Al Capone Does My Shirts (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

It's 1935. Moose Flanagan and his family have just moved from the middle of the country to Alcatraz Island so that his father can take a job as a prison guard. Having a job, any job, is an accomplishment, even six years after the great stock market crash of 1929. But this job comes with both a decent salary AND a place to live. All of the guards at Alcatraz must live on the island, so quarters are provided for them and their families.

As important as those things are, though, there is another reason for them moving away from all that is familiar to them. Moose's sister, Natalie, needs a special school, and one of the few such schools, perhaps the best of them all, is located just across the Bay in San Francisco. Moose's Dad and Mom uprooted their family, made the move, took the dangerous job, agreed to live on the island, all pinned on the hope she will be admitted.

Al Capone Does My Shirts is one of my favorite reads. I recommend it to all (and I can hardly wait the few more years until I can read it with my grandson!). Gennifer Choldenko's novel has it all: dangerous criminals and trustees, family life and school, a Warden and prison guards, a likable main character and baseball, and, of course, Alcatraz and Al Capone.

But it also has some other things: uncertainty, yearning, forced relocation (for Moose), and not knowing who your true friends are.

And in these things, we find a connection to this week's Lectionary passages. I am particularly thinking of the upheaval being experienced by the Israelites who were forced to move to a foreign land, are captives there, and who must find their way, somehow, until they are released.

They yearn for the home they left behind.

I wished I could have reached into the novel and shared with Moose the comforting words Jeremiah wrote for God's people in Lamentations:

"But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:21-24 ESV)

When the Lord is our portion, it doesn't matter where we are, and we can place in God all our hopes for ourselves and our loved ones. God's faithfulness always exceeds whatever we lack.

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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

Who SAYS we never shake things up? Eric switched his sermon source for this week and last. This week, he will use the Lectionary passages intended for October 6, 2013. Next week, we will be back on track.

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 22 (27) (October 6, 2013)

Lamentations 1:1-
Lamentations 3:19-26 or Psalm 137
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Psalm 37:1-9
2 Timothy 1:1-14
Luke 17:5-10

I hope to see you Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. We will gather at the Waco Egg and I restaurant at 8:00 to share food and fellowship.

Please leave your laundry at home.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

New Every Morning

New Every Morning
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

This week's selections are so full of interesting, thought-provoking scriptures. And there seems to be a theme of hopefulness running through them. If not for a stroke of luck, I would be hard pressed to focus on just one of them. As it turns out, though, one of my favorite passages is included.

One day while in college I overheard some of my friends singing a song (as a round) all about the dependability of God's love for us.  The song was really easy to learn, and I found myself singing it often. So upbeat and affirming were its lyrics, it quickly became a favorite of mine.

Imagine my shock when someone told me it was based on a passage from the book of Lamentations!  At that point I had never read Lamentations, having already judged that book by its title. I could only imagine the kind of gyrations the songwriters must have gone through to turn some lamenting into such a great song.

Then I read the passage. Shocked again! The song was verbatim from Lamentations 3:22 through 24. I can still sing that song, and do, because the message is so stunning: God's love is steadfast (i.e. constant, un-moveable) and every single day---rain or shine, good mood or bad, win or lose---God has a full supply of mercy for me. And it never stops; not for anything or anyone, including (or maybe even especially because of) my own stiff-necked, obstinate, willful rebellion. 

Stunning.

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Lamentations 3:22-33
3:22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 
3:23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
3:24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."
3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
3:26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
3:27 It is good for one to bear the yoke in youth,
3:28 to sit alone in silence when the Lord has imposed it,
3:29 to put one's mouth to the dust (there may yet be hope),
3:30 to give one's cheek to the smiter, and be filled with insults.
3:31 For the Lord will not reject forever.
3:32 Although he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
3:33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt

Proper 8 (13) (July 1, 2012)
2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27
Psalm 130
Lamentations 3:22-33
Psalm 30
2 Corinthians 8:7-15
Mark 5:21-43