Daily Lesson for July 23, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 40 verse 9:

In the roll of the book it is written concerning me:

'I love to do your will, O my God;

your law is deep in my heart.'"

When I was just out of seminary and waiting on someone named Irie Turner to graduate college, I did a lot of substitute teaching in the Durham Public Schools. One of the things I always found helpful were the comments many of the teachers left beside the names in their roll books. That is where you could find the names of the students who could be trusted to be of help, and sometimes some helpful advice on how to relate to those students who were likely to be a bit more challenging. The roll book revealed much, and could be an ever-present help in times of trouble!

What would be written beside your name in the roll book of life?

What would God say about you? What does God see and appreciate?

Most of the teachers I subbed for loved and respected their students. They were not disillusioned or cynical. They found good, positive words to describe their students -- even the tough ones.

I think God is like that. And written in the margins of God's roll book are words of appreciation and respect and maybe a quote or two from us that even on a hard day brought joy and delight.

On this last day of the work week, let's try to live up to the best of what God has written about us in the roll book. We wouldn't want to disappoint.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

PS: I'm headed to church camp with our children next week and then will be off for some vacation time. Look for Daily Lesson to return in early August. Until then, be good the subs!

Daily Lesson for July 22, 2021

 Today is the Feast Day for Mary Magdalene, one of the women who followed Jesus in his ministry, and was present at his crucifixion. Mary was also the first to go to the tomb on Easter morning, and so the first to encounter the resurrected Jesus. Because Mary was told to go and tell the other disciples that the tomb was empty and Jesus was raised, early Christian traditions called her "the apostle to the apostles”.

Early Christian traditions also depicted Mary as a prostitute, a claim many feminist scholars (and others) have strongly disputed for lack of scriptural evidence. Much conjecture and conflation of various Biblical women seems to have gone into this traditional depiction of Mary as a prostitute,. Though if she were a sex worker, I don't think this would have diminished her worth and value as a human being and disciple in Jesus' mind.

Several years ago, I traveled to Israel and visited Mary's hometown, the ancient village of on the Sea of Galilee. Archaeologists had just uncovered the buried ruins of the village synagogue. Several ancient coins had been found in the area, and the mud and dirt of 2,000 years was being carefully washed away so that the images on the coins could be seen. It was for me a parable for Mary. 2,000 years of history has obscured her real identity, but beneath it all -- and no matter her profession -- there was without doubt an extraordinary woman whose value and personhood were clearly seen and made known by Jesus.

Mary Magdalene was said to have been possessed by demons, but Jesus healed her. Jesus saw something deeper and more human than whatever her demons may have been. He washed away the dirt, and revealed in Mary the hidden image of God.

We thank God something so beautiful and good could be restored, not only in Mary but in so many of us also.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for July 21, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 119 verses 65 through 68:

65 O Lord, you have dealt graciously with your servant, *

according to your word.

66 Teach me discernment and knowledge, *

for I have believed in your commandments.

67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, *

but now I keep your word.

68 You are good and you bring forth good; *

instruct me in your statutes.

Julian of Norwich wrote, "First the fall, then the redemption; both the grace of God."

It is true that there is not so much a fall from grace as there is a fall into grace; and those who have found grace are thankful for it. For it is the fall, or what the Psalmist today calls, the "affliction" that brings us to our senses. It is that moment when the Prodigal comes to himself, and realizes what a mess he has made. There really is a grace in the pain and in the shame. This was the grace the older brother could not find because he was so busy pretending to be so good.

But, of course, nobody is good.

After the affliction we can find liberty in law, grace in governance, freedom in obedience. We understand that there is wisdom in not being able to eat from all of the fruit in the garden.

The wisest people I know are those who've learned all these lessons the hard way. They are the ones who will read, "Thou shall not . . ." and receive it as Gospel and not just Law.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for July 20, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 21 and 22:

21 He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light.

Every week at the end of the service I share a benediction which begins with the words, "The world needs your light."

For too long too many of us hid our light. We were silent about our thoughts, repressive about our beliefs, bashful about our talents, and afraid to speak our truth. We were not so much afraid of the dark as we were afraid of the light!

But the world needs our light. It needs our voice. It needs us to say what we really believe and do what we really think is right.

The world is waiting on your light. Let it shine.

Here are the words to my benediction in full:

Depart now, beloved,

With the Spirit of God in Christ in you.

For the world needs your light,

And your hope,

And your deep, deep courage.

So go,

And be brave,

Be strong,

Be kind,

And be love.

Always be love.

Amen.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for July 17, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 1 through 9:

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. 2He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

The sower is at peace. He has cast his seed left and right. He has seen the sun, and waited on the rains. He knows the stalks will grow in some places, but for a while. The heat will be too much without deep groundedness.

Some of the seed will be taken by birds to feed their young. But even some of those seeds will fall and find their place. You should never bet against the seed, so long as it's still around.

Other seed will be choked out by everything else that is out there. And there is so much out there. So many cares, and concerns, and worries -- a lot legitimate, though much not.

Nevertheless, the sower is at peace. The seed has been cast. It will find where it needs to go. It will grow.

It is growing.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for July 16, 2021

 Today is the feast day for the Righteous Gentiles, those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. This morning I remember in particular Pastor Andre Trocme, whose small French Alps village helped hide and facilitate the escape of an estimated 3,500 Jews during the Nazi occupation of France.

Le Chambon's resistance did not simply begin with the occupation in 1941. As a Protestant, and particularly pacifistic community within Catholic France, the village of Le Chambon had a history of noncooperation and civil disobedience that was generations long before the Vichy government came to power. Pastor Trocme was strong in his opposition to collaboration from the outset, and he led his people to work creatively to resist the powers of occupation, deportation, and death.

