A How-To Guide: Outlanders and Sassenachs (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Consider Claire Randall of the Outlander novels. Claire fell through time from 1945 England to 18th Century Scotland. Surrounded by Highlanders, and stuck with her clearly British accent, she was a Sassenach. It’s a term used by locals to label outlanders: that is, anyone who is “from away." She's wasn’t one of them—and they reminded her of it every single day. 

 

Are you an outlander? Do you ever feel like you've been exiled from all that brings you comfort? Do you sometimes find yourself surrounded by folks who seem like they’re a tribe, but not one to which you can belong?

That's so uncomfortable, and so filled with rejection it can become unbearable. I think all of us have had this kind of experience to some degree: at school or on the playground, at work, in the neighborhood, in our towns—even, sadly, at church. We don't seem to know the lingo, and even if we want to assimilate, no one seems interested in helping us. We feel different—and truly, we are different.

 

What are we supposed to do? Keep a stiff upper lip? Remain calm and carry on? The answer might lie with Claire. Until she can return to her home and her previous life, she must find a way to fit in.

 

God’s guidance to the banished Israelites in this week's scriptures is all about how they might fit in. God wanted them to fit into a place that was foreign in every sense of the word. In language, culture, and societal position, those exiles were outlanders. God’s message through the prophet Jeremiah told them how to act while they remained in Babylon. At last they knew what God expected of them while they were being outlanders—true strangers in a strange land. 

 

God’s message to them: Get married and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat the produce. In other words, settle in. Of most importance: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare."

 

When circumstance or other people—or our own choices—make us sassenachs and outlanders, we must not let that immobilize us. We must keep living as best we can. We must grow, flourish even—settle in and bloom where we’re planted.

 

Most important, we must seek the best for those among whom we are the sassenachs and outlanders. Even going so far as to pray to God for their well-being. Their welfare is our welfare. 

 

That's loving your neighbor as yourself.

 

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PHOTO: “A Stewart (Stuart) Clan Tartan Plaid” by Steve Orr

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon:

https://www.amazon.com/Outlander-4-Copy-Boxed-Set-Dragonfly/dp/1101887486/ref=sr_1_2?crid=RI3B7B1IRHPW&keywords=Outlander&qid=1664986179&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI0LjA2IiwicXNhIjoiNC43OCIsInFzcCI6IjQuMzgifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=outlander%2Cstripbooks%2C110&sr=1-2

 

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Friday morning is a great time for you to join us at Dayspring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We start at 8:00, sharing our mealtime at Our Breakfast Place (and on Zoom**). We continue with scripture, discussion, and some of the best fellowship anywhere. We're supposed to finish at 9:00, and some do, but some stay longer. It's that good. 

 

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=p&d=79

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_Proper23.pdf

 

Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

Psalm 66:1-12

2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15c

Psalm 111

2 Timothy 2:8-15

Luke 17:11-19

Proper 23 (28) (October 12, 2025)

The Trouble With Yesterday (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

In the film Yesterday,  would-be rocker Jack Malik awakens in the hospital after a bad traffic accident. That’s a good thing. But Jack soon discovers he has awakened to a world where he is apparently the only person who remembers the Beatles. 

 

In an early scene, Jack, still unaware of what has transpired, sings “Yesterday” to some of his friends. They assume it’s his song since they’ve never heard it before. And they are stunned. The song is far better than anything Jack has ever written. They are bowled over by the sense of longing so perfectly conveyed through its lyrics and music. As I watched the scene and listened to him sing, I found I could easily imagine that I, too, was hearing it for the first time: 

“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away.
Now it looks as though they're here to stay.
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be.
There's a shadow hanging over me.”

And there it was: a deep, deep desire to somehow turn back the clock, a longing to travel back in time to something and somewhere that could no longer be. 

Would you like to travel to the past?

 

Time is like a river—or so Einstein thought. He believed it flowed, that it sped up and slowed down. His contemporaries thought time might have banks like a river, that the past was back there, just around a bend. They believed that if someone had great desire to do so, really wanted to go, he or she could travel back the way the "river" had come, back around the bend, so to speak, to the past.

This is the theme tying together several of this week's scriptures. Not time travel, per se, but the almost overwhelming desire to return to the past. This is particularly true of Psalm 137 and the first passage from Lamentations where the writers capture the laments of the Israelites, enslaved by Babylon and exiled far from home.

 

Of course, the real problem is not years or miles, but rather the distance one has traveled from God. The Israelites mourned for the land of Israel, not fully grasping that the place called Israel was nothing without its relationship to God. That's why they were in exile in the first place: They had drifted away from God and needed time and circumstance to teach them that lesson.

 

Do you ever feel a sense of melancholy for a time and place in the past? Could it be that what you really desire is a closer relationship with God? The selections from Psalm 137, Lamentations 3, and Habakkuk provide us some relief and point us toward some true solutions for our longing. 

