Daily Word of Grace for October 2020.  Current postings of Daily Word of Grace can be found at the upper level of the page. Here is a link to see the current postings.

Daily Word of Grace # 163 (October 29, 2020)

One of the greatest gifts we can give one another is the gift of listening. Think about it. Who do you turn to when you really need help? Who are your closest friends? Who in your family do you confide in more than anyone else? Who are the people in your life you really respect? Chances are, all of them are good listeners. When you are really listened to, you feel really cared for, really understood—and yes, really loved. Listening can be difficult sometimes because most of us are distracted and trying to keep up with too many things—and most of us have bought into the myth that multitasking is somehow good for you (it’s not). You have probably experienced the difference between someone pretending to listen to you (which hurts) versus someone actually listening to you (which heals). I would estimate that nearly 80% of pastoral ministry involves really listening to people, rather than talking to them. And this is true not just in pastoral ministry but in life in general. Every relationship, every interaction, every important decision is all greatly improved by listening. Jesus was (and is) a consummate listener. Just ask the woman at the well (John 4) or the blind man he healed (John 9) or the thief who was crucified next to him (Luke 23:39-43)—Jesus listened, really listened, to all of them. Moreover, this means each and every prayer (intentional or otherwise) is effective (James 5:16) because the Risen Jesus listens—really listens—to you.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 161 (October 27, 2020)

The term “grace under pressure” denotes someone who not only remains calm under pressure, but also remains kind—even to those who may be causing the pressure in the first place. In the business world “grace under pressure” can refer to CEO’s facing a massive drop in the stock market who will still look out for the good of everyone involved, or owners of a small business dealing with the very real fallout due to COVID 19 who will still put people’s safety first. In sports “grace under pressure” can refer to quarterbacks who remain calm and kind in the huddle when the offensive line is not providing any protection and the receivers are dropping every pass—or to baseball pitchers who remain calm and kind in the dugout when they have a losing record even though their ERA (Earned Run Average) is incredibly low because their team scores no runs. Closer to home, “grace under pressure” can refer to parents whose children’s behavior has them at their wit’s end (or vice versa) and yet remain calm and kind with them (at least sometimes). On Good Friday Jesus demonstrated “grace under pressure” toward the whole world, including you. Although he was really scared, really mistreated, and really killed—Jesus remained calm and kind even to those who nailed him to the cross, even praying for their forgiveness (Luke 23:34). And even now the Risen Jesus still offers you grace, especially in the areas in which you are under the most pressure—grace which in turn may enable you to exhibit “grace under pressure” toward others.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 159 (October 23, 2020)

One of my favorite movies from the 60’s is Easy Rider (1969), the classic counterculture film about the two friends Wyatt and Billy (played by Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper respectively) who take a journey on their motorcycles from California across the Southwest and into the Deep South “in search of America.” One of the many memorable scenes involves a montage of their riding across the desert, with the gorgeous song by The Band, “The Weight” playing. “The Weight” is the biggest hit The Band ever had, a gem from their 1968 album Music from Big Pink: “I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead. I just need some place where I can lay my head. Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed? He just grinned and shook my hand. “No” was all he said.” Who cannot relate to that? Then comes the gospel chorus: “Take a load off, Fanny. Take a load for free. Take a load off, Fanny, and you put the load right on me.” Our Savior Jesus Christ, who actually grew up in Nazareth, has a gracious invitation for all those on their journey “in search for America” (or anything else) and looking for a place to lay their head: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). In other words, Jesus’ invitation to you echoes what The Band sings: “Take a load off, (your name). Take a load for free. Take a load off, (your name), and you put the load right on me.”

