Sunday, March 15, 2026 - Is Disgust Good
March 15, 2026
Deborah Laforet
“Is Disgust Good?”
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your
Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
I was at the gym last week and was following a woman on the weight machines who was not
wiping them down when she was finished, and I’m pretty sure, that like the rest of us, she was sweating
on those machines. Yuck!
Last weekend, our dog had a cough and there were times when she vomited or druelled because
she was hacking so hard, and of course, it always seemed to happen on the carpet or on a chair. Gross!
And speaking of the dog, it has been a long winter. I went outside last week to clean the yard. It
was not pleasant, and next time it will be someone else’s turn. Blech!
This week, a male colleague, of the same age, called me, “My dear.” I don’t know him well, and
only my husband gets to call me that. If it happens again, it will be addressed. Sigh.
Disgust. We all feel it. I don’t think we like to admit that we feel it, and sometimes, I don’t
think we’re even aware that the emotion is written all over our faces. I think children and teenagers are
particularly good at showing disgust. Children have less reason to hide it and teenagers want you to
know exactly how they’re feeling when they are disgusted with you.
Disgust is often portrayed as a negative emotion, similar to anger, meant to be hidden and
concealed, something you grow out of. Disgust though is one of the seven main emotions on the
emotional wheel that we’ve been referencing over the past couple of weeks. It’s also one of the
characters from Pixar’s Inside Out, about five figures that embody five feelings, with one of them being
“Disgust.” Let’s look at the words on the outer edges of this emotional circle and see if they are words
we have grown out of: disapproving (judgemental, embarrassed), disappointed (appalled, revolted),
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awful (nauseated, detestable), and repelled (horrified, hesitant). I actually love these words. They’re so
descriptive and they are words you can feel with your whole body, like appalling, nauseating, horrifying.
Now guess which one shows up the most in the bible - by far. Yes! Judgement. Judgemental.
Judged. It shows up in many forms and it shows up hundreds of times compared to none or a dozen
times for some of the others. Unfortunately, because it shows up so frequently in our bibles, and so
often in the context of God’s judgement of people, this is the main description people hear of God.
When people are asked to describe God, they often paint this image of an old man in the sky, looking
down upon us, waiting for us to mess up, and then call destruction down upon us, probably looking
disgusted. What an image! It’s no wonder it’s hard for churches to refute this image and put forward a
loving and compassionate God.
A loving and compassionate is so what this world needs, but, I think there is some room for this
God of judgment, for this disappointed or disapproving God. People do mess up, and I don’t mean small
mistakes like getting into a fight with your spouse or your child, cursing, walking away and forgetting to
pay, etc. I mean when people enslave another group of people. I mean when money is hoarded by the
few, while others go hungry or houseless. I mean when people use brute strength and power to oppress
others and take away basic freedoms and rights. This has been happening for a very long time, and there
is evidence of it in our bibles. From then to today, people suffer, not because there isn’t enough to go
around, but because of corrupt systems that people in power have no motivation to change.
This behaviour is and these systems are disgusting, and no wonder we have pages and chapters
and books in our bible filled with prophets, speaking with God’s voice, condemning those who cause
others suffering. We don’t have to agree with it all. I don’t believe in a God that will cause one nation
to be conquered by another as punishment or a God who will condemn one religion over another, or in a
God whose judgment harms the innocent, but I understand the sentiment in some of these passages, of
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wanting to strike out at people in power who are being unjust and causing suffering for many, especially
women and children, refugees, orphans, those on the margins who struggle to advocate for themselves.
The passage we heard today was from the prophet Jeremiah, who was a prophet called to speak
truth to power, to advocate for those suffering because of the actions of those in power. Sometimes, I
like to see what the Inclusive Bible offers, to see if it’s a reading that’s more helpful for us, especially as
an Affirming church. The last verse of this passage that Ron read for us, reads the following way in the
Inclusive Bible: “Be warned, Jerusalem, or I will abandon you. I will leave you desolate, a land without
inhabitants.” It’s a gentler version of what Ron read for us, but sometimes, I think we need to hear a
non-gentle version. In the New Revised Standard Version, from which Ron read, we heard, “Take
warning, O Jerusalem, or I shall turn from you in disgust and make you a desolation, an uninhabited
land.”
“Turn from you in disgust.” It’s harsh, but I think, at times, it’s what we need to hear.
Is feeling disgust bad? It doesn’t feel like it should be good, right? It’s why we often hide it,
from others, and sometimes even ourselves, but, like anger and fear, disgust has it’s usefulness. I liked
this meme I found. “Disgust helps us to: set boundaries of what’s ok, and reject what’s unhealthy or
wrong.” When we’re small, disgust helps us to be safe, keeps us away from what might harm us, and
yes, most would find broccoli extremely harmful. When we get older, it still helps us to be safe, from
places, situations, people, and still broccoli. (By the way, I love broccoli.)
We have to be careful though because sometimes our feelings of disgust can be cultural or come
from a place of privilege. I know someone who hates the smell of curry, and wrinkles his nose when he
smells it, but there are nations of people for whom curry is an every day seasoning. Our feelings of
disgust may come from prejudices, biases, and harmful stereotypes that we’ve learned. So disgust can
be good if it’s protecting us or motiving us to change a wrong or an injustice, but not so good if we are
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judging another’s way of life or making harmful assumptions. Again, like our fear and our anger,
disgust should not be in the driver’s seat. Disgust gets to be heard, gets to offer advice, but it does not
get a vote.
We haven’t talked much this season about Lent and this is our fourth Sunday into it. Learning
about our emotions and knowing they are not wrong or bad is helpful. They are what we feel.
Sometimes they’re helpful and sometimes they’re not, but understanding them, processing them, and
accepting them is part of our work as human beings. Sometimes, we need to understand that we have let
our emotions take control and that we have caused harm to others and sometimes to ourselves.
Lent is a time to reflect. A time to confess. A time to offer ourselves compassion and
forgiveness. It’s not a time to condemn ourselves. It’s just a time to reflect, and not just on our own
wrongs, but on corporate wrongs, the selfishness of our systems, the injustices against people who don’t
fit the norm, the fact that so many who depend on government support can barely pay the rent, much less
feed themselves and their families.
So today, we explore these feelings of disgust, of disappointment, of disapproval. Where do they
fit? What are these feelings telling us today? In what ways do we need to confess and where are the
places where we need forgiveness?
Our faith tells us that God is with us in these conversations, not to judge and rain down
punishment upon us, but to remind us that we are not alone, to remind us that we are gifts of God, that
we are human which means we will make mistakes, and that we are loved, just as we are. Thanks be to
God. Amen.