Juggling for Dummies (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

When most of us think of juggling, we picture someone tossing several differently-shaped objects into the air, possibly while riding a unicycle, possibly exchanging those objects with another person riding a unicycle.

We think juggling is complicated.

But that's not how real jugglers learn the craft. They start small, with two or three balls. Or better yet, with ball-like bags that don't bounce away when they aren't caught. Which --the not being caught part-- happens a lot when beginners are learning the craft of juggling. Still, most people can learn to juggle three small, equally-sized objects. True, its not automatic, and, true, it takes practice.

But it's not complicated.

The complicated stuff comes later ... much later. Jugglers must first become really good at getting those three, relatively small things to do as they should. Once they master that beginner level, then, and only then, should they consider taking on more complicated routines.

Few of us are going to progress to the chainsaws-juggling level. A few will; a few always do. But they invest a lot of time and diligent practice ---years of practice--- before they can confidently juggle the most difficult (and, quite possibly, most dangerous) things.

In this week's Lectionary scriptures, we read in the book of Micah, where, somewhat rhetorically, he wonders how someone shows proper respect to God. He asks if special, and increasingly difficult sacrifices would be required to impress God? What kind of sacrifice would be big enough, dangerous enough, meaningful enough to cancel out a person's sin?

But Micah already knows the answer, and it's not that complex. In fact, it is surprisingly simple: "God has told you what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Sure, there are people ---a few--- who are called to do much more complicated and dangerous things in this life. But that's not most of us.

The challenge before most of us God-followers: to begin with a few, relatively simple actions, and ---most importantly--- to not skip over the beginner level. We need that beginner stage. It may well be that we are called to transit our spiritual journey with the basics, to spend all our time keeping just those three balls in the air. For most of us ---the overwhelming majority of us--- that is all God is asking.

To consistently act justly, to consistently be merciful, and to consistently walk humbly in God's presence, all at the same time: you may find, as have I, that there's plenty of challenge in that.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany

Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany (January 29, 2017)
Micah 6:1-8
Psalm 15
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Matthew 5:1-12
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I hope you can join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. We're still at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant, reading scripture, praying, eating, and laughing from 8:00 to 9:00. Sometimes we're in the meeting room in the main restaurant (you can see us), and sometimes were in a room at the back of the building. If you're not sure, ask.

Jugglers welcome (but juggling not required).

Blessings,
Steve


* As far as I know, there is no such book as Juggling for Dummies. However, there are many excellent juggling books and tutorials around. Google "basic juggling" and you can find several training aids, both free and for sale.

If Yan Can Cook, So Can You! (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

I didn't watch a lot of TV in the 80's.

The 80's was a busy time for us. I was a junior officer at a large, west Texas "oil bank." My wife, with my enthusiastic encouragement, was exploring a career in aviation. Our young daughter was fascinating, challenging, smart, and "growing like a weed." We needed our family time and did whatever we could to protect the times when us was "just us."

Still, there were a few shows I liked; and one of my favorites ---this will shock people who know me well--- was Yan Can Cook. Martin Yan's Chinese cooking show ran on public television for years, and it went on to be an international sensation.* Watching him was a bit of a revelation for me.

He was having fun!

I had never thought of cooking as anything but hard work. My mother did not cook. My dad did the best he could. My grandmother did not allow anyone to cook in her kitchen. Suffice to say that, in my family, there were never any scenes where, à la The Big Chill, we danced around the kitchen to the strains of Ain't Too Proud To Beg while cleaning up the evening meal.

So, watching Martin Yan grinning into the camera while finely chopping ingredients with a very sharp knife was fascinating (He never looked down! Yikes!). And then there was his now famous catch phrase, "If Yan can cook, so can you!" After watching several of his shows, I began to think ... maybe I could. Here was a cooking expert calling me out, challenging me to follow along and do as he did.

Only one question remained: could I accept his challenge? Or perhaps the real question was: would I accept his challenge?

