Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church

09/07/2026

A CHAPTER A DAY Mon. September 7 – Read Ecclesiastes 1 When I first went to seminary this book was attributed to the wise King Solomon the son of King David mentioned in the first verse. But now scholars believe it was written much later after the exile to Babylon. Given this perspective the book makes more sense during the struggles of the Israelites and the author at that point verses the glorious days during the reign of Solomon. The first thing we read is not how great things are but how all is vanity compounded – vanity of vanities!
Charles Dickens began A Tale of Two Cities with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” But here the Teacher begins just with the worst of times. The first half of the chapter seems to be a lament of the Teacher who experiences monotony day in and day out and that nothing matters. People come and go and are forgotten. These observations and thoughts seem to come from someone deeply depressed. Read this again and think about the times in your life when you have felt this way. Be aware that there are people all around us who may be feeling this way today. What might we say to help? BTW I would not quote any of these verses to them.
The chapter ends with verses that seem to identify the author – the Teacher – as King Solomon the wise. And all this wisdom did not bring meaning and understanding to life, but with it comes awareness of madness and folly. Pursuing wisdom seemed like chasing after the wind, which cannot be caught. I sense the frustration of someone who had a lifetime pursuit only to find in the end it was not what was expected. This is not the tale of someone who pursued a dream and lived happily ever after, but one who graduated with a degree in philosophy and then could not find a job.
The last verse sums up what was learned. Having great wisdom reveals a disconnect with the real world, a broken world. The more one learns and knows leads to sorrow for what is verses what could have been or could be. This may be the flip side of the old adage, “Ignorance is bliss.” What things have you learned about life that cause you grief or pain? Is it overwhelming or debilitating? Or does it call you to action to do something? For the author it seems to do the former, but let’s see what happens in the next chapter.

09/07/2026

09/05/2026

A CHAPTER A DAY Sat. September 5 – Read Ezra 10 Here we conclude the story of Ezra (though in the ancient Hebrew Bible the next book Nehemiah was a part of the book of Ezra.) The chapter begins with Ezra praying and weeping in anguish and the people gather around him and weep as well. This reminds me of Romans 12:15(NRSVUE) Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. The weeping here is not joy in the people’s return to Jerusalem but perhaps the culmination of tears for the previous generations that had been taken away as prisoners and those who suffered as captive slaves. Ezra laments over what he sees as the root cause of all of that calamity – that the Israelites have intermarried with other people. What is it that has caused you to weep and those around you to weep like this? It may have been the devastating result of a natural disaster, war, an act of terrorism, a school shooting, the destruction and pollution of God’s creation, etc. Take time to reflect and to weep.
The book of Ezra has two follow-up questions to the grief and lament. Why, and What can we do about it. This was answered in the last chapter by Ezra, and here is reaffirmed by a man named Shecaniah. They have broken faith with God by marrying foreign women and this can be remedied by sending them away. To me this sounds like parliamentary procedure as one man makes a motion and Ezra calls for a vote and they all swear to it (though later we will see they did not all agree.) Then a proclamation is sent out to all Judah and Jerusalem that all the returned exiles should assemble. I note that the remnant who had not been exiled are excluded from this gathering. Due to the size of the territory and most people travelling by foot they are given three days to gather and a warning that not showing up is punishable by being expelled from the club and forfeiting all property.
The particular day is mentioned, and the people gather and tremble because of the matter at hand and also the heavy rain. And though they affirm doing what Ezra is calling them to do they ask for a process by which to do it rather than doing it right then and there standing in the rain. Many times, making the resolution and taking the vote is the easy part, making it happen is the harder part. I found it interesting that in verse fifteen a couple dissenters are named though nothing is said about any consequences. Were they expelled, or did they self-deport or simply agree to disagree and went along with the ruling of the majority? What has been your experience of those times of challenging decisions?
Within ten days the process is developed and people designated to ascertain who all has married foreign women. That census is taken over the next two months with a final result given and of the thousands who returned less than a hundred are named. (For those of you who read scripture during worship, aren’t you glad you were never given this chapter? As a pastor I am glad that I never had to preach on it!) And here the chapter and the book of Ezra as we know it ends with their wives (who are not named) and their children being sent away. It reads straight forward, but life is messier than that. It seems like all the men sent their wives away. Some may have been glad to do it and get rid of them, but surely others, who loved their wives, must have been reluctant and grieved, and some I suspect voted with their feet and chose to leave with their wives and children.
I believe this separation lived on and continued to the time of Christ when the Jews separated themselves from the Samaritans and others. It led to contentions in the early church when Peter responded to a vision of a sheet of animals coming down from heaven and God calling them all clean leading him to go to the Roman legionnaire Cornelius’ house, and Paul going to convert the Gentiles. Today I weep for the separations that still happen in our communities and around the world as some see divisions of us and them.

