Prevailing Through Unavoidable Travail
- davidwperk
- Mar 24, 2023
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Friday, March 24, 2021
The week of the fourth Sunday in Lent
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrases for reflection from today’s Romans reading:
28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Other ancient authorities read God makes all things work together for good, or in all things God works for good)
. . . . . .
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
. . . . . .
35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(You will find the full text of today’s Romans reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 954)
AM Psalm 95* & 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32
Jer. 23:1-8; Rom. 8:28-39; John 6:52-59
Today we celebrate the Feast of Oscar Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador.
(See below.)
David's Reflections
"Sometimes darkness is a friend, albeit in disguise at first. . . . Darkness is often our friend, though we never think so until later. . . .” * What could Bruce Van Blair, a recovering alcoholic member of the clergy, possibly mean by this?
Paul, in today's reading, is one of the best guides to the answer. In verse 28, the phrase, "all things work together for good," could be translated "God (with God supplied from the context) works all things together for good." In fact, some of the earliest handwritten copies of Romans (all the Scriptures were, of course, handwritten) supply "God" as the subject of the verb. Paul is not suggesting that evil and suffering automatically work together for good. No matter how one translates verse 28, Paul's concept is that God is involved intimately with us in the groanings that afflict us. That divine involvement brings us through to final salvation in spite of and on the back of the darkness that resists. The darkness unites us with the God who suffers the darkness with and in us.
One understanding of divine providence conceives of God as protecting us from evil and adversity. Stories abound of people being miraculously delivered from an auto accident, a mugging, a disease, death on the battlefield. Yet, stories also abound of people not being delivered from suffering and adversity, of good, loving, devoted Christians (and members of other world religions) suffering unspeakable agonies and indignities.
In recent years, we've witnessed horrific genocides in the Balkans and in Africa, the tsunami in the Pacific, Hurricane Katrina, and the tsunami and earthquake in Japan. and now the COVID-19 pandemic with unimaginable chaos, deprivation, suffering, and death. Jesus was not delivered, as one innocent he suffered indignities at the hands of his captors and an inexpressibly agonizing death. And, today we celebrate the feast day of Oscar Romero and the martyrs of El Salvador, people of faith who met death because of their faith.
How are we to understand God's providence, God's care of us, especially when we find ourselves caught up in those birth pangs of a creation agonizing and groaning, while we are adding our own groanings and those of our loved ones to the swirling vortex of pain?
Paul, in this text, assumes that all the travails in his lists actually do come upon those who love God. He does not conceive of providence as delivering us from them; rather, with God present within us, groaning along with us, we are delivered through them. We are given courage to suffer "hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" And, the list at the end, "nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation"--that list includes demonic powers. Christians do experience the mysteries of darkness.
In the words of Paul Tillich, ". . . let us drop the word providence with all its false connotations and look at what it really means. It means the courage to accept life in the power of that which is more than life. Paul calls it the love of God. . . .This love is the ultimate power of union, the ultimate victory over separation. Being united with it . . . gives us the certainty that no moment is possible in which we can be prevented from reaching the fulfillment toward which all life is striving. This is the courage to accept life in the power of that in which life is rooted and overcome.”+
* Bruce Van Blair, A Year to Remember (Seattle: Glen Abbey Books, 1988), p. 214-215.
+Paul Tillich, The New Being (New York: Scribner's, 1955, p. 58).
Collect of the Day, The Fourth Sunday in Lent
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 219)
Collect for Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent
O God, you have given us the Good News of your abounding love in your Son Jesus Christ: So fill our hearts with thankfulness that we may rejoice to proclaim the good tidings we have received; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Weekday Eucharistic Propers, p. 38)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Oscar Romero (died 24 Mar 1980 CE) and the martyrs of El Salvador.
Collect of the Feast of Oscar Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador
Almighty God, you called your servant Óscar Romero to be a voice for the voiceless poor, and to give his life as a seed of freedom and a sign of hope: Grant that we, inspired by his sacrifice and the example of the martyrs of El Salvador, may without fear or favor witness to your Word who abides, your Word who is Life, even Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be praise and glory now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Fridays
Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death: Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies' sake. Amen. (BCP, 123)
In the Order of Worship for Evening
Almighty, everlasting God, let our prayer in your sight be as incense, the lifting up of our hands as the evening sacrifice. Give us grace to behold you, present in your Word and Sacraments, and to recognize you in the lives of those around us. Stir up in us the flame of that love which burned in the heart of your Son as he bore his passion, and let it burn in us to eternal life and to the ages of ages. Amen. (BCP, 113)
A Collect for Mission
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 280)
Daily Office Epistle, Romans 8:28-39
28We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. (Other ancient authorities read God makes all things work together for good, or in all things God works for good)
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
31 What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? 33Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. 35Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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