"We know he is our son," the parents answered, "and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don't know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself." – John 9:20-21

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 30, 2020): John 9

"Truth is hard, propaganda is cheap." The words belong to sociologist and political observer DaShanne Stokes. But it is our politicians that need to hear his message. Propaganda is cheap, and for some reason, we accept it so quickly. And even when we hear truth, somehow, we willfully ignore it. Amid a pandemic that can be significantly eased by wearing a mask, we cling to the propaganda that says that wearing a mask violates my God-given rights and freedoms. And because no one that we know has gotten seriously ill, we downgrade the pain of the millions of people who have last someone important in their lives due to COVID-19. Sometimes, our politicians give us propaganda more often than they reveal to us the truth. As a result, it appears that we no longer recognize the truth or have come to believe that it is too hard and ultimately unnecessary.   

Telling the truth is often challenging. Take, for instance, masks.  When it comes to face coverings, I admit that I hate wearing the things. They are restricting. I am hot all of the time anyway, so wearing a cover over my face only worsens the situation. When I am trying to walk any distance, even just when I am in a grocery store, I find myself struggling to get a breath. I miss seeing the smiles of my friends and those that I meet on the street. Some old acquaintances have not recognized me. So how can something that is that uncomfortable be necessary? I don't want to wear a mask. The propaganda, particularly when offered from the seat of power, is easier to accept than the uncomfortable truth.

Jesus heals a blind man. It seems like it should be an act that would be celebrated except that some did not want to accept the uncomfortable truth that Jesus was a messenger sent by God. The formerly blind man is delighted. His parents want to be, but the power scares them. And so they respond by sidestepping the truth of their son's situation. "We know that he was blind, and now he is not. What happened is unknown, and so we have no opinion. So why don't you ask him."

A good friend of mine was the recipient of a similar kind of healing. His back, broken decades earlier, caused him to walk with the help of crutches and a determination to fight through the pain. One night, kneeling beside his chair, he was miraculously healed. His mother, not a believer in any kind of a god, echoed the response of the parents of the blind man. "I know that your back was broken, and you weren't faking, but I don't understand what has happened to you or why you can walk now." And hidden in the response was, "I just know that it has nothing to do with God. That is just too hard a truth to honestly believe."

When God moves, sometimes understanding the truth lags behind the reality of the truth. But that is okay, as long as we are willing to live within the truth, regardless of how uncomfortable or hard that might be.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 10

Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. – John 7:53-8:1

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 29, 2020): John 8

"Canadian girls are so pretty, it's a relief now and then to see a plain one." The quote is common among Canadians, and it is attributed to Mark Twain. The Beach Boys may have liked their "California Girls, but we know the truth is that the most beautiful girls on the American continent reside north of the U.S.A. – Canada border. And so, our gratitude is liberally offered to Mr. Twain. Except for one problem, he didn't actually say it, at least, not precisely. In a letter Twain wrote to his wife, Olivia, from Quebec at the beginning of December 1881, Twain wrote that "Maybe it is the [winter] costume that makes pretty girls seem so monotonously plenty here. It was a kind of relief to strike a homely face occasionally." Still a compliment, but not quite the way that Canadians describe it.

We associate the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" with "Star Trek: The Original Series." The phrase is even the title of actor James Doohan's 1996 autobiography; Doohan played Mr. Scott in "The Original Series." And yet, the phrase never occurs in the show. A more standard version of the words, often spoken by Captain Kirk, is "Beam us up, Mr. Scott." But "Beam me up, Scotty" is still a precious phrase in the memory of Trekkies.

With the words "Then they all went home, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives," John begins to tell a story that is precious to the followers of Jesus Christ about a woman caught in the act of adultery. It is a story that we still like to tell, one that is often featured in Bible Study groups and taught from our churches' pulpits. It is a story that climaxes with the words, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." It is a great story. The only problem is that we are pretty sure that John didn't tell the story, at least not in his gospel.

Does that mean that the story is not true? Not necessarily. It is a story with the ring of truth; the tale is totally within the character of Jesus. It starts with Jesus going to the Mount of Olives while his oppressors went home. It stresses that Jesus had no place to lay his head, no home to which to go; he went to the Mount of Olives to find a tree under which he could sleep. And then, the next day, he went to the rescue of the sinful woman.

