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 Sunday Milking (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

For a few years, my Dad was involved with a family friend in a dairy operation. Early on, before the dairy could pay for itself, the two of them also worked for one of the barge lines based in our hometown of Paducah, Kentucky. That job (pretty much everyone called it "working on the boat") required each of them to be away from home for an entire month; working, eating, and sleeping on the tug as it pushed barges down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, and then on down to New Orleans . . . and back.

Dad and our friend alternated months working on the boat; the one NOT on the boat handled the dairy. They would "swap off" the next month, and so on.

The dairy was a two-a-day operation. Once each morning and once each evening, the cows would make their way across the field and crowd up around the milking door. They were pretty insistent about being fed and milked on time. On the rare day we were late, we could hear them "bawling" clear out on the road.

I was expected to help Dad whenever he needed any assistance with the milking. I wasn't called on to do this too often, and, despite my grumbling about having to get up early or perhaps miss an after school activity, it really was no burden. While Dad got the equipment up and running, ensuring it was clean and ready, my job was to climb way up onto the feed floor, essentially an attic-like space filled with feed. I would make my way around the room, shoveling the feed into the tops of tubes that led down to where the cows would stand when being milked. I usually had to do this twice for each milking. When not shoveling feed, I helped with the cows.

The only time I really had a problem with all of this was one Sunday morning.

Even as a teen, Sundays were MINE. My "day of rest." My day to worship, attend Sunday School, and, in the afternoon, participate in youth activities before evening worship. We teens had such a great time being together, we often went out to the Dairy Queen after evening worship.

Nobody messed with my Sundays.

But one Sunday, the cows did.

I awoke early that Sunday to the sound of my Dad calling my name, telling me to get up because he needed my help with the cows. For a moment there, I was completely disoriented; wasn't this Sunday? But then, when my head cleared I KNEW it was Sunday. I pulled on my jeans and shoes, buttoning my shirt as I headed downstairs, but I griped all the way down the stairs . . . and all the way out to the farm. I whined about losing "Sunday time" to the cows; I was emphatic that we HAD to finish in time for me to get to church; I was oh-so-righteously ticked off at Dad for making me do this "on a Sunday!"

Dad didn't say a word all the way to the farm. He just let me rant. But, once we arrived and were walking toward the dairy barn, Dad turned and stopped me with a palm to the chest. I stopped walking (and, finally, stopped talking).

Dad said, "Do you hear that?"

Of course, I hadn't heard anything other than the sound of my own voice for several minutes. But as I paused, then, to listen, I did hear something.

"Yeah," I said, "It's the cows bawling."

And he then asked the question, the one that REALLY shut my mouth: "Do you know WHY they're bawling?"

In all the time we had been doing this, I had never once stopped to wonder . . . well, ANY thing about the cows. Sadly, I had to admit that I had no idea, really, why they were bawling. Somehow, in my youthful mind, I just thought they were ticked off that we were late.

Well, no.

"They're bawling," said Dad, "because they're in pain. And they will stay that way until somebody milks them."

I was just like those folks in this week's Lectionary selection from the gospel of Luke: I couldn't see past my own well-ordered world view to the actual living beings who were in need.

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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 16 (21) (August 25, 2013)

Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Isaiah 58:9b-14
Psalm 103:1-8
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17

I hope to see you Friday morning at Lectionary Breakfast. We're still having a great time discussing the scriptures over a great meal at "The Egg and I" in Waco. Join us if you can.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

The Fifth Widow

The Fifth Widow
(A brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Looking back at that title, I now realize it sounds like one of those "cozy" murder mysteries from the UK with one of Agatha Christie's characters tracking down the connection between the first four widows to prevent the untimely death of the fifth; or maybe one of Steve Berry's globe-hopping adventure romps where the "the fifth widow" turns out to be something Napoleon had hidden away and that nefarious people are willing to kill for.

Sorry. No. Nothing that dramatic. But hang with me. There IS something to see here.

There are five widows in this week's Lectionary selections. Can that be coincidence? It seems highly unlikely that such a confluence of widows could be accidental. I think someone is trying to focus our thoughts.

We start with Naomi and Ruth, two widows barely getting by on the seasonal work Ruth can get "gleaning" (the law allowed the poor to gather any grain missed by the harvesters). Times are tough for the two widows; plus there's a spirit of lawlessness about that even moving back to Israel could not spare them from. Rape is a serious concern. So an aging Naomi comes up with a daring plan to ensure her daughter-in-law Ruth is protected and provided for. As I keep stating, Ruth, at only four chapters, is one of the shortest books in the Bible. You should read it.

And then there is the widow of Zarephath in 1st Kings. She has almost nothing. In fact, it is so close to nothing she expects to use the last of it to make her final meal in this life. Here is another woman who, like Ruth, was a Gentile and thus had no right to claim anything under God's laws. And once again, God does something contrarian: because this widow agreed to use the last of her resources to serve God's prophet, she was rewarded with enough food to last her family the entirety of the drought. There is more to this story and it is worth your time to read about what comes next.

The fourth widow is in the Mark passage. Her generosity leads to her being immortalized in scripture. Right after Jesus warns the crowd to beware the Scribes who "devour widows' houses," he observes a widow place two coins in the temple treasury, far less than amounts given by others that day, but they were all she had. And as Jesus points out, there is nothing greater than ALL. Like the widow of Zarephath, she trusts God with her resources.

These four widows have something in common. They are all needy. It was a common state in those days: widows, orphans, the disabled; they were all dependent on God's people honoring God's commands to care for the needy. Something that is often in very short supply among God's people FOR God's people.

And that brings us to the fifth widow. She's in Psalm 146. In a way, even though no name is given, she is the most important of the five. That's because she is every widow. She is OUR widow. The psalm (and the other passages) makes it plain that God intends good for the widow (and the orphan, the blind, the oppressed, the stranger, the hungry, the prisoner . . . all those "bowed down" by the circumstances of their lives . . . regardless of how they got that way . . . regardless whether they are counted among the "chosen" or not). Should we treat them any differently than does God? No. There are reasons God wants us to follow His example in this regard. And I bet you can think of them with a little effort.

In any case, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:27 NIV)

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READINGS FOR THIS WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

Proper 27 (32) (November 11, 2012)
Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17
Psalm 127
1 Kings 17:8-16
Psalm 146
Hebrews 9:24-28
Mark 12:38-44

THE EGG AND I: we're giving it a try out this coming Friday (11-16-2012). Join us there (corner of New Road and Franklin, behind Outback) if you can, at 8:00 a.m.

Enjoy the week!
Steve