pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

Tag Archives: compassion


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Christ with Us

Reading: Isaiah 63:7-9

Isaiah 63:7 and 8 – “God treated them compassionately and with deep affection… God became their savior.”

On this Christmas day we turn to Isaiah 63. On a day when we open gifts and enjoy time with family, the opening verses to this “prayer of yearning” draw us to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The prayer begins by recounting past gifts from God: “the Lord’s faithful acts… all the Lord did for us.” We too can remember God’s faithful acts in our lives. This remembering causes gratitude to well up in our hearts and souls. It deepens our connection to and faith in God.

In the middle of today’s passage we read, “God treated them compassionately and with deep affection… God became their savior.” When God has brought Israel home from exile in Babylon, this was a physical return to the Promised Land. The compassion and affection of God then worked for a spiritual return. In love, God became their savior. Today we celebrate the day that God became the whole world’s savior, our Savior. Again moved by love, God entered this broken world, taking on flesh. And after setting for us the example of love, our Emmanuel promised the gift of the Spirit, continuing to be God with us, dwelling in our hearts. This gift can be received by all who call on Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The presence of the Holy Spirit is a gift. Because of this gift of presence in our hearts, God saves us from the inside out. When we are drawn to the ways of the world, the Spirit draws us back to the way of Christ. When we doubt or fear or wander, the Spirit draws us back into relationship, reminding us that we are loved, are worthy, are forgiven. As we open gifts today and celebrate time with family, we pause now and thank God for the gift of the Spirit, Christ with us. Thanks be to God.

Prayer: Lord God, thank you for coming to us again and again. Thank you for the compassion and love that led you to set aside heaven to be with your creation. Thank you for teaching us what love lived out every day looked and felt like. Thank you for the sacrifice that allows us to return to your presence again and again. And thank you for the gift of your presence, our constant reminder of your great compassion and unconditional love for each of us. Amen.


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Light Our Fires, Rekindle the Light

Reading: Isaiah 2:1-5

Isaiah 2:3 – “Come, let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain… so that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in God’s paths.”

These words from the prophet Isaiah are words of great hope. In his words we see the world as God intended it to be and as God calls us to make it. This envisioned world is one of peace and abundance. It is a world where all people have a place of belonging in God’s beloved community.

Isaiah’s words, on the one hand, are specific to Judah and Jerusalem. One day the city of God will be lifted up and nations will stream to it. All who are saved will come to be taught God’s ways. This will lead them to turn swords and spears into plows and pruning tools. Walking in God’s ways will bring an end to hunger and want, to war and hate, to division and oppression. All people in this new place will walk in God’s light.

While this is a wonderful and beautiful vision of a day to come, what if these words were our marching orders right now? What if the people of God lifted up God’s ways of love and grace, compassion and generosity? What if we did that so well that many would be drawn to walk in the ways of the Lord? What unjust systems might change and what forms of oppression and violence might come to an end?

When we truly walk as Christ in the world, then we have the power to transform lives and systems. When we are faithful to Jesus in all aspects of our daily living, then our light will shine forth into the darkness of the world. When we practice and fight for peace and justice as the minimum standard for all people, then God’s kingdom will begin to be manifest here on earth.

Prayer: Lord God, sometimes it seems easier to just envision these words of Isaiah becoming a reality somewhere down the line. To believe that we can make this world into what you desire it to be, well, that’s harder to envision. When we doubt and fear, light our fires of faith. When we are anxious or weak, rekindle the light of Christ within us. Use us, O God. Send us out to change our broken and unjust world into a world of love and peace and justice and abundance. Amen.


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Our Response?

Reading: Joel 2:23-27

Joel 2:26 – “You will eat abundantly and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God.”

The book of Joel begins with a lament over the destruction of Israel and the causes of this great devastation. The invading armies are like locust – they strip the land bare and leave suffering in their wake. In response, Joel calls for fasting and repentance, both as means to draw close to God once again. Midway through chapter 2 God promises to respond to the changed hearts of the once again faithful people.

As we turn to verse 23, through Joel, God invites the “children of God” to rejoice and be glad. God promises to send rain upon the land, “a sign of righteousness.” This abundant rainfall will lead to an abundant harvest. The grain, grapes, and olives will fill threshing floors and storage vats. In stark contrast to the years of suffering and hunger, God says, “You will eat abundantly and be satisfied, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God.” The peoples’ shame will be no more and they will know “that I am the Lord your God.” God’s love and provision will be clearly evident.

