Stranded on the Mountaintop? (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

At the summit, the temperature on Mount Everest never rises above freezing.  

Wind speeds in the month of May are 20-35 miles per hour, temps range from 0 °F to -2°, and the precipitation at base camp is rain versus the usual snow. Most ascents are in May to take advantage of these relatively gentler, drier conditions. 

 

David Breashears intended to ascend Everest in May 1996 to make an IMAX film. But long before the ascent to the top, long before they assembled the climbing team, long before the film crew was selected, and long before the sherpas were hired: 

 

David Breashears made a plan.

 

When the time finally did come for them to ascend the mountain, he had what Jim Collins (of Good to Great fame) calls a "SMaC recipe" (i. e., a plan that is Specific, Methodical, and Consistent). The plan’s purpose was to impose certainty on every aspect of the climb, to achieve assurance that every safety precaution was taken, to inspire confidence that they were going to make a great film about a great adventure, to ensure that absolutely nothing was left to chance. It was filled with very practical steps. For example:

Step 3: Thread the camera with bare hands, no matter how cold, to ensure a perfect shot every time, and 

Step 8: Always bring backups for critical gear and supplies: extra oxygen, extra crampons, extra mittens, and extra supplies. Be prepared to stay longer than planned. 

 

With that kind of specificity and forethought, you can be certain the other steps were just as meaningful. Which leads us to their Step 7: 

 

In selecting teammates, choose people to get stranded with.

 

The rest of the SMaC steps were particular to making the Everest climb and making the film. But Step 7 can be applied anywhere. We don’t have to be mountain climbers to appreciate the wisdom in carefully choosing our companions, no matter what adventures we share. 

 

It dovetails perfectly with this week's Philippians passage. Paul wants us believers to be a community, to agree with each other, to put each other first, to truly love each other. Then he ratchets up the stakes by giving us an example of what he means: Jesus choosing to give up his place in heaven so He could put us first. Paul wants us to be willing to let everything go—if that’s what it takes—to help each other; to be selfless, obedient, and sacrificial. Paul's encouragements underscore why we should carefully choose our spiritual journey teammates. Are they people we’re willing to be stranded with? Because until Jesus returns, that’s exactly where we are: stranded. 

 

So, yes, put Step 7 into action. But, equally important, be that teammate they want to be stranded with, too. 

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IMAGE (climbers partway up to the mountaintop):

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/snowy-rugged-white-mountains-with-hiking-travelers_8857817.htm#page=2&query=Everest%20climbers&position=44&from_view=search&track=ais

 

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We have a great time Friday mornings at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast! Join us at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place for an hour like no other. We read scripture, discuss, laugh.

 

Blessings,

Steve

 

 **Contact me for the Zoom link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

 

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=161

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_Proper21.pdf

 

Exodus 17:1-7

Psalm 78:1-4, 12-16

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32

Psalm 25:1-9

Philippians 2:1-13

Matthew 21:23-32

Proper 21 (26) (October 1, 2023)

Unwilling (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

I love a good time-travel story. Most of them involve people who use technology or some kind of power to intentionally travel through time. They’re usually interesting and engaging.

 

But my favorites are the reluctant time travelers. 

 

I’ve always been captivated by them, drawn to their stories. It’s Claire Randall in Outlander. It’s Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five. It’s Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler’s Wife. It’s history professor Alex Balfour in the Pastmaster books. It’s journalist Dan Vasser in the short-lived (but much praised and much missed) TV show Journeyman. 

 

The reluctant time travelers have no control over when they vanish from their present life, none over where and when they travel, none over how long they are gone, and none over when (or if) they ever return to their original time. Somehow, I find that more believable.  

 

Oh, and one more thing: None of them wants to go. 

 

There are folk who live for adventures of zero predictability. I’m just not one of them. Count me with the reluctant time travelers. Someone wants me to go somewhere I don’t want to go and do something I don’t want to do? I hate that. I think we've all felt that way at one time or another.

 

Take Journeyman‘s Dan Vasser, for instance: He has no option. He has to go, no matter what. He could be sitting at his desk, or even at home with his toddler when, with almost no warning, he is swept into the past. The disorientation, alone, would be reason enough to not want the experience. Add in that upon his return to the present—also beyond his control—he could not provide a credible excuse for his absence. Well, let's just say his personal relationships suffer. Whatever force jerked Dan from his life as a husband, father, and reporter, it seemed to have zero concern for Dan. And, of most importance, Dan never had a choice. 

