Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "How To Be A Person :: Show Up Rejoicing & Weeping" | Sunday Service | Speaker Kara Ashley | October 25th, 2026

Transcript

"How To Be A Person :: Show Up Rejoicing & Weeping" | Sunday Service | Speaker Kara Ashley | October 25th, 2026 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we are continuing our sermon series this morning that we've been calling How to Be a Person in Romans 12.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so before we dive into this week's section, I want to do a little review of where we've been and where we're going.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: So week one, we talked about being a living sacrifice.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Say living sacrifice.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we talked about not conforming to the patterns of this world and what that meant.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Week two, we talked about this idea that you are not the whole body.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Say you are not the whole body.
• 1:28
  unknown: You are not the whole body.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Say it a little louder.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: You are not the whole body.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: And we talked about how we each have gifts and that they needed to be utilized in the church, and maybe pointing out places that they're not being used currently.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And last week we talked about stealing back your zeal.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Now say it was zeal.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: You got it this time.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so having enthusiasm and passion for the kingdom and getting that back.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so this week we're going to talk about showing up, rejoicing, and weeping.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've read through Romans 12 several times now, and we're going to do it again today, and we'll do it again next week.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So get ready for it.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: This morning I'm going to read from the message, which is a paraphrase written by Eugene Peterson.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not a direct translation of the original Greek text, but it puts it in language that you and I use every day, like how I'm speaking right now.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so sometimes it's helpful for me as I'm preparing or just reading my own scriptures to read out of this translation so I get a better grasp of what I'm what I'm hearing.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going to read out a message version this morning.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Are you ready?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of long.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right, here we go.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want you to do, God helping you.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Place it before God as an offering.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Embracing what God does for you is the best thing that you can do for Him.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Don't become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, fix your attention on God.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: You will be changed from the inside out.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: Readily recognize what he wants from you and quickly respond to it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its levels of immaturity.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking to you out of deep of deep gratit out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Living then, even as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misrepresent yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, God brings it all to you.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: The only accurate way to understand ourselves is what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are or what we do for him.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: In this way, we are like the various parts of the human body.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole and not the other way around.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body, but as we but as a chopped-off finger or a cutoff toe, we wouldn't amount to much, would we?
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: So since we find ourselves fashioned into these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other or trying to be something we aren't.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you preach, just preach God's message, nothing else.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you help, just help, don't take over.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you teach, stick to your teaching.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you give encouragement, encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get too bossy.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're put in charge, don't manipulate.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: If you're called to give to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them, keep a smile on your face.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Love is from the center of who you are.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Don't fake it.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Run for dear life from evil, hold on to dear life for good to good.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Be good friends who love deeply.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Practice playing second fiddle.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Don't burn out.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Keep yourselves fueled in a flame.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Be alert servants of the master, cheerfully expectant.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Don't quit in hard times.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Pray all the harder.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Help the needy Christians.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Be inventive in hospitality.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've fallen asleep, this is the part we're doing today.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: So walk back in.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: Bless your enemies, no cursing under your breath.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Share tears when they're down.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Get along with one another.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be stuck up.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Make friends with nobodies.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be the great somebody.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't hit back.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Discover beauty in everyone.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've got it in you, get along with everyone.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Don't insist on getting even.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's not for you to do.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'll do the judging, God says.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'll take care of it.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is the word of God for the people of God.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: God, we come to you this morning ready to learn how to be your servants, how to be people that you've called.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, as we read your scriptures and as your word is proclaimed, may that be true.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Help me get out of the way.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Does anyone ever miss kindergarten?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: Anyone ever miss the homework of kindergarten?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I do too, all the time.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about this idea of how coloring in the lines is hard for a kindergartner this week.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So every Wednesday I go over to Trinity, which is about five minutes away, a local church in town, and I help do with a ministry they called NetKids, which is an afterschool program for elementary students in their church on Wednesday afternoons.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so in this time, um, we I pick them up on the church bus and we go and we go make crafts and we play on the playground and we have snack and do all the after school fun elementary school things.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so one day, this is a couple weeks ago, I'm riding on the bus, um, and this third grade girl asked me if I could sit next to her and help her with her math homework.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, sure, surely I know how to do third grade math.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like I can do this, it's fine.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sitting down with her, and it's like nine times nine is eighty-one, and then you have to rewrite it to be like eighty-one divided by nine is nine.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm trying to explain this as best I can because I just know nine times nine is eighty one because that's the answer.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't know, I don't know how to teach this to you because that's not that's not who I am.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't taken math since high school, okay?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I um and doing I'm walking her through this.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this guy next to us, uh, he's an older elementary school boy, so fifth grade.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so he's like, What are you guys working on?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: So she shows him his her paper, um, and we talk through it a little bit.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, Why is that so hard for you?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And she was like, I don't know how to do it, that's why it's hard for me.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I said to him, I said, This problem is probably hard for you when you were in third grade.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's okay that she doesn't know how to do it.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't know how to do it before third grade either.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I that was just something I had to learn.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so this kind of got me thinking of that kindergarten perspective, of even that third grade perspective of it's hard when you're in the moment.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, coloring in the lines is hard for a kindergartner.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hard for us now, maybe some of us, but it's not hard for us now.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's hard when you're in when you're learning how to do it.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to do nine times nine when you're learning how to do it.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so um it got me thinking that it takes a lot of perspective for us to show up the way that Jesus has shown up for us and showed up through the scriptures.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want us to focus today on this idea of perspective and how we will show up for other people when we have perspective to give them.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Right now I'm in seminary, if you don't know.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I'm a training to become a pastor, learning all these things through different schoolwork.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so sometimes it looks like interpreting New Testament scriptures or interpreting a specific book.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it looks like going through church history.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Who was Sean Wesley?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do for the church?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: How do we get here?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and sometimes it's more practical theology classes like what is evangelism, how do we evangelize to the world?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: What is worship?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: How do we worship?
