Hello
dear ones.

While
I desperately miss the chance to be present with you in worship and
embodied conversation, I am so grateful for this chance to speak and
for your willingness to listen.  I hope that the Divine Spirit will
bless this message both in my speaking and in your hearing so that
space may be made for compassion and grace to grow in you and in me.

I
am speaking to you after a break!  For this first time in 2020, I
took a FULL week of vacation!  (Thanks to all whose work made that
possible)  Despite my own admonitions about refreshing the news, it
wasn’t the MOST relaxing vacation I’ve ever had.  Then, I spent 3
days on retreat.  Well, virtual retreat, but retreat none-the-less
(thanks to all who made THAT possible too.)  The retreat is a series
aimed at clergy, and focused on deep listening.  By making space to
listen to each other space to be heard, we trust that the Spirit will
be able to be seen more clearly.

After
the retreat I am feeling refreshed, renewed, and grateful.  And…
almost strong enough to tackle this Gospel lesson 😉

This
gospel lesson gets my heckles up, because I don’t like talk of hell,
I don’t like threats presented as God’s, and I don’t like binary
splits between people as if some are good and some are bad when we’re
all just complicated.

And
yet, I do like the means by which the judgement is made –
the care of the vulnerable.  Which means my whole relationship with
this text is complicated.  In the “Social Science Commentary on the
Synoptic Gospels” Bruce Malina and Richard Rorhbaugh say, “The
basis for the division here is a person’s compassionate action toward
the weak and the poor.  Its condemnation of the refusal of those able
to help people who are in need is nearly complete.”¹

God
calls us to compassion for those who disempowered:  the hungry, the
thirsty, the stranger (or foreigner), the naked, the sick, the
imprisoned.  Those are according to Matthew.  Ezekiel mentions the
lost, the injured, those who have strayed, and the weak.  In Ezekiel,
God will care directly for the sheep so that the lean are able to
become healthy, and the strong and fat are no longer able to oppress.

This
all reminds me of mercy – that word that gets used for God so often
it isn’t even heard anymore.  Mercy is “compassion
or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to
punish or harm.”²
Similarly, the compassion being asked for in these texts is not
generic compassion.  Rather it is compassionate ACTION towards those
who need it most.

It
is good to be kind and compassionate towards one’s peers, or those
with more power and influence than one has, but the judgement named
here isn’t on that.  It is about compassion to those who have LESS
power and influence, and more need.  (Although, intersectional
justice reminds us that power, influence, privilege and need are
complicated and multifaceted.)

As
I think these admonitions to be compassionate towards those who have
been disempowered is CORE to the Bible as well as to God’s desires
for a just world, the question of how to build up our compassion
muscles becomes really key!

For
me, at least, compassion starts with God’s compassion.  That is the
foundation for EVERYTHING.  Rather than starting with judgement or at
attempt to be worthy, my faith starts with the grace, love, and
compassion of God that I can trust in.  It changes how I see myself,
as well as how I see others.  It helps me be more gentle with myself
as well as more humble.  It challenges me to be better, but lets me
find peace with myself as I am.

To
keep on learning those lessons requires reconnecting with the Divine,
and the Divine’s compassionate gaze.  Prayer, spiritual exercise, or
simply letting myself BE without trying to DO anything more than be
all let me soak in God’s compassion and let it transform me once
again.

The
second piece is related to the first.  To become a more compassionate
person requires compassion WITH MYSELF.  This is actually the hardest
of the three I think.  This also starts with prayer, but also
requires self-examination, and feedback from others.  This, I
suspect, is a lifelong journey.

The
third piece of building compassion is the one we usually jump right
to: compassion for others.  However, I really think it develops
naturally and effortlessly once we work on connecting with our
Compassionate God and allowing self-compassion.  It turns out that
most of the judgments we put on others and the world are really our
judgements on ourselves externalized.  

The
world needs more compassionate people, because the world needs to
become more compassionate.  The irony is that the way we get there is
so indirect!  To transform the world first requires allowing God’s
compassion to continually transform us.

During
this time of pandemic, when everything is different from what we’ve
known, we still have the capacity to work on our compassion.  And
based on everything I’ve seen, the world is in desperate need of it
AND God has it in abundance.  

May
we become stronger in our compassion, through God’s.  Amen

1Bruce
J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh Social-Science Commentary on the
Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) “Textual
Notes: Matthew 25”

2Apple
Dictionary.

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she/her/hers
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

November 15, 2020