Daily Lesson for August 31, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 14 verse 22:

While they were eating, he took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to them, and said, ‘Take; this is my body.’

What Jesus did with the bread, God also does with us. We are taken into His hands just as we are.  We are blessed there, just as we are also. The blessing is first, original, and free. Grace is said over us before anything else -- good or bad.  But then we are broken. The blessing can never come without brokenness. We are broken and the brokenness is painful -- beyond painful. But it is also necessary. We we must first be broken before we are ready to be given because what we have to give is only made possible through our brokenness. What we have can only be shared through brokenness. Indeed, our brokenness is what is to be shared with others. For our blessed brokenness taken from the hand of God and given into the hands of others is what has the power to nourish the world.  And so there it is: we are taken, blessed, broken, and then given -- the body of Christ shared once more.

Daily Lesson for August 30, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Kings chapter 1 verses 3 through 12:

3 Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David; only, he sacrificed and offered incense at the high places. 4The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the principal high place; Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt-offerings on that altar. 5At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, ‘Ask what I should give you.’ 6And Solomon said, ‘You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart towards you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.7And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. 9Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?’ 

10 It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. 11God said to him, ‘Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, 12I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind.'

Last night, I was asked to speak to the incoming pledge class of my college fraternity.  As I was preparing for what to say I remembered sometime back when fraternity members at the University of Oklahoma were captured on video chanting a repugnantly racist video. We were in the midst of a visioning process at our church and talking about what we hoped for from our church. One of the women on our leadership team said, "I hope that if I raise a child in our youth program and they go off to college and are on a bus where racist songs are chanted, they'll be wise enough to know it's wrong and have courage enough to say so."  That statement became the foundation for one of our vision goals: "Deep Wisdom and Courageous Faith".

Wisdom is a gift that comes only to the humble.  Only the wise can know good from evil because only the wise are humble enough to know they themselves cannot know good from evil. The wisdom of discerning right and wrong, good choices from bad, is a grace that can only be received by someone who knows how badly they need it -- and how desperate and morally lost they would be without it. 

Last night, I talked to the pledges about the three cardinal principles the fraternity is founded on: Friendship, Scholarship, and Moral Rectitude. I told them it's a chord of three strands. For having friends may make you popular and one day rich, but perhaps petty and vulgar. And smarts are impressive, but lots of brilliant people have done incredibly immoral things in the name of science or the market. Friendship and scholarship are not enough by themselves. The third strand has to be joined.  For brotherhood alone will end you up a spectacle on video, and education alone will get you science without soul.  But wisdom tells us morally right from wrong. It's a chord of three strands not to be broken. I pray they were listening. 

The Book of Proverbs says, "The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom; whatever you get, get wisdom."

May we humble enough to listen, let us hear. 

Daily Lesson for August 29, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 1 Kings chapter 2 verses 1 through 3:

When David’s time to die drew near, he charged his son Solomon, saying: 2"I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, be courageous, 3and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn."

One of the most important gifts one generation can give to the next is the gift of speaking about death. 

Death should not go unspoken. For as in the Jewish tradition, the name of God is to go unuttered. But no other name deserves such respect -- not even death. To not speak of death, to allow it to go unnamed and unmentioned is to make it into a god, a most terrifying god of darkness. 

The House of the LORD speaks of death. The people of faith speak of death. My house speaks of death.

And what do we say about it? We speak of its reality. We speak of its sadness and sting. We speak of grief. 

And what else?  We speak of its liberation. We speak of its pathway.  We speak of its gift. We speak of its death also.

In the House of the LORD we learn how to speak of death. And in learning how to speak of death we learn how to think on death. And in learning how to think on death we learn how to die. 

"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee 

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; 

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow 

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. 

One short sleep past, we wake eternally 

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die."

(John Donne)

Daily Lesson for August 28, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Acts chapter 26 verses 12 through 16:

12 "With this in mind, I was travelling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13when at midday along the road, your Excellency, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. 14When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.' 15I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord answered, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16But get up and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you.'"

Yesterday, something very unexpected and old happened at the end of the service. After I gave the invitation for people to come and join the church, a very good and dear friend came and walked the aisle to announce that she intends to enter into vocational Gospel ministry. Or, in the language of much former generations, she came to surrender her life to ministry.

It was about time.  I mean that literally; it was and is about time. And the time has come.

My friend's decision reminds me of a letter I just came across a week or so ago while cleaning out some personal effects in preparation for the move. It is a letter I wrote to Jim Somerville, then pastor of First Baptist Church Washington, DC, after a summer I spent there prior to what I thought was going to be my enrollment in law school at American University. The letter is a kind of explanation about why I would not be joining the church.  I would not be joining because I had decided after three years of fighting it all throughout seminary, I needed to admit that I was called to ministry. I was surrendering to the ministry.  And so, I would not be staying in DC, but was moving back to Durham to say yes to ministry. Though I was too shy to say it outright, what I was really saying to Rev. Somerville was that his preaching over that summer had sparked something in me that I had to say yes and could not say no to.  I had said no for too long already. 

