Are You An Outlander Fan? (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

Outlander fans know all about Claire Randall and her exile among people nothing like her ... an exile from which she may never return.

It’s fiction, so none of us fans have a problem accepting that Claire has fallen through time to 18th Century Scotland. Surrounded by Highlanders, and stuck with her clearly British accent, she finds she is branded as a Sassenach, a term used by locals to label outlanders: that is, anyone who is from "away."

She's not one of them and they remind 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 to all know each other, to have established relationships; to be a tribe, almost ... but not one to which you can belong?

That's so uncomfortable, so filled with rejection it can become unbearable. All of us have had this kind experience, to some degree. At school or on the playground, at work, in the neighborhood, in our towns ... even 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; every aspect of our daily interactions and environment underscores just how different we are.

What are we supposed to do? Keep a stiff upper lip? Remain calm and carry on? Complain about it?

Claire Randall doesn't know if she will ever return to the modern world. Her long-game is to do just that; but until that's possible, she works at finding a way to fit in. As a way to be useful, Claire brings to bear her intelligence and her nursing experience (a "healer" in the parlance of that time). She doesn't ever truly fit in, but she finds ways to actively benefit those who surround her.

God’s guidance to the exiled Israelites in this week's Lectionary, can benefit us, as well. They were outlanders in every sense; language, culture, societal position. God’s message through Jeremiah was about how to act while their exile remained in place. What a treasure! At last they knew what God expected of them while they were being outlanders; true strangers in a strange land.

Get married, 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, though: “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) make us sassenachs and outlanders, we must not let that immobilize us. We must keep living as best we can; growing, flourishing ... settle in and bloom where we’re planted.

And most importantly, 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 - https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a12454737/outlander-season-3-episode-3-review/

A different version of this reflection appeared in October 2016 as Sassenachs and Outlanders.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 23 (28) (October 13, 2019)
HTTPS://LECTIONARY.LIBRARY.VANDERBILT.EDU//TEXTS.PHP?ID=283

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
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This Friday morning would be 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 (formerly the Waco "Egg and I" restauran). We continue with scripture, discussion, and some of the best fellowship anywhere. We're supposed to leave at 9:00, and some do, but some stay longer.

It's that good.

Blessings,
Steve

Would You Like to Travel to the Past? (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Time is like a river.

Or so Einstein thought. He believed it flowed; sped up and slowed down. Some contemporaries theorized that time might have banks like a river, and that the past was back there, just out of sight around a bend.

They believed that if we could find the right mechanism, we could travel back the way the "river" had come, back around the bend, so to speak, to the past.

That's the premise of TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finney. The "mechanism" proposed is that commercial artist Simon ("Si") Morley could think his way to the past. Oh, it involves immersing one's self is an environment as identical as possible to the period one wishes to visit, and one has to be able to perform some self-hypnosis. There's more to it than that, of course, but those are the big pieces.

The key, and essential, part of Si successfully visiting the past is this: he must really want to go. He must have a great desire to go backwards, to "return" to a place and time to which he may never have even been before; likely a place/time only his ancestors had known.

Would you like to travel to the past?

As strange as it may sound, this is the theme tying together several of this week's Old Testament scriptures. Oh, not time-travel, per se, but the overwhelming desire to return to the past. This is particularly true of Psalm 137 where the Psalmist captures the laments of the Israelites, enslaved by Babylon and exiled far from home (Don't read this one to young children; the ending is very harsh). It is also reflected in the first passage from Lamentations. To fully appreciate the overwhelming sadness of their situation, the longing to return, listen to this song ("Babylon") from the TV show, Mad Men: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n1B7xBQMAJA [You may need to copy and paste. I can't seem to make links active on this blog site.]

The real problem, of course, is not the years, and it's not the miles, but rather the distance one has traveled from God. The Israelites mourned for Israel, not fully grasping that 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 sometimes feel that almost overwhelming sense of melancholy for a time and place in the past? Could it be that you really desire a closer relationship with God? The selections from Lamentations 3, Habakkuk, and Psalm 37 provide us some relief and point us toward some true solutions to our longing.

As believers, we have a different situation than did those exiled Israelites. As we find underscored in the Second Timothy passage, we have the Holy Spirit flowing within us, connecting us to God in ways we cannot even fully understand. Like a river, it brings life and nourishment to us. And when we feel ourselves drifting from God, we can pray in that Spirit for whatever is needed to fully reconnect us.

No time-travel needed.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 22 (27) (October 2, 2016)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

First reading and Psalm
Lamentations 1:1-6
Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137
Alternate First reading and Psalm
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-9
Second reading
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Gospel
Luke 17:5-10

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Join us if you can, Friday morning, at Lectionary Breakfast. We still gather at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. We start at 8:00 and wrap things up about an hour later. The food is good, but the scripture, discussion, fellowship, and laughter are better.

Enjoy the week!
Steve