Stranger in a Strange Land (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

In Robert Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, the main character, Michael, is a human who was raised on Mars by Martians, and then, as an adult, comes to Earth. He grows up on a planet with very little water and then comes to a planet that is mostly water. Actual, physical, wet water is a central theme, but it also takes on a spiritual meaning quite apart from its physical form. When people on Earth give MIchael a drink of water, he considers them to be "water brothers" because they have shared water with him. He feels spiritually bound to them because, having grown up with very little of it, water has a spiritual meaning for him. The humans he meets only think of water as a physical liquid, and therein lies a lot of miscommunication.

On Earth, even though he is also human, he is truly a "stranger in a strange land."

Water. When you need it (or feel that you won't be able to get it when you need it) ... well, it's hard to think of anything else. The Lectionary scriptures, this week, are all about water: the physical kind and the spiritual kind. In Exodus, the people fear they will die for lack of water. Following God's instruction, Moses (the original stranger in a strange land) strikes a rock in front of tribal leaders and water gushes forth. But, in this week's Psalm, the event is mostly remembered as a time of complaining and testing of God; not so much for the gushing miracle.

In the gospel of John, Jesus is tired and thirsty; He breaks some taboos by asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. What follows is one of those conversations we often find in John where Jesus means one thing and his listener thinks he means something else. It's all about the water: but she thinks he means the wet kind, and he actually means the spiritual kind. Finally, in Romans, we're told that the reason "hope does not disappoint" is "because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us."

That's the spiritual water of which Jesus spoke.

We can't let wet water, or the lack of it, remain our focus in this life. Sure, we need it; we can't live without it. But there comes a point when, like the folks in the Samaritan village, we move from the physical to the spiritual. We must think of the spiritual water that is as essential to our souls as the physical water is to our bodies. We can't live without that spiritual water, either.

We can both drink and share that living water because it never runs out; a continuously gushing miracle that daily strengthens us for our journey.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Third Sunday in Lent (March 19, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42

_________________________

Lectionary Breakfast still meets Friday mornings at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. Starting at 8:00, we take the time to allow the living water to flow through us as we laugh, pray, read, discuss, and, of course, eat breakfast.

And each person gets a full glass of water.

Blessings,
Steve

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PHOTO CREDIT:
J. Alan Glennon. (2008) About Geysers, http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~glennon/geysers/index.htm, University of California, Santa Barbara, originally posted January 1995, updated August 9, 2008.

Under the Cloak of Darkness (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

The lights in my garage are on motion detectors.

When I step into my garage, a sensor notes my movement, connecting the power to a light. When I open the door and look into the garage, it's just a dark space. But when I actually enter the garage, it is flooded with light. That light can be a little disorienting; going from complete darkness to bright light can do that. Briefly, I'm thrown off by that light. That's eventually replaced by relief that I can see.

I like that light.

It gives me comfort. I feel confident, each time I enter the garage, that darkness will be replaced by light. It took some work to install the first motion detector and light combination, but it was worth it. So worth it, I installed motion detectors on all of the lights in the garage. Now, wherever I go in the garage, a light turns on as I approach.

We have a darkness situation in this week's Lectionary selection from the gospel of John (3:1-17). If you haven't read it, take a minute to do so, now (It includes the famously quoted John 3:16). In this passage, Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews, comes to speak with Jesus.

Under the cloak of darkness.

Nicodemus has taken a lot of criticism for waiting until dark to have this conversation with Jesus. Who knows? Maybe he had a busy day and this was the first time he had a space in his schedule. Still, even if he had a reasonable excuse, bad optics. Nicodemus looks like he has waited until dark because he doesn't want anyone telling the other Jewish leaders that he was conversing with Jesus. And ... maybe that's really the truth of it.

But here's the thing: despite any potential dangers, he came anyway.

There's a lot we could take away from this encounter between Nicodemus and Jesus. There are multiple significant matters discussed. But there is one key lesson, the one from which the others flow: Nicodemus came to Jesus.

Like my garage light, movement is required.

Peering into my garage, all one sees is darkness. It is only after taking that step into the garage that the light shines forth. If Nicodemus had not taken that step, had not come to visit Jesus that night, he might never have had the opportunity to learn about the need to be born of the Spirit.

If you want to know Jesus, you have to take that first step. You have to have faith that the light will shine forth, even under the cloak of darkness.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Second Sunday in Lent (March 12, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17 or Matthew 17:1-9

_________________________

Can you be with us, Friday morning? Lectionary Breakfast meets at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant at 8:00. We invest that hour in moving closer to the Lord. We laugh, eat, pray, read scripture, and wrestle with the meaning for our daily living.

And there's plenty of light.

Blessing,
Steve

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Second Sunday in Lent (March 12, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17 or Matthew 17:1-9

_________________________

Can you be with us, Friday morning? Lectionary Breakfast meets at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant at 8:00. We invest that hour in moving closer to the Lord. We laugh, eat, pray, read scripture, and wrestle with the meaning for our daily living.

And there's plenty of light.

Blessing,
Steve

The Idiot and The Oddity (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

That's what we Junior High boys called them: The Idiot and The Oddity ... but never within earshot of our teacher. We thought we were hilarious, but we had enough sense to know that she was unlikely to think so.

Of course, in reality, these two stalwarts of literature are named The Iliad and The Odyssey. In Ninth Grade, we read significant portions of these two works as part of Bulfinch's Mythology. Humor aside, I actually enjoyed that portion of the year, and have retained a good bit of the story.

If you haven't read The Odyssey or seen one of the films made about it (or, perhaps, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"), then let me sum it up: Odysseus (otherwise known as Ulysses) and some sailors went exploring and had a lot of interesting experiences. The end.

