March 16th, 2021

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” Substitute God for nature and you have true biblical wisdom. God does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Not hurrying may be difficult for you. Of course, there are times when we all want our Oompa Loompa now. Yet, Scripture tells us that “God makes everything happen at the right time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11) Jesus was born in the “fullness of time”. And on the cross and resurrection all creation – and all time – hinges. In other words, everything is already accomplished!

“Grant, O Lord, that the course of this world may be peaceable governed by your providence; and that we may joyfully serve you in confidence and serenity; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Proper 3 – BCP p. 229)

March 15th, 2021

“Beware the Ides of March.” You’ve likely heard the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s play. March 15th was the date of Caesar’s assassination. It was also the date set in Rome for collecting debts. The karmic laws were in full force:  time to reap what you have sown. Time to pay the piper.

Grace is the only power that can undo karma (aka the Law). As the Irish poet reminds us, “it travels outside of karma.”Yes, beware – the wages of sin is death. But, as St. Paul says, “God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant.” (Romans 5:20)

Amen!

March 12th, 2021

Love is always fettered. Loving another person always exacts some measure of your own freedom. Being in a relationship always imposes limits on your personal autonomy. To put it more starkly, and biblically, love demands death to self. There are no exceptions to this rule.

You’ve likely heard this at a wedding. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

This is good news, friends. Because, as Jesus, says, whoever loses his life will save it. That is the work of love. And because He is love, it is His work in your life.

“Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Fifth Sunday in Lent – BCP p. 219)

March 11th, 2021

“On another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and was teaching, and a man was there whose right hand was shriveled. The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Get up and stand in front of everyone.” So he got up and stood there. Then Jesus said to them, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored.” (Luke 6:6-10)

In this passage from Luke, Jesus heals a man’s withered hand. It is important that it is the man’s right hand. In that culture, the right hand was considered “clean” and therefore used for nourishment and social interaction. (Sorry lefties!) Jesus is making an important point about the Sabbath in this episode, but the depth of His care for the man should not be lost in the theological shuffle. Not only does He heal the man physically, He restores Him to his community.

Not a stone goes unturned in God’s comprehensive care for you. Most especially, the stone upturned on the Third Day which delivers us from death!

“We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Saturday in Easter Week – BCP p. 224)

March 10th, 2021

The Almost Daily is back! In Virginia, spring is springing and birds are singing. More and more people are vaccinated. In the words of the Beatles, “I feel the ice is slowly melting…. It seems like years since it’s been clear.”

 The natural world is reflective of the eternal heart of God. The resurrection is proof positive that the Good will ultimately prevail. As the psalmist assures us, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

So glad to be back with you!

“O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will, and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great Day; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” (On Sunday – BCP p. 835)

March 1st, 2021

Dear Friends,

The Almost Daily will be on a brief hiatus. I’ll be back in your inbox before long!

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (2 Lent – BCP)

March 25th, 2021

Here’s Garrison Keillor on the humility of Minnesotans. “Minnesota is overlooked because we were brought up not to brag, not toot our horn, not dance in the end zone. When a Minnesotan hits a grand-slam homer in the ninth to come from behind and win the championship, he trots around the bases, ignoring the roar of the crowd, and crosses home plate and walks, head down, to the dugout, and sits down, no waving his cap to the crowd, and afterward he autographs a hundred caps for hospitalized children and goes home, and mows his lawn.”

Love those Minnesotans! Here’s what we read about the subject in the Good Book. “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” (Proverbs 11:2)

Time to pray!

“Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Proper 18 – BCP p. 233)

October 31, 2019

Today is Halloween. In other words, it is All Hallows Eve. In still other words, it is the evening before All Hallows Day, which is in yet still other words – All Saints Day. To “hallow” someone is to honor them as holy. That’s the etymology of the day to dress up and demand some candy. A big part of the appeal of Halloween for young and old is the dressing up part. It is a relief to not be you, at least for a day. Especially when you are trying to be better (more holy) than you actually are. Pretending to be somebody else in that way gets tiring, and fast.

