We Don't Serve Their Kind Here

Go ahead, exercise your right to be narrow-minded and unkind; this is America.  But I'll exercise my right to take my hard-earned money elsewhere.

Daily Lesson for March 31, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 12 verses 20 through 14:

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 21 So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 

After ten years of pastoral ministry I have now walked through into the valley of death's shadow with well over a hundred people. One thing is sure to me, the people who die well -- I mean those who do not fight and struggle against it, but who are ready to die, and die with courage, peace, and hope, and even with beauty -- are those who have practiced dying all along the way of life.

The Buddhist tradition teaches the importance of detachment from persons, places, things, and ideas in order to arrive at a higher plane of consciousness. Improper attachment is actually about the ego and the life it enjoys living. Ultimately, we will be stripped of all the attachments to this world; those who accept this fact with the most grace are those who know come to understand along the way that they are not the whole world and the world is not the whole them.

In the last week of Jesus' life, some Greeks came and asked to see Jesus but Jesus did not see them. The reason?  It would have gone on and on, with foreigners coming to see this miracle man said to be the Christ. But it could not go on and on.  Jesus' time had come; the hour of his departure was at hand.

How could he make such a choice to know when enough was enough and death was finally to be surrendered to?  He could because he was not attached to his own life; for he had been surrendering his life all along. He had died many, many times over; and now he was prepared for the final death.

And the Greeks? Jesus knew he could teach them more in their seeing him die than he could in his dying to see them. There is always one more person to see , thing to do, day to live. But enough is enough; we cannot be attached forever. Jesus had died all along; and he would die yet finally. And he trusted that his death would speak more about the power of life now than even  his living. Or as he put it, the seed planted would produce more fruit on earth in death than even in life.

This is a mystery to behold.

Hymn of Promise for reflection:
In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

There’s a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;
There’s a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me.
From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Daily lesson for March 30, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 51 verses 1 through 3:

51 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and acleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.

I know lots of people who have spent lots and lots of hours with pastors and therapists trying to get rid of a sense of guilt and shame about something they've done. It's heart-wrenching for them because about the time they begin to feel like they're coming out of the wash clean and beautiful in spirit again, some trigger of a memory grabs hold of them and wrestles back down into the mud and the muck of their past. It's like they're condemned to live out the terrible truth of Faulkner's words, that, "The past is never dead.  It's not even past."

Well, here's some bad news which if heard and received in the right spirit may actually turn out to be good news: we are never going to shake our sense of guilt and shame.

We am spend our whole lives dwelling on things we've done and hoping and praying and hoping and praying again and hoping and praying some more that God will deliver us from  the haunting memories of what we've lied, betrayed, taken advantage of, and destroyed, but we're never going to shake loose.  Not here, not now, and I believe not even in heaven.

So here we see the pricetag of God's grace and mercy -- that it is given freely, but it must be received with the cost of never forgetting that it was necessary for our redemption. When we receive this grace and this mercy, we do not return again to the primordial state Adam and Eve were in when they knew no sin and so knew not that they were naked.  No; that's not the Gospel. The Gospel is that we are sinners -- stark butt naked, and ashamed of it all -- and yet God chooses to put a white robe on us anyway. This is the astonishing thing about grace.

And speaking of grace -- I am thinking of a quote from John Newton, the man who wrote the hymn "Amazing Grace". Before he found redemption in Christ and became an Anglican clergyman, he was a slaveship captain. The memories of that time haunted him throughout his life and in one memorable letter he reflected back on the time, his sin, and God's great, great mercy:

 "I was ashamed of myself then, I am ashamed of myself now and I expect to most ashamed of myself when he comes to receive me to himself.  But oh!  I rejoice in HIM that HE is not ashamed of me!"

We will never be relieved of all the darkness we know to be within ourselves. There is a curse to that yes; but there is also a gift. And the gift is always knowing just how amazing God's grace really is.

Daily lesson for March 27, 2016

Today's daily lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 4 through 8:

4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

During this Lenten season I've been reading my friend Jerry Campbell's book "Choosing to Live" which is about his journey through the five-states of grief following the sudden death of his wife Veta. At the end of the book Jerry talks about the fifth stage of grief, which is Acceptance. In a powerful image in the book Jerry tells how he closed his wedding band in its original box and the spring-loaded mechanism snapped the box shut. It was then be knew be had to accept Veta's death a reality.  But accepting this new reality was not enough, Jerry says.   Jerry reflects in the book that there ought to be another, sixth stage of grief -- what he calls Growth.

Today's lesson is a sixth stage lesson. The exiles who were taken into captivity in Babylon have lost everything. They have lost their Temple, their land, and their families. Some have not accepted their fate yet, speaking of God's imminent rescue. But the prophet Jeremiah writes them a letter to tell them this is their reality which must be accepted. Yet, he doesn't stop at acceptance.  He speaks of more than acceptance.  He speaks of building homes, and planting gardens, and having children, and seeking to make the community of exile a better place. In other words, he speaks of growth; he speaks of choosing to live.

Pardon my coarseness, but the reality we have to accept sometimes really sucks.  Some people's reality is worse than that. Like the exiles 2,500 years ago, there are hundreds of thousands today who have been displaced, used, abused, betrayed, and bereaved in what can be a cruel, cruel Babylonian world. It would be so understandable if they were just to give up and die of despair. Yet, they don't; they go on. They accept the things about their life which they simply cannot change and they decide to go ahead and choose to live life and to live it fully. In spite of all circumstances, they somehow cling to the LORD's promise, written to the exiles in Jeremiah's letter: "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you -- plans for hope and a future." They are a marvel to me and an inspiration.

