Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
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The teenagers in my confirmation group know the difference between talking about the right thing and doing the right thing. You don't have to have tons of life experience to begin to see the disconnect in how we talk and what we do.  Justice, love, humility are noble words that when dropped into a sentence, the audience applauds and then goes back to sitting and watching.  The twitter-version of the confirmation lesson for the evening was on justice:  Being a Christian means going out of your own way to help a stranger.  That is justice. That is loving kindness.  That is walking with our God.  
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Move us, Lord, from talking to action. Amen.

Psalm 15
Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;
who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors
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I have written a number of recommendation letters for people seeking scholarships or jobs.  I met a corporate headhunter once and ask him if there were words or phrases in those letters that tended to help or hurt potential candidates.  He told me that the kiss of death on performance review or recommendation form was the phrase "lacks common sense."  It strikes me that the life to which God is urging us to live is one that just seems to be filled with common sense.  Take responsibility. Do what is right. Tell the truth. Don't lie about or hurt other people, especially your friends and neighbors.  Makes sense but we don't heed it with the vigor and intentionality it requires.  What if we wore labels like "lacks common sense" or "Warning: does not play well with others."  It wouldn't solve anything and leave us all lonely.  The alternative is choosing to live with others in the presence of the Lord - imperfect, yes - but willing to accept the common sense of the house rules. 
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Forgive me, Lord, and grant me your grace so that I might try again.  Amen.

I Corinthians 1:20
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 
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Once a year, colleagues in ministry from throughout Texas & Louisiana are invited to attend a theological conference. The planners always bring in a "talking head" - some wise person in some random field of thought.  Hundreds of people gather in a ballroom and listen to a presentation that may have a good point or two but not one that usually survives passed the lobby.  A colleague asked me an intriguing question: "If I were the planner of theological conference what would I do?"  I learn more in an hour sharing thoughts across a table with a person than I have ever learned from a "talking head" in a crowded ballroom.  I would set up card tables like timed chess matches, throw out topics, giving each person a designated time to speak and then change table partners for another round.  I know enough about myself and my colleagues to know that there are many fools among us and it is from the heart and minds of those fools that God tends to speak. 
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Holy God, forgive our pompous wisdom and bless our moments of clarity. Amen.

Matthew 5:1-3
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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I have not witnessed a more pervasive and debilitating disease as depression. It is a wormhole that sucks the life forces out of a human being rendering them breathless and limp.  When Jesus spoke these famous words of the Beatitudes, it is to those in the pit of hopelessness that Jesus speaks the first blessing.  The kingdom of all that is good and right and true surrounds them, lifts them up, sets them down on solid feet.  The blessing of Jesus is a hand extended to a sunken chin gently cupping a face and turning it up.  Up is good. 
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Holy God, bless us with the healing we most need.  Amen.

Isaiah 9:4
For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
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I have been reading Donald Miller's storylineblog.com alot lately.  More often than not, it makes me think.  Today Miller quoted John Watson from the 1890's: “Be kind. Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.” There is a world of hurt out there and I don't need to take out a map to find it.  This week alone I have been aware of the burden of more than one family grieving the loss of a father, of a young man's broken bone, of women awaiting frightening health diagnoses, of families torn apart by misunderstanding, of people angry and disappointed. Everyone is bearing a burden.  What the grace of God in Jesus Christ gives us the freedom to do is lay down our burden if only for a moment to ease someone else's. 
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Jesus, take my burden and I will look for someone who needs my free hand.  Amen. 

Psalm 27:4
One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
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We build spaces from the time of our youth.  The box the refrigerator was delivered in became my fortress for months.  Or perhaps it was a tent built of quilts or sheets, or a treehouse or a lean-to crafted in the woods.  Our homes are our castles so we say.  We want our safe and comfortable spaces. It is no wonder why when we imagine our lives in the presence of the Lord we build altars and grand sanctuaries and temples.  Sometimes those spaces do more to divide us than to accomplish God's purposes.  The vision that God gives us of a new heaven and a new earth is one in which there are no churches, no temples, no holy spaces set apart. When God builds a treehouse, it is really, really big. 
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Holy God, shelter us within the infinite walls of your grace. Amen.

I Corinthians 1:18
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
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Just now I had a hair stuck in the hinge of my glasses.  I pulled it out and it dropped on my desk.  For a nanosecond, I was surprised it wasn't brown.  I have a headful of gray hair that I see in the mirror every day and yet,  I forget from time to time I forget that time does indeed march through the cells of my body sucking the color out of it.  The fact is that we are all perishing.  The message of the cross is that death happens and that there's something bigger than death. The color of the hair on my head surprised me because death happens and I have Easter on my mind. 
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Holy God, you rock. Amen. 

Matthew 4:21-22
As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
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There is a bittersweetness about this scene.  Zebedee watching his sons leave the family trade to follow an itinerant teacher.  Was Zebedee proud? Was he angry?  Was he smart enough to know that he could not tell his adult sons what to do?  Was he jealous?  Did he busy himself with the nets in his hands looking down and looking up and looking down again, wrestling with the knot in his throat?  There are ways for all to be disciples of Jesus Christ.  Some drop what they are doing and follow.  Some keep doing what they are doing and give and believe in ways that reckoned as righteousness. 
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For all who serve and sacrifice in their own way, we give thanks. Amen.

