When the Good Guys Wore White Hats (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

When I was a child, the good guys wore white hats.

For some of you, that’s going to need some explaining. I’m not talking about actual people. These good guys were fictional. The first television set owned by my family arrived in our home in the early 1950’s. It received exactly two channels: NBC and CBS ... and the picture was entirely in black and white. We did not get a color television until the 1960’s ... about the same time as most people.

You may be wondering, at this point, what this has to do with the good guys wearing white hats.

On early TV shows featuring cowboys (and there were quite a few of these), there was a need to easily distinguish the bad guys from the good guys. Almost no one possessed a color television, so those early black and white TV shows used the simplest means of differentiation: white hats versus black hats.

It wasn’t a new approach; the movies had been doing this same thing for several years. Moving the practice to black and white television programs just made sense. That way, whenever there was a shootout between cowboys, the viewer knew exactly which group to root for: the guys in the white hats.

Recalling all those hours of watching Hopalong Cassidy, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers and so many others in those good guy roles, it’s easy to think of those days as a simpler time. Was it? Probably not. But it did seem that way. I can’t help but think of Mason Williams singing Cowboy Buckaroo. Listen to it
Here

Sadly, hat colors have not always been so useful in determining which are the bad guys. Hopalong Cassidy wore a black hat, even though he was a good guy. Some bad guys wear no hats, at all. And even when hats have been common, they may well have looked just the same as everyone else’s.

But that hasn’t stopped people from associating hats with bad guys.

In this week’s selection from the Book of Esther, we encounter one of the most heinous characters in all of scripture: Haman. You should read all of Esther (short read) to really get the measure of this guy. “Bad” doesn’t begin to cover it. But if you just want to find out how the story ended, read this week’s selection.

Purim is celebrated to remember the days when Haman almost succeeded in destroying the Jewish people ... and the heroic acts of Esther to thwart his plans. One of the main foods eaten in celebrating Purim is Hamantaschen, a triangular pastry with fillings. Those might be poppy seed, prune, various fruit preserves, chocolate, caramel, etc. (it could be almost anything, even savory concoctions). While just about everyone agrees that they represent the villain Haman, the meaning of the “taschen” part of the name is up for debate. In Hebrew it might refer to Haman’s ears (and the practice of cutting those off prior to hanging!). In German, it might refer to Haman’s pockets (where he stored the money he offered to the King for permission to kill all the Jews).

But there is an old legend —and the most common belief, today— that Haman wore a three-cornered hat ...

No one knows the color.

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PHOTO; The author, with his brand new (black and white) television set! (Circa, early 1950’s)

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 21 (26) (September 30, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
Psalm 124
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
Psalm 19:7-14
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50
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Come join us Friday mornings for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We still meet at 8:00 in the function room of the Waco “Egg and I“ restaurant (the door is down the outside and near the back). We enjoy a wonderful hour, noshing on good food, reading the scriptures, praying, laughing, discussing ... and not necessarily in that order.

Many blessings,
Steve

My Errors Are My Tutors (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

I was a pretty clumsy kid.

My shoulders clipped a lot of door-frames and wall corners. I eventually figured out that I could swing a bit wider than my eyes told me to when coming near these turns and portals. Result? Just about eliminated those shoulder injuries.

I was clumsy in other ways, too; always knocking over some cup of liquid, dropping my fork to the floor, or “tripping over the flowers in the rug.” After a while, I learned how to pick up the front of my shoes when I walked, thus avoiding (mostly) the embarrassment of sprawling before my peers. To overcome the exasperating problem of knocking over fill-in-the-blank liquids, I developed the ability to quickly grab said cup as it was still tilting over (You can ask my wife: I’m really good at this. These days, my almost-spills rarely turn into actual spills.). Sadly, I still manage to send my fork (or other utensil) straight to the floor without warning. Still not sure why, exactly; but I’m starting to think it has to do with sleeves ... still working on this one; check back in a few years).

My point in these ramblings? I am what someone —a kind person, anyway— might call an “experiential learner” ... I make a lot of mistakes.

But I learn from those mistakes. My errors are my tutors.

And that brings me to this week’s James passage. A key point James makes: We don’t ask [God], so we don’t have. And even when we do ask God, we don’t receive because we ask for selfish reasons. Connect this to the exhortation (or is it a promise?) made by Jesus: Ask=get. Seek=find. Knock=access (Matthew 7:7-8).

