Daily Lesson for April 29, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John 16 verse 2:

“They will put you out of the synagogues.”

One of my favorite stories comes from Koinonia Farms, where Clarence and Florence Jordan founded an interracial community on their farm outside Americus, Georgia in the 1940s. 

When they brought blacks with them to their all-white church, the church called a special meeting to disfellowship them. 

Seeing that everybody in the meeting wanted them to withdraw willfully without a vote, the Jordan’s refused. Instead, Florence made the motion that they be dismissed.  There was then a lot of handwringing about seconding such a motion. Finally, Clarence himself seconded it, which meant the body had to vote. 

The Jordans were put out, but not without some very creative protest. 

Find your own. 

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

Daily Lesson for April 28, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 15 verses 18 through 20:

18 ‘If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. 19If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you, “Servants are not greater than their master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.’

Our opposition should not be surprising. 

Jesus was opposed. Moses and the prophets were too. So were the suffragettes, the civil rights workers, and everyone who has ever organized for a more basic standard of life and work. 

All around the country, opposition to a more inclusive and fully-democratic community is taking place.  

We should not be surprised. 

Nor should we doubt that the hard-earned rights of yesterday not be in jeopardy today and tomorrow. 

Keep walking, children of God; and don’t you get weary. 

For we must not let our spirits be overcome by evil; but must overcome evil with good. 

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

Daily Lesson for April 27, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 15 verses 1 through 5:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. 2He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes* to make it bear more fruit. 3You have already been cleansed* by the word that I have spoken to you. 4Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. 5I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”

In Israel/Palestine there are grapes being grown from vines of the same seed going all the way back to Jesus’ time. Two thousand years later it is the same seed and same fruit of the vine. 

This is a metaphor for the work of the Spirit. Two thousand years later, the fruits of the same Spirit that was in Christ is also in us. 

We share in that same Spirit. We abide in that same powerful goodness and love. 

Two thousand years later, yet the vine is still alive and still bearing the harvest. 

Thanks be to God for this. 

Thanks be to God for the grace to belong to the vine and share in all its life and community-changing goodness and grace. 

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

Daily Lesson for April 26, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 14, verses 18 through 20, and 25 and 26:

18 ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

25 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

The same Spirit that was in Jesus the Christ is also in us.

What a powerful, and too-often, little-understood, and little-received truth.

The same power that fed the hungry is also in us.

The same power that forgave sins is also in us.

The same power that raised the dead, and overturned the tables, and set at liberty the outcasts is also in us.

The same power that spoke mighty and plain in front of the religious powers right there in the Temple court is also in us.

And the same power that taught us all about justice, and sharing, and kindness, and being pro-human, and also pro-love is also in us.

"The Spirit is coming," Jesus told the disciples. "I won't leave you all by yourself. God won't leave you all by yourself. The Spirit is coming."

And it is here; if we will only dare to see and believe it within ourselves.

Try today.

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

Daily Lesson for Good Friday, April 15, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 13 verses 36 through 38:

36 Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered, ‘Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterwards.’ 37Peter said to him, ‘Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ 38Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times.

It is Good Friday and we follow Jesus to the cross. 

Many will turn back. 

Actually, we all will. 

It is too much to expect anyone to go — as the old hymn says — “all the way with Jesus”.  Even brave Peter will turn back. 

And afterwards, when he goes where he does not want and dies crucified upside down, as tradition has it, even then he will not go so far as the Lord. For only of one does the creed speak when it says, “He descended into hell.”

We follow faithfully. We follow as far as we can. But God does not require more sacrifice. God desires “mercy and not sacrifice.”

Not if, but when, our unarmed courage ends, and we either run or fight, there is no shame.  We are human; and our blood may cry out to the God of justice, but it will  never, ever quench the thirst of the God of wrath and vengeance. 

Jesus came to put an end to violence; but the violent took him by force.

This is the day of violence. It killed the son of righteousness; and even the sun hung its head. 

“It is finished,” was what the witnesses heard him say.

And what he meant we are still trying grasp.

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

Daily Lesson for April 14, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 14 verses 12 through 16:

12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ 13So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, 14and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” 15He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’ 16So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal.

The Day of the Passover had come and Jesus had arranged a safe house for himself and his disciples. But the house could only be as safe as those who were with Jesus. And we all know that he would be betrayed by one of those closest to him.

The psalm says, "Day and night they prowl about on its walls; but malice and abuse are within."

Today for Christians is a day to think, not on enemies outside, but the enemy within.

