The Gods of Summer (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

In the summer of 1962, I encountered a god.

OK, to be fair, it was a comic book god, but the encounter was pretty thrilling nonetheless.

The summer of '62 was when "funny books" took a turn ---a permanent turn, as it turns out--- for the serious. That was when the company that would eventually become Marvel launched The Incredible Hulk (May), Spider-Man (August), and Thor: The God of Thunder (August). Today, we are surrounded by these Marvel characters (and many, many others) on our televisions, in our movie houses, and, of course, in many printed forms. But, then ...

I was still a "tween," not yet a teenager, but no longer a child; Junior High loomed ahead in the approaching fall. I was a ripe target for the angst-filled storylines of Spider-Man and his alter-ego, high school science nerd, Peter Parker. The Jekyll-Hyde nature of the Incredible Hulk, with his anger management challenges, perfectly resonated with a young male about to explode with not-entirely-welcome testosterone.

But the character who captured me the most that summer was the mild-mannered, partially disabled physician, Don Blake. While vacationing in Norway, he came upon a walking stick in a cave. Blake's limp was pronounced and he needed that walking stick. Eventually, circumstances caused Dr. Blake to strike that stick on a rock ... and in a flash Don Blake was transformed into the Norse God of Thunder, Thor, and the "walking stick" resumed its true form: Mjolnir, the most powerful hammer in existence.

That hammer, forged by dwarves as one of three gifts for the Norse Gods, was enormously powerful; it could level mountains, summon storms. Like a guided missile, it would hit whatever it was thrown toward, and, especially handy, it always returned to the hand of the one who wielded it. Both hammer and god would return to their "lesser" forms whenever Mjolnir was out of Thor's hand for a certain period of time.

Here's what happened in my pre-adolescent brain at the moment of Dr. Blake's transformation: Wow! There's a super hero inside that guy with the limp! And all that day, and for several to follow, and all through the next school year as I read more of Thor's adventures, long after that first adventure had started to fade from short-term memory, my brain still mulled that initial thought:

There was a "god" inside that man.

Thor was one of a pantheon of Norse Gods. The Greeks and Romans had similar pantheons: leader-gods like Odin and trickster gods like Loki. But these were all, actually, god-come-latelies. Long before those cultures rose to the point they could influence even modern day thought, there were other beings designated as gods. In scripture, we come across many cultures that worshiped beings they called gods. Often, these were hand-carved or cast metal forms that occupied space in people's homes or on alters at high places near their cities.

If you've spent nearly any time reading Old Testament scripture, you likely know that God ---the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage--- regarded these so-called "gods" as fictitious creations of humans, no more worthy of worship than a rock or block of wood.

And God was angered by any who did worship these pretenders.

And that brings us to Isaiah 44:6-8, one of this week's Lectionary scriptures. After innumerable messages to the worshippers of these idols proclaiming their complete absence of validity, God calls them out:

"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let them proclaim it, let them declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? You are my witnesses! Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one." (NRSV)

With that kind of certainty on display, it may not come as a surprise that when that comic book got me to thinking about the "god" inside the man, it dovetailed perfectly with another such matter that was on my young mind: Immanuel, God-With-Us, the incarnation of Jesus. I was much more interested in the true God, the one who was unafraid to declare Himself to be the one and only, the one so confident of their silence that He was unafraid to challenge those fake gods. The one who entered this existence inside a person ... for real; the one who didn't need a magic hammer to transform him from God to man and back again ... because He could be both at the same time.

That's the God encounter that mattered to me.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 11 (16) (July 23, 2017)

Genesis 28:10-19a
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
Isaiah 44:6-8
Psalm 86:11-17
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

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Will you be in the Waco area? We would love for you to join us for Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning. Still meeting in the back room of the local "Egg and I" restaurant, we start (almost exactly, but not really) at 8:00 and have a great hour (ish), together. Come for the food and stay for the fellowship ... or just come for the fellowship.

Our time together is transforming.

Blessings,
Steve

"It's only a milkshake." (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Some quotes become staples of life advice. For example, "Be the change you wish to see in the world" (Mahatma Gandhi), "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game" (Babe Ruth), and "Never pay full price for late pizza" (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles).

Often, when someone speaks or writes a quote, the very words are noteworthy; they remain illuminated in the mind long after the moment when they were heard or read. But there's nothing special about the words in the title quote, above. Standing alone like that, there is no particular import, no life-changing impact, no world-enhancing philosophy in them. Milkshakes, for the most part, are not momentous. Most of the things people say in this life, even the quotable stuff, must be understood in a context. And that is the case with the milkshake quote.

