Whatever Happened to Anne of Green Gables? (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

Anne who?

I assume that’s what some of you are thinking right now (even if the name rings a bell, you just can’t think why). Fans, no doubt, are quoting Anne, ticking off how many times they’ve visited Green Gables, and re-enacting “The Lady of Shalott.”

Fans are the majority. So I can safely assume most are thinking: whatever did happen to Anne Shirley, the feisty orphan who impacted so many lives on Prince Edward Island (PEI)?

For the “Anne who?” crowd, keep reading. All will come clear.

To date, L. M. Montgomery’s first novel, Anne of Green Gables, has sold over 50 million copies, has been translated into 36 languages, and has never been out of print. It is the source of multiple movies, television productions, plays, and musicals. Not bad for a 111 year old novel.

As longtime “Fans of Anne,” we recently traveled to Charlottetown, PEI (Canada) to find the answer to our question. It was there we attended Anne & Gilbert, the Musical. The 2.5 hour show is lively, interesting, fun, and, to those wanting to know “what happened next,” informative. Picking up where the first novel leaves off, we learn through song, dance, and dialogue about the post-high school years of Anne-With-An-E and her wanna-be beau, Gilbert Blythe.

There’s a lot to that story and I’m not going to print any spoilers, here. Go see the musical. One of the rewards for doing so is that you will get to enjoy the musical numbers, particularly the toe-tapping, often hilarious, You’re Island Through and Through.

The author was a Prince Edward Island devotee. She once wrote, "We Prince Edward Islanders are a loyal race. In our secret soul we believe that there is no place like the little Province that gave us birth... Prince Edward Island, however, is really a beautiful Province — the most beautiful place in America, I believe."

The song captures this, perfectly, with such lines as:

If You're Pleased As Punch With Where You Live
And Proud Of What You Do
You're Island, You're Island Through And Through
And If You Mind Your Business
And You Mind Your Neighbor's Too
You're Island, You're Island Through And Through

Verse after verse provides reasons why a person could claim to be “island through and through.” Much the same way, the verses in this week’s selection from the Letter to the Colossians provide us a means to know if our citizenship is “above” with Jesus. We are called to set our minds “on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”

We are to strip off our old selves by dropping those earthly things that argue against our Heavenly citizenship, such as impurity, evil desire, greed (which is idolatry), anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language. We are further commanded, “Do not lie to one another....”

The reward for taking these steps is a renewal that leads to community, a state where our differences no longer divide us, where “there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”

In other words, Jesus through and through.


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PHOTO: https://m.viator.com/Prince-Edward-Island-tourism/Anne-of-Green-Gables-on-Prince-Edward-Island/d5643-t18561

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 13 (18) (August 4, 2019)
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=273

Hosea 11:1-11
Psalm 107:1-9, 43
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm 49:1-12
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

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Join us Friday morning at the “Egg and I” restaurant (soon to be renamed “Our Breakfast Place”) for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We start at 8:00, and we fill the hour with scripture, prayer, food, and fellowship (and a little frivolity).

Blessings,
Steve

dallas noir (a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Even as a kid, I was the one who was more interested in the B movie than the double feature headliner at our local drive-in theater. That's because the B movie was often the one with the "noir."

Noir is a story style that usually involves at least one dead person, murdered by someone wanting something that dead person owned, controlled, or had access to. Think: The Maltese Falcon. There is almost always a tough-talking protagonist seeking the truth, along with some complicated chemistry ("sparkage") between the protagonist and a suspect. Think: Mike Hammer.

I like noir.

Seems like I was always having to stay up late to see the B movie or catch the late, late show. But that's when I could see the hard-boiled detective (private or police) wade through the miasma of half-truths and red herrings on the way to ferreting out the perpetrator. This may be why I am a night owl.

I like noir so much, I recently made a pilgrimage to the Half-Price Books mother ship in north Dallas to attend the pre-release event for a new anthology called "dallas noir." This is the 60-th release from Akashic Books in a series with titles like boston noir, mumbai noir, and wall street noir (lower case all intentional). Future editions include such destinations as Baghdad, Stockholm, and Jerusalem.

The evening did not disappoint. Not only could I purchase the book in advance of public release, the editor and ten of the authors were on hand! I stood, transfixed, as author after author discussed his/her story, the what and why of it, and how they chose that particular Dallas neighborhood in which to set it. A little bit of heaven for a noir lover.

As the term implies, these are dark stories. I've spent more than a little time trying to sort out just what it is that draws me to them. A few years ago, after considering and dismissing one reason after another, I decided it was this: almost every story has at its center a knight-in-tarnished-armor who struggles against that darkness, perhaps personally, perhaps professionally, and not always succeeding . . . but never giving up.

Now, in this week's Lectionary selections, I find another reason. With all its darkness (commandments are broken, deadly sins are everywhere), each noir story serves up a dramatic illustration of what can happen when we forget something important: The idea that we control the flow of wealth is an illusion, and attempts to take it from others always leads to a dark place. When this life is measured in decades that can usually be counted on the fingers of two hands, the very concept of "possession" must be called into question.

True, while we're here, we are to be good stewards of what has been entrusted to us. And while stewarding these trusts, we are to do so in recognition of this truth:

‘The silver and gold are mine,’ says the Lord who rules over all. (Haggai 2:8)


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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 27 (32) (November 10, 2013)

Haggai 1:15b-2:9
Psalm 145:1-5, 17-21 or Psalm 98
Job 19:23-27a
Psalm 17:1-9
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17
Luke 20:27-38

Can you be with us Friday morning? We're still meeting at 8:00 at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. The food is tasty and the coffee is hot.

Oh, and their dark roast is superb :-)

Enjoy the week!
Steve