politics of compassion

Where is Jesus? Where might you meet him in a new way this Advent season?

Jesus, Marcus Borg tells us, practiced a politics of compassion. (Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, 1994) That is, his actions proclaimed a reign of God based on feeling for, and feeling with, others. It was not isolated, private piety - spirituality without religion - it was a belief system centered in the compassion of God.

Be compassionate just as your Father in heaven is compassionate. (Luke 6:36)

Jesus, seeing a man with an affliction, was moved with compassion. In his own guts he felt the other’s need.

This is in contrast to the prevailing establishment and alternative politics of the day. Sadducees and Temple authorities, Pharisees and Essene communities, operated within a purity system. Your goal, in this life and for the next, was to be pure.

Purer than tax collectors, sinners and the like: women, Samaritans, Roman soldiers, … the ill … the blind …

Compare that attitude to:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.” (Isaiah 61:1, Luke 4:18)

“Where were you when we welcomed you?” (Matthew 25:40)

Jesus breaks the rules - of the purity regime.

He touches, and heals, lepers, the blind, a woman having an issue of blood (Luke 8:43), … even the dead. (Talitha koum.” Mark 5:41)

Jesus in his day practice a politics of compassion over against the purity system. He broke down the walls of us/them. (see Jonathan Sacks, Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence, 2015) He found common ground on the hill - of Golgotha. He welcomed - the stranger (cf. Teresa of Calcutta), he stood up for the oppressed (cf. Janani Luwum), he embraced and succoured the ill (cf. Francis of Assisi), and he led his followers in a great feast, a thanksgiving meal for all comers (that we celebrate weekly as the Eucharist).

When Jesus healed someone, he healed them and he also performed a symbolic, subversive act, overturning the dominant paradigm. So in our day how can we act and move, practically and symbolically, to proclaim the true reign of peace that is already come into being and yet is not forcing its way upon people. How can we establish outposts of compassion in an indifferent world?

After Christmas...

After Christmas…

After Christmas… we put the presents away, recycle the wrappings, and store the boxes in the attic or garage.

After Christmas… the child Jesus grows up.

After Christmas… we try to get our minds around the mystery. Who is this child?

After Christmas… we wonder what will change. What will we do differently? What will we see differently?

After Christmas…

Good King Wenceslas looked out, On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, Deep and crisp and even;

Brightly shone the moon that night, Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight, Gath'ring winter fuel.

“Hither, page, and stand by me; If thou know’st, telling—
Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?”

“Sire, he lives a good league hence, Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence, By Saint Agnes’ fountain.”

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine! Bring me pine logs hither!
Thou and I will see him dine, When we bear him thither."

The saint in the carol sees a way to serve Christ through the poor – and acts on it. He and his page go out into the snow to invite the man to dine.

After Christmas… will we see differently? Will we act differently? Will we walk out into the cold in the footsteps of Wenceslas to seek out the poor? Will we speak out on the causes of poverty? Will we be working to transform the world into the image of Christ’s kingdom – a kingdom of peace and not of poverty, of abundance and not of scarcity; a kingdom turned not inward in self-preservation but outward in charity?

Page and monarch forth they went, Forth they went together,
Through the rude wind's wild lament, And the bitter weather.

“Sire, the night is darker now, And the wind blows stronger;
Fails my heart, I know not how, I can go no longer.”

"Mark my footsteps, good my page, Tread thou in them boldly;
Thou shalt find the winter's rage, Freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master’s steps he trod, Where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod Which the saint had printed.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure, Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor Shall yourselves find blessing.

--J. M. Neale (1818-1866), The New Oxford Book of Carols, Hugh Keyte & Andrew Parrott, eds., (Oxford, 1992) #97.

A Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of all people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.

May God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world; so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.

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The English word GOSPEL (Anglo-Saxon, godspell, ‘God-story’) is used to translate the Greek euangelion, ‘good tidings’.* As Christ’s hands and voice in the world we strive to proclaim the good tidings of Jesus in our words and embody his gospel in our deeds.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18)

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*Alan Richardson, A Theological Word Book of the Bible (Macmillan, 1950) p. 100.

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