My Inner Rocket Boy (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

Near my home, there is a building filled with wonders. 

It’s the Baylor Research and Innovation Cooperative (BRIC for short). Inside are fascinating things like a Space Sciences Lab. That lab includes Mission Design & Data, Satellite Integration, and a Dusty Plasma Simulator. There’s also CASPER (the Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics, and Engineering Research). 

When I was a child, I spent hours on my back searching the starry sky for Sputnik, much like those Rocket Boys in the movie October Skies. As I toured the BRIC, I was delighted to discover my inner Rocket Boy was absolutely in awe of all that technology and how it contributes to the study and exploration of outer space. 

The BRIC is part research lab central and part business incubator. And, while it houses some pretty amazing stuff, the BRIC itself is as fascinating as what operates within it. What now houses cutting edge science was once … a tire factory.

General Tire opened the plant in the early 1940s. It was a thriving operation. Until it wasn’t. The doors closed for good in the 1980s. Sure, the "bones" were still there; they were always substantial. But what do you do with a tire factory when there is no longer a need for one? Absolutely nothing. So, for decades, it sat—empty, abandoned, useless, worthless. 

Circumstance had brought it low. For the longest time, it was lost.  

No amount of wishing was going to change that. It would still be just like that if some folks had not decided to redeem it. Like a butterfly, it was reshaped, re-tasked. What was old has passed away; now, as the BRIC, it’s truly a new creation.

All of this week's scriptures are about this same kind of redemption. The Corinthians passage, for example, tells us plainly that, because of Jesus, “the old has passed away” and that “we are a new creation.” Go and read them all through that lens of renewal. Read them and experience a quiet joy spreading across your thoughts and emotions. They are about being brought back from the brink, having new life breathed in, being rescued from evil, coming home. 

And so it is with us, obsolete and unable to be what we should be. Then, when we trust in Jesus, our old self is gone, and we are truly a new creation. 

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PHOTO (and a brief primer on how caterpillars become butterflies): 

https://allanspetcenter.com/how-does-a-caterpillar-turn-into-a-butterfly/

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If you're in Waco on Friday morning, join us at 8:00 for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We share a meal and the pleasure of talking about how the words of the Bible actually work in our real lives. We'll be on Zoom** and at Our Breakfast Place.

Blessings,

Steve

**Contact me for the Zoom link

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Read them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=121

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Cx_FourthSundayinLent.pdf

Joshua 5:9-12

Psalm 32

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Fourth Sunday in Lent (March 27, 2022)

Hemingway’s Moveable Feast (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

As I sat watching the film Midnight in Paris, I realized I might very much enjoy a visit to 1920s Paris, France. 

The movie stars Owen Wilson as a modern man unhappy with the way his life is turning out. But one midnight in Paris, he finds what may make him happy by traveling back in time to the 1920s. There he enjoys the company of such luminaries as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ezra Pound and many more creatives of “the lost generation.”

I wondered what it might really be like to do that. How could I know what it would be like to live there, walk there, eat there, all at that seemingly magical time when the writers and artists we celebrate were all together in one place? And then I remembered: Hemingway had done all that—and he wrote it all down. 

Sure, he lived in near poverty, but he had known the people whose ideas and artistic expressions changed the world. He filled notebooks with his thoughts on the places, the people, and the events of his life in that place and time.

Eventually, Hemingway had those notebooks transcribed, and then organized them into a book. He named it A Moveable Feast. The book was his memoir of those years and those people as he knew them. The title of the book comes from a comment Hemingway made to a friend in 1950: "If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast."

This week's scriptures are about a different kind of moveable feast. Phrases like “delight yourselves in rich food” (Isaiah 55:2), and “My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast” (Psalms 63:5) capture the reality of eating the spiritual food God has prepared for us. And we are urged to not forget their true source when we ingest the "same spiritual food" and the "same spiritual drink" as the Israelites in the wilderness (1st Corinthians 10:3-4).