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and this semester I'm in a class called Introduction to Chaplaincy.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Raise your hand if you have heard of the idea of a chaplain.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know a chaplain or you've heard of it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So a chaplain is someone who often sits with people in transitional moments of their lives.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe they're walking through something hard or they're walking through something really great and they just want someone to celebrate with them.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is a person in ministry who kind of walks next to people in these moments.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so oftentimes you see chaplains as people in the hospital.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're the ministers who sit with you and hold your hand through grief.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or they work in nonprofits, or there's oftentimes a lot of chaplains at schools.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we were talking in this class about this concept of liminal spaces.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: In a liminal space, I think I have a slide for it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, a time in a person's life that's in between normalcy as they have known it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so there's often like a very distinct set of time.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so an example of this could be someone gives birth to a child, um, and the mother and the child are in the hospital, and that time before they leave the hospital and their life has changed as they have known it before.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or this can look like a graduation weekend.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: You've passed all your classes, you've passed all of your exams, you have graduated, and so this time of my graduation ceremony, maybe you're celebrating that weekend, and then Monday comes and you're like, oh shoot, I gotta get a job.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is a liminal space.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: It can also be some of these harder moments in our lives, like getting a diagnosis in the time of the diagnosis to the treatment, that is a liminal space.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or someone passes away in that time between their death until their funeral, a liminal space.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we are talking about these liminal spaces, I realized that's kind of what Paul's getting at.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about how we need to rejoice with people who are rejoicing, celebrating those big moments in their lives, and also weep with those who are weeping and being being with them in the ministry of presence.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it we can get caught up and we're like, yeah, I can do that.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: I can celebrate the people around me.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: I can celebrate my friends who just got a new job, I can celebrate my friend who just got into this grad school, and I can sit with a person when a family member got a diagnosis, I can sit with this person when they're walking through a hard time.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: But what does that look like when it's not someone that we're close to, or not someone that necessarily we understand, not someone that we spend time with?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: What does that look like?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: What does it look like when it's someone you feel like has hurt you?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go back and read the NRS V version.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: It says, Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Don't claim to be wiser than you are.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's unintentional that Paul says, bless those who persecute you, right before he says to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because what happens if somebody gets into a grad school or a program that you wanted to go to?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: What happens if someone gets a scholarship that you really needed but you didn't get?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to rejoice with them because they got what they needed?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: They got what they were hoping for?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you gonna be arrogant and say, oh, I was supposed to get that?
