How Near is the Word?

"The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart"

 Today’s lessons are particularly fitting for the first of six Sundays in our Lenten observance. We are called during these 40 days of Lent to reflect on our lives, both individually and collectively. Our invitation from our Ash Wednesday service to the observance of a holy Lent includes these words: I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. 

We Franciscans pledge to read scripture regularly as a part of our observance of our Third Order rule. If there is ever a particularly good time to do this, it is during Lent. Today’s word’s from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans tell us why: "The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart." But the reading and reflection on scripture is just the beginning of call to follow Jesus. St. Paul says that those who proclaim with their lips and believe in their heart in the resurrection will be saved.

 But not just the believer.

 What Distinctions Do We Make and Why? 

At the end of this brief segment of the epistle, St. Paul tells us why this is important: “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all…..” We are being reminded here that all human beings are children of G_d. All bear the divine image that demands our respect.

 

Any distinctions we might want to make - like race and ethnicity, religious or political creed, sexuality, places of origin – are ultimately exercises of a tyrannical ego that feels a need to separate people into categories and thereafter assert the superiority of our own tribe vis-à-vis others. Sadly, this often occurs in the name of Christ. But whatever else it might be, this common behavior is not the Way of Jesus.

So how near is the word to us? Is it on our lips, in our hearts and does it show forth in our lives? Where do we feel compelled to draw distinctions among the children of G_d, distinctions which always serve our need to feel superior? How conscious are we of these tendencies? Lent is a good time to reflect on this.

Nations Built by Immigrants 

The Hebrew Scripture lesson for today features an Abraham, who is the father of the Hebrew people, reciting the tribal history:

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labor on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm…” 

 

Abraham prompts us to consider our own ancestral lineage. We live in a nation built by immigrants. With the exception of the Native Americans, we are all descendants of immigrants. Some came for opportunities. Many came to escape oppression.

In times past our nation remembered that history with a spirit of gratitude. It is reflected by the plaque at the foot of the Statue of Liberty in New York City’s harbor, dedicated in 1903, containing the lyrical words of poet Emma Lazarus: "

 

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

That seems so long ago in these days of roundups and deportations reminiscent of authoritarian regimes of the mid-20^th CE. But the Deuteronimist, writing in the chaotic period when both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah fell to invaders, ends his recitation of this tribal history with some interesting words. Upon arriving in this new land flowing with milk and honey, the Hebrew people brought the first fruits of the land as an offering to G_d. And they are told

 

“You shall set [this offering] down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.”

  

Note how G_d instructs the Hebrew people to treat those “aliens who reside among” them. G-d’s people are to share the bounty of the land with all who dwell therein, recognizing that whatever offering they would bring is ultimately a gift from the G_d who is the source of all blessings.

 

So how near is the word to us? Is it on our lips, in our hearts and does it show forth in our lives? Where do we feel compelled to draw distinctions among the children of G_d, distinctions which always serve our need to feel superior? How conscious are we of these tendencies? Lent is a good time to reflect on this.

 

In the Desert, Direction Comes 

Luke’s Gospel provides us with the account of Jesus’ temptations in the desert. Jesus has just had a life-changing encounter at the Jordan River. He now knows who he is and what he has been called to do. Not surprisingly, this is all more than he can handle at that moment and so he escapes the crowds surrounding John the Baptiser and goes into the desert to reflect on this new life.

 This is a pattern we will see in Jesus frequently – the active engagement of the poor and the suffering followed by time alone in reflection with G-d. If that pattern sounds familiar to you it should – it reflects the two prongs of our Franciscan spirituality – the action of a Francis engaging the world and the contemplation of Clare who holds the orders together quietly and methodically amidst a life of prayer.

 

It is in the desert that Jesus encounters the Satan, a Hebrew word for the tempter, the tester, the accuser and – my favorite as a recovering public defender – the prosecutor. And the temptations here should sound very familiar to us.