It is a day for solemn consideration and prayer, and the confession of our own sin. It is a day of admission of the disciples' own guilt, betrayal, abandonment, and dereliction of duties.

The Feast of Unleavened bread was a day for purification, leaven being a symbol of sin and unholiness which had to be purified as a part of the ritual.

The day of purification for us comes. Yes; there are many enemies out there. But we also have our own enemies within. Today is a day to consider our own impurities, pray for the forgiveness of our own sins, and commit ourselves to the purification of our own souls and selves.

There are many enemies of love, and peace, and justice and all the other things Jesus stood for in this world. Let us take today to commit that we ourselves not be enemies in our own souls.

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

Daily Lesson for April 13, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 12 verses 1 through 11:

Then he began to speak to them in parables. ‘A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watch-tower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. 2When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. 3But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. 5Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. 6He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” 7But those tenants said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” 8So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Have you not read this scripture:

“The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;*

11 this was the Lord’s doing,

and it is amazing in our eyes”?’

We are still making our way through the last week with Jesus, and we come now to the what is perhaps Jesus' most provocative parable -- told just the day before he was arrested, and most certainly what he said that sealed his fate.

The parable can be troubling for us because it speaks of destruction. This is hard to square with Jesus' commitments to nonviolence.

But perhaps it is helpful to remember that in his speech on the steps of the Alabama Capitol, at the end of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Dr. King used similar prophetic imagery when he recited some of the more bellicose lines from The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

In both cases, both Jesus and Dr. King were referring to God's use of force in the cause of justice. I see this as different from violence, strictly speaking.

In both cases also, however, the lives of Jesus and Dr. King were cut short, due to the power of their prophetic speech.

We are nearing the end. Tomorrow night Jesus will taste the bitter herb at the Passover.

The Exodus will happen, and again the lamb will not be spared. As Jesus said in his parable, the son will be killed, much to the vineyard owner's heartache and sorrow.

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

Daily Lesson for April 12, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 11 verses 27 through 33:

27 Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him 28and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ 29Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.’ 31They argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” 32But shall we say, “Of human origin”?’—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. 33So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’

We are walking through the last week of Jesus' life, and read today about the confrontation he had in Jerusalem with the religious leaders over the issue of authority.

"What gave him the right?" they asked.

Jesus asked, "What gave John the right."

The point is, what gives anyone the right to say or do something that:

1. Goes against tradition.

2. Disrupts the status quo.

3. Subverts what has been commonly taught.

4. Doesn't square completely with the party line's interpretation of the Bible.

And so, we could ask, "What gave Lincoln the right to free the slaves? Was that word of heaven or of human origin?"

I used to think we all knew the answer to that; but I know that once we admit it, then it should raise lots of questions in our minds about other things also.

And that's in part why they killed Him, because His radical ideas had far and wide implications and could not be controlled.

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

Daily Lesson for April 11, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 11 verses 15 through 17:

15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold doves; 16and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17He was teaching and saying, ‘Is it not written,

“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”?

   But you have made it a den of robbers.’ 

According to Mark, on Monday of Holy Week Jesus threw the money changers out of the Temple in protest against the religious exploitation that was taking place there. 

It was an act of nonviolent, direct action against the Temple and a major disruption to business. All Jerusalem ran on the profits from pilgrims coming there (and still does). Jesus’ invention in the Temple was a calculated action, meant to dramatize what Jesus and his followers saw as a wrongful act of exploitation done in God’s name. 

The cleansing of the Temple was not a boycott. It was back to business as usual for most probably before the day was out. 

But, it did make a point.  Certainly it caused a scene.  And, in the end, it was what marked Jesus that week. 

Many continue to follow and listen to Jesus that week. But many others grew leery, thinking he had gone too far. 

We can decide in our own hearts which camp we would have been in at the time. 

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

Daily Lesson for April 8, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 9 verses 13 and 17-20:

 13 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: . . . 17You are still exalting yourself against my people, and will not let them go. 18Tomorrow at this time I will cause the heaviest hail to fall that has ever fallen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19Send, therefore, and have your livestock and everything that you have in the open field brought to a secure place; every human or animal that is in the open field and is not brought under shelter will die when the hail comes down upon them.” ’ 20Those officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord hurried their slaves and livestock off to a secure place.

Not all the Egyptians believed the propaganda of Pharaoah; nor do all in Russia believe Putin’s. 

Pray for those who are not “true believers”.  They are in a terrible moral dilemma, with few real options. Public protest risks detention, imprisonment and the loss of livelihood.  It is vexing. And the people suffer. 

