Hush! (A brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

My first 40-hour a week job was at the Citizens Bank & Trust Company in my hometown of Paducah, Kentucky. The bank was, at ten stories, the tallest building in town; it was located at 4th and Broadway, just four blocks from the riverfront and right in the heart of downtown. How I came to have that job can wait until another time. It is its own story. Like most office jobs in those days, I wore a coat and tie each time I reported to work. If you would like some help picturing this, Google "Images" for the 1960's or maybe watch an episode of "Mad Men" (before you finish exploring, make sure you check out telephones).

My first position was in the Bookkeeping Department. Mostly we filed checks (actual pieces of paper signed by the account owner and already used to pay for something) and answered customer inquiries over the telephone. Actually a pretty nice job. But the timing was, well, interesting. CB&T had just converted from sending customer account statement at month end, only, to a "continuous" approach (which meant a pro rata portion of account statements were mailed out each working day of the month). The short of it is that our customers were VERY confused for a couple months . . . and the phones rang "off the hook." There was just one hitch: we had one more phone in Bookkeeping than there were Bookkeepers to answer them.

So, yes, we were sometimes faced with the dilemma of the extra phone ringing when everyone was already fielding a customer call. And on those occasions, one of the Bookkeepers, a nice woman named Dorcas, would place her hand over the "mouthpiece" of the telephone "handset" she was holding (so the customer would not hear) and call out "Hush!"

The ringing telephone would stop ringing. Every time.

We were all in awe of Dorcas. She was the only person I ever met who could, successfully, tell a telephone to be quiet.

In this week's Lectionary selections there is an interesting story about a blind man who would NOT be hushed. In the Mark 10 passage we find Jesus on his way out of Jericho when he hears someone calling his name. Picture it: Jesus and his entourage have finished up a round of spreading the good news. Their group probably includes several important locals, pressing for just a few more comments, asking some last minute questions, seeking one last audience with the man who, they thought, might become their king.

And here's the blind beggar, someone almost certainly to be overlooked in such a situation. The crowd is big enough, and noisy enough, that Bartimaeus has to shout in hopes of getting Jesus' attention. And what does he get for his efforts? "Many sternly ordered him to be quiet."

Not to be deterred, he calls out to Jesus even more loudly!

I doubt you will be surprised to learn that Jesus ignored those who were trying to prevent the blind man from "bothering" him. Instead, Jesus not only invited the man to approach, but when the man said his desire was to have his sight restored, Jesus granted that request.

So, if you find there are people telling you, for any reason, that you can't talk to God; if there are voices sternly ordering you to be quiet when you need to have a conversation with God, whether those voices are surrounding you or are inside your own head: shout them down!

If you want to talk to God, then talk to God. Don't let anyone hush you up.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

Proper 25 (30) (October 28, 2012)
Job 42:1-6, 10-17
Psalm 34:1-8, (19-22)
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Psalm 126
Hebrews 7:23-28
Mark 10:46-52

Join us if you can on Friday morning. As is our practice, we will be at Cafe Cappuccino (downtown Waco, on 6th near the Courthouse) at 8:00 to discuss this week's scripture passages and to scarf down some great food.

None of us is very good at being hushed up, so the discussion is pretty lively :-)

Enjoy the week!

Steve

The Ring and The Book

The Ring and the Book
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

"So, let him wait God’s instant men call years;
Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul,
Do out the duty! Through such souls alone
God stooping shows sufficient of His light
For us i’ the dark to rise by.
And I rise."

The first time I read these lines---on a stained glass window at Baylor University's Armstrong Browning Library---I felt a frisson of thrill run through me. It still hits me that way. Nothing would make me happier than if, someday, these words could truthfully be said of me. To live a life worthy of such words is definitely something I desire.

Here's the story behind the words.

After the death of his beloved, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning wrote those lines as part of "The Ring and the Book," which, though written in verse, is actually a novel based in fact. Shakespeare would have loved this: Pompilia, a young Italian noblewoman, flees her much older, abusive husband to travel to Rome with a priest; her husband later accuses Pompilia of committing adultery with the priest; subsequently, Pompilia is mortally wounded and her parents murdered; Pompilia dies and her husband is found guilty of these crimes. Long before Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," Robert Browning wrote a true crime novel.

The words on the window are Pompilia's, who, while dying, speaks of her spiritual advisor, a man much in contrast to the husband, a man of God, a man falsely accused. She praises this young Pastor for preparing her to "rise" to Heaven by allowing God to shine through him, and she encourages him to continue doing as he did with her until his own time comes to "rise."

On another level, I know these are Robert Browning's words. And I suspect this is what he imagines Elizabeth might say to him in the wake of her death, encouraging him to continue "fighting the good fight" until he can join her in due time.

These are my thoughts as I read this week's Lectionary selections; particularly the Genesis, Mark, and Job passages. But more than these, even, I see in the Hebrews passage such a man as could be described by the words on that window.

And I rise.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt

Proper 22 (27) (October 7, 2012)
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Genesis 2:18-24
Psalm 8
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

Can you join us Friday morning? We'll be at Cafe Cappuccino at 8:00 (downtown Waco, on 6th near the Courthouse). We would love to have you with us for some great food and some of that illumination we all seek.

Enjoy the week!
Steve