For those who haven’t faced hunger as a way of life, think of recent images in Gaza, in slums outside major urban areas, in poverty-stricken third world nations. Many in our world and even in our nation lack food security. Recent policy changes will likely put more people into this situation. In these places of suffering and hunger, as it was for the people of Joel’s day, shame is often present. Living today in a land of great abundance, we must ask ourselves why hunger is such an overwhelming issue for so many people. It should not be so. As the people of God, what is our response to this injustice?

Prayer: Lord God, open our eyes and hearts to the food needs around us. Whether it is people living in “food deserts” or people wrestling with the decision to buy gas to get to work or to buy food to put on the table, raise up your people to respond. Move us out into the world, filled with compassion, bringing our abundance along with us. Lead us to care well for those created in your image, so that they too might “praise the name of the Lord.” Amen.


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Seeking Justice

Reading: Luke 18:1-8

Luke 18:7 – “Won’t God provide justice to his chosen people when they cry out day and night? Will he be slow to help them?”

In our world today one would not have to exert much time or energy to find someone to substitute into the place of the widow in this parable. The brokenness and selfishness and greed of our world makes it too easy to find someone abusing the power that they hold over another, to find someone taking advantage of another for personal gain, to find someone with lots of resources walking above the laws that govern our lives. These are but a few of the many situations that cause people to cry out for justice.

The people who create and perpetuate the injustices of our world tend to be like the judge in our parable – people who are self-centered and only care about personal gain. Justice can be had – at a price or if you walk in their social or economic circles. Doing the right thing instead? Yes, that can come at times when a voice raised will not be quieted or silenced. Or when the people rally together to raise the injustice into the public’s consciousness.

As people of faith, we have a role to play in making our world and our societies just and compassionate places. This is so because our God is a compassionate God of justice. God’s goodness and mercy are bent towards justice, especially for people like the widow – the marginalized and the powerless. As the chosen people, may we cry out to God day and night, seeking a more just world. Doing so, we better align our heart and our actions with the heart and will and way of God.

Prayer: Lord God, use us, your people, to bring about a better, more loving world. Grant us the courage to see and to act when the Spirit moves our hearts towards your heart. Give us the words to speak and the steps to take to end injustices in our world. Make us justice-seekers. Amen.


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Wait For It

Reading: Lamentations 3:19-26

Lamentations 3:22 – “Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through!”

Photo credit: Nathan Dumlao

Moving ahead two chapters in Lamentations, the voice we now hear is that of the writer. In the opening verses of chapter 3 he or she recalls how the fall of the city and the temple has personally impacted him or her. This is summarized in verse 19 where the author recalls suffering and homelessness as “bitterness and poison.” On the theological level these events and their outcomes are incomprehensible to the people of God. What has happened feels totally beyond God’s will and character. This disorientation is forcing new understandings of God and faith as God’s plan for Israel is being worked out in real time.

There have been times in my life and likely in your life when the difficult time itself has ended. As the dust settles, so to speak, we can take a breath and look around. Hopefully, like the author, we wait. We wait to see what’s next. In Lamentations 3 the waiting begins with this thought: “Certainly the faithful love of the Lord hasn’t ended; certainly God’s compassion isn’t through!” Hope begins to rise up. The writer then remembers that God’s love and compassion are “renewed every morning” because of God’s faithfulness. Trust starts to rebuild as the author declares, “The Lord is my portion.” Hope and trust are present as the writer proclaims, “I’ll wait for him.”

In verse 25 we’re reminded that God is indeed good to those who “hope in him… who seek him.” To wait upon the Lord, to trust and hope in God’s plan for us – sometimes this is all we can do. Often it is what we should do. And this is good. The writer will wait in silence. This too is good. We can hear God better. Yes, the Lord’s deliverance is coming. May we wait for it.

Prayer: Lord God, after the immediacy of the trial or loss or suffering it can be tempting to do or say something. To do so feels like relief, like a return to life. But we’re often still scattered or we’re just groping for something we really can’t identify. In these moments, still our spirits. Calm our tendency to “do.” Guide us to wait upon you, to seek your voice and direction, to trust and hope in your great faithfulness. Amen.


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Learn Their Names

Reading: Luke 16:19-26

Luke 16:23 – “While being tormented in the place of the dead, he looked up and saw Abraham at a distance with Lazarus at his side.”

