Daily Lesson for June 29, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Numbers chapter 20 verses 2 through 12:

2 Now there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron. 3The people quarrelled with Moses and said, ‘Would that we had died when our kindred died before the Lord! 4Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? 5Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to bring us to this wretched place? It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there is no water to drink.’ 6Then Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the entrance of the tent of meeting; they fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. 7The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 8Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and your brother Aaron, and command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. Thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them; thus you shall provide drink for the congregation and their livestock.

9 So Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he had commanded him. 10Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, ‘Listen, you rebels, shall we bring water for you out of this rock?’11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank. 12But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.’

Moses crossed a line, acted out of frustration, took things into his own hands, and it cost him.

The LORD told Moses to take his staff, symbol of power and authority, and command the rock to give up its water. But Moses wanted to show the people his force.  They were questioning his leadership, so Moses decided to demonstrate his power. He not only spoke to the rock; he struck it. I’m sure the people were struck also — with fear and with awe and perhaps with increased fury. Water gushed out. But Moses had gone too far. He would now not enter the Promised Land. 

The point: the end doesn’t always justify the means. Desperate acts of frustration and anger can fell even the best of people. The will to hold on to power can lead even the best of leaders to cross a line. 

Today’s Lesson is a warning for us all. It is especially a warning for those in positions of leadership. Watch our tempers. Check our use of power. Do not overreact. Never use force unnecessarily. Never use a staff when words will do. 

Daily Lesson for June 28, 2018

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.

Hope is the prize of those who have come through something. It’s the reward of those who are still coming through something. That means it’s gritty, tough, and tenacious. Hope isn’t just an optimistic outlook or a good feeling about how things are going to go. No; hope is the mettle of someone who’s s had a lot of bad, bad feelings along the way.

That’s why hope endures. It doesn’t give up on God. It doesn’t give up on humanity. Hope can’t quit or give up or give in. It’s just not in hope’s constitution to write off the world.

I once heard Dr. Gardner Taylor speak and he remembered that in the troubled days of the Civil Rights movement, Dr. King used to say, “Hold your hope.”

Today is a day for holding our hope, holding it tight, and letting it hold us also. 

Daily Lesson for June 27, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 20 verses 1 through 16:

‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. 2After agreeing with the labourers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. 3When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market-place;4and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went.5When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. 6And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?”7They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” 8When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the labourers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” 9When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. 10Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.*11And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner,12saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” 13But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?14Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. 15Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” 16So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’

How and where we read this parable says a lot about us and our situation. 

If we read it in certain parts of America we are apt to read it as a story about heaven and who gets in and how. We do so mostly because we’ve been taught to read it this way.  I was taught to read it this way. The story was about heaven and grace and how with grace those who work faithfully all their lives for the LORD still in the end have to realize that the gates of heaven may be open to those who show up at the last hour also. 

That’s not necessarily a wrong reading; but it’s not the only one. 

People in other parts of America and in the non-developed world are more likely to see it this way than readers in wealthier contexts. They are more likely to see not only the workers working all day, but also the employed, standing on the sidelines, wishing they could be hired to work. They are more likely to see this story, not as a parable about grace, but about justice.

Where do you read this story?  Who do you read it with?  It can make a big difference on how you read it. 

How do you read it?

Daily Lesson for June 26, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson is a prayer given this morning for #LeadershipFW at a breakfast focusing on disaster response in our community.  I share it because I think the theology is important.

Our gracious heavenly and also earthly God,

We praise you for who you are and the goodness of your being. We acknowledge that from you all blessings flow; and we repent of all wrong-headed thinking which pins bad things on your good name. Give us the wisdom to understand that the work of evil is a mystery and often our own doing.  Help us to understand that the true “acts of God” are the help and comfort you and your people bring to those who need aid. 

In the face of the world that we inhabit, we pray as if everything depends upon you,  and we work as if everything depends on us. Somewhere in the midst, you work all things to the good. 

Guide these leaders. Watch over and protect this City.  For we know what the Psalmist says, “Unless the LORD watches over the City, the watchmen stays alert in vain.”  May our work today not be in vain; and may it be of you.

We pray this together in one mind and one Spirit.  Amen. 

