09-04-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
September 4, 2024
In Sunday’s sermon, I talked about empathy, and specifically the need to truly listen if there is going to be empathy. I received a number of notes in the last couple of days about the sermon, and in one of them, this individual suggested that we see a lot of so-called compassion that has a specific end in mind. Or, to say it another way, some people want to appear to be concerned about a person or situation because they want something in return. Let’s be clear—that is not empathy, compassion, or even pity. That’s nothing more than saying, “I’ll rub your back if you rub my back.” It’s a tit for tat business dealing. I’m not saying that such things should cease. Business is based on the notion of give and receive. But empathy is something radically different. It seeks to create space where our needs are paused and someone else’s can be spoken without interruption, judgement, or disagreement. Someone’s experiences need to be respected and heard without others imposing their personal perceptions or fears. In Galatians 6:4, we read, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” The law of Christ is loving God and loving neighbor, and as I read Paul, it appears that he offered an invitation to express our love of God and neighbor by willingly stepping into the weightiness of another person’s life experiences and allowing them to disperse some of that weight by speaking the heaviness to those who want to hear and even seek to understand if possible. 

Continue to broaden our awareness of you and the needs of those around us, O God. We need some work, but we trust you to guide us. Amen.