I was watching an April 1 YouTube video from science communicator Hank Green, who considers himself an atheist, about Skeptical Hedonism or Cynical Hedonism.

It started with the crash of Delta Connection Flight 4819 in Toronto on February 17, 2025. That was the jet that landed so hard that its landing gear collapsed, a wing broke off, a fire started, and the whole plane was turned upside down.

If you have seen the video of the crash, it looks terrible. It looks like most, if not all, of the people died.

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Let’s go to God in prayer.

God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.

Amen.

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In that crash, of 80 people on board, 21 of them were injured, three people critically.

Everyone lived.

And, as Hank Green points out, a big reason was that everyone was wearing a seatbelt. As frightening as it might be to hang upside-down in an airplane seat suspended by only a lap belt, it would be so much worse to land on one’s head.

Anyone who has flown on a commercial airliner knows how fast people are to unbelt themselves and to get up to retrieve their carry on luggage, so they can quickly exit the plane. In this case, they were wearing their seat belts as they landed.

Hank’s video includes several posts and cartoons saying that seat belts on planes are useless.

He countered with even more examples of seat belts saving lives in planes: two where the top of the plane tore off, the flight where the door plug popped out, and when an engine exploded and tore a hole in the side of the plane.

And he made these points:

There are a fair number of people who move through the world with the belief
that if they are being told to do something, that’s probably stupid.

The thing that they are most skeptical of is anything that potentially inconvenienced them.

He called this Skeptical Hedonism:

being skeptical of anything that doesn’t let me be exactly the way that I want to be and do exactly what I want to do.

He said that Skeptical Hedonism is what was behind resistance to masks, vaccines, and hating the government:

If something doesn’t help me it must be bad. If it does help me it is unquestionably good

– Hank Green

And to me, this resonated with the Gospel reading today:

⁶ Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him,

‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived,

and I have nothing to set before him.’

⁷ And he answers from within,

‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed;

I cannot get up and give you anything.’

⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything out of friendship,

at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

– Luke 11:6-8, NRSVue

Two thousand years ago, Jesus was talking about people who couldn’t be bothered to help a friend. And yet, if the friend persevered, the person would get up and help.

So there appears to be a somewhat common instinct of people to not make changes in their lives even if it means harm to a friend or neighbor – or even themselves.

But as Hank Green put it – “that’s not a way to be a society.”

Our bodies are made of over 30 trillion human cells. None of those cells can live on their own. They each contribute to live: bringing in oxygen and food, circulating blood, being blood, carrying signals, moving the body, defending the body against diseases…

But what if there was a selfish cell that only consumed resources and reproduced, contributing nothing back to the body?

There are cells like that. They are called cancer.

Now I’m not going to say that people who are only concerned for themselves and their offspring are cancer.

But there are striking parallels.

But Jesus goes on to say that parents will – at least usually – give their children good things, and so why should our creator withhold the Holy Spirit from us?

Meanwhile, in our reading from Colossians,

the author recognizes that some may try to condemn a person due to

matters of food or drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths

– Colossions 2:16, NRSVue

and might attempt to disqualify a person, insisting on

insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels

– Colossions 2:18, NRSVue

but that the reader should not let these people succeed.

At first, these ideas may seem at odds with each other: Care about others, but don’t let others tell you that you don’t belong.

But these are not in conflict.

Precautions we take for ourselves and others may take effort we would otherwise not make but these are things we do for each other as a society, caring about each other.

They are gifts.

Likewise, including people who may believe or act differently from us may make us uncomfortable, but these are also things we do for each other as a society, caring about each other.

They are also gifts.

So my challenge to us this week is twofold:

First, notice the gifts we receive from God and from each other: gifts of recognition and inclusion, gifts of care and concern;

But second, notice the opportunities we have to gift others with recognition, care, and concern.

And know that through it all, God is on our side.

Amen.

Let’s sing CH 566 Be Still my Soul

* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue