Reflecting on Theological Reflection

Kate Bradford

As I work and study as a chaplain, I continue to struggle to understand what is meant by the professional phrase Theological Reflection. There are a number of methods described, each usually begins with the chaplain re-entering a pastoral encounter, in an open non-judgemental manner, for the purpose of reflecting. The act of reflection focuses on images or feelings that surface in response to a: question, issue, tension, theme, problem or sense of wonderment arising out of the encounter.

Essentially the reflective activity begins with

a)      self: being particularly aware of intensity of feeling and emotional energy levels, elevated or depleted during and after the encounter

b)      viewed from different perspectives: i.e. other people involved in the encounter

c)       more broadly from familial and societal views related to tradition, culture and religion

d)      lastly, the theological perspective: seeking God’s wisdom prayerfully. Theological perspectives are explored through Biblical themes, insights, narratives, doctrines, subjects, motifs rather than proof texting or ‘chapter and verse’ quoting. The reflective process aims to find a theological focus that resonates with the situation, identifying new ways of thinking.

Reflection increases awareness of our personal values, attitudes, beliefs and assumptions and intentionally explores the dissonance between self, articulated beliefs and God in himself. The discipline of acknowledging both differentiation and integration is critical. Recognising that actual default settings (real self) are not identical to articulated belief systems (ideal self) is foundational to practices of safe ministry. Personal belief systems are ‘approximations’ that tend towards, but are neither complete nor identical with, Biblical truth.  A further layer of complication, is the limits and finitude of understanding of self, others and God. There is a need to mind the gap.

Because the activity essentially begins anthropologically and focuses on an experiential dimension, this type of reflection is probably more accurately described as an activity of honest personal reflection in conversation with theology.

There is great value in reflection around pastoral encounters. The disciplined approach guards against jumping too quickly to a final Biblical assessment that

a)      theologises – attempting to provide an answer/solution that preserves God sovereignty

b)      spiritualises – denies the reality of the pain being experienced by the sufferer by neutralising the suffering, or

c)       allegorises – attempts to lessen the pain by re-casting or reinterpreting the situation, often minimising suffering.

Careful personal reflection helps guard against possible imposition, dismissal and manipulation. There is a real danger that the Bible may be co-opted to support a partial or poorly informed theological position if the reflector acts to rescue God, or to minimise personal discomfort.

There may also be a need to acquire ‘negative capabilities’. That is learning to live with half-knowing, capable of ‘being’ in uncertainties, living with mysteries, doubts and the things not revealed, without irritation and even the occasional ‘willing suspension of dis-belief’.[1]

Stephen Pattison suggests a three stranded conversation between

a)      the event or situation

b)      beliefs and assumptions drawn from the Bible and Christian tradition

c)       the reflector’s own ideas, beliefs, feelings, perceptions and assumptions.[2]

Gordon Oliver suggests an alternate model of hospitality, where the reflector is the guest of the Bible, as are the psychologist, sociologist and other invited strangers. In this model not all participants are equal partners in the discussion as each is subjected to the Bible’s wisdom.[3]

For theological reflection to be truly theological, the Bible cannot be just one participant in the conversation, but must be the interpretive key of all the other aspects.

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[1] Judith Thompson with Stephen Pattison and Ross Thompson, SCM Study Guide To Theological Reflection, (SCM: London), 2008. p 102-4.

 

[2] Thompson with Pattison & Thompson, 2008. p 61.

[3] Gordon Oliver, Holy Bible, Human Bible: Questions Pastoral Practice Must Ask. Eerdmans 2006.  123-6.

Healing in the Epistle of James

The Rev Lindsay Johnstone, Chaplain Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney

In preparation for the Return of Christ, James 5: 7-18 gives encouragement to anyone who is in trouble, anyone who is happy and anyone who is sick. It speaks of patience, relationships, and the power of prayer. The passage exhorts those who are ill to seek healing prayer from the elders of the church (5:13-14). With regard to chaplaincy, this paper is not necessarily about what happens in the process of a visit[i], but rather about the underlying expectations, reflections and beliefs that the chaplain may have.

