Consolation Series - Part 12

Yahweh is my rock,
my fortress,
and my deliverer, even mine;
God is my rock in whom I take refuge;
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my high tower, and my refuge.
My savior, you save me from violence.
I call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
For the waves of death surrounded me.
The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
 The cords of Sheol were around me.
The snares of death caught me.
In my distress, I called on Yahweh.
Yes, I called to my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple.
My cry came into his ears.
Then the earth shook and trembled.
The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken,
because he was angry.
Smoke went up out of his nostrils.
Consuming fire came out of his mouth.
Coals were kindled by it.
 He bowed the heavens also and came down.
Thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub and flew.
Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.
 He made darkness a shelter around himself:
gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
At the brightness before him,
coals of fire were kindled.
Yahweh thundered from heaven.
The Most High uttered his voice.
He sent out arrows, and scattered them;
lightning, and confused them.
Then the channels of the sea appeared.
The foundations of the world were laid bare by Yahweh’s rebuke,
at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
He sent from on high and he took me.
He drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
They came on me in the day of my calamity,
but Yahweh was my support.
He also brought me out into a large place.
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
For you are my lamp, Yahweh.
Yahweh will light up my darkness.
For by you, I run against a troop.
By my God, I leap over a wall.
As for God, his way is perfect.
Yahweh’s word is tested.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
For who is God, besides Yahweh?
Who is a rock, besides our God?
God is my strong fortress.
He makes my way perfect.
He makes his feet like hinds’ feet,
and sets me on my high places.
He teaches my hands to war,
so that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
You have also given me the shield of your salvation.
Your gentleness has made me great.
You have enlarged my steps under me.
My feet have not slipped.
Yahweh lives!
Blessed be my rock!
Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,
Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me.
You deliver me from the violent man.
Therefore, I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations,
and will sing praises to your name.
He gives great deliverance to his king,
and shows loving kindness to his anointed,
to David and to his offspring, forever more.

2 Samuel 22:2-20, 29-37, 47, 49-51

As David nears the end, he surveys his life and finds God was with him all the time, as promised.  When David was in trouble, God roused Himself to a fury to protect His own, laying bare the very foundations of the earth.  David was not immune from suffering: He had lost his favorite son and was overcome with grief. And being God’s beloved didn’t inspire him to be particularly virtuous all the time, as he arranged for the death of Uriah so that he could continue his relations with Bathsheba.  But David was always sure of God’s loving gaze.  









Consolation Series- Part 11

David took his staff in his hand and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook and put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag which he had. His sling was in his hand; and he came near to Goliath, the Philistine. The Philistine walked and came near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him. When the Philistine looked around and saw David he disdained him; for he was but a youth.  The Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” The Philistine cursed David by his gods.  The Philistine said to David, “Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field.”

Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.  Today, Yahweh will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and kill you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines today to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear; for the battle is Yahweh’s, and he will give you into our hand.”

When the Philistine arose, and walked and came near to meet David, David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

1 Samuel 17:40-48

David represents God’s beloved; outmatched, outgunned and with virtually no chance of success against the troubles he faces.    

Nonetheless, David delivers his inspiring, confident war cry and then runs headlong against his enemy.

God will not necessarily deliver us from the cause of our suffering (“Yahweh doesn’t save with sword and spear”).  But in the end, the day will be His and the day will be ours.  In the story of Noah and the Ark, the Flood did not represent the judgment of God, it represented Chaos.  God did not make Creation from nothing, but rather drew it out of Chaos - dividing light from dark, night from day, earth from water, and finally humanity from earth.  Chaos will return in each of our lives, but God tells us it does not have to sink us.  He will invite us to float over it until it recedes and dutifully close the door of the Ark behind us.

This Good Friday, we might feel outmatched and outgunned by COVID-19. Our lives feel chaotic, with no real sense of what the future holds for us.

Knowing that we are the beloved of God means that we never suffer alone and we don’t have to let suffering demean us.  We can run headlong into it. 

Image: David & Goliath, Caravaggio (1600)
















Consolation Series - Part 10

There is no one as holy as Yahweh,
for there is no one besides you,
nor is there any rock like our God.

The bows of the mighty men are broken.
Those who stumbled are armed with strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread.
Those who were hungry are satisfied.
Yes, the barren has borne seven.
She who has many children languishes.

Yahweh makes poor and makes rich.
He brings low, he also lifts up.
He raises up the poor out of the dust.
He lifts up the needy from the dunghill
to make them sit with princes
and inherit the throne of glory.
For the pillars of the earth are Yahweh’s.
He has set the world on them.
He will keep the feet of his holy ones,
and no man will prevail by strength.

