-- Atticus Finch,
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Daily Lesson for June 30, 2015
Today's daily lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 11 verses 12 and 13:
12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” 13 But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel.”
Yesterday I was listening to a podcast by University of Texas historian H.W. Brands on Reconstruction. Brands, who has written a great book on President Grant, said that one of the greatest contrasts and lessons we can take from Grant's life as general and then president is that it is easier to win a war than it is to win peace.
Waging peace among ourselves ought to be a top priority for us as a nation. The U.S. Supreme Court has just issued its ruling making same-sex marriage the law of the land. For some, this was a long and hard-fought battle which resulted in victory. For others, it was a long and hard-fought battle ending in defeat. A 5-4 decision means there were winners and there were losers all across the country.
I have long been a supporter of my gay and lesbian friends and am happy for those of them who have or wish to marry. However, I am also grieved about the further division such a ruling has the potential to create in our families, churches, communities, and nation. This division has the power to further rip us apart.
But we will allow ourselves to be ripped apart if we choose not to hang together.
It is my prayer that we as a people will now resolve ourselves to the bonds of unity and reconciliation and steadfastly refuse to allow this issue to separate us from either loved one or neighbor. Good and decent people see this issue differently and in many hues. The challenge before us is to commit ourselves to remaining in relationship with one another in spite of our respective and ongoing differences. This is the hard work of waging peace. May the people of goodwill on all sides of this issue wage it mightily.
As I listened to Brands's talk, I thought of Lincoln's words from his second inaugural speech and could see that they are a good and fitting word for us as a country today and for all time:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” 13 But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel.”
Yesterday I was listening to a podcast by University of Texas historian H.W. Brands on Reconstruction. Brands, who has written a great book on President Grant, said that one of the greatest contrasts and lessons we can take from Grant's life as general and then president is that it is easier to win a war than it is to win peace.
Waging peace among ourselves ought to be a top priority for us as a nation. The U.S. Supreme Court has just issued its ruling making same-sex marriage the law of the land. For some, this was a long and hard-fought battle which resulted in victory. For others, it was a long and hard-fought battle ending in defeat. A 5-4 decision means there were winners and there were losers all across the country.
I have long been a supporter of my gay and lesbian friends and am happy for those of them who have or wish to marry. However, I am also grieved about the further division such a ruling has the potential to create in our families, churches, communities, and nation. This division has the power to further rip us apart.
But we will allow ourselves to be ripped apart if we choose not to hang together.
It is my prayer that we as a people will now resolve ourselves to the bonds of unity and reconciliation and steadfastly refuse to allow this issue to separate us from either loved one or neighbor. Good and decent people see this issue differently and in many hues. The challenge before us is to commit ourselves to remaining in relationship with one another in spite of our respective and ongoing differences. This is the hard work of waging peace. May the people of goodwill on all sides of this issue wage it mightily.
As I listened to Brands's talk, I thought of Lincoln's words from his second inaugural speech and could see that they are a good and fitting word for us as a country today and for all time:
"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
Monday, June 29, 2015
Daily Lesson for June 29, 2015
Today's daily lesson comes from Matthew 9:20:
"Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe."
Yesterday's sermon was on the bleeding and marginalized woman who in desperation came and touched the tassel of Jesus' prayer shawl and was healed. I said she was a woman on the fringe who acted on the fringe of his shawl; and that she was holding on to life by only a thread -- the thread of prayer.
After church I went and visited a young man who was in a car accident two weeks ago and is still mostly unconscious. Completely unsolicited and without any knowledge of today's sermon, his mother pointed to the prayer shawl members of our church brought him. Then she told me that the one thing that seems to keep her boy calm is shawl -- especially the tassels which she said he plays with with his fingers.
Where I come from we call that a God-Thing.
Keep hanging on brother; your faith will save you.
"Just then a woman who had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding came up behind him. She touched the fringe of his robe."
Yesterday's sermon was on the bleeding and marginalized woman who in desperation came and touched the tassel of Jesus' prayer shawl and was healed. I said she was a woman on the fringe who acted on the fringe of his shawl; and that she was holding on to life by only a thread -- the thread of prayer.
After church I went and visited a young man who was in a car accident two weeks ago and is still mostly unconscious. Completely unsolicited and without any knowledge of today's sermon, his mother pointed to the prayer shawl members of our church brought him. Then she told me that the one thing that seems to keep her boy calm is shawl -- especially the tassels which she said he plays with with his fingers.
Where I come from we call that a God-Thing.
Keep hanging on brother; your faith will save you.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Daily Lesson for June 26, 2015
Today's daily lesson comes from Luke 10:29-37 and James 1:22:
Last night was the last night of summer camp and the last night of our camp theme God's Play. Our camp pastor Larry did an excellent job all week connecting with both the kids and the adults with his messages.
