Chris Yaw

As World War II was ending in the Pacific, and the complex job of ferrying prisoners of war back and forth to their respective bases was taking place, something peculiar happened on board train car.

This particular train car was manned by Japanese soldiers who were taking former Allied prisoners of war back to their home bases. However, these Allied soldiers had to share the train cars with injured Japanese soldiers.

The Allies, though hungry and battered, were so happy to return to their bases, and eventually home, as victors in this war. Meanwhile, the hungry, wounded, and distraught Japanese soldiers, who were returning to a country in shambles, and knew that they may not even make it home, hung their heads in disconsolation.

That's when one of the Allied soldiers, rummaging through his meager rations, made his way over to the Japanese soldiers, and offered a few morsels of food. A few other Allied soldiers did the same. This happened until an officer came over and asked what was going on?

One of the Allied soldiers asked the officer if he was a Christian, to which he responded yes. Then the soldier reminded the officer of the story of the Good Samaritan, and how Jesus taught his followers to love their neighbors, even if their neighbors were their enemies. The Allied officer shook his head and said, “But these are the enemy, who killed our fellow soldiers and treated us badly in prison camps! Besides, that's just a Bible story!" And as he stormed off to another rail car, the Allied soldier turned to a compatriot and said, “We Christians can't just say we care, we have to show we care.”

This dramatic story of compassion reminds us that faith is a verb.

Our Christianity has to go farther than our talk. Jesus commends us to put our words into action, what does that look like for us today?

How are we being courteous to others?

Not speaking behind peoples' backs?

Not spreading rumors?

Or taking credit for the work of others?

Doing the work of the Good Samaritan is just that, work.

May God grant us wisdom and strength to follow this example.

Not long ago British psychology researchers gathered together a group of Manchester United soccer fans for a unique experiment.

Participants were told the experiment would take place in an adjacent building, though it really took place on the short walk there.

That's when the Manchester United fans encountered an injured man on the sidewalk.

As they walked by, one by one, researchers saw to it that one third of the time the injured man was wearing a blank t-shirt. One third of the time he was wearing the t-shirt of the arch-rival Liverpool team. And one-third of the time the injured man wore a Manchester United t-shirt.

Researchers then tallied the responses of their participants, 32% stopped to help the injured man wearing the plain t-shirt, 30% stopped to help the injured man wearing the Liverpool soccer t-shirt, while the injured man wearing the Manchester United t-shirt received assistance a whopping 92% of the time.

The idea that you and I favor those like us is a deeply ingrained evolutionary trait designed to keep us safe from predators and enemies.

Its conscious and unconscious manifestations influence where we live, work, and socialize. And properly dealing with it is at the heart of where our gospel will take us this holiday weekend as we commemorate, as a nation, that great unifying celebration called Independence Day.

This is when citizens in the most diverse nation in the world come together around our Nation's flag, celebrating a system of government aimed at giving us life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And we do so with a lingering conviction that patriotism, unchecked by a higher loyalty, often goes off the rails.

Overcoming our preference for those who are like us makes a nation work, and makes us work to our highest potential. This is what Jesus was trying to get at when we will hear his epic words on Sunday, explaining that we are to love those who are not like us, friends and enemies, "for if you (only) love those who love you, what reward do you have?"

And this is the key to handling the darker sides of our diversity and the deep challenges of our divisions.

Our higher loyalty must be love.

We must consider the dignity and worth of every human being.

We must take time to get to know those who are not like us.

We cannot write people off because they're wearing the wrong t-shirt.

So this weekend, let us be quick to care, slow to judge, and ambitious about getting to know people who are not like ourselves. In this, let us be known: by our love.

My friend Peter likes to tell this story…

One day Satan pulled together all his highest demon lieutenants.

And he said, ‘Guys, this isn’t working.

'For all our hard labor, those people on earth are still getting better. We’re losing! And we need a new strategy. Now give me your best ideas!’

The first demon said, ‘Let’s convince them all that there is no God!'

’That won’t work,’ said Satan, ’They’ll just look around at the beauty of creation and we’ll be cooked.’

