Thank You, Todd Rundgren (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

The behind the scenes tour of Atlanta's CNN was fascinating; seeing how the "news" gets made. The highlight was the few minutes we spent on the Headline News set during the LIVE broadcast of "Morning Express with Robin Meade." We sat quietly at a table just out of camera range. All about us, people were active at work stations doing, I supposed, something in support of that broadcast. I spent most of the time looking back and forth between the live actors and the monitors posted in the work stations.

And that's when I saw it.

Scrawled in someone's large script on a white board section of one of the work stations was the name: Todd Rundgren. Do you know him? Todd has been continuously making music since the early 1970's. Probably best known in recent years for his catchy tune, Bang the Drum All Day ("I don't wanna work! I just wanna bang on the drum all day!"), seeing his name on that board immediately brought to mind one of his lesser known (but actually better) tunes, Mighty Love.

In that latter song---a great, thumping, toe-tapping piece of music---Todd and crew contrast lesser love (in this case, what the Greeks referred to as “Eros”; romantic love) with a lasting, mighty love. The song recounts how the lesser love does not last, even though deeply sworn and strongly intended, because, as the song says, “that’s the way love goes.”

But what kind of love IS "a mighty love"?

With events like the Genesis flood firmly planted in the histories of almost all peoples, and the record of the Red Sea drowning Pharaoh’s army, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that later Biblical writers came to use phrases like “mighty waters,” “many waters,” “great waters,” and “deep waters” as a kind of metaphor for serious trouble.We see them using that phrase in the Psalms and the prophecies on a regular basis; even in the Song of Solomon. It always refers to big trouble, overwhelming trouble, the kind of trouble you really can’t get out of by yourself, the kind of trouble that just might be the end of you. Mighty waters.

But there is a countering force to mighty waters.

Now, as some of you are old enough to recall, Todd Rundgren is not known as a “Christian” singer; you won’t find his music listed on any of the “Christian top 40.” But, as with some other “secular” performers ---like The Pretenders on “I’ll Stand By You,” Anne Murray on “You Needed Me,” Josh Grogan on “You Raise Me Up,” and Carole King on “Way Over Yonder”--- he sometimes strays into deeply spiritual territory … if only we have the “ears to hear.” And I think we can put on our spiritual ears and hear that Todd Rundgren’s “mighty love” is actually what the Greeks called “Agape,” an unconditional love, one that always acts in our best interest, one that lasts; or, as one of my professors put it: “love, in spite of.”

God's love.

As the Psalm 29 selection in this week's Lectionary indicates: God is the master of the mighty waters. Since God is love, His mighty love Is greater than any troubles that come our way, even those "floods" that threaten to, and sometimes do, overwhelm us.

Mighty Waters?

Mighty Love.

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Trinity Sunday (May 31, 2015)
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17

Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth (May 31, 2015)
1 Samuel 2:1-10
Psalm 113
Romans 12:9-16b
Luke 1:39-57
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There have been a LOT of "mighty waters" lately. Some of them ACTUAL waters. Don't endanger yourself, but if you can get out, join us Friday morning for Lectionary Breakfast. We'll gather at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant from 8:00 to 9:00. There will be plenty of food, scripture, laughter, and love. Come.

Enjoy the week!
Steve

photo from imgkid.com

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