This story is from his Chatauqua speech in October 2009
Compassion.
What does it look like? Come with me to 915 S. Bloodworth Street in
Raleigh NC where I grew up. If you come in you will see us, evening
time, at table set for 10 but not always all seats filled. At the point
when dinner is ready to be served, since mom had 8 kids, sometimes she
said she couldn’t tell who was who and where they were, before we could
eat she would ask, are all the children in? And if someone happened to
be missing we had would have to, we say “fix a plate” and put it in the
oven, then we could say grace and we could eat.
Also,
while we were at the table, there was a ritual in our family. When
something significant had happened for any one of us, whether mom had
just been elected president of the PTA or whether dad had gotten an
assignment at the college of our denomination or whether someone had won
the jabberwockey contest for talent, the ritual at the family was once
the announcement is made we must take 5, 10 minutes to do what we call
“make over” that person, that is to make a fuss over the one who had
been honored in some way for when one is honored, all are honored.
Also,
we had to make a report on our extended visited members, that is,
extended members of the family, sick and elderly, shut in. My task was
at least once a week to visit Mother Lassiter who lived on East Street,
Mother Williamson who lived on Bledsoe Avenue, Mother Williams who lived
on Oberlin Road
Why?
Because they were old and infirm and we needed to go by to see if they
needed anything, for mom said, to be family is to care and share and to
look out for one another. They are our family. And of course, sometimes
there was a bonus for going. They would offer sweets or money. Mom
said, “If they ask you what it costs to either go shopping for them, you
must always say nothing, and if they insist, say whatever you mind to
give me. This was the nature of being at that table. In fact she
indicated that if we would do that, not only would we have the joy of
receiveingthe gratitude from the members of the extended family, but she
said, even God will smile and when God smiles there is peace and
justice and joy.
So
at the table at 915 I learned something about compassion. Of course,
it was a minister’s family, so you had to add God into it. And so I
came to think that Momma Eternal, Momma Eternal, is always wondering “Are all the children in?” And if we have been faithful in caring and sharing, we had the sense that justice and peace would have a chance in the world.
Rev. Forbes learned at the dinner table what it meant to have compassion. He spent his ministry living out the compassion he learned as a boy around the dinner table.
Chief Seattle said, "We did not spin the web of life. We're all strands in it. And whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves." Now that's compassion.”
What is compassion?
That is how Rev. James Forbes began his talk. What is compassion?
The word is used sometimes interchangeably with PITY. But it is different than pity, is it not?
Pity has the sense of feeling sorry for someone. But compassion isn’t feeling sorry FOR someone. It is feeling WITH someone. Quite literally that is what compassion means.
In our Scripture reading, Paul is repeating what Jesus taught: Love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus is repeating what he learned from his sacred text: Leviticus. Love your neighbor as yourself. That was written probably 1400 years Before Jesus.
In fact, that phrase comes as the answer to a hot-shot lawyer’s question: What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says: What do you read in the law? The Lawyer: Love God, Love Neighbor. Jesus: “That’s right.” Lawyer: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus: Good Samaritan story. conclusion: Which of these three was a neighbor?
It is interesting to me that the way Jesus describes “the neighbor” isn’t to point out who we should help. The neighbor is not the person who receives love, it is the person who shows love.
The one who looked upon a fellow human who was suffering, felt the pain of The Other’s suffering: that one showed compassion.
A year or so ago I read and signed the Charter for Compassion. I read it and signed it because it made sense to me, but I didn’t follow up with it. Was it some quack, internet thing? I didn’t know...but I have perked up when I see it mentioned or when someone refers to it. So I was intrigued when I received an invitation to commemorate 9-11 with a service of compassion. Other faith communities in our area are doing the same thing. The invitation came from the Prairieland Compassion Network, local Springfield citizens who have organized a number of “compassion” events. They have called it “September Days of Compassion.” The Sangamon County Habitat for Humanity youth build will kick off on the 15th. Mahatma Ghandi’s grandson, Rajmohan Ghandi, continues his grandfather’s work toward peace and compassion by speaking at Laurel UMC next Sunday afternoon at 3 pm. At the heart of the Prairieland Compassion Network’s motivation is the Charter for Compassion.
