God Feels Our Pain

God Feels Our Pain

Where is God when… ? - Part 1

Sunday, November 5, 2023
Luke 10:25-37; 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

A Samaritan, who was on a journey, came to where the man was. But when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.  The Samaritan went to him and bandaged his wounds.

Luke 10:33-34 (CEB)

May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be blessed! He is the compassionate Father and God of all comfort.  He’s the one who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble. We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (CEB)

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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All Saints Day often brings up a mixture of emotions, from joyful memories to tremendous grief in the absence of those who have gone before us.  The stark reminder of death is difficult to process and often avoided in a world so overwhelmed by human suffering. 

So where is God in the midst of all this death and suffering?  Over the coming weeks we will wrestle with why God cannot simply put an end to pain or death or even evil.  For now we must begin with a key aspect of God’s character, that no matter what it may seem, God is a God of compassion.

Compassion is not simply feeling sorry for someone in their grief, but actually empathizing with them in suffering. 

Psychologist Brene Brown says empathy involves “listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating the incredibly healing message, ‘You’re not alone.’” Empathizers are fellow sufferers who understand. I distinguish empathy from pity. To pity is to feel sorry for others at a distance. The one who pities remains detached and says, “That’s just too bad for her.” “Ain’t that a shame?” “Bless your heart.” Or “Sucks to be him!”

Tom Oord, God Can’t, 49.

When the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable sees the dying man on the road, he was “moved with compassion.”  It is hard to be moved with compassion from afar.  As we draw near to the suffering, our capacity for compassion and empathy increases. 

This is equally true of God.  In 2 Corinthians 1, Paul describes God as a God of compassion and the source of all comfort.  Unlike humans, God does not suffer from compassion fatigue, but always draws near to the hurting and brokenhearted.  God doesn’t merely see our suffering from a distance, but God feels our pain and can handle it.  God’s empathy and compassion always moves God toward expressing love in a variety of ways. 

John Wesley calls our mysterious perceptions of God’s presence “spiritual sensations” because the Spirit communicates with us beyond our five senses.  Jesus sends the Spirit as the Comforter.  The Spirit often uses human comforters as conduits of God’s presence to those in pain.  God demonstrates compassion through communities of compassionate people. 

Sometimes we feel God’s love and compassion more than others, but even when we can’t, God always feels our pain and is moved to extend love and mercy toward all who are hurting.  If the cross shows us anything, it is that God is a God who understands… a God who always with us in our suffering and who deeply feels our pain.

#BeUMC - Grace Beyond Understanding

Grace Beyond Understanding

#BeUMC - Part 1

Sunday, June 25 , 2023
Luke 23:32-43

“One of the criminals hanging next to Jesus insulted him: ‘Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!’

Responding, the other criminal spoke harshly to him, ‘Don’t you fear God, seeing that you’ve also been sentenced to die? We are rightly condemned, for we are receiving the appropriate sentence for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.’

Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus replied, ‘I assure you that today you will be with me in paradise.’”

Luke 23:39-43 (CEB)

This week’s message and blog post comes from special guets preacher, Rev. Tangela Cameron.

Listen here:

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God’s love is the center of the gospel. It is the crux from which everything else radiates, because without God’s love for humanity, there would be no Jesus, no Bible, and no Christianity. It is the center. Yet, the depth of God’s love is deeply perplexing. Everything about it is counterculture to our world.

This scripture is one of my favorites, and I find myself turning to it often as I work with my hospice and palliative care patients. A lot of questions arise at the end of life. There are not as many “whys?” as one might expect, but there are often questions, concerns, and worries around forgiveness. Primarily forgiveness from God, but also from family, friends, and others. My family raised me in the Baptist tradition. My experience with Baptist theology was fear-based. I remember others in Youth discussing baptism and how important it was to ensure we “didn’t go to Hell”.

I am not convinced that fear endears one to God. In my personal experience, choosing the route of fear, “turn or burn” theology, has driven more away from God/the church than towards. I came to The United Methodist Church as a teenager and remained United Methodist, because in my opinion, the theology showed me God’s truth: grace born out of love. Recently, a patient told me he did not “deserve” forgiveness. I did not ask, nor did he disclose, the things he thought were so heinous they would prevent God from extending mercy.

Regardless, it really did not matter what he did or did not do, because God did not set parameters of deservedness on grace or love. Instead, Jesus looks into the face of this criminal (or rebel, in other translations) next to him, who one might say is the least likely to understand what is happening amongst them and pronounces eternal forgiveness and restoration.

Grace does not make sense, because it is not about deserving anything. Grace is an outpouring of God’s love. Why? Because, God chose to. That is the one and only answer. Thanks be to God that God pours forth that which none of us deserves by any human measure. May we go forth and share likewise with the world.

Consider this: How does this passage stretch you? Are the merits by which we disperse grace and mercy to others of humanity’s scale of worthiness or are they of God?

When Shepherds Become Angels

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When Sheperds Become Angels
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 5
Luke 2:1-20

She gave birth to her firstborn child, a son, wrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.

Luke 2:7 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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This Christmas I would like to share the following reflections from Amy Moehnke, re-blogged from The Abbey at St. David’s, St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, TX.

Take some time now to experience the old story anew through her words below…

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It’s almost that time again, when we hear the ancient story told – you know the one: about a young, bewildered, travel weary Mary and Joseph who after being visited by angels make a 90-mile trek to a place that’s not their home just in time for Mary to give birth in a barn to a baby-Son-of-God. 

