Daily Lesson for November 29, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 

Isaiah chapter 24 verses 21 though 24:

21 On that day the Lord will punish

   the host of heaven in heaven,

   and on earth the kings of the earth. 

22 They will be gathered together

   like prisoners in a pit;

they will be shut up in a prison,

   and after many days they will be punished. 

23 Then the moon will be abashed,

   and the sun ashamed;

for the Lord of hosts will reign

   on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,

and before his elders he will manifest his glory. 

And Matthew chapter 20 verses 20 through 28:

20 Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came to him with her sons, and kneeling before him, she asked a favour of him. 21And he said to her, ‘What do you want?’ She said to him, ‘Declare that these two sons of mine will sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.’ 22But Jesus answered, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?’* They said to him, ‘We are able.’ 23He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left, this is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.’

24 When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers. 25But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. 26It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, 27and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 28just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’

We come down to the next to last day of the liturgical calendar, and the readings given for the day are about power and its right use.

We all know the saying, “Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This is so often the case in the world and the reason why Jesus says those in power must be willing to give it up. The “great” among us, he says, must be a “servant”.

There are other ways of being great; Jesus admits that. And the rulers of this world are great because of the abuse of their power. It’s what got them where they are. 

“But not so among you,” Jesus says. Not in God’s kingdom. 

The days are coming, Isaiah says, when the rulers of this earth will be held accountable for their use and misuse of power. Did they use it wisely as true public servants of common good; or did they use it for their own personal gain? The day is coming, Isaiah, says when the truth will be told, and “the moon will be abashed and the sun will be ashamed” of all that has been done both under the cloak of darkness and also even in bright of broad daylight. 

In the end, it’s the “Son of Man” who will judge both the host of heaven and also the kings and nations of the earth. He will judge between many nations, and sift between many so-called “great” rulers. And in the end, the kings and queens and presidents and CEOs and countries will be judged not by how much absolute power we amassed for ourselves, but rather by how much power we used for the aid and benefit of others.

So may it be. 

Daily Lesson for Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson for Thanksgiving Day comes from the Book of Common Prayer (slightly altered):

Almighty God, Father and Mother of all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all whom you have made. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all for your immeasurable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ; for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And, we pray, give us such an awareness of your mercies, that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages.

Amen.

I love the plea to God for an awareness of mercies. With all that rightfully concerns us about the present we fret and worry over about the future, O what a gift to be made aware of God’s mercies.  This is not to diminish or deny all the challenges, injustices, and just plain wrong doings in this world; but if we had just an inkling of all the mercies we’ve received in the past year then we would know for sure and forever that God is on our side. 

And God is on our side. 

I’m about to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. For some reason — and its a little embarrassing to admit this — it always makes me cry. That’s probably because the Parade is the first official act of Thanksgiving and therefore the whole Holiday season. We’ve made it another year around the sun. And what untold number of graces and mercies we must have received to have made it happen — especially when some of us drive like we do!

Give us an awareness of your mercies, dear LORD. An awareness of life, of love, of second, and third, and fourth, and 77x7 chances, and of the goodness of this day’s daily bread and all our days’ — even the worst ones — daily grace.

Daily Lesson for November 27, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 4 through 8:

4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For it stands in scripture:

‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,

   a cornerstone chosen and precious;

and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’ 

7To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

‘The stone that the builders rejected

   has become the very head of the corner’, 

8and

‘A stone that makes them stumble,

   and a rock that makes them fall.’

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

and Matthew chapter 19 verses 27 through 30.

27 Then Peter said in reply, ‘Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?’ 28Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

We are coming down to the final days of the liturgical year and today’s Lessons tell of a time of great reversal, when the first shall be last, the last first, and the stone rejected at the founding becomes the cornerstone for a new foundation. And those who have fallen out with family and friends for God’s sake will receive a hundredfold family members and friends and also eternal life. 