Today is also Reformation Day – commemorating the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenburg, Germany. With beautiful symmetry, Reformation Day speaks directly to those of us who try in vain to dress ourselves up to be holier than we actually are. We are reminded that holiness does not come from within, but is imputed (given) to us by Christ himself. That’s what the Apostle Paul tells us – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  

We are clothed in Christ’s righteousness.  And it’s not a costume, it’s the real you!

“Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.” (Prayer for Mission – BCP p. 101)

October 30, 2019

Anne Lamott’s great line, “My mind is like a bad neighborhood that I try not to go into alone”applies to all kinds of needling, unhelpful, and deceptive thoughts. The internal self-condemner rolls up his or her sleeves on one street and buys up all the condos. The self-justifier has claimed a different block. The quick to criticize and judge other people section of the neighborhood is formidable, and is always building new houses. Then there is always the section you want to keep hidden away from anybody else’s scrutiny; the windows there are all boarded up. 

Flannery O’Connor described the subject of her fiction as “the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil.”(Halloween is tomorrow, after all!) You don’t want to go alone into your mind because we are subject to the one Jesus calls “the father of lies.”Describing the devil, Jesus says, “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

Thankfully, you do not go into the neighborhood of your own mind alone. Jesus Christ, your Savior and Defender, is there with you. And He is mighty to save.

“Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (First Sunday in Lent – BCP p. 218)

October 29, 2019

Borrowing whole cloth from Frederick Buechner today, from his book, Telling the Truth.Alert Mockingbird readers will get a refresher with this one, but it is worth it.

“The Gospel is bad news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or just doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen…. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth.”

Such a good riff on St. Paul’s pithy and perfect summation of the Gospel: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

“Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Good Friday – BCP p. 221)

October 28, 2019

The blistering passage of time can make a person do a double take.  When a tailgate party turns up a college roommate from 30 years ago, one can wonder about the ephemerality of existence. Or just hearing a song from your 16th year of life instantaneously time travels you back to your teenage emotional landscape. “Oldies” radio stations have heavy commercial appeal.

Sometimes our lives can feel like Solomon Grundy, the 1842 English nursery rhyme.

“Solomon Grundy, Born on a Monday, Christened on Tuesday, Married on Wednesday, Took ill on Thursday, Grew worse on Friday, Died on Saturday, Buried on Sunday, That was the end, Of Solomon Grundy.”

Thankfully, our lives are not just a free fall of moments, one following the next on the way to the bone yard, buried on Sunday. (Although it’s true that we will all end up there – see last Friday’s Devotional for more on that subject.) Instead, we are securely cupped in the hands of God. Everything we are and everything that happens to us – good, bad, ugly – is safely housed in God’s grip.

“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hands of my enemies and my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love.” (Psalm 31:14-16)

“O God, our times our in your hand: Look with favor, we pray, on us as we begin another year. Grant that we may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen our trust in your goodness all the days of our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.” (For A Birthday- BCP p. 830)

October 25, 2019

The contemplation of death seems at first blush like a strange and morbid occupation. Yet, why is that? We are all going to die; humanity’s mortality rate still clocks in at 100%.  As Dawes sings, “you can stare into the abyss, but it’s staring right back.”Why not take a prolonged peek into the abyss?

16thcentury French philosopher Michel de Montaigne wrote, “To begin depriving death of its greatest advantage over us, let us deprive death of its strangeness, let us frequent it, let us get used to it; let us have nothing more often in mind than death.”The psalmists had the same thoughts much earlier. “For God knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.” (Psalm 103:14-16) Or, “So teach us to number our days that we get a heart of wisdom.” (Psalm 90:12)

When Christians do stare into the abyss, we find Jesus Christ staring right back with open arms. Risen from the dead, He has trampled down death with His own death. So as we stare into the abyss we will have the Apostle Paul’s words on our lips, “O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)

“O God, who by the glorious resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light: Grant that we, who have been raised with him, may abide in his presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen” (Tuesday in Easter Week – BCP p. 223)

October 24, 2019

One of the consequences of Original Sin is the onset of spiritual myopia. Technically, myopia is simply nearsightedness and is correctable with a good set of glasses. Metaphorically, myopia is inability to see anything else that is not right in front of your nose. Myopic people (all of us!) see a set of close up “facts” and draw all kinds of hard-set conclusions, ignoring (blind to) the teeming universe of other factors at play in any given situation.