The most likely solution to the problem is that this is a fragment of a writing about Jesus that has long since been lost. But this story remained, circulating among the believers in Jesus. A portion, an essential tale about the life of Jesus that none of the Gospel writers included in their writings. A story that was too important to be forgotten. One scribe placed the tale in Luke's Gospel, but most have chosen this place in John as the proper spot to tell the story. It is almost as if God decided not to let this story die, placing it in the heart of the people responsible for making copies of the sacred gospels and compelling them to include it somewhere in the final accounting of the life of Jesus.  

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 9

Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." – John 7:12

Today's Scripture Reading (November 28, 2020): John 7

It always amazes me how different we can see people. In watching the turmoil as the United States prepares to go through what is sometimes an almost decadal change in presidents, how differently we see the leading players is astounding. This time, the change is coming a little quicker. But the truth, not trying to insult President-elect Joe Biden, seems to be that the past election just wasn't about him. More than any other political battle that I remember in my life, this was a referendum on President Donald Trump. And I have important people in my life on both sides of the Donald Trump coin. To some, he is a saint; to others, he is pure evil, and the two sides seem totally unable to reconcile with the other. And, I admit that the situation mystifies me more than a little.

But maybe that is just the way it is when we interact with famous people. We all see something a little different. Even for those who are less well-known, we have people who see us with rose-colored glasses and those who struggle to see any good in us at all. And we know that they are there. And with most of us, the truth is somewhere between the two extreme opinions the exist around our public persona.  

Maybe, because I am writing in the wake of an American election, this passage seemed to jump off the page. No, I am not saying that Donald Trump is some kind of evangelical savior sent to us by God. I am actually on the other side of the coin. I am saying that sometimes we see what we want to see in those around us. If you are a conservative, you might be more willing to give King Donald a pass on his eccentric behavior. And if you are not a conservative, you might be less inclined to see President Trump in a positive light.

In Israel, there were two kinds of people; those who were willing to accept that Jesus might be the Messiah, and those who really did not expect that the Messiah was coming. For one group, Jesus was a good man. For the other, he was the embodiment of Satan, the great deceiver of the world.

I wish it were possible for us to see without preconceived labels. That we could allow Jesus to be everything that he claims to be in our lives. Maybe then we would be shaped so that we could be the catalyst to make this world a better place. And perhaps, we might recognize that Jesus is the only savior. He is the only one that we need, as well as the only one that we have. But that would mean that we would need to see beyond our expectations in a way that we never have before.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 8

Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. – Luke 10:3

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 27, 2020): Luke 10

In his 1987 novel "Norwegian Wood," Japanese author Haruki Murakami asks this question: "What happens when people open their hearts?" He also ventures an answer, "They get better." There is a point in our lives when putting up new walls doesn't work anymore; we have to begin to tear them down. Of course, that is not an easy point to get to; after all, we are vulnerable without the walls, and people will see us at our weakest. But the secret that we don't realize, as we hide behind our walls, is that it is only without the barriers that we release our real strength. And it isn't until we reach that moment of vulnerability that we allow ourselves the possibility of getting better.

Jesus admitted that he was sending out his followers "like lambs among wolves." It is not an attractive description. Wolves could easily overwhelm the lambs, maiming and killing them. That was the truth for every flock that found itself on the hills and pastures around the nation. The lambs existed in an area that was inhabited by wolves.

Of course, out on the hills of Judea, there were also shepherds, part of whose job it was to protect the sheep. They were there to chase away the wolves that might gather at what looked like a chance at easy prey. And the sheep trusted the shepherd to keep them safe.

Maybe that is the point. As Jesus sends out his followers "like sheep among wolves," he is promising that he will be their protection. The disciples were not supposed to be self-sufficient. They were supposed to be dependent on the shepherd. And so are we. I am not supposed to have all the answers; I am supposed to be connected to the one that does.

Charles Spurgeon also argues that there is a note of hope in Jesus's instructions.

"After all, the mission of sheep to wolves is a hopeful one, since we see in the natural world that the sheep, though so feeble, by far outnumber the wolves who are so fierce. The day will come when persecutors will be as scarce as wolves, and saints as numerous as sheep" (Charles Spurgeon).

It is a nice thought. But it only happens if we get vulnerable, not only with each other but with the world. I am not sure I have ever heard a Christian political leader advocate that it is time for us to become "like sheep among wolves." And yet, Jesus clearly instructed those who had decided to follow him along that path. Is it possible that he knew something that we don't? Is it possible that this path of vulnerability is also the path to getting better?

