Daily Lesson for March 14, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 2 verse 17:

[Jesus] said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This is the verse that made me a Christian.

On the first night of youth camp when I was 16, I heard this story of Jesus going to a party at the house of a tax collector named Levi. Tax collectors were despised people in that day and when Jesus showed up there was a house full of them, along with other "sinners". Soon the Pharisees, the very religious folks, were grumbling about the company Jesus was keeping. Jesus' answer: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have come not to call the righteous but the unrighteous." I was 16 and, well, let's just say somewhat acquainted with unrighteousness; and Jesus was calling me.

Years later, when I got out of seminary and into my first church as a pastor, I decided the church I was at needed to be a Levi's house kind of church - a church where everybody, including the most unrighteous, was welcome. So I set out to welcome as many sinners into the church as I could. 

What I didn't know was that the sinners were already there! About three months in I realized the church was already full of adulterers, racists, drunks, tax evaders, back biters, gossips - you name it. And I found myself looking around wondering how in the world a bunch of unrighteous folks like these could wind up in church. In other words, I had started out thinking I was going to be like Jesus, but come to find out I was really a lot more like the Pharisees in the story.

You have heard it said, "If you ever find a perfect church don't join it because you'll ruin it." Well the truth is you won't get that chance - because if there ever was a church that was perfect Jesus himself already ruined it with the folks he invited.

Daily Lesson for March 13, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 2:

"5 And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” 6 Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, 7 “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Throughout the centuries people have used religion as a means of control and domination. Brian McLaren says religion has often acted like a spiritual protection racket where religious systems in effect say something like,"You are bad and must present sacrifices and offerings to God in the Temple. We are the only authorized dealers in sacrifices and offerings to God."

Jesus was not an authorized dealer - at least not in the eyes of those who were purported themselves to be authorized dealers. So when Jesus came proclaiming forgiveness without the approval of the Temple cult system he was charged with blasphemy by members of the system. He was seen as a threat to their whole religious system - a threat who in their eyes ultimately needed to be eliminated. This just proves how desperate a religious system can be when it comes to retaining control.

When a religion professes to speak on behalf of God and tells you you have to be circumcised or baptized just like they say, or read the Bible just like they do, or tithe, or give alms, or pilgrimage, or volunteer in the nursery, or do anything else through its system in order to receive forgiveness then that religion really isn't speaking on God's behalf - it's speaking on it's own behalf.

The paralytic in the story did nothing to have his sins forgiven. Forgiveness was there for the taking. And it still is today - it's free of charge. And if we receive God's forgiveness then we are free of charge also.

"If the Son of Man says you are free, you are free indeed." Believe that; and don't let yourself be caught up in any racket that says otherwise.

Daily Lesson for March 12, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 1:

Jesus said to the leper, "44See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them."

"Say nothing to anyone." What an odd thing to tell someone who has just been cleansed of a debilitating, socially isolating disease. A leper cleansed, made new in the flesh, given a new lease on life. But tell no one?

What is interesting is that it is usually the demons whom Jesus tells not to say anything. The demons who see and recognize him as the Son of God so he silences them. He silences them because he knows their testimony does more damage than it does good. He will not accept testimony from demons. So it begs the question, does the leper now cleansed on the surface of his skin, still have deeper demons which must be addressed?

I have many friends in all stages of recovery, some of which are actually my spiritual role models and teachers and others of which are just starting out. One of the things I notice about the ones who have made it a good ways down the road to recovery is that they all went through a stage - years sometimes - of learning to listen and not talk. They learned to be disciples first before they became my or anyone else's teachers. They learned to speak wisely into my life and others, but they learned it through the silence of listening. Before they went out and started sharing their story, they first learned to tell no one. They had to finding freedom from their inner demons before they became apostles.

Not very long ago I am driving in the car with a friend - I'll call him Mike- who is in the first weeks of sobriety from drugs and alcohol. His recovery has been rocky starting out and there's no way to know if he will stay on the path. I wish he were quieter, like my friends further along; but he is sober today I think and, as Jesus says, today is sufficient enough. 

"The other night," Mike says as I am about to drop him off out front of his house, "I went out on to my back porch to smoke a cigarette and looked up into the sky and asked Jesus what he wants me to do for him and he told me loud and clear in his own voice."

I hear this and though I am driving nevertheless I feel my eyes roll deep back into the cerebral cortex of my brain. I have heard this before. Another kid two-weeks sober who in his continued narcism thinks God has called him to be the next Billy Graham. And like the Apostle Paul, Jesus thinks Mike is so special and his assignment so important that he actually speaks to him in an audible voice. Spare me.

"Oh, what did Jesus tell you be wants you to do for him?" I ask groaningly.

"Jesus told me all he wants me to do for him is to just stay clean."

I look over at my friend, stunned and for the first time hopeful for him. "Mike, I say, "that really was Jesus' voice talking."

Mike looks back at me.  "I know, he says.

Daily Lesson for March 11, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Genesis 37:

"23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it."

