Compassion

Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31

 You may know, in fact, that after leaving a Roman Catholic convent at 24 and “dropping out” of religion, Armstrong found her way back to a renewed faith after encountering Judaism, Christianity, and Islam while in Jerusalem as a film producer, which stimulated an interest that led to her authoring over 20 books on world religions.  That makes her, I suppose, something of an ecumenical expert on various expression of faith and on faith communities.Armstrong is a bit of an expert on the Christian faiths and other faiths.  In a recent talk to a very secular audience, she distilled her learning about world religions to a common word:  compassion. She said:  “in every single one of the major world faiths, compassion – the ability to feel with the other – is not only the test of true religiosity, it [is] also what will bring us into the presence of what Jews, Christians, and Muslims call ‘God’ or ‘the Divine.’  … Because in compassion, when we feel with the other, we dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and we put another person there.  And once we get rid of the ego, then we’re ready to see the Divine.”  (Armstrong, “TED prize wish:  The Charter for Compassion,” Ted Talks, February, 2000, at ted.com.)

 When I told a friend that Armstrong sees compassion as the heart of the world’s great religions, expressed in similar versions of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you,” the response was, “No way.  They fight with each other too much.”  And, indeed, Armstrong herself made the point in her talk that precisely because religion can lose its compassionate focus; it is up to the faithful to BE the faithful by staying on the way of compassion. As she sees it, “religion is about behaving differently.  … Religious doctrines are meant to be a summons to action; you only understand them when you put them into practice.” (Ibid.) Compassion is at the core, Armstrong argues, but it is a compassion that is lived, not merely approved of as intellectually a great virtue.

 In today’s lesson from the gospel of Mark, we hear a familiar story, in which a man runs up to Jesus and asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10: 17)  Hear that again, just the first part:  “What must I do….”  It’s not a question of theology, of a creed, of good doctrine, except as those inform his actions.  He asks, “What must I do….”

 Jesus answers by quotes from the Ten Commandments, which, now that I think of it, are about our actions toward God and toward our neighbors.  Here, though, Jesus specifically quotes those of the ten great commandments that have to do with actions that impact our neighbors:  “Do not kill.  Do not commit adultery.  Do not steal.  Do not lie.  Do not defraud.  Honor your parents.”  Jesus the teacher, the rabbi, goes to the heart of Judaism – “do these core things,” he says in effect.  “What should you do?  Do this:  love your neighbor.”

 But the questioner wants more than a lesson from the torah.  He’s all about doing no harm.  “Anything else?” he asks.  Jesus says, in effect, that he should give away his safety net, his home, and his 401(k) retirement plan, and follow Jesus on a journey that we know leads to a cross.  If Armstrong is correct, Jesus is saying, in effect, “What to do?  Do this:  have compassion.  Share your great wealth with those in great poverty.  Feed the hungry. Have by trusting God’s compassion more than your own possessions.”

 Remember Karen Armstrong’s definition of religion, true religion? She said, “Religion is about behaving differently.  … Religious doctrines are meant to be a summons to action; you only understand them when you put them into practice.”  (Ibid.)  Put your faith to the test.  Throw yourself into life.  Give yourself, your best self, all you have and all you are, to your neighbors in need.  True faith is as simple and as challenging as that.  What are we to do, as followers of Christ?  All we have to do is behave differently, that is, compassionately. 

 When we baptize Lauren Raquel Picket today, it seems such an innocent, lovely thing.  And it is. But notice that you and I are asked to promise, in effect, to behave differently from the normal behavior of the world.  We’ll promise to “proclaim the good news of our faith, and [to] live according to the example of Christ.”  We promise to proclaim.  That’s easy.  That’s telling her the story of God, and the story of Jesus.  We promise to tell her and others about Abraham and Sarah; about Moses and Miriam; about David and Nathan and Bathsheba and Elijah and Mary and Joseph and Jesus.  Especially about Jesus.

 But we promise to do more than tell her the stories.  We promise to live the story, to live, “according to the example of Christ.”  We’ll love Lauren by telling her the stories, but we’ll love her by introducing her to her neighbors far and near.  We promise to show her how to live, by our examples of living compassionate lives.  We promise to behave differently from the selfish people in our world who worship only possessions or power.  We promise to let our faith in Christ deepen our compassion for our neighbors.  Because we know that Lauren will be learning what it means to have faith in Christ by how we live with each other, we commit ourselves to compassion.  We will struggle to be the best models of living faith, because we are the models that will matter to her and to her friends.  We will remember that believing is unimportant unless and until our believing is lived as compassionate faith. 

 It’s a good question given to Jesus by the young man kneeling at his feet in today’s lesson, “Rabbi,” what must I do…?”  It’s our question, too.  What must we do, to live the faith with integrity, and to teach a living faith to our children?

Karen Armstrong reminds us that the answer is not found in our heads, nor even in our hearts, but in our lives.  What must we do?  Live the faith we profess.  Live with compassion.  And in doing so, we will live, both WITH God and FOR God.

Amen.

Mamaroneck United Methodist, October 11, 2009.