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Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Bible Readings for December 1, 2020

Let's read the Bible together in the next year. Today our passages Daniel 8:1-27; 1 John 2:1-17; Psalm 120:1-7; and Proverbs 28:25-26. The readings are from The Message by Eugene H. Peterson.

Daniel 8:1-27 (The Message)

Daniel 8

A Vision of a Ram and a Billy Goat

¹ "In King Belshazzar's third year as king, another vision came to me, Daniel. This was now the second vision. ^2-4 "In the vision, I saw myself in Susa, the capital city of the province Elam, standing at the Ulai Canal. Looking around, I was surprised to see a ram also standing at the gate. The ram had two huge horns, one bigger than the other, but the bigger horn was the last to appear. I watched as the ram charged: first west, then north, then south. No beast could stand up to him. He did just as he pleased, strutting as if he were king of the beasts. ^5-7 "While I was watching this, wondering what it all meant, I saw a billy goat with an immense horn in the middle of its forehead come up out of the west and fly across the whole country, not once touching the ground. The billy goat approached the double-horned ram that I had earlier seen standing at the gate and, enraged, charged it viciously. I watched as, mad with rage, it charged the ram and hit it so hard that it broke off its two horns. The ram didn't stand a chance against it. The billy goat knocked the ram to the ground and stomped all over it. Nothing could have saved the ram from the goat.  ^8-12 "Then the billy goat swelled to an enormous size. At the height of its power its immense horn broke off and four other big horns sprouted in its place, pointing to the four points of the compass. And then from one of these big horns another horn sprouted. It started small, but then grew to an enormous size, facing south and east—toward lovely Palestine. The horn grew tall, reaching to the stars, the heavenly army, and threw some of the stars to the earth and stomped on them. It even dared to challenge the power of God, Prince of the Celestial Army! And then it threw out daily worship and desecrated the Sanctuary. As judgment against their sin, the holy people of God got the same treatment as the daily worship. The horn cast God's Truth aside. High-handed, it took over everything and everyone.
¹³ "Then I overheard two holy angels talking. One asked, 'How long is what we see here going to last—the abolishing of daily worship, this devastating judgment against sin, the kicking around of God's holy people and the Sanctuary?'
¹⁴ "The other answered, 'Over the course of 2,300 sacrifices, evening and morning. Then the Sanctuary will be set right again.'
¹⁵ "While I, Daniel, was trying to make sense of what I was seeing, suddenly there was a humanlike figure standing before me.
^16-17 "Then I heard a man's voice from over by the Ulai Canal calling out, 'Gabriel, tell this man what is going on. Explain the vision to him.' He came up to me, but when he got close I became terrified and fell facedown on the ground.
^17-18 "He said, 'Understand that this vision has to do with the time of the end.' As soon as he spoke, I fainted, my face in the dirt. But he picked me up and put me on my feet.
¹⁹ "And then he continued, 'I want to tell you what is going to happen as the judgment days of wrath wind down, for there is going to be an end to all this.
^20-22 "'The double-horned ram you saw stands for the two kings of the Medes and Persians. The billy goat stands for the kingdom of the Greeks. The huge horn on its forehead is the first Greek king. The four horns that sprouted after it was broken off are the four kings that come after him, but without his power.
^23-26"'As their kingdoms cool down
   and rebellions heat up,
A king will show up,
   hard-faced, a master trickster.
His power will swell enormously.
   He'll talk big, high-handedly,
Doing whatever he pleases,
   knocking off heroes and holy ones left and right.
He'll plot and scheme to make crime flourish—
   and oh, how it will flourish!
He'll think he's invincible
   and get rid of anyone who gets in his way.
But when he takes on the Prince of all princes,
   he'll be smashed to bits—
   but not by human hands.
This vision of the 2,300 sacrifices, evening and morning,
   is accurate but confidential.
Keep it to yourself.
   It refers to the far future.'
²⁷ "I, Daniel, walked around in a daze, unwell for days. Then I got a grip on myself and went back to work taking care of the king's affairs. But I continued to be upset by the vision. I couldn't make sense of it."

1 John 2:1-17 (The Message)

1 John 2

^1-2I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world's.

The Only Way to Know We're in Him

^2-3Here's how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments. ^4-6If someone claims, "I know him well!" but doesn't keep his commandments, he's obviously a liar. His life doesn't match his words. But the one who keeps God's word is the person in whom we see God's mature love. This is the only way to be sure we're in God. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.
^7-8My dear friends, I'm not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you've known it from day one. It's always been implicit in the Message you've heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!
^9-11Anyone who claims to live in God's light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It's the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God's light and doesn't block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn't know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.

