Not Exactly a Christmas Carol (a Steve Orr scripture Reflection)

The airways are flooded with songs of the season. The most played is “White Winter Hymnal” by Pentatonix. A catchy tune sung in a round, it’s been out in the world since Fleet Foxes released it in 2008. Robin Pecknold, the band’s songwriter and vocalist is its creator. But it really took off when Pentatonix added it to its 2014 album, That’s Christmas to Me. You’ve likely seen a YouTube video of it. Starting in autumn and peaking on Christmas Eve, it gets 96 million plays on Spotify alone. 

 

There’s something weird, though: “White Winter Hymnal” isn't about Christmas, or even about winter per se. And that’s just one weird thing about the song—there’s also the lyrics:

“I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats with scarves of red tied round their throats to keep their little heads from fallin’ in the snow, and I turned round and there you go, and Michael you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime.”

 

What in the world does “turn the white snow red as strawberries” mean? And with lyrics like that, why is this song so popular at Christmastime? Lots of people have weighed in on what the lyrics mean. But none of them actually know. In fact, the song’s creator says it doesn’t really have a meaning, that it never had a meaning. He wrote it in about 20 minutes with the goal of having something that would be fun to sing in a round—while doing dishes.

 

So why do we sing it? We sing it because the singing of it brings us joy. And nothing could be more appropriate for the season. Speaking of the season, I am writing this on December 24th, Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is Christmas Day and, not incidentally, the First Day of Christmas. We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas not because Christmas is coming, but because Christmas has arrived. We sing, laugh, party, and feast from December 25th through January 5th (Twelfth Night) because we are filled with joy. 

 

And the songs we sing, just for the joy of it, are the perfect songs for the season—whether they mean anything or not. 

 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express

BONUS CONTENT

Watch the Pentatonix video of White Winter Hymnal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o10drRI3VQ0

 

More about Robin Pecknold and the creation of White Winter Hymnal:

https://www.news-herald.com/2021/12/23/red-snow-a-most-unexpected-modern-standard-for-the-holidays/amp/

 

An early video made to Fleet Foxes singing their song (and a positive take on the “red snow”):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPY32znj9U4

 

 

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Yes, the holidays are upon us. So, we’re taking a break from Lectionary Breakfasts for a couple weeks. Look for us to start up again on January 10, 2025. 

Blessings to you and yours,

Steve

Below is a chart (and link to it) of readings for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the Sundays after Christmas. Readers' choice 😇

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/calendar/2024-25/?season=christmas

 

Different Journey, Different Map (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

Different parts of a journey are approached differently. Different phases of a process require different actions. The map that is used to cross the plains won’t be the same map that is used to cross the mountains. Different terrains, different maps. At harvest, a farmer doesn’t use the planting routine to gather the crops. Farmers plant one way and reap another.

Marshall Goldsmith’s book What Got You Here Won't Get You There applied this idea to career advancement. The processes people employ for making it as a worker don’t apply to getting management  positions. The worker and the manager have different jobs, different uses of time and tools, and different objectives.

The book was aimed at people who aspire to management positions. It lays out a map, if you will, of milestones that must be achieved. It explains that some of the old must give way to the new. If not, the person will not succeed on the new—and quite different—journey.

This week’s scripture from the book of Hebrews has a similar message for those who want a relationship with God. In the first ten verses of Chapter 10, the Hebrew writer succinctly sums up much of what Jesus tried to communicate to Israel's leaders—the priests, scribes, Pharisees, and teachers of the Law. The old way, the way they clung to, was no longer viable. They would have to change if they wanted a true relationship with God. What had brought them to that point—the Law of Moses—could not get them any further. They needed a new redemption song. 

Read those ten verses. I found The Message useful in making their meaning plain. Jesus came in the fullness of time to fulfill the Law. It was done. It's as if Jesus were saying: What got you here won't get you there.

