This past Sunday during our children's message, I took a page from the excellent site- "Worshipping with Children" and we talked about the word "compassion." "Com" meaning "with" and "passion." Which got a couple snickers from the adults so I could chide them about not THAT. Our working definition was "caring a lot." The kids and I talked about who we cared a lot about and named people. And then we talked about how Jesus saw a woman whose son had died and he had compassion. He cared a lot about her but she was a stranger. God wants to us to care a lot not only for people who we know and like but everyone who need to know God's love. Then we used our candy basket to show "compassion" with Tootsie Pops. Because when someone cares for you it makes you smile, it is sweet. Knowing that the kids did not know all the grownups - they were strangers, we could praise them showing caring here and to receive caring in return. It is so easy to show caring when it is something like candy. But there is more to compassion than just that. Here is where the sermon went:
Years ago, a man was on his way to work, driving on
the highway when he came upon an accident that had just happened. Cars had
scattered and he saw a car with a woman sitting in it, and she was unable to
get out. Her car was smoking and
sparking, and catching fire. No one else had stopped, but he did and without
thinking about it, he jumped out of his car, and raced to hers, pried the door
open and pulled her out of it just before the whole thing went up in flames. He
saved a total stranger. When he got home later, and his wife found out what
happened, especially as she noticed his banged up hand, she was astounded,
articulating what perhaps many of us might-“What were you thinking?! You could
have been killed! What about OUR family? Did you think about that?” Well, no,
that’s just it, he hadn’t really thought- he had seen something he could not
ignore, a matter of life and death and he just responded with a gut reaction.
Sometimes compassion looks like that.
Or there is a phrase from a book about a young girl
in a small village in Africa who was moved when she learned about starving
people in New York City in the Great Depression. She said, “My Heart Will Not
Sit Down.” The girl lived in a small
village in Cameroon in western Africa and when she learned about people even
poorer than herself, she kept asking the grownups about it. And I can imagine
that as she pestered over and over, they probably told her to leave them alone
and “go sit down.” One of the things we say when we don’t want to deal with something.
But she kept asking because her heart would not sit down. And eventually she
led the people to gather the small amount of money they had- that they could be
keeping for their own families, and sent it to help others live. And they did
so saying- OUR HEARTS STAND UP FOR THESE PEOPLE. When we heard, our hearts
could not sit down. Our hearts stood up.
This is what compassion looks like- in ways both
heroic and small but faithful. Ways when we see our hearts cannot sit down, we
respond. Whether you describe it as a gut reaction, or that feeling deep
inside, or a heart that cannot sit down- it’s those moments when you cannot
help but respond. When the very stuff of life is on the line.
This is what we hear today with the widows. First
we meet the widow with Elijah. And there is a back story that we don’t hear
today. God has called Elijah as a prophet and tells him to go find this widow
and of all people she will feed and care for him. So he goes and finds the
widow and says- make me something to eat. Pretty bold. She responds by
basically saying, “Are you kidding? I am gathering sticks to make a fire for
one last meal for my son and I with the last flour and oil I have and then we
know we will die of starvation. Elijah convinces her to do what he says and when
she does they manage to live each day with enough- it never runs out! But then
one day her son dies. And Elijah, shakes his fist at the sky crying out
“REALLY, GOD?!” But then is empowered to act. Sometimes compassion is like that
for us too. We can shake our fist and wonder why, but then be empowered by God to respond.
And then we hear of Jesus and the widow today in
the gospel. Imagine it-he’s on the highway headed into town and so are a lot of
others when they encounter this widow. Perhaps a lot of others would have kept
walking. After all, seeing a widow or even a burial procession were not unique,
almost as commonplace as a car pulled off on the side of the road today. But
there she is and she is trapped. People are all around her, and the mourners
are wailing as her son’s body is slowly carried. And unlike today there was no
beautiful urn or elaborate casket to make it all look good- it is just a
lifeless body on a stretcher. And even though she is surrounded by all this
activity, she is alone and life is on the line. Because without a husband and a
son, a woman alone will have no money, or ability to earn it, no home, no
clothes and no food. She is a woman waiting to die.
Jesus knows. After the burial, the crowd will turn
and head back into the city, and from here on she will be alone and trapped by
this accident of death. Left only to hope that someone might see her and
surround her with care. But this is all we know. Don’t you ever wish we knew
more about people like her in the Bible?
We don’t know how long she was widowed, or what her
husband did. Or how he died. Whether he was a good man, or a drunk, or a
criminal. We don’t know if her son was a good boy who knew when to go sit down
or whether he was one of the ones who always found trouble. We don’t know if
she was a good mother, or whether the family was likeable, or irritating. We
don’t know. Sometimes I wonder if it is easier to have compassion for total
strangers, because when we know the details we are more or less likely to have
compassion.
The past of the widow is a mystery, but we know the
future for her without Jesus. Jesus knew exactly who she was, really. The fact
WE don’t suggests it is not important. Which is good news for her and for us.
What is important is that God in Jesus has a heart that will not sit down.
Jesus was moved and called to the boy to stand up. Because God has come to help
God’s people. All of them. This is the message embodied in Jesus. That God’s
continual call in Scripture to care for the sick, the dying, the widow, the
orphan, the poor, the hungry, and those in prison takes on flesh. Compassion
takes on flesh to redeem and rescue the lives of sinners and enemies and show
that no one is a stranger to God. As God continues to reach out to those who
have no one following them, or surrounding them.
This is compassion embodied in Jesus for us, and
this is our work as God’s people- to listen to God calling us in our hearts and
to stand up and meet those around us, no matter who they are-to be compassion
in the flesh. To see others, to listen, to stand up with them and to care for
them with God’s heart. Whether they are halfway around the world or right here
in Centre Park.
We do this in many ways- one way takes a page out
of the story from Africa. In our Change for Change Sundays we have we have provided over a thousand
dollars to various ministries beyond our doors in the last year. And I look and
see many of you here and know you volunteer in all kinds of places and give
thanks for your compassion.
But another way we care for total strangers in the
Pastor’s Benevolence Fund where people who find they have no home, or food, or
way to hang on, get help and direction to the right places. Last week I shared
that I was down to $100. Thanks be to God there is now $300. I would like to
triple that amount. If we really intend to be compassion with flesh, it will
take more. I am asking you to stand up and respond. And in all these ways I pray
that together we will continue give thanks for God’s compassion, hear God’s
calling in our sisters and brothers in our hearts, and stand up!
AMEN
Post script- our tiny flock responded and we now have 5x what we started with that day! Even the visiting organist gave! Thank you, Jesus!
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