Peter and the Big Rocks Story (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

They got the exact opposite of the correct answer.

Have you heard Stephen Covey’s “Big Rocks” story? It goes something like this: an expert on priorities makes a presentation to a “group of high-powered overachievers.” To illustrates his point, he slowly places large, fist-sized rocks into a “one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar.” When he can no longer fit anymore of the rocks in the jar, he asks, “Is the jar full?”

Their response is unanimous: everyone can see that no more of those rocks will fit. “Yes,” they call out.

The expert then lifts up a large pail and begins pouring pebbles into the jar, periodically shaking the jar so they will settle down into the spaces between the big rocks. when no more will fit, he again he asks, “Is the jar full?”

This time, they are less certain in their response. At this point, the expert brings forth another pail. From this, he pours sand into all the remaining spaces in the jar. He eventually comes to the point that no more sand will fit into the jar. Smiling, he again asks, “Is the jar full?”

Laughing now, the crowd roars back, “No!”

Still smiling, the expert then lifts up a large container of water and proceeds to pour it into the jar until no more will go in. It is now obvious to everyone that the jar is, finally, full. At this, the expert asks a different question, “What was the point of this illustration?”

One of the overachievers declares, “No matter how full your schedule, if you try really hard, you can always fit more into it!”

The expert replies, “No, that is not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

In Covey’s story, the jar represents our life and all that goes into it. The big rocks represent what is most important in our lives —our faith, our education, our finances, time with our loved ones, teaching or mentoring others. They represent our main goals in life; those activities we care about the most; the critical ones; the life-changing ones. The pebbles, sand, and water represent all the other matters that fill our lives; the less important, the good, the bad, the anticipated, the unanticipated, the frivolous. Some, like the pebbles, are important; they’re just not anywhere near as important as the big rocks.

[You can read the full version of the Big Rocks story —from Covey’s wonderful book, First Things First— here: http://www.appleseeds.org/big-rocks_covey.htm]

With all that in mind, then, it should be no surprise Covey advocates for us to do all we can to identify the Big Rocks. We can’t prioritize them if we don’t know what they are. And so, as Easter is upon us, I point out two very big rocks in Peter’s speech from the book of Acts: “anyone” and “everyone.” They’re huge rocks, actually. And they are problematic. Instead of putting them in, first, as we should, we usually try to squeeze them in later ... without success.

We usually talk about the depth of the Easter story —its weight, timeliness, pain, sacrifice, prophetic fulfillment— spending little or no time talking about its breadth. Peter gets at the breadth.

In Acts 10:34-35, he says, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.” It’s definitely a Big Rock moment. Peter has just realized that God did not intend His blessings be restricted to the Jews; in fact, not restricted to any group. Any person, anywhere.

In Acts 10:43, Peter expands this already expansive realization to those who choose to follow Jesus: “All the prophets testify about him (Jesus) that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." Everyone who believes in Jesus. Everywhere ... No race. No skin color. No gender. No national origin. No culture. No political affiliation. No physical characteristic. No church affiliation.

The qualifiers are simple: fear God and do what is right; believe in Jesus. The unlimited nature of Peter’s words in this speech is astounding. Definitely worth pondering.

Anyone. Everyone.

Big rocks ... some of the biggest.

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PHOTO (be sure to watch the video!): http://www.franthony.com/blog/big-rocks-first

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Easter Sunday (April 21, 2019)
Resurrection of the Lord
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=132

Acts 10:34-43
Isaiah 65:17-25
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
John 20:1-18
Luke 24:1-12

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Easter is upon us. Join us Friday morning as we spend time in the Bible, reading and discussing the Easter story. Along with some great food from Waco’s “Egg and I” restaurant, we’ll enjoy prayer, fellowship, and a surprising amount of laughter (“What’s with all the laughter, Steve? Didn’t you get the ‘serious’ memo?”).

Blessings,
Steve

The House on Bridge Street (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

It was a good gig ... while it lasted.

As newly weds, we were privileged to live in a community a lot like that seen in this week’s Lectionary selection from Acts 4. Our town was the home of three christian church-related colleges, one of which was my recent alma mater. It’s no stretch to state we felt surrounded by believers who would help us in time of need. And there were challenges. My wife was still in college and I was working whatever jobs I could land to cover our housing, food, transportation, etc. And let’s not forget those monthly school loan payments. As it happened, I was able to keep employed for about six months at a time. Sometimes, though, there was a gap between jobs.

It was in one of those gaps that we experienced one of the premiere blessings provided to us by other christians.

We needed housing ... cheap housing. But, since we were surrounded by people who practiced the christian way, we should have been able to reach out for help when we needed it. That thought was foremost in my mind when I picked up the phone to call a leader of a local church to see if we could get some help with housing.

Not only did he find us a place to live ... it was free!

An elderly lady needed to take an extended trip to visit family members and needed someone to house-sit. There would be no rent —just pay whatever utilities we incurred and tend her garden— but there was one minor quirk: we had to leave the utilities in her name. She did not want to return from her travels and have to go through all the hassles of paying deposits, being subjected to credit checks, etc., in order to reestablish what she had already been doing for several decades at that address.

Considering our situation, it seemed little enough to accommodate.

Our time on Bridge Street was pretty idyllic. We lived in a home and gardened in the backyard. I eventually got a job and my wife continued her studies. But, of course, something finally occurred to change all that: my wife graduated from college and received the job offer of her dreams ... in another city.