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you gonna sit there and be happy for them?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: What about the person on the side of the road?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: The person who hasn't eaten in several days?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: That person that you don't understand because you just simply haven't sat sat with them and spent time with them?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Are you gonna say, Well, I've worked hard, I've worked hard to get where I am, or are you going to weep with them and serve them?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: So as I was preparing for this message, I felt like something just wasn't clicking, something wasn't um connecting.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I just felt this like disconnect within the message.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I oftentimes will kind of write a little bit, let it breathe.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like writing a paper where you're like, I'm gonna write the first draft, let alone for a couple days, write the next draft, that kind of thing.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was kind of doing that.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was at a coffee shop and I was like, I'm just gonna do some schoolwork, kind of let it let it breathe a little bit.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so as I'm doing that, which you can't do that when you're in seminary.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like the scriptures don't just breathe when you're in seminary, like they're always festering, there's always some kind of conversation that's gonna connect back to the scripture.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: But so I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna do this.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I have reading to do for this class.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I pull up the canvas page, I open the module for the week, and there's no reading for the class that week.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, bang, that's amazing.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: I love this.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I don't have to read 100 pages for this class.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is incredible.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And there's like a link to this video, and she's done this before, and the links are like 10 minutes long.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, easy, I can knock this out so quick.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Two times speed, it's five minutes, even better.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I opened the link and it's 58 minutes long.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh my gosh.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, at least when I'm reading, I can just skim along, see what bold what's bolded, what's italicized, like I can kind of skim through and then like chunk my way through class the next day when we're in conversation with each other.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't do that with a video.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I can't just skip around, like I don't know what the important parts are.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, okay, I'm just gonna have to do it.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I turn it on two times speed, of course.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just sitting there in this coffee shop watching the video.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as I start watching the video, I quickly realized that I need to turn it off two times speed and actually pay attention to the video because it was like that impactful, um, not only for the class, but for what I was talking about this Sunday.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I turn it off two times speed, and I just was like hit with this wave of like, oh, that's the point.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I get it now.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so here's a clip from that film.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: On 9-11, I was living in the Goddard Hall dormitory, and we were asked to evacuate.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: I was walking down the stairs, and there was this really short girl who was even shorter than me that had tried to push me down.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when I looked at her, you know, she was silent, and I was silent, but you could see on her face that she wasn't really happy that I was there.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: My father said to me, We'd be more comfortable if when you go out, you don't cover your head.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: You can keep your beard, but it would make things a little bit easier for us if people couldn't identify you as being Muslim.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: It was really tough for me to handle because why should we not step up?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why are we hiding?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: The next day when I came to services in the morning to leave, like I I had been doing every day up until that point in synagogue in the Bronx.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_02: The senior rabbi, Rabbi Weiss, walks in and he starts talking just a little bit about what it was like being down to ground zero.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: And he tells me who I I need you to come down with me.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: So many people were uniformed.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: The firefighters, the police officers, medical personnel.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: Even Rabbi Weiss was wearing a jacket.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, believe me, I was wearing these flip-flops of all things to wear.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: Rabbi Weiss was trying to find the people who visibly looked the most despondent.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: He walked over to them and said, I'm a rabbi, I'm just here to say God bless you.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: And he hugged them.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it didn't make a difference whether the people who he was hugging and blessing were Jewish or Muslim or Christian or whatever.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: As we walked around, Rabbi White said, Yuda, do you notice all the other rabbis who are here?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I kind of took a look and I said, No, I don't see anybody else.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: And he said to me, It's a problem.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's a problem.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's right at the beginning of this film.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like, literally the first five minutes, and I was like, oh my gosh, hit me right in the heart.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, this is this is the point.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so those two guys go on to be the chaplains of um of the the Jewish chaplain and the Muslim chaplain of New York University after they've graduated and done their studies.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, fast forward a little bit, 9-11 happens, um, and then they meet because in 2005 there was some conflict in the Middle East, some political unrest that was causing um conflict and tension between um Jewish and Muslim students on campus.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so the two of them met up as the leaders and were like, we gotta fix this.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: How can we kind of mend this relationship?
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's 2005.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Hurricane Katrina has just hit, and they decided that they were gonna take a group of students who were actively um being ugly to each other, and they were gonna go on a mission trip and serve the people of New Orleans.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Oh, that is an interesting way to handle that conflict that I probably wouldn't have chosen, but love this idea.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, wow, this is really interesting.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they go on this trip, um, kind of expecting there to be like tension the entire time.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And quickly the students um mended their relationships because they realized that other people had it way worse, that they didn't need to just be arguing about this thing, um, that they actually were more similar than they were different.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Muslim students started cooking kosher meals for the Jewish students, and the Jewish students started waking up at 5:30 to do the Muslim prayer with the students.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it was this beautiful like mending of relationships that happened um while they were cleaning up homes, while they were cleaning up this devastation in New Orleans.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um later in the film, they uh these two men are um interviewed by um another pastor, um, and they say this in some places in the world, Jews and Muslims don't get along together so well.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: But what we have found is that natural disasters don't just knock down homes, they break down barriers.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm sitting in this coffee shop crying.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, so surely someone's like, what is going on with this girl crying at her laptop?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so I just um I just was like taken aback by that quote.