The Path of Discipleship - Compassion and Justice

Compassion is actively putting ourselves in another person’s place.  It is listening to personal stories with full attention and awareness.  It is allowing ourselves to be touched by the emotions, the joy and pain, of someone else, accompanying that person on his/her journey.

                Yet accompanying someone can mean walking into unknown and troubling spaces.  It is one thing to express compassion when someone experiences a personal tragedy.  It is another thing to live compassionately when that person is suffering because of who she/he is and how society treats a person like her/him.  This is where compassion can lead to advocacy and seeking justice.

                Sometimes it is not enough to provide comfort and emotional care.  Sometimes we are called to expose and confront the systems of society that cause suffering in the first place.  This idea is not always comfortable for mainline Christians who want their experience of church to be happy and nice.  Why should Christians “cause trouble” and protest?   Why should Christians march for equality, social justice or environmental causes?

                First, at least in my tradition, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we have to acknowledge that we have benefited from white privilege.  Many of our congregations established in the suburbs in the 1960s took advantage of white flight from the cities in that era, unable to handle changing demographics.  We have become one of the least diverse religious bodies in the United States.  While we may pass statements on racial justice and celebrate diversity, the lived experience of much of the church is very white.  This should lead us to self-examination and self-reflection about our own failure to connect more deeply with people who are not of the traditional German or Scandinavian Lutheran heritage in a changing population.

                As we begin to examine the log in our own eye, we may begin to have a better understanding about the forces that keep us separate and divide us.  We may begin to see that a cry of “Black Lives Matter” is not a call for special treatment but a call for equal treatment.  We may begin to see that, while success in life may be in part a product of good choices, systemic poverty limits the choices of many people.  We may begin to see that paying women less for the same job is simply unfair, creating a unofficial penalty for being female.  We may begin to see that expecting conformity from the rainbow of humanity that makes up the United States is not only a burden, but is simply ridiculous.

                We may begin to see that protest, advocacy and seeking justice can be acts of discipleship.  Writing letters and making phone calls to work to change the system can be acts of discipleship.  Some may read this and think it sounds like a liberal pastor being liberal, but I hope that I am writing in the tradition of Jesus who touched those whom society deemed unclean (Matthew 8:1-4), who brought good news for and identified with the poor (Luke 4:16-21, Matthew  25:35-36), who welcomed those who were different (Matthew 5:46-48), who treated women with respect in a society treated them as less important (John 4:1-42).

                While we may love that Jesus is our friend and our savior, we must not forget that Jesus also provides a prophetic vision where “the last will be first and the first will be last.”  Jesus doesn’t just welcome us into the reign of God at some point in the future; he challenges us to establish the reign of God where we are here and now.  True compassion pushes the church toward justice, freedom and equality for all people.

The Path of Discipleship - Listening with Compassion

One of my favorite book series is the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy  by Douglas Adams.  A character in the series, Ford Prefect, has been living on Earth to write an article for the Hitchhiker’s Guide, an aid for interplanetary travelers.  He develops some interesting ideas about humans along the way as you can read in the following quote from the second book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe:

      “It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very, very obvious, as in "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die."  His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably shriveled up.  After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this--"If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working.”

                The hardest part of listening with compassion is keeping the ears open, the mind calm and the mouth closed.  Often we quickly make a judgement about what someone is saying while they are saying it and then begin to craft a response.  We want to be prepared with an answer to avoid a gap in the conversation, an uncomfortable silence.  In so doing we have stepped away from compassion for the other person, concerned about our own desire to be smart or witty or engaging or to avoid discomfort.

                 Sometimes an answer is not required.  Sometimes a friend will come to you simply needing to talk, to share an experience, to let out a frustration.  Sometimes all that a person needs is your full, ears open, mouth shut, attention.   Respond when they ask or invite you to respond.  Respond primarily to clarify and dig a little deeper.  Compassion allows the other person control over their time and their words. 

                This kind of conversation may seem painfully slow in our world of pundits and talking heads shouting each other down.  Yet where has that kind of communication gotten us?  We end up with weary voices, angry and never quite feeling heard, more concerned about being on the winning side than understanding the person in front of you.  Compassionate listening is not about simply sharing ideas, but sharing one another.  It is a mutual action where I share my full self in both speaking and listening.  I am not trying to judge if my conversation partner is right or wrong, liberal or conservative, winner or loser.  I am trying to encounter this child of God in front of me in lovingkindness.

                This does not mean that I will agree with everything my conversation partner says.  I may be troubled by his or her words.  I may be offended.  Some might counter that silence is implicit approval.  Yet again, this way of communicating is not about constant silence, but patience.  If an idea offends me, can I get to the root of it?  Why is it offensive and where does that come from in me?

                The author of Proverbs wrote “Even fools who keep silent are considered wise; when they close their lips, they are deemed intelligent.”  Compassionate listening involves the ability to be silent, to treat words and ideas with value.  It is the ability to respond to an idea or word rather than reacting with an intellectual counterpunch. 

                In this age when world seems to value people who go with their gut and speak without thinking, God provides a different vision of communication.  We listen; we learn; we respond; all this in compassion and love.     

The Path of Discipleship - The Gift of Compassion

As with generosity, there are some people who are naturally compassionate.  They have a gift for reading the emotional atmosphere of a person or situation.  As Paul writes to the church in Corinth, these are people for whom “if one member suffers, all suffer together with it.”  (1 Corinthians 12:26).  These folks can be the heart and soul of a community, pushing all of us to pay attention, to expand our vision to include those who are on the periphery of our lives.

                Yet just has generosity is a value that can be learned, so also can compassion.  Most religious traditions give high value to compassion, that ability to notice and accompany others, that ability to pull your head from the sand of modern life and see what is happening around you.   Most religious traditions also have techniques and advice in how to grow in compassion.