I know so many who have lost so much for the sake of their convictions. People I know have been rejected by communities, churches, denominations, friends, and families because they stood up for what they thought was just, right, and loving. Friendships ended, and families split, and the prophet has no place to lay his or her head.

The Thanksgiving holiday is a reminder to many of these of what has been lost.  There’s division at the table. Or maybe the division is so deep that the table can’t be shared. Family isn’t really family anymore — not like it used to be. 

So the Lessons today comes as words of consolation.  There are things worth standing up for, Jesus is saying — even if it means rejection. But the rejection will not last forever. One day there will be a righting and reckoning.   One day others will see also. 

And then, “the first shall be last, the last shall be first”, and the rejected stone shall one day have the place of honor, and the rejected child shall have the place of honor at the head of the table. 

So then may it be, on earth even as it is in heaven. 

Daily Lesson for November 26, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Nahum chapter 1 verses 2 and 3, and 6-8.

2 A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,

   the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

   and rages against his enemies. 

3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,

   and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. 

6 Who can stand before his indignation?

   Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

   and by him the rocks are broken in pieces. 

7 The Lord is good,

   a stronghold on a day of trouble;

he protects those who take refuge in him, 

8   even in a rushing flood.

He will make a full end of his adversaries,*

   and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 

Yesterday we visited Montgomery, Alabama and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice which acknowledges America’s history of racial terrorism against blacks and other minorities. Among the thousands of victim names at the Memorial, we found the name of Porter Turner, Irie’s great-uncle who was lynched by the KKK in Dekalb County, Georgia in 1945.

The specter of that lynching and the thousands of other murders at the hands of white terrorism in America have hung over black families like Irie’s for generations. The Memorial is a significant step in remembering the horror of lynching, and hopefully beginning to come to terms with its legacy of brutality, terror, and social control. 

This, too, was America.  Even in 1945 — just days after the end of WWII, a war fought and won in the name of liberty and justice against totalitarian brutality and dehumanization. 

This week is Thanksgiving week. And I am drawn to recall yet again a line from Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation issued amidst the horrors of the Civil War in 1863.  Lincoln summoned the nation to give thanks.  We almost all remember that. But he also summoned it to repentance — something we too often forget.  The nation was to give thanks “with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience”.

Slavery was our national perverseness and disobedience, and Lynching her ugly daughter. Lynching was born because what in his sermon upon Lincoln’s assassination Philips Brooks called “the Spirit of Slavery” refused to die. That Spirit of perversity and disobedience disobedience outlived the Civil War. It outlived WWII and the Southern Freedom Movement. And it still lives today. It lives anywhere and everywhere we refuse “humble penitence” for the sins of our nation. 

It’s Thanksgiving week. There is much for which to be thankful. Yet gratitude is only one part of the summons. The other is penitence, it’s acknowledgment, and remembrance, and reparation for the perverseness and disobedience of the past, and the foresworn end of the Spirit of Slavery even in the present that we might, in the words of Lincoln’s Proclamation:

“implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

So may it be.

Daily Lesson for November 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew 19.

“Why do you ask?”

That’s the question a preacher friend of mine asks when someone seems to be asking a Gotcha Question — a question designed not really to get at sincere truth but only to make somebody look bad or get them in trouble. 

Make no mistake, the question in the Lesson this morning is a Gotcha Question. It’s not intended to get at the truth about marriage and divorce; it’s meant to entrap Jesus. That’s why they ask. They ask because they know in answering he’ll either have to side with the Law of Moses and therefore be publicly opposed to Herod, who married his wife Herodias after she divorced her husband Philip, Herod’s brother.  

So which one is it, Jesus, the Law or King?  It was a question the Pharisees designed to frame him — just like their question about paying taxes to Caesar. They didn’t care what his answer was. They didn’t want truth or instruction or a way forward. They wanted ammunition. 

There’s much to be said about marriage and divorce and Caesar — and a whole lot that can be said about all three together.

