Bryan Richardson

See

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:8-11 (day three)

For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins.

In Peter’s pastoral care, he does not condemn people who struggle; rather, he acknowledges how difficult it is to navigate the world. Who has not felt as though a circumstance or a person or an event or a disappointment or a time of suffering is an unfathomable mystery that leaves one lost and afraid? Peter says, “Yes, people will stumble through darkness when they can’t make sense of the world. But you can learn to see better. Your brothers and sisters – the church – will teach you. Little by little your eyes will adjust to the brightness of the way of Christ.” You were made to see. And you will.

Love

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:5-8 (day three)

…and in your brotherly kindness, love.

Each attribute listed by St. Peter builds toward love. Years earlier, Jesus, issuing his new command to love one another, took stock of all the world’s grasping for power and forcing its way, and, right in the middle of the mightiest empire the world had ever known, pronounced love the pinnacle of any and all acts, whether human or divine. John (let us love one another, for love is from God), Paul (faith hope and love remain, but the greatest of these is love), and here Peter all testify to love. How is it that they so confidently affirmed the Lord’s words? Was it that “Jesus said it so that settles it?” Or was it rather that they underwent love’s healing presence within their deepest selves? Read their stories and see.

Secure

Re:Verse passage – 2 Peter 1:1-4 (day three)

…you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Lust, often sexualized in common usage, refers to any desire having the quality of a craving that eclipses all concern for the well-being of others. Power, pleasure, position, possessions – one treasures these things as the means to connection, safety, security. And eventually one sees them as synonymous with connection, safety, and security. Because they appear to be rare, they must be forcefully obtained at any cost before someone else finds them and leaves you with nothing. Such a world is zero-sum by nature, and you are the only one who will look out for you. Peter found a different life – heaven’s life – in which connection, safety, and security never cease no matter the circumstances. Jesus taught Peter to live as he lives – eternally.

Internal

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 13:15-22 (day three)

Then I stationed some of my servants at the gates so that no load would enter on the sabbath day.

In the early days of Nehemiah’s presence in Jerusalem, Nehemiah stationed guards to protect the people completing the city wall. Now, he posted guards to protect the people behind the completed wall. What becomes apparent is that city walls can stop an invading army, but they can’t stop the forces invading the heart. The guards he posted to prevent interference of sabbath observance showed Nehemiah’s devout concern for the people’s spiritual welfare. He was making space for them to stop buying and consuming, and instead to be still. Walls can keep external threats at bay, while a person’s internal machinations remain unchecked. Nehemiah showed his people how to pay attention to the heart.

Money

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 12:40-47 (day three)

“So all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah gave the portions due the singers and the gatekeepers as each day required, and set apart the consecrated portion for the Levites, and the Levites set apart the consecrated portion for the sons of Aaron.”

The religious use of money is a fraught issue because of financial abuse and misuse. The same was true in Nehemiah’s day. When Nehemiah arrived on the scene, he found that the high priest in Jerusalem maintained cozy and mutually beneficial arrangements with those in power. The same was true centuries later when Jesus laid waste to the temple’s outer court, decrying the profit-taking schemes benefitting the religious establishment. Jesus still watches the money flowing through the church, just as he sat watching that day when he pointed out that a widow’s pure devotion outweighed all other riches.

Heritage

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 10:28-30 (day two)

“…we will not give our daughters to the peoples of the land or take their daughters for our sons.”

When African-American students gather to proclaim certain areas as Black spaces, or when marginalized groups of any ethnicity make attempts to recover and reclaim heritage by emphasizing achievements or accomplishments in music or other fields, it’s not uncommon to hear complaints of “reverse discrimination” or bigotry. When one’s ethnicity does not feel minimized or diminished for most of one’s life, it’s hard to imagine how deep the fears of disappearing really go. How much more so here in this passage when a people – who have a heritage of God’s activity in their midst through generations and who sense that they have been on the brink of perishing after their neglect of the scriptures – see a way back from despair? Racist? Or revived?

Repair

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 9:1-3 (day three)

“The sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them.”

One of the hallmarks of a depressive state is the lack of care for the body, sometimes manifesting as the cessation of eating, apathy towards personal grooming, and lack of attention to hygiene. In such a state, time slows to a crawl and the seconds of the day stretch into one undifferentiated moment in which, from the standpoint of the person experiencing the mood disorder, nothing happens and no changes occur. The act of communal confession chronicled here does not present people in a depressive state. There is a pause in giving attention to the body, yes. There is a mood of deep solemnity and sorrow, certainly. But the people are experiencing a time of repair, not despair. God accepts them, the breach is healed, and they become whole.

Hear

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 8:9-12 (day three)

“For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.”

For these Jews, the words of the law were not just a solemn recitation. These words of the law were the history of their own people’s interactions with God. They heard Moses’s cry: “Hear, O Israel.” And they couldn’t breathe. Moses was alive again, calling out to them to remember the sweep of history, the rescue from Egypt, the passing through the sea, the manna from heaven, the water from the rock, the Ten Commandments, the year of Jubilee, the welcome to the foreigner, the God who hears from heaven – all of it. They heard, and they remembered. Even those who might not have ever heard these exact words heard the word that fit their souls as if they were now home. And they were.

Longing

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 6:10-19 (day three)

Nehemiah visited a shut-in. And during that act of godly care – even right there – his wily nemeses attempted by proxy to dislodge him from his steadfast adherence to his mission. Nehemiah consistently saw through every disguise, every ruse, every feint. How? By rejecting everything that didn’t look like the deep longing that God had nurtured in his soul. Did Sanballat’s “concerns” for the welfare of the Persian empire look like that longing? No. How about this current fearmongering from this convalescing acquaintance? Again, no. Nehemiah would not stop until the longing for Jerusalem’s reestablishment was fulfilled. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that God has set eternity in the hearts of people. Nehemiah was listening to those deep yearnings that welled up from the center of his being, from that place in which he bore image of God from the moment God created him.

Care

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 5:6-13 (day three)

“Please, let us leave off this usury.”

Philosopher Dallas Willard said, “Business is God’s way of taking care of people, so when someone says, ‘It’s just business,’ watch out! They’re getting ready to hurt you.” Nehemiah understood this. In fact, his understanding expanded beyond business to include the concept of city. He rightly discerned that the purpose of a city is to help people live face to face with one another and take care of one another. That’s a far cry from how people often view the city today. It’s not uncommon to hear of people “escaping” the city, getting out of the “rat race,” and holing up in solitary rural enclaves. Maybe that’s you. It makes sense. Who wants to live where people cannibalize each other? Nehemiah displays the nurturing care that all people need, and it starts with the city.