Compassion Feels
Rev. Kathryn Ransdell
5th Sunday of Lent 2012
31The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
20Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.28Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
There is an employment trap for new college grads: you've worked heard, incurred the debt, and now you want the job in the career you envisioned for yourself. And then ad says, "experience required."
You have no experience, so you can't get the job that would give you the experience.
The best advice? Do internships if possible in college, or after-college, find ways to volunteer in the realm of the experience you need as a way to gain an aspect of that experience, and then, network, network, network.
What made me think of this bind college grads find themselves in after graduation?
It was Karen Armstrong's public lecture, "What is Religion" that she delivered Thursday night to the 600-some Vancouverites who had participated in a book study of "The Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. I'm quite proud that a little more than a 1/6th of those Vancouverites are people who call this church their spiritual home.
I wasn't able to see the lecture in-person, but with the use of technology as a tool for expanding the reach of the message, I was able to watch the lecture live, via webcast. Consider how technology is seen as a tool rather than the battle line between traditionalists and non-traditionalists. But that's another message for another day.
Armstrong explained how in the history of religion, experience came before belief, until about the last 200-300 years. Somehow it flipped, and belief came before experience experience.
People had experience of a loving God and it was this deep experience that so moved them to believe. There was not this issue of having to reconcile intellectualism so that you could believe.
But then something changed. And people learned that they had to believe in God, the mystery of the trinity, and the divine nature of Jesus, and then, once you believed that, experience would come.
Armstrong said this approach is simply not correct or in-line with what religion has been all about.
Hearing her speak made me remember the early days after I committed my life to Christ. That's right...I will use that evangelical language because for me, that was what it was about. I made a 100% commitment that I would live my life for God, no matter what that meant.
One of my favorite songs had become Michael W. Smith's "Place in this world."
Lookin for a reason
Roamin through the night to find
My place in this world
My place in this world
Not a lot to lean on
I need your light to help me find
My place in this world
My place in this world
And something inside me knew that my place in this world had something to do with being located within God. So I committed my life to Christ in 10th grade.
The religion that met me in this commitment, translated the commitment to a set of doctrine, so that for me to commit my life to Christ, it meant I believed this set of beliefs.
And that was it. Belief was an act of signing on the dotted line. I am a Christian because I believe....
But there was always this voice in the back of my mind, or heart, that would question whether something would now be different about me, and, why is the totality of belief located in intellectual understanding. It was almost a bit unsettling that my belief was tied to my ability of my mind to think in a specific way.
Looking back, I can see that nowhere in the process was there space to speak about the experience of being a Christian and how experience would bring about belief which would then bring about experience.
The prophet Jeremiah, aka the doom-and-gloom prophet, was not a well-received man. God’s personal message to Jeremiah, “Attack you they will, overcome you they can’t," was fulfilled many times in the Biblical narrative, Jeremiah was attacked by his own brothers, beaten and put into the stocks by a priest and false prophet, imprisoned by the king, threatened with death,]thrown into a cistern by Judah’s officials, and opposed by a false prophet.
Jeremiah's job was to tell the people what their sin was and tell them why the impending destruction would happen.
After describing the destruction, Jeremiah gives a glimpse of hope for the future:
33But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.
God will inscribe on their hearts the law. No longer will they teach one another, or say to one another, "Know the Lord..." for they shall all know me.
The Hebrew word and meaning for heart and know are what we think they would be...the heart representing the center of life and "know" having a range of references but all ultimately pointing towards the mind.
You probably "know" the Hebrew word for "know" without even "knowing" you know. If I were to ask you what episode from Seinfeld not only was nominated for an Emmy but introduced a popular cliche into society, would you know the answer?
Yada, yada, yada... that is the Hebrew word for know.
No longer shall they say to each other, "Yada, yada, yada...the Lord." Don't get me wrong. The yada, yada, yada is incredibly important and one of the main focus points of why I approach the Bible and doctrine through historical theology.
Yada, yada, yada. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. Thank you very much.
No longer is it about yada, yada, yada, this thing with God is inscribed on the heart--it's here--and my friends, this is an experience.
But to be willing to release the mind from being in control and instead, simply being in experience...the fear of experience can be as strong as the desire for experience, and my hunch is that when belief came first and experience second, what happened is that fear of experience defeated the desire for experience.
Karen Armstrong strongly suggested that all religions must turn back to this place of experience prior to belief.
I was taught something similar, in that Christianity is only known through the habits and practices made manifest by the one who professes to be Christian.
Cultivating Christianity meant cultivating the habits of those who follow Christ and practicing what Christ practiced.
Participating in worship was one habit of being a Christian; but it didn't make you Christian. There is a range of habits that mark someone as Christian, and these aren't habits you master in one-day. No, life becomes the practice field for developing these habits.
In some ways, I like this. It makes more sense to me that what makes me Christian is the habits in my life rather than my intellectual capacity to believe doctrine.
And in some ways, this scares the h-e-double hockey sticks out of me.
Look at the habits of my life for the signs of Christianity?
Look at the habits of my life for the outward and visible signs of an inward and invisible grace?
I feel as vulnerable as someone who just graduated from college and wants the job but has no experience.
I want to be Christian but how do you gain experience?
Our 5-week sermon series during Lent wraps up today with this idea that Compassion Feels.
The definition of compassion is: wanting others to be free from suffering.
To really want others to be free from suffering, we must practice with every day daily habits.
I like this Buddhist prayer:
"May I become food and drink in the aeons of famine for those poverty-stricken suffers.
May I be a doctor, medicine and nurse for all sick beings in the world until everyone is cured.
May I become never-ending wish-fulfilling treasures materialising in front of each of them as all the enjoyments they need.
May I be a guide for those who do not have a guide, a leader for those who journey, a boat for those who want to cross over, and all sorts of ships, bridges, beautiful parks for those who desire them, and light for those who need light.
And may I become beds for those who need a rest, and a servant to all who need servants.
May I also become the basic conditions for all sentient beings, such as earth or even the sky, which is indestructible.
May I always be the living conditions for all sentient beings until all sentient beings are enlightened."
May I be a doctor, medicine and nurse for all sick beings in the world until everyone is cured.
May I become never-ending wish-fulfilling treasures materialising in front of each of them as all the enjoyments they need.
May I be a guide for those who do not have a guide, a leader for those who journey, a boat for those who want to cross over, and all sorts of ships, bridges, beautiful parks for those who desire them, and light for those who need light.
And may I become beds for those who need a rest, and a servant to all who need servants.
May I also become the basic conditions for all sentient beings, such as earth or even the sky, which is indestructible.
May I always be the living conditions for all sentient beings until all sentient beings are enlightened."
It might also be helpful to think of works of piety and works of mercy that we can be doing every day:
Works of Piety, such as:
Individual Practices--Prayer, Fasting, Searching the Scriptures, Healthy Living
Communal Practices--Holy Communion, Baptism, Christian Conferencing (or "community")
Works of Mercy, such as:
Service focused toward individual needs--Doing Good (Good works); Visiting the Sick; Visiting the Imprisoned; Feeding & Clothing those in need; Earning, Saving, & Giving all one can
Service focused toward communal/societal needs--the Seeking of Justice; Opposition to Slavery.
Experience...and then, may we believe.
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