The second demon said, ‘Ok, I’ve got it: Let’s convince them that there’s no Satan!’

’That won’t work either,’ said Satan, ‘All they’ve got to do is pick up the paper and look at all the violence and suffering going on and nobody will believe it.'

The third demon then said, ‘I’ve got it! Let's convince everybody that there’s no hurry!’

And with that, Satan and his demons smiled and got to work.

Procrastination! How’s that working for us?

This Sunday you and I will hear a serious conversation Jesus is having with his disciples about getting things done.

And we’ll hear Jesus urge them to get busy with the work they’ve been given, not to put things off, not to veer off the path, but to get things done while they have the chance.

A famous time manager once advised, ‘Get your most important work done by 11am,’ as a way to make sure that the most important things on our ‘to do’ list don’t fall through the cracks.

So… Where do our priorities for our spiritual lives fall?

Prayer, altruism, fellowship, and sacrament?

Are they where they need to be?

What do we need to push out of the way to make sure the most important thing, following Jesus, is getting done?

A 19th century Quaker missionary put it this way:

“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”

When I recently asked the grocery store clerk whether or not she had seen an uptick in rudeness from customers, boy did I get an earful!

The stories are all around us, of air rage, road rage, and a short-temperedness in otherwise civil discourse that seems to be on the increase.

While we may think that the negative effects of these outbursts are limited to the incidents themselves, researchers have shown that there are long-term effects to our exposure to rudeness. It affects our focus, our patience, and even our creativity.

In one study, two groups of people were asked how they might use a pile of bricks? The first group was not exposed to an incivility. They thought of ideas like building walls, skyscrapers, and laying roads. The second group was exposed to one incident of incivility, and they suggested things like throwing a brick through a window, placing it on a sidewalk for someone to stub their toe, or using it as a weapon.

What's more, the effects of these incivilities haunt us whether we are the aggressors or the victims.

This Sunday, we will hear the story of Jesus healing a man with severe psychological problems, demon possessed, unable to control his outbursts, a person certainly prone to rudeness and incivility.

Exactly how Jesus did it is up for debate - but what is known is that Jesus delivered him.

Experts say that responding to and enduring life's incivilities can be compared to a virus, meaning that the healthier we are, the better we eat, exercise, and get good sleep, the easier it is for us to ward off viruses. So when it comes to responding to rudeness, the healthier we are, spiritually and emotionally, the better results we can expect.

And this means drawing closer to the ways Jesus invites us to live. In this Season after Pentecost, we are encouraged to dwell in the Spirit of Jesus - its fruits are patience, love, joy, and self-control. Being spiritually healthy is our best weapon against incivility. How are we doing that in our lives?

And when you and I look at the ways we can impact our world, following the example of Jesus, and injecting as much civility, kindness, thoughtfulness, compassion, forgiveness, and love, as possible, may be our best answer.

A mother took her 8 year old daughter camping one night.

Awakened by a bad dream, the disoriented little girl pointed to her foot, which was under the covers and said, "Look mom, there's a squirrel in my sleeping bag, get a baseball bat!"

The mother tried to calm her daughter and explained that there was nothing to be scared of, it was just her foot, and certainly she would not want to hurt herself, which, thankfully the little girl realized before something painful happened.

It was physicist Werner Heisenberg who is credited with the scientific suggestion the our world is an interconnected web of relationships, that practically speaking, we are all a part of a oneness, a belonging, an interrelatedness - and that when we whack anybody's foot, we may as well be whacking our own.

This Sunday, Trinity Sunday, gives us a strong message on interconnectedness. It's when the church recognizes the unity of God amidst the diversity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It is a unity, not a uniformity, that we do well to take not just into our understanding of religion, but our interpersonal, and even national lives.

This week the January 6 Capital Attack hearings will be televised, drawing partisan rancor and exposing yet another rift in the harmony of our nation.

What would this conversation look like if we understood that when we beat up our opponents, we harm ourselves; that in crippling those who oppose us, we are never left unharmed?