The main way we differ from Dan? We almost always have a choice. 

 

We can say “No.” 

 

You might think the prophet Jonah was more like Dan than us, but that would be wrong. Jonah had free will. In this week’s scriptures, Jonah is told to go and preach in Nineveh, a very wicked mega-city in the same mold as Babylon. Jonah resists. God insists. Jonah strongly objects to what God instructs him to do. So strongly, he actually goes in the opposite direction!

 

You know the story. God prepares a "great fish" to swallow Jonah. Eventually, Jonah prays and (somewhat) repents. Upon his release from the fish, Jonah goes to Nineveh and preaches what God had instructed him to preach in the first place—but he is not happy about it. 

 

The book of Jonah is not really about Nineveh, nor about the sailors on the ship, and certainly not about the fish. The story is about Jonah's relationship with God. Don't think for a minute God had to send Jonah to Nineveh. God could have sent anyone. God chose Jonah for a reason. Jonah needed some lessons: about obedience, about God's priorities, about grace, about second chances.

 

And a lesson about God's sovereignty. 

 

Unlike our reluctant time-travelers, Jonah had—and exercised—free will. He chose to disobey God. And why? Because he didn't agree with God's willingness to redeem some wicked people.

 

God is sovereign. He can do as He wants. And what God wants is to forgive people their sins. If we're not on board with that, we're on the wrong spiritual journey. 

_________________________

IMAGE (“Hanging Gardens of Nineveh?”): 

https://www.reddit.com/r/assyrian/comments/15csr9r/hanging_gardens_of_nineveh/?share_id=UyTBKw7gM3k5Z8_GmpNe_&utm_content=2&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

 

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DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets Friday mornings at 8:00am. Please join us for scripture, discussion, prayer—and laughter. We gather on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place.

 

Blessings,

Steve

 

 **Contact me for the Zoom link

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

 

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=160

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_Proper20.pdf

 

Exodus 16:2-15

Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45

Jonah 3:10-4:11

Psalm 145:1-8

Philippians 1:21-30

Matthew 20:1-16

Proper 20 (25) (September 24, 2023)

 

Remember the Big Moments (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

The entire 18 winters I lived in the Boston area, I complained. There were: the bone-chilling cold, the icy roadways, the clothes-destroying oily slush, unplowed streets and driveways, “Popsicle Toes.” But, when I voiced my very legitimate woes, some local would, without fail, say: "This?! This is nothing. You should have been here for the Blizzard of '78."

And they probably had a point. To say the Blizzard of '78 was memorable is to seriously undersell it.

It hit New England with little warning, dumping two to four feet of snow on everything in a matter of hours. Hurricane-force winds drove snowdrifts to unimaginable heights, completely covering automobiles. There are photos of people walking along the snow-packed streets with car roofs peeking through at their ankles. Many went more than a week without power. Snow plows could not clear the roads until abandoned cars were towed. Communities ran out of places to put the snow. Coastal flooding was particularly destructive. Damages, in today's dollars, passed $2 billion and kept going.

This was no mere inconvenience. It was devastating, cataclysmic. People died. Is it any wonder New Englanders recall it so vividly, even more than four decades later?

We remember the really big moments in our lives. That's how you would think it would be with the Israelites based on this week's Exodus passages. An enormous blazing pillar of fire at night and a massive darkness-enshrouding cloud by day that confounded their enemies. Walking across a dry seabed while writhing walls of water towered on either side. The stunning destruction of their enemies when those watery walls crashed down on them. 

All by the hand of God.

You would think something like that would stick in a person's mind. No one had ever seen the kind of power God showed in rescuing the Israelites from their Egyptian oppressors. They even wrote a song about it. 

And yet...

Time after time, when facing some subsequent dilemma, the children of Israel just...drew a blank. Instead of recalling the amazing events of that long night and morning, they dissolved into complaints and rebellion whenever they felt their needs were not being met.

This week’s scriptures are about forgiveness, remembrance, compassion, and faith. Read them. Meditate on them. Then the next time you're facing a challenge, even a really tough one, do what the Israelites often failed to do. Reflect for a moment and recall that there is nothing you cannot go through as long as God is with you.  

Even a little faith goes a long way in the big moments of life.

_________________________

IMAGE: https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/beautiful-vertical-shot-large-burning-fire-night_13361818.htm#query=firey%20pillar&position=37&from_view=search&track=ais

_________________________

DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast gathers Friday mornings on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place. Join us at 8:00 for food, fellowship, scripture, and laughter.