I can't help but wonder: Is there a wrong way to ask, seek, and a knock? Are we getting this wrong? Are we supposed to rap out a special tattoo to gain entry? Or ... could we be knocking on the wrong portals? Are we supposed to apply orientation and mapping skills when we seek? Or ... are we just looking for stuff in all the wrong places?

James is talking about the problems that keep popping up when we want what belongs to others; bitter envy, selfish ambition, contentiousness, and even murder. He wants believers to understand we have gone about these things backwards. Instead of coveting and then battling to obtain what we desire (which seems to have become a standard behavior), we, instead, need to go to God with our requests. Plus, we need to realize that asking God to give us something that already belongs to someone else is never going to work.

We can apply the correct process (ask God), but still not receive it because we are only asking for selfish reasons. The ask-seek-knock passage culminates in the Golden Rule and is exactly the same context as the James passage.

Turns out: there is a right way and a wrong way to ask, seek, and knock. And we can learn how to do it.

We are to ask, seek, and knock while in the presence of God. That means we are to be praying and listening, being still before God. And, if we ask, seek, and knock while living the Golden Rule —i.e., seeking for others what we wish for ourselves ... just another way of saying, "Love your neighbor as yourself."— we will receive, find, and enter ... as promised.

Our errors can be our tutors.

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Parts of this reflection are borrowed from a reflection that appeared in September 2015 as “Ask, Seek, Knock: Are we Getting This Wrong?”

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 20 (25) (September 23, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=220

Proverbs 31:10-31
Psalm 1
Jeremiah 11:18-20
Psalm 54
James 3:13 - 4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37
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What are you doing Friday morning? Can you join us at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast? If you're in the area, make some time to join us at 8:00 at Waco’s “Egg and I” restaurant. We’re usually in the function room (down the outside, near the back). The gathering is an hour like no other. We come away refreshed and fortified.

If you're not in our area, consider starting a group to discuss the scriptures. It's not hard. Ask a few friends, contact a restaurant that will let you order À la carte, and then agree on a day and time. Everybody pays for their own food. We use the Lectionary. It's a convenient organizational structure that we can follow every week, but it is not the only one out there. Find an approach that works for you.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

Us or Them: The Boston Driver’s Handbook (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

Driving in Boston is dangerous.

One of the first things I noticed when I first drove in Boston is just how crazy they all seemed to be. We drivers live (and die) on just how reliably we can anticipate the moves of nearby drivers. We depend on directional signals actually indicating which way a driver will turn. We need to believe a driver in the Left Turn Lane is not, in actuality, going to turn right. And vice versa.

I spent the first several weeks absolutely terrified.

Not so much by their bad driving —though it was truly bad— but more by their unpredictability. I had no idea what they would do next. And yet, I had to enter that fray at least twice every working day.

At some point, I shared this concern with a friend at church ... someone who was also not a “local” ... but who had lived there for several years. After hearing me go on about it for a few minutes, he touched my arm and said, gently, “I can help.” And he then proceeded to share with me the essential bit of wisdom that, in time, gave me the confidence to drive all over the Boston area without undue fear (a little fear was good; just needed it to not be paralyzing fear).

What he shared was this: in the mind of every Boston driver is one thought: “Can I make it.”

Suddenly, it all made a kind of crazy sense. What I soon learned to do was watch, not the cars, but the faces of those nearby drivers. Directional signals? Forget it. Lane location? Meaningless. Where were they looking? That told me everything I needed to know.

What did I learn? This: those Boston drivers were not going to change ... no matter how much I wanted them to change, and no matter how much they needed to change. And this: a lesson about people and imparted wisdom. Sometimes the wisdom is for them ... and sometimes the wisdom is for us. In the case of Boston drivers, I was the one who had to change, and my friend’s wisdom helped me do it.

It’s an important lesson to keep in mind while reading this week’s Lectionary scriptures (all of which are related to wisdom in one way or another). Reading these scriptures, collectively, reminded me of how easy it is to conclude that the wisdom of the scriptures is for “them” ... that is, someone other than us.

Of course, not us ... and certainly not me. None of us wants to think of ourselves as unwise. And yet ... Do you ever read a passage and immediately think of someone (else) who would benefit from adopting that code or mode of conduct? I used to do it all the time. Now, I only do it most of the time. Still some work to do, there. All of this to say: this week's Lectionary selections are about us, for us ... not them. So, I’ve been re-reading the passages with me in mind ... not them.

What it says to me: heed Wisdom's call, and choose to accept the instruction that leads to life.