Photo credit: Clay Banks

Reflecting on this passage, John Wesley wrote, “It is no more sinful to be rich than to be poor. But it is dangerous beyond expression.” Wesley lived in England during the start of the industrial revolution. The focus of his ministry was upon the poor – the uneducated, the poorly housed, the miners and factory workers, and others who were being exploited and oppressed by the wealthy. The poverty level was high in the places that Wesley preached, started schools and orphanages, and offered basic but free medical care.

Today’s parable features Lazarus, a poor, sick beggar who is overlooked each day by a rich man. The rich man has more than enough to care for Lazarus but he chooses to not even acknowledge Lazarus’ existence. Perhaps to know him would lead one to care about and for him. As it happens, both die. Lazarus goes to heaven and the rich man goes to hell. In verse 23 we read, “While being tormented in the place of the dead, he looked up and saw Abraham at a distance with Lazarus at his side.” By Abraham’s side, Lazarus has good things. The rich man is tormented in hell. It is only then that the rich man sees and acknowledges Lazarus – but only because he wants something from him. Alas, says Abraham, fates are now fixed. Judgment has come. There is no going from heaven to hell or vice versa.

Poverty continues to be a reality for many people today. Most of us as individuals and certainly we as a nation have more than enough to care well for the Lazarus’ of our day. God’s will and way called for the rich man to care for Lazarus just as God calls out to us today. To be the hands and feet of Jesus requires that we engage those living in poverty, with illness, and in need. This begins with knowing their names. May we learn their names.

Prayer: Lord God, when our relationships with the least of these gets personal, it gets so much more real. So guide us, O Lord, to invest in the lives of those with needs that we can meet. Open our hearts to compassion and love and care. Use us to minister in your name. Amen.


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Take Hold of True Life

Reading: 1st Timothy 6:17-19

1st Timothy 6:17-18 – “Tell people who are rich… to do good, to be rich in the good things they do, to be generous, and to share with others.”

Photo credit: Shane

Continuing in 1st Timothy 6 today, Paul instructs Timothy on how to minister to those Christians who do have wealth, power, status… There were and are people that God has blessed with gifts and talents and legacies that has and have allowed them to be rich in the things of this world. Paul first addresses the dangers of this place in life. One can easily become prideful and arrogant. This often leads to isolating oneself from those who are seen as “less than.” From this place of heart and mind one can place their hope in their worldly riches instead of in God. Some falsely think, “Who needs God when I have all of this?”

Paul’s instruction to Timothy is this: “Tell people who are rich… to do good, to be rich in the good things they do, to be generous, and to share with others.” To do good and to be rich in good works is to engage the world around you. This counters the choices to isolate and to look down on those without wealth, power, status… To do good for others draws us into relationship and here we find our commonality, which leads to unity. To be generous and to share what we have lifts up those without and it grows one’s compassion and empathy, deepening one’s desire to practice generosity. To do good and to be generous draws us closer to God and to one another.

In verse 19 Paul states that these actions lay a “good foundation for the future.” This foundation is an ever-growing compassion and love for neighbor and a continual growth in one’s relationship with God. Living out our faith in these ways allows us to “take hold of what is truly life.” This is loving God and neighbor with all that we have and are. May it be so for you and for me.

Prayer: Lord God, lead us to be people of love and compassion. Guide us to people and places that need to experience these things. Open our hearts and hands to serve you through serving those in need. In these ways, use us to draw others closer to you. Amen.


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A God That Is Known

Reading: Psalm 91:14-16

Psalm 91:14 – “Because you are devoted to me, I’ll rescue you. I’ll protect you because you know my name.”

Photo credit: Eugene Zhyvchik

As we close out Psalm 91 we read some pretty awesome promises from God. These words are words of rescue, protection, presence, and salvation. In verse 14 God says, “Because you are devoted to me, I’ll rescue you. I’ll protect you because you know my name.” For the people walking with God, for those who are devoted to following God’s instructions, for those who strive to daily live out God’s will and way – God will rescue and protect them. If we live daily within these descriptions, we will be rescued and protected. This absolute feeling guarantee is set partly in Israel’s understanding of themselves as God’s “chosen” people and partly in the reality that for one to be aware of God’s rescuing and protecting, one must know and believe in God’s power and presence.

Our God is a loving and compassionate God. Our God knit every person together in the womb. We are therefore all God’s beloved children. God will rescue and protect those who do not know God at times. These moments are chalked up as karma or good luck or to personal efforts. These folks would not cry out to God as the psalmist speaks of in verse 15. The “cry out to me” in this verse is a knowing cry. It is a cry or a plea to a close friend for help, rescue… To make this kind of a cry – one that is heard and responded to – one must know God.

