Rev.
Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
Compassion
versus Patronizing
6/14/2020 Pentecost 2A
A friend posted a...well, quasi
joke...about, hey when did 2020 become the Twilight Zone??? Another friend made a..well, quasi joke about
Are we revisiting Moses’ 10 plagues? This is some year…changes, stresses, fear,
challenge - not life going along as we’ve been used to.
It seems to me
that most of us are past the initial panic that this novel coronavirus threw us
into, and are adjusting...we have to - we can’t live in so freaked out a space
forever. We can tell, however, that all
these events are affecting behaviors & even mental health. People are on
edge, and unsettled. Then there is the report last week of yet another killing
of a black man, that triggered long-held angers about mistreatment and
injustices of racism in so many ways; bringing the racial tensions in our
country to the fore for all citizens once again. And while many people are
examining our hearts and seeking ways to end racism, others are going the other
way. The pictures of white supremacists wearing military armor and carrying assault
weapons in public - with no recrimination by the civil governments, no less -
are frightening.
I’ve wanted
to cry a few times as I see the news….pray & cry, because I don’t know how
to fix things, & it feels so much bigger than I am. Of course, I’ve been
fighting a bug the past 2 weeks or so, thankfully not covid 19; and when my
body is low, I tend to be more sensitive to things and tear-up more easily….but
still - this is scary. It feels like things are out of control, & no one is
doing anything positive or suggesting a good direction for us to go. Or even
keeping us all together - it feels like people are so at odds over everything.
I’m so glad we can go to God in
prayer, and pour out our fears and hopes to the Holy Spirit. There are times when we are reminded
forcefully that there are forces and powers stronger than us that are moving in
the world, and that it is vital that we listen for the words of the Spirit and
be guided in the right path, to work with and walk with what God is doing.
So we hear the words of Jesus in
today’s text with special urgency - “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they
were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Can we see from Jesus’ perspective for just a
moment here? All the sick are coming to him for healing, all kinds of illness
and human suffering pressing around him.
Can we feel Jesus’ compassion? His heart hurting as he sees the pain of
all the hurting people? The many illnesses that already effect people; this
sudden virus that’s more virulent than normal, and about which we know so
little on top of things; then this ongoing pain of an injustice to people of
color that has been part of our national culture since our country’s birth; the
way prejudice has been built into the very systems our white ancestors
established for order and law; the pain of a whole people being revealed once
again to our white eyes and ears. On top
of this, all the economic implications of the world’s suffering - supply chains
disrupted, a higher unemployment percentage than ever since the great
depression. We here in Jamesville might
not have felt all this yet, but we will see it in higher prices, and increasing
hunger and homelessness in the larger populations. Those of us fortunate enough to have
investments are seeing their value decrease steadily, which will eventually
affect OUR retirements and standards of living, too. I’m not being prophetic here - this is easily
observable.
Can we look out at the suffering of
people on all these levels and feel the compassion of Jesus?
Can our hearts be open, as God’s heart is open, to the huge needs of the
state, the country, and the world that God created, loves, seeks and longs to
heal? I know that it’s difficult to feel
for others when we are frightened for ourselves, and insecure in our own
well-being. However, as a people whose
trust is in the eternal God, we can be secure enough to look with compassion
toward all those who don’t have that same inner security, much less the outer
security.
Sheep without a shepherd - among the
imagery that Jesus uses the most, an image that was a well-known part of that
culture - shepherds and sheep. Sheep
wandering around, not knowing where food is, water is, safety is, where the
predators are, no protection, no guidance….no leadership making good decisions
or pointing the way forward, or organizing programs to help; no one with vision
keeping us together or protecting us from scams or bad decisions. Sheep out of control, going every which way
in panic. Reminds me of our country
right now….the needs are great.
Personally, I think that the message
of faith, the invitation to step into the kindom of God, embracing the
teachings and peace and forgiveness and transformation that Jesus offers - is a
basic need for our world. Yes, we need
leaders of courage and good vision to guide us. More basic than that, though,
is the inner transformation that turns us to the compassion of God, the care
for one another, the new vision that we are ALL family and beloved, that the
needs of all people are important to the whole.
