Daily Lesson for March 30, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 11 verses 14 through 17:

14 As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble. 15What right has my beloved in my house, when she has done vile deeds? Can vows and sacrificial flesh avert your doom? Can you then exult? 16The Lord once called you, ‘A green olive tree, fair with goodly fruit’; but with the roar of a great tempest he will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. 17The Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you, because of the evil that the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done, provoking me to anger by making offerings to Baal.”

Paul D’Arcy says, “God comes to us disguised as our life.”

I remember those words every time I read harsh words of judgement in Scripture.

We don’t like judgment and preaching judgment seems old fashioned — something from another century. But we can’t preach the prophets without preaching judgment; nor can we preach Jesus either.

God comes to us.  Sometimes God comes with judgment. One way to look at this is as what we call divine retribution.  But God is not vindictive. God does not mete out punishment for the sake of punishment. God’s judgment is for the sake of justice, rehabilitation, and the re- and right ordering of the world. In other words, it’s for our own good. 

H. Richard Niebuhr said of early 20th century liberal Christianity’s basic theology: 

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”

It was Niebuhr’s understanding that this kind of judgment-less was what ended in the rise of Nazi Germany’s pagan quasi-Christianity. The fallout was destruction. Judgment came.

God comes to us disguised as our lives. Sometimes our lives need judgment. Most times that means the garden needs pruning. But sometimes it needs razing altogether. 

The Prophet Jeremiah prophesied such a time.  It was a hard word many did not want to hear. But it was the word the people truly needed to hear. 

God was coming in the form of Israel’s judgment. The old world would have to pass away.  

But, behold, the new would come also. 

Daily Lesson for March 29, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 8 verses 31 and 32:

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

Flannery O’Connor once wrote, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.”

To be truly free is to be free to be odd. Free to be different. Free to dissent. Free to live free from the expectations and polite customs of others. 

Christ has set us free and we are free indeed. 

Free to have our own opinions. Free to speak our minds. Free to come or to go. Free to stand tall right where we are. Free to welcome. Free to hold. Free to walk. Free to talk. Free to love. Not free to hate. And free to say so.

Our Freedom is not to be used as a stumbling block for others. But many will trip and fall over it — often intentionally. That’s part of the risk of being free. It’s part of the risk of knowing the truth and trying to live it as truly as we possibly can.

Knowing the truth will make us free; and it will make us odd.  And it will also make us alive. 

Daily Lesson for March 27, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 5:

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we* have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Resilient people are hopeful people.

We think of hope as something of the deep trust we have while we are going through something. It is that indeed; but hope is more than just an optimistic outlook. It’s more than a sunny forecast. 

Hope is the gift of God that comes to those who endure. “Suffering produces endurance,” today’s Lesson says, “and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.”  Hope is something survivors have. It’s calloused hands and calloused knees.  It’s a worn out pair of boots and probably a lot more grey hair. Hope is another ring in the tree marking either drought, or scorch, or flood, and always testifying survival. Hope is a spiritual that grandmothers taught us through tears on a stony road. And hope is the candle that just wouldn’t go out during the dark. 

“Hope endures,” we say. It was born by endurance. And it will endure to the end. 

In other words, it will somehow see us through. 

Daily Lesson for March 26, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 7 verses 45 through 52:

45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ 46The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ 47Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49But this crowd, which does not know the law—they are accursed.’ 50Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ 52They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’

It took guts to ask what Nicodemus asked. 

Everyone else just assumed Jesus was guilty and his judgment and execution were a matter of course. There was literally no question. 

But Nicodemus did question. He had reservations. He was troubled in spirit at what he saw happening. And, importantly, he had the guts to open his mouth and say so. 

I’m sure that wasn’t easy. In fact, I know it was terrifying. So terrifying, in fact, that Nicodemus never says anything else before Jesus is put to death. Nicodemus was effectively silenced. He was silenced amongst the Pharisees or he was forced out altogether. 

In either case, Nicodemus made it known where he stood.  He had spoken up. Though he couldn’t do anything more to change the circumstances of things, he had done what he could. And it cost him. 