                For Christianity, much of the focus has been around service to those in need.  The Lutheran tradition has a long history of organizing to help people locally and around the world.  Check out the work of the Lutheran World Hunger Appeal, Lutheran Disaster Relief or, in New England, Ascentria Care Alliance (formerly Lutheran Social Services).   This is not to mention the work of local congregations in feeding, sheltering and advocating for people in need around them.

                Such service is the product of compassion.  However, sometimes we are tempted to skip the compassion and move straight to the service.  We know the sorts of thing that the church ought to be doing.  We develop a social outreach committee and turn it into a program of doing good deeds.  However, there is a marked difference between working out of a space of obligation or expectation, doing things because we should do them, and working from a place of compassion, doing things because we can’t help but do them.    

                I would argue that the church’s job is shifting.  At one point in history, religious organizations were the primary means of social services in many communities.  The church had the food bank.  The church had an emergency fund.  Today, many of these functions are done more effectively by social service agencies and organizations, some religious and some not.  Perhaps the church’s job is not so much to provide these services but to cultivate compassionate people who might be moved to aid and volunteer for such agencies and organizations.  Is our goal to develop a Christ Lutheran Church food bank or is it to develop compassionate people who will support and volunteer at our local service center, a group that has already done the groundwork and organization to feed other people?

                One tool for developing compassion is along the lines of the daily examen meditation in the tradition of Saint Ignatius.  At the end of the day you take a few of minutes in stillness to replay the events of that day.  As you go through them, consider those moments that were opportunities for compassion.  What happened?  How did it feel?  How do you think the other person was feeling?  The purpose of this exercise is not to label these moments as good or bad, but to consider how they were handled and how they might be handled differently.  The hope is that through reflecting each day through the eyes of compassion, we might prepare ourselves to be more compassionate in days to come.

                Another important means for growing in compassion that is common among many contemplative Christians is meditation on the passion and the cross.  In our culture we often want to skip the pain of the cross and embrace the joy of resurrection.  Yet there is great power in considering what Jesus experienced as he suffered not only pain but also betrayal, abandonment and mockery.   Through the story, Jesus offers himself as an icon for compassionate thought. 

                Most importantly, through the story of Jesus, we are set free to be compassionate.  We are set free to step away from self-centeredness and into compassion for others.  We are also set free to be less than perfect, knowing that through Christ’s compassion our incomplete compassion does not disqualify us from the love of God.  Compassion is a gift that can change the world and a virtue in which Christians are called to grow.

The Path of Discipleship - The Meaning of Compassion

This article begins a new section, reflecting on another  virtue of discipleship, compassion.  There are several ideas in the Bible that might funnel into this virtue of compassion.  In Psalm 86, God is described as “gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and full of kindness and truth.” Before the feeding of the multitudes in Matthew, Jesus is described as having compassion for the people.  Although he intended to withdraw to be alone for a while, his compassion for the crowds that followed him into the wilderness moved him to heal the people and feed them. (Matthew 14:13-21)  The author of Ephesians instructs the church saying, “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”(Ephesians 4:31-32)  The church of Christ is supposed to be a model of the compassion of Christ.

            The word compassion comes from a Latin word that means to suffer with or experience with.  It means allowing yourself to consider the feelings of someone else, to pay attention to another person’s experience and embrace the feelings that experience might invoke.  It is not feeling sorry for someone, but feeling sorrow, joy, anger and excitement with someone.  I cannot know exactly how someone feels, but I can imagine how I would feel if I were living their story and in that way I am drawn to become part of the story with them.

            Compassion is what moves people to feed the hungry, because they can identify with hunger.  I know what it’s like to miss a meal and can imagine how that might feel extended out over time.  Compassion is what moves people to respond to natural disasters.  The rational part of us might question those who build their homes in flood zones, yet the compassionate part of us can imagine what it means to lose everything and watch your home washed away.  True compassion has few boundaries: no religion, no race and no official language.  It draws us into shared human experience as we allow ourselves to feel the joys and struggles of someone else.

            In recent years for the church, a large part of living compassionately has been listening to the stories of “other” people, people outside our normal parameters.  We have listened to the stories from the LGBTQ community, stories that the church dismissed (and in some cases, still dismisses) as a collection immoral choices.  We heard stories of people who grew up feeling different, who were rejected for being who they are, who were excluded from family and faith community for being honest with themselves.  And compassion for those stories has led the church to question its past, to question its scriptural interpretations, to challenge itself about the limits of acceptance.  In some cases, compassion has led the church to take a stand, risking division for the sake of compassionate justice.

            In the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, we have been struggling to hear the stories of racial minorities in our church body.  According to a 2014 survey by the Pew Foundation, the ELCA is one of the least diverse religious bodies in the United States (96% white).  Because of this, we have been guilty of ignoring other voices, assuming a church shaped by European culture should be the cultural norm for Lutheranism.  A challenging reflection on this can be found in the documentary, Do Black Churches Matter to the ELCA which you can link to here: Do Black Churches Matter to the ELCA

            Compassion starts with mindful listening, paying attention to the neighbor, the stranger, the “other.”  This is not a time to give advice (unless it is asked for).  It is not a time to think of a clever response.  It is a time simply to listen and learn in love.  This may move us to prayerful action.  It may move us to bold advocacy.  It may move us in directions that are not always comfortable.  Compassion moved Jesus to feed the crowds but also led him to his death on the cross.

            Compassion is of the essence of who God has revealed God’s self to be.  It is the essence of the story of Jesus.  It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that dwells among us.  May compassion become who we are, because compassion is what we have been made to be by a compassionate God.