The Poem Mother Teresa Didn't Write (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

It's been floating around the Internet.

You may have seen the poem, "Anyway," on a social media site or, perhaps, as a poster on someone's wall. The poem is usually attributed to Mother Teresa.

It's sprinkled with thoughts like:


If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
BE KIND ANYWAY
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.
BE HONEST AND SINCERE ANYWAY
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow.
DO GOOD ANYWAY

It is a thought-provoking poem, filled with lovely ideas. The only problem is, Mother Teresa didn't write it.

In 1968, 19-year old Kent Keith, a Harvard sophomore, wrote the first draft of "Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments," as part of a book for student leaders. There were ten of those "commandments," all of which were intended to reflect the teachings of Jesus. If you compare it to the poem, you will immediately recognize that, with the exception of the final two lines, they are identical.

The confusion comes about because Mother Theresa loved the Paradoxical Commandments, too; so much so, she had them blown up and hung them on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the children's home in Calcutta. People saw them there and assumed the words were hers.

While most of us will agree, it is always important to know the true author, there are times when the importance and universality of the message may transcend the author, time, place, and original audience. That is the situation in this week's Lectionary scriptures; and because of that, you should read them all.

In Leviticus, God instructs the Israelites on how to treat people with respect, and He ends with "Love you neighbors as yourselves." In Matthew, Jesus, shockingly, tells his Disciples that they need to love the very people they would ordinarily choose to NOT love. In the selection from Psalm 119, the Psalmist begs God for the kind of understanding needed to "turn my heart to your decrees." Paul tells the Corinthians to avoid becoming worldly-wise, to instead become God's fool, and he ends with, "So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Peter or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”

We need to treat these scriptures the way Mother Teresa treated Dr. Keith's poem. She knew someone else wrote those words, but she so desired to do them herself, she hung them up on the wall, anyway.

All of this week's Lectionary selections were written down at different times, by different people, for different people.

We need to follow them, anyway.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany (February 19, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
Psalm 119:33-40
1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23
Matthew 5:38-48
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I hope you can join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. We meet at 8:00 and wrap thing up around 9:00. Come if you can. We're reading the words of others, but we are learning to do them, anyway.

Blessings,
Steve

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NOTES
1. Dr. Keith's take on the Mother Teresa connection makes fascinating reading: http://www.kentmkeith.com/mother_teresa.html

2. Dr. Keith's book is still in print; you can buy it at Amazon and many national retail outlets.

3. The photo is from http://quotespictures.net/17609/it-was-never-between-you-and-them-anyway-mother-teresa

4. Bible quotes are from the NIV.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

This story starts with an "off" day at the gym.

I'm no athlete, but I can usually muster up enough energy to do what my trainer requires for the 30 or 40 minutes she has control of my life. Recently, though, I had a day when I just couldn't do it. When I searched for that energy reserve I depend on to jog that 30 seconds at 5 MPH or hold that forearm plank for "just one more minute," there was nothing. My trainer wondered if something was wrong. To which I responded: "I guess I'm just 'off my feed' today."

Blank stare. She had no idea what I was talking about.

Having grown up in Kentucky, I lived in horse country. Horses were a regular part of our lives. And horse-related idioms were laced throughout our conversations. Yes, we said all the ones most people know ---Like "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink." And "He won hands down." Or "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." And even, "That's a horse of a different color."--- But we also said horsey things like, "He's a mudder." A phrase, always used as a compliment, that meant a person could succeed in difficult circumstances (the way some race horses do on muddy tracks).

Being "off my feed" meant I wasn't feeling my best but didn't know why, like a horse that refused the oats in its feed bag because it had some as-yet-undefined illness or problem.

There's a similar situation in this week's Lectionary scripture from the 1st letter to the Corinthians. The Apostle Paul expresses his frustration over the fact that the believers living in Corinth are not eating as they should, spiritually speaking.

