Stephen King’s “Dark Christianity” (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

When Stephen King reissued his enormously popular super-flu novel in 1990 as The Stand: The Complete Uncut Edition, he referred to it as “this long tale of dark Christianity.” 

 

I agree with his description. It’s packed with themes any Bible reader would recognize. One in particular, though, stands out for me: King’s characters had strange dreams. 

 

Each character dreamed of a person and a place. All were being called to come. Each commenced a journey to follow the voice in the dream. In time, they formed into groups, moving with single-mindedness across the country toward a destination. Like the sheep in this week’s Gospel of John passage, they knew the sound of their shepherd’s voice—and they came when they were called. 

 

The hitch? They weren’t all hearing from the same shepherd. And “journey’s end” was decidedly different for each group,

 

However different our dreams may be, we each get to choose which shepherd we will hear. But you have to choose long before you hear that call. Are you among those who can say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” like David in Psalm 23? Or, like some of The Stand characters, does the voice you hear belong to a shepherd who is not at all good?

 

God knows we, like sheep, stray. And God welcomes us back if we choose to return. In fact, if we do return, the apostle Peter assures us in his first letter: The good shepherd will once again be “the Guardian of your souls.”

 

We are not sheep. But we are like sheep. And just like in King’s novel, where we take our stand matters. Choose your shepherd, today. Don’t take the chance you won’t hear the Good Shepherd when He calls. 

 

 

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ARTWORK (and more about bad shepherds: 

https://onelostsheep.net/2018/07/21/good-shepherds-and-bad-john-foley-sj/

 

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Will you be at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning? Join us at 8:00 on Zoom** or in person at Our Breakfast Place. We read, pray, eat, kick it back and forth, and laugh (not necessarily in that order). 

 

Inconvenient truths are all part of the deal.

 

Blessing,

Steve

 

 **Here’s the Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=42

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_FourthSundayofEaster.pdf

 

Acts 2:42-47

Psalm 23

1 Peter 2:19-25

John 10:1-10

Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 30, 2023)

Getting Down to the Heart of the Matter (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

If you thought the song was about a person pining for their lost love, you weren’t alone. 

 

But it wasn’t. 

 

The more I know, the less I understand.

All the things I thought I knew, 

I'm learning again.

I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter,

But my will gets weak

And my thoughts seem to scatter.

But I think it's about forgiveness,

Forgiveness,

Even if, even if you don't love me anymore.

 

Eagles singer Don Henley and friends wrote “The Heart of the Matter” in 1989. It reveals the singer has learned that an old love has found someone new. How many similar songs have you heard? A hundred? A thousand? And, if that were all there was to it, it would still be a hit because of Henley's voice and the fact it is so singable. 

 

But there's quite a bit more to it.  

 

What may not be apparent is that the song includes themes of love, grace, and trust. When we listen closely, we discover the song is not really about someone pining for a lost love. It’s an exploration of what should come after that. Henley, of course, pours his soul into each verse, making it easy to get lost in his singing—and miss the song. Paying attention, we soon realize that the singer's search for that next step—the heart of the matter—leads to just one place: forgiveness. 

 

You don't find that in just any old song about lost love. This is a transcendence over the love that was lost, an elevation to a higher love, a love that forgives "even if" his old love doesn't love him anymore. 

 

Listen to The Heart of the Matter (with printed lyrics): 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRNxw61Q-Qk

 

The word for this kind of love is agape. It’s an unconditional love, a love without self-benefit, often referred to as "love, in spite of." It's that challenging kind of love we have to employ to love our enemies. 

 

Agape is also the kind of love the apostle Peter writes about in this week's passage from 1 Peter. He calls for his readers to love one another “from the heart”—deeply, warmly, earnestly. He urges believers to truly live out the new commandment Jesus gave them. “Love one another” is more than a little challenging, but it is essential to life together as His disciples.

 

In the song, we discover: "All the things I thought I figured out, I have to learn again." Now is the perfect time to start learning, again, how to release all the negatives: bitterness, envy, anger, revenge, malice, hatred. We must continually revisit this, keep returning to it—deeply and earnestly from the heart—as a fundamental building block of our growing faith.

 

Forgiveness: That's how we "get down to the Heart of the Matter."

 

 

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PHOTO (and several quotes for forgiveness):

https://quotement.com/i-forgive-you-for-hurting-me-quotes/

 

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Join us Friday morning at Our Breakfast Place or on Zoom** to read the scriptures, discuss their meaning, and learn how better to love one another.  DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast starts at 8:00 and officially ends at 9:00 (but some stay around and visit).

 

There are currently no plans to require anyone to sing.

 

Blessing,

Steve

 

 **Here’s the Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=41

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_ThirdSundayofEaster.pdf

 

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

1 Peter 1:17-23

Luke 24:13-35

Third Sunday of Easter (April 23, 2023)

Wildfire in the Secret City (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

In late summer 1942, the US government force-purchased more than 60,000 Tennessee acres in the Appalachian foothills. Many of those acres had been farms. Earth was leveled, streets were laid, foundations were poured, and buildings began to rise.

 

No one was told why.

 

The "whatever it is" needed people who could cook, run laundries, be janitors, collect trash, type, file, do carpentry, be lifeguards, teach school. They needed plumbers, nurses, doctors, librarians, pastors, musicians, coaches—the kinds of people needed to run and occupy a city. 

 

No one was told why.