The crying out to and being answered by the God that is known results in bringing glory to God. The rescue, protection… is credited to God through praise, thanksgiving, witness, and worship. These experiences lead to a long walk with God, to walking with God into “old age,” as the psalmist puts it. And, ultimately, a long and faithful walk with God leads us to experience our salvation – the eternal saving and redemption of our souls. For our God who is known, who is present, who walks daily with us, we say thanks be to God!

Prayer: Lord God, you move and act, guide and direct, rescue and protect, redeem and restore all the time – even when we and others are unaware of it. But as your sons and daughters, make us ever aware of your acts of love and compassion in our lives. Lead us to praise your holy name as our response. It is so good to walk daily with you. For your constant love and care, we say “Thank you!” Amen.


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Glory Revealed

Reading: Psalm 79:6-9

Psalm 79:8 – “Don’t remember the iniquities of past generations; let your compassion hurry to meet us because we’ve been brought so low.”

Photo credit: Tobias Rademacher

As we continue in Psalm 79 today the psalmist asks God to redirect the anger of God that burns like fire. The plea is made to “pour out” that fire on the pagan nations – those that have “devoured” God’s people and have ransacked the land. Then there is a shift. In verse 8 the psalmist prays, “Don’t remember the iniquities of past generations; let your compassion hurry to meet us because we’ve been brought so low.” The psalmist is part of a very, very small segment of the Israelites that remained true to God. It was other’s sins that brought God’s wrath on Israel, in the form of Babylonian conquest.

At this lowest point, living fully in the tragedy, the psalmist still chooses faithfulness and hope in God. To choose otherwise will fracture or possibly remove all faith. There are times when we are negatively affected by past or by systemic or by societal sin. The division in our nation is a good example. Choosing to dwell in and to fuel the fires of “us” versus “them” at every opportunity is living and acting in ways counter to the loving and unifying way of Christ. In this current climate we can choose prayer and God’s presence or we can allow the tide to sweep us along down that evil path.

In verse 9 the psalmist cries out for God’s salvation, deliverance, and forgiveness. These are all found in relationship with God. These are gifts of God that we can receive no matter what is happening in the world around us. While pain and suffering and hardship may come, in prayer we can experience God’s compassion, love, mercy, grace… These gifts of God empower us to remain faithful and to live righteous lives in the midst of this broken world. This is how the glory of God will be revealed. May it be so for you and for me.

Prayer: Lord God, when the brokenness of this world feels overwhelming, when the tide feels like it will surely pull us under, help us to feel your hand reaching out. Gently guide us to step into your presence, prayerfully deepening our relationship with you. In that place, pour out your hope and strength upon us, empowering us to be light and love in the darkness of our world. Amen.


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Have Mercy, O God

Reading: Psalm 51:1-6

Psalm 51:5 and 6 – “Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin… And, yes, you want truth in the most hidden place.”

Photo credit: Ben White

Psalm 51 was written by David, after his deepest sins and the conviction that followed. We all have these moments – low points in our walks of faith, seasons spent living in the ways of the world, times when our faith feel dry or disconnected from God. In the aftermath of his affair with Bathsheba and the orchestrated murder of her husband, David pleads for God’s mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. He knows that “my sin is always right in front of me.” Perhaps he is speaking of the guilt and shame that rises up every time he sees Bathsheba, remembering his past sins, or maybe David speaks figuratively, acknowledging that sin is always right there at the door of our hearts.

In verses 5 and 6, David writes of this reality. Here we read, “Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin… And, yes, you want truth in the most hidden place.” This is the battle that we all fight. In general, we are fallen, sinful creatures from birth to death. Day to day we strive to live righteous, faithful lives. On the surface, we do have some good days. But those thoughts – those barbs and slings and such that never get spoken – these are the sins in the “most secret place,” in our hearts. This is where the fiercest battle is fought, where our sins run the deepest. Here we do as David did, we sin “against you – you alone.” From this place in our hearts, we join David as we cy out, “Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love!” Yes, God, please.

Prayer: Lord God, we ask for your guidance and presence, for your strength and direction in our battles with sin. Moment by moment, walk with us, encourage us, empower us. Second by second, allow your Holy Spirit to speak into our hearts, that most hidden place. And when we fail, O God, pour out your love and mercy. Wash us clean. Restore us to right relationship with you and with one another. Thank you. Amen.