The Cowboy Coming to You (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

There was a bit of a commotion in our Central Texas community the other day.

It happened about the time everyone was headed back from lunch.

The bull, lighting out for the territory ahead, was giving it his all as he sprinted down a very busy street. Behind him, lasso and whip at the ready, raced a man in a red pickup truck . . . followed by three (or possibly four) police cars.

It WAS a sight.

As entrancing as that parade was to local drivers and the folks finishing their burgers and fries, the most interesting part of the story came at the end.

That's when two "animal control cowboys" arrived to corner the fella and wrangle him into a trailer. His flirt with freedom at an end, the bull was returned to his owner, only a little worse for the wear.

And as one local police sergeant noted, “The good thing about living in Texas is that it’s not too long after you call a cowboy that you get one coming to you.”

That brings us to two of this week's Lectionary scriptures: the Exodus 17 passage where the children of Israel tested God, and Psalm 95 which refers to that event. When Exodus 17 opens, the Israelites have experienced the wonder and power of God again and again and again: the ten plagues on Egypt, including the miracle of the Passover; the pillar of cloud and the pillar of flame; the dry crossing at the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army; undrinkable water cured; free meat every evening to feast on and manna every morning with which to make bread.

And yet, after all of that, when they grew thirsty, they insulted God by complaining as if they had never witnessed a single miracle. They had seen His power, LIVED it, but acted as if none of it had ever occured.

Is it any wonder that God came to loath them?

The police in my community called on animal control cowboys when faced with the need to round up an errant bull. They made that call because they KNEW those cowboys were available and ready to accept the challenge. There was every confidence that a cowboy would soon be coming to do what needed to be done.

That's because we live in "cowboy country." We know they are there, that they are capable, and that they can be depended on in time of need. We have seen their abilities and have no concern about them handling our needs. Our experiences with relation to cowboys has led to our faith in them to address our cowboy needs.

In the same way, the Israelites lived in "God Country." They had been living there for some time; yet, when the need arose, they couldn't muster a tiny bit of faith, even with all their experience with Him, to trust God for their need.

If you have seen the power of God in your life, imitate our local police in your faith; trust that when you need God's help that He already knows and has an answer on the way.

You have a cowboy coming to you.

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We're rounding everyone up Friday morning at 8:00 for feed and a little scripture grazing. Join us if you can. We'll be at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant.

Cow folk welcome.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

READINGS FOR THE WEEK
Third Sunday in Lent (March 23, 2014)

Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42

The Way Things Work

The Way Things Work
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Maybe you've sat with your child or grandchild and thumbed through "The Way Things Work" by David Macaulay. Or maybe you, like me, only needed your inner child nearby to enjoy learning how stuff works :-)

If you've never spent any time with this wonderful book, let me encourage you to grab a copy and get ready to be dazzled. There are no dry, difficult to understand explanations here. Macaulay is a genius at making the complex seem simple, with the added bonus that most of it is visual. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then Macaulay has saved us millions.

Or perhaps you've read (viewed) some of his other, award-winning books: "Castle" (he assembles one for us), "City" (all about Rome), "Ship" (a sea-going visual treat), "Pyramid" (just what you think), or "The Way We Work" (human anatomy), etc. These are delightful attempts to make plain much of what inhabits our modern life or which we wonder about from our past.

But you may not know of my favorite work by Macaulay: "Motel of the Mysteries." In this funny, quirky book Macaulay does for the modern world what he has done for castles, cathedrals, and pyramids. But there's a twist.

The set up: 2000 years from now most of the American continent is covered in a thick layer of petrified material. It has become one giant archeological site; people from across the globe trying to piece together what life was like in "Usa" before the not-fully-understood catastrophe made it uninhabitable.

In what has some pretty humorous parallels to Howard Carter's excavation of Tutankhamen's tomb, Macaulay shows us how easy it is, despite best intentions, to get it all wrong. Every time something is discovered about life in "Usa," it is assumed to have religious significance. And that's what happens when the ground gives way beneath amateur archeologist Howard Carson. He drops several feet into a shaft that, fortuitously for him (and us), reveals a previously undisturbed "burial" chamber in one of the former civilization's mysterious "motels."

A great part of the fun in reading through "Motel of the Mysteries" is that, due to Mr. Macaulay's remarkable drawings, we readers recognize everything and KNOW it is not what they think it is. We know it's just a motel room and that each discovered item is not something of religious significance. Some of my favorites are the Sacred Urn (commode), the Sacred Point (foil seal on the toilet paper), the Internal Component Enclosure used to symbolically store major organs of the deceased (ICE bucket), and the "Plant That Would Not Die."