In other words, like the very essence of God, we have been created with intentional distinction, meant not to cause splinter and fray, but so we might form a stronger and more perfect union. We do this with mutual respect and by minding the Golden Rule.

Every day you and I have opportunities to handle difference and division, let us model the very nature and witness of God, and choose not to whack ourselves in the foot.

While previous generations practiced tornado drills in elementary school, today, as we know, it’s active shooter drills.

Both of these are downright scary.

They come without warning, can be deadly, and are most certainly dreaded.

What makes them worse is that they happen to the most defenseless segment of our population - and to the object of every parents' highest affection: our children.

And just like other threats we deal with, it’s not so much that this might happen in our schools, but that we fear it could.

Thus, their biggest impact can be an increased level of alarm, trepidation, and anxiety that, then, pervades our surroundings, becomes part of our culture, and thus affects the mental health and stability of our children.

The answer, then, is to create different atmospheres: auras of peace and calm. It’s to give off authentic vibes of confidence and faith in how we see the world as Jesus sees it.

This Sunday is Pentecost. Here’s a helpful video to remind you of what it’s about.

We mark this event as the coming of the Holy Spirit.

What does that mean?

It means that you and I are not left to deal with an increasingly anxious and worrisome culture all by ourselves.

On this day we remember that Jesus has sent us a spiritual reminder of his ever-presence.

The Holy Spirit's job is to prompt us to recall the things that Jesus said, that we are valuable, important, created to do vital work. We are precious, irreplaceable, and imbued with heavenly purpose. And that we are never, ever, outside of God’s loving embrace.

And while we often limit the power of the Spirit to the Pentecostal images of rushing wind or tongues of fire - the Spirit's most visible manifestation - like the Spirit herself - is unseen.

We see the Spirit at work in the hope, courage, confidence, trust, ambition, relentless dedication, and a sincere sense of calling and mission of the saints. These are the gifts of the Spirit.

You and I are living through scary times.

And when we walk with hope, courage, confidence, trust, and a sincere sense of calling and mission, this is how we walk in the Spirit.

So how are we reminding ourselves that God’s spirit is here?

What are we watching?

Which websites are we visiting?

What books, tv shows, apps and podcasts are we allowing to influence us?

Let Pentecost mark a new era of putting Spirit-filled influences before our eyes, in our ears, and on our hearts so that we can create these atmospheres of peace and calm in our homes.

Want to keep our babies safe? This is a great start.

Please Cry over Uvalde.

Please Cry over Buffalo.

Please take a moment to read the background of just one victim. Get to know, even briefly, one human life that has been cut short because of the culture we have created.

Please pray for Uvalde.

Please pray for Buffalo.

In your prayer closet imagine the feelings and emotions the victim's families and friends are experiencing. Feel their anger, grief, and devastation at the culture we have created.

Please worry about Uvalde.

Please worry about Buffalo.

Please consider the fear and anxiety felt by these communities that have forever lost their innocence. Take a moment to consider the worries we all now share because of the culture we have created.

Please care about Uvalde.

Please care about Buffalo.

Resist the urge of the Pharisee, to walk past a suffering victim, instead of stopping to help. Consider what a Good Samaritan would do about the culture we have created.

Please act on Uvalde.

Please act on Buffalo.

There are substantial reforms on offer that propose common sense ways to change the culture we have created. Find one that works for you. Allow your compassion, empathy, and altruism to shine. Be fueled by your optimism and ambition. Beat back the apathy and lies that tell us that things can't change. We have created this culture. We can create another one.

A Palestinian Christian named Jonathan was coming home late one night with his wife and two young children, to their home in the West Bank of Israel.

Jonathan's property had recently been targeted by the Israelis for Jewish settlements. Jonathan thought this was illegal, but there was little he could do.

And when Jonathan and his family arrived home around midnight that night, they found several Israeli military vehicles blocking their driveway. Jonathan was met by a few of the officers who told him to get out of his car and identify himself.

Jonathan did so, telling the officers that he owned the land and that he just wanted to take his family inside so they could sleep. But the officers insisted that everyone get out of the car for interrogation, even if it meant waking up the small children, who would certainly be scared at the site of armed officers surrounding their car.

