6 COMPASSION

“THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - ”             Pentecost -3rd
                     Mark 3:20-35                                   June 12,1994


Our Gospel text for today leads us into our 6th magnificent word -compassion.  For what is the will of God if it is not compassion -
first, last and always.  As Jesus said in Luke 6:36: “Be compassionate just as your father is compassionate.”

Compassion - a word not heard much 35 years ago and still not the first choice of those who translate God’s Word and those who seek to describe how it is with God and how God would have it be with us.  I find it a bit ironic that the greek word oikteiro, which means to have compassion on, exercise grace or favor towards, mercy, is more often translated mercy or merciful then compassion or compassionate.  In fact, look up the word compassion in the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible and it will read:

“The words for ‘compassion and ‘pity’ in the original
languages of the Bible are also frequently translated ‘mercy’ and the meanings of these terms are interchangeable.  See Mercy.”

Turn to mercy and there are two pages of information, in which the word compassion is central to its meaning and is indeed even a stronger word, for it comes out of the root word for “womb” in the Hebrew and thus carries with it the deep feeling one has for one born of the same womb.  In the Greek it means literally “to be moved in one’s bowels” and carries with it a strong sense of obligation to be moved to action on behalf of someone in need.

In other words, compassion has passion in it!  It has feeling in it!
It comes from deep within and brings with it a power which impels one to act!  It is not something we do casually or cautiously; something we do when we get around to it or where there isn’t something better to do. It is more then mercy. It is something we do with power and passion; something we do because we have to, no matter what the cost.  To be compassionate is to be deeply moved to act on behalf of others; it is to live not on others but for others.
And it is to do this because there is a burning within which will not let us be otherwise; for this is how God is with us!


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We know God best and we know the best about God through the word compassion.  For the most and the best that we can say about God...the first and the last word about God is, as the Psalmist repeats over and over and over again, that God “is gracious and merciful, (that is full of compassion) slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.”  Ps. 145:8,9
Is this not the heart of the scriptures testimony about God; that
God is not against us but for us;
God is not indifferent to our suffering, but is in it with us;
God is not angry with us because God delights in being angry, but because God loves us too much to not be angry.  And God will not remain angry for ever; for God’s anger is preceded as well as followed by compassion.  Even in moments of indignation, God’s love remains alive.

God is known best not in God’s almighty power - God’s omnipotence; but in God’s pathos, that is, God’s compassion which leads God to act on our behalf. As Abraham Heschel says in his book on the prophets, in whom we hear a lot about the anger of God yet never without a word of compassion which holds even God’s wrath in God’s grace and mercy,
“...the reality of the divine is sensed as pathos rather than as power,
and the most exalted idea applied to God is not infinite wisdom,
infinite power, but infinite concern. ”  The Prophet, Vol 2, p. 21

Is this not who we see God to be when we look at Jesus, of whom it was often said that he was moved to compassion when he saw the crowds because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

And is this word not central to that powerful, life-giving story he told when confronted by those who wanted God to be harsher on all but the pure of heart, who wanted God to measure them by their religious perfection, not by what was in their hearts and how they cared for others.  The story I speak of is the Parable of the Prodigal or better named, The Parable of The Waiting Father.  It tells us all we need to know about God and the most important word in the parable which forever turns it into a message of hope for the likes of you and me, comes as the son returns and it says,
“...while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.” Lk. 15:20
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Compassion...a powerful word which captures something of the passion God has for us and something of the secret of the life of faith, for we are to be compassionate as our God is compassionate.  This is to be our mark of distinction in this world.  This is our calling,  our command,  our challenge; and what ever else this means, it does mean that there is to be some passion in our living and some celebration in our serving, as we live not on others but care for others.

We are not called to judge and condemn others who are different and who are hurting - who are like sheep without a shepherd.  We are called to be compassionate, that is, stand with them and act on their behalf.   This is no easy task, something we do casually and spontaneously.  As Henri Nouwen reminds us, “Compassion is the fruit of solitude (that is, our time spent with God alone so that our faith might be a power and passion in authority among the powers and passions of our lives and not just something we play with when we have nothing better to do, or something we keep around for an emergency.) and the basis of all ministry... Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate.  It is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others where they hurt, where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely, and broken.  But this is not our spontaneous response to suffering.  What we desire most is to do away with suffering by fleeing from it or finding a quick cure...With the best of intentions we get into the action before we know it and so overlook our greatest gift, which is our ability to enter into solidarity with those who suffer.”

And this means we have to let go of judgement because “compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the over-againstness, which prevents us from really being with the other.”
                                                   The Way of The Heart, pp. 20,21

Instead of judgement there needs be celebration if there is to be compassion, for as Matthew Fox reminds us, :“There can be no compassion without celebration and there will be no authentic celebration that does not result in increased compassionate energies.  A person or a people who cannot celebrate will never be a compassionate people.  And a person or a people who do not practice compassion can never truly be celebrating...for compassion is about...feelings of togetherness...’the feeling of kinship; with all fellow creatures.’  This kinship in turn urges us to celebrate our kinship.  Compassion then, is about celebration.”  A Spirituality Named Compassion, p.4

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Do you see now how compassion is more then mercy?  More then just doing something good for someone and then getting back to the business of one’s own living with a certain distance and indifference between us and them.
More then even setting aside a certain portion of our time and energy to do good and then removing ourselves from the deep feelings of sharing the suffering of others.  This is mercy, with a certain aloofness, not compassion!  Compassion can not get away from being there when needed and feeling the pain of someone else’s life...someone with whom we also would celebrate.