He laments that, at this point in time, they should already be eating the spiritual food of mature believers, but that they are still on baby food.

In other words, he has a lot he could teach them about living the life of a believer, but won't even try because they are being willfully immature. He points out that they are competing with each other over who is the most spiritual, and are basing that on which servant of God led them to the Lord.

Idioms can be useful in explaining our situations, in telling someone about themselves or others. But only if we understand the reference. Paul used a reference that anyone living in Corinth would readily understand: babies nurse, grown-ups eat adult food.

If we want to continue maturing on this spiritual journey, we're going to have to set aside the behaviors that make us remain spiritually childish. The Corinthian letters are chock full of examples of what behaviors we should stop doing.

And that's straight from the horse's mouth.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (February 12, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany

Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 119:1-8
1 Corinthians 3:1-9
Matthew 5:21-37

_________________________

Lectionary Breakfast continues at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. We start at 8:00, Friday morning, and are pretty much done around 9:00. Scripture, prayer, discussion, laughter: these are our usual activities.

And eating, of course, though I can't recall anyone hungry enough to eat a horse.

Blessings,
Steve

God and SpaceX (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

I'm sitting here listening to ---more like vibrating to--- a SpaceX rocket engine test. Loud understates the experience.

These rocket engine tests are fairly common for those of us living near the small, central Texas town of McGregor. SpaceX has a very active operation there. The deep-throated roar of those engines has been known to shake pictures off walls, objects off shelves, and nappers out of repose.

The first time it happened, around suppertime one evening, many of us wondered if the world was coming to an end ... or if we were under some sort of attack ... or, at the very least, if the black helicopters were converging on the nearby Bush (43) Ranch. Local authorities and news media were flooded with phone calls.


There was one question on the mind of every person: What is happening?!

During those first few minutes and hours, there was a great deal of concern. But, after a while, even though no answers had yet come forth, people began to relax a bit. Oh, the roar continued off and on, but nothing actually seemed to be happening. After a bit, the event dropped from "emergency!" down to "just a lot of noise." Oh, it was still annoying, and it was still loud, and it still had everybody's house shaking. But nothing bad followed all that noise; nothing momentous occurred. People left their front yards and returned to their houses. They stopped trying to call the Mayor, the Sheriff, the Chief of Police, the TV stations, the radio stations.

The excitement had waned.

We started to settle down.

We got used to it.

That's the situation confronted by Isaiah in one of this week's Lectionary scriptures. God had been active in the lives of the Jewish people for centuries. God had sometimes presented as a giant pillar of fire, sometimes as a great whirlwind (think: tornado or hurricane), sometimes appearing with such a roar that ordinary people were afraid to approach.

God could be blindingly bright, thunderously loud.

Eventually, though, people came to take God for granted. Oh, they did the religious things. They fasted, made sacrifices, participated in worship. And, in their minds, it was enough. But, in truth, they had moved past the excitement of following God's commandments for living. They quarreled and fought with each other. They let the hungry go hungry. They denied justice to those who were falsely imprisoned. They were supposed to bring the homeless into their own homes, to free the oppressed, and to be caring for their relatives ... but, no. No time for any of that stuff; too busy being busy. And all the time wondering where God had gotten to.

Because they no longer did as God asked, God told Isaiah to "Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion...." Apparently, nothing else was going to get their attention.

They could no longer hear the roar. They could no longer see the light.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (February 5, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany

Isaiah 58:1-9a (9b-12)
Psalm 112:1-9 (10)
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
Matthew 5:13-20
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As we continue to move through the Epiphany season, I hope you can join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. Fat Tuesday will be upon us before you know it, and then Ash Wednesday and Lent. Next thing you know, we'll be celebrating Easter.

Take some time to fellowship with us at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. We start at 8:00 and mosey along around 9:00. We eat, we laugh, we pray, and we spend some quality time in God's word ... hearing the roar ... seeing the light.

