Ants on the Volcano (a Steve Orr Lectionary reflection)

I was profoundly disappointed. Had I traveled all the way to Hawaii just to watch a line of ants march across a dusty spot?

The crossing was a good one; pretty smooth as ocean voyages go (for a hilarious description of a not smooth crossing of the Pacific, see Mark Twain’s Letters from Hawaii). We enjoyed our five days at sea, and that experience was its own separate pleasure. But, lets not pretend: the purpose of the cruise was to reach, and explore, Hawaii.

Our first day on the big island started out so well: our first tour stop was the Hilo Coffee Mill, a combination coffee plantation, cafe, and gift shop. Getting to tour their coffee growing, curing, and roasting operation —followed by drinking some of that fresh and delicious local brew— portended well for the remainder of the day.

There were other interesting sights to see and places to visit ... and we took them all in. However, my goal for that day was to experience Mount Kilauea, the long smoldering volcano that originally formed the island.

It seemed to take forever for us to get to this point in the tour. But ... eventually ... we arrived. We queued up with everyone else, waiting (as patiently as possible) for our turn to peer into the heart of the volcano. There was no one setting time limits; so each person, couple, or group, took as long as they wished. For me, it seemed like forever! Still, even a watched pot will, finally, boil. And our time did finally come.

As we stepped forward to take our place at the front of the line, I was keyed up. Before that day, I had never actually seen a volcano, even at a distance. And while I had viewed this one, just minutes earlier as we drove toward it, what I saw was just a big hill. Now was the moment of truth. Now I would stare down into the heart of the Earth. Now I would see, with my own eyes, the stuff that came before.

What I saw below: a roughly circular patch of dirt crisscrossed by lines of ants marching one behind the other.

After all of the emotional build up, I was profoundly disappointed. Had I traveled half the Pacific Ocean just to watch a line of ants march across a dusty spot? I looked to one side and caught the expressions of the folks just turning to leave the lookout point. Clearly, they were in awe. I turned to the other side where I saw a similar expression on my wife’s face.

What was I missing here? I looked back at the view, seeking to understand.

And then, as sometimes happens to me, everything before my eyes rearranged itself. Suddenly, I was not looking at ants crossing a patch of dirt. Suddenly, those ants became humans, people so far away from me that they appeared as small as ants. And that dusty spot became an enormous volcanic caldera, plugged up with cooled magma.

Humans were walking across the space where, in years past, lava had flowed. They were, in fact, walking on lava (cooled to the point that it would hold the weight of humans and, not insignificantly, not burn them to a cinder). That sent a shiver up my spine.

Perspective. It changes everything.

Before I fully perceived what I was experiencing, my understanding was wrong. Oh, it felt right. In fact, I was certain of what I was seeing: ants on a patch of dirt. But the facts were different than my perception of them. It was only after I saw what was actually before me that I had a full understanding.

And that’s the situation alluded to in this week’s selection from the gospel of John. The perception of ... well, almost everyone ... was wrong. It was wrong about sin, wrong about righteousness, and wrong about judgement. People felt that the sin in their life could not be overcome, that the standard of God’s righteousness was just too high fo a human to achieve ... felt that God had judged them, found them wanting, and had abandoned them to a hell on Earth.

And maybe you’ve felt it, too ... felt as hopeless as ants crawling across a rumbling, threatening volcano?

But maybe that’s too personal. Let’s take a step back and just say that these conditions still exist for some. They can’t understand the new relationship we have with sin because they do not believe that Jesus is really who He claimed to be. They can’t understand the truth about how someone achieves righteousness because they do not accept that Jesus is now with God, acting on our behalf. And they do not understand judgment because they do not acknowledge that “the ruler of this world” has already been condemned.

Jesus taught his disciples that when He sent the “Spirit of Truth” to them, they would be able to understand the truth about these things. It can be difficult to grasp these lessons. Jesus said that, without the Advocate (the Spirit), some of what we need to know would be too much to bear. We need to be gently guided into understanding these contra-intuitive things.

We are not ants on a volcano, as some might want us to believe. We are not distant, little beings to God. We are loved by God and by His son. Our journey has been provided for. We need only allow the Spirit to equip us properly.

Perspective. It changes everything.


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PHOTO (and info about Mount Kīlauea Volcano. Please support Wikipedia.): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kīlauea

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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Day of Pentecost (May 20, 2018
https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//

Acts 2:1-21 or Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:22-27 or Acts 2:1-21
John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15
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Pentecost marks the celebration of the moment when God began to share His Spirit with all of us who believe. Join us Friday morning as we allow the Advocate to guide us and instruct us. Meet us at 8:00 at the Waco “Egg and I” restaurant (in the function room, around the back). It’s an hour like no other.

Hey, Ninety Eight Point Six ... (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

One of the many interesting things about living in this world is the almost overwhelming amount of stuff we believe to be true that is, in fact, not true.

Do you remember "98.6" from the late 1960s? It was originally recorded by Keith; his version sold over a million copies and climbed to #7 on the Billboard chart. Or maybe you heard the Lesley Gore cover when she sang it as a medley with "Lazy Day." It still plays on the Oldies stations.

Its catchy tune and easy lyrics make for a very singable experience. It's essentially a love song about a person being very happy to have his/her love (the 98.6 in the lyrics) back. What the song title and lyrics are referencing is what is universally considered to be the normal body temperature of a healthy human. Everyone who heard the song understood that particular reference.

There's just one problem: it's not true.

We are taught from our youth that 98.6 is the "normal" body temperature; that one degree higher should be considered as an indicator of possible illness. Two degrees higher and we're looking at a real fever. Get out the meds.

But, the truth is that 98.6 is just a number representing an average "normal" temperature. Humans are unique; no one of us is exactly like any other of us. My normal body temp is 97.0. In my case, a temperature reading of 98.6 might be cause for some alarm ... if not for that pesky and persistent belief, even among the medically trained, that it is normal.*

But that's just one example. One of the other supposed truths is that, in the Bible, the Old Testament (OT) is not as important as the New Testament (NT).

Now, that's not a crazy conclusion for someone to make. If you are a christian, the NT is rich in value; ranging from how to become a christian, to how to live as one, to how to get along with other people who are trying to do the same thing, to how to live among people who do not believe as you do. With all that crammed into the NT, it is understandable that some might downplay the value of the books that preceded it.

That, however, would be a mistake.

When I was a young adult, I heard a preacher say, "If you don't see Jesus on every page of the Bible, you're reading it wrong." This was completely counter to what I had been raised to believe: i.e., that the OT was useful, primarily, as a place we could go to understand Jewish history. I'm not sure I completely agree with that preacher's statement, but at the time it was a galvanizing charge for me. I found myself reading through the OT, de novo (roughly: "from the beginning with fresh eyes").

Pretty quickly, I began to see what that preacher was getting at; there is a massive amount of OT scripture that relates to Jesus and the purpose of His incarnation. Did you know that in His teachings, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than any other scripture? I know: it surprised me as well.

This kind of OT/NT linkage is well represented in this week's Lectionary passage from Romans. I recommend you read those 10 verses and consider what Paul is saying to the believers in Rome. Remember, they only had what we call the OT; the NT was yet to be assembled, and much of it had not even been written at that point. Paul's message to them is a message for us, as well.

So, whatever your "normal" body temperature, you can spend time reading all of scripture, with the expectation that God has something for you there.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Second Sunday of Advent (December 4, 2016)
http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Isaiah 11:1-10
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13
Matthew 3:1-12

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I hope you can join us Friday morning for Lectionary Breakfast. We still gather at 8:00 for an exceptional hour. We visit, eat, read scripture, and engage in a "robust exchange of ideas."

Nothing "normal" about it.

Blessings,
Steve

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* There are several books written about the uniqueness of each and every human. My favorite is "You are Extraordinary" by Roger J. Williams. In it he states, "If we continue to try to solve problems on the basis of the average man, we will be continuously in a muddle, because the concept of 'the average man" is a muddle. Such a man does not exist." You can peruse it at Amazon.com.

The Monster Words (a Lectionary reflection by Steve Orr)

"Monsters, stay out of this room!
You have no business here.
N0 monsters under the bed!
You can't fit under there.
No monsters hiding in the closet!
It's too small in there.
No monsters outside of the windows!
You can't hold on out there.
No vampires, no werewolves, no things that bite.
You have no business here.
Nothing will touch you, or hurt you, all this night.
You have no business here."

-------- Stephen King's Cujo


The "monster words" are what Vic (the father) chants at bedtime so Tad (his very young son) will stop worrying about the monsters he believes are in his closet. It's a loving thing for a father to do.

If he believes the evil is not real.

When Vic needs to go on a business trip, he writes the incantation down on a piece of paper so Donna (the mother) can read it to Tad while Vic is gone. Eventually, Tad begins carrying the folded piece of paper in his pocket. He touches it whenever he feels afraid. Doing that gives him a little relief.

Of course, being a Stephen King novel, Cujo delivers a lot for Tad to fear. And I don't think I'm giving anything away when I tell you that the "monster words" are not wholly successful as the talisman against evil Tad wants them to be.

The same is true for us.

In Jacqueline Bussie's book, Outlaw Christian: Finding Authentic Faith by Breaking the Rules, she plows right into our tendency to use our own "monster words" to shield us from the harsh realities of our lives. Sure, there are times of joy and wonderment. But there are also times when things are so bad we wish we could "explain away evil and suffering with a theo-magical slight of hand."

When faced with betrayal, suffering, fear, terror, and death (ours or anyone else's), we armor ourselves with the "marshmallow armor" of religious platitudes, pious clichés, scriptures taken out of context, misquoted and/or misapplied theology: our monster words. We draw temporary (and truly unsatisfactory) relief from just having them near; being able to speak them into any terrible event.

When asked for whom her book was written, Bussie said, "If you are a person who has ever loved someone, lost them, and then heard the hidden question why blacksmith your heart so hard it felt like your ears bled, this book was written with you at heart."

If you are struggling with such hard things, then you may find some (true) relief in knowing that others are, too. Whether we can admit it or not, we all struggle with realigning our old ways of thinking with the dynamic new ways we are called to by Jesus.

Witness the "circumcised believers" in this week's Lectionary selection from Acts. They cannot seem to move past the requirements of the Law. After Peter returns from preaching to and baptizing Cornelius and his household (none of whom were Jewish), these "circumcised believers" interrogate Peter, saying, "Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?!"

You can read the story, yourself, and you should. The point is well made by Peter, and it's one we need to roll forward into our own faith-walk: when God points us in another direction, we can faithfully move in that direction. We are not enslaved to the old ways just because they are the comfort zone. In fact, if there's an ultimate point to the Book of Acts, it is that God is doing something new, something true and authentic, something that does not hide from the bad parts of life.

In real life, we are rarely removed from the hard bits. We must go through them. We don't need "monster words" on which to rely. We have the Holy Spirit and the promise that, regardless of how bad it gets, God is in it with us.
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READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
Fifth Sunday of Easter (April 24, 2016)
First reading
Acts 11:1-18
Psalm
Psalm 148
Second reading
Revelation 21:1-6
Gospel
John 13:31-35
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Join us Friday mornings? We still meet at the Waco "Egg and I" restaurant. Lectionary Breakfast starts at 8:00 and is an hour when a lot of truth is spoken.

Enjoy the week!
Steve