Daily Lesson for May 31, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 37 verses 1 through 7:

1 Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; 

do not be jealous of those who do wrong.

2 For they shall soon wither like the grass, 

and like the green grass fade away.

3 Put your trust in the Lord and do good; 

dwell in the land and feed on its riches.

4 Take delight in the Lord, 

and he shall give you your heart's desire.

5 Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him, 

and he will bring it to pass.

6 He will make your righteousness as clear as the light 

and your just dealing as the noonday.

7 Be still before the Lord 

and wait patiently for him.

Desmond Tutu used to say, “This is a moral universe.”

We believe that. As Christians we have to believe it. We have to hope and believe in it and wait for it.

The arrogant prosper for a little while. They get their day in the sun. The vainglorious rule for a time.But in the end the harvest comes; and they wither like old, dead grass. 

Wait on the LORD. There is no need for vengeance. There is no virtue in sin. Wait on the LORD. 

For the day of the LORD shall come like a thief in the night, and in the morning the janitors will take the nameplate from the door.

And the stone the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone; and a century later the regents name a building after the one who was fired. 

Daily Lesson for May 30, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Proverbs chapter 17 verse 10:

“A rebuke strikes deeper into a discerning person

   than a hundred blows into a fool.”

If you’ve ever received the harsh sting of rebuke and took it to heart then you know how deeply it cuts. 

You feel sick at your gut, all tingly and knotted up inside, and you want to go and crawl in a whole and stay there about a billion years. 

A million things go through your mind. First, how dare they?  Then, how could they? Then, how dare and how could YOU?  For a little while you think you might just decide to call in dead to work.

A narcissist wouldn’t be phased by it at all. He doesn’t care what others think. His skin is Teflon. That’s why he’ll probably live to 100 and still be playing golf on the day he dies. He’ll die the same as he lived. 

But for the rest of us it breaks us. It destroys us. It shatters us into 1,000 little pieces.

And when we’re pieced back together again, we realize we’ve been changed for good. 

Daily Lesson for May 29, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 12 verses 33 through 37:

33 ‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 34You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure.36I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; 37for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’

Our careless words can tell us a great deal about what is going on inside us. Sharp and hurtful words which come forth in moments of carelessness do not just appear out of vapor. They are symptoms of resentment, anger, and anxieties within us.

Last night we took the kids to the park. I was telling a story to the boys and Gabrielle asked a question. Irie went into an answer which was complicated because the question was complicated. I snapped at her about the length of the answer. The car went quiet.

After reflecting on that moment, I realized that I wanted to be in control. I wanted to be in the driver seat. My snapping was a sign that I wasn’t happy about having my story take a different turn. It was a careless moment and my words were careless; but examining them really did tell me something about myself — even though I didn’t really like what they were saying.

Even our most careless, throw-away words have something to reveal.  They have something to tell us. “For out of the mouth the heart speaks,” (Luke 6:45).

Let those with ears to hear let them dare also to listen.

Daily Lesson for Memorial Day, May 28, 2018

A Lesson in observance of Memorial Day:

Today is Memorial Day, a day set aside for remembering those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of our country. 

Memorial Day’s history can be traced to the years following the Civil War, when on particular yet separate days, individual States would set aside a day for families to go and decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Thus, in the early days, the special day was called Decoration Day. As the observance began to be less familial and more civic and the North and South began to bind the wounds of the nation, the day’s name was formally changed and the day standardized to the first Monday in May.

For most Americans today, Memorial Day will not be a day of visiting graves or civic gathering. It will be a day of cookouts and birthdays and working in the yard. 

This may be sad, but a reality is that most Americans are very far from the military and its causalities today. During the Civil War 700,000  lives were lost. Almost every family had or knew of someone fallen. Today less than 1 percent of the total US populace is currently serving in the military and the demographic of those who serve  is increasingly rural and also Hispanic. This means many of us do not even know someone off serving our country today, much less someone who has died for it.

