like.

And when they questioned her about her alleged teaching of men, Hutchinson reparteed with her own question wondering if teaching men was so bad why she was being asked to teach the all-male court.

Anne had smarts and guts.

Read the charges against Hutchinson and they sound so much like the charges leveled against Paul by the religious leaders in Jerusalem. By letting the Gentiles in Paul was breaking the law, subverting authority, undermining God’s order. 

But Paul called it what it was.  By making a big deal of the Gentiles the authorities were really making a big deal of themselves. They wanted what all Fundamentalists really want — to hold onto power and control and to undo anyone who questioned their right to them.

Though they were both banned from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Hutchinson’s and Williams’s ideas of religious freedom eventually won out in America over their Puritan accusers. But a people must remain eternally vigilant, lest narrow-minded and control-motivated theocracy again try to grab hold of our nation. 

Marking today’s Feast Day and remembering the story is an important way of also remembering who we are and also who definitely don’t want to become. 

Daily Lesson for February 4, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 7 verses 31 through 37:

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. 32They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. 33He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. 34Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ 35And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36Then Jesus* ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’

Last week I heard a precocious young Fort Worth boy named Braden Baker speak to a group of adults about his non-profit work providing free hearing aids to people around the world. With the help of an appearance on the show Ellen, Braden has now raised over $100,000.  His efforts all got started when as a ten-year-old he started a Go-Fund-Me page to help himself after his dog at his own set of hearing aids. And to top it all off the dog’s name is Chewy. 

Braden showed photos from his travels around the world and pictures of people with what he called their “Hearing Smile” on their face. This is the smile they have at the moment they first receive their hearing aids and recognize the human voice — either again or for the very first time.

Jesus, like Braden, is in foreign territory in today’s Lesson. But unlike Braden, he seems to be keeping his grip on the quiet. He’s just passing through and does not wish be noticed.    For Jesus still sees his mission as being for the children of Israel only. When a deaf man is brought to him, Jesus heals him in secret, and then orders him to tell no one. Of course, he tells everyone. 

Braden’s story make me think that even if the formerly-deaf man had not told anyone about Jesus, his smile still would have given it away that something miraculous had happened to him. For he just could not keep his mouth shut. 

And maybe it was in seeing and recognizing this that Jesus himself heard something new also — a call to go ahead and reach out across borders, and nations, and people groups, and to open the whole world’s ears and mouths with God’s good news.