Killing Babies for Pharaoh (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

When Puah and Shiphrah chose midwifery as a career, it's unlikely they had nation-building in mind.

Two ordinary women, Hebrew midwives during the time the Israelites sojourned in Egypt, suddenly found themselves standing before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. As shocking as that event must have seemed, what came next had to have been worse: Pharaoh wanted them to murder every male Hebrew baby whose birth they attended! No doubt their lives seemed pretty ordinary up until then. Day in and day out, year in and year out, they delivered babies. But now they were faced with a dilemma: become murderers or risk their lives defying Pharaoh.

Who stands up to the most powerful man on the planet?

These two, that's who!

They opted to defy Pharaoh and just keep right on delivering male babies for their Hebrew neighbors. And that's how what was already, in many ways, a life of service, became even more important in the face of Pharaoh's death decree. Each new day, each new birth, added to the ones before, culminating into something I doubt either woman saw coming: a life in service to God. By continuing to help male Hebrew babies into this world, they jeopardized not only their livelihood, but their very lives! In time, because they feared God more than Pharaoh, God honored their lives ... He gave them families of their own.

How important was the choice these two women made? Eventually, Pharaoh ordered all his people to throw every male Hebrew baby into the Nile. Yet, over the years they were in Egypt, the descendants of Jacob grew from about 70 to about 600,000. At least some of that vast population was due to the choice Shiphrah and Puah made regarding how to spend their days.

I don't find anyone writing about our inner life, our place in creation, and the state of our spirits quite like Annie Dillard. Many of her writings —such as Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Holy the Firm, and, of course, The Writing Life— speak directly of real people living real lives ... rather than some idealized version of a God-follower. In The Writing Life, Annie Dillard says, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

It often comes as a shock to people that their day-in-day-out life is their life. It might not seem so in the moment, but what you do each day accumulates into your entire life. All of us long for things that are not part of our everyday lives —that's why many of us have bucket lists— but when all is totaled up, it is what we actually do, not what we long for, that becomes our life.

A tapestry is, at its most basics, a bunch of threads.

In First Things First, Roger and Rebecca Merrill join Steven Covey in applying The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People to time management. Their conclusion? Our time on this planet should be comprised of four main activities: "to live, to learn, to love, to leave a legacy." Shiphrah and Puah certainly did that ... and what a legacy. They used their time to build up the peoples who would become the nation of Israel.

Time management pioneer Alan Lakein famously taught that we should ask, "What is the best use of my time right now?" I believe we should be creating the building blocks of our lives, day by day, moment by moment, crafting them into a life worth living, because:

What we do each day becomes our life ... How we live each day becomes our legacy.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 16 (21) (August 27, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Exodus 1:8-2:10
Psalm 124
Isaiah 51:1-6
Psalm 138
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20
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I hope you can join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. We still meet at 8:00 in the function room of the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant (it's around the back). Food, fellowship, scripture, laughter: LB ends about 9:00, but the glow lasts all day.

Enjoy the week!
Steve
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A different version of this reflection appear in August 2014 as "How We Spend Our Days."
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The entire quote from The Writing Life:
"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. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order—willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living."

Running With the Little Dogs (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

There seems to be a preoccupation, these days, with being the focus of all; being the people everyone thinks about, being the main topic of conversation. But, if we're honest, we'll admit that's not really a new thing. We've been caught up with being exceptional for quite some time. Decades, if not centuries.

Maybe even millennia.

Part and parcel with this mindset are certain phrases we toss about in our conversations, our self-help books, and our social media posts; phrases like "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch!" ... "Go big or go home!" ... "Cookies are for closers!" (Thank you, Boss Baby). There are any number of them, rendered all sorts of ways, but their messages all boil down to one thing: you want to be one of those people ... a closer, a winner, a big dog.

"We're number one! We're number one!" The chant echoes across various sports fields and venues. And it's a good thing, being number one. It's the rare person who doesn't enjoy being the best. But there's another side: the not-so-subtle subtext that you're either among the elite or you're not worth our consideration. At a minimum, they carry a message of diminishment: you are, somehow, lesser.

Where are we going with this? In the Lectionary selection from Matthew, Jesus is confronted by a non-Jewish woman seeking His intervention on behalf of her daughter who is besieged by demons.

