Daily Word of Grace # 230 (April 29, 2021)

So far my favorite film in the prolific Marvel Comics movie series is Captain Marvel (2019) in which Brie Larson stars as Carol Danvers (aka Captain Marvel) one of the best superheroes ever (in my opinion).  There is a particularly powerful scene near the end of the film when Captain Marvel is knocked down by the evil Supreme Intelligence (played by Annette Benning)…but she does not stay down.  “You’re right,” Carol  says, “I’m only human.”  Then there is a montage of Carol Danvers getting back up each and every time something had knocked her down in her life—as a little girl she gets back up from the beach after being shoved into the sand, gets back up after wrecking on her bike, gets back up after wrecking in a go-cart, gets back up and steps to the plate again after the pitcher intentionally threw a pitch to knock her down, gets back up after falling to ground climbing rope during military training, gets back up after a plane crash…and then of course, gets back up to face, and defeat, the evil Supreme Intelligence.  Many things can knock you down in your life—both literally and figuratively.  I do not need to tell you what those things have been, or are, for you—you already know—and more importantly, so does God.  But you keep getting back up…and even if/when you find yourself unable to get back up, the One who was knocked down again and again on Good Friday and knocked down even into the grave and yet was raised again on Easter morning, will lift you up again.   

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 228 (April 27, 2021)

Have you ever noticed that the very presence of one person can alter the mood of a whole group?  When that person enters the room everyone knows it.  You either feel the collective blood pressure and anxiety in the room rise—or you feel a sense of relief as that collective blood pressure decreases.  The presence of God’s love always results in the latter.  In his Sermon on the Mount Jesus put it this way: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).  I can’t speak for you, but personally I love being around peacemakers.  As the Son of God Jesus is not only a child of God but also the Prince of Peace who, as the Paul wrote, “proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:17).  And even at this moment Jesus remains your Prince of Peace to whom you can turn in the midst of the unsettled and anxious places in your life, for as Paul also wrote, “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 226 (April 23, 2021)

One of the recurring story lines in the hilarious offbeat cult classic 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite is the friendship between awkward high school students Napoleon and Pedro.  After Pedro secures a date for a school dance, Napoleon begins stressing out because he does not yet have a date, “Well, nobody’s gonna go out with me.”  Pedro asks him, “Have you asked anybody yet?”  “No,” Napoleon replies, “But who would?  I don’t even have any good skills.”  “What do you mean?”  “You know, like nunchaku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills—girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.”  Pedro follows up, “Aren’t you pretty good at drawing like animals and warriors and stuff?”  “Yes,” Napoleon says, “probably the best that I know of.”  “Just a draw a picture of the girl you want to take out and give that to her as a gift or something.”  Napoleon agrees, “That’s a pretty good idea.”  So Napoleon does just that—he draws a picture of Trisha Stevens.  Unfortunately it’s frighteningly bad, but I digress.  Each one of us has been given skills of one kind or another—some of us “great skills”—by our Creator, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4).  This same Spirit works in our lives to develop and utilize these gifts in the midst of the awkward stages of our lives and in doing so continues drawing God’s image in us.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 224 (April 21, 2021)

In his beautiful 2009 novel South of Broad the late Pat Conroy, from the perspective of protagonist Leo King, writes: “At night (my father) would take my brother, Steve, and me out into the boat to the middle of Charleston Harbor and make us memorize the constellations.  He treated the stars as though they were love songs written to him by God.  With such reverence he would point out Canis Major, the hound of Orion the Hunter…A stargazer of the first order, he squealed with pleasure on the moonless nights when the stars winked at him in some mysterious, soul-stirring graffiti of ballet-footed light” (3).  Having lived near Charleston many years ago, and having always loved the constellation of Orion the Hunter—especially from many dark early mornings delivering The Washington Post as a teenager—this passage really resonated with me, for the stars are indeed “love songs written to (us) from God.”  In scripture Job tells us, God alone “made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades” and “does great things beyond understanding, and marvelous things without number” (Job 9:9-10).  Similarly the prophet Amos writes, “The one who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning, and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name” (Amos 5:8).  But it goes even deeper than that, as at the end of Revelation Jesus declares, “I am the bright morning star” (Revelation 22:16).  In other words, the Creator of the stars, love songs from God, is himself that love song written to and for you, now and always.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 222 (April 19, 2021)

Shakespeare’s classic play A Midsummer Night’s Dream concludes with this monologue from the sprite Puck (aka Robin Goodfellow): “If we shadows have offended, Think but this—and all is mended—That you have but slumber’d here while these visions did appear.  And this weak and idle theme, no more yielding but a dream.  Gentles, do not reprehend; If you pardon, we will mend.  And, as I’m an honest Puck, If we have unearned luck, Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, we will make amends ere long; Else the Puck a liar call: So, good night unto you all.  Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.”  You and I have “offended” God and other people in countless ways, and yet God still sent his Son Jesus Christ to atone for all our sins—to “pardon” us so that indeed “we will mend” both with God and one another, to ensure that we “‘scape the serpent’s (devil’s) tongue” and to awaken us from the sleep of death to everlasting life.  Moreover, this means that even now Puck’s words to the audience are the Risen Christ’s words to you, “Give me your hands, if we be friends, And (I) shall restore amends.”