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 157 (October 21, 2020)

One of the litmus tests of whether a relationship in your life is law-based or grace-based is how you write a text or email to that person. When you text or email them, do you make sure to proofread and double check to make sure there are no grammatical or spelling errors, make sure you are phrasing things a certain way so that they cannot be misinterpreted, make sure you use the right emoji or combination of emojis? Or are your texts or emails to that person more free-flowing and from the heart, without worry about grammar or spelling or emoji correctness? The first applies to law-based relationships and the second to grace-based relationships. Regardless of whether the human relationships in your life are law-based or grace-based, thankfully when it comes to God, your relationship is always grace-based. In Jesus Christ we have all received “grace upon grace” (John 1:16)—and it is solely by the grace of God that we have been saved (Ephesians 2:8). This is why the Apostle Paul was so focused on grace, as indicated by the fact that each and every one of his thirteen New Testament letters include his proclaiming grace to the recipients both near the beginning and end of each letter (no exceptions)—i.e., “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (Philippians 1:2 and 4:23). Your prayers to God can therefore be free flowing and from your heart.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 155 (October 19, 2020)

Since middle school I have enjoyed the novels of H. G. Wells (1866-1946), often referred to as the father of science fiction. In addition to his classic novels The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898) he also wrote a gruesome dystopian novel called The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896). In this novel Edward Prendick is shipwrecked and ends up on an isolated tropical island on which the mad scientist Dr. Moreau uses vivisection to create humanlike hybrid beings, the Beast Folk. It is a bleak story in which Dr. Moreau dies and the Beast Folk revert to increasingly animal-like behavior. At the end of the story a lifeboat with two corpses washes ashore, and Prendick jettisons the corpses and rows out to sea where he is rescued by a ship three days later. Once home, he is no longer comfortable around other human beings and utterly disillusioned about the idea of human progress. And yet, when he looks to the heavens his hope is restored, “There is—though I do not how there is or why there is—a sense of infinite peace and protection in the glittering hosts of heaven. There it must be, I think, in the vast and eternal laws of matter, and not in the daily cares and sins and troubles of men, that whatever is more than animal within us must find its solace and its hope.” Similarly, the psalmist wrote, “The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1). And it is Jesus Christ, through whom the worlds were created (John 1:3) who gives us hope, “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:19).

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 153 (October 15, 2020)

Several summers ago my daughter Emily and I drove across the desserts of Utah, crossed into Nevada and visited the often overlooked Great Basin National Park.  This beautiful park includes some of the oldest living trees on the planet, the Bristlecone Pine (pinus longeava), some of which are nearly an astounding 5,000 years old.  Ironically, Bristlecone Pines struggle to survive in climates and conditions in which many trees flourish, and instead thrive in harsh climates with very little soil and even less rainfall.  Seeing these Bristlecone Pines in person in a grove near the summit of Wheeler Peak was awesome, especially realizing that they have been there since before the incarnation of Our Savior.  The grace of God, demonstrated historically and definitively in the death of Jesus Christ on a different tree, the cross—like the Bristlecone Pine—can thrive in the harshest and most forbidding climates and circumstances in our lives.  Even if these harsh and forbidding climates and circumstances are due to our own poor choices or sin, God’s grace can still thrive in those specific places, because as Paul wrote, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20).  Not only that, God’s grace lasts infinitely longer than even Bristlecone Pines—very good news regardless of the climates or circumstances of your life.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 151 (October 13, 2020)

Recently the gifted singer Johnny Nash died.  His biggest hit was the 1970 pick-me-up classic Jimmy Cliff song “I Can See Clearly Now”, one of the most uplifting songs you will ever hear: “I can see clearly now the rain is gone.  I can see all obstacles in my way.  Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind.  It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day…Oh, yes I can make it now the pain is gone.  All of the bad feelings have disappeared.  Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for.  It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day…Look straight ahead, there’s nothing but blue skies.  I can see clearly now the rain is gone.”  This song overflows with hope, especially for those enveloped in dark clouds that have them blind and bumping into obstacles they cannot see, for those mired in bad feelings, for those for their pain to be gone, for those praying for a rainbow to appear and blue skies to return.  Instead of looking down, or looking at the clouds and darkness all around, “look straight ahead” because off in the distance there is nothing but blue skies.  Along these lines in the Letter to the Hebrews we read, “Let us lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).  Jesus is not only with you right now, but has cleared every obstacle in your way, and in time will bring you to “a bright, bright sunshiny day.”