Blessings,
Steve

Juggling for Dummies (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

When most of us think of juggling, we picture someone tossing several differently-shaped objects into the air, possibly while riding a unicycle, possibly exchanging those objects with another person riding a unicycle.

We think juggling is complicated.

But that's not how real jugglers learn the craft. They start small, with two or three balls. Or better yet, with ball-like bags that don't bounce away when they aren't caught. Which --the not being caught part-- happens a lot when beginners are learning the craft of juggling. Still, most people can learn to juggle three small, equally-sized objects. True, its not automatic, and, true, it takes practice.

But it's not complicated.

The complicated stuff comes later ... much later. Jugglers must first become really good at getting those three, relatively small things to do as they should. Once they master that beginner level, then, and only then, should they consider taking on more complicated routines.

Few of us are going to progress to the chainsaws-juggling level. A few will; a few always do. But they invest a lot of time and diligent practice ---years of practice--- before they can confidently juggle the most difficult (and, quite possibly, most dangerous) things.

In this week's Lectionary scriptures, we read in the book of Micah, where, somewhat rhetorically, he wonders how someone shows proper respect to God. He asks if special, and increasingly difficult sacrifices would be required to impress God? What kind of sacrifice would be big enough, dangerous enough, meaningful enough to cancel out a person's sin?

But Micah already knows the answer, and it's not that complex. In fact, it is surprisingly simple: "God has told you what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Sure, there are people ---a few--- who are called to do much more complicated and dangerous things in this life. But that's not most of us.

The challenge before most of us God-followers: to begin with a few, relatively simple actions, and ---most importantly--- to not skip over the beginner level. We need that beginner stage. It may well be that we are called to transit our spiritual journey with the basics, to spend all our time keeping just those three balls in the air. For most of us ---the overwhelming majority of us--- that is all God is asking.

To consistently act justly, to consistently be merciful, and to consistently walk humbly in God's presence, all at the same time: you may find, as have I, that there's plenty of challenge in that.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (January 29, 2017)
Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12
_________________________

I hope you can join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. We're still at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant, reading scripture, praying, eating, and laughing from 8:00 to 9:00. Sometimes we're in the meeting room in the main restaurant (you can see us), and sometimes were in a room at the back of the building. If you're not sure, ask.

Jugglers welcome (but juggling not required).

Blessings,
Steve


* As far as I know, there is no such book as Juggling for Dummies. However, there are many excellent juggling books and tutorials around. Google "basic juggling" and you can find several training aids, both free and for sale.

If Yan Can Cook, So Can You! (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

I didn't watch a lot of TV in the 80's.

The 80's was a busy time for us. I was a junior officer at a large, west Texas "oil bank." My wife, with my enthusiastic encouragement, was exploring a career in aviation. Our young daughter was fascinating, challenging, smart, and "growing like a weed." We needed our family time and did whatever we could to protect the times when us was "just us."

Still, there were a few shows I liked; and one of my favorites ---this will shock people who know me well--- was Yan Can Cook. Martin Yan's Chinese cooking show ran on public television for years, and it went on to be an international sensation.* Watching him was a bit of a revelation for me.

He was having fun!

I had never thought of cooking as anything but hard work. My mother did not cook. My dad did the best he could. My grandmother did not allow anyone to cook in her kitchen. Suffice to say that, in my family, there were never any scenes where, à la The Big Chill, we danced around the kitchen to the strains of Ain't Too Proud To Beg while cleaning up the evening meal.

So, watching Martin Yan grinning into the camera while finely chopping ingredients with a very sharp knife was fascinating (He never looked down! Yikes!). And then there was his now famous catch phrase, "If Yan can cook, so can you!" After watching several of his shows, I began to think ... maybe I could. Here was a cooking expert calling me out, challenging me to follow along and do as he did.

Only one question remained: could I accept his challenge? Or perhaps the real question was: would I accept his challenge?

