Vigil with the Word, Year C, First Sunday in Lent

The texts for the first Sunday in Lent are as follows:

Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13

I have chosen to focus my commentary on the Gospel text from Luke and the epistle text from Romans.

Luke 4:1-13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’

 Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.” ’

 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, 
and
“On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ 
Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Romans 10:8b-13

But what does it say?
‘The word is near you,
on your lips and in your heart’
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

I find these two texts put into conversation with one another to be particularly interesting. In the Gospel text, Jesus is in the wilderness.  He is being tempted by what the text calls the devil.  I do not believe in the personification of evil, but that is a discussion for another time.  The important takeaway for me from this text is that Jesus is repeatedly tempted by a force outside himself to do something to better his immediate circumstances of suffering (40 days in the wilderness). Jesus’ final comment to his adversary is, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

I find myself frequently wanting to put God to the test.  To say, “I need you to do something to save this patient or alleviate this child’s suffering or show up and do a miracle so that I can believe in you.”  And I am not the only one who does this. Many of my patients suffer crises of faith as they pray fervently for healing and healing does not come. I have done nearly all the theological gymnastics that I can stomach about this issue.  I have tried to be okay with things such as “healing doesn’t come in this life sometimes” or “We are just not seeing the bigger picture and God’s plan” or so on. And I have yet to be satisfied.  What I have settled on is that I just do not know.  I do not have an answer, because sometimes there are not answers.  I am not Jesus, and neither are any of my patients—to the best of my knowledge—so I probably would not be able to resist the temptation of doing something to alleviate suffering in my immediate circumstances.

This Gospel text warns against putting God to the test, but the text from Romans says, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” So how are my patients who cry out for salvation from their pain and suffering supposed to reconcile these texts? 

I don’t have an answer.  But as I told one of my patients the other day, the only thing that I am 100% sure about is that God knows what it is to suffer because of the cross, and because of that, they are never alone when they suffer. Is it okay to “put God to the test” to alleviate suffering or intractable pain?  Is it acceptable to pray for very specific things (safety in surgery, a brain bleed to be healed, and so on) or is that putting God to the test? Furthermore, what does it mean to be saved?  Is it merely an existential, far off, sort of idea? Like you shall be saved from this life…eventually. But there is a lot of pain you have to endure first. Or is salvation more immediate? Saying that you will be saved and have eternal life is absolutely ridiculous to someone who is enduring the excruciating pain of cancer or trauma from a hospital bed.

I am not willing to settle on any quick and easy answers nor am I willing to preach them to others.  It is not as simple as advising “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” or offering the platitude “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Maybe the only comfort is that God knows what it is to suffer and even Jesus called out to God from the cross.  In dying, suffering, and pain, we are not alone.

Vigil with the Word: Year C, Baptism of Our Lord

The texts for Baptism of Our Lord Sunday are:

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
Isaiah 43:1-7
Psalm 29
Acts 8:14-17

My commentary for this first sunday after Epiphany focuses on the Gospel text and the reading from the book of Isaiah.

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’

 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

                                                                   ~~~~

The baptism of Jesus has always been one of my favorite Gospel texts. It appears nearly verbatim in all four Gospels, with the words of God, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” It’s also one of the very few Gospel texts that mention the Holy Spirit. But I think I love it most because it’s evidence of an active God who descends from an opened-up heaven into this world.

My work leads me into places where I NEED to know that God is not far away. In bloody trauma rooms and at interminable bedside vigils and in chilly morgues, I need to know that God has already shown up and has gone before me. I need to hear that God continues to break open the clouds and descend upon this broken world with the grace of a dove. Baptism is not a baby blessing or a welcoming party to the Christian community, it’s a defiant declaration that death does not have the final word and that God walks among us and lives in us. 

We are all beloved, no matter how wretched our lives may be, and with us, God is well pleased.

Isaiah 43:1-7 

But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. 
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. 
Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you,
nations in exchange for your life. 
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you; 
I will say to the north, ‘Give them up’,
and to the south, ‘Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth— everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.’

Do not fear…for I have redeemed you.  I have called you by name; you are mine. 

One of the most powerful tasks of my role as chaplain is to bless and commend the dying to the care of God. To name the beloved and entrust them to the care of God. It is a bookend of sorts to baptism, where we name God’s child and entrust their keeping to the Body of Christ on earth. To proclaim, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Go in peace.”

Yesterday, I knelt next to a woman who was in her last hours. Her awareness was flickering and her eyes only opened when I spoke her name aloud and said, “As you complete your baptismal journey, rest deeply in the arms of God who calls you by name.” A small smile passed over her face and she drifted back into her liminal sleep.

In baptism, we are named and claimed, and in our death, we are also named and claimed by the one who created us. Saying, “Do not fear” is easier said than done. With death comes fear of pain, fear of the unknown, fear of how we will cope without our mother or spouse or child. But in this naming and claiming, we hear a more powerful message, “You are mine.”  This is not a guarantee that we will never experience suffering, but rather, that we are not alone in that suffering.