Daily Lesson for October 30, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 19 verses 1 through 10:

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

I don't think I ever quite got how radical this scene was until I went to see a dying man in one of my congregations who was a Viet Nam veteran. He was weak and frail. Cancer had dropped him from a strong, 250 pounds to a meagre 160. He looked ashen and bone thin. We sat down on the couch and he asked me, out of nowhere, "Do you know what a tax collector is?" I didn't realize it at the time, but I had just entered the confessional.

The man told me about being on a patrol in a South Vietnamese village when the villagers had turned up a "tax collector". These were soldiers and spies sent down the Ho Chi Minh trail who would often enter a village when American and South Vietnamese soldiers were not present, and extort money or loyalty from the people by the threat and use of terror. They were hated; but usually there was not much the people could do because they were always well guarded by other soldiers.

But in the confessional the old and dying veteran told me how the people had pulled this man out from either a hole in the ground or somewhere out in the jungle, and he had been abandoned by his comrades because the American GI's were near.

So having this "tax collector" in their own hands, the men of the village and few South Vietnamese soldiers brought him to the center of the village and tortured him to death. The veteran and other GI's sat and watched, smoking cigarettes, and not having any more feeling for the man than they would a rodent.

I grew up in Sunday School singing, "Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he." That was the children's version of this story. I heard the adult version that afternoon on the couch.

I know now why it was that after this story -- when Jesus went to have dinner with the tax collector -- that there were those very ready to kill not only the tax collector, but also Jesus. And it did not matter that Zacchaeus was willing to pay reparations. For what they really wanted was blood.

And soon enough they would have it . . .

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Over the weekend we will read Matthew 22 and 23, Mark 11 and 12, and John 12, and Luke 20-21.

Daily Lesson for October 29, 2020

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

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

When I was in high school and college I often heard this story used to talk about grace and heaven and how the door to heaven is always open -- even unto the last hour.

That may all be true. But the interpretation tells you a lot more about the context I was hearing this story expounded upon in than it does about the meaning of the story itself.

Read through white, upper-middle class eyes, and you maybe see this as an unfair parable, but then say, "But heaven is not fair -- it's grace."

Ok.

But read it through the eyes of the unemployed. Read it through the eyes of the chronically dispossessed, and you probably have a very different reading on this text -- and I think a far more authentic one.

Then this story becomes one not so much about grace as about justice. It changes the terms from what is fair and equal to what is right and equitable. Read the story with those eyes and you see not only the workers working all day in the vineyard, but also those sitting in the marketplace, hoping and almost begging that somebody will hire them -- so much so that they, unlike the first hired, don't have the power to bargain for their wage.

Someone once said parables are "earthly stories with heavenly meanings". I imagine whoever said that never had to wait in line to get hired for a single day's wage. No. To me now, this is an earthly story with an earthly meaning. And its point is not an unjust heaven, but a more just earth.

So, how about you? How do you read this story? It says a lot.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson will come from Luke 19.

Daily Lesson for October 28, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 10 verses 28 through 31:

28 Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

One of the most difficult things to come to terms with in following in the way of Jesus' Gospel is the cost.

Intellectually, we know that decisions have consequences and do sometimes come with a price. But it is one thing to know this intellectually, and quite another to truly accept it in our hearts and souls.

But it is true. In a church like mine we have people whose choices have cost them relationships with sons, and daughters, and parents, and friends. Belonging has meant no longer being welcomed in other places amongst other people in the same ways. For some, it literally meant losing their jobs and housing at universities and seminaries. For others, the cost was a smaller youth group with no other kids from their same school.

There is cost. But I treasure what Jesus says. Once we come to terms with the loss, grieve it, and begin to let it go, it opens us to receive again in new ways.

"There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields."

Then, of course he qualifies it "with persecutions" but then adds finally, "and in the age to come, eternal life."

Luther wrote:

"Let goods and kindred go

This mortal life also"

The pain of losing our lives for the sake of the Gospel is very real and hurtful. But when we look around and see all that is also gained in the way of friendships with others and integrity within ourselves, we know there is no other life we would wish to live -- either with what is, or is to come . . .

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Matthew chapters 20 and 21.

Daily Lesson for October 27, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 18 verses 1 through 8:

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. 2 He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. 3 In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’ 4 For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’” 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? 8 I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

"And not lose heart."

That is such a strong and pertinent phrase for us right now. For it is so easy to lose heart and to despair.

But, as John Claypool used to say, "Despair is presumptuous." In other words, it presumes that all there is is all that is seen. But there is still so much more going on that what we see in our news feed. There is so much more going on underground. Above the earth, the Fall is giving way to winter here in North America. The leaves have all changed their colors and will soon fall to the earth. Everything seems to be dying. But beneath the ground, there is still life.

"In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."

And let us speak of God. Let us pray to God now. And let us trust that God will hear and act. For even the unjust judge was prevailed upon; how much more so the God who is justice and righteousness?

Do not despair, little flock. Do not lose heart. Stay steadfast. Pray without ceasing. Trust the hidden to be revealed in its own season.

And when the Son of Man comes, may he find faith on and even in the God's green earth.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow we will read Matthew 19 and Mark 10.

Daily Lesson for October 26, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 16 verses 1 through 9:

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. 2 So he summoned him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ 3 Then the manager said to himself, ‘What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. 4 I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ 5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ 6 He answered, ‘A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ 7 Then he asked another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He replied, ‘A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill and make it eighty.’ 8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. 9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

I don't know if this is the wildest parable Jesus ever told, but it's probably one of the most difficult to preach. I remember in the first church I pastored there was an engineer who just couldn't accept that I said Jesus said we had something to learn from this irresponsible and corrupt manager.

