Sermon from July 22, 2012

Scripture Psalm 23 & Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Rev. Michael Fry preaching

at East Bethany PC

July 22, 2012

Jesus’ heart was filled with pity because they were like sheep without a shepherd.[1] 

A better translation of pity here would be compassion, Jesus’ heart was filled with compassion.  Pity is when we feel sorry for someone.  But com-passion comes from two words: com meaning with and passion meaning suffering.  Compassion means a desire to help, to alleviate pain, to ease suffering.

What was your reaction when you heard about the shooting this Friday in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, pity or compassion? Or when we hear on the news about the violence in Syria? 

Do you know that 90% of the casualties of war today are civilians?  During World War Two 90% of the casualties were enlisted forces and 10% civilians. Do you feel pity or compassion? 

Think about the how women and children share a disproportionate burden of poverty today, pity or compassion?

Do we have pity or compassion for the two-thirds of the world’s people who have never heard the good news of God’s love in Christ in a way that makes sense to them in their own language and culture?[2]  

Compassion moves us beyond talking a good game to actually doing something about the problem we see.  Compassion moves us beyond indifference because the situation has moved us off of the couch and into action. 

Think about what are you passionate about.  Who or what are you willing to suffer for or sacrifice something for? 

Here Jesus’ compassion for the crowd causes him to sacrifice some one-on-one time with his disciples, an opportunity for them to rest after they have returned from their mission of preaching, casting out evil spirits, and healing people.  They are tired and hungry because so many people are coming to Jesus they don’t have time to eat.  How many of us return from a trip or vacation more tired than we left? 

It is compassion that moves Jesus to suggest to his disciples to take a retreat with him, to seek solitude, and rest in God.  It is compassion that makes Jesus change his plans when he sees so many people gathered by the shore in what was supposed to be a deserted spot. 

Theologian Douglass John Hall poses two questions that are related to our passage today which are very important questions to ask our selves as twenty-first century Christians.  The first is a theological question: how does your God view the world?   And the second is an ethical question: how does your God ask you the view the world?[3]    

1. How does God view the world?
2. How does God ask you to view the world?

These are personal questions that make us think; they are questions that shape how we see the world and then guide our interactions with one another. 

Hall suggests that for many religions, recent and primitive, deities (or gods) have been depicted in one way or another as ominous, wrathful, vengeful, angry, and vindictive – therefore approachable not directly but only through someone acting in a priestly role, meaning going between ordinary people and God.[4]  This might even describe some forms of Christianity today.

But in Jesus, who is God, we see something different.  Compassion.  God is not some distant being who created the earth and then abandoned it to see what would happen.  God is not approachable by a select few highly educated or holy people.  We see in God compassion, a willingness to meet us where we are and challenge us to grow in a covenant relationship with him. 

We see in Jesus the willingness of God to become human, vulnerable, giving up all power and glory. 

We see in Jesus the willingness of God to be identified with outcasts and sinners, the sick and the lonely – not the powerful and the elite. 

We see in Jesus the willingness of God to change his plans of rest and retreat in order to care for the people who seek him out in lonely and deserted places. 

We see in Jesus the willingness of God to give his life, to suffer the humiliation and pain of death on a cross, dying like a criminal. 

And we see in Jesus’ resurrection the willingness of God to do the unimaginable – showing us that suffering and death do not have the final word. 

This is not pity but compassion.  God sees the world and all that we do and has compassion for us. Philippians 2 eloquently expresses the compassion of God:  it is the oldest of all affirmations of faith that the church has used.  Consider these phrases from it:

“Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave…being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”

These words reveal the essence of God’s compassion—God who came to earth in Jesus, who lived with us, and suffered for us.  God knows what it is to be criticized, lied about, and betrayed, he knows the physical pain of torture and what it is like to be thirsty. 

God has compassion for us and God will help us, God will alleviate our pain and ease our suffering. 

Moreover God challenges us to approach one another in this same spirit, with humility and the willingness to suffer with each other.  Some might say that it is compassion that makes us human, but it would be more accurate to say that compassion makes us act more like Jesus – more like God in whose image we are created.    

So what are ways that we show compassion? 

What is our response to the shooting that took place in the Colorado movie theater early Friday morning? 

Did anybody talk about it with another person? 

Did anybody pray for the people who were wounded, the families of those who died, and those who now carry invisible scars from the shooting? 

Did you pray for the shooter or his family?

Did you call somebody you love to tell them, “I love you and I’m glad you are alive?”

These are acts of compassion. They show a desire to help, to alleviate pain, to ease suffering.  When we act with compassion we honor God, we are doing what we were created to do.    

What is the act of compassion you will do this week? 

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[1] The Good News Bible uses the word pity while the NRSV, NIV, and King James versions of the Bible use compassion.  We use the Good News Bible in worship. 

[2] These figures come from the PC(U.S.A.) office of World Mission and are issues that they are trying to address through mission work.   http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/world-mission/global-discipleship/

[3] Douglass John Hall, Mark 6:30-43, 53-56 in Feasting on the Word Commentary.  Year B, Vol. 3. WJK: 2009, pg 261. 

[4] Hall, pg 262.