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 7

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" – Matthew 18:1

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 26, 2020): Matthew 18

"I am the greatest!" Well, not me. I am far from it. The words belong to Muhammad Ali. At least, he is the one who I remember speaking the words the clearest. He was the greatest, although I doubt that even Ali really believed it; it was just part of the bravado that the boxer put forward as he played his role in the Boxing world. The United States uses the "Greatest Nation on Earth" as a catchphrase, but we understand that it is just a propaganda slogan if we are honest. There are a lot of great nations, depending on what we might be grading them. The "Greatest Nation on Earth" is most definitely powerful, but the reality is that it is "great" only for the privileged few, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. But that does not mean that it isn't a great place to live or that residents of the country shouldn't be proud or patriotic. But the reality is that there are many places where the residents feel like they live in the "greatest place," which they sometimes refer to as "living in God's country."

Of course, for some of us, humility precludes any claims to being the greatest. Too often, self-proclaimed "greatest" people are trying to hide deficits that they don't want anyone to see. And that is okay. We get that and receive these great people with ample amounts of grace.

So, as they travelled around the country with Jesus, the disciples began to play with the idea of who was "the greatest." And they didn't miss that in the days of the patriarchs, twelve men led the nation. It was these twelve men, after whom the tribes had been named, with the exception of Joseph, whose two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they became the leaders of the nation of Israel. There were twelve sons of Israel and twelve apostles of Jesus. In the emerging age, was it possible that the disciples would become as important as Judah and his brothers had been back at the beginning of the nation? And if that was possible, which one of them might be "the greatest?"

But that was also not a question to which Jesus wanted to respond. The Christian Church has never advanced on the backs of great people. It has advanced because of the dedication of the servants who caught the message of Christ, and it changed their lives. People like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who never considered themselves "great," but who existed as the servants of God, doing their best to be the hands and feet of Jesus on the earth.

Jesus summed up this idea to Peter just before his ascension.

Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, "Follow me" (John 21:18-19)!

Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of God? Those to whom being the greatest isn't even a dream that they choose to pursue; those whose only desire is to follow Jesus are the ones who are genuinely great.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 10

And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" – Mark 9:11

Today's Scripture Reading (November 25, 2020): Mark 9

Order is essential in life. A lot of the events in life are based on a specified order. Sometimes we wish we could step over the more challenging parts or the more tedious aspects of the process, but the reality is that what comes before often sets up what comes later. Grade one gives us the building blocks needed to get to grade two. There is a process to starting a new job in which we learn what we are going to need to know. When someone gives you directions to a specific place, they begin with a known before moving on to the unknown. The order is essential.

My first day in a new high school highlighted the importance of order. I was in Grade eleven, and my classmates had already spent a year in this particular school. (Actually, it was a rural K-12 school, so they had spent a lot longer in the school, but it was their second year on this floor of the school.) I was new. And on the first day of school, my Chemistry teacher climbed up on a lab table, making a mess. He wanted someone to grab a rag and clean up the mess. No one moved. But the solution to the problem was not obvious, at least not to me. To grab a rag and clean up the mess required that you know where to find a rag. At the time, it was something that my classmates knew that I didn't know, so I couldn't respond. The order was essential. Sometimes, we can't respond because the task has been presented to us out of order.  

According to the prophets, the apostles understood that Elijah, who didn't die but instead was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11), would make an appearance prior to the coming of the Messiah. The clearest example of this teaching is found in the prophecy of Malachi.

See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction (Malachi 4:5-6).

The apostles' question reveals the emerging trust that they had placed in Jesus. They were becoming certain that Jesus was the Messiah, the Promised One for whom all of Israel has been waiting. But if Jesus was the Messiah, then what happened to Elijah. Is it possible that Malachi was wrong?

And in response, Jesus points to John the Baptist. Elijah had already come. The prophesied order had been preserved, and now was the time for the Day of the Lord, the Day of the dawning of the Messiah.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 18

When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. – Matthew 17:6

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 24, 2020): Matthew 17

What scares you? Not what startles you because it is unexpected or what causes your heart to race momentarily before your pulse returns to its normal speed. What really scares you? What drives your nightmares that keep returning night after night? What is the thought that you keep pushing out of your mind because it continually keeps emerging from your psyche, and you can't bear to let it? What is the thought, hovering at the back of your mind, that is too horrible to be allowed to spend time in the center of your consciousness?

