11-08-19

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS

November 8, 2019

Scripture: Matthew 9:36

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were troubled and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Thought for the Day: Jesus didn’t simply see a crowd, a throng of people, a mob. He saw the people and how troubled they were. Without some spiritual awareness and empathy, the needs and the suffering of humanity will be lost in the crowd. How do we gain an appreciation of the people who surround us, even when they are in mass? There are many options, but might I suggest a beginning place might be with the news you watch. If you hear your anchors use language like: Many, a lot or a great deal, you might want to turn it off. That’s not journalistic language. Journalism should strive to remove what is vague in the reporting so as not to play on people’s existing bias. And its not just the media, but so many other places in life. My concern is how our language seeks to categorize people who really do not fit in the category to which we are attempting to place them. We, without thinking, assign people to the mob without getting to know a single individual; without hearing a single story; without looking into a single set of eyes. Jesus probably had slightly better awareness than any of us, but we can push against the social structures that seek to consign individuals to some nebulous and ill-defined group from which they cannot easily emerge.

Prayer: Provide me with eyes and ears and some spiritual attentiveness from which I can see the beauty of every human life around me, O Loving God…or at least help me do a better job today as compared to yesterday. Amen.

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