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and so they they leave this trip, they get back to campus, um, and they start having regular conversations together.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um they build this uh once-a-week group that they call bridges to um talk to each other, um to listen to one another and gain perspective of the other person, of the other religious background.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so it's in this moment of um hardship that they come out of it to build bridges together.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it's easy for us to say, yeah, I can rejoice with someone when they're rejoicing, or weep with someone when they're weeping when they're your best friend.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's so easy.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you can't do that, maybe you need to get a new friend.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like we can try again.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because that should that should come naturally to you because you care about that person.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: But what about the thing that you do not care about?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to weep with that person?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to rejoice with that person?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the calling.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's the hardship of the calling.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so as I was working this week, um, we were talking with the teaching team, the group that meets um on Tuesday afternoons to talk about the upcoming message.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I looked at EJ and I said, EJ, I feel like you do this really well.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like you can see someone else's perspective and just see where they're at.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you see, you have a heart for social justice that I do not have.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: I have to try way harder to do these social justice work, this work, because it doesn't naturally come to me.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I think I don't think that's a bad thing to say.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good thing to admit so that you can see where you're where you are at and where you need to improve.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of was like festering with this idea of social justice this week and what that looks like within rejoicing and weeping.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when someone is rejoicing or someone is weeping, this often looks like them crying out.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: To God.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's this act of like, God, I can't do this anymore.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how could you have put me in this spot?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or it's someone rejoicing, being like, God, you've been so faithful in my life.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, thank you for all these blessings that you've got given me.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so in this concept of weeping and rejoicing, maybe the only thing we can do for someone else is pray for them.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the only thing we can do.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: We can walk up to them and say, Hey, what's your name?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Kara.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just reaching out because God loves you.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: And because God loves you, I love you.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hear your story.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Just like that rabbi.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm I'm a rabbi and I'm just here to say that God loves you.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I know there's nothing I can do in this moment, but hey, God loves you and so do I.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything I can do for you?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so recognizing where this person is, recognizing where you're at in regards to them, listening to their story, and now you got to move your feet.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's time to do the next step, which is actually doing something.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: So in these hard moments when we feel like there's nothing to say or nothing to do to fix the situation, maybe we could just listen.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we could listen to the person, actually hear them out, see where they're coming from, and then move our feet.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: What about the people this doesn't come naturally to you for?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not your best friend, not a family member that you love.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: What about the people that you've had conflict with?
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: What about the people that you felt like betrayed to?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: What about those people?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: How will you rejoice and weep for them?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning we have an opportunity to build kits one another with each other after service.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, kits for unhoused people on the streets who haven't eaten in days, people who do not have homes over their heads.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so, in this, I want us to practice an idea of weeping with these people.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I have all of these supplies laid out up here, and I'm gonna ask us to do something a little bit uncomfortable.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ask us to um pray over these items as a way of saying, like, Lord, I'm weeping with these people.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: I wanna, I want to be used by you simply because you do that for me.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want I want to weep with them by by praying for them.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so um I'm gonna ask us to do something uncomfortable, and it's gonna be awesome.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's the calling.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I'm gonna ask us in a second to all stand and gather around the altar table and extend a hand to do this.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um because we have um the ability to weep for those who can't weep, to weep with those who are weeping, to rejoice with people who are rejoicing.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because we get to the have the opportunity to be the hands in defeat, to move our feet in order to make this happen.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm calling this weeping through prayer.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna invite all of us to stand and come forward, lay a hand over the altar.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: It'll get a little crowded, that's okay.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna ask us um, y'all can come in, y'all can come in.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: In this moment, I'll open the prayer, I'll leave a little bit of space for others to add to the prayer, and then I'll close us at the end.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so I encourage you to do something out of your comfort zone to weep with those who are weeping through prayer.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: God, we come to you as a body of people broken, a group of people just trying our best to weep with those who weep and rejoice with people who rejoice.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: God, we know that this calling can be hard.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: We know this calling is not always easy.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so, God, would you give us the courage to go out and weep with those who weep, to celebrate with those who are celebrating?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, God, we lift up these items, these things that are gonna go in a plastic bag.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: God, would they be vessels of your grace?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: Would you allow us to be bold as we hand them out and be bold with our conversations, to listen to people and to invite them in to this community with you?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: God, would you be in our midst this week as we hand out these kits?
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Would you be in the building of the kits?
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: Would we be able to recognize the holiness of that moment?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: God, as we move into this week, would we be people who weep and rejoice with those we do not often meet with?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Would we be able to have the perspective that they might have each and every day?
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: God, we give you praise for this opportunity.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: We love you.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: As you head back to your seat, I invite you to stay after service if that was not your original plan.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because in some places of the world, people don't get along.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: But what I've found is that in moments like these, barriers are broken down and bridges are built.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we get the opportunity to be a part of that bridge.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's stand and speak more something.