Our benefactor asked only one thing from us: find another, trustworthy couple to be caretakers of the home ... and who would abide by the agreement to leave the utilities in the homeowner’s name. It’s seemed an easy assignment. We were living in a town of christians. There were several married couples at our college, alone, in similar (or worse) financial straits, and who would surely be interested in house-sitting under those circumstances. What’s a little gardening? And we found the perfect couple. He was the student and she was the one who was employed. Otherwise, they were the same; christians in need of a housing blessing.

We discussed the situation with them and they enthusiastically agreed to the requirements of the garden and the utilities . . . on which they promptly reneged once they were in the property. We were already in our new city when we learned of this. A quick phone call settled all speculation about possible misunderstandings.

They never intended to abide by the agreement. And they freely admitted it.

Like the christians in Acts 4, we had experienced the “mountaintop moment.” But like those early christians later learned in Acts Chapters 5 and 6, we learned churches are not always utopian communes. In short order, the early church was faced with one couple who lied about donating all of their land-sale proceeds to the needy, wanting everyone to believe they were more generous than they actually were. And it’s only a bit later when the church discovered prejudice alive and well within their fellowship: the Greek Jews reported that those in charge of distributing the communal food (local, Hebrew Jews) were intentionally skipping the Greek widows.

Here’s the bottom line: churches are often messy things, and they are comprised of fallible humans. It is worth pointing out that there is something the people in Acts 4, Acts 5, and Acts 6 had in common: they were all church members! While most of us would love for churches to always be like the one depicted in Acts 4, we have learned —sometimes in the hardest, most disappointing way— that the opposite is never too far away.

This is not Heaven; and, to paraphrase Max Lucado, we should stop expecting it to be. People are going to disappoint us. And it will hurt all the more when those people claim Christ as their savior, too. Acts 4 tells us those early christians “were of one heart and soul.” That can still happen. It does happen. But, as scripture also shows, humans are spiritually messy. When we have these kinds of “mountaintop” experiences, we should cherish them. And we should also recognize them for what they really are: a preview of the world to come, not expectations in which we should place our faith.

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Reference to When God Whispers Your Name © 1994 by Max Lucado

Photo: Google Maps
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Second Sunday of Easter (April 8, 2018)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//

Acts 4:32-35
Psalm 133
1 John 1:1-2:2
John 20:19-31

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DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets each Friday morning at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant. Join us at 8:00 for an interesting time of laughter, scripture, prayer, and discussion. Food’s good, too!

Blessings,
Steve

The Monster Words (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

"Monsters, stay out of this room!
You have no business here.
N0 monsters under the bed!
You can't fit under there.
No monsters hiding in the closet!
It's too small in there.
No monsters outside of the windows!
You can't hold on out there.
No vampires, no werewolves, no things that bite.
You have no business here.
Nothing will touch you, or hurt you, all this night.
You have no business here."

-------- Stephen King's Cujo


The "monster words" are what Vic (the father) chants at bedtime so Tad (his very young son) will stop worrying about the monsters he believes are in his closet. It's a loving thing for a father to do.

If he believes the evil is not real.

When Vic needs to go on a business trip, he writes the incantation down on a piece of paper so Donna (the mother) can read it to Tad while Vic is gone. Eventually, Tad begins carrying the folded piece of paper in his pocket. He touches it whenever he feels afraid. Doing that gives him a little relief.

Of course, being a Stephen King novel, Cujo delivers a lot for Tad to fear. And I don't think I'm giving anything away when I tell you that the "monster words" are not wholly successful as the talisman against evil Tad wants them to be.

The same is true for us.

In Jacqueline Bussie's book, Outlaw Christian: Finding Authentic Faith by Breaking the Rules, she plows right into our tendency to use our own "monster words" to shield us from the harsh realities of our lives. Sure, there are times of joy and wonderment. But there are also times when things are so bad we wish we could "explain away evil and suffering with a theo-magical slight of hand."

When faced with betrayal, suffering, fear, terror, and death (ours or anyone else's), we armor ourselves with the "marshmallow armor" of religious platitudes, pious clichés, scriptures taken out of context, misquoted and/or misapplied theology: our monster words. We draw temporary (and truly unsatisfactory) relief from just having them near; being able to speak them into any terrible event.

When asked for whom her book was written, Bussie said, "If you are a person who has ever loved someone, lost them, and then heard the hidden question why blacksmith your heart so hard it felt like your ears bled, this book was written with you at heart."

If you are struggling with such hard things, then you may find some (true) relief in knowing that others are, too. Whether we can admit it or not, we all struggle with realigning our old ways of thinking with the dynamic new ways we are called to by Jesus.

Witness the "circumcised believers" in this week's Lectionary selection from Acts. They cannot seem to move past the requirements of the Law. After Peter returns from preaching to and baptizing Cornelius and his household (none of whom were Jewish), these "circumcised believers" interrogate Peter, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?!"

You can read the story, yourself, and you should. The point is well made by Peter, and it's one we need to roll forward into our own faith-walk: when God points us in another direction, we can faithfully move in that direction. We are not enslaved to the old ways just because they are the comfort zone. In fact, if there's an ultimate point to the Book of Acts, it is that God is doing something new, something true and authentic, something that does not hide from the bad parts of life.

In real life, we are rarely removed from the hard bits. We must go through them. We don't need "monster words" on which to rely. We have the Holy Spirit and the promise that, regardless of how bad it gets, God is in it with us.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fifth Sunday of Easter (April 24, 2016)
First reading
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm
Psalm 148
Second reading
Revelation 21:1-6
Gospel
John 13:31-35
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Join us Friday mornings? We still meet at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. Lectionary Breakfast starts at 8:00 and is an hour when a lot of truth is spoken.

Enjoy the week!
Steve