Schadenfreude - A Sermon for Sunday June 11, 2023

GOSPEL: Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

The holy gospel according to Matthew.

Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus demonstrates God’s mercy and power, accepting the unacceptable and curing the incurable. Even the dead receive new life.

9As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

 10And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

 18While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” 19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. 20Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, 21for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” 22Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. 23When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, 24he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. 25But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. 26And the report of this spread throughout that district.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

A few years ago, I was driving on the highway

it was highway 16A through Spruce Grove, AB

the unofficial speed trap capital of North America

and some guy in a Chevy was tailing me.

What else is new?

A minor annoyance.

I switched lanes to pass a vehicle,

and so did he.

Then I came back into my lane,

and so did he,

still tailing me.

It was odd;

he could have gone around me,

but he didn’t.

Again, I passed a vehicle, and came back into my lane,

and again he did the same,

and kept tailing me,

this time even closer.

I thought to myself

‘Just go around me, you … beloved child of God!’

Then he did;

he swerved past me,

almost hitting my rear bumper.

As he drove by me, I looked at him, because,

apparently that’s what you do

when someone is driving poorly.

Our eyes met,

and the gentleman showed me what a bird looks,

and then sped off.

I thought to myself,

‘OOooooo, I hope you get a speeding ticket you …

beloved child of God!’

I should have bought a lottery ticket,

because, as luck would have it,

an RCMP vehicle came up behind me,

lights flashing,

and pulled over this bird flipping,

Chevy driving,

beloved child of God.

I smiled out the window as I drove by.

Oh that felt good.

Kind of.

It felt familiar.

It felt like a few weeks ago

when the Oilers were eliminated from the playoffs,

my team wasn’t in it,

but it felt good

to watch the rival team lose.

Kind of.

It’s called Schadenfreude. (Shaw-den Froy-deh)

The word schadenfreude comes from the German language,

meaning to take pleasure

in someone else's misfortune.

It literally means harm-joy, or shame-joy.

Schedenfreude is an emotion that begins early in life,

and it makes sense.

If your sports team can’t win,

then you enjoy the next best thing

which is when your rival team loses.

But schadenfreude is a shallow, empty joy—

and worst of all it is often lonely,

a joy snickered to yourself,

laughing on the inside

while conveying sympathy on the outside.

Schadenfreude denies relationship,

denies connection

and fosters hatred.

Schadenfreude is truly a terrible thing,

but you can’t help feeling it,

at least according to Rabbi Harold S. Kushner.

In his book "When Bad Things Happen to Good People"

he says "[People] don't wish their friends ill,

but they can’t help feeling

an embarrassing spasm of gratitude

that [the bad thing] happened

to someone else

and not to them.”

We’ve all felt Schadenfreude.

We’ve all felt the shallow joy

at another’s defeat.

I heard it when one congregation found out

that a so-called rival congregation

was dwindling in numbers,

because, well, at least it’s not us.

I’ve heard someone express this shallow harm-joy

when a a celebrity had gone bankrupt,

and I’ve even heard someone share this shallow harm-joy

when a neighbour’s house flooded.

It is natural, but

There is no place for Schadenfreude

in the kingdom of God;

nor in Christ’s Church.

It’s here - but it doesn’t belong.

This is part of what Jesus turns upside down.

Our God is a God of reversal,

and Jesus continues the reversal.

Jesus calls Matthew,

sitting at the tax booth,

“Hey, you, follow me.”

Tax collectors were not well loved,

and I’m sure the average Aaron in antiquity

would love to feel the schadenfreude

of Jesus tearing into him

for being the scourge of the world.

But Jesus does not join the long list of people

who enjoy being on the inside

while the tax collector is on the outside.

Everyone wants to see the tax collector fail.

Jesus desires mercy.

The woman with hemorrhages

12 years,

unfathomable suffering,

unfathomable exclusion from the community.

I’m sure people had pity on her,

perhaps thinking God is punishing her,

but now with Jesus she’s worthy of healing?

She’s worthy of Jesus halting his journey.

The woman touches Jesus’ cloak,

she is healed,

she is included,

she is restored to community,

no longer an outsider,

no longer living in shame.

Sometimes we’d rather poke fun at the outsider

keeping them outside,

because then that means we’re in.

But Jesus desires mercy.

Once we draw a line between us and the other,

Jesus takes out an eraser,

and removes the line.

Even the little girl that Jesus raised…

“she’s not dead, she’s sleeping”

Jesus says,

and the shame-joy of the crowd is seen

as they laugh at Jesus in his supposed shame,

except Jesus raised her,

a preview of resurrection to come.

This is how bad this particular schadenfreude is,

that even with the flute playing

and people grieving the child’s death,

they’ll still laugh at Jesus’ perceived shame.

Jesus desires mercy.

Could you imagine a community of faith

where we openly laugh or smirk

when someone’s loved one dies

or becomes sick,

or if someone in the community falls on hard times,

or someone is trying to change their life,

or tries an unconventional way of accessing the Divine,

or even if we laugh and smirk

when someone here gets a speeding ticket?

There is no place for Schadenfreude in Christ’s church.

There is no place

for finding joy in another’s shame or misfortune

in the kingdom of God.

To the contrary,

we know that we are all made in the image of God,

we are all filled with God’s Spirit,

so how dare we hope for the downfall

of a sibling?

It is natural to avoid suffering.

It was a natural for the disciples

to want Jesus to avoid suffering.

Yet this is naive.

The way of the Christian,

the way of Jesus Christ

is the way of suffering:

not feeling shallow joy at someone else’s suffering,

but God’s presence amidst suffering.

Our God is most profoundly seen

in and amidst suffering.

The way of Christ is to rejoice with one another in our success,

to grieve with one another in our loss,

to be at peace with one another

amidst our conflicts.

We are family in Christ.

We are one in Christ.

Your successes are my successes

and your failures are my failures.

On the one hand,

let’s not be too hard on ourselves.

You can’t help but occasionally smirk

at someone’s shame or loss,

but we can repent of it.

When things get bad,

You might find yourself wanting schadenfreude,

wanting for at least

something bad to happen to someone,

to experience even some shallow joy.

But we can look to Jesus for forgiveness,

to look for Christ to get in between us

and that particular evil in our hearts.

So here’s the backwards part:

God’s reversal at work, once again…

the cross of Christ is failure,

but it is also our hope and joy.

By Christ’s death,

by Christ’s resurrection;

by Christ’s success through failure

we have the hope of everlasting life.

We have the hope that

because Christ’s suffering was not the end,

our suffering is not our end.

Because of Christ,

we know that our suffering

and our neighbour’s suffering

- deserved or not -

is not in vain.

If you know pain and suffering,

sickness,

uncertainty,

shame,

you know that you need loved ones to uphold you.

God’s Spirit does that,

interceding for you with sighs too deep for words.

The Church does that:

the community of faith perseveres in prayer,

The church rejoices with those who rejoice,

and weeps with those who weep.

The church is not a place of shallow joy,

rather the church is the community of pure joy.

By God’s grace,

we are all in this together,

successes and failures.

Our hope is not found

in where we rank compared to another.

Our hope,

our peace,

our worth

is not determined by the bad stuff that happens to us

or to our neighbours.

Our comfort is not determined by the suffering of others

compared to ourselves.

Our hope,

our peace,

our comfort,

our worth,

is found in Christ alone.

May we see one another,

not as rivals,

but as fellow children of God.

May we be a community of real joy,

that both grieves and celebrates together.

May our real joy

be found in the Christ who is with us always.

Thanks be to God. Amen.