Rogue Reverend

Only Notice (a sermon)

I think I have mentioned to you all the Ted talks that I’ve been listening to… TED talks are 18 minute talks about technology, entertainment, and design, and they are people who are tops in their fields.

Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence gave a talk on compassion. He tells the story of a group of divinity students were given a practice sermon. Half of them were to preach on the story of the Good Samaritan. The other half on some other text. As they went from one building to another to give their sermon, they saw a man bent over in pain. The experiment was to see if they would stop to help the person.

Did it make a difference if the people were preaching on the Good Samaritan text? Nope.

Social Neuroscientists have found that our default wiring is to help. “If we attend to the other person, we automatically feel with them.” So, why don’t we help?

They were in a hurry.
They were worried about what was coming up next.

We don’t take every opportunity to help because our focus is in the wrong direction. There’s a spectrum from (according to Goleman) complete self absorption to compassion, if we are focused on ourselves, we don’t notice the other.

So how do we fix this? Turn off your blackberry, turn off your laptop, and give full attention.

It’s our empathy separates us from sociopaths.

Goleman tells the story about an interviewer who spoke with the Santa Cruz strangler, who murdered his two grandparents, his mother and 5 coeds. He is 7’ tall, and his IQ is 160. Of course, there is zero correlation between IQ and compassion. The interview asked, “How could you have done this? Didn’t you feel empathy?”

The Santa Cruz Strangler said, “Oh, no. If I had felt their distress I couldn’t have done it. I had to turn that part of me off.”

Focus on selves, we turn that off.

But how do we counterbalance our self-absorption? All it takes, is the simple act of noticing.

Noticing. That’s what we’re here to do at church.

You know, for the last year, most of us have faced heightened fear. Whether it’s fear about our children, fear about our finances, fear that we are sick, fear that we will be alone, fear of facing our families deaths, we’ve faced a lot of fear. I’ve listened your stories, and if you think you are alone in feeling this fear, you’ve got another think coming.

If you think you’re the only person dealing with the specific thing you’re dealing with, you are wrong. If you talked more openly about your fear, you’d find that many of you are dealing with the same thing.

And nearly everyone of you has dealt with that fear in a different way. Some of you, afraid for your job situations, have become more locked into your career choices. Some of you have been more creative in your job searches. Some of you, afraid for your financial situations, have gripped more tightly the money you do have. Some of you have let go of the money you have. Some of you, afraid because you might live without love have become more loving. Some of you, afraid because you might live without love, have pushed away love when it’s knocked on your door. Some of you, because of the loss you’ve felt, have learned to let go, others have learned to grip tighter.

What should we do in church? We should practice the art of noticing.

I went on a little trip to Williamsburg last weekend. During the trip, I noticed a lot. I noticed that my fear gets in the way of me being present every minute. I noticed that old tapes run through my head all the time. I notice that the second I get happy, a deep, deep fear comes up from within me and I have to find a reason why this won’t work. And then I have to spew that out of my mouth.

My fears, they run my life. Our fears, they run our lives.

And it is only in letting others know, letting others see, letting others in, providing that accountability for mercy for ourselves, that we are able to move forward out of that fear.

You may think you can make it on your own, but I’m hear to tell you, it won’t be as good.

Did you hear that?

You may think you can make it on your own, but it won’t be as good.

So what if church is about letting someone see your darkest fears? And your hurt places. And letting them remind you, as you notice, that you are deeply amazing?

And what if church is about holding one another in the light so that their hurt places get healed?

And what if that’s what worship is about, too? Does it change how we do it? We talk more. We listen more. We love more. We share more.

It may be only noticing, but it’s noticing.

In our gospel text this morning, Jesus asked two questions of the disciples. First, “who do people say that I am?” They answered, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” Then Jesus turned the question on them. “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”

There’s no action that follows this, required of the followers.

I think Jesus is saying to them, “Only notice.”