Jesus ignores her. (Wait. What?!)

But she keeps calling after him, following him, never letting up; really advocating on behalf of her suffering child. Eventually, the disciples beg Jesus to address her, specifically to send her away. And, eventually, Jesus finally does engage with her, but the reader gets surprised.

He doesn't give her what she's been asking for.

He tells her that He was sent to the "lost sheep" of Israel. In other words, "Not you." Then, seeming to add insult to injury, He tells her it would not be right for the "little dogs" (house pets ... as opposed to the big, feral dogs that ran in packs those days) to have the food intended by the Master for His children. The implication is that she is one of the "little dogs," and therefore not due to receive anything from Jesus.

Her response is now classic: "Even the dogs eat the crumbs from the Master's table." Astonished, Jesus praises her faith ---a faith that existed despite the absolute absence of any reason to believe it would produce any benefit for her or her daughter--- and then grants her request. We need to be like this woman ---one of the "little dogs"--- in seeking Jesus, even when we know we are in no position to demand His attention, much less His action on our part.

It's not whether we're winners or losers, whether we're "closers," or even if we can run with the big dogs. Desiring excellence is a good thing. But with whom do we associate when we pursue that desire?

Maybe we should have been running with the little dogs all along.

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Photo Credit: (Please take note: I know nothing about this magazine. I just like the photo and this particular article. SCO)
https://relevantmagazine.com/slices/meanwhile-australia-dachshunds-race-purpose

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 15 (20) (August 20, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Genesis 45:1-15
Psalm 133
Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
Psalm 67
Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28

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Join us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. We're still in the back function room at Waco's "Egg and I" restaurant and we still start at 8:00-ish. Good food, good folk, spending an hour with a good God.

Blessings,
Steve

No Surrender! (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

When Japan surrendered in August 1945, World War II came to an end ...

but not for everyone.

Dropping atomic bombs on two Japanese cities brought a halt to hostilities between Japan and the United States. Official Japanese surrender quickly followed. However, on scattered islands in the Pacific Ocean, small pockets of Japanese soldiers either did not know or did not believe that Japan had surrendered; for them, the war was definitely not over.

When Japan deployed Lieutenant Hiro Onoda to the Philippine island of Lubang in December 1944, he was given orders to disrupt and sabotage enemy efforts — and to never surrender or take his own life. He was 22 years old.

He was a man who followed orders.
Despite attempts over the years by the Japanese government to convince him that he should surrender, he refused to accept the good news that the war was over. He had not received any new orders from his commanding officer ... therefore, he would follow the orders he had.

Rather than believe the sound of human footfalls meant good news, Lieutenant Onoda assumed just the opposite. Every sound could be the enemy. In his view, he had to defend himself against any encroachment. Shots were fired. Lives ended. It was only when, in 1974, his former commanding officer was flown to the island and formerly delivered new orders to him that Lieutenant Onoda surrendered.

He had been at war for 30 years.

In this week's Lectionary selection from Romans, Paul quotes Isaiah 52 when he writes, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" On the surface, and in the context of his previous statements, Paul is calling for people to spread the good news of Jesus. He argues that people cannot call on a Lord of whom they know nothing; that they cannot have heard of Him unless someone proclaims Him; and that He cannot be proclaimed if no one is sent out to spread that good news.

But, Isaiah raises the question (and Paul repeats it), "Who has believed our message?" People may be sent, proclamations voiced, and the Lord made known throughout the world ... but if those who are on the receiving end do not believe that what they hear constitutes good news ... well, they may emulate Lieutenant Onoda and refuse to come in from the cold.

Like Elijah in another of this week's scriptures, Lieutenant Onoda was given new orders: they were life-changing. The trajectory of the remainder of his life was significantly different from the previous decades. But it took new orders to make that happen. When we humans "dig in" to a belief, it is very difficult to change. It is only when the message comes coupled with what we recognize as a higher power that we are willing to set aside our "old way" and become something entirely new.

Paul was exactly that way before his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus; he wouldn't surrender without new orders ... and he got them. It's not irony that Paul struggled with this exact matter in his attempts to reach his fellow Jews with the Good News ... he faced an entrenched belief that the "good news" was anything but.