Joseph was the favorite of Jacob's 12 sons and Jacob singled Joseph out with a special ornamental robe of many colors. Joseph was glad to wear the robe and be the favored son. He had dreams of his own preeminence among his brothers, and was so cocksure of himself that he had no shame in telling his brothers that he had dreamed one day they would all bow down to him.

Disgusted and envious they to each other, "Come, let us kill this dreamer," and then stripped him of his robe and threw him into a pit where they left him for dead. 

At some point in life everyone must be stripped of their robe. We must come to terms with the fact that the world does not fawn over us in the same way our parents did. We must learn that our own dreams of success oftentimes threaten those around us. We must learn that the robe is both a blessing and also a curse - that the potentiality others dress us in is and is not good for our soul. We must be stripped of the robe. Life must bring us to the bottom of a pit from which we ourselves under our own power and persuasion cannot climb out.

Yesterday, a friend gave me a Richard Rohr quote I had never heard. "In the second half of life success has nothing more to teach us." Joseph, though still young, has entered into the second half of life. It is the half of life where the robe of favored sonship is replaced with rags of slavery, where visions of grandeur are replaced with the slim hope for survival, and where the only way out of the pit is from on high.

If you are in that place, then do not despair. It must be so; for our defeat is necessary for our salvation.

Daily Lesson for March 10, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 2:

"To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together . . ."

Saints. If you were in the First Church of Corinth when they read Paul's letter then you probably either rolled your eyes, chuckled, groaned, or downright seethed with anger. "This place and these people," you might have that, "are anything but saintly."

And you would have been right. If you looked to the right and left of you in the pews at First Corinth it would have been hard to see saintly. As Paul describes in the letter you could look around and see cliques, factions, drunks, folks suing one another in court, the immoral, the inconsiderate, some known for visiting prostitutes, and one who was sleeping with his father's concubine. Saints? Did he say saints?

I am sorry, but Paul's letter to the Corinthians takes away the excuse of not going to or not liking the church because it is so full of hypocrites and sinners. It is full of hypocrites and sinners of the first degree. But that's why we are in church in the first place - because, as Jesus said, "It's the sick who need a doctor and not the healthy." 

So, yes, Paul did say saints. Paul named a bunch of sick sinners and then reminded them that by God's grace they are called to be saints.

The local church is not always nice and pretty and the folks there aren't always what they should be. But it's still the best place I know of to go and learn to love, serve, forgive, and grow in holiness. In other words, it's the best place I know of to become like Jesus. And that's what saintliness really is - learning to live a life like Jesus lived with and for others.

It has often been said that the church is much like Noah's ark during the flood - we could not stand the smell inside were it not for the storm outside.  I'd be lying if I said we have gotten used to the smell; but we know it's a part of the journey, and a small price we pay for being saved together.

Daily Lesson for March 7, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is taken from Philippians 4 verse 2:

"I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord."

2,000 years later and we're still talking about these two women, Euodia and Syntyche, and how they just couldn't get along. Nobody remembers what the fuss was all about. Nobody recalls what the issues were. We can't say who wronged who. But what sticks in our mind, all these many years later, is that they were always at each other. Two God-fearing, Jesus-loving, church-serving ladies, yes; but what we really remember is that they just couldn't get along.

You would think in a book as holy as the Bible we would have this thing straightened out - who was in the right and who was in the wrong. But no, all we've got is Paul's plea for Euodia and Syntyche to work it out. I hear their protests. Euodia says, "Yes, but Paul you don't know the while story." And Syntyche says, "Paul, when I explain to you what really happened you'll be sorry you mentioned my name so carelessly." Paul is wrong - that's the only thing Euodia and Syntyche can agree with each other on.

Paul says what they really need to agree with each other in is the Lord. What does he mean? He means it's time for for putting away self-righteousness and putting on humility. It's time for forgiving each other and for accepting forgiveness from each other - which also means accepting responsibility for part of the break in relationship. In other words, it's time for Euodia and Syntyche to admit they share the one same Lord and savior and that neither one of them are He.

The Bible only remembers Euodia and Syntyche as two women so at odds with each other that Paul had to call them out in a letter. But God remembers them for what they did after they received that letter. I wonder what it was . . .

Daily Lesson for March 6, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 37 verses 1 and 2:

"1 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

2 For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb."

Here is a truth we have to live with: this world is not always fair and a lot of times nice guys finish last while mean people finish first.

Here is another truth: a nice guy's character is tested when mean people finish first and he finishes behind. 

Psalm 37 has something to say to the nice guy who finishes behind mean people. Three times the Psalmist says, "Fret not." Fret not, because obsessing or fixating on having been cheated or done dirty will lead to anger and anger will ultimately lead to spite, vengeance and cheating. And before you know it the nice guy looks just like the mean one. 

The Psalmist says there is another way: the way of trust. This is a longer and more difficult way and may not ever get you across the finish line first. But it does guarantee that while many ahead of you are disqualified, you will finish the race and when you cross the line the judge will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have fought the good fight and finished the race."

Jesus knew Psalm 37. He quoted it in the Sermon on the Mount when he said, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth." Note the tense: "they shall". It's a promise. That promise may not yet be true for you. But there's really only one way to find out if it will ever become true, and that's to wait and see.

I hope you do.