So where does this Charter come from?
[from Wikipedia: Karen Armstrong Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (born 14 November 1944), is a British author and commentator who is the author of twelve books on comparative religion. A former Roman Catholic nun, she went from a conservative to a more liberal and mystical faith. Armstrong first rose to prominence in 1993 with her book, A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
an international best seller that is now required reading in many
theology courses. Her work focuses on commonalities of the major
religions, such as the importance, in many, of compassion or "The Golden Rule".
Armstrong received the $100,000 TED Prize in February 2008. She used that occasion to call for the creation of a Charter for Compassion, which was unveiled the following year.]
(is also in the bulletin as an insert, there is a video of many cultures reading it.
The principle of compassion
lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions,
calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated
ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the
suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre
of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable
sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without
exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
It is also necessary
in both public and private life to refrain consistently and
empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of
spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny
basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even
our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we
have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased
the sum of human misery in the name of religion.
We therefore call upon all men and women
~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to
return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture
that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that
youth are given accurate and respectful information about other
traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive
appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an
informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those
regarded as enemies.
We urgently need
to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized
world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness,
compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious
boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential
to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to
enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a
peaceful global community.
At the beginning of this charter it says this: The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.
Our Scripture passage for today says “Love your neighbor.” That’s difficult. But it isn’t as hard as something else Jesus said; Jesus also said Love your Enemy. And after he said Love your enemy he said this: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Jesus said that. We call it the Golden Rule. It is at the heart of our religious tradition.
Jesus said “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Here’s how a great rabbi, Hillel, a contemporary of Jesus said it:
A pagan came to Hillel and offered to convert to Judaism if the rabbi could recite the whole of Jewish teaching while he stood on one leg. Hillel stood on one leg and said, "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the Torah. The rest is commentary. Go and study it."
Interestingly enough: 500 years before Jesus Confucious said it this way: “Do NOT do to others what you do NOT what done to you.”
In the abstract, we all acknowledge that Compassion is central to what Jesus taught and what we believe. But what do we do with that in reality? How are we supposed to love our enemy?
That is where it gets difficult. How do we train ourselves to do this?
I look to our heroes for how we are to live with compassion.
Of course, Mother Theresa who felt the pain and indignity of dying alone in the gutters of Calcutta and was moved to action. She provided a clean and loving place for the poor of India to die.
Martin Luther King, Jr.: who felt the pain and indignity of living as an African American man and resolved to bring change to his nation: non-violently. Of course the price he paid was his life.
But today: I am looking at heroes closer to home and nearer in time.
I look at the compassion of the first responders on 9/11 and am amazed. I’ve read many, many stories this week of people whose lives were affected by 9/11. The babies who never met their fathers, the brides who never made it down the aisle because their men died in 9/11.
Those men, the firefighters and police and ordinary citizens who walked toward the twin towers when everyone else was running away. One story I heard was about Jay Jonas. He was the captain of a group of firefighters who went up a stairwell to look for people to save. Tell story of Jay Jonas (heard on NPR).
Firefighters are hard-wired to save and to assist. To help the other even at the risk of self. Compassion...to feel with someone else’s fear and pain and to reach in. It isn’t natural. It isn’t natural to move toward danger. It isn’t natural to love our enemies. It isn’t natural to show compassion.
It is natural to be self-centered. It is natural so seek revenge. It is natural to hate enemies.
But firefighters and other first responders routinely do the unnatural. Their training helps them overcome their natural tendencies.
Reading the Bible and going to worship is supposed to help us overcome our natural tendencies toward self, toward selfishness, toward self-obsession. Our baptism is a death of self and the birth of a new creature...a person of compassion. With Sympathy. With Empathy. And we are somewhat successful.
But maybe, if we really want to master putting the Other first, instead of Bible study we should go to firefighter training.
Perhaps then we will have the courage to go into the places, the life conditions, the pain from which other people flee.