1 Samuel 2:2, 3-5,7-10

One of the most prominent themes in Scripture is that God is with those who suffer. It manifests itself in every book of the Bible in one way or another. 

Heroes are always the smallest, the morally compromised, the second born:  Moses, chosen by God to be His chief negotiator with Pharaoh, is a stutterer.  Jacob, later to be renamed Israel and father of the twelve tribes, was the second born and obtained his older brother’s birthright and blessing by fraud.  David, chosen to be king of Israel, was out in a field shepherding sheep when the promising candidates were lined up for selection, and the thing with Uria was pretty disgraceful. 

Also, God always concerns Himself with those the widows and the orphans. Jesus concerns himself with the sinners and tax collectors, the prodigal sons, the lost sheep, the poor and the sick.

We’ve heard this so often, the existential shock of it has worn off.  Historically, God’s competition was Ba’al.  According to the Canaanite mythology that Judaism replaced, Ba’al was a fertility god and demanded the execution and immolation of first born children to appease him.  It is said that the valley outside Jerusalem, Gehenna, stank from the smoking pyres of human sacrifice.  Ba’al, like every pagan god before him, clearly favored the strong, the wealthy, and the powerful.   

When, in the fullness of time, God revealed himself, he announced that He was different.  God favored those who could not defend themselves and found themselves brought low. 

This is our God.













Consolation Series - Number 9

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel. You shall tell them:

May God bless you and keep you.
May the light of His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.’

So shall you invoke My name to the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Numbers 6:22-27

Every Sunday night before we sit down to eat, my wife and I place our hands on our daughter’s head and recite this ancient blessing.

It is not so much an attempt to get God to do something, but a recognition that He has already done it. As the descendants of Abraham, we can claim the ancient promise God made to him.  This is the covenant, so often repeated, and so often confirmed throughout the Biblical narrative – that God will always suffer with us and love us.  Though the universe is vast and often seems capricious and cold, we are never alone.







Consolation Series - Number 8

For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. Yahweh didn’t set His love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples; but because Yahweh loves you, and because He desires to keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, Yahweh has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.  Know, therefore, that Yahweh your God Himself is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations. Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which He swore to your fathers.  He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you.  You will be blessed above all peoples. There won’t be male or female barren among you, nor among your livestock.

Deuteronomy 7:6-9, 12-14

This is an extraordinary statement of divine acceptance.  God chose Abraham at random to be the recipient of God’s eternal blessing and covenant. Abraham had not yet demonstrated any virtue and would, over the course of the story, be a model of vice as much as virtue.  Here again God states that He does not choose us because we have been particularly deserving or have stood out to Him at all.  God goes on to say His covenant will survive anything and is practically irrevocable.  He asserts that it would take at least a thousand generations of uninterrupted sin to rouse Him to the least indignation. 

As Paul Tillich wrote:

You are accepted! You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know.  Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later.  Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much.  Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything.  Simply accept the fact that you are accepted![i] 




Image: The pale blue dot on the right is Earth taken by Voyager I twenty-five years ago from 3.7 billion miles away




The Nature of Consolation

For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain - these three. The greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13:12-13

Usually, plants sprout and grow spontaneously and organically.  We don't really need to understand or even think about the processes that are going on to make it happen.  But sometimes we need a plant to grow in an artificial environment.  Then it is important to know how the process works naturally and what the component parts are so we can make it happen synthetically.

Usually, we find ways to sooth our stresses spontaneously and organically.  We don't really need to understand or even think about the processes that are going on to make it happen. But now we are in isolation from one another facing a serious disease and an uncertain future. There is value in thinking about how we find consolation naturally so that maybe we can recreate it in our new, challenging circumstances.  

It seems to me we find consolation in three ways: in solitude, in communion with God, and in community with each other.

Consolation in Solitude.  This is the specialty of Buddhism and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. It also appears in Christian Scripture and tradition.  It boils down to deliberately thinking in ways that reduce stress and, because the mind is influenced by the body, physically behaving in ways that do the same thing.  Most Christians are familiar with the Serenity Prayer (“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to accept the things I can and wisdom to know the difference”).  In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus made the distinctly Buddhist statement, “therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own”. And relatedly, “consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin”.  I know there is a great deal of allegiance to the idea that the content of The Lord’s Prayer is beautiful, but I really don’t agree.  What makes it profoundly comforting is that it is easily memorized and recited at a moment of stress, and instantly places the speaker in the content of the divine and eternal. It pushes stressful, damaging thoughts aside.  All these thoughts and actions tend to relieve stress.

