The Face of Compassion...

We get tired of it all, don’t we? Does anyone really want to see the photo
of another starving African child? Or a replay of 9-11 on TV? Or the results
of yet another earthquake or tsunami on the other side of the world?
Does anyone really want to hear the statistics about the numbers of
people in our own area, our own county, who are regularly hungry?  Or
read about the numbers of out-of-work veterans? Or be confronted by
still another at a stop light person with a sign saying “WILL WORK FOR
FOOD”? We get tired of it all- because it seems so overwhelming. We
want to care, I think, but all of the demands, all of the needs, seem
overwhelming- and what can I, what can you, do about it? “Compassion
fatigue”, the experts call it; being worn out by the call to care, to give,
to do something about the problems of this world. 

But you see, Jesus means COMPASSION. And that’s what we see and hear
him showing in today’s reading from Mark’s gospel. The disciples- actually
they are called “apostles” here for the first time…the “sent-out ones”-
they’ve just returned from their first mission trip on their own…without
their teacher and friend, Jesus. He sent them, commissioned them,
instructed them, and they went into the towns and villages, preaching and
teaching and healing, just as he said. Now they’re back, sharing stories,
sharing successes and failures, and they’re exhausted…tired, over-
stimulated, underfed, and in need, in desperate need- of solitude.
Care-taking is wearisome work, isn’t it? And these bone-weary men find
that their friend and mentor is himself in the throes of deep sadness.
John the Baptist, Jesus’ kinsman, teacher, friend, has been brutally
murdered by Herod, reminding him and us that God’s called ones are not
immune to violent, senseless deaths. We saw that a few weeks ago in
Charleston, didn’t we? Jesus is heartbroken, is in the valley of shadows
where we all go after the death of someone we dearly love. I’ve been
there…so have many of you…and it’s exhausting, isn’t it?

So Jesus says to the twelve, “Come away with me…we need a break from

these crowds…we need some R&R…time to regroup, to refresh, to rest.”

So they get in one of the fishing boats and go to a deserted place all by

themselves. I can imagine each of them heaving a sigh of relief… can
imagine Jesus gratefully welcoming the peace and quiet of the brief time

on the lake…can imagine how much they are looking forward to just a

little time away from the caring and the responsibilities of every day.

We call it a “vacation”…

 

But the Gospel writer tells us that it was simply not to be. There is to be
no rest for the weary. Many from the crowds that perpetually followed
Jesus saw them going and went along the shore on foot, arriving at the
destination before them. And as Jesus went ashore, Mark tells us, he saw
a great crowd. There goes the rest. There goes the peace and quiet.
There goes the relaxation and renewal. And I can imagine the disciples
saying to one another- even to Jesus- “Come on, let’s get back in the
boat and go further up the shore. Let’s get away from all these demands
and expectations for just a little while. We need it, Jesus. YOU need it.
After all, you’re only human.”

But, Mark writes, “he had compassion for them, because they were like
sheep without a shepherd…” Jesus is COMPASSION. His mission, his call,
his ministry was to show the love of God in his human flesh and so he did
not turn them away but was with them, teaching, and eventually,
healing so many who were continually brought to him.
 
COMPASSION- the Greek word means “feeling it in your gut”…gut-
wrenching…tearing you apart…stomach-churning…not just a few
butterflies in there but a herd of buffalo stampeding around. It is visceral.
It grabs hold of us and wrings us out. And for Jesus, compassion was
not just a feeling but a doing…and he demonstrated this to his disciples-
then and now. It is about more than feeling sad or bad for the plight of
others…it is being hit in the gut and being put into motion for the sake
of the other. It is to suffer with. It sends us outside ourselves…outside
the church doors…into the real, beautiful, terrible, hurting, in-need-of-
healing world.

 I have to tell you, it is so easy for me to remain complacent…to be

moved to tears by a story or a video or a film… then to read and

research about the problem from the comfort of my home- and DO

NOTHING! Oh, yes, I pray, but in the words of one of the most

forthright books in scripture, James:

         If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and you say
         to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill,’ but you do
         not supply their bodily needs, what use is that?

And I can find all kinds of excuses for not getting involved, for not

reaching out. I’m getting too old…I deserve some rest…I’ve been

caring for others for my whole life…time for a little break from it all.

But there have been times when what I most needed was a little

compassion…how about you? Times when I was so fearful, hurting

so badly, that what I most needed was a loving hug or a shoulder

to cry on…how about you? Times when I was lonely, confused, at

the end of my rope and most needed someone to reach a hand into

my darkness and just hold on…how about you? And when it happens-

that hug, that shoulder, that hand- it’s God’s grace at work…alive,

enfleshed in another human being- and I am made whole once

again…how about you?

