Compassion: A Religious Practice

Not long ago I had a conversation with a person who said she is not religious.  I asked her what being religious meant.  Like many people who claim they are not religious she said she doesn’t believe in God.  I could have pressed her by asking about the God she doesn’t believe in but there wasn’t time for a lengthy discussion.  I have heard other people say they are not religious because the Church is hypocritical, or there are too many demands on their life and they don’t have time for it.  Some people say they are simply opposed to institutions that no longer respond to their needs, and the church is one of them.

At least for me, these statements miss the point.  As I reflect on our scripture readings this morning, they warn against religious arrogance that refuses to recognize God’s presence and the Spirit of God in unexpected persons and events.  God insists on coming to us in new and unexpected ways.  Scripture calls us to reflect on our lack of hospitality to the people in our midst, those who would call us to look at ourselves in a new way.  So my point would be that anyone who views others with understanding and compassion is, by an important definition, religious.

The Book of Esther, for example, is a brief story about the escape of Jews from annihilation in Persia.  The story revolves around the royal court of King Ahasuerus who ruled from 486 to 465 BCE.  In this story Haman, an advisor to the King planned to kill all the Jews in the empire.  His plans were foiled by Mordecai and his adopted daughter Queen Esther.  As a result they celebrated a day of feasting and rejoicing.

While the book of Esther appears to be non-religious fiction (God is never mentioned by name), its message is that God saves his people in ways not found in the Law of Moses.  He is with his people, even in their exile, their separation and alienation.  Being with those who suffer by supporting and caring for them is a religious practice.

The Gospel of Mark echoes this theme by making the point that God recognizes and rewards every act of compassion that advances the reign of God.  It doesn’t matter where acts of compassion originate or who does them.  The disciples criticized someone for casting out demons because he was “not one of them” and they tried to stop him.  Jesus responded by stating a common and destructive human tendency. The disciples had either forgotten or misunderstood the radical inclusiveness of God’s reign.   Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able…to speak evil of me.”

The good news is that Jesus’ company is far more inclusive than it first appears.  Even those without explicit faith are counted among those who are “with Jesus” if their actions serve the good.  Serving the common good is a religious practice.

On the other hand, the bad news is that those who exclude themselves through unjust or uncharitable actions are worse off than those who are maimed or dead.  When Jesus said it would be wiser to destroy part of one’s self than to lose the whole, he spoke from a deep awareness that it really is possible to lose oneself.  It is possible to live so arrogantly and selfishly that the very depths of one’s being is mired in misery and chaos.

This lesson is so important that Jesus underscored it by using the body as a metaphor.  He insisted that it is better to physically remove that which inhibits the spread of the good news and “enter life lame” than to put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in him.

Our reading from the Letter of James is also about this message of God’s inclusiveness by relating it to Christian practice.  He asks, who should pray and who should sing songs of praise?  Christian faith and practice does not work if we are fragmented and concerned with promoting our individual status at the expense of others.

Religious practice and Christianity are by definition communal.  We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.  “My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.“  The point is that within Christian faith traditions, among churches and religious organizations, salvation is for the community; it is interdependent.

The Bible calls us to self-reflection, and to look at our own religious practice, our church, our country, and our world in new ways.  We are part of a worldwide community of many faiths, cultures, and traditions.  God calls us as Christians to a common worldwide family even as we acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, the anointed one of God.  As members of the Body of Christ we are members of the human family, those of every religious tradition, race and class.

What we have in common, and what unites us, is that we are together on a magnificent and uncertain journey through this earthly life.  When we reach out and help one another, encourage one other, lift up one another, there are no losers or winners, but a host of individual persons with dignity and value equal to our own.  This is what Jesus intended when he said ”Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Being part of the wonderful diversity and pluralism of our world, the family of all God’s people, is the culmination and joy of our life.  We celebrate that in giving thanks to God in the simple act of breaking bread and sharing the cup of salvation.  Amen.

The Hard Truth of Discipleship

Jesus’ disciples were shocked and confused when he said to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." They did not understand what he was saying. 

While Jesus and the disciples were walking through Galilee Jesus gave instructions about the hard truth of discipleship.  He predicted that betrayal and death would take place in Jerusalem and how, after being killed, he would rise again.  It is likely the disciples were so frightened by what they were hearing they were afraid to ask. 

