The Heart of the Matter (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Eagles singer Don Henley and friends wrote “The Heart of the Matter” in 1989. The song was a hit because of Henley's voice and the fact it is so singable. The lyrics tell us that a former love has found someone new. How many similar songs have you heard? A hundred? A thousand? If you thought the song was about a person pining for their lost love, you weren’t alone. 

 

It’s just that, well, there's quite a bit more to it. Check these lyrics:

 

The more I know, the less I understand.

All the things I thought I knew, 

I'm learning again.

I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter,

But my will gets weak

And my thoughts seem to scatter.

But I think it's about forgiveness,

Forgiveness,

Even if, even if you don't love me anymore.

 

We discover the song is not really about someone pining for a lost love. It’s an exploration of what should come after that. The lyrics include themes of love, grace, and trust. Henley, of course, pours his soul into each verse, making it easy to get lost in his singing—and miss the song. Paying attention, we soon realize that the singer's search for that next step—the heart of the matter—leads to just one place: forgiveness. 

 

You don't find that in just any old song about lost love. This is a transcendence over the love that was lost, an elevation to a higher love, a love that forgives "even if" his old love doesn't love him anymore. 

 

Listen to The Heart of the Matter (with printed lyrics): 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0l8MLRVpj8&pp=ygUedGhlIGhlYXJ0IG9mIHRoZSBtYXR0ZXIgbHlyaWNz

 

The Greek word for this kind of love is agape. It’s an unconditional love, a love without self-benefit, often referred to as "love, in spite of." It's that challenging kind of love we have to employ to love our enemies. 

 

Agape is also the kind of love the apostle Peter writes about in this week's 1 Peter passage. He calls for his readers to love one another “from the heart”—deeply, warmly, earnestly. He urges believers to truly live out the new commandment Jesus gave them. “Love one another” is more than a little challenging, but it is essential to life together as His disciples.

 

In the song, we discover: "All the things I thought I figured out, I have to learn again." Now is the perfect time to start learning, again, how to release all the negatives: bitterness, envy, anger, revenge, malice, hatred. We must continually revisit this, keep returning to it—deeply and earnestly from the heart—as a fundamental building block of our growing faith.

 

Forgiveness: That's how we "get down to the Heart of the Matter."

 

 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express 

Some quotes on forgiveness:

https://quotement.com/i-forgive-you-for-hurting-me-quotes/

 

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Join us Friday morning at Our Breakfast Place or on Zoom* to read the scriptures, discuss their meaning, and learn how better to love one another. DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast starts at 8:00 and officially ends at 9:00 (but some stay around and visit).

 

No one is required to sing.

 

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=s&d=45

 

Print them here:

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

 

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

1 Peter 1:17-25 — 2:1

Luke 24:13-35

Third Sunday of Easter (April 19, 2026)

 

Wildfire (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

In late summer 1942, the United States government force-purchased more than sixty-thousand acres near the Appalachian foothills in Tennessee. Many of those acres had been farms. Earth was leveled, streets laid, foundations poured. Buildings rose.

 

No one was told why.

 

The "whatever it is" needed people: cooks, launderers, janitors, trash collectors, typists, file clerks, carpenters, lifeguards, teachers, plumbers, nurses, doctors, librarians, pastors, musicians, coaches—the kinds of people needed to run and occupy a city. 

 

No one was told why.

 

More than 75,000 people, though not told what they would be doing—or even where—agreed to work in a place without a name. It was all done in secret. Only after being hired and actually arriving on site was each told the details of his or her specific job. They were forbidden to discuss even that small part with anyone, even with each other. 

No one was told why.

Over the next three years, the folks who worked and lived there began calling this nameless place “Oak Ridge.” 

In late summer 1945, everything changed. On August 6, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Japan. At the time, it was the greatest explosion ever from a device deployed against an enemy nation. 

That news was stunning to the people of Oak Ridge, and it spread like wildfire.

 

What they had been doing at Oak Ridge those three years was supporting the Manhattan Project. Oak Ridge had become, in fact, the headquarters of the Manhattan Project. They were producing plutonium and enriching uranium—making "the blowing up parts" of the first atomic bombs. 

Despite the fact they were not allowed to know, and even though they had no idea of the implications of their work, each came and did their part day after day. The "big picture" was knowable only in retrospect. Then, finally, they really knew their why. 

