Daily Lesson for July 31, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 56 verse 8:

8 You have noted my lamentation;

put my tears into your bottle; 

are they not recorded in your book?

There was a custom in the ancient world that people mourning the death of a loved one would bottle their tears and then go and pour out their tears on the tomb's stone.  This was a healing ritual for the bereaved -- a way of passage through the journey of grief. 

When the psalmist says God places our tears into His bottle he affirms how precious our grief is to God. God does not dismiss our tears or discount our lamentation. God does not tell us to, "Get over it," or "Quit crying."  God is not afraid of our grief. Our pain and fragility do not repulse God. God let's us cry. God is gentle with our tears. God puts them in His bottle, a keepsake from life's hard way, a gift to be treasured and then given to us when the journey is through. 

Daily Lesson for July 28, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 5 verses 21 through 43:

21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered round him; and he was by the lake. 22Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 23and begged him repeatedly, ‘My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well, and live.’ 24So he went with him.

And a large crowd followed him and pressed in on him. 25Now there was a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years.26She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse. 27She had heard about Jesus, and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, 28for she said, ‘If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.’ 29Immediately her haemorrhage stopped; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30Immediately aware that power had gone forth from him, Jesus turned about in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’31And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing in on you; how can you say, “Who touched me?” ’ 32He looked all round to see who had done it. 33But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth. 34He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.’

35 While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’ 37He allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. 38When they came to the house of the leader of the synagogue, he saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly. 39When he had entered, he said to them, ‘Why do you make a commotion and weep? The child is not dead but sleeping.’40And they laughed at him. Then he put them all outside, and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the child was. 41He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum’, which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ 42And immediately the girl got up and began to walk about (she was twelve years of age). At this they were overcome with amazement. 43He strictly ordered them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.

This is a well known and extraordinary story that tells of two healings of two females -- a woman and a child -- who have passed one another by in the streets of Capernaum over these past twelve years and whose paths now converge on the little road that leads from the Sea of Galilee to the house of the the synagogue leader. 

The woman has been unwell and unclean over these last twelve years and has spent all she had on futile medical care. The cost of medical care has taken everything except her dignity. The little girl, 12 years of age and the daughter of the synagogue leader, has surely seen the woman on the streets of the little town and noticed or been explicitly told how the woman is not to enter the synagogue because her uncleanness is not appropriate in a holy place. And now, the little girl is unclean with sickness, a sickness unto death.

Often, this story is preached in such a way as to make a large point about Jesus stopping to heal the poor outsider on the streets while on his way to the home more powerful insider. There is indeed something to be said there. The little girl is the synagogue leader's daughter, a man whose name everyone must have known, "Jairus". But Jesus calls the unclean woman, the woman whose name no one knows or knew, his "daughter".  We might think how significant that is to know that Jesus calls the poor and the powerless and the nameless and the medically sick and the ritually unclean his own children. 

But there is something else too -- another daughter, the daughter of the leader of the synagogue where, if we're studying our Bible we know, just a few pages before the first great conflict between Jesus and the religious authorities first erupted and where Jesus first became a marked man. As leader of the synagogue, the little girl's father may well have been apart of the faction of religious leaders who had it out for Jesus. And yet, when his daughter turned up ill, Jesus came with compassion, with compassion for all. 

A few months back, a friend of mine saw a photograph of a politician with whom he vigorously disagrees sitting tenderly with his young child. He wrote on Facebook how that picture reframed some things for him. Until then, he had only seen that politician as a part of the opposing side, an opponent, perhaps even an enemy. But suddenly, with that picture, he saw him as a father, a human being, a person with the capacity to love and be loved, feel, and hurt, and have his heart broken. And suddenly, then, my friend had compassion.

Jesus had compassion for all.  He had compassion on the nameless woman whose presence was not allowed in the synagogue because of the condition of her health and also the leader of the synagogue which pushed her and also Jesus out. 

This is a compassion beyond our ordinary human tendency. It is a compassion that comes solely from the all-compassionate heart of God. And it's why we sing a hymn with lines like, "There's a wideness in His mercy."

May we with ears listen today.

Daily Lesson for July 27, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 5 verses 1 through 13:

They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. 3He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; 4for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. 5Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. 6When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; 7and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ 8For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’9Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ 10He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; 12and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’13So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.

The resilience of people holding on  and holding out against so much in life amazes me. 

Right now -- any right now -- I have so many friends fighting so hard just to stay alive. Alone, locked away inside themselves, they are barely hanging on. They are beset by what they say feels like and may even be legions of demons. Yet, they're holding on. They're holding out. They're still surviving.

There are enough demons in the possessed man to kill a whole herd of swine, and maybe more. Yet, they didn't kill him. They weren't enough to kill him. He held on. He endured. He survived. It was not pretty. It was not well. But he survived. He stayed alive. He endured. 

Then one day, a single wave washed ashore and with it came a boat.  And the boat's name was Hope, and inside it was salvation. 

Daily Lesson for July 26, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 119 verse 67:

"Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word."

Pain and suffering can be our greatest teachers in life. Hard as they are, they are often the only things that have the power to save us from ourselves. It is here that we find "a severe mercy".

Without any pain we pretty well feel free to go and do as we please. But affliction, whether of the body or of the spirit, drives us to a point of humility -- a place of prayer. There is a gift to be found in being broken.

We often hear the term "fall from grace".  But there is no falling from grace. As Paul wrote, "For when sin abounds grace abounds".  Truly what there is always is the fall to grace.  