Healing Ministry depends on two strong and connected promises: The prayer of faith will heal the sick; and The Lord will raise him up.  They focus on what God will do, and what faith can accomplish. Christ and James used a Greek word which is translatable both as “heal” and “save”, e.g. “Your faith has saved you”. “Your faith has healed you”.[ii]

Prayer for Healing and for Forgiveness should go together.

Pastoral sensitivity is needed in dealing with these issues with patients. James 5: 16 reads: “confess your sins to one another and pray that you may be healed”. Some sickness is caused by sin, some by Satanic attack and mostly by living in the fallen world.

Pray with Affiance.

There is an exhortation to trust and to be patient. Job and Elijah are presented as examples of people like us – to indicate the importance of faith, of patience and empowerment in prayer. The Prayer of Faith cannot be inconsistent with Faith as Fruit of the Spirit[iii]. So the “prayer of faith” cannot be interpreted as the prayer of emotional intensity, or as a human effort to put increasing pressure upon the Almighty. It is produced by the Holy Spirit. It is characterised by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. James 4:3 emphasises the need to ask to receive. The faith being applied is supernatural faith given by grace by God – the same faith by which we were saved.[iv]. This faith is like a positive form of defiance. In fact there is an archaic English word for it. It is affiance[v]. It is a commitment to stand firm with persevering faith regardless of what is observable.[vi] 

Healing is a delegated activity of Christ through church elders.

Anoint with oil and pray with the authority of the promise – “the prayer of faith will heal the sick” and bring also assurance of forgiveness where this is needed. Mark 6: 13 (ESV) reads: And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. This is the only reference in the Gospels to anointing with oil. The context is Jesus sending out the Twelve with authority (Mark 6: 7). James sees this delegated authority from Christ being devolved onto the elders of the local church(es).[vii] The rite of anointing with oil should not be seen as obligatory. Christ never instituted it in the way in which he instituted Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. There is only one place in the New Testament where we are told that the apostles did it, but they often exercised the authority which anointing would symbolise. The holy anointing oil formed an integral part of the ordination of the priesthood, and of prophets and kings. In Hebrew and Greek the words for anointing with oil are cognate with the title Messiah or Christ.  Christ is the Anointed One, and James is saying that just as the apostles exercised this delegated authority from Christ to heal, so should the church elders. Healing is not merely prayed for but is also declared!

Along with the elders having authority from Christ to heal, verse 16 encourages group intercessions and petitions to God for healing and forgiveness.

Healing is presented as the will of God (in contrast to over-confident assertions about future life style activities which James 4: 13-17 says are contingent on the unknown will of God). “The prayer of faith will heal the sick and the Lord will raise him up. Because of the nature of the promise and because of the nature of faith, we should adhere to the instruction, live with paradoxes, and not change our prayer to conform to earthly visibility. Because flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God[viii], we shall die before Christ returns, but that death is within the process of overarching eternal healing. By faith we defy the limits of the present order. Because with Christ as head over the church God is currently in process of using the church within his plan to recapitulate all things[ix], we should expect in-breakings of the coming Kingdom, even in miraculous ways.

 

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[i] The ministry activity of James 5 depends upon it being asked for. No attempt should be made anywhere to manipulate it

or impose it. As with any other ministry by a chaplain, it is connected with the level of “contract” provided by the patient or

other client, and their response to any discussion which may arise; and to whatever level of instruction or preparation may

appropriately be provided by the chaplain.

[ii] Mark 10: 52; Luke 7: 52; Luke 17: 19.

[iii] Galatians 5: 2-23

[iv] “faith from the Son of God” Galatians 2: 20

[v] archaic “trust”, “confidence” Middle English, from Anglo-French, from affier to pledge, trust, from Medieval Latin affidare to pledge, from Latin ad- + Vulgar Latin *fidare to trust. (Merriam Webster);

 14th century - Piers Ploughman "Mine affiance and my feith is firm in his belive";

Litany in The Book of Common Prayer 1662 - prayer that the monarch "may ever more have affiance in thee and seek thy honour and glory".

[vi] Hebrews 11: 1-2. Faith is the title deed of property not yet in possession. The promise is the only evidence of the expected results still invisible.

