The Healing Virtues of the Soul: Responsibility

Several years ago, when I was a missionary in Germany, my family went with me to make a pastoral visit in our city on a cold, snowy evening.  

In hopes of starting a snowball fight with my 5 year old daughter, I rubbed my hand across our VW station wagon and scooped up a hand full of snow and started to make my weapon.  Right after my hands came together to give shape to the snowball, I heard a woman open the window of the apartment about 5 stories up.  Quickly the lady yelled in German, “Sie sollen das nicht machen!”  (“You shouldn’t do that!”)   “This woman needs to mind her own business, I thought to myself.  “What right does she have to order me around or invade my privacy”?  But it suddenly came to me she figured me to be a passerby on the street who had rubbed my hands across someone else’s car.   Now that I realize what was happening, I answered her by clasping my glove covered hands and crying back through the cold: “Alles ist in Ordnung!  Das is mine Auto.”  (This is O.K., The car belongs to me).  With that word, the woman pulled down the window and had nothing else to say.  

The more I’ve thought about what happened that snowy night in Germany, the more I realize how uniquely a German moment that was.  Few Americans would take charge to look after another person’s car or hold a person on the street accountable.   Sometimes our American respect for freedom goes too far in the other direction.   My case-in-point is the tragic event of what happened recently at Richmond High School in Richmond, California.  Over 400 students attending a School dance probably knew what was taking place and at least 20 watched and even took photos with their cell phones as a young, innocent girl was being gang raped by at least 4 guys but everyone choose to look the other way.  No one did anything.   No one came to her aid.  No one called the law.  No one even yelled for the perpetrators to “stop.”

Maybe this is an extreme situation at Richmond High, but I think this story, as well as the story of the Snowball in Germany raises an important question: What does it mean to be considered a responsible person in the world?  Do we realize how sick and mean the world becomes when fewer and fewer people feel a connectedness or responsibility to others or for themselves?  And how sick do we become, how sad and sick can our own families become when we lose the ability to be a responsible person in the world around us.   Many Americans value freedom and some value it even more than personal and social responsibility, but the truth is that unless we are responsible with our freedom, we can lose it.  Freedom and responsibility go together like hand and glove and when responsibility goes south (as the expression goes), it is not long until freedom follows.

WHERE DOES ONE GAIN A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY?

Have you ever wondered why some people “get” being “responsible” and other people never seem to get it?   I can recall wishing that that the boy sitting behind me in 5^th grade got it.  He kept giving me a hard time and I knew that I wasn’t supposed to hit him and that made matters worse.   He just didn’t get it, but I got it and he kept giving it to me.  Why do some people have the ability to be responsible at such a young age, but others don’t?  That young boy’s lack of responsibility was much like the punk rock song which goes: “Responsibility, What’s that?  Responsibility, not quite yet…!  I don’t want to think about it!  We’d be better off without it. I don’t want to think about it.”   But today I want us to think about it.  I want us to think about the “healing power” in taking responsibility for our actions because the world, even our own personal world can get very, very sick when “no one wants to think about it!” 

Where from does a sense of responsibility come?  Responsibility comes from exactly what the word implies.   Responsibility means to answer or respond to something or someone.  People tend to be more responsible when they are responding to something they have been given in their lives.  People who have been given little, often feel little responsibility.  People who have been given much, have a greater capacity for responsibility.  Those who grow up with neglect, have been overlooked, uncared for, these kinds of people often show deficiencies in becoming responsible adults.  A Scripture in the gospel puts it this way:  “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”  (Luke 12:48).  It appears to be much more difficult to be responsible when there is nothing to respond to in your life.   If you parents loved you, you respond back in love to them.   If the people we grow up around are responsible people, we tend to respond back to that community of caring and love by being loving, caring and responsible to other people.  If you have been shown grace, mercy, love and hope, then you tend to respond in the same hopeful, graceful, merciful and loving ways.   But if you have nothing to respond to, little to respond to, or even if you for some reason, you take for granted what you’ve been given, that is where most irresponsibility is breed and born.  People with little good in their lives to respond to, can become irresponsible people unless there in some intervention.

