The Audience (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

We, the audience, had come from all across the United States to hear a huge, multi-city choir sing black gospel music. Dr. James Abbington would lead them. To our surprise, Dr. Abbington asked us, the audience, to become part of the show. He changed the dynamic. He wanted us to sing, too.

 

Us. The audience.

 

I marveled at this. What made him think we, the audience, would agree to sing? Shouldn’t we be on the receiving end? But, still wondering, we did what he told us to do. We belted out such well-known gospel greats as "Oh Happy Day," "Marching to Zion," and "Every Praise (Is to Our God)."  Song after song, we sang. I wondered if this was just a thing he liked to do, the way some rock stars like to tilt the microphone toward the audience so they can chime in on some parts. Maybe this was just his way. 

 

Then, between songs, he said something that put it all in perspective: "According to Kierkegaard, in church, God is the only audience; we are all participants in the worship."

 

“God is the only audience.” 

 

That might be debatable. But one thing is not debatable, God is certainly the only audience that matters.

 

Moses forgot that. 

 

In this week’s Deuteronomy selection, God shows Moses the Promised Land—and then reminds Moses that he will not be entering it. All because Moses forgot just who was the most important audience. 

 

At one pivotal juncture in the Israelite journey through the wilderness, a need arose for water. This was the second time they had lost faith in God to provide water for them. There was much bickering and complaining. Moses was supposed to speak to a rock to start the life-giving flow. Instead, angered by their bickering, he struck the rock with his staff. In doing so, he disobeyed God's instruction. And, because he forgot who his real audience was, he paid the price. 

Afterword, GOD said told Moses and Aaron: “Because you didn’t trust me, didn’t treat me with holy reverence in front of the People of Israel, you two aren’t going to lead this company into the land that I am giving them” (Numbers 20:12).

 

So, remember, no matter where we sit or stand in the assembly, when we act as though we are the audience, we ignore a basic truth about worship: We are not, in fact, the audience.  

 

God is the only audience.

 

 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express 

 

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I hope you can join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet on Zoom* and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place (8:00-9:00). It’s a great hour of food, fellowship, scripture, and laughter. 

 

No one will ask you to sing. 😱

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=17134&z=p&d=81

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper25.pdf

 

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17

Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18

Psalm 1

1 Thessalonians 2:1-8

Matthew 22:34-46

Proper 25 (30) October 25, 2026

 

Fearful of the Night? (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Though my soul may set in darkness,

it will rise in perfect light.

I have loved the stars too fondly

to be fearful of the night. *

 

That’s an excerpt from a poem about an old astronomer at the end of his life.

Viewed through one lens, the poem is him charging his pupil to continue to pursue "the service of our science." Viewed through a different lens, there’s a less obvious message: the old astronomer's love of God's creation.

 

The old astronomer spent a lifetime staring into the night sky, long enough to lose his fear of it, long enough to understand something profound: Even though he was surrounded by the night, he could live as in the day. He learned something that could benefit us all: The night is just another piece of the day. It’s the only piece of the day when we can see the light of other suns.

 

And in the end, no matter how vast the darkness, how uncharted the way, the old astronomer is confident "God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars."

 

Like Moses speaking with God in this week’s Exodus passage, the old astronomer understood that the journey is meaningless if God does not go with us. And if God is with us, we have nothing to fear, not even the unknowns of the night. 

 

This week’s Isaiah selection declares: "I am GOD, the only God there is. I form light and create darkness; I make harmonies and create discords. I, GOD, do all these things." Psalm 96 sums it up: "For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens."

 

It all belongs to God: the vastness of the universe, all the light of distant suns, all the darkness, and all the unknowns. As long as we are in the presence of the Lord, we need not be fearful of the night. We, too, will rise in perfect light. 

 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express 

 

* The Old Astronomer to His Pupil

   —Sarah Williams (English poet, 1837–1868)

 

Read the entire poem here: 

https://allpoetry.com/The-Old-Astronomer-to-his-Pupil

 

Listen to the audio version here: 

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

The colorful life (and bizarre death) of astronomer Tycho Brahe:

https://www.space.com/19623-tycho-brahe-biography.html

 

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Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. Starting at 8:00, It’s a pleasant hour on Zoom** and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place. There’s a surprising amount of laughter. We eat, read scripture, catch up with each other, and toss sermon ideas at the pastor. 

 

The optics are 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=17134&z=p&d=80

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper24.pdf

 

Exodus 33:12-23

Psalm 99

Isaiah 45:1-7

Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Matthew 22:15-22

Proper 24 (29) (October 18, 2026) 

The Ocean Desert Paradox (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

The view: breathtaking mountains, sculpted cliffsides, high, jagged peaks—paved highways winding their way through the connecting valleys. All around me were signs of desert life: cacti, scrub, and juniper—dry ground and dry air. To the casual observer, it would appear I was driving through a desert. 

 

They wouldn’t be wrong. 

 

But it was also an ocean. 

 

We’ve been told that if we turn back the clock 265 million years, the area where I was driving was far beneath the waves. Today’s mountains were reefs. The valleys were trenches. I was on dry land in far West Texas and, simultaneously, the bed of the Permian Sea. It can be a bit disorienting to juggle those two thoughts.

If you're visiting the Big Bend area of Texas, what you see are mountains, valleys, cacti, scrub brush, and desert life. But if you’re willing to allow a different perspective—to believe what we’ve been told—you can also see something from a different time: an ocean teeming with aquatic life.   

 

This week’s Philippians passage is about such things: perceptions and perspectives. The apostle Paul calls on God’s people to trust Him for their needs, to rejoice always. God has a better perspective from which to see all that is true and real, much of which we cannot perceive. God can see it all, understands fully, asks us to trust Him when it comes to facts not presently in evidence. 

 

According to Philippians, we can join him in this if only we are willing to fill our minds with: 

whatever is true

whatever is honorable 

whatever is just

whatever is pure

whatever is pleasing 

whatever is commendable 

whatever is excellent 

whatever is worthy of praise 

The real world is still the real world. The desert is still the desert. But the spiritual world surrounds us. When our thoughts are engaged with the matters on that list, God opens our spiritual eyes to see what else has been there all along. 

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BONUS MATERIAL

CHARIOTS OF FIRE — There’s a wonderful example of the unseen spiritual world being revealed in 2 Kings 6:8-23. The home of the prophet Elisha is surrounded by a foreign army sent to do him harm. He asks God to open the eyes of his distressed servant so he can see the invisible (and much greater) angel army already surrounding the enemy. “Don’t be afraid. The army that fights for us is greater than the one against us.”

PHOTO (and info about the Permian Basin):

https://www.usgs.gov/geology-and-ecology-of-national-parks/geology-guadalupe-mountains-national-park

Info about the Permian Sea:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/when-texas-was-bottom-sea-180953653/

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On Friday morning, we gather on Zoom* and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. Join us at 8:00 for Bible, prayer, discussion, and laughter. 

SCUBA gear must remain outside. 

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=17134&z=p&d=79

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper23.pdf

 

Exodus 32:1-14

Psalm 106:1-6, 19-23

Isaiah 25:1-9

Psalm 23

Philippians 4:1-9

Matthew 22:1-14

Proper 23 (28) (October 11, 2026)