It's similar to what is happening in this week's Lectionary selection from Matthew: Jesus, who had become quite well known in the region of Galilee for his teaching and healing, walks by a couple of fisher-folk and says (in so many words), "Come with me. I'll teach you how to use your existing skill-sets to do what I'm doing."

Yan's challenge was simple: listen to my words and do as I do; you will succeed at cooking. The challenge Jesus issued was similar: follow me, listen to my words, and do as I do. You, too, can do this.

Could you accept that challenge?

Would you?

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany
Third Sunday after the Epiphany (January 22, 2017)
First reading
Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm
Psalm 27:1, 4-9
Second reading
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Gospel
Matthew 4:12-23
_________________________

I hope you can join us at Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning. We're still in the back meeting room at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant, and usually visible from the front door. But if you don't see us, ask.

That hour from 8:00 to 9:00 is unique to my experience. We're a group of "becomers," all at very different "points" along our respective spiritual journeys. We come together to read scripture, pray, and challenge each other to grow and continue to become.

Blessings,
Steve

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* You can still find Martin Yan and Yan Can Cook on Facebook and other social media sites, as well as on YouTube. If you like to cook ---or, if you are like I was in the 80's and the very idea of cooking is frightening (or just leaves you cold)--- take a look. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Gifts for the Magi (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Do you ever wonder where writers get their ideas?

A lot of people do. It's not always easy to provide an answer to that question, either. Some can point to events in their personal history as inspirations. Others will tell you they made it all up "out of whole cloth." I know of one author who insisted he dreamed his stories while he slept, rising in the night to write them down before they slipped away from him.

After last week's exploration of Amahl and the Night Visitors, I found myself wondering where Gian Carlo Menotti got his idea.

Three wise men traveling to Bethlehem who stop and pass the might with a boy and his mother: that's a unique concept. Lucky for us, Menotti actually wrote about this in the booklet that accompanied the original cast recording. And it is fascinating! He tells of growing up in Italy where Santa Claus was not a part of their Christmas celebrations. In his youth, children looked forward, instead, to the visitation of the three kings. He wrote:

"I actually never met the Three Kings—it didn't matter how hard my little brother and I tried to keep awake at night to catch a glimpse of the Three Royal Visitors, we would always fall asleep just before they arrived. But I do remember hearing them. I remember the weird cadence of their song in the dark distance; I remember the brittle sound of the camel's hooves crushing the frozen snow; and I remember the mysterious tinkling of their silver bridles."

Yes, that's right: not reindeer, but camels.

A little research and I learned that Italy's children sent their toy requests to the three kings, anticipated their arrival, and left water and snacks for them and their camels to help sustain them on their long journey. Menotti's childhood gave him the inspiration for what became a beloved Christmas tradition, an English language opera that is still performed.

Do these kinds of activities sound familiar to you?

Apparently, there is a certain universality to what happens in the Christmas season, regardless of where you live. Even if there is no Santa there. And that is our connection to this week's Lectionary.

Epiphany continues. We'll be in this season until Mardi Gras (February 28th in 2017). The Lectionary scripture selections each week focus on one or more aspects of Epiphany. This week, they all reference the universality of the Gospel; Jesus came for us all. This is so clear in the selection from John where, upon seeing Jesus again, John declares to his own disciples "Behold the lamb of God" who was, even as John spoke, "taking away the sin of the world."

Did you see that? ... the sin of the world, not just of the Jews. Even though John saw it, clearly, that's a part of the ongoing message from God to His people that many of them couldn't quite wrap their heads around ... that their Messiah would somehow belong to non-Jews, as well.

I suspect their thinking may have been a bit Israel-centric, much like ours is when we think of the rest of the world. Well, that was never the way God saw it. He always pictured an entire world rejoined with Him in harmony, a people who chose Him just as He had chosen them.

We see it in this week's Isaiah selection where the Lord, through the Prophet, tells of how the restoration of Israel to God is, in essence, too easy a thing for the savior, by itself. He would also be a light to the nations so salvation would reach to the very ends of the earth. And it's there in this week's Psalm where the Psalmist declares he has proclaimed God's faithfulness and salvation to the "Kahal rav" (the largest community).