Communion with God. A person of faith never feels alone. Perhaps the boldest assertion of faith is that if you have faith you will find a joy not accessible any other way and of exceptional power. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7) This is the great disconnect between atheists and agnostics on one hand and people of faith on the other.  The former believes we are waiting for consolation from God through a miraculous change in circumstances or a turn in luck.  We know our consolation lies in simply abiding with God.

Consolation in Community.  Finally, there is consolation in community.  The Harvard Study of Adult Development has concluded that close friendship is the best predictor of health.  A good friend of mine who is a social worker for a metropolitan school system says that when he is presented with a deeply depressed student, he tries to reconnect them to their social group. This is the dynamic that caused the early Christian church to sweep the globe.   In John’s retelling of the Last Supper, there is no mention of a Eucharistic liturgy and he offers no new theology.  Instead, Jesus lays out how cultivating community will spread the Gospel.  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35  

Consolation in isolation corresponds roughly to “hope”, consolation in communion with God corresponds roughly to “faith”, and consolation in community corresponds roughly to “love”. We would expect St. Paul to value faith – communion with God - over any other consolation. But he says the greatest of these is love. We are social beings.  The isolation that has been imposed on us is very difficult to bear and deprives us of the most reliable and strongest means of consoling ourselves and each other

I don’t know how to overcome this new obstacle to community.  The threat of COVID-19 is a dark cloud that is hard to shake in isolation.  I appreciate the efforts of churches to provide remote services and sermons, but no mass-produced online content has successfully taken the place of physical proximity for me.  Fortunately, the situation is unpleasant but not overwhelming so far.  I am fortunate in that I am only in relative isolation and still have the community of family. I suppose the best we can do is to cultivate and rely on the other two forms of consolation and to be sensitive to the needs of those who are not in isolation with family members, or do not have access to the other two forms of consolation.

Photo: Rembrandt's St. Paul








Consolation Series - COVID-19


My hero is Fred Rogers of Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.  What I find particularly compelling about him is that he crafted his way of living independently.  He obviously took strong cues from his faith, but on that foundation, he built a beautifully lived life.  Any one of us could imitate how he behaved.  It would be exceptionally hard, but doable. But how many of us could invent a genuinely beautiful life from whole cloth as he did?  In one of his biographies, he told a story about his mother.  When young Fred saw scary things on the news, his mother would say to him, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”  


Well, there are scary things on the news.   What is truly extraordinary is that we are all helpers.  Every one of us has risk of a worst-case scenario, but in all likelihood for the vast majority of us, COVID-19 will not make us seriously ill.  We are all living in isolation to protect the vulnerable. That is extraordinarily noble when you think about it.  Collectively, we are allowing the global economy to falter and collapse for the same high purpose: to ease human suffering and loss of life.  The scope and breadth of this act of compassion has no precedent in human history.  If you look for the helpers, you need not look far.

It is easy to do the opposite. We can focus on those who refuse to isolate themselves or engage in other behavior that risks the health and lives of others.  Those decisions may have serious consequences for the people they encounter.  They are a tiny minority by any standard. Because of the way our media is structured (both news media and social media), those stories will have dramatically exaggerated prevalence. Additionally, the human mind is evolved to have a tendency toward negativity in order to protect us from bad people and bad situations.  The human mind is also evolved to seek intimacy and community. The easiest, cheapest form of intimacy and community is through anger. That kind of intimacy never lasts and doesn’t support resilient happiness.  It is short-sighted self-soothing - like everything that we do even though we know it will bring us down. People who invite anger are out there. It’s up to us whether their influence on us is proportional and wise.  

Much has gone well.  The seriousness of the virus was identified swiftly and extraordinary measures to ‘flatten the curve’ were put in place very quickly almost universally. Much has admittedly gone less well. One would have thought every federal government around the world and every hospital and senior care facility would have stockpiled protective gear for a pandemic. Will anger about it in the midst of the pandemic do any genuine good?  Will retaliation afterward do any genuine good?

I have been avoiding news and social media for several months.  I find it is a poisonous influence. Nowadays, I think its probably important to keep up with current events, so I have been back.  There is a lot of anger out there.  Or at least there appears to be a lot of anger out there.  Those who are consumed with anger, or who habitually seek intimacy through anger, are out in full force.  It probably seems vitally important, righteous and justified to them. Anger always does. It is all worse than useless.  All these professional and amateur pundits are managing to do is poison their own minds and the minds of those of us reading their material.

There is a sacred, liminal quality to this time.  Much good is being done, and much compassion is being shown.  Maybe more importantly, much suffering is occurring and many thousands of members of the human family will not survive the next few weeks and months.  We can use this time reflexively producing anger and consuming it. Or we can try to embrace the inherent sanctity of this moment.  

Look for the helpers.







Photo: Earthrise from the Moon