It's similar to what is happening in this week's Lectionary selection from Matthew: Jesus, who had become quite well known in the region of Galilee for his teaching and healing, walks by a couple of fisher-folk and says (in so many words), "Come with me. I'll teach you how to use your existing skill-sets to do what I'm doing."

Yan's challenge was simple: listen to my words and do as I do; you will succeed at cooking. The challenge Jesus issued was similar: follow me, listen to my words, and do as I do. You, too, can do this.

Could you accept that challenge?

Would you?

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany
Third Sunday after the Epiphany (January 22, 2017)
First reading
Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm
Psalm 27:1, 4-9
Second reading
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Gospel
Matthew 4:12-23
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I hope you can join us at Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning. We're still in the back meeting room at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant, and usually visible from the front door. But if you don't see us, ask.

That hour from 8:00 to 9:00 is unique to my experience. We're a group of "becomers," all at very different "points" along our respective spiritual journeys. We come together to read scripture, pray, and challenge each other to grow and continue to become.

Blessings,
Steve

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* You can still find Martin Yan and Yan Can Cook on Facebook and other social media sites, as well as on YouTube. If you like to cook ---or, if you are like I was in the 80's and the very idea of cooking is frightening (or just leaves you cold)--- take a look. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Gifts for the Magi (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Do you ever wonder where writers get their ideas?

A lot of people do. It's not always easy to provide an answer to that question, either. Some can point to events in their personal history as inspirations. Others will tell you they made it all up "out of whole cloth." I know of one author who insisted he dreamed his stories while he slept, rising in the night to write them down before they slipped away from him.

After last week's exploration of Amahl and the Night Visitors, I found myself wondering where Gian Carlo Menotti got his idea.

Three wise men traveling to Bethlehem who stop and pass the might with a boy and his mother: that's a unique concept. Lucky for us, Menotti actually wrote about this in the booklet that accompanied the original cast recording. And it is fascinating! He tells of growing up in Italy where Santa Claus was not a part of their Christmas celebrations. In his youth, children looked forward, instead, to the visitation of the three kings. He wrote:

"I actually never met the Three Kings—it didn't matter how hard my little brother and I tried to keep awake at night to catch a glimpse of the Three Royal Visitors, we would always fall asleep just before they arrived. But I do remember hearing them. I remember the weird cadence of their song in the dark distance; I remember the brittle sound of the camel's hooves crushing the frozen snow; and I remember the mysterious tinkling of their silver bridles."

Yes, that's right: not reindeer, but camels.

A little research and I learned that Italy's children sent their toy requests to the three kings, anticipated their arrival, and left water and snacks for them and their camels to help sustain them on their long journey. Menotti's childhood gave him the inspiration for what became a beloved Christmas tradition, an English language opera that is still performed.

Do these kinds of activities sound familiar to you?

Apparently, there is a certain universality to what happens in the Christmas season, regardless of where you live. Even if there is no Santa there. And that is our connection to this week's Lectionary.

Epiphany continues. We'll be in this season until Mardi Gras (February 28th in 2017). The Lectionary scripture selections each week focus on one or more aspects of Epiphany. This week, they all reference the universality of the Gospel; Jesus came for us all. This is so clear in the selection from John where, upon seeing Jesus again, John declares to his own disciples "Behold the lamb of God" who was, even as John spoke, "taking away the sin of the world."

Did you see that? ... the sin of the world, not just of the Jews. Even though John saw it, clearly, that's a part of the ongoing message from God to His people that many of them couldn't quite wrap their heads around ... that their Messiah would somehow belong to non-Jews, as well.

I suspect their thinking may have been a bit Israel-centric, much like ours is when we think of the rest of the world. Well, that was never the way God saw it. He always pictured an entire world rejoined with Him in harmony, a people who chose Him just as He had chosen them.

We see it in this week's Isaiah selection where the Lord, through the Prophet, tells of how the restoration of Israel to God is, in essence, too easy a thing for the savior, by itself. He would also be a light to the nations so salvation would reach to the very ends of the earth. And it's there in this week's Psalm where the Psalmist declares he has proclaimed God's faithfulness and salvation to the "Kahal rav" (the largest community).