As I mentioned, this affliction has been with us since the dawn of time. This is why the Apostle Paul reminds us that, “we walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) Earlier he says, “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)And finally, the author of the letter to the Hebrews tells us that “faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

We only see in part, but thankfully, God sees the Big Picture.

“O God, who on the holy mount revealed to chosen witnesses your well-beloved Son, wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: Mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may by faith behold the King in his beauty; who with you, O Father, and you, O Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen” (The Transfiguration – BCP p. 243)

October 23, 2019

A tried and true, middle of the night when your thoughts are swirling and you can’t sleep prayer is the Jesus Prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”Not only does the prayer have a kind of mantric quality about it, but it also places you on theologically firm ground. Jesus is Lord, you are a sinful person in need, and the two of you meet on the ground of His mercy.

Seeing yourself in the blindness of Bartimaeus the beggar is also the right move. “And as Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:46-48)  Jesus responds to Bartimaeus with mercy and restores his sight.

In fact, you don’t have to wait to 3am to pray the Jesus Prayer. Jesus is here all the time, a very present help in time of trouble, whenever the shadow of darkness falls. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

“Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.” (A Collect for Aid against Perils – BCP p. 123)

October 22, 2019

In between bands at a recent music festival, the host/sponsor took the stage to try to ignite the crowd. Multiple times and with crescendoing volume, she asked us if we were having fun. When the response was lackluster, she belted out, “You’re in my house here! The only rule in my house is that you GOT TO HAVE FUN!”

The host was just doing her job, but she made me want to leave, despite the good music, weather, food, drink and company. Rarely do people like to be told what to do and how to feel. Often, a command will produce the opposite result. For instance, does being told to relax actually result in relaxation? Once you notice this dynamic, it is startling to realize how much everybody likes to tell everybody else what to do!

This is how the Law of God works. God’s Law is holy and righteous, but it does not produce the fruit of holiness and righteousness in us. Instead, the scripture tells us that it produces sin and death. The Apostle Paul says, “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in my all kinds of covetousness…. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” (Romans 7:7-10)

Thankfully, our Christian faith is not ultimately about what we are to do. Rather, it is about what Jesus Christ has already done for us on the cross.  “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do….” (Romans 8:3)Amen!“We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” (Saturday in Easter Week– BCP p. 224)

October 21, 2019

Passivity is kind of a bad word in the context of American Can-do-ism. But in terms of your relationship with God, passivity is the Whole Enchilada. Luther describes our experience with God as “passive righteousness.”

In his Preface to Galatians, he says, “This most excellent righteousness – that of faith, I mean – which God imputes to us through Christ, without works … is passive…. We do nothing in this matter; we give nothing to God but simply receive and allow someone else to work in us – that is, God. Therefore, it seems to me that this righteousness of faith, or Christian righteousness, can well be called passive righteousness.”

I wonder if we sometimes theologically accept our passivity, but then resort to our own proactivity in “the real world.” You’ve had your shot at this God, but now…over to me. I wonder if we functionally act as atheists – as if God does not exist or is powerless to act.

God acts. That’s what He does. Not in our own time or after our own fashion, maybe, but He acts. “He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.” And we wait.

