A Call for Empathy

On January 29, 2025, I was asked to provide the devotion for the Vermont Senate plenary session. Here is what I shared:

Lt. Governor Rogers and members of the Vermont Senate:

I stand before you as the pastor of United Methodist churches in Montpelier, Northfield, and Plainfield.

Last Sunday, our congregations and Christian churches throughout the world read the story of Jesus’s first sermon as recorded in Luke’s gospel. My friend, Diana Butler Bass, sums it up this way:

“A preacher gets up, reads the scripture, and reminds the gathered congregation that God loves the outcast and those in fear for their very lives – the poor, prisoners, the disabled, and the oppressed. And, in response, an outraged mob tries to kill the preacher.”

We all heard a similar story last week when an Episcopalian bishop Mariann Budde, begged for mercy on behalf of immigrants and the outcast – the poor, the addicted, and of course our trans friends. After the worship service ended, a mob rose up on social media and in the press, expressing their outrage at the call for compassion. Some who claimed the name “Christian” would argue that Bishop Budde was led by what they called the “sin of empathy.”

It’s an odd accusation, but not that surprising. Empathy, the attempt to understand the pain and suffering of another, seems to be in short supply today in a world that is more focused on power and control. For these self-proclaimed Christian nationalists, empathy is at odds with their desire for domination, for empathy asks difficult questions of us. Empathy requires us to stop and listen to what those at the margins of society face and what they truly need. Empathy does not have all the answers, but rather, invites further questions about why the world is the way it is. Empathy is love lived out without judgment.

The empathy deficit we see is leading us down a dark and difficult path. The scriptures tell us that Jesus looked at the needy crowds and had empathy for them, but today there are some who believe they were troublemakers who should be silenced and rejected. Jesus took time to listen to a woman judged by the community for her behavior, yet there are some today who want to throw rocks at her until she dies. Many who claim to be Christian miss that the core of our belief is a Creator who empathized with his creation so much that he came and lived among us, attempting to call us to a life of love for all.

My friends, you have difficult decisions ahead of you. We face significant problems that affect real people here in Vermont. And, we find ourselves in a national situation where many who live among us are filled with fear by an administration that says they have no place here.

My hope and prayer for us all is that we can and will be filled with empathy for one another. Take time to listen – not only to those in power but those who are living on the streets. Put yourselves in the shoes of those who theologian Howard Thurman said have their backs up against the wall.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah, “to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, to help the blind see, and free those who are oppressed.”

May this session of this honorable body bring good news to the people of Vermont as well.

I conclude with a blessing from the Black Rock Prayer Book:

The world now is too dangerous
and too beautiful for anything but love.
May your eyes be so blessed you see God in everyone.
Your ears, so you hear the cry of the poor.
May your hands be so blessed
that everything you touch is a sacrament.
Your lips, so you speak nothing but the truth with love.
May your feet be so blessed you run
to those who need you.
And may your heart be so opened,
so set on fire, that your love,
your love, changes everything.

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