Daily Lesson for February 1, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 45 through 53:

45 Immediately Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. 46 After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

47 Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. 48 He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. Shortly before dawn he went out to them, walking on the lake. He was about to pass by them, 49 but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, 50 because they all saw him and were terrified.

Immediately he spoke to them and said, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 51 Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, 52 for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.

53 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there.

I have lengthened this mornings prescribed reading to make a point. This is often the problem with abbreviated readings (scholars call them “pericopes” meaning “cuts) as they actually cut out important things. 

Notice first and important detail, Jesus sends the disciples out by themselves on the lake to Bethsaida.  

Jesus himself remains on the land to dismiss the crowds, intending to then later meet the disciples at Bethsaida after (secretly?) walking across the water to get there. But while walking across the lake, Jesus sees that the disciples have hit an adverse wind and are straining to make forward progress at all. Knowing they may not make it, Jesus chooses not to pass them but to get into the boat with them.  Immediately the wind ceases. 

Then they come to land at a place called Gennesaret.

But wait a minute; I thought they were going to Bethsaida.  Are they the same place?  No; they are not. They are miles apart.

And maybe in this often overlooked little detail, we see something important. That maybe it is more important to get to the other side together than separately. Maybe efficiency is less important than togetherness. Maybe passing the rest by will get me where I want to be but it isn’t quite the point without the rest. Maybe patience, and assistance, and getting the whole heavy and labor-some boat across to the other side is more important than just getting one — even if that one is Jesus. 

Eventually, the disciples will get to Bethsaida.  They’ll get to what the Bible calls “the other side”.  But it’s going to take longer. And it’s going to be harder. And it’s not going to be this morning. 

But they will get there.  And they’ll get there together. The whole boat and all it’s disciples will get there . . .

Daily Lesson for January 31, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 30 and 31:

30 The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and taught. 31He said to them, ‘Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

My college professor, fraternity chapter advisor, and now dear friend Dr. Bill Dean used to say, “Busy people get things done.”

The disciples have been busy getting things done. They have worked sunrise to sunset, town to town — so much so they didn’t even have time to eat. 

They were tired and worn out and probably still had a thousand things to do and needs to meet.  They would have just kept pressing on. 

And then they would have collapsed. Or self-destructed. Or just one day walked away — too fatigued by compassion. 

So Jesus said, “Come away . . . and rest for awhile.”

The world’s demands are too great. No one can meet them all.  No one can visit all the sick, feed all the hungry, call upon all the dispirited. Protest all the injustice. It’s simply too much. Not even busy, busy people can get everything done. 

We also have to rest.  To reflect. To recharge. To read, and think, and pray, and feed ourselves. We have to sleep. 

And in doing so we exercise our faith which believes that even while we rest God is still working, and even while we sleep the kingdom is still coming. 

Busy people get things done. But nobody has to be busier than God, who rested on the Seventh Day so that we could know we can rest too. 

Daily Lesson for January 30, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 14 through 24:

14 King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’ name had become known. Some were saying, ‘John the baptizer has been raised from the dead; and for this reason these powers are at work in him.’ 15But others said, ‘It is Elijah.’ And others said, ‘It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.’ 16But when Herod heard of it, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.’

17 For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. 18For John had been telling Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ 19And Herodias had a grudge against him, and wanted to kill him. But she could not, 20for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed; and yet he liked to listen to him. 21But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee. 22When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests; and the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.’ 23And he solemnly swore to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.’ 24She went out and said to her mother, ‘What should I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer.’ 

“Yet he liked to listen to him.”

Is there a more haunting statement in all of Scripture?

Herod arrested and imprisoned John, threw him into the bowels of some fetid jail, and finally had him beheaded. 

Yet, he liked to listen to him.

I suspect Herod liked to listen to John because John had guts.  And he really could preach. And what he said could draw a crowd and really move people. 

But then it got personal. John started talking about the King, and his wife, and the sordid affair of their family. Herodias was her husband’s niece. But that wasn’t the issue. She was also his brother’s former wife, whom he stole perhaps for the sake of sex but more probably politics.  

John spoke out against the marriage and soon was imprisoned. He gone from preachin’ to meddlin’. Religion to politics — the politics not only of the bedroom, but also the nation.

Yet Herod liked to listen to John.  For Herod was a dabbler and dilettante and probably thought John was interesting and perhaps useful. John was entertaining; and he was also a kind of folk hero to the people. While he was still alive and imprisoned (the probably called it house arrest or protective custody) John was a trophy to Herod.