The Satan challenges a hungry Jesus to turn stones into bread, a focus on wealth and privilege that would seem a no-brainer in a consumerist culture such as our own. But Jesus says no, “One does not live by bread alone.” There is more to life than simply material abundance. Contrary to common wisdom, the one who dies with the most toys does not win.

The Satan then offers Jesus a bargain. Jesus is shown the kingdoms of the world and told he could be in charge of all of them if he is willing to worship the Satan.  In a culture where power without restraints is worshipped and its employment without concern for who is harmed by it is the stuff of everyday news, accepting this bargain would seem obvious.

 

But the kingdom of G_d that Jesus will lay out in his life and ministry, teaching his followers to pray that it come on earth as in heaven, is not about exercising power over others. It’s not about the worship of temporal power. It’s not about seeing those holders of power in messianic terms. Jesus’ response to the Satan is clear: Serve only the G-d who is the source and creator of all living beings. As such that places restraints on any use of power, particularly that which harms vulnerable peoples and the good Creation.

 How Tempting to Believe Our Tribe is Special

The last trick up the Satan’s sleeve is to dare Jesus to test G-d’s willingness to protect him from harm. Go ahead and jump off this roof, the Satan tells him, G-d will send angels to keep you from harm. You’re special, Jesus. But Jesus tells the Satan, enough of these games, be gone.

 

How tempting is it to believe that our tribe is so special that the Holy One is on our side, protecting us from our own errors, even intervening on our behalf? The belief that one is among the elect, the chosen, is inordinately tempting, isn’t it? Consider the notion of the New Covenant – we got it right, they got it wrong – notions that will ultimately play out in a Holocaust. Consider the notion of G-d bless the USA. While a humble prayer for divine guidance would be appropriate for any nation-state, there is a hint of exclusivity here - if not a sense of entitlement - in its ordinary utterance. What would make the USA so special to G_d?

 

So how near is the word to us? Is it on our lips, in our hearts and does it show forth in our lives? Where do we feel compelled to draw distinctions among the children of G_d, distinctions which always serve our need to feel superior? How conscious are we of these tendencies? Lent is a good time to reflect on this.

Much to Consider in the Next Six Weeks...

These lessons today offer us much to consider over the next six weeks. I believe what G_d wants from us is not an extended session of pummeling ourselves over our human imperfections, an often unrecognized exercise in narcissism, laboring  under the misapprehension that we must do this for G_d to forgive us.

 

But none of us have to do this. There has never been a single part of any of us that our Creator did not love. What we are called to do this Lent is to reflect upon our lives individually and collectively and then to act in the light of that contemplation.

 So how near is the word to us? Is it on our lips, in our hearts and does it show forth in our lives? Lent is a good time to reflect on this.

Holy One, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan: Come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Collect, I Lent, Year C)

[A sermon preached Sunday, March 09, 2025 for the Lenten Retreat, Third Order Society of St. Francis, at Holy Names Monastery, St. Leo, Florida]

            

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 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

   If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

   Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

 For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

 Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

      © Harry Coverston, 2025

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On the Feast of Harriet Tubman

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?”

Today is the feast day of Harriet Tubman, one of my all-time heroines. Today I am going to tell you her story and then touch upon the lessons appointed for her day.

Araminta Ross was born on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland around 1822. She worked as a field hand for many years -following the oxen loading and unloading wood and carrying heavy burdens - developing great physical strength and determination, characteristics that would prove invaluable to her in her life as a soldier for justice. Later, she was hired out to perform housework and childcare where the plantation mistress proved capricious and cruel, employing frequent beatings for the most minor of offenses. The memories of this cruelty would inform her work as an emancipator and abolitionist.

