Seventh Sunday after Epiphany-February 23, 2025

Prayer of the Day (from the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi)
O Lord Jesus, make us instruments of your peace, that where there is hatred, we may sow love, where there is injury, pardon, and where there is despair, hope. Grant, O divine master, that we may seek to console, to understand, and to love in your name, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Gospel: Luke 6:27-38
[Jesus said:] 27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

SERMON
What does it mean that God is merciful? Imagine thoughts and feelings so powerful they propel you to act. The rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel interprets much of the Hebrew Bible through the lens of appreciating God as passionate and compassionate. Unpacking the word “compassion” com+passio gives us the idea of suffering with those who suffer. When Jesus calls on us to be merciful, he is inviting us collectively to live compassionately. The next words about compassion come from the writer and teacher Henri Nouwen, known for his gentleness and compassion:

Father Nouwen, we can aspire to be a compassionate people, yet…. ….My hospital training and experience introduced me to the concept of “compassion fatigue” and it also introduced such fatigue to me first hand. One charge nurse whom I knew to be highly caring and competent admitted in the break room one day that she feared she had a “broken give a darn”. I was feeling the same thing, just lacking words to describe the experience.

Weeping with those who weep and suffering with those who suffer is not the way of our world…it certainly wasn’t the way of the Roman empire which valued raw power and unrelenting conquering. These days we’re learning unconditional positivity is toxic. It shames those who struggle when society insists “it’s all good and designed to be…always upward, always bigger and better. Some of us sense all of that is unravelling with appalling speed.

Maybe some self compassion is in order for each of us. It matters that Jesus is speaking to a whole community when he casts a vision for contrasting society of people who live as merciful and compassionate. It also matters that Jesus is steeped in traditions that know how to lament and grieve. Our bishop has specialized training in working with those who grieve. There’s fire in her eyes when she says ours is a death-denying grief illiterate culture. It matters that Jesus weeps. It also matters that Jesus lived as creatures were designed to live; times of activity alternating with times of rest. Jesus would speak about taking cues from nature where plants and animals don’t appear to think the world’s fate rests upon incessant worry or activity.

We can take cues from the traditions Jesus learned and revered as we seek to be people of compassion. These traditions are gifts community—we’re together, not alone. In community that might mean spelling each other once in a while just as geese do when flying in formation and taking turns flying in front where the drag and wind resistance is greatest…and taking a turn toward the rear of the flock, being drafted along by the other birds in flight.

Besides the gift of community, we have the gift of lamenting. As my mentor Anna reminded me, Augustine’s words about hope having two daughters—grief at how things are and courage to live into the merciful and just way of life Jesus maps out.

We also have the gift of being part of nature, not above it. We are creatures who need rest and renewal on occasion that we might delight in friendship with nature, with God and with other human beings—that friendship is how the late Daniel Erlander defines Sabbath.

Jesus later warns the disciples that his path of compassion would be arduously difficult. He adds, not as an afterthought, those even as we fear losing our grip on life, we would find life. For those of us who feel numb, overwhelmed or helpless, we might remind each other that God gives us gifts of community, lament and creatureliness. For those of us who feel like our give a darn is broken or at least sprained will discover that the little bits of compassion we offer are tiny echo of the overflowing compassion God plops right into our laps.