We may not be able to travel back in time to 1920s Paris. Many of us, perhaps, have no desire to. After all, those icons of the lost generation immersed themselves in Hemingway’s moveable feast, only to learn “There is no there there.” Ultimately, it was a feast that left an aftertaste of bitterness and disappointment. In contrast, we are urged to come to the feast prepared for us by God. It’s a feast that moves with us through our lives. 

We can expect to be richly fed. 

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PHOTO (from the Paris Convention and Visitors Bureau): https://en.parisinfo.com/

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Join us for a feast Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. As usual, we meet in person at Our Breakfast Place and on Zoom**. We start at 8:00 for an hour like no other. We feast on food, we feast on God's word, and we feast on fellowship. And when we leave, part of those feasts moves with us, out into the day, the week, and the lives of those we meet.

Blessings,

Steve

**Contact me for the Zoom link

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Read them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=120

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Cx_ThirdSundayinLent.pdf

Isaiah 55:1-9

Psalm 63:1-8

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Luke 13:1-9

Third Sunday in Lent (March 20, 2022)

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A Pilgrimage to Memphis (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

Memphis. 

The name conjures up thoughts of Elvis and Graceland, W. C. Handy (the self-styled “Father of the Blues”)—and, of course, the famous Beale Street, where B.B. King’s is jumpin’ every night. 

I don’t know about you, but when I sang along with Marc Cohn’s signature recording about Memphis, I really belted it out … on the part I knew. It sounded something like, “WALKING IN MEMPHIS! mmm mmm mm mm mm. WALKING IN MEMPHIS! mmm mmm mm.” My guess is I’m not alone in not knowing the lyrics to “Walking in Memphis.” A few years ago, as I planned a trip to Memphis to finally explore the history of “The Blues,” I realized I needed to actually try to learn the lyrics to that song. So, I did a little sleuthing. 

The song is very popular, not least because of how well Cohn performs it. Maybe it’s just that we get lost in listening to him sing. Whatever the reasons, the truth is this: If we attempt to sing along, at all, it’s only when he croons the actual words, “Walking in Memphis” ... and something, something “the pouring rain.” But that’s about it. 

Still, it should come as no shock to learn the song is about when Cohn made a pilgrimage to Memphis, Tennessee. He, too, wanted to connect with “The Home of the Blues.”

(Here’s his song, with lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2t8oVH3qao)

After our pilgrim “Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues / In the middle of the pouring rain,” he toured the southern city. He almost swoons when he walks down Beale Street, claims he sees the ghost of Elvis at Graceland, and notes “They’ve got catfish on the table.”

Perhaps, between not knowing the lyrics and discovering it’s about a blues pilgrimage to Memphis, we can be forgiven for not knowing the next thing he discovered: 

They've got gospel in the air.

Our pilgrim, it turns out, was also on a bit of a personal spiritual journey while walking in Memphis. He realized there was more to the place than just its music, emphasizing how a pilgrim would be welcomed, “When you haven't got a prayer.”

“But, boy, you've got a prayer in Memphis.”

What comes next is equal parts sad and exhilarating. Cohn incorporates something into the lyrics that actually happened to him while visiting Memphis. One night at the famed blues joint, Hollywood Cafe, he listened to well-known pianist and gospel singer Muriel Wilkins perform—something she did every Friday night for many years. 

After one set, Cohn was asked if he would perform a duet with Muriel. What musician could pass that up?

Now Muriel plays piano

Every Friday at the Hollywood

And they brought me down to see her

And they asked me if I would

Do a little number

And I sang with all my might

She said

“Tell me are you a Christian child?”

And I said, “Ma’am, I am tonight.”

That’s about the last we hear of our pilgrim’s spiritual journey: his one-night claim to a relationship with Jesus. 

Music is powerful. It pulls us, drives us, fills us in ways nothing else does. Can it be any wonder that the gospel message found its way into music? And when the Blues meets Gospel? Magnetic! All of this makes me wonder if our pilgrim is experiencing something akin to that of David in this week’s Psalm 27. In the midst of all the worldly matters crowding in on him, David could be forgiven if he thought, “I haven’t got a prayer.” But instead, he seems to shout out, “I will sing and make melody to the LORD!” He knows that music is a great way to celebrate his relationship to God, especially when life is handing him the “blues.” He takes courage knowing he can rely on his steadfast God.