We need the underpinnings of faith that tell us creation is an act of God and a revelation of God, and is
good, and that we are it’s stewards. We
need a conception of humanity as both dust and divine breath, set in community,
in the image of God, and how God has sought us and provided a way for us
through all generations….culminating in coming among us in Jesus the Messiah.
We need an understanding of and a sensitivity to the way we are fallen, and in
need of being forgiven and transformed, or else we will seek the ways of death
and destruction. The world-view of faith
and a growing walk with the God of the Cosmos lays a bedrock foundation for our
governing and our interactions - without that faith, we are sheep without a
shepherd.
(Not that other traditions don’t
have wise words and a view of kindness & trust….I’m talking from my
tradition…)
Jesus goes on to tell his followers
to pray to God for more laborers to send into this harvest field, which is
ready. This, too, is happening literally in our country, as crops are sitting
in fields rotting because the migrant workers and non-citizens who do the
back-breaking labor of harvesting food for our consumption can’t travel, or are
sick themselves. We are learning just
who are the essential workers, aren’t we?
Jesus is, of course, speaking metaphorically about the harvest of people
who he says are actually READY to hear God’s message, if only there were people
to go to them and share the good news of God with them.
Then he goes on to send the 12 out,
who are named and instructed in the following paragraphs of today’s text. A side note - he tells them to only go to
the people of Israel at this point - we know that the gospel goes global later
- Jesus is telling them to start with those around them, those they know. John Wesley, among the founders of Methodism,
rightly said that the world is our parish, yes, and most congregations have to
start locally, among those we know and live amongst. Jamesville, our hamlet between the city of
Syracuse and the farming or formerly
farmed countryside, is our starting place for mission and service - not our
only place of service and mission, but a place to start looking beyond
ourselves, and offering the compassion of God through offering ourselves. This is where we live - the new housing
developments, the current and former farmers, our schools, our trailer parks,
the places of poverty and hunger; and more and more we are being pulled into
relationship with the city, as it expands with students, and as people living
here work in the city and its businesses and schools. We are not isolated from the city, nor the
other suburban developments north of us.
We may notice that Jesus sends the 12 OUT into the harvest fields - just
as we go out from here after our worship together, back into the fields of our
lives and neighborhoods. Just as we need
to go out from our structures and into the community to carry God’s compassion
and message to where folks are, and where we can serve.
I was initially going to take a
different tact in the sermon, as you can tell by my title - I got carried in
another direction from sitting with the “sheep without a shepherd” image. Compassion is a cool word - com-passion, with
passion, with heart, with solidarity, with identifying with others. God’s love is not a patronizing way that just
hands our some largesse and goes away - God’s love is not just throwing money
at something - God’s way is to just pass a new rule and hope it helps -- -
rather, God comes among us in Jesus the Messiah, living with us, knowing what
it's like to be a finite being in this world, knowing our pain and sorrow. In Jesus, God stands in solidarity with us,
lives with us, walks with us, and longs for the same restoration and wholeness
and healing that we long for.
That’s our model for love and
compassion. Listening to the pain,
identifying with those who suffer injustices, being in solidarity with those
who hunger, or suffer loneliness, or deal with mental issues, or live with
disabilities, or cry over their hungry children, or who long for opportunities,
or live with dysfunction in their relationships --- we go to them and listen, we stand with them
and serve them as God leads. And we
share the good news of God’s love, God’s care, God’s compassion, God’s
forgiveness, God’s restoration… They
don’t come and try and fit in with us -
we go out and join with them. That’s
what God does; that’s what we are called to do.
That’s what mission is - going out, feeling what it’s like for others,
and responding from our heart and God’s heart.
May God’s Spirit continue to open
our eyes with compassion to this community and this world, that we become those
who are sent to the fields ready for harvest.
AMEN.
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