To the Ends of the Earth (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

In Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, a science fiction classic, humankind has spread out among the stars. We’ve become a galactic empire. Scientist Hari Seldon has invented a branch of mathematics that allows him to predict the fall and rise of future galactic empires. He believes he can use this to smooth out the process, so to speak. 

He sets up a “foundation” to (secretly) guide mankind toward the best-case scenario. Over the centuries, many attempt to find and destroy that foundation. In time, they discover Seldon set up a second foundation to keep matters moving along if the first foundation were to be destroyed or corrupted. The location of this Second Foundation is also secret. The only clue: It can be found at "Star’s End."

 

It’s a big galaxy. There would be millions and millions of planets and moons to consider. "Star’s End" could be, well…almost anywhere.

 

There’s a location puzzle in this week's Acts passages, too. Jesus tells his followers: "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The first part of it is pretty clear. But where are the “ends of the earth?” Our planet is a big round-ish ball of a place. The “ends” could be every point on that ball—truly…anywhere. 

 

Perhaps like those first followers of Jesus, you too are wondering just where "the ends of the earth" might be. Where do we go to do the good God desires of us?

 

Something that can be said to be anywhere, can in truth be everywhere. Look about. You are already at the ends of the Earth. Be the living message of Jesus right where you are.*

 

 

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GOODREADS page for Foundation by Isaac Asimov:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29579.Foundation

 

PHOTO (Earthrise from behind the Moon, NASA’s Artemis 2 mission 2026):

https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/earthset/

 

 

Interesting Facts: Ushuaia, Argentina is the southernmost city in the entire world. It’s the closest city to Antarctica. On the opposite end of the planet—well north of the Arctic Circle—the northernmost city is Longyearbyen. It’s a town of about 2,400 souls on Svalbard, a Norwegian Archipelago. If you need actual map points, these two are definitely in the running for “the ends of the Earth.”

*How far do we have to travel to find the ends of the Earth? To those who wanted to serve the needy with her in Calcutta, Mother Teresa said: “Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering, and the lonely right there where you are—in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society—completely forgotten, completely left alone.”

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We'll be together again this week on Zoom* and at Our Breakfast Place. Join us for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast at 8:00 on Friday morning. We're going to eat some delicious food and we're going to discuss some creation-spanning ideas from this week's scriptures.

 

All of the food is from Earth.

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

 

Ascension of the Lord (May 14, 2026)

Acts 1:1-11

Psalm 47 or Psalm 93

Ephesians 1:15-23

Luke 24:44-53

 

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=17134&z=s&d=49

 

Print them here:

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

 

 

Seventh Sunday of Easter (May 17, 2026)

Acts 1:6-14

Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35

1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11

John 17:1-11

 

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=17134&z=s&d=50

 

Print them here:

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

 

 

Fear: Turning Retreat Into Advance (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

What are you afraid of?

Everybody fears. Even if we don’t admit it to others, there’s something we fear. It’s a thing we humans do. 

The list of our most common fears is relatively short: failure, success, dying, commitment or intimacy, spiders, flying, public speaking, heights, the dark, rejection. The full list is, of course, endless. And our reactions tend to be the same: fight or flight—or freeze. 

 

In 1933, at the worst point in the Great Depression, U. S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (“FDR”) told the people: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." 

The Great Depression was a long time ago. But we still fear. And we still need to find a way to convert retreat into advance. I’m not offering a direct cure for fear, but I do know how we should regard our fears: We need to recognize that the more we focus on our fears the greater their power over us. 

 

That recognition is the first step away from “retreat.”

 

In this week's 1 Peter selection, he tells believers how to deal with the distresses in their lives. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Peter exhorts us to “not fear what they fear." He means we should not fear the same things, in the same way, as nonbelievers. But how?

 

The answer lies in our focus.

 

Isaiah told his readers to focus on God rather than fear what "they" fear. Peter applies that same focus to Jesus. These two are not saying we’re not going to fear. Rather, that we need to shift our focus, our attention, our concentration—to God.

 

Throughout scripture, we are told to place God first. It's the first of the Ten Commandments given to Moses. Jesus declared it the greatest commandment. Nothing and no one should be positioned ahead of God. It’s no surprise, then, that God must also be placed ahead of our fears. 

 

We need not pretend to be fearless. When faced with what we fear, we need to focus on God. 

 

That’s how we turn retreat into advance. 