"Bloom where you're planted," the saying goes; and it means to grow right where we are -- even if its in Babylon.

Daily Lesson for March 26, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from Psalm 142 verses 6 and 7, and Romans chapter 11 verses 2 through 4

6 Attend to my cry,
for I am brought very low!
Deliver me from my persecutors,
for they are too strong for me!
7 Bring me out of prison,
that I may give thanks to your name!
The righteous will surround me,
for you will deal bountifully with me.

Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” 4 But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 

In recent days I have been thinking of two friends, one here in town and another on the West Coast, who have chosen to fight the good fight for justice in their communities. One is a fight for better working conditions and the other is a fight for better environmental protections. Both are uphill battles; and neither of my friends seem to be winning. These women are lone voices in the wilderness and they must at times be tempted to despair.

But what seems to keep them going is the knowledge that change never happens without struggle. This has been true about all the great social movements in our nation's history, whether it be abolition, or suffrage, or civil rights.  And it is true for the causes these friends of mine are working on.  The mountain seems insurmountable and many give up; but one person keeps at it -- keeps struggling.  And because she keeps at it the struggle is kept alive; and someday -- in the mystery of God's timing -- others are found to join in, as if from out of nowhere, and pretty soon that one woman's voice crying in the wilderness is joined by a whole chorus of voices calling for change. And suddenly then now there is what Malcolm Gladwell calls "the tipping point" of a movement. 

Margaret Mead once said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." I pray for my thoughtful, committed citizen friends, for their struggle, and for them to know that perhaps like Elijah in today's lesson, they may feel totally alone, but God has 7,000 other thoughtful, committed citizens waiting in the wings. 

Daily Lesson for March 25, 2015

Today's daily lesson comes from John chapter 10 verse 16:

 "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice."

It is astounding what kinds of limitations Christian people have come up with to try and determine who is in and who is out of the fold of God. In the early church it was whether or not you were circumcised. Later, the Catholic Church made it's stand on what must be believed about the pope. Not to be outdone, we Baptists did the same thing with what should be believed about Scripture.  In the 20th century, Pentecostals the line between true Christianity and false was whether or not you could speak in tongues.  And today, the dividing line for orthodoxy is whether or not you believe it's okay to be gay.  If you don't you're in; if you do you're out. "We have to draw the line somewhere," it's said.

Please.  When are we going to stop this ignorance? When are we going to wake up and see that God continues to push open our boundaries to include more people?  When are we going to wake up and finally hear what Jesus said -- that he has many sheep that are not of our fold?  When are we going to see that we aren't the ones who get to draw the lines?  When are we going to change our consciousness and understand the Gospel is a gospel of inclusion and not of exclusion.

It was in college that I first heard the Gospel of inclusion preached by my now friend and mentor Charlie Johnson.  He talked about the difference between a bound set and a centered set. A bound is static and all about boundaries.  On the other hand, a centered set's defining locus is not the boundary lines, but rather the center.  A centered set is not static, but dynamic; and what belongs to it is based on movement toward the center.  Christianity is a centered set, Charlie said, and the center is Christ.

Christ has other sheep that are not of our fold. He calls his sheep and they recognize His voice and come.  He called and they came. He still calls and they still come. And He's going to keep on calling and they are going to keep on coming. 

This means we are going to need a lot bigger fence.  Or, better yet, it means we are going to need to do away with the whole fence idea altogether, because the Gospel is really not about good fences but about the Good Shepherd. 

Daily Lesson for March 24, 2015

Today's daily lesson is Psalm 124:

124 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
let Israel now say—
2 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone cover us;
5 then over us would have gone
the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
7 We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

Go to any black church on Sunday morning and you're bound to hear it. If not in the sermon than in the testimony, and if not in the testimony than in the prayer, and if not in the prayer than in the rhythms of the call and response -- somewhere you're going to hear it:

"If it had not been the LORD who was on our side . . ."

It's the glad shout of the survivors, a word of witness from those who, against all the odds, are still alive. In it you hear the still-living voices of the generations: 350 years of North American slavery, 70 years of Babylonian captivity, and 300 years of labor under Pharaoh:

"If it had not been the LORD who was on our side . . ."

Yesterday I read a wonderful reflection by Ann Lamott, where she talked about what it's like to be a child growing up in a household with alcoholics and substance abusers:

"You grew up with a clenched fist in your stomach, agreeing not to see what's going on; tip-toe-ing around, not trusting yourself as a reliable narrator, trying to rescue people who were 30 years older and hundred pounds bigger. Scared, alone, small. 

"You grow up waiting for the other shoe to drop."

Her words were a reminder to me of just how many of us are survivors.  We have survived alcohol and substance abuse and all kinds of other craziness. We've survived physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. We've survived the abuse we inflicted upon ourselves in our own sin and shame that followed. Like the psalmist, we recount all that we've been through -- the torrents and floods which should have drowned us -- and still, somehow we made it; we're alive. Not only did we survive, but we are survivors.

So the words of psalmist, and the Israelites, and the black church are our words too.  They're every human being's words and witness, thanksgiving and praise, call and response:

"If it had not been for the LORD who was on our side . . ."

Let the church and everybody else say, "Amen."