[vii] Calling of the elders to pray over the sick is presented by James in such a way that it should be seen as part of universal church order, not just as an optional extra for healing services or for churches or groups that go for it.

[viii] 1 Corinthians 15: 50

[ix] (Ephesians 1 : 10-23)

Chaplaincy and Scripture

Kate Bradford

What is the relationship between Chaplaincy in the public space and scripture? At the very centre of Christian Chaplaincy is the word. The word orientates the chaplain in the world; the word directs the chaplain’s internal life and the word informs the chaplain’s ministry. Chaplaincy involves engagement with the world, fellowship with the church and communication with others beyond the reach of the local church.

Chaplains minister in a world created by the Word – chaplains are people who have been remade by the Word having accepted the offer a hope found in Jesus. A hope encapsulated in the message of scripture conveyed by a range of differing literary and narrative styles. 

1. It is the task of chaplaincy to engage with the world around, and to understand the relationship between word and world. The understanding draws on both the relationship between the people of God and the Nations in the Old Testament, and the followers of Jesus and the different societies surrounding them. Clarity is needed around the nature of the engagement, of what it is and what it is not. For example chaplaincy is neither evangelism nor structured teaching; it not advocacy, welfare or counselling but it is rather faithful engagement with the wider world, and exercise of civility and seeking the common good and an offer of radical hospitality and sharing of transforming hope in Jesus.

2. Chaplaincy ministry is an extension of the ministry of the local church. Chaplains are members of covenantal fellowships where the word of God is taught, believed and lived. Chaplains are in deep connection with their heavenly Father, in fellowship with other members of the community and have an honest assessment of their own spiritual life. All chaplaincies are firstly a ministry of prayer. Chaplains share out of an abundance of their transformed Christian lives not out of scarcity or absence; chaplains have accepted the hope of Jesus and live lives that respond to this hope and grace. There is no chaplaincy that is separate from Jesus and his fellowship of believers.

3. Chaplaincy ministry is cross-cultural communication. Crossing culture occurs at two levels, firstly the chaplain is crossing over into another person’s world and experience. Secondly chaplaincy is offered at times of change, dislocation and trauma, and the recipients themselves are often away from home and familiar circumstances struggling with a form of culture-shock. Chaplaincy is offered to people experiencing some form of loss due to internment, hospitalisation, aging, failing health, deployment, relocation and displacement. The combination of cultural change and loss means most people being contacted are also vulnerable people.    

The chaplains form connections and communities within this space of loss of cultural dislocation. Listening to another is vital to forming connections and communication requiring great sensitivity to the needs and concerns of the other.  To be able to prayerfully share the hope of Jesus in the midst of loss and disorientation requires that the chaplain have a solid grasp of the diversity of biblical genres and styles. Spiritual communication requires the ability to work with both the the narrative of scripture and with people who have little or no familiarity with scripture or conversely those who know God but feel that he has abandoned them.     

Chaplaincy is an interdisciplinary ministry that overlaps with the humanities and social sciences. As such the study of chaplaincy requires acceptance of and familiarity with requirements and regulations of the public space.  Self-awareness and personal development are critical keys to safe ministry. Communication in chaplaincy borrows from the fields of linguistics, narrative studies, grief and loss models and learning styles in addition to mission studies, spiritual formation, biblical studies and theology.

In any system of chaplaincy training there must be rigour and wisdom around the use of social and psychological models used and continuing evaluation of these models against scripture with reference to chaplaincy engagement in the public space, chaplaincy as an activity and extension of the fellowship of the local church and chaplaincy as communication of the transforming hope that only Jesus brings.

Some Aspects of Prayer within Chaplaincy

Rev Lindsay Johnstone, Chaplain, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney

Prayer is about seeking the in-breaking of eternity into the person and pilgrimage of the patient, and without placing limits on what God will do in response to faith.  As representatives of confederations of local churches, we are delegated to assist them with their fulfilment of the Great Commission in the process of making disciples, which includes both nurture and one-on-one sharing of the Gospel, whenever the patient accepts this from us. Wide experience shows that observance of hospital protocols does not, in actual practice, hinder opportunities for gospel opportunities. A patient said, “I’m glad you came. I want to get through the operation this afternoon and I want my sins forgiven”. Sadly, another patient responded to the offer of a gospel with, “Frankly, I would not be one bit interested.” The first responded fully to prayer with him. Prayer for the second patient was offered only privately and in another place later.