Nonetheless, Jonathan complied, and as he reached into the back of his car to awaken his children he lovingly told them, "Get up children! I have some wonderful friends I would like you to meet! They can't wait to see you!"

The Israeli soldiers overheard this conversation and tensions immediately lowered, as Jonathan took on the mantle of peacemaking versus confrontation.

After a few brief minutes, the officers let Jonathan and his family go inside. Soon after Jonathan came back outside to continue the conversation, getting to know the soldiers and eventually inviting them to come inside and to get to know him.

Friends, you and I are living in times of desperate conflict and confrontation, a racist mass shooting in Buffalo, contentious primary elections in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, a bloodbath in Ukraine.

And into our world comes those eternal words of Jesus that we will hear on Sunday, "Peace I give to you, my own peace I leave with you." Jesus gives us this gift because God's will for our world is peace. And Jesus wishes his followers to be peacemakers, who find ways to dial down the tensions, hold back the retribution, and harness thoughts of vengeance.

Where's the conflict in our lives?

How is God asking us to dial it down, finding ways to harness aggression and work to bring about peace?

Our calling is clear, not to contribute to the conflict, but to find ways to resolve it.

When I look at the news articles I am most apt to click on, I say with no small amount of embarrassment, that stories of shady clerics and fallen ministers are usually a sure bet.

Of course I tell myself I do this so I can stay informed, and even pray for my poor, unfortunate colleagues. But I have no doubt that my interest is also fueled by no small amount of schadenfreude.

This of course, is a German word that means to take joy in the tragedy of others.

And while there is no equivalent word for it in English, it is an internationally recognized source of human pleasure: the French speak of joie maligne. In Danish it is skadefryd. And even for a group of people known as the the Melanesians, who live on the remote Nissan Atoll in Papua New Guinea, it is banbanam.

And the joy it causes has been proven time and time again. A recent study in Würzburg, Germany found that soccer fans smiled more quickly and more broadly when their rival team missed a penalty shot, then when their own team scored a goal.

And if schadenfreude means taking joy in another's misery, then the word mitfreud means the opposite - to find joy in another's success.

And that's where our Gospel takes us this Sunday as we hear Jesus give us the one commandment that we all know well: to love one another as I have loved you.

Trading schadenfreude for mitfreud is no easy task - were it so, we would have no need of this commandment.

And getting there means taking on the challenge of looking at others the way Jesus does -

Remember, it’s not just to love others - but to love others as Jesus loves them.

That means commending not condemning -

Complimenting not criticizing -

Building up not putting down.

To love like Jesus loves means that we are encourager, cheerleaders, and proponents of those with whom we share the journey.

What shape is that taking in our lives?

Who needs encouraging - and how can you do it right now?

On the week we Americans celebrate our mothers, comes a ramp-up on the debate around motherhood itself.

Leaked documents from the Supreme Court have ignited the firestorm that is the abortion debate in the United States.

On both sides are vehement protesters, convinced that their position is correct, and no small number of them are Christians, people who love Jesus, and portend to follow his teachings.

On the right are many Conservative, Evangelical and Catholic Christians who equate this development with the end of slavery. They quote Bible verses about God's loving care for humans even as they are in the womb and have made their stance a veritable litmus test to Christianity itself: if one is not pro-life, one cannot be a Christian.

On the other side, are many mainline Christians who equate this development as the beginning of slavery. They also quote Bible verses on the dignity of human life, the importance of respecting others, and the freedom God gives us to run our own lives. These folks point out that Jesus never spoke about abortion and when the Bible does allude to the subject, a pro-life stance is not always clear.

Indeed, this debate is frequently characterized as a choice between two highly regarded and deeply held American freedoms: the freedom of autonomous and individual choice without government intervention - and the obligation our society holds very dearly to protect the vulnerable.

It is yet another hot button topic in which we Christians of honest conviction see things differently.

It is yet another hot button topic in which those who are not Christians, will look at the ways that we believers disagree with discerning eyes: if knowing Jesus turns me into people like that, do I want to consider Christianity?