If you have any interest in archeology---whether you read Michener's "The Source" cover to cover or are just a fan of Indiana Jones---you should find this makes for an entertaining afternoon. Snickers abound :-)

And that brings us to this week's Lectionary passages. Somewhat like Macaulay's future archeologists, we tend to see what we expect to see. And all the more so when we are treading familiar territory. We get so caught up in the part of the story we know, we often miss some very significant gems.

We read Esther expecting to come to the thrilling conclusion where the evil villain gets his just reward. But it's worth a revisit to Esther 9:22 where the details of the subsequent celebration are told, including the many "days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor." Wait. What? They celebrated by giving gifts to the poor? Now there's a thought; gifts to the poor. That one has me scratching my head trying to remember the last time I gave a gift (not a loan or a necessity) to the poor.

We read the Numbers passage unsurprised to find that, once again, the people are whining to Moses about something. This time they miss the foods they had for "free" while being slaves in Egypt; they want meat (miraculous manna is just not enough). Moses then whines to God about it (Yes, he really did). In response, God, just before dumping two feet of quail on the campo, gets Moses to convene the tribal elders at the Tent of the Meeting. God then drops a load of spirit on them that is so strong they all start prophesying, even two of them that stayed behind in the camp!

Joshua, Moses' assistant and eventual successor, is so horrified to learn of these two "outlier" prophets, he calls for Moses to stop them. But, in Numbers 11:29 Moses replied, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them!" It's a cautionary note to those in spiritual authority; a leader's desire should be that God blesses the people and leaders equally, particularly in matters of the Spirit.

In all the talk about who should or should not be casting out demons in the name of Jesus, who's for us and who's against us, and whether we're salty enough, you could easily miss this admonition to those who mislead the young. Mark 9:42 quotes Jesus saying, "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones [children] who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea."

Gulp.

And finally there is all that talk in James about praising and praying; praying for the sick and the sad, and about how Elijah is just like us. You might miss this comment in James 5:20 which says "you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins."

Covered. Gone. For good.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt
Proper 21 (26) (September 30, 2012)

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22
Psalm 124
Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29
Psalm 19:7-14
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50

Join us Friday at 8:00 a.m. at Cafe Cappuccino to imbibe food for thought and body. This "Cafe of the Mysteries" is located in downtown Waco on 6th, near the Courthouse, and there are many excellent items to be discovered therein. Food and libation is available for all in the inner chamber ;-)

Enjoy the week!
Steve

God's Sense of Humor

(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

People who think God doesn't have a sense of humor have just not read enough Bible. There are funny moments scattered throughout. Take the events described in Exodus 16. The Israelites are complaining (what ELSE is new?) about Moses dragging them out into the wilderness to starve to death. Whine, whine, whine. They have seen miracle after miracle; from little things, like dead frogs scattered all about, to big ones, like God using the Red Sea to destroy the Egyptian army. All those miracles, and yet they couldn't trust Him to provide the food they needed.

So God tells Moses to tell the people HE will send them meat each evening and bread each morning. Then, that night, God sent Quail. Wow ... quail ... pretty tasty, But it's not a nicely prepared pan-roasted quail with a Port sauce reduction. No, no, no. It's QUAIL. And not just quail; DEAD quail. They're falling ... on the ground (THUD!) ... on the tents (THUMP!) ... on the kids (THWAP!). They're falling on ... well, EVERYTHING! God dropped quail from the sky, and they "covered the entire camp."

THUD! THUD! THUD!
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
THWAP! THWAP! THWAP!

So, next time you're thinking of complaining about God not meeting your needs, pause a minute; reflect. Could it be God IS meeting our needs and we just don't recognize it as that? The Israelites cannot have forgotten the events that took place just a few days prior, those stunning events that had so effectively extricated them from the clutches of their cruel masters. And yet, they seemed unable to see the big picture ... to connect the dots.

It can happen to any of us, slipping into this not-seeing-the-miracles-for-the-frogs mindset. When that happened to the Israelites, the message God sent to them was "Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining." And then He met their needs ... just not, I'm sure, quite like they had in mind.

So, the next time you feel a bout of whining coming on, remember ... God has a very interesting sense of humor :-)

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You never know WHAT we'll talk about when we get together at Lectionary Breakfast ... Something from that week's lectionary passages. The only way to know for sure is to join us. This week, we might have discussed miracles, or how how God sometimes changes His mind(!), or maybe how sometimes we are envious when God is generous to other people. As it turns out, we talked about the equal-pay-for-unequal-work situation in the Matthew passage. What do YOU think about that?

Readings for the Coming Week
Proper 20 (25) (September 18, 2011)
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

We're at Cafe Cappuccino (8:00 a.m. every Friday, downtown on 6th Street, near the Courthouse) for breakfast and a great time kicking around this week's Lectionary passages. We would love to have you drop in.

Enjoy!
Steve