Fans of the TV show, Mad Men, likely recognized it, immediately. In the scene, a young woman is sitting in a restaurant with a man and his three children. While roughhousing, one of the kids knocks over a milkshake which begins to rapidly spread across the table. Everyone at the table appears horrified and frightened ... except the young woman. She gathers some napkins and kindly says, "It's OK. It's only a milkshake." *

As the last syllable of "milkshake" is still wafting through the air, the faces of the man and his children undergo a startling transformation; horror and fright become stunned wonder and a kind of hope-filled awe.

All of this comes at a watershed moment in the series, one of those pivot points where, to understand the full impact of the words, the viewer must have seen all the story that has gone before. Even describing the scene cannot convey its full meaning. Without the preceding four seasons, the viewer cannot fully understand and appreciate the true value of the words the young woman speaks, nor why they make such a powerful impact on the man and his children.

That brings us to this week's Lectionary reading from the Gospel of John. When pressed by the leaders of the Jews to "...tell us plainly" whether he is the Messiah, Jesus responds, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me...." Jesus is telling them that he has been revealing himself for the entire three years of His ministry. No mere words, at this point, are going to convey the full and correct answer to their question. They have ignored all that has gone before, not understanding that He has been communicating with them through his actions and through his words; that, taken together, the two form the answer to their question.

Jesus could give them a direct answer. But like the milkshake quote, His words could not be understood without all that has gone before. What they would carry away from the conversation would be, at best, a superficial understanding. They wanted to segment Jesus, separate his words from his deeds, remove him from the context of His story, and then judge Him based on what they perceived as blasphemous statements.

Sometimes, a milkshake is just a milkshake. But sometimes, when it comes at the end of a long line of words and actions, it transforms into hope and wonder right before our eyes.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 17, 2016)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

First reading
Acts 9:36-43
Psalm
Psalm 23
Second reading
Revelation 7:9-17
Gospel
John 10:22-30
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We're gathering Friday mornings at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant for Lectionary Breakfast, which is just a fancy way of saying we're going to talk about the Bible while we eat breakfast. We start at 8:00, and we enjoy an hour of discussion about one or more of the week's Lectionary passages. And we laugh. A lot.

But if you want a milkshake, you'll have to bring your own.

Enjoy the week!
Steve
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* "It's OK. It's only a milkshake."
Character: Megan Calvet
Madmen
Season 4, Episode 13: "Tomorrowland"
First aired October 17, 2010

The Shining (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

There was a lot of controversy surrounding Stephen King's The Shining.

Likely, though, it's not what you think. I mean, if you think the controversies were things like a young child being stalked by evil ghosts or being endangered by his own father, then you would be wrong. Somehow, as strange as that sounds, today, people managed to accept both those premises.

The first controversy had to do with the novel, itself. King's publisher lobbied long and hard for King to not even write the novel. After the success of Carrie and 'Salem's Lot, Doubleday was worried King would get typed as a horror writer. There's some irony for you. The Shining went on the be King's first hardback bestseller.

The second controversy was the title; people just didn't get it. People had heard of visions, as in the Bible, and they had heard of precognition, as in ESP, but "shining?" What was that? Did King just make that up? It wasn't until 11 years after The Shining was first published that King explained: he took the title from a John Lennon song, "Instant Karma!," where Lennon suggests we, like the moon, stars, and sun, "all shine on."

Of course, the big controversy was the Stanley Kubrick film. Generally considered one of the greatest horror films of all time, it nevertheless diverged significantly from King's novel. King was not shy about his disappointment. The irony, here, is that the movie likely drove book sales through the roof.

It seems that "shining" has always been a bit controversial . . . as we see in this week's Lectionary scriptures. When Moses came down from the mountaintop meeting with God, his face was positively glowing . . . really glowing. Let that sink in for a minute; try to picture it. Even in this day of CGI movies, seeing someone like that in real life would be disconcerting. Moses was so bright, the people were afraid; he had to wear a veil for quite some time, until the glow had faded away.

Then, in another of this week's passages, Jesus takes his inner circle up the mountain where He is transfigured and, He too, is left glowing after encountering God there. I wonder how long that glow lasted? Scriptures doesn't tell us, but one thing we know, they didn't come down from the mountain until the next day.

Both "shinings" reappear in the II Corinthians passage, where Paul writes:

“With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back. Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn’t notice that the glory was fading away—and they didn’t notice. They didn’t notice it then and they don’t notice it now, don’t notice that there’s nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can’t see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there.

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.”
‭‭(2 Corinthians‬ ‭3:12-18‬ ‭MSG‬‬
http://bible.com/97/2co.3.12-18.msg)

We should have no fear of the shining, the real shining. It's God's light pouring through.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Transfiguration Sunday (February 7, 2016)
Last Sunday before Lent
First reading
Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm
Psalm 99
Second reading
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Gospel
Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

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Not all of us are morning people, bright and shining when we first face the day. That's what breakfast is for. Join us for Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning at 8:00. We gather for a great hour of relaxed fellowship and scripture at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant.

Enjoy the week!
Steve