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GRAPHIC: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express 

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Can you join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast? We start at 8:00 and run for about an hour. The food is tasty and the company is relaxed. We enjoy reading and discussing the scripture, and finding how it applies to our real lives. Find us on Zoom* or in the back room at Our Breakfast Place. 

 

There is nothing to fear.

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=48

Print them here:

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

Acts 17:22-31

Psalm 66:8-20

1 Peter 3:13-22

John 14:15-21

Sixth Sunday of Easter (May 10, 2026)

Trustworthy? (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Trust is big. It’s part of the scaffolding we build our lives around. Emotions, choices, relationships: all impacted by trust. We even put it on our money.

 

In the hit show The X-Files, one catchphrase was “Trust No One.” The other was “I Want To Believe.” Each week, fictional FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully worked the space between those two ideas, tackling mysteries tied to UFO sightings, government conspiracies, and urban myths. Layered into it all was the true central theme: Whom do we trust—and how?

 

Ernest Hemingway wrote, "The best way to make people trustworthy is to trust them." That thought was penned after he experienced the 1918 Flu Pandemic. How could he feel comfortable taking that approach? Does it sound dangerous to you? At the very least, it sounds risky.

 

What level of risk can you live with? How much are you willing for your behaviors to put at risk the lives of family, loved ones, and strangers?

 

For many of us, when we weigh the possible costs of choosing the Hemingway Option, the risk of being hurt (or worse) just seems too high. We won't do it. When I can actually see someone acting in a way that places me at greater risk than if they acted a different way, then their regard for my wellbeing must be suspect.  

 

In this week's scriptures, the Psalmist implores God to "Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me, for I find protection in you alone." Call it the Psalmist Option. 

 

Whom should I trust? When I need rescue, God is my deliverer. When I need a place to hide away, God is my refuge. But I won’t test God by ignoring obvious pitfalls in this life. What I‘m going to do is choose the Psalmist Option: Trust God to deal with my enemies and to pull me from any traps they set.

 

Jesus put it best in this week’s John passage: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust in me.”

 

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PHOTO: Steve Orr

 

Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom* and in person at Our Breakfast Place. For a Bible study, there seems to be an unusual amount of laughter… 

 

No traps have been set. Trust me. 

 

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=47

 

Print them here:

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

 

Acts 7:55-60

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

1 Peter 2:2-10

John 14:1-14

Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 3, 2026)

 

The Sheep of Stephen King’s Dark Christianity (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Stephen King described his novel The Stand: The Complete Uncut Edition as “this long tale of dark Christianity.” It’s an apt description. The novel is packed with themes any Bible reader would recognize. 

One in particular stands out for me: King’s characters have strange dreams. 

 

Each dreams of a person and a place. All the dreamers are called to come. Each commences a journey to follow the voice in the dream. In time, the dreamers form into groups, moving with single-mindedness across the country toward a destination. Like the sheep in this week’s Gospel of John passage, each knows the sound of their shepherd’s voice—and they come when they are called. 

 

The hitch? They aren’t all hearing from the same “shepherd.” And journey’s end is decidedly different for each group.

It’s highly unlikely we will have experiences like Stephen King’s “sheep.” There are similarities, though. We, too, will travel a spiritual journey, be called to follow a shepherd, and get to choose our shepherd. 

 

Are you among those who can say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” like in this week’s Psalm 23? Or, like some of The Stand characters, does the call you hear belong to a shepherd who is not at all good?

 

God knows that we, like sheep, stray. And God welcomes us back if we choose to return. In fact, if we do return, the apostle Peter assures us in his first letter: The good shepherd will once again be “the Guardian of your souls.”

 

We are not sheep. 

 

But we are like sheep. And just like the characters in King’s novel, where we take our stand matters. Choose your shepherd, today. Don’t risk not hearing the Good Shepherd when He calls. 

 

 

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ARTWORK: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express 

More about bad shepherds: 

https://onelostsheep.net/2018/07/21/good-shepherds-and-bad-john-foley-sj/

 

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Will you be at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning? Join us at 8:00 on Zoom* or in person at Our Breakfast Place. We eat, pray, and read this week’s Bible passages. What follows is a wide-ranging discussion [COUGH free-for-all COUGH] and laughter. 

 

Sheep welcome. 

 

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=46

 

Print them here:

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

 

Acts 2:42-47

Psalm 23

1 Peter 2:19-25

John 10:1-10

Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 26, 2026)