But why do you ask?

Daily Lesson on the Feast Day of C.S. Lewis

Today is the Feast Day for C.S. Lewis. In observance, I am reposting a link to a dispatch from my 2015 British Evasion and trip to Lewis’s old stomping ground, Oxford.

https://ryonprice.blogspot.com/2015/08/british-evasion-10-august-8-2015.html?m=1

Daily Lesson for November 21, 2019

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

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ 2He called a child, whom he put among them, 3and said, ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

6 ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7Woe to the world because of stumbling-blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling-block comes!

Earlier this in preparation for Sunday’s sermon I went back and re-read President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, issued on the third day of October 1863 in anticipation of a National Day of Thanksgiving set aside for the fourth Thursday of the following month. I have read this many times over the years; and I am always touched by the pastoral nature of Lincoln’s words as he called our nation to give thanks even amidst our terrible Civil War.

But what I had forgotten is in this Proclamation is another pastoral task — the call of the people to a greater humility and repentance from what he called the Nation’s “national perverseness and disobedience” which ended in the scourge of widow and orphan hood afflicting both North and South. By the time of the Proclamation, Lincoln had decided the War was a judgment upon the Union for its sin of slavery, and the Proclamation was a pastoral call to prayer of thanksgiving for God’s mercies even amidst the sword of judgment, and also a call to humility and contrition, that the victims of the Nation’s hubris be spared even greater suffering. 

One hundred fifty-eight years after Lincoln’s Proclamation, our nation is again caught up in a time of deep division. The closing words in Lincoln’s Proclamation speak to us in our own time that we might “fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.”

“Peace”, “harmony”, “tranquility”, and “Union” are wonderful words of hope for us now. But they come not without another important word Lincoln used in the Proclamation: “penitence”. We will not have the former without first having the latter.  And the wounds of the nation will not be healed, lest we see and admit what sad suffering our hubris has caused, especially for the young and vulnerable. 

This is the season for giving thanks, and also the season for making contrition.  Let us prepare ourselves for both as we make our towards the fourth Thursday of November yet again.  

Daily Lesson for November 20, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 109 verses 1 through 4:

1 Hold not your tongue, O God of my praise; *

for the mouth of the wicked,

the mouth of the deceitful, is opened against me.

2 They speak to me with a lying tongue; *

they encompass me with hateful words

and fight against me without a cause.

3 Despite my love, they accuse me; *

but as for me, I pray for them.

4 They repay evil for good, *

and hatred for my love.

Much of our nation is transfixed by the Impeachment hearings testimony now daily before the House of Representatives. I have only caught bits and pieces of the witnesses’ testimony, but have been appalled by their treatment by public officials from the highest of offices on down and by the general public. 

These public servants did not wish to be in the positions they now find themselves. They have been asked to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, which they seem willing to do to the best of their ability and in accordance with their duties as citizens and patriots. For these things we ought to give them due honor and respect. Their reward from much of our nation, however, has been neither honor nor respect but personal scorn, contempt, and tawdry insult.

They deserve better. 

So does our nation.

Daily Lesson for November 19, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson is Psalm 99:

1 The Lord is King;

let the people tremble; *

he is enthroned upon the cherubim;

let the earth shake.

2 The Lord is great in Zion; *

he is high above all peoples.

3 Let them confess his Name, which is great and awesome; *

he is the Holy One.

4 "O mighty King, lover of justice,

you have established equity; *

you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob."

5 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God

and fall down before his footstool; *

he is the Holy One.

6 Moses and Aaron among his priests,

and Samuel among those who call upon his Name, *

they called upon the Lord, and he answered them.

7 He spoke to them out of the pillar of cloud; *

they kept his testimonies and the decree that he gave them.

8 "O Lord our God, you answered them indeed; *

you were a God who forgave them,

yet punished them for their evil deeds."

9 Proclaim the greatness of the Lord our God

and worship him upon his holy hill; *

for the Lord our God is the Holy One.