And, finally, we see it in the selection from 1 Corinthians where Paul greets them along with everyone else, in every place, who claims the name of Jesus. He clearly notes that Jesus is universal, not limited to one nation or group, but for the whole world.
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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Second Sunday after the Epiphany (January 15, 2017)
First reading
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm
Psalm 40:1-11
Second reading
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Gospel
John 1:29-42
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Join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast as we continue to marvel at how God planned for our salvation. Find us at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. We start the fun at 8:00, spending the hour reading scripture, discussing, laughing, and praying.

True Epiphany.

Blessings,
Steve

Revisiting "Amahl and the Night Visitors" (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

I loved Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Do you know it? The story is of a boy and his mother living in Biblical times, not too far from Bethlehem. It's just the two of them. Their circumstances are not very good. The boy has to use a crutch to get around. The mother seems on the verge of exhaustion.

Late one night, there's a knock at the door.

What happens next is the substance of the first opera ever written for television in America. It was written in English for broadcast on the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). When it debuted, it was viewed by the largest audience to ever see a televised opera. Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first network television Christmas special to become an annual tradition.

In time, Amahl and his mother discover that their visitors are kings. They had traveled far and were tired. They asked for permission to rest in the home of Amahl and his mother. As the story unfolds, we learn, along with Amahl and his mother, that these kings are on their way to Bethlehem where they believe they will find a very special child, one that "the heavens" had identified as the "King off the Jews."

I can't recommend this strongly enough. It is a performance that is both endearing and mesmerizing. It captured my attention, fully.

Maybe that's because it is part of my childhood. Or maybe it's because it was the first time I was made to think of the "wise men" as actual people, people who interacted with other people. In any case, it was certainly the first time I recall thinking of a Biblical "character" as a real person, someone who did all the things I do; eat, sleep, have feelings, hurt, have infirmities, be protective of others, be tired, desire things, care about other real people, want to connect with God.

There have been many books, plays, and electronic productions about the Magi who visited the young Jesus. Sometimes they are referred to as kings, sometimes as wise men, sometimes as stargazers; but regardless of their title, people tend to think of them as being three in number. Scripture doesn't speak to this, so we don't know how many there were, only that "they" were plural and that they came later, not the night of Jesus' birth.

That "later" bit is part of the reason we have Epiphany on the church calendar at a later date than Christmas. Epiphany is the day set aside to recognize and celebrate the visitation of the Magi. Epiphany Eve is celebrated on January 5th, the "Twelfth Day of Christmas" of song fame (Drummers drumming, for those of you keeping score), with the observance of Epiphany falling on the 6th (or often on the nearest Sunday).

And, though you might not know it, Epiphany is one of the most important dates to us modern christians. While Christmas, with its announcement to those rowdy shepherds, represents when Christ was introduced to the Jewish people, Epiphany, with its Magi visitation, represents when Christ was first revealed to non-Jews.

Watching Amahl and the Night Visitors made the story of Jesus' birth come to life for me ... though Jesus is not in it. Neither are Mary and Joseph. Because it is the story of rather ordinary people encountering the extraordinary (in the form of Magi), it is the story of all of us. It portrays what it might have been like for us if we had been there.

Just some folks showing hospitality (with the little they possessed) to people on their way to an encounter with the Lord ... and then joining them on the journey.

Sound familiar?

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Epiphany of the Lord (January 6, 2017)
First reading
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Second reading
Ephesians 3:1-12
Gospel
Matthew 2:1-12

Here is the link to the table of readings for this Epiphany Season, including Sunday, January 8th (January 6 - February 26, 2017): http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany
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Join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast as we begin a new year. We still meet at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant, start at 8:00 and wrap up around 9:00.

Visitors always welcome.

Blessings,
Steve