Down By the River Battle (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

A talented musician wrote a song about my hometown. Actually, more than one musician has written a song about Paducah, Kentucky. But I’m thinking of George Coryell, a hometown contemporary of mine. 

George wrote and performed “Paddlewheels.” It’s a fine little song about Paducah that includes many of the town’s hallmarks. Chief among those is Paducah’s two rivers and the paddlewheel-driven riverboats that ply them.

“We played down by the river, 

 where the Ohio and Tennessee meet. 

 We were always there to see 

 the Belle of Louisville and the Delta Queen.” 

 

When two waters flow into the same space, it’s called a confluence. That’s what forms two sides of my hometown: The Ohio River and the Tennessee River blending together. It's very picturesque—when described in words. 

 

In real life, it is two very different energy flows slamming into each other. From the moment they meet, these distinct entities are trying to overpower each other, neither giving way. You can actually see the two rivers fighting to remain distinct. They even look different. One is smooth, darker, richer in color. The other is choppy, roiling almost, and much lighter hued.

Paducahans also know a truth that changes how one views that river battle: There is something much larger just over the horizon. About an hour farther on, the two warring waters smack into the Mississippi River. 

 

The Mississippi is the river. On the north, its headwaters are just shy of the Canadian border. It knifes through the U.S. all the way south to the Gulf. The "Mighty Mississippi" is so big it absorbs all other waters. It takes them—and all they represent—down to the sea.

Paducah’s two rivers form a perfect metaphor for the two main Jewish groups competing at the time of Jesus. The Pharisees believed in an afterlife and that each person must scrupulously keep the laws and God’s Commandments to ensure actually getting to that afterlife. The Sadducees rejected the idea of an afterlife, believing each person must do good now, because this life is all there is. 

Those two fought like my two hometown rivers. They were using the laws and the Commandments in their battle to control people's lives. They had been battling before Jesus began his ministry and they continued to do so well into the early church years. They were always in conflict over which was right, each wanting to transcend the other.

 

The apostle Paul’s response to that conflict is in this week's Romans passage. He wrote that Jesus taught a much larger, all-consuming truth: Love is the fulfillment of all those commandments and laws.

 

Like my two rivers meeting the Mississippi, all those laws and commandments—and all the conflicts based on them—were swallowed up in something much, much larger. The love taught and modeled by Jesus is almost too much to grasp. But the metaphor of a mighty river can help. 

 

The battles that raged among us before we became followers of Jesus are as meaningless as the fighting of my two hometown rivers. And like the Mississippi, God’s love is the mighty flow that will take us all in and carry us to the sea—an ocean, really—of living water. 

 

 

_________________________

 

BONUS MATERIALBONUS MATERIAL

(1) Listen to the song “Paddlewheels” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDqdcWe4A80 

 

(2) PHOTO and all about the Delta Queen paddlewheel-driven riverboat:

https://www.steamboats.org/steamboat-pictures/delta-queen.html

(3) Article about Paducah-related music: 

https://www.wkms.org/arts-culture/2015-07-09/update-paducah-life-celebrates-25-years-with-song-contest

 

(4) Watch a clip from “The Gang’s All Here” and enjoy their version of “Paducah”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNoH4bjHmo

 

__________________________

 

 

Will you be with us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast? Come at 8:00 to enjoy good food, good fellowship, and the good word. We meet on Zoom* and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place. Look for us around the back. 

 

Water is free. The balloons, on the other hand . . .

 

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=72

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper18.pdf

 

Exodus 12:1-14

Psalm 149

Ezekiel 33:7-11

Psalm 119:33-40

Romans 13:8-14

Matthew 18:15-20

Proper 18 (23) (September 6, 2026)

 

The Love of the Bricklayer (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Dad only worked at the brothel for about a week. 

 

There was in my hometown what was then called “a house of ill repute.” I could write a lot about that place and the fact that even children knew about it. But that is a story for another time.

 

This is how Dad came to work at our everybody-knows-about-it brothel. Dad worked for his cousin, Norman, as a “brick and tile man” or “brickie.” Norman, a general contractor, had agreed to make some repairs and updates to the building. Included was a new patio across the back of the house and a brick walkway to the back gate. Sure, what they were doing was far from building a cathedral. But no one on the crew could afford to turn down a paying job, Dad included. So, every day, for about a week, he worked on that patio and walkway—brick...by brick...by brick. 

 

Nothing says we must always be happy about our job, whistle while we work, or sing out "Hi ho, hi ho; it's off to work we go." Sometimes, we just aren't in the mood for all that. Sometimes, the job is just a thing you need to do. It’s not always about building cathedrals. The real question, at the end of the day, is: Did we do our work correctly and completely? If the answer is “yes,” then we built whatever needed building. 

 

We likely need to apply a similar work ethic to loving people. In this week's scripture from Romans, we get the bricklayer version of loving—the step-by-step approach. Contrast it to the cathedral version, if you will, in 1 Corinthians 13. Perhaps when you've read the Corinthians chapter, you've wondered exactly how one goes about being patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not dishonoring others, not self-seeking, not easily angered, not keeping a record of wrongs, not delighting in evil, always trusting, always hoping, always persevering, and rejoicing in the truth.  