Prayer is obviously a major part of the armoury of a Christian chaplain (Ephesians 6: 18). A source of joy for chaplains is the frequency with which we minister openly and pray with a patient – whether a patient is coming to faith for the first time, or is being restored from a long spiritual wilderness, or wrestling with a major challenge.  When no such opening occurs, there are countless opportunities to go away and pray silently and alone about what a visit has shown of a patient’s situation. 

Although Biblical teaching on prayer has always had the same meaning since the documents were written, our understanding and application of this teaching can keep expanding as long as we are willing to keep growing. I want to emphasise a number of perspectives, bearing in mind that they are not new.

Prayer is bold and should not be timid. Hebrews 4: 14-16 and Romans 8: 14-38 encourage us to approach boldly. We are adopted “sons of God” and “joint heirs with Christ”. Although the Father is King of kings and Lord of lords, and although the majesty of his dignity and presence makes a Westminster Abbey coronation pale into insignificance by comparison, and although he is therefore profoundly worthy of our honour and obeisance (Hallowed be His Name); - yet are we encouraged boldly and intimately to come and address him as our loving Heavenly Father. There is no spiritual value in praying, “We just ask this” and “we just ask that”. You will search the prayers of the Bible and the prayers in a major liturgical resource The Book of Common Prayer and never find such a prayer. Only the child of an abusive parent would ever ask Dad or Mum, “I just ask, if it be your will, I just ask that we might just go fishing (etc)…!” So why pray to God that way? Whilst there are some instances in the New Testament where a prayer asks that something may happen, there is nothing wrong with sometimes asking that something will happen. If the prayer is believed to be based on a real Biblical statement, command or promise, then why not ask boldly? The Lord will not smite you!

Prayer is not a timid plea. It is a bold entry into the presence of the Father, enabled by the victory of the Son who now intercedes for us at the right hand of God. We can pray like Elijah (James 5: 17-18). If he can pray regarding the rain or about major obstacles in a patient’s life, so can we. (Elijah was not just a great prophet, but he was also an ordinary person like us!)

Audible prayer in the presence of a patient should be in accordance with the level of understanding that the patient is likely to own or to follow. It should certainly not be done in a way that overrides their will or fights their known belief. If a patient wishes to pray in a particular way that the patient may or may not be familiar with, it is appropriate (if the patient allows the opportunity) to suggest a way of praying, relate it to Scripture, and be guided by the response. Some patients have accepted the offer of anointing with oil on the basis of James 5, but one patient declined on the basis that “our church does not do that”!

Intercessory Prayer is a key aspect of Chaplaincy. What a chaplain hears while with a patient may affect how the chaplain will pray after leaving the presence of the patient.  Prayer calls forth the in-breakings of the powers of the age to come.  Away from the patient, or praying silently and inwardly, we can bind the disbelief and evil that has attacked the patient (Matthew 18: 18-20). See also James 4: 7 and 1 Peter 5:8-9. A chaplain may bind a spirit of unbelief that is hindering the patient from being willing to believe. The private intercessory ministry of the chaplain is a ministry of undermining the aspects of the world value system that would keep patients within the limits and even the tyranny of bondage to the five senses and the results of medical science alone. Where a patient has declined a visit or has expressed disbelief, one’s prayer can be for the Lord to speak to the patient’s heart and give that patient a revelation of the truth, a conviction of sin and also of the love of God – and hence an opportunity for the patient to respond (whether alone or not).

Prayer is not a religious band-aid. Prayer is not about putting a religious veneer or an imprimatur on the work of medical science, although we do pray for scientific advances, and for wisdom for medicos. Neither is prayer just about an emotional or spiritually aesthetic coating upon the experience of a patient, although we pray for physical, emotional and spiritual peace for patients; and also for healing.

