Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
1 Timothy 2:1-7
In his sermon at the 26th General Synod this summer, John Thomas, the president
of our denomination, posed a stark question to those of us gathered there. After 50 years
as a denomination, what Thomas wanted to know was, “what are we doing here?”
Gathered for the biggest birthday bash in UCC history, it seemed an odd question at first.
But Thomas pressed the question-- in a refrain that punctuated his sermon, he kept
asking, “what are you doing here, UCC?” His question reminded me that we should
never take the answer to that question for granted. Not as a denomination, and not as a
local church. In fact, we need to take the time to pause now and then to reflect, as
individuals and as a congregation, on what we are doing here, in the United Church of
Christ, and here, at Rock Spring Church.
We’re in a period of time now where that question is particularly pertinent for us.
As we approach Chuck’s retirement date and move towards a time of transition, we are in
a sense forced to pause and reflect on that question in a way that we don’t normally have
to do. Our strategic planning committee has been working on some ways to help our
church reflect on questions relating to the identity, mission, and values of this
congregation, questions about what we want to be and do in our little corner of the world,
and that’s why you have been asked to take the congregational survey that was passed out
last week. And as we look towards a new pledge season, which we are now calling the
Annual Giving Campaign, the question of what we are doing here lingers in the
background. Why do we care about this church? What are we doing here that is so
important that we would give of our time and talents not only to keep this church alive
but to help it thrive?
I think there are a number of true answers that we could give to the question of
why we are here. One answer which Chuck helped unpack for us last week is that we are
a progressive, open-minded and inclusive Christian community that values diversity and
is non-dogmatic in its approach to faith. Another answer that we could easily give is that
we are here because of our church’s historic and passionate commitment to social justice
and community service, a commitment that has earned us a reputation for visionary
community leadership that we strive to live up to. But today, I wish to focus on a third
answer that also lies at the core of what it means to be the Rock Spring Congregational
United Church of Christ, and indeed, what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ—
period. I would like to suggest that one of the main reasons we come to this church is to
be part of a caring community, a community of solidarity and compassion that stretches
us to move outside our small, private worlds and take part in something bigger, to share
in the lives of others in a meaningful way, to find companionship in our journey through
life, and ultimately, to cultivate a spirituality of compassion that connects us to the very
heart of God.
One of the foremost theologians of our time, Marcus Borg, talks about the
centrality of compassion to the Christian life. In his book, The Heart of Christianity,
Borg writes:
For Jesus, the primary quality of a life centered in God is compassion.
When Jesus sums up theology and ethics in a few words [in Luke 6:36], he
says: “Be compassionate as God is compassionate”….The associations of
the word in Aramaic and Hebrew are strikingly evocative: to be
compassionate is to be “womblike”: lifegiving, nourishing, embracing.
So God is; so we are to be. Thus, growth in love, growth in compassion,
is the primary quality of life in the Spirit.1
“So God is; so are we to be” concludes Borg. Our life together as a caring community
flows directly from the compassionate heart of God, which is broken open by the pain of
the world, and participates directly in our sufferings as well as our joys. The depth of
God’s compassion is almost beyond the capacity of words to express, and so it is up to
the poets to try to give it voice. The passage we heard from Jeremiah this morning
contains some of the most extraordinary poetry that we have in the prophetic books of the
Bible. And while the traditional interpretation of this passage holds that the speaker is
Jeremiah, man scholars now suggest that this extraordinary lament is actually the lament
of Yahweh over the suffering of Yahweh’s people. Hear some of the verses again as a
cry directly from the heart of God:
“My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick….For the hurt of my poor
people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there? O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a
fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people.”
What is most striking to me about this passage is the depth of empathy that God
feels for God’s people. Because God’s people are suffering during a time of conquest
and exile, God suffers profoundly along with them. So intense is God’s empathic
connection with God’s people that, as one commentator describes it, “YHWH [Yahweh]
desires to become weeping, to turn into tears, to weep unceasingly over the slain.” This
is no distant, disconnected God but a radically connected, loving and feeling God. This is
the God we know in Jesus Christ, as our passage today from 1 Timothy tells us. This is
the God who so loved us that God enfleshed Godself in Jesus Christ to become a
mediator between the divine and human realms, so that all might be saved. God discloses
Godself in human form so that God can enter into the most profound solidarity possible
with those whom God desires to restore to wholeness. This is a God we can touch, a
God who touches us, and whose touch heals us.
And oh how we need this touch. Let’s be honest. We are all hungering to have
our deepest broken places touched and healed by a power larger than ourselves. And if
we are really honest, isn’t this one of the most important reasons we come to church?
Maybe subconsciously, or only half-consciously-- but don’t we get up on Sunday
mornings and come out for meetings during the week not just to be intellectually
stimulated or to do volunteer work or to be part of a social club but because somehow we
sense and hope that we might find some healing balm for our brokenness and for the
brokenness of the world, and also because we hunger for deep soul connection with other
human beings, through whom and with whom we can experience the presence and love
of God—that Power larger than ourselves, that Mystery that gives life meaning?
Coming together into Christian community is one of the primary ways we access
the presence and power of God in our lives. Theologian Jay McDaniel refers to God as
the “Open Space” in which we live, move and have our being, or as an “opened heart”
that embraces us in what McDaniel calls a “Great Compassion.” And it’s worth spending
just a moment to unpack the meaning of this often overused word. McDaniel writes that
“Compassion is another word for loving-kindness. It means sharing in the joys and
sufferings of living beings, acting to reduce their suffering and promote their well-being.