Loving the World

^12-13I remind you, my dear children: Your sins are forgiven in Jesus' name. You veterans were in on the ground floor, and know the One who started all this; you newcomers have won a big victory over the Evil One. ^13-14And a second reminder, dear children: You know the Father from personal experience. You veterans know the One who started it all; and you newcomers—such vitality and strength! God's word is so steady in you. Your fellowship with God enables you to gain a victory over the Evil One.
^15-17Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

Psalm 120:1-7 (The Message)

Psalm 120

A Pilgrim Song

^1-2 I'm in trouble. I cry to God, desperate for an answer:
   "Deliver me from the liars, God!
      They smile so sweetly but lie through their teeth."

^3-4 Do you know what's next, can you see what's coming,
      all you barefaced liars?
   Pointed arrows and burning coals
      will be your reward.

^5-7 I'm doomed to live in Meshech,
      cursed with a home in Kedar,
   My whole life lived camping
      among quarreling neighbors.
   I'm all for peace, but the minute
      I tell them so, they go to war!

Feeding on Christ Preaching the Proverbs - Feeding on Christ

Proverbs 28:25-26 (The Message)

²⁵ A grasping person stirs up trouble,
but trust in God brings a sense of well-being.

²⁶ If you think you know it all, you're a fool for sure;
real survivors learn wisdom from others.

Thought for the Day

“In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us.” (John 1:1-2, 14 - Contemporary English Version) Jesus Christ is the revelation of God, because he is God. Therefore, it's through him that we can better understand the nature of divine freedom and love.

Quote for the Day

Japanese-American architect, Minoru Yamasaki wrote, “I feel this is very important for us to have serene buildings because our civilization is chaotic as it is, you see; our whole machine age has brought about a chaos that has to be somehow counterbalanced, I think.”

A Joke for Today

Two archaeologists, exploring a remote mountain in Tibet came across a huge granite statue which resembled a sitting man. It stood almost 400 foot tall, and its bodily details were accurate down to the fingernails and teeth.

"It looks real enough to talk," says one.

"Lets try," says the other and turning to the statue he asks it its name.

No answer.

"How old are you?"

No answer.

Finally. one shouts out, "What is the square root of 64?"

Suddenly, the mountain shakes as the giant statue rises onto its feet and puts its hand on its chin. Then after about ten seconds, the statue answers in a roaring voice, "Eight."

"Of course!" says the scientist, "... It only stands to reason."

A Prayer Request

As Christians, we can offer specific daily prayers for our community, nation and world. Below is the need that we're laying before God today.

That churches fulfill their purpose as lighthouses for Christ.

Looking into the lectionary — 2nd Sunday of Advent

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Isaiah 40:1-11 — December 6, 2020

2nd Sunday of Advent

One of the watershed moments of Old Testament history was the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of Israel into the strange land of Babylon.

It was a 150-year period of dislocation, and as long as the exile lasted, the Israelite people never stopped yearning for home. Isaiah 40 is addressed to these exiles — and to people in all times and places who have experienced intense feelings of dislocation and anger about the way things are or about what they have suffered. Isaiah begins with “Comfort, comfort my people,” and then proclaims: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.” In other words, there will be a way home, even when there seems to be no way.

What intrigues me is how Isaiah names the problem while announcing the solution. The prophet assures the exiles that God is preparing a way home, but the metaphors used also expose the problems that have led to their plight: a deep valley, a mountain, a rough and twisted road. These images represent human dilemmas that need to be named in order to see the way forward.

Flannery O’Connor, a razor-sharp observer of the human condition, captured this existential reality with a journey metaphor of her own. In her classic short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” an overbearing grandmother on a family road trip insists that they take a disastrous detour down a forlorn dirt road. Along the way, the car swerves off the road and lands them in a ditch. When a man stops, presumably to help, she delivers one of her most memorable lines: “We’re in a real predicament here, a real predicament.” Alas, the man turns out to be an escaped convict and the story does not have a happy ending. It is an apt description of the human condition — for all of us, at some time or another, have found ourselves stuck in a ditch of some sort, meandering or lost on paths that lead nowhere, or obstructed by seemingly mountainous obstacles. We find ourselves in real predicaments, for any number of reasons.

Many of us, for example, know what it is to be stuck in a ditch — trapped, perhaps, by fear due to traumas that have paralyzed us and crushed our sense of worth. In his book “Jesus and the Disinherited,” Howard Thurman tells a story from his childhood of a pitiful dog in his neighborhood who had been so abused that even the threat of violence (such as raising one’s arm with an imaginary stone as if to strike it) would evoke a sharp, quick yelp! So also for many of us. Trauma and fear can be debilitating and can shut down connections to family and friends, making the ditch even deeper.

