The Dancing Goat…um…Controversy? (a Steve Orr Scripture Reflection)

Some goats are at the heart of an oft-told tale of coffee’s discovery

Location: Ethiopia. 

Time: Morning; mid-fifteenth century A.D.

Scene: A goat-herder searches for his flock that failed to return home the night before. 

Story: The goat-herder finds his missing flock and takes note of some strange behavior. They are dancing! At the center of this dance is a shrub sporting red berries. Observing the goats eating the berries, the lowly goat-herder does the same. Soon, he too is dancing.

 

There are many versions of this tale. In some, it takes place in Arabia Felix (Yemen). In some, the goat-herder is observed by a Sufi (or possibly a Monk) who takes some berries back to the monastery. He performs experiments on the berries, eventually arriving at the liquid we call coffee. 

 

Like most legends, there is probably some truth in there somewhere. But the part about the dancing goats is unlikely. Experiments near the end of the Twentieth Century with actual goats and actual coffee berries produced problematic results. The goats almost always chose dried grass or other options over the coffee berries. This, even when swapping out Yemeni goats for Ethiopian goats. In one instance, the Ethiopian goats did eat coffee plant leaves when hand-fed them by a local woman. Was that a vote for the Ethiopian origin story?

 

Let’s stop right here. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess this “controversy” doesn’t seem all that controversial to you. Am I right? Most actual coffee drinkers have never even heard any dancing goat stories, much less any controversies tied to them. They almost certainly don’t care. And non-coffee drinkers? Nope.

 

For most of us who do have a relationship with coffee, the fact that its origin can’t be proved, or even successfully tested, is not make-or-break. We love coffee for the role it plays in our lives, now. The question is not so much who, what, where, or when. It’s, what now?

 

That’s where we are with this week’s scriptures. The baby is born. He spent a portion of His young life in the animals’ food trough. The shepherds have come—and gone. The sun is up. The “star” is no longer visible. 

 

So ... what now?

 

I imagine Joseph and Mary were hoping for a little normal parent/child time without all the visitors and drama of the night before. But was that likely? Being observant Jews, the “what now” for Joseph and Mary was taking their child to Temple in Jerusalem. The Law required the first-born be dedicated to God. And that’s where this week's scripture from Luke takes us. But there was nothing “normal” about it. 

So, what about us? Christmas is over, right?

 

No. No more for us than for Joseph and Mary. The shepherds are gone and the baby is out of  the manger, but Christmas—the real Christmas—is only just beginning. The miracle of that night was just the start of something beyond belief, something we can’t actually prove and can only partially understand. 

 

It is entirely appropriate to ask: So, what now?

 

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PHOTO: Steve Orr

 

21st Century Coffee, Kenneth Davids: 

https://www.amazon.com/21st-Century-Coffee-Kenneth-Davids/dp/1734578505/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=IQ48J&content-id=amzn1.sym.cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_p=cf86ec3a-68a6-43e9-8115-04171136930a&pf_rd_r=140-3070993-8099106&pd_rd_wg=sLAil&pd_rd_r=b27c0875-765e-4fe7-bd25-1a179e64e9ee&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk

 

Mary, Did You Know? (Pentatonix cover):

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ifCWN5pJGIE

 

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There is no DaySpring Lectionary Breakfast the Friday morning before New Year’s Eve. Rejoin us the first Friday in 2024 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place. We gather at 8:00 to look ahead and try to answer: What’s next? We’re still meeting in their function room (down the outside, at the back). 

 

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=55

 

Print them from here:

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

 

Isaiah 61:10-62:3

Psalm 148

Galatians 4:4-7

Luke 2:22-40

First Sunday after Christmas Day (December 31, 2023). 

 

 

The One Where I Got Christmas Wrong (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

The assignment was straightforward: write a few paragraphs on anything to do with Christmas. We could have written about presents, shopping, Santa Claus, family traditions, even religious themes...literally anything. There were no limits. 