Julian of Norwich taught, "First there is the fall, then the redemption, and both the grace of God."  

The fall is painful and harsh and does not leave us unscarred. We'll always walk with a limp.  It shall be our reminder. And, it shall get us home. 

Daily Lesson for July 25, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 26 through 29:

26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

There is an old Grimm's Fairy Tale I have always loved about a little tailor going on a long, long journey.  Along the way, the tailor encounters all kinds of challenges which he overcomes with things he's tucked away in little pockets his hand-sewn suit. 

On one leg of the journey the tailor comes upon a giant who refuses to let the tailor pass lest the tailor can defeat him in some kind of test of strength. The tailor agrees and chooses a rock-throwing contest. Overjoyed with the chance to demonstrate the might of his muscle, the giant bends down and grabs a huge bolder, spins round like an Olympic discus thrower, and then launches the bolder as high and far into the sky as the eye can see before it finally comes crashing down in a hail of dust. 

The tailor watched, nodded respectfully at the giant, and then bent down and picked up a tiny pebble. He then opened his little tailor's coat and took out a little piece of thread.  He nodded again at the giant and then opened the other side of his coat from which he pulled out a small dove. The tailor then took the tiny pebble and tied it to the foot of the small dove, raised the dove as high into the hair as his tiny stature would allow him, and then released the dove into the air. It never came back.

Jesus said, "The earth produces of itself."  Because its meant to grow. 

And birds fly of themselves because they have wings. 

But boulders are bound to fall -- no matter how high you throw them. 

Whoever has ears, let them hear. 

Daily Lesson for July 24, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 1 verses 1 through 10a and 16 through 19:

When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, ‘David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.’ 2Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men in the direction of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3He came to the sheepfolds beside the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.4The men of David said to him, ‘Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, “I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.” ’ Then David went and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak. 5Afterwards David was stricken to the heart because he had cut off a corner of Saul’s cloak. 6He said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed, to raise my hand against him; for he is the Lord’s anointed.’7So David scolded his men severely and did not permit them to attack Saul. Then Saul got up and left the cave, and went on his way. 8 Afterwards David also rose up and went out of the cave and called after Saul, ‘My lord the king!’ When Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground, and did obeisance. 9David said to Saul, ‘Why do you listen to the words of those who say, “David seeks to do you harm”? 10This very day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you into my hand in the cave; and some urged me to kill you, but I spared you.

16 When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, ‘Is that your voice, my son David?’ Saul lifted up his voice and wept. 17He said to David, ‘You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. 18Today you have explained how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands. 19For who has ever found an enemy, and sent the enemy safely away? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.

Who says the Bible doesn't have a sense of humor?

Here David has his enemy King Saul in a VERY compromising position and yet David refuses to exploit the situation. He resists disgracing the King. David allows his enemy to turn the other cheek, as it were. 

I'm thinking now of the dirtiness of our politics. Everybody is playing hardball now days. It's cut throat, high stakes, winner take all.  There are no holds barred and nothing is off limits or out of bounds. We need dirt and we'll do whatever it takes to get it. 

And yet, I heard about a local politician who was sent some very compromising information on a political opponent. I mean he really had the goods on the guy -- all the dirt.  But rather than exploiting it he decided to burn it instead. He burned it because as he said, "My mother taught me that if you throw mud you're bound to get dirty yourself."

I wish that guy would run for high office. 

Daily Lesson for July 21, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 31 verse 21:

Blessed be the Lord!
for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a
besieged city.

Yesterday I went to see an old and dear friend from church. In the bright afternoon of her life she was strong of nature and spirit -- quiet and unassuming, yet solid in self firm in conviction. She was a pioneer, on of our first female deacons, a minister unto generations, and a role model to generations.

Yet now the shadows have grown long and a dimness has set in. When I came in, she no longer recognized me; though she did smile when I told her I was from Second B. Then after the smile, she said plainly. "My mind is gone. You have to tell me what to do."

I sat down next to her and she looked at me directly. "Now, what do I do?" she asked.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. Just sit."

"Just sit?"

"Just sit."

We sat there a few moments and she asked again what she should do. "My mind is gone," she said.

I looked at her and I thanked her for all that she has been for so many. "You have meant so much to us," I said.

"That's nice. I wish I could do more," she said. And then once more. "You'll have to tell me what to do."

"Just sit," I said."

"Okay," she nodded.

I looked around the room. There was a plaque given to her after decades of teaching Sunday School for women at an assisted living residence. There was a tell-tale iron cross on the wall, no doubt handmade by another one of our parishioners at church. There was an unopened envelope of prayer cards from the church.

"Can I read these to you?" I asked and she nodded.

There was a card from the Tuesday morning men's prayer breakfast -- a little grease stained with fingerprints after the men passed it hand to hand after eggs over easy and toast with jam. There was a card from an old friend, hoping to pay a visit. And there was a card from one of our newer members, saying thanks for the welcome into our church when she first joined.

"This is the church," I thought. "This is church."

"Now what do I do? You'll have to tell me."

"How about pray," I said. "How about the LORD's prayer."

"That would be nice. You'll have to tell me."

I kneeled before her little rocker and looked at her. "Just follow along. Our Father who art in heaven . . ."

She followed me phrase by phrase until I came to the doxology where she caught up with me. "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever . . . Amen."

"Now what do I do?"

"Just sit there. Just rest."

"Just rest?"

"Just rest. Just rest a little longer, my dear friend."

And then the Lesson:

Blessed be the Lord!
for he has shown me the wonders of his love in a
besieged city.