Two Rivers Meet at My Hometown (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

They call it a "confluence." That's the word for when two waters flow into the same space. There is such a confluence in my hometown: the Ohio River and the Tennessee River. It's a very picturesque image ... when described in words.

In reality, it's two very different energy flows slamming into each other; distinct entities trying to overpower each other, neither giving way to the other. You can actually see the two of them fighting to remain distinct from one another. The two waters even look different from each other. One is smoother, darker, richer in color. The other is choppier, roiling almost, and much lighter.

A more perfect metaphor cannot be found for the two main groups of Jewish thought prevalent around the time of Jesus and his early followers. The Pharisees believed in an afterlife, and believed each person must scrupulously keep the laws and commandments in order to ensure one would actually get to that afterlife. The Sadducees rejected the idea of an afterlife, believing each person must do all the good one can do because this life is all there is. The two groups were always in conflict, battling, if you will, for which was right, which would transcend the other.

In my hometown, we are aware of a truth that affects how we view that river battle constantly playing out before us: there is something much larger just over the horizon. Just about a hour farther on, these two battling waters smack into the Mississippi River.

That's the end of the battle.

We say things like, "They join the Mississippi." But, in truth, they don't so much join as they disappear. There is no more talk of which river ... it's the "Mighty Mississippi," so big it absorbs all other waters connecting to it, taking them and all they represent down to the sea.

We see something just like that in this week's Romans passage. The two factions are like my two hometown rivers; and they have been using the laws and the commandments in their battle to control people's lives. Then Jesus comes and teaches a much larger, all consuming truth: Love is the fulfillment of all those commandments and laws.

Suddenly, just like my hometown rivers, all those laws and Commandments —and all the conflicts based on them— are swallowed up in something larger, so much larger it's almost too much to grasp.

Love is a mighty river, the only thing that matters in those matters ... and the only flow that can carry us all to the sea.

__________________________

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 18 (23) (September 10, 2017)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Exodus 12:1-14
Psalm 149
Ezekiel 33:7-11
Psalm 119:33-40
Romans 13:8-14
Matthew 18:15-20
______________________

Will you be with us Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast? Come at 8:00 and enjoy good food, good fellowship, and the good word. We're still in the function room at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. Look for us around the back.

It's only an hour, but it flows through the entire week.

Blessings,
Steve