Bishop Untener’s Homily

I don’t remember a time in my 64 years of life on this earth when the whole nation – and in fact the whole world – was so enveloped in feelings... feelings of all kinds.

There is something that needs to be said right up front: Feelings are morally neutral. Even what we might call "bad feelings" are not in themselves sinful.

What we have to do is decide what we’re going to do with these feelings, for they are a very powerful force, and their energy can be used for good or for evil. One option is to suppress them. But, again, feelings are a powerful, powerful force. We may think we suppress them, but they will pop out somewhere else, and often in ways that are not good.

Another option is to ride the force of our feelings into action, and that can be very bad. Just because we have strong feelings doesn’t mean that we should act on them, because actions are not morally neutral.Another option is to focus on the bad feelings, harbor them, coax them on... and that is not good.

The best option is to acknowledge our feelings whatever they are – not suppress them and pretend they’re not there. Once we do that, then we can decide how to use the energy of those feelings to act in the ways Christ taught us to act. The force of our feelings can become a force for good.

So, I call upon us this evening to acknowledge our feelings about what took place today. Let’s name them. Remember, they’re morally neutral. I invite you now to name some of the feelings that are in you, or that you can feel in the air.

[Various responses were: anger, fear, sorrow, despair, frustration, unbelief, shock, hatred, vengeance.]

In our Scripture reading this evening we heard that Jesus... "though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself... coming in human likeness."

Jesus is the Word made flesh. He was like us in all things but sin. Know this: In his life on earth, Jesus had every feeling that we just mentioned, and some feelings that weren’t mentioned. We learn from him how to act on those feelings.

In the Gospels we see Jesus express his feelings. He wept over Jerusalem. In the Garden of Gethsemane his feelings were so strong that sweat rolled off his body like drops of blood. On the cross he screamed, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me." But he used those feelings as a force for good. He trusted "Abba" and he placed himself in God’s hands, ultimately entrusted his whole life to God. That is why the "logo" – the mark of Christianity – is the cross.

We’ve come together this evening to lift all this up to God, feelings and all. We’ve come to let our prayers rise like incense. And most of all, as we sang in the psalm, we each ask God to guide our feelings – pain, sadness, worry, anger, frustration – to guide them to become a force for good. We ask God to be "shepherd of my heart... lead me homeward through the dark, into everlasting day... May my life never part from the shepherd of my heart."

Originally given Tuesday, September 11, 2001