 

Many specialists were brought in. More than 75,000 people, though not told what they would be doing, or even where it was located, agreed to work in a place without a name. Everything was done in secret. Only after they were hired and on site were they told the details of their specific jobs. They were forbidden to discuss even that small part with anyone, even with each other. 

No one was told why.

Over the next three years, the folks who worked and lived there began calling this nameless place “Oak Ridge.” In late summer 1945, everything changed. On August 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. The news was stunning to the people of Oak Ridge, and it spread like wildfire.

 

What they had been doing at Oak Ridge those three years was supporting the Manhattan Project. Oak Ridge was, in fact, the headquarters of the Manhattan Project. They were producing plutonium and enriching uranium—making "the blowing up parts" of the atomic bomb. Despite the fact they were not allowed to know, and even though they had no idea of the implications of their work, each came and did their part day after day. 

 

The "big picture" was knowable only in retrospect. Now they knew their why. 

 

The three years of Jesus' earthly ministry were somewhat like the Oak Ridge experience: men and women drawn into an enterprise that was not really understood. The reality—and its implications(!)—far too enormous for them to truly grasp.

 

It was only in the past tense that even the inner circle came to understand more fully what had come before. We read of it in this week's passage from Acts. Peter draws together the facts—known, but not previously understood—and lays out the full picture for everyone at Pentecost.

 

As prophesied, God came down, allowed himself to be crucified as a sacrifice, and did not stay dead. What sealed it was the witness of Peter and the other apostles. Everyone could now know how it all fit together to make the greatest spiritual explosion of all time. 

 

It was good news, and it spread like wildfire. 

 

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PHOTO:

https://tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/the-secret-city?locale=en_us

For more on the Secret City, there is a little bit on Google, but I recommend these excellent reads:

 

The Last Reunion: The Class of 1952 Comes Home to the Secret City by Jay Searcy: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Reunion-Class-comes-Secret-ebook/dp/B007M4593U

 

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan: https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Atomic-City-Untold-Helped/dp/1451617534

 

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Hope to see you Friday morning as we gather for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast at Our Breakfast Place and on Zoom.** Join us at 8:00 for some tasty treats, plus an excellent breakfast.

 

We have nothing to hide.

 

Blessings,

Steve

 

 **Contact me for the Zoom link

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=40

 

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_SecondSundayofEaster.pdf

 

Acts 2:14a, 22-32

Psalm 16

1 Peter 1:3-9

John 20:19-31

Second Sunday of Easter (April 16, 2023)

Gravy, Gusto, and a Rose (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

I think I can be forgiven for thinking they were singing about a rose and some gravy. I was a kid, and that's the best my little mind could do with what I heard. 

 

All about me, folks were singing their hearts out. It was obvious this hymn meant a lot to them. The word to describe this forceful and heartfelt kind of singing, I would later learn, is "gusto." They were singing with gusto.

 

Listening to the hymn’s chorus, all I could picture was a rose rising up out of a bowl filled with gravy. In my childish imagination, it just sort of hovered there over the gravy bowl, looking blood-red beautiful.

 

Fast forward about 10 years. I am paging through a hymnal and come across a song. Something about the lyrics seems familiar to me. As I read through the verses, I come to the chorus. For a few seconds, I just sit there.

 

Then, I burst out laughing!

 

Like many children before me, I had heard the lyrics in a way that my childish mind could handle, but not as they actually were. There are lots of stories about kids mot understanding hymnal lyrics. Perhaps the best known: "Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear."

 

In my case, what I thought I heard as a small child was "Up from the gravy: a rose!" The actual lyrics are: "Up from the grave He arose!"

 

It's a song celebrating what is at the very heart of Christian belief: that Jesus rose from the grave on the third day following his crucifixion. This Easter, when you are taking a moment to reflect on what, to many, is the part of the story that actually makes the Gospels the good news, I hope you will recall my experience with a smile.

 

And when you do, share that smile with a child, knowing that even though they may not quite understand things right now, it will come in time.

 

Happy Easter!

 

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Listen to the old hymn here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYMCZNHPmg

 

LYRICS

Low in the grave he lay, Jesus my Savior, 
waiting the coming day, Jesus my Lord! 

Up from the grave he arose; 
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes; 
he arose a victor from the dark domain, 
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign. 

He arose! 

He arose! 

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Text: Robert Lowry, 1826-1899 

Music: Robert Lowry, 1826-1899

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PHOTO (and proof I wasn’t the only one who heard “gravy”):

http://www.central-christian-church.com/2021/04/20/up-from-the-gravy-a-rose/

 BONUS LISTENING

“You Saved the Day” by Phillips, Craig and Dean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a4Gk-y56F4

“GraveRobber” by Petra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKyhGyTW_TM

 

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Friday mornings are a special time for us. It's at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast that we celebrate the Word. We read and discuss the scriptures, pray for ourselves and our community, and there is a lot of laughter to complement the meal. Join us on Zoom** or in person at Our Breakfast Place. 

 

It is not necessary to bring a rose. 

But you could…

 

Blessings,

Steve

 

 **Contact me for the Zoom link

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=38

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_ResurrectionoftheLord.pdf

 

Jeremiah 31:1-6

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Colossians 3:1-4 OR Acts 10:34-43

John 20:1-18 OR Matthew 28:1-10

Resurrection of the Lord (April 9, 2023)

 

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Table of Easter Lectionary Readings

http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Easter