09/04/2026

A CHAPTER A DAY Fri. September 4 – Read Ezra 9 Once Ezra settles in “the officials” come to inform him of a dire concern they have. The people of Israel have intermarried with the people of the other nations which they believe is wrong. When Ezra hears this, he tears his garments and pulls hair from his head and beard. This was a way to show his agony or grief. How do you react in upsetting situations? Some people yell or throw things. Sometimes people riot or get into fights, others get quiet and cry or frown. What do you tend to do? Intermarriage is here noted as faithlessness. There were stories of this in the Old Testament. The epitome might be King Ahab marrying Queen Jezebel who was a worshiper of Baal. They were opposed by the prophet Elijah who called the people to worship God and defeated and killed the Baal priests in 1 Kings 18. (On the flip side, I would also lift up the story of the foreign woman Ruth who faithfully takes care of her mother-in-law Naomi and later marries Boaz and becomes the great grandmother of King David.)
After his original reaction Ezra sits appalled until the evening sacrifice when he gets up and falls on his knees and prays to God. He pours out his shame and embarrassment. In his prayer he acknowledges that this is not new and that this faithlessness led to the defeat of the Israelites and their being handed over (by God) to their enemy as prisoners of war to their utter shame. This is a prayer of confession not just for an individual or an individual act, but for a people. What are the situations today for which you might come before God and offer such a prayer of confession or lamentation? It may be for the ways we have mistreated God’s creation, or harmful things we have done to other nations. It may be for the things we have not done to love our neighbors or help those who are sick or hungry.
Ezra, as was told before was a scribe or scholar of the laws of Moses, and here shares his conviction that the people have disobeyed a law given to the people to enter the promise land and kill or drive out all of the people who had lived there. Just as Joshua led the people into the promised land from slavery in Egypt by displacing the other people who lived there, now God is guiding him to call the remnant of the people to do something similar to those who have intermarried into the family. I find this and the next chapter to be challenging and I am opposed to the zealousness that is played out then and now. For me, Ezra is like the unenlightened Saul who was blinded by the light and call of Christ to change his life and his name to not persecute the Christians as a scholar of the law, but to become one of them and spread the Good News to those whom he had hated. What do you take away from this chapter?

09/03/2026

A CHAPTER A DAY Thurs. September 3 – Read Ezra 8 Like in chapter two where we read the names of the leaders of the first families who returned to Jerusalem from exile, here we have the names of the leaders and families returning in this wave. Though these seem to be fewer in number as none of the families have thousands of members, it is still a significant amount of people. Have you ever traveled with a large group of people? Maybe you were on a school trip or deployed in a military campaign. As I read this story, I think of when America expanded west and stories of the wagon trains heading out on the Oregon Trail.
Here Ezra gathers them together as they prepare to embark and discovers that there no Levites among them. So, he sends and asks that some come along and they join up with the caravan. Before they leave they fast and pray for God’s protection. Ezra does not want to ask the king for a military es**rt, fearing the king will wonder about the power of God to protect them on their quest. The gold and silver treasures are weighed out and given to the priests to guard and carry to the temple. Then they leave and not much is said about the journey only that the hand of God was with them and delivered them from the hand of the enemy and ambushes along the way. Arter all the verses about the counting of the people and the treasures there is no daily log or much of a description of the actual journey. We get a postcard sized note like, “Having a wonderful trip, wish you were here.”
When they do finally arrive in Jerusalem they wait for some unnamed reason for four days before they hand over the treasures they brought with them. Then everyone, the people who had come from captivity earlier perhaps and these returning exiles offer burnt offerings to the God of Israel. These too are all counted out. There are twelve bulls for all twelve tribes of Israel and so many rams, lambs, and goats. It seems along with the Levites, Ezra bought along some accountants. They also hand-delivered the letter from King Artaxerxes to the governors and leaders of the province. With this they had accomplished their quest. But Ezra has more to do that we will read about in the final two chapters.
Though they had worshiped and prayed to God before they left, there is no mention of doing that when they arrived though that may have been what they did during the first three days in Jerusalem. What do you do when you accomplish a major quest? We celebrate some of those milestones (named for those stones that marked the miles on the journey) We celebrate graduations, retirements, new homes, etc. But we can also celebrate each day and each step. We do not need to wait until Friday to TGIF we can thank God for the accomplishment of each day. What milestones are you thankful for today?

09/02/2026

A CHAPTER A DAY Wed. September 2 – Read Ezra 7 Here in the seventh chapter after the reign of Kings Cyrus and Darius, Artaxerxes is King and Ezra the scribe finally shows up for the last four chapters in this book named for him. It states that he was skilled in the law of Moses (which were really the laws of the Lord who had given them to Moses.) There is a time reference for Ezra and various priests and temple personnel leaving Persia and going to Jerusalem. It is in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes or 458 BCE. This was 58 years after the Temple was rebuilt and dedicated. This seems to be the second wave of migration of the Israelites. Notice that the actually journey took four months. It was a major undertaking and was taken one step at a time. What have been the significant journeys in your life? Where did you go and why? What did you learn from your experience?
Here again we have an official letter from the king, this time it is given to Ezra to be hand delivered to the leaders and treasurers in the province Beyond the River giving him the ability to ask for whatever he needs to worship the Lord. What official papers or documents do you or have you had? Maybe a letter of reference for a school application or job. Maybe a transcript of your grades or a discharge paper from the military service. Maybe a library card or a checkout receipt from Walmart. Ezra left Babylon with his marching orders in hand. Remember where all your papers helped you to go.
There is a purpose written in this decree in verse fourteen. Ezra is to inquire about the faith practices in Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of God of which we were told earlier that Ezra is a scribe. A second purpose is to take gold and silver and buy the needed sacrifices to worship God at the temple, and if more is needed it shall be provided by the leaders and treasurers in the province. On top of that, there are to be no tariffs, tributes or tolls assessed to the returning Israelites. Lastly, Ezra is to set up a judicial system for Judah and Jerusalem according to the law of the Lord.
At the end of the chapter we finally hear from Ezra who blesses God for stirring the king’s heart to do this. He affirms God’s steadfast love that encouraged him to undertake this journey and go and do God’s will in bringing the legal system of Moses back to the people of Judah. There are two things here. For what things do you bless God for today? And how do you see yourself fulfilling God’s will by doing what you believe God is calling you to do?