The Bathroom Poet’s Gospel (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

For many years, I frequented a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts named Algiers. It was a favorite. Delicious Middle Eastern food; truly fine coffee. Cambridge was quite a distance from my home. So, every time I was at Algiers, I went to the bathroom before starting the long series of subway rides home. 

That’s where I first saw the poem. 

home had took me 

to where too much time 

had locke me in 

in my wrong ways 

and the fumbles of 

a memory, and left me 

where I first began 

begging: "Christ let loose 

these ghosts from my bones." 

Men see a lot of things written on bathroom walls; mostly things not repeatable in polite company. And believe me, after a while, guys just stop seeing them. But this caught my attention the very first time I entered that bathroom ... and it kept getting my attention every time I was there. Finally, I wrote it down. 

I’ve thought a lot about that poem over the years; wondering what the author meant for the reader to get from it. After mulling it over for some years, I realized he wasn’t thinking about the reader, at all. 

It’s too raw. It was scrawled on a bathroom wall, not published in the New England Journal of Poetry. This guy was hurting ... deeply. 

And yet ...

From the depths of his circumstance, the poet called on Jesus. He knew who could save him, and he wasn’t afraid to write that name high up on a wall where many would see the savior he claimed. 

If I could find the author of that poem, I would thank him for his reminder that God can be called on in all circumstances, even when —perhaps, most especially when— things seem their worst. 

_________________________

PHOTO (Men’s restroom wall at the Elephant House coffee shop in Edinburgh, Scotland): Steve Orr 

_________________________

Join us for DaySpring’s Post-Polar Vortex Lectionary Breakfast this Friday. As usual, we gather at 8:00 on Zoom for such a pleasant hour. There’s Bible, discussion, prayer, and laughter ... and whatever breakfast you show up with. 

Contact me for the Zoom link.

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera if you don’t wish to be seen and to mute the microphone if you don’t wish to speak

Blessings,

Steve 

SCRIPTURES FOR THE COMING WEEK

Find them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=72

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

Psalm 22:23-31

Romans 4:13-25

Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9

Second Sunday in Lent (February 28, 2021)

Giant Golden Arrows (a Steve Orr Lent reflection)

They’re still out there, you know ... those giant arrows. You can still see them, even though they are quite old.

They were first placed on the Earth in the 1920's ... ... ... by humans. They were the most visible part of the Transcontinental Airway System, designed to aid Air-mail pilots as they traveled across the United States. Lacking the level of technology we enjoy, today, these pilots could easily get lost. At the time, it was a perfectly reasonable navigation aid. 

The arrows, each over 68 feet long, were painted a bright golden yellow. At the center of each was a tall tower with a rotating beacon boasting a million-candlepower light. So, even though it was possible to see them from the ground, they were designed to be seen, and were best seen, from the air.

At their peak, there were over 1,500 of these "ground beacons" stretching from New York to San Francisco; one every ten miles or so. Day or night, pilots could find their way across the country and back. Their makers intended these arrows to serve as a kind of covenant between themselves and those who had to depend on the arrows for essential, maybe even vital, information. 

Today, though, they seem a little simple. 

Kind of like the rainbow in this week’s Genesis passage.

After a rain, we see a rainbow arcing across a portion of the sky and feel a little jump of elation, an appreciation of its beauty. Few of us stop to reflect on an essential truth: rainbows are anything but simple. 

Without the rain, no amount of sunlight striking our atmosphere could produce a rainbow. For a rainbow to appear high up in the sky, there has to be a brilliant light source and there has to be millions upon millions of rain drops to reflect/refract that light.

To Noah and his family, the appearance of a rainbow was brand new. Before the Flood, it had never rained. Whatever God used to change our atmospheric composition to bring about that first rain, it remained in place after the flood. And it produced, for the first time, the conditions necessary for a rainbow. 

Technically, you can see a rainbow from the air, but it doesn't look quite the same; it can even appear as a circle from certain angles. Where you need to be to see the phenomenon as a bow is on the ground, with rain before you and the sun behind you. 

God placed His bow "in the clouds" so that, for all generations, we could be assured that God would never again destroy all flesh by a flood.

The rainbow is just one of the covenants God has set between Himself and us ... signs we can see as we travel this spiritual journey, pointing the way so we aren’t lost. 

Whether it's bows or arrows, the intent is the same. If you want a successful journey, look for the signs along the way.

_________________________

PHOTO (& drawing): Steve Orr

Where to find the arrows: 

http://www.dreamsmithphotos.com/arrow/arrows.html

If you want to read more on the giant concrete arrows, some of which can still be seen, try:  http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/02/why-is-america-dotted-with-giant-concrete-arrows/385472/?utmsource=GristFB&utm_content=buffere1847&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

_________________________

Hopefully, we can all Zoom to Lectionary Breakfast, Friday morning. We are going to start about 8:00 and go until about 9:00. We hope you can join us!  

Blessings,

Steve

Contact me for the Zoom link.

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera if you don’t wish to be seen and to mute the microphone if you don’t wish to speak. 

SCRIPTURES FOR THE COMING WEEK 

Find them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=71

Genesis 9:8-17

Psalm 25:1-10

1 Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:9-15

First Sunday in Lent (February 21, 2021)

_________________________

The Real Humpty Dumpty (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. 

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. 

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

Couldn't put Humpty together again.

I bet you remember that nursery rhyme being about an egg falling off a wall, shell and yolk scattered about, some horses and folk standing around. Right?

But, we’re left with questions. Why is an egg sitting high up on a wall? What caused that great fall? And, seriously, why does the King care?