Do you remember August 2005? Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans

and help was very late in arriving. Many died; many more were

displaced, became refugees from their own city. Many were stranded

in and around the Superdome and the Convention Center, without food,

without water, while untended dead bodies lay everywhere. The images

filling our TV screens were dreadful, horrifying- and New Orleans- at

least the poorest neighborhoods- remained virtually untouched for years.

Enter between 20 & 25,000 Lutheran youth at the 2009 and 2012 ELCA

Youth Gatherings, with their themes of “Jesus, Justice, Jazz” and

“Citizens with the Saints.” All over the city, young people were clearing

out debris, cleaning, painting, working hard for people they did not

know because they were dedicated to the Jesus Way…dedicated to

sharing the love and compassion of Jesus the Christ.

And all this week, more than 30,000 Lutheran youth have been living out
their faith on the streets of Detroit, part of the 2015 ELCA Youth
Gathering, with the theme “Rise Up Together”. Again, they were building,
clearing, painting, serving, visiting nursing homes and day care centers,
sharing the love and compassion of Christ with all they meet. And if
you’ve been following the Live Stream or the Facebook and Twitter posts,
you can see and hear the impact these youth have been making with their
enthusiasm and dedication and determination to live the Jesus Way…
because the Jesus they follow is COMPASSION. There are kids of every
color, kids from every state in the union, wealthy kids and poor kids,
smart kids and intellectually-challenged kids, tall kids and short kids,
skinny kids and fat kids, popular kids and nerds and jocks, kids with
Southern accents dripping magnolias and kids with Texas drawls and
kids whose speech is peppered with the broad vowels of New England.
But what they all have in common is their one-ness in Christ. That is
what makes them ONE.

Our churches tend to be enclaves of the similar, you know- similar
lifestyles, similar skin color, similar politics, similar values. But our
world is NOT like that. Our world is marked by diversity…beautiful,
wonderful, creative diversity. Think of flower gardens…I personally
like them best when they contain flowers of many varieties, many
colors- some short, some tall…some fragrant, others odorless…some
blooming only briefly, others bearing blossoms for the entire Summer.

I am blessed to be part of two congregations who are beginning to
defy the stereotype: Emmanuel in High Point, which has a number of
Sudanese families as members, which adds some glorious color to the
Sunday morning worship. And Nazareth, Rural Hall, whose two Hispanic
families bring a warm hue to our otherwise-white congregation. Here
I am, in the last quarter of my life, and God has graced me with what I
wanted when I entered the ministry twenty-five years ago…diversity.
You see, I had wanted to serve a diverse inner-city congregation, with
people of all colors and backgrounds…and God has brought me on this
long and winding road through the back roads and small towns of North
Carolina to where I am now. Only we are not finished…actually, we’ve
only made a tiny beginning. The flower garden of our congregations
will only be truly complete when they reflect the diversity of our culture-
the wonderful, challenging, glorious diversity of God’s kingdom.

But it’s challenging, isn’t it, because we humans tend to feel

uncomfortable with those unlike ourselves. We quite readily divide

ourselves into insiders and outsiders- us and them… forgetting- or not

caring to remember- that we are ALL God’s children. ALL of us…

every one. No exceptions. And with the compassion of the Christ we

are called to reach out to…to welcome…to share table with all who

come- or need to come...with all those the “world” rejects or turns aside…

with all those seemingly different from ourselves…those who are lonely…

those who are forgotten…those who desperately need our hospitality.

Instead of seeing them through a lens of fear and mistrust and anxiety,

we are called- you and I- to see them through the same lens of

compassion through which Jesus the Christ sees them.

 
In the words of Paul Wadell, Professor of Religious Studies at Baylor
University:
       Any love modeled on the divine love cannot be cautious, narrow,
       or safe. It must always be willing to make room for the other,
       especially those others who come to us hungry, forsaken, homeless,
       or alone.
 But walls of hostility divide us- walls of race, gender, sexuality, socio-
economics, age, politics, location, religion, language. Walls are
everywhere. Some of us here remember the Berlin Wall of the Cold War
Era, dividing a city, dividing families and neighborhoods. We watched the
wall come down and rejoiced, but in more recent years we have watched
as walls are being built once again- in the Middle East, dividing Israel and
Palestine; on our Southern border, dividing the US from our Mexican
neighbors. Once again, these walls divide families and neighborhoods,
imposing the reality of separation, enforcing the mentality of US and
THEM, while politicians give no thought to how painful it must be for
those on both sides of the dividing line. And I just don’t believe that God
intended us to live this way.

The writer of Ephesians put it so beautifully: “Christ is our peace”. So
how do we as a Church live out our existence as a compassionate,
reconciled, welcoming community? Because the HOW matters. It really
matters. The HOW is what the world sees…the HOW is what speaks
more loudly than our words…the HOW tells who and whose we really
are…on the streets of New Orleans, on the streets of Detroit, on the
streets of High Point, on the streets of Rural Hall, North Carolina.
When others look at us, what will they see? Who will they see?...Amen