 
Prayer is a dynamic expression of a supernatural faith response, done in the resurrection power of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1: 13-14, 19-20). May it increasingly be an habitual intimate practice of the presence of God as we move about from person to person in the exercise of the ministry – and before and after we have been with folk.  1 Thessalonians 5: 17 encourages us to “pray without ceasing”, which promotes a life-style of seeking to connect with the Lord in spirit and in mind wherever we are and in whatever we are doing.

My 1st 10 weeks as a Chaplain- What I Have Learnt

by Charlie Brammall

It seems to me that a Chaplain’s core business is:

·         to pray for patients’ healing- physical emotional and spiritual

·         develop real friendships with them, their families & staff, &

·         to be able to answer any questions they have about Jesus.

But it is also to try and make it easier for them to share her feelings. And if a patient initiates s a question about Jesus, that gives us “permission” to answer their it. And if I pray for that to happen, and God provides it, it’s a very exciting opportunity!

It seems to me that we don’t just care for people’s emotional & spiritual needs, but their intellectual & even physical needs (to an extent) as well. We listen to them actively & reflectively, empathise with them, and are interested in their feelings about everything they are going through- physically, emotionally, spiritually, medically, intellectually, occupationally & financially. But we don’t try to solve their problems practically like a social worker does. And we don’t bring our own agenda to the relationship, except to help them express their emotions. We are willing to stay with them as long as it is helpful for them, but we don’t try to “counsel” them, ie change their thoughts, beliefs or feelings. We aim to pray with them if it’s appropriate. And we never promise that we’ll visit again, but say we’ll “try to”. We are aware of the potential for power imbalance, as we look like hospital “officials” & can seem like we’re giving them no choice about seeing us or taking our advice.

Patients are affected by illness & pain, and this also affects our relationship with them. That is, we try & work with whatever material they give us, & match their level of emotion. So we often need to be quiet, subdued, slow & measured, in order to gently introduce them to the “Great Healer”. Sometimes their whole experience of life is related to their illness- they are confused, fearful, ignorant, anxious & worried; but sometimes, also interested in Jesus.

Our relationships with patients are often short term, as the average length of stay for someone in POW is 2.6 days. So God may be giving patients an opportunity they might never have again (with a Chaplain) to ask about Jesus. Sometimes they urgently want to talk about Jesus. So we try to do that lovingly, appropriately, unconditionally and naturally. If a patient has no interest in Jesus, we are still just as willing to chat to them unconditionally about what they do want to talk about. This leaves them with a great impression of a Christian.

We also aim to provide the 6 functions of pastoral care- healing, guidance, support, reconciliation, nurture, liberation, and empowerment. This is often by answering a patient’s questions about Jesus, and the spiritual blessings he has achieved in his death & resurrection. Answering people’s questions about Jesus can be the most loving way to care for them pastorally.

As we care for people, we try not to ask them questions to draw them out, as questions carry our agenda not theirs, & put them on the spot and pressure them- so it’s counter productive. So we try and use alternatives, like making observations about physical things, “seem to be” statements, “I” statements, “tell me about” statements, vocalized sounds, body language, “I imagine” statements, and general statements.

One of our roles is to answer people’s questions about Jesus as the ultimate solution to their emotional and spiritual pain, loss and anxiety… and as the ultimate source of their fulfilment, joy and meaning- especially spiritual. We also try to help them know love, both as something to be received and something to give, in order to relieve them of their sorrow & alienation from God, and present them perfect in Christ to God. We try, through words, actions and relationships, to introduce them to God and his love as deeply as possible in their lives. Chaplaincy is person-centred care that complements the other helping disciplines, while paying particular attention to spiritual & emotional care. It is caring for people in the power of Jesus’ death & resurrection, in whatever situation they find themselves, and "walking with them along their path".

Our role with other staff is to encourage & pray with the Christians, & model Christ-likeness, humility, gentleness & generosity for unbelievers. We pray for and with them, for their needs, and that they will have questions about Jesus. We complement their medical skills and training with our training in emotional and spiritual care. We are part of the care team with them, so patients receive the best possible chance of recovery. And we aim to develop real friendships with staff, so we can care for them, including spiritually. We try to leave them with a warm, positive, responsible & sensitive experience of a Christian, so they will associate Jesus with us, & hopefully have their boring, hypocritical, out of touch & judgemental stereotype of Christians defused. We do this by being relational, real & person-centred- not officious or critical.