Speaking up cost him; and he paid the price. 

May God bless all who dare to pay the price that due process be given, justice be rendered, and the truth at least get a fair hearing. 

Daily Lesson for March 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 7 verses 19 through 24:

19 ‘Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you looking for an opportunity to kill me?’ 20The crowd answered, ‘You have a demon! Who is trying to kill you?’ 21Jesus answered them, ‘I performed one work, and all of you are astonished. 22Moses gave you circumcision (it is, of course, not from Moses, but from the patriarchs), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath. 23If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath in order that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry with me because I healed a man’s whole body on the sabbath? 24Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement.’

If the Pharisees had not been so consumed about the rules they may have stopped what they were doing, looked up, and seen that some pretty fantastic things were happening. 

But I suspect they really didn’t want to see the things that were happening. They didn’t want to celebrate with the man whose withered hand was made whole, or the woman whose back had been straightened, or the paralytic who rose and walked. This was because they didn’t approve of the man who made all these things happen. He wasn’t their guy. 

The rules were used against Jesus only because the Pharisees and other religious leaders didn’t like Jesus. So they made a federal case out of things which should actually have been celebrated. 

A child is circumcised even on the Sabbath. An ox is rescued even on the Sabbath. These were determined to be fitting exceptions to the Sabbath prohibition on work. But when Jesus healed on the Sabbath everyone was astonished. 

I think they acted astonished. What they really were was bloodthirsty. 

The law was made for humankind and not humankind for the law.  Oh but how often has the law been used in neither a kind nor humane way.

Watch that. Or as Jesus said, “judge with right judgment”.

Daily Lesson for March 22, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 95 verses 1 through 5:

1 Come, let us sing to the Lord; 

let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving 

and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

3 For the Lord is a great God, 

and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the caverns of the earth, 

and the heights of the hills are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, 

and his hands have molded the dry land.

God knows the hills in all their wonder,  excitement, and glorious vision; and God also knows deep and dark places of this earth, places of seclusion, hiding, and fear. “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof.”  So there is no place where God cannot see, know, find, and guide us. 

The sea is God’s; for God made it. And when the Israelites came to the sea it parted at the command of God. Next they entered the desert, a dry and weary land. Yet God has already poured water down upon that place and buried it beneath the rock within the earth. 

So the people said, “Come, let us sing to the Lord; let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.”

Wherever we are, in the mountains or the valleys, the joyous pinnacles or the deep caverns, it is all in God’s hands. God’s got the whole world in God’s hands. And so we give thanks, and praise; and we do not despair. For God has walked this path before and knows the way to the place where we are going. 

Daily Lesson for March 21, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from John chapter 5 verses 19 through 29:

19 Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father* does, the Son does likewise. 20The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. 21Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomsoever he wishes. 22The Father judges no one but has given all judgement to the Son, 23so that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Anyone who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him. 24Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgement, but has passed from death to life.

25 ‘Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; 27and he has given him authority to execute judgement, because he is the Son of Man. 28Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

Jesus has been given the power of life in and of himself just as God. So where Jesus is there is life — even in the midst of death. 

I am leading a class now on the Seven Last Words of Jesus and last night we focused on Jesus’ words to the penitent man on the cross beside him, “Truly today you will be with me in paradise.”  One of the things I tried to express is the idea that Resurrection can actually be present tense. 

Jesus came to the tomb of Lazarus and said to Lazarus’ sister Martha, “Your brother will love again.”  “I know he will live again in the Resurrection on the last day.”  And Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

“I am” — present tense. Resurrection is not only on the last day. It is now. It is wherever Jesus is right now, before the grave and beyond.

Jesus has life in himself. So there is no death. Yes; there is physical death — which is inevitable. But even though we die, we live. We die the first death, but never the second. We die the first physical death, but never the second spiritual death. We suffer not the death of condemnation.

So when Jesus is present there is no fear. For Resurrection is already present. Hope is present. Heaven is present. Even amidst death, there is life; and those believe in the one who is life pass from death to life.

Thanks be to God.