 

The three years of Jesus' earthly ministry were somewhat like the Oak Ridge experience: men and women drawn into an enterprise that was not really understood. The reality—and its implications(!)—far too enormous for them to truly grasp.

 

It was only later that even the inner circle came to understand more fully what had come before. We read of it in this week's Acts passage. Peter draws together the facts—known, but not previously understood—and lays out the full picture for everyone at Pentecost.

 

As prophesied, God came down, allowed himself to be crucified as a sacrifice, and did not stay dead. What sealed it was the witness of Peter and the other apostles. Everyone could now know how it all fit together to make the greatest spiritual explosion of all time. 

 

It was good news, and it spread like wildfire. 

 

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PHOTO (and access to a brief YouTube video about life in Oak Ridge):

https://tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/the-secret-city?locale=en_us

 

For more on the Secret City, I recommend these excellent reads:

 

The Last Reunion: The Class of 1952 Comes Home to the Secret City by Jay Searcy: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Reunion-Class-comes-Secret-ebook/dp/B007M4593U

 

The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II by Denise Kiernan: https://www.amazon.com/Girls-Atomic-City-Untold-Helped/dp/1451617534

 

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Hope to see you Friday morning as we gather for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast on Zoom* and in person at Our Breakfast Place. Join us at 8:00 for some tasty treats, plus an excellent breakfast.

 

We have nothing to hide.

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=s&d=44

 

Print them here:

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

 

Acts 2:14a, 22-32

Psalm 16

1 Peter 1:3-9

John 20:19-31

Second Sunday of Easter (April 12, 2026)

 

Soldiers (a Steve Orr Bible reflection for Easter)

In the novel (and film) The Robe, Tribune Marcellus Gallio was “assigned” to a remote post in the far eastern reaches of the Roman Empire—Jerusalem. He was sent there as punishment for an indiscretion he committed in Rome. 

It was an exile—and it was intended to end his career. While there, he was given what should have been a simple job for any high-ranking officer of the Roman Empire’s army: oversee the crucifixion of the Jewish rabble rouser, Jesus. Nothing, however, went as planned—not the plans of his enemies and not his own. Tribune Gallio was profoundly affected by his exposure to Jesus. 

Many real-world soldiers interacted with Jesus, too. He was arrested by them, mocked and abused by them, crucified by them, and, finally, His dead body was guarded by them. Like Tribune Gallio, each of those soldiers, at some point, had to deal with his own Jesus encounter. 

 

Consider the guards dispatched to keep watch over His tomb. However you read the Matthew passage, it comes down to this: They were soldiers, commanded to perform a task by their civilian superiors. To their credit, when they failed in that task—and who can defeat God?—they immediately reported the truth to their superiors. Yes, they were paid and instructed by their superiors to tell a different story. It was a story that, in the view of their leaders, served the national interest much better than the truth. 

 

But eventually, someone talked. 

Yes, even though paid—and, let’s face it, threatened—by their superiors, at least one of those guards, somewhere, sometime, spilled the beans. We have the entirety of the story in the Gospels, "on the record" if you will. So, someone on the inside told someone on the outside.

Those tomb guards had seen things, felt things, and heard things vastly different from most humans in all of history. Their piece of the story was extraordinary in the extreme. 

 

If you were one of those tomb guards—had seen, felt, and heard the things they did that morning—would you give credence to the claim that the person who occupied that tomb had risen from the dead? Could you believe the other things people were saying about Jesus: that He was the Son of God, that He could forgive sins, that His kingdom was a heavenly one, that anyone could enter that kingdom by following His commandments?

 

I think you might. 

 

And I think you, too, might break your silence.

 

Interacting with Jesus changes everything. 

 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express 

 

BONUS MATERIAL

“GraveRobber” (with lyrics displayed) by Petra:

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

 

 

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Friday mornings are a special time for us. It's at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast that we celebrate the Word. We read and discuss the scriptures, pray for ourselves and our community, and there is a lot of laughter to complement the meal. Join us on Zoom* or in person at Our Breakfast Place. 

 

The entry will not be guarded.

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=s&d=42

 

Print them here:

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

 

Jeremiah 31:1-6

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Colossians 3:1-4 OR Acts 10:34-43

John 20:1-18 OR Matthew 27:62—28:1-15

Resurrection of the Lord (April 5, 2026)

 

Table of Easter Lectionary Readings:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/calendar/2025-26/?season=easter