Our takeaway: If, when you deliver your good news, it is rejected, don't be discouraged. People often reject change that seems to conflict with their existing structure ... especially if it sounds like they may have to "surrender." Instead of giving up, reach out to God; pray on their behalf.

New orders may be needed.

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Photo: Retired Japanese Major Yoshimi Taniguchi (Right), the person who issued the original orders to Lieutenant Hiro Onoda, reads new orders in 1974 instructing the Lieutenant to surrender after 30 years in the Philippine jungle.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 14 (19) (August 13, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Psalm 105: 1-6, 16-22, 45b
1 Kings 19:9-18
Psalm 85:8-13
Romans 10:5-15
Matthew 14:22-33

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Lectionary Breakfast is truly a "stand down" experience. We leave our concerns for a while and just enjoy some time, together. Join us Friday morning for food, fellowship, and some time in God's word. We meet in the back function room at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant (in the retail center behind the Outback Steakhouse ... corner of New Road and Franklin). We start at 8:00 ... visiting and laughter are both on the menu :-)

Blessings,
Steve

The Impossible Task (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

It was an impossible task ... or so it seemed to my still-new-to-high-school brain.

The task: Decorate our homeroom door in a Christmas holiday theme; compete with every other homeroom in a high school of 1500 students.

Our resources:
1. Donna and me (no one else in our homeroom volunteered)
2. $3.08 we collected from the other 28 students (which Mr. Mick shamed them into contributing since they were unwilling to help with the project ... and believe me, even in the 60's that wasn't much money)
3. Our imaginations
4. A desire to win

Timeframe: We had from that Monday morning until Friday afternoon ... less than a week. The judging would be Friday after school, and some of the doors already showed the beginnings of decoration by that Monday afternoon. Competition was going to be stiff.

To say I was dispirited would be an understatement. How could we possibly win? I wasn't even certain we could come up with anything to put on the door with just $3.08 to spend. It seemed we had been given an impossible task. There are few things more frustrating. Especially if you don't want to disappoint the person who gave you the task.

I feel that's the situation facing the disciples in this week's Lectionary scripture from the gospel of Matthew. After a long day, they find themselves, literally, in the middle of nowhere ... surrounded by over 5000 hungry people. Their solution? Send the people away so they can make their way to (hopefully) nearby villages where they can buy food for an evening meal.

The impossible task? Jesus says, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." They were understandably skeptical, pointing out that there were a scarcity of resources ... nowhere near the amount of food needed to feed such a vast crowd of men, women, and children. I'm certain they felt a bit frustrated by the assigned task, and I don't doubt there was some concern about disappointing Jesus.

But there is huge difference between my experience and that of the disciples. In their case, Jesus met their doubts and skepticism head on. "Bring [the five loaves and two fish] here to me," he tells them. Then, not only does he distribute enough food for everyone to eat their fill, but the leftovers fill 12 baskets!

After much wringing of hands, Donna and I eventually came up with a strategy for our door decoration; one that, despite meager resources, made us contenders in the competition. It was a creative work-around that not only scored us some points with the judges, but gave us and them a few chuckles, as well. And we stayed within our tiny budget.

But what happened to the disciples was completely different, a miraculous multiplying of the resources that met and then reached beyond the needs of the moment.

Our takeaway: always take your impossible tasks to Jesus. Never despair. Jesus can accomplish incredible things with nothing more than our faith and the few resources at hand.


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Some have asked about the outcome of the door competition. With our $3.08, Donna bought one package of red crepe paper and one green, plus a sheet of letter stencils and some two-sided tape. She traced and cut letters out of the red, while I taped the green along one half of the door (right side, floor to ceiling). All I had to cut was a notch for the little window in the door at eye level. The result? The right half of the door was covered in green and the left half remained undecorated wood. On the wood side, arranged diagonally from bottom to top, were the red letters:

BAH HUMBAG!
SCROOGE



We won 😜
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 13 (18) (August 6, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Genesis 32:22-31
Psalm 17:1-7, 15
Isaiah 55:1-5
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:13-21

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Join us at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant Friday morning at 8:00. We're there for about an hour, enjoying each other's company over a good meal. Friday mornings are a time of eating, reading, praying, discussing, and laughing ... miracles in their own right.

Blessings,
Steve