We are in the Passiontide and nearing Holy Week and the Passover. It was is holiday which commemorates the Exodus.

As we commemorate, we remember not only the Israelites, but also the Egyptians who suffered under Pharaoh.  

And we pray for their deliverance too. 

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

Daily Lesson for April 7, 2022

 Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 8 verses 8 and 9:

8 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron, and said, ‘Pray to the Lord to take away the frogs from me and my people, and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 9Moses said to Pharaoh, ‘Kindly tell me when I am to pray for you and for your officials and for your people, that the frogs may be removed from you and your houses and be left only in the Nile.’

One of Dr. King’s Ten Commandments for Non-violence required the following:

“Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy.”

We must continue to act kindly towards all others. We must pray for everyone — including our enemies. And we must pray for Pharaoh, hard as that may be. 

We must pray also for Putin, and for all the dangerous and hard-hearted public officials we have in our own country also. 

We pray for their blessing.  Not the blessing of wealth or success. But the blessing of humility and conversation. 

Let us take this next week of the Passiontide and Holy Week to pray fervently for all, and especially for our enemies, and the workers of evil in this world. 

It may not melt their hearts; but it will keep ours from also being hardened, and it will remind us that we — as Dr. King said in another Commandment — our ultimate goal is not victory, but reconciliation. 

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

Daily Lesson for April 6, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 7 verses 14 through 16:

14 Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuses to let the people go. 15Go to Pharaoh in the morning, as he is going out to the water; stand by at the river bank to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was turned into a snake. 16Say to him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, sent me to you to say, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the wilderness.’ But until now you have not listened.

Frederick Douglass once said in an 1857 speech on the philosophy of and history of the human rights movement, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. . . If there is no struggle there is no progress."

Pharaoh wasn't going to just relent. He wouldn't just accept the demands of the Hebrews without putting up a fight. There had to be a struggle.

We give up too easily. The necessities and inconveniences of change demand more of us than we thought. It is daunting and exhausting, and a lot easier just to give in. That is why a lot of allies fall away, and the only people who are left in the struggle are the ones who really want to be free and will not be so unless they stand in the struggle themselves.

Read Exodus as an history and philosophy of human rights struggle. Pharaoh wasn't going to concede anything.

But, remember, Pharaoh wasn't everything either . . .

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

Daily Lesson for April 5, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 5 verses

19The Israelite supervisors saw that they were in trouble when they were told, ‘You shall not lessen your daily number of bricks.’ 20As they left Pharaoh, they came upon Moses and Aaron who were waiting to meet them. 21They said to them, ‘The Lord look upon you and judge! You have brought us into bad odour with Pharaoh and his officials, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.’

22 Then Moses turned again to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord, why have you mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me? 23Since I first came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has mistreated this people, and you have done nothing at all to deliver your people.’

I don't know that we can ever get anywhere than where we are without some kind of crisis of faith.

The obstacles seem so great. The opposition so strong. And the journey so long. Fear and frustration overwhelm us. We see how hard it's all going to be, and it's terrifying.

But that is exactly what Pharaoh wanted the Israelites to think. He wanted them to think exodus could not happen.

There is so much set against us right now. The opposition seems so strong and so trenchant, and the barriers so doubly reinforced. It's easy to lose faith.

But we have to move through that. We have to press on. And, we have to remember that we are not alone in all this. God is with us.

Believe that.

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

Daily Lesson for April 4, 2022

 Today is the commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, and the Daily Lesson comes from Dr. King's last book "Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?". I think Dr. King's words have particular relevance for us in America today, and I will allow them to speak for themselves this morning:

“A society is always eager to cover misdeeds with a cloak of forgetfulness, but no society can fully repress an ugly past when the ravages persist into the present. America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness—justice.”

Daily Lesson for April 1, 2022

 Today's Daily Lesson comes from Exodus chapter 2 verses 5 through 10:

5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. ‘This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,’ she said. 7Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, ‘Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?’ 8Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Yes.’ So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, ‘Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.’ So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,* ‘because’, she said, ‘I drew him out of the water.’

There is humanity behind the walls of even the most cruel and corrupt of families and regimes.

There is decency and goodness inside the hearts of people whose parents, spouses, and/or bosses are absolutely sociopathically evil.

God is at work, using these people to thwart evil, and save the innocent.

Pray for these people today. They must live in terror themselves. Yet, they too resist in their own ways -- sometimes large, but mostly small and unknown. Pray for these people to have hearts which are softened, and consciences that are provoked.

Even now, God is using their humanity to thwart and save.

And Moses was drawn out of the water . . .

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