In 1834, she was a village store with the plantation cook when an overseer entered, pursuing an escaped slave. The overseer ordered Araminta to assist with tying the man up, which she refused to do. As the escaping slave bolted for the door, the overseer swept up a two-pound scale weight up from the counter and threw it after him. The weight missed its mark, hitting Araminta instead, knocking her unconscious. While this was not her first experience with the violence of slavery, it would have the most lasting effect as she suffered from severe headaches for the rest of her life.

 

Araminta married a free Black man named John Tubman in 1844, taking his last name. She changed her first name, adopting her mother's name, becoming Harriet. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of choosing how one is known. It is always an act of self-empowerment and an act of resistance. We hear this today in our own cultural struggles over gender and the pronouns we use to describe ourselves.

In 1849, worried that she and the other slaves on the plantation where she lived were going to be sold, Harriet decided to run away. Her husband refused to go with her, so she set out with her two brothers, both of whom would turn back. Tubman persevered to freedom, settling in Philadelphia. But she could not be happy knowing that her relatives and friends remained enslaved. That was when she would make the first of many dangerous return forays to the South to secure their freedom as well.

On Christmas Day 1854, Tubman returned to nearby Poplar Neck to lead her three brothers to freedom as well as several others. They hid in a corn crib until dark, when they could begin their journey north. At nightfall, Harriet safely led them on their journey towards freedom, traveling through Delaware, Pennsylvania, and across upstate New York to St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Canada.

Knowledge of the terrain was vital to survival while hiding and trying to flee. Tubman and others had to successfully navigate the land and waterways, trap and forage for food, and hide from their pursuers. Understanding the tides, knowing how to find food and fresh water, and following the North Star were all skills that later proved vital as she guided her charges north along the Underground Railroad to freedom.

This reference to the stars is important. In 2021, the Mennello Folk Art Gallery in Orlando featured an exhibit by photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales entitled “Through Darkness to Light: Photographs Along the Underground Railroad.” The photographs showed many of the locations along the mid 19^th CE path that runaway enslaved persons took seeking freedom. The photographs were difficult to make out. They’d all been taken at night.

 

I began to become irritated with the artist over my inability to fully see the images when suddenly it dawned on me that these photos had been taken at night purposely. That was the only time people of color could move across the region without being seen and recaptured. This was what they saw. It was a painful lesson in white privilege for me. Undercover movement at night was something neither I nor my ancestors would ever have had to worry about.

As part of the Underground Railroad network, Tubman successfully employed a variety of escape and evasion methods to help aid fleeing slaves. Disguise was a favorite. When word was out that a group of male slaves had bolted from a plantation, she dressed the fugitives as women for the trip north. For one of her more brazen missions, she convinced a light-skinned fugitive to pose as a white master transporting a group of slaves to a town further up the road.

 

For all the recriminations directed at her by displeased plantation owners throughout the South, Tubman was never caught and never lost a “passenger” along the Underground Railroad. She became very familiar with the different towns and transportation routes characterizing the South, information which proved valuable to Federal military commanders after the Civil War began in 1861. Their poorly drawn and outdated maps, coupled with soldiers who had little knowledge of the United States beyond their own village, made Tubman vitally important to the Union war effort.

Tubman also served as a spy, seeking and delivering intelligence from behind enemy lines. At the war's conclusion, she was granted a military pension of $20 per month, the first African American woman to receive one.

After the war, Tubman retired to a piece of land on the outskirts of Auburn, New York where she lived surrounded by family. She cared for her parents and other relatives, becoming a stalwart of the community. Tubman died in 1913 and was buried with military honors at Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York. In April 2016, the US Treasury announced that she would become the first American woman pictured on currency in over 100 years, taking her place in history on the new twenty dollar bill. For the record, the date of that bill’s issue has continued to be pushed back by the U.S. Treasury Department and now is scheduled for 2030.

It does my heart good to know that the Episcopal Church has chosen to include Harriet Tubman on their calendar of Holy Women, Holy Men. The lectionary chosen for this day reflects both her own courageous service of G-d and the good Creation as well as our own vocations to do the same.

