Aragorn and the vocation of lament

We first meet Aragorn as a tall, scruffy-looking guy, lurking in the shadows at the Prancing Pony, where Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, just beginning their journey, had stopped in for the night.  Initially in Lord of the Rings, Aragorn was known to the locals only as Strider, probably because of his long legs. Since little else was known about him, it was assumed he was up to no good. Barliman Butterbur, the proprietor,  advised the hobbits to steer clear of him. Ironically, the man turns out to the direct descendent of Isildur, one of the great kings of old, and he was not just lurking in the shadows.  He and his Dunedain clan had been watching over and protecting the region from rising forces of evil, until that day when his true vocation would be revealed.

Most of us have have had jobs of some sort to make money, to put food on the table, and a house where you can put the table.  But a vocation is a perspective that gives meaning to our activity, whether it makes money or not. The word, vocation, derives from a Latin, “vocare,” to call. A vocation is a calling.  It implies a sense of purpose.  Many people have a sense of calling in their paid job, or may in another endeavor or cause.  My father established a photography business shortly after returning from World War II. He built up a paying clientele through film service, portraits, weddings, schools, commercial and even summer camp photos. But I think that was so he could get out into the woods for  scenic and environmental photography, which is what he really loved.  I think that was his calling. 

I was reminded of my own vocation when I saw the Sage Granada Park UMC Family Camp pictures on Facebook recently.  I was an active UMC pastor and missionary for 30 years, and though retired now, the photos reminded me of how much I love to lead people in worship. That is my vocation. I especially love leading worship in the  camp setting.  What a joy it was at Pilgrim Pines to gather the young at heart each year for devotion, learning, singing and celebration. 

Like a deer longing for streams of water, I miss participating in corporate worship.  Thankfully, most churches have online worship, and that’s where I’ve been since July. But that isn't the same. I relate to Psalm 42/43.  "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God... Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God (Psalm 42:1, 5 NRSVUE; vs 5 is a refrain that repeats in 11 and 43:5). This psalm laments the loss of the temple and the festival worship.  "These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng and led them in procession to the house of God... Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with harp, O God, my God" (Psalm 42:4 NRSVUE).  I relate to this psalm. Like a third of the psalms, which are laments or prayers for help in distress, it teaches us how to lament and pray. 

My health condition has forced me to sit on the sidelines and pant for air. It has been a major challenge, not only dealing with increased shortness of breath, due to the pulmonary fibrosis, but also a severe weight loss. In an earlier post, I talked about the sacrament of pain (August 11, 2023). “When we recognize in our own pain that God is also hurting for this broken world, then our prayers for healing are doubled. As we pray for our own healing, we also pray with God for the healing of the world.” Seen in the context of a world in pain, our own bodily pain and suffering can be means of grace.  Jesus himself is the sacrament of God’s self-giving love - by his wounds we are healed.  

N.T. Wright, one of my favorite New Testament scholars, has written a book on Romans 8, Into the Heart of Romans, in which I’m sure he speaks with clarity on a similar topic. I’m retired, so I haven’t rushed out to read it, but I do like what I read in his article published in TIME. The pain of our planet, the environment and the people are all in focus as he notes "that the present creation is ‘groaning together,’ like a woman going into labor. This experience of pain and suffering are “the birth-pangs” of the new creation that God is bringing about in this world. “Those who have been grasped by the gospel, people who are led by the Spirit, are called to share in that ‘groaning,’ in prayers of lament.” That, he say, is our Christian vocation. We are not called to throw a party, but to engage in the “Spirit-led lament.” We have a vocation to participate in God’s redemptive work for a groaning world. “We are to be people of prayer at the places where the world is in pain. And in the present time this kind of lament is what prayer looks like.” Because God is birthing something new, we must rely on the Spirit to teach us how to pray in the the context of this broken world. Those who are thus taught “will be formed, shaped, into the Jesus-pattern, the pattern of the cross, sharing the pain of the world so that the world may be redeemed.” 

Chin Cheak and I met this week with my primary pulmonary doctor. He has has been treating my lung condition for the past three and a half years. I've been taking drugs to slow the progress of the lung disease, but we have stopped those, because the harmful side effects on my digestive system, outweigh any benefits. That said, he reminded us that there is nothing medically that can be done now for my lungs.  So it’s a race between achieving stable weight gain and the inevitable loss of my ability to breathe. Certainly, if I can show a consistent trend of regaining weight, I will be reconsidered for a lung transplant.  But eating enough to gain weight in my condition is far easier said than done. 

So I appreciate all your prayers. Modern medicine has its limits. We're seeing a TCM doctor to help with my sleep and digestion, and I also believe in the possibility of miracles. But I cherish also your prayers that I stay true to my vocation. No, I can’t lead the congregation in worship procession anymore,  However, I can still participate in the “Spirit-led lament.” In my own struggles to breath, I lament and pray for the conditions that have generated suffocating war between Israel an Palestine, between Russia and Ukraine, and in all the other maladies that have inflamed our globe. You may join me also in this calling, because we all share in earth's lament.  Whether it makes money or not, that is the business of the church.

Like Aragorn, we may work on our vocation quietly in the background, but we trust that the one who began a good work in us will eventually bring it to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.