Do you have an answer? I have a couple, but what makes us really afraid are seldom the things that we would ever be comfortable enough to discuss or even write down. They are often threats to our very existence or threats to those whom we love. They are not threats that we have a solution to; these are not the monsters that jump out of the night that can be put down with a gun or some other weapon. They are threats for which we have no answer.

Peter, James, and John followed Jesus up the side of the mountain. They had been in similar situations before, on a trip alone with Jesus, but there was something different this time. Jesus and his inner core of disciples went up on the mountain. And there Jesus was transfigured, a term that is used to describe something that is transformed into something different; something more beautiful or elevated. At this moment, Jesus's face shone like the sun; his clothes became whiter than white as if light was pouring out of the fibers of the cloth. And Peter, James, and John were amazed. Something extraordinary was happening here.

Then Moses and Elijah appeared. These revered figures of the Jewish faith were welcomed with enthusiasm by the disciples, who wanted to build three shelters, one for each of the three participants in the conversation.

But when God spoke to them; when God said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him" (Matthew 17:5), Peter, James, and John were not impressed or excited; they were terrified. They fell to the ground and trembled in fear. This was what scared them because they had no answer to the voice emanating from the sky. Jesus might be the Messiah, but he was also flesh and blood. They had sat around a fire with Jesus, had conversations with him, and they knew the warmth of their rabbi. But God was someone to whom they had no response. He was not someone with whom they could have a discussion; God held the reigns of control for everything necessary in their lives, and the only response that Peter, James, and John had was to tremble in fear. The disciples were overpowered, and all that they felt that they could do was to lie on the ground and wait for the moment to pass.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 9

He sighed deeply and said, "Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it." – Mark 8:12

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 23, 2020): Mark 8

I love the scene at the beginning of Jim Carrey's movie, "Bruce Almighty," where Carrey's character, Bruce Nolan, is searching for a sign about what God wants him to do. The distraught Nolan is driving down a road, begging God to speak to him. And as he goes, he passes a sign that says "caution ahead." And he continues to demand a sign. And then a truck filled with signs cuts him off, only frustrating Nolan more. And then he prays for God to reach into his life and – he hits a pothole, dropping his prayer beads. While searching for his prayer beads, he takes his eyes off the road and hits a pole. Frustrated, he throws his prayer beads into the river and then delivers one of the movie's classic lines, "Smite me oh mighty smiter." I asked for a sign, and look where it got me; my car is wrapped around a pole. (Maybe seeing the "caution ahead" sign might have made a difference.)

There is a problem with asking God for a sign. Regardless of how many signals he might send to us, we probably wouldn't recognize any of them unless, of course, the sign confirms what it is that we already believe. It is part of the problem with asking for a sign from an unseen God. God sends us signals, but often they are lost in a sea of other messages and selfish desires; his signs remind us of things to which we are not already paying attention. The reality is that religious history is filled with people who have caused great disasters because they misread the signs.

As the religious elite of Israel asks Jesus for a sign, Jesus's response is a deep sigh. It is a deep, physical sigh reacting to an internal frustration. Despite everything that Jesus had done, these spiritual leaders were not getting it. They were arrogant, daring Jesus to come and participate on their playing field. They still believed that they were leading the process, that they were in control of Jesus's future, and that it was their right to demanded a sign from Jesus to move the situation along.

But Jesus had no desire to give in to their wishes. He was not about to give in to their demands. They had already seen the signs, but the signs were not given to strengthen the leaders' egos but rather comfort the people. And the people were the focus. When there was a real need for a sign, one would be given. But none would be given just to satisfy the unbelief of those who asked for one. (Insert a deep sigh here.)

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 17

Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns." – Matthew 16:23

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 22, 2020): Matthew 16

It is easy to follow a leader when you agree with where they are going. The real test of trust comes when we are asked to follow our leaders as they lead us to a place that we don't want to go. It is the test that defines a leader. We will follow great leaders, even when they lead us in the opposite direction of where we want to go.

Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ or the Messiah. He has no idea what that means, but he is okay with that because the Jewish people have been waiting for the Messiah for generations. To be part of the age that gets to see the Messiah is a privilege. But to be considered a disciple of the Messiah was a privilege that Peter had never dreamed could be his. Declaring that Jesus was the Christ, in a lot of ways, was easy because it was a direction that Peter emotionally wanted to go.