Seriously, though, one of those experiences involved some Sirens singing a song which, legend held, led sailors to their death. Before encountering these bewitching females, Odysseus had everyone's ears sealed with wax, while having himself, open-eared, lashed to the mast. In this way, Odysseus was subjected to the temptation (stimulus) of the Sirens' song, but, despite a great desire to do so, could not respond to it. He was seduced, but his constraints kept him from succumbing to the Sirens' Song. It was a clever work-around.

We, too, can find ourselves being tempted, and perhaps hoping something will hold us back. This week's Lectionary readings are about temptation (and the consequences when one gives in).

In the Genesis and Matthew selections, Eve and Jesus are subjected to temptations, but with decidedly different outcomes. Eve was tempted by appetite (forbidden fruit was "good for food"), attraction (forbidden fruit was "a delight to the eyes") and hidden knowledge (forbidden fruit was "desirable to make one wise"). Jesus was tempted by hunger (after 40 days of fasting), ego (prove you're God's son), and wealth (possession of the world's kingdoms).

The problem with temptation is not the temptation.

Temptations are going to come our way. In that sense, neither Eve nor Jesus differs from us. Different people are tempted by different things. I think the real problem is summed up in the Psalm: "Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding, whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not stay near you." (Psalm 32:9 NRSV)

We are expected to control ourselves, regardless of the temptation.

The Roman passage clearly describes the results of both Eve's temptations and Jesus' temptations. Eve's fall led to Adam's fall (not that he put up much of a fight). By resisting the temptations piled on him by Satan, Jesus paved the way for our redemption. Jesus, in effect, "reversed the curse" resulting from Eve's (and Adam's) sin. We can now be reconciled to God because Jesus resisted Satan's temptations.

In Hebrews, it states that Jesus was tempted in every way we are, and yet, He didn't sin. And that's what we should take away from this week's Lectionary readings. Whatever they are, these things that tempt you (people, foods, gossip, ego, revenge, inappropriate sex, wealth, power, etc.), Jesus not only understands, but has withstood them.

Whatever is tempting you, Jesus is the answer.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
First Sunday of Lent (March 5, 2017)

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 32
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

Table of readings for Lent
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Lent

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Join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. Food, fellowship, scripture, prayer, the occasional "Eureka!" and some of the best laughter you could find anywhere. Now, that is a good kind of temptation!

We start at 8:00 and begin the exodus around 9:00. We're in the back at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. Ask, if you don't see us.

Blessings,
Steve

Colorado Rocky Mountain High (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Our mountaintop experience was a bit of a shock.

Two days of driving took us from Midland, Texas to Keystone, Colorado. We were excited about spending a week at a genuine resort, a new experience for our family. We had heard many good things about Keystone; spacious and luxurious condos for each family in our group, free transportation throughout the resort, excellent eateries, lots of fun activities for both adults and kids, and, to top it all off, some of the most beautiful vistas in the USA.

There was just one little thing no one had mentioned. Nowhere in the literature I received from my employer did it explain about the elevation. We had been living at 2,800 feet above sea level. The conference was going to held at various elevations ranging from 9,200 feet to 12,400 feet.

I don't know if you recall feet-per-mile from your grade school math conversions. I still sometimes have that math-phobic's nightmare ("Two trains are leaving Chicago at the same time. The west bound train is going 60 miles per hour and the east bound train is going 50 miles per hour. When and where will they meet? Show your work."), so I had to look it up. A mile is 5,280 feet.

That means our conference/family vacation was taking place, at the lowest, over a mile higher than our normal. Do you see where this is going? We spent the better part of a week alternating between "can't quite catch my breath" and "can't sleep for the headache."

All of this week's Lectionary scriptures are about God and the mountaintop. In Exodus, Moses goes up the mountain to receive God's commandments for His people. In Matthew, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up the mountain to witness His transfiguration and hear God's confirmation of His sonship. The Psalmist knows of Moses' experience on the mountain, that the mountain is the locus for God, the place where He may be encountered. In his second epistle, Peter references his mountaintop experience as proof of the Gospel. The mountaintop is all through scripture. Whether it's "holy Hill," or "Mount Sinai," or "holy mountain," or any other name, it's not the names used for it in scripture that are important.

What's important is what occurs there.

In scripture, when it's not actually being the location for an encounter with God, it serves as a way of declaring that God is present or nearby; so close that those with evil plans should take note and change their plans. It is also a way to think about encountering God.

Today, we talk of "mountaintop experiences," but we don't usually mean an actual encounter with God on a mountaintop. We tend to use that term to reference a sort of transformational religious experience, a time period wherein we feel so close to God that, as a result, we feel our lives have changed, have turned in a different, positive, more spiritual direction.

Peter, James, and John were terrified on the mountaintop; so afraid, they threw themselves to the ground and hid their faces. Moses stayed up there 40 days and came down with a face glowing so brightly it frightened people. All of this to say: Your mountaintop experience may not be quite the way you envisioned it. Encountering God, wherever it takes place, may be ---could well be--- a shocking experience; if not for you, then possibly for those you encounter afterward.

So, if you have a mountaintop experience, take it for what it is: revelation, confirmation, transformation. And then remember that, in scripture, the vast majority of people never met God on the mountaintop: please, go gently among those who haven't been there, yet.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Transfiguration Sunday (February 26, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm 2 or Psalm 99
2 Peter 1:16-21
Matthew 17:1-9
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Will you be with us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast? Join us while we discuss the transfiguration of Jesus and its repercussions. We start at 8:00 and wrap it up about 9:00. Food, scripture, prayer, discussion, and, as always, laughter. Waco's "Egg and I" restaurant. We're in the back.

Blessings,
Steve

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
________________________

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