 

As followers of Jesus, our situation is different from those exiled Israelites. Underscored in the 2 Timothy passage is that the Holy Spirit flows within us, connecting us believers to God in ways we cannot even fully understand. Like a river, it brings spiritual life and nourishment to us. When we feel ourselves drifting from God, we can pray in that Spirit for what we need to fully reconnect us. 

 

That’s better than Einstein’s river of time. For Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. No time travel needed.

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PHOTO: “Back Round the Bend” by Steve Orr, (Skagway River, Alaska)

To fully appreciate the overwhelming sadness of exiled Israelites and their longing to return, listen to this song ("Babylon") from the TV show, Mad Men. The lyrics are borrowed from Psalm 137:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S78xHlm36xY

From the movie, Jack Malik sings “Yesterday”: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VgRuLQgeSE

 

For you Rat Pack fans, here’s the Frank Sinatra version of “Yesterday”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0fP5srK8k8

 

How Paul McCartney Wrote “Yesterday”: https://www.esquiremag.ph/culture/music/beatles-yesterday-history-a1926-20190913-lfrm

 

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Join us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We gather at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place. We wrap things up about an hour later. The food is good. But the scripture, discussion, fellowship, and laughter are better.

Time travelers must arrive on time!

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=p&d=78

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_Proper22.pdf

 

Lamentations 1:1-6

Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137

Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4

Psalm 37:1-9

2 Timothy 1:1-14

Luke 17:5-10

Proper 22 (27) (October 5, 2025)

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A Dead End (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

A dead end can be a negative or a positive, depending on your viewpoint. But when you come upon one unexpectedly, it can mean real trouble. 

Exploring under the earth—whatever you call it: caving, spelunking…crazy—just draws some people. My friend and I were two of those people. 

We started out walking. Then we had to crouch a bit. Soon enough, we were crawling on all fours. All of this to find the rumored “crystal cave.”

And always moving on a slight decline. 

In time, the tunnel dimensions grew tight. We were completely flat. We had lost the ability to turn over on our backs. There was only enough ceiling height for us and our gear. 

We eventually found ourselves at a juncture. Left? Right? Like many of life’s choices, the two tunnels bore no sign to indicate the best choice. For no particular reason, we chose the left tunnel. We expected more decline and got excited when the tunnel turned even more downward—until we came to the wall.

Dead end. 

So there we were, one in front of the other, heads down, feet up. At this point, the tunnel was too tight for us to turn around. We hadn't found the crystal cave. We couldn't go forward. We were out of options. 

We just wanted to give up. 

Are you feeling that? The claustrophobia? That sense of failure? No room to maneuver? Nowhere to turn? Stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Tzoros is the Hebrew word for this situation. It's the word for trouble. But not just any run-of-the-mill trouble. It means dire straits, nowhere to turn, between a rock and a hard place, no room to maneuver, out of options, no margin.

That's the word in this week's Psalm 91 passage where God says, "Those who love me…I will be with them in trouble [tzoros].”

More often than not, we don’t see tzoros coming. Whether we expect it or are caught off guard, what a difference it makes to not be alone! My friend and I were able to discuss our situation, cheer each other up, and crawl backward to that earlier junction. It took a little longer, but our wrong turn helped us know which was the right turn. And taking that other tunnel led us to the crystal cave (which was breathtakingly beautiful and well worth all the trouble). 

In “Traveling Mercies,” Anne Lamott writes: "This is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we're most sure that love can't conquer all, it seems to anyway. It goes down into the rat hole with us…and there it swells and comforts. It gives us second winds, third winds, hundredth winds." 

That is God's response to no margin, to dire straits, to "out of options," to trouble so bad it needs a special word to describe it. God knows when we are in tzoros and will be with us in it. God goes down into it with us. God meets us at the dead end—even if we’ve been there before! 

No matter how much tzoros, God's expansive (and expanding) love truly can conquer all.

_________________________

 

PHOTO: Photoshop Express 

 

Though not to everyone’s liking, Anne’s book turned out to be something I needed. It might be the same for you. Here’s the Goodreads link to Anne Lamott’s “Traveling Mercies.” 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10890.Traveling_Mercies?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=xdAjaO4iVE&rank=1

NOTE: Even though I used Psalm 91 in this week's reflection, you should read all of this week’s scriptures. This is one of those weeks when they all revolve around the same topics: choosing to occupy a reality governed by God, doing the things that really matter, thinking differently about our lives because there is a really good reason for it all.

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Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place restaurant for an interesting hour of food, scripture, and fellowship. 

Picks and shovels must be checked at the door.

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=p&d=77

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_Proper21.pdf

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

Amos 6:1a, 4-7

Psalm 146

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Luke 16:19-31

Proper 21 (26) (September 28, 2025)