Moving from Entitlement to Compassion

I preached this sermon on this past Sunday. It was based on the lectionary readings of Jonah 3:10-4:11, Philippians 1:27-2:4, and Matthew 20:1-16. The last Scripture reading is the parable of the generous landowner.

Here is a portion of what I said:

Living in the reign of God means that we live in harmony with one another: not just with those who make us feel comfortable, but even with those who make us feel uncomfortable. In this way, we learn to be empathetic towards the needs and concerns of others—realizing that the needs of others are often tied to our own.

In other words, when we can find the way to look past our own needs towards the needs of others, we’ll discover that in fulfilling our neighbor’s needs, we will be fulfilling our own. And this realization can sum up much of Jesus’ consternation with his disciples as it can be applied to Jonah as he sat lamenting over the death of the leafy bush. Simply put: The nature of entitlement is contrary to the life we have in Christ. When we can move past such thinking, we will discover that when compassion and empathy towards others fills our heart, we will find the fulfillment that we’ve been searching for all along.

You can read the entire sermon by pointing your brower to: http://www.bwayucc.org/18Sep05a.pdf