I got this image off of a UMC
website because it reminds us that when we work with, do ministry or help out
the poor, those in need, both near and far, we are doing ministry with, not
ministry for!
It is an important distinction because
if we are doing something FOR another person, we can, and often do it without
connecting WITH them as persons. From Holy Scripture, we are
called to be compassionate, because God is compassionate.
Compassion
When Jesus meets the widow at
Nain (Gospel of Luke 7), Jesus is moved with compassion - he opens his heart to
feel her sorrow and connect with it. The
word compassion literally means "to
suffer with." Compassion not
only changes the person we feel for but changes us as well. We are called by Jesus to recognize and reach
out to those whom the world consciously and unconsciously dismiss as
unimportant and marginal, the others, and welcome them into our midst as God's
own.
As Meister Eckhart famously preached
that "whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion." In the Hebrew Scriptures, such
compassion is linked to a Hebrew word, translated as chesed.
Chesed rsj
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the
word chesed (or hesed) means loving-kindness or love. “A statement by Rabbi Simlai in
the Talmud claims that ‘The Torah begins with chesed and ends with chesed.’
This may be understood to mean that ‘the entire Torah is characterized by
chesed,’ i.e. it sets forth a vision of the ideal life whose goals are behavior
characterized by mercy and compassion.”
It is God who from the beginning
gave us love, gave us chesed, who asks of us in our actions to give such chesed,
to live such compassion & loving kindness with others, especially with
those in need.
As we approach Thanksgiving, let
us give thanks to God for all that God has given to us, and play our part in
this world. Offering compassion, offering
chesed, to a hurting world.
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