Daily Lesson for March 11, 2019

Today’s Daily Office comes from Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 11 through 20:

11 Take care that you do not forget the Lord your God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances, and his statutes, which I am commanding you today. 12When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, 13and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, 15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, an arid waste-land with poisonous snakes and scorpions. He made water flow for you from flint rock, 16and fed you in the wilderness with manna that your ancestors did not know, to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good. 17Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth.’ 18But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today. 19If you do forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. 20Like the nations that the Lord is destroying before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.

Before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God gave them instructions on how to live when they crossed the Jordan and came into their own. The gravest danger they faced was not the enemies of other nations. It was the temptation they would face in taking the resources of this new land, acquiring all its wealth, then totally forgetting that it was God who lead them out of Egypt. For then they would begin to think that they had delivered themselves, earned everything they had either by brawn or brains, and could therefore justify leaving their neighbors

Behind. Then they would begin to set up an economic system just like the one they left — one built on dog eating dog exploitation.

“Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gained me this wealth. But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth.”

God instructs the Israelites to remember once they come into the Promised Land that they did not simply pull themselves up by their own bootstraps without help. They didn’t even have boots!  God delivered them. They were slaves; and the LORD delivered them from Pharaoh in Egypt. And now they had a responsibility remember to make sure Pharaoh stayed in Egypt. For he should have no place in the Land of Promise. 

Daily Lesson for February 8, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Psalm 31 verses 14 and 15a:

14 But I trust in you, O Lord;

   I say, ‘You are my God.’ 

15 My times are in your hand . . .

Our times are in God’s hand.

Dr. King wrote in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail that, “time itself is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively.”

Father Time has no conscience, no sense of the justice of history. Father Time makes no promises. This is why time doesn’t really heal all wounds. It’s also why time cannot be trusted to work all things out to the good. Time isn’t really working for us. Time is a River, ebbing and flowing, neither moral nor immoral.

We cannot be redeemed in good time; for time itself is neither good nor bad. Time is not on our side. Time is instead what we make of it. 

And, time is what God makes of it. Time is not like a clock, set and fixed at the hand of a clock maker, then left to its own random devices. No; time is in God’s hand, today’s Lesson says.  In other words, time like the sands of hour glass, susceptible to shift, to tilt, to nudge, and even to reverse. 

Our times are in God’s hand. God has not left us and our world to simply our own devices. God has chosen to intervene in time.  Rather than allowing the sands of time to will simply run their inevitable course; God has entered time and has become — in Auden’s words, written during the dark days of WWII — “The Time Being”.

The dark days of winter are behind us. The sun did not disappear. Time has not run out. There’s yet more time to come. It is God’s gift to us. 

Let us make the most of it.

Daily Less for February 7, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Titus chapter 1 verse 15:

“To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure.”

We live in an age of cynicism, a time when we believe absolutely everything which confirms our suspicions or preys upon our prejudices, while at the same time believing absolutely nothing from those with whom we’re ideologically opposed.

And billions upon billions of dollars are made perpetuating our suspicion.  Americans worship the LORD once a week, but worship at the Temple of the God of Cynicism and Suspicion both daily and nightly. What has been created then is a nation which sees and fears evil at all times and in all places. Many capitalize on these fears for personal and political gain. 

Today’s Lesson suggests that all the darkness and evil we see in others may in fact have more to do with us than it does them. For just as to the pure all things are pure, so too to the fearing all things are fearful. Or as Jesus put it, “The eye is the lamp of the body.”  Our eyes, or how we see the world, is the lamp by which we see others. 

Here’s a radical practice for today:  Assume good faith in others. Even in those with whom we disagree. Even those with whom we disagree vehemently. And look for their goodness. It’s there — even in our enemies it’s there.

“To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure.” 

Or, as folks used to say in West Texas, before we look out and say it’s muddy outside, we should first wash our windows. 

Daily Lesson for Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day in the 40-day Lenten Season leading up to Holy Week and Easter. Today many of us will take on ashes as signs of our willing contrition and desire for personal and societal change.
 
The ashes are one sign of many, including fasting, the tearing of clothes, and the shaving or plucking of beards, which the Israelites used to express sorrow and regret at sin and blasphemy (the Contemporary English Study Bible).
 
The ashes seem especially fitting this year for the world-wide Church. With all the horrific stories of abuse we have learned of within both the Southern Baptist and Catholic bodies in recent past months, coupled with the United Methodist Church’s decision to continue its policy of LGBTQ exclusion in recent days, there is deep sadness and sorrow for the things we as the broader Christian Church have done and left undone. We have excluded those we ought to have included and harmed those we ought to have protected. For these things, the whole worldwide Church is diminished. And for these things, many of us are deeply sorry.
 