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 220 (April 15, 2021)

In his highly acclaimed 2016 novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles writes about Count Alexander Rostov who in 1922 was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life in the Metropol hotel in Moscow.  Rostov creatively and perseveringly makes the best of this and considers himself a member of a group he dubs “The Confederacy of the Humbled” which is “a close-knit brotherhood whose members travel with no outward markings, but who know each other at a glance.  For having fallen suddenly from grace, those in the Confederacy share a certain perspective.  Knowing beauty, influence, fame, and privilege to be borrowed rather than bestowed, they are not easily impressed.  They are not quick to envy or take offense.  They certainly do not scour the papers in search of their own names.  They remain committed to living among their peers, but they greet adulation with caution, ambition with sympathy, and condescension with an inward smile.”  Biblically speaking, Jesus was and is a fully human and fully divine member of “The Confederacy of the Humbled” as he humbled himself and became a servant, then further humbled himself in dying on the cross (Philippians 2:3-8) for a you.  Moreover, willingly joining “The Confederacy of the Humbled” will always render more grace from God, because “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 218 (April 13, 2021)

One of the best parts of Bob Dylan’s 1965 masterpiece “Like a Rolling Stone” is the organ, perhaps the most famous organ sound in the history of rock ‘n roll.  It was played by Al Kooper, a 21-year old guitarist who had been upstaged in the studio by a much better guitarist, Mike Bloomfield.  But as Kooper recounted in the 2005 documentary No Direction Home something very special happened that day: “They moved the organ player over to the piano and I said, ‘Well, here’s another chance for me’ so I said to Tom Wilson (the producer) ‘Why don’t you let me play the organ?  I got a great part for this.’  And Tom Wilson said, ‘You don’t play the organ; you’re a guitar player’ and just then someone came in to tell Tom he had a phone call…so Tom didn’t say, No.”  Al snuck to the organ before the next recording began—“At that point Tom really could have just busted me and got me back to the control room, but he was a very gracious man and so he let it go, and I began to play.  In the verses in the beginning you hear me come in always an eighth note behind the band to make sure I played the right chord…After about a verse or two Bob Dylan said to Tom Wilson, ‘Hey, turn the organ up!’  And Tom Wilson said to Bob, ‘Oh man, that guy’s not an organ player, he’s just’…but Bob said, ‘I don’t care—turn the organ up.’”  When you find yourself upstaged by someone better than you, God, who like Tom Wilson is “very gracious”, will always give you another opportunity…and maybe even ask you to “turn the organ up.”   

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 216 (April 9, 2021)

In his 1994 book Abba’s Child the late Brennan Manning recounts a story about an elderly man who was dying of cancer and had always struggled with prayer.  Prayer just never “clicked” for him…until he heeded the advice of a friend who told him, “Sit down on a chair and place an empty chair in front of you and in faith see Jesus on the chair…Then just speak to Him and listen in the same way you’re doing with me right now.”  This dying man began doing just that.  It worked so well he started talking with Jesus in prayer several hours a day.  He was careful never to do so in front of his daughter out of fear she would think he was crazy.  However, he did share all this with a priest—and as Brennan Manning concludes: “The priest was deeply moved…Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil, and returned to the rectory.  Two nights later the daughter called to tell the priest that her daddy had died that afternoon.  ‘Did he seem to die in peace?’ he asked.  ‘Yes,’ the daughter replied, ‘when I left the house around two o’clock, he called me over to his bedside, told me one of his corny jokes, and kissed me on the cheek.  When I got back from the store an hour later, I found him dead.  But there was something strange, in fact, beyond strange, kinda weird.  Apparently just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on a chair beside the bed’” (125).  That is what prayer, even prayer on one’s death bed, can look like because Jesus’ presence is very real, and because Jesus always listens to our prayers.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 214 (April 7, 2021)

One of the catchiest songs on the Beatles’ 1967 album Magical Mystery Tour is “Hello, Goodbye” with these childishly simple lyrics by Paul McCartney: “You say goodbye and I say hello—hello, hello—I don’t know why you say goodbye, I say hello.”  In his account of Jesus’ resurrection Matthew tells us that early on Easter morning Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James went to the tomb of Jesus with the intention of embalming him for burial, with the intention of saying goodbye.  But God had different intentions for them, and when they arrived, the body of Jesus was not there.  Instead they were greeted by a mighty angel of the Lord who had rolled away the stone from the tomb and struck fear in the heart of the elite Roman soldiers assigned to guard it.  This same angel tells the two Mary’s, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said” (Matthew 28:1-6).  As they were running from the tomb “with fear and great joy” on their way to tell Jesus’ disciples what had happened, “Suddenly Jesus met them and said, ‘Greetings!’” and in response the two Mary’s “took hold of his feet, and worshipped him” (Matthew 28:9).  They had come to say, “Goodbye” to the crucified Jesus, but instead the Risen Jesus said, “Hello” to them.  What was true for the two Mary’s on Easter morning is true for you today and forever.  Through his resurrection Jesus has immutably changed goodbye to hello.

Love and Prayers,

Dave

Daily Word of Grace # 212 (April 5, 2021)

The Lord is Risen!  The Lord is risen indeed—Hallelujah!  One of the collects for Easter in The Book of Common Prayer reads—“Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of our Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen” (BCP 222).  While many common images of heaven include pearly gates, playing harps on clouds and the like, biblically the Christian hope of the resurrection refers to a bodily resurrection—as we proclaim in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in…the resurrection of the body” (BCP 96).  Jesus’ bodily resurrection ensures your bodily resurrection—as the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).  Moreover, through his resurrection not only has Jesus opened “the gate of everlasting life” to you, he himself is that gate (John 10:7, 9), which means when your earthly life is over, you will be personally welcomed into heaven by your Savior.

Love and Prayers,

Dave