And then the trophy head went on the wall — perhaps next to some exotic animal head from Africa. 

Herod liked to listen to John. He liked oratory. He liked fire. He liked controversy and crowds. He liked to listen to John. 

And then later on, after the fateful events of today’s Lesson, maybe he liked to look at him even more.

Today’s Lesson is not a happy one. It’s a pretty cynical look at the world in fact. And it’s a good reminder of the old, old history between politics and religion, and a warning about the short, short distance between the enthusiast and the executioner. 

Daily Lesson for January 29, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 6 verses 1 through 

He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offense at him. 4Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ 5And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.

We must all learn to hear this word as Gospel: He could do no deed of power among his own kin and his own house. 

It is Gospel because it frees us of all our burdens to convince, change, and set straight those whom we love.

There are some places that won’t change. They are some people who aren’t willing to change. Sometimes — oftentimes — it’s our own place and our own people. 

Jesus was the Savior of the world. Yet, when it came to his own family and neighbors he didn’t have a savior complex. And we shouldn’t either. 

Hear it again. And hear it as Gospel.  Hear and let it free you of the burden to save and set right everyone who is close to you, whom you love:

“He could not do any deed of power there.”

All he could do, the Scripture says, was love, and extend compassion, and reach out his human hand to heal. 

That was all. 

And maybe it was enough. 

Maybe it was everything. 

Daily Lesson for January 28, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 48 verses 6 through 8: 

6 You have heard; now see all this;

   and will you not declare it?

From this time forward I make you hear new things,

   hidden things that you have not known. 

7 They are created now, not long ago;

   before today you have never heard of them,

   so that you could not say, ‘I already knew them.’ 

8 You have never heard, you have never known,

   from of old your ear has not been opened.

And Galatians chapter 1 verses 13 through 16:

13 You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it. 14I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. 15But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with any human being . . .

There is a mystery to conversion and change that is hidden with God. A man does not see and then he does. An ear cannot hear and then it can. A community is not ready and then it is. 

Dr. King said, “Sometimes it seems like time itself gets ready to change.”  The time is hidden with God. 

And so this means we should never give up on anyone. We should never write any place off as beyond conversion or redemption or change.

There are times when the ground is hard and unreceptive. But we speak our truth and preach our Gospel in season and out.

And after season upon season of rejection, suddenly there is Montgomery.

Daily Lesson for January 25, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 35 through 41:

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ 36And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ 39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ 41And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

With all the chaos and conflict around him, there is the major miracle Jesus performs in calming the storm. This is incredible, and leaves the disciples awestruck with wonderment about who Jesus is. 

Surely we would welcome such a mighty miracle now, that the storms around us might be stilled, the wind and waves pushed back, and tranquility be restored. If only the world might hear those words, “Peace! Be still.”

But welcome as the major miracle would be, this morning’s Lesson also has within it a minor miracle, almost unnoticed in such a dramatic story. And the minor miracle is this: that before Jesus miraculously calmed the storm, he was able to miraculously sleep through it first.

And maybe that’s the secret. That the one who can still the storms of the world must first be able to soundly rest through them.  That the one who can summon the world’s chaos to peace must first have peace within his or her own self. That in order to perform a major miracle one must first be able to perform a minor one. 

A full night’s rest in these troubled times may indeed feel like a miracle now. And it is.  Resting in God, trusting in the boat, not being shaken to frenzy and terror amidst all today’s tumult, keeping peace within. These are the miracles we need now.  And so may they happen.

May we have the mighty power to calm the storms around us; but first, may we have the minor power to calm the storms within us as well. 

Daily Lesson for January 24, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 26 through 29:

26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

We cannot force God and the things of God. 

There’s nothing we can do to make, manufacture, or manipulate the kingdom. For we plant and we water; but “God causes the growth.”

This is meant to free us from the illusion of control. It also frees us to trust the earth, its goodness, and its own timing. For the soil of the earth waits again with pursed lips for the next breath of God. God breathes again and suddenly everything changes.

What does this say to me?  Keep walking. Keep scattering. Keep your hand on the plow. Keep praying.

Stop fretting. Stop striving. Stop staying up all night with anxiety and worry. 

Trust.

For the seed is good. The earth is good. God is good. And beneath the surface of all that can be seen, somewhere hidden in the depths and mystery of life, it is all very, very good.

“And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.”