The whole idea was that God is putting on a drama and giving a casting call for everyone of us to play our role. The final night's theme was Action. After all the rehearsing -- going to church and practicing the script(ure), finally we've got to go out there and perform. Pastor Larry used Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan to guide the sermon. He talked about the priest and the Levite who each passed by the beaten man. Pastor Larry said they each probably felt sorry for the guy and thought something ought to be done to help him. "But feelings aren't actions," Pastor Larry said. "Thoughts aren't actions . . . Actions are actions." He then talked about the book of James where James says, "We are not to be just hearers of the word, but doers of the word." Pastor Larry then gave us the benediction: to go out from this camp and "Just do it."
We then went back to our individual church groups for some closing reflection. In our time together I asked the kids if they wanted to hear a second sermon. They weren't too thrilled with that idea -- not until I told them it wasn't going to be me but they who would preach it. I then asked everyone who wanted to share to tell about a time in the week when they had been a recipient of or a witness to someone else doing the word.
The kids took their parts in the second sermon very seriously. All but a couple spoke and they talked about other kids helping them after they fell, or seeing some help pick up trash around camp. They talked about the adult sponsors who gave up a week of summer to be with them. Especially heartwarming to me was when one of the girls who isn't a regular at church but one of our Kids Hope kids talked about the other girls in her cabin and how they had made her feel so welcome. The sermons they each preached were Godly and good.
We then circled up around the cross overlooking a beautiful spot Lake Travis and said a prayer. It was a beautiful night.
These children now go back home. It's my prayer that having been here at summer camp to listen to and learn from Pastor Larry and each other, they will go back home and find their role in the drama God is director. Having heard that there is a casting call, may they go out for the parts, receive their roles gladly, and play them exceedingly, exceedingly well.
Now, Lights, Cameras, and . . .
Last night was the last night of summer camp and the last night of our camp theme God's Play. Our camp pastor Larry did an excellent job all week connecting with both the kids and the adults with his messages.
The whole idea was that God is putting on a drama and giving a casting call for everyone of us to play our role. The final night's theme was Action. After all the rehearsing -- going to church and practicing the script(ure), finally we've got to go out there and perform. Pastor Larry used Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan to guide the sermon. He talked about the priest and the Levite who each passed by the beaten man. Pastor Larry said they each probably felt sorry for the guy and thought something ought to be done to help him. "But feelings aren't actions," Pastor Larry said. "Thoughts aren't actions . . . Actions are actions." He then talked about the book of James where James says, "We are not to be just hearers of the word, but doers of the word." Pastor Larry then gave us the benediction: to go out from this camp and "Just do it."
We then went back to our individual church groups for some closing reflection. In our time together I asked the kids if they wanted to hear a second sermon. They weren't too thrilled with that idea -- not until I told them it wasn't going to be me but they who would preach it. I then asked everyone who wanted to share to tell about a time in the week when they had been a recipient of or a witness to someone else doing the word.
The kids took their parts in the second sermon very seriously. All but a couple spoke and they talked about other kids helping them after they fell, or seeing some help pick up trash around camp. They talked about the adult sponsors who gave up a week of summer to be with them. Especially heartwarming to me was when one of the girls who isn't a regular at church but one of our Kids Hope kids talked about the other girls in her cabin and how they had made her feel so welcome. The sermons they each preached were Godly and good.
We then circled up around the cross overlooking a beautiful spot Lake Travis and said a prayer. It was a beautiful night.
These children now go back home. It's my prayer that having been here at summer camp to listen to and learn from Pastor Larry and each other, they will go back home and find their role in the drama God is director. Having heard that there is a casting call, may they go out for the parts, receive their roles gladly, and play them exceedingly, exceedingly well.
Now, Lights, Cameras, and . . .
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Daily Lesson for June 25, 2015
Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 22 verses 24 through 26:
24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves."
Last week I took the whole family to a denomination meeting in Dallas. My boys, 4 and 2, were all excited to go to Dallas, except that they neither one quite get prepositions. They kept confusing "to Dallas" as the level "2 Dallas". From what I could make of it, there were numerous levels which each corresponded to the various floor levels in the hotel we were to stay at. For our oldest son, there was 2 Dallas -- where mom and dad were going. Then there was 3 Dallas where his brother was headed. Then there was 4 Dallas where his sister would be staying. And finally, there was 5 Dallas, where guess what, he would be penthousing it. This was all very cute in a four year old.
It's less cute in adults.
At some point, we come to the realization that life is not all about rising to the top floor. No matter how many steps we might climb and how many flights we might conquer, the wise realize life is not really about ascending to the penthouse. In fact, Jesus himself said true life is about descending -- what Henri Nouwen called "downward mobility".
A good practice for today would be to go down a floor. If you're at 5 Dallas, what would it mean to take the elevator down to 4?
And may we remember that the greatest among us is really the one who goes down and not up the most levels, and that no one can outdo the greatest among us went all the way from the great penthouse 7 heavens to level 0 earth.
24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves."
