3rd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 8C

3rd Sunday after Pentecost-Proper 8C June 30, 2019 The writer Anne Lamott once wrote, “You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem and on the way, he and his disciples pass through a Samaritan village that refuses to receive them. When Jesus’s disciples James and John are made aware of this outrage, they ask Jesus if he would like them to “command fire to come down from heaven and consume the whole village, men, women, and children,” but Jesus rebukes them, and they continue on their way. This is a difficult passage to engage with because the reaction of James and John is so disappointing. They’ve been with Jesus the whole time, and still, they just don’t get it. He’s headed to the cross where he will give himself up to death for the salvation of all people, and James and John want to call down fire upon a Samaritan village, men, women, and children, who are foreigners and the enemies of the Jews and who have insulted them. We are made uncomfortable by James and John because they are a mirror into our own hearts. How many times in just this past week, would I have called down fire upon my perceived enemies if I had been able to? (Probably too many to number! Y’all remember that we’ve been moving this past week?) People who disagree with me politically. People who cut me off in traffic. People who are “different.” People who do things differently from the way I think they should be done. People who I perceive to be judging me. It is so easy to believe that just because I dislike them that God does, too. But Jesus proves, through his death on the cross, that this is not truth, and this is not the way of God’s love. As one of our collects for mission in Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer puts it, “[Jesus] stretched out [his] arms of love on the hard wood of the cross, so that everyone might come within the reach of [his] saving embrace…” Jesus died for you, me, my family, your family, and every single person that we fear or dislike. And that is the message of the gospel that we are called to live and proclaim. I am currently reading a book titled Born for Love: Why Empathy is Essential-and Endangered. The book looks at the science of empathy and defines empathy as “the ability to stand in another’s shoes, to feel what it’s like there and to care about making it better if it hurts….The word itself… is a translation of [a German word] which means ‘feeling into.’” According to the authors of the book, one of whom is a Dr. and a Scientist, it is very difficult to use our higher brain functions—too be creative, nurturing, empathetic, and to think about the future—when we are threatened or under stress. The authors share stories of people who are helping to cultivate empathy in children and communities, and they share stories about people whose empathetic development has been thwarted. One of the major premises of the book is that Americans have become less trusting of others in the last 50 years, that our social networks through which we cultivate empathy have shrunken, and that empathy and kindness have been devalued in our public discourse. But our gospel reading for today reminds us that we are not unique in our inability to be empathetic. Luke records this moment when Jesus’s closest disciples have an extreme failure of empathy. So, what, then are we to do? We have to recognize how important empathy is and how much it matters to everyone—men and women and children. We as Christians are well suited to practice empathy when we are connected with God in prayer and when we are acknowledging the heart of our faith. Paul reminds us of this heart in our Galatians reading for today: “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." This week, your invitation is to practice empathy that is rooted in Jesus’s love that he gave himself up to on the cross for everybody. When you find yourself wanting to rain fire down upon your enemies or even when you encounter suffering, in life or in the news, practice empathy: that is, stand in the other’s person’s shoes, feel what it’s like there, imagine where it hurts, and care about making it better for them. And then offer that person to God in prayer, asking God to give them what God knows that they need. Let us pray. Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.