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:9-10)

“Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.” (Third Sunday of Advent – BCP p. 212)

October 18, 2019

Flannery O’Connor was a notoriously bad speller, which is a funny quirk in such a brilliant writer. Her trademark wit and insight was already apparent as a young schoolgirl when she told her mother, “Mother, I made an 82 in Geography but I woulda’ made a hundred, if it hadn’t been for Spellin’; I made a 85 in English, but I woulda’ made a hundred, if it hadn’t been for Spellin’; and I made a 65 in Spellin’ and I woulda’ a hundred, if it hadn’t been for Spellin’!”

The penchant to find excuses for ourselves is present from the Preschool to the Assisted Living Facility – and at all points in between. When someone makes a public statement about a wrongdoing or failure, the preamble to “but that’s no excuse” (I was tired, we were short staffed, times have changed….) is usually an excuse. It’s about as effective as Steve Martin’s sarcastic “Well…EXCUUUUSE ME!”

The law of God judges us and finds us uniformly guilty. “Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are….” (Romans 2:1) Thankfully, in Christ (“whose property is always to have mercy”) we are…well… always given mercy, even in the face of lame excuse. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5) Stick that story today and you just can’t go wrong.

“Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we are to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our consciences is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Proper 22 – BCP p. 234)

October 17, 2019

It seems inevitable that a degree of wanderlust is ever present in this life. It may not manifest itself in the need to travel to exotic places. You may just feel a niggling gnawing for change, even when things are good. Or, alternatively, a clamoring for security and order when things are in flux. As Amanda McMillen said in her August 11thsermon, we are “always a little homesick.”You certainly feel it in the autumnal landscape, riddled with ephemeral beauty.

I suspect this longing is universal; I’m certain it is attested to in Scripture. “For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding.” (1 Chronicles 29:15)Throughout both the Old and New Testaments we read that this world, as wonderful as it can be, cannot sustain our deepest yearnings. 

Like Thru-Hikers on the Appalachian Trail, we are passing through. C.S. Lewis once said, “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”  Amen to that – for we were made for a world that shall abide.

“Grant us, O Lord, not to mind earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to cleave to those that shall abide; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Proper 20 – BCP p. 182)

October 16, 2019

The stubborn myth of human goodness is astonishingly difficult to dispel. And that is despite the hard evidence of the greed, violence, hedonism and general indifference that comprise a daily newsfeed.  I suppose the tenacity of the myth shouldn’t be astonishing since we have so much invested in thinking well of ourselves, while locating the blame on the “bad people” of the world. Still, among those who should know better, one hears with regularity “he’s a good person” or “the real goal is to raise good people.”

When the rich, young ruler addresses Jesus as “good teacher”, Jesus responds, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (Mark 10:18) (By the way, Jesus IS good because He is God and may be answering the brash young man with a double entendre.) Had it been written, Jesus could have responded with Article IX of the Episcopal Church’s 39 Articles. We are “very far gone from (our) original righteousness and is of (our) own nature inclined to evil.”

I see this sober assessment of our nature as very good news. It doesn’t mean that we are entirely wicked or that we are not capable of goodness. As Bruce Cockburn sang, “I’ve never had a lot of faith in human beings, but sometimes we manage to shine.”It just means that our faith is not wrongly placed in ourselves, but rightly placed in God alone. For God alone is good.

“Most holy God, the source of all good desires, all right judgments, and all just works: Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, so that our minds may be fixed on the doing of your will, and that we, being delivered from the fear of all enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through the mercies of Christ Jesus our Savior. Amen.” (A Collect for Peace – BCP p. 123)

October 15, 2019

You are given what you need in the present moment. That’s what the manna from heaven was all about. When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, God fed them daily with, well, daily bread. “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day….” (Exodus 16:4)

God gave His people specific instructions about this daily bread. If they tried to gather enough to store for tomorrow, not trusting that God would deliver on His daily promise and provision, then the manna would rot. With a kind of putrid clarity, the scripture tells us that,  “stored manna bred worms and stank.” 

So there is good reason Jesus includes “give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. And don’t forget that He is the true bread that comes down from heaven. He says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst.” He is what you need in this present moment.

“Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Fourth Sunday in Lent – BCP p. 219)