Lent: Give Up Indifference

The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says: ‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn—and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it. - Matthew 13:13-17

Last night I watched a video of a Ukrainian mother grieving the death of her son who had died on the battlefield, as she was claiming his body at an overwhelmed morgue, while she also wondered if her other son was still alive. It was heart wrenching to say the least. But with every story coming from this terrible invasion, I wonder - what can I do? What am I supposed to do with this grief and pain that I am seeing and being affected by? Wouldn’t it be easier to not watch, to not see, and to not be affected?

 

I was told by a church historian that this question came up in a church that was being led by the Bishop Augustine of Hippo, a church leader in the Roman Empire in the late 300s CE. The Empire was a vast nation and with that vast geography came news from communities sometimes over 2000 miles away. Augustine’s church asked - with news coming from so far away, hearing of suffering from both those far away and from those in our own community - who is our neighbor? Who should we be caring for and have concern for? Augustine answered saying “Those who are living next to us are our neighbors. And those who we only hear news about from far away are our neighbors. We are neighbors to all because of God’s love, and we care for and do what we can as God leads us to.”

To be affected by suffering from so far away or by those that live so close, it may feel disempowering, it makes us feel helpless in that at times, we do not have the means to bring change. But to feel what our siblings feel, to be affected by our siblings, this is part of the Good News. It means that we have accepted that the walls we think should separate us from them - whether that is distance, or language, or sexual orientation, or gender, or political affiliation, or what team they root for - are secondary to that thing that unites us - God’s love through Christ. To feel helpless when a sibling in Christ is helpless is not pointless, but is uniting. To feel joy when a sibling in Christ is joyful, it is uniting. When we stand with one another in these moments of our common humanity, we are also hearing and seeing and feeling the truth of Christ. And when those feelings move us to act in compassion, we are living out that Good News. May we be affected. May we feel what our siblings feel. And as we feel and are affected, may God’s Kin-dom be built one feeling and one moment at a time. 

- Pastor Tim