During the years that I was teaching philosophy at Rhode Island College I generally talked with students about my understanding of what education is all about.  I believe in an interactive approach rather than a straight lecture format.  My approach to teaching and learning was somewhat different from many other faculty and, for that, I am indebted to Parker Palmer, a teacher’s teacher.  Parker is an author and educator who founded a Center for Courage and Renewal. 

           

In his book titled, The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer writes, “All education has the potential to be spiritual formation.  The problem is that education often is a process of spiritual deformation.  The enemy of education is fear.  In the academy we are afraid to get our ignorance out on the table.  We institutionalize a way of knowing that is deeply rooted in fear.  The way we know, the way we teach and learn, the way we live are deeply related. 

“Our institutionalized way of knowing has three components:  1) It is objective.  It holds the world at arm’s length, distances the student from the subject, distrusts and fears subjectivity; 2) It is analytic. After making an object of something, you take it apart, dissect it, analyze it; 3) Then you experiment.  After chopping something into pieces, you manipulate it and move the pieces around to your own liking.  This is spiritual deformation.

Palmer continues, “In contrast to this, the Jewish and Christian traditions say, ‘be not afraid.’  Theirs is an urgent contribution to an alternative way of knowing.  This way of knowing is now being articulated by some feminist scholars and black and minority voices.  It is also beginning to have an impact on many people who perceive the transformative power of education.  This way of knowing has four marks that include: one, knowing, truth, knowledge is personal.  Jesus, when asked what is truth, said, “I am the truth.”  There is a big difference in saying truth is personal or truth is propositional.  We need to acknowledge that autobiography is important in knowing; two, truth, knowing is communal.   It emerges from the body dealing with itself in an open, communal way.  The same is true in science.  What is found must be shared and subject to replication; three, truth, knowing is also reciprocal or mutual.  It is not just our seeking truth, but truth seeking us; and four, the fruit of knowing, truth, is transformation.  The problem is that we do not want to be transformed, we want to do the transforming.  This is our fear, our resistance to change.”

The task for Jesus’ disciples and the task for us as people of faith is to find ways of naming and addressing the fears that inhibit hearing and understanding difficult truth.  These fears stand in the way of developing opportunities for communities of truth to emerge in which transformation and spiritual formation occur.

As we heard in Mark’s gospel, the disciples were also preoccupied with another debate. In a house in the town of Capernaum they were arguing among themselves and Jesus asked about their disagreement.  They were ashamed to tell him because they were debating who among them was the greatest.  They seemed unaware of what was really happening.  Debating about their relative status of deserved future prominence was for them a reasonable undertaking.  They were, after all, students of a rabbi who would soon be recognized and honored in the capital city of Jerusalem.  Jesus understood their confusion and spoke to correct their longing for prestige and status.  "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."

Then, to make his point, Jesus took a small child into his arms.  The child was a living symbol of those whom the disciples were to serve. "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."  But more than this, "whoever welcomes me welcomes…the one who sent me."

As I read this I could not help but think of all the refugees from Syria and countries in Africa who are being forced out of their homes because of war and violence.  Many are families with small children, some of whom are infants and mothers who are pregnant.  It is our obligation to welcome them by supporting countries and agencies that provide a safe haven, and our country should also welcome them.

Normally, children are free spirits.  They are naturally curious and inquisitive about everything.  They are always taking risks, trying something new, experiencing what they have not known before, developing their own sense of right and wrong, good and bad, creating their identity and expressing their personalities.  It is wonderful to watch all this in children and to share with them as they grow. But when they are forced to abandon their homes, their spirits are no longer free and their development is seriously compromised.

In Jesus' day children had no status.  During the time of Jesus and Mark children were considered unimportant. But it is children and people like them who must be the concern for Jesus' followers.  Jesus, in the context of the social norms of his day, turned things upside down.  He taught that true greatness means giving of yourself in service to others without concern for what you will receive in return.  It is unconditional love.

Have you ever heard the voice of God in a young and innocent child?  I think we are often like Jesus' disciples, wanting God to be the greatest extension of ourselves and to make up for our inadequacies and shortcomings. It is hard for us to hear and to understand the Gospel telling us, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."  We don't easily recognize that what we think of as weakness in reality may be strength, or what we perceive as strong may actually be weak.  We want God to be a bigger version of ourselves, created in our image and able to fix things for us.  It’s often hard to recognize that those who are the least among us are created in God's image.  God is not what we expect.

