Beyond Sensitivity
Excerpt from Ephesians 4:17-19
"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more." (NIV)
Reflection by Kenneth L. Samuel
"The Shawshank Redemption" is one of my favorite movies. It's set during the 1940's at the Shawshank State Prison, a fictional penitentiary in Maine. In one scene, a conversation between an older prisoner, played by Morgan Freeman, and a young prisoner, played by Tim Robbins, goes something like this:
Freeman: "'The 'Sisters' (referring to a band of other inmates) want you."
Robbins: "But I'm not homosexual."
Freeman: "Oh, they're not either. You'd have to be human to be homosexual."
This conversation precedes the pursuit, and, eventually, the rape of the young prisoner.
I thought of Morgan Freeman's words as I read what Paul had to say to the church at Ephesus. Paul is actually pleading with the church not to abandon human sensitivity...human empathy ... human compassion.
Sex without sensitivity is rape. Capitalism without sensitivity is economic exploitation. Education without sensitivity is indoctrination. Religion without sensitivity is dogma. Oil drilling without sensitivity is environmental hazard. Life without sensitivity is licentiousness.
In another place, Paul writes to believers: "We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin." When we stop caring for one another and for our environment, have we not set course toward our own damnation?
Prayer
Loving God, despite all of our struggles and impasses, please give us strength to never move beyond sensitivity. Amen.
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