But then Jesus begins to talk about his death. He explains that he will suffer at the hands of religious leaders and die in Jerusalem. And that is not a place where Peter has any desire to go. And so, Peter stands up to Jesus, telling him that this will never happen. Peter is confident that Jesus's followers will stand up against the religious leadership, defending their teacher from any adverse effects that the religious leadership might like to bring. But even more importantly, God would never let harm come to his Messiah.

Jesus's response is blunt. Just seconds earlier, he had called Peter blessed.  He had said that his confession that Jesus was the Christ would become the rock or foundation on which the emerging church would be based. It was a massive moment for Peter, and in the view of history, it was the moment that lifted Peter from being one of the disciples to Peter being the leader, not only of the disciples but of the Christian Church.

Which makes Jesus's comment declaring Peter to be Satan even more significant.  It is a strong rebuke of this leader of the apostles. Origen, writing in the early years of the third century C.E., argues that Jesus was telling Peter that "your place is behind me, not in front of me. It is your place to follow me in the way I choose, not to try to lead me in the way you would like me to go.'" If you are indeed my disciple, you will allow me to lead you, even into situations that you don't want to go. And this is the definition of a true disciple of Jesus.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 8

You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions." – Mark 7:8

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 21, 2020): Mark 7

Muslim Philosopher Al-Ghazali (1058-1111 C.E.) instructed his followers to "Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see - egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be ready to fight the enemy you can see." Al-Ghazali has been described as the single most influential Muslim after Muhammad. And it is not just on Islam that he has left his mark. Through his influence on Christian figures like St. Thomas Aquinas, his wisdom has crossed over religious dividing lines into various areas of human existence.

Al-Ghazali's words of jihad threaten to put off any contemporary Christian listeners. We regard jihad as something that does not pertain to us. But I would argue that we need to hear the words of this Muslim philosopher; that the world would be in a much better place if we could just live out Al-Ghazali's instructions. Too many Christians do battle with the world without first doing battle with themselves. What would happen if Christians did declare our fight on the thirteen unseen enemies of our lives? What if we treated things like egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping, and slandering as the enemy of our souls and committed ourselves to their eradication from our lives before we decided to criticize the lives of others?  

Okay, if we were to declare jihad on the thirteen unseen enemies, we might not get around to ever declaring jihad on anything or anyone else. The battle against these thirteen enemies would be enough to fill a lifetime. And the reality is that it is the same thirteen enemies, the ones declared by Al-Ghazali, that stop the Christian from being a genuinely loving force in our world. Our thirteen unseen enemies usurp our power.

Jesus declares that we are stopped from accomplishing God's will because we give a higher place to human tradition than God. The actual Greek word that is used here is παράδοσις (paradosis), a teaching from tradition. We ignore what God directly instructs us to do because God's commands do not measure up with the precepts we have put into place in our own lives. And our reluctance to follow God is often a direct result of our thirteen unseen enemies. It is our ego that sets what we believe or want to believe above God's instruction. Our arrogance and conceit, and the strong desire within us to slander and gossip, stop us from being a force for the positive in this world.

Specifically, it is this human tradition of ignoring the thirteen unseen enemies that stop us from loving others the way that Jesus loved us. And until we declare war against our thirteen unseen enemies, we will never be able to love each other the way that Jesus instructed us to love. Instead, we will continue to allow human tradition to modify the commands of God – and in the end, we will accomplish nothing.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 16

See also Matthew 15:3

You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: " 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.'" - Matthew 15:7-9

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 20, 2020): Matthew 15

Apparently, in Illinois, a car must be driven with a steering wheel. And that is disturbing for all of us whose cars came equipped with a computer joystick meant for steering the vehicle. I am not sure of the reason behind the law. I have driven for a few decades, and I have always used a steering wheel, adhering to the Illinois law even when I am not in Illinois. But, at some point in time, something happened that caused the State of Illinois to pass a law that requires steering wheels, and I am sure that has hampered the automotive industry (and, yes, my tongue is firmly implanted in my cheek). If you are driving in Chicago, make sure that a steering wheel is correctly installed in your car.