But I think Jesus is saying we do. He is inept and corrupt and completely without decency or morals. But, Jesus says, he knows what money is for -- it's for making friends.

Granted, his friendships are all transactional; but there is something shrewd about how he knows that. This "son of this age" is more wise than the "children of light" because he knows that transactions are necessary. Money is necessary. Financial investment is necessary.

This parable provokes us to think on our money. How are we using it to make friends? To build coalitions? To solve problems? To show we care?

Yeah, sure, the money is going to run out. It will mean nothing in the next age. But what did we do with it in this age? Did we use it to help someone. For in helping them, Jesus says, we may just be helping ourselves.

And if a completely rotten mess of a manager like this guy can know that the mammon is there to help others in order to help himself in all the wrong ways, can't the children of light see that it's there to help others in order to help themselves in the right ways?

Something to ponder this Monday morning.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Luke chapter 18.

Daily Lesson for October 23, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 12 verses 49 through 53:

49 “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! 52 From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; 53 they will be divided:

father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”

I am reluctant to write about these words so close now to the election and with such division in our country.

But, nevertheless, it must be said that Jesus brought division within the countryside, and the cities, and the synagogues, and the families. And he brought a fire which terrified and threatened, purified and purged. And, indeed, a father was set against his son and son against his father. And some within even his own household were appalled and put out with him.

Indeed it is difficult to write and speak of the Jesus of fire and division, but only usually so for those who feel they have little to gain or lose in the great matters of contention. Jesus came not to bring peace, but division. Yet those who called "peace, peace" were the ones who had learned to settle for the peace of Rome, but not the peace of God.

I think of the white clergy who wrote their op-ed in Birmingham in 1963, telling Dr. King not to come to their city because it was "unwise and untimely" and would bring more violence. Dr. King wrote back from jail his magisterial "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" which showed that the violence was already there in Birmingham and in the rest of America, and all that Dr. King had come to do was unveil it.

The violence and division we see now in America seems greater now than many of us remember in our lifetimes. This is unsettling and at times, even terrifying.

But perhaps there is a saving grace in it all. For perhaps in its eruption, we see now what was always there. Perhaps now that we see the violence and its existential threat to us we will finally do something about it. Or, as King said in his Letter, we will be

Just after Atatiana Jefferson, a black woman, was unjustly killed by police while trying to defend her own home, I helped organize a city-wide meeting at the historic Baker Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Mayor and several other City and County leaders were present. I will never forget what Broadway's own Mattie Compton told those leaders that night as she warned of the need to address not only the injustice of Ms. Jefferson's death, but also the systemic injustice which was plaguing all of Fort Worth's and America's police departments and governments. "The house is on fire," she said, "and ya'll need to get the biggest hose you can find to put it out."

The house is one fire. And it is divided. And as Jesus said "a house divided against itself cannot stand." And the answer is not to pretend like these things are not so. The answer, as Dr. King said in his Letter, is rather "to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused . . . is forced to confront the issue."

That was the tension and division Jesus created. It was the crisis he created.

And the flames ? In T.S. Eliot's words, these are our "only hope . . . to be redeemed by fire from fire."

So may it be.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Over the weekend we will read Luke chapters 14-17 and John 11.

Daily Lesson for October 22, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 10 verses 17 through 20:

17 The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Reinhold Niebuhr once commented on this text, saying it was Jesus' caution against the disciples' optimism and expectation of success.

And indeed, things at first seemed so successful. The disciples drove out demons and found themselves able to do all the things Jesus did. They were overjoyed.

But Jesus gave them sound warning. Not every day was going to be easy. In fact, they were headed for hard times when the demonic of this world would not relent so readily. They were headed for a time when the powers that be in this world would set themselves mightily against them. It was then that the disciples' faithfulness would truly be tested.

We rejoice in our successes. We are pleased when victory comes. But if it does not come, still, we rejoice -- not because we have been successful, but because we have been faithful.

During the War in Vietnam social activist A.J. Muste once stood outside the White House gate with a lighted candle, protesting the administration's policies. A reporter asked him, "Do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out her alone at night with a candle?" A.J. replied in a soft voice, "Oh, I don't do this to change the country. I do this so the country won't change me."

The disciples wanted to change the world. But Jesus warned them, it would be hard to change the world -- and perhaps even harder to keep the world from changing them.

Let's try to be faithful out there today, friends . . .

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Luke chapters 12 and 13.

Daily Lesson for October 21, 2020

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 9 verses 13 through 17:

13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. 14 Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” 16 Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. 17 So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

Jesus came to not only open the eyes of the blind, but also to show just how closed the eyes of the so-called seeing can sometimes be.

The Pharisees took offense that Jesus had given the man his sight on the sabbath. So it is revealed just how controlling some can be when it comes to other people's bodies, health, freedom, rights, emancipation, etc.

But the Pharisees couldn't see it. They were blind. And when their blindness was revealed they couldn't stand it. So they began to plot to kill Jesus.

And then the irony Jesus named came to pass. They were willing on the sabbath to take life but not to give it, to kill but not heal.

And the law which was given for life was used to take life; and the light was extinguished by those who valued other people's blindness over their own sight.

Sad, but true.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Luke chapter 10.