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 149 (October 9, 2020)

Arguably the greatest and most prolific theologian of the twentieth century was Karl Barth (1886 – 1968).  The Swiss theologian worked on his magnum opus, Church Dogmatics, over the course of thirty-five years (1932 – 1967) and it totals over six million words.  And yet on April 23, 1962 at Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, he was asked by a student if he could summarize his theology, summarize the massive Church Dogmatics, in one sentence.  Karl Barth replied, “In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee, ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’”  There it is, the heart of the gospel.  Specifically the Bible tells us so in many places, including “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16), “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), “We know love by this, that (Jesus) laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16), and many others.  Yes, Christian theology is a so vast that even the over six million words of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics cannot exhaust it, and yet the heart of the gospel still remains the love of God in Jesus Christ for all of us, including you.     

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 147 (October 7, 2020)

One of the funniest and most famous episodes of the classic television comedy The Office begins with Michael Scott—regional manager of the Dunder Mifflin paper company branch in Scranton, Pennsylvania— hitting fellow employee Meredith Palmer with his car.  Meredith goes to the hospital for her fractured pelvis and as a precaution gets a rabies shot because she had been recently bitten by several animals.  This inspires Michael to plan a charity 5K “Fun Run” in order to raise money to fight rabies and try to “make up” for hitting Meredith with his car.  The title of this event is “Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure”  (Try saying that five times fast).  Due to a combination of “carbo loading” immediately before the race, and not hydrating before or during the race, afterwards Michael goes to the hospital for dehydration.  Meredith wheels into Michael’s room, knowing everything he had done, and forgives him.  It is tempting in our own lives to try to “make up” for our sins against God, perhaps with efforts as crazy as Michael’s 5K race, but it is futile, as the psalmist wrote, “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?”  Thankfully, the psalmist continues, “But there is forgiveness with you” (Psalm 130:3-4).  Our efforts to “make up” for our sins may even metaphorically land us in the hospital like Michael, but like Meredith, God wheels into our room and fully forgives us.     

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 145 (October 5, 2020)

On a sunny humid summer day in 2002 I had the opportunity to visit the Survivor Tree at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, site of the tragic 1995 Oklahoma City bombing during which 168 people, including 19 children, lost their lives.  The Survivor Tree is an American Elm tree that has become a symbol of hope and resilience.  During the bombing it had most of its branches blown off, was filled with shards of glass and other debris from the explosion, and even caught fire.  Then during the ensuing investigation it was nearly cut down in order to recover every possible piece of evidence about the bombing.  And yet this tree miraculously survived, and today is a vibrant, healthy, beautiful tree.  This Survivor Tree is not only a sign of hope and resilience in times of crisis and tragedy, it is also points to another, eternal Survivor Tree, the cross.  On the cross Jesus did not survive, but rather died in our place in order to allow us to survive the deadly consequences of our sin because on the cross Jesus was cursed in our place—“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13)—so that we would not only survive, but also be blessed by God.  The cross remains the ultimate Survivor Tree, a source of hope and resilience for all of us.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 143 (October 1, 2020)

In one of the most powerful and honest collects in The Book of Common Prayer we pray, “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” (219).  This collect makes some people uncomfortable, especially those who are convinced they can “bring into order (their) unruly wills and affections” on their own, without God’s help.  And yet biblically, this collect hits the mark, a bullseye in fact.  In his Letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul put it this way, “I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Romans 7:15, 18-19).  Paul then describes this inner battle between spirit and flesh concerning one’s will, only to cry out, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?” and then answer, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).  How does Jesus recue us?  Through grace, just as we pray in the collect, “Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise.”  Thankfully, God’s grace is always available to help us with our “unruly wills and affections.”

Love and Prayers,

Dave