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To write this reflection, I borrowed a few tiny pieces of a reflection I wrote in September, 2015, titled The Diagonal of Death.

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A hilarious read (and essential should you ever want to drive in Boston) is The Boston Driver’s Handbook. See it here: https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Drivers-Handbook-Streets-Almost/dp/0306813262/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536798162&sr=8-1&keywords=the+boston+drivers+handbook

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 19 (24) (September 16, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=219

Proverbs 1:20-33
Psalm 19
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 116:1-9
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
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I hope you can join us Friday morning for Lectionary Breakfast. As usual, we gather at 8:00 at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. It's an hour-ish of visiting, reading some scripture, praying, and discussing how it might work out in our own lives.

No one is required to drive in Boston.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

Retirement is Weird (or, The Plans That Perished) — a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection

I thought retirement would be different.

Like many, I had spent decades working and saving; investing in retirement plans, 401k’s, savings accounts; thinking about how I would use my time when I had all those hours to do as I pleased. I thought I would spend more time reading and writing, that I would finally get back to that long unfinished novel languishing at the back of my iPad.

But ... well ... retirement is weird.

A lot changes when we retire ... We stop working. We no longer earn our income. Monday’s are not the same. There’s no place we have to be on a weekday morning. We’re stunned to discover that most of our friends were workplace friends. Suddenly, it seems like just everybody has some plan to fill our time. Most of us have some cash flow, but it is almost always a lot less than before we retired.

Is it any wonder that many people, even when they have the resources to do so, don’t stay retired? Research indicates that at least 40% of workers over the age of 65 had already previously retired! I recently had a conversation with a person in their 80’s who, though well-off financially, told me, “I just can’t retire. I wouldn't know what to do with myself.”

I could provide a litany of things that retirement brings about, some of which highlight how wonderful it can be and some of which make it seem something to be avoided at all costs. But there is one thing about retirement that is universal for everyone who takes that step ... and it can be a stunner if you’re not prepared for it.

Everything just stops.

Work email just stops. All those projects you were a part of? Not another word. Your opinion is no longer sought. Your regular lunch mates? Going to lunch without you. Bad as that all is, it gets worse. That work you were championing? That process change you were seeking? That new approach to training the next generation of workers you were shaping? Stopped. And if it didn’t stop, it changed so significantly after you left, you might not even recognize it.

It’s almost like you were never there.

True, we need not retire to have this experience; anything that takes us out of our normal flow can cause it. Major health concern, fired from a job, forced relocation ... pick your poison. If you’ve ever experienced it, you can never forget it. And, it makes one of this week’s Lectionary passages a little clearer if you have. Psalm 146 is all about trusting in God. It recites all the good God does. But before it does so, it warns the reader: don’t put your faith in princes (and other mortals) because, “When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish.”

Retired or not, we need to place our faith in the one who is constant, the one who can be depended on to help in time of trouble, the one who (as the Psalm says): “executes justice for the oppressed ... gives food to the hungry ... sets the prisoners free ... opens the eyes of the blind ... lifts up those who are bowed down ... watches over the strangers ... upholds the orphan and the widow.”

That’s what God does. Most of this week’s scriptures are about what God does for those in need, but some are about what we should do. A good summary of what God wants of us can be found in this week’s selection from James: it’s like he’s preaching a sermon on how to fold Psalm 146 into our lives.

The world may have stopped for us —even though we are not princes, and even though we are still here— but we are called to continue ... by a God who never stops.

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There are many (many) articles about retirees returning to the workforce. This is a good example: https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/reasons-retirees-are-going-back-to-work/

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 18 (23) (September 9, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=218

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23
Psalm 125
Isaiah 35:4-7a
Psalm 146
James 2:1-10, (11-13), 14-17
Mark 7:24-37
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Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant. You should find us in the function room (down the outside, near the back); ask at the host stand if we’re not there. The hour starts at 8:00 and goes by quickly. But we take with us the fruits of reading the Bible, discussing, praying, laughing. It doesn’t stop just because the clock strikes 9:00.

Blessings,
Steve

The Ocean, the Ginger, and the Figs (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

Through the window near our table, I could see the ocean racing by ... or more precisely, our ship racing across the ocean. With our speed, we were creating a sizable bow wave, ropey blue lines with lots of white froth. Captain had announced earlier that we would be sailing along at 15 knots, which is pretty fast for a cruise-liner of our size. Despite the visual, though, it was a smooth crossing.

