Word Gets Around (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

People talk.

And people really talk when they have an exciting topic. In this day and age of instantaneous updates to various social media sites, hardly anything stays where it starts. But the exciting stuff girdles the Earth faster than Puck. Something big happens in a remote location, and the next thing you know, it's all over YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

The media have changed over the Millennia, but speed was still a factor when Jesus walked the Earth. He would do something in one town, and upon reaching the next one find that it was already known. Think about that. News had to travel faster than a troupe of walking disciples and their teacher. But there was no modern technology to carry the message. Ordinary people did not have use of chariots or fast horses. So, how?

They ran.

That's all there can be to it. They ran. The news was so big, they ran ahead to spread it. As noted here, previously, Marshall MacLuhan established for us moderns that "The medium is the message." In this case, the medium was a person (or people) with a message so "hot" they could no keep it to themselves. They couldn't even keep it in their town. They just had to run ahead. That tells you just how important and exciting was this "news." And it happened again and again.

We see the fruits of those runners in this week's Lectionary selection from the gospel of Mark, chapter 6: Jesus and team try to get away for a little down time, only to find as they come to shore that people have run ahead and spread the news that a miracle worker was coming. And what a miracle worker! I can almost hear them, "He doesn't even have to touch you!"

Yes. That is the message that got around. Sick people came from all over; and those who couldn't come were brought. It was like that quote from Firefly: "When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't crawl, when you can't do that, you find someone to carry you."

And all they wanted to do, what they begged to do, was touch "even the fringe of his cloak." Why, we only just read about the woman in Chapter 5 who had the unending hemorrhage of blood. It had cost all of her money and all of her health, and it had plagued her a dozen years. Her decision to just touch the hem of His garment was one of desperation. Yet, here in this new place, many miles away, the word had spread that it had worked!

And was it true? Or was this just so much talk? Was that all that was needed to be healed, just to touch his garment? Did you have to sit through a sermon, first? Did He have to grab your head and shout? Was there a 12-step program to complete in advance? Was there a pre-interview? Perhaps a statement of faith to declare? The good news---while people will talk, in this case, it was more than just talk---"All who touched it were healed."

Word gets around.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Proper 11 (16) (July 19, 2015)

2Samuel 7:1-14a
Psalm 89:20-37
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 23
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
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Friday morning is coming! Will you be with us for Lectionary Breakfast? We're going to settle in around 8:00 and spend about an hour visiting, discussing scripture, chowing down, and if it's like every other Friday, laughing 😉

Get here as fast as you can.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

Run For Your Life (a Lectionary Reflection by Steve Orr)

The news was bad, about as bad as it gets. His life was forfeit. It appeared nothing could be done to change that. So. Decision time.

Fight, flight, or fold?

Some of us recall the television show, Run For Your Life, where, in the first episode, successful attorney Paul Bryan is told by his doctor that he has less than two years to live. Faced with a hopeless situation, he elects to "take the money and run." For 85 more episodes we follow Paul Bryan (perfectly portrayed by Ben Gazzara) as he travels the globe attempting to do all those things, go all those places that might, in modern parlance, constitute his "bucket list."

This show worked a lot like Route 66; each episode finding the main character embroiled in some situation, but rarely in the same place and rarely with people he had met before. One week he might be stuck in middle America because his car broke down, and the next he might be enlisted by US intelligence to perform some task behind the Iron Curtain (Why, yes, it . . ahem . . . WAS a long time ago).

For those who have never seen it, this is one of the best shows television has offered us, regardless of year. Great writing, great acting, and a who's who of Hollywood stars on their way up. Definitely worth your viewing time.

And that brings me to this week's Lectionary scriptures. In the 1st Kings passage Elijah, coming off the victory at Mount Carmel, suddenly finds his life threatened, and not by just anybody. He has been threatened by Queen Jezebel, a woman who has a reputation of delivering on her threats.

Like Joseph before him (and many others before and after), Elijah elects to run from the confrontation. It seems counter-intuitive, especially following Mount Carmel's mind-blowing victory. But, run he does.

Paul Bryan COULD have chosen differently. He could have stayed right where he was, just accepted the bad hand he had been dealt. "Fold" is always an option. But he chose, instead, to take a different path, to "run for his life." And because of his choice, adventures ensued. Elijah, too, ran from his troubles . . . right into the arms of God.

There are times when we need to press on, but there are also times when the thing to do is run the other way. Or if not run, then walk, or maybe just step off for a bit . . . and seek an audience with the one who is "a very present help in trouble." (Psalms 46:1 NKJV)

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http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu

READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 7 (12) (June 23, 2013)

1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Psalm 42 and 43
Isaiah 65:1-9
Psalm 22:19-28
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39