Ash Wednesday is a day to ritually express our penitence; and the Lenten season of reflection is the path we walk towards renewing our commitments to protect the vulnerable and defend the rights of the oppressed.
 
“Repent and believe in the Gospel.” These are the words often spoken by the pastor or priest as they mark the sign of the cross upon the head on Ash Wednesday. We repent of all our prejudices and practices not worthy of Christ’s Church. And we believe in the Gospel -- the good news that there is a path which can lead us to reformation and renewal.
 
That path is called Lent; and it is now upon us . . .


PS — This reflection is a part of the Broadway Baptist Church Lenten reflection series. To sign up to receive other reflections throughout Lent click Here.

Daily Lesson for March 5, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verses 16 

16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17You must diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his decrees, and his statutes that he has commanded you. 18Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may go in and occupy the good land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you, 19thrusting out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has promised.

20 When your children ask you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21then you shall say to your children, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household.

Sunday I’m preaching from the book of Deuteronomy and I’m thinking about how few people ever read it.  The word “Deuteronomy” literally means “Second Law”; as it is the second book recording the laws given to the Israelites during their wilderness wandering. The phrase “book of laws” pretty much explains why so few are familiar with what is in Deuteronomy. A book of ancient laws doesn’t exactly sound like exciting stuff.

But truly it is. What we have in Deuteronomy is a vision for who the people are to be, and how it is that they are to live together. They are not to live as the other nations around them. They are to be a different kind of nation, a nation of laws, given to protect the vulnerable and defend the rights of the oppressed and make a community just and decent for all. 

In this morning’s Lesson the children of Israel ask, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?”  In other words, they’re asking something akin to “Why do we have to eat our vegetables?” — something like, “Why do we have to read and study this long, difficult book of Deuteronomy?”

The answer: “Because we were slaves once under Pharaoh. We were slaves and we know what it’s like to live in bondage where there is no law to protect us from a madman and his taskmasters.”

The Book of Laws was given for the sake of community. It was given to protect and uphold and defend the rights of the people. And it was given in order that this nation escaping Pharaoh and his household might be something other than, something better than, the Egypt they just came out of.

That’s the import of the book of laws; and why we still do well to read it even today.

Daily Lesson for March 4, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 3a:

“Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being . . .”

And John chapter 1 verse 14:

 “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”

The great Quaker thinker and writer once said the truly radical claim of Christianity is not so much that Jesus was like God but rather that God is like Jesus.

This is indeed true. Christians believe God is like Jesus; and if we want to understand who God is — what kind of passion and character God has — then we look to Jesus.

And this is radical because it in fact circumscribes what we might say about God. It is fashionable to talk about God as vast and mysterious and absolutely beyond all our conception. This much is true; but it risks also speaking of God in all kinds of ways that are beyond Jesus.  All kinds of horrible things have been done in the name of God; but it is harder — or at least it should be — to do such things in the name of Jesus.

We near the end of the Epiphany Season. Epiphany means “light” or “revelation”. Jesus was the revelation of God on earth. Jesus was “the exact imprint” of God’s very being the Lessons today say. This means Jesus must shape and circumscribe our God language. When we think and speak of God, we as Christians must think and speak of Jesus. And if we can’t imagine saying what we say about Jesus then we shouldn’t ascribe it to God. 

We all remember the old question WWJD? — What Would Jesus Do? It’s what Jesus did do that teaches us who God is. God is kind; we see this in Jesus. God is merciful; we witness this in Jesus. God is love; we know this because of Jesus.

God is like Jesus. And Jesus must temper and shape our thoughts and words about God. 

Daily Lesson for March 1, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1 through 10:

Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart. 2We have renounced the shameful things that one hides; we refuse to practise cunning or to falsify God’s word; but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God. 3And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness’, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.

“We do not lose heart.”

What a powerful statement of resilience and determination. In the face of so much opposition and struggle, and amidst such uncertainty about the future of his ministry, Paul holds his hope, keeps his faith, continues to dedicate himself to running his race. He will not stop fighting the good fight.

How he will go on he does not know. How he’s made it this far he doesn’t know either. At the end of the day he can say, it’s only by God’s grace.  It was grace that brought him safe thus far; and grace he’s trusting to see him home.

The treasure is in a clay jar. He knows just how fragile it all is, how easily broken, and how feeble. He knows how feeble he himself is. But does not rely on his own power. It is the power of God that he carries. It is the power of God that goes with him. And it is the power of God that will make the way out of no way. 

So, yes, Paul is old and beaten and worn down from all the struggle.  But he hasn’t lost heart. Thank God, he hasn’t lost heart. 

And neither should we.