Turns out there may be some truth to this old nursery rhyme; and it has nothing to do with eggs. 

In 17th century England, there was (so the story goes) a very large cannon mounted high on a town wall. During the Siege of Colchester, those seeking Parliamentary rule (i.e., government by elected representatives) attacked the walled city because it was a haven for Royalist (those who believed the power to rule should remain with the King and the royals, only).

That cannon’s name? Humpty Dumpty. 

Apparently, Humpty Dumpty was quite effective, keeping the Parliamentarians at bay for about a month. All well and good until some clever Parliamentarian landed a cannonball on the wall just below Humpty. When that wall collapsed, Humpty Dumpty "had a great fall." 

There was an attempt by the Royalists ("the King's men") to put Humpty back into commission, but the damage from the fall was too great. In the end, the Parliamentarians won and England became the constitutional monarchy it is, today. 

Maybe knowing this story of Humpty Dumpty will make it a bit easier to understand a strange phrase from this week's 2 Kings scripture. Right after Elijah is swept away by the chariots of fire, Elisha cries out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!"

The "father" part I get: Elisha had come to regard Elijah as a father. Their separation by the emissaries of God was sudden; so, shouting out "father!" certainly fits the shock of the moment. Elisha suddenly realized just how valuable Elijah was to him, personally.

But what is this business about Israel's chariots and horsemen? 

Scholars believe Elisha meant he had suddenly realized just how vulnerable the nation of Israel was without Elijah. What Elijah had done to protect and save Israel from its enemies, both within and without —by being God's faithful prophet in such a tumultuous time—  was greater than even the great armies of the King. 

Nothing, not even "all the King's horses and all the King's men" were enough to equal Elijah’s value to Israel.

Look about you. Any Humpty Dumpty's nearby? Are there men and women you know who so faithfully serve the Lord that our fellowship will be significantly diminished by their passing? 

Now is the time to be with them. Don't wait until they've gone to suddenly realize just how valuable they are, especially to you.

_________________________

PHOTO: Steve Orr

_________________________

Friday morning is a great time to join with others to discuss God’s word. Join us at 8:00 on Zoom for an hour of Bible and fellowship. BYOBB. 

Blessings,

Steve 

Contact me for the Zoom link.

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera if you don’t wish to be seen and to mute the microphone if you don’t wish to speak. 

SCRIPTURES FOR THE COMING WEEK

Find them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=69

2 Kings 2:1-12

Psalm 50:1-6

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Mark 9:2-9

The House That Shouldn’t Be There (a Steve Orr Epiphany reflection)

We had heard the rumors ... but they just seemed too amazing to be true. 

Moonshiners, Al Capone, Prohibition. A mansion situated deep in the land between the rivers where only the shacks of poor farmers should have been. We'd all heard the stories about the long lost “Bogard House;” not much more than rumors, really.

Then, one day, we found it.

It’s a longish story that I will spare you. Suffice to say that, by the time one of our group found it and led the rest of us to it, that “land between the rivers” had been transformed. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) had turned those rivers into lakes. Now, it’s the Land Between the Lakes (LBL), a modern recreational playground. Long gone are the moonshiners and poor farmers. Some shacks still stand along nearly impassable dirt tracks far from the modern highway that traverses it.

It was along those dirt tracks that we traveled that day, dodging pitfalls and uprooted trees, wondering which, or if any, of the rumors were true. 

And then we came over a rise and there it was.

We suddenly found ourselves staring at a large, multi-story home situated on the banks of the Lake Barkley. It had seen better days, but it was still impressive. In an area that, before TVA, was known for its poverty, this house would certainly have been a mansion. Someone with some money had lived there.

But, why? 

Why would someone with money want to live all the way out there in the boonies? As it turned out, many of the stories we had heard were true. Joe Bogard, revered among his neighbors as the "King of Moonshiners," had lived there with his family. Moonshine was produced there and was sold all over the Midwest, including to certain folk up Chicago way. The rumor that airplanes landed on a strip in front of the house, loaded up with hooch, and flew it back to Al Capone? Well, we could never find any evidence of that one.

But we did find four secret rooms.

As I say, though, the story of that day is longish. So we will step away for the moment, pausing only to note this: we had heard of that house, stories of other peoples from other times, and then we came to know it ourselves. 

Much like the questions in this week's Isaiah scripture. “Have you not heard? Do you not know?” They are rhetorical. Isaiah is not expecting an answer. They are there to remind the Israelites of something important. 

They had been hearing of God all their lives. There was a long, documented history of God doing amazing things among them. And yet, they had let what they heard cease to be what they knew. They had become theological amnesiacs. God had become more of a rumor to them than a reality.

God's prophets spoke the words God gave them. You can put your faith in them. So, seek what the scriptures speak of, ask for it, knock doors until you gain entry. Those words are not rumor. One day, you will crest a rise and there it will be.

_________________________________

NOTE: If you’re interested in knowing more about the Bogard House and our adventures there, let me know and I’ll get it to you. 

_________________________________

Join us Friday morning at 8:00. DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast is a great time to grab a cup of your favorite breakfast beverage and explore some scripture. We read, discuss, and laugh. It’s a perfect way to start your weekend. 

Blessings,

Steve 

Contact me for the Zoom link.

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera if you don’t wish to be seen and to mute the microphone if you don’t wish to speak. 

SCRIPTURES FOR THE COMING WEEK

Find them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=64

Isaiah 40:21-31

Psalm z147:1-11, 20c

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany