Oddwalk Ministries

Category: prayer

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Guard Your Lions

Apologies for the unannounced four week hiatus from our Jesus-Justice-Joy posts here at the Oddwalk central. On the other hand, no one has been banging on our houses’ front doors demanding their return— Yet, today they do return.

But first, a brief word of explanation. Shortly after our most recent post of September 11, significant events occurred in the lives of Orin and Shannon. Orin’s dad, Orville “Doc” Johnson, passed away on September 17 – more on that in a moment. On the Cerneka side of things, Shannon’s wife Erin lost her job at very nearly the same time. On top of and in-between those occurrences have been other things, like a couple Oddwalk engagements, and, of course, all the personal and professional things that some call “real life.” While generally speaking all are doing “okay,” to pick a most vague and not-especially-descriptive term, please do keep us in prayer.

Last Friday night, in St. Louis, some local to STL friends and family of Orin gathered in a service of remembrance for his parents, Orville and Eva (Eva died in 2008). For this week’s return to JJJ posts, we share here the Gospel passage read at that service and Orin’s preaching on it.

Orville and Eva, at Orin & Erin’s Wedding in 2004

Luke 12:35-40
Jesus told his disciples: “Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks: Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival. Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself, have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them. And should he come in the second or third watch and find them prepared in this way, blessed are those servants. Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

PDF of Orin’s Preaching: “Guard Your Lions”

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Out of Order

This one time, at work, there was this one photocopier. It worked great! It collated, stapled, scanned, everything I (Orin) needed it to do.

One day I arrived at work, at there was an “out of order” sign hung on it. Asking around, I learned that one of the “feet”, on one corner of the bottom of the copier, has broken, and without it, the whole copier leaned just a little bit in that direction.

“What does that matter?” I asked.

Well, I found out that if the copier wasn’t very close to level, it would put strain on the motor which ran the light across the glass, it would have trouble feeding the paper out of the drawers, the toner might settle in the cartridge, and probably a few other things which have since left my memory.

That is, if the copier’s “foot” was broken, the whole copier fell into disarray and couldn’t function, even if the only issue was that it leaned over an inch or so.

Consider this passage now from Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12:20b-26)

There are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.” Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.

If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.

Take some time to reflect today: which part of the body of Christ is suffering today? How de we all suffer because of their suffering? How do we ease that suffering? Hint: it’s not as easy as fixing a broken foot on a photocopier. Where are the issues, and how do we address them? Take it to prayer, and then turn prayer into action.

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Woeful are we; blessed are we.

Woeful are we;
blessed are we.

Woeful are we who value power over relationship;
blessed are we who recognize and value the dignity of the human person.

Woeful are we who strive for human successes in human ways;
blessed are we whose only glory is in the cross.

Woeful are we who project our own angers and insecurities;
blessed are we who are working to remove the plank in our own eyes.

Woeful are we who speak of others as “they” and them;”
blessed are we who speak only of “us.”

Woeful are we who assert without facts;
blessed are we who research, then post.

Woeful are we who rely solely on facts;
blessed are we who faith is founded on belief.

Woeful are we who declare that truth isn’t truth;
blessed are we who know the way, truth, and life.

Woeful are we who distort the truth for dishonorable ends;
blessed are we who recognize even truth sometimes has subtle nuances.

Woeful are we who declare the world is black and white;
blessed are those who realize this is not always so.

Woeful are we with only simple solutions to complex problems;
blessed are we who realize “love” is often far more complicated than it sounds.

Woeful are we;
blessed are we.

       
Orin Johnson, ©2018

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We Are Welcome, We Are Love

As a sort-of follow up to last week’s Jesus-Justice-Joy post from Shannon, Orin writes this week to share a new lyric video of a song he recently wrote which has also been published.

The song has two Hebrew words as its title and part of the refrain: Hachnasat Orchim. This most simply translates to “hospitality,” but in the world of the Jewish faith, it’s more specifically about the welcoming of the stranger.  This song is included in a book of music for the Reform Judaism movement (you may recall a few times a month Orin plays for services at Temple Shaare Emeth) titled, in English, “Jewish Songs of Protest and Hope.”  While writen for Judaism, I think it’s also not hard to hear in the lyrics Jesus’s similar teachings of welcome and love – He was, of course, himself a Rabbi and teacher during his earthly ministries.

I hope the music inspires singers and listeners to prayer, and then to action: bringing hope into the world, and making that hope real by action and change.