 

The thought of trying to accomplish that list seems pretty daunting. 

 

Sometimes all the lofty goals and wishes aren’t enough to get us where we need to be, not enough to ensure the actual work gets done—even when the goal is loving. Those lofty goals in Corinthians need practical, brick-by-brick, action steps. And we have them in Romans 12:9-21. Next, we need do the work, step by step, just like a brickie laying one brick after another.

 

Who knows, we really might be building a cathedral. 

_________________________

PHOTO: “Brickwork” by Steve Orr

BONUS MATERIAL 

 

"O world, as God has made it! All is beauty:

And knowing this, is love, and love is duty."

—Robert Browning

   The Guardian Angel

 

 

A TO-DO LIST FROM THE OTHER LOVE CHAPTER (Roman’s 12: 9-21)

• Your love must be real.
• Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good.
• Love each other like brothers and sisters.
• Give your brothers and sisters more honor than you want for yourself.
• Do not be lazy but work hard. Serve the Lord with all your heart.
• Be joyful because you have hope.
• Be patient when trouble comes.
• Pray at all times.
• Share with God’s people who need help.
• Bring strangers in need into your home.
• Wish good for those who do bad things to you. Wish them well and do not curse them.
• Be happy with those who are happy.
• Be sad with those who are sad.
• Live together in peace with each other.
• Do not be proud, but make friends with those who seem unimportant. Do not think how smart you are.
• If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him.
• Try to do what everyone thinks is right. Do your best to live in peace with everyone.
• Do not try to punish others when they wrong you. Wait for God to punish.
• If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if your enemy is thirsty, give him a drink.
• Do not let evil defeat you. Defeat evil by doing good.

 

NOTE: In Romans 12:17-21, Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21-22: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. Doing this will be like pouring burning coals on his head. And the Lord will reward you.” 

_________________________

 

DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets Friday mornings on Zoom* and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place. We start at 8:00, spending an hour eating, reading, talking, praying, and laughing. 

 

Please. No bricks at the table.

 

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=71

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper17.pdf

 

Exodus 3:1-15                                

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45b

Jeremiah 15:15-21                         

Psalm 26:1-8

Romans 12:9-21                            

Matthew 16:21-28

Proper 17 (22) (August 30, 2026)

How We Spend Our Days (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

How’s life going? Do you sometimes feel like Wile E. Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons? No matter what approach he takes, no matter how sophisticated, he never succeeds in capturing that pesky bird! His nemesis is faster and smarter. He just can’t win.

 

The problem: Mr. Coyote is stuck inside a paradox, a Catch-22.

 

Mark Twain describes a coyote as “a living, breathing allegory of Want. He is always hungry.” If Twain is right, there is no way Wile E. Coyote can win. His hunger leaves him no choice but to continue chasing the Road Runner. He cannot do otherwise. Those are the “rules” he is forced to live by. That’s a Catch-22. 

 

We, of course, are not cartoon characters.

 

We have a choice. We always have a choice. We are not enslaved to our natures. Still, it may seem that we, too, are sometimes stuck in a Catch-22. Each day, we apply ourselves to the often crazy and crippling “rules” of this life—only to find that, even when we win, there can be a serious downside. And when we lose? It can feel like we have no worth at all.

 

But there is a way out.

 

In this week’s Exodus passage, we meet two extraordinary people: Shiphrah and Puah. Despite being commanded by Pharaoh to kill all the male Hebrew babies, these two midwives risked their lives to do the exact opposite. Day in and day out, they helped deliver all the babies. Each delivery was a single event. But when aggregated, they became a legacy. Today, these two are heralded as heroes, people who stood in the gap to protect the defenseless.

 

This week’s Romans passage exhorts us: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.” Shiphrah and Puah refused to be conformed to their world. Though mired in an impossible situation, they found a way to serve God.

 

It is often a shock to recognize that our day-in-day-out activity is our life. It might not seem like it in the moment, but what we do with each day builds up into our entire life. When all is said and done, it is what we actually do, not what we long for, that becomes our life. 

 

After all, at its most basic, a tapestry is simply a collection of threads.

 

We don’t have to be stuck in a Catch-22. We actually can make our lives have meaning well beyond what this world would have us believe. Take some time each day to spend with God: Renew your mind. It is the way to ensure you no longer conform to the Catch-22 rules of this world. 

What we do each day becomes our life. 

 

How we live each day becomes our legacy.

 

_________________________

 

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing."  —Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.

 

_________________________

PHOTO: Weaver at Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala  (by Steve Orr)

_________________________

Join us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet on Zoom* and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place. At 8:00 we start an hour of good food and good folk learning to serve God one day at a time. 

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=70

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper16.pdf

 

Exodus 1:8-2:10

Psalm 124

Isaiah 51:1-6

Psalm 138

Romans 12:1-8

Matthew 16:13-20

Proper 16 (21) (August 23, 2026)