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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