Jesus reminds us that true greatness is not about achieving honors for ourselves, or compiling a list of credentials or accomplishments, whether spiritual or material.  Instead, true greatness is measured in God's eyes by our service to others and whether we truly welcome the least among us.  In welcoming them we welcome God.  Amen.

Living Christian Life Today

What do you look for in a leader?  Most of us want someone of solid character who listens well, has a good vision for the future and knows how to achieve agreed-upon goals.  To use the language of the Boy Scout law I learned as a young boy, a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrift, brave, clean, and reverent.  It’s a list of platitudes for the good life.  It’s also pretty much what we expect of our leaders today, whether in government, health care, education, or religion.

Jesus, however, had a different idea.  When he asked his disciples "Who do people say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah."  Peter’s answer, although expected, was misleading and incomplete. The Israelites were living under Roman domination and expected the Messiah would come in power, to free the people from oppression; they did not expect a suffering servant.  They had no concept of a Messiah who would suffer.  Jesus responded to Peter’s statement and told the disciples about rejection and suffering, about being killed and rising again after three days.  Peter was astounded.  He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  It was contrary to what he and others believed and expected. 

Peter and the disciples knew all about rejection, suffering and death.  That was common to their human experience.  What they expected from Jesus was quite the opposite; they were in search for a leader who would promise them the good life free of all the familiar trials and tribulations of injustice and oppression.

This chapter in the Gospel of Mark is the first prediction of Jesus’ suffering.  It is part of God’s plan.  Jesus’ mission is now clear and out in the open.  He rebuked Peter for his statement and said, “Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

I don’t know about you but I am impressed, negatively impressed that is, by the televangelists who preach about the good life, a life of success and contentment, of riches and rewards. They don’t normally focus on Jesus’ suffering nor do they acknowledge the true meaning of the Christian life.  Christianity is not a life of comfort and ease.  It is more a life of risk, tension, ambiguity and disappointment.  It is also a life of compassion and love for those in need, a willingness to lose one’s life for the sake of the gospel.  It is a life that knows what it means to take up a cross and follow Jesus.

As Jesus said to the crowd and the disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

The Rev. Dr. Peter Marty, a Lutheran pastor, relates a story told by the late Quaker philosopher Elton Trueblood: “John Woolman, a successful Quaker merchant in the 18th century lived a wonderfully nice life until God convicted him one day of the offense of holding slaves. After that, John Woolman gave up his prosperous business; he used his money to try and free slaves and even started wearing undyed suits to avoid relying on dye that slave labor produced. Says Elton Trueblood, ‘Occasionally we talk of our Christianity as something that solves problems, and there is a sense in which it does.  Long before it does so, however, it increases both the number and the intensity of problems.’"

The reality of living with so many problems in our institutions, whether educational, community, or religious, not to mention our international relationships, is why Jesus said repeatedly, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and the gospel, will save it.”

Peter Marty has a further comment about the Gospel of Mark beginning with the 8^th chapter: “The first half of Mark's Gospel is all about ‘how to live.’ Jesus gives instructions of one kind or another on how we might best fashion our lives. And, then, at this pivotal point right in the center of Mark's Gospel account, Jesus makes a shift.  He begins to show us how to die. Now that we have been given a life, he demonstrates how to give it up … or how to give it away. This is a huge move.”

“If you want to have a worthwhile life, you're going to have to look for ways to give that life away…. You're going to have to think more of loving than of being loved, more of understanding than of being understood, more of forgiving than of being forgiven….  Living a life that really matters …asks for a way that treats life more like a precious gift to be shared than a commodity to be stored up.”

What happened to Jesus as we learn later in the Gospel is that he was arrested, tried, tortured, and executed as a blasphemer.  He died.  But even as he was nailed to the cross he asked God to forgive those who were killing him: “Forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”

There are implications for us who are followers of Jesus today just as there were for the earliest disciples.  They include giving up any sense of selfishness and self-centeredness, and knowing that our true authority is the compassionate God who requires us to do justice, to love kindness, and to be peace-makers.  God is interested in our being authentic, true to self, willing to take risks for the sake of others. 

Jesus taught that it is more blessed to give than to receive, that we should love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as our self.  In the midst of all the challenges we face today, following Jesus and living the Christian life can lead to a wonderful, adventurous and abundant life.  Amen.

