All things to all people, that I might win some!

1 Corinthians 9:19-24 (TMNT) “Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!”

This reflection is the result of a visit that I had with a very confused lady in her mid-sixties, who also happens to be Catholic. They had not yet determined the reason for her confusion, and it was becoming more pronounced by the hour. Over the course of 15-plus minutes, I could not keep her oriented to who I was and where we were (if not so serious, it would have been a very funny experience). However, I have not been able to get this situation off my mind, and therefore I will write the essence of my reflection.

While there, she thought that I was many things: doctor, priest, neighbor, relative, nurse, stranger, chaplain, and more. Because she was so confused, she also did not hesitate to speak her mind, much to the embarrassment of her daughter. She asked me if I was her priest, and when I said no, she asked me what religion I was. When I answered Pentecost, she responded with, “Oh, you’re one of those that speak in tongues.” I then asked her if she felt like she would like a Catholic Sister to visit her. She said, “Yes, I would like communion.” She then became very puzzled that a Catholic Sister and a Pentecostal minister could be chaplains together. I then tried to explain to her that both the Catholic Sister and myself visited with people, regardless of their faith, and if a specific need arose, we would contact each other. To try and explain, I offered the following example, “If a Catholic wants communion, I contact a Sister to fulfill that wish, and I suppose that if Sr. Mary was visiting a Pentecostal [I was fishing for an example she would appreciate] that wanted to speak in tongues, she might ask me to visit them.” There is quite a bit of humor here considering this lady was very confused.

This little interaction has provided me with many chuckles over the last week, but also a whole lot of reflection about who I am to the people I visit, and can I be “…all things to all people that I might [help] some?” Paul’s words, expanded by The Message Bible, expressed his desire to be a wide range of things, “whoever,” with the simple caveat to keep one’s self oriented in Christ. While communion and speaking in tongues are both Biblical experiences, they are not my missions while a chaplain. Yes, both may happen at times, but the important thing is to be a servant that attempts to lead people into a ‘God-oriented’ experience, taking them from wherever and whomever they are and pointing them towards God. I stand at the bedside as neither Catholic nor Pentecostal, but rather as an ambassador of God’s goodwill to all woman/mankind, whoever they may be.

It is not always easy to lay aside who I am and forget my particular brand, title, experiences, and/or traditions. As chaplain I am not there for me, but rather I am there for the patient lying in the bed. My time there must be spent focusing on where the patient is and how they might come closer in both faith and experience to the Christ of the Scriptures. I must draw from the resources of who they are and the traditions that are loved and meaningful to them and point them to a living God who is both present and interested in their situation. They are not forgotten, rejected, or abandoned, but rather sought after, loved, and succored by Christ.

Do this and you’ll live!

The parable of the Good Samaritin (Luke 10:26-37) is my favorite passage from the Bible, about which I have spent a tremendous amount of time reflecting and writing, and the guiding light of both my life and my ministry. Time, energy, and space will limit the points I wish to make, so I will try and limit them to how they impact my ministry as a chaplain. First, consideration will be given to the place of the neighbor in the context of chaplaincy; second, an examination into the preparation of the chaplain as the Good Samaritan; and third, finding life in caring for the dying.

Throughout the New Testament the word ‘neighbor’ is translated from the Greek word pleôsion. Pleôsion, when used as an adverb, is translated ‘near’, and when used as a noun, is translated ‘neighbor’, meaning one who is close by. Considering the commandment to love those who are close by as one’s self, and also the commandment to love even one’s enemies, changes entirely the common thoughts on such relationships. “Your neighbor is not your blood-relation only, not the circle of your acquaintance only, not your countryman or co-religionist only; but he or she whom you can help in any way whatsoever – the wretched tatterdemalion from the slightest contact with whom you shrink; the besotted and degraded; even your enemy, who hates you and despitefully uses you; him, her, mankind, you are to love.” (H.D. M. Spence, ed, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 16)  While Spencer was referring to one’s most wretched enemy as the neighbor, for the hospital or hospice chaplain such wretchedness can be allegorically and/or metaphorically conceived to be the most wretched of anguish, pain, confusion, and disease. It is these from which the natural woman/man will shrink, from even the slightest contact, but yet the chaplain chooses each day to walk into the lives of such individuals and their families.

The question, attempting to define one’s neighbor, is not a new question but was the same question asked of Jesus that precipitated the popular story of the Good Samaritan. “Who is my neighbor?” In answering this question today, it is important that we notice the positional references illustrated in the parable. The chaplain could argue that his patients are not his neighbors, but whether by choice, calling, and/or anointing, the chaplain has willingly walked into the proximity of his patients, thus making him/her the neighbor of the sick and dying. This is a good thing for the patient, because there are none who are more often lonely, shunned, or forgotten. My patients are my neighbors.

Another thing that has always fascinated me about this story is the preparation of the Good Samaritan. He came prepared to help someone injured along the road. He carried with him a first aid kit with disinfectant and bandages. He had transportation on which to carry the wounded. He had emergency funds available to pay for the extended care of the sick or injured. Finally, He had some training in the care and transportation of people in need of emergency care. While it may have been happenstance that the Good Samaritan came upon the man who had fallen among thieves, it is clear that he was prepared for such a possibility. None of the others who passed by were prepared to assist, either in what they had brought along or emotionally. None of them had considered the ‘what ifs’ of their journey that day. The Good Samaritan knew what to bring, what to do with what he brought, and where to take the injured he might pass.

The chaplain too should consider his/her preparation for the journey of chaplaincy and make sure she/he knows what to bring, what to do with what he has brought along, and where to take the sick and injured. There are many allegorical conclusions that I can make from this, but for me, my education and experience have taught me what I needed for journey down the chaplaincy road; CPE has taught, and is teaching, me what to do with what I have brought along on this journey; and my faith tradition has taught me where to bring my patients (at least those willing to go along).

Before Jesus began the parable of the Good Samaritan, He asked the question of his listeners, “What is in the Law?” As Jews had already been answering for centuries, the lawyer answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and muscle and intelligence—and that you love your neighbor as well as you do yourself.” The last point I will make about this parable will consider the reply of our Lord to the above statement, “Do it and you’ll live.” In other words, Love God and love your neighbor and you will have life. This came to my mind this past week as I stood by the bed of a woman who was dying, talking with her husband. The woman was obviously in the final stages of her disease process, and her husband’s grief at losing her was great. Yet, he felt compelled to ask, “How do you do this? How do you go from one dying patient to another without cracking up?”

Standing there, I thought of the words of Christ, “Do this and you’ll live.” That by loving my neighbor, who happened to be like the man the Good Samaritan found by the side of the road dying, I could have life. The Good Samaritan knew the secret that the ‘religious’ leaders of the day did not know: the way to life was not in riches, or stature, or appointments, but rather in stopping to love the unlovable, the unapproachable, the diseased, and the dying. For me, the most important thing Jesus did, besides Calvary, was to touch the leper. That is what I see my job as, one who touches lepers, one who loves them in the same way I long to be loved, one who loves his neighbor as himself. Nothing fancy, just a leper toucher, but with the job comes life in such a way that words cannot explain.