This is NOT My Sermon...

Empathy is the engine that powers all the best in us.

~~Meryl Streep

💛

1.     What is your favorite word?
2.     What is your least favorite word?
3.     What turns you on?
4.     What turns you off?
5.     What sound or noise do you love?
6.     What sound or noise do you hate?
7.     What is your favorite curse word?
8.     What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
9.     What profession would you not like to do?
10.   If heaven exists, what do you hope to hear God say as you enter the pearly gates?

Here's one more question: What television show from the past do you miss the most?

Inside the Actors Studio was a brilliant show. It provided viewers with a deep insight into the motivations and characters of some of the most interesting actors of our time. The previous questions asked by the host, James Lipton, were modeled after the (Marcel) Proust questionnaire, a Victorian-era parlor game that might just be fun to resurrect today.
Each extensive Inside interview covered different roles and experiences to such a deep extent that the actors, no doubt, felt thoroughly seen, known, and understood, for better or for worse.

At the conclusion of each show, acting students from Pace University were given the opportunity to ask their own questions. In one episode from years ago, Actress Diane Lane was asked by a student to discuss how her Christian faith has influenced her acting. Lane’s answer was both compelling and sad for this new priest.

Lane spoke about her faith and her father’s influence on her theological exploration. Her father, she explained, encouraged Lane to have a mind of her own, and thus she came to her own sense of the spiritual, shunning the patriarchal tenets of traditional Christian doctrine and dogma, opting instead for a more expansive and inclusive moral and ethical framework, one that allowed her to fully embrace the inherent complexities in every character she played.

And the Best Actor Goes to... 

What feels ironic for me is that the Jesus I know would likely agree with Diane Lane's opinions of Christianity today. The best actors, I believe, come to love the characters they play, finding aspects of their own soul inside the skin of whoever they are currently tasked to inhabit. What’s sad about Lane’s answer is that Christ, during his time on earth, demonstrated this very ability – the ability to enter into the life of each human he encountered and empathically respond to their unique individual needs. It's fascinating to watch really talented actors build relationships with their own characters and others through understanding. Similarly, for Jesus, relationships were everything. Even as he was dying on a cross, he was able to tap into the deepest fears of the so-called “least of these.” Christ would have made an excellent actor.

I wonder how Diane Lane would answer this young student’s question today. My hope is that she has since had the opportunity to learn more about Jesus’ life and real teachings about love, acceptance, inclusion, and justice. My hope is that more people come to know the radical nature of the love that Christ embodied.

My hope is that all who desire to be Christ followers will embrace the role fully, learning about the genuine teachings of Jesus, who walked this earth as one of us, Jesus who calls us today to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, embodying compassion, forgiveness, and justice in all we do (Matthew 22:36-40; BCP, 851).

Thoughts?