Allie Papke-Larson: Rubber-hearted
Virtual gatherings dominate our work and social lives, starting with shelter in-place ordinances more than 6 months ago. I have started to notice a sense of distance between myself and others. My heart sometimes feels like rubber, and human interaction, virtual or otherwise, bounces away, without a sense of connection.
It’s easy for me to go through my days trying to camouflage my way through any interaction. I move quickly, avoiding potentially hazardous strangers, anxious about six feet of distance, camouflaged behind a mask and caution. Rubber-heartedness shortens my vision of reality so I can only see to the end of my own nose. I wonder how many of us are navigating this world feeling rubber-hearted?
Recently I wrote a sermon based on Jonah and the parable of the landowner for guidance with these rubber-hearted feelings.
The town of Nineveh is described in the book of Nahum: “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims…” A city full of sin, and one God was ready to destroy. But then comes Jonah. Proclaiming, reluctantly, God’s plan, and the required repentance of the people. Then, miraculously, a whole city listens! They repent and are saved. They needed Jonah to pull them out of insular sight, out of their rubber-hearted lives. They needed a voice other than their own to call to them.
Then, there is Jonah. A man full of prophecy, chosen by God to deliver God’s news. In the case of Nineveh, however, he could not see past his own nose, feeling scorn for the city as he preaches to save it.
Jonah needed God to push him past his restricted view of the people of Nineveh, just as they needed Jonah to push them. Jonah’s faith in God was spectacular, however, his faith in his fellow humans was not. He needed God’s help to show him how to exchange his rubber heart for a heart of flesh, he couldn’t do it himself.
In the Book of Matthew, Jesus tells a parable about a landowner who needs laborers. He hires at the start of the day, then continues to hire as the day progresses. Finally, the landowner goes to the marketplace with just an hour of work remaining, finding more workers, still. He asks them, “why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?” and they answer; “because no one will hire us.” So, the landowner does, promising them the same wages as those who have been working all day.
This parable reminded me of something one of our LCM students said a while ago; at the beginning his senior year he believed he would be graduating into the best market the U.S. has had in 50 years. But then, because of COVID, he graduated into the worst market since the Great Depression. There are more young adults living with their parents now than even during those times. No one is hiring, and if they are, they aren't paying well. There are so many Americans whom no one is seeing. So many students with degrees no one is valuing, with skills and passions being overlooked.
The landowner in our parable saw those workers. He saw that they had something to offer. The workers had been overlooked until he reached out. He knew to see value and potential in others gives back dignity and restore hope.
In order to see ourselves clearly, we need community, we need friends and strangers to bump into in the marketplace. We need guides who have faith in us to live our lives according to the Gospel, even if we do not have faith in ourselves or in each other.
The people of Nineveh needed God to speak though Jonah, and Jonah needed God to show him he was seeing with an insular sense of God’s mercy. Jonah and the people of Nineveh couldn’t see their hearts had turned to rubber. Lord knows this is happening now to us, too, in many different ways. But God’s Grace abounds, even if it does in ways humans don’t think are fair.
We need guides like our friends, partners, and families, who can show us we have value and to help us when we have stubborn thinking. God often speaks to us through others. We need people to see us so we might see the potential that lies within hearts filled with hope. To use Martin Luther King's term, we need this Beloved Community, especially when we are not being seen, when our society, or even ourselves, close its eyes and lets us stand all day looking for hope.
This, my siblings in Christ, is not easy. It can be painful to see ourselves clearly because we do sin, but we are promised grace. We also are called to reach out to our community members, to ask them about their hearts, and help show them their value. We are needed as guides for our community.
So today, when we still are gathering virtually, remember that as Children of God and as members of the Beloved Community, we are called to help each other see the potential of hearts filled with hope. For it is in seeing one another, and in being seen, that we come to know God and do God’s work, and how we turn our rubber hearts back into flesh.
Allie Papke-Larson is Program Coordinator for Lutheran Campus Ministries/Canterbury Episcopal Campus Ministries at Northern Arizona University and Youth Director at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Flagstaff.