Blessings,

Steve

 

 **Contact me for the Zoom link

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

 

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=159

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_Proper19.pdf

Exodus 14:19-31

Psalm 114 or Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21

Genesis 50:15-21

Psalm 103:(1-7), 8-13

Romans 14:1-12

Matthew 18:21-35

Proper 19 (24) (September 17, 2023)

The Mighty Mississippi (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

A talented musician wrote a song about my hometown. 

Okay. More than one musician wrote a song about Paducah, Kentucky. Benny Goodman and Carmen Miranda sang the praises of Paducah in their film “The Gang’s All Here.” The song was crafted by Leo Robin and Harry Warren, and they established for all time: “If you wanna, you can rhyme it with bazooka. But you can’t poo poo Paducah. It’s another name for Paradise.” (1)

 

As strange as it may seem, several people wrote songs about Paducah. (2) George Coryell, a hometown contemporary of mine, wrote and performed “Paddlewheels.” It’s a fine little song about Paducah that includes many of the town’s hallmarks. Chief among those is Paducah’s two rivers and the paddlewheel-driven riverboats that sail them.

“We played down by the river, 

  where the Ohio and Tennessee meet. 

  We were always there to see 

  the Belle of Louisville and the Delta Queen.” (3)

 

When two waters flow into the same space, it is called a confluence. Such a confluence frames two sides of my hometown: The Ohio River and the Tennessee River blend together there. It's a very picturesque image—when described in words. 

 

In truth, it is two very different energy flows slamming into each other. From the moment they meet, these distinct entities are trying to overpower each other, neither giving way. You can actually see the two rivers fighting to remain distinct. They even look different. One is smoother, darker, richer in color. The other is choppier, roiling almost, and much lighter hued.

In my hometown, we are also aware of a particular truth that changes how we view that river battle: there is something much larger just over the horizon. Only about an hour farther on, these two battling waters smack into the Mississippi River. 

 

We say things like, "They join up with the Mississippi." But, in truth, those two rivers don't so much join as they completely disappear. There is no more talk of which river. The Mississippi is the river. On the north, its headwaters are just shy of the Canadian border and it knifes through the U.S. all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico. The "Mighty Mississippi," is so big it absorbs all other waters. It takes them—and all they represent—down to the sea.

A more perfect metaphor cannot be found for the two main Jewish groups at the time of Jesus and his early followers. The Pharisees believed in an afterlife and believed each person must scrupulously keep the laws and the Commandments of God to ensure actually getting to that afterlife. The Sadducees rejected the idea of an afterlife, believing each person must do good in this life, because this life is all there is. The two groups were always in conflict, always battling over which was right, which would transcend the other.

 

We see it in this week's Romans passage. The two factions were like my two hometown rivers: They were using the laws and the Commandments in their battle to control people's lives. Then Jesus came and taught a much larger, all-consuming truth: Love is the fulfillment of all those commandments and laws.

 

Suddenly, just like my hometown rivers encountering the Mississippi, all those laws and commandments—and all the conflicts based on them—were swallowed up in something larger, so much larger it's almost too much to grasp. That something is the love taught and modeled by Jesus. We can use the metaphor of a mighty river to grasp that enormity. 

 

The battles that raged among us before we became followers of Jesus are as meaningless as the fighting of my two hometown rivers. And like the Mississippi, God’s love is the mighty flow that will take us all in and carry us to the sea—a sea of living water. 

 

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PHOTO: the Lower Mississippi River and it’s southernmost delta as seen from outer space

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144701/flooding-on-the-lower-mississippi-continues

 

BONUS MATERIAL

(1) Watch a clip from “The Gang’s All Here” and enjoy their version of “Paducah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGNoH4bjHmo

 

(2) Article about Paducah-related music: 

https://www.wkms.org/arts-culture/2015-07-09/update-paducah-life-celebrates-25-years-with-song-contest

 

(3) Listen to “Paddlewheels” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDqdcWe4A80 

 

__________________________

 

Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place. We share scripture, fellowship, good food—and even some laughs. 

 

Blessings,

Steve

 

 **Contact me for the Zoom link

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

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

 

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=158

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/pdf//Ax_Proper18.pdf

 

Exodus 12:1-14

Psalm 149

Ezekiel 33:7-11

Psalm 119:33-40

Romans 13:8-14

Matthew 18:15-20

Proper 18 (23) (September 10, 2023)