Living Faith in Action

This is Labor Day weekend.  There is a sense in which it marks the end of summer and the beginning of a new year.  Schools and colleges have resumed or are about to, and many churches and religious organizations begin their new fall schedule.  Our schedule is delayed for a few weeks because of the ongoing restoration work. We hope it will be completed by the end of the month.

This morning I have a few thoughts to share about labor and economic inequality.  Then, in response to a request from the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, we have been asked to make solidarity visible with them by participating in a day of “Confession, Repentance, and Commit-ment to End Racism.”

Our reading from the Letter of James has something to say to us on this Labor Day weekend: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill," and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”  The message here is that an authentic faith requires action.  An active faith provides care for those in need.

The first Labor Day was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City.  It was a day to commemorate trade and labor organizations.  Two years later the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, and the Central Labor Union in New York urged similar organizations in other cities to follow their example and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date.

The observance of Labor Day took the form of a parade focused on "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations." Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later as more emphasis was placed on the economic and civic significance of the holiday.

Labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known. It brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of an economic and equitable democracy.  And so we pay tribute to American workers responsible for much of our nation's strength, freedom, and leadership. 

There is, however, a major problem today. The Pew Research Center has identified several issues of economic inequality in our society.  We no longer have the robust manufacturing climate of production we used to enjoy.  There is, as some have noted, considerable profit without production.  We are a service and technologically oriented society.  The Pew Research Center lists several areas of inequality:

Income inequality is the highest it’s been since 1928 and is more unequal than most of the other developed countries.  Americans are relatively unconcerned about the wide income gap between rich and poor.  Wealth inequality is even greater than income inequality. 

Economic inequality is counter to what our historic celebration of Labor Day is all about.  The poor in our country, both black and white, struggle to survive.  With all our wealth and more than adequate resources it is unconscionable that so many people are malnourished, homeless, uneducated, and under-valued.  As we heard, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”

Last Tuesday we received a letter from the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies, written on behalf of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  The letter asks us to put our faith into action.

“Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
 On June 17, nine members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, were murdered by a white racist during their weekly bible study. Just a few days later at General Convention in Salt Lake City, we committed ourselves to stand in solidarity with the AME Church as they respond with acts of forgiveness, reconciliation, and justice.”

And, “to make that solidarity visible by participating in ‘Confession, Repentance, and Commitment to End Racism Sunday’ we ask all Episcopal congregations to join this ecumenical effort with prayer and action.

“’Racism will not end with the passage of legislation alone; it will also require a change of heart and thinking,’ writes AME Bishop Reginald T. Jackson. ‘This is an effort which the faith community must lead, and be the conscience of the nation. We will call upon every church, temple, mosque and faith communion to make their worship service on this Sunday a time to confess and repent for the sin and evil of racism, this includes ignoring, tolerating and accepting racism, and to make a commitment to end racism by the example of our lives and actions.’

“The Episcopal Church, along with many ecumenical partners, will stand in solidarity with the AME Church this week in Washington D.C. at the ‘Liberty and Justice for All’ event, which includes worship at Wesley AME Zion Church and various advocacy events.

“Racial reconciliation through prayer, teaching, engagement and action is a top priority of the Episcopal Church in the upcoming triennium. Participating in ‘Confession, Repentance, and Commitment to End Racism Sunday’ on September 6 is just one way that we Episcopalians can undertake this essential work. Our history as a church includes atrocities for which we must repent, saints who show us the way toward the realm of God, and structures that bear witness to unjust centuries of the evils of white privilege, systemic racism, and oppression that are not yet consigned to history. We are grateful for the companionship of the AME Church and other partners as we wrestle with our need to repent and be reconciled to one another and to the communities we serve.

“’The Church understands and affirms that the call to pray and act for racial reconciliation is integral to our witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to our living into the demands of our Baptismal Covenant,’ May God bless us and forgive us as we pray and act with our partners this week and in the years to come.”

As you know a related development is our Center for Reconciliation in Rhode Island to foster inter-racial reconciliation through programs that engage, educate, and inspire.  The focus is to build equitable and respectful relationships to restore unity with God and each other; to listen to each other’s stories; to collaborate as partners and advocates for justice; and to organize our lives for the common good.  This work is complex and difficult as we repurpose our Diocesan Cathedral building to become a renewed venue for this needed project.  May we all pray, work, and give for the spread of God’s kingdom.  Amen.