Or perhaps mountains are in our way, as we find ourselves faced with what seem to be insurmountable obstacles, or buried by overwhelming circumstances within our families, our workplaces, our social and political world and by the anger they evoke. For instance, as extreme weather events and ravaging wildfires wreak havoc on communities, we may well find ourselves enraged by our seeming inability to grapple constructively and collectively with the overwhelming reality of climate crisis that threatens both our present and our future. Or perhaps we live with an immobilizing sense of rage at our nation’s ongoing failure to confront the reality of racialized violence and grapple with its original sins.

Or perhaps we are afflicted with the existential dilemma of interminable meandering. Maybe we have never found a clear sense of identity and worth. We wander, without a clear sense of where we are going or what we are looking for. As we say to the salesperson in the department store, we’re “just looking.” We may have a yearning deep inside of us – a yearning to love God, others and ourselves that springs from the image of God we bear – yet we continue to meander, in exile from the love God intends for us.

In short, we are in real predicaments — for any number of reasons! As theologian Wendy Farley has noted in “The Wounding and Healing of Desire,” Julian of Norwich likened our condition to falling in a ditch; bruised and confused, we are unable to see God’s “infinitely consoling and tender love just inches from our face.” But the good news of the gospel is that we are not left to our own devices. God has not left us in the ditch, obstructed or buried or meandering in exile. In Advent we ponder the mystery that God draws close to us with a human face to lead the way to our true home — to draw us into participation in the very life and love of God.

God’s coming close was impressed upon me during an anxious moment on one of my hiking vacations. My wife and I took an out-of-the-way hike in the backwoods of British Columbia in the Mount Robson Provincial Park; we even had trouble finding the trailhead. But after finding something resembling a trail of sorts, we hiked for four hours through dense woods and up a fairly sizable mountain. However, on our way back down the mountain, we came to a spot where the trail suddenly came to a dead end. We backtracked a bit and found another trail that seemed to be heading in the right direction and followed it downhill for a while, but it also dead-ended. For almost an hour we searched in vain for the trail. Ominously, the thickets all around us were teeming with wild berries — and bears love wild berries! We were lost and feeling vulnerable, even a little bit frantic. But then something caught our attention: the footprint of a hiking boot, deeply imprinted in a shallow marsh that was about 20 yards long. When my wife saw the imprint, she climbed to the top of a rocky area to see what was on the other side of the marsh and spotted the path that would lead us back to the trailhead. And the interesting thing about that footprint in the mud is that it was pointing in our direction — as if it was headed toward us! Here is what may sound like a crazy idea, but it is the gospel truth: The God of the universe cares enough about a fearful, angry and wandering people to search the breadth and depth of creation, to uncover every stone until each and every one of us is found! In the incarnation, God takes on a human footprint and meets us in the thickets – the predicaments – of our lives.

There is one final, truly remarkable feature of this text from the prophet Isaiah. Note its description of how we encounter the God who is searching for us: We encounter God together! This is how Isaiah puts is: “Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together.” In other words, we are not alone in ditches in which we find ourselves; neither are we obstructed, buried under or meandering alone. We share a common human predicament, and it is together that we wait in Advent, pondering the mystery of an incarnate God who meets us where we are, who binds us to Godself and to each other and leads us home. In a hyper-individualist culture where “go it alone” is the mantra, Isaiah presents an extraordinary, and countercultural, communal vision.

So hear the good news of Advent, in whatever predicament you find yourself – in a ditch, obstructed or buried under insurmountable obstacles, or meandering without a clear sense of direction – God in Christ is headed our way to join us in those places. Valleys will be lifted up, mountains and hills made low, uneven ground leveled and rough places made plain, as the God of Advent prepares to lead us home.

As you ponder Isaiah 40, here are some questions for your consideration this week:

1. Have you ever found yourself stuck in a metaphorical ditch on your individual journey or on the collective journey of your community of faith? Describe the experience to another and invite that person to share their experience of the same.

2. Have you had the existential sense (as an individual or as a congregation) that you were obstructed by or buried under a mountain of some sort? Describe the experience to another and invite that person to share their experience of the same.

3. Have you felt that you were meandering, wandered aimlessly on your individual journey or as a community of faith? Describe the experience to another and invite that person to share their experience of the same.

4. What was your experience of sharing these reflections with another — of articulating the challenges you have faced in your individual or communal journey of faith?

5. In what ways have you discerned God at work in your life (individually or communally), preparing a way home?

6. How has your community of faith accompanied you when you have found yourself stuck in a metaphorical ditch, obstructed by or buried under a mountain of some sort or wandering aimlessly?