Jesus Is Tempted Three of the four canonical gospels describe how Jesus was tempted by Satan. The first one written, that of Mark, offered few details. After Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit drove him into the wilderness. “He was in the wilderness forty days,” Mark wrote, “tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him” (Mark 1:11-13). Afterwards, he went off to start his ministry. Matthew and Luke offer a richer version. In their gospels, Jesus fasted for forty days, becoming “famished.” At that point, the devil appeared and offered three temptations. The first was that Jesus should prove himself to be…
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Love and the Work of the World
The World’s Work Between 1909 and 1910, W.E. B. Du Bois wrote prayers for the students of Atlanta University, a historically black school. They were collected and published in the book, Prayers for Dark People. In one of them, Du Bois points to the importance of rain and storm so that plants can produce fruit. He speaks of “hurt and suffering” in the human life that allows us to “bring the world’s work to its highest perfection.” [1] What is this work he’s talking about, and what does he mean by the “highest perfection”? Could it be, as he adds later, that the “the great web which hangs holy to…
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Racism, Sin, and Love
Original Sin? Slavery has been called America’s “original sin.” Barrett Holmes Pitner used the phrase in his article, “US Must Confront Its Original Sin and Move Forward,” published by the BBC. The University of California, Davis, offers a class called “Slavery: America’s Original Sin,” and the same words make up the title of a book by Jim Willis, America’s Original Sin. Barak Obama used the term in his Race Speech in March 2008, and Paul Krugman used it in a 2020 opinion column. These are just a few examples. According to John Patrick Leary, the phrase is an unfortunate one. He explains that we can’t atone for an original sin.…
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Healing and Unconditional Love
Love without Conditions This column about unconditional love may be difficult to read, especially now when Valentine’s Day turns our minds to romance, flowers, and chocolate. The love expressed in greeting cards tends to be schmaltzy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. Diamonds and sweet treats can compliment the faithfulness, determination, and strength that forge a love that can stand up to hardship and mockery. As we read in First Corinthians: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.…
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The Way, Truth, Life: A Study in Universalism
The Best Way During my first year of seminary, I took a class on pluralism. I expected it to be something of a world religions course, one that taught us about other faiths so we could learn to live peacefully with those who believe differently than we do. After all, it seemed to me, when you live in a pluralistic country, you should be able to get along with people who aren’t like you. To my surprise, the course, while it did explore other religions, focused on how Christians could best preach the Jesus’s message to these nonbelievers. After all, everyone except I understood that Jesus was the way and…
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Little Bighorn and Healing from Our Past
The Beginning of the Great Sioux War In 1876, the United States started a new war with the Sioux Nation. They had been fighting off and on since the 1850s, but this was the final series of battles. Though the natives defeated Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn, slaughtering over half the troops who fought with him, a year later, in 1877, the United States military defeated them. Even though the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie guaranteed they could remain in the Black Hills in perpetuity, the Indians surrendered their lands and retired to the reservation. [1] So when did the hostilities start? Did this…
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Facing Our Shadows
A Seed Needs Darkness Though it is still January, the daffodils are sprouting. Buds are opening on the viburnum, the kale is thrusting forth new growth. It’s been weeks since the bird bath froze. What sort of winter is this? Obviously, we’re caught in the throes of a greenhouse effect, but no matter how warm the days, the pre-dawn darkness remains. I wake before sunrise to exercise the dog, relishing the silver glow of moonlight, the few stars that peek out from behind clouds, the hulking shadows of trees black against the steel sky. A stillness hangs over the morning. Darkness invites reflection, and reflection invites growth. For some people,…
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MLK and Restoring Justice
Speaking Out for Justice As we celebrate the ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr., we like to repeat his dream that one day his four children “will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” and that one day, even in Alabama where the racists are vicious, “little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and little white girls as sisters and brothers.” [1] He speaks of a glorious future when equality and freedom will flourish, from coast to coast and in every state. His words are poetic, passionate, and they fill us…
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Truth, Stages of Faith, and Our Political Divide
Living in a Parallel Universe What a week this has been. First, Raphael Warnock became the first black, and John Ossoff the first Jewish, men from Georgia to be elected to the United States Senate. Then, a mob, egged on by our president, broke into the Capitol building, thinking they had the power to stop the certification of the electoral college vote because Trump incorrectly implied that they did. Normally a routine ceremony, the certification was turned into a tedious farce by a few elected officials who chose to challenge the vote. They defended their actions by parroting the baseless claims of election fraud Trump has spouted for months, in…
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Fairness and the Need to Repair the World
It’s All the Same In my work as a chaplain, I often meet with patients who are suffering. Many are trying to come to terms with a sudden, debilitating illness. Young parents dying of cancer wonder how they will bear to leave their families. Homeless patients, still convalescing, end up back on the streets, scrabbling for assistance that can’t be found. Over and over, people tell me that it isn’t fair. They’re right, of course. Everyone knows life isn’t fair. So we invent stories to ease our pain. There’s a reason this happened, we might tell ourselves. We need to learn something, or God has something better in store for…