Daily Lesson for June 25, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Romans 6 verses 15 through 19:

15 What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, 18and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations.For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

I am reading this this morning and suddenly Bob Dylan pops into my head:

“But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes

Indeed you're gonna have to serve somebody

Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord

But you're gonna have to serve somebody”

Desmond Tutu said it a little differently. He said that in the struggle of South Africa the oppressed needed not only to be set free FROM Pharaoh, they also needed to be set free FOR the making of a more righteous nation.

Our freedom from the slavery of sin was bought at a price. We belong to God now. And our lives now belong to the building of God’s kingdom among us.

This is the hard part. It is one thing to be free from; it is quite another to be free for. Because to be free for means we have responsibility — responsibility for ourselves and also for others.

We are free.  But freedom never means anarchy, or the absolute freedom of the individual. We were set free from the dominion of death, but we now belong to the community of life. We were once slaves; but we are now citizens. And with our citizenship comes all the rights and also all the responsibilities of creating and living into a more just and righteous nation.

When we were slaves we had no say in what happened in and to us. But now that we have been set free, we do have a say.  We have responsibility; and we must take responsibility also.

Daily Lesson for June 22, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 21 through 33:

21 Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ 22Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

23 ‘For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 25and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 26So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” 27And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 28But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow-slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” 29Then his fellow-slave fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” 30But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt. 31When his fellow-slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 32Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33Should you not have had mercy on your fellow-slave, as I had mercy on you?”

Many years ago, I was pastor and friend to a woman who had been abused by relative as a child. She had worked through much of her pain and trauma and had amazingly come to a place of deep forgiveness. She said she felt that she had to forgive, lest the the person who abused her would still have hold of her. But her forgiveness was not a once and for all thing. She said had to forgive and then forgive and then again. And her ongoing process led her to a deeply profound understanding of today’s lesson. “You know the Bible where it says, ‘You must forgive seventy-seven times seven?’  Well, I’ve come to the realization that maybe that’s what I am doing and will have to keep on doing. A woman lives to be about 77 years old; and I have to every day wake up and forgive the man who abused me, seven days a week for the rest of my life.”

Not everyone has come to that same deep place of forgiveness this my friend had come to. Not everyone can come to that place right now.  Forgiveness is a journey — a long road. 

But her extraordinary forgiveness of a great and terrible violation is an inspiration to me, reminding me that though forgiveness hard, it is not impossible.  And, her forgiveness is also a challenge to me, requiring me to examine my own unwillingness to forgive and ask myself why it is when she could be able to forgive so much how it is that I’m able to forgive so very little.

To forgive literally means to “let go”. To let go is to take back control, to refuse to let our offenders still have control over us. 

My friend took back control of her life by learning to let go daily. And what she taught me was that as we go along in life, if we let go just a little each day, one day we will have let go of a whole lot — maybe everything.  

Daily Lesson for June 21, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Matthew chapter 18 verses 15 through 17:

15 ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector.

Jesus is laying down the ground rules for his community. This is what is expected in the company of the gathered he is forming. They will be upfront and truthful with each other and will deal with each other face to face. 

This means that when one thinks another has offended him or her then the first step is one-on-one, direct communication. 

That means the first step is not gossip, it is not murmuring, and it is not whispers in the corner, or conversation in the parking lot, or a post on Snapchat. The very first step is direct, face to face, human to human conversation.

Jesus goes on to give a process for handling conflict.  It starts face to face.  Next it’s two or three so as to keep things in proportion and also have witnesses. Finally, the conversation is taken to the community at-large.

And when the person is found to have indeed acted offensively according to the community at-large then Jesus says that person is to be treated as a Gentile — which sounds pretty harsh, until we remember how Jesus treated Gentiles. His point is then to say the community is to treat the offender as an outsider, one perhaps welcome to visit the gathering on safe terms, but who has no right of authority within the community. 

It needs to be said, these are ground rules and not laws. This process is not always appropriate in every situation. That is especially true in the case of abuse or abuse of power or when the offense is so otherwise grievous that exceptions are warranted. In those cases special consideration and process is necessary so as to protect individual members and also the body at-large. 

But in general, this is a good process. Dealing with things one-on-one is a necessary step. It gets us talking and listening to one another. And it also keeps us from sowing seeds of discord unnecessarily or getting a jury to pass judgment unfairly.

Community is hard. Church is hard. The fact that Jesus gave his disciples this instruction shows that he never thought it was going to be easy.

Church is not perfect. Conflict is inevitable.  These are instructions on how to deal with it in a proper, constructive, and hopefully redemptive kind of way.