After all, nobody is argued into following Jesus, they are loved into following Jesus.

And so, how are we supposed to proceed? What is to be our public witness? Are we to adopt worldly, scorched Earth tactics that allow us to demonize, denigrate, and demean those who don't believe the way we do because the severity of the topic warrants it?

Or is our call to demonstrate the love, respect, generosity, kindness, and love that are at the heart of our faith, to define our public witness?

We can never forget that how we treat other people, especially those with whom we disagree, is how we treat God.

We don't get a pass because we personally believe this topic to be more important than others.

By all means, let us be passionate about the policies, stances, and personal convictions that we harbor. Let us lobby, protest, and debate with all we have.

But let us be very careful how we do so.

Let us pray for those with whom we disagree, let us respect them, let us be kind and thoughtful toward them. And let us remember that they will know we are Christians not by our political leanings, but by our love.

What if the thing we fear most, suddenly disappeared?

Many surveys show that our biggest fear is dying; leaving familiar surroundings, saying goodbye to prized possessions, planned experiences, the precious people we love, and going someplace or no place at all.

We fear death so much that we deny or deflect it, after all thinking about death can be scary, creepy, and downright depressing.

During this 50-day season of Easter that subject comes up a lot. In church we hear stories of Jesus and his life after death.

We hear how the resurrected Christ magically appears to his disciples, goes through locked doors, and is not always recognized by even his best friends.

So there's a lot of mystery, especially when we remember all the promises Jesus made before he died, promises about the life that awaits us at resurrection - as a beautiful reunion with those we love and the loving God who gave them all to us.

A theologian named Martin Luther was once asked to address this mystery - of what happens when we die. And he used a simple analogy of a fetus moving through the birth canal, asking, "Does that fetus have any idea what awaits her when she is born into earthly life?"

In the same way, how can any of us right now understand what awaits us when we are born into resurrected life?

One thing we can say, is that in both cases, what awaits us is the presence of God and an unimaginable adventure bathed in God's essence, which is love.

So, what are our fears?

How are we entrusting them to God?

How are we taking on the Easter challenge, to live into God's promises of care and provision, and the cessation of our biggest fear, that we need not be frightened of death - so that we might more fully embrace the relief, freedom, and joy, that is Easter?

Ours is an increasingly, "doubt-everyone, trust-no-one," world. Everybody is under suspicion. The government, the courts, churches, there are few if any institutions that are beyond reproach and widely considered worthy of broad confidence.

We don't trust each other.

Why? Maybe because we don't know each other. Research says the average American has fewer good friends than they did a generation ago. Or maybe because we don't forgive each other, as we hold on to grudges, and stockpile dark memories, choosing to permanently label people for the worst things they do, resisting the once common habit of giving people the benefit of the doubt . Or maybe it's because we are increasingly isolated from one another, we get siloed into gated communities, both geographically and digitally, surrounding ourselves only with people who look, think, and live like we do. And perhaps we have drunk too freely from the poisonous brew of materialism and self-centeredness that can breed suspicion.

Of course there's a place for doubt in our world. Saint Thomas shows us that in Sunday's gospel. However when faced with irrefutable evidence, Thomas put doubt to rest. He didn't look for loopholes, excuses, or alternative facts. He humbly accepted his shortsightedness, and with common sense born of Occam's razor, faced the hard truth that, yes, Christ is risen.

Among the litany of negative cultural trends, resisting our "doubt-everyone, trust-no-one" tendency calls us to cultivate respect for others, to be quick to forgive, to have courage to reach out of ourselves and to make and maintain vital friendships, especially with people who aren't like us and who may not be easy to get along with. And finally, to draw nearer to Christ, who is the source of all truth.

During this Easter season we do well to contemplate the power of God, which is the power to put doubt into perspective, and to accept truth no matter how hard that may be.

Chris Yaw

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Schadenfreude vs Mit freude

Christians and Abortion: How Shall We Disagree?

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Our “Doubt-Everyone, Trust-No-One," World

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