The Ring and The Book

The Ring and the Book
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

"So, let him wait God’s instant men call years;
Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul,
Do out the duty! Through such souls alone
God stooping shows sufficient of His light
For us i’ the dark to rise by.
And I rise."

The first time I read these lines---on a stained glass window at Baylor University's Armstrong Browning Library---I felt a frisson of thrill run through me. It still hits me that way. Nothing would make me happier than if, someday, these words could truthfully be said of me. To live a life worthy of such words is definitely something I desire.

Here's the story behind the words.

After the death of his beloved, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning wrote those lines as part of "The Ring and the Book," which, though written in verse, is actually a novel based in fact. Shakespeare would have loved this: Pompilia, a young Italian noblewoman, flees her much older, abusive husband to travel to Rome with a priest; her husband later accuses Pompilia of committing adultery with the priest; subsequently, Pompilia is mortally wounded and her parents murdered; Pompilia dies and her husband is found guilty of these crimes. Long before Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," Robert Browning wrote a true crime novel.

The words on the window are Pompilia's, who, while dying, speaks of her spiritual advisor, a man much in contrast to the husband, a man of God, a man falsely accused. She praises this young Pastor for preparing her to "rise" to Heaven by allowing God to shine through him, and she encourages him to continue doing as he did with her until his own time comes to "rise."

On another level, I know these are Robert Browning's words. And I suspect this is what he imagines Elizabeth might say to him in the wake of her death, encouraging him to continue "fighting the good fight" until he can join her in due time.

These are my thoughts as I read this week's Lectionary selections; particularly the Genesis, Mark, and Job passages. But more than these, even, I see in the Hebrews passage such a man as could be described by the words on that window.

And I rise.

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

Proper 22 (27) (October 7, 2012)
Job 1:1, 2:1-10
Psalm 26
Genesis 2:18-24
Psalm 8
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12
Mark 10:2-16

Can you join us Friday morning? We'll be at Cafe Cappuccino at 8:00 (downtown Waco, on 6th near the Courthouse). We would love to have you with us for some great food and some of that illumination we all seek.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

Mad Men

Mad Men
(a brief Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

Even if you haven't seen it, you have probably heard about the television show called, "Mad Men." This dark drama focuses on a fictional advertising firm in the 1960s; has won numerous awards; is chock full of unethical, morally bankrupt characters; and has a protagonist so complex and tragic, Shakespeare would fight to get his name on the credits.

[On the off chance you are interested in my opinion, here is my take on the show. First, it isn't uplifting; so keep that in mind when deciding whether to watch it. Unless you can remember the '60s (or at least lived THROUGH the '60s, even if you can't remember it all), you probably won't have the historical anchoring to put it in perspective. Without it, your viewing experience may be more like what Roger Ebert said about "The Wild Bunch": bad people we know doing bad things to bad people we don't know. Yes, it is trainwreck-fascinating, well written, and extremely well acted; but don't go there if you are looking for something uplifting. It's more "MacBeth" or "Hamlet" than "Much Ado About Nothing." On the other hand, it IS morally instructive ;-) ]

But, I digress.

With the success of Mad Men has come a renewed attention to the advertising business. People are once again thinking about the whys and wherefores of how some people get other people to think a certain way about a specific thing. And "branding" is key to that understanding.

In the 1960s (see the connection?), the top two soft drinks sold in the world were Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola, in that order. And, despite many attempts by many advertising firms, no one could crack that block. In fact, no one could even come close . . . until 1967.

In that year, 7Up launched an advertising campaign that is still talked about among advertising practitioners and is still taught in many schools for its unique approach to solving a serious branding concern called, "top of mind awareness" (TOMA); i.e. how to position a product so high up in the mind of a consumer that they just naturally think of the product with little or no prompting. Using ideas pioneered by Jack Trout and Al Reis (see "Positioning:The Battle for Your Mind"), 7Up launched its new advertising campaign. Instead of trying to break into the top tier of the "cola" position, 7Up did something brilliant: created a NEW position, the UNcola position. And promptly claimed the top spot by declaring their product THE uncola.

7Up gained its TOMA because it refused to play the game on the same playing field as colas. Instead of being stuck several rungs down on the cola "ladder" in the minds of consumers, 7Up made its own ladder and immediately occupied the top rung. They sold a lot of 7Up.

Which brings us to David.

As we saw in last week's reading, after God rejected Saul as King of Israel, God chose the LAST person any contemporary would have picked for King, if they had thought of David at all, something which his own father failed to do when the Prophet Samuel told him to gather his sons for God's anointing. Until prompted by Samuel, Jesse apparently forget he even HAD another son. Or maybe Jesse had ruled out David as a likely candidate. David was the runt, the youngest, the smallest. The UNking.

And this continues when it comes to fighting Israel's enemies in this week's reading. No one thinks of David when Goliath taunts the armies of Israel. David isn't a warrior. He's the shepherd boy. But God had a different idea. Isn't that just like God? No one was thinking about David as a solution to their giant problem. He just wasn't top-of-mind when it came to that brand. And there was already a King, who, as far as the people knew, was God's anointed.

Most of us know about David and his five smooth stones (though I bet you don't recall that David RAN TOWARD Goliath while winding up for the pitch . . . Awesome). So we know God uses David to defeat Israel's most dangerous enemy, making David the hero of the battle. And shortly thereafter, God makes him the hero of EVERY battle.

The UNking becomes top of mind. And that's how God does it.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Proper 7 (12) (June 24, 2012)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49
Psalm 9:9-20
Or
1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 18:10-16
Psalm 133

Job 38:1-11
Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Mark 4:35-41

For more reading on 7Up's brilliant campaign, see "the UN COLA advertisement campaign by 7up: a master stroke to change the competitive space itself" by Paritosh Kashyap on his MANAGEMENT GURU blog at http://themanagmentguru.blogspot.com/2009/11/un-cola-advertisement-campaign-by-7up.html