Yes, there was some roll, front to back; which, with our dining room being near the back of the ship, meant we could feel it a bit more. But there had been rougher seas this trip. Still, despite the beauty and majesty of that ride, and despite how relatively mild it was onboard, tonight, those with a sensitivity to such things would likely need something to calm their stomachs.

And that’s where the ginger comes in.

Every night after dinner, we walked directly to a small cart positioned just by the exit. On it were displayed an arrangement of four after-dinner treats. You could choose from dates, crystallized (sugared) ginger, dried figs, and those small, creamy mints that start melting the second you place them in your mouth. While the mints were yummy and the dates were sweet —and I know a lot of you would prefer one or both— my choice was always ginger and figs.

Crystallized ginger comes with both a kiss and a bite; I’m pretty sure it would be all bite if not for that sugar infusion. So, its the sugared form for me. But some nights —nights like this one— the ginger was gone by the time I reached that cart. For many, some ginger after a meal is exactly what they needed to calm those sea-tossed tummies. I doubt the FDA has weighed in on this, but a lot of people swear by it: ginger helps their seasickness. I don’t get sea sick, so the absence of the ginger, while a disappointment, is not devastating.

Besides (and now we get down to it), I love figs! Truth be told, as much as I enjoy the ginger, I can live without it. What I found myself looking forward to each evening on the cruise were those figs.

The first time I ate a fig (and I’m not counting Fig Newtons) was while awaiting the birth of our daughter. The tree behind the small duplex we rented in South Austin (Texas) was huge; I could not wrap my arms all the way around the trunk. I happened to be standing beneath it when a fig came loose and fell at my feet. I had seen figs in the grocery store, so I knew what it was, but I had never actually eaten one. Could I eat it? This was long before the Internet, so there was no Google to ask. I took the thing to work with me and asked my boss. She quashed all concern by ooh-ing and aah-ing over the thing. All that was needed before eating was simply to wash it off.

I’ve been hooked ever since.

Hard to describe the sensations of eating a fig. It is definitely not for just everyone. But that mild sweetness, coupled with all that fiber, it’s just right for me. And I am a long way from the first to enjoy a fig. Did you know that only three trees were named in the Garden of Eden? Two were supernatural and other was: the Fig. In fact, figs play a big role in the Bible.

When the wanderers are about to enter the Promised Land, they are told, “For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with ... [among other great things] fig trees ....” (‭‭Deut‬ ‭8:7-8‬ ‭NRSV‬‬ - http://bible.com/2016/deu.8.7-8.nrsv) Throughout the Bible, figs and fig trees are associated with peace, well-being, and safety. The very image one would conjure of a happy, contented Israelite is one where they sit beneath the shade of their own fig tree (consider what Jesus says of Nathanael in John chapter 1).

Much is implied when scripture references the fig tree and its produce: it takes a lot of work to just keep the thing alive the first few years. They have to be nurtured. The presence of a living, fruitful fig tree means that the Gardner has remained nearby, tending to all that is required to ensure its health and growth.

So, when we come across a passage like the one from Song of Solomon in this week’s Lectionary, we must exercise a bit of care. I know the tendency of some might be to just skip it, entirely, perhaps thinking, “Just how much love poetry do I need to read? And what spiritual purpose does this serve?”

Ah ... but the figs.

The presence of the fig tree and the figs in that passage told a fuller story to the Israelite readers, one we might not get. Those readers understood: It wasn’t just a call from one lover to another to “come away.” It was saying that, not only is all well with the world, but that the present is the product of the past. Much tending and nurturing had preceded that poetic moment in time. This was not a new, immature love; maturity had been achieved and the time had, at last, arrived for starting their new life, together.

This is our relationship with God. The Lord is our Gardner. We are the figs.

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Reference (I don’t know anything about these folk. I just liked this article about the figs in the Bible): From THE SYMBOLISM OF FIGS IN THE BIBLE
https://www.oneforisrael.org/amp/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/figs-in-the-bible/
PHOTO (and a yummy culinary article about figs): https://www.strongertogether.coop/fresh-from-the-source/figs

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 17 (22) (September 2, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//

Song of Solomon 2:8-13
Psalm 45:1-2, 6-9
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
Psalm 15
James 1:17-27
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
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Friday mornings are special. Scripture, prayer, discussion, laughter: DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant from 8:00 to 9:00. We’re usually in their function room (down the outside, near the back), but be sure to ask the host if you can’t find us.

Blessings,
Steve