RESPONSIBILITY AS A CHRISTIAN VIRTUE

What kind of responding, responsible person are you?  When you look at your life right now, or when you look at yourself in the mirror do you see yourself as a person with a lot or little response?

A couple of years ago, a man named Wesley Autry jumped onto the subway tracks to save the life of a stranger who during a seizure had fallen onto the tracks.   People called Wesley a hero.   But when Wesley was questioned about the event, he said he only did what he thought was right thing to do.  Wesley told how he had two young daughters and he wanted them to grow up in a world where people still cared for others.  That is part of the reason he did not hesitate to help another.  Responding, not just to the care and love he had been given, maybe also responding to the love he felt for and from his daughters, and as he said, responding to the kind of world he wanted his daughters to inherit, Wesley did what he said was the right thing.

Being “responsive” people who can either accept or reject our duty to others is part of what philosophers say makes us human.  Other animals can be responsive to the world around them, but no animal be socially responsible in the same way a human can (Though it could be said that some animals are more responsible than humans who lose their sense of responsibility). 

On the news the other morning, they showed how a doe accidently got into the cage with some Lions at the national zoo in Washington, DC.  Onlookers cheered for the deer to escape but Lions quickly started to pursue the deer and injured it.   Although the deer finally jumped into the water to escape where the Lions did not follow, and the deer was finally pulled to safety, it was too late, the damage had been done---as Matt Lauer commented, “Lions did what Lions do.”  The deer had to be euthanized.   No Lion would have been held accountable for attacking a deer, because a Lion has a very limited ability to be responsible. We humans have much higher levels of responsibility, duty and accountability.   Again, as Jesus says, “the more we’ve been given, the more that is required of us.”

Most of us in church would be considered to be very responsible people.   Most of us try to do the right thing because we had parents who tried to do right by us and teachers who taught and modeled what it means to be responsible.   We live our responsibly “responding” to what we’ve been given.   We can even still grow in our responsibility by continuing to respond to the changing situations and needs around us because this is what “responding” responsible people do.   Since others have understood and adjusted themselves to help meet our needs, we will continue to respond to the needs of others.  To rephrase the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,”(Matthew 7: 12), as others did for us, we tend to do for others.

Most all religions teach some kind of personal and social responsibility, though it could be argued both theologically and scientifically, that there is no higher revelation of human responsibility to another than Jesus’ words, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15: 13).   This kind of ultimate sacrifice is still the ultimate call to responsibility and there are service men and women making this ultimate sacrifice for us---and the question still comes---how do we respond to their sacrifice and how will we live, in light of all that has been done to give us the freedom and life we have?  

As Christians, we believe that God has given us a perfect revelation of his love for us in Jesus Christ and that through Jesus God offers grace, mercy, forgiveness, and unconditional love to us.  Because of what God has done, we now live our lives in response to God’s great gift of life and redemption.  With this understanding of the responsible nature of the Christian life, how are you doing?  How do you show yourself as a “responding” person who is accountable with the grace and goodness you’ve been given?

A CHRISTIAN IS A RESPONSIBLE PERSON

We don’t have to wonder what it means to respond responsibly to God’s love and grace in out lives.  In Paul’s letter to the Galatians  (6: 1-10) we find some of the best known words in all the Bible, which are also words about our most basic Christian responsibility.    

“Bear one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.”  (6:2).  This is perhaps the most practical, healing word in all the Bible.   The image goes all the way back to a time where the people were poor and had nothing except the daily burdens to bear in order to stay alive.  They had no technology to help them, but had to rely upon each other. 

I want you to place this image of the poor helping each other to bear their daily burdens to the 20 plus kids watching at least 4 guys gang rape a young girl, having all the power of high tech in their hands and still doing nothing.  All those thousands of years of human technological advancement right in their hands and they wouldn’t even push three buttons ( 911) to bear the burden and hurt of another human being.

Oh, I know, you might say, “this young girl” was among those boys and she deserved what she got.   It was even reported that she was a lesbian.   I can imagine some of those kids were thinking who were “glad” to see her get “straightened” out in such a way, since she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Is letting somebody get what’s coming to them what Christians mean by being responsible? 