And, finally, we see it in the selection from 1 Corinthians where Paul greets them along with everyone else, in every place, who claims the name of Jesus. He clearly notes that Jesus is universal, not limited to one nation or group, but for the whole world.
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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Second Sunday after the Epiphany (January 15, 2017)
First reading
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm
Psalm 40:1-11
Second reading
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Gospel
John 1:29-42
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Join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast as we continue to marvel at how God planned for our salvation. Find us at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. We start the fun at 8:00, spending the hour reading scripture, discussing, laughing, and praying.

True Epiphany.

Blessings,
Steve

Revisiting "Amahl and the Night Visitors" (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

I loved Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Do you know it? The story is of a boy and his mother living in Biblical times, not too far from Bethlehem. It's just the two of them. Their circumstances are not very good. The boy has to use a crutch to get around. The mother seems on the verge of exhaustion.

Late one night, there's a knock at the door.

What happens next is the substance of the first opera ever written for television in America. It was written in English for broadcast on the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC). When it debuted, it was viewed by the largest audience to ever see a televised opera. Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first network television Christmas special to become an annual tradition.

In time, Amahl and his mother discover that their visitors are kings. They had traveled far and were tired. They asked for permission to rest in the home of Amahl and his mother. As the story unfolds, we learn, along with Amahl and his mother, that these kings are on their way to Bethlehem where they believe they will find a very special child, one that "the heavens" had identified as the "King off the Jews."

I can't recommend this strongly enough. It is a performance that is both endearing and mesmerizing. It captured my attention, fully.

Maybe that's because it is part of my childhood. Or maybe it's because it was the first time I was made to think of the "wise men" as actual people, people who interacted with other people. In any case, it was certainly the first time I recall thinking of a Biblical "character" as a real person, someone who did all the things I do; eat, sleep, have feelings, hurt, have infirmities, be protective of others, be tired, desire things, care about other real people, want to connect with God.

There have been many books, plays, and electronic productions about the Magi who visited the young Jesus. Sometimes they are referred to as kings, sometimes as wise men, sometimes as stargazers; but regardless of their title, people tend to think of them as being three in number. Scripture doesn't speak to this, so we don't know how many there were, only that "they" were plural and that they came later, not the night of Jesus' birth.

That "later" bit is part of the reason we have Epiphany on the church calendar at a later date than Christmas. Epiphany is the day set aside to recognize and celebrate the visitation of the Magi. Epiphany Eve is celebrated on January 5th, the "Twelfth Day of Christmas" of song fame (Drummers drumming, for those of you keeping score), with the observance of Epiphany falling on the 6th (or often on the nearest Sunday).

And, though you might not know it, Epiphany is one of the most important dates to us modern christians. While Christmas, with its announcement to those rowdy shepherds, represents when Christ was introduced to the Jewish people, Epiphany, with its Magi visitation, represents when Christ was first revealed to non-Jews.

Watching Amahl and the Night Visitors made the story of Jesus' birth come to life for me ... though Jesus is not in it. Neither are Mary and Joseph. Because it is the story of rather ordinary people encountering the extraordinary (in the form of Magi), it is the story of all of us. It portrays what it might have been like for us if we had been there.

Just some folks showing hospitality (with the little they possessed) to people on their way to an encounter with the Lord ... and then joining them on the journey.

Sound familiar?

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Epiphany of the Lord (January 6, 2017)
First reading
Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm
Psalm 72:1-7, 10-14
Second reading
Ephesians 3:1-12
Gospel
Matthew 2:1-12

Here is the link to the table of readings for this Epiphany Season, including Sunday, January 8th (January 6 - February 26, 2017): http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/lections.php?year=A&season=Epiphany
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Join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast as we begin a new year. We still meet at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant, start at 8:00 and wrap up around 9:00.

Visitors always welcome.

Blessings,
Steve