So what has my journey been as a new Chaplain after 10 weeks? Well, the novelty of visiting people has begun to wear off, which is good, as it forces me to face up to the hard work of Chaplaincy. It has also given me a conviction that Chaplaincy is valuable & I need to commit to it long term, even when it’s no longer novel & exciting. Visiting has become harder as I’ve become more familiar with it, as I now know what to expect when visiting particular patients, including what I will find difficult, boring, confronting etc. So I’m becoming more realistic about it, which is good. I can understand the attraction for Chaplains to move away from visiting, into a variety of other related activities, like admin, training, etc. But I know I wouldn’t be good at those things, so I want to preserve the priority of visiting at all costs. I do love visiting, and I’m very grateful to God for giving me this job in which I can play to my strengths, and not do the sort of things I’m not strong at and find stressful. But if I need to keep putting my trust in God to strengthen me to pastor people, or the wheels will definitely fall off. So I want to pray more about my work, and more intelligently & faithfully. I sometimes find it confronting to visit patients with certain illnesses. But in God’s grace I recently visited someone with one of these illnesses, and for some reason He defused my fear of visiting those patients. God is indeed good.

What areas do I want to keep working on into the future? I want to learn how to put wise and helpful boundaries in place with patients. But also dismantle inappropriate boundaries like my reticence to visiting people with certain conditions. And I want to keep working on not asking questions, but practicing a variety of empathic reflections instead. I want to think about how I can develop & improve our weekly Chapel services for patients & staff, and think about starting a regular Chapel service in the Psych ward. I would like to be the Chaplaincy representative on the hospital Palliative Care Committee, and add a spiritual perspective to it. Chaplaincy is great! God is even better! I can’t wait for the next 10 weeks. And the next 10 years!

Chaplaincy: A Ministry of Waiting on Tables?

Kate Bradford

Chaplaincy, as a 21^st century ministry within public institutions is a modern phenomenon, however it’s not an entirely new thing. Chaplaincy shares continuity with a rich 2000 year old tradition of Christian ministry to the sick and infirm, poor and dispossessed. There is no exact counterpart in the 1^st century church, yet several portions of scripture describe scenarios and ministries providing insights and principles that help build up a theological framework around late-modern chaplaincy.   

One such passage is Acts 6 providing an account of a crisis within the Early Church. The church had grown rapidly and was facing problems of internal conflict when the Grecian Jewish members of the community complained that the Aramaic members of the community were overlooking the Grecian widows in the food distribution.

The twelve Apostles who had witnessed Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection were concerned that  they were being torn between teaching the fledging church, prayer and food distribution, or as they say ‘waiting on tables’. There were two sorts of ministry on view: teaching and instructing the community and attending to more specific and individual needs. In order not to neglect either ministry the apostles appointed seven members who were known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom to attend to these individual needs within the community. The seven are Greek, the most notable being Stephen who is described as being full of faith and the Holy Spirit. The apostles set these people apart for this serving ministry and prayed for them.

The most notable difference between chaplaincy and this account is that the Greek widows were members of the Christian community and within the church. In contrast, chaplaincy in public institutions is to all people, yet there are principles and similarities that remain constant in both circumstances. The Grecian widows were a needy disenfranchised ethnic minority who had suffered from discrimination and multiple losses: spouse, independence, financial security, and ‘place’. The apostles saw the needs of these people and determined that special provisions needed to be made to care for this group. This ministry was separate from the teaching ministry, but not in place of teaching but alongside a teaching ministry. In other places a similar alongside ministry is described as hospitality – nonreciprocal love for the foreigner or stranger.

People within public institutions are very often similarly disenfranchised by illness, age, incarceration, displacement or deployment. The effect of this disenfranchisement requires a different type of care, more focused on individual situations. Chaplaincy is radical Christian hospitality that has much in common with the ministry of the seven set aside by the apostles in Acts.