We are coming to the end of the liturgical calendar and Sunday is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the year before the beginning of Advent. So the psalms for this week echo as a refrain leading up to Christ the King Day: “This is the King, strong and mighty to save, an arbiter of justice and equity in the world.”

I used to look skeptically at Christ the King. The monarchical language seemed both patriarchal and passé. In fact, I’m still uncomfortable with the gendered language of “king”.

But a day set aside to remember Christ’s righteous rule of the cosmos now speaks to me. Christ the King, set at the very end of the calendar, is a reminder of God’s justice and righteousness and the end of history. Jesus has set down on the throne, at the right hand of God, and to him belong the eternal judgments of this world, its nations, their leaders, and their misleaders. This is, indeed, good and hopeful news to the faint of heart. 

Desmond Tutu used to say, “This is a moral universe!”  It is!  Or, as Dr. King used to say, “The moral arc of the universe is long; but it bends towards justice.” It does. The moral arc of the universe bends towards Christ the King. 

Thanks be to God!

Daily Lesson for November 18, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 89 verses 13 through 15:

13 You have a mighty arm; *

strong is your hand and high is your right hand.

14 Righteousness and justice are the foundations of your throne; *

love and truth go before your face.

15 Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,

    who walk in the light of your presence, Lord.

This morning’s Psalm tells us of the governance of God and God’s kingdom. It is a kingdom built on justice and righteousness. These are its foundations. The world can trust that God’s judgments are grounded in the principle of justice for all who are judged and the virtue of righteousness in the one who judges.  The people can trust that God judges the world to the world rightly and for the right reasons. 

And how do we know these judgments are just?  Because love and truth go before God’s judgments. The roots, Eugene Petersen says, are justice and righteousness, and the fruits are truth and love.

Friends, only when we see the fruits of both love and truth can we be assured there is also righteousness and justice in our governance.  These are what give legitimacy to a nation and its leaders and what ordain and establish a more perfect and divine rule of law.

So may it be in these United States and all across this green earth. 

Daily Lesson for November 15, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Revelation chapter 19 verses 11 through 16:

11 Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. 13He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. 14And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’.

This morning’s Lesson comes from Revelation of John, or in Greek — the “apocalypse” of John. 

Apocalypse literally means “showing” or “revelation”. And apocalyptic literature is a way of writing which shows or reveals the world as it is in heaven and/or as it shall be on earth. It is a kind of window into the realm of the kingdom of God i heaven and into the future when that kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. 

Today’s apocalyptic vision gives us us a vision of the one who is “Faithful and True”, riding upon a white horse of deliverance, with all the armies of heaven. It is John’s the Seer’s way of describing to a people held in bondage by ruthless and cruel rulers a coming deliverance by the one who is “King of Kings and LORD of Lords”.

Believe the vision, friends. It will not always be as it is now. Truth and Fidelity will win out. The sharp sword of justice shall prevail. And with righteousness God will judge the nations.

So may it be.


For something fresh and new inspired by this text see:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hkCUdiP2Qsc

Daily Lesson for November 14, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 34 verses 1 through 6:

1 I will bless the Lord at all times; *

his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

2 I will glory in the Lord; *

let the humble hear and rejoice.

3 Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; *

let us exalt his Name together.

4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me *

and delivered me out of all my terror.

5 Look upon him and be radiant, *

and let not your faces be ashamed.

6 I called in my affliction and the Lord heard me *

and saved me from all my troubles.

I have some friends who received some tough news this week and everyone is shaken. Yet in talking with them, their sense of God’s goodness and grace remains.  I called to console them, but they kept talking about how blessed they’ve feel.

This followed on the heels of a conversation I had with a friend’s dad who buried his wife this week. He, too, talked about grace, the grace of the life he had with his wife of 67 years and the family they made together. “The LORD knows I couldn’t handle money so He didn’t give me any,” he told me. “But He gave me 67 years with wonderful wife, and children, and grand children.  I’ve been exceedingly blessed.”