In Paul's vision on the Damascus Road, Jesus said, "It hurts to kick against the goads."  A goad was a rod used to poke oxen and other animals to move forward. To kick against the goad was painful and finally exhausting. Finally, in due time, surrender is learned.  It's either submission or misery.

In the Gospel of Thomas there is a quote:

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."

There is something within each of us which when sparked tells us down deep the direction we are to take for our lives. To fight against it means struggle and pain and a deep disturbance in our soul. Such things will ultimately destroy us. And so the only the only real choice is surrender. And when it's about time, somewhere on that Damascus Road of life, we make it.

And that makes all the difference. 

* I am appending a copy of the letter I sent to Rev. Somerville.

Daily Lesson for August 25, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 12 verses 41 through 44:

41 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums.42A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’

At the little church where I once served as youth and children's minister and was later ordained there was an older woman who the preacher brought to church week by week, after he picked her up from her apartment. She was a widow and lived alone in one of those old, industrial-tiled buildings with drab lighting and walls and not enough air conditioning for those hot and humid North Carolina summer days. Every Sunday morning and Wednesday night Rev. Gayle would stop by to pick her up because she didn't have a car. She didn't have much of anything.

When Irie and I got married we invited the whole church to the shower in the fellowship hall and in with Rev. Gayle walked this woman with a nicely wrapped gift in her hand. I couldn't believe it.

Later during the shower, as we opened the gifts, the attendant handed us that little package.  We read the card, written neatly and with kind and loving words, then opened the package: a pair of good quality, but gently-used towels. Irie and I were both so touched. 

We received a lot of good gifts that day.  But that's the one we remember most. The widow gave what she could. And we were honored by the gesture. 

We're still very honored by the gesture. 

Daily Office for August 24, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 12 verses 28 through 31:

28 One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was he answered with two. The first is the call to love God. This is our chief end. All things flow from and to this ultimate love. We love God and God alone for God's own sake. All other loves belong to this first love. 

But that first love cannot be separated from the love of neighbor. The two belong together. To love God is always also to love those around us. We may love God alone for God's own sake; but we cannot love God alone, period. Love of God must always mean love of neighbor. For in loving neighbor we in turn love not only neighbor, but also God.  So when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment is, he said the love of God and then gave us the example of loving God through the love of our neighbor. 

And not only the love of our neighbor; but the love of our neighbor as ourself. This then necessitates a third love -- the love of our own selves. We cannot love neighbor as ourself without also loving ourselves. So then there are three commandments: to love self, to love our neighbor, and to love each of those for the sake of a third love, the love of God. 

I love that!

Daily Lesson for August 23, 2017

Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Samuel chapter 18 verses 19-31:

19 Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, ‘Let me run, and carry tidings to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the power of his enemies.’20Joab said to him, ‘You are not to carry tidings today; you may carry tidings another day, but today you shall not do so, because the king’s son is dead.’ 21Then Joab said to a Cushite, ‘Go, tell the king what you have seen.’ The Cushite bowed before Joab, and ran. 22Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said again to Joab, ‘Come what may, let me also run after the Cushite.’ And Joab said, ‘Why will you run, my son, seeing that you have no reward* for the tidings?’ 23‘Come what may,’ he said, ‘I will run.’ So he said to him, ‘Run.’ Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.

24 Now David was sitting between the two gates. The sentinel went up to the roof of the gate by the wall, and when he looked up, he saw a man running alone. 25The sentinel shouted and told the king. The king said, ‘If he is alone, there are tidings in his mouth.’ He kept coming, and drew near. 26Then the sentinel saw another man running; and the sentinel called to the gatekeeper and said, ‘See, another man running alone!’ The king said, ‘He also is bringing tidings.’ 27The sentinel said, ‘I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz son of Zadok.’ The king said, ‘He is a good man, and comes with good tidings.’

28 Then Ahimaaz cried out to the king, ‘All is well!’ He prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground, and said, ‘Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king.’29The king said, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ Ahimaaz answered, ‘When Joab sent your servant,* I saw a great tumult, but I do not know what it was.’ 30The king said, ‘Turn aside, and stand here.’ So he turned aside, and stood still.

31 Then the Cushite came; and the Cushite said, ‘Good tidings for my lord the king! For the Lord has vindicated you this day, delivering you from the power of all who rose up against you.’ 32The king said to the Cushite, ‘Is it well with the young man Absalom?’ The Cushite answered, ‘May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up to do you harm, be like that young man.’

Some people like to tell the good news, but the bad they can never quite get out of their mouths. 

Ahimaaz, a soldier in the army of Judah, wanted to deliver the good news of victory to David. But the unnamed Cushite, a foreigner and perhaps a mercenary fighter, was willing to tell David the whole story: Victory? Yes.  But David's son, Absalom, was dead.

There's lots of people in this world who like to deliver good news. But in the end what we really need is someone to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth -- even if that someone is an outsider.