As a central practice of his actions, Trocme taught consistently something that is I think helpful for us in our own resistance against the powers of domination in our own contexts: "Look hard for ways to make little moves against destructiveness."

We may not be able to make big moves. We may not have the power or the energy. But little moves can have impact. And as is said in Luther's hymn -- a hymn the villagers of Le Chambon stood on the streets and sang together as Pastor Trocme was being arrested for his subversive activities:

"The Prince of Darkness grim,

We tremble not for him;

His rage we can endure,

For lo! his doom is sure,

One little word shall fell him."

A prayer for this day from the Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty God, who hast created us in thine own image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for July 15, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapters 2 and 3:

23 One sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ 25And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? 26He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ 27Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.’

3Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. 3And he said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Come forward.’ 4Then he said to them, ‘Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent. 5He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

The Law was given to protect and to serve. Specifically, the sabbath law was given to preserve the humanity of all people -- most especially the working class. Sabbath was their protectorate from abusive work requirements. It gave them the opportunity to rest, even the slaves.

But like many laws, the application of the sabbath laws could be used to disempower and control. By fixing the distance one could walk on the sabbath, it was assured that people could continue to be socially monitored and managed. Upholding the law became a pretext for all kinds of social surveillance and control, all of which is in the text today.

So too in the text, we can see that while those surveilling Jesus make a big deal of him feeding a few folks on the sabbath, they have no compunction about plotting to destroy him on the same day. This so-called preservation of the sanctity of the sabbath is all pretext.

We Christians were often taught a huge and, frankly supremacist, fallacy when we were taught that Jews believed in laws like sabbath and not in grace. Though "grace" is an English and not Hebrew word, for Jews the Law of sabbath was a gift or "grace" given by God in creation for the preservation of people and the earth. But people misused the grace of sabbath for their own purposes. This happens all the time.

If we wonder how a law could be put in place that further subjects a disabled person like the one in the text with the withered hand, we need only look at some of the laws being put forward down here in Texas -- laws that disempower disabled persons from accessing the ballot. Yet, they are being done in the name of election integrity, or "law and order".

Jesus was not against the law. He was not against the sabbath. But Jesus will not obey laws which further subject himself or others to further social subjugation. Law, for Jesus, is less than humanity. And, as he said, "the sabbath was given for humanity, not humanity for the sabbath."

And an unjust law -- like the ones being employed against Jesus, and his disciples, and even his disabled disciples -- is, as Augustine said and Dr. King quoted, "no law at all." In fact, it's actually unlawful.

It's also ungodly; and Jesus dared to say so.

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for July 14, 2021

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 2 verses 21 through 22:

21 ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. 22And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.’

Lately there has been a lot of talk about the Alamo and especially the new book by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford “Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth”.

The myth of the Alamo, and the myths of Texas and the West were planted so deep into so many of us white folk down here that any new light or revelation of real and contesting facts is seen as a threat, not only to an old story but also to the very personhood of a people. The story is bound up so tightly with the identity of the people, that you cannot change one without also changing the other. And this is true not only for the story and people of Texas, but also for the stories and people of America. We cannot have our mythic stories changed, without also being required to change ourselves. 

And this is why apparently our Governor shut down a scheduled event about the new book. He liked the old story better. 

Jesus told a two stories back to back.  One was about new wine not being able to be put into old wine skins. The other was about a new cloth having to be shrunk to fit an old garment. 

The new wine of new truth cannot be contained in old wine skins of old myths. Some will try to shrink the new truth down, but inevitably, it will pull away from the old myth and the old garment will be split. 

That is what is meant by the latter part of “rise and fall”.  The new wine of new light cannot but split the old wine skin. The new, unshrunk truth cannot but tear away from the old garment. So in the end, the old myth is exposed — frail and fallible, a story from our one-sided and divided past, and unfit to hold the truth of what we hope to be our diverse and united future. 

At least what I hope anyways . . .

Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Daily Lesson for July 13, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 26 verse 8:

Lord, I love the house in which you dwell *

and the place where your glory abides.

This morning Broadway will come together to worship and remember a dear deacon of the church. The family will process into the sanctuary to the song "In this Very Room" the lyrics of which include these words:

"In this very room there's quite enough love for one like me,

And in this very room there's quite enough joy for one like me,

And there's quite enough hope and quite enough power to chase away any gloom,

For Jesus, Lord Jesus ... is in this very room."

I pray that you may find a place of sanctuary today, in a room where there is love and wholeness, welcome and safety, refuge and hope.

And may the peace, and comfort, and quiet strength of the Lord Jesus meet you there.

Rev. Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Daily Lesson for July 12, 2021

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 25 verse 13:

"The Lord is a friend to those who fear him

and will show them his covenant."

I hesitate to write anything on the fear of the Lord because fear has been so misused by the church for so long.

Too many have been taught to fear God like they would an abusive parent. This is spiritual malpractice.

There is, however, a kind of fear of God that is healthy, and good and leads us into a more profound and respecting appreciation for the love of God.

As John Donne said, "The love of God begins in fear . . . and the fear of God ends in love."

Perfect love casts out all fear -- all fear of abuse, and harm, and anything but God's character of deep love, passion, and compassion.

The hymn Amazing Grace says:

"Twas grace that taught mine heart to fear

And grace mine fears relieved"

The Psalmist says, "Show me your ways, teach me your path." My path was once wayward and rebellious, and very, very dark. I am grateful for the grace given even in the fear of God, which lead me to a place of absolute surrender, that I might know that mercy and love of God.

For the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord are not so different. And in the end, all is grace.

Rev. Ryon Price is Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.