So the first words in today’s Psalm leap off the page at me this morning:

“I will bless the LORD at all times,

His praise shall ever be in my mouth.”

I think I want to live like that . . .

Daily Lesson for November 13, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 119 verses 105 to 112:

105 Your word is a lantern to my feet *
and a light upon my path.

106 I have sworn and am determined *
to keep your righteous judgments.

107 I am deeply troubled; *
preserve my life, O Lord, according to your word.

108 Accept, O Lord, the willing tribute of my lips, *
and teach me your judgments.

109 My life is always in my hand, *
yet I do not forget your law.

110 The wicked have set a trap for me, *
but I have not strayed from your commandments.

111 Your decrees are my inheritance for ever; *
truly, they are the joy of my heart.

112 I have applied my heart to fulfill your statutes *
for ever and to the end.

Reflecting on the first verse of today’s Lesson, Saint Augustine said, God’s word is both a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path because we need a lamp at our side to see our next near step and we also need a bright shining light down distance to give some direction as to where we are going.

The word of God comes to us to give guide our feet and assure our paths. We don’t know where to go next, God’s word comes with a gentle whisper saying, “I will show you my ways and teach you my paths. Go on, just take the next step.”  We don’t know where we or this world are headed, but God’s word shines its beacon from way down distance, “Behold, I will be with you always, even unto the very end of the age. Alpha and Omega. So keep walking towards the light you can see.”

Soundtrack: Below I am posting a Spiritual for today, “Guide My Feet LORD” sung by the good choir at First Presbyterian Brooklyn, NY.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z-WVIppNBls

Daily Lesson for November 12, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 78 verses 9 through 20:

9 The people of Ephraim, armed with the bow, *

turned back in the day of battle;

10 They did not keep the covenant of God, *

and refused to walk in his law;

11 They forgot what he had done, *

and the wonders he had shown them.

12 He worked marvels in the sight of their forefathers, *

in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

13 He split open the sea and let them pass through; *

he made the waters stand up like walls.

14 He led them with a cloud by day, *

and all the night through with a glow of fire.

15 He split the hard rocks in the wilderness *

and gave them drink as from the great deep.

16 He brought streams out of the cliff, *

and the waters gushed out like rivers.

17 But they went on sinning against him, *

rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

18 They tested God in their hearts, *

demanding food for their craving.

19 They railed against God and said, *

"Can God set a table in the wilderness?

20 True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out, and the

gullies overflowed; *

but is he able to give bread

or to provide meat for his people?"

This morning’s Lesson gives us the day of battle — a moment at hand which calls on a people to rise up in defense of their nation or people, or values, or freedoms.

But the tribe of Ephraim did not come for the battle. Even armed with bows in their hands, they refused the fight. 

The Pslamist said it was a kind of fear, a timidity based upon amnesia. They had forgotten what all God had done before. So they lacked faith and had not courage. 

We all have some battle before us today. The Psalm is given us to remind us to be of good courage, to look down and see that we are armed, and to remember how God has fought our battles for us in times past. 

Now is not the time to loose heart. Now is the time to stand up. It is time to stand up for the cause of truth, and righteousness, and equality, and justice for all. Now is the time to see what is in our hands and bring it. 

A hymn text for today, written in 1845 by New England poet James Russell Lowell in protest against the Union’s annexation of yet another slave state, Texas:

Once to ev'ry man and nation 

Comes the moment to decide, 

In the strife of truth and falsehood, 

For the good or evil side; 

Some great cause, some great decision, 

Off'ring each the bloom or blight, 

And the choice goes by forever 

'Twixt that darkness and that light. 

2 Then to side with truth is noble, 

When we share her wretched crust, 

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, 

And 'tis prosperous to be just; 

Then it is the brave man chooses 

While the coward stands aside. 