Cultures often have laws that seem to make no sense to us. Sometimes, the law is badly- written, or they are given without adequate explanations. Often, laws are simply outdated, and the reasons for the law have been lost in the fog of the past. Or maybe the rules seem to be too obvious, like a law that says that a car must be driven with a steering wheel. For whatever reason, we look at these laws and are at a loss to explain why anyone would take the time to pass them. They seem out of place in our society.

At first blush, Jewish cleanliness laws do not seem to belong to this set of regulations. In our modern society, the concept of washing your hands before eating is clearly understood. In a COVID-19 world, we are continually reminded about the importance of washing our hands. We know that germs can crawl on our hands, and we understand how sickness is transferred from one person to another. But we seem to need to be continually reminded that we need to stay clean. But the cleanliness laws of Judaism had been divorced from the idea of remaining clean. The concept that had permeated the culture was that sin could be committed and then washed from your hands through a ritual cleansing. The problem is that this was never God's intention. God had always wanted those who followed him to be different in nature, not just different in ritual.

And that was the point that Jesus was trying to make and that Isaiah had made centuries earlier. There was no ethical difference between the people of Israel and those from other countries. They were worshipful with their lips, but not with their lives. When they entered the Temple, they pretended to be something that they refused to be outside the temple walls. And the reason why this was possible in their society was that the people were willing to ritually commit to washing their hands.

God's demands on us have not changed. He wants something different for us. We are a people who believe in grace, but not a cheap grace that comes with the idea of frequently washing our hands. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in "The Cost of Discipleship," wrote about that kind of grace. Cheap grace is grace that allows us to stay the same as we were before. Instead, Bonhoeffer advocated for a costly grace.

Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus; it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Cleanliness laws had become absurd because they were separated from the life that God intended us to live – a life of following him, which never leaves us the same but instead prompts a change in us into a people of love and light, which is precisely what our world needs right now.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 7

See also Mark 7:6-7

 

Philip answered him, "It would take more than half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" – John 6:7

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 19, 2020): John 6

I am a fiscal conservative. That means that we need to watch what we spend and that debt is a bad thing overall. I have never been overly enthused about the idea of debt, regardless of whether the debt is personal or public. I had a great conversation with a local politician, and he explained that governments need to go into debt to get the economy moving, but later they would make up the difference, paying off the debt. I explained that I had heard that before, and the problem seemed to be that later never came. We are always borrowing today while promising that tomorrow we will pay it all back, but tomorrow never comes. Another friend might have been more honest when he just proclaimed that his credit card debt was found money, and he has no intention of ever paying it back. He will keep making the minimum payment until the day he dies, and the problem becomes someone else's. The biblical principle of living within our means seems to be a behavior code that does not measure up to contemporary living. We want everything now, and that means that we are willing to live in debt.  

Jesus perceives a problem; the people are hungry and need to be fed. And so, he poses the question to Philip. How can we feed the people? Philip is mystified. The problem that Jesus has posed has two parts. First, to feed the crowd, made up of five thousand men, plus their wives and children was an expensive proposition. Philip estimates that the cost of providing food for the group would come to more than two hundred denarii, a sum of money that would take the average person more than half a year to earn. And Jesus and his friends did not have that kind of cash on hand.  

The second problem was that even if they had the money to buy the food, there was no place to buy the food. Philip could have easily asked Jesus, "where can I buy the food?" but he chooses to attack the problem by confirming that they didn't have the money available to buy the necessary food. Easy debt was an unheard-of concept, but besides that, the biblical principle was to live within your means and not go into debt. (For instance, Proverbs 22:7 teaches that "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.") And the prospect of feeding around ten thousand people was not living within their means.

Of course, the person who asked the question was greater than Moses, who had fed Israel in the desert with "bread from heaven" for decades. And as Philip ponders how they might pay for the food, he forgets to ask Jesus if he might already have a plan.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 15

 

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "God's Messiah." – Luke 9:20

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 18, 2020): Luke 9

On September 13, 2009, at the MTV Video Music Awards, the award for Best Female Video went to Taylor Swift for her song "You Belong to Me." It was an evening that few who were watching are going to forget easily. Swift took the stage to accept the award, and, at that moment, Kanye West also stepped into the spotlight, infamously grabbing the mic from Taylor to insert his commentary on the "best video." His words shook the watching audience. "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I' mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time. One of the best videos of all time!" Some of the award ceremony attendees booed Kanye, while others seemed to try to cheer on Taylor, but by the time Kanye had handed the mic back to Taylor, her time was up.