I use this illustration because this is an extreme picture, but a very realistic picture of how we too might misread the Christian call to “bear one another’s burdens”.  We might see the need to bear the burden of our family, our friends, maybe our fellow church members, and maybe even certain struggling people in our community----for these people we might feel responsible, but should we feel responsible for an out-right sinner, someone getting what we think they deserve?   


Read this text a little closer and see exactly what Paul means by bearing one another’s burdens:  “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression (a sin), you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted.”  Tempted to what?   Maybe tempted to hate them, instead of loving them; maybe tempted to despise them, instead of reaching out to them, and maybe tempted to get even with them, instead of forgiving and leaving the vengeance where it belongs, in God’s hands. 

Here we can find so many powerful dynamics of being responsible.  We see the self-sacrificing, redeeming, evangelical, outreaching, compassionate and caring nature of our faith.  Though I call this the “responsible” nature of our faith, but there is really nothing “natural” about it.  It goes beyond the natural call of human duty and aims toward a higher level of humanity, above and beyond the call of duty, and it takes us straight into the realm of spiritual healing and helpfulness rooted in what God has done for us in Christ.   Did you catch the clarifying phrase Paul uses, when he says, “you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.”   There is so much pure Christian responsibility in this we don’t have time to try to unpack.

Being a responsible Christian is doing more what law and respect demands--- but the healing response points toward a greater ideal to “do to other as you would have them do unto you.”   God’s Spirit leads us beyond the way things are into the way things could be or should be and can be, if we will allow ourselves to be lead by his Spirit in this way.

What is so amazing about this “spiritual” way is that it not only makes the world look very differently, it makes us a different person.  This is why the text continues by saying, “don’t think you are more than you are” or make sure you “test” your own work.  By putting yourself under scrutiny rather than your neighbor you learn to take responsibility for your own self (considering the log in our own eye---as Jesus said, before we look for the splinter in the eye of another).  This is crucial for learning to respond to God on his terms, not ours.   

So we don’t misuse or abuse God’s love, Paul gives us this very important, qualifying word: “For all must carry their own loads”.  Being a responsible person means that not only do we “respond” to the healing needs of others, but it also means we “do our own part” bring healing and hope into our own lives.

What does it mean to be responsible to “carry our own load”?  Note Paul’s unforgettable qualifier: “Don’t be deceived!  God is not mocked, whatever you sow is what you reap.”  Most of us raised in a rural, farming culture understand better than most what these very agricultural words mean and imply.  Whatever you sow is what you reap!  It is so clear, so precise, so unmistakable, we ought to get it.  But sadly we don’t always.  We don’t get it because the spiritual crop we are growing is not always physically evident.   We don’t get it because we believe our lives will turn out, no matter what kind of habits, attitudes or behavior we exhibit.  We think our marriage will turn out, no matter what kind of conflict, differences, and problems we keep sweeping under the rug.  We think that our children will have all the possibilities and choices we had, no matter how little time we spend with them or how little we model before them what it truly the most important.  And lastly, we think that all we have to do it get the program, go to the right church, read the right book, get the right spiritual guru, so that even without taking any responsibility for ourselves that the method, process or this person we invite into our lives will make everything right without any work or responsibility of our own. 

My only question to any who might think this way is this: On what planet were you born?  Burdens can’t be lifted until we all carry our own “own load.”  When only a few try to do all the work, or when most of the people don’t show up and don’t bear their load, then people get sick in their heads and their hearts, people become constant complainers, not just lazy, but lousy, impossible people who encounter nothing but a spiritual deadness that is an emotional wilderness because they don’t pick up their part of the burden and lift.   

Remember those times in school, when a teacher asked several of you to come over and carry something that one person could not lift on their own?   While you were carrying whatever heavy object it was, the guys would often joke with each other, saying “pick up your end shorty,” or saying something like “hey, guys you gave me the heavy side.”  Don’t you remember this kind of thing happening?  We joked about who was really carrying what, but what we never really joked about was that all ought to be carrying something.  The people who just sit there doing nothing, are not really doing nothing or simply freeloading on the rest, but they also undoing all the good that others try to do.  