There are still public gatherings of remembrance, often sponsored by the VFW or the American Legion. We usually have to actively seek them in order to find them and they usually occur in the early morning. We may have already missed the opportunity to show up and pay respect. But there is still the opportunity to take a small part of the day and visit a cemetery.  We may not be able to find the grave of a service member killed in action, but it’s still a good time to talk to the children about the meaning of Memorial Day.

The burden of our freedom has fallen ever greater now on the few and also on the minority. The rest of us can never truly know the price freedom; but we can pause to recognize the fact that its cost is dear.

Daily Lesson for May 25, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson is Matthew 12 verses 1 through 14:

At that time Jesus went through the cornfields on the sabbath; his disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, ‘Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath.’3He said to them, ‘Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests. 5Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests in the temple break the sabbath and yet are guiltless? 6I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7But if you had known what this means, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8For the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath.’

9 He left that place and entered their synagogue; 10a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, ‘Is it lawful to cure on the sabbath?’ so that they might accuse him. 11He said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?12How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.’13Then he said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and it was restored, as sound as the other. 14But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.

Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.”

In Jesus’ time the Sabbath commandment was a founding principle. The Bible says the Israelites were given the law of the Sabbath before even entering into the Promised Land. It was a law given from Moses and older than the Temple.  It was a law which was seen by the Pharisees as binding the people and keeping them holy and set apart from all the other nations. As it has often been said, “The Jews didn’t only keep the Sabbath; the Sabbath kept the Jews.”

Yet holy as the Sabbath law was, it was subject to misinterpretation.  It was not intended to be an end in itself. It was a law originally given for the good of the people, yet it had become an idol. What was given to serve the people and help them worship God, had been turned into a god itself. The means had become the end.  Sabbath, which was given to Israelites, had now subjected them.

A law should never be an end in itself. Laws were made to serve the people, not people the law. So when a law is made master of the people it needs to be re-interpreted or changed.

Jesus saw this 2,000 years ago. Every generation has to see it in its own age also. 

Daily Lesson for May 24, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 through 30:

28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

God’s yoke is easy and God’s burden is light.

Without God the demands are crippling and impossible. The load is too heavy, the road too long, and the yoke too harsh. 

But God says, “Come and take my yoke upon you.  My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The yoke of God is not harsh and cutting.  It’s smooth and well fit and expertly planed by the careful craftsmanship of a carpenter and the son of a carpenter.  While an ill-fit yoke will cuts and digs into the hide and makes its wearing impossible, a smooth yoke is easy on the the body. It was made with care and concern for its beast of burden. 

And the load of God is not too heavy. More than one pulls so the weight is split. The force is lessened. The burden bearable. The load is shared. God pulls with us. God pulls for us. 

Is life too much for you?  The distance too far?  The pain of the load you’re trying to carry too great? Well then maybe you’ve saddled yourself with the wrong yoke. Maybe that single yoke isn’t for you. How about trying this double yoke — it looks like it might be a good fit. 

Daily Lesson for May 23, 2018

Today is the Feast Day for Nicholas Copernicus. Copernicus was the first to formulate and write about a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology, which he wrote of just before his death in 1543.

In 1546 Giovanni Maria Tolosani denounced Copernicus in a work defending the absolute truth of Scripture. In 1616 the Catholic Church placed Copernicus’s work on the Index calling his heliocentric theory “false and altogether opposed to Holy Scripture.”  It was not until two centuries later that the ban on Copernicus’s work was lifted. 

The great error of the Church in censoring Copernicus was not only misguided Biblicism. That was bad, but was in fact only a vehicle for wrongdoing. The Church’s real sin was the pride of power. The Church wished to hold onto its power and was willing to close its eyes to truth which it felt might diminish its authority in the world. The Church said it believed the earth and not the sun was the center of the universe. Actually, the Church believed it was the center of the universe.

The Church’s reputation — both Catholic and also Protestant — has suffered for centuries because of its treatment of Copernicus and others who have dared challenge its power with hard facts. Pride has led to the Church’s ongoing downfall. And until Church learns the way of humility it is bound to continue making the same mistakes and suffering the same consequences.

For in the end facts win out; truth wins out. 

And Copernicus gets a Feast Day.