Luke 7:11-17
Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep." Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!" This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Once I have read a passage of scripture, I ask a question in order to open myself to the scripture’s significance for my life. The question I ask is, “Why is this story in the Bible in the first place?” Why, of all the accounts of Jesus that were witnessed and passed along through generations, why was this one preserved?

Early this week I asked that question as I engaged with today’s gospel text. And I had to sit in silence for quite some time. The silence then turned to anger.

Why is this story in the Bible? I didn’t know. In fact, I didn’t like this story one bit.

After all, what good is it to tell a story about Jesus raising a widow’s son from the dead when such miraculous raising from the dead does not happen today?

What good is it to tell a story about Jesus raising a widow’s son from the dead when sons and daughters today die fighting in wars, die by gunshot in the streets or schools, die in police custody…when sons and daughters die by suicide, die by cancer, die by car accidents, die by preventable disease, and die because they lack adequate access to food, shelter, and clean water.

Sons and daughters today die in any number of unfair, unjust, and unthinkable ways. What good is it to tell a story about Jesus raising a widow’s son from the dead when Jesus doesn’t raise our dead sons and daughters? Why is this story in the Bible, when it seems like God either does not or cannot act to prevent evil, suffering, and death in our world?

The question about why God would permit evil and death in the world God created has been a topic of endless reflection and debate for millennia, so don’t think I’m going to tie it up nicely with a bow in the next few minutes. In fact, I’ll go ahead and throw one more thing out there to consider. I’ll show you a clip by a British actor/humorist Stephen Fry from last year that has been viewed well over one million times and it is framed as an “epic takedown” of religion. The title of the YouTube video is actually “Stephen Fry Annihilates God.” See for yourself…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-d4otHE-YI (I stopped the clip at the 2:10 mark)

There are any number of ways to respond to Stephen's speech. This week, sitting in silence and anger, I choose to respond with empathy. There are so many people in the world just like Stephen Fry – people who choose to discount the notion of “God” because there is evil and suffering in our world, be it purposeless, unexplainable phenomena, or calculated evil actions. I cannot blame him or anyone else for thinking this way.

But the more I think about his argument, I find it underwhelming and unhelpful. And I’m thinking that this opinion might have to do with that story in the Bible – the one about Jesus raising the widow’s son from the dead.

In that story Jesus, with a growing crowd following on his heels, witnesses a mother grieving for her dead son. Luke tells the story with the words, “ When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep.”

This sentence marks the first time Jesus is referred to as “Lord” in the Gospel of Luke. Up to this point Jesus had accomplished a multitude of amazing feats and yet remained “Jesus.” But seven whole chapters into the gospel, and Jesus finally did something that warranted the title of “Lord.” “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her.”

Amazing feats and profound wisdom are all well and good; but compassion is divine.

David Lose, the President of the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia writes,
“[I]t’s not just the title ‘Lord’ that helps describe Jesus, but that his act of compassion describes and even defines what it means to be Lord. To be Lord, that is, is to be vulnerable to the suffering of another. To be Lord is to feel compassion. To be Lord is to not just feel compassion but to act on it, to do something. To be Lord is, finally, to heal, restore, renew, and in all ways to help.”*

That story paints the picture of a God who is intimately involved in our world, not as a puppet master or manipulator or sadist, but as an engaged, healing, holy, and powerful presence that leads people still today to the realization voiced by the awestruck crowd gathered about the once-dead, now-breathing, widow’s son, "God has looked favorably on his people!"

That changes things, folks. Recall your experience of suffering and imagine what it would mean to know that God saw you and had compassion for you in your suffering.

Imagine that God is not distant but near. Imagine God doesn’t delight in your pain, but weeps with you. Imagine that God is not callous, but completely vulnerable.

That truth wouldn't negate the anger we justifiably feel when our sons and daughters die. It doesn’t change our frustration with God’s apparent inaction in the face of suffering. But surely it would teach us how to respond to others in this world where death is all around us. Surely it would teach us to have compassion on others.

“Have compassion on others” is a bland and uninspired message better served to sell a product rather than be a divine and transformative word. I would be a poor preacher, indeed, if my message was for you to be nice to people. That’s the message Stephen Fry stands for.

Instead, as a Christian, I am called to preach the divine and transformative word that “God has compassion.” God, as evidenced by Jesus Christ, looks upon our suffering and responds with empathy, compassion, and, we pray, action.

I could rant and rave and plead and implore you to go out into the world in the name of Jesus to look for and show compassion toward people who are suffering and have compassion; but unless you have experienced compassion from God, you would not be able to do so.

Instead, I’ll leave you with the words of my spiritual muse, Henri Nouwen, who himself traveled a long road of suffering as well as compassion. He writes,

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."**

Amen.

* David Lose “Dear Working Preacher” June 5, 2013
** Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life

John 16:12-15

[Jesus said] "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you."