No one seemed overly impressed with West. President Obama had some unkind words for the singer, as did Katy Perry tweeting, "Kanye, it's like you stepped on a kitten." Al Roker would later suggest that Kanye West needed to "re-evaluate his place in the universe." For that night, the world seemed to sympathize with Taylor, and Kanye was stuck wearing the proverbial "Black Hat." And at that moment, if anyone was to ask "who do they say that I am," the answer was probably not positive for Kanye, and Katy Perry's "kitten" remark summed up pretty well who people believed Taylor Swift to be.

Who do people say that you are?  Or maybe the better question might be, who do you want people to say that you are?  In a lot of ways, this is the real question of our lives.  In the Taylor Swift/Kanye West debacle, the bottom line of the whole incident was who people thought the story's principal characters were.  Did Beyoncé make an incredible video – yes.  But at some point, someone chose Taylor's video for the award.  Both had tried hard, and Kanye disagreed with the results.  In Kanye's mind, someone had made a mistake – and being who he is, he told the world what it was he thought.  And that shouldn't have been much of a surprise – it informs our opinion of who he is and confirmed who we believed him to be.

At some point, we have to make decisions in our lives that will influence how people see us. Yeah, I have made many wrong choices – but they were my decisions – and I (and Kanye) have to be responsible for the wrong decisions we make.  But how people perceive us will also influence what it is that we can do in their presence.  If people think I am a fantastic guitarist (I'm not), then I will probably be asked to play guitar.  If it is a great speaker, then I might be asked to speak.  And if I am seen as a fantastic sanitation worker – well, you know, I will be the one taking out what you have thrown away.

It is interesting to me that it was this question that Jesus asked.  Who is it that you say that I am? The answer affected what it was that the disciples would allow Jesus to do in their midst. If they believed that he was a great teacher, then they would let him teach.  If they thought that Jesus was a great healer, then they would allow him to heal.  If we believe that he is the Christ, then we will let him lead – no matter the circumstances.

It is also a question that we need to answer because our response will define what we will allow Jesus to do in our midst. Who is it that you say that he is? Or maybe, who do you need him to be.  Let him be precisely that. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: John 6

See also Mark 8:29

… and he said to his attendants, "This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead! That is why miraculous powers are at work in him." – Matthew 14:2

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 17, 2020): Matthew 14

In 1843, Edgar Allan Poe released his story "The Tell-Tale Heart." The story tells the tale of an unnamed man living with an older man who has a clouded, "vulture-eye." The unidentified man, who also acts as the first-person narrator of the story, is obsessed with the "vulture-eye," so much that he sneaks into the man's room every night to make sure that the eye is closed. And then one night, he discovers that the older man is awake, and the eye is open. It was on that night that the man decides to murder his housemate.

And so, he commits what is essentially the perfect murder. He kills the man and then cuts the man's body up into pieces and hides him under his room's floorboard. Then he meticulously cleans up the mess so that no one can tell that anything has happened.

Of course, during the murder, the older man with the vulture-eye screams, and a neighbor hears the cry and notifies the police. The police come to investigate the cry, but not until the house's clean-up has been completed. But the man is confident that no one will be able to discern what has happened. He tells the police that the scream is his own, a response to a nightmare that he had had earlier in the night. Then he sets up chairs in the older man's room, just above the now hidden pieces of the older man's dissected body, and invites the police officers to come and sit and proceed with the interview of the murderer.

During the interview, the narrator begins to hear a noise, a strange beating. He wonders what it is, but the police don't seem to notice. Yet, the beat gets louder and louder, and the narrator is convinced that it is the heart of the older man with the vulture-eye, reaching out to him from beneath the floorboards. Finally, the beating heart becomes too much for the man, and he confesses to his crime, inviting the police to tear up the floorboards and find the pieces of the older man. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a story of the effects of guilt on a human's psyche. And in the end, it doesn't matter if others don't know the wrong that we have done. We know, and that is enough.

Herod is suffering from a severe case of guilt. Everywhere he looks, he sees the decapitated head of John the Baptist. The head is crying out against Herod. The king is haunted by the prophet that he killed. And Herod likely can't understand why those around him can't hear the damning testimony of the bodiless head of the prophet.