 

I wrote a poem about the Nativity. 

 

Not only did Mrs. Rudolph let me get away with not writing paragraphs, she gave me an “A.” Then she had me read the poem to the rest of the class. You can read it below.

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THE TIRED TRAVELERS 

By Steve Orr

 

As the travelers journeyed across the land,

One would ride and one would stand.

One was weak and one was strong,

As they traveled the land that seemed so long.

In the village they asked for a place to sleep,

Something to drink, and something to eat.

“The rooms are filled!”

The innkeeper said,

But the night became so still,

. . . And dead,

He gave them the stable to lay their heads

And use of the straw to make their beds.

He would never know that in this place

Wise men would stand in a crowded space,

Then kneel and pray on the desert sand

To the Son of David and Savior of Man.

 

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There was just one problem with that poem: I got it wrong—on almost every line. 

Anyone who has become a parent knows that a pregnant woman is not weak. It’s also unlikely they were turned away from what we think of as an inn—more likely the already full guest room in a relative's house. The Gospel of Luke uses the same Greek word for “inn” 20 chapters later to refer to the upper room where Jesus and His disciples shared the Passover meal.

And the innkeeper?  Fiction.

 

Jesus was laid in a manger, but that manger was almost certainly not in a stable. Or a barn. Or a cave. It was common practice to keep the animals on the lower floor of the house at night, safe from the elements—and thieves. The living quarters, and sleeping areas, were on the upper floor. Mary and Joseph likely passed the night among the livestock on the ground floor of the house.

 

I blew it with the wise men, too. The Biblical account makes it clear that the wise men came later, maybe much later, certainly not that night. And it is quite clear that, when they did come, they met with Mary in a house, not in a stable. Or a barn. Or a cave.

 

No. The Bible says the night visitors that first night were shepherds who had been in the fields watching over their flocks. And that brings me to "the desert sand." Wrong. The shepherds had been tending their sheep out in a field, a field where sheep grazed—on growing things. The desert sands were far away.

 

I grew up among followers of Jesus. I was surrounded by Bibles. And I still got it wrong. Is it any wonder that Jesus' contemporaries sometimes misunderstood? We have the comfort of picturing all of it through the writings of the New Testament, something that didn't exist when Jesus was born. 

 

But it doesn’t really matter if I got it wrong. It doesn’t really matter that we can’t know exactly what happened. 

None of that matters. 

What matters is that God responds to our misunderstandings with gentle instruction. We are all on a journey, a spiritual journey, wending our way across the landscape, slowly accumulating a better understanding than we had before. 

 

It can take years, decades even. 

 

We persevere, though—even when we, ourselves, are the tired travelers. Why? Because, what really matters is that God continues to draw us closer to Jesus—

the Son of David and Savior of all.  

 

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PHOTO: Steve Orr

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Friday morning is when DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets. Join us on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place at 8:00 for our usual hour of Bible, discussion, and laughter. 

 

We plan to give a cash gift to our server. Bring whatever amount you would like to contribute. 

 

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=51

 

Print them from here:

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

 

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16

Luke 1:46b-55 or Psalm 89:1-4, 19-26

Romans 16:25-27

Luke 1:26-38

Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 24, 2023)

Six Words and Hemingway’s Bar Bet (a Steve Orr Advent reflection)

Ernest Hemingway was known for brevity in his writing. Legend has it he once wrote a short story on a napkin—to settle a bar bet. 

In my imagination, he is at a bar in Cuba, maybe one of his favorite haunts in Old Havana, perhaps Floradita or La Bodeguita. There, he is challenged to write a compelling story so brief it will fit on a napkin, one of those small square ones that litter bar tops everywhere. 

After a brief reflection, he pens: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Poignant; heartbreaking. 

We likely share similar floods of thoughts and images when we read that story. We know about baby shoes. We understand what he means by “for sale.” And we can easily guess the kind of events that lead to “never worn.” We share an understanding of those things.