Cohn’s pilgrim finishes up the song by walking, walking, walking in Memphis, endlessly wondering: “Do I really feel the way I feel?” Perhaps he had glimpsed what David calls, “the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” And, perhaps, he was still grappling with his almost-decision. All I know for certain is this: the duet they sang that night?

Amazing Grace.

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PHOTO: “Rainy Night On Beale Street” by Steve Orr

A great story about Memphis, Muriel, Marc, and The Hollywood): 

https://amp.smoothradio.com/features/the-story-of/walking-in-memphis-marc-cohn-meaning-lyrics/

Just for fun: the blues scene from “Adventures In Babysitting (“Nobody gets out of this bar without singing the blues!”) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=552PLnE61TM

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Friday mornings are a time of grace at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We read, we pray, we discuss ... and we laugh. Join us at 8:00 at Our Breakfast Place or online at Zoom** for a great start to the weekend. 

Blessings,

Steve

**Contact me for the Zoom link

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Read them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=119

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Cx_SecondSundayinLent.pdf

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

Psalm 27

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Luke 13:31-35 or Luke 9:28-36, (37-43a)

Second Sunday in Lent (March 13, 2022)

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Forging A Separate Peace (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

John Knowles’ novel, A Separate Peace, is pretty good, maybe even worthy of that much sought after accolade, the great American novel. 

And yet, it was wasted on me. 

It is entirely possible it would be wasted on any ninth grade boy. But any way you want to look at it, I was not the right audience for the novel. Maybe I was just too immature. In any case, I am far better equipped to understand it as an adult. At the time, though, I just didn't find anything about the book to like. Everyone seemed kind of mean. Or at least that's how I remember it. For whatever reason, I never connected with it. 

But I do recall one important thing.

The title had to do with treaties. 

It goes something like this: A group of allies agree to go to war together, as a unified force, or at least agree to all fight the same enemies. That's part of it. The other part is this: Each country making up the allies also agrees to not make "a separate peace" with the enemy forces. In other words, "We're all in it together, and none of us quits until we all agree to quit." 

A separate peace sounds like a nice thing, a way to walk away from the battle rather than face the terrible things that are assuredly coming: pain, separation, destruction and death. But there is a problem with a separate peace that may not be readily apparent. If one of the allied countries decided to make a separate peace with the enemy forces, that would be a betrayal of the other countries in the allied forces. The original commitment made by the betraying country would now be without meaning, and they would likely never be trusted by their former allies, ever again.

That's what's happening in this week's scripture from Luke. Satan, in the middle of his multi-millennia war with God, has come to Jesus to entice Him into a separate peace. Satan even quotes scripture at Jesus (see the Psalm 91 passage, verses 11 and 12). They both know that some hard times are ahead for Jesus: pain, separation, destruction and death. Satan's "temptations" are all inducements for Jesus to abandon his allegiance to God. 

To step out of the war.

There are times and places for a separate peace. Truly. Sometimes it is better to walk away from the war than to continue, even if we can't convince our allies to do so. But for the "war in heaven" that spilled over onto Earth, our oath of fealty must stand firm. Like Jesus, we must resist whatever draws us away from our commitment to God.

Now is not the time for a separate peace.

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PHOTO: Steve Orr

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Friday mornings are the best! We gather at 8:00 on Zoom and in person at Our Breakfast Place for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We wrap things up around 9:00. Join us for food, fellowship, scripture, and prayer ... and laughter. 

Blessings,

Steve

**Contact me for the Zoom link

NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the camera and microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Read them here: 

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=118

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Cx_FirstSundayinLent.pdf

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

Romans 10:8b-13

Luke 4:1-13f

First Sunday in Lent (March 6, 2022)

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