Daily Lesson for June 17, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verses 11 through 12:

11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.

I drove down the street the other day and saw a For Rent sign in the window of a building that had just been renovated and a restaurant just opened inside of back in January. The business had just opened and basically their timing could not have been worse.

Yet we moralize.  We wag fingers.  "They should have been better prepared." "They should have had more cash."

The owners will probably make it.  But their workers have moved back in with mom and dad; and they are the ones who've taken to the streets in the protest -- which is not only about police abuse but a whole society of injustice where most folks just can't get a foothold.

And then a pandemic strikes or a housing bubble bursts and the folks with less than a month's worth of savings are left holding the bag.

And people with real promise and work ethic are left further behind.

It's a bit of a downer, I know.  So too is the book of Ecclesiastes. Reality often is.

And we wonder what the answer could be?  A start would be genuine universal health care for all.  Beyond that, in the aftermath of the riots in his own time, Dr. King argued for universal basic income to protect the poor, young, and otherwise vulnerable in the hard times -- which is all the time for some.

Calamity could befall us all.  The poor are the most vulnerable.  But as we've seen the swift and strong aren't immune either.  So we say, "We're all in this together." But in order for that to be really true we also have to be altogether in this.       

And by "this" I mean the lifeboat we call community.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson comes from 1 Kings 10-11 and 2 Chronicles 9.

Daily Lesson for June 16, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verses 7 through 10:

All streams run to the sea,

    but the sea is not full;

to the place where the streams flow,

    there they continue to flow.

8 All things are wearisome;

    more than one can express;

the eye is not satisfied with seeing,

    or the ear filled with hearing.

9 What has been is what will be,

    and what has been done is what will be done;

    there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there a thing of which it is said,

    “See, this is new”?

It has already been,

    in the ages before us.

On Sunday I quoted the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who was writing in the context of the rise of the second World War, which would join the first in making the 20th century the deadliest on earth.  Niebuhr had seen the late 19th and early 20th century hopefulness of technological and moral progress give way to a sense of despair that though humanity could make so much progress technology it still could not solve the age-old problems of war, poverty, and destruction. Here's the quote: “We have, or ought to have, learned, particularly from the tragedies of contemporary history, that each new development of life . . . presents us with new possibilities of realizing the good in history . . . but that we also face new hazards on each new level and that the new level of historic achievement offers us no emancipation from contradictions and ambiguities to which all life in history is subject.  We have learned, in other words, that history is not its own redeemer.” We see again and again the same troubles of the world revisiting us.  Massive inequity, racial strife, cities on fire, wars and rumors of war.  The more things change; the more they stay the same.  Or, as it is put in the Lesson this morning, "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full". All waters do run to the sea; but then they return.  We have to accept this.  We have to understand that this side of heaven we will never really get "there". So, we have three choices.  The first is despair.  The second is avoidance.  And the third is faithfulness. Let's choose the third.

NOTE: We're reading the whole Bible together this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Ecclesiastes 7-12.

Daily Lesson for June 15, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Proverbs 26 verses 18 and 19: 18Like a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death 19is one who deceives their neighbor and says, "I was only joking!" Over and over again I see Facebook Friends and others sharing the most disturbing and absurd claims about certain politicians they abhor and their policies they disagree with. When called out on the falsity of what they've shared they say, "I know," or "It's only a joke," as if that's enough to undo the damage that's been done.  But the damage has been done.  And the lie has been spread.  As Mark Twain said, "A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." We need to take responsibility for what we say and share.  It's not a game.  Democracy is at stake.  And so is the Commandment about bearing false witness.

NOTE: We're reading the whole Bible this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will come from Ecclesiastes chapters 1-6.

Daily Lesson for June 12, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 134:

Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord,

    who stand by night in the house of the Lord!

2 Lift up your hands to the holy place,

    and bless the Lord.

3 May the Lord, maker of heaven and earth,

    bless you from Zion.

It is night in the sanctuary of our land but the faithful stand by, waiting, watching, and praying.  The night is long and what awaits us tomorrow is unknown.  We hope in a new world to be born, but the labor is hard and almost maybe too much to bear. Would that the morning of our long-awaited sun would dawn. We fear will shall faint from foreboding of what is to come if it is not soon. But then the Psalmist speaks. He calls us to prayer and to blessing.  "Bless the LORD," he says, all you

"who stand in the night in the house of the Lord! "And may the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion." The Lord, maker of heaven and earth, is not far off.  The Lord will not leave to our own devices.  Darkness is not the end. So we hope in the light.  In the darkness we pray for the light.  We pray and we bless the Lord in the house of prayer and we keep watch until the world that is becomes, finally, the world that is to come.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Monday's Lesson comes from 1 Kings 9; 2 Chronicles 8 and Proverbs 25-29.

Daily Lesson for June 11, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 136:

1 O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

2 O give thanks to the God of gods,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

4 who alone does great wonders,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

5 who by understanding made the heavens,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

6 who spread out the earth on the waters,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

7 who made the great lights,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

8 the sun to rule over the day,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

9 the moon and stars to rule over the night,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

10 who struck Egypt through their firstborn,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

11 and brought Israel out from among them,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

12 with a strong hand and an outstretched arm,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

13 who divided the Red Sea[a] in two,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

14 and made Israel pass through the midst of it,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

15 but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea,[b]

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

16 who led his people through the wilderness,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

17 who struck down great kings,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

18 and killed famous kings,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

19 Sihon, king of the Amorites,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

20 and Og, king of Bashan,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

21and gave their land as a heritage,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

22 a heritage to his servant Israel,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

23 It is he who remembered us in our low estate,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

24 and rescued us from our foes,

    for his steadfast love endures forever;

25 who gives food to all flesh,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

26 O give thanks to the God of heaven,

    for his steadfast love endures forever.

The long sweep of salvation history ends us now where it ends for all generations:  God's steadfast love endures forever.

All other powers come and go.  Kings and all authorities die or are deposed.  Pharaoh is drowned by his own insanity.

But God's love for God's people and God's earth endure.

And God is still on the throne. 

Remember that in the days ahead when things get tough:

God is still on the throne; and God's steadfast love endures forever.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson comes from Psalms 134, and 136-140.