Compassion is (new) normal sermon

Intro

Recap of series so far

Letting go is a part of the new normal

To not get hung up on the past and to be ready for the new thing that God might be doing

Blank calendar page

Learning is a Part of the New Normal

build a new practice into your life

have that first piece that you re-introduce to your calendar be Godly

Confessing is a part of the new normal

That when we compare ourselves with the God we know that we fall short

That when we are only as good as the secrets that we hold

we challenged each other to take a spiritual inventory of ourselves. To ask in this day or in that day how honest was I? What confessions can I embrace today?

I have been going through this as well, and it has been no secret that to me that this series much like many things that we do has traced through our method as a church to Worship-Connect- and Respond

When we worship we let go of the ways that we have seen God work in the past and we embrace that God might be doing something in our hearts right now. And we hear a similar version of the scripture from a couple of weeks ago “behold, I am doing a new thing”

When we connect in small groups we commit ourselves to learning and to remember scripture - maybe even going to the lengths of tying it on our fingers and posting it on the doorframes into our homes, or in our context using all of the tools we have at our disposal to remember, to learn, and to be transformed by God’s word

Confessing not just to God but to another person is also a way that we connect with each other and realize not just that we fall short of the glory of God, but also as a way that we recognize the goodness of God in relation to ourselves

We have covered worship and connect so you can guess that this week we begin to start to talk about the ways that we respond to God

This week our scriptures are about how compassion is a part of our (new) normal, and in fact compassion should have always been a part of our normal

Pray for the message and over the scripture

Read through 2nd Corinthians Passage

2 Corinthians 1:3–5 NRSV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ.

God’s Compassion is Abundant

Comfort

In this last passage I read the word comfort or consolidation appears 10 times throughout the span of 5 verses which tells us it is important to it’s writer

This comfort is in relation to being comforted in sorrow and in grief

There is something really unique that happens through comfort really where not only are we able to bring temporary joy in the midst of sorrow, but there is an act of reconstructing really

That God comforts us by meeting us where we are, by experiencing with us the pain of and comforts us to help us to see new hope, and new possibilities, and even a new normal in the midst of our affliction

Comfort that bring courage and helps us to cope with all that life is throwing at us

The last part of this passage is that “our consolation is abundant through Christ”

some translations even say our comfort overflows

This is the nature of God to over flow

As we think about what it means to understand Compassion as a part of our new normal this first point today is that God’s Compassion is abundant

That the compassion that God has for us is more than we could ever need

That we realize the level of compassion and love that God has for you and for me through the life death and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus who had compassion on....

the sick

the castaways

criminals

a lady on death row

tax collectors

Pharisee’s

This is a paradigm shift for us

Last week Pastor Angie talked about how the saints of the church were always talking about how bad they were and how they fell short and it is easy to look at these characters like Mother Theresa, Saint Augustine, Dorothy Day and say “how could you say that you look like the people that have it all together”?

They were of course not looking at other people they were not comparing their sins to other people they were comparing their sins to God and realizing how much they fell short

We are doing the same this week

We are not measuring our compassion by even the most compassionate people that we know, and believe me if you are a part of this church for very long you probably know some compassionate people because there are many compassionate people in our church, but even they are not as compassionate as God’s own being

The first realization that we have to make is that God’s compassion for us is abundant

It is overflowing

It is too much for us to know how to handle

It is too much for us to know how to handle

God through grace gives us an ocean of compassion that we try to fit into the small cup that we have in our hand and it inevitably overflows

Background on the Colossians piece before we transition

Paul is writing to a church that has strayed a little bit in the faith

Building up an image of the body

Christ is the head and everyone else the body

We are sown together as different parts of the body

Now Paul is getting to the point of talking about the clothing the exterior the outside of the body

This is important because although the clothing of the body of Christ might be just the thin part on the outside, it is what the world see’s of the church

Colossians 3:12–14 NRSV

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

The “Clothing” we wear

Not literal, like the brands that we wear

but if we are the body of Christ what are the ways that we react to the world around us

Is the “clothing” that we wear compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience

By those things I mean

Compassion

Holman - “a heart felt sympathy of those that are in need”

Kindness

The action that compassion has

Humility

You may have heard humility summed up as not thinking less or yourself but rather thinking of yourself less

Meekness

Which is described by holman as “power under control” as in if you think about an entire ship being able to be controlled by a single rudder that might be a representation of what meekness looks like

Patience

is the capacity to bear injustice without revenge or retaliation

Those are supposed to be the ways that we react as followers to our world around us

When things aren’t fair we are told to be patient

When we hold power and privilege in someway we are told to practice meekness and to keep that power under control

When we want to make something all about us or our accomplishments we are taught to put on the clothing of humility

When those around us are angry and we might think they are irrational we are told to show compassion and react with kindness

Well Paul, that’s great and all but what happens when that doesn’t work out and we keep messing up and those around us keep messing up at showing these things?

When that doesn’t work and people mess up… forgive

forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive

Not as a command but because you have already been forgiven by God

All of the “clothing” that we are told to wear boil down to compassion

Boil down to to standing in awe of what those around us have to carry

of not just being sympathetic but being empathetic

All of these clothings items are a response to God

We wear masks out in public because we have compassion on those among us that are at risk

When we hold power and privilege based off of our race or gender, or orientation or religious belief or anything else we are told to put on meekness. Remember meekness is not weakness either

When we know that things aren’t fair and haven’t been for a long time we react not with revenge or with retribution, but with patience

When that thing that our family member or co-worker said just isn’t able to leave our mind we forgive

Wearing these type of clothing is what responding to God’s love is all about

Compassion is normal

Compassion

Fr. Gregory Boyle - “Here is what we seek: a compassion that can stand in awe at what the poor have to carry rather than stand in judgment at how they carry it.”

Diedrich Bonhoeffer - “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”

Compassion is normal for God

Compassion has been a normal part of the biblical cannon

Seeking to have our first response not one of “I can’t believe you would do that to?”

I’m curious why you did that

Compassion is the clothing that we put on as a church a way that we respond to God’s call in our life

The reality is it is what the community will see

It is what those around you will notice is different

Just like when you get a new shirt someone might say “nice new clothing”

compassion is the way that the world sees the difference made in our church

So this week’s challenge

Rather than seeking out someone to be merciful with, really focus on all of your language this week being merciful and compassionate. What does your language, what do you actions look like if they all overflow with compassion. We make compassion (and other things) single demonstrations of intent rather than lifestyles.

language can be external the things you say out loud publicly

but language can also be internal the things that you keep secret in your heart

Last week Pastor Mike talked about how we are only as strong as our secrets

That goes not just for the sinful parts of ourselves but also for the compassion that we keep secret

That means that when we say compassionate things but only in our own minds because we think that they sound silly when they come out we are withholding God’s compassion for the world around us

So let us go forth and spread compassion through our words and through are actions this such that compassion might just become normal for us.

Benediction: Just as you have been shown compassion put on the compassion of God so that all might see the clothing that you are wearing is clothing that responds to the abundance of compassion that God has shown us.