Last week I took the whole family to a denomination meeting in Dallas. My boys, 4 and 2, were all excited to go to Dallas, except that they neither one quite get prepositions. They kept confusing "to Dallas" as the level "2 Dallas". From what I could make of it, there were numerous levels which each corresponded to the various floor levels in the hotel we were to stay at. For our oldest son, there was 2 Dallas -- where mom and dad were going. Then there was 3 Dallas where his brother was headed. Then there was 4 Dallas where his sister would be staying. And finally, there was 5 Dallas, where guess what, he would be penthousing it. This was all very cute in a four year old.
It's less cute in adults.
At some point, we come to the realization that life is not all about rising to the top floor. No matter how many steps we might climb and how many flights we might conquer, the wise realize life is not really about ascending to the penthouse. In fact, Jesus himself said true life is about descending -- what Henri Nouwen called "downward mobility".
A good practice for today would be to go down a floor. If you're at 5 Dallas, what would it mean to take the elevator down to 4?
And may we remember that the greatest among us is really the one who goes down and not up the most levels, and that no one can outdo the greatest among us went all the way from the great penthouse 7 heavens to level 0 earth.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Daily Lesson for June 24, 2015
Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 22 verses 19 and 20:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
This coming Sunday is communion Sunday in our church, and after a week where our divisions as a country have been laid bare, something in my soul is deeply longing to come together with my brothers and sisters to share together in the loaf and drink the wine -- Welch's wine that is.
Both the books of Ephesians and Colossians make astonishing claims about the reconciliation Christ has brought in his body broken and blood shed on the cross. In Christ, we are told, all division comes to an end and there is NOW reconciliation or atonement (at-one-meant) with God and with one another.
Read how the writer of Colossians put it and notice the tense, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross," (Colossians 1:19 and 20).
The tense is past perfect and conveys the notion of something having been done something continuing to be done. God has reconciled us to Himself and one another and God is continuing to reconcile us.
In a world where our divisions are so apparent, coming forward to take communion and share in the bread and the cup is a powerful symbol -- and a defiant one. On Sunday we will say, in spite of all that we may see and hear in the news, we are a people of hope. We are the people of reconciliation -- and we believe that it's not only to come but that it's already coming and even here.
This is the meaning of the one loaf and the one shared cup, and my soul is hungry and my spirit thirsty to partake. In other words, I need it.
I think we all need it.
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood."
This coming Sunday is communion Sunday in our church, and after a week where our divisions as a country have been laid bare, something in my soul is deeply longing to come together with my brothers and sisters to share together in the loaf and drink the wine -- Welch's wine that is.
Both the books of Ephesians and Colossians make astonishing claims about the reconciliation Christ has brought in his body broken and blood shed on the cross. In Christ, we are told, all division comes to an end and there is NOW reconciliation or atonement (at-one-meant) with God and with one another.
Read how the writer of Colossians put it and notice the tense, "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross," (Colossians 1:19 and 20).
The tense is past perfect and conveys the notion of something having been done something continuing to be done. God has reconciled us to Himself and one another and God is continuing to reconcile us.
In a world where our divisions are so apparent, coming forward to take communion and share in the bread and the cup is a powerful symbol -- and a defiant one. On Sunday we will say, in spite of all that we may see and hear in the news, we are a people of hope. We are the people of reconciliation -- and we believe that it's not only to come but that it's already coming and even here.
This is the meaning of the one loaf and the one shared cup, and my soul is hungry and my spirit thirsty to partake. In other words, I need it.
I think we all need it.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Daily Lesson for June 23, 2015
Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 22 verses 3 through 6:
3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
I have a friend who grew up in West Texas but now pastors in East Texas. He jokes that the difference between the two is that in East Texas the people will come and knock on your door, take you out and string you up in the middle of the night; but in West Texas they'll do it at high noon.
What was done to Jesus was done at night and done by a small group of people. Though, sadly, his death was blamed on a whole nation and race of people the reality was Jesus was a man of the people. He had many, many followers and masses came to hear him. That is why the small group of religious and political leaders considered him such a threat; and it's why they decided to have him killed. And so they hatched the plot and carried it out -- at midnight.
Our mothers all told us not to follow the crowd. We get what they were trying to tell us; but it wasn't the crowd which killed Jesus. It was a small group meeting in the shadows. Our mothers wouldn't want us in that group either.
3 Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve. 4 He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he consented and sought an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd.
I have a friend who grew up in West Texas but now pastors in East Texas. He jokes that the difference between the two is that in East Texas the people will come and knock on your door, take you out and string you up in the middle of the night; but in West Texas they'll do it at high noon.
What was done to Jesus was done at night and done by a small group of people. Though, sadly, his death was blamed on a whole nation and race of people the reality was Jesus was a man of the people. He had many, many followers and masses came to hear him. That is why the small group of religious and political leaders considered him such a threat; and it's why they decided to have him killed. And so they hatched the plot and carried it out -- at midnight.
Our mothers all told us not to follow the crowd. We get what they were trying to tell us; but it wasn't the crowd which killed Jesus. It was a small group meeting in the shadows. Our mothers wouldn't want us in that group either.
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