Till the multitude make virtue 

Of the faith they had denied. 

3 By the light of burning martyrs, 

Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track, 

Toiling up new Calv'ries ever 

With the cross that turns not back; 

New occasions teach new duties, 

Ancient values test our youth; 

They must upward still and onward, 

Who would keep abreast of truth. 

4 Tho' the cause of evil prosper, 

Yet the truth alone is strong; 

Tho' her portion be the scaffold, 

And upon the throne be wrong; 

Yet that scaffold sways the future, 

And, behind the dim unknown, 

Standeth God within the shadow, 

Keeping watch above His own.

Lesson for Veterans Day, November 11, 2019

Today’s Lesson comes from Psalm 80:

1 Hear, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock; 

shine forth, you that are enthroned upon the cherubim.

2 In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, 

stir up your strength and come to help us.

3 Restore us, O God of hosts; 

show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

4 O Lord God of hosts, 

how long will you be angered

despite the prayers of your people?

5 You have fed them with the bread of tears; 

you have given them bowls of tears to drink.

6 You have made us the derision of our neighbors, 

and our enemies laugh us to scorn.

7 Restore us, O God of hosts; 

show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

8 You have brought a vine out of Egypt; 

you cast out the nations and planted it.

.

9 You prepared the ground for it; 

it took root and filled the land.

10 The mountains were covered by its shadow 

and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.

11 You stretched out its tendrils to the Sea 

and its branches to the River.

12 Why have you broken down its wall, 

so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?

13 The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it, 

and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.

14 Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven;

behold and tend this vine; 

preserve what your right hand has planted.

15 They burn it with fire like rubbish; 

at the rebuke of your countenance let them perish.

16 Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, 

the son of man you have made so strong for yourself.

17 And so will we never turn away from you; 

give us life, that we may call upon your Name.

18 Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; 

show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Today is Veterans Day, a day set aside to honor all those — living and dead — who have served our country in times of both war and peace. We give thanks and honor for their service and remember their sacrifices. America is greater for all its Veterans who have served their country and helped protect and defend its Constitution. 

The Lesson this morning is a prayer for a nation.  It is a psalm asking for God’s help and preservation in a time of trouble. 

The nation is in an uproar. And the Psalmist prays fervently:

“Restore us, O Lord God of hosts; 

show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.”

We, too, are in a time of uproar as a nation. We, too, pray to the Lord God of hosts for our salvation. The sacrifices made on behalf of our country and Constitution have been great. We pray now that they be not in vain, but in the psalmist’s words also ask God to:

“look down from heaven;

behold and tend this vine; 

preserve what you right hand has planted.”

Lord, hear our prayer. Amen. 

Revelation 15

5 After this I looked, and the temple of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, 6and out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen, with golden sashes across their chests. 7Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever; 8and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were ended.

On Sunday we sang the magisterial hymn “For All the Saints” with the lines:

O blest communion, fellowship divine,

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine . . .

It was our reminder that that those saints who have departed are now free and at rest, but we on the other hand still have struggle ahead. 

It’s tempting to want to live in the age to come, and to be already at rest. Perfect rest sounds delightful right about now. So, too, does the end of all our disappointment — with our friends, families, cities, churches, and nation.

But there is still struggle ahead; and it’s both heresy and foolishness to believe that we can can, as the text from Revelation makes clear, enter the Temple without enduring our part of the plagues. 

So hold tight friends. Do not dismay and do not be front of heart. Don’t give up the struggle. Keep fighting the good fight. Endure. 

For the doors of the Temple are open; and in God’s own good time the righteous shall surely enter. 

A word for All Saints Day from Alice Walker:

The spirit of our helpers incarnates in us, making us more ourselves by extending us far beyond. And to that spirit there is no “beginning” as we know it (although we might finally know a historical figure who expressed it) and no end.  Always a hello, from the concerned spiritual ancestor you may not even know you had — but this could strike at any time. Never a good-bye.