In 2022 I visited Tubman’s grave. It had become an impromptu shrine, covered with drawings and messages from children nearly two centuries removed from this heroine expressing their admiration and gratitude. I smiled when I noticed her grave stone was covered with pennies bearing the image of a fellow emancipator, Abraham Lincoln, turned face up. The words of the psalm appointed for this day rang out from the graveside:

Let this be written for a future generation, so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord. For the Lord looked down from his holy place on high; from the heavens he beheld the earth; That he might hear the groan of the captive and set free those condemned to die;

But our lectionary offers us more than mere praise for an American heroine. It also reminds us of our own vocations as followers of Jesus.

The Gospel reading from Luke speaks of the neighbor who will not take no for an answer so long as the needs of a fellow child of G_d are not being met. Luke’s Jesus offers a parable where a friend is reluctant to get up in the middle of the night, not wishing to disrupt his household even for an act of hospitality. But Jesus says, “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.” Meeting the essential needs of others when they present themselves is often inconvenient if not costly. But the Way of Jesus values human needs above our comfort.

Richard Rohr often speaks of the twin prongs of a Franciscan life as an ever alternating movement between Action and Contemplation. It is essential that we find our grounding in spiritual community, like the one in which we are gathered today. We need space and time set aside to reflect upon our actions and to hear from one another. That is important both for a solidarity that assures us we are not alone as well as the critical challenge for our understandings that seem clear to us even as our blind spots are just as clear to others.

 But after contemplation, it is time to act. As the letter from James tells us, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

Indeed.

O God, whose Spirit guides us into all truth and makes us free: Strengthen and sustain us as you did your servant Harriet Ross Tubman. Give us vision and courage to stand against oppression and injustice and all that works against the glorious liberty to which you call all your children; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

                                      Angela Yarber, “Harriet Tubman” (2016)

 [Sermon offered at Holy Names Monastery, St. Leo, FL March 08, 2025, at the San Damiano Third Order Franciscan Lenten retreat]

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 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

   If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

  Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

  For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

 Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

     © Harry Coverston, 2025

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LENT: A Time in Silence with the G-d of Compassion

The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness.

Today begins the 40 day period prior to the Easter feast that is called Lent. Historically it has been marked by prayer, penance and acts of contrition. In its more popular forms it has been observed by the giving up of cherished pleasures as a form of discipline for the season. In more serious observances, Lent was a time of focusing on sinfulness, of seeking to root out the presence of evil in our lives.

 

Lent originally arose out of a practice among the early followers of Jesus to show support and solidarity with those who were completing their catechism prior to being baptized at Easter. Over the years it took on a life of its own.

Go Into Your Room, Shut the Door

 Our lectionary today gives us plenty to consider in how we might observe Lent this year. The writer of Matthew reports Jesus offering this advice on how to pray:

[W]henever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

 

While a lot of folks hearing this verse focus on aspects of piety and concerns for hypocrisy, I think we might miss something important in this verse when we get sidetracked along those lines. Judgment comes way too easily for most of us. But, listen to what Jesus is saying here “Go into your room and shut the door. Pray to your Father who is in secret.” In other words, spend some time alone, in silence, with G-d. Do more listening than talking. As the prayer from the Psalms we use at Taizé exhorts us, “Be still and know that I am God.” Jesus is telling us that it is time spent alone, in silence with our Creator, that is rewarding, a pattern that reflects his own life.

For some of us, simply remaining in silence is difficult enough in itself. We have become accustomed to lives filled with noise, with 24 hour cable news cycles, with piped in music in waiting rooms. Constant noise has become the norm for us.

The Compassionate G_d We Meet  

Moreover, many of us are not comfortable with our own company, particularly when we know that we are being intentionally vulnerable, unguarded in the presence of the Holy One. Worse yet, many of us tend to think of that god in terms of perfection which makes our own imperfections loom too large to ever be comfortable in the presence of the Holy One. But listen to what the psalmist tells us today:

The LORD is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness. He will not always accuse us, nor will he keep his anger for ever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so is his mercy great upon those who fear him.