An old fable told in most cultures teaches the same essential lesson.  It goes that a father and his son who took their donkey to the market one day in order to buy food. The father sat on the donkey and the boy walked.  As they traveled, on-lookers said: "What a terrible thing;  A big strong man like that riding while the poor boy has to walk."  So the father got off and he let the boy ride. Then people said: "How disrespectful. The father walks while his son rides."  So they both got on the back of the donkey.  And then people said: "How cruel. Two people riding on that poor donkey’s back."    

So they both got off the donkey and walked.  People said: "How foolish. Both of them walk while a perfectly healthy donkey has nothing on his back."

They finally arrived at the market a day late.  When they got there, everyone marveled to see the man and his son carrying the donkey doing what everyone wanted, but essentially getting nothing done that was really needed    (As told by Jim Dornan at:  http://bizsuccess.manila.ph/success-story/success7.htm). 

HOW YOU RESPOND IS WHO YOU ARE

If you want to share in the hope and the healing you have to share in the work.  It is like a pointing of a finger directly at the biblical call of personal and social accountability that is meant by these unforgettable words from this text, “you reap what you sow”.  

This spiritual law is primarily meant to help us heal so that we don’t end up howling in pain over how sick our lives have become.   This is precisely why we are also challenged “not to grow weary in well doing”!    Faithful “burden bearing” and “burden carrying” produces the kind of social, spiritual and relational goodness that brings life, healing and health in our own community of faith and to the larger community we call “the world.”  “You reap what you sow… “  As we might say in our own vernacular: You get out of it, what you put into it.  To paraphrase the rest of the text: “If you sow to the flesh, you get only the flesh and its eventual death, decay and corruption… But if you sow to the spirit, and you partner with the eternal God in bearing and sharing your burdens, you create and atmosphere of life and healing and even in your difficult, hard to bear lives, you will reap the eternal and durable spirit God gives.

Only one question remains: What should we specifically as the response out of our own lives?   We are not left guessing:  “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” How do we spell “responsibility” in our own lives?  How do we spell it in relationship to our responsibility to our families, to this spiritual community and of course to God?  Do I need to be more responsible in my church attendance? Or do I need to be part of a sharing, small group process?  Do I need to be involved in giving back to my community or even to the world that has so many needs I could respond to?  What responsible “right” thing should you be doing to bear and care with your life?

Last week, the day before our country observed Veterans Day, our nation grieved the unnecessary loss of 13 soldiers killed by an emotionally disturbed psychiatrist.  Nothing gives us a sadder picture of an irresponsible human being than one who turns upon his own comrades.  Nothing is more disturbing than someone who ceases to bear burdens or ceases to carry their own load in life. 

What was also clear to see during this time when we see an example of the worse in humanity, we also see clearly saw the best.   Kimberly Munley, a police Sergeant who overheard on her radio what was happening at Fort Hood, immediately rushed to the scene.  Upon arrival she went into the building and confronted the killer without any thought to her own life, even taking four bullets as she brought down the shooter.   Kim is the incredible, living, real picture of a person who not only carries her own load as a police officer, but bore the burden of the others in the situation.   All the reports say this is the kind of person she was.  She was not just a policeman doing her job, she was a human being, being fully human, bearing the burden and ready to serve, even above and beyond the call of duty.

I wonder what Kimberly responded to within her heart?  “She was tiny, but tough… mighty mouse…” some referred to her when she was serving as a cop at Wrightsville Beach.    Was she just a tough woman, or was there also a sense of duty? Speculating about Kimberly leads me to ask about our sense of duty as Christians. When this church has its doors open and is trying to present the gospel, what is your duty?   When we are trying to minister to the children, youth, seniors or the hurting in our midst, and you know you have gifts, abilities, and responsibilities directly related to your commitment as a follower of Jesus and as a member of this church, how are you responding?   The greatest sicknesses of the soul, is the soul that no longer feels any need to care or bear any responsible.   When you live only responding to yourself or not responding at all, it isn’t long until you become as non responsive as a corpse---a spiritual zombie---alive physically, but dead spiritually. 

But of course, there is a cure for this “deadness”.  It’s not waiting for someone or something to come into your life to fix you, but you coming alive within your own skin.   And our text gives the exact RX we need to come back from the dead: “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”

Has your day of opportunity arrived?  Are you ready for the healing?  The very healing you need may start within you when you respond to the love, grace and goodness God offers you in this moment.  Amen.


© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.