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please pray with me
God, may the words I speak
And may the meaning each of us
takes from those words
lead us into the lives that you have put before us
ever becoming the people you have dreamed us to be
One of my favorite one-liners
is "Have you ever had one of those days
when everything went right?" Most people say no
but there are occasions when somebody says yes and I look at them and say
"What's it like?"
We all have our share of struggles
loss, pain, and grief
but have you ever felt
alone in your struggle?
I have, and I have to admit that I sometimes do not reach out for help.
I feel like no one understands what I'm going through
that no one "gets it."
This isn't a new thing for me:
when I was younger I was sure that my experiences were unique
When I had trouble at school or
I had a romantic breakup I was alone
If somewhat told me
"Ah, you'll get over it,"
I'd say "You don't understand how I feel."
"You just don't know."
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt like you had unique experience
that no one else could understand? Has it ever kept you from reaching out for help?
The other side of reaching out for help
is reaching out to help.
We talk a lot about helping others.
But there are different ways to relate to people in need.
Once a month,
Bertha treats herself to a trip to downtown Chicago.
She loves to walk down Michigan Avenue and visit the shops.
She's far from wealthy, but when she has a little extra cash
she buys something nice for herself.
She's often asked for change by panhandlers, and last time she was down there she took pity on a woman
with a young child of about eight years. She gave her a ten dollar bill.
and hoped that things would get better for them.
Pity is feeling sorry for someone. We don't have to share the feelings of the other person
to pity them
we merely recognize
that they're having a problem. We might offer some help
or at least hope things get better. Asa came home one day
to find Josephine crying outside the apartment building.
Josephine's belongings were at the curb,
and he knew that she had been evicted.
Asa's heart really went out to her especially knowing that she had a young daughter
Asa cried himself to sleep that night
Thinking about them.
Sympathy is sameness of feeling, or feeling with another person
When we are sympathetic
we share the feelings that the person. If someone is grieving
we sympathetically grieve with that person.
Alice
is an outreach worker a local shelter. She found Josephine
and her eight-year-old daughter Zoe on the street in the middle of the night.
Alice
talked to Josephine about her fear being on the street,
her hopes for the future and the mixed feelings
of betrayal, loss,
and relief in being abandoned by her sometimes abusive husband.
Empathy is
feeling into another person's situation In empathy, we put ourselves
in the place the other, understanding the situation more fully.
Of course it is easier to feel empathy if we actually experienced the same -
or similar - situation. When I was little,
I would sometimes fall down and get hurt. And when I did,
I would often cry loudly.
Sometimes my dad would mock me: "It's the worst hurt I
ever had in my whole life!" Which was probably true when I was five.
My dad knew of course that I really did hurt
and that kind of pain that I was experiencing at that time
was among the worst I it he had so far in my life.
When I started having asthma attacks, my dad could identify because
he, too, had asthma.
It's rather fortunate that some problems are hereditary.
because it means that both our parents may have had some
experience with that.
On this first Sunday after Christmas we're still thinking about baby Jesus,
born in a stable and sleeping in a manger,
and then at the end of his ministry Jesus experiences death.
And we talk a lot about Jesus' humble birth
and sacrificial death, but we don't talk
as much about the sacrifices Jesus made
in his life.
Jesus would experience much growing up:
He would have friends; he would feel hunger
and thirst; he'd feel warm and cold;
and although it's not documented, Jesus would undoubtedly have had relatives
who passed, who died,
in the time before his ministry began.
And as we know Jesus experienced temptation
in the desert. During Jesus' ministry
what did he experience? While Jesus
indeed had some popularity,
he also had family and friends who doubted him.
Have you ever had family or friends who were doubting you?
Jesus met leaders who wouldn't listen to him.
Have you ever felt like there are leaders who aren't listening to you?
He had followers - friends! who argued with him,
betrayed him,
and even denied ever knowing him.
Have you ever experienced that with your friends?
And iIn the garden of Gethsemane it seems that Jesus experienced
a bit a fear
when he asked: "Father,
if this cup can pass from me..."
Have you ever feared
what you thought was coming?
Unlike the angels who visited people from time to time in the Bible
Jesus had a human life.
Jesus knows what it's like to human.
That's why Jesus was born human, lived with humans,
and died as a human.
When we pray to Jesus, we don't pray to someone who doesn't know how it feels,
we paid someone who has lived as a human being. someone who had struggled with
many
of the same things we do
Jesus has empathy with us.
And yet as Christians, there is something more:
if we are to be the body of Christ, then we should also
care for each other.
Not mere pity, and not only sympathy,
but empathy with each other. We should seek to understand each other's
losses and gains, our strengths
and weaknesses. And this responsibility is
not just limited to our families, our church, or our faith:
we are responsible to care about human beings.
Care is more than just giving it item
or money help a person in need;
Care is more just feeling sad because someone else feels sad;
Care is understanding the challenges
and joys of other people Care is understanding the single mother who,
regardless of how he got into that situation,
is challenged by her need to care for her children
and earn money to pay for food and shelter.
Care is understanding the people struggling with violence
in a war- and terrorism- torn country
and their hope for peace.
Care is understanding the plight of people choosing between starvation
and illegally crossing the border.
Care means understanding, which is more complicated than feeling sorry.
Care means sometimes not having an answer.
Care means working toward a real solution
instead of settling for a quick fix.
In this church we have had the opportunity to understand the people we serve
with Food Resources Bank, and the people we serve
at Daybreak Shelter. Although we have not had
the exact same circumstances, we have known anxiety,
hunger, and loneliness.
As humans we do know how it feels,
and as someone who has lived a human life,
Jesus does know how it feels. When we need help,
we have each other and Jesus to turn to,
and what we're doing better, we could be part of
that help for others.
At any given time some of us may be struggling;
some of us may feel very alone.
As we enter this new year, I challenge each of us
to reach out to care for each other,
and to seek that care when we need it.
And we should always be ready to talk to Jesus:
because Jesus knows how it feels
Amen.