There can be no compassion in isolation; with a certain safe distance between us and them.  This is what makes compassion so difficult and so powerful; it comes from deep within and reaches deep within the other in a way which touches the very essence of our being.  This is why we do not do it easily or casually, but with a deep passion which will not let us do otherwise.

As we struggle to understand compassion in a practical way for our living, which requires so much from us and offers so much to us and others, we will find ourselves walking a tight rope between two extremes between which compassion exists and seeks its way.  The first extreme is indifference, which may be said to be non-compassion and leads to callous living and private believing; (believing only so I can go to heaven, not so I can be of some earthly good in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.)  The second is enabling, which can be said to be pseudo-compassion and leads to over-kill, living so much for others I have no individuality left and my helping becomes hurting and keeps the other person from ever having to be responsible for anything.

As we seek to be compassionate we are going to be walking the narrow road between these two - indifference on the one hand and enabling on the other.
And we will brush up against them as we seek the compassionate way.  In fact, if we don’t brush up against them, chances are we are being too cautions in our compassion.  I mean, there will be times when our compassion will be dangerously close to enabling and even slip into enabling.  Then it is we need to pull back just a little, and leave room for the other to be responsible.
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 And there will be times when we don’t give a damn; when we are numb and indifferent. Then it is that we need to “go off to a lonely place to pray.”  That is, be renewed in our own inner being with the compassion our God has for us so we can go back out there and be compassionate and not walk away from the suffering of others.  And it is only as we bump into both of these - indifference and enabling - that we will know we are in the place of compassion and somehow being somewhat compassionate as our God is compassionate!

And then there is this business of celebration, which is a mark of  compassion and vital to its existence.  When the lost son came home the father threw a party!  There was no other way to express the joy he felt!  It was demanded by his compassion.  We know we are being compassionate when we want to party with those with whom we are being compassionate.
When we want to celebrate life with them and have no hesitation about being with them.  This distinguishes compassion from mercy; we can be merciful and go home.  When we are compassionate we have to stay for the celebration...and we enjoy it as much as if it were our own.  So a way to check our compassionate, is to look at where we celebrate and with whom.

For where are celebrating is, there will our compassion be also!

Compassion...no easy casual thing in our lives.  Not something we do quickly or naturally; not something which comes automatically or without effort and energy.  In fact, much of the evil in our lives and in our world is the result of our lack of compassion and our fear of being compassionate.  For when we fear compassion we become critical and judgmental, to protect us from having to be compassionate.


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This in part is what is happening in our midst which is resulting in the largest prison population in our history, and still no let up on crime on our streets.  This in part is what creates the ‘Welfare Mother’ myth which has us believing that our high taxes and deficit spending would all be solved by cutting all welfare programs when that ‘waste’ doesn’t even come close to the waste of those who are the powerful and dip deeply into the public coffers.  This in part is what is keeping us as a church let alone as a society from being able to embrace those who are born homosexual as being valid human beings with a right to their sexuality as much as we have a right to ours.  This in part is what is causing us to become a negative society in which there is lots of talk about morality and family values but little effort being given to being moral and little energy is being given to being family, which might mean we have to give up some of the so called “good things of life” and live with less so we have more time for each other.

At a Notre Dame conference on the work of Elie Wiesel, Robert McAfee Brown set out to “define the Moral Society.”  This is what he came up with:

1.  “A moral society, basically and fundamentally, will be compassionate rather than vindictive.”  Anger and outrage, perhaps necessary at times of desperate evil, must not become normative.

2.  “A moral society will express special concern for the powerless.”  Since society does not bend easily toward the powerless, we must work “not so much to be the voices of the voiceless as to be those who will establish places where the voiceless are enabled to speak on their own behalf.”

3.  “A moral society will be a society of participants rather than spectators.”  Brown: “To care for the other is the route to fulfillment for the self.  The real sin is indifference, with no recipient and no donor.  With no caring, there can be no relationship.”

4.  A moral society will be a society that clings to hope rather than succumbing to despair.”  To be sure it may cling despairingly to hope, but cling it must lest it nurture the seeds of its own destruction.
5.  A moral society is perpetually unfinished.  The quality of a moral society will not be that all questions have been answered, but that all questions continue to be asked...


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A moral society, basically and fundamentally, will be compassionate...this is our calling and our challenge as a society and as a church; as those who are caught up in the Kingdom of God on earth.  For compassion is basic and fundamental to our existence as the people of God; without compassion we do not exist and God is not here!  And compassion means we will embrace those we feel are least perfect, least deserving, and even most threatening to our lives, and as Walter Wink translates this verse from Luke, “...be all-inclusive, as our heavenly Abba is all-inclusive.”  This is how far compassion will go as it takes us to the heart of God and back again to the places of need in our world.

Indeed, it is no small thing to be compassionate as our God is compassionate!  It is the heart of life with God and the heart of our life as the people of God.  For as Meister Eckhart, a mystic of the middle ages said, “You may call God love; you may call God goodness; but the best name for God is Compassion.”  And it is the best word to describe what we are all about as the people of God!

      Amen