There has been a daily countdown in the Stamper household for the past few weeks. As of Friday afternoon, the countdown reached “4.” As in, only four days left of school for my oldest son, Nolan. Four days until summer break.

With the school year almost over, I asked Nolan to reflect on what he appreciates, remembers, and learned in the course of the year. He talked about friendships with classmates, how excited he is that he can read almost everything we put in front of him, how he really likes math, and how disappointed he is when he can’t play basketball during recess because another class is always out there already and doesn’t share.

I’m grateful to have a child who is capable of reflection. This has been a point of emphasis in our parenting style. We started early by seeking to identify his emotions and teach him their names, which would often result in humorous experiences like when he would scream at us as a toddler and we would look at him and say, “Oh, you’re so mad!” Exchanges like this taught him a vocabulary that allows him to express himself. Also, he knows that every day when I take him home I ask him to describe his day and that every night we gather as a family and take turns sharing our highs and lows from the day.

He doesn’t always wax poetic about his experience of life. He's as likely to mumble a response as any other kid. And when we ask him “How was school today?” Nine times out of ten he’ll reply “good.” But we persist, because we know that reflection yields wisdom and empathy. And relationships are enriched by our ability to put our reflections into words and actions.

But not all words are equal. By themselves, nouns are pretty much useless for reflection. Imagine this conversation:
Q: “How was school today?”
A: Pencil, friends, recess, teacher, book, math.

Adjectives, by themselves are a little better.
Q: “How was school today?”
A: Good, fine, exciting, stressful,
Unfortunately, this is where most of our reflection and expression stops.

Where things get really exciting, though – where the truth really comes out – are our action words – verbs.
Q: “How was school today?”
A: We laughed, I studied, we played, I learned

Paying attention to the ways we use words to describe our experiences is helpful on days like today when our focus is on the Holy Trinity – the foundation of Christian faith.

The Holy Trinity, as described by nouns, is pretty much useless for reflection:
The Holy Trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three in One and One in Three.

The Holy Trinity, as described by adjectives, is only a little better:
The Holy Trinity is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; they are related and connected; distinct from one another yet equal to one another.

The Holy Trinity, as described by verbs, gets to the heart of the matter. In fact, one of the earliest ways of speaking about and understanding the Trinity was the word perichoresis , meaning, the divine dance (from the Latin roots peri- around and choreo - where we get the word choreography). Using the action words we begin to see that…
The Holy Trinity is what flows under, around, and through all things – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit divinely dancing. The Holy Trinity is what we enter into as God’s beloved creation; our participation in the flow and divine dance enables us to be generous, serve others, and experience connection, harmony, and love.

Relationship, connection, energy, generosity, and love are at the core of Holy Trinity. Because the Trinity is the foundation of our faith, that means relationship, connection, energy, generosity, and love are available to us and can shape our entire faith and involvement in the world. The Holy Trinity invites our participation. It forces us to be active. It makes our faith a verb.

The Holy Trinity is the foundation of our faith; but unfortunately, not much has changed since 1970 when Jesuit priest Karl Rahner indicated (in his book, Trinity) that Christians could drop the doctrine of the trinity tomorrow and most Christian literature, practice, and devotion would remain virtually unchanged.

One could argue, as many theologians are, that the normal Christian image of God is still pagan; that is, Zeus – a man with a white beard sitting in a throne, getting involved in worldly affairs only once in a while (either when he is asked enough times or when he feels like it), sometimes with lightning bolts at the ready.

It is a false and destructive path for Christians to profess the divinity of Jesus Christ yet continue to think of God as an individual who passes judgment and destruction, promising good things to only those who tow the line. If we believe that God sits on a throne and passes judgment, we will model our life around this belief.

If, on the other hand, we believe God is in relationship, dancing, flowing, energizing the everything from the grass of the field to the cells of our bodies, then how amazing it would be for us to model our life around this belief. Perhaps we would choose grace over judgment, peace over pain, relationship over isolation, forgiveness over self-righteousness, and action over ignorance.

For a Christian Church that professes and worships the Holy Trinity, nouns are pretty much useless:
building, committee, pastor, bulletin, hymn, band, wine.

For a Christian Church that professes and worships the Holy Trinity adjectives are only a little better:
good, nice, welcoming, inclusive, entertaining, nurturing

For a Christian Church that professes and worships the Holy Trinity, verbs get to the heart of the matter:
We who are caught up in the divine flow of the Holy Trinity worship, learn, serve, pray, proclaim, love, hold, and forgive.

Our challenge today is to reflect on the true nature of the Holy Trinity in which we place our trust and gain our strength – a creating God the Father, a redemptive Christ, and a life-giving Holy Spirit, each one united in a divine dance of relationship, connection, energy, generosity, and love. The Trinity calls us out of isolation and apathy and invites us to participate in the verbs of our faith so that all may join in the divine dance.

Amen.

"Compassion is Divine" – Luke 7:11-17

"The Divine Dance" – John 16:12-15