The Rev. Marek Zabriskie
The Bible and pastoral care are at the heart of all that we do in church and beyond. I remember after my first year of seminary, I arranged to work for a Bishop in in western Kenya near the border of Uganda. It was an incredible experience.
While there, I met an indigenous priest named Daniel from the Gabra tribe. He lived near the border of Ethiopia and Somalia in a very remote part of Kenya and invited me to visit him.
I took a bus through the desert that was heading to the middle of nowhere. Somali bandits were known to attack these buses and rob and kill everyone on board. So, a soldier with a machine gun sat in the front of the bus. How comforting!
Now, I must confess that this is the kind of thing that you do when you are 27, really dumb, super adventurous, and feel like you have nothing to lose in life.
The bus eventually dropped me off, and I met Daniel, who took me to a remote base camp, where he ministered to nomads from the Gabra tribe. There are only 31,000 members of this tribe. Kenya has 42 tribes. Each tribe speaks a different language. Swahili is the lingua franca of East Africa.
The Gabra raise camels and goats for a living. They are nomads and move from place to place and live in little huts made of fabric and other things that they collect as building materials.
I wore desert goggles to protect my eyes from the sand and sun and my Yale Divinity School T-shirt. We watched a string of camels crossed the horizon and the sun dipped under the dunes. I felt like I was the coolest guy on earth.
During my stay, Daniel me a story about visiting a village menaced by a pride of lions. One day, the warriors took their spears and set out after them. The men ran like gazelles and formed a line with the fastest runners out front.
Eventually, the lions turned and attacked them, mauling several of the warriors, before the other warriors could arrive could and ward them off. It was a bloodbath.
Daniel, like most priests, did not have an athletic build. He arrived last, but he brought with him jars of oil and honey to soothe the warriors’ wounds.
After cleaning and bandaging their wounds, he took out his Bible, and he read a passage from First Peter, “Keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith.” (1 Peter 5:8-9a)
Daniel explained to them how God protects and cares for his people. The warriors were amazed that he had a book that spoke to situations like this. I cannot imagine a more appropriate moment to apply this biblical text.
Only one bus passed through this region every two days. It was very unlikely that the wounded warriors would survive. But Daniel prayed and within an hour, a vehicle arrived and took the maimed men to the hospital over 100 miles away.
All of the warriors miraculously survived. Everyone was incredibly impressed by Daniel’s knowledge of the Bible, his pastoral care, and his prayer. Many people converted to the Christian faith because of it. I have never forgotten Daniel’s story.
The Bible is full of incredible wisdom. There’s something within its covers that applies to every situation in life. That’s why it’s good to mine the Bible for wisdom and truth, to read a portion of Scripture every day until many passages and stories become spiritual friends.
Then we can draw upon this wealth of wisdom that we have slowly mined over the years and apply it to just the right moment or situation in order for God’s Word to speak truth, hope, and comfort in our most trying times and to provide light in our darkest hours.
One of the Early Church Fathers described the Bible as a medicine chest. He noted that there’s a medicine that’s just right for each person in every situation to be discovered between the covers of the Bible.
And just as one of us needs medicine for high blood pressure and another needs a different medicine to combat depression, no one medicine works for all people in all circumstances.
Likewise, the scripture verses that speak profoundly to you may not speak as profoundly to me or to others whom you know and vice versa. The key is to discover the verses that open your heart and mind to the grace that God is offering and listen as God seeks to comfort you.
Biblical wisdom along with pastoral care – the touching of one human life with compassionate care – are the essence of spiritual work, what Benedictine monks call “ora ad labora” (prayer and work).
May God guide you to find and apply the passages of scripture that will be for you and those you love wondrous gifts like the balm of Gilead.