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Link to the scripture passage in The Message from Bible Gateway:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2010%3A1-10&version=MS

Listen to New Redemption Song by Over the Rhine: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK6-s6qUJeo

PHOTO: Art by Steve Orr, “Cruising Japan” guide by Emile Baladi

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This Friday is DaySpring’s last Lectionary Breakfast during Advent. We would love it if you joined us this Friday morning. We start at 8:00 on **Zoom and in-person at Our Breakfast Place. We'll do all the usual stuff: eat, read, discuss, laugh. But we'll also be celebrating, expectantly, the birth of our Lord. 

Come for the food, stay for the blessings. 

Blessings,

Steve

 

**Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)

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

 

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY & THE COMING WEEK

Read them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=384&z=a&d=4

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_FourthSundayofAdvent.pdf

Micah 5:2-5a

Psalm 80:1-7

Hebrews 10:5-10 (Read 10:1-10)

Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 22, 2024)

Dad’s Many Careers (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

When Dad was a new husband in the 1950s, people were expected to work 20, 30, even 40 years for the same employer or in one career. That may be hard to imagine when, today, people are likely to have six different careers. After World War II, Dad returned home wanting to become a chiropractor. And that is what he did—for about a decade. 

What followed was a succession of mini-careers. Dad was a “brickie,” doing brick and tile work for a cousin’s construction business. Next, he was a riverboat pilot/dairy farmer, working a 30/30 structure. He alternated the 30/30 with a farmer friend. One month Dad was on the boat and our friend ran the dairy. The next month, they switched. It was job-sharing long before that was a thing. Next, he joined a cousin in a printing business for a few years. 

Then my parents moved to Florida and Dad joined Wickes Lumber Company. He worked there until an on-the-job injury placed him on permanent disability in his 50s. Throughout those three-ish decades, while Dad moved through multiple, unrelated career fields, Mom worked for the telephone company, her only employer all those years.

Jobs are an interesting part of our lives. Whatever work we do in this life—be it the very important work of developing the next generation, or making things, or building places, or selling things, or a myriad of office type occupations—we tend to get who we are all tangled up with what we do.

In this week’s Luke passage, John the Baptist called everyone to repentance, to turn their lives away from sin. No doubt many wondered what impact this "repentance" would have on their lives, and perhaps most specifically, on how they made a living. For most, the work of repentance turned out to be straightforward: Share with those in need. But tax collectors and soldiers were among the most reviled in that place and time. Many of the others present were likely thinking: Tax collectors and soldiers can’t repent without first changing jobs…right?

But it was those very tax collectors and soldiers who actually asked the quiet part out loud. John's response is interesting, both for what he said and for what he didn’t say. To the soldiers and tax collectors, he said, (to paraphrase), "You have vast positional authority. Don't exploit it." Tax collectors were considered cheats and thieves, and soldiers were—charitably—considered bullies. So, "Don't extort and don't bully" got right to the heart of repentance for them.

But John did not tell them to stop being tax collectors and soldiers. When you think about it, the implication is startling. Here was John’s opportunity to tell them, straight up: “You folks are in the wrong professions.” Instead, John got to the heart of the matter—and it wasn’t their career choices.

Our jobs can only define us is if we allow it. They certainly don’t determine God’s relationship with us, nor ours with God. In that light, the different career paths taken by my parents come down to the same thing: In the end, the number of jobs or employers comprising your working years are not the point.  

How we do our work—how we treat others in conducting our business, how we impact others with our industry. These are paramount.

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GRAPHIC: The Careers Handbook 

https://www.amazon.com/Careers-Handbook-Ultimate-Planning-Future/dp/0241537819/ref=sr_1_1?crid=UHQKBBPC58V5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Rk7vv-btIxSDYiHLAoPMKGpUo07m2zMm10fHBas-l-9BCMD9KMJ5XuZFvZyhd2eXy4Ew5-9oL00_CGdoxTZUBUQDEExGkG1ScZMluEZPpOPGf_rVYoLQhKd7MCzBXx4UwT4jbS2i6ztcFoGrSOGt45lO4AZRe___f-srj9H3t_ULM9V7v-e6zupr5BUjt0qgasZzIKiIh9jARINcjQUsOoLrl5lb1Ll9jVeEp7_XgAE.jEBHM49dACWUPZkTI3ZUrZW1HGhU-Z8jSL0O7aIje10&dib_tag=se&keywords=Careers%3A+handbook&qid=1734205660&s=books&sprefix=careers+handbook%2Cstripbooks%2C138&sr=1-1

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Join us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We eat, we talk, we laugh. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place restaurant. 