I first came across Hemingway’s six-word story in the wonderful book Not Quite What I Was Planning. It’s a collection of six-word memoirs that Smith Magazine gathered from people all across the globe.

These super-short summaries include the humorous ("Catholic girl. Jersey. It's all true.”), comedian Tracey Morgan's self-description ("At the end of normal street."), and Janelle Brown's confession ("My second grade teacher was right."). There are commentaries on life ("It's like forever, only much shorter.") and on life’s absurdities ("Time to start over again, again."). There’s bathos ("We were our own Springer episode.") and pathos ("I still make coffee for two."). 

Some of this week's Advent scriptures could become memorable six-word distillations. Here are my attempts: "Sowed in tears, reaped with joy." (Psalm 126), and "Gave a garland instead of ashes.” (Isaiah 61). Also, “Gives thanks in all circumstances; still.” (1 Thessalonians), and "Came to testify to the light.” (John 1). Finally, "My spirit rejoices; God my savior," and "Filled the hungry with good things." (Luke 1).

This week, Advent is about declaration: proclaiming, to all who will hear, the imminent arrival of the Messiah, the Christ, the “light.” The reason we can proclaim the immediacy of a savior who has come and is coming again is because we know that deep inside of all humankind is the same expectation. 

It is our shared understanding—just waiting to hear that good news. 

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PHOTO (Statue of Hemingway at Floridita): 

https://www.barfloridita.com/

Hemingway in Havana:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/follow-ernest-hemingways-footsteps-through-havana-180967659/#:~:text=Hemingway%20loved%20Cuba%20so%20much,I'm%20a%20citizen

More about Six-Word Memoirs:

https://www.sixwordmemoirs.com/

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Friday mornings are a special time for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We gather on Zoom* and in person at Our Breakfast Place for a time of prayer and discussion. Meet with us at 8:00 for all of that, plus some good food 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=50

Print them from here:

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

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Psalm 126 or Luke 1:46b-55

1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Third Sunday of Advent (December 17, 2023)

“Your One Wild and Precious Life” (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

Mary Oliver was never the U.S. Poet Laureate. 

Maybe she should have been. 

 

Ms. Oliver’s works are respected—She won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize—and popular. We can measure “popularity” a number of ways, of course. It’s a pliable term. But if we go by whose works are bought the most, we can be confident in declaring Ms. Oliver our most popular poet. 

 

But popularity, by itself, is not a basis for choosing a Poet Laureate. 

 

Like Annie Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Wendell Berry in any number of his works, Mary Oliver closely observed our natural world and filled her poetry with it. But she surpassed even those worthies in her ability to wait. Mary could be very, very still when observing creation. The story is told that she once sat so still a fox walked right by her without taking notice. 

 

In her poetry, Mary advocated for us to wait and to watch, to be alert, to be fully awake. She modeled what she thought was the best way to do that: be still and know. This she believed was an excellent way for her to live what—in her poem “The Summer Day”—she called her “one wild and precious life.”

 

This aligns perfectly with the message of Advent in this week’s passage from 2 Peter. We are to wait and watch because no one knows when the day of the Lord will arrive. We are to be awake and alert, ready for that day. And in the time we have, we are to live into creation in purity and at peace.

 

Knowing this, we find that we, too, must answer the question Mary posed: “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?”

 

 

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IMAGE: Steve Orr and Adobe Express

About the churchless spiritual side of Mary Oliver:

https://www.ststephensphl.org/news/mary-oliver/10-2021?format=amp

On the death of Mary Oliver:

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/faith-matters/remembering-mary-oliver-and-her-prose

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Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place.  Come and enjoy with some like-minded folk.   We'll celebrate life and God's willingness to wait a while.

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=49

 

Print them from here:

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

 

Isaiah 40:1-11

Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Mark 1:1-8

Second Sunday of Advent (December 10, 2023)