I’m quick to dismiss the manger scenes that portray this event as clean and quiet with a well-rested Mary and Joseph and Jesus quietly gazing at each other because I cannot imagine that after all they went through this is how they’d feel!  But I can imagine that there was a glow that filled that barn like nothing ever had; and that it mixed with their exhaustion and the dirt and the confusion and made everything really quite perfect.   The plain and the fantastic, the simple and the grand, the common and the extraordinary, coming together in a way that points to a God who enters our world with all the glory we would expect; to a people, in a place, in a way that we could never imagine being home for such magnificence.  

Perhaps this is what drew the shepherds.  A Messiah born where?  The angelic choirs and the Glory of the Lord surely make quite an impression, but a Savior born in Bethlehem in a barnyard?  This they had to see.  And so, they set out on their own hard journey, flocks in tow, in order to see if maybe, just maybe this crazy story could be true. 

And low and behold, what they’d heard from the angels matches what they see at the manger and when they tell the little family what they know they all get it.  The pieces of the puzzle finally match up and suddenly everything changes. The once simple animal stall becomes home to the child in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. The journey that started out as less than desirable has ended up in an encounter with the living God who makes all things new.  

Now, I don’t believe these amazing changes happened because Mary and Joseph and the shepherds hold some super special status in the eyes of God and therefore get the super special miracles reserved for such super special people.  Rather, I’m convinced they happened because that’s just what God does.  That’s just who God is, who God always has been, who God will always be.  

This is the God who makes something out of nothing, light out of dark, order out of chaos, life out of death.  So of course, this God can take a terribly inconvenient time and turn it into an event that changes the world.  God did that then and God does that now.  For anyone at any time who dares to believe that is true.  

Of all the messages the Christmas story proclaims, this is my favorite.  Because to know this truth and claim it for ourselves means that we can live in this world with hope and trust and courage and peace. 

With hope, even if we’ve lost our job, or the medical diagnosis is not good at all.  With trust, even if the car breaks down or the bills continue to be higher than the income.  With courage, even if we’ve recently lost a loved one or a ended a relationship. With peace, even if the kids fight incessantly because they’re stuck at home due to this blasted pandemic.  

No matter what kind of unplanned, unprepared, or unpolished situation we wind up in, there our God is and there our God will be.  In fact, you might even say that God specializes in the unplanned, unprepared and unpolished and finds astounding ways to bring out of that the kind of life we simply cannot find on our own. 

This is what allows the message of Christmas to speak to us all these years later, and what will allow it to continue speaking to us in the years to come. This is what makes the message of Christmas not just the message of Christmas, but also the message of everyday, for every situation, for every person.  That is good news indeed.  And thanks be to God.  Amen.

A Harvest for All People

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A Harvest for All People
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 2
John 7:2-3, 37-39; Luke 1:50-55; Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:34

He shows mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors him as God. He has shown strength with his arm.  He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.  He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.  He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. 

Luke 1:50-53 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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Some Christians have reacted strongly against Kwanzaa as a “pagan” holiday and a “threat” to Christmas. While it is true that Kwanzaa is not a specifically religious celebration, it is certainly not in competition with Christmas. If anything, the dominance of the consumer culture in our Christmas celebrations does more to diminish the true meaning of the season than the 7 principles of Kwanzaa which move us toward a deeper sense of community, justice, and peace for the world.

Mary’s song in Luke 1 declares a great reversal, in which the oppressed will be raised up and the rich and powerful will be humbled or brought low. In the 1960’s, Kwanzaa emerged as a way of bringing a marginalized and oppressed community together around deeply rooted cultural values that would raise their spirits and their quality of life together even in the face of tremendous injustice. It is connected to traditional festivals of the “firstfruits” or the harvest, a seven day feast which we find commanded by God in the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles in the Old Testament and which is still celebrated in various forms by countless cultures around the world today.

At the heart of the celebration of Kwanzaa are the liberative acts of rescuing and reconstructing African history and culture, cultivating communitarian African values and using them to enrich and expand human freedom and flourishing.

Adam Clark, Xavier University

If these themes liberation, restoration, justice and strengthening the poor and oppressed is somehow in conflict with Christmas, perhaps we have missed the point of what we call the “Christmas stories” in the gospels. Is this not the very reason Jesus came?

Many black churches celebrate both Kwanzaa and Christmas.  Even if we don’t celebrate Kwanzaa, the principles emphasized over this seven day festival may actually deepen our Christmas celebrations as they are all means by which the light of Christ might shine through our daily lives as we work toward the restoration of God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. 

Below is a small sampling of the many places in Scripture we find the 7 values or principles of Kwanzaa.  As you read the list, prayerfully consider how God might be inviting you to strengthen one or more of these principles in your own life this Advent season.

UMOJA - Unity (Psalm 133:1)

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

KUJICHAGULIA — Self Determination (1 Corinthians 9:24-26)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

UJIMA - Collective Responsibility (Proverbs 27:17)

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

UJAMAA — Cooperative Economics (Acts 2:44-45)

All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.

NIA - Purpose (1 Peter 2:9)

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

KUUMBA—Creativity (Exodus 35:31-35)

…and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts. And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of work as engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

IMANI - Faith (Hebrews 11:1)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.