 

What excellent news. The G-d we seek in our silence, our time alone, is marked by kindness and forbearance. This G_d does not see us as we tend to see ourselves, through the self-conscious lens of our own failings, but rather through the lens of compassion. Little wonder Jesus teaches and models this so often.

A line from the middle of this passage from today’s psalm is one I love to read at the end of every confession I hear: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our sins from us.” It reminds us that at our most vulnerable moments - the moments we have laid bare our very souls – we encounter a G-d worthy of our trust, a G-d with whom we can bring our whole selves to the table, a G-d who, unlike us, loves every single part of us, including those parts we most hate in ourselves. This is truly “a father [who] cares for his children,” as the psalmist tells us, an infinite Creator who recognizes and understands us in our finitude: “For he himself knows whereof we are made; he remembers that we are but dust.”

 More Than a Focus on Our Imperfections

This Lent you might ponder this: Obsessing over sinfulness is an often unrecognized form of narcissism.  Consider the self-focus in common assertions we make: G_d couldn’t possibly forgive me for the awful things I have done. One wonders how limited a vision of god such statements assume.

That is why Lent is much more than a time for us to simply focus on our imperfections. It is also a time of gratitude for G_d’s unconditional love for us and all the Creation. And, in that light, it is a time to consider our callings to our families of birth, our families of choice and our callings to serve the world.

 There is a reason we hear from the Prophet Isaiah in today’s lectionary as we enter into the Lenten season. He tells us the following:

 

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them?

There is no shortage of injustice in our world. There are fellow children of G-d among us who are being rounded up for deportation like cattle. There are those who live under the yoke of social prejudices whose lives are stunted by the power of fear and loathing. There are hungry people among us, not the least being the folks who come to our food pantry every week, struggling to feed their families. In a country of plenty, the very fact that hunger even exists is a collective sin for which we must repent.

 

So, What is Mine to Do?

The mere scope of the suffering in our world can be overwhelming. And perhaps that is why Lent is an essential observance for people who follow the way of Jesus with its calling to address the suffering of the world. We need time for reflection, becoming aware of the pain that suffering entails. But more importantly, we need to be intentional in recognizing what each of us is called to do in the face of that suffering as it transitions from contemplation to action.

A Unitarian minister, Everett Hale, helps us to frame that reflection process. He said “I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” And as Francis of Assisi said as he lay dying, “I have done what is mine to do. May Christ show you what is yours to do.”

Lent is a time to keep silence with a G_d who is full of compassion and mercy. Time to listen to the Holy One, to figure out what is ours to do. Time to reflect upon our own lives, even as we resist the temptation to obsess over our own shortcomings. Time to reflect upon the suffering of the world, and how we are called to respond to it.

 

That’s a lot to engage. Thankfully, we have 40 days we have set apart for this very purpose. And so in the words of our liturgy, “I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.” And I wish you blessings on your Lenten Journeys. AMEN.

 

A sermon preached on Ash Wednesday, March 05, 2025, St. Richard's Episcopal Church, Winter Park, FL. You may listen to the sermon as delivered at this link beginning at 26:30 

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh33qgbL4RM4jFL0mAWgW-A

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 Harry Scott Coverston

 Orlando, Florida

  frharry@cfl.rr.com

 hcoverston.orlando@gmail.com

   If the unexamined life is not worth living, surely an unexamined belief system, be it religious or political, is not worth holding. Most things worth considering do not come in sound bites.

  Those who believe religion and politics aren't connected don't understand either. – Mahatma Gandhi

  For what does G-d require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your G-d?  - Micah 6:8, Hebrew Scriptures

 Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. - Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Wisdom of the Jewish Sages (1993)

     © Harry Coverston, 2025

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