·         Chaplaincy is a gospel ministry that is separate from and additional to teaching ministries

·         Chaplaincy is an outward focused ministry of a church community

·         Chaplains or those engaged in hospitality are Christian ministers on special assignments

·         Chaplaincy is a ministry undergirded by prayer

·         Chaplains must be able to handle the Word of God competently and appropriately in a ministry that is neither teaching nor preaching

·         Caring for people with particular needs is costly and time consuming

Chaplaincy is a ministry of the whole Christian community; chaplains are people of the word and prayer who are set aside in order to care for individuals who are suffering loss. Chaplains understand the subtle nuances of the shape of a distinctive Biblical ministry to vulnerable people in the public sphere in order to share hope with those suffering loss and disenfranchisement.

If the set-apart seven of Acts 6 were happy to be waiters-on-tables then we who come much later share a privilege to be invited to follow in their steps.

The Man of Sorrows Comforting in Disaster

Reflections at a hospital chapel on 15 November, 2013 in a Service of Prayer for the Philippines Following the Haiyan (Yolanda) Typhoon.

The Rev. Lindsay Johnstone, Chaplain of Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney.

 

Jesus wept.

Jesus wept when a friend died.

Jesus wept, though he had seemed to be preoccupied when he first heard of the illness of his friend.

Jesus wept when he had been known to be a miraculous healer, but had let his friend die.

Jesus wept outside the cave where his friend dead for four days was now buried.[i]

Jesus wept,  but Jesus was not powerless.

Jesus wept in the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before civil and religious abusers nailed him to the Cross where he cried out, "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"[ii]

Dear sisters and brothers, of ourselves alone, we do not know, we cannot tell why thousands died in an horrendous typhoon from which no one could run. We do not know why countless thousands more lost their partners, parents, children, grandchildren and friends. We cannot tell why they suddenly lost their homes and material possessions, their jobs, their roles in life, their dreams, their safety, their health or any certainty of medical help; or even any apparent reason to find any meaning in Christ and God the Father whom many of them worship and have worshipped for years.

We cannot, of ourselves, tell why it was they who suffered so horrendously, nor why it is not we instead. Why them and not us? Why anyone?

We can say only what Almighty God has said. And we can say with any objective confidence of truth only what is in the Scriptures or reflects the Bible's revelation.

We sang that though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for the Good Shepherd is leading me to his eternal banquet.

Jesus wept.

God did not push anyone into the valley of death. It happened partly because we live in an incredibly unfair and dangerous world, which increasingly shows the decay fostered by the universal stain of human sin. It happened partly also because Satan and his demonic forces still roam around the world seeking someone to devour.

It is unfair and inexplicable to the five senses alone-like the flames of a bushfire that takes two houses and mysteriously misses the house between them.

Yet the evil of this present world did not miss out on violating and taking the life of the very and eternal Son of God, the Man Jesus whose human birth we celebrate at Christmas- and whose mangled, bleeding and abused body dangled for three hours on a cross at Calvary.

Brothers and sisters, he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, one from whom men and women hide their faces. But in the plan of God he was not powerless to establish a coming new order- even at the point of his deepest rejection. "Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was bruised for our sins, and by his stripes we were healed", as the Prophet Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 53.[iii]

Because as our substitute he carried our sins and illnesses, all our losses and our tragedies, he will within the new order where eternity defies and heals the ravages of time - he will eternally wipe away all tears from our eyes - where there is no more sickness, sorrow, death or tragedy.

In the meantime, in the present, because he was resurrected from the dead he is the Good Shepherd, and he is leading us through the valley of the shadow of death. Without any naive or callous understatement or undervaluing the plight of precious suffering folk- many of whom are your own - we may within heart-tearing pain, numbness, anger and confusion call upon Christ to heal, restore and rebuild.

The ability to trust him, the faith to believe is a supernatural gift from God that defies all the senses. Because the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, he is speaking to your heart and will. Let him in. Let him pour into your heart the empowering love of God and impart within you and all of us a new hope and the rekindling energy that this will bring.

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[i] John 11:1-44

[ii] Mark 14: 33;15:34

[iii] Isaiah 53: 3-5