On Azimuth

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, ¹⁶ and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? ¹⁷ So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:15-17 English Standard Version

            In many ways, God makes room for our culture. In marriage for example. The Lord chose to let us decide on what kind of ceremony to employ. He just asks us to honor the commitment, allowing us to devise a ceremony that suits us. Interestingly, all cultures that I know of have some sort of ceremony signifying the commitment of marriage. Worship is another example of God’s recognition of culture. We’re called to worship but given precious little instruction about what that worship should look like. While many components remain the same; prayer, scripture reading, a message, and communion, the ways we employ them varies wildly. God loves the worship of His children, allowing us great freedom in how we express our adoration. We could spend a great deal of time examining the historical differences. But that is a discussion for another day. While God allows us great liberty and freedom of expression; He expects our relationship to create such a transformation as to make us different, so different that we exert a profound influence on or culture.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:14-17

            Evidently Jesus (God) expects us to be different. A couple of verses earlier He compares us to salt. Salt and light both radically change their environment. The expectation is that you and I will radically impact our culture. The question we must answer is how. How do we impact the world around us? The following passages give us some insight into being salt and light:

¹³ Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Matthew 9:13

⁸ Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. I Peter 3:8

¹⁷ But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? I John 3:17

And just in case we think this is something new that Jesus introduced.

⁸ He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micha 6:8

            In our Modern Western Cultural Christian experience, we tend to focus on our relationship with the Lord, often referred to as the vertical component of Christianity. Virtually all we do, worship, study, salvation, discipleship pushes us toward this rather limited view of Christianity. Of course, God wants to relate to us as individuals; however, our relationship with God changes how we relate to this world and those who inhabit it. The beam intersecting the center-post of the cross symbolizes this horizontal relationship.

            Our relationship with God radically changes how we see and relate to the world. We become more sympathetic, more empathetic, more loving. Of course this is difficult. These things lead to hard work and often painful situations; ones that the world would have us avoid. My natural proclivity is to avoid feelings such as sympathy and empathy. Showing sympathy and feeling empathy leads me inexorably toward action, and action often requires real sacrifice of some sort on my part. Exercising empathy is especially difficult as empathy requires that I put myself in someone else’s shoes, feel what they feel. Marriam-Webster defines empathy as: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. Empathy requires me to get outside of myself and enter into another person’s world and that is hard work. But in Jesus, we have an excellent example.

            In that amazing act we call the incarnation, God displays His willingness to empathize by actually becoming one of us. He enters into our experience fully. He knows because He became one of us. He sweated, He was hungry, He was tired, He was thirsty. Whatever we feel, He feels. In showing empathy, He leads the way, and His way leads to the cross. This is why the cross is such a potent Christian symbol. In the cross God reconciles Himself to me. He also reconciles me to the rest of the world. He calls me to follow Him into a life of sacrificial empathy and sympathy. And like James says, if my sympathy and empathy to do not lead to action, then they are meaningless mealy mouthings worth nothing.

Thought Questions:

1. How often do you feel empathy or sympathy, and do you act on it?

2. What either makes you take action or holds you back?

3. When was a time that someone showed sympathy towards you and how did it make you feel?

4. Do you have a hard time being empathetic towards someone and why?

5. What role do these kinds of feelings play in your life?