Isaiah 49:5-6
And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
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The purposes of God throughout scriptures have been dynamic and not static.  I was intrigued by a question posed by a speaker who asked "Is your church a destination or a vehicle?"  I am convinced that God's light travels at the speed of love. 
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Godspeed.  Amen.

Psalm 40:17
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.
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Poor,  no, I would be ashamed to claim ever to be poor.  Needy, yep I am all about needy the last 24 hours.  Dental surgery that didn't go quite right and will have to be redone some months from now left me bruised and needy.  I would add put myself to the pitiful column today today too but I have too much to do to hang out there.  What helps is knowing that there is a thought rolling around in God's heart and mind with my name on it.  What helps is a piece of blue construction paper with children's thumbprints hoping I will "Get Well Soon."  God's heart and God's hands in my life.  I may be needy but not for long.  
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Holy God, for your constant care and the thumbprints of children, we give you thanks. Amen.

I Corinthians 1:1-9
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus
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This is how Paul starts a letter to a group of people who, on the most part, hate his guts and who give him heartburn.  Paul begins his conversation with them by remembering who they are to God.  There is a recent book on how to achieve more civility in our culture.  Lots of good suggestions. The only thing missing is motivation.  You have to want to be civil.  Paul had some tough words coming for the Christians in Corinth because they weren't being civil with one another and if Paul couldn't be civil with them, it would defeat the whole message.  Paul was motivated to help people grow in their relationship with Christ and one another by loving them the way God does....before they have done anything good to deserve it or made things worse for themselves, God loves them.  Before we are tempted to scream at the next person who hates our guts,  read their name tag.  It says, "Hello, I'm loved by God."
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Help us, Lord, to remember who we are talking to.  Amen.

John 1:35-38
The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 
The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
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"What are you looking for?"  Slow down and just linger over that question for a moment.  "What are you looking for?"  Are we even aware that we are needing something? Are we too afraid to peer into the hold of our vessel on the chance we will find it depleted or worse yet, empty?  Are we unaware that we looking for anything because the calendar is full and there is no time to schedule "Contemplate life" ?  Were the disciples dumbfounded by Jesus' question so much that they gave him a lame non-answer or did they know that what they needed was Jesus?  All of those questions linger in the air for them and for us to which Jesus responds, "Come and see."  I have never known a better offer. 
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Lord Jesus, into our the emptiness we have trouble naming, you pour yourself. Amen. 

Matthew 3:13
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
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I know the date of my baptism.  I know the name of the city, the church and the pastor.  I know where my baptismal certificate is located because I see it every day near my college degrees and my ordination certification. Clustered on the wall shelves around those papers are the pictures of beloved one and mementos of experiences that came as a direct result of swimming through baptismal waters. We can tread in our baptismal waters but why not swim?
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Stroke, breath, kick.  I am on the way through another day. Amen.

Isaiah 42:1-4
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth.
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And God tells humanity about Jesus before they ever know his name.  He is going to make for big justice.   And get this, Jesus is going to do this without major crying, whining, or screaming.  He will change the world without being a bully and he will look out for the dimmest wick in the bunch. He will not need to sleep 'til noon on Saturday and he will not wimp out.  On any given day, Jesus work ethic puts us all to shame.  The least we can do is pay attention. 
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I hear ya, God, I hear ya.  Amen.

Psalm 29:1-2
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory of his name; worship the Lord in holy splendor.
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Busy morning. Lots going on. "Pastor, do you have a minute..."  "I just need you to sign this...."  "Call your dentist office...."  and in the middle of it all a glance at a computer screen ....a news photo....it is a NASA picture taken by the Hubble telescope of a cluster of stars, galaxies in their infancy, a billion years old now.  It has taken the light that long to travel.  Sometimes I think that God created the universe in layers over time in such a way that on a busy morning when it feels like chaos, we can catch a glimpse of divine splendor.  Worship is the best stress reliever. 
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Wow, God, you are amazing.  Amen.

Acts 10:37-38
That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 
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I am spending some much overdue time rearranging how I order my time because in my heart of hearts I want to get into bed at night and be able to say with integrity that I "went about doing good."  To say that I had any hand in healing would be a stretch.  But to do good....yeah, I know what that looks like.  Like Apostle Paul, I know the good thing to do and don't always do it.  I read somewhere that courage is saying "I will try again tomorrow."  Following Jesus is an active adventure in which we are called to be courageous, to participate not just to spectate as Christ does good.  Even in the face of my inability to be consistently faithful, I am compelled by grace every new day to try again.  May it be said of all of us one day that we "went about doing good" because God was with us. 
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Holy God, thank you for your relentless love. Amen.

Matthew 3:13-15
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 
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Jesus didn't need to be baptized the way we need to be baptized....to clean up, to have our sins washed away, to be given a new start, to receive the promise of God's grace forever.  We need to dive into our baptism because we need it.  Jesus chose to dive into baptism because he wanted to be completely a part of our lives including the stuff that makes us drown.  Jesus dove into the muddy water of our mess, grabbed our lifelessness by the collar and made a straight shot to the surface.  That first breath into our new lives was one that we took together.  It's a new year.  Dive in.  Jesus chooses to be our SCUBA gear. 
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Thanks for every minute of life we get to splash around without the fear of drowning.  Amen.