And it doesn't help that Origen, writing in the third century C.E., argues that John and Jesus looked very similar. If that is true, then he would look into the eyes of Jesus and see the condemning face of John staring back at him. It is no wonder that he was beginning to believe that John had risen from the dead, as his guilt continues to condemn him.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Luke 9

These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. – Mark 6:7

 Today's Scripture Reading (November 16, 2020): Mark 6

When I was younger, I used to hide some money in my wallet. It was folded up and placed in the corner of my wallet, where no one would see it. But I knew that it was there. The money was my security blanket. The practice grew out of moments in my life where I was stuck in an emergency without any money to help get me out. Once, I was stuck a distance away from home when my car suffered a severe break-down, and I had to depend on a friend's help not only to give me a place to sleep but to help me pay to get my car repaired and back on the road. And I never wanted to be caught in that situation ever again.

However, those moments when I have been caught without money have also shown me the caring nature of humanity. They are uncomfortable memories, but they are also cherished recollections. And if it wasn't for these moments, I might have missed some essential life lessons, and I might have had a much more pessimistic outlook on life in general. It was in my moment of need that the world showed me what it meant to love and care for others; and be a hospitable place, even for a stranger.

It was a lesson that Jesus was trying to teach his disciples. He wanted them to go out and depend on the goodness of people for their support. He wanted them to not just teach about love and about how God loves them, but he wanted to give them a chance to put that love into practice. People who were willing to love would also be open to hearing a message based on love. But for those who seemed only ready to practice hate, they would never hear a message of love and would never offer hospitality to his disciples.

And hospitality was the point of Jesus's instructions. We sometimes miss that. As much as Sodom and Gomorrah seem to have become our poster examples of God's opposition to homosexuality, the reality of the story is that it is about rape and inhospitality. Jesus's message supports that interpretation. He tells his disciples to go out without anything to sustain their lives and allow the people to practice hospitality with them. But, "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town" (Matthew 10:14-15).

Jesus sent his disciples out with nothing so that the people would have an opportunity to practice hospitality. If they did, they would receive God's message of love. But if they didn't, if they rejected the disciples in their time of need, it would be better for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than it would be for them.

And if we reject hospitality with all that Jesus has done in our midst, it might be even worse for us. Because we, the Christian Church, have no excuse not to be part of a hospitality revolution. That is the revolution that this world needs and the response to this world that God demands us.

 Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Matthew 14

The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. – Matthew 10:24

Today's Scripture Reading (November 15, 2020): Matthew 10

The Greek fabulist Aesop argued that "If you choose bad companions, no one will believe that you are anything but bad yourself." Of course, we already knew that; our mothers have been trying to teach us that since our early childhood, not that we ever believed them. Every time we started to hang around with questionable companions, mom would immediately raise the warning flag. The problem is that she knew what we should have understood; we would be judged to be of the same type of person as those with whom we associate. I am colored by the people who I welcome into my presence.

I am also colored by those who I follow and those from whom I choose to learn. And this was one of the issues that I tried to give some attention to in graduate school. For the most part, I had a wonderful group of professors from whom I was very willing to learn. I may not have agreed with everything that they believed, but I felt that they would welcome our disagreements, and, even then, the learning could continue. But these disagreements were in belief and not a question of character. When I felt that a character problem was present, I tried to avoid the professor, even if our ideas agreed.

There were a couple of professors that I actively avoided (I had one class with each of them) in graduate school. And the reality was that I was not comfortable in their presence. And it was not a discomfort with what they were teaching or what they knew. My uneasiness was because of who they were. Neither were they the kind of person that I ever wanted to emulate. And I did not want to be colored with the same crayon that had colored them.

This is the problem with anyone, from any walk of life, we choose to support with our voices or our presence. It is true of our teachers, our politicians, and our pastors. We need to be careful with where we place our support and under whose banner we place our being. We will be associated with that person, for good or bad. If we support a liar, no one will trust us with the truth. If we laud the character of a bigot, then we will be identified as racists. Aesop was right; "If you choose bad companions, no one will believe that you are anything but bad yourself."

It was this point that Jesus was trying to drive through to his disciples. The student will be judged to be the same as the teacher, and even the servant will be colored with the same crayon as the one he serves. So be careful about who it is that you give the privilege of coloring you. It is not that you can avoid the process. Someone is going to shade how the world sees you. But you can choose to whom you give the privilege of wielding the crayon.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Mark 6