The Pause that Refreshes (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

You’ve likely heard it, perhaps even saw an advertisement with it: the pause that refreshes. I first heard it in the 1950’s. Did you know the phrase originated as an advertisement for Coca-Cola ... in 1929?! I have to admit, along with millions of others, I’m sure, that the Coca-Cola marketing wizards were right: it is a pause that refreshes. But even before Coca-Cola made the phrase a staple in our collective “top of mind” —centuries, if not millennia— pausing has been refreshing people in all sorts of ways.

Take Eddie and the Cruisers ... one of my all time favorite movies. Great story, great music, great characters, great dialog. When it opens, Eddie and the Cruisers is a bar band, much like any other bar band. But there's something about them, some almost-but-not-quite-there thing you sense when, early in the movie, they walk into Tony's bar and declare, "Eddie and the Cruisers are here!"

Not long after that entrance, the leader of the band, Eddie Wilson, is having difficulty explaining to Sal, the bass player, that the song they are rehearsing is too fast, that the meaning of the lyrics can't really be understood at that pace. Sal declares they must maintain the driving beat or those dancing to the song "will miss a step." Eddie looks around, sees young, starry-eyed Frank Ridgeway standing nearby and waves him over. Eddie asks Frank if he knows what he's trying to convey. Frank thinks about it and then says the song needs a Caesura, which he defines as “a timely pause, a kind of a strategic silence."

What's interesting to me about that scene is that both Eddie and Sal are right; depending on what result is desired. It's 1963; so Sal's analysis about the dancers is correct. Eddie, on the other hand, is also right because he senses a need to take their music in a different direction. He adopts Frank's Caesura and changes the song, telling Frank, "You can stay."

This scene marks the tipping point, that moment when the group starts transforming itself from a good, but not particularly distinctive, bar band into a major national artistic success.

Like Eddie, we feel a need for a Caesura ... and the Lectionary gives us not one, but two. First, we pause to give thanks, to experience gratitude for all the Lord has blessed with us. I think the Matthew and 1st Timothy passages best capture that spirit. And for next week, we pause on Christ the King Sunday to focus on the majesty and sovereignty of Jesus. I think we see that best in the Daniel and Revelation passages.

Advent, one of the busiest times of the year, will begin in a few short days. So it’s especially good, this week, that we can take a caesura, a pause that refreshes.
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A version of this reflection appeared in January 2013 as Eddie and the Cruisers.

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PHOTO (and more on “The Pause that Refreshes” and the effective use of pauses in music and speech): https://mannerofspeaking.org/2009/05/19/the-pause-that-refreshes/

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Thanksgiving Day, USA (November 22, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//

Joel 2:21-27
Psalm 126
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Matthew 6:25-33
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Reign of Christ Sunday - Proper 29 (34)
27th Sunday after Pentecost 11/25/2018
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=230

2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18)
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14
Psalm 93
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37
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We're not there! ... this week at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant. Taking a break for Thanksgiving weekend. Join us next Friday morning at 8:00 for good food, good fellowship, and good discussion (plus some pretty excellent prayer and laughter).

It could be the perfect Caesura in your week.

Enjoy!
Steve