Sermon delivered by David Burrow June 15, 2025 - First Congregational Church, Algona, Iowa
Click here for an audio version of this sermon (11 MB - .mp3)
Jesus said to his disciples:
I have much more to tell you,
but you can’t bear to hear it now.
When the Spirit of truth comes,
it will guide you into all truth.
It will not speak of its own initiative;
But instead will speak what it hears,
and will announce to you
things that are yet to come.
In doing this, the Spirit will give glory to me,
and will take what is mine
and reveal it to you.
Everything that the Father has belongs to me.
This is why I said that the Spirit will take what is mine
and reveal it to you.
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
for through Christ we have gained access by faith
to this grace in which we stand,
and we boast in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions,
knowing that affliction produces endurance,
and endurance, proven character,
and proven character, hope,
and hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’
Last winter the wealthiest person on the planet gave an interview shortly before being put in charge of a task force that would lay off more than 200,000 government employees. In that interview Elon Musk asserted that “empathy is the fundamental weakness of western civilization”. Musk claimed that empathy had “become weaponized”, that “empathy for individuals is costly for the collective”, and that empathy for people from other cultures is “destroying our society”.
While Musk himself does not profess any particular religion, the sad truth is that many people who call themselves Christian seem to feel that empathy is an outdated concept and not something that should apply to them. Several televangelists have spoken out against empathy, and a pastor named Joe Rigney wrote a book that’s made the round in conservative circles called The Sin of Empathy.
The same people who praised Rigney’s book are those who criticized Bishop Mariann Budde when she urged President Trump to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” The bishop noted that the majority of immigrants to our country are not criminals, but “people who pay taxes, and are good neighbors” and she pointed out that there are children in both Republican and Democratic families who struggle with their identity.
Bishop Budde simply quoted the words of Jesus in her call for the President to have mercy, compassion, and empathy. Those words provoked severe attacks from many people who called themselves “Christian”. Some even called for the Bishop to be deported, even though she was born in New Jersey and has been a U.S. citizen her whole life. These attacks came from people who truly believed they were Christian, but I think they—and all of us, really—need to think what empathy really means and then pay more attention to what Jesus himself said.
Empathy has been defined as “the experience of the other” and as “sharing and understanding the emotions of others”. It’s basically knowing what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes and understanding that their humanity is linked with our own.
Many politicians and pundits would like us to believe that people from different places or people who lead different lifestyles are “other”. They want us to be scared of other people because they’re different from us. Empathy challenges us to relate to the experiences of other people and see the similarities we have rather than the differences. When we have empathy, we care about other people’s good and we care that everyone is treated fairly and with justice.
There is no question that Jesus calls us to have empathy. Today’s gospel reading comes from the Sermon on the Mount and it foretells the final judgment. In the part we read today, Jesus says that the righteous will be blessed and inherit the kingdom. They are blessed for things like feeding the poor, caring for those in need, and welcoming the stranger. Jesus notes that whatever we do for “the least of these” we are doing to God.
Jesus’ words continue after we left off. He speaks of those condemned to eternal fire—the people who didn’t minister to the needs of the hungry, the poor, the ill, the prisoners, or the strangers in their midst. He says that ignoring other people will bring eternal punishment, while recognizing their needs and working to help them is the way to eternal life.
So Jesus tells us to help other people—to care for them regardless of where they’re from, how much money they make, what they might have done in the past, or what lifestyle they might lead. In this passage he tells us that the way to get to heaven is to help other people—no questions asked.
This is far from the only place that Jesus directs us to show empathy for other people. Listen to a few of his best-known words:
We also see calls for empathy throughout the New Testament:
So those who imply that empathy is a sin are just wrong. Time after time the Bible calls us to have empathy. It tells us that empathy is not a weakness; it’s the very goal of Christianity. Our whole lives as Christians should be about understanding, loving, and serving other people.
Today is Trinity Sunday, and the Trinity is really what sets Christianity apart from other religions. The Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures that are the basis of Judaism, center around what we traditionally called God the Father. If you read through much of the Old Testament you’ll just find one rule after another, with God telling humanity what they need to do—613 laws that cover pretty much every aspect of life. That same view of a God whose main job is enforcing endless rules can be found in Islam.
I think that by sending himself to earth in the person of Jesus, God is showing empathy for us. It took living in the person of Jesus for God to really understand what it’s really like to be a human being. Having seen what life on earth is like, God’s empathy for us transformed the endless rules of the Old Testament into a new covenant, the gospel of love that is the focus of Christianity.
The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is there to remind us that we need to have the same empathy for each other that God has for us. I’ve always thought of the spirit as that voice of conscience in your head that nudges you to do the right thing.
Those three persons of God are the hallmark of Christianity. Together they show God’s everlasting empathy for us and remind us that we need to mirror that empathy in our interactions with others.
Empathy is not a sin, and it’s not a weakness. It’s what we as Christians are called to show every day of our lives.
(C) 2025 davidmburrow@yahoo.com