Blessings,

Steve

 

**Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)

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

 

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK 

Find them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=384&z=a&d=3

Print them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_ThirdSundayofAdvent.pdf

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Isaiah 12:2-6

Philippians 4:4-7

Luke 3:7-18

Third Sunday of Advent (December 15, 2024)

Ralphie’s Advent People (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

"The Bumpuses were so low down on the evolutionary totem pole that they weren't even included in Darwin's famous family tree. They had inbred and ingrown and finally emerged from the Kentucky hills like some remnant of Attila the Hun's barbarian horde.”  

 —Jean Shepherd, A Christmas Story

 

If you've seen A Christmas Story, then you surely recognize that line. The Bumpuses lived next door to Ralphie Parker and his family. The Bumpus hounds absconded with the Parker family Christmas turkey. Even though we never actually see them, author Jean Shepherd portrays them as the ultimate hillbilly family.  

 

I went to church with a family like them.

 

My Bumpuses had the requisite drawl, the car with the busted suspension, the rambunctious kids who just could not stay clean between their house and church services. Their clothes never seemed to fit: too large, too small, too long. There were plenty of people who could not see past the look and sound of them. I heard the talk. I saw the looks. I quickly discerned how most of the folks in our church regarded them: not quite measuring up, too hillbilly.

 

Confession: I, too, was put off by their apparent disinterest in looking and acting like everyone else. At first. But the way they lived their lives soon won me over. At a crucial time in my development, God sent these simply-living (yet anything but simple) people into my life.

 

My Bumpuses were one of the very best things to happen to my young life. Think of the people who helped shape you into the person you are. My Bumpuses are high up on my “shaped me” list. I learned something so important from them. I knew I was witnessing something I had read about but could not recall ever seeing. I didn't have a term for it then. 

 

I have a term for it now: Advent People. 

My Bumpuses lived as if every day was Advent, as people who were expecting Jesus, looking forward to His arrival. Yes, they seemed to give little thought to how they were dressed, the baby's drooping diaper, the loud creaking of their old car‘s suspension, an accent that turned heads even in Kentucky. 

 

In place of all that, they invested their time and energy into helping others. They were always available to help out. Always. They taught Sunday School when substitutes were needed. They did all of those behind-the-scenes kind of jobs that are so forgettable but so necessary. They were almost always the last to leave, just in case something needed doing. 

 

For some reason, they took an interest in me. I rode in that old car to church camp when my parents couldn't take me. I later learned my Bumpuses rounded up the camp fees when my mother couldn’t pay. I had a front row seat to observe them pray, simply and earnestly. I could not count for you the numerous acts of kindness I saw these folks perform, and almost always on the down-low. 

 

Don't think they didn't know what others thought and said about them. They knew. They just didn't care. They were living, breathing examples of that well known A. W. Tozer quote: 

"I claim the holy right to disappoint men in order to avoid disappointing God."

 

My Bumpuses, my Advent People. I call them that because they embody what Advent is all about, especially as described in this week’s Philippians passage. I really do thank God every time I remember them. Like those Philippians, the way they lived “produced the harvest of righteousness.” They understood this fundamental thing: What Jesus said and did to others is a template for how we should speak and act. Most of all, they wanted to be found being just like that when He returned, something they longed for and expected at any moment.

 

It’s Advent. Embrace your Bumpuses. 

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PHOTO: The Bumpus hounds steal the turkey. From the film “A Christmas Story.”

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Advent! A great time to spend with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Consider joining us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We gather at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place restaurant for an hour like no other. We eat, we talk, we laugh; and all of it surrounding a reading of God's word. 

 

Hope to see you there.

Blessings,

Steve

 

**Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)

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

 

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK 

Find them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=384&z=a&d=2

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_SecondSundayofAdvent.pdf

Malachi 3:1-4

Luke 1:68-79

Philippians 1:3-11

Luke 3:1-6

Second Sunday of Advent (December 8, 2024)