It also includes having compassion for oneself in such a way that one avoids self-inflation
or self-deflation….When we have compassion,” he continues, “we ‘love our neighbors as
ourselves,’ cognizant that our neighbors and ourselves are enfolded in the Great
Compassion.” And as we become open to God, “we become God’s hands, God’s eyes,
God’s ears, God’s body.”2 In this way, we become a community of caring and we
cultivate a spirituality of compassion.
I think that Rock Spring already is such a community, and that we have the
potential to generate even deeper forms of caring and more profound ways of mediating
the healing presence of God to one another. I know this both because of my own
personal experience serving you as your minister and also because of what I have
observed of the way in which you love one another. As Donna Cartwright testified last
week during worship, this congregation has an extraordinary capacity to care for one
another in times of need, and our caring ministry program is one visible way in which we
manifest that capacity. Through our caring ministry program, Rock Springers have been
able to organize a ministry of caring and presence that is truly remarkable. Older and
homebound members of our congregation are now befriended by lay people who have
been trained and equipped in a visitation ministry that extends the care of this
congregation beyond the walls of this church and into people’s homes. Those who are ill
are visited and receive caring cards which express compassion and solidarity with their
suffering. Those who are bereaved receive cards which remind them that they are not
alone and that our community stands ready to comfort and console them in their grief.
Older members who have trouble getting to church or to appointments can request help
with transportation.
In all of these ways, our congregation is embodying the compassion of Christ.
And the caring ministry is only the most visible, organized tip of a deeper structure of
care and love which runs in informal channels throughout our entire church. You know
that already though, because most of you participate in one way or another in this web of
care that connects us to one another. And if you are new to our church, or if you haven’t
yet found a way to plug in, consider this your invitation. There are so many ways to
become involved in this caring community…find your way, and jump in.
Two ways that I would especially like to lift up to you today are the opportunity
to join our caring ministry program and the opportunity to join the prayer circle. As most
of you know, we are entering into a new cycle of our caring ministry program and
seeking new volunteers. We need a new infusion of energy and talent into our program
even as we gratefully continue on with the volunteers that have already been serving our
church so faithfully. We need new volunteers to learn the art of visitation, of practicing
the ministry of presence through visiting people in their homes and in the hospital. We
will equip you for that ministry through a series of training sessions that begin on
October 20. We also need new volunteers to send cards to people who are ill, or
homebound, or bereaved, or on joyous occasions such as the birth of a child. And we
especially need to strengthen our transportation ministry with new volunteers who will
help provide rides to people who are either temporarily or permanently unable to drive. I
hope that you will prayerfully consider joining our caring ministry, and if you are
interested in our program, you can simply fill out one of the handprints that are at either
end of your pew and drop it into the offering plate today or next week. And at this time,
I’d like to ask that you take a moment to pass the handprints down the pews so that
everyone has a chance to take one if you want to…you can fill it out now, or take it home
with you and turn it in later. There are also brochures in the pews that explain the caring
ministry program in more detail.
Secondly, I would like to urge you today to consider taking part in a longstanding
ministry of this church that preceded the caring ministry program by many
years—and that is our prayer circle. Prayer is one of the most ancient and important
ways in which Christians care for one another and hold one another in the love of Christ.
It is an absolutely central element in the cultivation of a spirituality of compassion, as we
heard in today’s reading from 1 Timothy, which begins with the call to pray for everyone,
without discrimination. Prayer is one way in which we can become a channel for God’s
healing energy to flow to others; it’s a form of mindful attention in which we hold
another person in the light and love of God and of our own heart. I have decided that I
am going to begin going to Rock Spring’s monthly prayer circle whenever I am able to
do so, and I encourage any of you who feel nudged in this direction to do the same. If
you want to learn more about the prayer circle, talk to me or to Anita Cline.
I would like to conclude with a very personal word….
I myself have been the recipient of the care and compassion of this congregation.
Through countless small acts of kindness, and some very large acts, such as when I was
flooded out of my home two summers ago, you have wrapped your arms around me and
embraced me in your care, and this church has been a healing presence in my life through
some difficult times. But what I also want to stress is that I myself have been
transformed as I have served as your minister, particularly in my pastoral caregiving role.
Moving back into pastoral ministry from academia, when I first got here I was naturally a
little too up in my head and not yet grounded enough in my heart. Academia will do that
to you. But as I came and sat by the bedside of those of you who were ill, or simply sat
as a caring presence with elderly homebound folks who could no longer come to church,
or held the hand of some of our dearest members who have now passed on, and prayed
with so many of you as you gave me access to your broken places, I found myself being
transformed. You might say that my heart was stretched. You might say that I regained
a balance between head and heart that had been upset while I was in academia. You
might say that I learned from our elders the true priorities of life, which are love, and
love, and then love, but somehow, through being your minister, I have become a better
person. And I have watched many of you become better people as you have cared for
one another as well.
And so, if you ask me, is there no balm in Gilead, I would say: Yes, there is a
balm, and it is the balm of God’s compassion flowing through us, soothing and healing
our own broken places and the broken places of all whom we touch. Through this balm,
we are transformed, as we become more truly the body of Christ for one another, and find
hope and wholeness in this caring community. I hope that that is at least one of the
reasons why you are here. Amen.
Benediction:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another an forgive each other, just as
God has forgiven you. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything
together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which
indeed you were called in the one body. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him. Go in
peace. Amen. (Colossians 3:12-17 excerpts).
Amen.
1 Marcus Borg, The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003), 122.
Borg argues that ‘compassion’ is a better translation of the word in Luke 6:36 that is more often translated
‘mercy.’ In the context of Luke, the focus is on the generosity of the compassionate heart rather than the
connotations of forgiveness for wrongdoing that accompany the term, ‘mercy.’
2 Jay McDaniel, Living from the Center: Spirituality in an Age of Consumerism (St. Louis: Chalice Press,
2000), 41-42, 51.